What are your top priorities in life?

It’s a fascinating thing to think about because most of the time we don’t set priorities – we just do what we’re faced with next or whatever flies onto our radar or right in front of our eyes.

We deal with whatever happens to shout the loudest whenever we happen to be listening.

The problem of course is that the loudest things are often not what we should be doing.

It’s the quiet things the things we often ignore (through choice sometimes) that either cause us to come a cropper or at the very least stop us from becoming the kind osuccessful person we’d like to be.

So it pays to pay some attention to your priorities.

Here are a few suggestions:

Important and urgent

Covey’s QuadrantsStephen Covey describes a high-level prioritization scheme in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. In this scheme, tasks are categorized by four quadrants:

* QI – Important and Urgent
* QII – Important but Not Urgent
* QIII – Not Important but Urgent
* QIV – Not Important and Not Urgent

Dr. Covey notes that highly effective people make time for the QII activities, and that doing so can reduce the time spent in other quadrants. While QI – QIV prioritization doesn’t help you decide which QI activity to do first and which to do second, and so on, it can be very enlightening to find out which quadrants your tasks are in. Source

Many of us end up spending a great deal of our time in quadrant 3, chasing around dealing with urgent but unimportant issues. If not we quite often find ourselves in Q4 as a way to procrastinate. It feels like we’re busy and productive but we’re not.

Our time is best spent in Q2 because ultimately this will reduce the time we spend in all the other quadrants.

Eating your frog first

Popularized in Brian Tracy’s book Eat That Frog!, the idea here is that you tackle the biggest, hardest, and least appealing task first thing every day, so you can move through the rest of the day knowing that the worst has already passed. Source Lifehacker

This makes so much sense. Doing those things first that cause you the most pain or discomfort will free you up to do other things. It will prevent you from procrastinating.

Putting the big rocks in first

The idea here is that all the small tasks you attend to every day don’t leave room for the big things that would make the most difference to your life.

In this video you see this principle being demonstrated with actual rocks.

When none of this matters

These are all great for prioritizing work load but how do you prioritize life? What comes first?

Do you put family first and your business second?

But what about you? Where are you in your list of priorities?

Probably last!

Here’s the thing: Unless you start to put yourself first, there could be nothing left of the other two to worry about.

Priority #1: You – It’s absolutely vital that you look after number 1.

You need to be at your best physically and mentally, but you won’t be anywhere near your best if your relationships are strained, your health is deteriorating and you’re living in an environment of constant chaos and disorder. Sure, you can get by like that for a while but it’s not a good strategy for long term success.

You are amazing and fantastic and totally awesome with huge potential to achieve great things, but unless you’re emotionally and mentally resilient, with a strong sense of self-belief you’re unlikely to do what needs to be done to realize your potential. Source

Sort your life out first and decide what yoiur personal priorities are and you’ll find it much easier to work in quadrant 2 or to eat your frog.

We have a stainless steel double oven in our kitchen and it’s been a fantastic investment, it’s beautiful and we love it.

We have a big family -  two adults, 4 children and  grandma who lives in the adjoining annexe, so it gets a lot of use.

Gorgeous clean and fresh looking Neff Stainless Steel Double Oven

We’ve also got a big kitchen because as a family we spend the majority of time in there, it really is the heart of the home and the oven with its double width hob is the centerpiece.

If you’re going to be spending a lot of time either looking at it or using it then it has to look good. You’re going to need to love the idea of looking at it because for most of us it’s a major purchase, and not something we’d be looking to change every year.

So it suits us and our kitchen but if you think you need a big kitchen to warrant the purchase of a double oven, you don’t.

They are quite big, but they don’t dominate the room – even a small kitchen would look good with one of these installed.

So like a said, we have a big family and we do a bit of social entertaining so we found it an easy decison to buy one.

But even if we didn’t have a big family we would still have gone for one because we like to cook interesting dishes that the TV Chefs create. Life is short – you have to try these things!

So if you enjoy cooking, if food is your passion you may feel inclined to buy one.

Most of the time ours is used for the functional day to day cooking of family meals, but if you did fancy yourself as an amateur baker or chef, you definitely need one of these.

I say need because I mean need. If you’re at all serious about cooking you really should consider getting one. The additional capacity allows you fo put together some complex and interesting dishes where quite often the different components require different cooking methods.

Example of a Beautiful Stainless Steel Double Oven

I might also add that as an affordable alternative to a professional caterers oven and a quality twin oven is good enough to operate a small home baking business – which quite a few people seem to be doing these days.

So our double oven is pretty much essential, and whilst we could get by with just the one it would make life difficult. The time we have available to actually stand at the stove on most days is minimal so it’s not practical to bake one thing, then keep it warm while the next thing is cooking.

One feature that we hadn’t considered when we bought it was very apparent on Christmas day last year. We went to put one of the ovens on to cook the turkey and discovered it wasn’t working. The electric element burnt out, and of course, had this been our only oven we’d have been eating sandwiches for Christmas dinner.

Fortunately our appliance has large oven capacity and we were able to get by with just the one.

One mistake we made when buying ours was getting smoked glass doors. It looks fantastic but in order to see how the food is cooking we have to open the doors, which of course lets all the heat out and spoils some of the more delicate dishes. When we come to buying our next oven we’ll be going for clear glass doors!

As far as great features are concerned, one of the best has to be self cleaning. You can do without it, but having a self cleaning oven makes a world of difference. Don’t forget, you have TWO to clean! This was one of our deciding factors when we bought ours. We didn’t go for self cleaning so we got the smoked glass doors and we reasoned we didn’t want to be looking at a dirty oven – and let’s be honest here… when you have a young family you don’t have time to clean it every day – we should have gone for self cleaning and clear glass!

Consider also opting for doors that open up and slide back into the oven housing – it’s great for enclosed kitchens and helps to prevent accidental burns when the oven doors swing back on you.

Go for a combination of fan oven and conventional oven. This is the best of both worlds and gives you more options when it comes to baking specialist dishes, cakes, pastries and breads.

Do you want a wall mounted oven, or do you need a free standing double width oven and hob?

A double height wall mounted oven is absolutely ideal if you’re short of floor space, but if that’s not an option for you, you can get free standing single width ovens with a standard width hob. The top oven functions as an oven and as a grill.

Our oven is double width. Like I said we have room for it and it looks good. The large hob gives us more flexibility with the additional rings and warming plate. Plus we have a separate grill (broiler) so we always have access to both ovens when the grill is in use.

In addition there’s also a compartment to store baking trays and pans which keeps them handy for use and keeps your kitchen units and cupboards free of cumbersome clutter.

Ours is electric with a glass hob and halogen elements. Gas or electric? It’s not that important when you’re buying a good appliance – quality goods provide a quality cooking experience – but it really is down to your own preference.

Technology has moved on a bit since we bought ours 8 years ago and now many ovens come with digital control to get precise temperature settings. this wasn’t important to us (and still isn’t) but it might be important to you.

The best thing about a double oven? You’re going to think it’s trivial… pizza night! There’s so much room and so many shelves you can cook all the pizzas at the same time!

I told you! Life is short and small details like this matter a lot and add to the joy of life.

Our decison to invest in one of these was one of the best decisions we ever made for our home.

How many episodes in the final series of Entourage?

Entourage: Vincent Chase

Season 8 was the final season of the Entourage series and it was aired in 2011.

There are 8 episodes in the series with the first entitled “Home Sweet Home” going to air on July 24, 2011.

The finale [Episode 8] entitled simply, “The End” was aired on September 11, 2011 and was watched by 2.61 million viewers.

What is Entourage?

Created by HBO, Entourage is an American comedy-drama about a NewYork born actor Vincent Chase (played by Adrian Grenier) and follows his experiences as he struggles with the trials and tribulations of the Hollywood film industry, as he is helped, or more often impeded, by his ‘entourage’ comprising his agent, friends and family.

The first episode of the entire series was shown on July 18, 2004

The series totalled 96 shows in all.

What is the largest Word font?

It’s a bizarre question I know, because who really wants to know this and why?!

But the answer is…

The biggest font size you can get in a word document is 1638 points.

You can test this out. Try typing in 1900…

Just to get an idea of what 1638 looks like in a word doc I reduced the view to 25% to get the whole page on screen and typed in a lower case i in an Arial font.

As you can see, you just about get the dot on the top of the i along with a tiny part of the main body of the letter.

So there you go. That’s pretty big and from what I see, pretty useless, but it’s good to know eh?

I’ve been on Twitter for a while now but for the longest time I was stumped by why people put a ‘hash’ sign, or ‘number’ sign before words on posted on Twitter.

This symbol # when used on Twitter is know as the ‘hashtag’.

It’s a way of tracking a conversation about a particular topic of interest. You’ll often see it in the ‘trending topics’ list in the sidebar at Twitter.com

Hastags or # tags in use on Twitter

Using this character in front of key words helps other people who are interested in the things you are to find you.

if you want to see the hashtag at work you can either go directly to twitter http://twitter.com/#!/search-home and type # immediately followed by the word or phrase you want to search (no spaces), for example #socialmedia #ladygaga #blogging #quote

Or you could go to http://www.hashtags.org/ and view a selection of popular tags.

These #symbols, sometimes also known as the ‘pound sign’ has also been used for comedic effect particularly by many of the social bloggers to convey sarcasm or irony.

Increasingly TV shows and advertisers are creating their own tags for branding and publicity purposes.

There’s also a growing trend for the #tag to be used in other social media platforms such as facebook and some twitter die-hards have been known to use them in text messages.

Where did the hashtag come from?

Hashtags were popularized during the San Diego forest fires in 2007 when Nate Ritter used the hashtag “#sandiegofire” to identify his updates related to the disaster. Via

How to hashtag on Twitter

There are no firm rules, it’s an evolving practice, but it’s generally felt they should be used sparingly and only to add real meaning and value.

Remember to keep the tag as one word with no spaces or it won’t work. You could use underscores to join the words if you wish but it’s not the usual convention.

I’ve lead a sheltered life so I’ve only ever encountered FTW on Twitter and in text messages and assumed it to mean WTF (What the F**k) backwards to emphasize some additional confusion mixed with exasperation.

It turns out the letters FTW actually stand for For The Win.

It seems the expression originated on a TV game show called Hollywood Squares in which the host would precede the winning question with “For the win…”

Here’s a clip in which the host John Davidson uses the expression (in the last minute of the video):

FTW – For The Win – Is used as an excited exclamation – although sometimes used in a sarcastic way.

Search YouTube for FTW and you’ll find lots of  ‘how to’ videos.

What else could it mean? Another commonly accepted meaning:

F**k The World – When used in anger. How rude!!

Photo Of a Slightly Younger Nigella Lawson Looking Beautiful

Nigella Lawson is 52 Years Old

When was Nigella born?

6th January 1960

Which makes her 52 years old.

(And I’ll update this post on 6th Jan 2012 to keep it accurate)

You wouldn’t believe it to look at her but she is indeed in her 50s, and she looks great.

Let’s just hope she doesn’t have to bake her own birthday cakes!

English Muffin

The Gorgeous Domestic Goddess

I think this tune is fantastic.

The live version is better (in my humble opinion) but I just love the way it builds.

James | Laid

Live Version

The energy of the live performance just drags you in.

Lyrics:

This bed is on fire
With passion and love
The neighbours complain about the noises above
But she only comes when she’s on top

My therapist said not to see you no more
She said you’re like a disease without any cure
She said I’m so obsessed that I’m becoming a bore, oh no
Ah, you think you’re so pretty

Caught your hand inside the till
Slammed your fingers in the drawer
Fought with kitchen knives and skewers
Dressed me up in womens clothes
Messed around with gender roles
Dye my eyes and call me pretty

Moved out of the house, so you moved next door
I locked you out, you cut a hole in the wall
I found you sleeping next to me, I thought I was alone
You’re driving me crazy, when are you coming home

Note: Alternative Lyrics

The lyrics differ in each of these two videos.
In the studio music video:
The 2nd line is: With passionate love

The 10th line is: Slammed your fingers in the door

There is another ‘family friendly’ version of the song with the line – She only sings when she’s on top

Do you have an escape plan in the event of fire in the home?

I’ve got a young family and all four of my children being 10 or under, so as you might imagine safety in the home is important to me.

A few nights ago the battery in the smoke alarm failed and I didn’t have a replacement so we ended up spending the night without an alarm upstairs. I didn’t sleep well!

All too often I read or hear about house fires where some family members survive and others perish in the blaze. It’s heart wrenching to imagine what the survivors go through.

It’s important to give this some thought ahead of time and make a fire escape plan for you and for the kids, so that you can all get out alive and uninjured.

Following my sleepless night I exchanged emails with Sally who was kind enough to offer the following fire safety tips:

Fire Safety In the Home

No one wants to think about what they would do if their home caught on fire. However, it’s important to have an escape plan in the case of a fire. Here are eight things that you and your family can do to be prepared.

1. Name Responsibilities – Make sure each family member knows exactly what he/she would do in case of a fire. Siblings that sleep in the same room could be in charge of waking each other up, while parents could be responsible for calling the fire department. Take into account family members who need help, such as the very young or those with disabilities. Plan to work together as a team to ensure everyone’s safety.

2. Make an Escape Route – Identify two ways to escape from every room in the home. For houses with multiple stories, you may want to consider purchasing fire escape ladders and make sure all family members know how to use them.

3. Discuss Safety Issues – Make sure all family members know how to keep themselves safe in a fire. Some tips include staying low to the ground to avoid breathing in smoke, feeling a closed door before opening it to check for heat, and staying out of the house after escape. You should also discuss what to do in case both exits are blocked: stuff towels under doors, signal for help with a flashlight or bright cloth, and call the fire department if there is a telephone in the room.

4. Choose Two Meeting Places – An important part of a fire escape route is having two meeting places. One should be right outside the home, along with another further away in case it is not safe to be near the home. The second location could be at a known landmark or in front of a home in your neighborhood that isn’t right next to yours.

5. Designate an Emergency Contact – After calling the fire department, you should also call someone close to you to let them know what happened. Let this person know in advance that they are your emergency contact.

6. Plan for the Worst – In the case that your home is extremely damaged or destroyed, you should plan for where you would go until you could find a new home. This may be with a family member or close friend, a hotel, or even an evacuation shelter if there is no other option. If you have a pet, you should make sure your temporary living conditions are pet friendly or get the contact information for the closest animal shelter.

7. Check Smoke Detectors/Fire Extinguishers – Make sure that all smoke detectors and fire extinguishers are in working order. Smoke detectors should be installed on every floor and checked monthly. Fire extinguishers should also be checked periodically and family members should know how to use them properly.

8. Practice – You should practice evacuating your home at least twice a year. You may want to practice at different times of the day or night and in different weather conditions, as well as trying different escape routes from the house.

This guest article was submitted by Sally Davison. She owns the site Fire Science Degree. Sally is an experienced EMT and loves to write various articles about fire safety.

Image courtesy of Ada Be

My blogging career has taken me full circle.

A little over 3 years ago I started my first site called Teach My Children Well.

At that point I recognised that my life hadn’t gone quite the way I’d planned and I knew I needed to make some changes. The premise was that I would make the necessary changes, be a good role model and set a good example for my children.

It was a great site and became popular quickly, thanks in the most part to the support of other people.

Sadly I encountered all sorts of difficulties with it on the technical front. At one point a database error caused me to lose all of the comments. I tried to fix it but the learning curve was so steep that I couldn’t keep up with my primary role of managing the home.

I abandoned that project and moved on to other things.

Since then I’ve tried my hand at a lot of other endeavours based around the internet and I’ve learnt a hell of a lot.

Actually, I consider the last three years to be an apprenticeship during which I learnt my trade. I suppose you could also liken it to doing a university degree or studying for professional qualifications. The point is, I’ve come out the other side far better for the experience.

It’s kind of odd, but for the longest time I considered myself a stay at home dad, but it turns out that I was in fact a work at home dad.

The work, whilst not earning me an income, was definitely work and hard work too.

It was like working two jobs, neither of which paid.

So it’s back to square one. I’m going back to do what I started three yeaars ago, except this time it’s on a site called Hubby’s Home - A survival guide for work at home parents.

It’s about helping parents who work from home, in whatever capacity, to cope with daily life and still find time to build their business or do their work.

I’m going right back to basics with the intention of providing a comprehensive resource. I’m aiming at people who are finding this information for the very first time – the people who are struggling like I was 3 years ago.

I think it’s going to be awesome and hope you like it.