Short term memory

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I find I forget recent stuff easily, but have quite a good memory for things that happened decades ago. I left school in 84, but find it as easy to remember much of school as if it was only last year.

I was looking at the books on one of my book shelves today. There are books on sewing, engineers drawing, carpentry, maths, etc. It occurred to me that while I've cracked them all open and read sections of them all, in an attempt to find a career path, I don't actually remember anything in them.

I think, in part, it has to do with how much attention, at depth, I should have given them, but didn't. I never really got 'into' any of them. I guess because I couldn't see how a career could realistically grow out of them, around here and given the lack of further educational facilities offering related subjects. Or maybe they didn't fire the famous Aspie Special Interest Burner.

Which has got me wondering. If I'm to develop a better life, I might have to ignore the usual advice of 'just go with your interests', and, instead, just go with something commercial.

So, if anyone has had to factor in short vs long term memory in relation to learning, have you found success in converting short to long is solely a result of determined, disciplined, repetition? Or do you find you can't remember stuff that doesn't interest you, no matter what strategies you try?

Thanks.

For myself, there is a sweet spot I have to be in, in order to commit something to memory. I was a philosophy major, and did very well when I studied for hours in a quiet library or in my college room. I was able to get a room of my own, no roommate, and that helped, too. Basically, I have to be interested, and also not distracted. Getting interested used to be easy--I had such diverse interests. Now, at 41, I don't have time for useless information.

I have a lot of problems at work (Army officer) due to my poor memory. I am sure it is aggravated by my anxiety, because I worry that I will lose my job before I am ready (I am going to quit and become a teacher). As I write this it occurs to me that I should follow my own advice here, and take my work-related data to a quiet place to think about it deliberately, and see if that helps.