I’ve been fortunate enough to see a pretty steady climb in my salary over the last few years, or at least that’s what it looked like on paper, but not the way it felt. Every time I made a little bit extra we used it to pay off the debt that we had accumulated over the years. I had borrowed against my future and was paying it back little by little. I didn’t realize at the time the kind of psychological drain this put on me. Whenever I spent money on anything other than necessities, I felt guilty. I knew that this money wasn’t really mine, that it belonged to my debtors and that at some point I would have to sacrifice some of these purchases in order to pay them back. All of this happened below the surface, but the tension was still real.

We’re not entirely debt free yet, we still have to pay off our car, which we plan on doing in the next month or so. But I can see the end. I can start to feel the weight lifted off my shoulders. I feel more in charge of my financial destiny and I don’t have the burden of knowing that someone else owns our money.

This is all part of my plan to overhaul our personal finances and whip them into shape over the next 10 weeks. My plan is to get all of our debt paid off, save a month’s worth of expenses in an emergency fund and start regular (if small) contributions to college savings for the kids and retirement savings for Amber and me. I’ve been living in a precarious financial situation for far too long and I’m tired of it. This is a process Amber and I have been working on for the last few years in little bursts, but it hasn’t felt real until recently.

If you’re working on your own financial fitness journey, keep at it, the rewards of being debt free and in charge of your financial destiny are great.

Below are some of the tools that we have found most useful, hopefully they can be of use to you as well.

• Dave Ramsey. His book The Total Money Makeover as well as his podcast, which is a great way to stay motivated.
• Mint gives you good tools for keep an eye on your finances. The budgeting tools aren’t awesome, but it’s great for keep an eye on transactions, balances and overall trends.
• Google Docs work great for collaborative budget spreadsheets. Here is a sample of the one we’ve been using to track our budget.

1. Family Life vs. Work

   I fear one of these two taking over my life entirely to the detriment of the other. I worry that I won’t be focusing on one or the other as much as I should and they will both fall apart. I want to make sure that I’m spending as much time with my family as possible, while still focusing on my career which is personally fulfilling and also enables me to further provide for and spend time with my family.

   Attempted Solution: My current approach to making sure this in balance is two fold:

   a) Setting up clear lines between the two of them. I try to make sure that I’m fully focused on work when I’m at work, and fully focused on my family when I’m at home. I try to keep work outside of the family time. I get up early in the mornings to work while my family sleeps, I also leave the office as early as possible so that I can spend time with the family in the evenings.

   b) Spend quality time with the family when I don’t have much quantity to give. Since I do spend most of the day the office, I try to make sure that the time that I spend with the family is quality time. It’s not always easy when I come home from the office tired. But I try to make sure that we do quality activities together, not just zone out in front of the TV.

2. Being present and enjoying the now vs. Planning for the future and not becoming complacent

   I have a hard time appreciating my current circumstances because I compare them with what I ultimately want. I end up missing out on some really great moments because I’m not focused on the now. I spend too much time planning and thinking about the future rather than enjoying what I have now. I know from experience that I’m going to miss this time in my life. Looking back at certain points in my life that were objectively worse are some of my fondest memories, but I remember not fully enjoying them at the time. The flip side is to focus entirely on the now and not pay any mind to the future, which can mean getting stuck in the now and not reaching my goals and progressing beyond my current circumstances.

   Attempted Solution: I setup times to review my goals and make sure I’m on track. It’s a combination of daily, weekly and monthly reviews. With scheduled times to make sure I’m ultimately on track, I’m able to fully enjoy the now, knowing that I can check myself and my direction soon. I don’t have to worry about the bigger picture every second of the day, I just make adjustments as I review them during those pre-determined times.

3. Habits and routines vs. Being spontaneous and being able to adjust to changing circumstances

   I love finding the most efficient way to do something. I love being able to figure out a routine that works and then just turn it into a habit and forget about it. This is great for menial tasks that can be semi-automated, allowing me to focus on other things. I no longer have to worry about them getting done, I just do them because they are habits. The dark side of this is that I can’t adapt well to changing circumstances. If I get up late or don’t follow the usual routine for some reason it throws the entire flow off and that can ruin my day.

   Attempted Solution: I setup habits that allow for some flexibility. I don’t sweat small changes in my routine. I make sure that I have enough margin in my day to allow for those deviations. I work hard to not let small deviations in my routines and plans throw my entire day off track. I’m working on disconnecting my routines from specific times, making them more independent so I can hop in and out of the flow when I’m able to.

I know that finding balance in my life will always be a process and I’m hoping that some of these attempted solutions will help in keeping my life in balance. What are some things that you struggle with keeping in balance? What do you do to try and make sure they remain in balance?

I’ve been toying around with the idea and implementation of a standing desk for some time. Inspired by my friend Ben Lew and having read a couple articles (like this one) about the benefits of standing and working I’ve been wanting to give it a shot. I was however pretty nervous about going cold turkey and getting rid of my chair all at once.

My ideal scenario was to get a sit-stand desk that could raise and lower easily. As you can tell if you clicked that link, the desks are pricey, and currently outside of my desk budget.

I also came to the conclusion that I would probably lower it all too often thereby negating the advantages of having a standing desk, and that if I was going to do this, I just had to bite the bullet and go for it 100%.

I decided at the end of last week that I would go ahead and try it. I would spend a week standing at my desk, but I didn’t want to invest any money in the project until I knew I was going to be able to make it work. So I propped up a bunch of boxes and had my first experimental standing desk arrangement (the picture was taken with Instagram hence the style).

It worked well and I started to see a lot of benefits from standing. Here are a few of them:

• More energy and alertness. I used to get really tired about an hour after lunch, and would have a hard time focusing. Slouching in my chair I would nearly fall asleep sometimes, resorting to some afternoon coffee or just trying to get through the rest of work at a lower capacity. Since I’ve been standing I don’t feel as tired.
• I am happier overall, this is hard to quantify, but I get more enjoyment out of my work. I think the physical act of standing, being able to move around definitely makes my sometimes monotonous job a lot more enjoyable.
• Health benefits. As outlined by the article above, there are numerous health benefits to standing. While I do go to the gym (most) mornings, it doesn’t make up for the 10+ hours I spend sitting.

So after seeing these benefits I decide it was time to get a more permanent setup. For just under $60 I was able to build this setup, which so far (1 week in) has been amazing. I love having so much workspace and it’s the perfect height, without any adjustments to the bookshelves.

The simple list of items I used:

1. Hollow core slab door
2. 2 Bookshelves (I found these for $16 at my local Target)

Since we were already working on 21times.org we decided we could contribute to the effort while learning a bit ourselves. We reached out to some of the top users on Hacker News and asked if we might be able to use some of their content to create a course of motivation post to help keep people motivate throughout this month. A lot of those top users were gracious enough to let us user their content, and this was a great chance for us to test our idea.

So far we’ve received a great response. We’ve had a lot of signups and some great feedback. We’re excited to build this out further and get more courses in place. If you’re interested in getting some encouragement to get your app out this month in your inbox for 21 days, signup for free at hn.21times.org.

My realization started off as disgust/anger at how lame it was that these awards were getting doled out to such mediocre talent. All the while they were making it seem as though they were praising the best of the best. Now I understand that these are the MTV movie awards (which are decided by fans, that probably watch MTV) so already they don’t have a lot of authority or credibility in my mind. But as these feelings subsided I started to realize that they WERE the best of the best for what they were trying to accomplish.

When making a movie you can try to further the art of film making; or you can appeal to the most people in an effort to make money. In this case they were clearly chasing the latter. So, although I personally don’t enjoy the movies/celebrities that were being celebrated at this event, they had clearly achieved their goals of becoming popular. They have appealed to a low enough common denominator that they have become the best at making money.

A lot of times I get hung up on hating things because they aren’t inline with my personal tastes. I have a hard time stepping back and realizing that their goal isn’t to be the next best indie film, it’s to appeal to the most people and therefore make the most money. And that’s something I can appreciate.

This applies to any business venture. Too often I find myself becoming more of a hobbyist by being a purist about certain things without keeping my end goal in mind. If I’m building web app that I’m hoping to impress my geek buddies with that’s one thing. But if my end goal is to build a business through the web app I need to look at it as such. I need to be less concerned with the nerdy details if they aren’t going to directly help me make money.

In short, the end goals needs to remain in focus. Keeping the end in mind will help you in deciding what direction to take and what to focus on.

Now exactly 2 years and 4,757 updates later I have decided it’s time for my experiment to come to an end.

Like I said the only reason I decided to start using Twitter was to network. I made a goal that year to ramp up my networking efforts since I’m not much of an outgoing person. I was freelancing full time at that point and I wanted to see if I could use Twitter professionally. After two years I can say that although I have gleaned some professional value from Twitter it hasn’t been a good ROI in terms of how much time I’ve had to put into it.

Having said that I have met some really awesome people on/through Twitter and it functioned great as a public chatroom/office watercooler (as my friend Ben Lew, @n0s0ap pointed out). But, I feel it’s taking up too much of my time at this point and I feel there are better, more lasting ways to interact with friends as well as network.

I hope that my departure from Twitter doesn’t mean a departure from the friends I’ve made on Twitter. I hope to continue to stay in touch as best I can and I hope to do it in a more lasting and meaningful way. If you would like to connect outside of Twitter please feel free to contact me, or direct message me via Twitter and I’ll reply with contact information.

I’m going to be trying to keep up with my blog more often as well, so feel free to grab the feed.

A big thanks to all my friends on Twitter for their friendship.

While I think there is a place for activism and for helping raise awareness of important issues. I feel we often fall into being too gimmicky with our activism and see self denial as the end, not as a means to an end.

C.S. Lewis starts his essay The Weight of Glory by asking what the ‘highest of virtues’ is and he writes that most would probably answer unselfishness, but that we should really be focused on love instead of unselfishness.

The negative ideal of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I do not think this is the Christian virtue of Love. The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself.

While I know he wasn’t talking about activism directly I think the principle still applies. I’ve noticed a tendency for activism to slide into unselfishness and self-denial without actually doing any good. In activism we need to make sure that we don’t see self-denial as the end, but rather the means to an end.

I took issue with the fact that in the statement made by Richard Branson I didn’t see a call to action other than to join him in fasting which in and of itself doesn’t do any good for anyone in Darfur. The organization spearheading this movement FastDarfur.org does have calls to action which have the potential of helping others, but it doesn’t appear to be the primary focus. They seem to be more intent on getting people start fasting rather than taking more direct action.

In discussing this with Amber she pointed out that perhaps this was just the first step to other action. That experiencing the hunger that people in Darfur are experiencing would be the catalyst for people to finally take additional action. If that’s the case then I think it’s a good place to start, but I don’t think it stops there and when there isn’t any mention of further actions until you dig into the website I fear the core message might get lost.

Here is my first draft, I’m sure this will evolve over time as things change, but hopefully the core purpose will remain intact. I’m sharing this publicly for additional accountability. If you catch me not adhering to this, please feel free to call me out.

Increasing My Attention Span

Recently I’ve noticed a disturbing trend in my interactions online. If I came across a bit of content that seemed interesting I would immediately scroll down to see how long it was, if it seemed too long, I often wouldn’t read it. It scares me that I don’t have the attention span to read through good content just because of it’s length. I seem to have grown accustomed to receiving my content in bite size portions or through video, that I no longer have the patience for lengthy content. I resolve to read content based on the value regardless of its length. I also resolve to stop watching frivolous videos (some exceptions being keynotes, lectures or sermons).

Digesting Content, Not Just Consuming

I spend too much time reading really interesting content online. Most of which is worthwhile. But just as I don’t eat just to eat, but rather to stay alive and nourish my body through the digesting of that food. I believe I should be digesting that content not just consuming it. I resolve to respond to each piece of content I consume. To digest it and make it meaningful to me. This means responding to it as if I were to post a comment or write my own blog post on the subject. I will not be posting all my responses, but at least I’ve spent the time to understand and digest the content.

Creating Lasting Content

Although a Tweet can be valuable, it can’t last. Just by the nature of Twitter things you post are very transient. I believe that is only adding to the noise, by not creating lasting value. I am going to shift my focus to more lasting mediums, such as blog posts or discussions in comments, etc.

Purposeful Sharing

There is something to be said for spreading good information I’ve found online. But too often I just spew the new found content, unfocused, into the void. I believe sharing that information should be targeted and purposeful. I should have someone in mind when I share a link and not just put it out there and hope someone finds value in it.

Removing Intrusive Distractions

I typically have a Twitter client open at all times, and another one on my phone so I’m constantly connected and receiving messages from Twitter. I also have constant access to email, the alerts constantly vying for my attention. I believe this is counter-productive and that I should determine when I will engage with that content and not let it determine that for me. I resolve to remove those intrusive distractions and instead be purposeful in determining when I will respond to them.

I have only lately begun to wonder whether I’d use Twitter if I were fully at liberty to do what I liked. In other words, I’m not sure I’d use Twitter if I were rich. Swampy, boggy, inescapable connectivity: it seems my middle-class existence has stuck me here.

Do you think this is true? I know that when I first starting using twitter it was an experiment in growing my network so that I could get more freelance work or get the word out on MightyBrand or other ventures. So, if I was rich would I continue to do this? Wouldn’t I have better things to do with my time? Why would I care about how big my audience was if I didn’t need anything from them any more. Sidenote: I mean this on a professional level. I’ve met some really awesome people through these social networks and that has greatly improved my life. But in the same way we don’t spend every hour of every day with our friends offline, we certainly shouldn’t feel the need to spend our days constantly connected with our online friends.

The connections that feel like wealth to many of us — call us the impoverished, we who treasure our smartphones and tally our Facebook friends — are in fact meager, more meager even than inflated dollars. What’s worse, these connections are liabilities that we pretend are assets. We live on the Web in these hideous conditions of overcrowding only because — it suddenly seems so obvious — we can’t afford privacy.

Personally I do find myself believing in the illusion that I’m more important that I am just because of how many Twitter followers, blog subscribers or LinkedIn connections I have. I feel the need to interact with people as if people are going to miss what I have to say if I stop. The other side of that is that I fear missing out on something, I can’t stand to be away from the internet for fear of being left out of some new meme or some new app that will totally change my life.

It seems twitter and other social networks have become a way for me to act busier than I am and thereby feel more important than I am. I don’t get so much email that I can’t stay on top of it, but I do have a lot of twitter followers I feel a need to stay on top of. It’s a sad state of affairs.

I’m in the midst of drafting a new personal online code of conduct for myself to try and climb out of the “bog” and see what lies beyond.

We have big plans for MightyBrand.com and I hope that you’ll check it.  Whether you’re a blogger, a startup or someone working for a company with any kind of online presence this tool will help you keep an eye on what people are saying about you online and then easily respond all from one central location.

As always, any and all feedback is welcome.  Feel free to contact me directly, post a comment below or use the feedback tab on the site.