designShrine » Health & Fitness http://designshrine.net Your Source for Interior, Web & Style Design Via RSS Sat, 21 Jan 2012 18:52:42 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 9 Ways to Twitter Your Personal Development http://designshrine.net/2009/06/9-ways-to-twitter-your-personal-development/ http://designshrine.net/2009/06/9-ways-to-twitter-your-personal-development/#comments Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:17:51 +0000 Ty Wenzel http://designshrine.net/2009/06/17/9-ways-to-twitter-your-personal-development/ Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Alex Fayle of Someday Syndrome.

A quick Google search produces what feels like a million and one guides explaining what Twitter is and how to use it. Leo has several great guides himself here on Zen Habits. But like any community, as Twitter grows it will begin to split up into smaller communities - after all no matter how much we might want to participate in the full Twitter-stream, we can only handle a small portion of it.

Personal development has become a highly popular blog topic for bloggers and destination for readers. Twitter will likely soon follow, with segments already developing in the personal development arena.

So, if you’re a personal development blogger or reader, how can you use Twitter to enhance your journey? Here are nine ways that I use it.

1. Get your nose out of your belly button
Personal development requires a lot of inward gazing. Sometimes we take it too far and turn the exploration into navel-gazing. By reaching out to others on Twitter we get out of our heads. And by turning our gaze outward, we will improve our chances of actually moving forward (because walking with our noses in our belly buttons just begs for a nasty accident to happen).

2. Connect to others on the same path
It’s easy to feel alone on our personal journeys. Everyone interprets personal development in a different way, sometimes conflicting with our way of thinking. When we connect to a myriad of other people on their own personal development journeys we broaden our horizons and gain new perspectives. While it might produce tension occasionally, more often it will help our journey by providing new ways of thinking about things.

3. Develop focus
Twitter requires us to be brief and clear. In talking about personal development many of us are wordy and rarely get to the point. With Twitter’s 140 character limit we have to present our thoughts and ideas in a concise manner. We can’t ramble, which means before we start typing we have to be aware of what we think and really focused on the core thoughts, attitudes and actions that will move us forward.

4. Create accountability
I spend a lot of time alone in front of my computer. I therefore distract myself very easily (including using Twitter) and don’t get anything done. I’ve learned, though, how to use Twitter to get more, not less, done. The first time I posted here on Zen Habits, I talked about how I used Twitter to keep myself running. Now I use Twitter to talk about my writing goals, tweeting wordcounts and moments of epiphany. And people are hugely supportive. I follow through on my Twitter-promises because I’m human and I love that kind of recognition.

5. Share your insights
Tweeter @TheCharmQuark loves doing this. Although she has a blog that tracks the progress of her personal development journeys, Twitter allows her to have that immediate satisfaction of interacting with people after experiencing a mind-blowing moment of clarity. Others see the insights and share their own take on the newly gained wisdom or have their own mind-blowing moments. And so the epiphanies spread around the world.

6. Read tips from experts
Leo Tweets his blog posts and provides tips about living a Power of Less life. And he’s not the only one. You might not have time to read a whole lot of personal development blogs or books, but by dipping into the Twitter-stream with a personal development focus, you can still pick up a lot of the wisdom of the people working in personal development every day.

7. Hear about new resources
The Internet is a huge place and there is no way we can find everything that will help us on our journey. Fortunately there are others on the similar journeys looking for resources that will help them. Generally when people find something that works for them, they like to share the resource. If you’re following them, you’ll find out about the resource and maybe it will help you too.

8. Find answers to direct questions
One of the things I like most about Twitter is the direct help. It’s like a real-time customer support center without any of the sales and marketing. Since opening a Twitter account I’ve stopped using Google as much and started asking my followers questions. The answers I get are varied and generally well-informed. For example a reader at Someday Syndrome recently found a tick on her son and within minutes had a whole list of places to find help via her followers on Twitter.

9. Have lots of fun
And of course, the best part of Twitter is having fun. It’s a big party that you can slide in and out of all day long. Don’t stress about catching up on everyone and everything they say. Dip onto the stream, let it flow past you, then get back out and come back for a visit again later. The most popular people on Twitter don’t take it (or themselves) very seriously. The more fun you have the more fun others will have and the more they’ll want to connect with you.

I’m certain that this list by no means completely covers all the ways that people use Twitter to help with their personal development journeys. So tell me (either here in the comments or on Twitter) how do you use Twitter to advance your personal development goals?

For more from Alex Fayle, check out his blog, Someday Syndrome, subscribe to his feed or follow him on Twitter. Plus, if you leave a comment on this post, you could win one of three copies of his ebook Someday My Ship Will Come In: A Practical Guide to Discovering Your Dreams.

—

How to Change a Habit: My friend Scott Young, one of the best bloggers on changing habits, has released a new edition of his excellent ebook, How to Change a Habit. For the next 30 days, Scott is offering a special $5.00 discount for Zen Habits readers (making it an affordable $14.99 after the discount) — just go to the page to buy it and enter “zenhabits” (without the quotes) in the discount code box. This is an affiliate link, so I get some of the proceeds, but I definitely recommend this ebook if you’re looking to change your habits. It’s a very effective method. - Leo



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]]> http://designshrine.net/2009/06/9-ways-to-twitter-your-personal-development/feed/ 0 8 Liberating Strategies for Clearing the Queues in Your Life http://designshrine.net/2009/06/8-liberating-strategies-for-clearing-the-queues-in-your-life/ http://designshrine.net/2009/06/8-liberating-strategies-for-clearing-the-queues-in-your-life/#comments Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:10:47 +0000 Ty Wenzel http://designshrine.net/2009/06/17/8-liberating-strategies-for-clearing-the-queues-in-your-life/ Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

Are the queues in your life stressing you out?

Our lives are filled with queues, from email inboxes to your to-do lists to voice and text messages to a variety of different inboxes in social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to work applications to RSS readers and bookmarked “to-read” articles and more.

For many people, managing all these queues is stressful, never-ending, and complex.

Let’s look at how to simplify things, how to clear your queues, and how to let go of the stress of managing them all.

Queues That Rule Our Lives
One of my favorite bloggers, Alex Payne, wrote a post a little while back called Life As A Series of Queues, and in the post he listed some of his queues. I’m reposting them here because they’re fairly typical for a lot of people. Of course, your particular list will definitely vary, but this is an example:

  • work email (by far the most insidious queue)
  • personal email
  • instant messages (they queue while in meetings and away from the computer)
  • text messages
  • missed phone calls and voicemail
  • @replies on Twitter
  • direct messages on Twitter
  • requests for links to applications by Twitter API developers
  • requests for whitelisting by Twitter developers
  • code review requests
  • tickets on our internal bug tracker
  • tickets on the Twitter API tracker
  • items in my personal to-do list
  • calendar event requests
  • unread items in my feed reader
  • unread items in Instapaper

My personal list would be fairly similar, except that the main queues I have today are:

  • my Gmail inbox
  • Twitter DMs and @replies
  • my to-do list (I switch between Taskpaper, Gmail’s Task list, and text files on a whim)
  • unread items in Instapaper (a great to-read service if you don’t use it)

I also have voicemail on my cell phone but never check it. I’ve (mostly) stopped using Google Reader as I dislike having to keep up with RSS feeds. I don’t check other social networking sites as much as I should. I don’t have a paper inbox. And other types of items on Alex’s list are funneled into my Gmail or to-do lists, at least for the moment.

What are your queues? It may be useful to make a list of your own so you can plan your strategy.

Strategies for Clearing the Queues
So now that we know just how many queues we have, how do we clear them or at least keep them manageable? Here are my favorite strategies — your mileage will vary. Also note that you won’t apply all strategies for every queue — pick the ones that work best.

1. Simplify your queues. Do you have 15-20 different queues in your life? You might try to simplify and see if you can get them down to 4-6, as I have (or even fewer if you’re bold). This greatly simplifies things because you have fewer queues to check every day. A larger number of queues is fine if they are already integrated into your daily routine — if you check them all in the morning and before you leave work, for example, and never have to check them at other times. Or if you always open a certain kind of software and check the queue at certain times of the day, then that’s fine. But if you have to remember to keep checking a dozen or more queues all the time, it gets difficult. See what you can eliminate or consolidate. For example, do you need more than one email inbox? Do you need multiple voicemail inboxes, or even voicemail at all? Do you need to be a part of 3 different social networks? Are there things you rarely use that you can drop? Give this a little thought over the next few days or couple weeks.

2. Self service. No, this isn’t dirty, you bad reader. Banks and companies that sell tickets (airlines, buses, theaters, etc.) have figured out a way to avoid massive queues: let people serve themselves through technology. So instead of lining up for a teller, there are ATMs everywhere. You can buy tickets through machines or online. So how do you use this to clear your queues? Figure out what types of requests are constantly coming at you — through work, even in your personal life, online, etc. — and try to figure out ways you can allow people to serve themselves. For example, are people always asking you for information? Post the information online. Do they need your approval on everything? Set up a list of criteria and allow them to approve things themselves if the criteria are met. See if you can automate certain processes. Remove yourself as a bottleneck, and your queues will shorten considerably.

3. Stop at the source. Whenever I get a newsletter or other such mass email from a company, I automatically go to the bottom and click the “unsubscribe” link. It takes a few seconds longer than just hitting “delete”, but it saves much more time in the long run. I hugely dislike getting my inbox filled up with notices and newsletters and ads from companies — what a waste of my time having to sift through them all. So I stop them at the source, so they no longer get sent to me. If there is no easy way to unsubscribe, I hit the “spam” button.

4. Filter out unnecessary stuff. It takes a minute or two to set up a filter in Gmail (or whatever email program you use), but as a result you’ll save a lot of time. If you get certain notices you want to keep on file but don’t need to see in your inbox, filter them out to a label or folder just for those notices. Look at everything in your queue to see what you don’t really need to see, and find a way to filter those out. For things like to-do lists, you might use a program (such as the aforementioned Taskpaper) that can use labels (such as @today) that you can use to filter out everything you don’t need to see today. For example, when I click on the @today label on my to-do list, it only shows me the three things I plan to do today — not things I want to do later in the week. There are many other tools that can do similar things for other queues. For example, you can use Tweetdeck to sort all the people you follow into groups, so you can filter out everybody but just your actual, real-life friends into one group, or your work colleagues in another group. If you use a feed reader, you can also set up groups or folders so that you can just check the most essential feeds, instead of having to sift through everything in your unread folder.

5. Pick the most important. A queue is usually unsorted by priority, so that when you make a to-do list, you have things listed in order of when you wrote them down. Your inbox (and most other queues) have the most recent items at the top. But that means you’re going to have to tackle everything, which can be overwhelming (and a waste of time) … or it means you’re going to have to continually scan through the entire queue to pick out the most important. Instead, find a way to choose the most important and just focus on those. In email, you might highlight everything in your inbox except 5 most important emails, and move everything (except the important ones) to a “to-read” folder to look through later. Then just deal with those 5 important emails until your inbox is cleared. Again, with my to-do list, I mark my 3 Most Important Tasks with an “@today” label so I can focus on just those. With a to-read folder, just pick 3 important things to read for now (as an example).

6. Clear the rest. Once you’ve picked out the most important, see if you can clear the rest, or at least shovel them somewhere else to deal with at a later time. I’ve already mentioned how you can do this with your email inbox. With a to-do list, you can put them in an @someday folder/label to deal with later. Delete things you will probably never get to, that you’ve been dreading doing and don’t absolutely need to do, or that are unnecessary. Sometimes a big mass delete can be liberating.

7. Skim. This is a good strategy for most queues — instead of trying to process the whole thing, just skim and find the important or interesting items. For example, if you use Twitter, you know that reading every message from every person you follow can quickly become a time-consuming (and stressful) burden. Instead, just skim to see what’s come in, and forget about the rest. The same applies to a to-read queue (such as Instapaper or feed reader) — don’t try to read everything. Just skim.

8. Let go of the need to get to the end. A lot of the stress that comes from managing queues is rooted in a need we seem to have: we want to process every item in the queue and get it to empty. But the nature of queues is that they’re never-ending. You can get your email inbox to empty (and I recommend it — it’s deeply satisfying), but more emails will soon come in. Don’t stress out about this! Just accept this fact of life. The same comes from a to-read list: don’t try to read everything. Enjoy the fact that you have a nice list of things to read — if the queue were emptied, what would you do when you’re bored? When we accept this fact — that we’ll never get to the end of our to-do list, and that that’s OK — we can stop stressing about our queues. Just manage them smartly, and deal with the flow as it comes in.

What are your strategies for managing the queus in your life? Share in the comments!
—
If you liked this article, please share it on del.icio.us, StumbleUpon or Twitter. I’d appreciate it. :)



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]]> http://designshrine.net/2009/06/8-liberating-strategies-for-clearing-the-queues-in-your-life/feed/ 0 Gardens, Gates & Doors http://designshrine.net/2009/06/gardens-gates-doors/ http://designshrine.net/2009/06/gardens-gates-doors/#comments Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:53:49 +0000 Ty Wenzel http://designshrine.net/2009/06/08/gardens-gates-doors/ Visit Notting Hill!

Let's just say I got a few concerned gazes from people as I held my camera inches from these door knockers. I'm happy that no one opened up the door while I was snapping shots - or on second thought that would have given me a chance to say, "I'm a blogger and was wondering if you wouldn't mind me doing an impromptu photo shoot of your gorgeous house...?"

A door in the French quarter. Charleston is full of wonderful gates and hidden side gardens everywhere you turn. Above is one of my favorite houses. You can see the garage off to the right. Take a close look at the picture below - it's an interior close-up of the garage. My picture only shows 2 but there were 3 wall mounted tables with the metal branches w/birds and candle votives. What a garage interior!! Love this conservatory. A gated path that connects King Street and Archdale Street. It brings you into the churchyard of the Unitarian Universalist Church. Formal gardens. Love the pig featured on the plaque above the fountain. In the foreground is the graveyard from the Unitarian Universalist Church on Archdale St. Our carriage ride guide pointed out its free-flowing garden is purposefully wild so the departed can be closer to nature. Contrast that with the St. John's Lutheran church next door's tidy, mowed graveyard in the background of the photo. Below is a Fairy House - this caught the attention of many passerbys. Have a great weekend. Hoping yours is sunny!

]]> http://designshrine.net/2009/06/gardens-gates-doors/feed/ 0 How to Find Your Amazing Work http://designshrine.net/2009/04/how-to-find-your-amazing-work/ http://designshrine.net/2009/04/how-to-find-your-amazing-work/#comments Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:37:45 +0000 Ty Wenzel http://designshrine.net/2009/04/23/how-to-find-your-amazing-work/ Post written by Leo Babauta.

Last week, when I wrote the simple guide to Getting Amazing Things Done, a commenter asked me to write a 12-step guide to the first step — Find Something Amazing to Work On.

I thought he was kidding. I mean, it’s simple, right? Look at your to-do list and pick something that really excites you, that will really make a difference in your life and (ideally) in the lives of others.

But after reading some of the other comments, I realized that not everyone has tasks like that on their to-do lists. Lots of people still haven’t found their Amazing Work.

So this post was born. I’m hoping to spark some ideas, and get some ideas from commenters, that will lead to finding your Amazing Work.

Why Even Try?

What’s the difference? Why can’t we just keep doing the work we’ve been doing?

Well, if you’re already doing Amazing Work, keep doing it. But if you feel like there’s nothing Amazing on your to-do list, then it’s obvious the work you’re doing doesn’t excite you, and you don’t feel it matters.

We should all find work that excites us, and that matters.

Without it, work is boring, just something we do to pay the bills — which means we’re spending somewhere around half our waking hours (sometimes more) doing something that we don’t like doing, just to pay the bills. Is that a life you want to live? Perhaps. If so, skip this post.

If, instead, you want to do work you love, if you want to make a difference, you need to start looking for that work.

What Makes Work Amazing?

A commenter in the original post said that not everybody is capable of doing amazing things — not everyone is a Beethoven or Bach. I agree that we can’t all be geniuses and produce world-changing works, but I don’t agree that we can’t all do amazing things.

“Amazing” is in the eye of the beholder — Mozart’s Amazing work would be different than my Amazing work. We should all strive to be the greatest we can be. If we can’t amaze the entire world for generations to come, perhaps we can amaze ourselves. Perhaps we can amaze a few people around us too.

If I inspire a few people to go out and do great things, and live amazing lives … isn’t that Amazing work, that I’ve done, to some small degree? If you go out and teach someone, or improve the lives of others, and they go on to do great things, haven’t you done something Amazing? If you create, or build, something that gives others joy or inspiration or a realization of something profound … isn’t that Amazing?

I believe so. If you don’t, this post won’t be for you.

Amazing work can be any kind of work, if it’s fulfilling your potential, if it fulfills you. Just a few examples of Amazing work: creating something new, building something awesome, helping others, inspiring others, teaching others, healing others, setting in motion something that will make the world a better place, making something beautiful, creating something useful, moving the hearts of others.

How to Find Your Amazing Work

The first key: start looking.

If you don’t ever look for it, it’s not likely to just fall into your lap. Once you start looking for your Amazing Work, you’re much much more likely to find it. That sounds kinda obvious, but it’s surprising how many of us will go through our work days (and years) without trying to find our Amazing Work, for many reasons. Maybe we don’t believe in ourselves, maybe we don’t think we have the time, maybe we’re putting it off until someday.

Well, start believing in yourself. Make the time. Make someday today.

And start looking.

Where and how do you look? Start by looking at the work you’re already doing: how can you find something in your work that excites you? Why did you get into it in the first place? When have you ever been excited about your work? What part of your work do you look forward to the most? How can you take it to the next level? What can you create or build or do that will change the lives of others?

If you’ve really looked long and hard at your work and can’t find anything at all, nothing, nada that excites you, that might become exciting, then start looking elsewhere. What other work have you done that you love? What have you done that has made a difference? Have you had any previous jobs that had exciting work? Do you have hobbies that excite you — perhaps those can be turned into Amazing Work? What do you read about — online and off? Do those things excite you, and if so, can you find something in that line of work?

Talking to others can spark ideas — ask the people who know you best what they think you should do. Ask co-workers about things that excite them. Talk to people online.

Once you come up with some ideas, it’s time to start doing them, trying them, testing them out. Sometimes something can sound fun but not be as fun once you try it. Sometimes something can sound uninteresting, but once you do it, there’s much more fun to it than you thought. It’s a process of experimenting — try things, give them a chance, and then pursue them if they’re exciting. If not, try something new. One thing to keep in mind, though — things can be more fun if you’re good at something, and it can take awhile to get good at something. The key is to enjoy the learning process as well.

I’d love to hear more ideas from people in the comments. The method above worked for me, but I’m sure others have found different paths that also lead to finding Amazing Work.

But remember: the first key is to start looking.

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]]> http://designshrine.net/2009/04/how-to-find-your-amazing-work/feed/ 0 The Lazy Manifesto: Do Less. Then, Do Even Less. http://designshrine.net/2009/01/the-lazy-manifesto-do-less-then-do-even-less/ http://designshrine.net/2009/01/the-lazy-manifesto-do-less-then-do-even-less/#comments Sun, 18 Jan 2009 08:31:56 +0000 Ty Wenzel http://designshrine.net/2009/01/18/the-lazy-manifesto-do-less-then-do-even-less/

“Practice not-doing and everything will fall into place.” - Lao Tzu

How many of us don’t get lazy every now and then? Of course, some of us get lazy more than others — my mom (always a hard worker) once told me she gets lazy, but then she just does the work anyway. I replied, “Mom, that’s not lazy! That’s the opposite of lazy!”

Lazy is often seen as a bad thing, but I disagree. Lazy is an amazing thing.

Here’s just a few reasons why:

  1. Lazy means that your body and mind are tired and want to rest. That’s a sign that you should actually rest. When you ignore these signs, that leads to burnout. So rest, and feel good about it!
  2. Lazy means you don’t want to work too hard, which often leads to figuring out how to do less work. Just about all of the advances in technology come from laziness: we drive cars instead of walking because we’re too lazy to walk, we use washing machines because we’re too lazy to do it by hand, we use computers because writing things out by hand is hard. Of course, reliance on machines isn’t a good thing, but using laziness to figure out better ways to do things is a good thing.
  3. Lazy people don’t start wars. Who wants to go through all the trouble to fight a war? Peace and friendliness is much easier.

“Simple Productivity” has been the motto of Zen Habits from its early days (even though I talk about a lot of other things as well) … and today I’d like to set out the reasons “Do Less” is one of my Four Commandments, and why it’s the ultimate extension of Simple Productivity.

Do Less: The Ultimate Simple Productivity

It may seem paradoxical that Do Less can mean you’re more productive — and if you define “productive” as meaning “get more done” or “do more”, then no, Do Less won’t lead to that kind of productivity.

But if instead you define “productivity” as a means of making the most of your actions, of the time you spend working (or doing anything), of being as effective as possible, then Do Less is the best way to be productive.

Consider: I can work all day in a flurry of frenetic activity, only to get a little done, especially when it comes to lasting achievement. Or I can do just a couple things that take an hour, but those are key actions that will lead to real achievement. In the second example, you did less, but the time you spent counted for more.

Let’s take the example of a blogger: I can write a dozen posts that really say nothing, mean nothing, but take up my entire day … or I can write one post that affects thousands of people, that really reaches to the heart of my readers’ lives, and takes me 1.5 hours to write. I did less, but made my words and time count for more.

If you’re lazy, as I often am, then the choice is simple. Do Less.

But do it smartly: Do Less, but make every action count. Send fewer emails, but make them important. Write fewer words, but make each word essential. Really consider the impact of every action you take, and see if you can eliminate some actions. See if you can achieve a great impact doing less.

This doesn’t mean “less is more”. It means “less is better”.

Do Less: Of Everything

But Do Less means much more than being productive. It goes to the heart of everything we do, of our society. Do Less is nothing less than a two-word manifesto for living.

Here’s how the two-word manifesto of “Do Less” can change everything:

1. Do Less buying. If you spend less, shop less, acquire less, then you will own less, need less, get into less debt, be in better financial shape, have less clutter, and have more time for things that are truly important.

2. Do Less busy-work. Instead of running around doing lots of little things, slow down. Do Less. Live a calmer, more peaceful life. Be content to sit, to do nothing. Relax a little. Smile and be happy.

3. Do Less managing. If you are in a position of authority over others, whether it’s as a manager, executive, or parent … the less you do the better. Many people over-manage, or over-parent. This gives their employees, or children, very little freedom, room for creativity, room to learn on their own, to succeed and fail. The less you do, the more others will figure out how to do things. Do little things to guide and teach, but for the most part, back off and let them be.

4. Do Less communicating. Less talking, less yelling, less arguing, less emails and IM and Twittering, less phone calling. While I think communication is extremely important, and should be one of the keys to any relationship, I also think we do it too much. Especially as most of it becomes nothing but jabbering at each other, with very little actual listening. It is noise. Let silence into your life. Let stillness pervade our minds. When you do communicate, make it count, make it sincere, and more than you talk, listen. Make every email count. Only IM when it’s necessary. Spend less time on the phone and Twitter and Blackberry and iPhone, and more time with humans, more time with yourself, more time in the present.

5. Do Less complaining and criticizing. I won’t rant about how these two things can drag down you and those around you … but instead will say that if you did less of these two things, your life would be better. And we all do them — fess up! I do, and I try to do less of it. Instead, do more kindness, compassion, understanding, accepting, loving.

6. Do Less planning and worrying and future thinking. Spend more time in the moment. We worry too much, and it does us no good. We think about things that haven’t happened, instead of what’s happening now (and yes, I know that’s the name of an old sitcom). And while some planning is necessary, too much of it is a waste of time — there’s no way to predict the future, and trying to control every little thing that’s going to happen is futile. Learn to go with the flow, look for opportunities, find the natural path of things, and do what is needed in the moment. You can’t control outcomes, but if you learn to work more fluidly (instead of rigidly following plans), you can get to outcomes that are good.

7. Do Less judging and expecting. Acceptance is something I’m trying to learn to do more. And that means I need to be less judgmental, and stop having expectations from everything and everybody. If you have no expectations, and don’t judge things, you can accept them. And acceptance leads to peace, leads to happiness. So when you find yourself judging, think “Do Less Judging”. When you find yourself expecting someone to be a certain way, think “Do Less Expectations”. People won’t disappoint you that way, because you’ll learn to accept them as they are, and learn that they are already perfect, as they are.

“Be Content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” - Lao Tzu

How to Do Less

If you are sold on the two-word manifesto — Do Less — you might be saying to yourself, “Self, that sounds good, but how exactly do I go about doing less?” It’s simple:

1. Do Less. Yes, it really is that simple. Do Less. Take how much you usually do, and Do Less than that. If you’re smart, you’ll naturally choose the more essential things to do, but it’s possible that you won’t, and you’ll just choose whatever is easy or convenient or fun. That’s OK. Go with that. Eventually you’ll probably have to do the important stuff, because it probably has to be done sometime. Or maybe you won’t, and you’ll end up getting nothing done. Then you’ll think to yourself, “Self, there has to be a better way. Either I have to go back to doing more, or I have to choose more wisely in what I do.”

2. Then Do Even Less. If you followed the first step, and you’re now doing less than you were before, congratulate yourself! Pat yourself on the back! Celebrate by going to take a nap. Now, when you’re ready to get started again, try to do even less than you were doing in Step 1 above. Pare some of your actions down. Look for more fat to trim. See if some things really aren’t as necessary as you thought they were. Pass some things on to others, automate other things, delay on still others, and get out of doing still others by calling up someone or emailing them and explaining, “I’m sorry, I just can’t do as much as I originally planned.” Now you’re doing less than before!

Repeat. Keep doing less until you’re doing almost nothing. When you’ve reached that point, congratulations! You’re a master. When you can get by with doing nothing at all, you’ve reached Nirvana and enlightenment and you should really be teaching me instead of the other way around. Feel free to come write a guest post for Zen Habits when you’ve reached this state!

Some other ideas to consider when learning to Do Less:

  • Go with the flow. Imagine the effort required to swim upstream compared to moving with the flow of a river. If you go with the flow of things, rather than against them, you will naturally do less, and with less effort.
  • Don’t force things. A common mistake — trying to hard, forcing something that doesn’t want to be forced, forcing people to do things they don’t want to do. A lot of effort, action, and time is wasted. Instead, find a smoother way — think of water, which flows around things rather than trying to force its way through them.
  • Find the pressure points. In martial arts, instead of using maximum force, you are wise to find the points in the body where less force can be used to greater effect, whether that’s to cause pain or imbalance or some other effect. Well, I don’t advocate finding pain, but the idea of pressure points is a good one: if you can find the little spots where a little action can change everything, can go a long way, you have mastered the Do Less philosophy.
  • Let others do. Give others the room and freedom to move, to create, to invent, to learn, to work, to do, on their own. Less time, effort and action spent trying to control others means that you do less, but let others make things happen. It means letting go of control, but that’s a good thing. Other people have creativity, imagination, dedication, good ideas too.
  • Let things happen. Often our actions interfere with events that would happen without our actions. In other words, if we took no action, things would happen without us. Sometimes it’s better to let things happen. Step back, don’t act, things will happen without us.

“Doing nothing to disturb the spontaneous flow of things.” - Lao Tzu

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Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

—

Read more about how and why to Do Less in my book, The Power of Less. Help the book do well! A few ways you can help: buy the book for others, spread the word with friends and family about the website, review the book on your blog. Thanks everyone!

—

Read this amazing article here!

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]]> http://designshrine.net/2009/01/the-lazy-manifesto-do-less-then-do-even-less/feed/ 0 7 Ways Being Unbalanced Can Make You More Productive http://designshrine.net/2009/01/7-ways-being-unbalanced-can-make-you-more-productive/ http://designshrine.net/2009/01/7-ways-being-unbalanced-can-make-you-more-productive/#comments Sun, 18 Jan 2009 08:30:30 +0000 Ty Wenzel http://designshrine.net/2009/01/18/7-ways-being-unbalanced-can-make-you-more-productive/ Sometimes you need to become unbalanced in order to get things done. If you’re working on a book, launching a business or trying to overhaul some part of your life, you can probably relate.

The benefits of being focused on one thing might not be the most original topic. I know. We all know that when you’re incredibly focused, you’ll make progress on the important stuff. I’m not going to talk about why that’s smart here. I already know you’re smart (you’re reading this blog right?).

What’s missing, I think, is advice for just how to stay focused on one thing. You probably also won’t hear that it’s perfectly OK to become completely unbalanced for short periods of time. It might even be critical to your success. Please keep in mind, I don’t recommend any of these techniques be used on a long-term basis. But they can be practicality essential for short productive bursts.

  1. Embrace imbalance. We all crave balance, but sometimes it gets in the way of doing things that are important. Sometimes in order to be effective you need to be completely immersed in what you’re doing. Toe dipping just won’t suffice. To do that, you’ll need to embrace life-balance craziness and become consumed in your work. This of course is intended for short bursts and shouldn’t be a long term strategy. (Loss of a realistic sleep schedule is usually a good sign you’ve gone too far.)
  2. Be incredibly flaky. This will probably not be easy to swallow, but if you’re working on a really big, important project, you’ll likely have to let other stuff slide. You’ll need to become really flaky. You might need to not show up for meetings, clear your schedule and leave unnecessary events unattended.
  3. Disappear. In order to focus on what’s important, you may need to isolate yourself. That could mean going to work at a library, cafe or just putting up a “do not disturb” sign over your door. Make sure you communicate to your loved ones that you’ll need some temporary solitude. If you have co-workers that have a habit of bothering you, tell them you’re working on an important project and you need to focus. They can email you or leave a note and you’ll get to it later. Embellish if you need to. It’s not your fault other people don’t have their priorities straight.
  4. Stop caring. Caring in most situations is an incredibly healthy thing. In fact, you’d probably consider people that don’t care as cold or callous, and I agree. What’s not good is when excessive caring keeps you from doing the things that really matter. If you’re more concerned with a perfect desk and an immaculate filing system, you’ll probably get less done on that novel you really want to write or that business you want to start up. Try to see how much you can give up caring about things that really don’t make a difference.
  5. Triage ruthlessly. Sometimes things seem important, but you’re really just responding to whatever comes up. Learn to take stock of what’s really important and use it to guide your attention. Productivity is really just about mastering attention. Triage your attention to focus only on tasks that support your primary aim. Delete, put off, or batch the rest for a later date.
  6. Disconnect. Turn off the TV and the internet. Cancel your cable subscription. Go on an information fast. Do whatever you need to do to disconnect from distractions. Create a minimalist workspace that allows you to focus on what’s meaningful.
  7. Drop out. If you’re working on getting your dreams off the ground, you’ll need to quit all of the things that don’t matter. Take an assessment of things in your life that aren’t provided you any meaningful value. Take out what’s not working and not getting any results. You’ll be left with the awesome.

I recommend following these tips with a grain of salt. Obviously disappearing too long might make your partner (or friends) very unhappy. (My wife helps keep me in check with this.)

But these tools can be seriously valuable when working on a big project that really requires being hyper-focused.

What’s interesting is that it’s often the times when you’re completely out of equilibrium and your life is a mess, that you remember what it means to be balanced. It helps give you a reference point to get back on track.

Just make sure you sleep once in a while. =)

PS: My upcoming ebook, Reclaim Your Dreams - A Step By Step Guide to Making Your Dreams a Reality, will be launching on January 13th to help you on your path. For exclusive tips on fast-tracking making your dreams a reality and a special, exclusive discount on my book for Zen Habits readers go here to get on the list.

This article was written by Zen Habits contributor Jonathan Mead of Illuminated Mind. To learn more about how to reclaim your life, grab a subscription to Illuminated MInd

Read this amazing article here!

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]]> http://designshrine.net/2009/01/7-ways-being-unbalanced-can-make-you-more-productive/feed/ 0 The Power of Less Tips of the Day http://designshrine.net/2009/01/the-power-of-less-tips-of-the-day/ http://designshrine.net/2009/01/the-power-of-less-tips-of-the-day/#comments Sun, 18 Jan 2009 08:28:48 +0000 Ty Wenzel http://designshrine.net/2009/01/18/the-power-of-less-tips-of-the-day/ Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow on Twitter.

I wanted to share with you my Power of Less Tips of the Day, which I’m offering through Twitter — powerful tips to help you focus on the essential and get to less.

The tips so far (started on Jan. 1):

  1. Don’t make resolutions, create a new habit. It lasts longer. Try the New Year’s Challenge.
  2. Start your New Year with a clear desk. Clear everything off the top of the desk but the essential tools.
  3. Set one major goal for this year. Focus yourself completely into making it happen. Make it a mantra.
  4. Take action TODAY to make your One Goal happen. Even a small action. Tomorrow: repeat.
  5. Schedule time for yourself, right now. Every day if possible, even if it’s just 10 mins.
  6. Practice effective focus. Spend 30 minutes just focusing on one task. Clear distractions. It gets easier.
  7. Realize that you don’t need to respond to email right away-no one expects you to. It can wait! Checking email just twice a day is possible if you let go of the need to respond immediately.

Follow me on Twitter today to receive the daily tips! (Note: I’ll also be updating the tips page on ThePowerofLess.com if you don’t use Twitter.)

Read this amazing article here!

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]]> http://designshrine.net/2009/01/the-power-of-less-tips-of-the-day/feed/ 0 25 Painless Ways to Free Up an Hour a Day for Your Goals http://designshrine.net/2008/08/25-painless-ways-to-free-up-an-hour-a-day-for-your-goals/ http://designshrine.net/2008/08/25-painless-ways-to-free-up-an-hour-a-day-for-your-goals/#comments Mon, 25 Aug 2008 05:05:54 +0000 Ty Wenzel http://designshrine.net/2008/08/25/25-painless-ways-to-free-up-an-hour-a-day-for-your-goals/

“Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.” - Henry David Thoreau

What would you do if you had an extra hour a day?

This is a common barrier I run into when I write about making positive life changes: people don’t have time to pursue their dreams. People don’t have time to exercise. People don’t have time to get organized.

Well, it’s time to make time.

By using some combination of the following, you can free up an hour or more a day. Find the ones that work for you (not all will work for everyone), and then carve out that hour a day.

Then make sure you use that extra hour a day in the best way possible — book that hour on your calendar for something you really, really want to do, whether that’s work on a goal, write a book, start a business, exercise, read more, or whatever. Don’t squander this gift of time!

  1. Make an appointment right after work. Whether it’s exercise or working on some other goal, make an appointment to do it right when you get out of work (at 5 p.m., for example). This works especially well if you have to meet someone else, such as a workout partner or other group or team or coach or partner. You’ll be sure to meet the appointment, which means you won’t stick around work too long, and you’ll be sure to finish all your tasks on time so you can leave on time. This makes you more efficient in the afternoon especially.
  2. Wake up earlier. I’ve written about this before, of course, but I’ve found time for goals that are important to me by waking a bit earlier. Exercise, writing, reading — I do those now early in the day, so it doesn’t interfere with family time. Early in the day works well for me and many others, simply because there’s not much going on to distract or interrupt at this time of day.
  3. Turn off the phones. You don’t have to turn off phones all day long, but you should have some unbroken blocks of time when you don’t take calls, so you can concentrate on your important tasks. This allows you to get more done in less time, as phone calls can eat up chunks of your day if you let them.
  4. Stop checking email. This doesn’t work for everyone, but if you can stop checking email except at one or two times during the day, you can free up a lot of wasted time. Checking email constantly takes up a lot of time.
  5. Brown bag it. Many people I know take an hour or more for lunch. While a relaxing lunch can be a good thing, if you take lunch to work, you can eat quickly and either spend the extra time 1) working on a goal; or 2) getting work done so you can leave earlier. Plus, brown bagging it saves money too.
  6. Figure out your core work activities. What is it that you really have to do each day? I mean, the stuff you have to do or your job would fall apart. If you really think about it, a lot of the tasks you do each day (and phone calls and emails, mentioned above, are included in these tasks) don’t really need to be done each day. Sometimes you can do them less often, sometimes you don’t need to do them at all. If you can learn to focus on your core activities, you can get your work done in less time.
  7. Cancel a meeting or two. Think about the last 4-5 meetings you’ve gone to. How many of them were really valuable? How many of them did you need to be at? It depends on your job, but sometimes you can beg out of a meeting — or just outright cancel it if you have that power — and accomplish the same thing through an email or two. You just saved yourself 30-60 minutes per meeting canceled.
  8. Delegate. Not everyone has this option, but if you can give some of the tasks on your list to others who are better suited to doing those tasks, you’ll free up time. Do you really need to be doing everything you do, or can some of those tasks be delegated?
  9. Consolidate errands. If you routinely do errands throughout the week, you’re spending a lot of time driving. Instead, try to do all errands on one day, and plan out an efficient route. Most people will save at least an hour a week in total.
  10. Know your priority. What is the one thing you need to do today? Get that done, above all else, and do it first. After you do that priority task, the rest is extra really. Cut back on some of the rest to free up time.
  11. Shrink your task list. Once you’ve identified your core work activities and your top priority for the day, go over your task list and whittle it down to the essentials. Put tasks you don’t need to do now on a someday/maybe list, delete others, delegate others. Keep your task list down to the essentials, to keep from wasting time.
  12. Say no. One of the biggest groups of time eaters is requests from other people. All day long we get requests, in person, on the phone, in email, through paperwork. Meetings, assignments, requests for information, requests to be on a committee or team … these are all requests that will eat up your time. Say no to all but the essentials.
  13. Get to the point. While I’m a fan of long, slow conversations, if you’re trying to make time for goals, you need to whittle down needlessly long conversations — especially if it’s just with a co-worker who isn’t a close friend. In person or on the phone, you need to get straight to the point with a minimum of chit-chat, and if the other person isn’t getting to the point, politely ask what he needs from you.
  14. Watch less TV. Many people watch hours of TV a day. You can easily save an hour a day if you cut TV out, or just watch your single favorite show each day. Don’t channel surf.
  15. Read less online. If you’re like me, you can spend hours a day reading online. Limit your online reading and focus on your essential tasks.
  16. Don’t talk long on the phone. Long phone conversations can eat up a lot of your time. Instead, know what you want to accomplish and try to get that done quickly. If someone else is calling you, encourage them to get to the point, and then wrap it up when you’re done. Tell them you have to go because you’ve got something else to get to.
  17. Avoid IM and Twitter and the like. I’m not saying these types of instant communication don’t have their uses, but if they’re always on and you’re always available, you’re always at the mercy of others. Instead, just make yourself available at set times if necessary, or not at all if it’s not necessary. (And yes, I know the irony of giving this advice after I just started Twittering.)
  18. Search, don’t file. I used to spend a lot of time filing all my computer files and all my emails into nice, organized folders. I’d spend time every day doing this. Now, I just archive everything, on computer and email, and search when I need something. With Quicksilver on the Mac, every file is within a few keystrokes. With Gmail, every email is accessible instantly. No time spent filing!
  19. Leave early. If you’re using these time-saving tips, you should be able to finish your essential work early. If so, don’t use the extra time to just do more work … leave early! Of course, you’ll probably have to talk to your boss about this, but many people have flexible hours and many bosses would be happy to let you go early if you get your work done. If you set your own hours, set an earlier time to leave and you’ll ensure that you get your work done by that time.
  20. Get the kids to help out. At home, if you have kids, it saves huge heaploads of time if you let the kids help with cleaning and other tasks. At first, of course, it will cost you time because you have to teach them to do things. But once they learn … it’ll free up much of your time. My kids can help clean the house, reducing by 2/3 the amount of time I have to spend cleaning. Of course, they made the mess in the first place, but that’s another story.
  21. Educate others. Is there something that other people submit to you that you routinely have to edit or reformat? Teach these people (maybe with an FAQ or tutorial) how to do it right or how you need it so you don’t have to make changes. Are there mistakes people are doing that you routinely have to fix? Are there things you have to do yourself because others don’t know how to do it? Educate them, and save yourself tons of time. It takes time at first, but the payoff is huge.
  22. Automate things. If people submit stuff to you, or if you routinely have to do routine work, find ways to have the process automated. Technology works wonders these days.
  23. Just say, “That’s enough.” Often you are overloaded with information and tasks. But if you don’t respond to all of your emails today, or don’t read all of the posts in your RSS reader, or don’t get to all the tasks on your to-do lists … what will happen? If nothing drastic will happen, consider stopping when you’ve gotten to enough.
  24. Start work early. If you work before everyone gets in the office, you won’t have constant interruptions and distractions. You’ll be amazed how much you can get done between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. I used to do it when I worked in an office, and because I didn’t take a lunch break — I at ate my desk while working) I could get off at 2 p.m. and spend time with my kids.
  25. Give others authority. If you have to approve things or make decisions, you might be a bottleneck — things move slower if they have to be channeled through you. Instead, give others the authority to make decisions — with clear instructions about what decisions should be made under what circumstances, and what the limits of their authority are. That’ll remove a bottleneck and free you up from having to make a bunch of huge decisions. Just have a way to monitor things as necessary.

Read this amazing article here!

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]]> http://designshrine.net/2008/08/25-painless-ways-to-free-up-an-hour-a-day-for-your-goals/feed/ 0 Grow your own wheatgrass http://designshrine.net/2008/07/grow-your-own-wheatgrass/ http://designshrine.net/2008/07/grow-your-own-wheatgrass/#comments Sat, 19 Jul 2008 03:28:47 +0000 Ty Wenzel http://designshrine.net/2008/07/18/grow-your-own-wheatgrass/ I got the idea to grow my own wheatgrass after buying a cat grass growing kit for my cat. Its pretty easy, grows well indoors and not a lot of supplies are needed.

Wheatgrass is a popular drink in juice bars or sold as powdered supplements at health food stores, but it can be rather expensive; th...

By: itschrys

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]]> http://designshrine.net/2008/07/grow-your-own-wheatgrass/feed/ 0 Dogs Could Identify Early Stages of Ovarian Cancer http://designshrine.net/2008/06/dogs-could-identify-early-stages-of-ovarian-cancer/ http://designshrine.net/2008/06/dogs-could-identify-early-stages-of-ovarian-cancer/#comments Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:34:10 +0000 Ty Wenzel http://designshrine.net/?p=4144

SOURCE

Research led by György Horvath MD,PhD of the Göteborg University Hospital proved that trained dogs detect cancer through scent.

The research was focused mainly on ovarian cancer in all stages, including borderline tumors and the results were that most common ovarian carcinomas are characterized by a single specific odor.

The research makes sense if we consider that the high mortality rate associated with ovarian cancer is due to late diagnosis. Trained dogs could be used to detect ovarian cancer in its early stages.

There is already evidence that dogs can detect other types of cancer, such as melanoma, bladder, lung and breast cancer, but these previous researches were unable to identify whether the dogs responded to scents related to cancer or to the cancer itself.

In the research concerning ovarian cancer the dogs were trained to distinguish between different histopathological types of ovarian carcinomas. Blind tests showed 100% sensitivity and 97.5% specificity.

Source: Human Ovarian Carcinomas Detected by Specific Odor. Integrative Cancer Therapies, 2008; 7 (2): 76 DOI: 10.1177/1534735408319058 does not specify what dogs were used in this research.

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