DR. WALLACE: Help! I'm always misplacing items, forgetting where I left things, losing things or leaving things behind! I'm too young to be suffering from dementia, so all I can think of is that I have a lot on my mind each day with everything I have going on in my life.

What can I do about this? I honestly feel like I'm wasting between 15 and 30 minutes a day trying to backtrack to find something, looking for something I've misplaced or perhaps left behind somewhere earlier in the day. — Losing Things Is Nonproductive, via email

LOSING THINGS IS NONPRODUCTIVE: Start by identifying the three, five or 10 items you simply can't do without. I could start to make a list for you, but it's better if you do this yourself.

Then group them by size and sit for a few minutes and think about what type of container you could put them in. This might be a satchel, backpack, briefcase, small piece of carry-on luggage or whatever you can come up with.

The smaller items you can put into a small organizer. The larger pieces will go in a larger piece, and so forth. You may also be able to nest the small items in their own container within the larger piece.

If you go search some online shopping sites, you'll see all kinds of small travel organizers that people use to organize things inside of their luggage. Some of these component parts may be big enough to contain the items you simply can't be losing.

Once you have these carrying cases in hand, be extremely disciplined and focused on taking items out of those containers, using them, then always immediately putting them right back in before you go off to do something else. If you can manage to do this successfully for a few weeks, you'll have built a new habit that will save you up to 30 minutes a day. I trust this will increase your productivity and hopefully your grades significantly!

I CONCENTRATE AND STUDY MUCH BETTER ALONE!

DR. WALLACE: I have some friends at school that always want to do a study group a couple of nights a week. I've attended a few but found that they're too distracting, and I can study much better alone than in a group. Yes, once in a while I'll have a question that I can ask, and someone in the group will give me a good answer, but that's fairly rare, and I spend a lot more time distracted from conversations within the group than I ever do when I study by myself.

What can I do about this? On the one hand, I would like to be part of the group and socialize with my friends, but the truth is, I study much more effectively by myself. — Not Into Group Study, via email

NOT INTO GROUP STUDY: Plan study time each week on your own, and make it enough time so that you can cover everything that you need to study. Then tell your study group partners you can meet them for a period of time one of the days of the week but not the other, and when you are there with those friends, you won't be under pressure to do your initial studying, as hopefully it can be more of a review and an opportunity to hear what everyone else is saying in case you can pick up a few additional pointers, tidbits or ideas that may benefit you in the long run.

Definitely don't commit to staying the entire period of time, and don't plan to meet with them each day of the week they're planning to do this. Participate, but only one day a week and only for a limited period of time, as you'll get the best of both worlds this way.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at [email protected]. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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