See also “PEK ⇔ SG “Don’t forget”

Pack your phone earlier if possible. If you assume it’s impossible to forget your phone, you will realize the impossible does happen quite often 😉

— Difficult to wrap up in advance.. half ranked by importance

• phoneS+cables+5 SIMs
• local coins, keys .. leave at home
• shoes — heavy shoes in backpack, slippers on foot
• local cards: MRT, mlp badge, NTUC, ccard
• laptop  + cable + SD card
• [! = people do forget this]

— night/morning before

• minor distraction: shut down laptop to preserve battery
• reading material pack-up
• ensure no luggage is too heavy or too empty
• banking tokens .. DBS
• all stroed value cards .. movie cards
• pouch, cash pouch, wallet
• passport
• online check-in? Not so important. Still need to print boarding pass at airport.
• LG2 picking blog printout in the final 24 hour… Low ROTI
• medication
• yoga block
• roaming .. cmlink self-service

— zsms, self acceptance .. I notice a fixation on the minor items. I feel this is typical of  OCD symptoms — “If self2 refuses/forbids my repeated checking, then self1 anxiety grows.”

Tip: deal with those bposts only on last day. Be confident.

Tip: Keep a steadfast focus on the really important items

• passport,
• physical cash safety
• smartphones ..
• having enough ePay cards
• — LG2 items, half-ranked
• pills .. can buy
• [b] charging accessories .. can buy
• keep all my devices fully charged on the last day
• [b] warm clothing
• [b] reading materials
• [b] stationaries .. can buy
• [b=blackhole items that suck up infinite amount of sys2 resources]

I refuse to surrender to the perfectionist self2. Those minor items will breed imperfections, and I will embrace imperfections, as I embrace the imperfect self1.

 

k_short_term_mem_challenge

The paradox of “frequency”. On one hand, based on Poisson distro, the more flights I take, the higher the Pr[at least one mistake on a given a trip]. On the other hand, after a year[1] of frequent flights, my sys1 (and sys2) become efficient, reducing the probability.
[1] However, after a few years of quiet, sys1 “forgets” the learning.

— on flight, prefer cheap, ez-to-replace, “throwaway” tools. They reduce Sys2 load —
pencils
magazines/newpapers
blog printout

–Below are real mistakes I made, half ranked by severity and dram-refresh

• Sometime in 2017-2018 left leather jacket at security check
• caught the cold after the winter long flight. Had to see Newport doctor.
• 2018 HK flight miss, and 2016 KL flight miss
• 2012 left phone charger behind at Waltham
• 2019 left travel pillow at security check

— sys1/sys2 overload

忘带啦!/forgot2carry .. [ exiting planes/HSR-train, leaving security checkpoints/hotels,,,] is the most common Sys1 operational error. Sys1 overload? Sys2 has limited bandwidth and has to focus on “those few important belongings[2]”.

To reduce Sys2 load, I try to avoid en-rout rearrangment of cash, SIMs, various cards. Instead of en-route, I try to do it at home or destination, when the consequence of leftBehind is mild.

[2] important belongings include SIMs, gadgets, 易碎品[3], wallets, heavy luggage[5]. Unimportant belongings are too numerous to name, like dirty shoes [4], phone chargers, travel pillow, pencils, throwaway reading material, yoga block, food boxes,,,, You can see it’s a mountain of “workload” for Sys1.

Avoid charging devices en-route. They become sys1 load.

Even during the flight, “Less forgettable” items can still be forgotten and misplaced, due to sys1 limitations.
* passport
* charged phones
* laptop
* laptop cover

I allow myself to relax and accept the possibility of losing bottle, travel pillow, yoga block,,

charging cables .. If you need to charge devices, do it early on the flight, and pack them up hours before landing, to reduce sys1 load.

— [3] Fragile items in hand luggage .. always generate anxiety and sys1 load, so I prefer cheap, sturdy

— [4] Dirty shoes overload sys1 as they are bulky and they need a shoe bag 🙁

— [5] heavy luggage .. creates sys1 load, leaves me with less sys1 “bandwidth”, so my memory becomes more lossy.

— hurry .. increases operational risks.

Example: Wrong-passport .. sys1 was in charge as I became confident. After the Sys1 blunder, I have learned to use sys2 i.e. SlowDown_n_doubleCheck. I do that when leaving plains/hotels, but you are sometimes not allowed to slow down 🙁

• real eg: forgot to take phone when trying to leave early to catch Light Rail
• principle: the more moving parts, the more load on sys2. We need to slow down, and possibly use a written list (gadgets? I don’t prefer.)
• .. winter travel involves more separate clothing items. They increase sys2 load and increase the chance of forgetting
• principle: don’t leave important tasks to the last minute before a trip, as in the last minute my memory system may not operate well.

— stitching en-route .. can create distraction. Need to ensure all important luggages are closed asap

 

I collected these minor items here as a LG-secondary, and offload an overloaded sys2.

• [$=money can solve the problem]
• [$] spare foldable luggage bag
• [$] light foldable box for organizer — in hotels, or on empty neighbor seat
• flat water bottle
• [$] floss threader, inter-dental, double-floss with handle ,,,  too much time to kill
• food/drink boxes with tight lid — to prevent spill
• [$] clip-hook on knapsack
• [$] I have found the need for simple binders, string, hooks..
• .. strings needed for makeshift check-in luggage
• plastic bag hungable from my bottle .. good for acceptable rubbish, my food box, reading content..
• extra clear bags for various small items
• Singapore-style hangable coffee bag — needed on CE air planes.

— 3 types of charging cables .. increasingly, I need to cover the risk of no-charging for any of my devices [mlphone / android / laptop]. In most place I can buy a USB charging cable, so this item is a minor item. However, I tend to spend hours optimizing what to bring

• favor 3-head or 2-head cables
• spares .. keep some light-weight cables in luggage

 

This bpost has lots of overlap with other bposts. For some trips, this format is intuitive, with a memorable bpost title.

Focus .. forgetables

— bring back and forth

• which cards .. MRT, MLP badge
• which tokens .. DBS
• small laptop + SD card
• ccard+basic amount of cash
• — Tier 1 important
• phone+laptop with chargers
• passport+NRIC

— leave at #1169

• local coins
• keys

— hardware tokens … chance of usage is low (below 10%)

• the longer I’m out, the higher that chance
• the more “events” take place, the higher that chance. One event is accidental transfer-in too much — I would need to transfer out.
• chance of physical loss of token .. is lower.
• As a by-product, the token can reduce the reliance on the xxx13516 SIM card when it is kept outside any phone.
• altertivies to token while outside Sgp
• .. daily small transfers, but DBS threshold can be very restrictive.

— depart Friday evening

I often question myself
Q1: if I have too many AnnL days to clear by EOY, then why not work half-day Fri morning, and go to Changi by MRT, without haste?
A: “too many days”?  too confident. For many reasons I may use up a lot quickly and have insufficient AnnL.

Q1b: what about a Friday departure close to EOY?
A: Yes in that case I could work half-day on that Fri.

Q2: if I do work half-day, then why favor Friday evening?
A: At the time of flight booking we prefer Fri night flight as it offers two flexible choices

1. half-day leave .. to reduce stress and reduce operational risks
2. full-day work .. to conserve AnnL

At the time of booking, this flexibility is a valuable insurance like this example below. Like most term insurance products, when it expires without claim, some consumers may feel “regret” and “money wasted”.

Thu night: If good sleep, then reach office early to prepare for Thu night: If poor sleep, then work from home from 10am To use up leave balance, and save on taxi, go by MRT. Leave office 6p (crowded) .. If something forgotten, then go home 5p [1] then leave home before 6

k_short_term_mem_challenge

Passport is a constant concern that tires down sys2. My simple rule:

• OK to keep it hung on chest throughout the (however long) flight, but better to put it in the backpack.
• — two-passport
• keeping 2 passports together is not ideal. The old passport gets in the way when I frequently take out current passport.  Perhaps keep old passport in pouch
• .. The old passport — Don’t leave in hand luggage. Instead, keep it with current passport like in pouch. Just ask yourself “what’s the cost if lost“. For Jan 2024, will leave it in hand luggage.

Wallet with low cash amount — keep in backpack with passport.

Note cash is more “attractive” than passport, to those “other people” since passport has no cash value.