Doing the Verb: The Impact of Affirmative Speech - by Cameron Goble

[luvcraft]

This comes with a VERY BIG grain of salt, considering the source, but a transcendental meditation instructor once told me that the subconscious mind doesn't parse negatives, so telling yourself "don't forget your house keys" is parsed as "forget your house keys", and makes it even more likely that you'll do it. Regardless of how true that is, I've found in general that instructions work better if they don't include a negative, both for instructing others and for making "mental notes" to myself.