^ Introduction - Overcoming Absentmindedness\

Absentmindedness is probably the most commonplace of minor self-annoyances.
We have all had countless instances where we have "forgotten" to pass on a
message, or to post a birthday card, or to make a telephone call, or to put
petrol in the car, or to turn off the oven.  And, how many times have you
put something "in a safe place", so that you won't forget where it is, only
to later spend hours searching for it ?

Just think for a moment how often you have seen people searching for their
front door key, or their spectacles, or wallet, or umbrella, or calculator,
or cheque book, or a pen they had "just a moment ago".

These instances can range from being mildly irritating to completely and
utterly devastating.  If you put down a newpaper, or a pen, and subsequently
"forget" where you placed them, then you may feel slightly irritated.  But,
consider the case of someone who checks his football pools coupon on a
Saturday, and discovers that he has 24 points, with a jackpot dividend
forecast.  Imagine his devastation when he finds his entry coupon in his
jacket pocket, and realises that he has forgotten to post it.  There have
been several reported cases of this actually happening !#

There are many other situations where absentmindedness can be costly or
embarrassing.  If you have a credit card, and settle the balance each month
so that you avoid paying interest, it can be very costly if you forget to
pay that balance one month, and the interest is added !

To take another example, consider a hostess who has invited a dozen guests
around for a dinner party.  She spends hours preparing a casserole, places
it in the oven, and waits two and a half hours for it to cook.  But, she
forgets to turn the oven on, and doesn't realise it until the guests have
arrived.  Result - one red-faced hostess dashing round to the nearest
Take-Away Restaurant.

To some people, absentmindedness may seem a trivial problem. They probably
don't realise just how much time and effort they spend hunting for items
they've "just put down for a second", or on retreiving items they have left
in cars, taxis, buses, trains, and friends' houses, or worrying about
whether they have locked the front door, or fed the cat, or switched off
the iron, or set the video recorder to record their favourite television
programme...#

Many people have their own methods of trying to deal with absentmindedness.
These include tying a knot in a handkerchief when they want to remember
something, or scrawling messages in ink across the back of their hands.  The
trouble with such methods is that they frequently don't work - you spend
ages staring at your knotted handkerchief trying to recall what it was you
needed to remember, or trying to decipher the messages on your hand, which
have now become smudged and illegible.

Tutorial 14 teaches you some simple, systemmatic methods for overcoming the
problem of absentmindedness, using the techniques of ^association\ and
^visualisation\ with which you are now very familiar.


                ^Press Page Down to Proceed to Tutoria1 14\~