I am like this too. Spacy and distractable unless there is some big urgency to the experience that gives me the adrenaline rush and focus I need.

I can't be like this with small kids tho, they require a lot of attention.

Two things helped me cope and get organized-- the first-- yoga and mediation which I don't have time to do regularly but the principles of living in the moment really have helped.

The second-- having an anal-retentive, ocd-ish roommate through four years of college. I was sloppy and disorganized, creative, artistic, musical-- she was orderly, efficient, scientific, dependable, predictable, a little bit boring.

Four years I defined myself as oppositional to her-- but she was yin to my yang and little did I know I was taking notes the entire time I lived with her. I have a huge debt to her for any professional success I have acheived since she taught me how to get organized. My parents could never teach me that no matter what they said to me, because they themselves walk around the house depositing objects wherever they are standing, while completely distracted by other things.

It is such a mundane thing but so brilliant a solution for people like us. You just need a defined space for your wallet and your keys, your glasses, your asthma puffer, and whatever else is crucial to day to day survival.

That is all you need to keep yourself from losing things. You have to put that defined space right near the entry and exit door, install a basket or shelf or place a table with a nice bowl right there. Then every day you do this like putting on your seat belt, until it becomes habitual and doesn't require any thought on your part. You put it down there, and its down there until you need to pick it up. You don't have it in your hand unless you need it, so you can't put it down any where else.

As for not spacing out in the absence of an intense project or deadline-- I am working on that too and SYA doesn't help matters. But go back to being meditative-- "in the moment" if you can, whenever you find yourself getting dreamy. Sometimes I think that my brain needs to be dreamy and ruminative at least 75% of the time in order to be well-oiled and geared up for those times of intense focus and concentration. But maybe that is just an excuse for indulging in more comfortable and lazier state of mind?

I just have to laugh because I am so like you-- I am the same way with clothes and hair. Same hairdo every day-- a bun or sleek ponytail straight from the shower-- requires no special fuss blowdrying or curling. Same makeup routine.

I go so far as to expressly buy wash and wear synthetic blouses to go with my synthetic blend suits or machine washable skirts-- absolutely love the look of quality cotton and linen, but cannot deviate from my routine long enough to remember to wake up early enough to iron-- and getting back and forth to the dry cleaners is so far off the grid for me and my husband that our best clothes rarely get worn because they are sitting in the dry cleaning pile.

I buy good shoes and wear them out (occasionally remembering to buff and shine) because I can't be bothered to look for different pairs in the closet and match them up. They sit in the "shoe place" in the front hall until it is time to put them on. So black shoes, black suits and separates, a few colorful blouses and necklaces for pop! and I basically rotate the same five outfits every week until the season changes or I get pregnant and then I haul a different set of items out of storage.

This is all I can do. I have small kids and I work long days. I haven't had a full nights sleep since the birth of my first child over two years ago. I don't have the time or energy for fashion or style except on the occasional night out or summer party. My clothes around the house are picked solely on their resistence to the stain-inducing qualities of spit-up.

Oh, and I love getting pedicures when I can-- but I no longer get manicures or fake nails or use nail polish. Because nail polish chips and fake nails fall off or crack at the worst times, and I don't have time to maintain anything other than keeping my nails clean and neatly trimmed and filed.