39 tips for simplifying life

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A recipe for success

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

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

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

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

Here is one example:

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

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

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

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

Practice excellence

What is excellence?

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

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


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

Is excellence important to me?

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

What are the benefits of excellence?

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

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

What are the enemies of excellence?

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

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


How to achieve excellence?

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

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



Tips for achieving excellence

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


Quotes:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Always have a backup plan

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

What should you do?

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

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

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

Sharpen your tools

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What you should do?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Five frugality tips for shopping

1. Reduce the number of shopping trips

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

2. Buy from the list

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

3. Make a don't buy list

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

4. Track your expenses

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

5. Reduce shopping list

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

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

To create new habits use baby steps

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

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

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

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