Don't worry, it'll be alright

Every morning I lock the door, which, being such a literally quotidian thing, gets done on autopilot and doesn't get stored in my memory. Then I spend half my bus journeys into work thinking "did I lock the door? what if I left the door unlocked?"

Normally it disappears after a minute but this morning it's nagging at me because I remember getting distracted when coming out of the flat, so I feel like I really might not have locked the door. But I've always actually done it when I've worried about it so far, and taking an hour out of my day to go home and check really is crossing a line, right?

So, how can I fix the mundane event of locking a door into my memory every morning?

(new "lol ocd" responses. PS I totally do not have OCD, you should see the pigsty I'm happy to live in)

I do this, and have gone home in my lunch hour to check on more than one occasion. I have never left the door unlocked. I do it on autopilot most mornings - I've started to put the alarm on and lock the door two seconds after shouting up to my husband on day off, when it should be fresh in my head that I don't need to lock up, so that's pretty much all the proof I should need that I will *always* lock the door on my way to work in the morning.

And now I'm worried that I didn't do it this morning - this worry gets worse when I forget something and I have to go back in - I can vaguely remember locking the door, but did I do it *twice*? AARRGGHHHH.

Oh no, it's catching. Sorry, ailsa!

In the end I went home and I had, of course, locked the door all along. Duh.

(Would not normally have checked, but 1. I'd bought a 24-hour bus ticket last night, so the bus home and back was free, and 2. my coworker started eating some hugely smelly thing very noisily and I couldn't face spending my lunch hour in the office. As it happens I got to feed ducks on the way back, so not bad for an hour's paranoia, I guess.)

Still open to suggestions abt how I could train myself to pay more attention to whether I have done this simple daily task.

Get a resuable sticker and stick it on or directly above the keyhole every night when you come home. When you leave in the morning, lock the door then take the sticker. Then if you get paranoid, just check that you have the sticker with you.

I like this idea apart from the part where I threw away some reusable stickers last week because I'd never used them! (weird cz I never throw things away, and this is why, I guess)

Could do it with some blu-tack. Though I'm not sure if I can really defeat worrying about remembering things with inventing more things to remember. I'll just end up worrying that I've forgotten to do the tack/sticker thing properly too. Might be worth a try though. Thanks.

this happens to me too, except it's not locking the door, but wondering if I've left the space heater on, and wondering if my flat will be burned down when I get home.

for the door locking thing, I always check for my keys when I lock the door. it's a very conscious act, so I remember it.

i try and do the spectacles testicles wallet and watch keys iphone wallet and ipod check but forget as often as not.

"OMG: baby walking on edge of balcony window"
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=798_1390287797

um, it's not clear if that ended well at *all*, dude

wot

turn the audio up at the end

you are rong, check it again.

at 2:50 she yoinks the tot inside and then proceed to freak out, also we hear the kid cry

yes, because the kid is presumably getting punished. idk. i guess it ends non-fatally

(SPOILER)

? while we are at it, its not clear at all if humanity will end well.

let's not worry, shall we?

the end of humanity will be alright i guess