No, I’m not writing about jogging 10 miles a day, nor am I writing about lifting weights either!  What I’m talking about is avoiding getting sick via colds, flus and other germs…

First, a little background about me…  The last 10 or so years, I’ve have been sick a lot!  At first like any great parent, I blamed it on my kids (and when they were very young, I’m sure they had an impact).  But now that they are older and don’t put hands in their mouths so much.  So now, I think I’m primarily getting sick from work.  So, I stopped putting my cube neighbors’ mice in my mouth (lol),

Here is what I now do:

• I use my sleeve to open the doors if I don’t have a napkin or tissue.
• I take a napkin (from fast food places) out of my car and use it to open the doors at work.
• I always use purell after using someone keyboard, or after someone uses my keyboard.
• I have have a special routine for going to the bathroom.

I know, you are thinking “a special routing for going to the bathroom?”  As you well know, not everybody washes their hands after going to either “of the options” when they go to the bathroom (how that for PC?).

This might be pushing the envelope a bit, but I’m going to tell you about my “special routine” anyway!

• I open the door to the bathroom by pushing it with my forearm if I’m wearing a long sleeve shirt. (sometimes I push the door open with my foot if I don’t have a long sleeve shirt on).
• Next, I take my magic napkin out of my pocket, tear a long inch wide strip of it and open the bathroom stall door. 
• The typical activities are performed…
• Use another long inch wide strip from my napkin to open the stall door.
• Wash hands vigorously (as the signs that I see around demands that I do, surprisingly the sign is not in our bathrooms…  I guess we are suppose to know…).
• Leave the water running (only for a sec) as I reach for a paper towel and dry my hands
• Then use the towel to turn the water off. (Yeah, I’m being picky, but it works for me)
• Grab another towel and use the bottom half to dry my hands fully.
• Then as I go to the door, I use the upper half of the towel to open the door.
• After the door is open, I toss the towel in the trash can besides the door.
• Don’t tell anyone, but I’m the one who put that trash can there… 🙂  So far nobody has asked why, and tons of people now use it (I’m such a trend setter)…
• Now I go back to my cube healthy!  Hurray!!!

I know this isn’t as glamorous or as exciting as practically any of my previous personal finance posts.  But believe it or not, this post has a lot of value… if you use it, you too will get sick much less often, saving you money!  This technique could also help you advance more quickly in your career.  If you are sick less, you are at work more and you are able to perform at a higher level vs. if you were sick all of the time.

The past few years, I’ve hardly been sick…  I attribute my good fortune to what we jokingly call the “hand something“, but since my kids read this, I’ll leave the name to your imaginations…  Just think of hand protection 😉

 Oh, I also use my napkins for getting water from the filtered water dispense at work, and the elevator buttons, and any surface that I can think of that other people touch frequently.  If you use small strips of the napkin like I do, not many people will notice either…

What do you think?  Am I over doing it?  Do you use similar techniques?

Respectfully, 

-MR