This morning I was listening to a podcast, the Ezra Klein Show. I received a message that I wanted to reply to quickly. I was looking for Fozzie to bring him in after his two minutes in the bushes. I was also listening to a raucous band of chickadees and other little birds, excited about something. Then I became aware that I was trying to pay attention to four things at once, and I was tracking how well I was doing. It was interesting trying to type a message saying one thing while trying to listen to a podcast and not miss the thread of the conversation. It was like my attention was jumping around, and my short term memory was recording these five streams of input and rewinding each spool and playing it forward at double speed. I did not manage all five tasks well, but I caught bits of each. It would be good to have a chip in my brain so I could go back and replay the songs of the birds. Were they just chatting with each other? Or was there an owl near by and they were pointing out and scolding a predator? I’m leaning toward it being just excited chatter because is was a nice morning. I couldn’t tell you right now what they were saying on the Ezra Klein Show, but at the moment I felt like I halfway followed it. It appears my reply to the message was intelligible somewhat. I did find Fozzie in the expected timespan.
The other day, I was going to pick up a camera and trap that had been set for a lost cat. As I was driving to the location, I began to check all of my 14 pockets to see where the key was to the cable securing the camera. I knew I would have usually put the key in the small coin pocket of my pants, because it’s a small key, and that’s part of my filing system. The pockets of my pants and coats create a filing system that helps keep me somewhat organized. When the key wasn’t in the expected pocket, I started checking all the other pockets. I have a ton of stuff in my pockets. I was driving and watching the road, and checking my pockets for the key by feel. I think I was also listening to a podcast, but I don’t specifically recall at this point. When I didn’t find the key in my pockets, I checked the cup holder, the console, and the glovebox. No key. When I was getting close to the location, I thought about just turning around and going home because I would need bolt cutters to get my camera. Then it occurred to me that I might have left the key in the lock. Sure enough, that’s where the key was. The camera wasn’t actually secure for the two weeks it was in place.
As I get older, I worry about forgetting things. In particular, I worry that I will let Fozzie go for his two-minutes in the bushes and then I might think that I’ve let him in the house when really I didn’t retrieve him at the appointed time. This is how many people lose their pets and end up contacting me. Because I’m worried that I could have forgotten to bring Fozzie in, and just thought I did it because I was remembering the previous day, I often inventory my dogs just to make sure I know where they all are. When I go to bed at night, I touch all four dogs, just to make sure I really did get them all in after the last walk. (Dogs are mostly on leash, and Sky is never off leash. I would keep little Fozzie on leash at every moment of our walks, but he has used every spot within leash range, and he insists he needs to go a little way into the bushes, just for a couple of minutes. If it’s after dark, Fozzie is wearing his coyote spikes. I am acutely aware that little dogs get taken by coyotes when they go into the bushes for just a couple of minutes while their owners are not far away. It happened just last week and Tino found the remains. I do take precautions, such as watching for any indications coyotes are in the area. My dogs would notice and point it out to me if coyotes were active nearby. The owners of the dog whose remains T found were aware of coyotes in the their yard and had just seen them before their dog went missing. When Fozzie gets his two minutes in the bushes, I should not be paying attention to five things at once, like I was this morning. Typically, when he goes into the bushes, I pull up the app for his Apple AirTag and track his location under the rhododendron or the cherry tree. I need to stop trying to do everything at once sometimes and just concentrate on one thing when it is important.) If Fozzie is not within reach at bedtime, I have to turn on the light on my iPhone and see him before I can go to sleep.
I suspect that my moments of apparent forgetfulness, like leaving the key in the lock on the camera’s cable, are really moments of divided attention. My goal for 2023 is to be more productive and capable than I have ever been, mostly using technology such as my iPhone to get more work done than I could without technology. This often means I am trying to do two or three or five things at once. I have a novel in my head that has been cooking for 7 or 8 years now. I want to keep complete records of all of my cases. I intend to take 20,000 photographs or more, and I want some of those to be truly excellent. I want to improve my running ability and keep my brain healthy.
When I was driving to pick up the camera and trap, and trying to find out where I had left the key, I was actually on my way home from Portland, where Mu had searched for a kitty and found his remains. During the search, I was talking to the client, watching Mu’s behavior, looking at the terrain, noticing surveillance cameras that might be helpful in discovering what happened to the lost cat, looking for coyote scat, which Mu did find, watching for approaching dogs that might be a problem for Mu, and listening to the birds, which I thought were less active for such a woodsy neighborhood. On the drive to Portland, I had memorized a 20-digit number that I intend to use for encryption purposes, passwords and such. It is a specific number, and I put it in my memory palace. I also recorded some voice notes about important ideas for a novel I’m working on. On the way home from Portland, i tested myself on the recall of the 20 digit number and found that I had no trouble. I also tested myself on the recall of Tino’s microchip number and Mu’s microchip number, both of which I have memorized just to test myself to see if I could. I could recall all of these numbers. Also, I could remember hundreds of details of the search we had just conducted. Although I had it in my navigation, I remembered the turns to reach the location where the trap was without having to look at the navigation. I think my brain and my memory are working just fine, maybe better than they ever have. If I forget a key and leave it the lock, I think it’s just a case of trying to pay attention to too many things at once.
To make sure I didn’t accidentally leave Fozzie outside or forget to close the kitchen door, which has happened a couple of times, I need to have checklists. Like, when I am going out on a search, I always touch my pocket to make sure my iPhone is in my pocket, usually checking this before I make the first turn out of our neighborhood. I will keep checking my memory to make sure I’m not becoming forgetful, but I think it’s more a need for being aware of how many things I’m trying to pay attention to at once and recognizing that I might not be paying full attention some times. I need to go through these mental checklists to make sure I was paying attention to everything I needed to. Also, I will use technology to help me make sure I don’t lose track of ideas or tasks. I can instantly make a voice note of anything I want to recall later. If I think I might forget something or not be paying attention, I can use my phone and my watch as tools to help me stay organized and focused. Technology can be a distraction, and it often is. If I use it right, technology can help me keep doing everything all at once, all of the time, which is what I need to do in 2023 to hit my goals.