There are daily tasks that we’re all good at and some that we struggle with because we’re stepping into unfamiliar territory. Things like creating a new dish for the evening meal, for example. When we’re tired we may even have a memory blank where we can’t remember what combination of buttons we need to use to operate the microwave. In general though, we don’t have any trouble with carrying out familiar tasks that over the years have become second nature to us. Things like making and pouring a cup of tea or driving the same route into work each morning and then home again at night. When we’re tired or are so used to doing a task, it’s even easy to slip into auto-pilot and consciously not even think about what we are doing.

When familiar tasks at home or work start to become challenging and we find ourselves not knowing how to initiate or complete them, it is important to eliminate Alzheimer’s as being the cause.