Say you have to remember a thing. Real example: When I go to camp tomorrow I have to remember to grab a bucket of gravel. Never going to see it, it's off to the side. Hell, I forgot it was there until I opened it last month. What to do now?
I took a few seconds and imagined an absurd scenario (the crazier the better). I pictured pulling up and seeing an Indiana Jones style boulder of those rocks rolling down the path and squishing my truck. It ran over my wife and splatted her, rolling over and over with her stuck to it like a scene from Itchy and Scratchy. (Told ya it was absurd!)
When I pull up, I likely won't picture, or even remember, that scene, but something in my brain will scream, "Go get the rocks first so you don't forget!" But what if I get distracted unloading the truck (which happens every damned time)? I also imagined the same boulder rolling down the trail when I turn the corner where the bucket will be visible.
Another example: I needed to remember to figure out my busted ice maker so I quickly imagined sitting down at my PC and seeing a tsunami of ice cubes flooding out my monitor into my lap. Didn't remember the tsunami, but, "Oh yeah. I need to look that up."
It works on others as well! I've met people and said, "Hi! Name's Scott. You can remember that if you picture me with a talking Scotty dog head yapping at ya." And they will never forget my name.
Whenever I post this someone comes along and explains why it can't work with a load of excuses. FFS y'all, just try it. I don't know of a brain hack that takes less effort and pretty much zero practice.
Picture something absurd and surreal, like the list coming to life and trying to smother you as you approach the door. Mnemonics work and don't take practice.
My superpower is to remember something but then forget that I remembered it. At the moment of the thing is needed I'm disappointed that I forgot, then when I get back home I look in my pocket and it was there the whole time.
I got a story. Gf and I are out partying on New Years. 2AM, bar's closed, time to go. I can't find her truck keys. Oh FFS. We spent two hours wandering the empty streets and parking lots in the freezing cold, her bitching non-stop at me for losing them, finally called a cab on a pay phone. While waiting at the Quickie Mart, she found the keys in her overcoat pocket. She was a bit sheepish, and that's British understatement.
Now for the cake's icing! Woke up on New Year's Day and remembered the injustice done. Sat up and bed and was about to bitch, ...croak... Had the all-time worst case of strep, personal best, puked when I looked at the back of my throat in the mirror. Solid white puss, no pink in sight, with black streaks (smoking) running through it.
See my comments ITT about mnemonics. Read a book about it back in the 90s, very short. The author promised I would be able to remember the 50 US states in alphabetical order in minutes. Yeah, right. I had the first 20 down with no effort. Life changing brain hack.
Imagine the thing you can't forget attacking you, or a wall of $thing busting through the door as you approach. The more surreal the scene, the better you'll remember. Neat part? You might not remember what you imagined, but your brain will kick into gear on it's own. It's a simpler version of a memory palace.
I have a place where i leave my important things. Headphones, keys, wallet, you name it. It's really convenient, because something is always missing and ends up jn the most random plce in the house.
My normal routine requires things to have "a place" otherwise chaos reigns.
I put the keys on the thing to remember so I can't leave u til I find my keys. I have to see the bag I need to remember.. I get distracted and forget. Or pick it up. Put it down. Forget.
I have a hook on my front door, just above the handle. Hang a bag with the thing I need to bring with me - can't open the door without picking up the bag. The problem with this is that I usually forget to bring the bag back inside with me lol
Oh, I do this plenty - walking around, executing 4 different tasks and forgetting items along the way.
Or, while walking, I assign the items to categories and try to carry them with the correct hand currently associated with their category and order the steps of depositing them so I can complete the collection and delivery task, mixing up categories and item order, thereby instantly and reliably forgetting where I put the required items 90 seconds after I've finished my rounds.
It's funny to retrace my steps and find an item in a completely unlikely spot since it was at the wrong position in my delivery stack, or because the sensation of the item in my hand made me think it would be something different while I didn't look at the items any longer after the first, cursory glance.
There is definitely a mechanism that prevents actual, readily available sensory information to be processed. Things can absolute become, for all intents and purposes, invisible. This can range from full blown flower bouquets put up all around the place that I don't notice for weeks, or a 4 feet pile of dirty clothes that I amassed somewhere, but that completely vanished from my field of vision, even though I walked past the thing at least 4 times a day until someone mentions it to me and it's right there, next to my office door. Before we both walked to the pile, I had no idea what they were talking about. Upon seeing it again, I was flabbergasted.
Nowadays, I have developed coping mechanisms that prevent most of these pitfalls though. It probably surprises neurotypical people that so much planning and energy goes into what should be easy, effortless routine tasks, but it's simply a different brain. 🤷🏽♂️
Plenty of advantages, too, so once I had a handle on the fundamentals of life without completely exhausting myself, it became mostly amusing. The odd lapse does in fact annoy, though.
Man, yes, I do this. It's the 'I just can't with this' stage. It just gets to point where I can look directly at the thing and I just can't. Like leaving the house and all the little things you're supposed to do to do that. But it's not really me that can't, you know? It's just like my system has just decided 'Nope'
Or sometimes turning back half a block to get the thing. Just feels way harder than dealing with not having it. Even when that thing is something I need like my wallet
23 replies
I have the power to know I'm forgetting something and being tormented by it for hours; until I need it and suffer it's absence.
Worst one was forgetting my student ID for the exam. Brought everything else except that.
I've got a trick! Mnemonics!
Say you have to remember a thing. Real example: When I go to camp tomorrow I have to remember to grab a bucket of gravel. Never going to see it, it's off to the side. Hell, I forgot it was there until I opened it last month. What to do now?
I took a few seconds and imagined an absurd scenario (the crazier the better). I pictured pulling up and seeing an Indiana Jones style boulder of those rocks rolling down the path and squishing my truck. It ran over my wife and splatted her, rolling over and over with her stuck to it like a scene from Itchy and Scratchy. (Told ya it was absurd!)
When I pull up, I likely won't picture, or even remember, that scene, but something in my brain will scream, "Go get the rocks first so you don't forget!" But what if I get distracted unloading the truck (which happens every damned time)? I also imagined the same boulder rolling down the trail when I turn the corner where the bucket will be visible.
Another example: I needed to remember to figure out my busted ice maker so I quickly imagined sitting down at my PC and seeing a tsunami of ice cubes flooding out my monitor into my lap. Didn't remember the tsunami, but, "Oh yeah. I need to look that up."
It works on others as well! I've met people and said, "Hi! Name's Scott. You can remember that if you picture me with a talking Scotty dog head yapping at ya." And they will never forget my name.
Whenever I post this someone comes along and explains why it can't work with a load of excuses. FFS y'all, just try it. I don't know of a brain hack that takes less effort and pretty much zero practice.
This sounds a bit more like the reflexive-associative theory.
About twice a year I do the opposite and search everywhere for my glasses ... which are on my face.
I do precisely, exactly, unequivocally this.
Just yesterday, I taped a grocery list to the doorknob, and chanted it in my head to remember.
I literally crumpled it on the way out and forgot it. It wasn’t even close.
I had lots of other fun thoughts, though. Like of image sensor technology, and my sunglasses, and delicious goat cheese, and cats.
My trick is I don't make a grocery list, then I can't forget it.
Picture something absurd and surreal, like the list coming to life and trying to smother you as you approach the door. Mnemonics work and don't take practice.
I set my keys on if it’s important. That’s the only way I can 100% remember.
Or put it in the car the second I remember to take it. Because with me there are two times. Now and not now.
Ive forgotten my apron after setting it down at home so many times.
My superpower is to remember something but then forget that I remembered it. At the moment of the thing is needed I'm disappointed that I forgot, then when I get back home I look in my pocket and it was there the whole time.
I got a story. Gf and I are out partying on New Years. 2AM, bar's closed, time to go. I can't find her truck keys. Oh FFS. We spent two hours wandering the empty streets and parking lots in the freezing cold, her bitching non-stop at me for losing them, finally called a cab on a pay phone. While waiting at the Quickie Mart, she found the keys in her overcoat pocket. She was a bit sheepish, and that's British understatement.
Now for the cake's icing! Woke up on New Year's Day and remembered the injustice done. Sat up and bed and was about to bitch, ...croak... Had the all-time worst case of strep, personal best, puked when I looked at the back of my throat in the mirror. Solid white puss, no pink in sight, with black streaks (smoking) running through it.
Leave it next to the door, put keys I can't leave without using on top.
STILL FUCKING FORGET IT
See my comments ITT about mnemonics. Read a book about it back in the 90s, very short. The author promised I would be able to remember the 50 US states in alphabetical order in minutes. Yeah, right. I had the first 20 down with no effort. Life changing brain hack.
Imagine the thing you can't forget attacking you, or a wall of $thing busting through the door as you approach. The more surreal the scene, the better you'll remember. Neat part? You might not remember what you imagined, but your brain will kick into gear on it's own. It's a simpler version of a memory palace.
I have a place where i leave my important things. Headphones, keys, wallet, you name it. It's really convenient, because something is always missing and ends up jn the most random plce in the house.
It took me over two years to get my wife to hang the fucking keys on the rack by the door and she's still a bit hit-and-miss.
"Where are my keys?!"
"Well, they're not on the rack, that's for sure."
Maybe I didn't explain very well, very possible
My normal routine requires things to have "a place" otherwise chaos reigns.
I put the keys on the thing to remember so I can't leave u til I find my keys. I have to see the bag I need to remember.. I get distracted and forget. Or pick it up. Put it down. Forget.
Brain is a sieve without structure.
I have a hook on my front door, just above the handle. Hang a bag with the thing I need to bring with me - can't open the door without picking up the bag. The problem with this is that I usually forget to bring the bag back inside with me lol
Oh, I do this plenty - walking around, executing 4 different tasks and forgetting items along the way.
Or, while walking, I assign the items to categories and try to carry them with the correct hand currently associated with their category and order the steps of depositing them so I can complete the collection and delivery task, mixing up categories and item order, thereby instantly and reliably forgetting where I put the required items 90 seconds after I've finished my rounds.
It's funny to retrace my steps and find an item in a completely unlikely spot since it was at the wrong position in my delivery stack, or because the sensation of the item in my hand made me think it would be something different while I didn't look at the items any longer after the first, cursory glance.
There is definitely a mechanism that prevents actual, readily available sensory information to be processed. Things can absolute become, for all intents and purposes, invisible. This can range from full blown flower bouquets put up all around the place that I don't notice for weeks, or a 4 feet pile of dirty clothes that I amassed somewhere, but that completely vanished from my field of vision, even though I walked past the thing at least 4 times a day until someone mentions it to me and it's right there, next to my office door. Before we both walked to the pile, I had no idea what they were talking about. Upon seeing it again, I was flabbergasted.
Nowadays, I have developed coping mechanisms that prevent most of these pitfalls though. It probably surprises neurotypical people that so much planning and energy goes into what should be easy, effortless routine tasks, but it's simply a different brain. 🤷🏽♂️
Plenty of advantages, too, so once I had a handle on the fundamentals of life without completely exhausting myself, it became mostly amusing. The odd lapse does in fact annoy, though.
You WAY over complicating this shit. :) I ain't smart enough to try all that. Try mnemonics as in my posts here.
Whatever works for you dude, more power to you. I arrived here trying a lot of things over quite a few decades, and what I have works for me.
Tried mnemonics?
Man, yes, I do this. It's the 'I just can't with this' stage. It just gets to point where I can look directly at the thing and I just can't. Like leaving the house and all the little things you're supposed to do to do that. But it's not really me that can't, you know? It's just like my system has just decided 'Nope'
Or sometimes turning back half a block to get the thing. Just feels way harder than dealing with not having it. Even when that thing is something I need like my wallet
This is readily fixable. See my comments ITT.