The speaker narrates an incident where he broke into his own house during a cold Montreal winter due to forgotten keys.

• After visiting a friend, the speaker finds himself locked out of his house at midnight in freezing temperatures.
• Unable to call a locksmith or return to his friend's house, he breaks a basement window to enter his home.

The speaker explains how stress impacts the brain's cognitive functions, leading to poor decision-making.

• Cortisol release during stress increases the heart rate and adrenaline levels, but also clouds thinking.
• The speaker realizes he forgot his passport for an early flight only at the airport, due to his clouded judgment.

The concept of prospective hindsight, or pre-mortem, is discussed as a strategy to anticipate and prevent potential problems.

• The speaker learns about prospective hindsight from Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman, which involves anticipating problems before they occur.
• The pre-mortem approach encourages proactive thinking to minimize damage from potential future issues.

The speaker offers practical strategies for organizing and preparing for potential issues in everyday life.

• Designating places for commonly lost items at home leverages the brain's spatial memory to reduce misplacement.
• Taking photos of important documents like credit cards and storing them in the cloud can prevent problems if they are lost or stolen.

The importance of having systems in place to counteract the impaired decision-making caused by stress is highlighted.

• Under stress, thinking becomes cloudy, making it essential to have predetermined systems to handle stress effectively.
• Systems and practices need to be in place before encountering stressful medical decisions or emergencies.

The speaker discusses the use of pre-mortem thinking in making informed medical decisions.

• The concept of number needed to treat (NNT) is introduced to understand the effectiveness of medical treatments.
• Examples of statins and prostate surgery are given to illustrate the importance of discussing potential outcomes and side effects with doctors.

The speaker concludes by sharing his personal application of pre-mortem strategies to improve organization and prevent future issues.

• After his trip, the speaker installs a lockbox with a key to avoid lockouts, reflecting his commitment to organization as an ongoing process.