Autopilot
Have you ever forgotten your phone? When did you realize you'd forgotten it? It probably didn't dawn on you spontaneously. More likely, you reached for your phone and were confused by it not being there. Then you did a mental re-step of the morning's events. In my case, my phone's alarm woke me up as usual. But I realized the battery was lower than I expected, so I put it on the counter to charge while I showered instead of it in my bag like normal. It was a momentary slip from the routine, but that was all it took. Once in the shower, my brain got back into the routine it follows every morning and that was it, forgotten. This wasn't just me being clumsy as I later researched. This is a recognized brain function. Your brain doesn't just work on one level, it works on many. One could never be thinking about just exactly one thing at once. It makes you follow a constant routine so that your brain can focus on other things like the fact that I wasn't thi...