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
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'
