Monday, 1 November 2010

What's your eighth thing?


I was reading in The House that A-M Built blog this morning about 'senior moments' and it struck a chord with me.  It also took me back to another life and another continent to an old workplace. There was a lady there who often responded to many questions with "I don't know the answer, I've slept since then!"  Being a mere whipper snapper of a girl back then I couldn't quite get it, but now....I'm right there lady!!

The other thing that I remember about this workplace is another colleague sharing with me that one can only hold seven things in the brain at any one time.
When the going got a bit tough we would just look at each other and one would say, "that's the eighth thing, what do I let go!?"

There's even some science to back this up as I believe that some psychologists discovered that on average, the longest sequence a normal person can recall on the fly contains about seven items.  

I try to adopt this thinking at my current workplace and I thought that I would share as it can help to keep a sense of perspective and reality. I must admit, that some days keeping two or three pieces of information in my brain is a challenge...!

So we're not all losing our minds, it's just that pesky eighth thing!
x

1 Comments and thoughts:

  1. Thanks for making me feel a little better about my memory bank. I must admit to loving a list; of course the shopping list is often left at home, so begins my personal challenge to see how good I am at remembering what's on the forgotten list. I check my results at home, and I usuallly miss at least two items. I must remember to stick to only 7 things! :) x

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