Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Why you shouldn't remember anything, ever!

I stopped trying to remember anything about 3 years ago and it is the best thing that I have ever done. There are things that everyone needs to remember but we try to retain everything for no apparent reason.
Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's events. -Albert Einstein
I have a process of regular tasks that I have set to recur on a regular basis. This keeps my processes optimized. This also allows me to not remember any of the mundane tasks, as long as they are necessary.

These regular tasks also give my mind the freedom to think up new ideas and solutions to my current problems. I address freeing brain ram in a previous post. I have listed my regular project list below, and I will go into each of these in more detail.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

How to Empty Your Inbox by Tomorrow

In this post we are going to discuss email management. I know many people that have trouble having a zero inbox without obsessively checking their email. I personally had an inbox with over 25,000 new messages. You read that correctly 25k+ inbox. If I can get out of such a huge number of new emails, I believe you can too. To achieve this you will need to follow these simple steps.

Step 1. Create a folder structure
The first thing we need to do is create a structure to handle all the email that we will be dealing with. I have a very simple structure, because anything too complex becomes convoluted quickly. I try to use an email system that has a good search function. This will reduce the number of folders that are needed. I have slightly different structures for work and personal. At work, because I have Outlook and it has a very basic search function, I have 3 main folders.  I have laid out the structure below.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Plan Each Day

I have found that if I jump into my day without any planning I get to the end of the day not really accomplishing very much. Keeping yourself busy is not the same as accomplishing the goals you set for the day.  I recommend taking 5-10 minutes at the beginning of the day and planning out everything that you plan on addressing that day. Don't pack your day too full, otherwise you will have to move things to that next day and that is bad for your psyche.

The two tasks that are the most important in my day are planning and selecting goals.

The first thing that I do each day is plan my day. This allows me to integrate anything that is on my calendar that is time specific in to the tasks list so that is have everything in one place. This also gives me a handle on what needs to be done that day.

Once all my appointments have been integrated, I pick a few tasks that I need to do that are not yet on the list for today. This would come from other projects in my Asana list.

By planning each day you will be able to more effectively take on whatever life throws at you.

To your success.


Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Time for a Change

Today I am going to talk about making changes when necessary and know when that time is. If you have ever been in the position where you are getting frustrated with little things that later you regret this guide may help you.

Knowing when to change


The hardest part of knowing when to make a change is being able to take that step back and analyze your current situation. If you don't do this on a regular basis here are some warning signs. You:

  1. Have an extremely short fuse.
  2. Are not moving towards your goals
  3. Don't have goals
  4. Stopped caring
  5. Start loathing doing the things your doing on a daily basis
Something to keep in mind here is if these get extreme it can be a sign of depression.* Don't get depressed, but it may be time to make a change if any of these start to surface. Changing things up will make you feel better, make you more productive and the people around you will start to take notice.


Making the change

Once you have identified that you need to make a change you will need to set up a system so that you can make the change successfully. The system that I use is three main parts. This includes a support system, a way of measuring the goal and what will be the reward when you have achieve the goal. The support system is the most important part, make this a priority when you make that decision.

I hope this helps you become better at managing time.

To your Success.


*I am not a medical doctor and do not claim to correct, cure, or otherwise treat depression. If you think you are depressed please seek medical attention immediately.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Brain Ram

I have found that people that are stressed get that way because they are trying to use more RAM than they have. If you are not familiar with RAM, it is the memory in your computer that is stores things that you are working on currently. Think of this as the top of your desk in your office.

The problem is that most people try to remember everything. This would be the equivalent or trying to keep everything on your computer open without storing anything on the hard drive. The office analogy of the hard drive is the filing cabinet. In your office you probably have files that you store in your filing cabinet keeping until you are talking to a client, or need to reference a particular file. Most people would do the same digitally, save the file on your hard drive for later access. Most people, however, do not do this for there brain.