Help me learn how to remember

[marianato]

Is there a way/technique that you use to help your memory?

[Tom fod]

Is there a way/technique that you use to help your memory?

Are we talking long or short term memory or both.

Many of us with dyspraxia often have to contend with a degree of added anxiety and/or racing thoughts which on there can impede our ability to remember things.

There are various tools and techniques you can use but without examples or knowing your specific challenges or situation it's impossible to know what to suggest.

[pixiewithdocs]

I've found that in my spraxy little world it's less about being able to remember, and more about supporting yourself to be reminded of things you can't remember.

I spent years trying to be good at things that my brain's not wired for, having no awareness of why, and internalising the failure as a personal defect.

We're just wired differently

You can definitely do some games and exercises to strengthen memory (lots of resources for those approaching old age, apps and games etc.) but it's probably more worthwhile forgiving yourself for having a poor memory, moving past the struggle of trying to remember things that you'll inevitably forget, and finding ways of writing things down and setting up reminders and routines that you can rely on more than the analogue brainbox!

It's also a cycle of learning and adapting and re-growing those systems. I've literally today been on Teams with the learning and development lead at my organisation getting some hints and tips on using onenote, outlook to do, and planner on microsoft because my job has moved beyond the organisational tools that have just about served me for the last few years.

You'll have to try a bunch of different things and figure out what works in YOUR spraxy little world. I personally detest alexa and siri and google assistant, but I'm aware they'd be brilliant for capturing thoughts that come to me when I'm busy, or remembering personal appointments. For some that would be genius but I'm resentful of them, so I use something else. It's not a cookie cutter dyspraxia + support tool = perfection, we're way messier than that!

Hope you feel good about putting the work in to change your behaviour in a way that serves who you are. You don't need changing.

[FromtheHill]

I decided to become an Accountant BEFORE I learned I have Dyspraxia. May have gone down a different mid-life career route. The memory aspect of accounting is huge.

That said, Accounting is a great job path for people with Dyspraxia in regards to finding work that is very repetitive and you can master the memory & habit aspects of the work.

For memory building - when learning new processes I pull out the pen & paper, I screenshot all the steps in the computer system. Whoever is training me is super patient (They know if I do it this way I'll have less questions later). After they show me I then take the time to write everything down on a Word doc, include the screenshots & practice those steps.

It is still stressful that next time I have to go back and do that process (esp as some of them I only do 1x a month.). But I dont have to commit everything to 'memory' if I take great notes & know how to write things that I will later understand.

Also for memory - I have used Chat.AI very early on to help with accounting questions. constant learning helps. I'll always have 'memory spillage' no matter what subject I read or study. Does make re-reading the same book fun though.

Also, playing advanced video games (Like RPGs) helps a ton for me. They are stressful, I have to navigate a bunch of menus during high conflict moments. It's very habit forming and the skills translate over to other areas of life. I set the difficulty to super low.

Im super forgetful when I go to the store to buy things. I have to use the notepad on my iPhone. then refer to it so I dont have to find out when I got home I got everything for tacos except the shells.

**So much of this is about having other techniques & resources to rely on to lessen the stress of memory issues.

[Tom fod]

I decided to become an Accountant BEFORE I learned I have Dyspraxia. May have gone down a different mid-life career route. The memory aspect of accounting is huge.

That said, Accounting is a great job path for people with Dyspraxia in regards to finding work that is very repetitive and you can master the memory & habit aspects of the work.

For memory building - when learning new processes I pull out the pen & paper, I screenshot all the steps in the computer system. Whoever is training me is super patient (They know if I do it this way I'll have less questions later). After they show me I then take the time to write everything down on a Word doc, include the screenshots & practice those steps.

It is still stressful that next time I have to go back and do that process (esp as some of them I only do 1x a month.). But I dont have to commit everything to 'memory' if I take great notes & know how to write things that I will later understand.

Also for memory - I have used Chat.AI very early on to help with accounting questions. constant learning helps. I'll always have 'memory spillage' no matter what subject I read or study. Does make re-reading the same book fun though.

Also, playing advanced video games (Like RPGs) helps a ton for me. They are stressful, I have to navigate a bunch of menus during high conflict moments. It's very habit forming and the skills translate over to other areas of life. I set the difficulty to super low.

Im super forgetful when I go to the store to buy things. I have to use the notepad on my iPhone. then refer to it so I dont have to find out when I got home I got everything for tacos except the shells.

**So much of this is about having other techniques & resources to rely on to lessen the stress of memory issues.

Hi FromtheHill Welcome to the Forum

At one time I had a job in support to finance/accounting. Personally I'm not all that good /confident working with and remembering strings of numbers. I struggled with maths at school (sorry Math if you're from The USA?) I've definitely found process driven roles suit me and I am good at finding the exceptions and pitfalls. My long-term memory and linking/connecting of disparate facts surprises /amazes some. My short term memory can be goldfish like.

Creating process guides/aide memoires really helps me too as do You Tube videos. I need to be better at making/maintaining and consulting lists and I probably have traits folk with ADHD would find familiar, not that I'd meet threshold to need to pursue assessment.

I've enocuntered dyspraxics here and elsewhere who do all manner of jobs that are surprising or that frankly scare me: waiting tables; working in a kitchen; care or teaching, trimming trees with a chainsaw while suspended up a tree by ropes; steering a passenger ferry;