For some reason when I quit a job or break up with a girl the phne number almost instantly erases from my memory. I can’t think of any other part of my memory that will erase something so quickly. Is this common? I just left a job of 25 years and forgot the phone number within a month, even though I still call once in a while.
I have a difficult time recalling phone numbers now as they’re all in my cell phone and even if I use a regular phone to call I use my cell phone as a directory. I do recall my home phone number and office number, the pizza place I call most often and the office number of one colleague. Those are the only current numbers I can think of that I know.
But I can recall the phone number I had as a child 464-0141 and before they changed to all digit dialing YEllowstone 2-8413. The former hasn’t been relevant for more than 30 years when my parents moved. The latter is probably 50 years out of date. I can’t recall the current number of my mother nor any other relatives.
One point is that there is very little need to memorize phone numbers anymore–because they are stored in your phone or answering machine memory.
I think this happens unconsciously. The moment you go away from something you cut loose in your “mind” (psychologically) . And your brain doesn’t concern it as a part of your life anymore. Just a theory.
I was in a relationship a girl which ended years and years ago, and I still remember her phone number. And I normally absolutely suck at remembering phone numbers. Actually, I think that one is literally the only one that I remember, since I never have to memorize them anymore, since they’re stored on my phone.
I think I need to learn how to let her go. 
I have 3 or 4 phone numbers burned into my brain, and I’m too old at this point to learn new ones. The ones I remember include my own, our family’s number growing up, and a place I worked in college. All other numbers go into the phone and I don’t even try anymore to remember them.
I remember a huge number phone numbers from when I was a teenager. Maybe not instantly, but they’re in my head somewhere, and pop up on occasion.
And it’s handy at times as well. A couple years ago, I had an old friend over to catch up. She was one of my best friends in high school, and we spent hours on the phone together. She’s also epileptic, which I’ve always known forever, but it’s been well-controlled and I’ve never actually seen her have a seizure.
Until that night, that is.
We were sitting on stools at my kitchen bar, drinking wine, and she started gesticulating wildly. At first I thought she was telling me a crazy story and getting into it, but it became clear within a few seconds that she was having a seizure. I managed to catch her before she collapsed so she wasn’t overly hurt, but she kept going, and I had no clue what to do. On the one hand, I knew she was epileptic and so therefor it wasn’t totally unheard of that this happens. On the other hand, OMG SHE WAS HAVING A SEIZURE!!!
I grabbed the phone and the phone number she had as a teenager instantly popped into my head. Her mother still lived at that house, and she had the same phone number. Her Mom answered, guided me through what I needed to do in the short term, told me to call 911, and she’d be over to my house in a few minutes.
I was REALLY happy I’d remembered that phone number. I’m sure without it, I would have called 911, but it was way nicer to talk to her mother and have her tell me what to do. As it turned out, 911 and an ambulance wasn’t really necessary - she came out of the seizure on her own and between her and her mother they knew what to do - but it was nice to have them there just in case. And it was nice to have her mother show up and drive her home. I’m not sure how I would have found her had I not remembered that phone number that I hadn’t dialed for close to 25 years.
I have the opposite problem! I delete a guy’s number from my phone so I wont call him, but I can’t get it out of my head!
Haha. Try jotting down his number on a scrape of paper and burn it, that should do it 
Or, in my experience, that will make it stick more since I’ve written it down. It’s why I took notes in school, even though I never read them.