Out with the old,...

2011 ticks away it's last hours. It's been a tough year for a lot of people, myself included but I do have a lot to be thankful for all things considered. I wish a happy, safe and prosperous new year for all good people. For those not so good people I wish a change of heart.

Cold Gin Time Again

It's time once again for my annual post! I'm giddy! I realize there are some people who post everyday! Can you imagine? Everyday? I doubt I could come up with something once a week. It's about all I can do to remember to leave the trash out by the curb once a week.

So what's with the "Cold Gin" line?

For reasons I don't remember I found myself looking up old Kiss albums on the net yesterday. I saw "Cold Gin" on the song list and remembered that song. Today, the idea of it "That Time Again" just sort of brought that line to mind.

I know what you're thinkin. . . . . . . . . ;. Okay, I don't know what you're thinkin' but now you have an idea about what I was thinkin'

So we're into the Holiday season now. With the country still in such an economic mess I guess we'll see how festive it really gets. It's interesting that the holiday season itself probably does more to boost the economy than anything else.

Okay, that's enough for now. Another year safely time stamped away in the ole Blog!

Take Smaller Bites!

Take smaller bites?

This is a method I use to tackle difficult or undesirable tasks. Face it, if it's something you love doing then it's not hard to start it or stick with it. It's the stuff you don't like doing that takes a little 'self-motivating'. Some tasks however are simply not what you want to do,...BUT they need to get done so what do you do? Take smaller bites.

So what does that mean?

Well, say you need to clean out your garage, or mow the grass, or paint the shed, or get that report done or even just clean your room. Depending on the state of whatever it is you need to address, the task may seem daunting at first glance. It may BE daunting, at ANY glance. How do you get motivated?

Forget motivation. Make it easy on yourself. Break it up into small manageable chunks. For example, say you need to clean out the pantry. You walk over to the pantry, open the doors and a pile of junk falls out on your head. After you regain consciousness you look an discover that there is no rhyme or reason to the arrangement of any of it. Furthermore about half the stuff in there is a science project and a veritable haven for fruit-flies. It starts to dawn on you that to really do an effective job on this what you really need to do is just clear everything out and start with a blank pantry, slowly going through all the material, deciding what should go, what should stay and how to organize it in there. This is gonna take all freakin' day!

Normally this is when you either make a half-hearted effort, which will result in the problem being back where it is now in a very short amount of time, or just bagging the whole idea altogether. Close the door and hope it will go away.

It won't, so here's what you do.

Break it down into smaller parts and pick one. Like maybe for starters just throw out all the rancid, rotting, stale, etc. material that really needs to go. And that's it. Stop. Come back a few hours later or even in the next day or two and then clear out two shelves. Just two. Delegate one for something and put there, all the contents from the two shelves that belongs. Put everything else on the other shelf. Come back a few hours later or the next day or so and clear two more shelves. Rinse and repeat.

Now you may say "That will take forever!". Well in the first place it won't take forever, but I grant you, it will take longer than doing it all in one shot, BUT, isn't that the problem in the first place? That's it's going to take a long time doing it all in one shot? That and the fact that you really don't want to do it all? This is just a method for dealing with things you'd rather not be doing, in a way that makes them less daunting.

Ask yourself this. How fast is it getting done now? Isn't slower better than never? Slower may be slower but don't forget, the tortoise did actually win that race. And after all, that really is the whole point. Getting it done.

There are very few tasks that can't be broken down into smaller parts. Most of the ones that can't, can't because they don't take that long to begin with.

Another thing that will occur is that after you have achieved ANY degree of progress, you will feel better about the project because 1) You have actually started it and something has been accomplished that moves it closer to it's completion. 2) There is less to complete now.

Another unforeseen phenomenon is likely to occur by the way. As you start your "smaller bite" many times you will find that now that you are actually engaged in the process of working on the project you don't mind it as much and will often go beyond your pre-established "bite size". No, this doesn't always occur but I have found in my in personal experience it happens more than it doesn't.

What I take from that is that basically, the real problem is simply getting yourself motivated enough to start. The "smaller bite" approach may simply be a way of fooling yourself into working on something you don't want to but if it works,.. well then it works.

Train your Peeps

So what does THAT mean?

Well, it means to train the people (peeps) around you to repsond to you the way you like.
It's true that you can't train people around you to behave the way you'd like to any great degree but what you can do is sort of condition them to respond to you in ways that are more in line with how you like to do things.

The inspiration for this great idea actually comes from two people I know that have almost certainly, unintentionally conditioned me on how to respond to them. However I propose you take this idea and apply it intentionally.

As an example, one of the two people I'm referring to is sort of my unofficial IT man. I consult him before I buy anything tech related. I also have him walk me through any major computer challenges. He also runs the server that serves my domain. The thing is it's nearly impossible to get a hold of him, . . unless you know how he operates. Reaching him on the phone is nearly impossible. Reaching him on his cellphone is more probable, but reaching him and having him answer are two different things.

What I have learned is that he always (ALWAYS) has iChat up. Now here's the kicker. He's not always in front of his computer but he has iChat set up to forward messages to his cell. When they come in it's a text file so he just texts me back, . . always.

The other guy I refer to is a client of mine that I work with a lot. I typically have to ask him quick questions. This guy is usually very busy and frequently screens his calls and often doesn't answer the phone. I have found the quickest way to get a reply from him (if I need a quick reply) is to email him.

One last point of interest. These two guys? They're brothers. Interesting but is it important? I think so. Both these guys are very laid back. They both do an incredible amount of work on any given day but it's usually on their terms. This is probably more to do with their genetic make up than anything else. However, even if you're not born with a predisposition to filtering all your primary input, you can do it anyway, . . Intentionally.

The net effect is that people will begin to respond to you in the ways they figure out will get them the most desirable results. Your job is to figure out how you'd like to be contacted and responded to and then adopt that as your primary mode of responding to people and over time (and it won't be a lot of time) people will start to adapt to that on their end.

Why bother with this at all?

Because one of the largest time wasters in any environment is interruptions. There's the time used up in the interruption itself and then there's the down time of getting your head back into whatever mode it was in before the interruption. By filtering your primary venues of communication to where you can deal with the bulk of your communication on your own terms, you can disregard all transactions that you don't need or want to respond to, have much more control over your time and be better prepared when you do respond. Hey, it's your Time.

Get Real About Your Health

Possibly the most important thing you can do in your life is work to improve and/or maintain good personal health.

*As a general disclaimer, I realize that there are numerous health issues and concerns that are not related to lifestyle decisions. My comments are directed at the average person and non-special cases*

Why?

To even ask "Why" is ridiculous, but I'll answer it anyway.
While it can be argued that the most important aspect of your life is your spirituality, . .1) Some disagree. 2) If you agree you'd still have to believe that God, Allah, Buddha, Mohammed, etc, (fill in deity of your choosing) must have a reason for you to be here (physically alive) in the first place. 3) If you disagree and believe that this is all there is. Once you die your gone completely, . . well then THIS IS IT! So you'd better make the most of it.

No matter how you look at it, there is no reason to be on this planet and NOT be in as good a shape as you can be.

I really don't want to get too heavy into the spiritual side of existence regarding my point. I live under the assumption that most people want to live happy and fulfilling lives regardless of what their beliefs are.

If you feel that way, continue reading. If not, it doesn't really matter.

From a purely practical side it's a good idea to stay fit. Even if you have health insurance (and if you don't, look into it immediately!) it will still have a deductible and won't cover everything. You will pay something every time you use a health related service.
Besides, health insurance doesn't make you healthy and you shouldn't be looking at it as an alternative to living a healthier life style than you may be now. Most people I'm sure don't look at it that way either, but continue to live their lives that way anyway.
More people have been driven into bankruptcy, not because of losing their jobs or some other financially related cause, but by a major health problem. It may have directly led to them not being able to work or simply the medical costs they incurred. Health insurance is a safety net if anything designed precisely to help you avoid a financial disaster. My suggestion is to have the safety net, but do what you can to prevent the cause of the disaster in the first place.

*Obviously a major accident can have the same result. My comments are directed at lifestyle decisions*

It is always in your best interest to be in the best physical shape you can be in. You have more energy, you look better, you feel better.
The irony is that the worse shape you're in, the more work you'll have to do to get in better shape, and the harder it will be to stay motivated. The better shape you're in, the easier it is to stay in shape. It's like life is laughin' at you isn't it?

So what's the good news? Well, there actually is some. The human body is an amazing thing. It responds quickly and predictably. Almost anything you do; walk, jog, run, etc will have immediate results. You don't have to train like a marathon runner or a decathlon athlete to achieve noticeable results in a relatively short time. And the even better news? The largest and most noticeable improvements happen early on and It gets easier and easier as you continue. The real challenge is to stay with it.

Sustained motivation is the key to many things and an issue I've not fully researched yet. I don't claim to have the definitive word on that topic. To the extent that I have researched it I've found that there are numerous approaches and that most motivational speakers will agree that, like many other things, there is no "One size fits all" solution or method. My response this year will be to find as many as I can and share my results.

For now, for myself, it's enough to realize that good personal health and the lifestyle that supports it is paramount to nearly every other aspect of my life. It wouldn't hurt most people to feel the same.

Slow Cooker Coolness

Cook with a Slow Cooker as often as possible.

Why?

Because it makes cooking simple. Everything in one pot, turn it on, leave it alone.
Because it will save you money on your grocery bill. Using actual produce instead of prepackaged foods is cheaper.
Because it's a more nutritional way to cook. Using actual produce instead of prepackaged foods is healthier.
Because it will save you money on your power bill. A slow cooker on Low uses less power than a 100 watt light bulb.
Because it will make the house smell wonderful all day. It just will.

There are probably more reasons but these are just off the top of my head and should be reason enough.

You don't have a Slow Cooker?

They're cheap. You can usually pick up a 4 quart model (which is about the handiest size for most dishes) for around $30. Incidentally a "Crock-Pot" IS a slow cooker. "Crock-Pot" is just a brand name used by Rival.

This year, 2009 (coming year actually (tonight at midnight)) one of my personal goals is to find ways to save money while simultaneously NOT adding more work to my life. Don't misunderstand me. I have no aversion to work. As a freelancer I put in a lot more hours than the average nine to fiver (I said average). Point simply being that there are undoubtedly ways to save time and money at the same time. I'm simply making a conscious decision to search them out. I'll post them here when I find good ones. Using a slow cooker more often is a good one.

One Thing More, . . .

So what's that mean?

It means that you should look for one more thing you can do while going about your regular schedule.
For instance, if you're walking down the hall in your house and happen to see a pair of discarded socks left by your eleven year old, lying there on the floor, don't just walk on by. Pick them up on your way and drop them off in the laundry, or call out to your eleven year old if he's around and tell him to do it.
Or if your working on a project for a client and you're about to wrap it up, take another look to see if there's one more small thing you can do to improve it, or simply send an email out to say it's complete and they'll have it soon, or actually send it off then.
Or if your walking across your yard and you see that the kids have left the yard a wreck, pick up the football on your way and put it up wherever it goes and maybe even have the kids pick up the rest. The point is to do one thing more.
The thing not to do is to get sidelined. What's that?
Well suppose you go over to pick up the football and you happen to see that the hose is out too so you go over to coil that up and notice that the patio could use sweeping. Well if your plan was to sweep the patio anyway, or if you really have the time then go for it. But if you were just on your way across the yard in the first place to grab your laptop so you can finish the project your working on (or whatever), just pick up the football.

Why?

Because picking up the football will get one more small thing done. It will leave a little less to do later. If you make a habit of looking for one thing more you will, in small increments, get a lot of things done that you really hadn't given that much thought to.
Don't go out of your way to look for things to add to your "to do" list, just look for things that are on your way, right in front of you, easy to accomplish.
If you run across something that's right in your path but it would take enough effort to throw you off your regular schedule even a few minutes, put it on your "to do" list.