Do you experience forgetfulness regularly or daily? Before you start freaking out that you have cognitive decline or dementia running in your veins… or even brain fog that gets described as a common daily symptom… realize that if you worry about this often, then you’re panicking for no reason… as those who aren’t aware are the ones to be more concerned with.
There’s no person out there who has never experienced short-term memory loss or forgetfulness. That’s why we setup reminders so we don’t forget. And why we use calendars to write or type on.
So if you forget easily and often these days, most likely you’re busy, stressed, or not getting enough sleep. And maybe that’s your natural way, as is for Vatas who have this built-in DNA feature along with worry. 🧠
BTW, forgetfulness can sometimes work to your advantage as you recall the important things, and let go of the unimportant ones.
Lists help sometimes and have their place: e.g. grocery store lists, important to-do’s, and details. But lists can also be distractions from priorities.
And some priority items calling you today could lead you to your life of meaning, if that’s important to you. When you focus on the things that matter most in the moment, that’s when you get to experience the best use of your time. You don’t get mired down in what you ought-to-do minutiae that can often turn into negative moods as your good hearted spirit isn’t there.
In balance, daily re-routing your thoughts is healthy along with some planning.
If you’re in the balance flow already allowing in some daily breathing space changes, below are 7 good habits to intake so you never miss anything important!
Plus, the tips (below) can be practical prevention for forgetfulness. You don’t want to leave a bag of groceries or umbrella behind if you can avoid the inconvenience.
You probably don’t remember the first time you forgot something small, but you do remember some of the momentary forgetfulness you experienced in the past as long-term memory is different than short-term blips. It’s just part of the human quirks. None of us are perfect.
When we forget to do something, often the thoughts vanish into thin air or get lost. But instead of beating yourself up, it’s better to think it must not have been important. Because unless it’s a safety hazard, in the grand scheme of things, it’s not important and that helps us with daily contentment and joy.
And sometimes those thoughts reappear later when they are no longer needed. They can confirm how unimportant and no big deal the forgotten is or teach us a lesson to learn about how we can let it go.
Even better, is to set up consistent habits no matter how much you rely on your memory to serve and save you. Consistency will serve you will well in your life, where it’s more important than what you don’t say. And it helps with not forgetting.
Putting focus and energy on being consistent with healthy habits lead to your successful outcomes one (consistent) step at a time.
So here are some habit builds you can make for common important items.
Habit #1: Use a timer for the important items.
For a stove or oven, this can be a matter of safety. There are always interruptions, so setting a timer for your cooking not only gives you perfectly cooked meals, it can save you from burning up the kitchen. And if you’re a Great British Baking Show fan like me, ya know how critical that can be!
And for anything you want to be reminded of you can set a timer. It’s like the trick of tying a string around your finger that some did.
Habit #2: Use a timer when you have a 10-minute break.
Set an egg timer or the timer on your phone when you have minutes until the next activity. More likely than not you will distract yourself in those minutes on your phone or doing something that takes longer than a few minutes. So setting your timer on 9 minutes for a 10-minute break is a good idea to make use of that valuable time and keep track of the minutes. ⏲️
Habit #3: Reminders – write or type reminder notes that you check regularly.
Using the available reminder tools on your phone or tablet is a good habit. Let the reminder ping you on that date/time so you can be in the moment. And that can be a life saver for not missing important events and things to do.
Once you start, reminders are a hard habit to break. When you have a few minutes, you can go over your past and future reminders and sometimes you even pick up new ideas from old reminders. 💭
Habit #4: For your email inbox, use the snooze feature (on some programs, it is represented with a clock icon 🕓).
Snooze reminders are especially good for monthly reminders that are very easy to forget because the habit isn’t frequent enough for you to automatically do. And if forgetting calendar dates is one of your challenges, then this could be a life saver.
When you use a snooze feature, after you complete the task, set the snooze for the next month date. As a bonus, then you won’t doubly forget later whether you competed the task this month as you already set a new future date.
That’s genius… and an assistant assurance better than any AI tool can do! 😉
Habit #5: Have a backup calendar reminder.
Besides your natural memory, a backup reminder like a second calendar to rely on is a best bet, which btw… is s not askng another human to be the calendar. They can just as easily forget, get distracted, or never have prioritized you lists.
It’s a burden when you say: remind me to ______. Unless someone else asks to be used as a calendar or timer, don’t get in this old-fashioned habit that can be disappointing to you and annoying to others in this day and age.
Habit #6: Improve your memory with cardio exercise.
Getting oxygen to your brain helps energize your brain to function better. The more energy you have, the quicker your reaction time is, and sometimes that allows a little break for your brain (like witnessing a break in the clouds) to remember something important.
Plus, walking improves memory, but it won’t necessarily jog your memory. And lowering blood pressure is a good idea that taking a nature walk can help achieve.
Habit #7: Habit stack often.
When you do the activity that you already have a formed habit with and then add your new habit to, it’s proven to be a quicker way to form a habit. It works your automatic memory reflexes that takes less energy.
Animals in the wild do this well. They are natural habit stackers through instincts. They bypass forgetfulness, remembering to stick to what’s simple, natural and essential for survival and thriving in their habitat. Just a thought.
Vata is a way to define a body and mind type. As a Vata, I know most of us are naturally thin and have worry tendencies.