do you never write down phone numbers?

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Pileated woodpecker
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11 Sep 2009, 2:35 am

i never write anything down. i rarely do if i do. i memorize every phone number that i need or even ones i don't need. i don't use agendas at all.



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11 Sep 2009, 3:14 am

me too



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11 Sep 2009, 3:26 am

I used to be like that at 25 - hear 20 new numbers a month and memorize them all - but now that I run my own business I can't afford to be wrong so it's all in Excel.



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11 Sep 2009, 3:49 am

I have to write stuff down or I forget. Stupid Lyme.



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11 Sep 2009, 4:22 am

Phone numbers I always write down, as I can't remember them. Then the list gets too crowded and I worry about whether or not I'll be able to rewrite it in a better form.

I often write agendas, but a lot of the time I find myself not using them because I tend to get into problems trying to read them and check things off while I'm working. I use my shopping lists, though in the thick of shopping it's not always easy, especially when I find myself having to buy stuff in a different order to the list. Somehow the list never seems quite systematic and logical for me. Other times I'll struggle to limit the agenda to the basic things I need to write, and end up writing loads of detailed instructions that I probably don't need, so the whole thing gets very muddled and crowded. Somehow I can't easily find the boundaries between making the list complete and keeping it manageable. I can't predict in advance what I'll be able to remember without writing it down, and erring on the safe side just makes the thing so long that it becomes impossible to navigate through it.

At work my lists seem to go out of date before the ink is dry, as demands are added, removed, or modified. So I've developed a reluctance to write an agenda at all, and at one time I was trying to keep everything in my head. It was pretty effective in general, but I found it quite scary.....I'd suddenly think of an item that I'd been overlooking, and would wonder what might have happened if I hadn't remembered it in time - memory seems so irrational and unreliable. But it meant I could get on with the work instead of hanging about designing neat task lists, so in a way it was more efficient.

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now that I run my own business I can't afford to be wrong so it's all in Excel

I think I take that "can't afford to be wrong" into every walk of life. So if I go shopping, it's very hard for me to accept that it doesn't really matter if I don't get everything I'd planned to get. Perfectionism and black and white thinking, I guess. I can often break through it if I think carefully about a particular item and ask myself "what would happen if I didn't get this today?" but unless I really make the effort, then by default it's my sworn duty to complete the mission at all costs.



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11 Sep 2009, 7:50 am

I write them down, but once I write them down, I can remember them for the rest of my life


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drowbot0181
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11 Sep 2009, 8:31 am

I don't write them down because I have no intention to call anybody ever. Hate phones. Primitive, clumsy form of communication.



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11 Sep 2009, 10:05 am

I store numbers in my cell phone, but I like to learn the numbers and not rely on a contact list. I don't bother to store numbers I know by heart and will dial those manually. I don't believe in speed dial.


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whipstitches
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11 Sep 2009, 10:22 am

I write them all down, but I find that I actually know most of them. I go through the act of looking the numbers up just to see if I am right or not. Sometimes I am off by a number, but most of the time I have it right.

Weird, isn't it?

If I want to remember things.... I usually can't....... :lol:


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fiddlerpianist
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11 Sep 2009, 11:18 am

whipstitches wrote:
I write them all down, but I find that I actually know most of them. I go through the act of looking the numbers up just to see if I am right or not. Sometimes I am off by a number, but most of the time I have it right.

I'm really good with addresses, too. I can often remember people's addresses after just hearing them once. And once they make it into long-term memory, I can pull them out of thin air years later after not having thought about it at all in the meantime.


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11 Sep 2009, 12:04 pm

I'm horrible with phone numbers, I write them down. I never agreed this is an autism thing because lot of people write down phone numbers. I can memorize phone numbers if I want to but I don't really bother if I can just dig them out and call or if I have them in my phone. I know my parents number and my dad's cell phone but I never dial them, I just hit the call button when I select it from my contacts.



fiddlerpianist
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11 Sep 2009, 12:47 pm

Spokane_Girl wrote:
I'm horrible with phone numbers, I write them down. I never agreed this is an autism thing because lot of people write down phone numbers.

I think it just depends on how our various minds work. Some people are really good with remembering numbers, and others are not. I think you're a little more likely to run into insanely good memory for specific types of things on the spectrum, but it's certainly not limited to it.


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11 Sep 2009, 1:45 pm

I do not like phone numbers, they are just random numbers. I have to write them down becuase if I am to recall anything it needs some pattern or shape which I can recall.


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11 Sep 2009, 3:26 pm

Woodpecker wrote:
I do not like phone numbers, they are just random numbers. I have to write them down becuase if I am to recall anything it needs some pattern or shape which I can recall.


There is generally some sort of pattern in the first three digits of the phone number and of course... there is the area code. I know a lot of area codes. The first three digits in the phone number often indicate what suburb one resides in. In the town that I came from, you could even tell what neighborhoods someone may live in by the first three digits. In a nutshell.... I generally only have to recall the last four numbers of a phone number because the first time I see the area code and the first three digits I have made a mental "note" of that persons location. I just have to recall the location to recall the numbers.


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