h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, that does of course depend on whether you really see your own behaviour as a trouble or not...

...but if you are the kind of person that spends all day at w*rk worrying about if you really locked the door when you left home in the morning, or have to unlock the door to go back inside to check that you really did turn off the maker, or...

The trouble is that many of these actions that you do each day have become automatic, and you do them without thinking, which prevents you from memorizing them

The trick is to make them to intentional and conscious actions

Let's take remembering locking the door as an example:

- When you lock the door, think to yourself - or say it out loud - 'I am now locking the door'
- Observe your hand turning the key in the lock
- After locking the door, put the key in a special place - a place where you don't usually keep the key. That way, if you become uncertain later in the day, you just have to check where the key is - if it is in the 'after locking' place, then you *did* lock the door

Some good tips there.

It worked for me - I had the 'did I or didn't I lock the door?' problem, but not any more!

...and once I *did* forget to lock the door - luckily no one had noticed while I was at w*rk - but that problem is also gone!

Maybe one could say that locking the door in the morning has become a sort of ritual...

Could be. I'm lucky that if I shut my door it locks, although there was a period when I kept forgetting to take my keys out with me.

I've left the house without *closing* the door a few times(don't ask) luckily our door isn't visable from the road (its down the side of the house and in a little porch). Noone's ever nicked stuff but now I'm slightly obsessed with shutting the door deliberatley every morning...I blame the door we've got, in the past I've always lived in houses where you had to physically lock the door (either with a key or by pushing the handle up) this door just locks itself when it's shut...far too simple

still suffering from checking doors three or four times prior to leaving the house,but that aside...

does any one have ideas for curing the"must have the pillows on the chairs at the right angle with the zip at the bottom syndrome",

any help ............. would be greatly recieved...

Not sure what help this is, but I tend to be obsessive, myself. When I find myself starting a habit such as needing to put the pillows at exactly the proper angle every time, I have to stop and ask if that particular obsession is productive. (Some are, as they help me not to forget to do things, etc.) If the answer is "no", I purposely act against my impulse to form that habit. In the case of the pillows, I would intentionally misarrange them randomly every day so as to not allow myself to get into a set routine with them. Sometimes it's annoying as can be to see a zip at the top or a pillow at an improper angle, but I just think for a moment about how greatly I do NOT wish to end up like Jack Nicolson in "As Good as it Gets", and that gets me through.

Myjo

cheers for the thoughts..i'll give it a go.

on another subject mind ...what a great film "as good as it gets "is,
funny as hell..

Titania, I don't know what kind of locks you have on your doors, but this may work...

Our lock is in the doorknob and can be locked from the inside before pulling the door shut behind you. After pulling the door shut I simply try to turn the knob to make sure it's locked. Even if you have a bolt lock that must be locked with a key you could be sure of locking the house if your last step is to attempt to open the door - if it doesn't open it's locked.

This has the added benefit that if there is anyone casing the neighborhood they will see you verifying that the door is locked... not that I live in a bad area, but my street is short and secluded and I've often thought it might be appealing to a burglar (though I've never heard of a house on my street being broken into)