Did I lock the door?
Why Japanese train drivers point at everything, and a 2-second habit that stops you walking back to check.
- Things you do on autopilot, like locking the door, often never get saved as a memory. That's why you can't remember doing them.
- Japanese railway workers point at each check and say it out loud. In a 1994 railway study, doing both cut mistakes on a simple task from 2.38 to 0.38 per 100 actions.
- Going back to check again doesn't fix it. Repeated checking leaves you less sure, not more.
- The method: Stop, Point, Call, Walk. Once, properly.
Your hand locked the door. Your brain wasn't there.
You've locked that door hundreds of times. After that many repeats, your hands do it on their own while your head is already in the lift, on the meeting, on the message you're typing.
That's efficient, but there's a cost. Because your attention was somewhere else, the moment barely gets recorded. Later, when you ask yourself "did I lock it?", you go looking for the memory and find one of two things: nothing, or a hundred near-identical memories from other days. None of them is clearly today's.
So you walk back. Or you sit in the auto with that small, nagging doubt for the whole ride.
The drivers who talk to signals
Watch a Japanese train driver for a minute and it looks almost theatrical. A white-gloved hand points at a signal. A voice says what it shows. Then the speedometer, the clock, the platform. Station staff do it too, pointing down the length of the platform before the doors close.
It's called shisa kanko, pointing and calling. Japanese train crews have called out signals since the 1910s, and in 1970 Japanese National Railways made pointing part of the rule. It has since spread to the New York subway, and rail operators in France and China have built it into training.
The reason it has lasted is a number. In 1994, Japan's Railway Technical Research Institute had workers do a simple task in three ways. Pointing alone and calling alone both helped. Doing both helped most.
Three things you can't do on autopilot
Your finger drags your eyes to the exact thing: this knob, this bolt. You can't point at something without looking at it.
Saying it gives your brain something to hear. In a 2018 Waterloo study, words people read aloud to themselves were recognised best of four ways of studying them.
A small odd action makes this lock feel different from the hundred before it. Later, you're searching for a memory that actually stands out.
Checking again makes it worse
The obvious fix for doubt is to go back and look. Researchers in the Netherlands tested that. In a 2003 study, people worked with a virtual gas stove on a computer. One group checked the stove over and over. The other group checked something unrelated, some light bulbs.
The repeat checkers didn't remember the stove any worse. But their memories got less vivid and less detailed, and they trusted them less. More checking, less certainty.
van den Hout & Kindt, 2003, Behaviour Research and Therapy. A computer simulation with healthy volunteers. The takeaway for the rest of us: check once, properly, then walk away.
Stop. Point. Call. Walk.
The railway version, made for your front door. It takes about two seconds.
Stop
One beat before you turn away. Hand still on the bolt or the knob.
Point
Finger on the actual thing, not near it. Look at it while you point.
→ the gas knobCall
Say what you see, in two words. Out loud is best. A whisper works on a quiet landing.
"Gas, off."Walk
Then leave. Once is enough. If the doubt comes back, remember the point, don't go back.
Which ones get you?
Tick everything you've gone back to check, or worried about later, in the last month. Whatever you tick goes straight onto your card in the next step.
Autopilot audit
InstrumentTick the ones that sound like you.
Your Point and Call card
Edit the calls so they sound like you, then save it. Set the phone version as your lock screen, or print the door version and stick it next to the latch. Up to six checks, short is better.
Card maker
InstrumentWhat this can't do
- It's a memory habit, not a safety device. If you smell gas, or a lock is faulty, fix the actual problem.
- The research is specific. The 1994 railway study used a simple task, not real-world accidents, and the 2003 stove was a computer simulation. The idea is sound, the exact numbers won't transfer one to one.
- If checking takes over, for example you check many times, it eats real time, or you feel anxious until you do, that can be part of OCD. It's common and very treatable, and worth talking to a doctor or counsellor about. This guide is general information, not medical advice.
One idea, the science behind it, and a tool you can use the same day.
- JR gestures. The Japan Times, 2008 (reporting the 1994 Railway Technical Research Institute study).
- Finger-pointing to reduce accidents. IEEE Pulse.
- Pointing and calling: Japan's railway safety technique. Nippon.com.
- van den Hout M, Kindt M. Repeated checking causes memory distrust. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 2003.
- Forrin ND, MacLeod CM. This time it's personal: the memory benefit of hearing oneself. Memory, 2018.