What things do you do on automatic?

Ronni

Ronni

Well-known Member
Location
Nashville TN
This topic was prompted by having no clear recollection of having showered, even though the evidence was all there....shower beaded with moisture, damp towel, the bathroom smelling of my soap etc. When I thought really hard, I had a hazy recollection of getting in and out...but then second guessed whether that was actually a memory of a short time ago, or just a sort of aggregate impression of all the times I've showered. :cautious:

I do other things on automatic too. And have compensated for them in various ways. The only way to know for sure if I've taken my supplements is to dole them all out in a pill minder. When this days compartment is empty, I can be pretty sure I've taken them. My cup of warm coffee tells me that I actually did make myself a cup, even though I have no clear recollection of doing so.

Sometimes I'll arrive at my destination, having no real idea how I got there. (This typically applies to just places I go to all the time.) I put my deodorant on after I dress so as not to get smears on my tops. I've applied it more than once in the morning when I dress, because I couldn't remember doing it the first time. Sometimes I have to give myself the sniff test to see if I've already applied it.

And back to the shower.....even though I can sometimes remember taking my shower, I'll not remember drying off. It hit me that my drying-off process is exactly the same every time. The order in which I dry the various body parts, the way I do it, (rub with the towel here, pat there, loop it over my back and grab the tail with the other hand so I can do the back and forth all up and down my back and rear etc.) don't vary. Weird!

There are more examples, but I'm sure you get the idea. What about you? What do you do on automatic?
 

Ronni, I can't help but associate with so much of what you say and do!

I do laundry every second to third day, and the other day I did whites, consisting of everything from towels and washcloths, to unmentionables. At any rate, I like to start laundry first thing in the morning and get it out of the way, that's my norm, and so that's what happened the other day, but late into the evening after cleaning up the kitchen after supper, one of the cold chills went through me with me thinking that I had forgot to tackle the whites that day, and looking at the kitchen wall clock I said to myself, "well, it's too late now", and a couple of hours later when I opened up the linen closet door to fetch a bath towel and washcloth for my nightly soak, there waiting on the shelf was a nice fresh folded stack of towels.

"Right", I thought, "yes, I did do laundry today"! Talk about automatic!

As for my methodology related to bathing, drying off afterwards, putting on deodorant, cleaning the bathtub and drying it out when I'm done, same routine applies day after day, month after month... never changes, yet there are times where I'll crawl into bed and be there for a good 30 minutes, sometimes more, and then my mind goes to work wondering... "did I put deodorant on".

Same goes for cleaning up the kitchen every night after supper, I'm staunchly anal when it comes to washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen up at the end of each day, can't stand the thought of a messy kitchen, yet I'll awake during the night some nights and think to myself, "darn, I never did the dishes last night", yet in the morning I'm greeted to a spotlessly organized and clean kitchen, at which time I think to myself, "yes, I did clean-up last night".

I don't remember going through this when I was younger, just in the past few years, which makes me wonder if it isn't an age related thing, where after so many years we get so set in our ways, so comfortable with what we do, our routines and practices are even more automatic than we think.
 
When I was working I experienced blackouts when driving long distances.

I would remember getting on the highway and getting off at my exit but not much about what happened in between.

It was as though my brain/consciousness was on some sort of split-screen where one part was automatically doing the driving while another part was concentrating on work, family, etc...

Now my life has slowed to the point where I remember every boring detail in real-time. :(
 

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All my personal hygiene is automatic and I clean the house every week on the same day, in exactly the same way. What messes me up with cleaning is when I misplace the cleaning supplies or dust cloths.
I have spent so much time going from room to room looking for the Windex bottle that I could have had another room cleaned.
Generally its sitting on a chair or behind a picture I just cleaned on the wall unit.
Sometimes I really can't find the item and just get another.
A few weeks ago we had an insurance women come to the house. I glanced up and saw the dust cloth sitting in a heap on the china closet. I don't think she noticed so I sort of glided over and snatched it.
 
Whew! I thought I was the only one things like that were happening to, that “the end was coming “! More fairly recently, thinking the COVID isolation was causing it, that it was because everything was just the same old repetitive routine.
Example: front door not 50’ from my covered parking. Get inside home, take off my shoes. “OMG did I remember to lock the car?” Put shoes back on, go back out. Yes, car is locked.
Another recent one. I take my before breakfast insulin, put stuff away, walk 4’ to get my morni;g coffee and fruit. “Omg, did I take my insulin or not?” I check waste basket. Yes, the orange syringe guards are there. “OMG, are those from just now or last night.” Oh ok, they are today’s. I had emptied the waste basket before I went to bed.
 
I grind my coffee beans and then get the coffee maker ready so in the morning I just have to turn it on. Sometimes I have gone to bed and have to get up again to see if I did it. Most times I did. This morning though, I discovered I did not pour the water in! Good thing I caught it before it started.

I think I lock my door at least 5 times before I go to bed. I forget if I checked it.
 
katlupe said:
I grind my coffee beans and then get the coffee maker ready so in the morning I just have to turn it on. Sometimes I have gone to bed and have to get up again to see if I did it. Most times I did. This morning though, I discovered I did not pour the water in! Good thing I caught it before it started.

I think I lock my door at least 5 times before I go to bed. I forget if I checked it.
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The door thing I do, too, Kat!
 
Geezerette said:
I get my coffee ready at night too, and just recently I put the carafe of water IN THE FRIDGE instead of next to the pot like usual. Nothing like feeling like dumb right after getting up.
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Still better than my recent move of making my way down the hallway and into dear husbands and my bedroom with the glass jug of milk in my hands, looking to put it away in there, Geez. LOL! :)
 
Aunt Marg said:
Still better than my recent move of making my way down the hallway and into dear husbands and my bedroom with the glass jug of milk in my hands, looking to put it away in there, Geez. LOL! :)
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I’m not EVEN going to admit the number of times I’ve wandered out of the kitchen with a kitchen dish towel in my hands, and it ends in the bedroom, laundry room, den, on the sofa’ crate, in the bathroom! 🤦🏼‍♀️

OH!! And we have a Keurig coffee maker. Ron is usually up before me and makes his coffee first. When I’m ready to make mine, I take his used pod out, put a fresh one in, add creamer to my cup and hit start.

Want to guess how many times I’ve served myself a nice hot cup of diluted creamer because I forgot to put my pod in? 😖
 
Ronni said:
This topic was prompted by having no clear recollection of having showered, even though the evidence was all there....shower beaded with moisture, damp towel, the bathroom smelling of my soap etc. When I thought really hard, I had a hazy recollection of getting in and out...but then second guessed whether that was actually a memory of a short time ago, or just a sort of aggregate impression of all the times I've showered. :cautious:

I do other things on automatic too. And have compensated for them in various ways. The only way to know for sure if I've taken my supplements is to dole them all out in a pill minder. When this days compartment is empty, I can be pretty sure I've taken them. My cup of warm coffee tells me that I actually did make myself a cup, even though I have no clear recollection of doing so.

Sometimes I'll arrive at my destination, having no real idea how I got there. (This typically applies to just places I go to all the time.) I put my deodorant on after I dress so as not to get smears on my tops. I've applied it more than once in the morning when I dress, because I couldn't remember doing it the first time. Sometimes I have to give myself the sniff test to see if I've already applied it.

And back to the shower.....even though I can sometimes remember taking my shower, I'll not remember drying off. It hit me that my drying-off process is exactly the same every time. The order in which I dry the various body parts, the way I do it, (rub with the towel here, pat there, loop it over my back and grab the tail with the other hand so I can do the back and forth all up and down my back and rear etc.) don't vary. Weird!

There are more examples, but I'm sure you get the idea. What about you? What do you do on automatic?
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Is your mind blank while you go about your daily routine, or do you do things automatically because you're thinking of something completely unconnected?
This is the case with me. Routine tasks are tiresome so I think about something else. Then I have to go back to check on whether I have actually done anything.
 
Rosemarie said:
Is your mind blank while you go about your daily routine, or do you do things automatically because you're thinking of something completely unconnected?
This is the case with me. Routine tasks are tiresome so I think about something else. Then I have to go back to check on whether I have actually done anything.
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Bingo! That's me!

Not with all, but with a lot for sure. :)
 
Taking the various pills I take throughout the day has become automatic. If I didn't have a couple of those pill boxes divided into the days of the week, I'd never remember whether I took those lunchtime pills, or whatever.
 

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