Simplify and maximize your life

39 tips for simplifying life

2010-03-10T03:31:00.000-08:00

1. Just say no.
Saying yes to a request means that you should devote some time or some money to deal with the request. Of course, sometimes you should say yes. Learn when to say yes and when to say no.

2. The fewer the better.
One problem is better than ten problems. Two cars are often better than ten cars. One mistress is better than 3 mistresses. One credit card is better than seven credit cards.

3. Get rid of unnecessary things.
Dump that old printer that doesn't work.

4. Create a list of everything that you do.
The list is necessary to prevent forgetting.

5. Learn to prioritize
Prioritization means that you should find out the most important things.

6. Automate
Sign in for automatic bill paying. If you invest search for automatic investment opportuinites. The idea is to invest some time to create a system, and afterwards system should work without you.

7. Ask for expert advice
You cannot be expert in everything. Sometimes it is easier to ask for advice and pay that service if that will save you time and money.

8. Slow down
Speeding through the life could lead to the accidents.

9. Choose the most important task
Each day select one task that should be completed no matter what.

10. Is is good enough?
Is it necessary to be perfect? Maybe 80% complete is good enough?

11. One by one
Deal tasks one by one. Don't stop untill it's done.

12. Ask for help
If you have to many things to do, you might ask for help. Ask friends, relatives, children, parents, ... If necessary pay for service.

13. Create systems
For example create a buying list on the fridge. Whenever you find that you run out of milk, cereals, ... put it on the list.

14. Don't waste time
TV is almost always vaste of time. The internet is frequently the vaste of time.

15. Create time slots
When you work you should work, when you sleep you should sleep, when you are with you family you should be with your family. Time slots might be small, but fill it 100%. For example when you are with your family don't watch TV. When time slots expire say, ok no more X, lets do Y.

16. Organize your working space
Don't spend 10 minutes each day searching for something on your desk.

17. Reduce inflow
Don't let it in your life if it is not necessary

18. Increase outlow
Invest in your skills. Type faster, learn shortcuts, ...

19. Make plans
Plans should give you a long-term perspective and motivation.

20. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
Leave some time for fun.

21. Prepare for the following day
Before going to the bed, prepare everything for tommorow.

22. Use a pen and notebook
Have a pen and notebook handy. Allways.

23. Divide and conquer
How to eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

24. One thing in, one thing out
Create space for a new item eliminating an existing one.

25. Live near your work
It would be perfect if you can walk to your workplace.

26. Get rid of your debts
Start with small debts. End with mortgage.

27. Start budgeting
Use no more than dozen expense categories. Determine how much money you will put in each category. Stick with it.

28. Create a success list
Note every success achieved. Review when you feel down.

29. Get in shape
Exercising will boost your energy level without stimulants (caffeine, alcohol, ...)

30. Turn the beeper on
Set your watch (or cell phone) to beep every hour. Whenever it beeps stop for a while and reflect. What are you doing right now? Is it the most important thing at the moment?

31. Budget your time
Use dozen or so time categories. Determine how much time you will devote for each category. Stick with it.

32. Don't skimp on sleep
Skimping on sleep will ruin your mental and physical health. Try cutting TV or the Internet.

33. Batch tasks
It might be easer if you do all similar tasks one after another. For example do all phone calls to your clients from 9 to 10am.

34. Do what you love
Find some time each day to do what you love. Of course you should first determine what is it.

35. Learn to love what you do
The first step is to get curious.

36. Learn to make decisions
Indecision is also a decision, and usually a bad one.

37. Combine tasks whenever possible
For example, you need exercise and to be with your children. Play basketball with your kids.

38. Put your hart in it
Doing something halfheartedly will result with mediocre results at best.

39. Admit that you are not a superhuman.
There are things that you don't know or unable to do.

Why you don't exercise and how to trick yourself into exercising?

2008-09-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

We all want to be healthy, fit and look good. There is only one recipe for that: live a healthy life (good food, no alcohol, exercise). Let's focus on exercising.

It is recommended to exercise at least 2 hours per week. An average American spend almost three hours per day watching TV. That's about 20 hours per week. Therefore, cutting only 10% of TV time will leave enough room for exercise. Why we don't exercise? The answer is simple: bad habits.

Actually, there are three principles involved: the principle of minimum energy, the principle of safe ground and the principle of habits.

The principle of minimum energy says that if we have to choose between two tasks, we would chose the one that requires less energy. For example, if you have to choose between digging a hole 6 x 6 x 6 (216 cubic feet) and mowing your 6 x 6 lawn, which one would you choose? When you have to choose between 5 miles jogging and watching TV, what is your choice? Average answer is quite obvious.

The principle of safe ground says that when facing the choice between two activities we choose the one that is "safer" for us. If the choice is between fighting with a tiger with bear hands and buying some candies, it clear what an average person would do. It is safer to stay at home than to go to the gym.

The principle of habits is quite obvious. Facing the choice between something that we usually do and something we have never done before an average person choose the first one. If we usually watch TV and only occasionally exercise guess what will happen if we have to choose between them.

A recipe for success

It is the best to fight all three principles at the same time:

1. Try to make the energy difference smaller between tasks. For example jogging for 3 minutes doesn't look that energy consuming as five mile jogging.

2. Try not to make tough choices. For example don't choose between going to gym and eating a chocolate. Choose between going to gym and digging a hole that was mentioned before. You could choose to exercise at home.

3. Try to make it a habit. Make a habit of exercising after work on Monday and Thursday. Do it every week. Without exceptions. It takes one month to form a habit, and one day to ruin it.

Here is one example:

1. Start jogging every day first thing in the morning.

2. Start with 20 minutes walking. Every week replace one minute of walking with one minute of jogging.

3. After four months you should jog for all 20 minutes. After that maintain this level.

4. Optional: increase the time to 30 minutes or the pace of running.

Practice excellence

2008-09-12T05:23:00.000-07:00

What is excellence?

By definition excellence is the quality of being exceptionally good of its kind. We do something in order to get some results. The result might have a measure of quality (grades at school for example). Excellence is a habit of putting enough effort in order to achieve the best possible results. That means that:

1. you should know what results do you want,
2. you should know how to measure the quality of results,
3. you should know what is necessary to obtain the best possible results.

Usually, you already know everything that you need to know. In that case, just make a mental note about those parameters and use it when needed. In case you don't know anything about those parameters, learn as much as possible. Some topics will require more time (learning) than other topics, but don't stop with work. After all, it is usually better to have a bad result than no result.

Is excellence important to me?

You already know that the answer is yes. To be honest, excellence is not important if you wish to live a mediocre life. Even without excellence you should have a life that is not that unpleasant. However if you want to be promoted, achieve more, be a better parent or spouse, you should practice excellence. Having reputation of excellence in some area of your life will result with respect and better opportunities. Look at the carelessness, the opposite of excellence, and you will find how the lack of excellence can lead to deterioration of your career and/or other areas of your life. Do you think that careless surgeon will have successful career? What about singer who don't like to learn lyrics? What about spouse who doesn't care about important dates?

What are the benefits of excellence?

You have probably noticed admiration of other people when they notice an act of excellence. That is very motivational and makes you feel great. Even if an act of excellence appears to be unnoticed, you will have a strong feeling of pride. If you are an average Joe (or Jane), you have experienced this feeling a few times in your life time. Imagine that you have that sense of pride every week! Such feelings build your self esteem and self confidence.

Another benefit of excellence is that it creates the good habits that might be useful in other areas of your life. Also, presence of excellence will eventually wipe out the bad habits that slow down your progress.

What are the enemies of excellence?

There is a saying: "The best is the enemy of the good". That means that we might be satisfied with the current result and stop searching for a better one. Reasons for stopping search is of psychological nature. Let's list some of them.

* fear of failure - you will do it the way you know, and it will prevent you from being creative (using experiments). Resolution is to tell yourself that there is no failure, only a feedback. If you don't get the result you want immediately, gather information about the achieved result. Almost always you can find something that can be used to improve your performance. Focus on the process, not on the result.
* lack of time - you will say I don't have time right now, let's just do it somehow. Resolution is to select the tasks that you want to complete. You can achieve anything but you cannot achieve everything. Always work on the most important task. The other tasks are less important. When you finish with the current task properly work on the other tasks.
* doing unimportant things - there is always something more important to do. If you wash the dishes and your house is on fire, of course that you should extinguish the fire first, but this is quite rare. Remember that if you start doing something, that must be the best use of your time.
* boredom - if something is boring, you will tend to get rid of that task, therefore quality of your work is on the line. Resolution is to think of: reasons for which the task should be completed, pride when you complete the task, interesting aspects of those tasks and negative consequences if you don't do the task properly, ways to do the task in a properly.
* interruptions - interrupting doesn't mean that your task is the only thing that is interrupted. Your mindset is also interrupted. After dealing with interruption it is necessary to create your mindset again. Resolution is: "Don't get interrupted!". If that is not possible, try to allocate certain period of time (for example 8:00-10:00am) when you lock doors and windows and don't check mail, answer phones, IM, ...
* bad habits - sloppiness, carelessness are bad habits that will result with the lower quality of work. The bad thing about bad habits is that they are created easily. Resolution is to create good habits in order to replace the bad ones.

How to achieve excellence?

Excellence is task related meaning that you might achieve excellence in doing one type of tasks, while doing other tasks not that well. It is unlikely that you achieve excellence in all areas of your life. Also, some tasks are not important and it is only necessary to do it somehow. What you should do?

* List all tasks that you do frequently (for example more than one hour per week),
* Ask yourself about the results, the quality measure and the ways to ensure and improve quality of the most frequent task,
* Use that answers in order to achieve excellence for that task,
* After you achieve excellence go to the next most frequent task and repeat the procedure until you process all tasks,
* Revisit this list weekly in order to find better ways to improve quality of your work.

Tips for achieving excellence

* raise a general awareness about the things you do every day,
* define the quality of excellence for each task,
* be proud when you achieve the desired quality,
* choose one thing that you do at least once a day and practice on it,
* whenever you start doing that thing ask yourself what is the best possible result of this action,
* whenever you start doing that thing say to yourself "I will do this the best possible way",
* Remember your thoughts (note down if possible) when doing something. Think about those thoughts, are they good or bad for you? You will find a lot about yourself during this process.

Quotes:

"It isn't what you do, but how you do it." - John Wooden

"The principle is competing against yourself. It's about self improvement, about being better than you were the day before." - Steve Young

"Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with excellence." - Source Unknown

"True greatness consists in being great in little things." - Charles Simmons

"Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude." - Ralph Marston

“If anything is worth doing, do it with all your heart.” - Buddha

Always have a backup plan

2008-09-08T09:25:00.000-07:00

You have a great daily plan but suddenly you are unable to complete one of your tasks. For example, your task is to buy groceries at "Joe's groceries". You are at Joe's but Joe was robbed 2 hours ago and you cannot buy what you want. "Jane's groceries" is nearby but prices are 5% higher. Of course, there is "Cheap Joe's groceries" one mile away where prices are 2% lower. It is important to notice you probably have a tight schedule. In situations like this we are usually mad that our plans are falling down and we might make bad choices.

What should you do?

Obvious answer is to calm down and think. However, as an emotional being it is unlikely that you can do that. So the real question is "What you should have done before?" My suggestion is to go through your task list and ask yourself for each task: "What should I do if that task is impossible to complete at the moment?"

Don't think to long about each item, it is important only to have one or more backup procedure. Some answers could be: Try tomorrow, ask somebody to do it, don't do it at all, go somewhere else, modify the task. For example you want to buy chocolate as a present for your kid. What are alternatives? You could try to buy tomorrow after work, or you could ask your spouse to do that, or you could decide that your kid should not eat sweets anyway, or go to "Jane's groceries" or buy the white chocolate in a nearby white chocolate shop.

There is another benefit of this "what if ..." procedure. If you fail at completing certain task you will not become too emotional because you are prepared and you know that there are other ways to achieve what you want.

Sharpen your tools

2008-06-22T03:38:00.000-07:00

Proper tools can save you a lot of time. For example, chopping some wood with a blunt axe might take 2 hours while chopping with a sharp axe might take one hour. Chopping wood with a knife could take 20 hours, and chopping with your karate kicks could take several days.

All of this might look obvious, why should I spend 20 hours when I could do it in one hour? Usually we don't make such great mistakes in our tool selection. However, chopping with a blunt axe and chopping with a sharp axe are quite similar psychologically. In this area lies usual time wasters. Why we don't sharpen our axe? Here are some possible reasons.

- Laziness
We tend to live a life using as little energy as possible. Our mind thinks that sharpening and chopping is to complicated and it is simpler if we just go straight to chopping. That line of reasoning is OK when you have a sharp axe.

- Lack of "good" habits
A good habit is to check your tools before start doing anything. Train yourself to check tools you are about to use.

- Lack of information
You might have a habit to check your tools, but do you know how to that. For example, how do you know if you axe is sharp?

- Lack of skills
You should be able to prepare your tools for work. For example, you might know that your axe is blunt, but if you don't know how to sharpen it, you will have to use it as it is.

- Complete ignorance
It is possible that you are a complete novice in a certain area. In that case, you might use a knife instead of an axe.

What you should do?

1. Get information
If you don't know anything about chopping, find someone who knows. Ask what tools should you use, how to know if an axe is blunt, how to sharpen an axe, ...

2. Master sharpening skills
Mastering sharpening skills might take some time, but if you have to do it everyday it will pay out.

3. Develop a habit to check tools
Train yourself to check tools before starting any job. If necessary sharpen anything that is blunt.

Now, make a self inventory and find the tools you use, and if this could apply to your life.

Example: Carol works on computers and she waits for the response of her PC about 30 minutes per working day. With a new PC she would wait 15 minutes per working day. Upgrade costs 100$. Should she upgrade her PC or not?

Answer: Yes. Let's assume that her hourly wage is 10$. Saving 15 minutes per day will result with about 50 extra hours per day, meaning that investing 100$ will result with saving 500$ in working hours.

Five frugality tips for shopping

2008-06-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

1. Reduce the number of shopping trips

Dedicate one day in week for shopping. Don't buy anything on other days. The reason for this is to reduce your exposure to temptations. At the moment when you decide to buy something, you are at risk to buy something else that you don't need that much, and that could be even harmful for you (alcohol, junk food, ...). Therefore, reduce the number of shopping trips and you will reduce the number of temptations and save money.

2. Buy from the list

Before shopping make a list of things that you want to buy. Buy only things that are on the list. Make the list even if you want to buy only one thing. Buying one thing is a waste of time and sign of bad organization. At each buy you spend some fixed amount of time (going to the shop, waiting to cross the street, ...) probably at least 5-10 minutes for shops that are in neighborhood. Imagine that you go shopping 10 times a week that takes 35-70 minutes. Shopping three times a week will take 15-30 minutes. The difference is about 30 minutes. Find your hourly wage and calculate how much money you can save only on your time (probably about 5$ per week).

3. Make a don't buy list

If you have problems with buying things that you don't need. Make a list of forbidden things (alcohol, junk food, ... ). Before buying anything read a list of things that you absolutely will not buy. Make a promise to your self or even somebody else.

4. Track your expenses

Note each thing you buy and its price. That will help you to memorize prices, find the things on which you spend the most of your money. Using this book keeping, you can now search for shops with the best offers for you. For example, you might find that groceries you usually buy costs 2$ less at shop A. That might sound little. But shopping 3 times a week, will result in saving 312$ per year.

5. Reduce shopping list

Go through your shopping list and ask yourself for each item "Is this item really really necessary?". If the answer is no delete it from the list. After that you could delete the most expensive item from the list. With that you will delay spending money.

You can now calculate how much money you can save. 312$ on better deals + 300$ on free time + 350$ on things that you don't need and therefore don't buy. In sum that will be 962$ per year.

To create new habits use baby steps

2008-05-30T18:04:00.000-07:00

Let's consider exercising. Exercising is good for you, but exercising is hard to do. It consumes your time and energy. It is recommended to have an aerobic exercise for two hours per week.

The main idea is to start with small and gradually increase exercise. For example, you could start with exercising for 3 minutes each day. Do some stretching, one push up, a little bit of running and jumping around (search for info on the Internet and consult your doctor about exercising). You will certainly be able to find 3 minutes each day and exercising for 3 minutes is not that hard. At the beginning there will be no much exercising and effects, but idea is to start a new habit.

After one week or so, increase exercising to 4 minutes per day (that would be 28 minutes per week). Increase exercising for one minute after each week. After one month you should establish a new habit, and you will exercise 7 minutes per day (or 49 minutes per week). After four month you will exercise about two hours per week or (about 20 minutes per day)

Remember: start will small and gradually increase. That is what babies do and walk and run after several years perfectly.

35 things you could do in five minutes

2008-05-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

This list is not universal. You might find some things useful so use at as a starting point for your own list. The main reason for making such list is to be prepared for time gaps. Time gaps usually occurs when you wait something to happen. You should have appropriate materials with you (to do lists, piece of paper, ...). Filling ten such time gaps will give you an extra hour a day.

Socialize
Write down your ideas
Make a phone call
Relax
Decluter you area
Write a grocery list
Change your mood
Check your to do lists
Ask yourself "Is the following task really that important?"
Teach your child something
Clean your monitor
Watch people around you and practice reading body language
Visualize your goals
Pay your bills online
Change your clothes
Make up the bed
Scramble some eggs
Prepare food for further processing
Learn one word in a foreign language
Do nothing
Make a plan
Fix something that's broken
Walk a little bit
Prepare for a day
Try not to buy anything
Try to invest money saved by buying
Think about random thing in your life that you could improve
Exercise a little bit
Read a magazine or a book
Reflect about your carrier
Reflect about your relationships
Reflect about your job
Think about birthday gifts for loved ones
List your positive sides
Eat an apple
Finish 5 minute task from the most important project

Create a list of tasks you could finish in 5 minutes

2008-05-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

Why you should create such list? We often have some time gaps between major tasks. Having nothing prepared to work on you will waste that time. So what we could do? Make a list of things that could be done in five minutes or less.

After that, prepare everything in order to work on such tasks (notebook, pencil, pda, ...).

Learn to recognize such time gaps and fill it with some useful work.

How to track expenses?

2008-05-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

An ideal system for tracking expenses should be simple enough and good enough. It is hard to maintain both simplicity and quality. Therefore, you should think about things you actually want to catch using your tracking system. There are several issues you might want to track.

date and time of spending
amount
specific product that you buy
type of expenses
point of sale
manufacturer
environmental issues (recyclable or not)
...

It would be nice to have all those features in our tracking system, but it would take several hours per week to type in all those data. One solution is to hire somebody to do it for you, but it is wasting of money if you don't need all those features. So what you could do now?

What types you are going to track? It would be nice to track gifts to family, gifts to friend, even maybe gift to a person, but it would take time. My suggestion is "No more than 10 types of expenses". Reserve one type called "Other expenses". Take a look at the following example:
- transport
- house maintenance
- leisure
- mortgages and other financial expenses
- food
- junk food
- kids
- clothes
- investments
- other expenses
Create a spreadsheet. Label three columns as: type of expenses, date of expense, amount spent. You could add one column for specific notes if you like.
Type in data daily or weekly.

Some recommendations

Usually is doesn't matter if you miss accurate date. It is important to put in appropriate month. Therefore, you could even create combo boxes for choosing types, and months. Any actual data you have to type in is the amount of an expense.
Even actual amount is not that important (there is not big difference between $27.89 and $28). Such data would be perfect but it could help to get a rough picture about your spending.
Resist the need to modify types for first month or year. After that you can modify the list of types, but keep it simple as much as possible. The key point it to keep is simple because the more difficult tracking is, it is more is probable to abandon the tracking.
You can group several expenses. For example: You buy apples for $5, carrots for $4, milk for $4.5 and pretzels for $1.5. You can type in:
1. food, May, $13.5.
2. junk food, May, $1.5

Using this method, you should spend no more than 30 minutes per week, or 3-4 minutes per day. And that is perfect for filling the time gaps in daily schedules.

How to deal with unpleasant tasks?

2008-05-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

There are several strategies for dealing with the tasks we don't like.

Do it first thing in the morning. That way you fight procrastination and the rest of the day you should feel fine.
Make the task pleasant. If you don't like cooking, try with cooking exotic food or listen music you love.
Reward yourself. When you finish with task, reward yourself. Meditate, socialize or do something else that you like.
Delegate. Is it really necessary that you personally do that?
Eliminate. Do you really have to do it?
Split the task. Smaller task are less unpleasant.
Why this task is unpleasant? Find out the reasons for your negative emotions, and fix it.
Use calendar and to do list. Having unpleasant task in writing somehow makes you think about task as a fact.
Make a habit of doing something unpleasant every day. That way you will stretch your comfort zone and less tasks will be unpleasant.
It doesn't need to be perfect. The task should be done. It is not necessary to be perfect.
Start with the subtasks that are not that unpleasant. Not all tasks should be done in some order. You could attack the task from the point that you find interesting.
Tomorrow is your enemy. Keep in mind that this task will not be more pleasant tomorrow.
Stop negative thoughts. For example you might think: "I hate responding to all those emails". The more emails the more you hate responding. If you switch that line of thinking with "I wander if there is something that I can learn from this email?" answering emails could be less unpleasant.
Group unpleasant tasks. You could schedule some time for doing unpleasant tasks, for example every Monday (9-11).

What tasks you could delegate?

2008-05-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

The answer is quite simple "All of them" unless you want to do it yourself. Here is a list of tasks that could be delegated. Brain storm and find what you would add to the list.

1. Communication (dealing with mail, phone and emails).
2. Document formating (desktop publishing, web site, presentations (power point)
3. Data processing
4. Fact finding
5. Bookkeeping
6. Writing
7. Marketing
8. Product selling
9. Product delivery
10. Photocopying, printing, collating
11. Packing
12. Finding prospects
13. Cold calling
14. Answering usual questions
15. Market analysis
16. Product manufacturing
17. Product development
18. Searching for credit
19. Gardening
20. Housekeeping
21. Mowing lawns
22. Dealing with laundry
23. Buying groceries
24. Cooking
25. Cleaning
26. Car washing
27. Car maintenance
28. Baby sitting
29. Personal tutoring
30. Personal coaching
...

Why to delegate tasks?

2008-05-16T06:57:00.000-07:00

There are several possible reasons for delegation of tasks:

You don't know how to complete the task,
You know how to complete the task, but someone could finish it sooner and better,
You don't like working on that task,
You don't have the time for that task,
It is cheaper if someone else do it,

Some of this reasons we are aware of and we delegate tasks without thinking. For example when we are in legal trouble, we don't hesitate to ask or hire a lawyer. Lawyer know how to complete the task, and it is probably cheaper to hire a lawyer than to pay $100k penalty or even to go to prison.

On the other hand, usually we don't delegate regularly. We usually delegate in the case of emergency. I believe that we could delegate far more than we do. Decision process of whether you should delegate or not could look like this.

Calculate the price of task if you have to do it.
For example, you have a lawn that should be mowed. You have a low cost lawn mower and using it you could mow your lawn for 2 hours. Your pay per hour is 15$. Than the cost of you doing it is 30$+amortization of your lawn mower.
Calculate the price of task if someone else is going to do it
For example, The Lawn Mower corp. could mow your lawn for one hour, charging you 25$ per hour.
Find out what is cheaper!
In this example it is cheaper to hire The Lawn Mower corp. 25$ vs. 30$+amortization of your lawn mower. In that case you don't even need to have a lawn mower, and you can do something more purposefully with that money.

Of course, another part of the equation would be the pleasure for mowing your lawn. Don't delegate a tasks that you enjoy doing just for couple of dollars.

Twenty tips for beating procrastination

2008-05-14T03:41:00.000-07:00

1. Designate a couple of minutes for the task you procrastinate. A couple of minutes of any task is not mission impossible. I hate washing dishes, but washing dishes only 2 minutes is not that hard. After that, you can continue with procrastinated activity or do something else.

2. If it comes to your mind that you should do something, then do it NOW. It might not be possible, but start with it anyway. For example, you could watch the TV, but it pops into your mind that you should wash the dishes. Usual response, is "I'll wait for this show to finish and then I will wash the dishes". Of course, after that you will be tired, or something else. This behavior becomes a habit. You must stop with this habit. Therefore, whenever it comes to your mind that you should do something do it instantly.

3. Designate some time for doing unpleasant things and be very specific. For example, I will wash my dishes from 7pm to 7:30pm every day. Use alarm clock as reminder.

4. Split tasks to very small subtasks. Such small tasks would not be that hard to do.

5. Create a reward system. For example: for each plate I wash, I will spend 1 minutes watching TV,

6. Create a list of unpleasant tasks. Do everyday something unpleasant from that list, starting from the least unpleasant. That way, some tasks will not be unpleasant and there will be less tasks that you procrastinate on.

7. Modify you internal thinking. If you think "I hate to wash the dishes" and hate every plate that you wash, you will certainly delay washing. When washing the dishes start to block that line of thoughts. For example, whenever I wash the dishes, I will listen for sounds that I make, or I will think about my family, or something else that makes you happy.

8. Set a deadline for finishing a certain task. For example, I will finish washing the dishes before tonights game.

9. Imagine the negative consequences of not finishing a task.

10. Imagine the positive consequences of finishing a task.

11. Find the reasons behind procrastination: If it is physical (tired, hungry, thirsty ...) fix it is possible. If it is psychological change the line of thinking: If it is not fun, then find something funny inside of it, if you are scared find something in it that you are not afraid of.

12. Block the things that you use when you procrastinate. For example sell your TV, turn off your computer, or block the Internet.

13. Find something that you like to do about this task and do it.

14. Do only one thing at the time. You cannot do two things at the time, and if you try to do it, one will certainly be postponed.

15. Make a daily schedule, and try to stick with it.

16. Make a habit of finishing tasks. Even if it is boring. We usually procrastinate on unfinished tasks.

17. Read and learn about task management and similar topics.

18. Schedule some things that you like to do. Don't work only on task that you dislike. Life should be fun.

19. Delegate things that you can delegate. You could even pay someone else to do it if possible.

20. Find someone who will beat you until you finish the task. Well, not literally. Someone that phone you and nag about finishing the task could push you to do it eventually.

An easy way to modify undesired behavior

2008-05-12T23:56:00.000-07:00

Let's look at my example. Not long ago, I found myself spending some time on the game solitaire. That, of course, is not the most efficient use of my time, but somehow it became a habit. In order to stop with playing solitaire, I decided to do something useful before each game.

I have chosen a task that takes two ore three minutes to complete. The task was to translate 10 words from a foreign language, as I was trying to make a small dictionary. After completing the task I allow myself to complete with some other task or to play the game. There were several reasons for doing this.

I will do one useful task at least,
I will have less time to play the game,
In order to play the game I have to do something, so playing game is not that interesting as before.

How can you implement this method in your life?

Find undesired behavior,
Find some useful task that doesn't take much time (3 minutes max.) that could be done before undesired behavior. Ideally the task should be continuable (you can do it more that three minutes),
In order to indulge yourself with that behavior, finish the task first,
After finishing the task, decide what would you like to do? Start with behavior or continue with the task

For example:

You watch to much TV,
Useful task could be to wash two dirty plates or to do some exercise (two push ups) ,
Oblige yourself that before watching any TV you must wash two plates.
When you start

It is important to notice that if the task is time consuming, you will avoid to do it. That is the reason that the task was to wash TWO plates, and not all dirty dishes (or to finish complete aerobic session).

Three methods for prioritizing your tasks

2008-05-10T11:27:00.000-07:00

After creating a task list, the next step is to prioritize tasks in some way. That means that you should determine if a task is more important then other tasks. How to manage such list? There are several methods to do that.

A-B-C-D-E method

Make a list of all tasks
Mark a task with 'A' if the task is very important
Mark a task with 'B' if the task is important
Mark a task with 'C' if it would be nice to complete the task
Mark a task with 'D' if it possible to delegate the task to someone
Mark a task with 'E' if the task should not be completed at all (complete waste of time)

When you start to work, first finish the tasks labeled with A, then with B, ... Never work on tasks that are labeled with B if you can work on task labeled with A.

Order the task list by priority

Make a list of all tasks
Choose ONE task that you find the most important (imagine that you are going to some trip and you have time to do just one task, which one should you execute)
Label that task with number one
Choose ONE task that you find the most important among the unlabeled tasks
Label that task with number two
...
Repeat the process until you label all tasks

When you start to work, first finish the tasks labeled with number one, then with two, ... Always work on tasks with the lowest label that are unfinished. Never work on task labeled with 4 when you have unfinished task labeled with 2.

Order the task list using important and urgent marks

Make a list of all tasks
Label all tasks that are both urgent and important with IU
Label all tasks that are urgent but not important with U
Label all tasks that are important but not urgent with I
Don't do anything with unimportant and non urgent tasks

When you start to work, first finish the tasks labeled with IU, then with U, then with I. Don't do anything with unlabeled tasks.

Order the task list using the price per hour

Make a list of all tasks
Determine for each task how much time it requires (in hours)
Determine the worth for each task
For each task calculate price per hour (estimated worth/required time)

When you start to work, first finish the task that have the highest price per hour. Let's look at the example:

Task A, required time 0.5 hrs, value 5$, price per hour 5/0.5=10$
Task B, required time 0.25 hrs, value 3$, price per hour 3/0.25=12$
Task C, required time 1.5 hrs, value 12$, price per hour 12/1.5=8$

The order of task execution should be:

Task B
Task A
Task C

Declutter your mind

2008-05-08T09:05:00.000-07:00

Do we have a clutter in our minds? Yes we do. Clutter is any kind of harmful thought.

Can a thought be harmful?

Any thought that decreases your capabilities to adapt to reality is harmful. "I am going to lose my job because of crisis in IT sector." could be an example of harmful thought if that paralyzes you or prevents you from acting. Note that same thought might be inspirational for someone. It is not information that is harmful, emotions deep inside (fear, hate, jealousy, anger, shame ...) are the one that could prevent you fPublish Postrom adapting.

How to find your harmful thoughts?

You could make an inventory of thoughts throughout the day. Of course, you cannot note every thought, but you could notice some thought that are frequent. Even one thought is good for start. Ask yourself what does that thought mean? Does it make you angry, sad, ashamed, nervous, furious, frightened, disgusted? If it does than that thought is probably harmful.

Examples could be:

"I don't want to make a public speech, everybody will laugh at me".
"I am a bad student, I cannot go to the university".
"I am fat and nobody likes me".

What you could do with those harmful thoughts?

For each negative thought create a positive thought. Then whenever you notice that you have that negative thought replace it with the positive one. It is usually the best if you could imagine a picture that represent a positive thought. For example you could imagine a picture (actually movie) of you finishing your speech, and the audience tapping your shoulder saying how good speech that was.

By replacing negative with positive thoughts, you will not be free from negative emotions. They will occur from time to time. For example sadness is natural if something bad happens. But is not natural if it stops you from action that is necessary to adapt to a new situation ("I am sad so I cannot meet anybody right now").

Declutter your time

2008-05-05T22:16:00.000-07:00

After finding out where do you spend (waste) your time, you can start with blocking this wasting. Usually the biggest time wasters are TV and the Internet. Are those things necessary? Of course not. Remember the days when you were on some exciting trip (Hawaii, Paris, ...)? You probably didn't need the TV or the Net for being fully excited. So the idea is to throw away useless behavior and invest that time into something better (kissing your spouse, playing basketball with your kids, going to yoga, etc.).

You probably wander "What if I miss something?". You will not miss anything, believe me, and if you don't you can try to isolate your self from the TV and the Net for a week (or a day if a week is too long for you). There is always some catastrophe somewhere in the world. There is always some people doing something odd or crazy. The movies and series are no better than the evening news. There are some people killing other people, or chasing them with cars or something like that. I know that it might look like fun, but it is far better to find your own thrill in doing something than to watch some other people doing interesting things. Of course, if your profession requires from you to watch TV, that is another topic.

How to escape from TV?

This is quite simple. Sell it, give it away, burn it (just kidding). Unplug it, remove antenna, put remote controller somewhere far away. Do anything that makes difficult to start watching TV. That will remind you that you should something else.

How to escape from the Internet?

Find out where do you spend your net time. Probably it is either news, pornography, blogs or socializing over the net. It likely that all of those is obsolete. It is better to hang out with real people than to socializing with some virtual people. If you are using Firefox for all of that, you could install FoxFilter addon and block all unwanted behavior on the net. I did a couple of weeks ago and it works and it is quite simple. Also, many firewall program has options for blocking certain sites.

What to do with all that time?

You will have to find out for yourself.

How to track usage of your time on your computer?

2008-05-05T12:49:00.000-07:00

You can track usage of your time using a lot of different ways.

Use a pen and a paper;
Use some spreadsheet program with columns for task, start time, end time;
Use some programs to do the same. For example you could find here a lot of alternatives;
Use some free programs to do the automatic tracking. For example you could use TimeTrack;

Probably the best way is to start with TimeTrack (there is a free edition) and see if you need something more. TimeTrack is very automated. Actually, you don't have to do anything but analyze your work. TimeTrack will start automatically whenever you start your computer, waits in the tray and it is doesn't consume to much memory.

How should I declutter my stuff?

2008-05-04T21:55:00.000-07:00

You can use organized and chaotic approaches to declutter your stuff.

Organized approach

First of all, you should make a list of everything you own. This might be a little bit tedious, but it is necessary. If you have a lot of stuff you probably cannot finish with list in one day. In that case, make a list of places that you could finish with in a reasonable amount of time (for example, the closet on the left in the living room, the closet on the right in the living room, ...)

After that, note the date of last use for each stuff in the list, and process the stuff one by one.

Chaotic approach

Start anywhere you like (bathroom, living room) and pick a random stuff at hand, and ask yourself what is the date of last use of that stuff. Process the stuff and pick another one.

Processing the stuff

If you haven't use the stuff for a year or more then this is a candidate for decluttering. One year period is not fixed. For some stuff period should be shorter (for example the milk in your fridge) or longer (winter clothes). But the key is to ask your self: "Do I really need this stuff?". If you really, really need the stuff don't do anything. If you don't need the stuff than you have three options:

Throw it away
Give it away
Sell it

If something is for throwing than pile up the stuff at the entrance. If you would like to give away something, you should immediately consider to whom you will give it. Otherwise it could float around as if it is something you need. If you want something to sell, then you have a range of options, from ads on the net to ads on the windshield of your car.

Before getting rid of something, you should be aware if there is legal or personal limitation. For example, you cannot just throw away something dangerous. Also, some stuff you must hold such as tax related papers, health related papers, etc. On the other hand there might be some emotional value (souvenirs, photos, ...) that you wouldn't throw away just like that. Also, be aware that if you have family things could complicate. If you find something of no use, your spouse might object and be very angry. In that case, before getting rid of things, ask everyone in family to check if there is something that they would like to keep. Don't argue about that. Probably there won't be a lot of such things.

Why should I declutter my stuff?

2008-05-04T05:30:00.000-07:00

Why should you do that? There are several reasons.

1. Stuff eats space, and space eats money. How clutter eats space? Everything has some volume. Therefore you should have enough space in your home to store stuff. You can even calculate how much money costs one cubic feet. If for an example, you have one thousand square feet apartment that costs $400,000, and the height of ceiling is 8 feet. Then you have in your apartment 8000 cubic feet and one cubic foot costs 50$. One cubic foot is a box which base is one square foot and which height is one foot. If you have 20 such boxes full of unneeded stuff, then you have lost one thousand dollars.

2. Stuff eats time, and time is money. How clutter eats time? First of all, everything needs some kind of maintenance, and maintenance eats time if you do it, or it eats money if you pay someone to do it. If you have two TV sets, than you will have to clean both of them. The second way that stuff eats time, is in increased effort to find something. For example if you have a pile of 10 magazines, with five useful, and five useless. Then each time you search for a specific magazine, you spend one half of search time unnecessary. There are examples even drastic examples.

3. Stuff eats mental energy. For example: you play with your kids, but something is nagging about what to do with that closet or garage that is full of stuff.