Edit Your Life, Part 7: Drop an RSS Feed Like a Bad Habit

 I recently read an article about a blogger who reads more than 600 feeds a day. I thought I was bad, with nearly 100 feeds in my Google Reader. The truth is, either number is overload, as there is no way that you need to read that many feeds, or that going through so much information every day can bring you happiness.

So I made a conscious decision, within the last week, to brutally edit my RSS feeds — and now I’m down to 16.

It was a heart-wrenching process, I will admit. You get addicted to these feeds, and over time, you add one or three every day and they grow like a mountain of refuse. It gets to the point where going through all your feeds is a chore, and you can never keep up with all of them.

So I set out to eliminate all of those that weren’t bringing extremely useful or entertaining information into my Google Reader just about every day. The first day of editing, I cut down nearly 100 feeds to a little over 60. I took a deep breath, and told myself that was good enough for the day.

The next day, I cut it down to 44. That was good enough too, and I told myself that I didn’t have to do it all at once. The third day, I made it down to 28. On the fourth day, I was down to 16, and seeing my list of feeds whittled down to the essential ones was a liberating feeling. I decided to stop, and stay with those. I think I can cut them down to 10, but really, that’s an arbitrary number and I don’t think it will make that huge a difference. Of the remaining 16 feeds, there are maybe 1 or 2 that I could cut out if forced to, but I really enjoy all of them, so I think I’ll stick with where I’m at.

The result? Well, the time I spend reading my feeds has been cut down drastically. It used to take me an hour, all told (I would break that down to two sessions a day). Now I can do it in 15 minutes or less. It also saves me a lot of stress and a lot of filtering through stuff I never read anyway.

It’s probably useful to know how I read feeds before I get into the process of eliminating them. I’ve mentioned this before, but the way I go through my Google Reader is by using the keyboard to crank through my entire list of unread posts. I skim through the headline and content quickly, and if there’s something that interests me, I’ll hit a key and pop it open in a new tab. Once I’ve gone through my entire list, I’ll go to the opened tabs and read just the best articles in their entirety. If I don’t have time to read them all now, I’ll bookmark them for later.

So let’s look at the process for eliminating all but the essential feeds in y our life:

1. Initial sweep. The first time you go through your list, if you’re like me, you can probably eliminate 10-15 right off the bat, just by looking at the name of the feed. You know which ones really shouldn’t be there. Unsubscribe to those immediately.


2. Inactive. Next, use the “Trends” feature in Google Reader (or similar feature in other readers) to find your inactive feeds (it’s the tab right next to “Frequently Updated”). If they haven’t updated in the last week or so, you can probably safely drop them. If you’re like me, you can probably drop another 10-15 feeds. You’re done for today!


3. Drill down. Here’s the next stage — discovering which feeds don’t give you much value on a daily basis. If there are feeds on the borderline, I would drill down into them for a couple of weeks to see if I actually read any of their posts. If you imagine your daily reading process as a horizontal scan — you’re scanning through all the day’s posts from all your feeds — then going into a single feed’s posts for two weeks or so is a vertical scan. Do a vertical scan of the borderline feeds, and see how many of their posts you have actually been interested in. If there hasn’t been a single one in the last two weeks, drop it. You can probably cut your current list in half through this step. Rest for today.


4. Worst-case scenario. If there are a number of feeds that you are hesitant to get rid of, not because they give you value, but because you’re worried that you’ll miss something important, ask yourself, “What’s the worst case scenario if I drop this feed?” In most cases, it’s not that bad. And if there’s something really important that’s written about, in most cases one of your other feeds will mention it. Drop those “what if” feeds if your life wouldn’t be miserable without them.


5. Test folder. You should be getting down to a much smaller number by this stage. You’re probably down to two groups — the really must-haves and the ones you still think you might need but that aren’t giving you value. If so, create a folder for this second group, and put them all in there for a week. Don’t read them. If nothing bad happens to you in that week because you didn’t read them, you’re OK. To give it a test, read through the test folder at the end of the week, and see if that little reading session gave you value. If not, drop those feeds.


6. Friends. If you’re like me, the hardest ones to drop were those of some of my blogger friends. I really enjoy interacting with them, and they write interesting stuff, but for my purposes, reading them was absolutely essential. Still, it’s hard to unsubscribe from a friend’s blog. Then I realized: my friends usually email me with their best posts anyway. I end up learning about the post twice — once in my reader, and once in their email. So I dropped my friends’ feeds (well, most of them). I hope they don’t hate me for this, but I really needed to edit my feeds list, and I did what I had to do. I still love my friends and will drop whatever I’m doing for them.


7. The final test. Once you’ve gotten your feeds list down to what you feel is minimal, go through each feed on your list once more, and ask yourself, “Is this feed absolutely essential? Does it give me value every day? Why do I need it?” If the answers to those questions is satisfactory, keep them. You may be able to get rid of a few more in this final test.


8. Minimize reading. Now that you are down to the essential feeds, it should be highly satisfying to look at your feed reader. I know that it’s disproportionately pleasing for me to look at my small list. It shouldn’t take you long to go read through your feeds every day. Be sure to limit yourself now to one session per day, getting it done quickly and all at once. Don’t keep checking your feeds throughout the day, as it is a distraction from what really needs to get done.

Edit Your Life, Part 6: A Media Fast

 One of the things I have learned is to edit brutally (no sarcastic comments about why I don’t do that with my blog posts). Cut out everything that’s not necessary, and you’ve got a more meaningful story.

I highly recommend editing your life.

Today’s edit: A Media Fast.

This is going to be a controversial post, undoubtedly, as it will ask you to consider giving up some of the things you’re addicted to most: television, DVDs, movies, news, magazines, newspapers, and … gasp! … the Internet. Don’t tune out yet, though: this is not a permanent thing, but call it an experiment instead.

Take a minute to think about how much information you process every day. If you’re like me and a lot of other people, you get a lot of your news on the Internet, and you also read a lot of blogs. You might also read books and magazines and newspapers. You probably also watch a lot of TV, where you get entertainment and news. You might watch a lot of DVDs, and listen to the radio on the way to work. At work, you might get memos and emails and a billion other pieces of information coming at you. You might be a part of an online forum, or social site, or newsgroup, or mailing list (or several!).

It’s information overload.

Our brains are not made to process this much information. We can do it, but it gives us a lot of stress, and we cannot think about any of the information long enough for it to give us real value. We are in the middle of a vast river of information, and it just flows by us constantly.

And then there’s all the time we spend on all this media.

Take a minute to think about how much time you spend online (typically a few hours), watching TV or DVDs (typically a few more hours), and reading all the other stuff mentioned above (another hour or two). Now think about how many goals you could accomplish if you cut those activities out of your life. The time you would gain would be tremendous.

So what do you do about it? Sometimes it’s good to get drastic. Try a media fast. But is it even possible? Yes, it is

Edit Your Life, Part 5: Your Wardrobe

One of the things I have learned is to edit brutally (no sarcastic comments about why I don’t do that with my blog posts). Cut out everything that’s not necessary, and you’ve got a more meaningful story.

I highly recommend editing your life.

Today’s edit: Edit your wardrobe.

Take a look at your closet — is it stuffed full of clothes you don’t wear? Do you have trouble picking out what to wear in the morning? Are there clothes you don’t fit, don’t like, or can’t wear because they are stained or torn? How about your clothes drawers? Overstuffed?

If so, your wardrobe may be in need of editing. Let’s be honest: most of us are in this category. And even though I’ve greatly simplified my clothing needs, every six months or so, I need to go through my closet to see if there’s stuff in here I no longer wear. I pull out a bunch of things and put them in a bag for donation. My closet is simpler, and my mind is more at ease.

To edit your wardrobe, here are some simple steps:

• Pull out all the clothes from your closet. Put them on your bed. Now go through this pile, one item at a time, deciding what stays and what goes. Follow these rules:
  
  
  
  1. If you haven’t worn an item in months, put it in the donate pile. There’s a reason you don’t wear that item — you’re probably not going to wear it again for a long while, if ever.
  
  
  2. If you no longer fit an item, donate it. Yes, you plan to lose 10 pounds to fit into that outfit. Well, when you do, go to the thrift shop and get some better-fitting items. Until then, they’re taking up space in your closet.
  
  
  3. If an item is stained or torn beyond repair, donate it. If you can repair it, put it in a bag and take it to be sewn tomorrow (or do it yourself). If that bag sits in your house or car for more than a week, you’ll probably never do it, so donate it or toss it. For myself, I often keep stained or torn clothing, if I really love an item, but I only wear it around the house. I save the good clothes for company. :)
  
  
  4. If an item is out of style or doesn’t match anything else you own, consider donating it. OK, if you really love it and still wear it, go ahead and keep it. Butterfly bell-bottoms? You’re still cool.
  
  
  5. When in doubt, put it in a storage container, label it with today’s date, and put it out of sight for a few months. If you ever really want to wear it, it’s still there. But if you open it in a few months, and you never needed it, donate it.
  
  
  6. For seasonal clothes, such as winter or summer clothing, put it in a container and label it. When the season comes, break out that container. No use keeping it in your closet the whole year round. Where I live, there’s always tropical goodness year round, so this isn’t an issue.


• If you still have a lot of clothes left, consider the following:
  
  
  
  1. Keep clothes that are of the same color scheme, and toss the rest. This way, everything matches, and you don’t have to worry about what goes with your chartreuse blouse. Neutral colors like tan and white are great, with some color tossed in. I avoid bright colors, especially those that bleed in the wash. I don’t like to worry about that.
  
  
  2. Keep clothes that are simple in design, and can be paired with anything. Jeans are a great example (not the kinds with bells and whistles, the simple kinds). You can put just about any shirt with jeans, and you’re good to go. Shoot for this kind of philosophy. Don’t have pants or a skirt that can only go with one or two other items. Be able to mix and match with ease and without some kind of complicated chart.
  
  
  3. Make comfort a priority. Looks are important, but comfort is more important. You want to be at ease in whatever you wear, so keep that in the forefront as you edit your clothing.


• Hang the clothes back in the closet nicely, in some order. Pairing by color is nice, and has an especially nice effect if you use the same color hangers. If you have fewer clothes, they look much nicer in the closet.


• Repeat this process with your clothes drawers. Throw out the torn underwear and stained socks. Once you weed out a lot of the stuff, fold them neatly and put them back in your drawers nicely. Again, fewer clothes look much nicer in your drawers.


• Edit your wardrobe every 6 months or so. It’s best if you refrain from buying too many more unnecessary clothes, but I know some of you are shopaholics, and even the rest of us accumulate stuff over time. Make this a regular event, and you’ll keep your wardrobe nice and simple.

Personally, I simplified my wardrobe years ago. In fact, new employers know that I dress very simply, usually wearing jeans or slacks with a T-shirt or polo shirt and sandals or Docs. I’m a simple guy, and if my employer doesn’t like it, they don’t have to hire me. I feel my talents are more than worth any casualness. And when I need to dress up, I do have some button-down shirts and ties for emergencies, but I’m not comfortable in them on a daily basis.

I still need to edit my wardrobe, though, on a regular basis. I know when it’s time when it’s hard to find stuff, and when I look through my closet and find lots of stuff I rarely wear.

Simplify your wardrobe, and your life will be much simpler and stress-free. It’s wonderful. Give it a try!

Edit Your Life, Part 4: Your Work Space

One of the things I have learned is to edit brutally (no sarcastic comments about why I don’t do that with my blog posts). Cut out everything that’s not necessary, and you’ve got a more meaningful story.

I highly recommend editing your life.

Today’s edit: Edit your work space.

If you’re at work, look around you — how many things are on your desk? How many things are up on the walls around you? How cluttered is your computer desktop? Are there piles of things around your desk?

All of these things are visual distractions, and as we are visual creatures, our minds do not let us ignore them. They pull for our attention, and stress us out.

The solution: simplify, edit, minimize.

In my workspace, I have a pretty minimal and clean setup. When I moved in, I stripped everything from the walls but a single, pretty calendar. I have one inbox, that’s usually empty (see: Steps to a Permanently Clear Desk), two photos of my family, a phone, a printer and a computer. Otherwise, my desktop is clear of everything but the document I’m working on at this moment. My computer has no desktop icons, and I try to have only one program open at a time (unless more than one is absolutely necessary).

It’s a clutter-free, distraction-free, stress-free and productive work space, and I highly recommend it to everyone. Your space could have a few personal items, to make it yours, but for the most part, you want to be able to focus on the task at hand, otherwise your work day will be more stressful than necessary.

A quick note about productivity: I should write another post about this, but when I write about productivity, it isn’t because I think we need to be working machines. In fact, if you’ve read any of my posts about slowing down and simplicity, you know I believe the opposite. Instead, productivity is important, to me, because if we can get our work done in a shorter amount of time, we have more time for ourselves, our families, and our goals.

Let’s edit our work spaces and create a simplified environment:

• Edit your walls. Look at all the stuff on the walls around you. What really needs to be there? Chances are, none of it. We put stuff up on the walls to remind ourselves of things, to inspire ourselves, to make ourselves laugh. But it just distracts us. Take it all down, except perhaps for a nice picture (art is good if you have any), and maybe a nice calendar. If you have a sign to remind you to do a goal or habit, leave that up. I have a little sign taped to my computer that says, “DO IT NOW” in big blue letters. It’s a distraction, sure, but one that distracts me from my other distractions.


• Gather up all your papers. Do you have papers all over your desk? How about stacked on your floor? Gather these all up into one pile, and process them one at a time. This may take awhile if you have a lot of papers, but trust me, it’s time well spent. Most of these papers can be trashed, but the important ones need to be filed, with important dates entered in your calendar and actions in your to-do list. File the papers right away. Feel free to toss without mercy, or forward to the appropriate party. Work your way down the stack, starting from the first document. Take one document at a time, make a decision about how to dispose of it, and do it quickly. Don’t put it back to decide on later. Don’t make several stacks. Do them one at a time, right away.


• Edit your knicknacks. Do you have a bunch of little things on your desk? Photos, cute little animals, candy trays, stuff for pens and paper clips, little signs with funny sayings on them. Get rid of all of them but maybe one or two photos. Pens and paper clips and the like can be put in a desk drawer, neatly in a drawer tray. Most of the other stuff can be tossed, or filed appropriately. This stuff is pure distraction.


• Find other spaces for things. If there are things within sight that you need, find a place out of sight for them. Really, there’s nothing that needs to be on your desktop (besides an inbox and your electronic equipment like phone and monitor). Everything else can be put in a drawer. The key: find a place for things, and always put them there. That way, they will be easy to find when you need them. Put the things you use most in the drawers closest to you.


• Edit your computer. Most people have a desktop cluttered with icons. This is distracting, and it’s hard to find stuff. In my My Documents folder, I created five folders: 1. Inbox 2. Actions 3. Incubate 4. Current Projects and 5. Archive. I download everything to 1. Inbox, and try to clear it out at least daily. I work mostly in the 2. Actions folder. Stuff I need to think about or read later goes in 3. Incubate. The other two are self-explanatory. So take everything on your desktop and file it. If there are actions that you need to do, put them in Actions. If there are programs or files you need to access regularly, you can put them in your Start menu (or equivalent), or even better, develop a shortcut key for it. Then turn off your desktop icons, and get a nice serene desktop pic (I have a Zen garden pic). Another tip: don’t have a bunch of programs open at once. Work on one task at a time, and only have the window(s) open that you need to work on that task.


• Edit your drawers. Go through drawers one at a time, tossing junk and only keeping what’s needed. Organize it, have a place for everything, and make sure you always put stuff back in its place.


• Edit your filing system. Do you file your documents regularly? Can you find it immediately at any time? If so, you’re ahead of the game. If not, create a handy reference filing system. Do it simple, from A-Z with simple manila folders. Make sure to have a box of folders and labels on hand so you can make a new file immediately, whenever you need it. Don’t have a “To File” pile — just file stuff right away! Your filing drawer(s) should be close at hand so there’s no reason not to file something immediately or pull the file if you need it.


• Don’t go and buy a bunch of stuff. When people start GTD, they go out and buy a Brother labelmaker. If you want to do that, and get some labels and manila folders, that’s fine. But otherwise, don’t go on an office-supply rampage just to simplify your work space. Remember, we’re editing here, not doing a home makeover!

If you do all of the above, you should have a pretty nice and simplified work space now. If you can’t do it all at once, that’s fine — schedule one-hour chunks over the next 2-3 days and you should be done. When you’re done, sit back, look around, and enjoy! It should be immensely pleasing. Now keep it that way!

Edit Your Life, Part 3: Closets and Drawers

 One of the things I have learned is to edit brutally (no sarcastic comments about why I don’t do that with my blog posts). Cut out everything that’s not necessary, and you’ve got a more meaningful story.

I highly recommend editing your life.

Today’s edit: Edit your closets and drawers.

Last week, I talked about a method for editing your rooms, removing the clutter, and only leaving what’s necessary. I suggested that you skip the closets and drawers, saving them for later, and only focus on what’s visible when you walk in the room. The reasoning is that if you include everything at once, including closets and drawers, it can be overwhelming, while if you only focus on what’s immediately visible, you can make a big difference on how you feel about that room with a shorter amount of time dedicated to your editing.

But this week, let’s focus on what’s not immediately visible. Every room has closets and drawers, and they can easily accumulate junk from years of putting stuff in there and forgetting about them. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Yes, but every time we open the closet or drawer, we are reminded of that junk and clutter. Let’s create simple, stress-free spaces!

Drawers

Start with drawers, because they’re simpler. Take one drawer at a time, and follow these simple steps for each drawer:

1. Empty everything out of the drawer. Everything.


2. Clean out the drawer. Clear all junk and debris, then clean with a wet rag or use a cleaning product. Make it nice and clean.


3. Remove all junk from the pile of stuff (that you took out of the drawer), and toss it.


4. Now go through the remaining stuff, and sort: stuff you’d like to give away (put this in a box to give away, and put the box in your car to drop off when you’re done), stuff you want to put in other places in the house (do this immediately after you’re done), and stuff you want to keep in the drawer. Try to keep related stuff in the drawer — don’t have junk drawer. Only keep school supplies, or underwear, or whatever, in that drawer, so you know what belongs there.


5. Put the stuff back in an orderly manner. You should have a greatly reduced amount of stuff to put back in the drawer. Don’t have too much stuff, or the drawer will still be cluttered. Put it back neatly, in some kind of order — it helps to get a drawer organizer that fits the stuff you’re putting in there. This is great for office or school supply stuff, like pens and tape and scissors and paper clips.


6. Now that it’s nice and neat and de-cluttered and simplified, celebrate. And keep it that way! Never just toss stuff in the drawer. Make sure that it belongs there, and put it back in an orderly manner. This habit might take some time, but it will pay off in less cluttered drawers.

You can either stop after doing one drawer, and tackle the next drawer tomorrow, or keep going if you have the time and energy.

Closets

Now on to closets, which are a little more complicated. However, to simplify things, start with one section of the closet: one shelf, or the floor of the closet. For each shelf, follow the same steps as above with the drawers. Do the same with the floor of the closet — in fact, remove everything from the floor and keep the floor clear if at all possible. A clear floor greatly simplifies a closet.

Next would be clothes or other things hanging in the closet. It’s best to take all these out, and follow the same basic procedures, simplifying, tossing, and only putting back what is essential. This is a great exercise that will greatly reduce your wardrobe (get rid of clothes you no longer wear or fit!) and simplify the closet.

Closets can be intimidating, so you might tackle one area at a time, and do it every day for a week. Each day should only take 15 minutes or so, if you work quickly and make quick decisions about each item.

How NOT to Multitask – Work Simpler and Saner

You’re working on two projects at once, while your boss has placed two new demands on your desk. You’re on the phone while three new emails come in. You are trying to get out the door on time so you can pick up a few groceries on the way home for dinner. Your Blackberry is going off and so is your cell phone. Your co-worker stops by with a request for info and your Google Reader is filled with 100+ messages to read.

You are juggling tasks with a speed worthy of Ringling Bros. Congratulations, multitasker.

In this age of instant technology, we are bombarded with an overload of information and demands of our time. This is part of the reason GTD is so popular in the information world — it’s a system designed for quick decisions and for keeping all the demands of your life in order. But even if we are using GTD, sometimes we are so overwhelmed with things to do that our system begins to fall apart.

Life Hack recently posted How to Multi-task, and it’s a good article on the nature of multi-tasking and how to do it while still focusing on one task at a time.

This post is How NOT to Multi-task — a guide to working as simply as possible for your mental health.

First, a few quick reasons not to multi-task:

1. Multi-tasking is less efficient, due to the need to switch gears for each new task, and the switch back again.


2. Multi-tasking is more complicated, and thus more prone to stress and errors.


3. Multi-tasking can be crazy, and in this already chaotic world, we need to reign in the terror and find a little oasis of sanity and calm.

Here are some tips on how NOT to multi-task:

1. First set up to-do lists for different contexts (i.e. calls, computer, errands, home, waiting-for, etc.) depending on your situation.


2. Have a capture tool (such as a notebook) for instant notes on what needs to be done.


3. Have a physical and email inbox (as few inboxes as possible) so that all incoming stuff is gathered together in one place (one for paper stuff, one for digital).


4. Plan your day in blocks, with open blocks in between for urgent stuff that comes up. You might try one-hour blocks, or half-hour blocks, depending on what works for you. Or try this: 40 minute blocks, with 20 minutes in between them for miscellaneous tasks.


5. First thing in the morning, work on your Most Important Task. Don’t do anything else until this is done. Give yourself a short break, and then start on your next Most Important Task. If you can get 2-3 of these done in the morning, the rest of the day is gravy.


6. When you are working on a task in a time block, turn off all other distractions. Shut off email, and the Internet if possible. Shut off your cell phone. Try not to answer your phone if possible. Focus on that one task, and try to get it done without worrying about other stuff.


7. If you feel the urge to check your email or switch to another task, stop yourself. Breathe deeply. Re-focus yourself. Get back to the task at hand.


8. If other things come in while you’re working, put them in the inbox, or take a note of them in your capture system. Get back to the task at hand.


9. Every now and then, when you’ve completed the task at hand, process your notes and inbox, adding the tasks to your to-do lists and re-figuring your schedule if necessary. Process your email and other inboxes at regular and pre-determined intervals.


10. There are times when an interruption is so urgent that you cannot put it off until you’re done with the task at hand. In that case, try to make a note of where you are (writing down notes if you have time) with the task at hand, and put all the documents or notes for that task together and aside (perhaps in an “action” folder or project folder). Then, when you come back to that task, you can pull out your folder and look at your notes to see where you left off.


11. Take deep breaths, stretch, and take breaks now and then. Enjoy life. Go outside, and appreciate nature. Keep yourself sane.

Edit Your Life, Part 2: Your Rooms

 One of the things I have learned is to edit brutally (no sarcastic comments about why I don’t do that with my blog posts). Cut out everything that’s not necessary, and you’ve got a more meaningful story.

I highly recommend editing your life.

Today’s edit: The rooms in your house, one at a time.

Are you surrounded by clutter in every room in your home? Clutter is visually distracting and stressful — every item that you see demands your mind’s attention, and no matter how short that attention is, and despite that it is subconscious, these little distractions add up. It’s difficult to have peace and to focus amid this clutter. Add to this the wasted time and energy needed to look for things, to maintain things, and to clean things, and the more clutter you have, the more energy it will take to have it.

So, I recommend that you edit each of the rooms in your house, one per week, until you have de-cluttered your home and made it a peaceful and calming place to be.

Here’s how:

• First, choose a room to do this week. Don’t try to do your whole house at once, as this can be very time consuming (unless you just have a lot of time on your hands — in which case, go for it!). Focus on one room, and try to do 15 minutes a day (unless you get carried away and feel like doing more). Work on one room each week.


• In the beginning, skip the closets and drawers that are out of sight for now. We’ll tackle those in next week’s Edit Your Life. Focus for now on the things you can see.


• Start with the big things. Is there too much furniture in the room? If so, edit them. What is necessary, which furniture do you love, which stuff is just too distracting. Also consider removing other big items, like boxes full of stuff.


• Clear all flat surfaces. Desktops, tabletops, countertops, etc. Remove all papers, piles of stuff, little junk, knick-knacks, anything. Put it on the floor. Now get a trash bag and two boxes. Sort through everything in your pile(s), one item at a time. Each item should be either thrown away in the trash bag, put in one box to give away (to friends, family or charity), or in the other box to put in another room in the house. Put back only a couple select items on the flat surfaces, such as a family photo or something that functionally belongs there. But as much as possible, leave the flat surfaces as bare as humanly possible. “Stuff” doesn’t belong here — you need to find a drawer, shelf, or container for whatever stuff you’ve removed. When you’re done sorting through the pile, put the recycle box in the trunk of your car and drop it off the next time you go out to do errands. Throw away the trash bag. Take the other box and put the stuff where it belongs elsewhere in the house (don’t put it on flat surfaces unless absolutely necessary!).


• Repeat this process for any other “stuff” in the room, including stuff on the floor.


• Now go around the room, clockwise, and edit what’s left. This might be stuff on the walls, posted to surfaces like the refrigerator, stuff under tables or desks, etc. Only leave the stuff that’s absolutely necessary. I mostly have blank walls except for a few choice paintings or drawings (by my dad, an artist). All my flat surfaces are bare. It’s nice.


• Be merciless. Edit brutally. The more you can get rid of, the better!

OK, your room should look pretty good now. If so, you should feel pretty great! Sit down, relax, look around, and enjoy the peaceful goodness. Savor your triumph.

Now, this editing process is not a destination, but an ongoing process. It won’t last long if you don’t have a system and develop habits to keep it de-cluttered.

Here’s the system:

• A place for everything, and everything in its place. An oldie, but valuable nonetheless. Are you about to put something down on a flat surface? Stop yourself. Think about where that item belongs. If it doesn’t have a home, find one and stick with it. Always put it in that spot. For example: I have a tray for my keys, wallet, etc., and when I first get in the house, I put these things in this tray. Every time. So I always know where it is. And when I leave, it’s as simple as grabbing my stuff from the tray.


• Have an inbox for your home for ALL incoming papers. And a filing system for documents you need to keep, from bills to important documents to taxes to kids’ report cards. Put all incoming mail, school papers, receipts, etc. into the inbox, and process it once a day (or every other day, but not much longer than that — otherwise you’re just creating a pile). When you process, don’t leave stuff in a pile to be filed later — file it immediately. Trash other stuff. Pay bills immediately or put them in a bills to be paid folder. Don’t leave papers laying around elsewhere.


• Clean up at night and before you leave the house. If you’ve developed good habits, you may not need this, but no one’s perfect, and if you have kids, you’ll definitely need this, because kids certainly are not perfect at this habit. Just take 5-10 minutes to pick up stuff and make sure your flat surfaces are clear.


• Every six months (or a year), de-clutter. Despite your best efforts, new stuff just accumulates. You need to have a regular binging process every now and then.

Zen Mind: How to Declutter

One of the things that gives me most peace is have a clean, simple home. When I wake up in the morning and walk out into a living room that has been decluttered, that has a minimalist look, and there isn’t junk lying around, there is a calm and joy that enters my heart.

When, on the other hand, I walk out into a living room cluttered with toys and books and extra things all over the place, it is chaos and my mind is frenetic.

I’ve been a simplifier and a declutterer for years now (probably 8-9 years) and I’ve gotten pretty good at it, but I’ve found that you have to keep coming back to revisit your clutter every once in awhile.

Here are my top decluttering tips:

• Do it in small chunks. Set aside just 15 minutes to declutter just one shelf, and when that shelf or that 15 minutes is up, celebrate your victory. Then tackle another shelf for 15 minutes the next day. Conquering an entire closet or room can be overwhelming, and you might put it off forever. If that’s the case, just do it in baby steps.


• Set aside a couple hours to do it. This may seem contradictory to the above tip … and it is. It’s simply a different strategy, and I say do whatever works for you. Sometimes, for me, it’s good to set aside part of a morning, or an entire Saturday morning, to declutter a closet or room. I do it all at once, and when I’m done, it feels awesome.


• Take everything out of a shelf or drawer at once. Whichever of the two above strategies you choose, you should focus on one drawer or shelf at a time, and empty it completely. Then clean that shelf or drawer. Then, take the pile and sort it (see next tip), and put back just what you want to keep. Then tackle the next shelf or drawer.


• Sort through your pile, one item at a time, and make quick decisions. Have a trash bag and a give-away box handy. When you pull everything out of a shelf or drawer, sort through the pile one at a time. Pick up an item, and make a decision: trash, give away, or keep. Don’t put it back in the pile. Do this with the entire pile, and soon, you’ll be done. If you keep sorting through the pile, and re-sorting, it’ll take forever. Put back only what you want to keep, and arrange it nicely.


• Be merciless. You may be a pack rat, but the truth is, you won’t ever use most of the junk you’ve accumulated. If you haven’t used it in the last year, get rid of it. It’s as simple as that. If you’ve only used it once or twice in the last year, but know you won’t use it in the next year, get rid of it. Toss it if it’s unsalvageable, and give it away if someone else might be able to use it.


• Papers? Be merciless, unless it’s important. Magazines, catalogues, junk mail, bills more than a year old, notes to yourself, notes from others, old work stuff … toss it! The only exception is with tax-related stuff, which should be kept for seven years, and other important documents like warranties, birth and death and marriage certificates, insurance, wills, and other important documents like that. But you’ll know those when you see ‘em. Otherwise, toss!!!!


• If you are on the fence with a lot of things, create a “maybe” box. If you can’t bear to toss something because you might need it later, put it in the box, then close the box, label it, and put it in storage (garage, attic, closet), out of sight. Most likely, you’ll never open that box again. If that’s the case, pull it out after six months or a year, and toss it or give it away.


• Create a system to stop clutter from accumulating. There’s a reason you have tall stacks of papers all over the place, and big piles of toys and books and clothes. It’s because you don’t have a regular system to keep things in their place, and get rid of stuff you don’t need. This is a topic for another day, but it’s something to think about as you declutter. You’ll never get to perfect, but if you think more intelligently about how your house got cluttered, perhaps you can find ways to stop it from happening again.


• Celebrate when you’re done! This is actually a general rule in life: always celebrate your accomplishments, no matter how small. Even if you just decluttered one drawer, that’s great. Treat yourself to something delicious. Open that drawer (or closet, or whatever), and admire its simplicity. Breathe deeply and know that you have done a good thing. Bask in your peacefulness.

The First Rule of Simplifying: Identify the Essential (or, How to avoid the Void)

 “Our lives are frittered away by detail … simplify, simplify” – Henry David Thoreau

We talk a lot about simplifying your life on Zen Habits, from simplifying your possessions and clutter to simplifying the stuff you need to do. But recently I had a comment from a reader who said that the problem is that he doesn’t know what to do with himself after cutting out television and other time-wasters from his life.

The simple answer: Do what you love.

His comment, while understandable, illustrates a common misunderstanding of simplification, and it’s a good point that I thought is worth discussing. The misunderstanding: that simplifying is basically just cutting stuff out, leaving an emptiness or void. People think that it leaves you with a boring life, and nothing fun. They couldn’t be more wrong.

The real goal of simplifying, and the First Rule, is to first identify what is essential, what you love, what is important to you — and then cut out all the rest that distracts you and keeps you from doing what’s important.

We have so much stuff in our lives, from possessions to things we need to do to information coming in to visual and emotional clutter, that we are overloaded. The result? We end up doing a lot of things that aren’t really important to us, because we have so much other stuff to do that has crept into our lives and that we leave in our lives, unexamined.

Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Well, Socrates must have been an excellent simplifier — as evidenced by the fact that he just wore a robe and sandals. In any case, in order to simplify our lives, we must first examine our lives. What is important, and do all the things in our lives give us value? These are the questions to ask, and if you find the answers, simplifying is extremely easy.

Let’s look at how finding what is essential, what we love, and what is important to us, can help us simplify, and what it leaves in our lives:

1. The first question: What is most important to me? What do I love to do? The answer is different to every person. For me, it’s simple: I love my wife and kids, I love writing, I love reading, and I love helping others. For others, it may be hiking or mountain biking or creating music or anything, really. Answer this question first.


2. The second question: what are the things going on in my life, the things I do every day and every week and month, and how are they related to what is important to me? If you are going out drinking with the guys, and it’s not really important to you, and it’s stopping you from doing what is important, that’s a candidate for simplifying. Examine all your commitments, and ask yourself if they are really important to you, if they give you great value for your time, and if they are related to what is truly important.


3. Possessions: The same questions can be asked of all the stuff you own — do you really love them? Are they truly essential? Another question you can ask, to clarify your thinking: If my house burned down, which few things would I want to replace? Get rid of all the rest. They leave clutter and stress and keep you from enjoying the stuff you really love.


4. Everything else: This same concept can be applied to anything else in your life — your work, the information you read every day, the television programs you watch, the people in your life. Know what’s essential, what you love, what’s important … and get rid of the rest.


5. What you’re left with: If you get rid of the extraneous stuff, the stuff that’s not related to what’s important to you, what do you have left? Just the important stuff. Just the stuff you really love to do. When you get rid of the other stuff, when you cut, let’s say, television and hours of Internet surfing and beer drinking from your life, don’t just cut it out — remember what’s important and what you love to do, and do that instead. For me, that means spending time with my family instead of working, that means writing or reading instead of watching TV, that means helping others instead of going to the mall (something I want to do more of).

Simplifying isn’t meant to leave your life empty — it’s meant to leave space in your life for what you really want to do. Know what those things are before you start simplifying.

Edit Your Life, Part 1: Commitments

One of the things I have learned is to edit brutally (no sarcastic comments about why I don’t do that with my blog posts). Cut out everything that’s not necessary, and you’ve got a more meaningful story.

I highly recommend editing your life.

Today’s edit: All the commitments in your life.

Take an inventory of the commitments in your life. Here are some common ones:

• Work - we have multiple commitments at our jobs. List them all.


• Side work – some of us free-lance, or do odd jobs to take in money. More commitments.


• Family - we may play a role as husband, wife, father, mother, son, daughter. These roles come with many commitments.


• Kids - my kids have soccer, choir, Academic Challenge Bowl, National Junior Honor Society, basketball, spelling bee, and more. Each of their commitments is mine too.


• Civic - we may volunteer for different organizations, or be a board member or officer on a non-profit organization.


• Religious - many of us are very involved with our churches, or are part of a church organization. Or perhaps we are committed to going to service once a week.


• Hobbies - perhaps you are a runner or a cyclist, or you build models, or are part of a secret underground comic book organization. These come with – surprise! – commitments.


• Home - aside from regular family stuff, there’s the stuff you have to do at home.


• Online - we may be a regular on a forum or mailing list or Google group. These are online communities that come with commitments too.

You might have other categories. List everything.

Now take a close look at each thing on the list, and consider: How does this give my life value? How important is it to me? Is it in line with my life priorities and values? How would it affect my life if I dropped out? Does this further my life goals?

These are tough questions, but I suggest seeing if you can eliminate just one thing — the thing that gives you the least return for your invested time and effort. The thing that’s least in line with your life values and priorities and goals. Cut it out, at least for a couple weeks, and see if you can get along without it. Revisit this list at that time and see if you can cut something else out. Edit mercilessly, keeping only those that really mean something to you.

Each time you cut a commitment, it may give you a feeling of guilt, because others want you to keep that commitment. But it’s also a huge relief, not having to do that commitment each day or week or month. It frees up a lot of your time, and while others may be disappointed, you have to keep what’s important to you in mind, not everyone else. If we committed to what everyone else wanted all the time, we would never have any time left for ourselves.

Take the time to edit your commitments, and your life will be greatly simplified. You will thank yourself for it.

Monk Mind: How to Increase Your Focus

 I confess to being as prone to the distractions of the Internet as anyone else: I will start reading about something that interests me and disappear down the rabbit hole for hours (even days) at a time.

But my ability to focus on a single task has dramatically improved, and that one habit has changed my life.

While a few years ago I couldn’t sit down to work on something without quickly switching to email or one of my favorite Internet forums or sites, today I can sit down and write. I can clear away distractions, when I set my mind to it, and do one thing. And that changes everything: you lose yourself in that task, become so immersed that you pour everything you have into the work, and it becomes a meditative, transformative experience. Your happiness increases, stress goes down, and work improves.

I know that lots of people have trouble focusing one one task for very long, and so I thought I’d share a few things that have worked for me.

Focus Best Practices

There is no one way to find focus, but what works for me is to clear everything away and create a little space of tranquil focus. Some tips for doing that:

• Close the browser and your email program. If you need to work in the browser then make sure no tabs or windows are open other than the one you absolutely need.


• Turn off all notifications. Trying to focus while something is notifying you of an incoming email or tweet or Facebook update is impossible.


• Turn off the Internet. Shut off your connection, unplug your router, or best yet, go to a place where the is no Internet (yes, those still exist). This is the absolute best way to find focus.


• Close all programs and windows other than what you need for this one task.


• Have a very important task to do. Not just “check email” but “write chapter in my novel” or “write that kick-ass blog post I’ve been planning” or “write that new Android app”.


• Clear your desk. No need to spend all day on this — shove everything in a drawer or put it in a box to be sorted later. Don’t fiddle with this now. In fact, don’t fiddle with anything — don’t worry about the perfect setup or perfect notebook for writing or the perfect anything.


• Plug in the headphones. If you have people around who might distract you, wearing headphones and playing some good, peaceful music is perfect.


• Use a simple program. For writing, I like plain text editors (TextEdit, TextWrangler) or writing programs that block everything out (OmmWriter, WriteRoom). No distractions.

Once you have this environment (and you shouldn’t spend more than a few minutes setting it up), get going on your task. Do nothing but that one task. Don’t switch to another task. Having trouble doing that? Read on.

How to Increase Your Focus Abilities

If you can’t focus on one task for very long, don’t worry. That’s normal. Our brains have been trained by technology and society to switch tasks often.

One way we’ve been trained is that switching to check email or blog updates or Facebook/Twitter is rewarding — we are rewarded with a little nugget of satisfaction in that someone has sent us a message (social validation!) or we have something new and interesting to read (shiny and bright!). Switching tasks becomes a positive feedback cycle that is hard to beat by single-tasking.

The way to beat that is to set up a positive feedback cycle for focusing. Here’s how:

1. Start small. You only need to focus for one minute at first. Clear everything away, pick your one important task, and just do it for one minute without switching. This is hard to do in the beginning but if you consciously focus on focusing, you can do it. It’s just a minute.


2. Reward yourself. The reward for focusing for one minute can be one minute (or 30 seconds) of checking whatever you want. Email, Facebook, whatever. Or get up and take a one-minute walk. Stretch, drink some water, massage your neck, enjoy your small victory. Empires are created with small victories.


3. Repeat. Keep doing one minute focus, one minute reward (or 1 minute to 30 seconds if you like) for about half an hour (15 of each). You’re done. Repeat that later in the day. Rejoice in how much work you got done! And notice how you’ve set up a positive feedback cycle for focusing.


4. Increase in small steps. Tomorrow, make it two minutes on, one minute off. Repeat that for 30 minutes, do it later in the day too. Feel free to go wild and do three focus sessions in a day if you like, but it’s not necessary.


5. Keep taking baby steps. I think you can see the pattern by now. Make it three minutes on, one minute off on the third day, then 4:1, then 5:1. When you get to 10 minutes, be crazy and take a 2 minute break. When you get to 20 minutes, take a 3 minute break. At 30 minutes of focus, you’ve earned a 5 minute break. And once you’re at 30 minutes, you can stay there. No need to become a monk.

Set up a positive feedback cycle for single-tasking focus and you’ll reverse the years of training your mind has gotten to switch tasks. You’ll get more important work done, and it won’t seem hard. You’ll find that focus becomes a form of meditation. It’s a beautiful, beautiful thing, and you can thank me by sending me a craft beer from your hometown.

Beginner’s Guide to Getting Things Done (GTD)

 I get a lot of questions about GTD – what are the basic principles, how should one start. Well, the obvious answer is to start by getting the book:  Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.  But I started without it, about a year ago, and I was able to get off the ground just with information on the web.

Well, I’m not going to explain the whole system in this post. Instead, I’ll provide some links to help you get started, if you’re a beginner GTD disciple.

Top Links for Starting GTD

• 43 Folders: Getting Started with GTD


• Black Belt Productivity: A GTD Primer


• What’s the Next Action: 21 links to start with GTD


• Wired: A guide to GTD


• Davidco’s Lisa Peak: 10 beginner behaviors


• Steve Lawson: GTD overview


• Mine Zone: Getting Things Done


• Davidco: Advanced GTD Workflow Diagram (pdf)


• GTD Software directoryFind out all about GTD Software here.


• Lifehack: Ask the Readers: Getting Started with GTD

Purpose Your Day: Most Important Task (MIT)

 I’ve mentioned this briefly in my morning routine, but I thought I’d explain a little bit more about MITs – Most Important Tasks. It’s not an original concept, but one that I use on a daily basis and that has helped me out tremendously.

It’s very simple: your MIT is the task you most want or need to get done today. In my case, I’ve tweaked it a bit so that I have three MITs — the three things I must accomplish today. Do I get a lot more done than three things? Of course. But the idea is that no matter what else I do today, these are the things I want to be sure of doing. So, the MIT is the first thing I do each day, right after I have a glass of water to wake me up.

And here’s the key to the MITs for me: at least one of the MITs should be related to one of my goals. While the other two can be work stuff (and usually are), one must be a goal next-action. This ensures that I am doing something to move my goals forward that day.

And that makes all the difference in the world. Each day, I’ve done something to make my dreams come true. It’s built into my morning routine: set a next-action to accomplish for one of my goals. And so it happens each day, automatically.

Another key: do your MITs first thing in the morning, either at home or when you first get to work. If you put them off to later, you will get busy and run out of time to do them. Get them out of the way, and the rest of the day is gravy!

It’s such a small thing to implement, and yet I’m raving about it like it’s a huge revelation. But it is. Sometimes small things can make big differences. I highly recommend you give it a go.

My Morning Routine

 Today I start a new habit: my morning routine (to be honest, I started a couple days ago). All this month I will focus on making my morning routine a daily habit.

I’ve actually tried different versions of a morning routine in the past year, and have enjoyed them immensely. I just haven’t stuck with one for a whole month or more, and that is the goal this month.

The reason I like having a morning routine is that not only does it instill a sense of purpose, peace and ritual to my day, but it ensures that I’m getting certain things done every morning … namely, my goals. I’m setting aside morning time as a time of peace and quiet, and time to take small steps each day towards my goals.

Here’s my morning routine, at the moment (subject to tweaking later):

Morning Routine

1. Wake at 4:30 a.m.


2. Drink water.


3. Set 3 Most Important Things (MITs) for today.


4. Fix lunches for kids and myself.


5. Eat breakfast, read.


6. Exercise (run, bike, swim, strength, or yardwork) or meditate.


7. Shower.


8. Wake wife & kids at 6:30 a.m.

A couple of explanations: The MITs that I set for the day concern at least one item towards one of my goals, and probably the 1-2 things I MUST complete at work. There will be more that I do during the day, but my focus will be to finish at least these three MITs.

As for the exercise and meditate item, I have a schedule where I do one exercise each morning (with the exception of Fridays, where I plan to meditate for at least 10-15 minutes). Actually, I also often exercise in the evenings too, so on some days I’ll have two workouts – maybe a bike in the morning and swim in the evening, for example. My body is still getting used to this, so we’ll see how it works out.

As for waking up at 4:30 a.m., I only started doing that within the last few months — before that it was 5:00 or 5:30, and before last year I woke at 6:30, so I’ve really become an early riser just in the last year.

How I Became An Early Riser

 I’ve found that waking early has been one of the best things I’ve done as I’ve changed my life recently, and I thought I’d share my tips. I just posted about my morning routine, and thought you might like to know how I get up at 4:30 a.m.

For many years, I was a late riser. I loved to sleep in. Then things changed, because I had to wake up between 6-6:30 a.m. to fix my kids’ lunches and get them ready for school. But last year, when I decided to train for my first marathon, I decided that I needed to start running in the mornings if I was to have any time left for my family.

So, I set out to make waking up early a habit. I started by getting up at 5:30 a.m., then at 5 a.m. When that became a habit, and I had to wake up at 4 a.m. or 3:30 a.m. for an early long run, it wasn’t a problem. And last November, when I decided to participate in NaNoWriMo, I decided to get up at 4 a.m. to write for at least an hour a day. Now that I completed that novel-writing goal, I don’t need to wake that early anymore, but have settled on a happy compromise of waking at 4:30 a.m. Some days, when I’m really tired (if I go to sleep late), I’ll wake at 5:00 or 5:30, but that’s still earlier than I used to wake up.

Here are my tips for becoming an early riser:

• Don’t make drastic changes. Start slowly, by waking just 15-30 minutes earlier than usual. Get used to this for a few days. Then cut back another 15 minutes. Do this gradually until you get to your goal time.


• Allow yourself to sleep earlier. You might be used to staying up late, perhaps watching TV or surfing the Internet. But if you continue this habit, while trying to get up earlier, sooner or later one is going to give. And if it is the early rising that gives, then you will crash and sleep late and have to start over. I suggest going to bed earlier, even if you don’t think you’ll sleep, and read while in bed. If you’re really tired, you just might fall asleep much sooner than you think.


• Put your alarm clock far from you bed. If it’s right next to your bed, you’ll shut it off or hit snooze. Never hit snooze. If it’s far from your bed, you have to get up out of bed to shut it off. By then, you’re up. Now you just have to stay up.


• Go out of the bedroom as soon as you shut off the alarm. Don’t allow yourself to rationalize going back to bed. Just force yourself to go out of the room. My habit is to stumble into the bathroom and go pee. By the time I’ve done that, and flushed the toilet and washed my hands and looked at my ugly mug in the mirror, I’m awake enough to face the day.


• Do not rationalize. If you allow your brain to talk you out of getting up early, you’ll never do it. Don’t make getting back in bed an option.


• Allow yourself to sleep in once in awhile. Despite what I just said in the previous point, once in awhile it’s nice to sleep in. As long as it’s not a regular thing. I do it maybe once a week or so.


• Make waking up early a reward. Yes, it might seem at first that you’re forcing yourself to do something hard, but if you make it pleasurable, soon you will look forward to waking up early. My reward used to be to make a hot cup of coffee and read a book. I’ve recently cut out coffee, but I still enjoy reading my book. Other rewards might be a tasty treat for breakfast (smoothies! yum!) or watching the sunrise, or meditating. Find something that’s pleasurable for you, and allow yourself to do it as part of your morning routine.


• Take advantage of all that extra time. Don’t wake up an hour or two early just to read your blogs, unless that’s a major goal of yours. Don’t wake up early and waste that extra time. Get a jump start on your day! I like to use that time to get a head start on preparing my kids’ lunches, on planning for the rest of the day (when I set my MITs), on exercising or meditating, and on reading. By the time 6:30 rolls around, I’ve done more than many people do the entire day.


• Enjoy the break of dawn! As much as you can, look outside (or better yet, get outside!) and watch the sky turn light. It’s beautiful. And it’s quiet and peaceful. It’s now my favorite time of day. Getting up early is a reward in itself for me.

10 Habits To Develop Financial Stability And Success

 Just like any goal, getting your finances stable and becoming financially successful requires the development of good financial habits. I’ve been researching this topic extensively in the last few years in my quest to eliminate debt, increase my savings and increase financial security for my family. I’ll talk more about these habits individually, but wanted to list them in a summary (I know, but I’m a compulsive list-maker).

Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Make savings automatic. This should be your top priority, especially if you don’t have a solid emergency fund yet. Make it the first bill you pay each payday, by having a set amount automatically transferred from your checking account to your savings (try an online savings account). Don’t even think about this transaction — just make sure it happens, each and every payday.


2. Control your impulse spending. The biggest problem for many of us. Impulse spending, on eating out and shopping and online purchases, is a big drain on our finances, the biggest budget breaker for many, and a sure way to be in dire financial straits. See Monitor Your Impulse Spending for more tips.


3. Evaluate your expenses, and live frugally. If you’ve never tracked your expenses, try tracking every purchase for one month.  Then evaluate how you’re spending your money, and see what you can cut out or reduce. Decide if each expense is absolutely necessary, then eliminate the unnecessary. See How To Save Money for more.


4. Invest in your future. If you’re young, you probably don’t think about retirement much. But it’s important. Even if you think you can always plan for retirement later, do it now. The growth of your investments over time will be amazing if you start in your 20s. Start by increasing your 401(k) to the maximum of your company’s match, if that’s available to you. After that, the best bet is probably a Roth IRA. Do a little research, but whatever you do, start now!


5. Keep your family secure. The first step is to save for an emergency fund, so that if anything happens, you’ve got the money. If you have a spouse and/or dependents, you should definitely get life insurance and make a will — as soon as possible! Also research other insurance, such as homeowner’s or renter’s insurance.


6. Eliminate and avoid debt. If you’ve got credit cards, personal loans, or other such debt, you need to start a debt elimination plan. List out your debts and arrange them in order from smallest balance at the top to largest at the bottom. Then focus on the debt at the top, putting as much as you can into it, even if it’s just $40-50 extra (more would be better). When that amount is paid off, celebrate! Then take the total amount you were paying (say $70 minimum payment plus the $50 extra for a total of $120) and add that to the minimum payment of the next largest debt. Continue this process, with your extra amount snowballing as you go along, until you pay off all your debts. This could take several years, but it’s a very rewarding process, and very necessary.


7. Use the envelope system. This is a simple system to keep track of how much money you have for spending. Let’s say you set aside three amounts in your budget each payday — one for gas, one for groceries, one for eating out. Withdraw those amounts on payday, and put them in three separate envelopes. That way, you can easily track how much you have left for each of these expenses, and when you run out of money, you know it immediately. You don’t overspend in these categories. If you regularly run out too fast, you may need to rethink your budget.


8. Pay bills immediately, or automatically. One good habit is to pay bills as soon as they come in. Also, as much as possible, try to get your bills to be paid through automatic deduction. For those that can’t, use your bank’s online check system to make regular automatic payments. This way, all of your regular expenses in your budget are taken care of.


9. Read about personal finances. The more you educate yourself, the better your finances will be.


10. Look to grow your net worth. Do whatever you can to improve your net worth, either by reducing your debt, increasing your savings, or increasing your income, or all of the above. Look for new ways to make money, or to get paid more for what you do. Over the course of months, if you calculate your net worth each month, you’ll see it grow. And that feels great.

A Guide To Living Frugal

 An ongoing quest for me, and one that I am renewing this year, is to eliminate all that is unnecessary from my life. Now, you might read this and think that I am cutting everything fun from my life, but that’s not true. Let me explain.

The first question in this quest, of course, is what does “necessary” mean? We must first examine what things are necessary … and the first question in this examination is … necessary for what? What is the true aim? My answer, which will be different than others, is “necessary for a happy life.”

This definition, then, would include many things besides the basics of clothing, shelter and food. I might not need a good relationship with my wife in order to survive, but it is necessary for me to be happy in life (I’ve found). Same thing with my kids. To be happy, I must develop a good relationship with them, make them happy, and spend time with them.

But that doesn’t mean that anything I do with them counts as necessary. I can be happy with my children just by going to a free park — I don’t need to buy them things all the time, or go costly entertainment (like movies, the mall, or waterparks).

Similarly, we need to eat, but we don’t need to eat junk food. True, you might say that sweets, or french fries, make you happy. Well, that’s the key to this whole exercise: do you really need something to be happy? And even more, do you need it on a daily basis, or can it be an occasional treat?

Coffee and chocolate are two recent examples for me. I love both. A lot. But I am addicted to them (because of the caffeine), and that makes me want them more than I really need them to be happy. So I am trying to cut them out, at least for now. I think later, after I kick the habit, I can indulge in those things as a treat, once in awhile, without lapsing into addiction.

Other things I can cut out (except as treats):

• Going to movies (I rarely do this anymore)


• Sweets, like pastries or baked goods or candies (rarer now, but still a MAJOR temptation)


• toys (gizmos and gadgets that are a lot of fun, but not necessary – like an mp3 player)


• new books (I try to buy used now, or trade em)


• eating out (have been trying to cut back, but still lapse more than I should)

And some things that I need to think hard about:

• cable internet (I have this at work — it’s nice at home, but I’m not sure if it’s necessary)


• cell phone (I don’t NEED it too much — it’s convenient, but it’s rare that I really need it)

On the whole, I’ve cut out a lot already, and I’m very happy with the simplicity I’ve created so far. I have a lot more to do, but it’s the process that I enjoy, not the end product.

Monitor Your Impulse Spending

 Do you have a problem with impulse spending? If so, the first step to controlling it is monitoring your urges. Make it a goal to monitor and track your spending urges over the next week or two.

Keep a small notebook handy, and every time you get an urge to buy something, practical or not, put a little tally in the notebook. Tally every urge, whether it is to buy something online, or at a store, looking at a catalog, thinking about that new iPod while at your desk, or even if it’s multiple urges to buy the same item.

Whether you buy the item or not, just keep track of the urges. Many times the urges are subconscious. You won’t be able to control your spending if you’re not aware of it.

Some other tips, beyond this first step, for controlling impulse spending:

• Avoid the mall or Walmart other shopping areas. Just going there practically guarantees you’ll buy something on impulse. Do something outdoors or at home instead.


• If you have to go shopping, go with a list. And stick to the list. Tell yourself that anything not on the list is strictly verboten.


• Keep a 30-day list. If you have an urge to buy something, make it a rule that you have to first write it on your 30-day list. If, at the end of those 30 days, you still want it, then you can buy it (if you have the money). Just the act of putting it on the list (awareness) and forcing yourself to wait (delay) can make a big difference.


• Breathe. And drink water. This delay can help you get past your urge.


• Find other things to do with your friends or family. Do you hang out with people who love to shop as a pastime? Encourage them to do something else. Go outside, to a park, to the beach. Have a potluck dinner at home. If your friends refuse to change, you may want to give some thought to who you hang out with, if you have different values.

Gmail Zen: Clean Out Your Inbox

 I use Gmail exclusively for email, and it constitutes a major part of my two day jobs. I get a fair amount of email each hour, and I am pretty quick at responding.

However, one thing you’ll notice about my Gmail inbox is that it is just about always empty.

It gives me a Zen feeling to have a clean inbox, a feeling of peace and calm and satisfaction. I highly recommend it to everyone. I wasn’t always like this — I had many emails in my inbox in the past. They would sit in there, sometimes unread, sometimes just waiting on an action, sometimes waiting to be filed, and others just waiting because I was procrastinating. I also had many folders for filing my email, so I could find them when I needed them. It would take me awhile to file sometimes, so I would put it off. Many people I know are the same way.

Here are my simple steps to achieving Email Zen:

1) Don’t check email first thing in the morning, or have it constantly on. This is a tip offered by many blogs, so nothing new here. Checking email first thing will get you stuck in email for awhile. Instead, do your most important thing for the day, or the thing you’ve been procrastinating on the most. Then check email. Better yet, do 2 or 3 things first. Also, if you are constantly checking email throughout the day, or it notifies you as soon as an email comes in, you will be constantly distracted and not able to focus on the task before you. I check once an hour, but you might have different needs.

2) When you check your email, dispose of each one, one at a time, right away. Make a decision on what needs to be done on each email.

2a) Is it junk or some forwarded email? Trash it immediately.

2b) Is it a long email that you just need to read for information? File it in a Read folder (or tag it Read and archive) or print it to read on the road (while waiting in line, for example).

2c) If the email requires action, make a note of the action on your to-do or GTD lists to do later. Also note to check the email for info if necessary. Then archive the email. You can easily find it later when you need to do that task.

2d) If you can respond to it in a minute or two, do so immediately. Don’t put it off. If you wait, you’ll end up with a backlog of emails to respond to, and you may never get around to it. I respond quickly, with a short note, and send it right away. That way I’m viewed as responsive and on top of things.

2e) If you need to follow up on the email later, or are waiting for a response, note it on a Waiting For list. Don’t just leave it in your inbox as a reminder.

3) I have only one folder: Archive. When I respond to an email, or finish reading it if it doesn’t need response, or note it on my to-do list, I archive it. Simple as that. You could add a Read folder if you want. I usually print longer ones to read later, like during lunch or while waiting for something. Other people have an Action folder or a Waiting For folder, but I find that that’s just an additional inbox that you have to constantly check. I don’t like to check extra folders. I have my to-do lists and my Waiting For list, and that’s good enough. So it’s as simple as pressing “Archive” on an email, and if I need to find it later, Gmail’s search is so good that it’s easy to find. I’ve never had any problems with this system.

Email Zen is that easy: check email at regular periods, take action on each email right away (or note it on a list to do later) and archive.

Ahhh. Empty inbox!

3 Easy Steps to a Permanently Clear Desk

 Once upon a time, my desk was cluttered with all the things I was currently working on — not to mention dozens of things I wasn’t working on: notes, post-its, phone numbers, papers to be filed, stacks of stuff to work on later. I was too busy to organize it, and if I ever did get it cleared, it would pile up soon after.

It’s a different story today. These days, my desk is always clear, except for the one thing I’m working on, and perhaps a notebook and pen for jotting down notes, ideas or to-dos as they come up. It’s a liberating feeling … it calms me … it reduces stress and chaos … it definitely makes things easier to find … and it makes me more efficient and productive.

How did I make the transformation? Well, it wasn’t an easy journey, and I’ve improved over the years, but the basic steps are outlined below. The important thing to remember is that you must have a system in place, and you must teach yourself to follow the system. Otherwise, you just clean your desk, and it gets messy again.

Here’s the system:

1. First, take everything on your desk and in your drawers, and put them in one big pile. Put it in your “in basket” (if it doesn’t fit, pile it next to your desk or something). From now on, everything that comes in must go in your in basket, and you process everything as below.

2. Process this pile from the top down. Never re-sort, never skip a single piece of paper, never put a piece of paper back on the pile. Do what needs to be done with that paper, and then move on to the next in the pile. The options: trash it, delegate it, file it, do it, or put it on a list to do later. In that order of preference. Do it if it takes 2 minutes or less to complete. If it takes more, and you can’t trash, delegate or file it, then put it on a list of to-dos (more on your to-do list in another post).

3. Repeat at least once daily to keep desk clear. The end of the day is best, but I tend to process and tidy up as I go through the day. Once you’ve processed your pile, your desk is clear. You’ve trashed or filed or somehow put everything where it belongs (not on top of your desk or stashed in a drawer). Keep it that way. You must follow the system above: put everything in your inbox, then take action on each piece of paper in the inbox with one of the steps listed. If an item is on your to-do list, you can keep the paper associated with it in an “Action” folder. But you must regularly (daily or weekly) go through this folder to ensure that everything is purged.

It’s that simple. Have a phone number on a post-it? Don’t leave it on top of your desk. File it in your rolodex or contacts program. Have something you need to work on later? Don’t keep the papers on top of your desk. Put it on your to-do list, and file the papers in your Action folder. File or trash or delegate everything else.

Leaving stuff on top of your desk is procrastination (and as a procrastinator, I should know). If you put it off until later, things will be sure to pile up on your desk. Deal with them immediately, make a decision, take action.

What I’ve described is a good habit to learn, but it takes time to learn it. You’ll slip. Just remind yourself, and then do it. Soon it’ll be a habit you have a hard time breaking. And trust me, once you’re used to your desk being clear, you won’t want to break this habit.

The Speculative World Building Template

1. The Physical Foundation (The "Where")

Before you populate the world, you need to understand the constraints of the terrain.

• Geography & Climate: Is it a single-biome world (like an ice planet) or diverse? How do mountains, oceans, or toxic wastes dictate where people live?

• Celestial Context: How many suns or moons are there? How does the day/night cycle or seasonal shift affect biology?

• The "Weird" Factor: What is the one physical law that differs from our world? (e.g., floating continents, a world where it never stops raining, or a planet with a vertical "up-down" gravity shift).

2. The Power Structure (The "Who")

Setting is defined by who holds the keys to the kingdom.

• Governance: Is it a crumbling empire, a corporate technocracy, or a loose collection of magic-wielding tribes?

• The Economy: What is the most valuable resource? Is it "Spice," mana, fresh water, or data? Whoever controls this resource controls the setting.

• Social Hierarchy: Who is at the top, and who is at the bottom? How does a person move between these layers (if they can at all)?

3. The Rules of Reality (The "How")

Whether it’s Magic or Tech, the "system" must be consistent.

• The Magic/Tech System: What are the costs? (e.g., using magic drains physical stamina, or FTL travel causes premature aging).

• Infrastructure: How do people get around? Think about the difference between a world connected by ancient "stargates" versus one reliant on horse-drawn wagons.

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4. The Daily Grind (The "Vibe")

This is where you find the sensory details that create immersion.

• Architecture & Aesthetics: Do people live in brutalist concrete bunkers or organic tree-cities? What do the textures feel like?

• Taboos & Traditions: What is considered a grave insult? What does this society celebrate, and what do they fear?

• The "Old World": What lies beneath the surface? Every great setting has "ruins"—the remnants of those who came before.

5. The Environmental Conflict (The "Why")

Finally, connect the setting back to your plot.

• Current Instability: Is the world dying, expanding, or undergoing a revolution?

• The Pressure Point: What part of the environment is currently making life difficult for your protagonist? (e.g., a looming "Long Winter" or a solar flare threatening the power grid).

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How to use this: Try to answer just three of these points in detail today. Once you have those, the rest of the world often begins to reveal itself through logical necessity.

Ideas to Save Money

 So you want to try the frugal lifestyle.  It will take simplifying your life and cutting back on little things, one at a time. And while there are definitely many more things you can scrimp and save on, these are some quick ideas.  Here’s how to save money:

1) Cut your own hair. I bought a $20 buzzer, and it lasts about a year. I used to get a haircut every month, at a cost of $20 (including tip, not including gas money to get there and valuable time spent there). So I save the cost of about 11 haircuts a year. I do the same for my three sons, saving another 36 haircuts (at $10 each). Annual savings: $580.

2) No Cable TV. You can watch almost every TV show you like on the internet now.  Also try watching DVDs or reading. DVD's are inexpensive now (especially if you rent or borrow them). Cable costs about $65/month. Annual savings: $780.

3) Became vegan. Eat fresh fruits and veggies, which are expensive, sure, but you are supposed to eat those whether you’re vegan, vegetarian or a carnivore, so I don’t count those as extra expenses. The real comparison is between meat, and the protein substitutes you use. Most of your protein will come from tofu, although you can eat beans and soy protein such as fake ground beef or soy burgers. Overall I believe you will save about $2-3 per day not eating meat. Annual savings: $900.

4) Don’t use the gym. I used to be a member of a gym. Didn’t use it much, and still got charged for a full year. Now I get a lot of exercise, but I do it at home and on the road. I do strength exercises in my living room and jog (and will soon start cycling and swimming). Annual savings: $420.

5) Rarely go to the movies. I used to go out to the movies at least once a week, and sometimes more. I slowly made it every other week, and now I don’t even go once a month. Now we take the kids to the park or out to do something more fun and creative. I figure this saves us at least $15 per week, although it’s probably more when you factor in the cost of my kids’ tickets, and concessions.Annual savings: $780.

6) Quit smoking. I quit about 20 years ago, but if you haven't this can be a huge savings. If you smoked a pack a day, plus a soda or tea or coffee to go with the cigarettes, at a cost of about $9 per day. Annual savings: $3,200.

7) Don’t drink much. I never did, still don't. But for some people, drinking is a major expense. A beer or two a day can add up, and for the sake of these calculations, I’ll count it. Annual savings: $800.

8) Never go out. Don’t go to clubs, or the theater, or ballet, or opera. This is an extreme and won't work for some people.  At least consider cutting back.  Annual savings: maybe $500.

9) Stay healthy. If you are a vegan, a runner, and don’t drink or smoke anymore, you may never have to go to the doctor.  If you keep up this lifestyle, your likelihood of getting the most common diseases are greatly lowered. Annual savings: probably $1,200.

10) Don’t go shopping. We used to hang out at the mall a lot. It was convenient, and had a lot of great stuff to look at, and a food court. The food court alone costs $30 for us, and if we bought stuff that would be another $25-75. Cha-ching. Now I rarely ever, ever, ever go to the mall. I hate it anyway. I only go to the mall or Kmart if I need something, and even then I try my best to avoid it. Annual savings: probably $2,600.

11) Try to be a single car family. Even if you are a married couple with six kids, soccer practice, choir, school functions, many many family gatherings, running events, martial arts, and much more. You can get by on one car. Look to get a used van with better fuel economy, and consider commuting at least a few times a week by bike. Annual savings: unknown, but perhaps $5,000.

12) Bring your own lunch. Your co-workers eat out every day, at a cost of $8-20 per lunch. I bring leftovers or a sandwich and fruits and pretzels and stuff. At a cost of probably less than $5. Annual savings: $1,800.

13) No magazine or newspaper subscriptions. I used to have the paper delivered. Now I read it online or at work. I used to subscribe to 1-2 magazines. Now I read the Internet. Annual savings: $360.

14) Rarely buy new clothes. Buy what you need, not what catches your eye in the store (another reason to stay out of the mall).  Annual savings: maybe $400.

15) Rarely travel. We would all like to travel. When you are out of debt and your savings accounts are nice and healthy, then travel. But for now, skip it. Others take at least a trip per year. Annual savings: $1,500.

16) No more lattes. Many of us get a latte every day. At a cost of about $4 per latte. Sometimes you get two. Make your own coffee. Annual savings: about $1,000.

There are more little ways that you can learn to save, like buying books at a used book store, cooking most of your meals (aside from the above-mentioned lunches), power-saving measures, no long distance calls. There are also ways you can still save, including eating out less (eat out 1-3 times per week, mostly fast food like pizza or Taco Bell or Wendy’s, all of which I can do without).

Estimated total savings: $22,000.

Now, I’m not sure if most people spend the full amounts listed above, or if I ever did. But at some point, I did come close, and I think many people do as well. But however you look at it, there are ways to save money. Does this all go into savings? Of course not. Choose two of the above or ten, either way you will start saving money!

The Importance of Setting

The Art of World Building

In speculative fiction, the setting isn’t just a backdrop; it is a living, breathing character that dictates the logic of the entire story. Whether it’s the sprawling, moss-covered ruins of a forgotten kingdom or the sterile, neon-drenched corridors of a deep-space station, the environment provides the essential "rules of engagement" for the reader. 

The Foundation of Internal Logic 

In realism, writers rely on shared experiences. In Fantasy and Science Fiction (SFF), however, the author must build a world from the ground up. This process, often called worldbuilding, establishes the laws of physics, magic, and society. 

• Fantasy: If a mountain is sentient, it changes how a protagonist plans a journey. 
• Sci-Fi: If a planet has triple the gravity of Earth, it changes how characters move, build, and fight. 

Without a well-defined setting, the stakes feel hollow. If the reader doesn't understand the limitations of the world, they won't understand the magnitude of the hero’s triumph. 

Setting as Conflict 

In SFF, the environment is frequently the primary antagonist. In Frank Herbert’s Dune, the desert isn't just where the story happens; it is the source of the conflict, the religion, and the economy. The scarcity of water drives every character's motivation. When the setting is integrated into the plot, it forces characters to make difficult choices. A ship’s failing life-support system in a hard sci-fi novel creates a unique kind of tension that a simple "ticking clock" in a contemporary thriller cannot replicate.

Reflecting Themes and Emotion 

Setting also serves as a visual metaphor for the story's themes. A crumbling, gothic castle in a dark fantasy might represent the decay of an old empire. Conversely, a utopian "solarpunk" city might represent hope and human ingenuity. By carefully crafting the atmosphere—the smells of a Martian market or the bioluminescent glow of an alien forest—writers ground the "impossible" in sensory detail, making the fantastic feel visceral and real. 

The Cultural and Sociopolitical Blueprint 

Beyond the physical landscape, setting in SFF encompasses the invisible architecture of culture, religion, and politics. In a secondary world, the environment dictates how a society evolves. A civilization living in a subterranean cave system will have a vastly different vocabulary, mythology, and social hierarchy than one living on floating islands. When a writer invests in the "macro" setting—the history of a fallen empire or the trade laws of a galactic federation—they provide a sense of verisimilitude. This depth prevents the world from feeling like it was created five minutes before the protagonist walked into the room. It suggests a "lived-in" quality where characters are products of their environment, carrying the biases, traditions, and traumas of their specific geography. 

The "Sense of Wonder" and Aesthetic 

Identity In science fiction and fantasy, the setting often provides the "Sense of Wonder" that defines the genre. This is the "Big Idea" translated into a visual or sensory experience. 

• The Sublime: Seeing a ringed planet fill the sky or witnessing a city built on the back of a giant wandering beast. 
• The Juxtaposition: High-tech cybernetics in a low-life slum (Cyberpunk) or steam-powered airships in a Victorian landscape (Steampunk).

These aesthetic choices aren't just for "cool factor." They establish the tonal contract with the reader. A setting filled with bright, gleaming spires suggests an optimistic "Golden Age" sci-fi tone, whereas a world of endless rain and smog prepares the reader for a noir-inspired deconstruction of corporate greed. 

Ecology as a Narrative Engine 

Modern SFF increasingly uses ecology as a central pillar of setting. No longer is the forest just "the woods"; it is a complex ecosystem with its own predatory cycles and symbiotic relationships. In "Hard" Science Fiction, this might involve calculating orbital mechanics or the chemical composition of an atmosphere to see if a human could actually survive. In Fantasy, this might mean designing a magic system that functions like a natural resource—one that can be depleted, polluted, or fought over. When the setting has its own biological or magical metabolism, it creates organic plot points. The characters don't just move through the world; they are part of its food chain or its energy cycle. 

Why It Matters 

Ultimately, a strong setting facilitates immersion. It allows the reader to step out of their own reality and into a space where the impossible is probable. When the setting is neglected, the story feels like a stage play with cardboard cutouts; when it is prioritized, the world remains in the reader's mind long after the final page is turned. Setting is the anchor that keeps the "balloon" of high-concept ideas from drifting into incoherence. By grounding a story in a specific, tangible place, the author earns the reader's trust. If the reader can smell the ozone of a malfunctioning warp drive or feel the chill of a cursed mountain pass, they will believe in the dragons and the starships.