Brain Fitness After 40: How FranklinPlanner Strengthens Your Mind, Memory & Purpose

In this episode of the Franklin Planner Podcast, co-hosts George Wright III and John Harding delve into the science of brain fitness after 40. They discuss how the Franklin Planner can support mental health and enhance productivity through various life stages. The episode covers the structural changes in the brain from the forties to the eighties, identifies the challenges of digital overload, and promotes strategies like handwriting, journaling, and setting goals to maintain cognitive vitality. They also share actionable tips, backed by scientific research, to help listeners combat stress and aging effects while optimizing their daily routines.

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Episode Timeline

00:43 Brain Fitness After 40: Why It Matters

02:03 Understanding the Brain: Structure and Function

03:51 Decade-by-Decade Brain Changes

12:19 Combating Digital Overload

14:57 The Power of Handwriting and Journaling

17:34 Mission, Values, and Goals for Brain Health

21:02 Exercise, Music, and Meditation

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Episode Transcript

George Wright III: All right, welcome back to the Franklin Planner Podcast. My name’s George Wright III, I’m your cohost here with John Harding. John, how are you doing today?

John Harding: I’m doing great, delighted to be with you, George, and talk about health.

George: Yeah, and we’ve— there’s so many things going on, but we’ve had so many requests to get back in here and get some really amazing topics, to help people not just with productivity but with their life overall, and today we’re gonna be talking about brain fitness after forty and, you know, how the Franklin Planner can strengthen your mind and your memory and your purpose, and we’ll drill even deeper into the brain itself, so help me understand why we’re going through this topic, because some people might be saying, how’s this [00:01:00] relating to my life in general?

Why It Matters

John: We all encounter life as it comes at us. The thing that I’m so excited about is there’s great news. There’s great news about the way you live your life and the way your brain functions. So we’ve had a lot of people, as we talk about aging, remaining— keeping vitality and growing, and the brain is this huge part of us. So we decided to go deep because there’s some very— there are some very specific ways to think, and also ways to operate in your days and weeks, very specific to the Franklin Planner system. We thought, hey, let’s have this discussion.

George: Yeah. So we’ll talk about two things, right? We’re gonna dig real deep into the brain, and the structure, and what happens as you get older, and then we’ll tie it back to the planner. So before we get into how you can utilize the planner to really strengthen your mind and memory and purpose, let’s talk about what actually happens to our brains as we age. These are— there’s so many changes that happen into your forties, [00:02:00] fifties, sixties, seventies, and even eighties, and we’re gonna dig deep into that, so talk to me a little bit about the brain itself, and then we’ll walk through as you age.

About The Brain

John: Sounds good, and I’d even like to ask everybody listening, what do you know about the brain? And there’s some just fascinating information. So the brain is incredible. It’s made up of about 86 billion neurons, trillions of connections, and it’s like a muscle. And so that muscle changes over decades. I wanna take you on a decade-by-decade brain tour for a second. But let me just mention—these are some things that you’ve heard if you’ve studied it or seen—it is made up of dendrites, which are branches that receive signals; there’s a cell body, which is like a command center; and what’s called an axon, a long fiber that sends messages out.

What are neurons?

George: So that’s your neurons, right? Like, your neurons are made up—these things that make up your brain.

John: Those are your neurons, right.

George: Got it.

John: Think of a neuron, by the way, as a light bulb [00:03:00] in a giant city. When it switches on, it signals thousands of other bulbs, creating patterns of thought, memory, and action. So, just a little bit of basic there.

George: Yeah, no, that’s good, because I think people don’t think a lot about their brain. They’re just trying to be more productive, and they don’t understand what’s changing, and so that’s why we feel that it was so important to talk about this—not only from a structural standpoint, but—let’s talk a little bit about what happens as you age. So when you’re trying to lead your life and create an amazing life, and you’re noticing changes in your mind and memory and patterns, you’ll have a little better understanding. Now, we’re not scientists [Laughter], but we will definitely go through some of the changes that happen, so it will relate to how this affects you in your day-to-day. So let’s walk through those specific decades that you go through as you age, from your forties to, let’s say, your eighties.

Your Brain in Your Forties

John: In your forties, the first headwinds appear. Processing speed slows slightly. Working memory gets less efficient. [00:04:00] Multitasking feels harder. Stress hormones peak, and cortisol can actually shrink what’s called the hippocampus, the memory center. There’s a lot of research on that. The planner tie-in, George, I’d like to give you as we go through these. I’d just like to throw out one with every ten years of aging we talk about.

Use your planner to offload stress

This one, I’d like to throw out that weekly planning offloads stress to paper. It’s like giving your brain kind of a support or spotter in the gym, but it enables that—what can be a damaging overload of cortisol when you’re just constantly feeling urgent—to just relax.

George: Yeah, so as you start to notice now as you’re in your forties, you’re starting to notice some things not working as fast as you want, and it’s a little bit more stressful. The planner then helps you to offload some of that stress to paper. So, what happens as you get into your fifties?

Your Brain in Your Fifties

John: So think—just think, [00:05:00] there’s good news, and it’s normal if you’re experiencing these. [Laughter] In your fifties, episodic memory—the ability to recall events, faces, names, things like that—slips. You may remember your daughter’s birthday but forget the neighbor’s name at the party. We have references through all of this. I have forty scientific references through what we’re doing today, but—

George: Which we’ll put in the show notes. I’ll put ‘em all down.

John: Yeah. They call this the “Where did I put my keys?” kind of syndrome or decade.

George: So this is a little bit of forgetfulness, right? [Laughter] Like you’re getting there. So what’s the tie-in there that the planner helps with?

Write things down to aid your memory

John: The tie-in, to increase that vitality in those neurons and those connections is—this is just one example by the way—but a dated calendar, daily journaling, create a written memory. And it’s a support to you, a prosthetic kind of a thing, but that’s one example.

George: So it’s really important for everyone to realize as they’re [00:06:00] listening to this that we’re not just trying to give you some good productivity type tips; there’s some real science behind using a tool like a Franklin Planner to help you as you’re in your forties, and you start to get the stress going, and as your fifties, and memory starts to slip. And then into your sixties, what happens there?

Your Brain in Your Sixties

John: In the sixties, this is the “resilience divide,” is how it could be described. Declines in retrieval and processing speed are more visible, but people who keep learning and setting goals build a cognitive reserve.

Incorporate goals and structure

So the planner tie-in here is mission and values, to have great purpose in your life, writing down meaningful goals is, you could say, like lifting weights for your neurons.

George: Yeah, so as you’re continuing to learn, that’s a really— this is a structured way to do that. And I’m gonna just reference again what you said a minute ago. We’ve got a ton of research that we’ve done, and I’m gonna put a lot of notes in the show notes. So our goal here is just to highlight [00:07:00] these things that are starting to happen as you’re starting to get the stress and memory fades in your fifties, and then you’re having a little bit of a decline in your retrieval process in the sixties. Let’s still cover now in the seventies and eighties, so go into that.

Neuroplasticity: The brain’s ability to change

John: Lemme do that— Before I do, let me mention one new term, or one you may have heard of: neuroplasticity. And this is the brain’s ability to change, for neurons to grow and revive themselves through life. And that, there are some very specific—the great news—very specific things you can do in the way you think, the way you plan. It does involve writing and motor skills. So let’s go to the seventies.

George: Well, but you made a great point because we’ve talked about this before and I’ve even highlighted this in my podcast. So neuroplasticity is such a great scientific principle because you need to realize that you can continue. The neurons that fire together wire together; repetition, the frequency, which is what, you know, a planner and some of your daily activities help you to do that helps you to keep that growth. And so you can still have that, [00:08:00] even into your fifties, sixties, and seventies.

Your Brain in Your Seventies

John: Right, it’s good news. In your seventies, purpose becomes medicine. A study by Boyle in 2012 found adults with higher life purpose had a much lower risk of Alzheimer’s. Sutton, another report on research, confirmed purpose protects. The planner tie-in here is, you know, rereading your mission, establishing your purpose, having a vision of the future—also focusing on the people that matter most to you and what matters most to you. It’s armor for your neurons. And you mentioned patterns before; there’s quite a bit of research around, “How do you stay flexible? How do you keep that neuroplasticity going?” It is in learning new things, but it’s also in functioning through patterns that are super healthy and super productive, so there’s some repetition [00:09:00] that keeps things energized and flexible, but also stretching and having new connections. You’ll see that balance if you do the research on it.

Principles and planning go hand in hand

George: Yeah, and it’s just so important to note that there are—what we wanna provide here in this podcast, and we’re gonna cover the eighties, is—we’re talking about timeless principles, but the tool of the planner gives a structure and a day-to-day routine that is not just random. There’s so much tied to the science of aging, which is why we have this topic, and it’s built in so you don’t have to overthink it. Like, you can go check out all these references and sources we have, but this productivity and this aging tie-in is there.

John: I think also that when you think about, why are— why are we getting into this? There’s— think of the Franklin Planner, “Lead Your Life Purpose,” or “Create Your Best Life,” there’s a set of timeless principles that help you achieve your greatest potential. There’s also this idea that you actually [00:10:00] can make a decision, decide, and be healthy. There is a mindset. Now we’re going deep into that physical aspect of the mind, but I want to just—I don’t think we can emphasize enough—that as you age, if you make certain choices and use certain tools and understand what’s going on, you actually can increase your vitality. You can push back aging and you can do something about this. And a huge part of our loyal customers and really great associates and partners, we’re all—whether you’re twenty, but—the age of forty is used a lot. Over forty. And we’re all working with that, but there’s significant things you can do about it. We’re talking about it because the planner’s kind of a platform.

George: Yeah, it’s also in, it’s— you’re being intentional already to lead your life with the planner, but we’re talking about also, this— at the same time, you’re being intentional with your health. So as we wrap this up, let’s cover the eighties because that’s super important, [00:11:00] and then we’ll get into some of these planner principles.

Your Brain in Your Eighties

John: And I’m gonna just say, just because there’s so many great examples of people in the eighties and nineties in the research, and—I just reviewed this today—there are so many people in their late eighties and nineties and some, a hundred. Like a great leader of the LDS Church, or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Russell M. Nelson: one hundred years old, and he is a great leader. There were several other examples. So here’s a little description of eighties, nineties, and beyond. Declines are visible, slower recall, harder to learn new things, but plasticity remains. Older adults can still form new neural connections.

George: That’s important. Yeah.

Exercise your brain

John: Planner tie-in is a daily routine, planning, appointments, actually using the calendar and setting appointments by time, by date, [00:12:00] and setting goals. It’s like scaffolding that helps you stay upright and strong.

George: Yeah, so the overall message we want to have in this first part of the podcast today is that your brain really is a muscle. It’s gonna weaken if you don’t use it, but it can also be trained and continue to grow late, even into your eighties and nineties.

Pitfalls of the Digital Age

So as we go into daily habits and ongoing conversation, it’s important to first start with this whole idea that we are in a process of major digital overload. This is what we like to call the “aging accelerator,” because modern life today, it’s affecting us. Age affects you, but this digital overload also affects you. So, what is it? What’s the stuff that’s really impacting and accelerating the effects of aging on us?

John: Great question. The truth is, we’re accelerating aging with digital overload, and here are five drains just to keep in mind. And if you’re aware of these, you can look out for ‘em and you can avoid ‘em and deal with them.

Information overload

The first is just [00:13:00] flat-out information overload. We consume the equivalent of 74 gigabytes of information daily. That is overwhelming to the memory. It also ends up causing us to make poor decisions.

George: Yeah, it changes a lot of things, right?

John: Huge.

Decision overload

Second is decision overload. We make 35,000 choices daily. Research shows that decision fatigue weakens self-control. Another one is a distraction and interruption factor. Interruptions can cut productivity by 40 percent. Multitasking reduces memory encoding.

George: So you’ve got information coming in and overloading you, you’re making more decisions, and you’re distracted for sure, and interrupted a lot more. Okay.

John: And it’s huge stress, which— so that’s the result of these, which is that spike in that cortisol, that vital chemical that you want, just in balance.

So stress and energy overload, and that, [00:14:00] remember we’d mentioned that chemical, when it’s almost like a fire alarm if it’s going all the time, shrinking the hippocampal volume. Chronic stress shortens telomeres, accelerating cellular aging, and really is damaging to the brain. The fifth one we’ll just mention.

Shallow engagement

See how you feel about this, if you’re like this or you’re noticing someone next to you: shallow engagement. Heavy multitaskers show reduced gray matter in the anterior cingulate cortex, the brain’s focus and empathy hub.

How to Combat Digital Stressors

George: So you’ve got digital overwhelm that’s accelerating your aging, right? All this information and decision and distraction and stress, and it really is pouring a ton of stress on your already aging body and brain, right? So we get into, how do you combat that?

Writing by hand exercises the brain

And this first topic we wanted to take a second [00:15:00] on was handwriting, because handwriting written things will help you to give your brain a workout. So let’s talk about that for a second.

John: Great. Handwriting is a neural workout. Studies show handwriting activates broader networks than typing or texting. It improves comprehension and recall.

George: Plus just slowing down, right? You’re just gonna slow down.

John: Well, sure, and you’re going deeper, and you’re able to use a very tangible product or base to do that, and it also engages your body in a way differently that adds health and vitality to the brain.

Journaling prevents stress

George: Yeah, so we’re— the reason this is so important is because it’s not just about putting ink on paper. It’s the actual physical exercise for your brain of doing that. It limits that stress and overwhelm and the information overload, and so, handwriting and writing in a physical planner or journal, is so important. So let’s talk about [00:16:00] journaling. Journaling and gratitude, because those are an emotional nutrition for the brain.

John: Great. And I’d like to— let’s remember that term neuroplasticity, and also creating new pathways in your brain. So, writing, using your hand, thinking deeply, slowing down like you said. Journaling reduces stress—so that chemical—and improves mood.

Gratitude relieves anxiety

Gratitude interventions, as an example, as one of the journaling things you can do, improve wellbeing and lower anxiety. I would also mention that when you’re seeking personal inspiration and you’re just thinking, and you’re thinking of creative things or goals you have—that exercises the brain, and you have this power that is so unique to humans. Here’s an example, though, of maybe a daily gratitude journal: At night, write three statements [00:17:00] of things you’re grateful for. Or, capture something you learned today, or some thought or inspiration you had. And then also jot down your goals or what your focus might be for tomorrow. So that kind of writing and journaling is very powerful.

George: It’s like one of our past interviews. Carl talked about, like, at the end of your day, you’ve had all this overwhelm, you’re going nonstop; now we’re talking about, how do you transition and really exercise your brain by starting to write, and journal, and express gratitude. These are all ways that can help you to do that. And that leads us right into this core, fundamental teaching we have of the mission, values, and high goals.

Purpose protects your brain health

John: I’ve mentioned some of the feedback and cool testimonies we have received from customers as they’ve had careers, certain jobs, certain project management jobs, certain supervisory roles, leadership roles, and then they retire. Many have mentioned, [00:18:00] “You know what? My planner and my skills and my strategies have only become more important.” The brain research would support that. Something like the power of a Franklin Planner system, the mindset, the principles, the skills, and sort of those routines, supports that, that actually, it’s never been more important to think about this. So, referencing mission, values, and your goals, and I would say maybe stretch goals—you could call this that protective core. So think of it this way: you know, your mission and your purpose is not just motivational. It’s not just only productivity. They’re protective. They’re protective to the health of your brain. A meta-analysis by Sutton found higher purpose lower dementia risk. Isn’t that remarkable?

George: Wow, yeah, it’s because you think of— now you’re shifting from your goals and everything [00:19:00] as motivational to your goals being something that are very physically beneficial for you.

John: Sheldon and Elliot, in their studies, showed that self-concordant goals aligned with your values drive persistence. So there’s just power there as you make this connection to your health, to your aging, to your goals, and how you lead your life to be very intentional about your mission and vision and values.

What Can You Do?

George: So you’re using all these things to be able to help you combat the stress of your brain with the handwriting and the journaling and your mission, values, and goals. So let’s talk for just a second about, on a weekly and daily basis, what can you do?

Mission, vision, and goals

John: Think about your goals and the productivity pyramid. Pyramids are this amazing structure that is the most stable structure, really, known to man. And that base is what you just said: think of your governing values, your mission, [00:20:00] your vision, and your long-term goals. As you go up, those goals become broken down into more specific things that you can accomplish in the week and the day. And as you review past pages, as you review the past, you set goals and you block in your priorities and you preview your calendar, let’s just say ten minutes, to confirm tasks and think about that. The research shows temporal landmarks like that motivate fresh starts, and reminders eliminate prospective memory decline. When things have an inner peace, it also reduces that cortisol, where you know where you’re headed, even when you have things that are stressing you, which we all do. When you think about those and you try to at least plot down, you know, some ideas, there’s a powerful thing that happens in weekly and daily planning, [00:21:00] so it’s amazing.

George: Yeah, and then we of course need to add a couple of other topics to your daily routine, which is exercise, because exercise affects and it acts as a big rock in your day-to-day as well.

Exercise and meditation

John: That’s right, George. Exercise enlarges the hippocampus and that improves your memory. It also, when you think about aerobic training, that increases brain volume. I think too, when you think about music— and meditation reduces anxiety and depression. Long-term meditators show structural brain benefits. Now, as it relates to music, we recently published the Lead Your Life magazine—and you can connect with that and get a copy of that on our website—but Jon Schmidt, the famous Piano Guy and part of the Piano Guys, he said this: he was asked the question, “How can people use music practically in their life?” and Jon said, “Music elevates [00:22:00] planning, reflection, and focus. It triggers emotions and clarity.” And then he said, “That’s why I encourage people to use a playlist while journaling and looking ahead for the week.” By the way, you can connect to Jon’s five-hour playlist.

George: That’s an amazing list, I listen to it now, yeah.

John: There’s a QR code for that, that will be on the website. But let me also mention kind of the science side. Music therapy reduces depression and anxiety. Emotional music even enhances memory via the hippocampal interaction. So, huge benefits to music, exercise, and other things that I’m sure people have in their individual life. Pets, hiking, many things that you can plan through your Franklin Planner.

George: For your brain fitness, yeah. And there’s so much, like you said; we’ve got pages and pages of research, and we’re gonna put a lot in the show notes, but let’s just wrap this up for everyone, because this whole [00:23:00] idea of your brain fitness after forty, and not just how the Franklin Planner strengthens your mind, memory, and purpose, but how you can really be proactive; we broke down some of the changes that happen in your aging through the decades, and we talked about being aware of this digital overload, and using things like handwriting and journaling and gratitude, and obviously the productivity pyramid, and mission, values, and goals in the planner. All of these weekly, daily things, they’re all designed very intentionally to help you to just do more and age gracefully, but also combat some of these things that are coming up for you, as you start to age, for your brain health.

The power of the Franklin Planner

John: Exactly. Some people have said that the Franklin Planner is stress medicine on paper or, you know, that every habit—writing, blocking, reviewing—tells your brain you’re safe, you’re in control. Some other statements we’ve heard is, [00:24:00] instead of feeling like life is random, the brain can settle down and say, “Hey, I’ve got this.” Others have written—this is a great statement—you know, by writing things down and using the tangibility of the paper and just the motor skills that you have, the brain says you don’t have to hold it all in. I’ve captured it, so—

George: I’d like to just mention, one of the nice things about having a system, a tool like this, is that you don’t have to consciously think about all the things we just talked about today, because it’s a structure that allows you to go throughout your day and your week and your month, and just truly be focused on leading and creating your life, but there’s some structure there that has intention behind it that helps you to combat all this. And so hopefully that’s the message we’re giving people is there’s hope, right?

John: I think it’s incredible news, it’s positive news, and it enables you to gain even greater control. Think of this, too, as somewhat of a protection. And almost [00:25:00] armor, in addition to strengthening, protects your mood.

Purpose and intent

And think: long-term, healthy brain affects your feelings in every aspect of your life. So I hope, George, that, while we have it—we’re not the scientists, but—I would just encourage people to, you know, see the power of this and listen to many of our great partners and customers that said, “Oh my gosh, this is even more important for me, to really think about my purpose. As I get older, is my purpose less important?” It isn’t. And what about my goals and who matters to me? So it is powerful, maybe increasingly important.

George: Yeah, and that’s the whole point of our podcast, right? We want people to be aware. We want to give them as many strategies and tactics as we can and remind them the reason behind it, because leading your life is all about intention as well. So hopefully we’ve just barraged [00:26:00] you with a ton of great information.

And if the one thing you take out of this is to take action, I really believe that it’s never too late to start living the life you wanna live, that you deserve to live, but you do need to be intentional. So as we wrap this episode up, I always like to go to you [John] because you have some amazing final thoughts; you usually like to leave our listeners with a challenge. What final thoughts do you have for us?

John: George, I think the thing that overwhelms me, just with positivity—as we’ve talked about the brain, who we are, what we have the capability to do, what happens to people over time—is this sort of foundational principle that is within us, and that is that there is this incredible greatness and potential in all of us, and that doesn’t change as we get older. In fact—there’s a lot we’ve researched here and reviewed that—if we pay attention and we live our lives the right way, that leaders in there, there’s a [00:27:00] great future, and some of our greatest work is still ahead of us.

George: I love it. I love it. Any challenge? Do you have a challenge for our listeners?

John: Right back at you. You challenge us.

George: [Laughter] Oh boy, you put me on the spot. Okay. Challenge. I’ll tell you what I did recently, which I’d love to have the listeners do. You mentioned the new Lead Your Life magazine and catalog that we came up with—and we could put a link in the show notes and you can go online and check that out, but—Jon Schmidt, who was a great interview, we would love for you to go check that out, because I scanned the code in his article, and it took me to his Spotify playlist, which—I believe meditation, all, every, there’s so many benefits of music and meditation—go check out that playlist. I think that would be something that you will love, and it will be something that will tie right into our episodes. So there’s my follow-up challenge. So for those of you that are listening, thank you so much. We’re so appreciative of your support. Share the show. We wanna be able to put the message out there, and we wanna hear from you. So hit us up at the Franklin Planner podcast, and we’ll look forward to [00:28:00] next episode. Have a great day.

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References

Sutin, A. R., et al. Sense of Purpose in Life Is Associated with Lower Risk of Incident Dementia: New Data and Meta‑Analysis. PMC (2023). Available: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8887819/ PubMed Central+2PubMed+2

Marano, G., et al. The Neuroscience Behind Writing: Handwriting vs. Typing. PMC (2025). Available: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11943480/ PubMed Central

Van der Weel, F. R., et al. Handwriting but not type‑writing leads to widespread brain connectivity differences. Frontiers in Psychology (2024). Available: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1219945/full Frontiers

“Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning.” Scientific American (Feb 21 2024). Available: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-writing-by-hand-is-better-for-memory-and-learning/ Scientific American

“Handwriting Boosts Brain Activity More Than Typing.” EMJ Reviews (Oct 24 2025). Available: https://www.emjreviews.com/general-healthcare/news/handwriting-boosts-brain-activity-more-than-typing/ European Medical Journal

“Having a Sense of Purpose May Protect Against Dementia.” UC Davis Health News (Aug 25 2025). Available: https://health.ucdavis.edu/news/headlines/having-a-sense-of-purpose-may-protect-against-dementia/2025/08 UC Davis Health