David's tip for traveling with batteries

batteriesDavid Allen shares a  tip in the category of what he calls “dumb-dorky-things-to-do-that-work.”  Rubber band your charged ones

I’ve been slightly bugged for years in places like hotel rooms, looking the next morning at my unpacked stuff, wondering which batteries I had run down and which ones were still charged. I finally found a solution that works for me.

If you travel with extra batteries for phones or computers, put a rubber band around the ones that are charged. When they are depleted, they don’t have one.   If they don’t have a rubber band, they’re dry. If they do, they’re charged.

(Extra tip: You need to make sure that you have and use a little pocket somewhere in your travel gear to hold the rubber bands when you take them off when you install the charged batteries.)

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3 Comments

  1. I always travel with a quart-size plastic bag that contains a couple more plastic bags of various sizes and rubber bands, which come in handy a lot when I have lose odds and ends that need to be held together on the fly. I always kept batteries bound with rubber bands too, but the idea of using that to separate good ones from depleted ones is useful.

  2. @chipjoyce – good tip on the bags. “Snack size” zip bags are also really nice for this kind of thing, plus they’re perfect for protecting your phone, mp3, etc from water if you’re going to be outdoors.

    LOVE the rubber band tip, David. I’ve done the mix and match battery game and it’s not a lot of fun when you just need your mouse to start working again!

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