Being busy is considered the opposite of laziness. It’s not. Laziness is likened to sloth-like activity, performing tasks slowly and begrudgingly. And that’s no different from busy work which fills most our lives. We do things because we’re too lazy not to do them.

Never ending busyness means you are too lazy to:

1. Set priorities. When you really know what needs to get done you do it much faster than when you’re mind is scattered and unfocused. Get out a piece of paper and answer this question “What is the #1 task I should get done today?” Write that down and get to work.
2. Become effective. Effectiveness is getting important stuff done. I recommend Peter Drucker’s “The Effective Executive” for great practical tips on being effective but you basically need to identify what’s important, set strict deadlines (I’m a fan of e.ggtimer.com personally) and use clearly defined metrics as accountability tools.
3. Make touch choices. Saying “Yes” has its advantages in life, but saying “No” is a key aspect in killing busy work. There are always a billion opportunities out there that may tempting to follow up on. Learn to persist with what you’re already doing and turn down everything else. If an opportunity has any staying power it’ll still be available in the future.
4. Fill your time with fulfilling activities. Fulfilling activities take time, energy and focus, but by their very nature make life worth living. Busy work protects us from making an effort to experience life. Don’t let it.
5. Be idle. Idleness is hard. And I’m not talking about the idleness of sitting on the couch watching TV. Try just sitting and thinking for 30-60 minutes at a time. You’ll most likely fidget, suddenly have the urge to check your email inbox or soon become bored of your own thoughts. That’s a weakness. Practice listening to your own thoughts and enjoying your own company.
6. Consider your direction. Where are you going? Whenever you’re working on something think about whether or not the outcome will matter in the overall scheme of things. Is it part of the bigger picture?
7. Question yourself. Always be questioning yourself – your motivations, intentions, desires, actions and thoughts. Don’t do things or behave a certain way because it’s the way things have been done in the past. Challenge conventions.
8. Setup systems. Systems aren’t exactly dull but they help streamline repetitive processes. Instead of doing the same task 100 times in 100 different ways attempt it 2-3 times with different methods. Which is the most efficient? Stick with that. The added benefit is that this will allow you to…
9. Automate or outsource repetitive (but necessary) tasks. After eliminating the unnecessary there may be tasks that you still have to do that you find dull and repetitive. Either find software to automate the process, use a program such as Automator to create macros or outsource the work using a site such as eLance or AskSunday for personal tasks.
10. Disconnect. I know how difficult it is to disconnect. The internet is addictive, a wonderland of distraction and false importance. Pull out the ethernet cable or disable wireless and get off the computer. Work creates itself if you let it.
11. Improve yourself. You’re not perfect and you never will be. But that doesn’t matter! What does matter is putting zero effort into becoming a better you because you’re apparently swamped with so-called “urgent” tasks. Continue learning and evolving.
12. Appreciate what you have. We work more because we believe we’ll get more in return. And to an extent that is true. But the problem is, where does “more” end? Just stop and realise what you have. Don’t work out of attachment to acquisition.
13. Enjoy what you have. It’s not just a matter of appreciating it. Buy a new fancy tennis racquet recently? Go play some tennis. Traveled into the future and bought a copy of Modern Warfare 2? Pop that bad boy into your 360 and rack up some achievements. You have more than you probably even realise. Enjoy it.
14. Make precautions. Fear keeps us busy. Fear of losing what we have. Fear of not reaching our goals. Fear of failure. Ask yourself “how can I prepare for the worst case scenario?” And then do that.
15. Track yourself. Install RescueTime on your computer and begin to see how you’re actually spending your time. It was quite a shock for myself to see hours and hours wasted on irrelevant web browsing in a single day.
16. Set expectations. Do you interact with customers or an audience of any sort? The happiness of others is important but don’t let their inefficiencies hurt your lifestyle. It’s lazy (and unsustainable) to reply to everyone and everything instantly. Set reasonable expectations before issues crop up.
17. Solve problems. Busyness lets us procrastinate, avoiding genuine problems that need solving. Learn how to solve problems.

David Turnbull is a writer who writes about peace of mind, simplicity and geekery at his blog, Adventures of a Barefoot Geek.

Attention: Don’t forget to download my free ebook, How to Get a Girlfriend!!

Tweet This Post 

Productivity is a hot topic in personal growth literature. But with all the resources and tips out there, we don’t seem to be getting more productive. In fact, we’re spending too much time trying to digest productivity resources that we could’ve spent actually being productive!

The productivity tips we read can have short-term effects, but we tend to return to our old, unproductive routines. This leads us to consider the following conclusions:

1. There’s something wrong with us: We don’t have the productivity gene some people seem to have
2. Productivity tips and tricks simply don’t work: We’re being lied to about how to be productive
3. We need more tips and tricks: What we’ve come across isn’t enough, or isn’t right for us

The third conclusion leads us to continue our pursuit of productivity tips that work, only to continue the cycle of unproductive behavior.

So what is the problem? Why can’t we seem to be productive?

To answer these questions, we need to change the way we look at productivity and, therefore, the approach we take dealing with it.

Unproductive Behavior As A Symptom

The biggest mistake we make in trying to be productive is assuming that lack of productivity (usually in the form of procrastination) is the problem, when it is, in fact, the symptom of a deeper problem. And in the same way that symptoms can be caused by a number of possible problems (a.k.a. diseases), we must first understand the root cause of our unproductive behavior.

Diagnose The Problem

Now that we know that our lack of productivity isn’t the problem (but a symptom of our problem), we can begin our search to find the underlying productivity problem.

At times we procrastinate because we don’t want to do a task, and other times we don’t know how to do it (and so end up putting it off!). We can be gripped by the fear of failure, or we might even be held back by the fear of success. Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the load of work you have to do and ended up not doing anything? Or how about not knowing what you’re meant to be doing in the first place?

Your productivity can suffer if your energy level is low, or if you’re slow when working.

All these different types of productivity problems have different causes, which cannot be overcome with the same generic solution. There’s no Panadol to remedy our lack of productivity! We need to use the right cure for the right productivity disease.

Getting The Right Prescription

By having the right understanding of our productivity problem, we can look for the right prescription to effectively cure it.

• What can we do to enjoy a task we’ve been dreading or loathing?
• What can we do to find out how a task is to be carried out?
• How can we overcome the fear of failure or the fear of success?
• How can we boost our energy level?
• How can we develop our skills and speed up our work?
• How can we reduce distractions and find focus?

Answers to these specific questions will help us find the right prescriptions, rather than posing the vague question of: How do we become more productive?

Taking Our Medication

It’s very easy to read advice, but reading doesn’t change our situation, in the same way that having a prescription slip doesn’t cure us from illness. We need to take our medication and put the productivity tips into use. This may seem obvious, but our obsession with productivity tips can be all-consuming, that we no longer realize why we were searching for productivity tips in the first place!

Stocking Our Medicine Cabinet

Productivity tips can be immensely useful, but they must be used to treat the right productivity problem. In order to effectively tackle any and every productivity problem we face, we need to stock our “medicine cabinets” with these productivity tips, and use them when necessary.

We must also get rid of the tips that have never been effective, regardless of the productivity problem we’ve faced. Some tips simply don’t work. There’s no use trying them out again and again.

With that you’re now equipped with the right approach to lead a great and productive life.

So what’s stopping you?

That’s what you have to find out!

Haider Al-Mosawi writes about leading a balanced life and making the most out of personal growth resources (without being consumed by them) over at his blog: PersonalGrowthMap.com.

Attention: Don’t forget to download my free ebook, How to Get a Girlfriend!!

Tweet This Post 

Seriously, the moment I switched to the MBP, I realized just how much I dreaded my old Dell Notebook. I haven’t booted it back up since to retrieve old documents (which says something about the importance of those docs).

Somethings I really like about the Mac is the ease with which I can create Podcasts, edit imagines and video, and of course the many fun and creative productivity applications. The exact type of creative and productive people that a Mac is geared for, are the types that come up with and create simple and productive new applications.

Two pieces of software, in particular, have a very special appeal to me both for their simplicity, and shear power they add to my productivity arsenal. They are the WriteRoom and TaskPaper by Hog Bay Software. Both of these programs are available as FREE 30-day TRIALS.

WriteRoom: Distraction free writing

For people who enjoy the simplicity of a typewriter, but live in the digital world. WriteRoom is a full-screen writing environment. Unlike the cluttered word processors you’re used to, WriteRoom is just about you and your text.

It’s hard to explain the experience, but there’s something about being locked away in a  matted black screen with simplistic green font, that ignites my motivation and creativity in writing. There have been several occasions where I woke up at 5am, turned on WriteRoom, and cranked out 3 full articles by 6:30am.

Just one such morning, and the program has already paid for itself. I use WriteRoom for everything from the aforementioned blog article, to reworking small snippets of text for e-mail, and copy. I even wrote my entire ebook in WriteRoom, and it didn’t take me more than a day.

Be prepared to play. That’s exactly how I feel when I’m in my WriteRoom, alone with my words. I’m not saying that it cures all my writing block, fix my atrocious grammar, and help me crank out my first prize winning novel. I’m just saying it’s simple, fun, and productive, and if you own a Mac, try it for free.

TaskPaper: Simple to-do Lists

For Mac users who want an easier way to make lists and stay organized. TaskPaper is a simple to-do list that’s surprisingly adept. Unlike today’s complex organizers, TaskPaper is just about you and your tasks.

I’m new to TaskPaper. In fact, I only downloaded and started using it this morning (about 8 hours ago). I’ve already managed to get a lot of use out of it, and transfer some of the Tasks that I had written elsewhere into this application.

It’s simple, to be sure. It has some intuitive features, ones that I’ve always wanted, but never saw in any other application. Jesse, the programmer, is clearly a creative and productive individual, who uses his programming superpowers to help people that want productivity without the bullshit.

The interface is as simple as NotePad, but it has some extra features. You can organize and search by Project, Task, and Label. It’s really that simple, but I’d suggest watching the 10 minute screencast and trying it yourself to see what I m ean.

I’m in the works of planning a large Personal Development meetup/seminar, and I’ve been able to use TaskPaper very effectively for the planning part of this event. I’ve also used it for smaller tasks like, podcast interviews to record this week, books to review, and most importantly how I’m going to break down my studying into efficient and manageable chunks throughout the week.

There are dozens of programs out there that are geared towards productivity. What works best for me, may not be your cup of tea. I encourage you to jump into the comments below, and let me know what software has (and has not) worked for you in the past.

Attention: Don’t forget to download my free ebook, How to Get a Girlfriend!!

Tweet This Post 

“The first and most important step toward success is the feeling that we can succeed.”
~Nelson Boswell

Choo-choo! Do you hear that? That’s the sound of the success train, leaving your life station as you stand there and wonder why you haven’t gotten on again this year. It’s not that the conductor doesn’t want to let you on, it’s that before now you haven’t learned what it takes to get yourself a ticket.

How many times have you made a series of New Year’s resolutions? Those 10-12 goals that you’ll get done this year – no matter what – be healthier, make more money, write a book,  have more meaningful relationships with your family, etc.

If you’ve been ambitious enough to make goals, been haven’t been able to pull them off in the past, there’s probably something wrong – no, not with you, but with your approach – don’t worry, I’ve taken the a wrong approach for a number of years until I’ve found the one that works.

By following the principles outlined below, you’ll be able to enjoy a trip on the success train this year, and get the most out of your resolution.

Principle 1: Want Your Goal

“There is only one success -to be able to spend your life in your own way.”
~Christopher Morley

This is nearly cheating, but picking a goal that you absolutely love, and are totally passionate about, will make working on that goal an absolute pleasure. This means that when choosing your goal you have to be ruthlessly selfish, ignoring the needs of family, friends, and society, and going for what makes you come alive.

There are many factors involved in failure, but one of the biggest ones is our lack of hunger. When we’re not hungry for the win, and don’t fervently desire to taste success. That’s because whatever we’re going for doesn’t fit with our definition of success.

What if you don’t see the value of money, if you aren’t attracted to the lifestyle, improvement to your well-being, or philanthropy? Then you wouldn’t be too excited about working harder and getting promotions at a boring job. On the other hand, if you have a family to support, a family that you love, then you’ll be willing to do nearly anything to make sure they have enough.

Each of our actions affect the big picture. This is why it’s crucial to know ourselves, as well as the things that are important to us. Not just what’s important right this second, but what’s important in the long-run. When you have a future to live in to, your whole present changes.

Principle 2: Just One Goal

“Only when your consciousness is totally focused on the moment you are in can you receive whatever gift, lesson, or delight that moment has to offer.”
~Barbara De Angelis

Our brains can only entertain a certain number of thoughts at any split second, and that number is one. When we’re flipping through thoughts as if they are bad TV channels, we’re never giving full attention and due diligence to the task at hand.

This is very clear on the micro-level. Our focus is shattered  when we’re answering the phone, while writing an e-mail, and watching a video all at the same time. What you might not have realized is that this problem also occurs on the macro-level.

When you set a large number of goals, especially ones that require daily thought and action, you’re not leaving enough time and attention to give each goal special focus. This leads to one of two potentially detrimental conclusions; we either do a half-decent job at our goal that day, or we neglected them all together.

This year can be different, though. We can totally stop the overwhelm and create a synthetic attention surplus disorder. By creating just one goal, we’ll be able to harness the ‘mystical’ powers of single-tasking, and get the goal done. When, and only when, this happens, we’re ready to move onto the next single-goal.

Principle 3: Define Your Goal

“Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what he loves.”
~Blaise Pascal

By this point we’ve picked a goal, and decided that this will be the one goal that we want to work on. After all, we’ll stop at nothing to get on the success train this year, because this year is our year.

Knowing what we want isn’t enough, we have to REALLY define, and be very specific about, what it is that we want. Saying ‘I want to be healthier’ is not a specific definition that can be broken down into action steps.

When we’re specific we can say something like, ‘I want to run a 6 minute mile.’ This is great, because you know exactly what this means, and anyone on this planet would be able to replicate your goal without confusion.

Being specific also let’s you take proper action without kidding yourself. If you’re currently running a 10 minute mile, that’s fine, just as long as you understand that you haven’t yet reached your goal.

This is where you can create daily action steps, to determine how much you need to run, and at what speed. You’ll set a date by when you want to run a 6 minute mile, and divide the existing time between that date and the present date. Then you’ll plan out a progression.

Somethings might not have a numerical value. For example, you might want to find love this year. This isn’t very specific. You first have to define love for yourself, which might consist of characteristics of the person you want to be in a relationship with. Once you know what you want, you’ll also know what’s not right for you, and this will be a great step in the right direction.

Principle 4: Measure Your Goal

With the case of the runner it’s easy to understand how to measure our progress. You just create a chart, and write down the speed and distance of each run. This chart will serve as your motivation.

Motivation is important. Left to our own devices our motivation can and will waiver. In a moment we’ll discuss what to do when motivation is depleted, but for now let’s look at how we can keep our personal motivation levels high.

Of course setting a specific goal you’re really passionate about is important. Measuring the goal, and physically looking at your progress over a week, a month, and a year is like putting your motivation on steroids.

Take a moment to visualize what I’m saying. Think about a calendar filling up with red ink, as you write down 1-mile in 10 minutes, 1 mile in 9.9 minutes, 1 mile in 9.7 minutes, all the way down to your 1 mile in 6 minute goal.

The other great thing about measurement is that it proves to you that you can do it. I recently started attending running events. One week I ran a 5k, which is 3.1 miles, and the following week I was scheduled to run an 8k, which is 5 miles. During the 8k race, I was coming up on the second mile, and my legs were fatigued. I knew this was all in my mind, and I just told myself “hey you lazy-butt, you ran more than this JUST LAST WEEK.”

I quickly agreed with myself. I even remembered that after I finished the week before, I told myself that I could have gone more if I had to. Well, now I had to. So I did. That’s the power of measuring your results, and it works for everything in life, not just running.

In the more ambiguous case of looking for love, measurement is also an essential tool. Keep a diary of the interactions you have with people, and the way they behave, as well as what they reveal about themselves. The time of decision making can often be cluttered with emotions, but when you have the facts that you’ve written down in a moment of clarity, you’re much more likely to make the best overall decision for yourself.

Principle 5: Kaizen

“Commit to CANI! – Constant And Never-ending Improvement” ~Anthony Robbins

The readers of this website are some of the most successful people in the world. Free thinking, opening minded, and motivated about getting the most out of life. That’s why you’ve probably read about these concepts before, or you’ve actually done them, without realizing it, and now you’re getting an ‘aha!’ moment.

Learning about CANI (aka Kaizen) is one such time when I had an ‘aha!’ moment myself. I can only imagine that people’s goals have been to have a better day today than yesterday, and an even better day tomorrow, since the beginning of time.

One of the healthiest things for our minds entails doing the best that we can. In fact, it’s easier to measure better than best. You can see that you’ve lifted a bigger weight today, than yesterday, but you have to feel if the smaller weight today consists of more effort than yesterday.

The simple concept of CANI was introduced into industry by the late Dr. Demming, an American who did consulting Japanese companies. As a result, you can see the powerhouse that Japan is today in the industrial world. This was done by concentrating on daily improvement on the employee level, each day, instead of just worrying about big changes or end result.

That’s why it doesn’t really matter what level you’re currently at. It matters that you KNOW the level that you’re currently at, and have a good idea of the direction you want to go in. If it takes you 30 minutes to walk 1 mile today, you can still put that goal of 1 mile in 6 minutes into your future. One step at a time, one mile a day, trying your best each time – that’s constant and never ending improvement – that’s the secret to getting on the success train.

Principle 6: Discipline

“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments” ~Jim Rohn

When motivation runs dry, discipline makes the differences between boarding the success train, or watching idly as it passes your station. I warned you that your motivation will waiver in part 4, and you can’t really stop that all together. By knowing this, what you can do is forge proper habits, which is like preventative medicine for your goals.

Say you run first thing every morning, and you’ve just woken up to the first cold day of fall. A little voice tells you ‘it’s so warm and bed, and so cold outside, stay here and be comfortable just a bit longer and run some other time’. The first time that happens you’re still motivated, so you quickly get up, lace up your shoes, and go for a run.

As it gets colder and colder, the little voice gets louder and louder. One day you wake up with a stuffy nose, and a bit of a headache, and the little voice tries to guilt you ‘look what you did, you big oaf, running in the cold has made you sick, now you better listen to me and sleep in’. That’s a bit harder to argue with.

You’ll probably feel better after your run, so the little voice doesn’t have a good argument after all, but it sure does sound nice, and it sucks away all your motivation. This is where habits and discipline come in. Discipline is when you don’t even stop to listen to the voice, it’s when you pop out of bed before the voice gets up, and you’re out there chasing your dreams.

Principle 7: Enjoy The Process

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” ~Herman Cain

All-Aboard! You hear that? That’s the sound of you boarding the success train. That’s what happens when you know what it takes to get a ticket. Better still, that’s what happens when you become the conductor of your own success train.

That’s what your future has in store for you. When you’re at the helm of your own personal success train you enjoy the ride. The journey is your life, and you’ll sometimes stop at stations, which are the successful attainments of your goals, and sometimes you won’t.

The key does not lie in the goals. Reaching the goals is but a moment. The rest of your life is in the journey. When you realize this, and begin to enjoy the entirety of the process, you can consider yourself already on the success train.

What’s Your One Resolution?

I’d like to know what your one resolution is. Where do you want the success train to take you this year? How much would it mean to you if you could finally get on? Share in the comments below!

Please vote for this article on StumbleUpon and Digg, I’d appreciate it!

Attention: Don’t forget to download my free ebook, How to Get a Girlfriend!!

Tweet This Post 

Stop making them.

It’s so curious how we spend the last weeks of the year in a sugar-plum-induced family frenzy of parties and holiday sweaters, and expect to walk into our lives on January 1 ready to drill down and get things done.

To get our minds focused back on what the year holds in store for us we make these shoulds-posing-as-resolutions and order all kinds of shiny productivity tools and smile at the future coming toward us. Then February rolls around and we glance sideways at our list and hope nobody’s looking over our shoulders.

Straight out, resolutions are dangerous little dragons because we humans need meaning. We need a resonant, compelling, context for any goal, wish, or dream to have a shot at making into our everyday schedule. We also need serious, expressed accountability (as in be specific and tell people), and a little experimenting with putting the cart before the horse.

Goal Setting from the Inside Out in 2009

Truth? No matter how much we want to get things done, what we really want is a life that matters. We want the chain of endless doings to add up to something meaningful at the end of the day. To find this sweet spot, here’s a little exercise:

Take a look back at your calendar in any given week for 2008 and ask yourself two questions: “What was I committed to?” and “What values did I honor?” The information you gather by doing the exercise will help you percolate what’s next. Declarations.

Create Context and Meaning with Declarations

To give your goals heart and soul, take a look at what you most deeply value in each of the four life areas: Life’s Work, Relationships, Personal Wellbeing and Financial Development. Next to each area, you’ll have words like joy, integrity, leadership, and service, and you’ll use these words to craft your declarations.

Declarations are timeless statements of purpose in the present tense designed to create ongoing quality of life shifts. Much like a mission statement, declarations stem from who you are and what you value, and point to your vision. They may sound bold and completely outrageous, perhaps even a little wild—but not impossible. Here are a few examples created by people in our Craving Balance workshops to get you started:

1. Life’s Work: I am committed to inspired, green leadership in service of a peaceful planet.
2. Relationships: I am boundless joy and generosity in all relationships.
3. Financial Development: I am wildly wealthy through acts of impeccable personal responsibility, creativity and invention.
4. Personal Well being: I am squeaky clean, vibrant vitality in my body, mind and spirit.

You’ll know you’re on track if your declarations make you want to cry or scream or jump up and down. (Go ahead, we’ll wait.) Declarations also act as your truing mechanism when you forget who you are and what you’re up to. Or when your busyness has no connection to what you value. Or when you’ve been saying yes way too much.

Practically speaking, declarations inform your goals, not the other way around. So, once you’ve finished your declarations, listing your top goals in each area should come easily and organically. (Go ahead, we’ll wait.)

Give Your Goals Specificity and Accountability

Alex recently told everyone here on his blog, and all his bazillion subscribers about his intention to lose weight, among other things. Besides taking “massive action” his video had 4 really important, very specific elements:

1. Why: He told us what was important to him about losing weight.
2. How: He told us what he would eat and how he’d exercise to accomplish his weight loss goal.
3. By When: He told us his time frame.
4. Close the Loop: He told us what he achieved.

#1 aligned Alex’s goal with his vision. #2 made his actions specific and repeatable. #3 put his actions on the calendar. And #4 gave Alex’s goal integrity and completion. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Put the Cart Before the Horse

What more do you really need to know, do, or get before you begin? Nothing. You could say that the accomplishment of any goal is nothing more than a series of choices, one foot in front of the other. So put the cart before the horse, and tell everyone you know. If you fall off the cart, get back on. Bruises (and even embarrassment) are nature’s way of telling you you’re alive.

And, if you want to jump into the comment box and experiment with a declaration, I’m game. You might just launch a revolution in your resolutions by never making them again.

Lisa Gates is a life balance coach and writer at Craving Balance. Committed to helping smart working women achieve the everyday extraordinary and the extraordinary every day, Craving Balance offers Goal Setting from the Inside Out teleclasses and workshops for individuals and businesses, as well as fabulously sensible and affordable private coaching.

Attention: Don’t forget to download my free ebook, How to Get a Girlfriend!!

Tweet This Post 

Being able to relax is very important to regain our energy levels, concentration, and get us ready to be even more productive than before. Alas, many people push themselves after they’re tired and out of juice, which ultimately makes them less productive. A timely time-out pays productivity dividends.

30 Ways To Relax Like a Cat

“Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of
harmony and proportion is more readily seen.”
~Leonardo da Vinci

1. Finish Your Work. If you have a few more minutes of work left, finish, bag, and tag! It’s better to finish off a small loose end than to think about it when you should be relaxing. Don’t start another big project, that you know you won’t finish, until after you’ve completed your relaxing, in order to keep your mind on the present.

2. Massage, Sauna, & Hot Bath. When was the last time you rewarded yourself with the gift of relaxation by taking time out to concentrate on blissful restfulness? Get a one-hour massage, sit in a wet sauna for awhile, or make yourself a DIY hot bath at the house while listening to some relaxing music.

3. Beat-Out Your Tension. Beat the tension out at the gym, on the treadmill, or with the punching bag. You can do this without music or accompanied by some high-intensity music that will get your heart pumping. This might not sound too relaxing at first, but once you’re done exercising and the endorphins have overtaken your mind, you’ll be nothing short of relaxed.

4. Block Time. In order to alleviate guilt about taking the time off, go ahead and schedule in a block of time during which you can hang loose, and not worry about anything. This way your mind knows it can chill, and that when the time comes you can get back to 100% efficiency.

5. Turn Off Distractions. Tell whoever you need to that you’re unreachable and turn off your phone, door bell, and internet connection. No one can reach you with a task for you to do, bad news to stress you out, or for any other reason that would drag you out of your zone.

6. Dress for the Occasion. If you’re going to relax, do so in style. Warm sweat pants, pajamas, and loose hoodies are perfect to lounge around in. Make sure you have warm wooly socks to keep you snug as well.

7. Get ‘Extra’ Clean. We’ve all slothed around on a weekend morning without showering. We’re supposed to be relaxing, and no one is going to see or smell us anyway, right? Wrong! Before you set out on a day of relaxation, make sure you get extra clean, shower, shave, brush, floss, rinse, and put on clean clothes. You’ll feel like a million bucks!

8. Tea-Licious. Make yourself a nice cup of herbal tea, with extra anti-oxidants, and sit with a good book or mood music. I’m a sucker for honey, and recommend getting creamy honey to add to your tea. It’s better than sugar for those with a sweet tooth.

9. Moleskin It. Carry a trusty moleskin with you during your relaxation time, and journal whatever is on your mind. You might come up with some great insights or ideas. You might also have a work-related thought, which you’ll be able to jot down so that you can stop thinking about it for now.

10. Full Out Write. Go ahead a write a story about your life, or some kind of a fiction story that can change the world or teach someone a lesson. I personally find writing to be very relaxing, which makes my work day very stress-free.

11. Release Your Tension. If you’ve got a problem on your mind, don’t just let it fester there. Take a piece of paper and start journaling. Vent into the paper, and write down exactly what’s wrong. When you’re done, go ahead and toss that paper into the garbage, and with it the stress.

12. Visualization Exercises. Without leaving the house, you can go away on a spectacular journey, full of white sand beaches, powdery snow, tantalizing sights, and demonizing dragons. Sit down, close your eyes, and let your mind trip (go raw: no drugs necessary!)

“To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization,
and at present very few people have reached this level.”
~Bertrand Russell

13. Thank You Letters. Take some time out to think about the people in your life that deserve a thank you letter. Get a stack of cute postcards, and write a short message to someone you just met, or someone you appreciate.

14. Baking. Baking fills your house with a sweet aroma, and makes for a great treat for your family and friends. The act of being creative, combined with doing something for others is always a treat!

15. Read a Book. Find the perfect fiction novel and escape into another world.

16. Breathing Exercises. Practice breathing in slowly for a 10 count, and then exhaling for a 10 count. Do this a few times in a row and as you breathe out, let go of your worries.

17. Lavender. Spray your bedsheets with lavender and lay down.

18. Stretching and Yoga. Last time I tried Yoga, I ended up hurting my back, but then again it was already hurt before I started. You might want to give this one a shot for yourself.

19. Lay on The Beach. Bask in the sun as you run your fingers through the sand and listen to the waves crashing as the tide comes in.

20. Fishing. Grab a beer and a buddy and head out early in the morning before the sun comes out. Enjoy a great conversation, or quietly reflect on life, and share in every victory as you snatch those suckers right out of the water (now that’s animal cruelty, isn’t it?)

21. Camp Fire. Enjoy the whole process of collecting kindle, starting a fire, and sitting in front of the whispering flames as you tell ghost stories!

22. Grow a Garden. Gardening can tell you a lot about life, such as the changing seasons, sowing and reaping, and it gives you the perfect opportunity to think about life as you work.

23. Picture Collage. This is what you need. A big poster board, pictures of yourself and the people you love, a glue stick, scissors, markers, oh and…. your imagination!

24. Declutter. Clean up your living space, so that everything is clean and tidy. Your living quarters will make you relaxed just looking at them.

When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves,
it is useless to seek it elsewhere.
~Francois de La Rochefoucauld

25. Slow Music. Whether you’re listening to classical/jazz music, or playing the instrument yourself, it’s always relaxing to make yourself a part of a slow song.

26. Lie on a Hammock While Being Fed Grapes. Umm, this is where Marina chimed in. I guess this is her personal fantasy. To each their own!

27. Say No. Don’t take on any responsibilities. Say no to people’s incessant requests and just take time for yourself.

28. Say Yes. Sex is very relaxing.

29. Get Cuddled. Ok, this is getting too cute… kinda like kittens, but it is relaxing, so try it!

30. Pet & Nag Your Cat. If you own one of these furry-creatures, then go ahead and hold them, while telling them about the stresses you are going through. They’re soft, warm, and complacent, meaning they’ll actually listen to you no matter how much you nag at them.

Final Words

At the end of the day, relaxing is a very personal and subjective way to pass time. You’re more than welcome to try any of the tips above, they work, but what’s even better is to find something that is personal and effective for you.

I’m sure that you already have certain things that you do, those that I didn’t mention above, and I would love it if you’d let me know about it in the comments below. Give us your most unique tip, or name your favorite from the list above, I’d love to hear from you either way!

Please vote for this article on StumbleUpon and Digg, I’d appreciate it!

Images by Piez and florencetime

Attention: Don’t forget to download my free ebook, How to Get a Girlfriend!!

Tweet This Post 

Productive Magazine is created by Michael Sliwinski, the CEO and Founder of Nozbe – Simply Get Things Done productivity application. Although I haven’t used Nozbe myself, I see that it’s rated among the most popular web apps on the internet.

Productive Magazine Contents:

1. Oliver Starr – GTD is really about gaining control and gaining perspective, Interview with David Allen
2. Leo Babauta – Zen To Done (ZTD): The Ultimate Simple Productivity System
3. Alexander Kjerulf – Top 10 reasons why happiness at work is the ultimate productivity booster
4. Nick Cernis – Happiness and the End of the Working Week
5. Gretchen Rubin – Seven Tips for making yourself happier in the next hour
6. James Mallinson – Having One of Those Days? Here’s How to Deal With It
7. Steven Aitchison – The GOYA method for Personal Development
8. Mark W. Shead – 17 Things you Should Stop Doing
9. Marc C – How to Work Less and Still Impress
10. Stephen Smith – 3 Essential Tools for Productivity
11. Glen Stansberry – 7 Idea Dumping Tips
12. Chanpory Rith – 10 tips for keeping your desk clean and tidy
13. Brett Kelly – 14 Numbers Your Cell Phone Can’t Live Without
14. Alex Shalman – Seven Questions That Will Change Your Life
15. Michael Ramm – Getting Things Done Primer: Chapter 1
16. John Kendrik – The Five W’s of a Weekly GTD Review
17. Michael Sliwinski – Learn Productivity Tips and Tricks in 2 Minutes!

You can get the full magazine, in color, as a free download (no e-mails necessary), by clicking here.

Future Interviews

The Practical Personal Development Podcast is already taking off. You can already see some of the interviews that I have done up on the blog. Besides what you see I’ve already finished enough interviews to last every Monday of next month, and I’m happy to announce that Michael Sliwinski already confirmed to be a part of the show.

Feel free to 1-click subscribe on iTunes, so you don’t miss a thing when I load up the great interviews.

Attention: Don’t forget to download my free ebook, How to Get a Girlfriend!!

Tweet This Post 

Simplicity is the key ingredient in productivity, and living a great life should be the main motivator for being productive. After all, if you can accomplish the same amount of work in less time, then you’re free to explore more of what interests you.

In order to make the idea of living a great life your motivator, it’s important for you to define what exactly you will be spending your free time on. For this reason, setting big goals, such as 5-10-20 year plans is absolutely critical.

Once you’re excited about the idea that anything is possible in your life, you can proceed to learn about the…

4 Simple Laws of Productivity

1. Outsource – I’m not focusing strictly on outsourcing tasks to virtual assistants, although that has the potential to be a very useful system. In essence, you want to delegate your work to someone that can either do it cheaper, more efficiently, or in a shorter amount of time. You can choose a virtual assistant like I mentioned, or simply use the resources you already have such as co-workers, family members, and friends, who are in a better position to come up with a solution to your problems.
2. Automatize – With the technology we have today, it’s very feasible to get things done without anyone actually doing them. This is shown through electronic bill reminders that are set on recurrent monthly payments, as well as monthly deliveries of essential supplies, without the trouble of having to reorder. The more things you can automatize, the more time you free up for other activities.
3. Withdraw – Not all tasks were created equally, and some aren’t even necessary. Your job is to define what’s necessary in your life. This might lead to you denying your services to your family, friends, or employers in order to concentrate on the actions that are more important to your personal goals. There is never a good excuse for not going for your most important goals. You can also trim back, instead of completely withdrawing from certain projects, so that you’re still connected, but not overwhelmed.
4. Focus – We previously defined simplicity as the key ingredient in productivity, which makes multitasking the antithesis of productivity. In order to get things done, and make serious progress on projects and tasks, it’s essential to stick to one project at a time and one task at a time. This is accomplished by tuning out all distractions and blocking off periods of time to work without phone/e-mail interruptions.

Starting last week I began to use a very effective, and simultaneously simple, productivity system known as Todoodlist. It combines some of the concepts above, along with with a paper based productivity system, which allowed me to back away from my technology and get some real work done (even though half the work had to do with writing, videos, and podcasts).

Here are some of the things I’ve been able to bang out just this weekend using the Toododlist productivity system.

1. Edited and reviewed half a dozen podcast interviews
2. Setup, scheduled, and prepared for dental school interview
3. Organized my e-mail, gmail filters/labels and contact groups
4. Cleared my desk, car, laundry, bookshelf, garbage and vacuumed my entire workspace
5. Wrote 4 articles, brainstormed a dozen others, made a video, and updated the resources section of the blog
6. Creatively planned Thanksgiving, 1 year anniversary, and New Years ideas.

This was done alongside working, interning, spending time with Marina, and doing yard work(raking leaves) around the house. The simple fact is that the more I put on my plate, the more I was able to get done, and the more free time I had to enjoy myself.

The best part is that even my free time became more fun because a) I felt like I deserved the free time for all the hard work I put in and b) because I was in such a great mindset for planning, I was able to make the best of the leisure time that I had.

Remember what I said, you don’t need to buy a system in order to be more productive, you merely need to know the fundamentals. When you have the fundamentals, you can take the time to create your own system. In my case, I decided to outsource the making of my system to the Todoodlist program, which enabled me to have one of the most productive weekends ever.

What are you waiting for? Go get your Todoodlist.

Attention: Don’t forget to download my free ebook, How to Get a Girlfriend!!

Tweet This Post 

One of the most effective tools that I teach my students about how to analyze a business situation is to do a SWOT analysis.  SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.  This analysis allows a business to thoroughly think through their situation and make wise decisions for their future.  A SWOT analysis does not need to be left only for businesses, but can also be done by individuals.  Doing a SWOT analysis of your life can give you a clear picture of who you are and the opportunities you have for your life and business.

Step #1 – Set up a grid.

Take out a blank sheet of paper and divide it into four quarters to form a grid.  Setting up the analysis in a grid format helps you see the connection between each element of the analysis.  The top two quadrants of the grid are title Strengths and Weaknesses; the bottom quadrants are title Opportunities and Threats.

1. Strengths
2. Weaknesses
3. Opportunities
4. Threats

Step #2 – Understand the connections on the grid.

The grid is made up of several sets of connections.  The first set is the internal/external connections.  In the analysis, strengths and weaknesses are the internal factors.  These represent internal characteristics, abilities and skills that you have (or don’t have).  Likewise, the opportunities and threats are external issues.

Secondly, there is a vertical connection.  The left side of the grid (strengths and opportunities) contains the helpful quadrants that help you reach your goals.  The right side of the grid (weaknesses and threats) includes the harmful quadrants that work against you achieving your goals.

Later when you start filling in the grid you will want to use the connections to help think of more things to put in each quadrant.  For example, most strengths will have a corresponding weakness (and vice-versa); similarly most strengths can lead to opportunities and most weaknesses may lead to threats.  Finally threats can also lead to opportunities.

Step #3 – Take your emotions out; become an outsider.

One of the reasons that businesses hire outside consultants is because they don’t have an emotional connection to the decision making process.  People within the business are emotionally connected and therefore may find it harder to truly see all of their weaknesses and threats.  They also may miss obvious strengths because they feel that it is normal.  Finally, insiders often are so connected to the current strategy that they may miss opportunities that are clear to outsiders.

The same is true for you as an individual.  For example, many of your strengths are likely things that you think are natural to everyone. Maybe you are a great encouragement to others.  You may not realize that the way you encourage others is not normal and is really a significant strength. Because of these trends you must work hard to remove emotions from the situation and try to look at yourself from an outsider’s perspective.  You may also want to get people who are close to you to share their perspective, especially on your strengths and weaknesses.

Step #4 – Spend time analyzing your strengths and weaknesses.

Now is finally the time to start filling in your grid.  Start by thinking through the internal side of the grid by looking at your strengths and weaknesses.  During this step your focus is on the top quadrants, but if an opportunity or threat comes to mind go ahead and write that down.  Be sure to take the time to go through every area of your life.  This includes both your professional life but your personal life.  You will likely use different strengths and experience different weaknesses in your work and business life than you do when you are spending time with your family, caring for your home, and in how you treat your body.

Step #5 – Use your strengths and weaknesses to consider opportunities and threats.

Once you have your strengths and weaknesses recorded you can use them to consider opportunities and threats.  Remember that strengths tend to lead to opportunities and weaknesses tend to lead to threats.  For example, if one of your strengths is that you are able to speak well in public, an opportunity might be the ability to speak at the local Chamber of Commerce or Rotary in order to increase your reputation and network.  Likewise, if a weakness that you have is that your skills and education are limited to one particular trade or field, the threat might be that if your industry suffers in the economy, you may lose your job.  Even if you think this is an unlikely scenario you should record it as a threat.

Step #6 – Apply the findings

After you have developed a thorough list and filled your grid you need to look for ways to apply your findings.  You can start the process applying your findings by asking questions about each quadrant.  For example you may ask: How can you use your strengths effectively? How can you work on your areas of weakness? How can you exploit each opportunity? How can you protect yourself from threats?  The answers to these questions will help you set new goals and strategies for achieving those goals.

Continuing with our previous example, if you see the threat of a job loss because of the weak economy then you need to consider how you can protect yourself from that possibility.  Perhaps you want to start a part-time business to generate extra funds, or increase your emergency fund of cash.  Here you will also want to look at your strengths and opportunities as sources for your answer.  Maybe the opportunity to start speaking at Rotary and Chamber meetings can be part of a strategy to increase your network with other employers in your field.  Examples like this can go on and on.

Coming out of this process you should have a much clearer idea about who you are, where you are headed, and what opportunities you need to pursue.  Use this to set goals for the future, to clarify your existing goals, and to increase your levels of abilities and preparedness.  Doing this will help you move your business and life towards your dreams.

Written by:
The Success Professor – Danny Gamache
Visit Danny’s blog, The Success Professor, for success principles about life and business.
(http://www.successprofessor.ca)

If you would like to submit a guest post to Alex Shalman, please see this link.

Picture from skyfaller

Attention: Don’t forget to download my free ebook, How to Get a Girlfriend!!

Tweet This Post 

“I don’t think of work as work and play as play. It’s all living.”
~Richard Branson, founder of Virgin

Ah, drive. It’s that thing which successful people have, isn’t it? It’s that mad gleam in the eyes of those at the tops of their fields. From Steve Jobs to Hayao Miyazaki it’s that thing about them which screams manically: ‘I’m used to working 12 hours a day, because I like to!’

Sick, sick people. But wouldn’t we all like to get the results they do?

‘They’re lucky, special or both’

A big section of the personal development industry is dedicated to becoming really successful. There are two major beliefs sceptics use to disregard at least this section, if not the entire industry: ‘successful people just got really lucky’ and ‘they’re successful because they’re so driven, and you can’t get that kind of drive if you don’t already have it.’

So many A-list celebrities claim that we can all emulate their successes. And the sceptics respond: ‘really?’ Maybe they want to believe that’s true but they can’t help doubting. Even if luck is ruled out, there’s still that thing about our heroes that we don’t have: that zeitgeist, that winning edge, that drive.

The luck and genetics arguments are both intelligent but neither is likely to have much truth in them. The first one is reasonable, but the second one largely discounts it. If the best of the best really have something special about them it diminishes the role of luck.

And we know there is something special about them. I know, I know – the best of the best are just like the rest of us deep down, but, still, if your idea of a full work day is eight hours then you and Schwarzenegger differ in more than just muscle mass.

The famously successful are only special in that they work much harder than most of us. Natural talent, drive, physique etc are questionably important and questionably valid.

Vanessa-Mae may like to think she was born to be one of the world’s best violinists but she does so at the casual dismissal of the 7500+ hours of practice she had before the age of 18. Jack Nicholson gives the impression of being a total natural, but people forget that it took 10 years for his acting career to go anywhere. As Jack himself once said in an interview, ‘no-one ever got successful without working hard’.

We may never be able to rule out the luck of circumstances but we know enough about the lives of the successful to know their achievements are far from lottery wins. And with a bit more digging we can see that genetics play only a small part: hard work takes care of the rest. It’s really just a matter of figuring out how to bring yourself to work at that level.

Six Lessons on Cultivating Drive

1. The difference between motivation and drive

When I talk about drive I’m not talking about motivation.

If the work is enjoyable it motivates you to continue. You may go into flow or just have a good time with it and so you’ll spend more time doing it. Motivation can also be bought in book shops and cinemas and the entertainment and self-improvement industries produce new products for it all the time. Motivation is great.

But drive is better. Drive is lasting and drive is not dependent on the nature of the work you’re doing. Drive is the desire to work as much as is healthy (and sometimes beyond that) and not because the work is inherently enjoyable. In fact it’s drive that can make so much work enjoyable.

An interviewer, after commenting on Will Smith’s iconic level of success, asked the actor if there was anything that separated him from everyone else. Will replied that the only thing he can think of is that he ‘isn’t afraid to die on a treadmill’ – that he ‘cannot be outworked’. And Mr. Smith was very happy to admit it.

Success seems straight-forward enough, but drive is very mysterious. Motivation is an open book: you can easily buy the stuff. You can’t do that with drive: it’s in you, but there’s no clear way to unlock it.

2. Feeling your way through

If you want to learn how to gain more drive you just have to experiment with your behaviors. In my experience it’s your actions which affect the building up (or diminishment) of drive. Given human behaviour is very idiosyncratic there’s a lot of variety here, and who knows what might work for you. But I have uncovered three principals at play with releasing my own drive that I suspect will work for pretty much anyone.

3. Hit the ground running

Early rising is not universal among the high achievers, but it’s worked for Aristotle, Ghandi, Mandela, the Dalai Lama and Franklin, and is advocated by many successful people today, so it’s worth a look, right? Early rising is, simply by numbers, the best option: you’ll almost always get an extra hour or two in your day by doing it. There are plenty of other reasons why it works well, too.

For me, waking up at 05.00, taking my laptop back to bed with me and working for two hours straight is the best way for me to cultivate drive for the day ahead. If there’s a better means of doing it I have yet to discover it.

On days in the past I used to lie in and that was usually fatal for my drive. On those days I just didn’t have any. When I don’t have drive I’ll work for a few hours on the blog, Japanese and self-improvement and it won’t be especially pleasant. I’ll often watch for my next break, spend too long on the breaks and by evening I’ll be done. Lying in is definitely something for me to avoid.

In fact early rising is so important to me that I’ve made my bed less comfortable. My mattress used to have a thin bumpy foam mattress on top, with the sheets covering the two. It made the bed so good to lie in that I couldn’t bring myself to get out of it before 07.30 unless I had to. So that bumpy foam thing had to go. The bed is still comfortable enough and doesn’t cause me back trouble now or anything like that, but it doesn’t keep me captive in the mornings anymore either.

4. Do the hardest work first

Do the most difficult job first and the rest of the day will be like riding a bike downhill. My policy used to be to do the most important job first, but that’s no good for my drive. The longer you leave the hardest work untouched the bigger it looms in the day and it will seem more and more like something you have to do, rather than something you want to do.

For me that’s writing articles for blogs. Plenty of bloggers whip up a new post in twenty minutes, but for me an article never takes less than three hours to write. In those first two hours of the day I’m unlikely to finish an article, but I’ll get really into it before the day has even really begun. It makes for a great start.

5. Gather momentum

Another death for my drive, aside from rising late, is a day loaded with interruptions. If I have to go to the building society or find a replacement email client or go to a dentist’s appointment or whatever it’s going to hurt my drive a little because it breaks up my work routine and kills my momentum. Several such interruptions (especially long ones) and I’ll feel pretty listless by noon.

I’ll still get on with what’s important but it will become an ‘I hafta’ instead of an ‘I wanna’.

By rising early and immediately getting stuck in with challenging work I gather momentum. As long as I can keep that momentum going my drive will get stronger and stronger.

6. Tweaking the methods

The more I experiment the more I find ways to tweak my current practices to make them better or just more versatile. I’ve recently found that while getting up at five is good, it’s the two hours of blogging first thing that’s most important. I can get up at six and my drive won’t be noticeably less for the day.

Before I started experimenting with cultivating drive I used to blog, learn Japanese and do miscellaneous personal development for four hours a day. These days it’s more in the region of eight+ hours per day.

By doubling my daily workload I procrastinate less and do more stimulating activities, and this actually means I experience less tiredness and stress than I used to.

Analyse your own daily actions (many of them will be routines) and make changes. Use the ready, fire, aim approach to release more and more drive as the days go by. Think about the details. And if you find any killer strategies it’d be great if you leave them as comments, I look forward to reading them.

About the author

Richard Johnson writes personal development articles for www.reachingabetterplace.com and studies English Literature and Japanese at university in Oxford.

Attention: Don’t forget to download my free ebook, How to Get a Girlfriend!!

Tweet This Post 

“To make yourself something less than you can be – that too is a form of suicide”
~Benjamin Lichtenberg

Suicide is the act of taking one’s life, but I think it’s suicide not to live our life to the fullest of our abilities and potential — with love, passion, and vitality.

If you aren’t loving the life you live, you’re already dead (or at least en route, ETA — soon). Use this article as an eye opener, if you will, and if there are some areas of your life heading south, see to it that you stop pressing the trigger.

1. Make Money Your Life.

I’ve seen this problem rise up too many times before. Many of my college friends, who were so goal oriented and ambitious have found themselves struck with depression because they realize that their hopes and dreams are just a socially conditioned desire entirely dependent upon their monetary success.

We put so much meaning to money that we fail to recognize that it’s an inanimate object like any other. The truth is that money is green paper, something entirely bereft of depth and no testament to our personal value. That’s just the point! If you do value a green piece of paper as yourself, you are committing suicide.

2. Detrimental Food Choices.

Think of your body as a machine. Every time you fill up on low-grade fuel, your engine is deteriorating. Likewise, if you take the easy way out – this can mean binging on junk food or eliminating food altogether instead of following a healthy diet – you’re killing your precious organs and slowly taking your life.

Fad diets and quick-fixes aren’t the solution. Life is a work in progress that requires our constant and consistent attention. Just like a machine, our body must be kept well-oiled, receive proper maintenance, and not be abused if we expect it to last.

3. Destroying The Environment.

The legacy that we leave behind is solely based on our descendants. Whether it be the offspring of our offspring, or the future generations to follow, by destroying the environment, you are effectively making it harder for these people to survive.

If they don’t have an earth to call home, then whatever you’ve done, and however you’ve contributed to the world dies with them.We are so obsessed with our own property that we fail to see the greater picture. Learn to think of the earth that you live in as your home, all of it’s bountiful gifts as our access to pleasure, and our responsibility to keep it in the healthiest of conditions.

4. Isolating Yourself From Family, Friends, and Society.

Our inability to come to terms with people, whether they be our loved ones, or others that we co-exist with, is a product of our self-righteousness.

We have to learn to embrace workability at the expense of being right.Instead of seeing people as relative to our expectations, we can choose to see people as endless possibilities. This means giving up being right, in favor of harmonious and fulfilling relationships.

5. Allowing Your Judgments To Rule Your Life.

We can make what we think about people as a whole and as individuals the ultimate guide to our lives. By living that people are manipulative, or ultimately out to get us, we’re creating a world for ourselves in which we’re the victims. We can choose to live a life in which people are brilliant. We can choose to see faults as occasional bad apples rather than virtues as occasional good ones.

We must understand that our judgment is not outside of ourselves and that we can convince ourselves of anything and live accordingly. Have you ever noticed that when you deem someone a bad person, everything they do is not genuine, by default? This is because our judgment has created a world of its own, creating a defense mechanism that is not always good or necessary and may make you more cynical, not happy.

6. Usage of Alcohol, Drugs & Very Excessive Smoking.

Don’t do it — need I say more? Okay, I will. By surrounding yourself with people whose attention is focused around such activities you are leaving yourself wide open to their influence.

The idea isn’t to prove day in and day out how strong and resilient you can be. Eventually you’re liable to have a moment of weakness. Do yourself a favor and surround yourself with people you admire, so that emulating them will be a blessing.

7. Forgetting Your Dreams.

Throughout the course of our life we are all capable of losing sight of our dreams and become susceptible to surviving life instead of living it. This can come in the form of not doing what we love, making excuses for our lack of drive, and allowing others to access our limits.

Not that dreams can’t change over time, they should, but we allow them to adapt only to ourselves instead of to our circumstances. People will always have an opinion, but it is important to remember that we are not puppets and are not obligated to live into another persons vision.

8. Giving Up On Growth.

Did you know that a shark must be moving forward at all times? The water runs through it’s gills, providing the required oxygen to sustain life. They’re even moving while asleep. In much the same way human beings must be subject to constant and never ending improvement in order to maintain happiness and fulfillment.

A person that stays still, much like a stagnant body of water, will become infested with doubt, and soiled with insecurities. We’re living in a world of change, so we must embrace change, instead of fearing and avoiding it.

9. Losing Your Individualism.

It’s important to realize that in the grand scheme of things we’re nothing — quite insignificant. However, in order for us to avoid being swallowed up by the latest drivel to come by our senses we must maintain a strong sense of who we are.

Nothing else will keep us from being the victim of a charismatic dictator, an overbearing bully, an infomercial, or an enticing breach of morality. We must choose, not be chosen for.

10. Apathy.

If indifference is the toxic that lacerates relationships, apathy is the venom that leaves us to a slow and painful demise. When the words “I Don’t care” begin to carry that same meaning, we must be on alert!

Once people give up on themselves they’re giving up on everything. Their lives become a day to day search for the minimalist pleasures that leave them believing that their lives are as good as they will ever be, with no hope for beauty, joy, and fulfillment. This is the paradigm of suicide.

“You have a choice. Live or die. Every breath is a choice. Every minute is a choice. To be or not to be.”
~Chuck Palahniuk

Conclusion

If this article applies to you, you are far from alone. We all have points at which we feel like giving up because we are lonely or unhappy. The most important thing to grasp is that we make the choice
to be lonely, to be unhappy, to be victims of circumstance, rather than vessels of possibility. It is, however, this realization that we are the arbiters of our fate, that can save us and serve us. There is
always hope.

Suicide Advice

I’ve recently had the pleasure of interviewing a top self-improvement expert Steve Pavlina. I asked Steve what advice he has for people that have reached their last rope in life, and that are considering suicide as an option. You can listened to his suicide advice on the interview I did with Steve.

I’m also closing the comments on this article. A new article is available to share your experiences with suicide.

If you enjoy this article please vote for it on Digg, del.icio.us and StumbleUpon. I’d appreciate it!

Attention: Don’t forget to download my free ebook, How to Get a Girlfriend!!

Tweet This Post 

Laziness is ultimately caused by a fault in our thinking. A great article would dissect this fault and provide a quick-fix. This could effectively launch the earth into a new age of productivity.

I have no quick fix – I’m not THAT good – so you’ll have to settle for some practical techniques to dig yourself out of your own lazy ruts. It will take some work on your part, but I’m sure that whatever works for me can work for you too.

“I will act now. I will act now. I will act now. Henceforth, I will repeat these words each hour, each day, everyday, until the words become as much a habit as my breathing, and the action which follows becomes as instinctive as the blinking of my eyelids. With these words I can condition my mind to perform every action necessary for my success. I will act now. I will repeat these words again and again and again. I will walk where failures fear to walk. I will work when failures seek rest. I will act now for now is all I have. Tomorrow is the day reserved for the labor of the lazy. I am not lazy. Tomorrow is the day when the failure will succeed. I am not a failure. I will act now. Success will not wait. If I delay, success will become wed to another and lost to me forever. This is the time. This is the place. I am the person.”
~Og Mandino

11 Practical Ways To Jump Out Of A Lazy Rut

1. Start Somewhere, Anywhere. We can think of the discipline muscle as a strong pillar. Metaphorically speaking, if this muscle is big and tall it will serve as a Pantheon of productivity. Pick any one of the ideas below, or any one of your own ideas, and get started!

If you follow the action consistently for 30 days, you will build a habit. Once you’re in the “habit of making habits” you’ll be able to build new ones. Maintaining takes much less energy than starting, so you can keep on adding on new habits to your “habit-happy” life.

2. Self-actualize, Be Conscious. This happens to be the most important point in the article. Think. By questioning your source, reasons, and intentions, you are able to transcend whatever obstacle you find in your way.

When you sit down and think you’ll discover all the wonderful things that make you feel passionate, and fulfilled. This will inevitably lead you to launch yourself into life — to live!

3. Improve Exercise Antics. Exercising on vacation is not so easy {convenient excuse}. During my 2 weeks away in Israel I didn’t exercise, and felt too jet-lagged and dehydrated the week after my return to get back into the routine. This turned into another week. The thought of returning to the gym, and running, while feeling out of shape is a bit daunting.

Sometimes I find myself laying in bed, just listening to audio books on my iPhone. Big mistake. The simple hack is to take that one hour, go outside with my iPhone and just walk around the neighborhood. A brisk walk will get my blood flowing, heart pumping, and my body rejuvenated by the time the one hour is up. At an hour per day it more than fulfills my weekly walking requirement as well as enhances my personal growth.

4. Engage In House Cleaning. We all get to the point where we let our house go a bit past, okay- way past, the point of being perfectly clean. This makes me feel a bit guilty because I know that one of the keys to a clear mind is a clean home and workplace. It gets to the point where the cleaning job will either demand a lot of time, or force you to move out.

If you’ve slipped in the clean-as-you go process, you can use the 15 minute rule to get out of your rut. Pick a room, and designate just 15 minutes to clean something up (i.e. just the desk, just the closet, just the floors). Use up all 15 minutes and continue the next day. In the mean time clean as you go and you’ll find a clean room within about a week.

5. Cultivate Reading Habits. It’s a sad fact that most Americans don’t read. One of the reasons I started this site is to cater to such people. My sentiments were that reading a full book, and compressing the gems into a 10 minute read, can be convenient for even the most modest of readers. Incidentally, after running this site for this long, I’ve come to realize that you guys are in the upper echelons of intelligence and do spend a nice chunk of time reading. I feel like you can relate when I say that falling off the reading wagon is a commonly occurring disaster.

The best thing to do with a dropped habit is to get back into it slowly. It’s not about quantity at this point, but about forging a life-long positive habit. All you need is to dedicate 15 minutes, as soon as you wake up, each and every morning. This is when you’ll be most alert to read, which you can do by waking up 15 minutes early. Commit to just 30 days of 15 minute mornings, and eventually expand the hours if you like the new habit.

6. Get Back On Track With Writing. In the creation of this site I have made a 180 turn in my thoughts about writing. It used to be a painful chore, but that’s before I realized what I’m passionate about writing. Now I love writing for this site, and the other sites where I freelance. After all, I only delivered 1 article last week, and it wasn’t due to lack of time or lack of material.

The technique that works best for me is scheduling a writing time the night before. When I set aside 2 hours in a day, I’m able to write anywhere between 1-4 articles. If it’s more than 1, I can give it away, or set it for a future date. However, I need to make sure I’m in the habit of getting back the next day to do some more writing, or else the lazy bug will slip up on me.

7. Hydrate For Productivity. One of the things that I’ve found to be continuously daunting is the reappearance of dehydration. This beast works in such subtle ways that I never experience a thirst, but only consider that it could be a possible problem after it’s taken its course.

Drinking 2 liters of water a day gets every atom of my body resonating and jumping with energy. Not 2 liters of soda, not coffee, and certainly not 2 liters of juice. It must be water, and I think many people underestimate how much they need and the mere fact that this could be at the root of their lack of productivity.

8. End Over-Sleeping. Sleeping is a monster that uses catch-22 to attack our productivity. The more you sleep, the lazier you are. The lazier you are, the more you sleep. By applying a couple of standardized rules in the form of habits we’re able to break out of this sloth-like cycle.

First, when you hear the morning alarm, and before you lay there and question yourself, jump right out of bed! Walk over to the sink, wash your face with cold water and immediately bring yourself to your schedule or to-do list. Need an afternoon nap? Set your alarm for 20 minutes and do not allow yourself to sleep more than this optimal time under any circumstances.

9. Don’t Eat Lazy Food. Have you noticed that with laziness comes bad food choices that are high in fats, sugars, and processed carbs? No? Is it just me? Maybe with bad food choices comes laziness, which is also very feasible.

One of the things that helps me break the cycle is placing some rules on the table. No eating 4 hours before bed, unless it’s a piece of fruit. Using fruits and vegetables as the only snacks between meals. Having vegetables be the entree of my meals, no the side dish. Eating 5-6 smaller meals throughout the day to avoid lethargy. Healthy food gives you more energy, which is one sure-fire way to get out of the lazy hole.

10. Simplify Your Life. Being overwhelmed is a very viable reason for why we might find ourselves in a lazy rut. It’s not our fault per se, but our environment and the world around us makes things way more complicated than they have to be. Think about it, extensive filing systems like GTD require months to learn, just so you can figure out what to do today. Cars come with 5 billion features that will warm your coffee, massage your butt, and orchestrate a bank job if you punch in the right keys.

They even put peanut butter and jelly into the same jar, which I’ll never understand. Your mission — simplify. When you take away as many unnecessary layers and distractions, your mind will be clutter free and excited at the opportunity to tackle what’s important.

11. Embrace Your Laziness. Consider for a moment that you’re run-down. Physically, emotionally, or spiritually you’re experiencing a leak in your battery that’s leaving you sluggish throughout the day. That’s both understandable and reasonable.

Put up the white flag, go to sleep, get hydrated, eat some healthy food, go for a sweaty run and refer to number 2 — think. Perhaps you know what the problem is, but something tells me that if you stand in front of the mirror and look yourself in the eyes for 10 minutes, a little voice will come out and tell you exactly what’s wrong — fix it.

“A person is lazy because he wants serenity and quiet. Comfort-seeking is the root of laziness. But realize that although the lazy way might at first appear to give comfort, in the long run, a person who is lazy will lose greatness. Why? His life will be one of mediocrity!”
~Rabbi Pliskin

If you enjoy this article please vote for it on StumbleUpon and Digg.com. I’d appreciate it!

Share your number one cause of laziness in the comments below.

Attention: Don’t forget to download my free ebook, How to Get a Girlfriend!!

Tweet This Post 

The key is to recognize, capture and utilize the fundamentals, to take what works, and get rid of everything else.

“Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.”
~Paul J. Meyer

0:60 Become an Achiever
One of the biggest factors that causes procrastination is the belief that we do not deserve to achieve and succeed. Without any hype just make the simple decision that you do want to finish what you start and believe in yourself that you will be able to handle the responsibility.

0:55 Differentiate Between Productive Time and Unproductive Time
Which part of the day are you most productive and when are you groggy or low on energy? Schedule the most important tasks during your most energetic and focused time periods.

0:50 Identify Time Sinks
Whether you’re hanging out by the water cooler, surfing YouTube, or idling in front of the television you know what your own vices are. Think about the difference you could make in the world if you traded these time sinks for productivity.

0:45 Goals — Clarify
Clarify exactly what your goals. This will prevent you from being stuck in a position where you don’t know the next action and help you avoid times when you don’t know the reason for why you’re doing something. Make sure your goals are not only clear, but time sensitive, and that you have a concise reason for wanting to accomplish your goal.

0:40 Break Down Tasks
Another big reason for procrastination is that our goals seem too big for us to attempt to achieve. The simple solution is to break up your huge goals into easy to manage tasks and just go ahead and bump them off your task list.

0:35 Get Accountable
When your willpower is questioned, it helps to have people in your life to keep you accountable. Just like my friends who read this blog would not tolerate any negativity from me, you could start a blog, forum, or find friends, family, and co-workers to keep you accountable about your productivity ventures.

0:30 Lists, lists, lists
Have a to-do list running so that you aren’t caught with nothing to do. Whether it’s what you should clean, buy at the store, accomplish at work, read, exercise on, etc. make sure you’re never stuck sitting there with nothing to do. This doesn’t mean don’t relax, but when you do relax do it to your fullest, not because you’re stuck.

0:25 Finish What You Start <period>
When you take on a task you invest time into it. When you put a task off for later you have the potential to never return to it. This is a waste of invested time. Build up momentum and see your tasks through from start to finish without interruptions whenever this is feasible.

0:20 Say ‘No’
Whenever an interruption, or a task that will throw off your schedule presents itself, say no. Do not think that you are being selfish, or unkind to other people that need you — rather think of yourself as disciplined and productive and do not allow anything to be an excuse for reaching your personal goals.

0:15 No Excuses, Be Your Word
Just think of excuses as a breach of integrity where there is a disconnect between giving your word (to yourself or others) and doing the actions. Eliminate all excuses, no matter how good they sound, and do as Nike would do — just do it.

0:10 Breathe
Breathe because this has been an intense 60 seconds and because breathing will send oxygen to your brain and increase your focus. You’ll be rejuvenated for your very next task. Make a commitment to meditate for 15 minutes each morning when you wake up to facilitate high energy and concentration.

0:05 Celebrate Victory
Do a little pre-victory celebration; you deserve it. You now know everything it takes to be super productive. All you need to do is go out there and do it.

If you found this article useful please vote for it on StumbleUpon. I’d appreciate it!

Attention: Don’t forget to download my free ebook, How to Get a Girlfriend!!

Tweet This Post 

“All that really belongs to us is time; even he who has nothing else has that.”
~Baltasar Gracian

While the amount of things we want to see, do, smell, taste and touch exceeds all but our imagination there are still just 24 hours in each day.

Time flies by and many times people find themselves at the end of the journey known as life without enough stories to say it was all worth while. I’m here to give you 730 hours back per year so that you can make some beautiful memories.

Our enemy — ‘Prime Time’. That’s the time of the day, usually 8:00pm to 10:00pm where the world watches their favorite sitcom, reality show, or news channel. The amount of value that we get out of these shows is negligible, if not negative, next to the amount of time we are wasting. Wasted time meaning the time that we are not either being super productive or enjoying and loving life.

I do not count watching TV as a good way to relax and enjoy life. Sitcoms may be funny, reality shows may be sexy, and news may be captivating, but none of the benefits of such things outweigh the fact that TV is turning your brain into a rotting vegetable.

“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.”
~Carl Sandburg

20 Smart Ways To Increase Productivity During Prime Time

1. Exercise. Exercising every day will get you feeling young, reduce the risk of serious diseases, and have your mind be sharp as a tack. On days that I run I feel my metabolism speed up, my mood enlightened, and my productivity soaring.

   With 2 hours of prime time you have the opportunity to do cardio and lift. If you’re tactful you’ll use the time to do an outdoor activity such as cycling, hiking, or playing a sport with friends.

2. Sleep early. Since prime time is about 8:00pm – 10:00pm the sun is usually setting. Use the opportunity to get to bed early, and wake up early when the sun is coming up. Early morning is an excellent time to get things done — and it’s light.
3. Read. No matter what you’re reading speed, if you read for 2 hours a day you’ll get a lot of reading done. Break your year into reading categories and become an expert in subjects that will improve your career, health, or relationships.

   During the time I got my master’s degree I spent an equal amount of time studying personal development — I would say I have a master’s in PD as well!

4. Cook ahead. You can save a lot of money by cooking your own meals. During two hour cooking sessions every day you can really increase your culinary skills and impress your friends and family with your awesome abilities.

   Combine cooking with listening to some light music, or listen to personal development audio tapes while your in the kitchen. It will keep things fresh, fun, and educational all at the same time.

5. Learn a language. Two hours a day, for one full year, will allow you to become very good at a language of your choice. You can read language books, listen to language audio tapes, or take an evening course at a local university.

   There are some major languages that can help you in your career or for your traveling pleasures. At the same time you’ll literally increase your brain capacity to learn — all while becoming a well rounded individual.

   “If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves.”
   ~Maria Edgeworth

6. Get a degree. By taking 1-2 classes a week during the evening, you can accumulate enough credits to get a degree within a few years. You can do this while you work (actually it isn’t uncommon for a company to pay for an advanced degree while you work), and be able to earn a much better living once your done.

   Friends of mine have done this very thing and have doubled their incomes by getting promotions. Not bad for giving the tube a rest.

7. Draw and Paint. You might want to build a collection on the side while working a day job, or simply paint for pleasure when you can. No matter the case, you’ll get there much quicker, and be much better in the process when you’re devoting your prime time to your passion.
8. Blog Your Passion. My passion is personal development and it is the muse of this blog you are reading. Since December 15, 2006 it has grown to peak at 60,000 hits a month as of today (May 2008). By devoting 2 hours a day, like I have done, you can have a huge audience and share your passion with the world as well.

   You may want to blog about whatever topic interests you. It is your passion that will set you apart and keeping you coming back. Your passion will captivate your audience, and your audience will become your reason to continue. The audience of this site are one of the biggest passions in my life — I’d love for you to experience this too. (For help on starting a site, check out Site Built It!)

9. Write a Novel. After conducting the Gotta Get Goals project last year I learned that many people have a passion to write a New York Times #1 Bestseller. If you could write relatively quickly, you should be able to dish out 4 pages a day.

   At 1,000-2,000 words per day, you can create a 50,000 word (or 200 page) novel within one month. That’s 12 novels each year… with such quantity you’re bound to create something good!

10. Join Toastmasters. Toastmasters international is an organization that helps people improve their public speaking skills. I just learned and I see a lot of potential and possibility within this program. They say the top 2 things that people are scared of are death and public speaking. I’m not afraid of death, it’s going to happen, so might as well get this public speaking thing squared away.
    

    “This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.”
    ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

    

11. Organize. Take the time to clean your environment and mind. Clean your home, plan out your day, week, month, year and life. Look over your mission statement so that you know exactly who you are and who you want to be being.

    What they say is true, planning is a time investment that earns huge dividends. Without it, you might not even realize that your life is average and mediocre. Planning, organizing, and thinking can give you access to everything you ever wanted. Remember Napoleon Hill – Think and Grow Rich.

12. Join a Hobby Club. There are many enthusiast clubs with people that have the same interests as you, no matter what those interests are. An easy way to locate such a club is by visiting meetup.com and browsing the different categories. If that doesn’t work — start your own.
13. Play Piano. Every time I hear someone play the piano I’m highly impressed. That’s because I know the amount of practice and dedication it takes. The payoff is great and at 2 hours a day you could get pretty good within a year.
14. Master Chess. Chess is a game of cunning intellect. It’s very easy to learn the basics and very difficult to master. While you’re learning you’re actively using your brain and improving your concentration skills. Not only will this decrease the risk of debilitating brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s but you will also notice mental performance improving in other areas.
15. Meditation/Yoga. Relax your mind with meditation or tone up your body with yoga. The two are not mutually exclusive and you know that there is a dichotomy between our mind and body — that’s why it is important to push both.
    

    “For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.”
    ~Benjamin Franklin
    

16. Extra funds. You can use the little extra time you save each day to make more money. Here’s the catch. If you aren’t in love with your job you can use this opportunity to make more money doing something you really love. You can do this by earning money through your hobby. As for myself, I use the time to write articles for online publications, and earn cash on the side.
17. Volunteer. Volunteering can be a very fulfilling opportunity. I feel that the more you give, and the less you expect in return, the more you will get in terms of building your character. All of our goals are, or should be, a chiseled character — what good is it if we don’t use it to help others?
18. Friends Time. Many cell phone plans let you talk for free in the evenings, so use this freed up time, and the free minutes, to catch up with a different friend each day of the week. We strengthen the relationships that we deem most important, and the best way to do that is invest our time and love into them.
19. Family Time. Many people say that family is important to them, but they don’t necessarily take time to set aside for family time. Family time does not have to be a chore, you can combine all the other activities above, and do them together as a family.

    It doesn’t have to be all about productivity, you can use the time to just talk, make fun plans, or just do some proactive relaxation.

20. Live. Forget everything I just said. Your time doesn’t belong to me, and my self-improvement fanatical thoughts — it belongs to you. Do whatever brings you pleasure, and take pleasure in whatever you’re doing. It’s your life and it’s your time — enjoy it!

“Don’t count every hour in the day, make every hour in the day count.“
~Anonymous

If you like this article please vote for it on StumbleUpon, and bookmark it on del.icio.us!I’d appreciate it.

Photo by Aranyx and Zoutedrop

Attention: Don’t forget to download my free ebook, How to Get a Girlfriend!!

Tweet This Post 

“In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.”
~Henry Wadsworth

We spend too much, own too much, and want too much — it’s the human condition — and as long as we aren’t aware of it we’ll be a slave to the cycle. Being the ingenious little critters that we are, we’re able to learn, and adapt pretty well. In other words, all hope is not lost, we still have a chance.

The truth is that many of us are overworked, sleep deprived, and generally not content with our lives. If we were content, would we be wanting more money, more stuff, more, more more?

There is a way out of this cycle, which involves decluttering, simplifying, and concentrating on what’s important. We each have our own demons to battle, but many of them fit into a cookie cutter template that we can all relate to. Do less, live more.

“As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.”
~Henry David Thoreau

1. Do nothing. See you’re so task oriented that you automatically wanted a list of things to add to your todo list. Take some time to do nothing, just sit there and be with yourself. It’s so hard for most people that being left to do nothing is a severe form of torture.
2. Throw something out. Look into a drawer that you haven’t opened in awhile and pick an item to throw out based on the fact that you know you won’t use it again. We are natural hoarders, but this just adds unnecessary complexity to our lives.
3. Clean your desktop. Sitting at a desk with no clutter will keep our minds clear and thinking about the task at hand. Start becoming distraction free in the seat you spend most of your day in.
4. Clean your desktop, again. This time I’m talking about the one on your computer. Get rid of all those icons and organize the folders in which you keep all your programs. Give yourself something visually simple to look at in order to keep a clear and focused mind.
5. Make your bed. Many of us don’t make our bed the first thing after we get up. Sometimes this gets neglected completely, unless we’re expecting company. Make it first thing and look forward to climbing into something neat and comfy at the end of the day.
   

   “The main purpose of science is simplicity and as we understand more things, everything is becoming simpler.”
   ~Edward Teller

6. Clear your inbox. I love gmail’s archive feature, it let’s you put things away, and keep your inbox clean. Reply to everything you need to, delete everything else, and keep your e-mail as a focus point, not a clutter point.
7. Eat slowly. Do not treat eating as one of life’s little inconveniences. Instead, eat slowly and enjoy each bite as if it were your last, and if it were, know that you got the most out of it.
8. Drive slower. There’s no need to speed race, talk on your cell phone, eat, and take notes all at the same time. Treat driving time as a time for decompression, meditation, and decluttering of your mind. Turn off the cell and enjoy these quiet moments of solitude.
9. Laugh out loud (lol). You really can trick your body into being happy by laughing out loud. If you don’t believe me, I’ll make a believer out of you. Spend the next 3 minutes laughing out loud, as hard as you can, making the sounds and body motions. You will be happier.
10. Talk to people. Instead of being absorbed in newspapers and television shows find a person to talk to. Discuss goals, dreams, aspirations and none of that self-pitying or past tense thinking.

“Simply the thing that I am shall make me live.”
~William Shakespeare

11. Pick most important things. Sit down with pen and paper and decide on the 3 things that are most important in your life, and how you can drop everything else to achieve them.
12. Drink water. Forget the sophisticated and often complicated drinks and stick to the most essential of all — water. At least 8 cups of this stuff a day — a bit less if you eat a lot of fruit — and a bit more if you exercise or sweat heavily.
13. Go for a walk. You don’t even have to put on your fancy bubble sneakers and hit the treadmill. It’s enough to go for a nice walk — at least 30 minutes (yes, that’s 2x 15, you’ll thank me for it one day) — and let some blood pump through your body. It’s recommend to do this 3 times a week to stay healthy, but my personal recommendation would be to make this into your daily routine.
14. Clean your closet. Do your laundry, put away all your clothes, and than take a good look at your closet. What do you not wear? What is not essential? Put the answers to these questions in a box and donate them.
15. Plan your meals. Eliminate the guess work of where will you eat next by planning, if not the whole week, than at least this entire day, as far as what and where you will eat. I guarantee that planning will allow you to make healthier choices while going easier on your wallet at the same time.

“Nature is what we know – Yet have not art to say – So impotent our wisdom is To her simplicity”
~Emily Dickinson

16. Visit nature. Bask in the beauty and serenity that nature has selflessly provided us with. Go to a forest, park, or simply sit under a tree, and do nothing, read a book, or chat with a friend. While out walking I saw a kid sitting under a tree with his laptop; while not the most effective use of nature, it still beats doing the required homework inside the house on a beautiful day.
17. Play catch. You won’t find too many activities easier than tossing the ball around between two people. It’s great exercise, it’s relaxing yet invigorating, and a great opportunity to talk and bond.
18. Eliminate distractions. Whether you’re working, reading, doing homework, or spending time with someone it’s important to give it your full attention. Turn off the phone, television, and any other distractions that can pop up unannounced. Be present.
19. Say ‘No’. In an effort to simplify, do not accept new commitments that you don’t want to accept. Say no to your boss, spouse, kids, and friends. Explain to them that you need some time to concentrate on the tasks at hand in order to simplify your life and increase your happiness, productivity, and vitality.
20. Read daily. If you were to take out 30 minutes a day to read (another 2×15), you will have spent 4.5 full work weeks reading by the end of the year. You would be very smart.

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
~Albert Einstein

If you enjoyed this article, please share it on StumbleUpon or bookmark it on del.icio.us. I appreciate your support

Photo by Okko Pyykkö

Attention: Don’t forget to download my free ebook, How to Get a Girlfriend!!

Tweet This Post 

“So much attention is paid to the aggressive sins, such as violence and cruelty and greed with all their tragic effects, that too little attention is paid to the passive sins, such as apathy and laziness, which in the long run can have a more devastating effect.”
~Eleanor Roosevelt

During the past few months my productivity has been on point. I was consistently waking up at 6am to write, exercise and be productive. I eventually ended up switching my schedule to wake up at 4:30am to be even more productive. By 9am I had accomplished more than most people did in their entire day.

The past couple of days have been the complete opposite of this productive behavior. In fact, yesterday all I recall doing is eating and sleeping. Nearly 16 hours of sleep to be exact. Seems like I have my wires crossed. Thinking back on this I can’t help but feel guilty because I know there are so many extraordinary things I could be doing. None of which involve sleeping more.

The Extra Tiredness

I’m not the type to bask in guilt for too long. I like to get to the bottom of why things happen, and to uncover who I’ve been being in order to have taken the specific actions that I did. Was I overworked? Sick? Malnourished? This covers the physical reasons, but could there also have been psychological ones? Could it be that I was depressed, making my mind think about tiredness, frustrated about something, or around negative people? These could all be reasons for tiredness.

As I’m writing this article I think the issue is a combination of several factors, with one main factor domineering over the rest. I can’t remember the last day I’ve had the right amount of water. When I don’t get the right amount of water my body feels like a car that ran out of oil. Sluggish, clunky, and overheating. I haven’t been eating as many greens or fruits either.

The Impact

The impact of falling off the productivity train has both a positive and negative affect on us. In one sense it caused a breakdown of my body and my routine. In another sense it gave me the opportunity to think about the real issue and have the chance to correct it.

Since life is really a huge collection of habits and routines, whether in our actions or thoughts, it’s always good to see where we stand in our progress and what we’re actually doing. My goal is to build as many health habits as I can so that I can live a longer and healthier life and enjoy the greatest vitality and vigor that I can. With this energy I plan to motivate and inspire the people around me into taking action and being happy.

The impact of not being healthy and productive, for me, is to lose this ability with other people. If I do not have the energy to lead by example and stay productive than I do not consider myself a great role model. Due to these rules and limitations that I put on myself I do not feel awesome unless I am being and acting in this certain way. The divide between being and action is what destroys us.

If I’m being Alex The Sloth and getting nothing done instead of being Alex from AlexShalman.COM then my world is turned upside down. My body says one thing while my brain says the other. Like turning the wheel left and the car going right.

Have The Train And Eat It Too

“Everything in moderation — including moderation.”
~Harvey Steiman

Experiencing every carnal pleasure in excess would not be very satisfying. There just isn’t enough time to have those experiences in such great quantity while doing other things that we need for fulfillment. Besides you oversaturate your pleasure receptors and do not get the same amount of pleasure from repeatedly doing the same thing over and over again.

It’s interesting to note that you can’t be a great humanitarian and change the world if all you do is stay in bed, eat chocolate, have sex and sleep all day long. There is a disconnect between what you are doing and who you want to be.

On the other hand, you can’t work 90 hour weeks, neglect your friends, family, health and spiritual needs and consider yourself a great success. You might have traded in enough of your time for money, but the quality of your life is going to suck.

You can choose your actions but you can’t always choose the consequences of your actions. The law of gravity states that everything that comes up must come down. If you’re jumping off a bridge be prepared for the fall. If you’re going to eat that whole train cake, you’re going to get a stomach ache.

However, in moderation and balance we are capable of so much more. By aligning all the pillars of our life and giving them their due attention we are able to synergize our lives and propel ourselves to the top.

Next Action

One of the biggest take home lessons from this article is to constantly evaluate our progress. Which areas of our lives are lagging behind the rest? What can we do to live the best life possible? Let us know in the comments what’s lagging and how you can improve it. I’ll start.

If you enjoy this article please give it a thumbs up on stumbleupon. I’d appreciate it

Photos by woodleywonderworks and lady-bug

Attention: Don’t forget to download my free ebook, How to Get a Girlfriend!!

Tweet This Post 

I am a procrastinator. There’s no two ways about it. And I don’t mean that I can sometimes put off doing the dishes until the next morning. I mean that I can put anything off, anytime, for any reason.

What strikes me about the self-development movement is all the emphasis on getting up early, implementing the law of attraction, optimizing your time-to-input ratio and just doing it! Yet very little is said about that dirty little secret. Though Alex has written about the extra pain that procrastination causes us hardly anyone seems to address that great divide between the knowing what you should do and the actual doing of it.

Today I can say that I am someone who writes every day, who walks outdoors in nature every day, who gets up early every day and who only eats an organic vegetarian diet. I can say, truthfully, that I live in Europe and that I am in a happy relationship. I can say with all honest that I meditate regularly and that I help people on their own paths of self-discovery.

But I could not say those things in a truthful way just one year ago. Why not? Because I only knew that I should be doing those things, that those things would make me happier. But the trouble is I knew, but I didn’t do. And I had been knowing those things, consciously, for several years.

So what changed? How do I overcome my procrastination, and how can you do it too?

Here are twelve relatively simple tools that you can implement to help overcome even the most stubborn case of procrastination:

1. Do not place so much emphasis on perfection: This one is at the top because it is my own biggest crutch when it comes to not getting things done. It is especially significant in keeping me from achieving personal goals. For everything that I really WANT to do in my life there is the perfect scenario for how it should be done. Yoga should be done in a light, bright, zen-inspired home studio. Books should be penned in a mountaintop cabin overlooking a desolate lake. We all have hang-ups like this. We have all seen too many movies, read too many new-age magazine articles. Oddly enough, you will write the same wonderful book whether or not you have that glow-in-dark pencil sharpener on the corner of your desk. Once you allow yourself and the environment around you the freedom to be fluid and imperfect, for that is the only state that ever gives rise to true creativity and determination, and too just begin working on the project, you will quickly see that it was all just an illusion. You do not need every bit of jogging paraphernalia to get up and run around the block and even doing the smallest bit of your project will get the ball rolling, without the need for your heavenly dream scenario.

2. Do not beat yourself up when you do delay something: Life happens and as a result, try as we might, we cannot always fulfill every commitment on time and as planned. We get the flu. Emergencies occur, even acts of God. But if you begin placing blame on yourself, giving power to the voice that says you are bad, what happens? You get more dejected, more off-track and the result is not a constructive one (ie. You completing the delayed project.) Instead you begin dragging your feet on other projects as well and the whole thing spirals out-of-control. When you delay something simply make a note of it in your mind. Set a new, firm, time to complete the task and make an effort not to delay it again. Take notice of how often you are delaying things and try to lessen the occurrence over time but do not place blame or shame upon yourself for any delays. You are aware of it, that is a positive step.

3. Find the root of the problem: You are not usually choosing to procrastinate on a conscience level but are instead avoiding something that you find unpleasant. The key is not to ignore the problem, but to sit down and ask yourself where the root of this discomfort lies. I recently did this with my procrastination about writing. I sat down and asked myself if I have always procrastinated about writing. Looking back into my youth I could see that the answer was no. I then continued going through my life and pinpointed the time-period in which this changed. After narrowing the possibilities and timeframe, I discovered that it was all due to anxiety about my undergraduate academic writing class. Ever since I have found writing a breeze and the procrastination in that area of my life gets less-and-less. Try the same exercise yourself to see if the root of your procrastination lies in some seemingly-inconsequential past event or irrational fear.

4. Allow enough time to go at a leisurely pace: Feeling rushed is a very common cause of procrastination. When you don’t think that you have enough time to bring a thing to a successful completion, you are less likely to even begin it. By blocking off a space of time in which you can actually achieve a thing, you will feel more confident when sitting down to begin doing it. If you do not plan your time, at least somewhat, and instead wait until the whole thing reaches a critical moment, you will not feel confident in doing it all. I, myself, do not find strict scheduling to work well for me. I instead like to guesstimate how much time a thing will take if I do it to the best of my abilities and then choose an appropriate-length block of time that I can dedicate to it when I feel ready to tackle to head-on.

5. Admit your weaknesses ie. procrastination: When agreeing, either with yourself or with another person, that you will do a thing, be honest about your tendency to procrastinate. This doesn’t mean marching up to your boss and saying that you cannot do that promotional mailing that you already agreed to do. But it does mean being honest about your own abilities. Tell him: “Of course I can do that for you. Would you mind checking in with me occasionally to make sure that I am staying on schedule?” Or better yet, when working on something with or for others, ask them to request portions of the finished product from you to keep you on track. Let them know that you do want to help them but that you have a tendency to become distracted and to bite off more than you can chew, so a little help and understanding from them will go a long way. Having this out in the open does not free you to use it as an excuse for not completing things, but it does give you the opportunity to begin working on fixing it, one person and one commitment at a time.

6. Realize that you are doing it for you: Whether you consciously know it or not, everything that you are hoping to do or have promised to do is something that you are doing for yourself. It may not seem that way on the surface. “How is my Saturday chore of mowing the neighbor’s lawn something that I do for myself?” Well there can be several answers. You offered to do it because you wanted to seem like a nice guy. You are doing it to earn some extra money. You don’t realize it, but is the only 15 minutes that you get to yourself all week long. Any task is essentially for you and therefore the only person that you cheat by shirking your intention to act is yourself. Go ahead: start that knitting club that you told yourself you wanted to start LAST spring. The longer that you think about something and do not actually do it, the more energy you waste on it, all the while missing out on the energy that you thought you would get from it.

7. Do not expect a specific outcome or reward: As I mentioned above, you are undertaking certain actions, no matter what they are, for yourself and not for anyone else. That being said, once you begin a thing you must immediately find away to put aside all thoughts on the “reason” that you are doing it. Dwelling on the fruits of your labor, and worrying about whether or not they will pay off, is another really big barrier to continuation and completion. “Will that guy really even publish this article?” “Can I even keep this garden alive?” Each of us is constantly questioning the final outcome of or intentions. But, once you begin, your focus must shift, what you are doing must become about the actual doing. “I am doing this because I love writing from my experience.” “I am doing this because I have always wanted to design a garden.” When you make the reason the actual doing of the thing, it releases you from all anxiety about outcome or expectations, leaving you with a lot of extra energy to put into your actions.

8. Do not over-commit yourself: You want to help everyone. You want to achieve everything. But trying to do it all at once virtually guarantees that you will not succeed. Sometimes we do this to ourselves on purpose, something inside of us desires to reinforce our belief that we cannot attain success. But if you find yourself being consistently overwhelmed with commitments and intentions then you need to address the problem head-on. You must learn, for your own mental health and well-being, to say “No.” You are not obliged to solve the world’s problems. And you certainly shouldn’t attempt to solve the problems of others by creating problems for yourself. When you are kind enough to say “no” to someone else’s kind request (or even to the torrent of ideas flowing from your own mind) you save them potential disappointment when you don’t come through and you save yourself the stress of feeling pressured and beating yourself up. In time people will come to appreciate your honesty and the fact that when you do contribute you always give it your all.

9. Enlist help, ie. delegate: The hardest thing for us very independent, modern people to admit is that we cannot do it all, that we sometimes need help. But ask any successful businessperson and they will tell you that the most effective thing that you can do is to delegate to qualified people. If you are skilled at building engineering and you get paid $150 an hour to do that, the most senseless thing is for you to waste 4 hours of your time, and deplete your energies through stressful struggle, trying to research which is the best water cooler delivery company to go with. It’s simple, delegate it . If the task that you are procrastinating on is something that consistently plagues you, or one for which you already know the person who would excel at it, just simply enlist their help and move on to a pursuit that is a much more positive use of your time and energy. Paying someone $20 to do something that would have wasted $200 worth of your personal effort, is a very good trade-off indeed.

10. Allow yourself to fail: If, when thinking of a task or a goal, you immediately think, “I can’t do that,” then the diagnosis would clearly be fear of failure. And why not? We have been taught all of our lives that a failure of any kind is an estimate of a our overall value as a human being. However, having the gumption to try is the true measure of our inner world. When you want to learn something, the only way to succeed is to try. Count your failures as lessons and as tangible things which are evidence to your own initiative, your own bravery and your determination to achieve your goals. To never attempt to manifest anything, simply out of fear that you will not succeed, is the true definition of ultimate failure. Allow yourself to fail with kindness and acceptance toward yourself. When you want to go out on a limb, just go, and let the going be the learning experience…refer back to #7 for a refresher.

11. Turn off the television: I cannot count how many times in my life I have had the energy, the intention and the plan to do something only to become distracted by some interesting thing on the Discovery Channel, undoubtedly followed by some other, equally interesting, thing and so-on and so-forth. Television, whether you think I am a conspiracy theorist or not, is designed to distract you. They want you to sit and watch it for hours-and-hours and they run fantastic scientific tests and studies to make sure that you do just that. So, turn it off. (I actually gave all of my T.Vs away.) Once it is off for a while, you will notice what those ancestors of ours felt back in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, there is a whole world of stuff out there to be done, to be discovered and to be created. (Unfortunately if your replace the T.V. with the P.C. you encounter a similar problem.)

12. Stop looking at the clock: When we feel like something is not fun or like our energy for a specific task is not flowing as freely as we would like, we tend to still attempt to hold ourselves to our regular high standards. (And let’s face it no one puts pressure on you quite the way that you do.) But with any task, and especially with those that we find difficult, it is important to take it slowly if we must. Put a piece of tape or paper over the nearest clock. Don’t keep looking at it thinking that you should be done by now or that you haven’t done enough in the time that you have spent. Putting forth your efforts should always be about quality versus quantity. Take your time writing those sentences, three exceptionally poignant ones will always outweigh forty-three exceptionally fluffy ones. Let your creativity flow at its own pace without pressure and without shame, for therein lies the high-quality outcome that you so desire.

Author Bio: Vera Nadine

Vera Nadine is a spirit channel and inspirational writer who blogs about spiritual development at veranadine.com.

If you like this article please give it a thumbs up on StumbleUpon. If you want to write a guest post please see the contribution page.

Photo by malias

Attention: Don’t forget to download my free ebook, How to Get a Girlfriend!!

Tweet This Post 

Over the years scientists and other experts have done hundreds of thousands of experiments on procrastination. It all came down to one simple conclusion: procrastination is the lack of taking next action.

People seem to have formed the habit of day dreaming, and partaking in activities that take up less mental resources, instead of taking the next action. The good thing about simple problems is that they also come with simple solutions.

How did we all come to form this habit? I’m thinking our school system, which told us how to dress, move, breath, and act created a bit of a subordinate condition. Making us day dream until an outside impulse demands a next action.

It takes less energy to use what we have than to create a new way of life. That is why I have come up with the next action cheat sheets, which have been working wonders for me for years.

I keep each productivity cheat sheet on it’s own 3×5 index card, and whenever I’m experiencing a mental lapse as to ‘what’s the next action’, I grab a card and zoom off. You can keep them in a central location, or put them next to the place you will need them most.

The Benefits of Productivity Cheat Sheets

1. Save Mental Ram. After doing some planning, hacking, and tweaking, you can come up with your ideal cheat sheet. You no longer have to think about this one area of your life, or store it in memory. Just don’t forget where you keep your cheat sheets!
2. Destroy Procrastination. Seeing how the loss for next action is one of the main causes of procrastination, this will allow you to nip it in the bud and have next actions available on demand.
3. Eliminate Distractions. Since cheat sheets are so time oriented you won’t have the opportunity to sneak in any unplanned action items. Yes, this takes away from spontaneity, but it also promotes you to the ranks of productivity General.
4. Become a Lifehacker. It takes true ‘geek to live’ mentality in order to trade in your freewill in exchange for more productivity. Luckily free will isn’t as important as our souls (which I hear you can trade in for a MacBook Pro).
5. Appear Spontaneous. While keeping a concrete action list will trade spontaneity for productivity it doesn’t have to appear like you’re a robot. Simply keep several cheat sheets for the same work (like 4 exercise cheat sheets) and pull out different ones throughout the week. You’re still a robot, but other people won’t notice.

Creating Productivity Cheat Sheets (Simple Method)

1. Use 3×5 Index Cards. This is readily available resource that can be appropriated from just about anywhere. I prefer the ones that are ruled on one side and blank on the other.
2. Purpose on Blank Side. On the blank side of the index cards use a word or two to define the purpose of the cheat sheet. For example, Morning Routine, Bedtime Ritual, or Cleaning Order.
3. Rules on Line Side. Once you have the purpose of the cheat sheet on the blank side it’s time to use the lined side to write out all the instructions. You’ll notice detailed instructions below.

Morning Routine Cheat Sheet (Example)

• 15 minutes | Wake up – Drink 1/2 Liter Water – Full Stretch
• 45 minutes | Have breakfast – Make lunch
• 30 minutes | Read
• 120 minutes | Write blog articles
• 30 minutes | Exercise (Urban Rebounder)
• 30 minutes | Shower – Get ready

Bedtime Routine Cheat Sheet (Example)

• 02 minute | Water Cactus
• 1o minutes | Hygeine
• 30 minutes | Read
• 15 minutes | Plan (Tomorrow’s Schedule and MITs)
• 05 minutes | Pray – Express Gratitude
• 03 minutes | Make love to wife (passionately)

Gratitude Cheat Sheet (Example)

• For a Healthy Family
• For the Food I Ate Today
• For all My Senses
• For Having Enough of Everything
• For Having Great Friends
• For Living Into My Goals
• For All My Readers

Other Uses For Cheat Sheets

So far I’ve given you 3 basic examples of where you can use cheat sheets in order to eliminate ‘thinking’ from taking the next action. There are of course an infinite number of ways to use these cheat sheets. You can use them for main shopping lists, work flow management at school or work, favorite food preparation, car maintenance, house cleaning checklist, and much more.

Get creative and list other methods you could use cheat sheets to replace the need to think about next actions in your life. Do this in the comments section below.

If you enjoyed this article, please vote for it on Digg, share it on StumbleUpon or bookmark it on del.icio.us. I appreciate your support

Attention: Don’t forget to download my free ebook, How to Get a Girlfriend!!

Tweet This Post 

“Most of the shadows of this life are caused by our standing in our own sunshine.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Most of us who are out of school and working generally don’t like our jobs. Some of us deal with too many hours. For others, the job is very boring. Sometimes, your job is very stressful. So, for a variety of reasons, a lot of people trudge through a job they simply cannot stand. Most of these people toil away in this employee misery.

There are others who actively try to break out of their jobs and employee life in general. They have ideas for businesses they want to start, and some may have even started side businesses already (like an online venture). Some are part-time bloggers whose income is slowly becoming enough to sustain them. Others start to invest in real estate. Eventually these ventures become profitable enough for their owners to quit their day jobs.

Whichever person you, the point is that, in the here and now, you are STUCK in a job you don’t like and hate going to. You feel like the proverbial “rat race” is grinding you down. So how do we get through our jobs on a daily basis? Even for those who see the light at the end of the tunnel, what do you do from here to there? How do we deal with the day-in/day-out misery that plagues us?

The answer is focusing on the reality around us and on the things that make us who we are. These things are reflected in many tangible experiences. Here are 12 tips to help you attain this focus and get through your current day job:

1) Remember that there are only so many hours in a day. There is only so much you can do in one day. Don’t stress over the fact that you have to finish a 10-hour work assignment in 5 hours. You do what you can in 5 hours, turn it in, and let the rest take care of itself. We’re only human, and there are limits to what we are physically capable of doing. The next time it feels like a time constraint is going to burden you to the ground, don’t become obsessed with how little time you have. Focus on what you can do with your skills and abilities in the time that you do have. The rest is out of your control and, thus, should be out of your worries.

2) Find something you love. Since work is not what you love, find something that you truly enjoy. Everyone has specific interests and skills. Find a hobby or activity you enjoy doing and dive into it. Some people enjoy sports. Others enjoy fishing, scrapping, writing, blogging, etc. Find something you can do a little of every day and attack it with everything you have. It will become your passion. Our hobbies and activities reflect who we are, and the more we immerse ourselves in them the more we discover ourselves.

3) Educate yourself. For those of you who strategize about ways to liberate yourself from your job and life as an employee, learn more about your hobby or passion. Take that activity that you love and find out how to turn it into a business. If you like writing, determine whether you can write short stories, poetry, or a full-fledged novel. If you love antiques, find out if you can buy and sell antiques as an Ebay business. If you have an interest in real estate, read about it and attend seminars. Researching this connection between your passion and a possible business opportunity is important for a couple of reasons. If you can turn your passion into a profitable business, you can set up a framework for escaping the 9-to-5 grind. In addition, and more important, you create a means through which you can fulfill yourself on a daily basis, and that sense of fulfillment distracts you from your workplace misery.

4) Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something. Nothing bothers me more than someone telling me I “can’t” do something. I remember explaining to my boss one day the mechanics of investing in rental properties and the potential it has for developing passive income and a consistent cash flow. He dismissed it and promptly declared that it was too difficult to do. Comments and attitudes like that can quickly suppress whatever dreams you have and bury you further into your “rat race.” If you have a dream, you have to protect it, especially from people with “can’t do” attitudes. Don’t let anyone take that dream away from you. People who think something “can’t be done” simply can’t do it themselves. And then they want to tell you that you can’t do it. If you want something, and if you think it can be done, go do it, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

5) Exercise. Not only do you have to train your mind to believe the impossible, you also have to train your body to help you achieve that. Exercise is essential to surviving the daily grind. When I wake up and exercise in the morning, I feel so good the rest of the day. My body is energetic, and my mind is quicker and more alert. The lack of exercise can bog you down. Combined with an unhappy work life, it can push you down into unspeakable depths. Exercise your body regularly, and the benefits you’ll experience will transcend the physical and spill over into a healthy mind and a vibrant self-esteem.

6) Save money. Nothing makes you feel more miserable about work than the need to keep working to pay for items you bought with money you didn’t have. Instead of buying that new widescreen TV or that new iphone, save your money. Don’t eat out as much. Bring lunch to work. Build a fund of money that you can use for investing or starting a business. Knowing that you’re saving money for something productive will help erase the feeling that you “need” to go to work to pay your bills.

7) Drink wine. If you’re going to spend money on something, spend a little on the fundamental pleasures of life. The ancient Greeks and Romans never spared themselves a glass of wine, so why should you? A glass of wine every day has unbelievable health benefits, and it helps you wind down after a stressful or active day. It also tastes great and pairs well with good food and enhances any meal. It’s a pleasure worth indulging in.

Go to the movies. There is nothing like sitting in a large, cold movie theater and watching a great movie on the big screen. Widescreen TVs have attempted to replicate this experience, but there’s nothing like the real thing. Making the time to go see a movie helps you escape from reality, even if it’s just for a couple of hours. That escape can do wonders for you. It can help you re-charge your batteries and, by watching a fictional story unfold before you, allow you to sustain your dreams.

9) Spend time with your family. The most important reflection of who you are is your family. Allowing work to consume you will only create and widen a divide between you and your loved ones. If you’re married, make time for your spouse, and don’t underestimate how important “I love you” is. If you have children, be there for them, no matter what the cost is at work. Focusing on your family will help you realize that your job, in the grand scheme of things, isn’t that important. If you know it’s not #1 on your list, then you won’t stress as if it had that kind of importance.

10) Take at least one vacation to relax. When people take vacations, a lot of them go sight seeing. They go to Europe. They go to Disney World. They take time away from work to do things that exhaust them. Then, when they return to work from their vacations, they wish they had taken a second vacation to relax from their first vacation. This only perpetuates their unhappiness at work and makes them feel like they can’t ever get ahead. That’s why it’s so important to take at least one vacation per year where you just . . . do . . . nothing. If it means taking time off and staying home, then do that. Another great way to relax is to rent a house close to the beach. Head over every morning, get some sun, grab some lunch, and then go back to the house in the afternoon and take a nap. Taking a truly relaxing vacation will help you re-energize and, upon your return, help you cope better with a stressful work environment.

11) Don’t do anything on weekends. That’s right. Don’t make plans. Don’t run errands. Don’t go to the mall. Don’t find activities to do. Just stay home and relax. The same rationale for relaxing vacations applies here. Having a jam-packed weekend runs you to the ground and leaves you tired and helpless when Monday’s roll around. Enjoying an activity-free Saturday and Sunday does, in the short term, what a relaxing vacation does in the long term. It helps you re-energize after a long week of irrational bosses, annoying co-workers, an overwhelming workload, and long commutes. Saturday’s and Sunday’s are there for a reason. Take advantage of them.

12) Find a good television show. Find a show you love and get into it. The intrigue and excitement about watching a weekly sitcom or hour-long drama makes it seem as if the week passes more quickly. It’s as if you have this weekly outlet that no one can take away from you. When you sit down to watch your show, you dive into its world, and you live it and breathe it for a half hour or an hour. For several months, you look forward to that show, and you become enveloped in its plot and emotionally attached to its characters. It provides a great weekly escape from the 9-to-5 grind. My favorites are Lost, 24, and The Office. Lost, in particular, captivates me and is, quite possibly, one of the best TV shows ever made.

Follow these 12 tips, and your work life will improve significantly.

Robert holds a graduate degree and a job at a prestigious firm that occupies all his time. He blogs at Flimjo about getting off paychecks and not being a salary slave forever.

If you like this post, please give it a thumbs up on StumbleUpon. I’d appreciate it!

Attention: Don’t forget to download my free ebook, How to Get a Girlfriend!!

Tweet This Post 

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land, there is no other life but this.” ~Henry David Thoreau

Have you ever wondered what would be possible if you could press a button and stop time? With time stopped you would be able to squeeze as much pleasure out of every morsel of food, delicious kiss, majestic mountain or awe inspiring sunrise. These are things that most of us rush through in life, because we’re too busy, or off chasing the next best thing. We never find the next best thing, because we’re always searching, instead of appreciating all the pleasures that life has already laid out for us.

Today I share with you the secret of forgetting the past, eliminating the future, all within the only time which really exists- now. The key is to recognize what pleasure really is, because if we can see what it truly is, we can truly stop, become present, and enjoy it. Keep reading to learn the identity of the 5 levels of pleasure of human existence.

The Five Levels of Pleasure Worth Being Present For

5. Physical and Material Pleasure

This level of pleasure is one that we all enjoy, it’s anything that we experience with our fives senses. Such as delicious food, great music, a great view, beautiful clothes, a pleasant perfume. The awesome thing is that this is just the beginning, and actually the lowest of the five levels of pleasure. So if you like this it’s just going to get better! But wait, the point is to really stay present and enjoy this level too!

In order to squeeze the most out of the fifth level of pleasure:

1. Enjoy Your Taste. This world is absolutely full of foods and drinks that have an awesome taste. It’s considered a sin to not try a new fruit, because we are lucky enough to have all these amazing fruits, instead of nutrient filled yuck. So it is our duty to try the fruits, the wines, and even the cakes that are available to us. By chewing the food slowly, we can savor every morsel, and enjoy this basic pleasure that is available to us.
2. Enjoy Your Hearing. Our ears are such an incredible sense. It allows us to hear a great symphony, the cries of our young child, the intimate whispers of our significant other, and to even find our way around in the dark. It is our duty to enjoy great music and great conversations, without thinking about where we need to go to next.
3. Enjoy Your Touch. Our skin, fingers and loins were all meant to touch, feel, and experience the pleasures of our lives. We’re meant to touch every fabric, play with every new texture, and experience every nuance of loving and embracing each other.
4. Enjoy Your Sight. The world isn’t one big flat desert. No, it’s full of beautiful trees, flowers, gardens, animals, people, sunrises, buildings, paintings, and colors. It is our obligation to appreciate our eyes and look at and enjoy all of these creations.
5. Enjoy Your Smell. Our strongest sense is our sense of smell, yet we often take it for granted by not smelling every amazing thing we can get our noses on. There are an infinite number of aromas for us to choose from, from natures flowers, to man’s pastries and perfumes, we can smell to our hearts desires. Nothing forges a stronger memory in our mind than smell, so smell, and associate that smell with all things great.
6. Enjoy Your Possessions. Whether it’s your money, cars, clothes, jewelry, vacation, or home, enjoy it and do not take it for granted. You don’t always need the bigger, newer thing. By mastering the art of enjoying what you have, you’ll never feel need, and you’ll always be happy where you are.

4. Love (not Infatuation)

Infatuation is merely a physical attraction, and it leaves us just as easily as it comes to us. That’s not what love is, real love is pretty permanent. You wouldn’t expect a parent to stop loving their children, would you? The little secret about real love is that it’s not completely simple and easy. It takes making a commitment to each other, REALLY getting to know each other, and investing yourself by putting time and effort into creating a beautiful, delicious relationship. The goal of course is to create a life time of passionate friendship with the person you love.

In order to squeeze the most out of the fourth level of pleasure:

1. Get To Know Them. Whether it’s your parents, grandparents, siblings, children or significant other the greatest gift you could give them is to listen to them, get to know them, let them express themselves, and support them. You cannot give them full support unless you know what they really want and to find that out you will need to be a proactive listener.
2. Learn Together. To make ourselves better is an underlying purpose of our existence. To share this with another, to learn together, to grow together physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually is a magnificent bond forming activity. With every book, class, workshop, talk, experience, journey, or adventure you co-create a relationship that is deeper and stronger than it was before.
3. Talk Intimately. Couples often talk for hours when they first meet, but sometimes stop as the novelty of the person wears off. This is where you need to get aware of this and bring the conversations back. Bring them back with family and friends you haven’t talked to in awhile. Don’t just check in to see how today was, check in to see what they’re dreams are and what they’re grateful for.
4. Kiss and Embrace. Make some eye contact and really embrace each other. Not only is hugging an excellent bond, but when you hug your brain releases oxytocin, a chemical that’s also associated with touch and orgasms. Don’t rush your kisses, but stop what you’re doing and enjoy that kiss with the person you love. It’s such a great way to enjoy each other, relieve stress, build self-esteem, and feel well all around.
5. Share Sex. So you might want to wait until you are married, but whenever IT happens, you are now sharing one of life’s greatest physical pleasures together. I feel like the more people you have sex with, the more you are desensitized to sex as a more meaningful connection. Let’s just take the romance out of it for a moment and say that sex is just sex, when you’re hot you’re hot, and when you’re not you’re not. The pleasure that you do share when you’re both hot can be tremendous, and should be shared together often.

3. A Great Cause

It’s hard to imagine giving up true love for anything. Surely no amount of money would justify giving away the love of our life, or our beloved child, right? Well that’s not exactly true. We would give up love, children and even our family for a greater cause. In fact, people would do a whole lot in order to live out their life purpose, or to do something that they believe to be the greatest good.

In order to squeeze the most out of the third level of pleasure:

1. Save a Life. This doesn’t mean you have to find someone that’s currently drowning, not literally that is. You can save a life by changing a life, and you can do that by listening, being supportive, offering your time, money, and love in order to feed, empower, educate or in any way enrich someone’s life. Few things are more fulfilling than saving a life.
2. Create Peace. I’m not talking about joining an army and “creating peace”, there are many more passive ways, ways that can bring peace to your nation, and all nations of the world. It includes ending the prejudice, racism, and hate within yourself. Just within yourself. If everyone did this just within themselves than we would have no alternative but peace, right?
3. Feed The Hungry. Buy, make, or grow some food for a hungry family. How fulfilling would it be if you found a way to end hunger for hundreds of thousands, millions… all the people in the world? With the amount of food that is wasted, thrown out, or allowed to spoil, we have enough to make sure all the hungry mouths in the world are fed. Even better than giving them food is to teach them how to grow and obtain their own.
4. Promote Education. Illiteracy plagues many places in the world. You could mentor, tutor, and find many other ways to donate your time and money to promote education in all parts of the world. Higher education among everyone in the world will likely solve many of the other problems, don’t you think?
5. Promote CANI. CANI means Constant and Never-ending Improvement. It’s one of the things I have commitment myself to doing every day of my life. If you, and everyone you know, and everyone they know, etc. participate in making themselves better, than the rest of the world will follow. It starts with one person, and it spreads when you lead by example.

2. The Power To Create

The power to create is above physical pleasures, above love, above fighting for a great cause. If you believe in God than the reason is that God is the ultimate creator, and by creating, you are getting as close to God’s essence as humanly possible. If you aren’t a believer, than think of creation as the ultimate act of self-control, where your mind and body are in sync to produce a unique result.

In order to squeeze the most out of the second level of pleasure:

1. Paint, Draw, or Sculpt. Your mind takes all of it’s experiences and sights, and creates a unique image. You then use your hand and fingers to translate that idea into a real viable painting or sculpture. Congratulations, you have just used the power of self-control in order to create. This act of creation is a high level of pleasure.
2. Write Anything. Just put the pen to the paper and start writing. Your experience, knowledge, and ideas will create a new world inside of the realm of your paper. You can transfer monumental ideas, as I try to do with this article, to thousands, if not millions of people.
3. Cook a Dish. The power of creating food is often over looked, or dumbed down, by the majority of people who think that food is simply fuel for the body. The few that realize the creative genius that can go into preparing a meal, and considering all the intricacies involved, get to enjoy this pleasure the most.
4. Tend a Garden. It’s easy enough that nearly anyone can do it, yet it delivers a high level of fulfillment and pleasure. Tend a garden and create life from a seedling into a flower, a fruit, a vegetable, or a big old tree! You get to watch the life and growth of something you yourself put into the soil and took care of.
5. Raise a Child Well. While having the baby is one of the easiest things we can do (especially guys), raising this child to be an intelligent, healthy, happy, and well-intentioned human being is a tremendous effort and a cause that many people give their life for. It is, and if it isn’t, it should be, every parents goal.

1. A Touch of God

After mastering the other four levels of pleasure there aren’t that many new things from which you can gain fulfillment. You can repeatedly do 5-2, and you’ll like it, but you’ll also seek the ultimate pleasure, which is not just to know the true origin of existence, but to encounter God, source, oneness or whatever it is that you believe in as a superior force.

In order to squeeze the most out of the first level of pleasure:

1. Practice Gratitude. This takes the cake as far as creating pleasure in our lives. To be able to really appreciate, and be thankful for all our senses, and the beauty that we are able to experience due to this unique ability. Wake up feeling like a little kid, just bursting out of bed and ready to live!
2. Commit to The Great Good. One of the things that I believe to bring the highest level of pleasure is to believe that all people are part of one entity, or unit. From that belief we can commit to improving ourselves, but also to do things for the greatest good of all.
3. Know It’s Not Just Us. Recognize that you are part of this beautiful world, and that this world is not entirely created by you. You only have power of your present, but you have to appreciate your mortality, humanity, and the scope of the world. Be humbled by this force, whatever it is, that has such a tremendous power to create. Allow yourself to be glorified by the gift that was bared for you and not by a feasible hand.

By the way the cool watch you see in the picture above is The Now Watch. I love it because it’s a constant reminder to stop, slow down and enjoy the many pleasures that life has to offer. Instead of letting my mind wander in the past, or get lost in the future, this watch gives me laser sharp focus on the present and appreciate the beauty that is all around me.

“With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you enjoyed this article, please vote for it on Digg, share it on StumbleUpon or bookmark it on del.icio.us. I appreciate your support

Update: I’ve had lecture and discussion on this very topic on many occasions, so I did not know what the primary source was, but it was nice of Nechemia to point out that it was in fact an Aish idea. Head over there to see a great article on pleasure.

Attention: Don’t forget to download my free ebook, How to Get a Girlfriend!!

Tweet This Post 

One day I developed a system for keeping the car tidy, smelling fresh, and a pleasure to drive in. I even took steps to turn it into a university on wheels when I developed a system to eliminate a 48 hour commute.

Why curiously strong? Because at the root of my system is the trusty altoid box… you know, the curiously strong mints.

Decluttering Your Car

1. Box The Change. Coins come from everywhere, and for a long time I tended to horde in my car, in a not so organized fashion. At one point, when I reached the end of my altoid box, I started to put all my coins in it. This allows me to have coins easily accessible for tolls, parking, and other necessities.
2. Just One Bag. I keep 1 empty bag in my car. I just leave it on my side inside the door. All garbage, water bottles, etc. go into this bag. At the end of my driving day I take it right out, so that my car is clean and ready for the next day. Leaving trash in the car will saturate it with foul odors.
3. Organization Crate. I’m still a student, so I have binders and text books with me all the time. I now keep a plastic crate in my trunk, where I keep a couple of books, an umbrella, a sweater, some water bottles, and a first aid kit. The crate keeps everything from falling all over the place, making clutter, and getting destroyed.
4. Bare Necessities. If you’re an avid driver you will notice that certain things come handy when you’re on the road. Some kleenex tissues, water bottles, mints, and writing utensils just to name a few. Most of these little things can be kept out of sight in the globe compartment.
5. Music and Audio. I generally keep most of my audio tucked away digitally on my iPod. However, when I borrow from the library I get CDs. For the few CDs that I own, I keep them in a CD case, so they are organized, and not getting scratched up.
6. Fresh Smells. I like it when my car is an appealing, even delicious, taste to it. I love when people complement my car on being clean and smelling good. For this I either keep a bottle of one of my colognes, or a little bottle of air freshner. If you use principle 2, and throw away your trash, you shouldn’t have to worry about odors.
7. Bi-weekly Scrub. Whether you do it by hand, or take it to the car wash, your car would really appreciate a good cleaning. I don’t put wax or anything on my car, just a regular wash, and an interior vacuuming. I think it’s 5-7 bucks well spent. If you’re lucky the cash in your curiously strong box could potentially pay for this cleaning!
8. Keep It Covered. Especially if you are leaving your car outside for extended periods of time, it is a good idea to put a cover on it. This helps to prevent weather and sun damage, which can wreak havoc on your paint, and will keep your car looking shiny and new.
9. Wipe It Off. The car surfaces tend to accumulate lots of dust. A good solution I have found is to use auto-wipes. They work a bit better than just paper towel with water, because the shine lasts longer and it also tends to protect against sun damage. You can get them practically anywhere.
10. No Food Rule. This one is a must. In the past when I’ve been busy rushing around I would grab something to eat while I’m driving. This has always resulted in crumbs and food smelling up the car. The worst is a spill on the seats. Those may get stuck there permanently.

What are your tips for keeping your car clean?
If you enjoyed this article, please share it on StumbleUpon or bookmark it on del.icio.us. I appreciate your support