The trouble with lists...

[hmpf]

and other forms of organising my life:

I met a couple of friends after Christmas when I was staying with my parents. One of them I made an appointment with for Tuesday evening; the other, for Wednesday afternoon. I wrote these appointments down. I also got a mail, on Tuesday morning, from the person I was supposed to meet on Wednesday afternoon, saying "see you tomorrow".

Pretty unmistakable, right?

Yet I still ended up at the place I was supposed to be on Wednesday afternoon on Tuesday instead.

One should think that the word "tomorrow" in that mail should have tipped me off that the meet-up was, in fact, y'know, *tomorrow*.

What had happened?

I had written down those meet-ups on my To Do List for the week, using a short form for the names of the days: "Di" (="Tue") and "Mi" (="Wed"). "Di" and "Mi" are pretty similar. Similar enough that, in my easily confused brain, they get swapped around sometimes (as do "Di" and "Do" as well as "Mo" and "Mi". For some reason, "Sa" and "So" seem to be largely immune, despite the similarity - which sucks, because those are the only two days of the week that are slightly less relevant to work matters, being the days of the weekend. Couldn't a couple of work days be immune instead of the stupid weekend?)

And here's the thing: if this swapping-things-around-in-my-brain happens right after I've made an appointment, *it sticks*. Even if I write it down right and look at it again later repeatedly. Even if I get a mail that says "see you tomorrow". If my brain thinks "Di" it will see and hear "Di", even if all the actual written documents say "Mi".

And here's the clincher: this happens even when I don't use short forms. It's enough that my brain apparently *thinks* in these short forms.

The same, incidentally, happens with certain numbers - in fact, it's even worse with those. There are even more ways of messing up with them. E.g.: "2" and "12" are easy to mix up because they both begin with "zw" (or "tw" in English ;-)). If I opt for "14:00" instead, I tend to get it mixed up with 4, because apparently my brain stops processing the number after "four...". Etc. The possibilities for confusion are literally endless.

Another thing that can confuse me is the layout of lists and notes. I.e. I can confuse things based on *where* on a piece of paper I've written them down.

There are plenty more of these. Basically, my brain is *really* good at misremembering certain kinds of information. There's a German word, "Gedächtnisbrücken", "memory bridges", for the kind of mnemonic aids you can use to remember abstract information better. My brain seems very good at building bridges to nowhere.

Comments

[muladhara]

This happens to me, and I noticed it starting (whether it had always done, I don't know) when I was most badly depressed (2004/5). I confuse washing and shopping, presumably because of the "sh" sound in them (but only because of that and, specifically, it's only clothes washing), and manage to confuse the oven and the fridge to the point of putting something that belongs in one thing in the other (which rarely happens, it's more often the words). And, you know, I love the 24hr clock, but I do exactly that with 14:00, too.

Weirdly enough, words in Japanese that I'm supposed to confuse, I don't.

Um, so, the point is: it's not just you that this happens to.

[dune-drd.livejournal.com]

keep a calendar on you at all times, writing down the appointments immediately after you make them. I also find it quite helpful to have one of these desk calendars that show you one week at a time - you can even add a paperclip to keep track of which day you're at. works wonders for me.

[elliejane.livejournal.com]

I also a habit of misreading things. Sometimes I'll be reading something - let us say Supernatural fanfic with the characters Sam and Dean - and I will read Dean's name, get to the next paragraph, get confused, reread the bit with Dean, only to realise it didn't say Dean at all, it said Sam. I have no idea why this happens, although I have the attentions span of a gnat, so maybe my brain is butterflying around too much? It's horrid not being able to trust your view of the world.

Actually, one thing I *have* wondered is if diet comes into it. I don't always eat very well (for a number of reasons), and perhaps I don't get enough protein or other nutrient for my poor brain to function efficiently. The reason I mention all this here, is because just reading back, you mentioned you don't get enough time to eat properly, missing meals, skimping on others, eating bread and cheese - perhaps your brain is having trouble gripping onto things because it is not getting the right nourishment? This is just a thought - I don't know if it is backed up by real facts.

However, I feel for you - (((hugs))) - as I seem to have a similarly unreliable grasp on the world. One concrete thing to do about dates is (as said above) keep a calendar (or a diary) so you don't need to write things down in day shorthand. Or, if you do need to take notes, *don't* write shorthand or anything that can encourage misreading.

(On a lighter note (or more whacked out note) things like this happen so often that I've invented the "alternate universe" theory, which means that every so often I slip over to another universe where things are just *slightly* different, and then slip back again. It would explain so much!!).

[albert amseldrossler (from livejournal.com)]

In my humble opinion this all comes down to stress. It's not that your brain is just easily confused, it is stressed out to the limit. Under stress and constant pressure you will mix things up, forget details and "build bridges to nowhere" all the time, this is perfectly normal - but should not be your normal condition. In any case, you seem to need stress management more than anything. I haven't kept in touch with you and reading through your LJ pains me a lot. I will find a way to be there for you again as a friend and help you relieve some of that stress. Nager.

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

Hello stranger. ;-)
Well, stress definitely doesn't help - but the fundamental problem of confusing these things in my head has been around in my life since forever, basically. Stress just makes it a bit worse than it usually is.