Alright, let’s get straight into what happened this Wednesday when I tried learning my nephew’s basketball schedule. I swear I stared at that text message for five whole minutes. Team name, court number, time slots – everything. Felt like I really burned it into my brain. But later that afternoon? Blank. Total blank. Couldn’t even remember if it was Court 3 or Court 5. Super frustrating.
Got home and really dug into this encoding failure thing. Basically, learning something doesn’t stick if your brain doesn’t properly “save” it in the first place. Like how your phone won’t backup photos if you rush and hit cancel instead of confirm. Kept seeing this everywhere now – when I half-read recipes then missed ingredients, or when people told me names while I was distracted. Our brains discard stuff constantly without us noticing.
Tried an experiment with my grocery list next morning. Instead of just scanning items quickly like usual, I did two things different. First, closed my eyes after reading each item and actually pictured it – that bunch of bananas going brown at my kitchen counter, milk carton sloshing when I walk. Second, made dumb connections like thinking “celery cries” since it starts with C (weird but worked). Went shopping without the list for the first time ever and nailed every item. Even remembered the obscure spice my wife wanted.
What’s wild is how this changes daily stuff. Now when parking, I actually notice landmarks instead of zoning out – that ugly green dumpster or the broken lamp post becomes my memory anchor. Phone numbers? I say them aloud while punching digits instead of silent typing. Takes an extra three seconds but saves me calling back asking “what was that number again?” like a dingus.
The big takeaway? Our brains aren’t cameras. Just seeing isn’t saving. You gotta force that encoding by making your brain work the info differently – seeing it, saying it, linking it to stupid stuff. Looks like more effort upfront but man does it beat standing in the grocery aisle scratching your head. https://psychological.cc/
