Geek productivity guru Merlin Mann’s talking about what goes in your [ bag | pockets | wallet | whatever], and includes a link to his wiki on the subject, which has some interesting suggestions (plus it reminds us that March approaches, and really cool flashlights are precisely the sort of useful thing Heathen are unlikely to buy for themselves).
Our daily tote burden boils down thusly; we can’t very well leave the house without all these bits:
- Wallet (minimal assortment of cards, receipts, and ID)
- Cash (in a clip)
- Keys (we’ve learned to always take both sets, which makes it easier if one of us wants to go home early)
- Swiss Army Knife (why we can’t fly without checking baggage anymore)
- Carmex (shut up)
- Moleskine (because it’s not real unless we write it down; the notebook also has some 3 x 5 cards, postage, Postits, and sticky flags in it, just in case)
- Pen (with a nib; for the last year, a Namiki Vanishing Point)
- Palm (TX)
- Phone (RAZR)
There’s an additional pile o’crap in the bag, which more or less stays stocked for travel as a holdover from our constantly mobile consulting career. We currently move either very little (working at home) or a lot (on client sites), so this bag stays stocked for real travel — though, honestly, it’s not clear what we’d take out if we were just commuting to an office. In a real sense, the bag IS the office now.
- Powerbook
- Cordless travel mouse
- USB flash drive
- iPod (15g, old skool, and partly full of a backup build of my company’s product software)
- Etymotic headphones (screaming kid two rows up? no problem.)
- Canon Digital Elf
- Extra business cards
- Kleenex
- Extra pen (ballpoint)
- Gum
- 3 x 5 cards
- Moonshine and handiwipes (ok, just handiwipes)
- Zippercase 1
- Extension cord (green, because we bought it in December)
- Power for iPod, Palm, phone, laptop, and Bluetooth headset
- Digital camera charger + batteries
- Sync cable for Palm
- USB cable for camera
- Length of Cat5, just in case
- Zippercase 2
- generic advil
- decongestants
- generic antireflux pills
- contact lens solution
In compiling that list, we discovered we also had a null modem adapter and a dreidel in there, but we’ll chalk that up to happenstance. We’ll also cop to the fact that we certainly never leave for very long without reading material, so the bag will tend to also include a book and a copy or two of the New Yorker.
So, what's in your pockets? What's in your work bag?
(* It was either that or “What has it got in its pockets?”, and we figured Gollum is played.)