Ever get tripped up by simple stuff?

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I have two pairs of shoes I wear around the house: the ones I can slide on without my hands, and the ones that require me to sit down and use my hands.

So this evening, I wanted to go into the basement. Before I go into the basement, I always put on a pair of shoes as there are potentially sharp and gritty things on the floor down there (it's unfinished). I had it in my head I would slip the hands-free pair on, but they weren't in plain sight. The other pair (that requires hands) were right by the front door, and I could have very easily just sat down and put those on... but no! I had it in my head that I was going to wear the slip-ons to the basement. So I spent the next 5 minutes looking for the slip-ons, going from room to room looking for them. (I often have trouble finding things, especially things that I very recently used. I put them down in random places and don't remember putting them down.) I finally found them, but I later realized that it would have taken me 15 seconds to sit down and put on this non-slip-on pair of shoes, and that I essentially wasted 5 minutes bumbling around the house looking for the slip-ons.

I also have a tendency to get de-railed when cooking from a recipe. I'll be going along, mixing ingredients, and then I will realize that I need a lemon but don't have one. Instead of doing without the lemon (which is more often than not acceptable), my first instinct is to run out to the store and buy a lemon instead of just doing without it.

I wonder if these sorts of things come off as the "attention span of a housecat" (as my wife likes to put it).

Anyone else have things they easily get thrown off by?

This is such a problem for me that I have allocated spaces about the house for my things. I have a little basket on a bookshelf where my wallet and keys go, I always put my shoes back in one particular spot in my closet, all my books of interest are on shelves grouped together.
If something is moved, it disappears ...

It's rigidity. It's quite common among us aspies. A.K.A. things must always done "the right way".

Simply rigid topic

I have a lemon in my fridge. i want to make lemon bread but have no eggs or baking soda right now.

Oh yes Very familiar. I'll sometimes get sidetracked easily, or realise that I've done something the hard way. I deal with this by having routines, but while I can do all my housework because there's places that things 'go' and an accepted order for actions, I dither and wander off and shuffle things pointlessly when I'm meant to clean my room.

I think it's called executive dysfunction, it happens with auties and aspies a bit.

Here's a youtube. I'm not that extreme but I can really identify as sometimes I'll wander round until I see a cue for what I came there to get done.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fUi1EYq6Rs[/youtube]

Yep. All the bloody time.

yeah, that happens to me all the time. I have a certain spot for certain things, and the rest of my house is kind of an organizational disaster. if someone moves something I need, I feel kind of freaked out.

- keys and purse go on the same hook on the hall tree.
- remotes go on coffee table. the kids have been trained to ALWAYS PUT THEM BACK THERE.
- shoes by front or back door.
- my phone and ipod often get left behind if I've had them on the charger. still working on that problem.

My Dad always told me "If you see something that needs doing, do it!"

I've carried that out to a fault!

If I start to do something, I'll find something else that needs doing, and of course I'll do that immediately. Maybe I won't get that done either, because I find something else that needs doing, so I do that...

By the time I'm done, I've long forgotten what I started out to do

I just remembered the time I didn't put salt in the bread because someone was talking to me. boy was that ever delicious.

I learned I have to double check myself when baking. I usually leave something out.

I have a different but equally silly thing: the autopilot fugue state. That's when my mind is off somewhere else but the rest of me continues on with its routines. With hilarious results.

That's when I put the milk in the cupboard and the cereal in the fridge.

I'm picking clothes up off the floor and hurling them into the hamper. There is a piece of food on the floor too and I mindlessly hurl it in as well, only to discover that I've done this after the food has gone through the wash.

I go down into the basement to...hey, why am I in the basement?

Wow, do I ever relate to this! I'll put away a few dishes, go over to the table and read something, come back and put away a few dishes, put some clothes away, pick up some toys, put away a few dishes. My wife can't watch me clean up.


I can one-up you on this one. I had a party where I made pumpkin pie and forgot to add sugar. When I served it, people were adding tons and tons of whip cream for some reason, and then I tried a piece myself. Bleah!


It's good to know that autistics don't own all the rights to executive dysfunction!

yeah, that does sound worse. pie is a lot more work than bread, plus when you're looking forward to pumpkin pie...

I can't imagine looking forward to pumpkin pie

I look forward to pumpkin pie all year long!

funny, I could just make it anytime I suppose, but to me it's one of those essential thanksgiving and yule dishes that shouldn't be an everyday thing.

I have no trouble improvising if things aren't quite right. I pride myself on my resourcefulness, which runs in the family along with the geekiness.

I think it may be more a function of my ADHD that I have to put things in their "proper" places so that I know where they when I need them. When I make a mistake, then I have no idea where I put the object. I've also had to ritualize putting out the trash, so I would put it out on the right day. I have to ritualize repetitive tasks so I can remember when to do them.

Then, again, when my house or desk is cleaned by someone else, I have no idea where anything is. I have a certain order to the piles on my desk. Disrupt that and I need time to reorganize.