I am still trying to figure out how to Have Computers correctly, because they suffer from this weird constraint where they’re only really useful if I can carry them all over, but if I do that I lose them all the time.
(Symptomatically, I’m typing this on your broken/cast-off macbook =P)
The way I keep from leaving my laptop anywhere is to put my car keys in the laptop bag.
Barring rides with other people and mass transit, it’s impossible to leave your car keys somewhere. And if you travel mass transit, you could leave your wallet in the laptop bag instead. But even if you do travel sans car, you will notice your lack of keys/computer the second you get home, instead of figuring it hours or days later when you try to use the computer.
I do this trick with things beside my laptop, like if I’m helping move furniture and don’t want to endanger the phone in my pocket, I make sure my car keys are one of the things I remove also. If I’m somewhere else, and there is anything I might leave, my keys are with it. (And this rule also requires that all of my things are in the same place, another good rule in general.)
I also do this at home, in a way...I put things I need to remember to take with me on top of my car keys, so I can’t take the keys without picking that thing up. (This is obviously not a good plan if you can’t keep track of where you leave your keys at home, as it will make them harder to find. But I don’t have that problem, I only have one place they ever get left.)
I can’t keep track of my keys, and I don’t drive. (No car keys, but housekey/mailbox key/office key all fairly important.) So I attached my keychain to the zipper on my wallet, because I basically can’t go anywhere without my wallet. Astonishingly, I have not misplaced my keys or my wallet since doing this.
There exist wallet-finders and so on but I haven’t used one. Attaching it to a laptop may keep you from forgetting it places, though it might be the sort of thing that’s inconvenient enough that you end up not using it.
If you want to attack this from the “quit losing them” angle, one way is
to use spaced-repetition
software to train you to
notice when you’re in circumstances where you might be about to walk
away without your computer (or whatever your failure mode is). I do
something like this to train myself to be mindful whenever I get out of
my car. (For context, I drive almost every day.) Specifically:
I have an Anki card that says, “When’s the last
time you got out of a car? Did you check what you should have?” The
back of the card says “Dome light, keys, headlights, lock.”
When Anki gives me this card, I score myself well only if I remember
getting out of the car and checking the things on my checklist while
doing so.
I’ve been doing this for less than three months and it has not fixed my
brain yet. But I’m pretty sure it works: Currently I might go up to
three days without doing my getting-out-of-car ritual, while previously
I might go for months and months at a time without doing it. (I lock my
keys in my car around once a year.) I have similar cards for checking
the parking brake, doing my leaving-the-house checklist, and putting my
car keys in my pocket when I turn the car off but do not immediately get
out. (This last is a specific locking-the-keys-in-the-car failure mode
for me.)
I am still trying to figure out how to Have Computers correctly, because they suffer from this weird constraint where they’re only really useful if I can carry them all over, but if I do that I lose them all the time.
(Symptomatically, I’m typing this on your broken/cast-off macbook =P)
The way I keep from leaving my laptop anywhere is to put my car keys in the laptop bag.
Barring rides with other people and mass transit, it’s impossible to leave your car keys somewhere. And if you travel mass transit, you could leave your wallet in the laptop bag instead. But even if you do travel sans car, you will notice your lack of keys/computer the second you get home, instead of figuring it hours or days later when you try to use the computer.
I do this trick with things beside my laptop, like if I’m helping move furniture and don’t want to endanger the phone in my pocket, I make sure my car keys are one of the things I remove also. If I’m somewhere else, and there is anything I might leave, my keys are with it. (And this rule also requires that all of my things are in the same place, another good rule in general.)
I also do this at home, in a way...I put things I need to remember to take with me on top of my car keys, so I can’t take the keys without picking that thing up. (This is obviously not a good plan if you can’t keep track of where you leave your keys at home, as it will make them harder to find. But I don’t have that problem, I only have one place they ever get left.)
I can’t keep track of my keys, and I don’t drive. (No car keys, but housekey/mailbox key/office key all fairly important.) So I attached my keychain to the zipper on my wallet, because I basically can’t go anywhere without my wallet. Astonishingly, I have not misplaced my keys or my wallet since doing this.
Physically attach the computer to something which is impossible to leave behind, or which provides a physical cue when you walk away from it?
I keep my smartphone in a belt holster; it is (almost) always either on the charger, in the holster, or in my hand.
There exist wallet-finders and so on but I haven’t used one. Attaching it to a laptop may keep you from forgetting it places, though it might be the sort of thing that’s inconvenient enough that you end up not using it.
If you want to attack this from the “quit losing them” angle, one way is to use spaced-repetition software to train you to notice when you’re in circumstances where you might be about to walk away without your computer (or whatever your failure mode is). I do something like this to train myself to be mindful whenever I get out of my car. (For context, I drive almost every day.) Specifically:
I have an Anki card that says, “When’s the last time you got out of a car? Did you check what you should have?” The back of the card says “Dome light, keys, headlights, lock.”
When Anki gives me this card, I score myself well only if I remember getting out of the car and checking the things on my checklist while doing so.
I’ve been doing this for less than three months and it has not fixed my brain yet. But I’m pretty sure it works: Currently I might go up to three days without doing my getting-out-of-car ritual, while previously I might go for months and months at a time without doing it. (I lock my keys in my car around once a year.) I have similar cards for checking the parking brake, doing my leaving-the-house checklist, and putting my car keys in my pocket when I turn the car off but do not immediately get out. (This last is a specific locking-the-keys-in-the-car failure mode for me.)
Or fix the door lock to require a key to lock the door.
Smartphone or tablet, with really snazzy synchronization with your main box?
His phones aren’t immune from getting lost (although it’s slightly less likely, as they can live in jeans pockets).
There are programs now that make it easier to find them if they’re lost, like Find My iPhone.
It won’t help with all the ways of losing such things, but the left on the bus type scenarios will be reduced.
That, and they’re cheaper to replace.