Avoidance & Distraction | Just Do The Thing
Forgetting
“I was gonna do The Thing, but I forgot.”
No, you didn’t. You failed to** set a reminder** is all. Oops, #ReminderFail!
Your brain is great at a whole bunch of stuff, but remembering is not one of them. That’s fine, there’s nothing wrong with you. Human brains just aren’t wired like that.
But you know what is? The manmade world. Man made a manmade world, and wired it up to get things done.
“Plant the crops on this date, party on this one. Hey, look I invented the calendar!” Said one guy a long, long time ago.
“Do this first, then do that, then the other thing. Hey, look I made a list!” Said his mother.
Your brain need not struggle with the responsibility of remembering what’s on the calendar, that’s what the calendar is for. Likewise, lists are for listing things you can refer back to later. So stay out of their way and let them do their jobs. It’s all they ever get to do, please don’t take this away from them.
If you do choose to assign your brain some mundane remembering tasks, it will probably only scream at you the whole time you’re not doing what you told it to remember insisting that you should. Perhaps you’re familiar?
“Hey, this is your brain. Is it 2 p.m. yet? Check the time. Oh, okay. How about now? Right, sorry. How about now? Well… How about now? Do you remember what happens at 2 p.m.? Hey, don’t you dare forget what happens at 2 p.m.! You should really get ready for that.”
This is simply more stress than you need in your life.
Use a calendar for timing things. Use a list for listing things. Go ahead and forget the rest. Please.