There are a lot of things that you can do to improve your life. Simple, inexpensive or free things that can make whole parts of your days way easier. Choosing not to do these simple things makes you dumb. Here are a few examples:

Someone in my office is using his desk from the wrong side. A while ago, another colleague had to use his computer (a laptop) and this person swiveled the computer to face the wrong side of the desk. Now, before I get emails telling me that there is no “wrong side” and “life is just life, man, chill”, I will tell you that there is very much a wrong side to this desk. One side of the desk is open, where your legs could comfortably fit underneath it, you know…like a desk. The other side is closed, with a big piece of desk falling where the knees should go under. I hope I don’t need to explain this further. So, for weeks, this colleague has been using this desk from the wrong side. He sits sideways at it so that he can reach the computer. Does anyone else find this insane? I sure do. It would take two seconds and a minimal amount of body energy to turn the laptop back to the other side of the desk. Why not do it? Why!!? 

A good friend of mine, who also bikes, is a prime example of someone who could improve their life with a bit of observation and by doing simple things. She and I both use u-locks for our bikes…you know the kind. And for a long time, she would park her bike at the school we attended by locking it to an iron fence. Now, the fence was there to prevent people from falling into a small dropped area beside one of the buildings. Not a huge drop, but 3 or 4 feet with plants and shrubbery at the bottom (accessible, but a pain to get to). And every day when she locked her bike to this fence, she put the guts of the U-lock, (the orange part, in this picture) on the other side of the fence. This meant that if, while opening the lock, she dropped part of it (which happens with some regularity), the guts of the lock and her keys attached to it would fall into the garden abyss below. This made for some fun winter-time snow searching on more than one occasion. If she had just put the “U” through the fence, this all could have been avoided. 

There are also lots of small things that can be purchased to improve our lives. I am talking about very small items, like pens to have around your home, kitchen items like chip clips or a decent corkscrew, Kleenex (for real, I don’t know how some people don’t have Kleenex at least somewhere in their house (I prefer to keep some within arms-reach at all times, but I have some rough allergies)), office basics like scotch tape, a pair of mini-gloves for your car, an extra bottle of wine (no explanation needed) or an extra deodorant (or toothpaste or supply of toilet paper- when these things run out, it is not good!). A recurring theme in these posts is that people who prepare for inevitabilities are not dumb, and people who don’t prepare are dumb. It is pretty simple. Observe, Assess, Act! These are words to live by.

These situations have people subjecting themselves to unnecessary hassle, and these problems could be easily, easily fixed! Turn your laptop 180 degrees around. Put your bike lock on in a logical way. Buy little things to improve your quality of life. Don’t be dumb. It is simple.