Busy lifestyles and hectic schedules are taking such a toll on the mental health of people that they forget five important tasks or facts during the course of a typical day, a new study has said.

According the poll of 2,000 adults commissioned by Avery Office and Consumer Products, more than half of the people surveyed blamed their forgetfulness on trying to do too many things.

Failing to return calls, replying to important emails, forgetting colleagues’ names, leaving paper in the printer and neglecting to grab our packed lunch on our way out of the house feature high on the list of the most common omissions.

A quarter of those surveyed said they were expected to remember too much, and a fifth said there weren’t enough hours in the day to deal with everything.

More than half said that they tend to forget things more frequently as they get older.

One in five forget important passwords, a quarter of them forget to charge their mobile phone battery and a further 12 per cent said that they get a rude awakening every weekend because they forget to turn their alarm clocks off.

“People have so much to do in their lives that the most basic things like remembering to bring lunch to work or replying to important emails are being completely forgotten about,” the Daily Mail quoted Gregg Corbett as saying.

“This then causes further complications when we try to correct things that we’ve overlooked.

“It seems the more we can do to simplify people’s daily lives, the better all of us will feel and the less mistakes we will make.

“Both at home and at work, people seem to be forgetting things more and more,” he added.

The top 10 most forgotten things are:

1. Return phone calls

2. Reply to emails

3. People’s names

4. Send birthday cards

5. Charge phone

6. Passwords

7. Take meat out of the freezer

8. Water plants

9. Pick up things from the printer

10. Take the rubbish out