I have a theory that instead of being scatterbrained, it really means you are being too efficient.
I’ll head from my den into the kitchen looking for a highlighter. But I check to see if anything is headed that way, and gather up the newspapers I’m done with. I’ll put them in the recycling pile, and spot that it’s ready to go out … and get my hand messy at the trash cans, go to the bathroom to wash up.
Still in Errand Mode, I go back to the kitchen, but now have forgotten the reason, think it’s for a snack, bring that back to the den, and realize I wanted a highlighter.
The cycle continues until all the chores are done and I’ve fallen asleep, and wake up in the middle of the night wanting a highlighter. So I head to the kitchen …
I do the same damn thing, with irritating frequency. I’ll go downstairs to get a glass of tea, and decide to let the dogs out while I empty the dishwasher. Ten minutes later, I’m upstairs swearing because I just sat down and remembered I needed a drink.
I’m also starting to copy my mother: “What did I come down here to get?” Bill Cosby once said the idea you had leaves your brain and settles in your butt. As soon as you sit down again, it gets pushed back up and you suddenly remember.
Another one guilty of that. Unless I make a list I can’t remember more than two items when it’s grocery shopping time. And unless it’s on the list I will avoid bringing home things we actually need when I’m there.
There was a time when I tried those mnemonic gimmicks where you have outlandish things associated with each number and then associate in as outlandish a way as you can whatever it is on your list with the specific number’s memory hook. For instance if your first item on the list is popcorn and your memory hook is “gun” (rhymes with “one” which is part of how you choose your basic number-words) then you try to visualize a gun shooting popcorn or something along those lines. There was a time when I could work in 20 or more items and retain them until the time came for a new list.
That trick has long since faded from usefulness so a handwritten list is the default these days.
But one odd negative corollary to the problem is that I will recall all sorts of stuff I had forgotten when I go to the bathroom. Either that or have some wonderful revelation or “original idea” in that moment of privacy and seclusion.
Anybody else have those bathroom epiphanies?