I want to take a moment to publicly thank all the engineers and scientists who designed and built the safety systems of the Toyota Prius. Without your efforts, my wife would not be alive.

While driving across an intersection in Arizona, an oncoming, speeding car crashed into the passenger side of the Prius containing my wife and I. It was, as I later learned, a classic T-bone collision. Our Prius upended 45 degrees, skidded on two wheels across the intersection and into the oncoming street where it collapsed onto the sidewalk.

It was a accident: the interaction between the laws of physics and unfortunate timing.

EMTs arrived on the scene promptly, as did the police. It was from these that I learned how close my life came to changing that day.

Our Prius was fitted with curtain airbags. These deploy and cover the window during a roll-over. Had the Prius not been equipped with these, the EMT told me, my wife’s head would have gone through the window and, in all likelihood, she would have been taken away from the accident in a body bag.

Thank you, safety engineers: you saved my wife.

Thank you.

As regular readers of this blog know, my wife and I packed up all of our things to travel across the United States and Canada in search of a new place to live after years in London.

The project ended up being much bigger than I have imagined. When we visited my parents in North Carolina there was much paperwork to be done. We had to set ourselves up as residents of the United States, transfer ownership of the car, get health insurance, car insurance and numerous other things.

Without having a system in place to help keep track of all these projects, I wouldn’t have gotten everything done. The younger, pre-organized version of myself would have said, “It’ll be fine, lets just go.”

But things aren’t always fine.

Because I’ve practiced getting organized, all the paperwork and legal framework was in place when we needed it to be. I had all the necessary contact numbers in my phone. I had all the paperwork for the local police. We had already booked a hotel for the night and all of our possessions were packed and easily removed from the totaled car.

Getting organized isn’t just about getting more done in less time. It’s also about being prepared for tough situations and making them easier.

Do yourself a favor: make a packing list today and put local emergency numbers in your phone and contact information in your wallet. Also check out making an emergency kit for your home and car.

Hopefully you’ll never need them, but if you do, you’ll be glad you did.

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Header photograph by neil lall

On Point recently did a show talking about the results of scientific studies of multitaskers. If you frequently multitask you need to listen to this show. Here are some of the highlights:

• Scientists assumed that people who multitasked often would get better at it. In fact, they got worse.
• The less often you multitask, the better you are at it.
• Multitaskers wildly overestimate how effective they are. They falsely assume they are getting more done, when the evidence shows the opposite.
• Frequent multitaskers are suckers for irrelevant information. They are much worse at filtering out non-essential information than people who monotask.
• Batch processing tasks is more effective and actually takes less time.

Comically, the show also had on two twenty-something multitaskers who could have come directly out of the study: ‘Unskilled and Unaware’. While they maintained that others might be bad at multitasking, they themselves were superior and got more done.

[Click here to listen to On Point: Multitasking Minds]

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Header photograph by eflon

You can also download a PDF copy of an emergency kit checklist from the site getprepared.ca.

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Header photograph by fontplaydotcom

A packing list doesn’t just have to be a list of things to take with you when traveling, it can also be a checklist for what you need to do before you go.

I print out my pre-packing and packing lists and cross off each item as I complete them. This way, I can go to the airport without worrying that I’ve forgotten something.

Here is my complete packing checklist. Feel free to use it as a template to start your own.

Pre-packing Checklist:

• Charge laptop
• Charge and sync iPod
• Charge mobile phone
• Charge batteries
• Backup files
• Print boarding pass for flight
• Print hotel address, phone number, confirmation number
• Empty wallet of unnecessary cards
• Remove unnecessary keys from keychain
• If flying, remove leatherman from keychain
• Set out travel clothes for the next day
• Find out emergency number for new countries and put it in wallet
• Put list of emergency contact information in wallet
• Purchase any necessary travel insurance
• Research public photography laws in destination
• Print route to the airport / train station

Packing Checklist

• Boarding pass on clipboard
• Hotel information on clipboard
• Route to airport / train station on clipboard
• Toiletries: deodorant, razor, toothbrush, toothpaste
• Foreign cash (if applicable)
• Emergency money
• Passport (if applicable)
• Laptop
• Laptop power converter
• Ethernet wire and USB adaptor
• Mobile phone
• Mobile phone charger
• Inflatable sleeping pillow
• iPod
• iPod wire
• Camera
• Camera wire
• Camera batteries / USB battery charger
• GPS tracker
• Eyeshade
• Sunglasses
• Sunblock
• Flip-flops
• Vitamins (only as many as necessary, not the whole bottle)
• Contact lenses
• Book
• Minimum number of clothes possible
• Food / water

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Header photograph by striatic

Several years ago, I switched from using disposable batteries to rechargeables — this paid for itself quickly and has been saving me more than $300 a year ever since. (For more on battery economics, see my money blog, Coin by Coin).

Most of the year, my demand for rechargeable batteries is pretty low. My bluetooth keyboard and mouse only need their batteries changed every few weeks. But when traveling, I suddenly have two cameras and one GPS tracker that each eat a clip of batteries a day.

The trouble with traveling to Continental Europe and the United States from London is the three incompatible electrical systems. (Oh wireless power, wherefore art thou?)

After much research I decided to use eneloop rechargeable batteries. Both because reviewers agreed that they store a useful amount of charge, and because eneloop makes a USB powered battery charger.

If you travel between different electrical systems a lot and need rechargeable batteries, I can’t recommend the USB charger enough. Now when traveling the only power adaptor I need bring is the elegantly designed apple one.

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Header photograph by ingorrr.

One tip to finding typos when proofreading your work is to read your writing aloud — this helps, but you may still not catch many of your mistakes. You tend to read what you think you wrote, rather than what you actually did.

You need someone else to read your writing aloud. But, if you are a person who produces a lot of words, say for a blog, you’ll probably run out of willing friends before you run out of material to proofread.

Fortunately, your computer can help. If you use Mac OS X, it can read your writing for you.

If you use OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or earlier, select the text you want spoken, then go to the program name in the menu bar, select services, then ‘start speaking text’.

In OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) you can often just select the text and right click to bring up the speech option. (This doesn’t work in some applications, so just do a quick copy/paste to dump the text into Stickies).

As your computer speaks the text, read along. Now you’ll get to hear what you really wrote, rather than what you think you wrote.

(P.S. For the record, when I used this trick on this post, I found two errors: ‘goto’ not ‘go to’ and ‘head’ not ‘hear’)

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Header photograph by Marcin Wichary

The shower: a time in the day for unintentional zen-like meditation. Your mind is clear, unfocused when — bam! — an unexpected solution pops into your brain. It’s the answer to a problem you’ve been working on for a while. Great — the only trouble is you’re naked, wet and covered with soap. There isn’t pad nor paper nearby. You think you’ll remember that idea for the next few moments, but experience tells you otherwise. How do you then capture that idea before it disappears?

There are two solutions:

First: waterproof paper. You can pick up a waterproof notebook and pen to write on it on Amazon for about $20. Sounds like a good deal, though I can’t personally vouch for the quality.

However, the waterproof paper solution is a little awkward. You need a dedicated place to hold the loose pen and paper, which might not be easy depending on your shower setup.

A second, superior solution comes from scuba divers: the underwater writing slate. You can stick it to the shower wall and have a permanent spot to capture your ideas.

Just don’t forget to include emptying your shower inbox during your weekly review.

Do you have any alternative ideas for capturing those fleeting shower thoughts? Leave a comment if you do.

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Header photograph by -Snugg-

I recently set myself this challenge for my last move. I didn’t move within London or even within England. I moved out of my flat and into six months of nomadic living.

My wife and I are making our way across the United States and Canada on a road trip in search of where we want to live next. (you can follow our progress on my Wellington Grey twitter account.)

Because I would literally have to carry on my back everything I wanted to bring with me, I needed to trim down my possessions to as few as possible. To help with this decluttering, I decided to take before and after photos of all of my possessions.

Here are the photographs of everything I owned in London before the move:

• External monitor x 1
• Scanner / printer x 1
• Shredder x 1
• Apple iBook x 1
• Apple MacBook Air x 1
• M-Audio Mixer x 1
• Microphone x 1
• Bamboo pen tablet x 1
• Wireless keyboard x 1
• Mice x 3
• Computer CDs x 25

• Power cords x 17
• Ethernet cord x 1
• Firewire cords x 5
• iPod wires x 2
• USB wires x 10
• Unknown wires x 1
• Telephone wires x 1
• Audio cables x 3
• Serial to USB adaptors x 1
• External monitor adaptors x 3
• Ethernet to USB adaptors x 1
• Telephone wire splitters x 1
• Power adaptors x 11
• USB to Firewire adaptor x 1
• Headphones x 4

• External hard drives x 3

• Jeans x 10
• Dress pants x 17
• Exercise pants x 3
• Pajama pants x 1

• Coats x 2
• Jackets x 5

• Collared shirts x 21

• T-shirts x 22
• Exercise shorts x 3
• Exercise shirts x 6

• Scarfs x 4
• Fleeces x 3
• Bathrobe x 1
• Sweaters x 3
• Turtleneck x 1

• Shoes x 5
• Moccasins x 1
• Boots x 1

• Sock pairs x 57
• Underwear pairs x 32

• Hat x 1
• Ties x 9
• Tie rack x 1
• Belts x 4
• Towels x 2
• Light jackets x 2

• Large envelope pack x 1
• Origami paper packs x 2
• Letter envelope pack x 1
• Index card packs x 3
• Post-it note pack x 1
• Full-size notebooks x 4
• Pocket-size notebooks x 14

• Binders x 10

• Books x 70

• Powershot A series camera x 1
• TI-89 calculator x 1
• Rechargeable batteries x 19
• Battery chargers x 2
• USB key x 1
• Book light x 1
• Bluetooth headset x 1
• AMOD GPS tracker x 1
• Casio calculator x 1
• Cell phones x 3
• iPods x 2
• Apple remote x 1
• Tape recorders x 2
• Invisible clock timer x 2
• Pens x 24
• Scissors x 1
• Letter opener x 1
• Grip strengthener x 1
• Cord organizers x 3
• Keys x 3
• Warcraft III CD x 1
• Days ago timer x 1
• LED flashlight x 1
• Standard flashlight x 1
• Sunglasses x 1
• Prescription glasses x 2
• Glasses cases x 3
• Candle dish x 1
• Ruler x 1
• London bicycle maps x 4
• Wired magazines x 8
• Shoelaces x 1
• Watches x 2
• Magnifying glass x 1
• Oyster cards x 3
• Wedding ring x 1
• Playing cards x 1
• Clipboard x 1

• Dice set x 1
• Picture frames x 2
• Tool set x 1
• Go set x 1
• Chess set x 2
• Wallet x 1
• Chess clock x 1
• Space heater x 1
• Umbrellas x 2
• Hole puncher x 1

• Popcorn maker x 1
• Clothes hangers x 19
• Inbox x 1
• Speakers x 1
• Moisturizing cream x 1
• Aftershave bottles x 2
• Shampoo bottles x 2
• Paper holder x 1
• Bowls x 2
• Mugs x 2
• Desk lamp x 1
• Razor x 1
• Toothbrush x 1
• Body soap x 1
• Body soap sponge x 1
• Hair gel bottle x 1
• Aleve bottles x 2
• Deodorant bottle x 1
• Shaving bottles x 2
• Electric shaver x 1
• United States passport x 1
• Republic of Ireland passport x 1
• London A to Z x 1

Things I forgot to photograph:

• Powershot S series camera x 1
• Wireless mouse x 1
• Bike x 1
• Folder of original documents x 1
• Business card box x 1

You might notice that there aren’t any big items on this list. I was able to cheat slightly: because I lived in a furnished apartment, there were an enormous number of things that I used but didn’t own, such as furniture and kitchen implements.

Even given this cheat, I was still horrified at the number of things I possessed. 31 pairs of pants? How did I end up with so many? I know I didn’t regularly wear more than 5 and I certainly wasn’t using this pair that I found:

Starting from that list, I did my best to get rid of everything that wasn’t absolutely vital. (My wife disagreed strongly with me over the number of ‘vital’ clothes — I wanted to walk out of the house with only the clothes I wore.)

For the move, my life fit into one carry-on bag and one suitcase.

• Powershot S series camera x 1
• Computer CDs x 3
• MacBook Air x 1
• AMOD GPS tracker x 1
• External hard drives x 3
• Power cables x 3
• USB key x 1
• Wireless mouse x 1
• Ipod x 1
• Bamboo pen tablet x 1
• Cell phone x 1
• USB wires x 4
• Ethernet wire x 1
• Ethernet to USB adaptor x 1
• iPod wire x 1
• Headphones x 1
• Nikon battery charger x 1
• Nikon 55-200mm zoom lens x 1
• Nikon D5000 camera x 1

• Clipboard x 1
• Underwear pairs x 2
• Pairs of socks x 2
• T-shirts x 5
• Collared shirts x 2
• Ties x 2
• Exercise shirts x 2
• Exercise shorts x 2
• Turtleneck x 1
• Shoes x 1
• Suite x 1
• Light jacket x 1
• Wallet x 1
• Hat x 1
• Business card box x 1
• United States passport x 1
• Republic of Ireland passport x 1
• Folder of original documents x 1

In the end, it has been a surprisingly satisfying process to get such a detailed understanding of the things that I own. It’s good to know that everything I own now is vital — that I’m at a minimum of things to own and still have a reasonable life.

I think I’m going to make this a yearly process. Even with a fairly disciplined living style, it’s too easy to let clutter start to fill up your life.

Desperate to help yourself declutter? Why not start a project like this to help get rid of the unnecessary things. I’ve put up my photographs on flickr with the tag ‘everythingiown’ and started a Everything I Own group if you’re interested in joining.

If you bought iLife 09, you’ll know that it’s filled with lots of new features. One of these is videos in GarageBand of professional musicians teaching you how to make better music.

If you’re not a music person, these are just taking up space on your hard drive — lots of space. 1.3 gigs of space to be exact. Here’s how to reclaim that space:

1. Delete the GarageBand Application. Go to the applications folder of your computer, scroll down to GarageBand and drag it to the trash. You will be asked to enter your password.
2. Delete The Support Files. Go to the finder. Open the ‘Macintosh HD’, then ‘Library’ then ‘Application Support’. Here is where most of the big files are hiding. Scroll down to the ‘GarageBand’ folder and drag that to the trash as well. Again, enter your password.
3. Don’t Forget to Empty Your Trash

Now you’re done, and with 1.3 more gigs of space to fill with the files that matter to you.

If you’re still looking for more space saving tips, you should give monolingual and grandperspective a try.

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Header photograph by notsogoodphotography

Has your to-do list grown too large and cumbersome? Do you dread looking at all the work it represents? Then take a tip for culling your tasks from the Roman army: decimate your to-do list.

In Roman times, decimation was a tool to keep the military obedient. If a legion became mutinous, commanders executed one out of every ten soldiers to punish the group. (deci- from the Latin meaning ‘one tenth’).

Your to-do list is a tool that should work for you — it should help you get stuff done. If your to-do list no longer follows your orders, decimate it: kill off one in ten of the tasks lurking there. While the Romans forced the troops to randomly draw lots to decide their fate, you’re intentionally looking for two kinds of targets: low-value tasks and time-consuming tasks.

First, the low value items. Is there something on your list that won’t bring you much benefit? Kill it. You should limit your to-do list to tasks that must get done and tasks that you want to get done. Kill off to-do items that are just there because you feel that you should do them.

Second, the time-consuming items. Look for big, fat, slow-moving tasks. If an item on your to-do list will take a long time to complete ask yourself a difficult question: ‘is there something better I could do with this time instead?’ If there is, knock that item off.

If you can find a task that’s both low value and time consuming, don’t hesitate to strike the mortal blow.

After decimation you’ll find, as the Romans did, that your newer, slimmer list is much more useful and ready to follow your orders.

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Header photograph by Dave-F