Last week I was faced with a dilemma. The shrimp I wanted for dinner were in a self-sealing bag. You would think that it would have been very easy to open it, right? But no, I absolutely couldn’t get a buy on both sides of the closing.

Hungry and not completely rational, I struggled for quite some time, growing increasingly distraught. I tried using a rubber grip that I use to open die-hard bottle caps, but it was not available. Finally, I opened the kitchen drawer where I keep handy tools and took out some pliers. Yes, to fold. And that worked! It allowed me to hold onto one end while the pliers pulled the other end open.

I was very proud of myself. My solution may not have been elegant, but it was functional. And I’ve needed to use the pliers every time since I’ve been craving the shrimp.

This experience made me start to think about the “tools” that I have that can make my life easier, but I forget that they exist and, therefore, I neglect their use.

For example, I finally broke down and bought a garden bench and seat to prevent wear and tear on my knees when I plant or weed my gardens. I immediately put it to use in the spring when I first got it, because I was planting a lot. However, even though it’s sitting right next to my back door, I forgot I had it and went back to kneeling on the ground for subsequent planting and weeding. In other words, we have tools available that we overlook, making our tasks unnecessarily more difficult.

On a more professional note, I spent a few days last week developing a response to a request for proposal to conduct a three-day management and leadership training program. I took my typical first step, which is to search my archives to see if I have any relevant lesson plans, training materials, and / or previous training proposals that I can incorporate or adapt.

Since the client wanted specific content that they had not previously addressed, my file search returned insufficient results. My next step, therefore, was to start searching Google for articles and learning activities for the desired content. I spent hours searching the web, selecting and reading articles to see if they were useful.

Finally, a simple reference in one of those articles got me where I should have looked in the first place. The reference was for a learning activity book for teaching management and leadership. In fact, I had published one of my learning activities in that book, which was on my bookshelf. I had had an excellent resource at my fingertips, but had forgotten that it existed.

We always rush to the next, assuming someone else will have the answers if we can only find them, without acknowledging that we may already have the tools we need.

What tools do you already have that can make your work and life more comfortable?