How to Create Emergency Kits for your Average Workday

People create emergency kits for car problems and bad weather, but few create kits to deal with more common but less urgent situations. In particular, misplacing a wallet or forgetting a work laptop at home can play havoc with a person’s workday.

With a little bit of planning, you can create emergency kits that will let you deal with these types of situations in a calm and productive manner.

Besides your keys, your wallet is probably your most important daily companion. Without it, you lack identification, money or the ability to access any of your financial services.

No money, means you are unable to buy the essential products that gets you through a workday, like gas, lunch or even a coffee.

Luckily, there are so many prepaid cards options available today that creating a wallet backup kit is an easy task.

MasterCard and Visa both make prepaid cards that are accepted anywhere normal credit cards are accepted. You can even reload the cards if you use them in an emergency.Use industry specific cards to make sure you can always get gas, food or make a long distance phone call.Request an additional debit card from your bank that attaches to a line of credit or checking accountApply for a low limit credit card that you only use for emergencies100 dollars in small denominations. The small denominations allow you to use a portion of the money without depleting your stash. Also, small denominations are accepted everywhere.

You can protect your kit by wrapping it in a dark water resistant bag and making it look as innocuous as possible. If you keep cleaning supplies in your car you can hide it in a wipe container or at the bottom of an road emergency kit. Most thieves are not interested in stealing road flairs and cleaning products.

Please make a list of the cards in the kit and their corresponding numbers. Consequently, you can reload prepaid cards with more funds and cancel cards if they are lost or stolen.

Forgetting your laptop or briefcase can be annoying in some cases and disastrous in others.

Therefore, it is a good idea to create a backup kit for the tools and information you use every day. No matter what happens, you want to enter the office, meeting or sales call as confident, organized and professional as possible.

Most modern cell phones have the same functionalities that a laptop has, including the ability to edit spreadsheets, create power point presentations and email PDF documents.

Make the most of these phones by adding applications that will allow you to access and edit your information anywhere you are.

Remote Desktop Applications allow you to connect to your home or office computer. These programs range from free applications like MS Remote Desktop to paid options like LogMeIN. The paid applications will also allow you to access remote computers through a web browser.Office suite applications like Documents To Go allow you to edit MS office documents. You can always access the files and then email them for printing.Document scanning software comes in handy when you only have a hard copy but need to send it off in a pinch. Programs like JotNot lets you export scans to multiple formats.Virtual Private Networks (VPN) applications help you protect your personal data when you use hotel Wi-Fi connections or a public computer.

Whether you are at home or at the office, you should always have an online backup you can access on your phone or a computer.

Carbonite is relatively cheap, works in the background without interrupting computer functionality or bandwidth speeds. While it creates a full backup of your computer, you can still access and restore individual files.Dropbox and Windows Live Mesh will allow you to synchronize your work across multiple computers and offers free online locker space. 2 Gigs for Dropbox and 5 Gigs on Skydive for Windows Mesh.  Both are accessible through mobile applications and through a web browser.Email your work to yourself after working on a file.Complete all your work on online office suites like Office 365, Google Apps or Zoho.Keep an extra set of home and auto keys at the office. You can hide them under your desk or within a file folder.Just in case you spill something on yourself or need to stay in a hotel room overnight, keep an extra set of clothes and a toiletries bag in the car.Create a backup business portfolio where you can keep marketing material, business cards, pens, pencils and a writing pad. You never want to enter a meeting or a sales call empty handed.

No matter how organized or prepared you are, there are always going to be times when things fall through the cracks. With a little bit of forethought you can create a emergency kit for any type of situation.

Philip Viana works as a Financial Adviser for a bank in Canada. He is hard at work developing the formula to a meaningful, mindful and happy life. He writes about productivity, financial advice, technology, and lifestyle at Burnthenegative.com or at his about.me page.

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Emergency Preparedness, Minimalist Style

Almost everyone who is interested in life hacks has come across the concept of minimalism at some point. Living with less means you have less clutter in your life, which always helps with productivity. One subset of the minimalist movement is 100-item Minimalism, where people make a commitment to live with 100 items or less in their homes.

But a lot of detractors of the 100-item minimalist lifestyle say that living this way is really impractical, even if it has productivity benefits. For example, if you subscribe to 100-item minimalism, then how do you adequately prepare for an emergency scenario? How do you make room in your life for the items that could save you in the event of a hurricane, natural disaster, or terrorist attack?

For apartment dwellers, this need to minimize possessions is especially key. If you have a studio, you probably barely have enough storage space as it is…but making room for emergency supplies is tough!

Emergency Preparedness and Minimalism Are Two Sides of the Same Coin

At least, according to the woman who runs ApartmentPrepper.com, a wife and mother who became interested in blogging about emergency preparedness after Hurricane Ike hit her home city of Houston. She argues:

“If you think about it, preparedness and minimalism can actually go hand in hand…Cutting down on so much material possessions and focusing on the minimum items that are truly necessary to live is the first step to being a minimalist.  Emergency items, to a prepper, falls under the “needs” category…With preparedness items, you can be selective with what kinds of gadgets do you really need. The rewarding part will come, as we find newly freed space for the stored food and water, which we do need.”

The team at SurvivalBackpacker.com agrees.

“Survivalism and minimalism share common roots insofar as they’re both conducive to flexibility and adaptation.  In an emergency situation, you need to be able to adapt quickly.  And having less “stuff” to deal with (in your home as well as in your head) helps,” one post explains. “But so much of preparedness is often about stockpiling goods and food – in addition to the extra equipment and gear so often needed for being able to live outdoors.  How do we reconcile being prepared with living minimally?”

“Authentic survival is already minimalist in its own way.  If it’s just you and your backpack, you will want to keep your items as lightweight and as few as possible…In sum, at first it seems as though preparedness is at odds with living sustainably and minimally, until you look at the common needs and assumptions of each lifestyle.  Stockpiling foods is a symptom of the consumerist lifestyle of excess most of us are used to living.  Authentic survival skills allow you to live closer to the land – it’s really not a cliche – and in so doing, you’ll be more green and minimalist than you probably expected.”

Small Scale Preparedness

If you want to be prepared for a disaster, but still use a minimal amount of space, you might want to consider having a small kit you can store in your car or even in your purse. For example, Think Geek sells an emergency first aid kit that fits inside a sardine can.

It’s waterproof, compact (4.25? x 3? x .9?), impact resistant, and even floats in water.

The Home Depot also offers some basic emergency preparedness supplies that are compact and well-suited to any minimalist’s home.

The Ready America Grab ‘n Go Kit 2-Person Backpack contains food and water that will sustain two people for about three days. The seven pound backpack is only about 13 inches tall, and also contains a 33-piece first aid kit, ponchos, gloves, and face masks.

For under $50, you can be prepared for most minor disasters, without having to sacrifice too much room in your home or apartment. If you are only going to live with 100 items, it makes sense that at least one of those items would be a disaster readiness kit.

Conclusion

The more prepared you are now, the less time and energy you will waste later if you have to run around and purchase disaster supplies at the last minute. From either a productivity, minimalist, or emergency preparedness standpoint, it makes sense to be ready to face any curve balls that life may throw at you.

Tucker is a writer and social media professional living in New England. When she's not staring into a tiny electric box, she engages in pointless acts of stupidity at BadBoozeReview.com and posts daily at MargeryJones.com

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