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How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

blog.alexwendland.com

261–270 of 282 posts

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but where does the tote live? It’s mobile and might not be where I need it when I need it. Then I go looking for it, and all of a sudden I have two problems and have difficulty getting back to what I was doing in the first place. :-)

I'm afraid the only remaining option is to wear a backpack 24/7 and reenact your favorite inventory management RPG.

Ah but then soon enough you'll need a bag of holding or two to expand the storage space of your backpack.

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is easy to say to do this, but in reality what happens is I am deep in my thoughts and all of it happens on autopilot. I consciously understand it would save me time to put them correctly away, but there is just nothing triggering me to do it. If I had a very intelligent watch that dinged me every time I'm supposed to do it, I would do it. The tech is not there yet though. I think it's the multiple processes going…

It is a skill that you can develop to maintain a basic awareness of what you are doing that you can break yourself out of autopilot to do the small things that you need to do.

How do you go about developing it?

Should I schedule time to put myself consciously in this situation where I do it every day for 30 minutes?

Because otherwise it's a paradox. For me to be able to train it, I would have to be able to come out of autopilot at that specific time in the first place.

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#263
Reminds me of stuff from Van Neistat [1] where he just has repeated tools on different places. I end up doing this for cheap stuff like eye drops ie "1 for office and 1 for home". If its 1 for home and 1 on the backpack, soon I will have 2 on the wrong place (because the pattern goes like "is this the backpack one? let me take it with me just in case")

My umbrella I just AirTagged, for fun... its been surprisingly useful.

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/C8pTP29pk-O/

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#264

My biggest problem has always been forgetting things when I leave the house. I was _constantly_ leaving for work, only to turn around because my wife called and said "you forgot your badge, you forgot your wallet", etc. What changed this was a trick I learned from working IT in a large manufacturing company. We got to walk the line and learn from our customers, and one thing they had at critical stations were poka-yo…

In manufacturing this is often referred to as "Kaizen" [1], more specifically as 5S / "Seiton" part. There's even quite a substantial (though not cheap) market for kaizen specific foam inserts / foam sheets. Mainly these are easier to cut and have contrasting color for top and middle layers, showing obviously if a tool is missing from its place. Look up "kaizen foam" if interrested.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaizen

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#265
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We throw everything out (to thrift stores if possible) after a year of no use. Has bitten us almost never and when it has it’s usually something useless to someone else too (cheap to replace).

We have a problem getting rid of stuff in this way because we have hoarding tendencies. For every item you consider removing, you think up new ways in which you might need it in the future, or you say you will have a yard sale and make a little bit of money back, neither of which are realistic. I think the problem is further exacerbated for people growing up in scarcity, so they are used to frugal operations, and are…

Yep, guilty. Got plastic grocery bag full of plastic grocery bags in my pantry. In my defense, I use them as either trash bags, or as food storage (instead of cling film). Still they tend to accumulate over time.

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha! Similar idea to mine, but I use an open-wide-shallow basket/bin instead. My saying to my family is, “Everything has a place to go.” The ones that don’t go in their place quickly enough land in the basket/bin. Now, during the weekend cleanup chores, the items are preferably placed in the right places. Growing up lacking access to good stationery, I kinda get anxious and panicked and tend to over-buy stationery ite…

Ask me. 100+ journals. 10 packets of 10 pen packets. Colorful index cards. A5 files. Cube notepads. Postit notes. Notepads, yellow, white, a5,letter,legal.

... and that's "before" you become a stationery geek / fountain pen collector

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#267
post #101
post #21

I just end up buying enough of the item to be within arms reach of nearly anywhere I'm likely to use it. I used to never be able to find a screwdriver when I needed it, so now I have seven screwdrivers: three regular ratcheting, three stubby ratcheting, and a ratcheting one that lives in my pocket. I keep a regular ratcheting on my desk, in my living room, and in my bedroom, which are the only places I would realisti…

I have a copy of little kit several places: It contains: - sharpie - pen: https://amazon.com/dp/B005Y0T8C2 - postit full-stick notes pad - cutter of all: https://amazon.com/dp/B000VYOISU - opener of all the things: https://amazon.com/dp/B0017DGTSG - diagonal cutter - any decent, but I like klein: https://amazon.com/dp/B0000302W8 at first I questioned myself duplicating stuff. Was I being a hoarder? But honestly, it h…

that diagonal cutter seems a strange choice to me. Care to say more on why that particular item? You already have a pair of scisors and a cutter in there...

In my EDC case / kit(s) I tend to add a pair of grippy pliers instead of cutting pliers - think Knipex Cobra or the Knipex parallel pliers for grabbing / tightening stuff.

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but where does the tote live? It’s mobile and might not be where I need it when I need it. Then I go looking for it, and all of a sudden I have two problems and have difficulty getting back to what I was doing in the first place. :-)

That’s simple enough. Just get a second tote for holding your first tote! Then you just have to keep track of the second one to be able to locate the first one.

there are times where i have nested totes. life imitates programming

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#269
post #134
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lose my shit all the time (everything that doesn’t have a fixed location anyway), which is why everything that regularly comes with me is now in it’s own specialized bags. There’s a work bag, a ‘going out with kids’ bag, etc. I still remember the last time I lost my keys, which is like 26 years ago, when I was 10. But I still identify as that kid that always lost their keys xD

A few thoughts on keys: I am consciously trying to whittle down my keychain to reduce the chance of temporary losing access to things. I have a keypad door lock so I’be been able to get rid of my front door key. However, I found that decreasing the use of something can increase the chance of losing it, because you’re not “touching” it all the time and not aware of its location. I have an Airtag, but wish that it coul…

Only one of my cars has a key fob, and I finally took that fob off my keychain once I realized that I can use the 5 digit keypad on the door to lock and unlock it. It's very freeing only having a few small keys in your pocket and not a bunch of giant fobs.

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#270
post #3

Best cleaning / organizational tip I’ve learned : everything out of place goes into a tote. Every day shuttle the tote around the house to deposit the items in their rightful place. This reduces reorganizing to linear time

Yeah, but where does the tote live? It’s mobile and might not be where I need it when I need it. Then I go looking for it, and all of a sudden I have two problems and have difficulty getting back to what I was doing in the first place. :-)

Fuck. This is why making lists never works for me either. I always lose the damn list...

Just make a notes.txt file on your computer. Now which directory did I keep that in? Also gotta keep it up on your screen all the time or you forget you even have it.

Just get a paper pad with your lists on it. Then place it in a random drawer and forget you have it for 3 days. Place it in a dedicated home, forget where that is and lose it again.

Just put it on sticky notes, and put them where you will see them. Now you have 5000 sticky notes everywhere, and don't even understand what you wrote on them. Then learn to ignore all of them.

A notepad that I carry in my pocket? Now I have more shit to take with me that I will forget. What about that computer in your pocket? I already have it silenced to keep it from distracting me... No easy way to keep basic text files sync'd with my computer without using a cloud service. Where did you store that text file on Cloud Storage anyways?

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