According to an article I’ve read, the average person misplaces up to nine items a day. In an online survey of 3,000 people published in 2012 by a British insurance company one-third of the people who responded said they spend an average of 15 minutes each day searching for items. The things that topped their list were cellphones, keys and paperwork. Sound familiar?
Now… back to some of the reasons we all misplace our things sometimes:
Problem? Not paying attention:
Have you ever put your toaster in the freezer? Well… I have! I keep my toaster on a cookie tray in a cupboard.
Side note– this is a great tip if you don’t like keeping a lot of stuff on your counter and want to keep your cupboard crumb free.
I tend to be talking away and then set something down while being absolutely clueless that I’m putting something down where it doesn’t belong…
like the toaster in the freezer!
Solution? Be aware:
I know I need to just be more mindful of what I’m doing and where I am when I have something in my hands. I lost my car keys for more than a week once. I looked EVERYWHERE! I rummaged through the trash, my car, my purse, my clothes, the garage, I even prayed… no luck. A week later I was talking to my neighbor outside… he knew I had lost my keys… when suddenly he said ” Are those your keys?” Then he waked over to the electric meter on the side of my house and there they were, sitting on the meter. Little gremlins hadn’t carried them away, I just wasn’t paying attention when I took some trash out with my keys in my hand!
Problem? Multi-task overload:
Apparently multitasking tricks our brains into thinking we’re getting tons of things done and our brain loves it. When we switch between tasks our brain releases the “happy hormone” dopamine and we want more. Technology and digital apps certainly add to this impulse. The downside is that multi-tasking also causes the brain to release cortisol which is the STRESS hormone! Who knew?
Solution? Time management:
I’m not really going to go into this here because I want to get to how to keep your stuff from migrating. I’m a huge fan of using Task Lists to manage my time well. Learning to use a task list effectively is my #1 tip for managing your time better.
There are still a couple of problems to cover. CLICK the NEXT PAGE arrow below for my solutions.
