Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live your life without a calendar, watch, planner, computer or Smartphone? How would you keep track of your schedule? In addition to those external reminders, many of us keep an internal calendar in our head. That’s how we stay organized.
As people become more and more dependent on external devices, hard copy or digital, fewer bother to commit scheduled events to memory. They rely on devices as a kind of auxiliary memory unit.
One of the casualties of being homeless is losing both external and internal calendars! Very few have calendars. Days blur and blend together. Appointments lose their moorings in the mind. Homeless people, even without the occasional complications of mental illness or addiction issues, often exhibit cognitive disorientation and internal disorganization. They float through days without reinforced awareness of the time of day. They lose track easily.
That’s one reason why the homeless often miss appointments with social service people. It’s not that they’re irresponsible (although some definitely are!) - but they lack the external reminders and internal frames of reference which many of us rely on to keep our life organized.
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