Lost metacognition

This week was a bit of an eye opening experience for me. I have been at my current job since August of 2002 when I walked into it not really knowing what I was doing. Since then I have created quite the job, with all kinds of small things that I do almost automatically. But this last week I was having to explain my job to someone else, which meant explaining everything I do, all the little things that come automatically and without thought. It was a bit exhausting to have to stop and think through everything again. It made me realize that I’ve lost the metacognitive level for my job. It’s now at the level of putting socks on – I notice it, but I don’t think about it. Or maybe I’m just thinking about that now because I’ve written so many papers on metacognition in the last year or so.