Knock your socks off with Cybernetics

Maxwell Maltz wrote Psycho-Cybernetics in 1960, celebrating the concepts of self-affirmation and positive visualization, all taken up by athletes and others in years to come. It had this striking red, black and white cover, with a little medallion claiming that 3 million had been sold. I came across it in 1971 when dropping out of university, having lost interest in accounting, if I had ever had any! Surfing was much more fun. A dose of self-help was called for. The first chapter ended with the instruction: before you move on to chapter 2, tie your shoe laces each morning in a different way for the next 7 days. As I had no shoes with laces at the time, this was a bit of a deal-breaker, so I never made it to Ch 2 or any subsequent chapter. I'm not sure I would have made it even if I had lace-ups, the whole message just seemed so buttoned up. The volume still languishes in the psychology section of the bookcase. But over the years, not in the interests of self-help but more for efficiency, I still adopted some unconventional dressing techniques. For instance, one way to remove your shoes and socks is to roll back on the bed, feet in the air and use both hands to remove both shoes, then socks, at the same time. If they're lace-ups, you can undo both laces simultaneously too. To round things off you can try to toss both shoes into their accustomed place across the room, making them land soles down. An efficient way of putting a coat on is, instead of struggling to push one arm through at a time, take the coat from the back with both hands holding the collar. Then fling it over your head and push your hands into the arms at the same time. There are loads of variations on the theme e.g. put your deodorant on while brushing your teeth and running the comb through your hair while shaving. All very useful if your alarm clock failed to go off and you're late for work.