There are few things as aggravating as realizing when you are halfway to work that you forgot your hearing aids. Do you go back and get them and be late? Or do you make it on time but avoid talking to people all day?

I’m afraid that back when I worked full time (and was slightly less hard of hearing), I mostly chose option 2.  But neither is the right choice and that’s why they invented Post-its. Thanks to the Post-It inventors Drs. Spencer Silver and Art Fry, of 3M, a Post-it reminder on the front door is an easy fix.

If you’re someone who would never leave the house without your hearing aids, congratulations. But if getting out the house in the morning is already rushed and complicated, hearing aids may not be at the top of the list. And if you’re really pressed and look right past the stickie note on the door, here are some suggestions for making it harder to leave the hearing aids behind.

You probably don’t forget to brush your teeth, so put the hearing aids in a moisture proof box on the sink right next to the toothbrush. If you don’t routinely wear them at home, you could keep them with something you can’t go out without – your car keys, say. Store them overnight (in a protected case) in your purse or briefcase or lunchbox.

I put in my hearing aid first thing, so that I can hear the coffee maker beep. But I do forget my cochlear implant. I often don’t recognize that it’s missing until I’m talking to someone. I would worry that forgetting something as important as a cochlear implant was a sign of dementia, but I’ve been walking out without my hearing devices for decades and my brain seems about the same as always.

Why do we forget something as vital as our hearing aids? For many of us, and especially recent hearing aid users, one answer is denial. You resist the idea that you actually need your hearing aids. Maybe you tell yourself they are mainly for watching TV.  But hearing aid users and experts agree that if your hearing loss is significant enough to require hearing aids, you should probably be wearing them all the time.

Why not just put both on first thing in the morning? I love my quiet mornings and don’t really want to hear until I’ve had that first cup of coffee. In addition, wearing the hearing aid and C.I. for a long stretch of time can be fatiguing, and I wear mine from about 9 am till 11 pm.

The C.I.. much as I love it, also has some annoying aspects. While the hearing aid fits neatly in my ear, the larger C.I. processor sits on the outside and behind the pinna, connecting by a cable to the magnetized headpiece that sends the signal to the electrodes in the cochlea. It’s a wobbly perch. The CI slips off without warning – when I lean down to tie my shoelaces, or pull a sweater over my head, or root around in the bottom of my closet looking for the other shoe. The headpiece sometimes keeps it from falling off entirely, so it dangles like an earring. But not always. Too often, the whole thing falls to the ground and comes apart. Headpiece cap, receiver, battery – scattered. I’m very careful wearing it around water for that reason.

I have an Advanced Bionics cochlear implant. AB has not yet come out with an off-the-ear processor like Cochlear’s Kanso, which is on it’s second-generation technology. Med-El’s Rondo is now in its third generation. AB’s website says its processors “can be worn off the ear using accessories that allow for wearing the processor on the body and using a head piece with a built-in microphone (Slim HP Mic).” I’ve tried it. It’s cumbersome. I hope AB comes out with something like the Kanso or the Rondo very soon. Why haven’t they? The awkward explanation I got from an AB rep was that they wanted to be sure the technology worked.

So hang on to your hat, and when you take it off make sure the cochlear implant doesn’t go with it.

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For more about hearing loss and hearing help, read my books SHOUTING WON’T HELP and SMART HEARING, available as paperback or ebook at Amazon.