DAY-TO-DAY

How to not miss the year when filling checks

A simple strategy to this inconvenient

Have you already lost a check by filling the year with the last one? This is more probable to happen at the beginning of a year. We pass the entire year practicing the habit of filling the checks and other documents with the current year and, when the new year comes, in general it takes a time until we get used to it.

You could just solve the problem writing the new year in all available checks, but we are going to take the opportunity so that you learn, in a simple way, something about how our mind works.

It is worth to remind that once any thinking strategy is installed, like those for walking, talking and so many others that all of us do have, there’s no need to have it in conscience: This is the so called unconscious competence: you do the thinking processing so quickly that it seems you had not thought.

A simple strategy

The first strategy consists in just reprogramming yourself to write the correct year. For this, follow the steps below (you should read the remaining text before you choose this option).

1) Programming - Imagine you are going to write the year in a check leaf. Visualize yourself writing the year down the check. Repeat this visualization a few times, each time faster.

2) Test - Imagine a situation, as a purchase, that will be paid by check. See yourself filling the year field. Distort time again and do it the fastest as you can. Check that you have written the correct year. If you haven't, go back to step 1.

To improve this strategy, you can add some steps. Sit down comfortably and relax for some moments before starting. Remind a moment in which you were visualizing with easiness and pleasure. Add some images in which you are very happy because you have written the correct year.

The strategy above has the disadvantage of maybe having to be redone when the year changes.

Second option

Let’s see another possibility, more generic. The method is based in the fact that at the moment of writing the year (and other data), we make an internal check to know which is the current year. In a certain way, we “discover" which is the year in the very moment it's needed. 

Let’s go to the steps:

1) Clue - Initially, we define which will be the clue that will begin the strategy. Typically, it is a visual one. You will have a check at your front and a pen in hand, positioned on the year's underlined field: "of _______" or "of 20_____".

2) Reference related memories - Remember a recent experience related to current year. For example, in the year passage, the person that you like more wishing you something like "Happy twenty hundred and ...". After this, remember another one, like the year of the calendar over your table or other that occurs to you.

3) Verification - compare the years of the two memories. If they are the same, go on, otherwise go back to the previous step.

Now you can write the year or its final digits in the respective field. To install this strategy, imagine some situations of fulfilling checks, much like as the first option, and, when you see the clue, run the steps of the strategy. It will be even better if you include other type of documents where you write the current year.

To enrich the process you can apply the same suggestions above to improve the installation.

V. V. Vilela

Editor

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