How do you compensate for poor short- term memory?

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I make lists or sometimes at work I write things on sticky notes. Also what helps me a lot is using the calendar reminder on my email.

Are problems with short term memory common with those on the spectrum? I know it's exhausting. Just today I dropped by my mom's before work. I realized I had forgotten something I needed for work so I drove back home. My next stop was the pharmacy to pick up my meds. When I got there I realized I had forgotten my pocketbook so I had to drive back home again. Each trip home means climbing 3 flights of stairs. I hate my brain.

It's more so my absent mindedness than my short term memory. I put things down unknowingly, and later I'm searching around for where I put it.

I either have to write something down (usually on my tablet PC or phone) or set an alarm. I find the alarm most effective.

Little black book I have a notebook that gets everything written down in it. Not just day to day To Do lists though, maybe things I wanted to look into, buy, tell someone, whatever. I'm paranoid someone will get their hands on it, though. My life literally is an open book.

For just forgetting to bring things, I often will just have multiple redundancies, like with power cords for my amplifiers. They all share the same type and I have a lot of those cords, so I always keep one in my bass case, one in my synths case, and one plugged into each amp at home. This way, when I forget to bring the plugs, I automatically have a backup because I never ever forget my instruments - just all their cords.

Another one is having multiple sets of keys - one in my pocket, one in my coat, and one in my backpack.

Making lists has never worked, and putting them in my phone as reminders doesn't either, even though I have a nice, current-generation smartphone which I am very good at using. The reminders usually anger me or irritate me, as any alarm of any sort does. Often I will be in the middle of thinking, or using my brain for something, and then an alert goes off for a text or something, and it will totally disrupt my thinking, completely derailing it.

I used to have a great memory. Memorizing' stuff in school (except math, I suck at math) was simple and I also never forgot to do things I needed to do. Hardly ever.

Now that I'm in perimenopause also known as Hormone Hell, I have CRS. That's Can't Remember Sh*t for those of you who don't know.

I make a daily to do list and keep it where I can easily see it, with a pen beside it to either add more to it when I think of it, or cross things off once I've done them. It really helps.

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I'm giving it another shot. We will see.
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The link to the forum is http://www.rightplanet.proboards.com

I recently bought a couple of white boards for use with dry erase pens.

One board is designed like a calendar. It came with grid lines on it and the weekdays listed at the top. I use it as a household chore chart. I move a magnet each day, to keep track of which day I'm on. I've listed in black the daily chores for the different days of the week there, one in each square (or two in a divided square, if I've run out of spaces). I use the circle for marking off the day in each square to make my initial with my green pen after each chore is completed. If my girlfriend does the chore, she puts her initial in with the purple pen. Each chore notes with colored initials whether the task is to be performed by me, her, both of us together, or whichever one gets to it first. Washing dishes, for example, is marked as my job on weekdays and hers on weekends. At the end of the week, there's a spot to remind me to erase the week's initials so that the next week starts fresh. I know to check the board frequently throughout the day, until I'm sure everything I need to do is completed.

The other board is the one I'll set up for my more personal activities, such as exercise. It's not fully in use yet. I'll mark it for regular activities on the different days of the week, but I'll also leave room for special things that are for just one particular time in that particular week, rather than recurring on that day every week. I'll keep track of irregular activities such as errands and the week's appointments, as well as phone calls I need to make and whatever else I want or need to make time for and keep track of.

There's something about the interactivity of white board use that's really helping me. The boards are also big enough not to get lost or go unseen. It's very satisfying to see all the circles filled in at the end of the day, and even more so at the end of the week. (In fact, my need to see them filled in pushes me to get things done. I hate to see empty circles at the end of the day.) It's easy to rearrange things whenever I need to. It wastes no paper. It looks organized, with all the grid lines and neatly spaced groups of words. It won't get wrinkled or torn. I only have to be careful not to smudge any of the words, or else they'll erase. But I can also rewrite anything that just rubs off a little bit.

When I'm out and about, I rely on little slips of paper for things like shopping or errand lists. I tear them from the backs of envelopes, which means I'm reusing a resource. I have a notebook for writing things down when I'm out, and I keep that in the cargo pocket of my pants. I often forget to look at it when I get home, though. I usually ask people to e-mail me anything they've told me about that I want to be sure to see later.

I think I may have trouble with both working and short term memory. Any multitasking I can do involves things that I'm used to fitting together as parts of a whole, such as different parts of cooking a meal. Unrelated things are a real challenge, and this can involve particular moments or take place over a period of time. For example, I couldn't balance my checkbook for the entire 2.5 weeks my girlfriend was away, because I was handling all the house and yard work by myself, as well as all the cooking, shopping, and whatever else popped up. I simply couldn't wrap my brain around one more thing, especially something as unrelated as dealing with numbers or any kind of paperwork at all. Social activity was also a big struggle, and I think this was only partly because I didn't have the comfort and reassurance of having my girlfriend by my side. It was also because I was overloaded. Therefore, it wasn't just her presence that I missed. It was her assistance in navigating the social scene. I kept having fibromyalgia fatigue crashes and other sorts of things as a result of trying to handle so much at once, all on my own.

In addition, I often have to ask for the same information over and over again, if I don't record it somewhere, because I have a mind like a steel sieve. The info tends to just leak out somehow, instead of being retained. So, yes, I have short term memory problems, too.

My difficulty with working memory is one of the things that can potentially frustrate other people, because they can't understand why someone of my intelligence and creativity can't do the things I seem like I ought to be able to do. My difficulty with short term memory is one of the things that can potentially annoy other people, because it repeatedly takes up their time with something they can't see a reason for having to deal with. It seems pesty, and they probably think I'm just not bothering to pay attention. Avoiding or masking these problems is part of what makes being around other people so challenging, exhausting, and even sometimes downright frightening for me.

I have to leave things in the way, or I have to remember to put it in my smart phone and tell it to nag me constantly. Like, if I have to take the garbage out the next morning, I have to remember to put the garbage by the front door so I can't get out without taking it out. Or, I have to put a reminder in my phone (TAKE OUT GARBAGE) that beeps me a million times every garbage morning automatically until I turn it off.