Bad With Directions/Instructions?

[Galaxy Freeze]

Hey guys. So are any of you all like me and are really terrible at directions or instructions? Any kind. Like if you have to drive somewhere, or when you're cooking, or even something like memorizing a person's phone number? Things that should be fairly easy for people but for some reason is difficult for you? Or perhaps you feel you must have a LOT more time to think about it or memorize it?

Even after knowing one of my friends for several years, I STILL have to look up her phone number in my address book. And I do call her quite regularly. It seems a bit strange that I just can't memorize a number for someone I've known for a long time!

Another thing I have trouble with is directions (while driving). You can give me the most simple of maps and I'd STILL find a way to get lost. For instance, even if I want to go somewhere (like the supermarket) in the town that I practically grew up in, I still get very nervous I won't be able to find it. So I usually print out Google maps to look at. To me, that's pretty embarrassing seeing as I should know my own hometown a little better, don't you think? Haha.

One more thing I can think of is chores around the house. My mom thinks I'm a real idiot because I always have to have things clearly spelled out for me to understand them. Like dumping the trash cans. I always have to ask her where exactly to put certain things or what to do with stuff that isn't trash. Stuff that I should supposedly know already. Maybe that's why she treats me like such a five year old... ):<

Get what I mean? For me, it's pretty annoying and makes me feel a bit behind everyone my age, and it'll probably affect me later in life. But do you guys have any similar problems?

 

[Ste11aeres]

I am good with directions. On the other hand, instructions regarding household chores are things I can't remember.
In fact, it's hard to cook something on the stove without forgetting it's there.

 

[Neat Hedgehog]

Get what I mean? For me, it's pretty annoying and makes me feel a bit behind everyone my age, and it'll probably affect me later in life. But do you guys have any similar problems?

I know what you mean there. People are work sometimes annoy me by talking to like I'm five years old because I am bad with sequences of directions. Apparently they think if they talk sloooooow enough and with short enough words, I'll be able to remember. It doesn't work that way, people (plus they're really supposed to email things like that so there's a record of the activity).

The funny thing is I can remember logical progressions, but arbitrary, unrelated sequences are wiped out almost immediately. Like: "take out the trash, put this in the mail, go to the store and get cat food, put this in the oven at 6 at 350 for ten minutes" that all flies out the window in a couple minutes, and I'll probably forget to do at least two or three things off that list. But if you tell me something with a logical sequence, like how to disassemble the bearing assembly on a trailer, I'll have no problem remembering every detail. I have a chainsaw that I took apart years ago and never got time to put it back together, and I still remember exactly how it all goes.

Road directions fall under the category of random junk, so I forget whatever anyone tells me. However, if I look up a map, see all the names of streets in a list, and remember the little line tracing around, I can remember it pretty well. And then once I make the drive once (twice at the most) I can make the same trip ten years later backwards in the dark. But if I try to use street names on subsequent trips? Yup, I still get lost. I have to use the visual cues. It also doesn't work if I'm only riding along on the first trip; I can't remember it that way, I have to be driving.

Interesting that you'd mention phone numbers. Phone numbers generally have no pattern, so they are very easy to forget unless I force myself to remember them. I will never learn them unless I manually punch them in, either. If I use speed-dial all the time I might see the numbers, but I will never remember them.

 

[tree]

For people in general (or even rodents) a meaningful sequence is easier to remember than a non-meaningful one. When I want to remember a license plate number (because it is so hard for me to recognize cars) or a phone number, it helps me to think of a story about the numbers/letters. For instance, my friend's car's license plate ends in the digits 4993. The first of the (four numbers) is a square number, and if it were a shape it would be a square. The number 4 is blue, to me. The next two digits are the same number, like nine squared. The last digit is the square root of the 3rd digit and it is also the third unique digit----since 9 was a repeat.

I am not saying that all people should develop this particular type of story, just that instilling meaning helps a person recall sequences that are otherwise not memorable. My friend was surprised that I knew her license plate number. She doesn't know it herself.

 

[jimited]

I am terrible with directions, for example if someone gives me a set of directions, I usually forget the first direction as they are telling me the third and then its like what ever was said to me somehow dissolves from my mind. Even when I have been somewhere to drop someone off in the car and its a place I have been many times I still find I get lost and have to park up somewhere to try and regain where I need to go.
My girlfriend teases me sometimes (in good humour) about my short term memory especially if i go to the shop, she will tell me three items that she needs and I would usually come back with three completely different items, which is why now if I go to the shop I take a list.

 

[Galaxy Freeze]

I've read all your guys' posts and it feels good knowing I'm not the only one with this problem! There are some odd things I can remember as well, like how to spell a very long word or still knowing exactly how to make an origami dragon after several years of not doing it. Very strange, random things.

And more about the driving instructions... I grew up in California. The Central Coast, to be exact. So many aggressive drivers, and so many crowded cities it's ridiculous. A very stressful and overcrowded state, in my opinion. It was a nightmare, and I grew up in one of the SMALLER towns! It was scary to learn to drive there, so in turn, it was very scary to get lost. I mostly printed out the maps because I was very uncertain and anxiety-prone that I was going to get lost. I think in reality I DID know how to get places, but this paranoia is what got to me.

 

[Mellotron]

Yea I'd say I'm bad with remembering directions. If someone gives me 3 tasks to do and I've got to go write them down I might forget one of them knowing there were 3 but remembering 2 and wracking my brain for the 3rd.

My sense of direction is apparently awful. I was denial of this for years until my girlfriend gradually showed me how bad it was. I'd make a right down a road and do a u-turn to come back to the intersection and not remember what direction I came from. There were some roads I grew up around for 20 years that I forgot what direction to go in for certain places. But all along I thought "oh yea, no I'm really good at directions". One time a young couple came up to me looking for a way to get somewhere kind of far and I always drove in that direction for work. Sadly I gave them the wrong directions and only realized it 5 minutes later. Yikes. Thanks goodness for GPS nowadays.

Following instructions written down can be hard sometimes too. I have this tendency to read something but skip around sometimes and not fully get what I just read and have to re-read it. So with cooking this becomes an issue where I have to read the directions over and over to be sure I did everything right. There was this one box of rice I used to cook and there were only maybe 3 parts to the directions and I always messed it up and couldn't focus on what I was reading. I think the writing was jumbled up and not laid out nicely.

 

[Mozambike]

The only streets I know are the one of my house and my old school. I know how to go to anywhere because I recognize places, not directions/streets. It doesn't matter how many times people tell me in what direction/street any place is, I always ask for visual references so I know where it is, because I forget directions and streets in matter of seconds.