Poor Habit-Keep forgetting

[Angelwings]

I ve lost my house key d 2nd time tis week! I lost 2 house keys this week.
It has happened to me too many times;Sometimes i dont remember where i left my things I cant recall and trace back where I could have left my stuffs.

Often..i forget and lost alot of things like Makeup/keys etc.
I often walked out of a place and have friends/people after me to tell me i left my things.Only 2 days ago..i thought i losts my Mobile phone.I was soo upset..then the security told me to check my locker and i did and my phone was der!!I dont remember i left it der!

Any suggestions of how to become organise, improve short term memory?

I m 21. I m begining to think i may have a medical condition or am i just lazy and coulnt be bother paying much attention to little things?

Geez..I hate my lifestyle.Why cant things go smoothly.Everything is a mess!

[bettyboo11]

There are probably ways to improve your memory..I just haven't tried them yet. However you CAN stop losing your keys!

I'm really disorganized, but after losing my keys one too many times.. I put a hook next to the front door (a sticky plastic one..about 50cents will do just fine). As soon as I walk in the door, I hang them up. If you get into the habit of doing that, you will never lose your keys again.

Good luck!

[Angelwings]

I lost my keys on the way out. I lost most things when i m outdoor.

[Gerald]

Have a mental checklist and remember the #!

wallet, keys, phone, chapstick - 4 for me

[RT Wolf]

The Memory Book has some tips on changing this habit of forgetfulness (and it is a habit) as well as a great source for learning memory techniques. Very useful.

I'm guessing you're a girl, do you have a handbag? Remember to put everything in your handbag and then make a habit of carrying it around.

The thing is basically this (unless you actually do have a medical problem), remembering something requires you pay attention to it in the first place. Its not that you have a bad memory, but that you don't pay attention in the first place to create that memory. If you have no memory, then you have nothing to remember. You can also start paying attention to when you put things down or away. You've prolly just gotten into the habit of not noticing in the first place.

[Mark Lapierre]

Gerald's suggestion is a good one! One of my friends took it even further, turning it into a song. "Wallet keys and phone, wallet keys and phone, hi ho the dairy-o, wallet keys and phone" (sung to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell).

It's a little harder if you've got more stuff, but you could easily adapt another simple song to whatever your list of things is.

And as bettyboo mentioned, creating habits really helps. Always put things in the same place, or better yet, don't put them down. If you're out, if you take something out of your pocket/handbag, put it back there as soon as you've finished using it, don't put it down somewhere else.

[rene_stpierre]

I am sure memory can be improved. Unfortunately, I don't know of any methods. If you do a Google search, I am sure you will find something.

I think you need to develop habits or routines with regards to your stuff to ensure you always put them at the same place or use them the same way. It might take a while to develop them but the new routines become habits, you should no longer loose things.

The hook next to the front door suggested previously is a good example for the keys. You need to figure-out the best routines to develop for the things you no longer want to loose.

Good luck!
René

[aabukar]

i forget everything .... starting from faces and names of people , to events to important conversations with my boss to place of my keys , makeup ...etc
i dont pay attention to things around me and dont notice changes unless i was asked to observe (such as all curtains at house are disappeared !!!)

My family , friends and colleages usually make jokes about how herrible i am in remmebering things and i am still in the age of 25
well .... what i do is that now i am dependent on documenting everything i do ... every important conversation and i do remember the location of my stuff cause i dont change it

but i am still having troubles with remembering faces and customs ...etc.
i never told my friends "this is a nice new shirt" because when i do the answer is always "i ware it infront of you many many many times and you have just noticed" so i relate to you

[Keith]

A key element of memory is attention. If you forget something, 9 times out of 10 you weren't paying full attention to it in the first place. If you want to improve your memory, practice paying attention.

Consider the following Zen Story:

After ten years of apprenticeship, Tenno achieved the rank of Zen teacher. One rainy day, he went to visit the famous master Nan-in. When he walked in, the master greeted him with a question, "Did you leave your wooden clogs and umbrella on the porch?"

"Yes," Tenno replied.

"Tell me," the master continued, "did you place your umbrella to the left of your shoes, or to the right?"

Tenno did not know the answer, and realized that he had not yet attained full awareness. So he became Nan-in's apprentice and studied under him for ten more years.

[rock1000]

Originally Posted by Keith

A key element of memory is attention. If you forget something, 9 times out of 10 you weren't paying full attention to it in the first place. If you want to improve your memory, practice paying attention.

Consider the following Zen Story:

After ten years of apprenticeship, Tenno achieved the rank of Zen teacher. One rainy day, he went to visit the famous master Nan-in. When he walked in, the master greeted him with a question, "Did you leave your wooden clogs and umbrella on the porch?"

"Yes," Tenno replied.

"Tell me," the master continued, "did you place your umbrella to the left of your shoes, or to the right?"

Tenno did not know the answer, and realized that he had not yet attained full awareness. So he became Nan-in's apprentice and studied under him for ten more years.

Nice story but I think this kind of attention would only create mental clutter. I see that ppl who are least attentive are most blissful.

[Lauxa]

I can't help you because I'm in the same boat. I even lose checks! Big checks! Even putting things where they belong doesn't seem to help; the last time I lost my keys I found them in my purse, two days later!

Now what was that book you reccommended...

[Keith]

Originally Posted by rock1000

Nice story but I think this kind of attention would only create mental clutter. I see that ppl who are least attentive are most blissful.

I'm not suggesting that anyone needs to become a Zen Master to have a good memory - it's a spectrum. The more attention you pay to the world around you, the better you'll remember things.

Zen Masters (a good example of aware people) have less cluttered minds than most of us. We are always paying attention to something. If not to the world around us, then to what we'll have for dinner, what such-and-such said to us yesterday, etc.

I suspect you're envisioning awareness as a left-brained thinking activity. Conscious awareness isn't thought. Think of it more like when you're drinking in a beautiful sight. It comes from effortlessness, not effort - but it does require practice to do consciously.

[rock1000]

Originally Posted by Keith

I'm not suggesting that anyone needs to become a Zen Master to have a good memory - it's a spectrum. The more attention you pay to the world around you, the better you'll remember things.

Zen Masters (a good example of aware people) have less cluttered minds than most of us. We are always paying attention to something. If not to the world around us, then to what we'll have for dinner, what such-and-such said to us yesterday, etc.

I suspect you're envisioning awareness as a left-brained thinking activity. Conscious awareness isn't thought. Think of it more like when you're drinking in a beautiful sight. It comes from effortlessness, not effort - but it does require practice to do consciously.

My point is - the more you pay attention to 'everything', the less you can concentrate on 'onething'. When you converge the whole spectrum of light at the focal point, you can even create fire from what is otherwise just a haze of white light.

[Interpreneur]

A few years ago I had a serious problem locking my keys inside my car. That started to get expensive when I got a different car and had to call the locksmith every time at $35 or $40 a pop.

One day I got to work in the morning and locked the keys inside, so at lunch time I called the locksmith. He opened the car for me, I paid him, got into the car, and drove about two blocks to a convenience store. As soon as I closed the door at that convenience store I realized I had done it again. I felt like the biggest idiot on the planet.

I hit redial on my cell phone and hoped that I would get a freebie from the locksmith, but I didn't. He charged me $40 again and laughing told me he had never made $80 so fast in his life.

The embarrassment and the monetary loss from that experience led me to saying "never again", and I got into the habit of before I close my car door, I squeeze my hand to make sure I have my keys with me.

More recently I was having that problem with my cell phone, so now when I leave my house or any other place I do something similar to the wallet-keys-phone song like Mark mentioned. I don't think you're crazy or have a medical problem. It's really a matter of getting into the right habit and being more aware of your surroundings.

[Keith]

Originally Posted by rock1000

My point is - the more you pay attention to 'everything', the less you can concentrate on 'onething'. When you converge the whole spectrum of light at the focal point, you can even create fire from what is otherwise just a haze of white light.

While this is true, it's a side issue. Obviously you need a narrower level of focus to read a book or something, but a general level of paying attention is plenty for most day-to-day life situations - for example putting your keys down when you walk in the door!

My point is that many of us (including me) often aren't even in a state of general awareness. Our focus is on our thoughts of the past, the future or on the places that we'd rather be instead of on where we are right now.

There's a direct link between the extent to which we pay attention to the present moment and the degree to which we can remember that moment when we need to. That's the point that the Zen story is making and AFAIK scientific studies show the same correlation.