Travel Routines

[da]

I just watched myself add a new travel routine. I was packing my suitcase, and the last thing I put into it was my travel kit, at the top of the suitcase, and I said to myself, "yes, that's right; it has to go at the top."

And then I thought, "why would that be? It's no less convenient to get out from the bottom if I lay the suitcase down first." ...And then I thought of all the times I had previously tried to get at the travel-kit in the airport and it was inconveniently somewhere other than the top. I idly wonder how many times I've said "that was stupid, I should've put it at the top of the suitcase" before I started doing it reflexively, and how many times I've done it reflexively before it became routine.

Maybe there are people who often find themselves doing things for no reason they can tell, and then it turns out they'd unconsciously anticipated something else later on. I wish my memory were good enough for that; instead, I'll be happy enough with just noticing the occasional pattern. And avoid going around saying, "what is it that I've forgotten to do next?..."

I'm not sure this post had a point. Oh well. We're off to the airport soon, and melted_snowball has a few Air Canada Lounge vouchers which will get us dinner and a quiet place to sit.

Comments

[bats22.livejournal.com]

Along similar lines--I have heard intuition described as what your unconscious mind has figured out and digested out of the facts that have been given to it, as opposed to a conscious thought process.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Yep- I'm in favour of trusting and developing intuition, though these days the good rap it gets from some people, then gets a bad rap from others... (I'm particularly thinking of Malcolm Gladwell and Blink, which I haven't read).

[(Anonymous)]

I often do this with travel routines, particularly. And then really regret it when I outsmart myself by doing something that seems to make more sense... only to discover my subconscious had it right before my conscious mind interfered.

[morgan-starfire.livejournal.com]

That wasn't anonymous, that was me! Silly computer. (Windows machine, of course.) (At work.)