A letter to myself: Strategies

1. When you put something in the oven and need to remember to take it out, or put washing in the machine and need to remember to hang it out, or need to do anything else time-sensitive like take medication, set a reminder for it. And not just any alarm or reminder, the kind that bugs you over and over until you do it.
2. When packing for family trips, use your lists. Keep the lists updated. Refer back to the lists every time you pack. Don’t assume it will be fine because you’ve done it 20 times before. You will forget to pack yourself underwear or worst of all, one of the 5 sleep aids your child needs to fall asleep.
3. Any important appointment/meeting needs 4 alerts: the day before, the morning of, one hour before and when you need to get in the car/get on the Zoom. Especially on work days, when you are most likely to get sucked in to a focus in which you forget everything else in your life.

Do you recall all those years you were a hot mess? Life was a series of chaotic mistakes and mishaps until out of necessity (having dependants) you developed an extensive set of strategies. The strategies work well, but are annoying to manage, so you are sometimes tempted in to thinking you’re a fully functional adult now who can “just remember” to do important things. This is folly, and will only lead to disappointment and burnt potatoes.