Tips on remembering things?

I always have to go back to my car to check I've locked it; I then open it to pretend I've forgotten something [in case someone is watching me and thinking I'm bonkers] which means that, as I walk away I worry that I haven't locked it. It's a wonder I ever get anywhere...

I'm starting to get really concerned by my memory lapses because I see my behaviour mirroring that of my very elderly mother. Yes, the phone, keys, diary etc etc as so many previous posts. My worst sin has been locking my car keys in the boot of one of the most difficult cars to break into - twice! Once outside the house, thank goodness before I locked the house door so I could call Skoda Assist, and the second forty miles away when I had to ask DH to find a friend to bring him and his keys to me. I was too embarrassed to ring roadside assist a second time.

I've been reading posts for a while now, with interest, but I am puzzled by some of the abbreviations everyone uses. DH? Dear Husband is all I can assume, please can someone enlighten me? PS I spend a lot of time running from room to room looking for my glasses!

Well done, annodomini. I'd do that if I could remember the number!

I'm not very organised, but if I have to be somewhere the next day, I make sure that I have everything clean and lined up the night before so that there's no last minute panic. I learned this when I was a student nurse when we just didn't dare turn up late on duty, or with untidy hair, unpolished shoes etc.

I use electronic sticky notes on my computer and click them off when an appointment or event is passed.

My mobile is frequently lost but I ring it from my landline or husband's mobile to find out where it is or at least which handbag it is in.

Keys are a nightmare but at least when I get home I drive into the garage using the remote control on my keys so I know they are in the house somewhere. I do have a bad habit of walking around with them in my hand and put them down in a variety places including the toilet. I am often pleased when I find them where they should be on the hook but then my husband tells me he put them there.

But I am not very organised and have to many ideas in my head and my multi tasking days are running out.

I am so organized that I almost irritate myself. Can find anything within a few seconds. Everything has its place.
EthelB I could feel the anxiety rising in me as I read your post...... how I wish I could be a little more like you

"GraceP" You could totally be describing me! Except for the appointments thing. I do seem to be very good at that but nothing else. I lose all the items that you mention plus umbrellas and even money. I actually walked away from a cash point once without taking the £20 that I withdrew. I am constantly looking for my glasses, even though I have two identical pairs for this very reason. I get so cross with myself. DH gets even more cross with me.

Car keys and door keys go back in my handbag, phone sits and is charged by my chair then goes into handbag.
Glasses I wear all the time other than in the bath or bed.
I'm very guilty of not being sufficiently attentive though

I see I've called my GD1 GS1 by mistake. Just as well she won't be likely to read this.

Have a ritual. For instance, before you leave the house put your bag on the side and physically remove and return important items to it saying: 'front door key, car key, glasses, purse' or whatever you wish to remember. I do it and feel a complete idiot doing and saying it. However, it works.

I was told this trick by a memory expert . We DO remember everything , we just don't pay attention to the signposts . So the trick is to label the activity . You give yourself clues like 'It is rainy today so I am putting my keys by my hat ' . the clever woman who always puts her things in the same place , has stored that memory , and has it well sign-posted on the bread bin . For those of us who rush about , we need to slow down and pay attention . That's it , and it works !

I thought someone somewhere would have found out that a mobile in your bra is bad for your breasts. So should I keep it in my trouser pocket - next to my ovaries?

Silly question, I know. Why don't some of you put your keys in your bag.
I know your going to say: but I change bags, so do I, a lot, but all that I need comes out and goes into the other bag.

GraceP you sound just like me !I leave my mobile behind when I go out so often, that DH says I do it deliberately so to be "incommunicado" . The other evening I left my bag of shopping at my DS and DiL house after collecting my DGC from school. I only discovered I had, when I looked for the chicken I had bought!

I always put my keys by the radio in the kitchen, or on the stairs! Sometimes I forget to do that, but on the whole, it works! My phone is glued to me because I'm a blogger and need it by my side, unless it's charging, which is always next to the keys! I "mislay" other things constantly and drive my dog mad every time we go out for a walk saying.....where's this, where's that...what have I done with....it delays me at least 10 minutes looking for all the extras.....dog ball, poo bags, sunglasses, glasses, earphones,money, blah blah bla. .....so you are not alone! I guess a little basket near the front door's the answer?

PS DON'T keep your mobile down your bra, JACKYB, you don't know the effect of those EMF rays near your breasts.
Suzi x

All too often I have to phone my mobile to find out where I've left it in the house. When my GS1 was younger and still living locally, she was always able to find where I'd parked my car in the Tesco or Sainsbury's car park. Now my tactic is to leave it, as far as possible, always in the same aisle. And she used to take my arm and escort me across roads and through car parks. Nice to be cared for!

I attended a memory course recently run by my local U3A. The thing I took away from it was that I don't pay enough attention and therefore the information doesn't go in, in the first place, so how can I remember it later? This is especially true for names. I am no longer too embarrassed to own up to not remembering a name. I just ask.

I have a friend who, when she switches the iron off and leaves it to cool, presses the plug prongs hard enough into her palm so that it hurts, and says "I've switched off the iron." This helps her to remember she's done it. I believe it's called neuro-linguistic programming.

I expect all you capable Grans have GC that you look after, mine look after me:before we go out, I am reminded to go to the loo then to check, "SKIPPTT"-these are my need-to-take items, namely:sunglasses,keys,i-pod, purse,phone, tissue,throat sweet.

I have several pairs of trousers with a pocket on the leg, a God-send for tissues and 'phone especially in jacket-free warm days. Which so-and-so abolished pockets??

Live in a place of many heaps...but I do know what's in which heap!

According to the scare mongers keeping you phone in your bra is not a good idea.

Oh - and I keep a spare single key in my purse in case I do lock myself out one day. It's also handy when travelling and not having to worry about a bunch of keys all the time on holiday. I leave them in a drawer whilst I'm away.

A tip I once read in a woman's magazine was from an elderly lady who was a widow. Every night she would say to her dead husband: "Right, Fred, I've put the cat out and locked the door" out loud. This seemed a good idea to me when I read it all those years ago as a schoolgirl, and now I'm in my dotage, I've taken to using it to tell myself I've switched off the iron, locked the car/house, etc.

As for remembering where you've put something - it's not too late to train your memory, I reckon. If putting something in the same place every time just doesn't work out for you, take a couple of seconds when you put your glasses/keys/phone down, to look at it and take a mental pictures of the surroundings. Or remember your thoughts at the time.

If you've come in and rushed to the loo, you may have left your keys on the washbasin in there, so you should remember that and can go back and find them again. If you put them down on the kitchen work surface while you unpack the shopping - stare at them for a bit before carrying on and imprint that picture on your memory until you start looking for them again....

Or you can use the "saying things out loud" trick for that, too - "Don't forget, Mary" you can tell yourself, using your own name, of course, or that of the cat, perhaps, if you feel silly talking to yourself, "Don't forget, Tiddles: I put the remote control on the table in the hall when I went to answer the door"

I suppose I do have regular places where I keep things, although I am on the wrong end of the tidiness spectrum.

I keep my mobile phone in my bra. I keep keys in my pocket, but only trouser pockets - not jacket pockets because I might be taking the jacket off. And my glasses can regularly be found on top of the dishwasher, when I have to take them off because they get steamed up when I open it!

Ditto Lona

I'm organised and tidy so very rarely lose things. Appointments are on a kitchen calendar and also on my phone with an alert. The main things that I forget are words and names