I believe in science. I believe in psychology. I believe in Findology!
There is a science and method to looking around your house for things that once you’ve learnt will make your life more enjoyable and less stressful.
The first rule of Findology is that you cannot find something unless it’s you acknowledge it’s missing. You need to move from panic, into a productive state. Go into your front-room and loudly proclaim “My house keys are missing and I can only find it, if I look for it”. Once you’ve done this, stand still for 10 seconds and contemplate emotionally that you have a small, easy task to perform. A quick search.
Here are some simple methodical steps
- The missing item is in the place you think it is. Why wouldn’t it be? Statistically it is probably within 18 inches of where you think it is. It has fallen behind something. Something is draped over it.
- No? That’s fine. It’s in the last place you saw it. You memory is the problem here, not the item. The item is not lost, you need to find your memories.
- Everything has a home. Every piece of sellotape, every pen, every ornament. There’s a “default” place you would put it, had you bought it home new. Your brain is a database and there’s also an algorithm to put new things in new homes. If your memory fails, your algorithm to assign something a home should select the correct place. Its where you think it should belong.
- You’re now going to have to adopt “the algorithm”. The algorithm is to search your house. You are going to search each place thoroughly, so that you only search it once. You will search things in the likely-hood of it being there. Think about your house having “hotspots” and “coldspots” of activity. A table is a hotspot. The bathroom is a cold spot (typically).
- Consult Dr. Solomon’s advice, using the link below.
With practice and discipline, you can become fast, organised and committed at performing a single thorough house search. It no longer becomes a chore. It is a simple, quick and reliably successful exercise you have to do, comparable to taking the bin out. Searching is easy.
As you accept Findology as your belief system, you more consciously consider the “homes” of your items. You pick up, fondle and lovingly gaze upon things like Glue sticks and say
“hello mr glue stick, you live in the draw, let’s put you there now”.
As you adopt Findology life is less stressful.
I didn’t invent Findology, it was invented by a real scientist. What I’ve written is an experience based variation of the original and more respectable official Findology advice. Please see this article for the genuine, and more hilarious, truth to happiness.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1301444/12-tips-worlds-findologist-help-lose-again.html
Some excerpts:
Sometimes, in fact, you are looking right at it. That’s Solomon’s sixth principle. ‘It is possible to look directly at a missing object and not see it,’ he says.
‘This is due to the agitated state of mind that often goes with losing something – especially when you’re in a hurry. Go back and look again. It may be staring you in the face.
‘Sometimes, not only do we overlook an object – we forget what we’re looking for. To avoid this, repeatedly murmur the name of the object.’