OK I have been trying to deal with my constant forgetting things. I forget to tie my shoes, I forget where I put things, I forget what I am doing (that may be because I am getting old). So, I tried an experiment.
My dinner time routine is I get home, put down my work stuff, take off my shoes and start cooking dinner. About half way through Jeprody, the smoke alarm reminds me it is time to scrape the carbon out of the pans, air out the kitchen, and grab my coupons for KFC.
I have a tough time remembering to brush my teeth, so they don’t get brushed after every meal (Sorry Dr. Jones) and I have to be reminded to do other simple things like comb my hair, tuck in my shirt… simple things.
As a kid, when I was learning all of that stuff, I rarely forgot to tie my shoes because it was so new and it meant I didn’t have to wait for my mom to tie them for me, before I went out to play. When the newness wore off, I’d start to forget to do those things. When I broke my arm, I was forced to do everything with the wrong hand, and I stopped forgetting to do stuff again. I remembered that, when one of the neighborhood kids broke his arm last week, and I freely associated to this experiment.
For the last week I have been tieing my shoes a different way. I wrap the knots the other way, which forces me to have to think about what I am doing. I stir the pot with the other hand, brush my teeth with the other hand, and use my other hand to tuck in my shirt.
A strange thing has happened. My smoke alarm is silent because I don’t forget to stir the pot, I forget to do it with my left hand. I haven’t tripped on loose shoe strings in a while. My teeth get brushed and my shirts are tucked in.
I am sure there is someone out there who knows how the brain stores information and how “automatic” actions become automatic. I would love to hear the explanation. I know there is a reason this “technique” works, because I am “learning” how to do these things all over again. But why?
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