Utilizing Efficiency on Your Tool belt

Optimizing your tool belt is a worthwhile investment to speed up your workflow

Did you know your tool belt may be slowing down your work while hurting your back? Tool belts can be a huge asset and increase your efficiency, but have the potential to slow you down. 

Left Versus Right Hand Tools

The first thing to understand is that we have a dominant hand and a helper hand for auxiliary tools. 

The dominant hand is best used for tools such as:

• Hammer
• Knife
• Writing utensils
• Tape measure

While the other hand is good for:

• Fasteners
• Speed squares
• Levels
• Screwdrivers

Think about it. How much time would you waste having your pencil in your left hand, and your tape on your right? To make a mark you would need to cross your body with both hands and then once you find them uncross and measure it out. 

Learning to optimize your setup for efficiency is something every person must learn, or pay the price in less efficiency.

To Wear on the Front or the Back?

Many people do not know whether to wear their tool belts on the front, back, or side if you have pouches. 

Generally, wearing a tool belt on the front is only for people with less experience with their bags, or only for a short time. 

Hanging up picture frame hooks, for example, is a perfectly acceptable time to wear it on the front when you can quickly access your hammer and see which nail or screw you want to use.

However, once you start to wear your bag for extended periods of time the back is where you want to go. Yes, it may take time to learn the layouts of your tools, but eventually you will develop muscle memory that allows you to effortlessly grab your speed square while holding a 2×4 without looking. 

The back keeps your tools well within reach, but puts them out of your way allowing you plenty of space in the front to work and have your hands not be hit when resting.

Productivity is Learned and Very Personal

These are some good tips to help speed up your workflow, but at the end of the day it is you who will be wearing it. Everyone has different movements, ranges of motion, and hand dominance. If you want to increase your speed, our best tip is to make an effort to focus on the movements you make, and make corrections until you find your groove. Getting an efficiency set up can take a few weeks of tweaking, but once optimized may be untouched for one’s entire career.