How forgetful are you?

[Giraffes]

This is troubling and a annoying bit of me, forgetting to lock my bike (had it stolen) then sometimes locking it but leaving the keys in the lock, leaving my lock behind once i've unlocked it and realising once home!
Forgetting my bag, phone (any other things i have with me) and having to return again and again to "helpful" comments of "what have you forgotten now" Ahhhhhhh from friends, colleagues, partner, family.
The more anxious the more it presents
Worst is pass- words for stuff, i forget ,then forget the security questions, then get a new one and the cycle continues.
I would love any advice/strategies to improve.
Have tried.... writing info and prompts in many places
Leaving things.... keys, phone etc. in the same place and keeping them there.
Using relaxation breathing to ease clear think.

 

[The Notorious LFC]

Worst is pass- words for stuff, i forget ,then forget the security questions, then get a new one and the cycle continues.
I would love any advice/strategies to improve.

I'm a car nerd, so I find using various engine or platform codes a really handy mnemonic for passwords. 94Talon4G63 as a generic one off the top; the Mitsubishi 4G63 engine is what came in Mitsu Eclipses and Eagle Talons, '94 was one of the production years. Maybe you're not a car nerd, but lots of special interests have alphabet soup like that that will have meaning for you but still be obscure enough to be hard to guess.

Actually, I use these car ones with stuff for my parents and I sometimes forget that other people can't remember huge strings of alphabet soup because they can't encode them mentally in the way I do.

 

[Crossbreed]

Worst is pass- words for stuff, i forget ,then forget the security questions, then get a new one and the cycle continues.

Hint: Keep these in a Notepad file on a thumb drive that doesn't stay in your computer.

 

[Crossbreed]

Maybe you're not a car nerd, but lots of special interests have alphabet soup like that that will have meaning for you but still be obscure enough to be hard to guess.

If you are into astronomy, there is a large variety of star names...

 

[The Notorious LFC]

If you are into astronomy, there is a large variety of star names...

Military stuff was the next one that popped into my mind, but that's a good one. There's enough that most of us probably have at least one interest that can provide them. Some (like me) might have a dozen.

 

[Barymore]

This is troubling and a annoying bit of me, forgetting to lock my bike (had it stolen) then sometimes locking it but leaving the keys in the lock, leaving my lock behind once i've unlocked it and realising once home!
Forgetting my bag, phone (any other things i have with me) and having to return again and again to "helpful" comments of "what have you forgotten now" Ahhhhhhh from friends, colleagues, partner, family.
The more anxious the more it presents
Worst is pass- words for stuff, i forget ,then forget the security questions, then get a new one and the cycle continues.
I would love any advice/strategies to improve.
Have tried.... writing info and prompts in many places
Leaving things.... keys, phone etc. in the same place and keeping them there.
Using relaxation breathing to ease clear think.

OMG, am I you??!!

We have tried so many things..... we try to laugh wherever possible to not make it worse than it is...

Yesterday:
Me: I'm going to shower
Wife: please hose down the shower walls, I put cleaner on them
- literally 10 seconds later -
Me: *lalalalala* (in the shower, completely forget to rinse down the walls)

Running gag: how often I return to the house to get keys, phone, work keys, various other stuff etc (everything singly of course!)
My record: 7x
Average: 2-3x

Only thing that has helped is to have a support person reminding me daily until it becomes habit. That works, unless I'm stressed.

Sorry, dont really have better news

 

[Sarah S]

If you are the type that has to put a reminder in their phone for everything and then still forget, we are very much alike.

Do you accept this inevitably or do something about it?

​

Lets just say my short term memory these days is that of a goldfich

 

[SusanLR]

I have learned to accept it due to age.
Short term memory has become more difficult in past five years.
Anxiety and feeling rushed are triggers too.
I only make notes when studying something I need to remember certain terms or important
things to report.
If it is something that doesn't hold my interest I can forget the last few lines I have just read
and have to stop and go back.
If it is an article or read on one of my special interests I absorb it like a sponge.
Combination of different things.

 

[unperson]

My stuffs more to do with aging than lifelong memory probs, I mean I have to make shopping lists now, whereas formerly I just kept a mental note.

Face recognition is my lifelong memory fail area.

Do many of you fail to recall enough of conversations to functional socially? Cos I just met a guy, well it's been 2 months and he can't recall a lot of what we discuss. It's very annoying.

 

[Cosmus]

This is troubling and a annoying bit of me, forgetting to lock my bike (had it stolen) then sometimes locking it but leaving the keys in the lock, leaving my lock behind once i've unlocked it and realising once home!
Forgetting my bag, phone (any other things i have with me) and having to return again and again to "helpful" comments of "what have you forgotten now" Ahhhhhhh from friends, colleagues, partner, family.
The more anxious the more it presents
Worst is pass- words for stuff, i forget ,then forget the security questions, then get a new one and the cycle continues.
I would love any advice/strategies to improve.
Have tried.... writing info and prompts in many places
Leaving things.... keys, phone etc. in the same place and keeping them there.
Using relaxation breathing to ease clear think.

I am always forgetting where I put my keys, wallet, phone, etc. so I bought myself a key finder (comes with remote control and various fobs that you attach to each item). The idea is that you keep the remote control in a fixed place (by the tv?) and when you lose something you press the button corresponding to the lost item and it makes a noise. Since I bought the kit I have not lost a single item so I have not had to use it. This proves to me that I am not actually forgetful, just VERY easily distracted by my own thoughts. Buying the kit was enough to keep my attention on where my items are, so I not longer need the kit...if that makes sense. For me it's an attention thing, not a memory thing. My attention is usually all over the place.

 

[Giraffes]

Hint: Keep these in a Notepad file on a thumb drive that doesn't stay in your computer.

If i understood any of those terms i would have a go! extreme non techno me.

 

[Giraffes]

I have learned to accept it due to age.
Short term memory has become more difficult in past five years.
Anxiety and feeling rushed are triggers too.
I only make notes when studying something I need to remember certain terms or important
things to report.
If it is something that doesn't hold my interest I can forget the last few lines I have just read
and have to stop and go back.
If it is an article or read on one of my special interests I absorb it like a sponge.
Combination of different things.

I make notes then more, then lose my original thought or thread and start again, my mind is like a sieve and attention span that of a micro dot!!!
I also start a task then get distracted and do a thing totally disconnected from my original thought, often whilst watching tv, suddenly i think ' um must................. ' and pause the tv, sometimes this happens so often i never get to the end of the program, so used to it now i just meet that 'urgent thing' and not get annoyed with myself.

 

[Giraffes]

My stuffs more to do with aging than lifelong memory probs, I mean I have to make shopping lists now, whereas formerly I just kept a mental note.

Face recognition is my lifelong memory fail area.

Do many of you fail to recall enough of conversations to functional socially? Cos I just met a guy, well it's been 2 months and he can't recall a lot of what we discuss. It's very annoying.

Hi this has been a common experience for me, i do it and have a canny way to ignore ( with no wish to annoy) a topic of no interest to me and turn it back to stuff i want/need to share/discuss.

 

[Crossbreed]

Hint: Keep these in a Notepad file on a thumb drive that doesn't stay in your computer.

If i understood any of those terms i would have a go! extreme non techno me.

"Thumb drive" is a memory stick that you can put in a USB port. It is an external memory/drive.

Notepad is a simple Windows application where you can type notes. If you save it to the above, you can easily remove it from your computer so others cannot read it.

 

[Ken S.]

Using relaxation breathing to ease clear think.

Reading this and being who I am (A person that finds humor in the literal meaning of things even though I know what was meant) Thank you for that it made my morning.

 

[onlything]

I have set up my phone to remind myself to eat, drink water and have a shower. Basic tasks like shopping, topping up transport card, conserving my bike, doing the laundry, taking the trash out - everything on my phone with notifications to remind me to do it .

 

[Progster]

I'm forgetful depending on: have I just woken up? If so, have I had coffee yet? Did I sleep well? How spaced out am I feeling today? And.... er... what was that other thing I wanted to write? I forgot

 

[unperson]

I worked in a Government Dept for 9 years, it forced me to organise myself and to keep records, filing, archiving etc, it was hell but it helped a lot with personal organisation stuff. Might be a good experience for some peeps if U can cope with all the backstabbing ;-)

I'm wondering if exclusion from conventional work is part of people's problem?

 

[Vindicator Phoenix]

My short-term memory is atrocious, so I write down everything.
It only takes 3 or 4 seconds, for me to forget something I've just learned or decided.

 

[unperson]

Nothing wrong with using memory aids, whiteboard, phone, pen/paper. It's a bureaucratic world, so be like a bureaucrat, keep records, make notes, keep files, whatever