Wow! Talk about autonomic! It took me a minute or two to remember the original reason. How cool would it be if other things in our life that we fret about became automatic functions?
Routine #2: Always Bring My Organizer
In theory, I want my organizer wherever I might need it. I know I need it at work. That's obvious. I sometimes need it at home. Should I leave it at work if I don't think I'll need it at home that evening? Should I leave it in my car or take it into the house? "Nah, I'll leave it here. I won't need it tonight."
Then it turns out that I do need it, and since I'm too lazy to go out to my car, I agree to Thursday night dinner with friends, as I don't recall any conflicts with that date. I then either miss the appointment (since I didn't record it), or it turns out that I do have a conflict and I have to reschedule, which creates a lot of work for me and all the other people involved.
Is rescheduling more work than running out to my car to get the darn organizer? Of course. But I don't go to the car because when I'm in the moment, it feels like less work to try to remember the appointment. I want the easier option that exists right now, not in some theoretical future when I might be wrong. Look at me! I just saved a trip to the car!
A worse scenario is when I get into my car in the morning to drive to work and find I don't have my organizer with me. I think, "Where is it? Well, it's not here. Did I bring it home? I don't know. I must have left it at work."
Of course, when I get to work I discover that my organizer actually was at home. Now I have to spend the day without it. To do list items get confused, appointments are missed—it's awful.
To help me develop this routine I found an excellent mantra to use:
If I ask "Should I bring my organizer?" the answer is "Yes."
That has a domino effect that works well. When I'm leaving work, I know to take my organizer. When I'm leaving for work, if my organizer isn't in my car, I know I have to go into the house to find it. Since I always take it with me, I know I couldn't possibly have left it at work the night before.
This is why in 14 years I've lost my organizer only once. Every time I leave a room, go home from work, get into a car, get out of a car—everywhere I go—I know I should have my organizer in my hand. Because of this absolute consistency, the habit was able to develop very quickly and indelibly in my mind. Sometimes we misplace things because we lose track of them. We put an item down, and later we leave the room without it because we aren't in the habit of taking it with us all the time. Because we don't always have our organizer with us, our brain rationalizes that it's OK that we don't have it with us right now. I have developed a habit, almost a tactile addiction, to having that organizer in my hand.
Warning
The one time I lost my organizer I was in a rush and was distracted by having to carry many things at once. I would like to point out that the limo company returned my organizer by overnight air the next day. I was very lucky.
What are the things that you find yourself without? Why don't you carry them with you all the time?
Take a moment to consider the following items that might be easier to always have with you than to waste brainpower on deciding whether you should bring them along:
Your PDA or PAA
Your cell phone and/or pager
A pen
Your wallet, purse, etc.
ID cards
Keys (metal and electronic)
Your medical ID cards, insurance information, etc.
A laptop (for some people)
Oh, sure, let them laugh at you for wearing a pocket protector. We know the value of always having a pen on hand.
Routine #3: Regularly Meet with My Boss
I need "face time" with my boss. I like to be independent, but that has its limits. Scheduling meetings with my boss is a major time investment. If I add up all the bits of time I spend Instant Messaging her, talking to her secretary, and so on, it can take me 30 minutes to arrange for 15 minutes of time with my boss. That's just crazy.
So instead, we've agreed to meet or speak on the phone every Tuesday at 10 a.m., whether we need to or not. Now that 15 minutes takes zero time to arrange.
You might want to do something similar with your boss, especially if you don't feel you get to talk with your boss enough. Five minutes of status updates every day at 9 a.m. can be more useful to you, and less annoying to him, than grabbing him throughout the day.
Oddly enough, this also helps if your boss says you require too much of his attention. If half your attempts to see your boss are just to schedule time for larger discussions, it might be better to have a regularly scheduled meeting time with him. It consolidates the meetings.
Routine #4: The Check-In-with-Staff Walk-Around
There was a time at Bell Labs when I managed 15 other system administrators. I wanted to be a hands-off manager—the other SAs were all smart, hardworking, and independent. I mostly left everyone alone. However, I soon learned that they felt ignored. I needed to spend more time with them.
If You Have to Ask, the Answer Is "Yes"
Over the years, I've decided the answer to these questions is always "yes." I can now stop wasting brainpower trying to make a decision each time the issue comes up.
Would this be a good time to save the file I'm working on?
Should I take my organizer with me (versus leaving it here)?
Should I add this to my to do list?
Should I check my calendar before I agree to this appointment?
Should I write this on my calendar?
Should I check to see whether I have plans after work before I agree to stay late?
Should I check to see whether I have any early appointments before I decide to play one more game of Half Life this morning?
Should I do The Cycle today (versus slacking off)?
Should I fill my car's gas tank now (versus procrastinating until it is an emergency)?
Should I do this small task or chore now (versus procrastinating and hoping nobody notices or the task doesn't turn into an emergency)?
The answer to all of these questions is "yes." This list was developed over 10 painful years of getting into trouble (in small and big ways) by thinking about the question, weighing the benefits of both choices, and making a thoughtful but wrong decision. I was trying to be smart. It took me a long time to realize, "Stop thinking! The answer is 'yes!'" Don't weigh the issues; don't waste brainpower making a decision; don't convince yourself that just this one time things will be different! If you have to ask yourself the question, the answer is "Yes!"
In most cases, it takes longer to make a decision about a task than to do the task. Opening up my PDA and checking my calendar takes 10 seconds, but I can spend just as much time rationalizing that today my memory is good enough to not need to check.
Many of those questions are equivalent to asking, "Should I trust my memory or my organizer's memory?" We already know that our memory is faulty; otherwise, we wouldn't be using an organizer, right? Use it!