How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

OK, three scenarios here:

1) You are talking to someone. You introduce yourself. 10 seconds later, you realize you have no idea what their name is.

2) You decide to do something (grab a bottle of water, maybe) on the way out of the house. You realize you forgot something and turn around to grab it from your room. You forget your initial task and leave.

3) You are watching something on TV. Commercial comes on, you flip channels and watch something for a few minutes, then totally forget about the first thing you were watching.

Just curious, how many of you forget stuff like this, and how often?

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

1) very frequently

2) almost never

3) never

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

1) All the time. Seriously, probably about 80% of people I meet, unless for some reason I already know who they are and am just now attaching a face to a name.

2) Occasionally; I'll usually be aware of the forgetting but can't put it all back together.

3) This is rare.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

All day, every day. I'm like the guy in "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat". If I tried to remember everything my head would explode. I live moment to moment.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

1) Almost never. But if you asked me in college it would be all the time - I've worked on it.

2) Almost never. Also worked on this, I'm an efficiency monger. But never as bad as the name thing.

3) Don't really watch commercials, but when I did, this didn't come up alot.

-Al

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

What was this thread about again?

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

[ QUOTE ]
1) very frequently

2) almost never

3) never

[/ QUOTE ]

this looks about right.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

1) Unless I make a conscious effort to remember, every time.

2) Occassionally.

3) Rarely.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

[ QUOTE ]
1) Almost never. But if you asked me in college it would be all the time - I've worked on it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've gone the other way, I think. At some point, in most contexts, it became kinda unimportant to me.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

1) This happens because most of the time I'm not really caring what their name is. Then later it turns out that "hey, this guy/girl is cool, I wish I remembered his/her name".

It's not really forgetting because I never really knew the name to begin with, even if they did tell me originally.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

[ QUOTE ]
OK, three scenarios here:

1) You are talking to someone. You introduce yourself. 10 seconds later, you realize you have no idea what their name is.

2) You decide to do something (grab a bottle of water, maybe) on the way out of the house. You realize you forgot something and turn around to grab it from your room. You forget your initial task and leave.

3) You are watching something on TV. Commercial comes on, you flip channels and watch something for a few minutes, then totally forget about the first thing you were watching.

Just curious, how many of you forget stuff like this, and how often?

[/ QUOTE ]

1) I started a thread about this... I still do this all the time but am getting a little bit better.

2) Not very often.

3) Somewhat frequently, but it helps that I very rarely watch live TV.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

1. Very often. I will even realize it, ask "I'm sorry. what was your name again?" then not pay attention to the answer and still not know their name.

2. Not often.

3. Frequently when baked.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

1) You are talking to someone. You introduce yourself. 10 seconds later, you realize you have no idea what their name is.

Far too often. Mostly in spots where I've already decided that a person's name is meaningless to me. Especially true with girl's names.


2) You decide to do something (grab a bottle of water, maybe) on the way out of the house. You realize you forgot something and turn around to grab it from your room. You forget your initial task and leave.

Very often. I'm super easily distracted and often trying to do too many things at once. Esp when leaving the house.


3) You are watching something on TV. Commercial comes on, you flip channels and watch something for a few minutes, then totally forget about the first thing you were watching.

Not very often. I tend to have a pattern when I'll always return to the show I was watching ("last" button ftw) before browing to another chan in my rotation.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

1. not often, but i'm good with names

2. this is fairly common

3. depends what's on, but not that often

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

I do #1 literally every time i meet someone in a casual environment.

2 & 3 almost never.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

1) More often than not. I don't even think I pay attention to the name unless it's a friend of a friend or someone that I know I'm going to be around for a period longer than a few minutes. So if I know in advance that I'm likely going to have to address them in the near future it's a different story. But a random person that I meet will almost never register.

2) Not terribly often, but enough to make me feel that I did too many drugs earlier in life. I occasionally forget to do both tasks. Like I'll get to the room to grab the thing I just remembered, only by the time I get there I forgot what I was doing.

3) If I'm just casually watching something, say some ghey movie on USA that just happened to be on as I was surfing, then this is certainly a possibility. If it's one of my favorite shows or something I'm making a point to watch, then not so much.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

All,

Here's a somewhat related #4.

4) You hear a song on the radio in your car or in a movie or at a bar. You think, I definitely need to get that song, I'll look that up or buy it when I get home. A few weeks later when you hear the song somewhere else, you remember you meant to get it.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

1) Quite often. I don't immediately forget, but usually in 2 hours or something I can't recall it.

2) All the fing time. This is very annoying.

3) Never. I only watch a handful of channels, and just rotate through them with the favorites button.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

4) This number used to be in the 90% range until I got my Treo. Now I make Task entries to remind myself to do silly things like this.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

A bit unrelated, but when my GF visits and we take her car out, without fail I always go past the visitors parking spot. This is probably a different type of memory in our brain.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

#3 is very common for me. I can get interested in almost anything on TV, so if I switch from one show that was interesting but I didn't really care about to another that is interesting but I don't really care about I almost always forget about the first one.

#4 is pretty common for me, sometimes it will happen 5 or 6 times over the course of a couple of days.

#1 is almost never because I try really really hard to remember people's names.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

Way too often for all three.

Yay pot!

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

Last night, I spent 2 minutes trying to think of President Lincoln's first name.

1) I am horrible with names. Thank God for "Hey There!" and "Sup Bro?"

2) I often find myself in a room and have no idea what I am doing there. Also, I start telling a story and halfway through I realize that I have no idea what my point is.

3) I am amazing at remembering what is on simultaneously on 47 different channels, what's most likely to be at a good part where animals attack somebody's crotch, and what I should skip because of lack of boobies/swords/zombies.

4) I now keep moleskines (www.moleskine.com) and pens everywhere. I jot down reminders when I think of things to write, letters, music, my little poems and so forth. I have them in my car, in my pocket when I go for walks, by my bedside. Otherwise, I would never remember anything.

I think that this is all a product of my mind getting sloppy. I have resolved to do something about it, and I will be attending a 10-day Vipassana (also known as Insight) meditation course in July (www.dhamma.org). 14 hours a day of concentrating on your breath to the exclusion of all other activities is said to really focus the attention.

I am 37, and shouldn't be losing my mind just yet. I am fighting to get it back.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

The first two happen all the time. I just chalk them up to 'senior' moments. I don't remember ever encountering the last situation.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

1. 100% of the time. I'll have to ask them later if I actually care at that point what their name is.

2. Fairly often. I'll be 60 miles away wondering why it's so bright and then remember that I forgot my sunglasses.

3. Never. I never was really into TV, and never just "watch to watch." If I didn't only turn it on when I really cared about the programming, I could see this happening a lot.

4. There's this piano song that I still don't know the title of that I hear periodically in casinos. It's very recognizable, but it's not like "the entertainer" or anything from the butch cassidy soundtrack. I always mean to memorize the tune so that I could hum it to someone more knowledgeable, but always forget it. Think: HM HM HIMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

[ QUOTE ]
4) This number used to be in the 90% range until I got my Treo. Now I make Task entries to remind myself to do silly things like this.

[/ QUOTE ]

I do this also... but I really feel like the existing technology should provide us with a cheap, elegant solution to this problem...

-Al

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

1. I don't care about other people, so I might as well not care about their names. This is a yes.

2. rarely.

3. I don't watch tv.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

I scrolled down to the bottom of the screen and was going to post my answers, but then I forgot what question 2 and 3 were. I tought about Q1 and said to myself Yeah thats me.
I spend a lot of time on the phone and make up for it by writing the person's name down.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

I forget little things all the time. For example, if I'm making a sandwich I undo the twist tie thing and set it somehwere. 90% of the time I lose it and end up tying the end of the bag in a knot.

I'll set my keys somwhere and lose them a minute later, my phone, wallet, everything.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

[ QUOTE ]
All,

Here's a somewhat related #4.

4) You hear a song on the radio in your car or in a movie or at a bar. You think, I definitely need to get that song, I'll look that up or buy it when I get home. A few weeks later when you hear the song somewhere else, you remember you meant to get it.

[/ QUOTE ]

This happens to me all the time. I remember maybe 10% of the stuff that I tell myself I need to look up the next time I am at a computer. The worst is when I am in my car for some reason.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

1) Basically every time

2) Not too much

3) Very frequently. Often it's a good show that I really want to watch (but hadn't planned for), and I'll remember a half-hour later that I'd forgotten about it and get pissed at myself.

4) Pretty often

With the introductions I virtually never remember the names of people I'm introduced to if there's more than one person. Then later on I find myself in awkward situations talking to them because they remember my name and I've forgotten theirs.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

#2 is the worst for me I will go to do a task get semi side tracked and then totally forget what i wanted to go do.

Similar I know I have to tell somebody something and even know who but can't remember what.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

I forget just about any passing fact if I do not write it down.

Once I write it down, even if I just scribble it on a napkin, I couldn't forget it if I tried.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

#5) You read an OOT thread by a guy getting old and realize you're getting old too because you identify with some of the items in the list.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

1) 80%
2) 60%
3) 40%

....and I dont even smoke weed.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

1) constantly. I can barely remember my girlfriend's last name. We've been together almost 3 years.

2) constantly. At this very moment I came online to do something, got distracted, came to OOT, read this thread and I have no idea what I got online to do.

3) constantly, unless it's baseball. Regular programming is kinda boring and I will drift from channel to channel, normally forgetting what I was watching previously. However, the "previous channel" button negates this one somewhat.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

1 & 3 with embarrassing regularity. 2 not as often, but sometimes.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

Ive made a point to work on these types of things over the last few years, I rarely forget anyones name anymore, although somtimes with chicks Ill pretend I forgot, I do the water-type stuff rarely anymore, I have a small table by the door and Ill put whatever I need on it that I have to take w/ me, and I always check the table, I also care around my pda everywhere so I can use the note function to write down song names/tv shows/misc notes, and check them every morningand get the songs/set the tivo/accomplish the task before the day begins.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

1) Just about every time. No matter whether it's someone I have no interest in knowing or a super hot girl, 99% of the time I'll have to ask for the name again. I always have to remind myself to pay close attention when I meet someone important like my new boss or so. And even then I'll forget half the time.

2) Very frequently. What also happens to me at times is, say someone is asking me to get something from the kitchen. I will end up walking into my bed room, wondering wtf I am doing there, returning to the living room and only then (on seeing that person again) remember why I actually left the room. Had a couple of laughs on me for that.

3) Not as often as 2) but fairly frequently.

4) Did not happen, yet. I very rarely buy music, so when I set my mind on getting a song, I'll typically remember.

Re: How often do you forget stuff instantly?
 

2& 3 happen to me alllll the time. it is ridiculous. I really thought i was the only one with major short-term memory problems