I Know I Forget Something.. But What?
Summary - Six strategies not to forget things
A friend of mine had just left her purse in a taxi, Remarkably she not only take it very well, she manage to look into the half-full side of the glass :)
I believe everyone must have their own method to remember things. Not how to memorize things like my previous post. More on to remember things we brought (to avoid left behind), or task to do.
These are my strategies so far -
1) Always minimize the amount of bags
Most people are already doing this. If for example, you have 5 bags of groceries, put it all into each other making it into two bags. This way, you know exactly that both hands should be carrying something each
2) Create a ritual before going somewhere
What I did to remember things in my pockets, which consist of keys, handphone and wallet is to make it a practice to slap gently on all pockets before making a move somewhere, to the mill or anywhere. This way... I feel something is not right if I didn't do the ritual. :)
3) Learning from OCD people
OCD stands for Obsessive Compulsion Disorder. If you ever watched the tv series - "Monk" or "As Good As It Get", you will understand it. Simply, these people are very particular about everythings. Everything must be organized and be done their way. Lesson to learn from them is to organize. For me, I put up all my bills and things to do on one desk. Some things are left as a symbol of things I must do, like in order to remember to bring cash tomorrow, I will simply leave the money there. The desk will soon be crowded and with the intention of clearing up the table, I will do every task each items represents. :) It works by the way hehe.
4) Car Alarm Dilemma
I always had this problem. (the word "had" is stressed eheh), I already locked my car with the alarm, but just after 5 minutes, I will start guessing, "did I lock my car?", "Did I hear the alarm clicking?". It's very troublesome when you are already far from your car. So what I do is, whenever I lock my car, I conciously force myself to see that the car is locked. So far, problem solved.
5) Record
One and a half years ago, I used a cellphone so ancient, it can only be used as a phone and SMS. Spoilt already I bought the one I'm using right now, There is a voice recording function embedded. So another way I remember things is simply by voice recording it. At the end of the day, I will upload everything into my computer and take action. If you must know things that I recorded, they are stuff like, blogging ideas, direction to certain places, the self-repeating song in my head, and hey.. I even compose song huhu (which I'm sure will be taken to grave with me).
6) Look for something else
I write this out of experience, when you forget where you misplaced something, it is almost certain you will not be able to find it. Try pretend to look for something else or stop looking entirely, Usually then you will find them :)
So there, 6 private strategies I used to remember things in my daily life. I'm sure there's more. What's your strategies? Please share :)
--------------- Personal Note --------------------------
During my working days, I have accidentally locked myself our of my house quite a couple of times. I often had to resort to break the lock by force. Then I tried hiding spare keys. But I kept thinking that my gardener may eventually found it. My brother gave me one suggestion, to buy those Solex lock. You know, the one with the keys will always be with the lock unless you lock it. Solved my problems. I guess sometime the simple solution is out there.. we just keep looking the harder way :)