Invisible Tools

Having your tools become second-nature has more effect on your productivity than getting the right tools. Once they reach that status I like to call them "invisible tools". I've found the best way of having a tool become invisible is a combination of: Very few moving parts Building muscle memory to use it Stability: it doesn't fail, it doesn't change, or changes very slowly over time. In the following posts I talk about hardware and software tools, but this applies to everything that can be considered a tool: the pen and notebook pair I carry everywhere is an invisible tool. My phone camera also is invisible. I don't need to think about them, I just use them. The arrangement of the tools and their controls are also part of their invisibility. In my case, my phone is always in my left-hand pocket, my keys in the right-hand pocket, and my wallet in my right back one. The icons in my phone rarely change positions. My keyring has only the keys I need to lock/unlock the house, no inside…