The “Keys” to Success

07 Aug 2013

Earlier this summer, we started re-visiting some of our favorite time management tips because let’s face it, summer or not, time is a precious resource and most of us never seem to have enough of it! As Peter Walsh points out in his book, Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat?, everyone is busy and some people have just figured out and learned to accept what he calls the ‘time paradox’:

“There’s never enough time, and there’s always more time.”

And as my colleague adds, “there’s always next time.” Time is funny and in many ways, just accepting this paradox helps me feel better about the hectic pace of life, but I also refuse to believe that we don’t have control over our own time and schedule – at least to some extent. One thing we can do is to reduce or eliminate unnecessary time-wasters. Enough paradox talk, here’s our time-saving tip for today…

Time-Saving Tip: Put your keys in the same place…always! It’s amazing how many minutes a day are lost looking for misplaced keys. A simple hook or bowl near the door is all you need. And ladies – keep your keys in the same pocket of your bag to avoid frantic digging. Last but not least, keep spare copies of all your keys somewhere useful (i.e. don’t keep your only spare house key in your house).

Trust me, I speak from experience on this one – I once dropped my keys in a storm drain – yes, really (being organized doesn’t mean clumsiness and accidents don’t happen). I was thrilled to have a spare copy of my condo key in my wallet. And in our condo I had copies of most of the rest of the keys on my key chain. We now have multiple copies of all keys – I have moved the house key from my wallet to a spot that can be accessed without any possessions and a trusted neighbor also has a basic set. If you lose a key, be sure to get new copies made right away. Let us know your key tips or stories – I hope I’m not the only one who’s had a key accident!