#>tape is in drawer with random miscellaneous things

[i-am-dulaman]

You know that scene of Hal from Malcolm in the Middle where he keeps getting distracted by new problems/tasks?

I just snapped out of a bit of hyperfocus by the realization that i am him right now as i screw on the passenger side sun visor in my car at 2am when i was supposed to be watering my plants.

[peraltasames]

home is just another word for you

Pairing: Jake Peralta/Amy Santiago

Desc: While moving into Amy's apartment, Jake stumbles upon the letter she wrote him while he was in Florida.

Notes: this is the first chapter of my new one-shot collection! title from ‘you’re my home’ by billy joel

Read on AO3

“Alright, this is the last box!” Jake shouts loud enough to be heard across the apartment, ripping the tape off the large cardboard box full of miscellaneous knick-knacks and items that he refused to part with. He’s positive Amy only let him keep them because she feels a little bit bad he had to give up his apartment (even though hers was the obvious choice) but the image of a Die Hard poster among her fancy china cabinets and antique furniture is just too good. Besides, they’re both excited to make it their apartment versus simply her apartment that he’s living in.

“Awesome, babe!” He hears Amy’s voice from the kitchen, where she’s unpacking his pretty limited supply of cutlery and appliances.

With the realization that he’s one box away from fully cohabiting with his favourite person in the world, Jake smiles to himself as he begins to pull random objects out of the box a little faster than he did the last few.

“Okay, magic eight ball, where should you go?” he mumbles to himself, glancing around the room at the nice, soft aesthetic Amy’s created with her choice of decor. “Yeah, maybe in a drawer for now.”

He strolls over to her desk, opening the drawer filled with documents and various writing utensils and stationery. He plops the ball in next to the stapler, his eyes barely glancing over some of the highly-organized papers and catching an envelope, mostly obscured by an insurance form, with the FBI seal in the corner.

His interest immediately piqued, he glances behind him to make sure Amy’s still in the other room and picks up the envelope, which isn’t sealed. Inside are two folded sheets of paper, the second falling to the desk as he reads the first one.

Detective Amy Santiago,

I would like to inform you that Detective Jacob Peralta is still in Witness Protection and will continue to be for an indefinite amount of time. I am unable to update you on the case, but I assure you the Bureau is doing everything we can to find Jimmy Figgis. Since it has been six months, I have decided to allow you to write a one-page letter to Jacob, which I will read to him and subsequently incinerate. Please enclose your letter in this same envelope and deliver it to the address you were given before Jacob’s departure, it will be passed on to me.

Marshal Haas

Taking in a sharp breath, he realizes what the other letter must be. Given the fact that the Nine-Nine came down to Florida to help catch Figgis only a few days after the six-month mark, she must’ve never had the chance to deliver it. His heart begins to beat faster as he reads the first line - his name, in her perfect, neat handwriting.

Dear Jake,

We both know brevity isn’t my strong suit, and since it’s impossible to fit six months into one page, I’m going to try to give you the highlights.

Charles and Genevieve adopted a four-year old, his name is Nikolaj and Charles never stops talking about him but he’s actually pretty cute. Rosa’s good, she says to tell you she nodded slightly (I assume you know what that means). Gina is...Gina. Terry and Sharon and the kids are doing well. We got a new captain today, he’s a complete idiot but at least it’s only until Holt comes back. Everyone misses you guys so much.

I’m doing okay. As okay as I can be without you, I guess. It’s really hard sometimes. It’s always hard, but some days are worse than others. I haven’t been doing much lately other than staring at the phone waiting for the call that you’re coming home. I know you’re safe there, but please don’t do anything reckless that could jeopardize that no matter how long you’re gone. I want you home so badly, but if he finds you I’m never gonna get that call. I need to get that call.

I love you so much. I love you more every single day. I worry about you constantly - please remember to drink water and eat vegetables and get some exercise. I know this must be so hard and scary for you, but hopefully it won’t be too much longer. I can’t wait for you to come back to me.

Love,

Amy

What breaks him, making him collapse into the chair beside him and sending tears down his cheeks, is not the heart-wrenching words she wrote for him months ago - it’s the faint stains on the page in the shape of teardrops.

While he was in Florida, slowly deteriorating and feeling his former self slip away along with his hope of returning home, she was sitting at this very desk crying over his absence. Missing him, worrying about him, loving him more every single day.

“You need some help finishing with the-“

He turns slightly to face the figure standing in the doorway. In pyjama shorts, a loose black tank top, and with her hair pulled back in a ponytail that’s now messy from hours of moving boxes, she’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.

“Jake, what’s wrong?” She scurries over to him, frowning. “Why are you crying?”

He doesn’t realize his eyes are puffy and his cheeks are wet with tears until she’s standing right next to him, her hand cupping his face. He lifts the letter in his hand for her to see, her eyes widening as he finally looks up at her.

“Oh...”

“I never knew about this,” he chokes out, reaching out for her from where he still sits in the chair and resting his hand on her waist.

“I know,” she says, her hand moving from his face to rest on his shoulder. “We went to Florida the next day. I never delivered it.”

He nods, wiping his tears away with the sleeve of his hoodie. “Yeah, I just meant I- I didn’t know about this at all. About how hard it was for you.”

Her face, initially etched with concern, now flashes with a look of pain and loneliness at the memory of their separation. Even now, when they’re approaching the mark of him being back for as long as he was gone, he still sees this look sometimes when someone mentions Florida or WitSec in general.

“Of course it was, Jake,” she says quietly. “After I got used to being with you, not being with you wasn’t really an option anymore.”

He knows the feeling. There are too many memories clogging his brain that he wishes would fade of eating soggy burritos in the hot tub or staring at the photo of Amy in the storage unit because it was all he had.

“C’mere.”

Needing to be close to her, he tugs on her waist and turns her around so she gently falls into his lap. Her arms wind around his neck while her head finds his shoulder. He kisses her forehead for the version of himself known as Larry Sherbet, who wasn’t sure at times if he would ever be able to do that again. Larry would’ve given anything in the world to hold her like this during the hot, sleepless Florida nights.

“Thanks for coming home to me,” she murmurs, her lips pecking his collarbone.

“Thanks for waiting for me to come home,” he responds, his arms around her body clutching her a little tighter. “And thanks for being super cheesy in that letter, because I’m totally gonna bring it up all the time now.”

She slaps his arm half-heartedly, still relaxed against him. “Hey, you would’ve been cheesy too if you were allowed to write one.”

“Definitely, but we will never have proof of it,” he says, hand stroking her leg. “Unless you ask Captain Holt how many times I whined about missing you after I had downed a bottle of whiskey and he’d searched my living room for bugs and cameras again.”

He says it like a joke, but she only hugs him closer and buries her face in his neck. He supposes the thought of him drunkenly talking about how much he misses his girlfriend does seem pretty sad. It was pretty sad.

“I love you, roomie,” he murmurs.

“I love you too.” She pulls away to face him properly, leaning in for a quick kiss. “Although, we’re not officially living together until you finish unpacking that box.”

“Okay, okay, okay...or, hear me out, what if we unpack it later and have sex now?”

He looks up at her with big puppy dog eyes, employing his foolproof method of stroking her inner thigh gently with his thumb.

“Jake...I really want to get this done,” she says, but he can already hear the willpower fading in her voice.

“Does it really matter if we have sex with or without the Die Hard poster hung up?”

She bites her lip. “Well, I guess n-“

Taking that as all the approval he needs, he scoops her up and walks her over to the bed so conveniently close to them. The bed that is now their bed, in their room, in their home. He admitted to himself a long time ago, however, that home was wherever she was - specifically, in the moment that she kissed him in the back of an ambulance in Coral Palms and Brooklyn suddenly became just a place on a map.

[lifeofasmithie]

Stuff You Don’t Need to Bring to College

Note: This post was done in collaboration with Julie ‘21, or @texan-smithie

1. Summer/Warm Weather Clothes. This is specifically tailored towards colleges on the East Coast. Only about the first and last month of school (especially since the year ends in May) are really warm enough to wear shorts and tank tops so keep these at a minimum. 

2. Tons of Sweaters/Winter Accessories. On the other side of the spectrum, don’t bring too many sweaters and winter accessories. What will likely happen is that you will have a few favorite items that you wear quite a bit. Also, if you come from a warm place like I do, it’s likely that your “warm clothes” aren’t warm enough for the East Coast. If these reasons do not convince you, just think of how crammed your drawers will be all year and how hard it will be at the end of the year to pack up.

3. Tons of clothes in general. This may be redundant, but it’s necessary to put here. Everyone overpacks. Some people, like me, are worried about not being prepared and may (for example) pack a bunch of swimsuits and work out clothes. If you don’t swim or work out, you don’t need this! Others may think that they may wear something that they don’t really wear at home. The truth of the matter is, if you don’t wear it at home that probably won’t change in college. My rule of thumb here is to pack clothes you wear often (that may be in the laundry) while taking into account 1) and 2) above and adding extra undergarments and socks because there will be times when you are too lazy to do laundry or you forget.

4.Lots of Room Decor ( throw pillows, figurines, picture frames, curtains, etc.) Almost everyone wants their room in college to look nice. However, when trying to achieve this, remember that you have a small room that you likely have to share with another person and that you have to transport what you take to college back home at the end of the year. Therefore, if you do want to decorate a lot (as I did), I recommend bringing things that don’t take much space in your room or suitcase like photos, postcards, string lights, tapestries, and posters.

5. Lots of Room Organizing Items (Closet organizers, bins, bookcases, caddys, etc.) You will probably need some stuff eventually. The standard room at Smith only includes a bookcase, dresser, and desk for organization. For big items like plastic bins, laundry bins, plastic organizers, bookcases, caddys, fridges etc. I would recommend waiting until you waiting until you see your room and talk with your roommate. For the smaller stuff, you can often wait until you get to college before trying to purchase them (talking about desk organizers, closet organizers, ottomans). Later I will probably post on what I would recommend using to maximize your space.

6.Appliances (iron, steamer, humidifier, vacuum, drying rack, fridge, Brita, printer, kettle, Keurig, makeup mirror, etc.). This will obviously vary person to person. What is important to remember is that there are resources on campus. There is printing on campus. Dining halls have hot water. Pretty much all houses have cleaning supplies on every floor, drying racks in the basement, and somewhere to fill up your water bottle and do your dishes. Every room has a mirror. If all this fails, you can ask someone in your house if you can borrow theirs. Also, many seniors sell of their appliances at super cheap prices on Free and For Sale (Facebook Group, JOIN if you haven’t already) in what they call senior sales.

7.Tea Supplies. This is probably a Smith thing because I don’t know any campus as obsessed with tea as we are. As such, you have people like Julie who bring a teapot to campus and people like me who bring a literal mountain of tea bags. You don’t need it. It is a tea-loving campus, and as such, you can get tea from the dining halls or during weekly house teas. If you really need your tea fix, buy your tea bags one box at a time. Related to this, you also don’t need a ton of mugs.

8. Cash. In my opinion, people just don’t use cash in college as much as they do elsewhere. A lot of purchases happen through credit or debit cards and people often pay other people on campus through Venmo. Honestly, having a lot of cash can be a hassle at times and it increases the likelihood of someone taking your money.

9.School Supplies/Textbooks. For the incoming freshman out there coming to Smith, you don’t know what classes you will be taking so worrying about the textbooks, notebooks and binders you will need is pointless. For textbooks specifically, you can often find cheaper options on campus (Free and For Sale and Textbook Exchange FB groups or book rental at the bookstore) and for some classes you won’t even use the textbook even if the teacher assigns it. For other school supplies, keep in mind that it isn’t high school where you often have a locker and teachers may not allow you to use your laptop every day. You may find that even though you went through notebooks, binders and folders like crazy in high school, you don’t really need them as much in college. Certain classes will require different supplies, and you won’t know what that is until you go to the first day of class. Also, you can buy school supplies at Smith!

On the other hand, if there are certain specialty items that you know you will need/want, don’t hesitate to bring them. Personally, I really need my planner, white out, scotch and washi tape, stapler, and scissors. I had a ton at home and they easily fit in my suitcase, so I brought them. Similarly, if you know for sure you will be taking an upper-level math class, you may want to bring your calculator.

10.Miscellaneous. Here’s a list of random items I don’t think you really need: pencils (a lot of people use pen or type notes on laptop), tons of art supplies (usually don’t have much time and there is a Michaels and Joann’s nearby), leisure books (with what time?), water bottles (they give them out everywhere), lots of bags (only really need school bag and going out bag), workout equipment (go to the gym + not much space in room, especially when shared), and lots of mementos from high school (you will make new memories!)

[talabib]

How To Organize Your Life!

The way our brain manages information often seems mysterious. Lets lift the veil and reveal the systems that are at work every time we drive a car, learn something new, or try to remember where we put something.

With a greater understanding of these processes, you’ll be better equipped to take charge in organizing your life. You’ll also discover how to apply simple techniques, learn the best way to remain productive at work and even how to cope with situations that are out of your control.

The brain can only focus on a limited number of stimuli at a time.

Have you ever told yourself that you’d like to “get organized?” It’s an easy promise to make, but difficult to put into action. So where can you get started?

Well, before we even approach this challenge, we must first understand in greater detail the way our mind works, more specifically, our attentional system. This is the way our brain handles and categorizes information. The times we live in pose a great challenge to this system, because our brains aren’t equipped to cope with the flood of new facts and sights that we face everyday. Instead, brains work best when concentrating on one thing at a time.

This was vital for our ancestors, who hunted successfully by staying highly focused. Their thoughts would only be disrupted by important events, such as an approaching predator.

Nowadays, we’re constantly attempting to do many things at once. Driving a car, listening to the radio, thinking about an upcoming business meeting – it’s not unusual that all these things happen simultaneously. This is something that our brain has not evolved to do successfully, which means that multitasking comes at a price.

When we switch our attention between different activities, our brain is unable to function effectively. This in turn causes us to make thoughtless mistakes, or forget and misplace things.

In order to better understand our attentional system, we also need to consider how our brain decides how to divide its attention. It’s all to do with the brain’s remarkable ability to detect changes.

Our brains are more likely to pay attention to changes than constants. For example, imagine you’re driving your car. You suddenly notice that the road feels bumpy. Prior to this, you didn’t even consider how even the street was, simply because this was not useful information.

That realization could be vital, because it alerts you to a treacherous change in surface or a problem with your car. Changing circumstances can pose a threat to our survival.

Because we’re surrounded by more and more information, we’re forced to make more and more decisions.

Decisions are part of everyday life: Should we opt for the cheaper internet plan, or pay more and get unlimited data? Should we respond to this email now, or read these texts first? We confront decisions like these nearly every minute. But how can our brain cope with this non-stop flow of decisions when it originally evolved to process one idea at a time?

It’s simple: we can manage the flood of information by focusing our attention. Our brain instinctively concentrates on the information that is most important for us.

Here’s an example: imagine you’re on a busy street, desperately looking for your lost dog. You automatically fade out all unnecessary details like the people, cars and buses, and only focus on things that are the same size and color as your dog. So unless there are a lot of other things on this street that are about knee-height, fluffy and brown, your brain immediately makes it easier to find your beloved pet.

This automatic process of honing our focus down to what’s necessary should also be reflected in our decision making. In other words, you shouldn’t spend too much time on less important everyday choices. Instead, find shortcuts and ways to simplify your decision making.

For example, one type of decision we often need to make is about purchasing products or services that can make our lives easier. A good way to analyze these decisions is by thinking about the monetary value of our own time, because it allows us to compare it to the benefit the product promises.

Let’s say you’re thinking about hiring someone to clean your home instead of doing it yourself. Just ask yourself: Would you be willing to pay $50 for two extra hours of free time? If the answer is yes, then go for it without deliberating any further!

Find a designated place for every single object.

When was the last time you lost your keys, phone or glasses? It seems ridiculous that the objects we need with us all the time are also the ones that seem to go wandering most often. The reason is straightforward: we lose these objects because we carry them around with us. Objects that we only use in one place, like our toothbrush, seldom get lost at all.

There is, in fact, a special part of our brain dedicated specifically to remembering the location of things. It’s called the hippocampus, and it was crucial for our ancestors who needed to know where a watering hole was, or the areas where predators might pounce.

In order to learn more about our hippocampi, researchers studied the brains of London taxi drivers, as they are required to commit the city’s street plan to memory. The tests revealed that the hippocampi of the drivers were larger than hippocampi in other people of similar education and age. These larger hippocampi were attributed to the need to recall many locations in detail.

However, the hippocampus can only provide us with information about objects whose location doesn’t change. This isn’t a problem for a taxi driver trying to remember how to get to a particular building, but is a constant problem for us when we try to remember where our frustratingly mobile keys are.

To ensure that you don’t always have to seek out these essential items, simply find a designated place for them. A special bowl next to the door for your keys always does the trick!

If you can’t set aside a certain place for an object, then it may also help to purchase duplicates. For example, if you need reading glasses, having a single location for them might prove frustrating as you may need them in different places. Instead, you could purchase a pair for your bedroom for nighttime reading, while another pair remains at work.

Give your brain a break – move your organizational processes outside your head.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by all the different ideas and thoughts floating around inside your head? The best way to ensure you can keep track of them is to organize them outside your head.

A time-tested trick to unburden your brain is to write things down. Good old-fashioned flash cards are an easy and effective way to record and organize ideas as soon as you think of them.

For example, you might be on the bus and suddenly remember that you still have to buy a birthday present for your aunt. Don’t stress, just write it down and you’ll no longer have the burden of trying to remember it all day!

On the other hand, if you think of something that you could do right away – such as calling your aunt to say happy birthday – then don’t think twice, do it immediately. Think of it in terms of the two-minute rule: if the task takes longer than two minutes to complete, then write it down. Otherwise, do it straight away.

Another effective approach is to organize your written thoughts into categories. This mirrors the way our brains are constantly categorizing new stimuli and helps simplify our thinking, thus saving time and increasing our attention capacity.

For example, if we see a flying object with feathers, our brain recognizes it as part of the category “bird.” Though this bird might be a hawk or an eagle, it’s easier to place it in this broader category rather than identify it specifically.

The same goes for our flash cards – collect them together and sort them into different groups according to the topics they relate to. These could be categories such as “Personal Life,” “Work” or “Kids.”This way you’ll be able to keep your thoughts and ideas organized and accessible.

Junk drawers for miscellaneous items are incredibly effective – use them every day.

We’ve seen how creating categories is a great way to organize our thoughts and our lives. But what should we do with objects and ideas that don’t seem to belong in any pigeonhole? Well, these miscellaneous items can form their own category.

The categorizing tendencies of the brain can be seen in the way that we organize our living spaces. In our homes, there’s usually at least one place where random objects like single light bulbs, paper clips or car-cleaning products go. Why? Because it wouldn’t make sense to have a special drawer for light bulbs if you only had a few – combining them with other spare objects is much more space efficient.

You could even use one of these junk drawers at work. A miscellaneous folder, perhaps, containing documents that don’t fit into other folders but are also too important to dispose of. However, junk drawers will only be effective if we perform a little bit of maintenance from time to time.

The first way to do this is to keep checking their content regularly. This stops us losing track of what’s in there, which would reduce its organizational advantage. Some items can be eliminated from a junk drawer – if you’re sorting through objects that you haven’t yet felt the need to use, it’s unlikely that you’ll need them in the future. These can be thrown out.

You may also find that items in junk drawers can be moved to other places for more specific types of objects later. For example, perhaps you’ve recently developed an interest in scrapbooking. If you go through your junk drawer, you’ll almost certainly discover objects that could find a new home in the scrapbooking drawer – that extra pair of scissors, maybe, or the double-sided sticky tape.

Set aside time to refuel so you can increase your productivity later.

Everyone knows that you tend to be far more productive after a good night’s sleep. And yet, we’re often tempted to skip a few hours of kip in order to work just a little bit more.

This, however, is a mistake. Our brain works incredibly hard while we sleep, processing new information from the day and integrating it into our existing knowledge. Memories, problems and ideas often appear in our dreams and we may find ourselves better positioned to solve a problem after “sleeping on it.”

This phenomenon is backed up by studies. Researchers found that students attempting to solve a problem performed better following a night of sleep than they did working on it for the same length of waking time.

Ultimately, you’re twice as likely to solve a problem after you’ve slept on it. This shows that sleep is essential, and attempting to work when you’re tired is counterproductive.

Sleep isn’t the only way that we can refuel our minds. Many companies have discovered the benefits of decreasing employee work time and providing facilities and opportunities for rest.

For example, at Microsoft, employees are welcome to use the in-house spa to relax and recharge. This is not only great for employees, but, as studies have shown that productivity increases when working hours drop, the use of downtime in facilities such as these may well be a driving force behind increased productivity.

Accounting firm Ernst & Young has also improved worker performance by allowing additional vacation time. In fact, for every additional ten vacation hours taken by employees, the employees’ performance rating increased by eight percent.

It’s important to think about the worst-case scenario so you’re always prepared.

Imagine this: you’re on vacation and have just found out that the airline has lost your luggage. How would you react? Of course it’s good to be optimistic – perhaps they’ll find your bag! But it’s better still to be prepared. Good thing you brought that extra toothbrush!

Each time you plan something, you should consider all the things that could go wrong and think of a solution to them before they occur. Planning for failure in this way needn’t be difficult – it’s as straightforward as placing an extra key under the flowerpot by your front door.

A plan B is especially important in business situations. It’s true that sometimes things just happen. You forget an important appointment, or you lose the contact details of someone you need to speak to.

If you plan your time ahead, these mistakes will be less likely. With the assistance of an electronic calendar, either on your phone, computer, or both, you can ensure you’ll never forget about meetings again.

A plan B at work can also include keeping an extra shirt in your office, in case you accidentally spill your coffee before an important appointment with your boss!

It’s also important that we don’t rely on technology alone to prevent us from slipping up. Phones, computers and other technical devices aren’t perfect and at some point will let us down without warning. This is why you should also prepare non-technical solutions as a backup.

This is something that your taxi driver does. They always keep a plastic credit card press in their car in case their electronic credit card machine doesn’t work. This way, they can ensure they don’t lose any fares due to technical failure.

We can’t know the answer to every question, but we can know where and how to find it!

Today, we lead very different lives to our grandparents. One of the greatest changes is the way we can easily access vast amounts of information in no time at all. Googling something takes less than a minute! Nevertheless, there’s one important question we should continually ask ourselves: Is this information reliable?

Many of us have used Wikipedia before. The information it can provide us on a wide range of topics is hugely helpful, but is subject to a major drawback. Anyone is able to edit the information on a Wikipedia page, so we can never immediately be sure whether it is reliable. This means we should take the time to verify the information.

In order to evaluate whether a website is a valuable source or not, we can first investigate whether any reliable websites, such as established news services or government websites link to the website. If so, the site itself is likely to be reliable, and information can also be verified by cross-checking it with the content on several other websites.

However, not every problem can be solved by checking online. In complex dilemmas, particularly in the workplace, you’ll need to think for yourself in order to find solutions. Inventive and innovative thinking is something you just can’t google for! In such cases, the ability to reason, estimate and develop hypothetical assumptions is vital.

For example, in Google’s own job interviews, potential candidates are confronted with a question that has no correct answer. Here’s one for you to try on for size: “How much does the Empire State Building weigh?” Google was interested in whether the candidate could use their logical skills to work through a problem on their own, for example, by calculating the approximate size and weight of the concrete used for the building.

Get to grips with probabilities and gain a vital skill for assessing information.

Imagine you’re at a university where ten percent of students are engineers. Look, here comes a student wearing a pocket protector: a plastic sheath for holding pens in your shirt pocket. Now, what would you say is the probability that this is an engineering student?

The fact that a pocket protector is a standard accessory for the stereotypical nerdy student might cause many of you to think he very likely studies engineering. But remember the ten percent ratio. If 90 percent of students aren’t engineers, it’s far more likely that our pocket-protector friend doesn’t study engineering.

Our initial misconception reflects the way in which a person or situation that seems a perfect example of something can cause us to ignore the base rate. A base rate is the probability of an event occurring without taking other factors into account.

Along with base rates, we must also keep in mind that our perception of probability is often relative to the situation we are currently in – our starting point.

Imagine that you’re very sick. Your doctor offers you a treatment that will increase the likelihood of your recovery by ten percent. If the treatment increases your likelihood of recovery from zero to ten percent, you’ll go from certain death to a ten percent chance of living. And, if it increases from 90 percent to 100 percent, your recovery is guaranteed. In both cases, you’ll likely opt for the treatment.

what if it increases from 20 percent to 30 percent? Then, you might hesitate and inquire about the side effects and cost of the treatment before agreeing to it.

From a statistical perspective, this is bizarre since in all of these cases, the increase of ten percent is the same. The scenarios just feel different because of their varying starting points.

Though our brains often have difficulty dealing with probabilities, by remembering the mathematics behind them, we can make our choices with a greater and more objective understanding of their implications.

We live in an age of information overload. This presents a challenge for our brains, which are wired to manage information by focusing attention on one thing at a time. By learning about the way our brain distinguishes, focuses and categorizes, we can better organize our own lives.

[jodybouchard9]

I Junked My Junk Drawer: How to Ditch This Clutter Catch-All for Good

Pixsooz/iStock

It’s a safe bet that almost everyone has a junk drawer. It’s probably the drawer in the kitchen full to the brim with items so random, you probably don’t even remember having them.

For years, I had a drawer like this. We lived in an older house with little storage, so one oddly skinny drawer next to the stove in our kitchen came to collect all sorts of things: restaurant menus, instruction manuals, pens that didn’t write, miscellaneous screws, stray keys, and other stuff. It was so jammed that even opening it was a struggle.

When my husband and I built our new house, we got rid of a ton of stuff before we moved. As such, we vowed to not have a junk drawer in our new home—to give everything its own place, rendering this catch-all of clutter obsolete.

More than a year in, we’ve stuck to it!

Reasons to get rid of your junk drawer

Living clutter-free and being able to find things cuts way down on stress, says Jasmine Milligan-Cividino, a Reno, NV-based KonMari Method consultant and founder of Upside Tidying. She says a drawer full of random items can work—as long as everything has a place.

“It takes up less brain space that way,” she says. “So you have room to absorb more important information than ‘Where are the scissors?’”

With the decluttering trend in full swing, it may be time for everyone to rethink the junk drawer. We spoke to organizing  experts to find out how. First step: Rethink the name!

“If you have something called a ‘junk drawer,’ what’s going to go in it? Odds and ends, pieces of paper you don’t need,” says Megan Ludvinsky, a Little Rock, AR-based professional organizer and owner of About Space. “What I try to get people to do is just change the wording, and it makes a huge difference.”

She prefers the term “utility drawer” (or maybe “supply drawer”), something that more accurately describes what the drawer holds. Call it a junk drawer, and it will hold just that: junk.

Be mindful of what goes in

Ludvinsky encourages her clients to give each item a home, store like items together, and generally keep things put away—this creates more mindfulness about what you put into a junk or utility drawer.

“I try to push everyone to stop just mindlessly shoving things in,” she says.

Sure, the drawer can be an all-purpose spot for the small things people need, like stamps, scissors, tape, and other “little odds and ends that are too small to really have their own home, so they can kind of live together,” Ludvinsky says. But here’s the thing: It doesn’t have to be messy.

While we got rid of our junk drawer, we have a kind of utility drawer in our laundry room. Right now, it holds the keys to our backyard gate, a screwdriver, scissors, flashlights, a key fob, a couple of lighters and a few other things, all placed in a three-compartment tray.

We have a utility drawer in our laundry room, with only the essentials.

Erica Sweeney

Don’t hang onto stuff

Hanging onto only the items that you truly need or really love is key to ditching the junk drawer. Ludvinsky practices “ruthless editing,” asking her clients whether they’ve used an item in the past year or if they would purchase it again at full price. If the answer is no, it’s time to toss it.

“I genuinely want people to think about their things differently,” she says. “We have to decide what’s important to us, and remove the rest from our lives so we can focus on the things that really matter.”

Donna Smallin Kuper, an organizing expert and author of “Clear the Clutter, Find Happiness,” uses the 20/20 rule as a guide for deciding what to keep: “Could you get it again for less than $20 and in less than 20 minutes?”

Before bringing anything new into the home, Kuper says, you need to know where it will go, to help you stay clutter-free.

“When it starts getting harder to find a home for things, it’s not time to get more containers; it’s time to do some decluttering,” she says.

We use dividers in all our kitchen drawers to organize and separate items.

Erica Sweeney

Clean it up and keep it that way

The first step in organizing a junk drawer is to empty it and take stock of what’s there, Kuper says. Then, sort items into categories and create piles to be trashed and those that need to be stored elsewhere.

Being choosy about what stays in the drawer will help it stay organized. Ludvinsky and Kuper suggest using drawer organizers or boxes to separate items, so that they stay tidy and can be easily accessed.

“Instead of just shoving it all together, (drawer organizers) help find a home and a space for each of those utility items—and then you no longer have a junk drawer,” Ludvinsky says.

Grouping like items makes it easy to find what you need.

Erica Sweeney

  How to keep a junk drawer junk-free

Out-of-control junk drawers could be an indicator of a bigger problem, Milligan-Cividino says. Instead of focusing on individual spots, like the junk drawer, you may need to widen the scope of your decluttering to the rest of the house, sorting out unwanted or unused clothing, books, papers, and miscellaneous and sentimental items.

Simply cleaning out and organizing a junk drawer may not get to the root of the problem.

“Three months later, they have a junk drawer again, because they never really addressed the bigger issue, which is not having a place for things,” Milligan-Cividino says.

This drawer for small kitchen appliances (and some other stuff) looks a little messier than the others, but we used bins to keep things contained, and we can still see what’s in there.

Erica Sweeney

The post I Junked My Junk Drawer: How to Ditch This Clutter Catch-All for Good appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

[shawierich-blog]

New Year, New Home: How To Declutter And Organize All Year

This is your year. You're going to start fresh and figure out how to declutter and organize your home (and keep it organized) once and for all. You should be able to get that figured out in a month or so, right? 

Not necessarily. Once the calendar flips, you'll find yourself rudely reminded of your responsibilities at work, the tangle of schedules for the kids and a longing for new personal adventures (like finally committing to that morning yoga class). Suddenly, your infallible home organization system seems hopelessly flawed.

Don't get stressed out! Here's a plan you can actually stick to. We created a month-by-month checklist culled from the smartest home organization experts we could find to help you get your act together at the leisurely pace of a full calendar year.

Declutter and Organize Your Home, One Month at a Time

Month One: Tackle your laundry room.

Let's go right to one of the trouble spots as we decide on the best ways to declutter and organize your home. Your laundry room is one of the hardest-working spaces in your home. Since it sees a lot of action, start your organization project by removing everything but the washer and dryer. Give all surfaces and baseboards a nice cleaning and then sweep or vacuum the floor. Then:

Add a drying bar: Rather than hanging your wet delicates from random spots in your house (we've all been guilty of using the shower, doors and chairs), install a drying bar right in the room. Mount a shower rod, bath towel holder or extension rod underneath a shelf, giving you a great spot for a row of hangers.

Contain your supplies: “Instead of having bottles of detergent all over the top of your machine or all over the floor, use a rolling cart,” Bonnie Dewkett from The Joyful Organizer advises. “It slides in between your washer and dryer or along side the unit. It is plastic and easy to clean when detergent spills.”

Organize your clothes: Laundry bins full of dirty clothes can easily crowd your floor. Use a hamper, baskets or bins to pre-sort dirty clothes (one for whites, lights and darks). When it's full, you'll know to do the wash.

“Have a spot for miscellaneous items,” Bonnie adds. “Misfit socks, items you find in pockets, and small toys that have fallen into the laundry basket can all clutter up your laundry room. Purchase a bin or jar and put all of these random items in there. Let your family members know where to look to find their stuff. Every few months, clean it out.”

Month Two: Give your mudroom a makeover.

Your mudroom is the entry to your home, which means it could be the first thing people see when they come over. Whether you have a spacious room or a cramped doorway, chances are this space could use a little love.

“Only things that you truly need as you're coming or going and that you use on a daily basis should be kept in the area,” Steph from Modern Parents Messy Kids explains. “A safe rule is: if it can possibly go somewhere else, it should.”

Include seating: A small bench is a smart addition to any entryway, since it offers a place for people to safely put on or take off their shoes. And added bonus? You can use the space underneath to store shoes.

Install hooks: Hooks work great for entryways that lack a closet space. Even a short rack can hold your guest's coats, purses and other accessories.

Allocate space: Purchase a basket for each family member, and allow them to use it for their shoes, gloves and scarves or small sports items. 

Month Three: Simplify your bedroom.

“In order to get the most restful sleep, the bedroom should be a serene, uncluttered environment,” Kirsten Fisher from Imagine Home Organization says.

You can't figure out how to declutter and organize your home if you can't get a decent night's sleep! To simplify your bedroom, Kirsten suggests:

Being consistent: Give your room a unified look by purchasing a complete bedding set that includes a bedframe, skirt and shams. Commit to taking three minutes each morning to make your bed.

Maximizing storage: Use bedside tables with drawers and add behind-the-door shelves. If you find you need extra storage, place a trunk or long ottoman at the end of the bed.

Keeping surfaces clear: Avoid messy floors and table tops by establishing a “home” for every item in your bedroom. Nothing should be left lying around!

Staying clean: Place your clothes hamper in an easily accessible location, this way dirty items can go directly from your body to the laundry without stopping on the floor or bed.

Month Four: Rearrange your kitchen pantry.

Along with the laundry room, the kitchen probably gets the most work out of any room in your house- - which is why organizing it can be so hard. While you probably clean out your fridge and scrub your counters regularly, you may be guilty of avoiding your pantry.

To declutter and organize your pantry, start by removing everything and giving it a good scrubbing. Then, take a look at everything you have stored inside, and dispose of anything that is expired or will never be used (did you need that much cream of mushroom soup?).

Limit your pantry to the necessities. Donate anything you won't use to a food bank, and move doubles to other cabinets or even the basement.

For the remaining items, Abby from Just a Girl and Her Blog recommends swapping out bulky packaging for containers or bins that can sit on top of one another. She also suggests using cabinet risers to hold things like spices and soups, which give height to items in the back and make them easier to locate.

Month Five: Declutter and organize your shed.

“In order to maximize storage in your shed, you need to provide a storage system,” Kirsten says. “A large empty cube is the least efficient method of storage, so you need to create structure.”

Remove everything from your shed. Eliminate items you no longer use or aren't in the best condition. Organize everything into categories, such as sports gear, gardening equipment, tools and decorations.

“The best solutions utilize the full height of the wall and overhead space,” Kirsten adds. “Organization says minimizing the number of things you have to have on the floor. Utility shelving is excellent and one of the best systems for flexible wall storage for tools is ELFA sold by The Container Store.”

Month Six: Condense your entertainment.

Although the world seems to be becoming increasingly digital, many of us still hold on to our beloved hard copies of DVDs, Blu-Ray Discs and even VHS tapes (nostalgia, right?). Instead of letting those bulky plastic cases take over your living room, invest in a multimedia shelving system.

Before deciding on the size of your unit, take a look at your inventory and omit anything you don't need. When is the last time your teenage children watched those cartoons? Figure out what your family still uses, and donate or store the rest.

Once you've established your new library, create a system that determines how you organize your media on your shelves. You can get as specific as you want (by album title, artist name or genre). If you're wondering how to organize your home and are really short on space (and don't mind ditching the cases), opt for a simplified setup.

“When storing movies, DVDs and CDs, it's really helpful to remove the DVDs and CDs from their packaging and store your movies and music in a DVD binder instead,” Lauren Kim from momhomeguide.com says. “A DVD binder has several sheets of plastic sleeves that can store at least 200 DVDs and CDs. I moved my family's movies into a DVD binder, and now instead of storing our movies in a big ottoman, we can store our movies in a slim binder that fits easily into our TV entertainment unit.”

Month Seven: Revitalize your bathroom cabinet.

Although it's commonly referred to as a medicine cabinet, you're better off using this space for your beauty products.

“Consider moving drugs to a different location, such as a high kitchen shelf,” Alice Daniel from Better Homes and Gardens suggests. “High humidity and heat can cause some medicines to lose their potency. Wherever you store your medicines, make sure they are out of reach of children.”

Only the most-used items should be stored in your bathroom cabinet. If you don't use it daily, put it in the closet or under your sink. To organize your remaining items:

Use jars: Clear jars make it easy to quickly find whatever you are searching for. Use them to hold your cotton balls, Q-tips, band-aids and small lotions or ointments.

Add trays: Thin desk trays double as the perfect organizer for small items, like nail polish, tweezers and other tools.

Place by popularity: To avoid adding time to your already hectic morning, organize your supplies based on how often you use them. Place most-used product at eye level, and less popular ones on higher shelves.

Month Eight: Focus on your furry friends.

You may not be able to train your four-legged friends how to declutter and organize your home, but you change a few things to make it easier to keep them safe and organized.

“Just like with children, it's important to weed out your pet's playthings from time to time,” Sarah Soboleski from Classically Organized advises. “Your pet most likely has a favorite chew toy and preferred stuffed animal, so work on letting the rest go. And, of course, you should have one central location to keep their playthings. A bin or basket or even a diaper caddy could work well to corral their items.”

It's also a smart idea to buy an inexpensive rubber mat to put under your pet's food and water bowls. This will keep it from sliding around, protecting the floor from scratches and spills.

Just like you, your pets have a unique list of special needs. Type up relevant care instructions, like medicines, allergies, contact information and directions to the nearest animal hospital, to put with your family's records. This way, whoever is in charge of your companion will know what to do if anything was to happen.

Month Nine: Purge your playroom.

“A thing that's important in any organizing endeavor,” Stacy Erickson, a child development specialist and professional organizing blogger for Home Key Organization, says, “is to have the least amount of stuff possible. Less stuff equals less to clean/put away which equals more time.”

Kids are constantly getting new toys and games. Before jumping right into your organization project, take the time to donate your child's unused toys.

“Reducing the amount of toys in your space not only makes things less overwhelming for you, but it can also help your child focus better and become more engaged in independent play,” Stacy explains. “Try putting half of the toys that are out right now away in a safe storage spot. Carefully observe your kids for a couple of days after that and see what happens.”

Organize toys based on similarity, and store them in clear bins for easy visibility.

Abby recommends labeling everything - this will help you or your child find things quickly.

Use wall storage and stackable bins to keep your floors clear of clutter.

Following this system will help encourage them to be active themselves in decluttering, regardless of their age.

Month 10: Establish a recycling system.

Americans generate about 254 million tons of trash. That's a lot of garbage! As you figure out how to organize your home, minimize your family's ecological footprint by creating a recycling center right in your own home.

The best way to stay consistent with your recycling is by sticking to one place. Determine an area in your home that can hold the extra storage (the garage, laundry room and kitchen are popular areas), and clear it of any existing clutter.

Then, purchase matching containers. Every area recycles differently, but it's safe to say you'll need at least three options: one for metal, one for plastic and one for paper. Depending on space, you can hang bags from your wall, stack bins on top of each other or place cans next to one another.

“Designate and clearly label containers for your recyclables,” Jill Annis from Simply Organized, LLC says. “Have the containers easily accessible in your kitchen or pantry to prevent recyclables from cluttering counters.”

Month 11: Declutter and organize your home office.

Start this new habit in the new year to significantly declutter and organize your office. “Reduce paper clutter by scanning documents and storing them electronically when possible,” Bryn Huntpalmer of unclutter.com explains. “Organize your electronic files into clearly labeled directories on your computer hard drive and get in the habit of backing up all your files to an external hard drive at least once a week. You might also consider automatic backup to Cloud storage.”

To organize your physical papers, create a color-coded filing system. Each category (medical, financial, insurance, warranties, etc.) should have a unique color or pattern. This will allow you to keep everything in place and easily found in the case of an emergency.

When it comes to the rest of your office goodies - focus on simplicity. Invest in a few boxes and drawers to hold supplies, and be sure to label everything so you know what is inside. Play with fun colors, photos of your loved ones or your favorite quotes. This is a place of creativity - you'll want to surround yourself with a little inspiration!

Month 12: Manage your makeup.

Sick of running late because you couldn't find your go-to red lipstick? Yeah, we've all been there. Take this month to manage your makeup:

Ditch: Even though your makeup hasn't run out yet, it may still be time to ditch it. All makeup has a shelf life, and ignoring it can make your face a breeding ground for bacteria. Dispose of anything that is past its time (do you really need three black mascaras, anyway?).

Divide: “Now that you're left with the products you want to keep,” Sarah Soboleski from Classically Organized says, “start putting things together in categories. Keep your brushes all in one place, your moisturizers together, and your lip glosses grouped with one another. This way you always know where to find something and you can see your collection at a glance to know if you're getting low or missing a certain color.”

Designate: Place each item in a designated space, and commit to keeping it there. Depending on the setup of your vanity, use drawer dividers, acrylic drawers, plastic containers or over-the-door organizers to hold your products.

And don't forget about those brushes! Just wet your brush, swirl it in baby shampoo, rinse and lay to dry overnight.

Too much stuff, not enough space?

You wanted to figure out how to declutter organize your home, and you succeeded - that's great! But now you're left with a ton extra things you're not ready to get rid of, but they don't necessarily have a place in your home.

Our solution? Self-storage. Life Storage offers a variety of storage options to protect even your most delicate belongings. Visit our website to find a storage unit near you. You can even learn more about how you can receive a free rental truck.

How do YOU tackle clutter year-round? We'd love to hear your tips and tricks. Let us know in the comment section below!

This post originally appeared on the Life Storage blog on 1/5/16 and was revised on 12/31/18 to provide new information.

[jodybouchard9]

Time to Face the Most Terrifying Place in Your Whole House

Epifantsev/iStock; realtor.com

Do you feel strong enough to face the most terrifying place in your house? Cue the spooky music and let the horror begin: a roll of dusty electrical tape. A handful of stained, forgotten coffee-shop punch cards. Years-old plastic trinkets from the kids’ arcade. And paper clips! Soooo many sticky, bent paper clips…

We’re talking about your junk drawer. Every home has one, or three. No judgment! In fact, as proof, we pulled out three doozies from the depths of Instagram to prove that you’re not alone … and that, like snowflakes, all junk drawers are different!

And, not to leave you in the lurch, we also want to show you that there’s hope. Whatever junk drawer problem you’ve got, rest assured, it can be tamed into submission. We asked some organizational experts to reveal how it’s done so you, too, can face the abyss and come out alive.

Junk drawer: Before

A junk drawer is a puzzling place for an umbrella.

easybreezycreative/Instagram

Junk drawer: After

Bye-bye, umbrella!

easybreezycreative/Instargram

How to get there

For starters, take comfort in the fact that a messy junk drawer isn’t a personality flaw, but rather a logistical problem that can be solved.

“A junk drawer is typically a collection of ‘I need this handy,’ ‘I don’t know where to put this,’ and ‘This drawer is closer than where I usually keep this,’” says Amy Tokos, a certified professional organizer and productivity consultant in Omaha, NB. “Because it’s a collection of all these items, it gets messy.”

Knowing why items are in the drawer can help determine what to do with them.

Analyze your items. “Figure out what the obstacles are for getting items put away, then remove those obstacles,” says Tokos. For example, let’s talk about that out-of-place leopard-print umbrella. “Why did that end up in the drawer?” asks Tokos. “My inclination would be to keep it near a door to grab on the way out. What prevented it from going to that spot?” Is it because you have an overstuffed coat closet you don’t want to open? Cleaning out that problem area might help your junk drawer issue.

Pack your junk drawer with stuff you use often. Pens, paper clips, tape? If you use it often, then it has a right to stay in your junk drawer. But if not, it should go elsewhere. Purge your drawer of miscellaneous home items you don’t reach for regularly. “You can keep them all together in a container on a shelf,” Tokos says.

  Junk drawer: Before

Clearly, two containers isn’t enough.

Lori Cela/Time4Organizing

Junk drawer: After

So much better!

time4organizing/Instagram

How to get there

First, pull out everything—that way, rather than rearrange things, you can truly take stock and get rid of all broken items and random, useless things like a piece of a puzzle you no longer have or a key to nothing. “This is where you can make the most impact, so be ruthless,” says Lori Cela, owner of Time 4 Organizing in Columbus, OH.

Rehome items you don’t want to part with. “Set aside items that won’t be discarded but either belong elsewhere or need new homes,” Cela says. For instance, that lunch menu went into a kids’ container on the kitchen counter that houses all school papers.

Don’t skimp on containers. Before you put stuff back in, make sure you’ve got plenty of containers. You simply can’t tame a junk drawer without them. “Without dividers or containers, anything you put in the drawer will spread,” says Tokos.

Specialize your drawers. Random electronics should ideally go into a totally new “tech drawer” just for chargers and tech-related items.

  Junk drawer: Before

Grab that Advil; this junk drawer is giving us a headache.

Lori Cela/Time4Organizing

Junk drawer: After

OMG. Go ahead. Look all you want.

Lori Cela/Time4Organizing

How to get there

Nothing wrong with storing Neosporin in your drawer, but you probably don’t need all those tubes, especially if they’ve expired. “Realize how much you have [of all items] and if quantity is the issue,” advises Cela.

Place backups elsewhere. If you don’t need backups handy, store them elsewhere until it’s time to replenish.

Measure your drawers before you buy organizers. “There are so many choices out there,” says Cela. “Find the proper ones [you need] to maximize storage and so they’re not rolling around later and making a mess.”

Be strategic. When you start to place items back into the drawer, put items you’ll use the most in the front and put less-needed stuff in the back.

  How to keep your junk drawer from coming back to haunt you

Because you know it’ll try.

“It’s hard to break habits, especially if you have multiple people sharing a space,” acknowledges Tokos.

Make sure you let everyone in your household know where you rehomed items—and that they should always return them there. And, failing that, “A monthly cleanout is helpful for maintaining,” says Tokos.

The post Time to Face the Most Terrifying Place in Your Whole House appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

[talabib]

How To Organize Your Life!

The way our brain manages information often seems mysterious. Lets lift the veil and reveal the systems that are at work every time we drive a car, learn something new, or try to remember where we put something.

With a greater understanding of these processes, you’ll be better equipped to take charge in organizing your life. You’ll also discover how to apply simple techniques, learn the best way to remain productive at work and even how to cope with situations that are out of your control.

The brain can only focus on a limited number of stimuli at a time.

Have you ever told yourself that you’d like to “get organized?” It’s an easy promise to make, but difficult to put into action. So where can you get started?

Well, before we even approach this challenge, we must first understand in greater detail the way our mind works, more specifically, our attentional system. This is the way our brain handles and categorizes information. The times we live in pose a great challenge to this system, because our brains aren’t equipped to cope with the flood of new facts and sights that we face everyday. Instead, brains work best when concentrating on one thing at a time.

This was vital for our ancestors, who hunted successfully by staying highly focused. Their thoughts would only be disrupted by important events, such as an approaching predator.

Nowadays, we’re constantly attempting to do many things at once. Driving a car, listening to the radio, thinking about an upcoming business meeting – it’s not unusual that all these things happen simultaneously. This is something that our brain has not evolved to do successfully, which means that multitasking comes at a price.

When we switch our attention between different activities, our brain is unable to function effectively. This in turn causes us to make thoughtless mistakes, or forget and misplace things.

In order to better understand our attentional system, we also need to consider how our brain decides how to divide its attention. It’s all to do with the brain’s remarkable ability to detect changes.

Our brains are more likely to pay attention to changes than constants. For example, imagine you’re driving your car. You suddenly notice that the road feels bumpy. Prior to this, you didn’t even consider how even the street was, simply because this was not useful information.

That realization could be vital, because it alerts you to a treacherous change in surface or a problem with your car. Changing circumstances can pose a threat to our survival.

Because we’re surrounded by more and more information, we’re forced to make more and more decisions.

Decisions are part of everyday life: Should we opt for the cheaper internet plan, or pay more and get unlimited data? Should we respond to this email now, or read these texts first? We confront decisions like these nearly every minute. But how can our brain cope with this non-stop flow of decisions when it originally evolved to process one idea at a time?

It’s simple: we can manage the flood of information by focusing our attention. Our brain instinctively concentrates on the information that is most important for us.

Here’s an example: imagine you’re on a busy street, desperately looking for your lost dog. You automatically fade out all unnecessary details like the people, cars and buses, and only focus on things that are the same size and color as your dog. So unless there are a lot of other things on this street that are about knee-height, fluffy and brown, your brain immediately makes it easier to find your beloved pet.

This automatic process of honing our focus down to what’s necessary should also be reflected in our decision making. In other words, you shouldn’t spend too much time on less important everyday choices. Instead, find shortcuts and ways to simplify your decision making.

For example, one type of decision we often need to make is about purchasing products or services that can make our lives easier. A good way to analyze these decisions is by thinking about the monetary value of our own time, because it allows us to compare it to the benefit the product promises.

Let’s say you’re thinking about hiring someone to clean your home instead of doing it yourself. Just ask yourself: Would you be willing to pay $50 for two extra hours of free time? If the answer is yes, then go for it without deliberating any further!

Find a designated place for every single object.

When was the last time you lost your keys, phone or glasses? It seems ridiculous that the objects we need with us all the time are also the ones that seem to go wandering most often. The reason is straightforward: we lose these objects because we carry them around with us. Objects that we only use in one place, like our toothbrush, seldom get lost at all.

There is, in fact, a special part of our brain dedicated specifically to remembering the location of things. It’s called the hippocampus, and it was crucial for our ancestors who needed to know where a watering hole was, or the areas where predators might pounce.

In order to learn more about our hippocampi, researchers studied the brains of London taxi drivers, as they are required to commit the city’s street plan to memory. The tests revealed that the hippocampi of the drivers were larger than hippocampi in other people of similar education and age. These larger hippocampi were attributed to the need to recall many locations in detail.

However, the hippocampus can only provide us with information about objects whose location doesn’t change. This isn’t a problem for a taxi driver trying to remember how to get to a particular building, but is a constant problem for us when we try to remember where our frustratingly mobile keys are.

To ensure that you don’t always have to seek out these essential items, simply find a designated place for them. A special bowl next to the door for your keys always does the trick!

If you can’t set aside a certain place for an object, then it may also help to purchase duplicates. For example, if you need reading glasses, having a single location for them might prove frustrating as you may need them in different places. Instead, you could purchase a pair for your bedroom for nighttime reading, while another pair remains at work.

Give your brain a break – move your organizational processes outside your head.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by all the different ideas and thoughts floating around inside your head? The best way to ensure you can keep track of them is to organize them outside your head.

A time-tested trick to unburden your brain is to write things down. Good old-fashioned flash cards are an easy and effective way to record and organize ideas as soon as you think of them.

For example, you might be on the bus and suddenly remember that you still have to buy a birthday present for your aunt. Don’t stress, just write it down and you’ll no longer have the burden of trying to remember it all day!

On the other hand, if you think of something that you could do right away – such as calling your aunt to say happy birthday – then don’t think twice, do it immediately. Think of it in terms of the two-minute rule: if the task takes longer than two minutes to complete, then write it down. Otherwise, do it straight away.

Another effective approach is to organize your written thoughts into categories. This mirrors the way our brains are constantly categorizing new stimuli and helps simplify our thinking, thus saving time and increasing our attention capacity.

For example, if we see a flying object with feathers, our brain recognizes it as part of the category “bird.” Though this bird might be a hawk or an eagle, it’s easier to place it in this broader category rather than identify it specifically.

The same goes for our flash cards – collect them together and sort them into different groups according to the topics they relate to. These could be categories such as “Personal Life,” “Work” or “Kids.”This way you’ll be able to keep your thoughts and ideas organized and accessible.

Junk drawers for miscellaneous items are incredibly effective – use them every day.

We’ve seen how creating categories is a great way to organize our thoughts and our lives. But what should we do with objects and ideas that don’t seem to belong in any pigeonhole? Well, these miscellaneous items can form their own category.

The categorizing tendencies of the brain can be seen in the way that we organize our living spaces. In our homes, there’s usually at least one place where random objects like single light bulbs, paper clips or car-cleaning products go. Why? Because it wouldn’t make sense to have a special drawer for light bulbs if you only had a few – combining them with other spare objects is much more space efficient.

You could even use one of these junk drawers at work. A miscellaneous folder, perhaps, containing documents that don’t fit into other folders but are also too important to dispose of. However, junk drawers will only be effective if we perform a little bit of maintenance from time to time.

The first way to do this is to keep checking their content regularly. This stops us losing track of what’s in there, which would reduce its organizational advantage. Some items can be eliminated from a junk drawer – if you’re sorting through objects that you haven’t yet felt the need to use, it’s unlikely that you’ll need them in the future. These can be thrown out.

You may also find that items in junk drawers can be moved to other places for more specific types of objects later. For example, perhaps you’ve recently developed an interest in scrapbooking. If you go through your junk drawer, you’ll almost certainly discover objects that could find a new home in the scrapbooking drawer – that extra pair of scissors, maybe, or the double-sided sticky tape.

Set aside time to refuel so you can increase your productivity later.

Everyone knows that you tend to be far more productive after a good night’s sleep. And yet, we’re often tempted to skip a few hours of kip in order to work just a little bit more.

This, however, is a mistake. Our brain works incredibly hard while we sleep, processing new information from the day and integrating it into our existing knowledge. Memories, problems and ideas often appear in our dreams and we may find ourselves better positioned to solve a problem after “sleeping on it.”

This phenomenon is backed up by studies. Researchers found that students attempting to solve a problem performed better following a night of sleep than they did working on it for the same length of waking time.

Ultimately, you’re twice as likely to solve a problem after you’ve slept on it. This shows that sleep is essential, and attempting to work when you’re tired is counterproductive.

Sleep isn’t the only way that we can refuel our minds. Many companies have discovered the benefits of decreasing employee work time and providing facilities and opportunities for rest.

For example, at Microsoft, employees are welcome to use the in-house spa to relax and recharge. This is not only great for employees, but, as studies have shown that productivity increases when working hours drop, the use of downtime in facilities such as these may well be a driving force behind increased productivity.

Accounting firm Ernst & Young has also improved worker performance by allowing additional vacation time. In fact, for every additional ten vacation hours taken by employees, the employees’ performance rating increased by eight percent.

It’s important to think about the worst-case scenario so you’re always prepared.

Imagine this: you’re on vacation and have just found out that the airline has lost your luggage. How would you react? Of course it’s good to be optimistic – perhaps they’ll find your bag! But it’s better still to be prepared. Good thing you brought that extra toothbrush!

Each time you plan something, you should consider all the things that could go wrong and think of a solution to them before they occur. Planning for failure in this way needn’t be difficult – it’s as straightforward as placing an extra key under the flowerpot by your front door.

A plan B is especially important in business situations. It’s true that sometimes things just happen. You forget an important appointment, or you lose the contact details of someone you need to speak to.

If you plan your time ahead, these mistakes will be less likely. With the assistance of an electronic calendar, either on your phone, computer, or both, you can ensure you’ll never forget about meetings again.

A plan B at work can also include keeping an extra shirt in your office, in case you accidentally spill your coffee before an important appointment with your boss!

It’s also important that we don’t rely on technology alone to prevent us from slipping up. Phones, computers and other technical devices aren’t perfect and at some point will let us down without warning. This is why you should also prepare non-technical solutions as a backup.

This is something that your taxi driver does. They always keep a plastic credit card press in their car in case their electronic credit card machine doesn’t work. This way, they can ensure they don’t lose any fares due to technical failure.

We can’t know the answer to every question, but we can know where and how to find it!

Today, we lead very different lives to our grandparents. One of the greatest changes is the way we can easily access vast amounts of information in no time at all. Googling something takes less than a minute! Nevertheless, there’s one important question we should continually ask ourselves: Is this information reliable?

Many of us have used Wikipedia before. The information it can provide us on a wide range of topics is hugely helpful, but is subject to a major drawback. Anyone is able to edit the information on a Wikipedia page, so we can never immediately be sure whether it is reliable. This means we should take the time to verify the information.

In order to evaluate whether a website is a valuable source or not, we can first investigate whether any reliable websites, such as established news services or government websites link to the website. If so, the site itself is likely to be reliable, and information can also be verified by cross-checking it with the content on several other websites.

However, not every problem can be solved by checking online. In complex dilemmas, particularly in the workplace, you’ll need to think for yourself in order to find solutions. Inventive and innovative thinking is something you just can’t google for! In such cases, the ability to reason, estimate and develop hypothetical assumptions is vital.

For example, in Google’s own job interviews, potential candidates are confronted with a question that has no correct answer. Here’s one for you to try on for size: “How much does the Empire State Building weigh?” Google was interested in whether the candidate could use their logical skills to work through a problem on their own, for example, by calculating the approximate size and weight of the concrete used for the building.

Get to grips with probabilities and gain a vital skill for assessing information.

Imagine you’re at a university where ten percent of students are engineers. Look, here comes a student wearing a pocket protector: a plastic sheath for holding pens in your shirt pocket. Now, what would you say is the probability that this is an engineering student?

The fact that a pocket protector is a standard accessory for the stereotypical nerdy student might cause many of you to think he very likely studies engineering. But remember the ten percent ratio. If 90 percent of students aren’t engineers, it’s far more likely that our pocket-protector friend doesn’t study engineering.

Our initial misconception reflects the way in which a person or situation that seems a perfect example of something can cause us to ignore the base rate. A base rate is the probability of an event occurring without taking other factors into account.

Along with base rates, we must also keep in mind that our perception of probability is often relative to the situation we are currently in – our starting point.

Imagine that you’re very sick. Your doctor offers you a treatment that will increase the likelihood of your recovery by ten percent. If the treatment increases your likelihood of recovery from zero to ten percent, you’ll go from certain death to a ten percent chance of living. And, if it increases from 90 percent to 100 percent, your recovery is guaranteed. In both cases, you’ll likely opt for the treatment.

what if it increases from 20 percent to 30 percent? Then, you might hesitate and inquire about the side effects and cost of the treatment before agreeing to it.

From a statistical perspective, this is bizarre since in all of these cases, the increase of ten percent is the same. The scenarios just feel different because of their varying starting points.

Though our brains often have difficulty dealing with probabilities, by remembering the mathematics behind them, we can make our choices with a greater and more objective understanding of their implications.

We live in an age of information overload. This presents a challenge for our brains, which are wired to manage information by focusing attention on one thing at a time. By learning about the way our brain distinguishes, focuses and categorizes, we can better organize our own lives.

[talabib]

How To Organize Your Life!

The way our brain manages information often seems mysterious. Lets lift the veil and reveal the systems that are at work every time we drive a car, learn something new, or try to remember where we put something.

With a greater understanding of these processes, you’ll be better equipped to take charge in organizing your life. You’ll also discover how to apply simple techniques, learn the best way to remain productive at work and even how to cope with situations that are out of your control.

The brain can only focus on a limited number of stimuli at a time.

Have you ever told yourself that you’d like to “get organized?” It’s an easy promise to make, but difficult to put into action. So where can you get started?

Well, before we even approach this challenge, we must first understand in greater detail the way our mind works, more specifically, our attentional system. This is the way our brain handles and categorizes information. The times we live in pose a great challenge to this system, because our brains aren’t equipped to cope with the flood of new facts and sights that we face everyday. Instead, brains work best when concentrating on one thing at a time.

This was vital for our ancestors, who hunted successfully by staying highly focused. Their thoughts would only be disrupted by important events, such as an approaching predator.

Nowadays, we’re constantly attempting to do many things at once. Driving a car, listening to the radio, thinking about an upcoming business meeting – it’s not unusual that all these things happen simultaneously. This is something that our brain has not evolved to do successfully, which means that multitasking comes at a price.

When we switch our attention between different activities, our brain is unable to function effectively. This in turn causes us to make thoughtless mistakes, or forget and misplace things.

In order to better understand our attentional system, we also need to consider how our brain decides how to divide its attention. It’s all to do with the brain’s remarkable ability to detect changes.

Our brains are more likely to pay attention to changes than constants. For example, imagine you’re driving your car. You suddenly notice that the road feels bumpy. Prior to this, you didn’t even consider how even the street was, simply because this was not useful information.

That realization could be vital, because it alerts you to a treacherous change in surface or a problem with your car. Changing circumstances can pose a threat to our survival.

Because we’re surrounded by more and more information, we’re forced to make more and more decisions.

Decisions are part of everyday life: Should we opt for the cheaper internet plan, or pay more and get unlimited data? Should we respond to this email now, or read these texts first? We confront decisions like these nearly every minute. But how can our brain cope with this non-stop flow of decisions when it originally evolved to process one idea at a time?

It’s simple: we can manage the flood of information by focusing our attention. Our brain instinctively concentrates on the information that is most important for us.

Here’s an example: imagine you’re on a busy street, desperately looking for your lost dog. You automatically fade out all unnecessary details like the people, cars and buses, and only focus on things that are the same size and color as your dog. So unless there are a lot of other things on this street that are about knee-height, fluffy and brown, your brain immediately makes it easier to find your beloved pet.

This automatic process of honing our focus down to what’s necessary should also be reflected in our decision making. In other words, you shouldn’t spend too much time on less important everyday choices. Instead, find shortcuts and ways to simplify your decision making.

For example, one type of decision we often need to make is about purchasing products or services that can make our lives easier. A good way to analyze these decisions is by thinking about the monetary value of our own time, because it allows us to compare it to the benefit the product promises.

Let’s say you’re thinking about hiring someone to clean your home instead of doing it yourself. Just ask yourself: Would you be willing to pay $50 for two extra hours of free time? If the answer is yes, then go for it without deliberating any further!

Find a designated place for every single object.

When was the last time you lost your keys, phone or glasses? It seems ridiculous that the objects we need with us all the time are also the ones that seem to go wandering most often. The reason is straightforward: we lose these objects because we carry them around with us. Objects that we only use in one place, like our toothbrush, seldom get lost at all.

There is, in fact, a special part of our brain dedicated specifically to remembering the location of things. It’s called the hippocampus, and it was crucial for our ancestors who needed to know where a watering hole was, or the areas where predators might pounce.

In order to learn more about our hippocampi, researchers studied the brains of London taxi drivers, as they are required to commit the city’s street plan to memory. The tests revealed that the hippocampi of the drivers were larger than hippocampi in other people of similar education and age. These larger hippocampi were attributed to the need to recall many locations in detail.

However, the hippocampus can only provide us with information about objects whose location doesn’t change. This isn’t a problem for a taxi driver trying to remember how to get to a particular building, but is a constant problem for us when we try to remember where our frustratingly mobile keys are.

To ensure that you don’t always have to seek out these essential items, simply find a designated place for them. A special bowl next to the door for your keys always does the trick!

If you can’t set aside a certain place for an object, then it may also help to purchase duplicates. For example, if you need reading glasses, having a single location for them might prove frustrating as you may need them in different places. Instead, you could purchase a pair for your bedroom for nighttime reading, while another pair remains at work.

Give your brain a break – move your organizational processes outside your head.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by all the different ideas and thoughts floating around inside your head? The best way to ensure you can keep track of them is to organize them outside your head.

A time-tested trick to unburden your brain is to write things down. Good old-fashioned flash cards are an easy and effective way to record and organize ideas as soon as you think of them.

For example, you might be on the bus and suddenly remember that you still have to buy a birthday present for your aunt. Don’t stress, just write it down and you’ll no longer have the burden of trying to remember it all day!

On the other hand, if you think of something that you could do right away – such as calling your aunt to say happy birthday – then don’t think twice, do it immediately. Think of it in terms of the two-minute rule: if the task takes longer than two minutes to complete, then write it down. Otherwise, do it straight away.

Another effective approach is to organize your written thoughts into categories. This mirrors the way our brains are constantly categorizing new stimuli and helps simplify our thinking, thus saving time and increasing our attention capacity.

For example, if we see a flying object with feathers, our brain recognizes it as part of the category “bird.” Though this bird might be a hawk or an eagle, it’s easier to place it in this broader category rather than identify it specifically.

The same goes for our flash cards – collect them together and sort them into different groups according to the topics they relate to. These could be categories such as “Personal Life,” “Work” or “Kids.”This way you’ll be able to keep your thoughts and ideas organized and accessible.

Junk drawers for miscellaneous items are incredibly effective – use them every day.

We’ve seen how creating categories is a great way to organize our thoughts and our lives. But what should we do with objects and ideas that don’t seem to belong in any pigeonhole? Well, these miscellaneous items can form their own category.

The categorizing tendencies of the brain can be seen in the way that we organize our living spaces. In our homes, there’s usually at least one place where random objects like single light bulbs, paper clips or car-cleaning products go. Why? Because it wouldn’t make sense to have a special drawer for light bulbs if you only had a few – combining them with other spare objects is much more space efficient.

You could even use one of these junk drawers at work. A miscellaneous folder, perhaps, containing documents that don’t fit into other folders but are also too important to dispose of. However, junk drawers will only be effective if we perform a little bit of maintenance from time to time.

The first way to do this is to keep checking their content regularly. This stops us losing track of what’s in there, which would reduce its organizational advantage. Some items can be eliminated from a junk drawer – if you’re sorting through objects that you haven’t yet felt the need to use, it’s unlikely that you’ll need them in the future. These can be thrown out.

You may also find that items in junk drawers can be moved to other places for more specific types of objects later. For example, perhaps you’ve recently developed an interest in scrapbooking. If you go through your junk drawer, you’ll almost certainly discover objects that could find a new home in the scrapbooking drawer – that extra pair of scissors, maybe, or the double-sided sticky tape.

Set aside time to refuel so you can increase your productivity later.

Everyone knows that you tend to be far more productive after a good night’s sleep. And yet, we’re often tempted to skip a few hours of kip in order to work just a little bit more.

This, however, is a mistake. Our brain works incredibly hard while we sleep, processing new information from the day and integrating it into our existing knowledge. Memories, problems and ideas often appear in our dreams and we may find ourselves better positioned to solve a problem after “sleeping on it.”

This phenomenon is backed up by studies. Researchers found that students attempting to solve a problem performed better following a night of sleep than they did working on it for the same length of waking time.

Ultimately, you’re twice as likely to solve a problem after you’ve slept on it. This shows that sleep is essential, and attempting to work when you’re tired is counterproductive.

Sleep isn’t the only way that we can refuel our minds. Many companies have discovered the benefits of decreasing employee work time and providing facilities and opportunities for rest.

For example, at Microsoft, employees are welcome to use the in-house spa to relax and recharge. This is not only great for employees, but, as studies have shown that productivity increases when working hours drop, the use of downtime in facilities such as these may well be a driving force behind increased productivity.

Accounting firm Ernst & Young has also improved worker performance by allowing additional vacation time. In fact, for every additional ten vacation hours taken by employees, the employees’ performance rating increased by eight percent.

It’s important to think about the worst-case scenario so you’re always prepared.

Imagine this: you’re on vacation and have just found out that the airline has lost your luggage. How would you react? Of course it’s good to be optimistic – perhaps they’ll find your bag! But it’s better still to be prepared. Good thing you brought that extra toothbrush!

Each time you plan something, you should consider all the things that could go wrong and think of a solution to them before they occur. Planning for failure in this way needn’t be difficult – it’s as straightforward as placing an extra key under the flowerpot by your front door.

A plan B is especially important in business situations. It’s true that sometimes things just happen. You forget an important appointment, or you lose the contact details of someone you need to speak to.

If you plan your time ahead, these mistakes will be less likely. With the assistance of an electronic calendar, either on your phone, computer, or both, you can ensure you’ll never forget about meetings again.

A plan B at work can also include keeping an extra shirt in your office, in case you accidentally spill your coffee before an important appointment with your boss!

It’s also important that we don’t rely on technology alone to prevent us from slipping up. Phones, computers and other technical devices aren’t perfect and at some point will let us down without warning. This is why you should also prepare non-technical solutions as a backup.

This is something that your taxi driver does. They always keep a plastic credit card press in their car in case their electronic credit card machine doesn’t work. This way, they can ensure they don’t lose any fares due to technical failure.

We can’t know the answer to every question, but we can know where and how to find it!

Today, we lead very different lives to our grandparents. One of the greatest changes is the way we can easily access vast amounts of information in no time at all. Googling something takes less than a minute! Nevertheless, there’s one important question we should continually ask ourselves: Is this information reliable?

Many of us have used Wikipedia before. The information it can provide us on a wide range of topics is hugely helpful, but is subject to a major drawback. Anyone is able to edit the information on a Wikipedia page, so we can never immediately be sure whether it is reliable. This means we should take the time to verify the information.

In order to evaluate whether a website is a valuable source or not, we can first investigate whether any reliable websites, such as established news services or government websites link to the website. If so, the site itself is likely to be reliable, and information can also be verified by cross-checking it with the content on several other websites.

However, not every problem can be solved by checking online. In complex dilemmas, particularly in the workplace, you’ll need to think for yourself in order to find solutions. Inventive and innovative thinking is something you just can’t google for! In such cases, the ability to reason, estimate and develop hypothetical assumptions is vital.

For example, in Google’s own job interviews, potential candidates are confronted with a question that has no correct answer. Here’s one for you to try on for size: “How much does the Empire State Building weigh?” Google was interested in whether the candidate could use their logical skills to work through a problem on their own, for example, by calculating the approximate size and weight of the concrete used for the building.

Get to grips with probabilities and gain a vital skill for assessing information.

Imagine you’re at a university where ten percent of students are engineers. Look, here comes a student wearing a pocket protector: a plastic sheath for holding pens in your shirt pocket. Now, what would you say is the probability that this is an engineering student?

The fact that a pocket protector is a standard accessory for the stereotypical nerdy student might cause many of you to think he very likely studies engineering. But remember the ten percent ratio. If 90 percent of students aren’t engineers, it’s far more likely that our pocket-protector friend doesn’t study engineering.

Our initial misconception reflects the way in which a person or situation that seems a perfect example of something can cause us to ignore the base rate. A base rate is the probability of an event occurring without taking other factors into account.

Along with base rates, we must also keep in mind that our perception of probability is often relative to the situation we are currently in – our starting point.

Imagine that you’re very sick. Your doctor offers you a treatment that will increase the likelihood of your recovery by ten percent. If the treatment increases your likelihood of recovery from zero to ten percent, you’ll go from certain death to a ten percent chance of living. And, if it increases from 90 percent to 100 percent, your recovery is guaranteed. In both cases, you’ll likely opt for the treatment.

what if it increases from 20 percent to 30 percent? Then, you might hesitate and inquire about the side effects and cost of the treatment before agreeing to it.

From a statistical perspective, this is bizarre since in all of these cases, the increase of ten percent is the same. The scenarios just feel different because of their varying starting points.

Though our brains often have difficulty dealing with probabilities, by remembering the mathematics behind them, we can make our choices with a greater and more objective understanding of their implications.

We live in an age of information overload. This presents a challenge for our brains, which are wired to manage information by focusing attention on one thing at a time. By learning about the way our brain distinguishes, focuses and categorizes, we can better organize our own lives.