Managers in shoulder padded jackets from the 90's were wrong when they said that multitasking would save us from the overload of work and stress.

In our distraction addled worlds, our brains have learned to cope with the myriad of distractions by compensating and multitasking. We compensate by juggling our phones while ordering a coffee, emailing while on the phone, texting while watching television, there are even people playing the flute while driving!

But did we lose the most important part of living by giving in to our need to squeeze every moment out? Did we forget the importance of focus and actually live in our lives?

I want to propose for a moment, the idea of monotasking.

Every single thing you do, you do without thought, or distraction from. Boring, interesting, it doesn't matter.

In popular psychology, monotasking is called being present. That's a great word, a lot of the time i find myself considering the past, thinking about the future, and the last thing i'm considering is where I am and what I'm doing, it's like im living inside my head.

One of the best exercises for coming back to the present, and focusing on what you're doing is to do just just that, come back to the present and realise what your five senses are telling you, pay attention to what you are smelling, hearing, seeing, tasting, feeling. The world becomes a deeper and richer place the moment you do, even if you're just walking down the street.

Start mono tasking today. You'll be glad you did.

Normal distribution. 68.27%. It's a fascinating number. Number of hours slept. Number of times someone knocks on a door. Number of times you roll over in bed. Your salary. Your number of bedrooms in your home. Most people will have or do all these things within a very narrow band. 68.27% of any population actually.

From day 1, when you are born, statisticians put you into the curve. Whether it's your weight, your height, your smarts, your money or your death. It all fits on the curve somewhere.

Normal is good. You're just like everyone else, no one is going to question you, because you're part of the 68.27% of the population.

Normal is safe.

Most advice is normal.

What's funny is that normal is so different for different people. Normally it's whoever you're brought up with. Researchers call this the 'normalisation period' when you are 'teaming.' In reality, it's about fitting in. People like people like themselves, and most of all people like to be liked.

I think it's more important to build your own normal. For me, that means I want to see as many groups, teams, people and have as many experiences as possible.

For some people they might be happy with their normal, and they'll either never want, or never will go out and explore the possibilities. Me? I kind of envy these guys, but also... I kind of don't.

Flickr Cred: viasta2

So I've heard a few things about how the market is going to go.

South.

20% drop? Maybe.

Financial's in Australia have dropped at least 10-20% in the last few weeks alone. The sky is falling. If I were still in stocks in Australia I'd get the hell out and make the most of 8% interest rates on cash accounts.

I'm not bailing yet on the markets. Video games are a recession's best friend. Unemployment rates soaring? Petrol prices hitting all time highs? I just hope the Jone's are staying home to play their Wii.

So. How exactly do stupid people make money?

Ok. I'm being facetious, I don't mean stupid people. I mean your average mom and dad investor who 'dabbles' in the stock market, or a Japanese house wife dabbling in some forex gambling. Basically your average white collar John Doe who reads the Weekend Business Roundup and has CNBC.

Stupid people make money by luck. If you had put in $20,000 into the stock market 8 years ago, and had thrown darts at a board of investment picks you would have doubled your money. Blindfolded. Even after all the recent falls.

Stupid people have been lucky. And good for them, you don't need to be a genius to get on the gravy train, and nor should you need to be. You can bet that if there is a a gravy train, I'll be the first one on.

An article recently criticised the generation of stupid investors educated on a staple diet of CNBC, Bloomberg and Jim Cramer. It mentioned how they are the ones stuck like deer in the headlights right now. They were brought up on looking at P/E ratios (price to earnings) but either forgot, or don't care about where the E came from. Trust me earnings matter.

Funnily enough, the same investors, also worked in the white collar firms, and funnily enough, these execs also forgot that where the E comes from is more important than just making loads of it.

So it's come full circle, we educate a generation of stupid people, we put stupid people in charge of our firms and we ask them to invest in our firms. In the gaming world, they call this GG.

Now don't take this the wrong way. I'm not labelling an entire generation of people as not smart, or incapable of functioning as sentient intelligent human beings. Stupid is a term I'm using for people who are obviously smart enough to make themselves money to invest. These guys might be lawyers, accountants or doctors, for all I know, or care. But I see it time and time again, people with a fortune to invest and their only explanation for their investing is 'it's a bank. Banks are good, right?'

Stupid people make money (except when the sky is falling).

The sky is falling.

Flickrcred: Motherpie

My Uncle owns a furniture store in Alor Setar, Malaysia. This isn't particularly remarkable, except it was also where I spent  most of my swelteringly hot summer holidays, cooped up inside the only air conditioned place in town, the office. This was where I learned the basics of credit.

I can vividly remember the stale smell of the off white wall paper, the cool bare polished concrete floor and the rhythmic rattle and hum of the twenty year old air conditioner, beating time to my 'busy office work.'

In the corner, on the ground, sat an odd looking print.

The vignette was made up of two contrasting scenes, one was a large, rosy cheeked, coated business man smoking a pipe, and the other, a poor skinny man with an empty safe. The motto on the fat rich man:

I never sell on credit.

Poor old skinny with his empty pockets proclaimed:

I sold on credit.

At 7, I had no idea what credit was. Over the years I spent there though, my parents taught me that selling on credit was a way of letting people have things now, while they could pay for it later.

Fast forward nearly 20 years, and the world is drunk on credit. Buy now pay later. Use your home equity, buy a new car. Borrow to get that whizzbang doohickey you always wanted. No money? sure we'll loan you 100% of the value!

It's all 'cheers, how you doing' when wages grow and assets appreciate and the gen X'ers cash their retirements out on their homes. But what happens when the party is over?

Well. For one, when no one wants to lend you anymore money, things start going awry.

Then you wake up. You've got a hangover, but you're not sure how you got to that point.

Sounds like drinking too much right? Well it's exactly what's happening now with Subprime (it's not over yet!). People went too far with selling on credit.

Everyone who sold on credit is now the skinny dude saying I sold on credit. The scary thing is, that they aren't so skinny, and aren't so easy to spot, they are your average white collar, suited, mom and dad. In fact, if they were there during the party, they've probably cashed out their bonuses and left shareholders (hrmm moms and dads too) out in the cold.

Here is a hilarious primer on the subprime crisis (retold by two stick figures, no less) that I totally recommend, it'll take 2 minutes:

 http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=ddp4zq7n_0cdjsr4fn

Personally I've got a different view of credit. It's not about selling on credit. It's about the uses.

Credit is for:

• Buying an asset.
• Buying something that helps you make money.
• Buying something that keeps you living.
• Emergencies

Credit is not for:

• Getting that xyz that I always wanted, and is on sale.
• Buying stuff for fun.
• Betting on the market.
• 'Getting the lifestyle I always wanted. Man'

These are my own little rules, I'd love to hear yours.

My hope is that these rules make sure, unlike most of the Financials right now, that I'll never be caught with my pants down.

Flickr cred: Regenade98