In today's episode, we thought we'd talk about the topic of what to do, some ideas to help you out. If you often find yourself when you're driving thinking, I don't know what to do, or what do I do? So we thought we'd come up with a few ideas and a few solutions to help out. Part of what we have found or heard from people, and this is, we're going to talk about three reasons really, and the first reason is that there might be gaps in knowledge and understanding. It might have become a habit to say, I don't know, or I don't know what to do, or there may well be the situation where it's just overload, there's too much going on. So let's look at the first step and what we want you to do is, you've probably heard us say it before, but we'd like you to become your own detective. Yeah, because if there's three, well, like you said, there could be all sorts of reasons. But if there are three main themes, three main reasons for this, then you need to get your detective hat on and start looking for clues and try and work out, okay, what is it that's going on? for me. So, yeah, what's happening? What's, what's, what situations? When does this happen? So let's look at first off, let's look at gaps in your knowledge and understanding. Yeah, I mean, this, Seems like the most obvious, obvious reason, doesn't it? Because if somebody's saying, what do I do? Or I don't know what to do. Then the immediate thought is, well, is there a gap? Is there a gap in your knowledge? Is there a gap in your understanding? So that you don't Maybe you've never known what to do. Or maybe You keep forgetting what to do in a particular situation, and so this comes down to whether you've stored the knowledge in your memory to be recalled at a later date. So sometimes you're given information, but it doesn't actually get embedded into that long term memory, which means it's really hard to find that piece of information when you need it. So what is knowledge? Let's have a look at that now. So it could be the, the what should I do question. You know, you don't know what to do. So it's like asking yourself, what should I do in this situation? And you might well find yourself saying, I can't remember how to do it. And I can't remember what to do. That is a clear sign that The information and the knowledge is not there. Yeah. So what you need to do is to do something different. Find a different way of learning something or being able to remember it. And again, there's loads of different ways you can do this. But again, it's finding out in the first place, what am I saying to myself? Yeah. The knowledge is the what. It's the facts. It's the information. And like you say, if If it doesn't go in the first time, another phrase we use quite a lot is that if you do what you've always done, you get what you've always got. So if you're taking information on in the same way all the time and not being able to remember it, then trying to take the information in, in a different way. So changing it up, doing it in a different way. If you're reading it, then try. observing it or giving it a go or so it's just using different methods of taking on information isn't it? Yeah, yeah, definitely. And there is so many different ways that people learn things but look at a little bit of what is understanding. So, Understanding is the reason why you do something, what you do, or the why. Yes, yeah. It's the easier way to do it, but yeah, this is what we want to be doing. It's why am I doing what I'm doing? Yeah, and sometimes, when you have the understanding, when you understand why you need to do something, that can, that can, be the difference that helps you remember it. Yeah. Because if you just have a whole load of facts in front of you, they're often really difficult to take on board. But if you understand the reasoning behind the fact, behind the piece of information, then it sort of makes sense. And then you're more likely to remember it. And it's a very simple way of looking at this is. What's the reason you slow down when you come to the end of a road? Well, the reason is that you, you know, you've got to give way to the traffic road. We understand that. And it's like, Oh, but that's what I do. Yeah. And when it makes sense, you can remember it. And you tend to do it. So this is what we need to look at a little bit more. Yeah, so that that is definitely one of the things that if you keep repeating the same thing, not being able to remember it, then trying to get to the understanding, get to the reasoning and see if that helps out with consolidating that information so that you can remember it. Now while we're talking about memory, th this is a good point to talk about work in memory challenges. So if somebody's really struggling to get information embedded into that long-term memory, then what what's it means is you can think about short-term work in memory, a bit like A-A-U-S-B stick that's only got a certain amount of memory on it. And what that means is if the information is in your short term working memory, then once that memory is full up, it gets overwritten again and again and again. And that's why you forget things. Because your short term working memory isn't designed to be huge for lots and lots of information. It's designed to be there for pieces of information that you're going to use at that moment in time, and then you can let them go. So if this is a problem for you, if you keep forgetting information, another tactic, another strategy, is to use that information as much as possible. So think in terms of the use it or lose it type phrase. So whenever you're not driving, make sure you're using that information to be an active passenger. And we've done a previous episode about. being an active passenger, haven't we? And it's a way of using information, using the what, using the why, without actually doing the driving. So it will help you retain that information in between drives. So that's another strategy that you might consider. So what you also might find is that you return to saying, I don't know a lot. And it's, what's happening there is, it's become a habit. It's your go to. It's your go to response to something. I don't know. I don't know. And it's because you don't know, and you've been saying it for so long, that then what's happened is, Your memory has said, I don't know, you need to say this, I don't know. Yeah, that's it. It's become a strategy that in this situation, this is the behavior I always do. This is my habit. So in this situation, I always say, I don't know what to do, or what do I do? And yeah, it's really easy for that to become a habit. And this again is another one of those, um, Reasons that you need to get your detective hat on again and have a look at why has this become a habit for me? Why do I find this strategy helpful or comforting? What are the reasons? Do I know the information? Or don't I know the information? And if I'm saying it out of habit, what am I looking for? What are my reasons for saying it? And what's happened is, the, the saying, I don't know, has become your safety blanket. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And it may well be that it's you seeking reassurance or confirmation, particularly if you've got somebody else in the car with you. So if you're learning and you've got an instructor, or if you're driving and you've got a passenger, it might just be that you're looking for a bit of reassurance from whoever's in the passenger the, you're making the right decisions and You just feel like you need a bit of confirmation, but of course, then what do you do when you're driving on your own? Are you gonna still say, I don't know, but get the information from yourself or, and it's remembering that when you say those phrases, I don't know, or what do I do? It sort of spikes a little bit of uncertainty or doubt or anxiety in the body, in the brain, because our brains hate uncertainty. They hate doubt. So if we're asking that, Oh, what do I do? That will come with a little spike of anxiety potentially. So it's not really a great habit to be in because it's a habit that potentially causes those negative feelings. So it would be a good habit to break if possible, although we do understand why you may feel that it's a safety blanket. But what it comes down to is trust and trust in your own driving decisions. And it's probably one of the questions that never really gets asked. especially in driving lessons, how much do you trust your driving? Not just making driving decisions, but how much do you trust your driving? And when you ask yourself that question and you're honest with yourself as well, what you find out is areas that potentially you lack knowledge and understanding. Yeah, it comes full circle back to that knowledge and understanding sometimes this one, doesn't it? And it does, and it comes back round, but the only way you can do that is by asking yourself that question. We've, we said about being a detective earlier, but this is how much do you trust your driving? How much do you trust your driving decision making? Yeah. And I think if there's certain areas, maybe you're driving and most of the time you're not asking yourself that question, but maybe there is one particular. piece of driving or area or something that you tackle. And that's when you have the telltale, what do I do? I don't know. So potentially there's that area of your driving that you don't trust. So it's exploring that. What bit don't you trust? Why don't you trust it? What do you need to find out? What do you need to practice? So it's all those questions doing that detective work so that you can, what do I need to do to be able to trust my driving in that situation so that you can eliminate the, I don't know phrase, which might have become a habit. And when you ask yourself that question, what might happen is you get the answer of there's either overload or you're feeling overwhelmed. And this again is a great answer because you've highlighted areas that you need to work on. Yeah, and this could be again anything, couldn't it? So we've got a few suggestions, but it needs you to Highlight that and go. Okay. This is the problem. Yeah recognizing when you become overloaded or Overwhelmed because this is that third reason that we wanted to talk about for saying I don't know. And it's a type of reaction to being overloaded or overwhelmed. So what are the sorts of things that might overwhelm us? So it could be the environment. and when I say the environment of traffic, you know, it could be a busier area. it could be a particular spot, you know, like a busy roundabout, which comes up quite a lot. You know, those are the sort of things that, again, you know, What's going on? There's lots going on, with other people. Yeah, or even something that's different to the norm, so to speak. So, and I was thinking maybe even if you were doing something like driving somewhere new, so that might be, similar types of roads that you're used to, but because you've gone somewhere new, maybe you feel a bit overloaded. Driving abroad, driving at night, anything that's a bit different and not the norm could be an environment that you feel overloads you about. And it could be that your normal route has got a road closure. And now the road closure means you've got to take a diversion, which it means what's going to happen? I don't know what to do. I've never driven on those roads. So those again, those questions that you will start asking yourself are related to the I don't know, because it's not the norm. Yeah. Yeah. And questions is being asked questions, asking questions of yourself, having the lots of what if type questions, the negative voices in your, in your head, all of those can add into that overload and overwhelm of too much coming in at once. Which leads us on to information overload. Now this can be various different things. Um, I take it to the signs. Sometimes when you approach in a large roundabout, the information on the sign, there is loads of it. There's the road name. There's the road number. It's the destination. There's the little signs could be like hospital or places of interest. There is loads of information. And what it. does is those signs give you that information, but sometimes there's just so much to take in. Yeah. And when you're adding that into road markings as well, and then if there happens to be a, you know, something closed with roadworks again, sometimes there is just too much information all coming in at the same time and it can give you overload. But let's, let's add into the mix there something that's designed to be helpful. Yes. Which is a satnav. So now the psych nav is telling you where to go, and it's saying this, and it's giving you the number of the road, and it's telling you the exit number, and it's like, well what's happening here? And yeah, it can, even though some things are designed to help, sometimes in different situations, it might lead to information overload, it could be unhelpful at that particular time. There might be something happening on the road. And you're trying to listen to that, or you're trying to look at it, depending on how you use the SatNav, and there's just so much going on. Yeah, and this reminds me a bit, actually, this is what it's like when you're learning to drive as well, isn't it? Every time you take on a new topic, sometimes it can feel a bit like information overload, because there's lots coming in at once. So, yeah, watching out for that. definitely, create those, I don't know, what do I do type questions? And we'll just touch briefly here on sensory overload as well. So for individuals who have sensitivity to different sensory information, that can add into this as well. So there are all sorts of overload, overwhelm, basically too much coming in. It could be people talking. Yes, passengers in the car. Radio on, sat nav on. Yeah, we've all had to turn the radio down so that we can Concentrate. Yes, we can concentrate. Yeah, that is a really good example, isn't it, of too much information coming in at once. And it feels like that you're processing all the information while you're juggling balls walking a tightrope. Yeah. This is, this is what's happening. It's almost impossible. Yeah. It's just too many things happening at once. And very definitely that juggling, on a tightrope rope, love that. but also the having too many tabs open on your computer at once. And of course what happens when you have too many tabs open on your computer at once. It freezes. Or it shuts down. Or it goes. bothered. Yeah. And so that is definitely something to watch out for. When somebody is okay, when you're driving okay, but then all of a sudden you're like, What do I do? I don't know what to do. Is that a sign that you've actually shut down, you've frozen, you're, you've got too much information coming in, and your brain just can't process it all anymore. So that is another one to look out for. Now, of course, What do we suggest when somebody is finding they've got too much coming in at once is to bite size. And I think we've said this quite a lot on podcast episodes, haven't we? Bite sizing tasks to reduce the load. So, bite sizing. breaking things down. If you've got something that you know is a challenge, then can you look at it on paper? Can you look at it on Google Maps? Can you, before you, before you're driving, can you break the task down so that you, Can start to look at what do you need? How do you filter out some of the unnecessary information so that you can focus on the information that you need? Do I understand where I'm going? Yeah. Do I know what lane I need to be in? So again, ask yourself those questions. Yeah. So all three of those hints and tips that we're giving you are all linked together. But it's trying to find out that detective work first and think, right, okay, I'll find out what route I'm going to go on. What does that involve? and that's really what we're trying to say with this is if you are asking questions to yourself of, I don't know, Okay. What's the reason you're asking that question? Yeah. So be a detective, like you say, and then look out for those clues. Have you got gaps in knowledge and understanding? If so, then fill in those gaps. What's still puzzling you? What do you need to know so that you can fill those gaps? Look at the Building trust in your driving. If you, if you trust your driving, then you're much less likely to be asking yourself, I don't know, what do I do? And one of the ways of doing that is by breaking things down. Bitesizing information, doing the preparation beforehand, so that if there's somewhere where you're likely to go, Oh, I don't know what to do, then have a look at that first. Okay. Have a look on Google Maps. Be a passenger while somebody else does it. Find out that information where you can so that actually you know what you need to know in order to be able to do that yourself next time. we hope that helps. us know if it does. All of our contact details are in the show notes, as always. And so, all that leaves us to do is to say, until next time, have a great day, whatever you're doing.