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Ideas, insights and inspiration for people on the go Friday, January 21, 2005 |
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Editor’s Scribbles
The hot and humid days are hotter and more humid than ever. The Chinese New Year shopping frenzy has started here in Asia and weather like this isn’t exactly great to be out and about. The lines at fitting rooms and checkout are long, parking spots are few and far between, the kids are fidgety, you get the picture.
We had some welcome rain today but it’s done practically nothing to beat the heat, instead it’s only made the humidity worse. This gives you a picture of some of the conditions the aid workers in tsunami-hit areas in nearby countries must be enduring right now. Please say a prayer for these selfless folks who’re out there helping the victims.
If you’ve been wishing you had more hours in a day, here’s how you can save one hour a day... which is pretty good for a start, don’t you think? Most of these tips are not hard to do, I tried a few of them myself and they really do work! Go ahead and try them yourself :o)
If there’s something you’d like to see in this ezine, I’d love to hear from you. Hope you have a fantastic weekend. Ciao for now.
Kit Editor/Publisher Website: http://MinuteChaser.Go-GetGlobal.com Email: chaser@go-getglobal.com
Brainwave Tips to Save One Hour Per Day by Barbara Hemphill At Home • Keep related items together, for example the coffee filters and coffee “live” above or near the coffee maker. (saves 2-5 minutes a day) • Create a communication center on the fridge for messages, chores etc. (saves 5 minutes a day) • Keep the grocery list posted where all family members can add items as they run out. (Saves 10 – 30 minutes a week, depending if you forget something and have to go back to the store!) • Create a checklist for groceries arranged in the order of your grocery store aisles. (saves 5-10 minutes shopping) • Create recipe categories that make sense to you. (saves 5 minutes a day) • Identify a place to put car keys, gloves, umbrellas etc., for easy access when you leave the house (saves 5 minutes a day or a lot more if you really can’t find your car keys!) • Use an answering machine or service to control calls. Return calls at your convenience. (saves 10-20 minutes a day) • When opening your incoming e-mail, apply The FAT System™ (File-Act-Toss). If you aren’t sure you need it, toss it! (saves 5-10 minutes a day) • Create an address book for quick reference. Outlook Express, ACT!, and Quicken all come with address books, or you can do it the “old fashioned” way and input info by hand in an actual book. Keep it updated. (saves 5 minutes a day) • Put daily grooming/make-up needs in a single container easily accessible. (saves 3 minutes a day.) • Make a habit of looking when you go from one place to another, and see what needs to go with you. (saves 3 minutes a day.) Family • Teach your children to use an alarm clock or clock radio. (saves 5 minutes a day) • Choose clothing and accessories the night before (saves 5 minutes a day) • Pack lunches the night before (saves 5 minutes in busiest time of the day) • Designate a place where family members can check to see if they have messages. (saves 5 minutes a day per person) • Start a child’s file system with a simple container, basket, file or shelf. It may contain information about their medical records, medicines, education, extra curricular activities, memorabilia, etc. (saves 10-15 minutes a week) • Designate a “special place” for your child to put the papers they bring home from school. (saves 5-15 minutes a week) • Run errands at non-rush hour times if possible. Keep stops sequential to avoid driving in circles (saves 15-45 minutes a day) Work • Avoid an overflowing e-mail In Box, by creating folders. Create a folder for each committee, project, person etc. (saves 5-10 minutes a day) • Attach the old message when replying to an e-mail to help the recipient remember its original content. (saves 5-10 minutes a day) • For lengthy or complicated e-mail, create your message in a word processing program and attach it to your e-mail. This allows you easy access for editing and retrieval. (saves 10 minutes a day) • If you need a copy of an e-mail, print it and then delete it! Remember to file your e-mail hard copy in your paper management system, such as The Paper Tiger™, so you can find it again in 5 seconds or less! (saves 5 minutes a day) • Keep your filing system simple. Don’t create too many categories, it’s better to put information into the largest general category first. (saves 10 minutes a day) • Organize computer documents. Put into one folder. Your computer already has it for you - “My Documents”. Then create subfolders for each program that you use, such as Word, Excel, Power Point, etc. Then save it. (i.e., My Documents/ Word/Mary Stowe letter/Marketing for book. (saves 10 minutes a day) • Practice the Art of Wastebasketry®. Take a minute to clean out whenever you can. (saves 5-10 minutes a day) • Let calls go into voice mail. Don’t allow the phone to interrupt your work unless it’s truly necessary. Return calls when you have a set time to talk. Checking messages can also give you time to prepare for what the caller wanted and avoid having to return calls back and forth. (saves 15 minutes a day) ----- About the author: © Barbara Hemphill is the author of Kiplinger's Taming the Paper Tiger at Work and Taming the Paper Tiger at Home and co-author of Love It or Lose It: Living Clutter-Free Forever. The mission of Hemphill Productivity Institute is to help individuals and organizations create and sustain a productive environment so they can accomplish their work and enjoy their lives. We do this by organizing space, information, and time. We can be reached at 800-427-0237 or at www.ProductiveEnvironment.com
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Modern Living What to Do When You’re Worried by Susan Dunn Worrying? Who doesn’t these days? There’s such a great choice of things to worry about – terrorism, the economy, the rising cost of health insurance – and then there’s our more personal list – the difficult teenager, an aging parent who’s not doing well, the threat of being downsized, the difficult in finding good employment. What we choose to worry about says a lot about us, but the concept of worrying seems to be an accepted part of life. I’m reminded of my first days interning at a battered women’s shelter when I was getting my degree in psychology. “You won’t find a lot of neurotic worrying down here,” the supervisor told me. “This is about putting food on the table.” What is “neurotic” worrying? Well, it’s kind of like getting in the groove of worrying and shifting the levels and the particulars. Worrying about things you’re conflicted about. Fantasizing and inventing things to worry about. It’s an oversimplification, but “real” worry is when your car’s stuck on the railroad track and a train is barreling toward you. “Manufactured” worrying is worrying that you’ll NEVER find a partner because you’re over 30 or worrying that you’ll NEVER find a job. Sometimes we just get in the habit of worrying. For instance you might wake up in the morning and start the mental search for what you’re supposed to be worrying about that day. Even having had a great dream can trigger this. “I had this wonderful dream about my mother,” someone told me, “and woke up so happy, but it didn’t last long. I immediately switched over to worrying about how unhappy she is now and what to do about it.” Well, it’s one thing if you’re worrying about something crucial – in the case of being unemployed, for instance, but quite another if you’re just in the habit of worrying and you don’t feel good if you aren’t, or actually go after it as a part of your mental and emotional life. This can be changed and is part of your emotional intelligence development. Worry is part mental and part emotional. You start the emotion of worry because of what you’re thinking about or, especially sad, you’re in a worry mindset and start a computer scan to find things to worry about. It’s quite logical that if you’re determined to worry, you can find something to worry about, but we aren’t always rational about such things. Emotions are valuable to us because they give us information, and in this case your worry is telling you there’s a legitimate problem that needs addressing, but consider this analogy. It was often bandied about in the media, and is kind of a well-known fact that the stock market doesn’t like uncertainty. We were often told that once the election was over, whichever way it went, the market would settle down and start to rise again. Well, we don’t function well with uncertainty either. Once a decision is made, we can settle down and start to rise again. Worrying is like remaining in that state of indecision. After all, we can’t always be sure of any outcome. When you think about it, what we worry about often never comes true, and the things that will really whack us are things we could never have conceived of. 911 would be a good example of this. How could we have conceived of something like that happening? There couldn’t have been one person in the US lying awake at night worrying that a terrorist airplane would crash into the World Trade Center, but I bet there were at least 100 people in New York City at the time worried about a presentation they had to give that day that never occurred because of the terrible event that no one could have anticipated. And remember all the recommendations that were made for coping with 911? One of them was to do something to help; to choose one thing to do that would help others or help the cause, and therefore alleviate that helpless feeling. It was a matter of taking action. Don’t get into the habit of worrying. If there’s a challenge in your life, face it and do the best you can to address it. You can borrow strength from the challenges you’ve faced before. If you’re worrying about something you can’t do anything about, you’re wasting time and energy that could be focused positively somewhere else. If you’re worrying just to worry, seeking out possible candidates for this task, there’s something a lot better you could be doing with your mind. The first step is to become aware of your own worry patterns. The second step is to know that you have a choice. Then you can learn to divert yourself from mindless worry that robs you of life energy and pleasure. ----- About the author: ©Susan Dunn, MA, Personal Life and EQ Coach, http://www.susandunn.cc. Offering coaching, Internet courses and ebooks for your personal and professional development. mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc for free ezine. I train and certify EQ coaches. Email for info on fast, affordable, comprehensive, no-residency program. Start immediately. Great for building a practice.
Offpeak Hours How to Avoid Jet Lag Using 3 Simple Methods By Ebe Heng Too tired to go for meetings when you arrive in your destinations or worse -too tired to enjoy your vacations? Jet lag is the effect of crossing one or several time zones really quickly, usually by plane. So, if you travel alot for business or are planning a vacation, this information will be invaluable to you. Because to be able to get the most of yout trip, you need to have better sleep and an increased level of energy. Jet lag happens because our body temperature rhythm doesn't adjust to a new time zone as quickly as we'd like it to. Whenever you travel East, you are forced to sleep when you are not sleepy. Whenever you travel West, you experience feelings of drowisness and tiredness earlier than everyone else. If you are planning for a long vacation and want to spend your time enjoying it as much as possible instead of starving for sleep, or trying to force sleep at night, take the following precautions to set your sleep clock up for the journey well in advance: 1. Proper Hydration When you fly in a plane for 8 hour, you would lose a lot of water. You may notice that your lips get really dry during a long flight. This is because there's zero humidity in the plane! And this means that water is literally evaporating out of you as if you were a puddle of cool aid on a hot summer day! Drink lots of water when you arrive at your new destination and don't stop drinking throughout the day would immediately hydrate your body. And this would make adjusting to the new time zone much easier for you. It's also a good idea to keep a water bottle with you on the plane. The little 100ml packages of water they give you on the plane don't hydrate you! 2. Set your schedule in advance The best strategy for going across several zones is to start changing your sleeping schedule several days in advance to the trip. For instance, if you are travelling from Los Angeles to Hawaii, begin waking up and sleeping earlier gradually 3 to 4 days in advance, this will minimize the jet lag effect when you arrive at your destination. Adjust your meals and your light exposure as if you were to be already there and following that schedule. 3. Shock your sleep system When you arrive your destination, immediately adapt your sleeping schedule to the local time zone. For instance, if you arrive at 3Pm and you're feeling tired and drowsy, don't sleep! Wait it out and go to sleep at the time you normally would. This will put more pressure on your body temperature rhythm to adapt to the local time. If you try to adjust gradually it will take longer and make your vacation time less enjoyable! Using these 3 simple methods should minimize the jet lag effects you experience, and allow you to get most out of your travelling! If you find that you're still feeling very tired and low on energy during your vacation, take a short 10-45 nap to recharge yourself. ----- About the author: How important is a good night sleep worth to you? Ebe Heng has co-created the ultimate, informative and useful sleep dirctories for anyone with any sleep related problems. Rid that insomnia bug and get the sleep that you deserved! Check out=> http://www.1-2-sleep.com
Over Coffee
There are no right or wrong answers here, these are just for fun.
This month’s question is:
What are the favorite things you do to save time? Share your time-saving tips with us :o)
Submit your response to January’s question, and your 3-line by 60-character classified here. I’ll be posting your responses and your ads in next week’s issue. So the sooner you send me your response, the sooner your ad runs. |
IN THIS ISSUE Editor’s Scribbles Brainwave Tips to Save One Hour Per Day Featured Sponsors Find stuff you need Modern Living What To Do When You Are Worried Offpeak Hours How to Avoid Jet Lag Using 3 Simple Methods Co-op Ads Over Coffee Send in your response and your free classified ad
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Issue 0501-21. Copyright 2004-2005 Minute Chaser Ezine. All rights reserved in all countries. |
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