Simon Willison’s Weblog

Let’s make moving and packing FUN again

My answer to Let’s make moving and packing FUN again on Ask MetaFilter

Something nice I’ve done in the past that has worked surprisingly well is to record a time lapse video of the packing. I used software for my laptop (an OS X app called Gawker, but I don’t think it works today so you may need a different solution) which takes a frame every 30 seconds and combines it into a video. Stick the laptop in a high up corner with a good wide view of the room and get to work.

This has a number of positive effects. Firstly, it gives a great sense of your progress being recorded, which I find quite motivating. Secondly, it just makes packing more fun—every now and then you can do something creative, like poising stuffed toys somewhere amusing or creating a stop-motion animation of chairs dancing with each other.

I’ve used this technique a few times and found that the benefit far outweighs the small amount of effort it takes to set up.