#25 - A Place For Everything
Last call! Our next issue will be an “ask me anything” issue if I get some questions for that. So…what do you want to know? Have a tech tip you want me to explore? A question about me you want to know? Just hit reply and let me know those questions.
Photo of the Week
I went to Richmond one evening this week to get dad’s help with cutting some pieces of molding for a home project. I haven’t been in his workshop area for a while so I took a moment just to look around and his “Luxo” lamp caught my eye. I marvel at unique solutions to challenges. I loved his ingenuity of using what I think is my old college desk lamp and a weight, hook, and piece of cord to make a lamp for his workspace. What’s the most creative solution you’ve ever implemented to a problem you faced? Where have you re-used something in an ingenious way?
A place for everything
There is a certain space on Twitter where I’m a little well known - it’s the space of PKM - a.k.a. Personal Knowledge Management. This week, my friend Tracy - who is also well known in this space - asked how you explain PKM to someone who has never heard of it before. Here is an excerpt of our twitter conversation.
While I know about this stuff, and I know how to do it well, I also have a personal tendency to overcomplicate everything. One place I had overcomplicated this was the assembly of important documents like transcripts, resumes, insurance plans, wills, trusts, living wills, etc. I have been doing some work with clients who need transcripts or copies of business insurance and I have been doing some work on my end of life planning where I need to refer to these documents regularly. Having them spread across multiple folders in my computer storage was a challenge AND when I needed to have them to take to an appointment - moving them from the virtual to the physical world - I had to reprint them because I couldn’t find the set of documents from the last appointment.
So, this week, I made a new place for all of these documents in both my physical and my virtual worlds. I moved all the docs I could think of into the digital folder and then I printed copies of things and placed them in a binder. Generally, I’ll always just refer to the document on my phone, but I will now leave this binder in my safe in case I need it.
The next step though is the most important - remembering where I put these items. The number of times in my life I’ve said, “Where are my…?” or “Where did I put…?” is astronomical. My bestie Gayle no longer lets me keep my own physical tickets for anything as I’ve lost Disney tickets and concert tickets and gift cards and … the list goes on.
In another conversation this week, it hit me that when I want to remember where I put something, I need to practice finding it or getting it. How does that work? For my new digital documents folder, I’ve added a task to my to do list every three days for the next three weeks to “Look up something in the Important Documents folder”. When this appears on my to do list, it will be blessedly simple and easy to check off so I will do it without fail. I often save super easy tasks like this for the low energy mid-afternoon of my day.
What steps do you follow to train yourself to do a new habit or use a new tool effectively? How do you keep from losing things that are important? What strategies do you use to put everything in its place?
Tools, Tips, & Tricks
How I’m Getting GrubHub+ and DoorDash’s Dash Pass for No Extra Cost
While I prefer cooking for myself, I use GrubHub and Door Dash when I travel - for both work and pleasure. So, I was pleased to find out that I could get their “premium” services at no additional cost based on some services I already pay for. (Note, this article also explains how to get Uber Eats delivery for free with an AmEx card but Uber and I broke up a while ago so you’ll have to read the article for that one.)
GrubHub+ is free with Amazon Prime. If you have Amazon Prime, go here to activate this offer. This is good for 12 months and after that it appears you would have to pay for the GrubHub service in addition to Amazon Prime.
DoorDash’s Dash Pass is available on a similar deal with certain Chase Credit Cards. The list of what cards this is eligible for and what is not isn’t clear. For example, I do not have a Sapphire or Sapphire Reserve card but when I used my Disney Card by Chase on the site, it worked for 12 months. Just like GrubHub this is good for 12 months and after that it looks like you have to pay for it (although the wording on the Chase web site is even weirder as it says “at least” 12 months)
Get every last drop out of bottles
From shampoo bottles to your favorite kitchen condiment - getting all of the product out of the bottle can be one of the most frustrating experiences there is. For Christmas last year, Gayle asked for a set of these “Flip It! Bottle Emptying Kits”. We were both a little skeptical that they would work well - but they have! I just ordered a set for myself and I have to say that I’m excited to give them a try.
What I Published This Week
My new publishing templates are working pretty well. That said, I have been working on a couple of longer form pieces that aren’t quite yet ready to hit publish. Here is what I did release this week:
Continuing our Glacier Trip:
I may be a little light on published work this coming week between some time off and still working on a few longer pieces but I continue to be happy with the rhythm I’ve built for writing.
What I’m Reading This Week
After a couple of weeks of finishing up things already on my reading list, it was great to start a couple of new things this week - including two fiction books:
Shirlene Obuobi’s debut novel “On Rotation” is fabulous. Angela is a 20-something medical student going through all the crossroads of life 20-somethings typically deal with adding in the challenge of being the oldest child of immigrant parents originally from Ghana and being in medical school. This is an awesome book and I am loving Mela Lee’s narration of it.
Love, Lies, & Hocus Pocus starts a great series of books. I love a little magic and sci-fi fun. And I love a good book series.
I’ve still had my nose in a couple of textbooks doing research for a client project which has been interesting and thought provoking.
Diversion
George Jetson was born yesterday!
The following is from the July 30, 2022 Morning Brew newsletter:
When The Jetsons debuted in 1962, George was 40 years old. Given that the show was set 100 years in the future, one can extrapolate that George was born in 2022, and, according to Warner Bros. Wiki, his exact birthdate is July 31.
Here is a reminder of the joy that was the Jetson’s - a small preview of Episode 1 - where Mrs. Jetson first meets Rosey the Robot.
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