Today I visited a friend whose house I've only been to once before, and that was a few months ago. We walked there together from a cafe where we met, luckily, because although the journey was short and direct, I couldn't - quite - remember how to get there. Yet as soon as we began walking, the sights were familiar enough that I could have found my way by myself if I'd had to.
It's the difference between remembering 'cold' and remembering when prompted. Context-sensitive memory, if you will. The latter being much, much easier. Which brings me, indirectly, to why I'm such a big fan of reminder systems. On any number of occasions I've thought: "this is so important I won't have any trouble remembering it..." which, it turns out, is only broadly true. Its vexing to remember that there's "something" important that you know you need to remember, but what it is...
All of us forget things from time to time. Life is more peaceful if we keep such lapses to a minimum. When I'm establishing a new habit, I've been known to leave a note on my pillow - that way if I forget all day, I still have a chance to catch it before the day is utterly over. This only works for tasks that do not require daylight or open shops, of course.
Recently, Mr O asked me to remind him about a time-critical errand he had to run on the way home from work. I agreed to do so - it was my errand he was running - and promptly set a reminder on my iPhone. When the reminder bell went, I texted Mr O. It was days later that I realised I could have saved a step if I'd told him: "just set a reminder in YOUR phone". [The unwisdom of taking on responsibility for other people's behaviour will be a post for another day.]
This is post 2 of 365 posts in 365 days.
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