New year's resolution 2021: Double up
Image by TheDigitalWay from Pixabay
We all have different personality profiles with corresponding strengths and weaknesses, and I have learned the hard way that one of my biggest weaknesses is my ability to gather and pack my stuff on a short notice. For example, a couple of years ago I was going to do a university lecture and record it for later YouTube publication. As you can imagine, it involves a lot of technology with microphones, cables, sound cards, cameras etc… My lecture was scheduled to start around 10:00 in the morning, and since we lived close to campus back then, I thought it would be fine to gather up my stuff in the morning just before I leave. My wife got home before me that day, and when she entered our little office the whole place was a complete mess. Cables and stuff were lying everywhere, and it is probably what a home burglary looks like. However, my wife knows me well so she could easily figure out what had happened.
As I was packing my bag that morning, I could not find one specific, critical, cable that I needed to connect my audio equipment to the live streaming setup. When I can’t find stuff, my stress levels go straight to ten (perhaps eleven). In frustration I had just turned one of our closets inside out, because I knew that the cable was in there somewhere. It was a specific closet dedicated to electronic gadgets, that’s why I couldn’t find it. Eventually, I did find the cable and got my bag packed, got to my lecture in time and everything worked out just fine. But it was not a pleasant experience. I can go on with stories like this indefinitely.
It’s the same thing over and over, every single time that I am planning to travel somewhere. The story I present above was when I finally realized that I should never ever prepare my stuff the same day as I am leaving (for whatever reason). It all needs to be arranged the night before at the latest. However, packing the night before brings other challenges. Sometimes you cannot pack the stuff until you are finished using it. With my lectures I solved the problem by buying a second set of cables and sound cards etc and packed it all in a “lecture-bag” so that I never will have to look for them ever again. I know that I have all I need in that bag at any given moment. Although with the new virus situation, I have the livestream equipment connected at home because that’s where the lecturing takes place nowadays. If we ever go back to classroom lectures, I will need to buy another kit to keep in my lecture bag, because I am now using the equipment in my office on a daily basis.
When I go away with my family there are similar challenges. Wiser from the experience described above I realized recently that I must do the same thing with packing my dog stuff. Two Labradors require a bit of stuff like walking shoes, camping pants, a warm jacket and a headlamp. This is the perfect example of stuff that cannot be packed the night before, because I must always take a dog walk before we leave in the car the next day. This leads to a lot of lost time spent packing when we are loading the car. Every single time. And if the weather is crap, it’s even more challenging to pack wet clothes and dirty shoes.
Here’s my new year’s resolution for 2021: Double up. I have been thinking about it for a long time, but I haven’t taken action. Now it’s time to double up on all important stuff that I need in various journeys. I’m going to start buying two, every time now when I buy certain things. For example: my dog shoes are almost gone now. When I replace them, I shall buy two new pairs. One of the pairs will go into a dog travel kit and the others will be used at home on a daily basis. When the regular ones are beyond salvation, I can just let the travel shoes replace them and buy a new pair of travel shoes. This little life hack will save me at least an hour every single time I go somewhere with my dogs. In a year that adds up and will easily cover the cost for the second setup. “Things are only free if your time has no value”, is a saying I like to use. I will do the same thing for my working apparels. Make sure that I have a ready-to-go Samsonite packed with a nice business casual outfit and building site clothes, at any given moment. And the list goes on. I am convinced that I will save in the order of tens of hours every year from now on, by doubling up.
I know very well that we are all different when it comes to this stuff. Maybe you think it is ridiculous to require two packed bags? That’s fine, do whatever works for you. For me however, and others out there that also become very stressed when packing your stuff, I am convinced that my new year’s resolution 2021 is the remedy.
Happy new year!