Laboratory incompetence due to brain/world barrier

[strychnine]

The barrier between thought and action. I get so lost on the thought side that I think I forget that I have a body (sometimes), so clicking back into the action side is hard.

(I had a blood test earlier this month and the doc said everything's fine, so it's not a physical problem.)

I have noticed this for 10 years at least (I'm 20), but it has become really problematic this semester. I have chemistry lab courses. I know what to do when in the lab, but I can't mentally prioritize steps within a step. It requires me to be alert and aware but this is really difficult. I feel "half there". It drains me really fast to be "all there" and the lab is 4-5 hours... I have been doing labs for years but we have never been this pressed for time before...which is why I can't look at my books.

I also have memory problem. I do thorough prep but I can't remember anything while actually in the lab. I can only remember some general things, the overall point of the lab. Never what I have to do next. I have to look at my book or deduce what I should do next based on the overall picture in my head. But there isn't enough time to do this, as said above, and specific amounts and what not can't really be memorized.

Yes, I sleep enough and eat breakfast beforehand.

If anyone has any advice it would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Oberon]

Looks like to me that you can address your issue by preparing a cheat sheet for yourself. Summarize your lab procedure step by step, using a numbered list format. Only describe each step in enough detail to get the job done; you're not writing a novel. Then instead of browsing in the book every other minute, you can just glance at the sheet and see what you've got to do next. Mark off each step as you go.

...this is the sort of thing I learned from my ISFJ wife...

 

[strychnine]

Looks like to me that you can address your issue by preparing a cheat sheet for yourself. Summarize your lab procedure step by step, using a numbered list format. Only describe each step in enough detail to get the job done; you're not writing a novel. Then instead of browsing in the book every other minute, you can just glance at the sheet and see what you've got to do next. Mark off each step as you go.

...this is the sort of thing I learned from my ISFJ wife...

I guess "which is why I can't look at my books" (which I wrote in my first post) was misleading. My bad. I have a lab manual, which has each step outlined, and I summarize it further into point form notes (in my lab notebook -- this is part of the prep to be allowed into the lab at all). I do have a summary. I think what I'll do is write it down on a few cue cards or something and put it in my pocket. Thanks. I think this will work!

(To all) Any tips on the other front...like to increase environmental awareness so I can be "all there"?

 

[rhinosaur]

When you are doing your pre-lab writeup, try to understand the motivations behind the steps, rather than just the steps themselves. If you think in terms of steps, procedure, and equipment, you can get stuck, but if you think in terms of chemicals & what's happening to the stuff inside the flask, then you'll see the big picture. Each step has a motivation, each step does something to those chemicals that is relevant to the experiment, whether it be reaction, separation, purification, or analysis.

If that doesn't work, maybe try visualizing yourself completing the procedure step-by-step. Imagine yourself in the lab, doing the procedure, as you write it out.