Minimizing ‘Dongle’ Paralysis
I lost my headphone dongle (the small adapter connecting my headphones to my cell phone) and my entire routine went into crisis.
I couldn’t take phone calls, I couldn’t listen to podcasts while working out… I couldn’t type and talk at the same time…
My e-commerce podcasts lost their value, my phone lost its value, and my time lost its value… because I didn’t have this little dongle.
I knew it was possible to lose this dongle (Apple probably planned I would lose it and buy another one) but I hadn’t thought through my day, or how I would work, without it.
“Why is this crisis happening? How is a $2 dongle effecting my day like this?”
There are many ‘life dongles’ that I hardly think about, like toilet paper. The items themselves aren’t expensive but when you don’t have them your productivity and/or quality of life quickly deteriorate.
Making sure you don’t lose stride over a $2 dongle is, perhaps, embarrassingly simple:
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Plan how to store the dongle do you won’t lose it. (For example, connecting it to your headphones before stuffing it inside your pocket.)
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Ask: How could you have a phone call without this dongle? (It is possible.)
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Buy an extra dongle to stash in your backpack.
Losing a dongle paralyzed my productivity, but small objects will go missing sometimes.
The goal is to minimize the damage dealt by the loss of your insignificant dongle by planning, asking, and buying in advance.