Topic 8: Overcoming Absent-mindedness - Introduction
Absent-mindedness is probably the most commonplace of minor self-annoyances. We have all had countless instances where we have "forgotten" to pass on a message, or to post a birthday card, or to make a telephone call, or to put petrol in the car, or to turn off the oven. And, how many times have you put something "in a safe place", so that you won't forget where it is, only to later spend hours searching for it?
Just think for a moment how often you have seen people searching for their front door key, or their spectacles, or wallet, or umbrella, or calculator, or cheque book, or a pen they had "just a moment ago".
These instances can range from being mildly irritating to completely and utterly devastating. If you put down a newspaper, or a pen, and subsequently "forget" where you placed them, then you may feel slightly irritated.
There are many situations where absent-mindedness can be costly or embarrassing. If you have a credit card, and settle the balance each month so that you avoid paying interest, it can be very costly if you forget to pay that balance one month, and the interest is added!
To take another example, consider a hostess who has invited a dozen guests around for a dinner party. She spends hours preparing a casserole, places it in the oven, and waits two and a half hours for it to cook. But, she forgets to turn the oven on, and doesn't realise it until the guests have arrived. Result - one red-faced hostess dashing round to the nearest Take-Away Restaurant.
To some people, absent-mindedness may seem a trivial problem. They probably don't realise just how much time and effort they spend hunting for items they've "just put down for a second", or on retrieving items they have left in cars, taxis, buses, trains, and friends' houses, or worrying about whether they have locked the front door, or fed the cat, or switched off the iron, or set the video recorder to record their favourite television programme...
Many people have their own methods of trying to deal with absent-mindedness. These include tying a knot in a handkerchief when they want to remember something, or scrawling messages in ink across the back of their hands. The trouble with such methods is that they frequently don't work - you spend ages staring at your knotted handkerchief trying to recall what it was you needed to remember, or trying to decipher the messages on your hand, which have now become smudged and illegible.
Tutorial 14 teaches you some simple, systematic methods for overcoming the problem of absent-mindedness, using the techniques of association and visualisation with which you are now very familiar.