The Microsoft Outlook LOCD

I appreciate that I've already posted an LOCD this week but this one crept up on me so suddenly today that I knew I had to share it... that and I literally had nothing else to talk about and so was desperate.

The actual action didn't just develop today (it wouldn't be much of an LOCD if it had!) but rather the realisation that I did this came to me today. This scared me as I was filled with the knowledge that not only do I have LOCD tendencies but so does my subconscious.

This is an LOCD that was bred purely out of habit. Upon arriving at work the first thing I have always done is unlock my computer and click on the little Outlook icon.

That tiny insignificant action is the reason I write this post today. You see by clicking on this icon first, my subconscious was training me to see the image of Microsoft Outlook first on my bottom menu (lol, for some reason the phrase 'bottom menu' really tickled me) as the normal and right thing to see. As shown below.



(If you can't see the image then give it a click and it will get bigger for you... as if by magic!!)

It wasn't until today that I realised it had traveled into LOCD world however.

Today I accidentally closed down Outlook. I had open several other files I was working on. Immediately my subconscious realised that if I opened Outlook again then It would no longer be at the front of the menu but at the back.

So while the rest of me was concentrating on singing 'Sun and Moon' from 'Miss Saigon,' my subconscious happily started closing down all my other programmes. It wasn't until I was faced with a pop up box asking me if I wanted to save my changes that I realised what I was doing.

After the initial 'got-to-laugh-at-yourself-because-you-are-so-weird-otherwise-you-will-cry' shock had worn off, I soon discovered that my realising I was doing this subconsciously really didn't make a blind bit of difference because I still wanted that Outlook sign on the front of my menu bar.

Before you worry that this might be the point where I have officially lost it. I would like to offer you some method behind my madness.



Outlook is the programme I use the most and if the Outlook tab was anywhere other than first I would waste precious seconds trying to find it, those seconds I could have been using to work!

So after once again trying to justify my random thoughts to avoid being committed. I will bid you adieu with a wink and a gun from me.




Oh and in other news, I had a particularly cocky conversation with Work-Buddy-James today where I claimed to be a genius at my commute journey.

Six hours later, I got on the wrong train... ah, karma.