Comments on: How To Never Lose Your Keys Again

By: » Loose Links - Ian’s Messy Desk

» Loose Links - Ian’s Messy Desk — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 04:07:52 +0000

[...] How To Never Lose Your Keys Again [...]

By: Success Begins Today » Team Synergy

Success Begins Today » Team Synergy — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 13:48:43 +0000

[...] th. 2. The doctor of personal development, Steve Pavlina, has and article entitled “How to never lose your keys again.” Next to losing socks, the g [...]

By: Kent C.

Kent C. — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 01:45:22 +0000

This article seems to be a particular example of something you wrote about in your earlier excellent article entitled “Clean Up That Mess.” You wrote, “my perception is that at a basic level, there is really just one flaw: a failure to systematize common decisions. Whenever I leave things lying out, it’s because I’m not ready to decide what to do with them yet. So the process of organizing really comes down to having a system for automating decisions about where everything goes. Disorganized people have few or no systems, so they must make every decision on a case by case basis.” I really like the earlier article because it has more sweeping application (no pun intended), and you might consider re-drawing readers’ attention to it. I have found it very helpful, when I’m about to throw a pair of jeans on the floor, to remind myself, “no, the system says they go in the drawer, and following the system saves time ultimately.” While not losing keys, and learning to “clean up that mess” are two different issues, having a system provides a unified solution to both.

By: Espen

Espen — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 20:38:19 +0000

Steve: Rich’s recommendation was probably just an attempt to make a quick buck. I believe he has an affiliate account at Amazon and is spamming in a quite subtle way. You (and all bloggers) would be better off deleting such abusive comment spams.

By: Sukotto

Sukotto — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 19:56:21 +0000

Erin wrote:
[quote]One great thing I learned from Julie Morgenstern’s book on Organizing was that when you are about to put something somewhere ask yourself, “When next I go looking for this item where is the first place I’m likely to look?” And then put the item there.[/quote]

For me… that’s in the pile of junk on my desk. (I think I need help)

I just keep my keys in my pants pocket and move my wallet and keys to the new pair when I change. I don’t usually have a problem losing my keys and it encourages me to only keep the essential few keys and things that I really need on there.

By: SD

SD — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 15:27:08 +0000

Fred, I found Steve’s reply to Rich to be helpful.

By: Fred

Fred — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 12:49:58 +0000

“Steve Pavlina Says:

July 14th, 2005 at 10:53 am
@Rich: Read it years ago, thought it was so-so — could have been summarized in an article and still provide 90% of the value.”

Pretty bad Karma there. What goes around comes around!

By: Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 22:26:10 +0000

@necrodome: Kids.

@Claude: I actually have an autographed copy of the book, so it was easy to look up your reference. Yeah, seems like Les had the same problem and used a similar solution, although he nailed a block of wood to the wall. I just installed the hooks directly into the door frame.

By: Claude

Claude — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 21:17:50 +0000

Steve
There is a short story in Canfield/Hansen/Hewitt book ” The Power of Focus, that refers to keys on page 9. Read it. You will find a striking resemblance to your post.

By: Dominic Foster

Dominic Foster — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 20:40:41 +0000

Yep, I leave our car keys in a bowl on the bookshelf in our lounge. Whenever my wife doesn’t have to ask me where the keys are when she wants to use the car. When I want to use the car, I always check the bowl first and then usually have to ask my wife where the keys are. She is slowly learning to use the bowl.

By: Jonathan Aquino

Jonathan Aquino — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 20:12:39 +0000

Next problem to tackle: How to never lose your car again.

By: annie

annie — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 19:19:47 +0000

Hi! Just found your website via http://www.unfogged.com referencing your post about becoming an early riser. I’m really enjoying your site.

I also finally decided to always put my keys in the same spot and it has helped tremendously. I put them on a table just inside my front door (well away from the door and behind a picture so they’re out of site).

WRT keeping track of my keys while I’m out and about, I’ve found it helpful to use a key ring with a stretchy bracelet on it. When I run into a store for a quick errand, like I did yesterday, the keys just hang on my wrist the whole time (granted, I don’t have many keys on the keychain; it would be uncomfortable if you have a lot of keys). Sometimes rooting around in my purse - small as it is! - for my keys took more time than the errand itself.

By: necrodome

necrodome — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 19:13:59 +0000

why do you drill the hooks to a non reachable position for full hands?

By: Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 18:53:15 +0000

@Rich: Read it years ago, thought it was so-so — could have been summarized in an article and still provide 90% of the value.

By: Ami Heines

Ami Heines — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 18:29:25 +0000

I use my keys to keep me from forgeting my other stuff!

I used to forget my notepad or calendar (yes, I don’t use a PDA) at other people’s offices.
It is pretty important to me and I don’t like losing my stuff like that. Another aspect is the bad impression I guess I leave on the person calling me up saying: “I found your notebook lying on my desk…”

What I do now is NEVER put my car keys in my pocket as I used to, whenever I go for meetings, I put my keys on top of my stuff.

More than once I found myself in front of my car without my keys puzzled for a few seconds and then rush back to the office were I met someone and politely ask for my notebook and car keys.

This way, I never get too far from my belongings.

Ami