Sometimes the pleasant new ideas aren’t”’ new ideas at all. They’re”’ extra, just like the unique utility of an antique notion.
Case in point: A year ago, I wrote about a simple trick my uncle taught me to avoid forgetting critical things.
It ended up while we sailed on his boat in Rhode Island. As we came lower back to the harbor and tied up, he advised me about the closing two steps he usually takes at the end of a cruise.
First, he takes out his phone and photographs the boat engine ignition within the ” off”””” role.
Then, he takes a second photograph of the knot he used to tie the boat to the buoy.
As he instructed me remaining 12 months:
“This is so while you awaken at 2 a.M. Thinking, ‘Did I tie up the boat efficaciously?’ you don’t have to pressure an hour again to the dock to find out.””””
Mind. Completely. Blown.
I suggest I forget about things all the time. It’s been a task my entire existence.
So, for the past 12 months, at my uncle’s implicit idea, I’ve been taking reminder images of the entirety.
Now, I’ve come upon a fair greater useful utility — specifically for when you’re packing and traveling.
The final packing hack
Here’s”’ the way it works. Again, it’s”’ so easy that I can’t”’ consider I haven’t”’ been doing this my complete existence -; or at least for the 15 years I’ve”’ had a cellphone with a camera.
We’re”’ fixing here that nagging feeling you get while speeding to bring out the door or hurrying via an airport, trying to don’t forget whether you packed something crucial.
It’s”’ difficult sufficient when you’re”’ going someplace by yourself. It’s”’ even extra of a task while you’re”’ packing an entire circle of relatives for per week-long go-to vacation at the beach.
So, what I’ve”’ learned to do, way to my uncle, is to take picture after picture after photograph of my baggage as I’m”’ packing.
I did it last weekend, as my family and I have been leaving for a week at Cape Cod.
Imagine the one’s’s’s image, however, repeated repeatedly for every 25 baggage and programs loaded up inside the back of my Honda CR-V.
Yes, without problems, you can wind up with one hundred photos on your smartphone. But so what?
You store a lot of time and drama while considering if you packed sufficient sunscreen — otherwise, think about which bag to look in to discover the children ought to to-have midnight stuffed animals.
It also works for commercial enterprise travel, while you sit up in a panic for your flight, looking to recollect if you packed your get-dressed footwear — or if you’ll gyou’llhat assembly when you land within the Nikes you wore on the plane.
It also works for home reworking.
I noticed my uncle again for the duration of our recent holiday, and I found out I shouldn’t’t’tshouldn’te this new software of his antique concept for myself.
So, I must additionally percentage a stronger version of this packing hack — from while we made over one of the rooms in our house earlier this yr.
This required packing approximately 15 containers of gadgets and knick-knacks into our attic. I shot pics of every box as I loaded it, then drew a number with a huge Sharpie on everyone, one via 15, and took a photograph of the numbers, too.
Looking at my cellphone, everything changed into approximately one hundred times easier to locate.
Brilliantly easy
When you get right down to this, I know that it is all a remember of documenting your lifestyles — something a lot of us are doing anyway.
It’s a sIt’sghtforward hack and one that takes mere seconds. But for me, it’s beeit’sntastic.
And this is the point. You’re aYou’retruely strolling around nearly 100 percent of the time with a digital camera in your pocket. It is more effective than something that existed just a few years ago.
Use it. And then, use the part of your brain that you lose up for matters that can be a lot greater important.