We usually remember the things we like, and the things we understand. If you do not remember something, then you are either not interested, or you do not understand the benefit.
It helps me a lot when people tell me what to change, and why. Sometimes (usually?) they only express briefly the expected outcome, and their effort either falls on dead ears, or even worse, is understood as "What, are you smarter than me?".
I will give you an example which helped me change a habit, pretty much like your situation now.
I used to slice tomatoes for eating in the following way:
- cut the tomato in half through the "bottom";
- with V-shapes cuts, remove the two resulting halves of the bottom;
- slice each half of tomato.
I was told that it is better to give up the first two steps, and go directly to slicing. It went to deaf ears. Until one day I was like: "But why?!"
And then I received the background info: it is faster. I do not have to do things which are useless. And now I slice the tomatoes directly, without caring about the bottom. It remains alone at the end, and I just throw it away.
The downside might be that the slices are not as beautiful and symmetrical and what-not, but I do not really care. In a few minutes, there would be no slices any more, anyway.
Bottom line: try to understand WHY they want you to do things differently. You might be able to learn one or two new things, and at the same time not forget, and be more empathetic in general.
