This is a technique my girlfriend I have have been practicing every day for years now so I thought I would share.



[Kelsie is a wellness coach](https://www.abetterme.com.au/) and so she knows a thing or two about good routines and techniques for being happy and productive. So when, a few years back, she proposed a routine to strengthen our relationship and make us happier, I thought "sure why not?".

The idea is pretty simple: at the end of the day you take it in turns to say one thing you have been grateful for during the day.

Its simple but quite powerful because it forces you to go through your day in your head and appreciate all of the awesome that happened. It sets you up in a positive mood before going to bed because there is nothing worse than trying to sleep when you are in a bad mood.

Its not a new technique by any means and "Gratitude Journal"'ing is often written about.

I have tried to start journals quite a few times before but always struggle with keeping the routine going. This technique however seems to have stuck with us.

Since starting however we have tweaked the formula a little. Instead of saying one thing we are grateful for we say "What was your highlight of the day?" and then we also say "What was your relationship highlight?". We call this our "Highlight Reel".

Adding the relationship highlight in there has been a great way to let the other person know that something they did or said during the day was very much appreciated even if it was only something small.

So thats it. I hope others find this useful like we do :)

Its been quite some time since my original post on [The Sleeping Headphones Saga](./photos-personal/the-sleeping-headphones-saga/) so I thought it was time I updated with my current situation my my experiments since then.



# Recap

If the last post is [TLDR;](./photos-personal/the-sleeping-headphones-saga/) then basically the summary is that I (like many others) like to listen to music / audiobooks in bed to help me sleep with. I have been doing it for over two decades now and I thought I would share my experience trying to find the right headphones for my sleeping audio pleasure.

Up to that point I wasnt 100% happy with any of the options on the market and despite trying quite a few, some more expensive than others, I ended up with \$13 Panasonic RP-HS46 as my daily driver for now.

# Pillow Speaker

![](./pillow-speaker.jpg)

So one experiment I have tried since the last post is to buy a [Portable 3.5mm Pillow Speaker](https://www.ebay.com/itm/Portable-3-5mm-Pillow-Speaker-for-iPod-MP3-MP4-CD-Phone-Universal-White-Speaker-/253812585068) you can find lots of variants of it for sale on ebay.

The idea is that instead of headphones going directly in your ear you attach this little speaker to your device then tuck it under your pillow. Then you rest your head on the pillow and enjoy your music / audiobook or whatever.

At just \$5 I wasnt expecting much and wasnt disappointed.

The sound quality is predictably terrible, tho thats not a show stopper if it meant that I could listen to my audio without wires.

Well the problem is that the speaker is actually quite thick (1cm roughly) and hard plastic meaning that you cant put directly under your pillowcase as its way to hard to rest your head on. Thus you are forced to put it under your pillow, which means you have to turn the volume up quite loud to be heard. This was a show-stopper for my light-sleeping partner.

I think this idea could potentially work if the speaker was soft and thin enough that you couldnt notice it under some padding. As it stands however, this \$5 solution is pretty much useless to me.

# BedPhones Wireless

![](./woman-sleep.jpg)

In the last post I mentioned that I had ordered the brand new [Dubslabs BedPhones Wireless headphones](https://www.dubslabs.com/products/bedphones-wireless-sleep-headphones-the-worlds-smallest-on-ear-headphones.html) and was hopeful that they were finally going to be the solution to my problem.

Well after 6 months they finally arrived from the US. I went to bed eagerly that night hoping that the wireless soft-ear-pieces were going to be perfect for sleeping.. Well actually before I get onto the negatives lets list the positives:

- Great sound quality
- Love that they are wireless, no more wires wrapped around my neck
- The battery lasts all night, great for someone like me that has a habit of waking at 4am then struggling to sleep again without them.

Okay so thats great.. but for me the natives outweigh the positives:

A minor annoyance that its hard to tell which button does what on the controls without looking at them. The apple headphones controls does this better.

Another minor annoyance its really hard to open the little cover on the charging port for the headphones which is particularly a problem when the light level is low early morning and is exactly the time when you want to be putting them back on charge.

A big negative is that the wire that holds them in place on my ear really isnt very good. I know others have complained about this too and although Dubslabs have supposedly done work on this it really just isnt as good at solid plastic clasp that fits around the ear in the Panasonic RP-HS46.

Another big negative is even though the ear pieces are thin and padded I still find them really uncomfortable when resting my head on my side on my pillow. To be fair this is the same with every pair of headphones, but what I usually have to do is pull one headphone out my ear when I want to rest my head on my side, then when I swap sides of my head I have to swap headphones, I have to do this multiple times during the night every night. I was hoping the bedphones would solve this problem by allowing me to keep them in all the time but unfortunately they dont, they are still to uncomfortable.

# Conclusion

So after all that im still using my trusty Panasonic RP-HS46's. They certaintly arent perfect but they are better than the plain Apple earpods. The Dubslabs wireless headphones were a bit of a letdown for me, but I have donated them to my sister and she likes them so thats good that the money wasnt wasted.

So the quest for the best sleeping headphones continues, until next time..

Bit of a departure from the usual technically focused blog posts today to talk about a little "[lifehack](https://www.lifehacker.com.au)" that I use frequently to help me remember things. So if you are like me and have a terrible memory, then read on.



# The Problem

I have always been a bit of a scatter brain. The people that know me personally probably all have some sort of story about me forgetting something.

I leave my house keys at work all the time. I almost never remember to take my lunch to work. I have have walked off a train without my backpack on more than one occasion. I have lost a ton of hats over the years in umpteen many cafes, resturant, gyms and other places. I have even left suitcases on busses or in airports. I dont bother buying expensive sun glasses because I know that im bound to leave them somewhere. Basically its an ongoing thing.

Rather than get annoyed I have over the years tried many different approaches to solve the problem.

Taking just the task of remember my lunch to work in the morning for example;

I have tried writing on my hand:

![](./handnote.jpg)

But that assumes that I look at my hand before I head to work in the morning.

I have tried writing a note on the fridge too:

![](./fridgenote.jpg)

But again that assumes that I look at the fridge before I leave for work.

I have tried setting alarms and alerts on my phone:

![](./reminder.png)

But that assumes that I set the alarm for the correct time, and that I check my phone before leaving the house.

# The Solution

One day my [girlfriend Kelsie](https://www.abetterme.com.au/) came up with a simple but ingenious solution:

![](./keysonfridge.jpg)

Because I need the keys to lock the house before I leave in the morning I will always remember to take my keys.

My keys always live in a little bowl by the front door, thus in the morning I will normally go to the bowl to get my keys, but if the keys arent there it will trigger me out auto-pilot to go look for the keys. Once out of auto-pilot I then remember that I put the keys on the fridge because... my lunch!

I know it sounds a contrived but honestly it really works. I guess it doesnt have to be my keys, it could be my phone, or wallet or something that I will **always** remember to take with me in the morning,

# Conclusion

Im not sure if this helps anyone else but it was a revelation for me and a simple cheap solution that actually works.

Let me know in the comments below if you use this method or have a different strategy for remembering things :)

_p.s. Imagery used in the header courtesy of the Noun Project ([designer1](https://thenounproject.com/grega.cresnar), [designer2](https://thenounproject.com/search/?q=keys&i=467407), [designer3](https://thenounproject.com/rafaelgarciamotta/))._