Cost of missing things

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There was a time when I used to think that humans possess infinite memory and their processing units were very fast. But as time passed and stuff kept on increasing, I realized that even the human mind gets hanged when given a load that is beyond the capacity. At least in me, I have observed this a lot. With time responsibilities are increasing, the number of tasks to be performed is also increasing and my ability to keep things in mind is declining. I am relying much on hand notes and mobile reminders now.

No one regrets more on forgetting a day than a husband who has forgotten the birthday of his wife or their anniversary. Lolz. But still in the life of the common man, missing important events cost them a lot. One wonders how can one forget the task that keeps importance from others but astonishingly one forgets the same task. There have been many instances in the past few months especially when I missed many important events like the due date for applying for masters admission, missing weddings of friends because I forgot the day in my routine, and daily routine missing assigned tasks. Let me share with you one of them.

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I am working as a production officer in the pharma industry where my basic responsibility is to ensure the effective and quality production of medicines and ensure that production goes as per plans. Sometimes due to market orders, we have to modify our production plans as well. A few weeks ago, my manager told me that if there is an urgent batch to be produced you will not disturb production plans instead you will adjust that small batch. I was given three days to adjust that batch in those days.

It was hard but not so difficult to adjust but I didn’t as I completely forgot about that. Now the manager asked me about the batch after three days and I was completely blank because I didn’t just miss the production of a batch but showed negligence to instructions as well due to which the company had to step back from its commitment. The manager scolded me a lot but this wasn’t the only reward I received. Later on, both I and the manager were summoned by the CEO to whom the supply chain manager complained non-availability of the product. That day was the ultimate and most chaotic for me. Every half hour there used to be one reminding me of my mistake and thus is how the habit of missing and forgetting things caused admonition to me.

The human mind is not able to deal with many things simultaneously with the same accuracy and precision. Sometimes it gets exhausted. Some exhausts are visible while others remain hidden reducing our mental capacity to pick, process, and remember things. At that time it is better to prepare so that we don’t miss crucial events. I have two strategies of keeping things aligned with schedule.

Firstly, I have a notebook on which I write every small detail. In the morning, I write tasks to be performed on it, and in the evening I evaluate my performance. Along with this, the reminders and alarms on mobile phones also play a very important role in reminding me to do tasks on time, which I have fixed for them. Though I am habitual of missing things and stuffs gets skippped from my mind but my precautions are now saving me from major disaster and insults like that one.

This is my blog for #hl-exclusive and #hl-w168e1.