lack of concentration/memory

I am wriing looking for answers for a friend and employee.  He is struggling at work due to his inability to stay on task and struggles with remembering the simplist intructions.  We work at a mortgage company, and he is a loan officer.  He is very good with his customer interaction, and his customers immediately take to him on the phone.  But he struggles when it comes to following up with his customers, due to inability to stay focused for any period of time.  We have now gone to giving him a daily outline, in an attempt to help him stay on task, and yet he continually forgets what he is supposed to be doing, or something he did just 30 minutes earlier.  He will leave my office with instruction to do something, get to his desk, see an e-mail, and after 2 minutes, completely forget about th eoriginal task.  I realize this may sound trivial, and I am struggling to put this in the proper sperspective.  Tim wants to do well at his job, and he is becoming frustrated because he feels he is not smart enough to remember the details required to carry it out.  I think there is more to it than that, as I have known him for 6 years now, and he this affects him outside of work as well.  Tim is not a briliant person, but by no means is he less that average in intellignce.  I just don't know what direction to point him in to get help with is concentratio, and or memory.  any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

If he is a relatively young man( under 60)then what you describe is probably a psychological phenomenon, and a combination of anxiety, not really want to be doing what he is doing, and unsolved problems in other areas of his life.  You should suggest he get some help for his anxiety which would be a combination of medication and psychotherapy.

He can begin online with some initial help at www.masteringstress.com.  While he is there he can take a test to see if he needs therapy.