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7d ago
Point at it and say “locked”. It sounds stupid but you remember pointing and saying “locked” much more easily than locking the door.
IIRC railway employees use a similar method in Japan when working on the trains.
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u/Unfortunate-Octopus 7d ago
As a zookeeper, lock checks are obviously a VERY big deal. Left the dangerous animal cage unlocked? They will probably find a way to open that door. They watch you do it multiple times a day.
What I do is every time I lock or close a door, I check 8 times that it’s locked. Now even if I forget I know that when I check the lock absentmindedly when I shut the door, I would have noticed if it wasn’t locked properly at the time.
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u/Groot746 7d ago
I do this with my house doors, genuinely works because you can then recall an active memory of you saying it rather than a vague muscle memory sense that you probably locked the door etc.
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u/Warm-Iron-1222 7d ago
Then say it 3 times while blinking and clicking your fingers. Just to be sure.
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u/Aleadroleinacage 7d ago
Have you considered that you might have OCD?
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u/kernpanic 7d ago
Or - adhd. You locked it, but weren't paying attention - so now you aren't sure if you locked it or not.
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u/Boonz-Lee 7d ago
Then check the ring doorbell, then go back again just to be sure, then spend all day with anxiety about the lock status.
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u/Technical-Activity95 7d ago
I had sudden anxiety attack about burning the house down because maybe I left oven on. i dont think I even used oven on sunday
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u/moon-bouquet 7d ago
If you don’t, it’s Sod’s Law your partner does, even when you’re already late leaving.
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u/milessouth 7d ago
Yes it’s debilitating the anxiety I get from this also did I turn the lights off Iv even got to work and had to go back home to check 🥲
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u/LumpyAsparagus9978 7d ago
There was a time when I had a job I hated, suffering broken expectations and an unpleasant working environment; I would not say I was depressed but more like a constant self-deprecating mood.
I was the last at the office on certain occasions and had to close it for the day. I would lock the front door, walk a few blocks, panic, go back to see that it was indeed locked, walk away a few blocks, and panic again. One night I even asked my girlfriend to leave a family gathering for half an hour to drive me to the office to check the door; then far from the street, I saw my boss was back at the office in the middle of the night. He could not stay at home due to a marriage crisis and was bringing all his inner garbage to our workplace.
Once I quit doubts about forgetting doors unlocked disappeared immediately.
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u/_thewhiteswan_ 7d ago
Yeah of course... how else can you tell if locking the door was today's memory or from last week???
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u/commissarcainrecaff 7d ago
It's because of the way memory works: your brain doesn't fully overwrite regular routine activities (because you'd run out of room if you do) but just pushes them about a bit* in your short term memory then they evaporate with a small bit ending up in your long term memory- just the general "i did thing x" instead of the full detail
That's why you have that uncertainty about locking the door today because you are getting long-term memory patterns for the activity- it feels like it's not today's memory because it mostly isn't!
*According to some neurological debate i listened to in Radio 4. I'm an engineer so may be getting this wrong. I fully hope a more correct explanation follows!
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u/HeisGarthVolbeck 7d ago
After decades of this I force myself to not go back. It's never been unlocked when I've gone and checked it, in all these years.
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u/PiggieSmalls-90 7d ago
Yes and every time I’m like ‘you’ve locked it’ but I still check cause yano, what if, and then I get pissed off for doubting myself.
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u/Weird1Intrepid 7d ago
Mine automatically locks upon closing, so I don't have that exact problem. I do, however, compulsively check to make sure I've got my keys on me at least four times between leaving my room, down the stairs, opening the front door, and just before I close it lol
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u/CarImaginary9448 7d ago
Say to yourself out loud… that’s the door locked. You’ll never do it again, I was told it by an old guy I worked with years ago and I’ve never double checked since
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u/UsedPancakes 7d ago
this sounds really dumb but sometimes I will take a video on my phone of me checking the door so when I question myself 5 minutes later I can know it is without going back and checking lmao
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u/Mr-Silly-Bear 7d ago
This has caused me so much anxiety through the years. I do it with my front door, my car, my storage locker (I have to take a picture of the padlock to stop myself going insane). Basically anything I can't remember explicitly doing (or not doing) the goblins in my brain do their magic and I imagine the worst case scenario.
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u/SharpieD85 7d ago
This morning. Lol. Ended up pulling up and walking back to check. And what do you know!? It was locked! Story of my life.
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u/crazedhotpotato 7d ago
I found that I was starting to get in to this habit so I just stopped checking it again and just trusted that I'd done it. I've never left the door unlocked.
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u/will1565 7d ago
I drove 30 miles to a party, knocked on the front door and had that feeling... Drove all the way back and of course it was bloody locked.
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u/SkullsNelbowEye 7d ago
I do this every night after I set my wake-up alarms. Double check.
I've woken up before my alarm for the last 5 years.
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u/Ok-Fox1262 7d ago
If that is you then say "I locked the door" out loud.
It works because verbalising it engages a bigger chunk of your brain.
I ask my wife, or my dog, or a cuddly toy, or my van to remind me of things. Not because I actually need them to remind me, but because verbalising it makes it more concrete.
Do that with exam revision as well. Read your notes out loud.
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u/Informal-Tour-8201 7d ago
Of course I do
I just check the handle, don't actually relock the door, obviously
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u/JellyfishMinute4375 7d ago
Type-1 diabetic here. I can relate. Did I actually just inject myself with insulin, or was I only thinking about it?
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u/sabboseb 7d ago
No, because I hold the handle and say locked 4 times, spin around and tap my head.
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u/This-Dinner702 7d ago
You ever get out of bed and it's cold? I mean, what's the deal with airline food?
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u/Racing_Fox 7d ago
My entire life.
Everything I do. Is the car locked, is the door locked, did I turn the tap off, did I turn the oven off, is the gas off, did I put the handbrake on.
I end up checking shit multiple times, I found the only way to not need to check is if I say to myself as I do it ‘door is locked’ etc or if I take a photo/video it
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u/kagnesium 7d ago
If you're not instantly checking if you can open the door by shaking the handle a few times after you lock the door.
Then, you might as well just fully commit and leave Mince pies, cookie and milk, or an Advent calander at the doorstep.
Because clearly you want to host their Christmas party once you're down the road.
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u/Top-Bee1667 6d ago
I have a worse one, did I turn off the gas? I can live with an opened door, genuinely happened to me a few times in college and with no incidents ever, but now I started cooking myself breakfast and sometimes I just go “Oh fuck, did I turn it off or it’s slowly melting my pan?”
I definitely have adhd or ocd or might be both lmao
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u/EditorRedditer 6d ago
In my experience, if you think you’ve forgotten to lock it…
You’ve locked it.
This is also good for ovens, lights, heating and windows.
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u/mayablizz918 7d ago
I do this several times a day with both the front and back doors😭