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Showing posts with label Being. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Being. Show all posts
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Monday, September 2, 2013
How to Stop Being a Victim and Imagining the Worst (and Take Back your Personal Power).
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Sunday, August 18, 2013
The Fear of Being Found a Fraud
My friend Brian asked me yesterday what my biggest fear might be, and the first fear that came out of my mouth was: “The fear that people will discover I’m a fraud.”
The truth is, this fear isn’t something I think about a lot, but it’s often present in the background of my mind, unnoticed but working its dark magic on me. Lots of fears work this way, and until we say them aloud, they have a power over us. Once we say them out loud, really bring them out in the light of day, and give them some thought, we take away their power.
How might I be found a fraud? Lots of ways:
Because I blog about habits, and mindfulness, and simplicity and minimalism, people have certain ideas about who I am. This picture in people’s heads isn’t true, of course, because the reality is never the same as the fantasy. What if you find out I’m not what you think I am?People might think I’m amazing at forming habits, and while it’s true I’ve found some pretty good success over the years, much of the time I still struggle, and still fail. Habits aren’t just a skill you learn and then all of a sudden, you can flip a switch for any habit you want to create. You have to constantly remotivate yourself, constantly check your urges to quit, constantly analyze what’s working and how to overcome the obstacles that come up. Each habit is different, and yet they’re all the same in this way.I put myself forward as a minimalist, but I’m not nearly as extreme a minimalist as others. I’m OK with that, because for me minimalism is a philosophy, not a competition. It’s a check against the urges and consumerist tendencies of our modern consumerist lives. So yes, I might have less than the average person, but I still buy stuff regularly, and I worry people will judge me for that.I’m a fairly successful blogger by most standards, and so people might think I have it all figured out. I don’t. I’m still figuring things out. I still have nervousness, with every post, that I’ll be judged and thought stupid. This has gotten less true as I’ve come to know my audience and trust that you’re a very positive, supportive group, but honestly it still happens. For example, someone attacked me on Twitter a couple days ago for my post on a Healthful Vegan Diet. Apparently, I don’t know anything! And I accept this as true.I’m a husband and father of six, and I do my best, but while others might see my family life and think I’m an amazing dad and husband, the truth is I don’t always know what I’m doing, I get mad at my kids, I fight with my wife on a regular basis, I fail often. I do my best, but I fall short all the time.This comes down to one thing: my imagining of the expectations others might have of me, and my fear that I won’t meet those expectations.
And the honest truth is, I won’t meet those expectations.
So here’s what I do.
I realize that I can’t meet the fantasies of others.
I try to be honest, and not just present a façade. This post is an attempt to do that, as was my failure post. If others have a fantasy of me, perhaps I can make that fantasy more like reality.
I try to be myself, which is really the best I can do. If I’m authentic, I can’t be a fraud, because I’m just being who I am. Of course, I’m always trying to figure out who that self is, and the self is constantly changing, so it’s an interesting endeavor.
I realize I’m still learning, am never “perfect”, and will always be learning. That’s all I can hope for.
I ask myself, “What would happen if the fear came true?” And the truth is, even if I were found to be a fraud by everyone I know and many I don’t, I would be OK. My life would go on. I might need to find another job, but I think I’d be OK sweeping floors or chopping vegetables (both activities I enjoy, btw).
I smile, and give thanks that I’ve been given the chance to write, to share, to connect, to help in some small way. That’s an amazing gift, and I won’t let the scared little child in me ruin it with its complaints.
So thank you, my friends. I’m happy to be here.
Monday, July 15, 2013
What is it like being nerve gassed?
It has a particularly attention-grabbing section that describes the effects of being nerve gassed. I’ve pasted it below, but as it was dense with medical jargon, I’ve added explanations in square brackets.
The nerve agents prevent the breakdown of [neurotransmitter] acetylcholine resulting in a cholinergic crisis. Muscarinic effects from nerve agents include miosis [constriction of the pupils of the eyes], bradycardia [slowed heartbeat], diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, diaphoresis [excessive sweating], bronchial secretions [fluid in the lungs], and bronchial constriction [lung tightening]. A dimming of vision occurs with the miosis.
Nicotinic effects include tachycardia [fast heartbeat] and muscle twitching which progresses to muscle paralysis. The toxidrome [poisoning syndrome] depends of the route of absorption. When dermally absorbed [through the skin] muscle twitching occurs first. With inhalation exposure, breathing difficulties are seen first.
The onset of symptoms with inhalation exposure is within 5 minutes. With dermal exposure, it can last up to several hours. The seizures due to nerve agents may be from blocking [neurotransmitter] ?-aminobutyric acid (GABA).
The article also discusses other types of chemical weapons: blister agents, choking agents, incapacitating agents, riot control agents, blood agents, and toxic industrial chemicals. All of which sound very unpleasant.
However, ‘incapacitating agents’ can also mean substances that have psychotropic effects. These can be anything which drug the person to a state where they are less able to resist.
In theory, these could be anything, but the article particularly notes opioid-based gasses (think vaporised synthetic heroin – like the fentanyl derivative used in the 2002 Moscow theatre siege by Russian special forces) or the hallucinogenic drug BZ which has featured in many favourite conspiracy theories.
Link to locked article on chemical weapons medicine.
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Why Being Right is Overrated
How many times have you found yourself arguing a point just to prove that you were right and the other person was wrong? It’s an easy situation to get into, and one that most of us fall into more than we’d like to admit. It can be so easy to start off with a discussion and then before you know it you find yourself saying anything at all to prove that you were right. The very thing that you began discussing can even get lost in this desire to be right.
What is it about ‘being right’ that’s so appealing? Because let’s face it – no one wants to be wrong. The thing is, I’ve discovered that being right is actually over-rated. If you think about it, being right is about ownership of knowledge; we prove ourselves to be right by using supporting evidence or knowledge.
Usually this evidence is based on experience. We might say “I know that this is right because I’ve experienced it.” Or “this fact proves the point.” But existing knowledge can actually hinder our creative process. When we feel like we’re right, we become narrow minded because we close off our mind to other options. This can lead to a stubbornness that’s not rally that helpful in any kind of discussion.
In my opinion, being right can also at times block our creativity and how open we are to new solutions. If we are so focussed on being right then it leaves no room for other creative ideas to flow in – it brings our creative expression to a halt. Plus, no one really likes a know it all because they can come across as arrogant, stubborn and superior. Really – it’s actually impossible for someone to be right all of the time. And why would they even want to be?
Being wrong, however is just perfect. Once you allow yourself to be wrong, you stop striving for perfection and the irony is that through the process you find an imperfect perfection. This is a perfection where you ultimately free yourself from the rigid boundaries of ‘being right’. Anything is possible when it’s OK to be wrong.
What this approach does is open us up to infinite possibilities and this is where our true inner genius can really flourish. We are no longer wasting energy trying to be right because we have shifted our attention to what matters – to finding a solution. Sometimes knowledge can weigh us down like a lead balloon. Sometimes we just need to let go of being right and open our minds to what is truly possible.
1. When you focus only on being right your attention is solely on your opinion. This intent focus can cause a narrow-minded attitude that will block potential solutions.
2. When you give yourself permission to be wrong you literally open your mind. Instead of just focussing on one thing (your opinion) your mind is open to receiving new solutions inspired by the views of others. This is where creativity and solutions can flourish.
3. While knowledge and past experiences can be helpful, it’s important not to rely on this too much. Excessive knowledge can confuse instead of provide clarity. Sometimes a clear head is what’s needed instead of a head full of knowledge.
4. By allowing yourself to be wrong you’re no longer striving for perfection. When you let go of perfection, it’s easier to try new things because you have let go of a fear of failure. And if you’re willing to try then who knows what might happen!
5. No-one likes a know it all. You will gain more respect from others by admitting when you’re in the wrong than by always trying to be right.
Life is full of hard choices, and the bigger they are and the more options we have, the harder they get: How to Make the Right Choice
Featured photo credit: wooden gavel and book on wooden table, on grey background via Shutterstock
Zoë B is a Strategist, Coach & the author of the Simple Life Strategies blog. Through her coaching programs and blog, Zoë B provides fresh thinking to help others overcome everyday issues like stress & over analysis so they can perform at their own personal best. Sign up for free Simple Life Strategies at SimpleLifeStrategies or connect with Zoë on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest & Tumblr.
Stand Up For Yourself. Grow From Conflict and Learn When Being Nice Just Isn't Cutting it.
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Friday, June 7, 2013
5 Ways to Prevent Your Identity from Being Stolen
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Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Why a good education benefits us all — even if you’re long past being a student
education TEDx
Timothy Bartik says that investing in early childhood education is not just good for the children involved — but for communities as a whole. In today’s talk, he offers a detailed look at how preschool education boosts local economies in colossal ways.
Timothy Bartik: The economic case for preschool“Early childhood education can bring more and better jobs to a state and can thereby promote higher per-capita earnings for the state’s residents,” says Bartik in this talk, given ay TEDxMiamiUniversity in Ohio. “When legislatures and others think about economic development, what they first of all think about are business tax incentives. Early childhood programs can do the exact same thing.”
To hear exactly how it works, listen to this talk. His fresh perspective moves the topic of improving schools away from the altruistic “wouldn’t it be nice if…” level. In fact, it forces us to ask not “How can I get a good education for my kids?” but “How can I get a good education for everyone else’s kids?” It’s a shift in thinking — one that reframes the discussion about education reform.
The TEDx program, with its global reach, is privileged to have a unique perspective on education. Below, watch five TEDx Talks (and one bonus TED Talk) that explore some of the social, economic and political implications of guaranteeing good schools.
The impact desegregation had on schools: Rucker Johnson at TEDxMiamiUniversity
As schools were desegregated in the 1950s and 1960s, opponents feared that embracing students from low-performing, all-black schools would lower standards and unfairly disrupt white students’ performances. It’s been 60 years — were they right? No. As Rucker Johnson shows with his extensive research, desegregation had virtually no effect on white students, but propelled minority students to unprecedented levels of success.
No more easy answers: Adrián Paenza at TEDxJoven@RiodelaPlata
All too often, school lessons set concrete problems with clean answers. Which, suggests Adrián Paenza, can limit students’ creative problem-solving abilities. But perhaps more importantly, it can engender arrogance — setting classist expectations for the answers everyone ought to know. With humor and a few touching stories, he looks at some of the effects that unequal educational opportunities have on society. (In Spanish with English subtitles.)
Don’t mistake a dialect for a disorder: Sade Wilson at TEDxEMU
African American Vernacular English is a common dialect in the US. It’s not bad English, yet kids who grow up speaking it at home are too often misdiagnosed with speech and learning disabilities by teachers who either don’t recognize the dialect or give tests in their own dialect of English. At TEDxEMU, speech pathologist Sade Wilson sheds light on the issue and makes six recommendations to improve how teachers work with students who speak a dialect.
Where’s the R&D for better schools? Jim Shelton at TEDxMidAtlantic
If education is an essential social good, shouldn’t we make a bigger effort to figure out what’s worth investing in and what’s not? Governments invest in education, and governments invest in research, but according to Jim Shelton, many countries don’t invest much in education research. In this talk from TEDxMidAtlantic, he calls for expanding public investment into the research and development of new education practices and platforms.
A girl who demanded school: Kakenya Ntaiya at TEDxMidAtlantic
Kakenya Ntaiya made an unusual deal with her father in order to go to high school – something unheard-of for girls in her Maasai village. After continuing on to college in the US., Ntaiya returned to her village and set up a school for girls. In this talk, she shows how the school is changing the local culture by creating an alternative path for girls uninterested in marriage in their early teens.
Teaching design for change: Emily Pilloton at TEDGlobal 2010
And now for a TED Talk with a similar theme: Bertie County was known for being the poorest region of North Carolina. In this talk, Emily Pilloton suggests that teaching design in school may be key to lifting the entire area. By giving students the tools to dream up and fabricate real projects for the community good, Bertie County got bus shelters and a farmer’s market – while students got paying summer jobs.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
How to Get Work Done Quickly by Not Being Perfect
There is a dangerous mantra for doing good work:
Ready, Ready, Aim…
Keep aiming until every detail is in place and then — aim again.
It’s agonizing to grind through your work, making sure every detail is perfect. But it’s not only agonizing; it’s actually an inefficient way to work.
The problem with working to perfection is that it causes stress that limits your productivity. You need to get the work done, it needs to be done well — but your focus on getting it perfect causes your anxiety to increase. How can you get the work done quickly…and do it well?
I wondered about this as I watched friends finish 80,000 word manuscripts in weeks, while I kept slamming my head against a desk hoping to get a few paragraphs out for my thesis.
It’s a frustrating feeling, but the solution is simple:
It’s much easier — and less stressful — to get the work done once and go back to refine it later.
There is a feeling of freedom when you let go of making your work perfect and strive instead to simply finish it. And the work gets easier every time you commit to just finishing.
When I stopped agonizing over making my work perfect, I began to write my thesis paragraphs at a time instead of one word at a time. I was happy as hell because the work was actually getting done! This ethic also carried over into other parts of my life and I found myself finishing a tremendous amount of items on my to-do list.
My fiancée recently started a new position where she took over for a co-worker who was constantly stressed and did a tremendous amount of overtime. Two days into the job, she learned that this co-worker double-checked every detail as she did it. No wonder she always left the office stressed: she was doing double the work on every task.
These revelations helped me to commit to a new mantra:
Ready, Fire, Aim.
Now, my work schedule looks something like this:
Establish Objective or Goal of the ProjectWork Until Objective is MetMake Necessary AdjustmentsLet your work sit, and then come back to it after your brain has had time to refresh. You’ll see mistakes (probably plenty) but don’t take it as a personal blow to your ego. In fact, tell your ego to keep its mouth shut so you can finish the job. This will lead to an increase in creative flow because your brain is focused solely on finishing the task… and nothing else.
It may take a few attempts to let go of that need for perfection; but it’s worth it. Next time you sit down to get something done, just keep telling yourself to finish the job and you’ll perfect it later.
Your brain will thank you.
(Photo credit: Closeup of Handsome Archer via Shutterstock)
Vito Michienzi is a high school teacher and professional magician who is currently enrolled in graduate school. After watching many of his colleagues struggle, he began writing for other graduate students about juggling their priorities, getting work done and finding meaning in what they do. His blog also translates well for the working professional. Connect with him on Twitter.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
What data is being collected on you? Some shocking info
On August 31, 2009, politician Malte Spitz traveled from Berlin to Erlangen, sending 29 text messages as he traveled. On November 5, 2009, he rocked out to U2 at the Brandenburg Gate. On January 10, 2010, he made 10 outgoing phone calls while on a trip to Dusseldorf, and spent 22 hours, 53 minutes and 57 seconds of the day connected to the internet.
How do we know all this? By looking at a detailed, interactive timeline of Spitz’s life, created using information obtained from his cell phone company, Deutsche Telekom, between September 2009 and February 2010.
In an impassioned talk given at TEDGlobal 2012, Spitz, a member of Germany’s Green Party, recalls his multiple-year quest to receive this data from his phone company. And he explains why he decided to make this shockingly precise log into public information in the newspaper Die Zeit – to sound a warning bell of sorts.
“If you have access to this information, you can see what your society is doing,” says Spitz. “If you have access to this information, you can control your country.”
Curious what information is being collected on you? After the jump, some surprising tidbits.
Your internet search habits are recorded
Journalist Alexis Madrigal sought to find out the extent to which companies collected data about his search habits, for the purpose of targeted advertising, in an article in The Atlantic in February 2012. Madrigal had expected to see about 10 companies following his every click, but was surprised to find that the list totaled up to 105 companies, ranging from Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! to smaller advertising businesses. [Note: TED uses DoubleClick, an industry-standard ad tracker.]
You can get caught in a “filter bubble”
Online organizer Eli Pariser explains in a fascinating talk at TED2012 that search engines are smart, learning from what you click in the past to determine which results to give you in the future. Pariser warns that this process of data collection may be encasing people in a “filter bubble.” Sounds great, but there is a dangerous unintended consequence: We don’t get exposed to information that could challenge or broaden our worldviews.
Your phone’s address book can be collected
In February 2012, the New York Times reported that mobile apps like Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram, Yelp, Gowalla and Foodspotting were mining address books in smartphones and, in some cases, storing data on their own computers. In fact, the mobile security company Lookout found that 11 percent of free apps in Apple’s iTunes store collected address book data. At the time, the issue was beginning to be discussed by members of Congress. Meanwhile, Apple stated that apps storing address book data were violating guidelines, and assured users that permission would be asked in future software releases.
The government can request your data
In a talk given at TEDxSanJoseCA, privacy researcher and TED Fellow Christopher Soghoian reveals that telecommunication companies like Google and Facebook, as well as phone companies, have entire departments dedicated to responding to government surveillance requests. And these departments are very busy. Soghoian explains that Sprint set up a website in 2009 allowing law enforcement to log in and track users’ GPS location information. In the first year, the site had been used 8 million times. Meanwhile, Verizon revealed in 2007 that they got 80,000 requests per year for data on users from law enforcement agencies.
Want to protect your privacy? Here, some resources:
Collusion. This Firefox tool, which Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs introduced in the TEDTalk “Tracking the Trackers,” records the breadth of companies capturing data about you as you search. Collusion developer Atul Varma spoke to the TED blog in February about the tool, its uses, and what inspired it.Tor Project. This free software protects your privacy by bouncing communications all around the world, via a network run by volunteers.Do Not Track Plus. This app goes beyond browser-based controls and blocks data collection as you search.Lookout. A mobile security app that is available for Android and iPhones.European Digital Rights. Founded in 2002, this organization is a clearinghouse of news when it comes to digital civil rights, including telecommunication data retention.American Civil Liberties Union. This organization is dedicated to protecting rights in the United States, and considers civil liberties in the digital age one of their key issues.
And take a moment to play with Malte Spitz’s data map on Zeit Online, to see what kind of data phone companies regularly collect on users.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
How to Stop Being Disappointed
If someone is late about 70% of the time, and you expect them to be on time, that’s a rather foolish prediction, isn’t it? They may be on time, but they probably won’t be.
What many people will do is get angry with the friend who’s frequently late. Does this usually change that person’s behavior? Perhaps sometimes, but it usually has little or no effect. The person will most likely continue being late at roughly the same frequency.
Wanting a person to change doesn’t change their behavior. It’s more likely to cement the behavior in place since people tend to resist others’ demands of them.
Instead of resisting your predictions, a more sensible approach is to accept them. Accept that your friend will probably continue to be late most of the time.
Note that this doesn’t mean predicting that your friend will always be late, so you can be pleasantly surprised when they’re on time. That would be inaccurate as well. It means accepting that you don’t really know when they’ll show up and that most likely they’ll be later than they say they will. Predict based on reality, not on overly positive or negative expectations. In many cases your prediction will be a spectrum of possible outcomes with some being more probable than others.
Now your friend may change their behavior over time, but when such changes are going to occur, you’ll typically see advance evidence of them. Is your friend committed to becoming more punctual? If so, is there any physical evidence other than empty promises? For instance, when you visit your friend’s home, do you see books like How to Be Punctual lying around? Does your friend share details of their efforts to change? In other words, do you have some solid evidence that this habit will in fact be corrected?
Let me put this another way. If someone said they’d bet you $100 that your friend would be late most of the time for all get-togethers for the next six months, would you take that bet (meaning that you’re betting that your friend will usually be on time)? If you wouldn’t take the bet, it’s fair to say you expect the old behavior to continue.
If there’s no evidence of change, then your best prediction of future behavior is past behavior. In this case, the past does equal the future.
If your current prediction is that the old behavior is likely to continue, then go ahead and project this expectation forward in time for at least a decade. In the absence of clear evidence to the contrary, it’s reasonable to expect that this pattern will continue year after year for at least the next 10 years.
Now do your best to accept this prediction without resistance. Don’t try to alter it for emotional reasons.
The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, so if you’re clear about the past behavior, you can reasonably expect that it will continue as-is for the most part, absent any serious commitment to alter course. Change is always possible, but entertain the possibility that it may not happen.
Now with this newfound acceptance in mind, how does that affect your relationship with your friend? Does it mandate that you kick this person out of your life? Not necessarily. What it means is that you can now account for the likelihood that this person will be late most of the time. This means your decisions will be more intelligent since they’ll be based on more accurate predictions, not on false hopes.
Yesterday Rachelle and I went to a scheduled appointment. Before we went there, I checked the online reviews for this particular establishment. Out of six reviews, it had five 0-star ratings and one 1-star rating, out of 3 stars possible. Reviewers complained that the employees were slow and lazy and obviously hated their jobs. They all got served eventually, but everyone complained about the slow speed, and it was clear that they were frustrated. A common frustration was that an appointment that should have taken 5 minutes ended up taking 30-40 minutes.
Where does that should come from? It comes from people’s subconscious predictions. These reviewers’ predictions were inaccurate, by a factor of 6-8 or so, and the attachment to these predictions induced frustration.
We could have taken our business elsewhere of course, but that didn’t seem necessary. We simply updated our predictions based on the reviews. Maybe they’ll be faster with us, we thought, but most likely the appointment would take 30-40 minutes or longer. Since the day before our visit was a holiday (4th of July), I was able to add that to the prediction, figuring it could be more crowded than usual, meaning we could be in for a longer wait.
Because of these expectations, I went in prepared, bringing my iPhone with audio programs to listen to and my Macbook so I could do some work if I wanted to. As it turned out, we ended up waiting for more than an hour. However, I enjoyed my time there and wasn’t angry or frustrated since I didn’t bring an inaccurate prediction like “this should take 5 minutes” with me. Instead I used the time to listen to an audio program and to do some online research.
Now if it was a problem to have this appointment take so much time, we could have gone elsewhere, but going in with reasonable expectations made that adjustment unnecessary.
Back to the friend who’s usually late…
If a non-punctual friend is a problem for you, you can always drop this person from your life. But you can also adapt flexibly to their expected lateness if you’d still like to maintain a relationship with them. Which approach you use depends on the nature of your relationship.
For instance, if this is a working relationship, and the other person’s lateness is costing you money or lost opportunities, you may find it best to drop them from your team and give more attention to people who are more punctual.
But if this is a casual relationship with someone you otherwise enjoy spending time with, you may not need to drop them. You can simply update your expectations accordingly. Don’t invite this friend to anything that requires their timely presence. Instead, invite them to hang out when you have a flexible schedule and when their lateness wouldn’t be a problem. You can arrive on time and bring something to occupy you if your friend shows up late. You could catch up on emails, organize your laptop hard drive, or enjoy some reading or audio listening.
I use this approach when meeting people for the first time. If I don’t know them yet, I can’t predict whether they’ll be punctual or not. Most people show up pretty much on time. Some arrive late. And a very small percentage flake completely. This spectrum of outcomes isn’t a problem, however. If people show up early or on time, great. If not, I can pull out my iPad and do some reading till they show up. And if they don’t show up at all, I’ll simply enjoy the time on my own and occupy myself in other tasks.
Predicting behavior happens subconsciously and is unavoidable. We can’t stop making predictions because this is hard-wired into our brains. Your brain can’t help but predict what word will come at the end of this _____. You’re going to predict what number comes after 2 4 6 _. You’ll even predict the missing lette_.
So don’t try to avoid making predictions. That would be futile. Instead, give yourself permission to accept your predictions as they come. Do your best to release attachment and resistance that gets in the way of making more accurate, flexible, and intelligent predictions. Pay attention to what’s happening and with what frequencies, both with respect to general behavioral patterns and with specific individuals.
Now suppose I meet a few times with someone, and I can see that they’re usually late. Am I going to invite them someplace where their late arrival would cause negative consequences? No. Would I hire them to work in a position where punctuality was important? Of course not. Could I still engage with them casually when their lack of punctuality wouldn’t cause any difficulties? Sure.
How does prediction play out in business?
Just as people can succumb to unreasonable expectations in their personal lives, they make similar mistakes in business. People enter bad business deals and make bad investments often. Then for emotional reasons, they try to convince their brains to alter these predictions. “This investment is likely to lose money if I stay with it” gets wrangled into, “I’m sure this stock will start trending upwards soon.”
Good predictions are emotionless. You may take emotional input into consideration, especially when predicting human behavior, but it’s unwise to allow your predictions to become tainted by emotion. Good prediction is based on recognizable patterns, not on hope, divine intervention, or unrealistic odds.
Good prediction, therefore, requires good data. If you’re new to business, you won’t necessarily be able to predict your long-term performance. You’ll need to try out some deals first, develop some new income streams, and put your behaviors to the test. Then you’ll have some data to see how your performance is shaping up. With this data and some good, emotionless predictions, you can identify and target areas for growth.
A common mistake people make is looking to other people’s business results to predict their own. This is like looking at someone else’s punctuality to predict your own. You might pick someone who’s just like you and come up with a fairly accurate prediction, but you could just as easily choose poorly. Just because other people are late doesn’t predict that you’ll be late.
What you can learn from others, however, is which patterns are more likely to lead to success than others. Many people try to do this at the level of behavior, but other people’s behaviors can be very difficult to model if you don’t understand the thoughts, beliefs, and motivations that generate those behaviors.
Modeling other peoples’ thoughts and beliefs is also fairly difficult. Quite often successful people don’t even know which thoughts contributed to their success and which didn’t. Many books that attempt to share these success patterns are contradictory. Some people claim to have succeeded with a strong work ethic and tremendous persistence, while others preach that success is about grace, ease, and flow.
I suggest that if you want to model others’ success patterns, then what you really need to model is their predictive abilities. You don’t need to copy their thoughts, beliefs, or behaviors. You just need to understand their predictions. If you understand how and why they make the predictions they do, then you can learn to make similar predictions, and this will give you the right insights to make intelligent choices in a similar domain.
For instance, if you want to model Warren Buffet at stock investing, don’t try to copy his behavior. And don’t worry about modeling his thoughts, beliefs, and self-image. Instead, seek to understand how and why he makes the predictions he does. Why does he expect certain companies to increase in value? What factors does he use in making these predictions? Note that if you understand his predictions, then you could make similar profitable investment decisions.
You may also notice that people who have excellent relationship skills are also very skilled at making predictions in their social interactions. They have a good grasp of how other people will react to various stimuli. They can predict with good accuracy when a certain behavior would be perceived as creepy while a similar but slightly different action would be seen as sexy.
If you’ve been following my passive income series, you can use this idea to your advantage to improve your income-generating skills. Don’t worry so much about making money right out of the gate. Instead, begin to think about which opportunities are more likely to produce hits than others.
Consider new products that are just being released. How well do you think they’ll sell? What do you think about the new Microsoft Surface tablets? Will those be hits or flops? What about the new Google Nexus? What about the iPhone 5? Which products do you expect to become hits, and why? On what factors are you basing your predictions?
If you’re going to create an ebook for your next passive income stream, go to Amazon.com, search on some topics that interest you, and see what the top sellers are. See if you can determine why they became top sellers and why other books in the same genre didn’t. One key factor is surely the author. Popular authors are more likely to release hits than unknown authors. But what about unknown authors that release runaway hits? What are the contributing factors there? Is it their choice of genre, writing style, marketing methods, pricing, etc? See if you can predict which factors matter and which don’t.
Luck and randomness play a role of course, but there are plenty of elements that can be controlled, even for first-time authors. Why not give yourself every advantage by reproducing the factors that are more likely to predict success and avoiding the factors that are more likely to result in failure? Why bother writing a book in a genre that’s known for dismal sales, for instance?
As you develop the ability to make more accurate predictions about what will sell well and what won’t, this will give you the ability to make better decisions when creating and launching your own products.
One strategy I used for growing my website traffic was to pay attention to traffic spikes and to note which articles caused those spikes. I did my best to understand why some articles generated huge traffic spikes while most articles had very little effect on traffic. With this knowledge I was able to deliberately write more articles that I expected would boost my traffic. I used the data to improve my predictions, and then I used what I learned from these predictions to make better decisions. I wasn’t always right of course, but my results still improved markedly.
Being a little more accurate in your predictions can lead to being more intelligent in your decisions, and over a period of years, this can lead to enjoying significantly improved results, both personally and professionally.
Overall your brain is brilliant at making predictions. Let it do its job, and do your best to accept its predictions with calmness and detachment. Base your decisions on these flexible and intelligent predictions, not on expectations that have been corrupted with excess emotional residue.
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Saturday, June 30, 2012
The Tiny Guide to Being a Great Dad
I am blessed with six wonderful children and a fantastic and lovely wife, and for this I am deeply grateful. But on a day like today, a lazy Sunday morning when my family is sleeping in and the soft light of the morning permeates the house, I reflect on what it’s like to be a dad.
Not just a dad … a great dad. This is a height I don’t always reach, but I believe I do inhabit that space sometimes. I’m a great dad, on my best days.
If you’re curious about my thoughts, as a dad of 19 years that has included countless sleepless nights, endless answering of questions, thousands of nursery rhymes sung and horsey rides given, hundreds of thousands of words read in children’s books, more than my share of wiping up spitup, poopie butts and much more … here is my offering to the world.
Don’t worry, it’s a fairly simple guide.
There are only three things you need to do to be a great dad:
1. Be there. If you’re in their lives, you rock. If you’re there when they scrape their knee, lose their first tooth, need someone to cry to, need help with their school project, want a partner for playing house or hide-and-seek … you are already being a great dad. Be there, when they need you, and when they don’t.
2. Love them. They will know you love them, if you love them fully. It will show in your smile, in your touch, in your good-morning hugs. But also tell them on a regular basis. Infuse all your dad actions with love.
3. Be present. It’s great to be in the same room with them, but as much as you can afford to, be fully present with them. Shut off the mobile device, close the laptop, turn off the TV, and really pay attention. Listen to their long fragmented stories. Really watch when they want to show off their new wizard or ninja move.
That’s it. That’s all you need to be a great dad. Well, there are some bonus moves, but those are just extensions of the above three.
If you want some specifics of how to do the above three rules, here are some ideas:
Sing with them.Run around with them.Make believe with them.Read to them daily.Dance with them.Tell them corny jokes.Paint with them.Make videos where they are the star.Set a healthy example by being active and eating well.Show them how to be independent.Teach them critical thinking, rather than just obedience.Teach them how to teach themselves.Don’t nag.Don’t be overprotective.Show them you’re proud of them.Let them make mistakes.When they get hurt, use that moment to teach them how to deal with pain.Show interest in what they’re interested in, and don’t make it seem trivial.Show them how to work passionately.Spend some quiet cuddly time with them.Make them pancakes with faces.Have Nerf dart gun fights.Play board games.Take them on hikes.Play sports with them.Show them how to use a knife.Be honest.Honor your commitments.Love your wife, and treat her with respect.Be compassionate to others, and them.Be happy with yourself.Monday, June 11, 2012
You Earn Passive Income by Being More Generous
Now that we’ve covered setting your passive income goal and a bit about the mindset of passive income — I hope you enjoyed the humor in the last post — let’s explore the details of how to actually create passive income streams. We’ll start out fairly high-level here and then drill down into the specifics in future posts.
Here are the 3 basic parts of an income generating method:
Value creationValue deliveryPaymentNotice that these same 3 aspects can be applied to any basic income generation method. When you work at a regular job, for instance, you’re probably going to create and deliver something of value to your employer, and then you receive payment for it.
So what’s different about passive income? The difference stems mainly from the second aspect: how value is delivered.
When you generate active income such as with a regular job, your value delivery is usually done just once. Whatever work output you’ve created gets handed over to your employer.
The same goes for contract work. You do some work for a client (value creation), hand over that work (value delivery), and get paid.
With a passive income strategy, however, the idea is to deliver this value multiple times. Then you get paid multiple times, once for each delivery.
So the heart of a passive income strategy is found mainly in the approach to delivering value.
The words “passive income” suggest that it’s the third aspect (payment) that defines the difference between passive and active income, but the main differences are usually found in the value delivery methods.
With an active income method, you hand over your work product once and get paid for it once. With a passive income method, your work product is delivered multiple times, and you get paid multiple times.
The passive element means that this value is being delivered without your direct personal effort. So you’re using a method to get your work output into the hands of multiple customers, but you don’t have to be the one personally delivering it. For example, when I publish a new article to my blog, it gets delivered to people all over the world automatically, but I don’t have to personally send it to everyone. The value delivery is automated.
Now here’s a good question to ask yourself: Why do you only have one customer?
A person with a job is just a business owner who sells to only one customer. If you take a passive income strategy and apply it to just one customer at a time, you have an active income strategy. One boss. One employer. One client at a time.
A person who generates passive income usually prefers to deliver value to multiple customers simultaneously. Another option is to repeatedly deliver value to the same customers over and over, but without having to create that value anew each time. A good example of this would be renting out property that you own. You can generate passive income this way even with a single customer since that customer can keep paying you rent every month.
When people shift from an active income to a passive income mindset, they usually start thinking about how to deliver value to more people. Instead of having just one customer for your work output, why not have 10 customers… or 100… or 1000? Why not have 1,000,000 customers?
How many people are you capable of helping?
Note that with an active income strategy, income is a function of value creation. If you only have one employer, one client, or one customer for a particular work product, then in order to increase your income, you have to work harder, or you have to charge more for your creations.
But with a passive income strategy, you have an additional leverage point. You can deliver the same value more than once and get paid for each delivery. As it turns out, this is a powerful leverage point.
When you start thinking about how to scale your work, you’ll often find that you could do the same core work but also serve more people than you do now. You’d simply need a different way to deliver your value.
For example, you could write software for one company and get a paycheck from them, but you could also develop and release your own software that lots of people can download and use.
You could work as an attorney and see one client at a time, or you could create and sell books with your best legal advice, thereby helping many more people.
Think about the work you do right now. How could you modify your work so that you can provide your value to many more people?
Chances are that your employer is already taking your active labor and applying a passive incomes strategy to it. You do the work one time, and they leverage it to generate long-term streams of income. Or you may be working to support the system your company developed to deliver passive income and capital gains to its investors and founders.
Sales are the lifeblood of any business. If you sell to only one customer, that isn’t much blood, so you don’t have much of a flow going there.
To enter the realm of passive income, start questioning the wisdom of running a business that sells to only one customer. And start thinking about how you could scale up the work you do, so you can deliver the value you’re already capable of creating to more than one customer simultaneously.
Generally speaking, the way to create streams of passive income is to deliver your value to multiple customers simultaneously and to get paid multiple times. If you’re going to work anyway, then you’re already creating value for someone. Why sell to only one customer? Broaden your horizons, and realize that if one employer is willing to pay you for the value you’re producing, chances are that someone else would be willing to pay you too — if only you weren’t so clingy with your one and only customer.
I tend to regard people who use active income strategies as being more selfish and self-centered than those who use passive income strategies. That may sound harsh, but the truth is that active income earners aren’t very good at sharing. They share their value with just one customer at a time, which in a world with billions of people is rather limiting, wouldn’t you say?
People often refer to this as loyalty, but it’s really just limited thinking. Besides, your employer may already be using this limited thinking against you as it generates passive income for others based on your active work output.
Passive income earners are constantly looking for ways to put more value into the hands of more people. They want to be as generous as possible. They love to share. And so society rewards them with streams of passive income, so they get paid even when they aren’t working.
Society doesn’t care how hard you work. It doesn’t care how creative you are. It only cares about the value you’re actually getting into people’s hands. That’s what you get paid for — for value delivery — not for your ideas, or your long work days, or your intrinsic value as a human being.
We’ll cover the details of how to do this in future posts. For now, your homework is to start thinking about the value you’re already delivering to people, and consider how you could scale it up to deliver this value to multiple people at the same time. It doesn’t matter whether you have a job or not. What value do you deliver to your friends and family? Why do people bother spending time with you? What other forms of value could you provide if you made an effort? Hint: you don’t actually have to be the one personally delivering this value. You just have to ensure that the delivery occurs.
Begin to step into the mindset of becoming a more generous provider of value to others. This is ultimately what passive income is all about. 
Saturday, February 11, 2012
A First Look at SaveUp.com: Get Rewarded for Being Smart With Money [Giveaway!]
Talking about money and the economy can sure be depressing for most, especially since we haven’t seemed to shake the “Great Recession” and many areas of the world are under financial pressure. But, as some think we are starting to “come out of” the worst of it, we all can afford to look forward and try to reach our financial goals. And, since we are doing that, it may be cool to be rewarded for it.
SaveUp is a new service that rewards you for saving money, paying down your debt, and learning about finances. By adding your bank accounts, loan providers, and credit card accounts to your profile, you collect “credits” that you can use to play against certain giveaways. These giveaways aren’t like little dinky $10 Amazon cards or anything; we’re talking Home Gaming Set Up’s worth $5,000, or Round-Trip Tickets worth $400. As of today there is even a SaveUp Super Jackpot worth $2 million.
Talk about motivation for learning about money and saving.
Prizes at SaveUp are pretty crazy.After signing up for a SaveUp you are directed to your Home area where you can view some of the prizes as well as start to put some of your credits towards them.
When I first signed up I started with 30 credits and 3 plays. When playing a prize it will tell you how many credits you are going to use. After you have played you are down one of your “plays” for the day.
Watch videos about money to get credits.You can get new credits in all kinds of ways. You can add new checking and savings accounts, add debt or loan accounts, watch videos related to learning about money and finance, accepting and completing challenges, and the big one, by paying down your debt and saving money. At first, it’s pretty easy to rack up some tickets, but you have to remember that you can only play 3 times per day.
There is a lot that SaveUp has going for it. The idea that you can win incredible prizes for adding accounts, learning about money, and saving and paying down your debt is extremely compelling.
If you are worried about the security of your accounts, that isn’t a bad thing. The good news is that SaveUp uses the same type of encryption that Mint and other financial instituions use (256-bit SSL), making it just as secure. Of course, you should always be careful with your online accounts, but if you practice the same safe password practices that you do with your other accounts, you shouldn’t have any issues.
Winning more credits.Another awesome touch that SaveUp offers is that even if you obtain a ton of credits, you can only use 3 plays per day, making people that pay more in debt and save more not have an unfair advantage. That means us Joe Shmoes have the same chances as Mr. Money Baggs on the hill. Not bad.
The prizes that you can win are serious. Like I said earlier these prizes are in the thousands and even millions. That’s pretty crazy if you think about it.
Pools are a new feature that SaveUp added that allow you to add friends and family to your profile and then use them to play different prizes. This helps increase your chances of winning as well as encourage all of your groups to save and pay down debt with you.
On another note, the design and interface of SaveUp is appealing and intuitive. You aren’t bogged down by too many settings or confusing options making the user experience really good.
I think that SaveUp is great. If you can get around the idea of using your saving and debt paying as a way to play games and potentially win prizes then SaveUp is probably one of the best ways that I have seen to motivate you to do what is right with your money.
Oh, and by the way, because we at Lifehack like you so much and the people at SaveUp are so darn cool, we are partnering up with them to offer Lifehack readers (US only) a chance to win $500! You can use the $500 any way you want, but we suggest using it to pay down debt, to start a savings account or 401K, or maybe even use it to by some of those shiny productivity tools you have been eying up.
All you need to do is signup for The Lifehack Letter, Lifehack’s new, monthly newsletter that will bring you exclusive content and special offers. After signing up and verifying your email address, you will be sent a special link that you can use to create a new SaveUp account and have access to the $500 giveaway!
Employees of SaveUp.com and of Stepcase (including current independent contractors of both) are not eligible for this contest. The winner of the $500 will be announced by SaveUp on 3/6/2012 via email. This prize will only be accessible to readers that use the special link that is sent in The Lifehack Letter welcome email. Any questions about rules and terms visit SaveUp’s rules and terms pages.
Good luck!
Chris is a developer, writer, tech enthusiast, and husband. He holds a degree in MIS and CMPSC from Penn State Behrend. Chris is also interested in personal productivity, creativity and how to use technology to get things done. Check out his writing at devburner.net or follow him on Twitter.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
How To Get Things Done While Being Mindful
Most productivity gurus will tell you that this is a good thing; to make sure that they things that you are working on are the things that you want to do, are good at, and are important. It makes sense to concentrate on the things that keep you energized and creative. But, we may that because of all the attention we are giving to our “big ideas” we start to lose touch with some of the other things in life that are important.
We have to accomplish the things that we have set out for ourselves all while staying mindful of what is important to us in our lives. And, boy, it can be tough sometimes.
David Allen talks about our “Areas of Focus.” These are all the areas in our life that we deem important and that need attention to ensure that we are operating at a certain level of productivity with the least amount of stress.
GTD is so useful, at least for this geek, because it concentrates on the lower levels of productivity first; tasks and projects. It’s a bottom-up approach that helps one “clear the decks” so they can start to look at the higher levels of their lives (ie. Areas of Focus).
This is where some GTD practitioners get stuck. They concentrate on the task and project portion so much that they forget the higher levels. It’s important to get your deck clear as soon as possible, that is, closing all your open loops and making sure that you have everything on the task and project level accounted for.
Then you can list the areas of your life and start to find balance.
I make the list of my Areas of Focus in a mindmap and then review it at least once a month with my weekly review. Sometimes, especially if you are feeling extra unbalanced in your life, you may need to pull this list out to re-ground yourself.
My list:
WorkHomeHusbandLifehackDevBurnerFinancesHealth and vitalitySpiritualityLearningPetsI noticed yesterday that most times I only think of myself. What am I going to do today? What am I going to write about? How will I have enough money for that? Am I going to make it this year?
This constant, selfish self-talk had me wake up with a slight realization. I need to stop. And when I stop, I will think of others in my life. I don’t mean thinking of others in the way of “how am I going to do ‘x’ to help them.’ I’m talking about an honest look at the person or situation for what it is.
You’d be surprised how often your mind is selfish. What will surprise you even more is that when you stop and think about others, many things that you may have been ignoring start to show up like realizing your anniversary is coming up, that you haven’t seen your friends in-the-flesh for several weeks, or haven’t talked to anyone in your family recently.
The only way to stay mindful while accomplishing your goals this year is to make sure that you get in the habit of reviewing your Areas of Focus and stopping to reflect and think of things other than yourself.
Our minds are constantly on; analyzing and troubleshooting everything around us. It’s a good thing that they are so powerful. But we have to use them vigilantly to ensure that we are paying attention to the right things and doing the right things in our lives. You can only make sure this happens by repeatedly evaluating your focus.
If you have been on the productivity kick for any period of time, you know just how hard it can be to stay focused as well as focus on the right things. The only way that I have found to keep this going is to make sure that you have defined what your focus should be and then stopping yourself and become mindful of it. Hopefully with this type of practice you can accomplish your goals this year knowing that what is important to you isn’t being ignored.
Chris is a developer, writer, tech enthusiast, and husband. He holds a degree in MIS and CMPSC from Penn State Behrend. Chris is also interested in personal productivity, creativity and how to use technology to get things done. Check out his writing at devburner.net or follow him on Twitter.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Radio 4′s brilliant brain season now being scattered
A good place to start is the brain season blog post which lists all the programmes in the season and links to their programme page and separate podcast page (if one exists). It may or may not be being updated as new material comes online.
Probably the best of the season is the History of the Brain series of which five of the ten programmes have been broadcast at the time of writing and which are all available on a single permanent podcast page.
You could go to the separate and unlinked programme information page that has a few more details and the streamed audio but I’d advise against it as it’ll only encourage them.
The one-off Mind Myths and Life Scientific programmes, the latter featuring neuroscientist Colin Blakemore, have to be downloaded from their respective podcast pages (here and here) but if you read try the page months after the broadcast date you’ll have to click ‘Show all episodes’ and scroll down to find the episode from the entire list.
The awesome looking programme The Lobotomists apparently won’t be released as a podcast at all, so unless you live in the UK and can catch it on the streaming service within the next two weeks, you’ll have to stick up your arse.
We have no idea where the similarly awesome looking series Brain Culture: Neuroscience and Society will turn up after its first broadcast on November 15th. Probably the B-side of a rare 1973 James Brown recording that has only recently become available after copies were found in the basement of the original recording studio.
Radio 4 also has a page with interviews and profiles of some of the scientists featured in the series but you can’t find out which are specifically linked to the brain season so you’ll have to…
Hang on a minute. GET ORFF MOY LAAAND YOU BLEEDIN’ BURDS!
Link to brain season blog post page.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Tired of Being Tired
‘A man grows most tired while standing still.’ ~Chinese proverb
It’s tough being tired all day. I’ve had days like this, when I’m struggling through the day and don’t have the energy to tackle anything that matters.
Hell, I’ve had years like this.
When you’re tired, not much seems appealing. Life is dulled, and you don’t get much accomplished. Worst, you don’t have the energy to change the situation.
These days I don’t have many days like this, but when I do, I rest. We have gotten good at ignoring our body’s signals — much of our lives is training our minds to pretend our bodies aren’t tired, so we can be more productive.
This is wrong. It ends up in burnout and less production, because we inevitably run out of energy. Listen to your body — your long-term health and sanity depend on it.
Mostly we’re tired because we don’t rest enough. Yeah, I know: duh, Leo. But if it’s so obvious, why do we ignore it?
The Spanish famously have siestas. When I get tired, so do I. It’s a luxury not everyone can afford, but even when I had a day job I would find ways to sneak into a back room and take a power nap of 20 minutes.
We don’t rest enough. It’s not as important as other things: waking early, getting stuff done, attending to a thousand meetings, being sucked into the world of online connections and reading, god-forsaken television.
So we cut rest in favor of these other things that are much more important, and then wonder why our energy levels are low.
But there’s more. If you’re like me, you drink coffee in the morning. You might drink more later in the morning, to keep yourself energized. By the time afternoon rolls around, you’re in caffeine withdrawal. This is often why people are sapped by mid-afternoon.
We also run ourselves too fast, like a sprint, when life is much longer than a sprint. Try it: go outside and sprint all-out for two minutes. Stop, breathe for a sec, then sprint again. See how long you can keep that up — most can’t go very long. Our days are like a series of sprints.
Note: Sometimes chronic fatigue can be a sign of deeper problems. For athletes, it’s often a sign of overtraining. For others, it could be a sign of depression or other medical issues. If it’s a continuing problem, I’d recommend getting checked out, just in case.
My first suggestion is to take a nap. If you’re too tired to take other steps, taking a nap is easy. If you can’t take a nap, at the very least disconnect from digital devices. Computers and smartphones are powerful tools, but being on them for too long tires us out.
Disconnect, get outside, take a walk. Cancel an appointment or two if you can. Stretch. Massage your shoulders. Close your eyes for a few minutes. Breathe.
These are small things you can do right away, and they will help you become more rested.
Once you’ve taken the first steps, you’ll be a bit more rested and can take a few more steps:
1. Sleep more at night. If you’re not getting at least 7 hours of sleep, you’re probably getting too little. Lots of people need a full 8 hours, and some need more. Go to bed earlier — the Internet will be fine without you. I like to read before bed (a book, not websites) as a ritual that helps me sleep. It takes awhile before your sleeping patterns change. If you have insomnia, try my simple cure.
2. Take stretch breaks. We sit for too long at the computer, sapping energy. Get up, stretch, every 20-25 minutes. Walk around for a minute or five. Move in any way you can — do pushups, squats, lunges, jump up and down, do a dance. Get the blood circulating.
3. Exercise regularly. You needed me to tell you to exercise, I’m sure. But it’s amazing how even a little exercise can help you to feel more energized throughout the day. A huge workout session can leave you exhausted — in which case you should rest — but shorter workouts leave you physically just a bit tired, but mentally you feel amazing.
4. Cut back the caffeine. If you go cold turkey with caffeine, you’ll really have no energy. But cutting back a little at a time, while doing some of the things mentioned here, won’t be bad. And you’ll skip the afternoon withdrawal, which can ruin half your day. If you feel tired from drinking less caffeine, take a short nap.
5. Be less busy. Seriously, we’re too busy these days. Cut back on commitments, put space between things, allow yourself to have a slower pace. Your energy levels will thank you.
6. Focus. While most people multitask, in truth that’s mental juggling. And there’s only so much you can do in a day. As most of you know, I advocate single-tasking — it’s basically doing one thing at a time, and being fully present while doing that task. This really transforms anything you do, from work tasks to conversations to chores like washing the dishes. It’s less tiring, mentally, and it can make anything you do more enjoyable. Life is less tiring when you single-task.
7. Hydrate. This is actually a huge factor that most people don’t realize is making them tired. Drink water throughout the day. You don’t really need 8 glasses of water (we get some in food and other drinks), but drinking more water doesn’t hurt. Your pee should be a light yellow if you’re well hydrated (not clear, definitely not dark yellow).
8. Freshen up. Sometimes a quick, cold shower in the afternoon or evening can be refreshing. Or change your socks. If you’re sweaty, a fresh outfit also helps. Wash your face. You’ll feel brand-new.
9. Work on something you’re excited about. If you’re passionate about something, you’ll feel energized. If you don’t really care about your work, you’ll be dragging. Read this if you need help.
10. Work with interesting people. If you work with other people who are passionate about something, you’ll feel more excited about the work you do. It’s incredible to work with a partner or group of people who care about what they’re doing, who are fired up. If you don’t have that, seek it out.
11. Learn what makes life effortless. We thrash about in the water all day, making the swim exhausting. Instead of working against the world, learn to glide. I write about this more in my new book, The Effortless Life, which comes out next week. More soon!
‘A lot of people are tired around here, but I’m not sure they’re ready to lie down, stretch out and fall asleep.’ ~Jim Jones
Note: This post was written publicly, with a little help from my friends. Thanks everyone!
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Being Productive With Siri, Your New Personal Assistant
Siri is very much a beta product, but can give the user some handy ways to do things quickly while not interrupting their workflow. First we will outline some of the quick things that you can do with Siri to get things done.
“Here is your messages to Rutherford. It says, “I will be late for the party”. Ready to send it?”
From here you can do a number of things. You can respond by saying “modify it” or “change it” to wipe out the message portion and start over. You can say “no” or “cancel” to cancel the message entirely. Or you can simply reply “yes”, “send it”, or “confirm” to send the message.
To call a business or place that isn’t in your address book simply say, “Call Bid Daddy’s Steak House.” Siri will respond, “I don’t see Big Daddy’s steak house in your address book. Should I look for businesses by that name?”
Respond “yes” or “no”. If Siri finds it she will ask you if she should call the business. Simply respond “yes” or “no”.
You can also find businesses and places in different towns or cities (only in the US for now) by saying, “Call ‘some business name’ in Houston, Texas.”
Calling a number is as simple as dialing it out loud. “Call 8675309.”
To make a note with Siri simply say, “Note, this is a really important note!” A note will be created with that said text. To create a note with a “title” say, “Create a ‘inbox items’ note”. Siri will know that this is the “inbox items” note and then you can use that name to add to it with “Add, think about what to buy mom for her birthday to my ‘inbox items’ note”.
Siri will “tend to” add this to your note that has already been started. I’ve had trouble with this one but when it does work (I’d say 8 times out of 10) it is extremely useful.
If you have noticed yet, I love just how conversational Siri can be. With that, setting appointments, timers, alarms, and reminders is one of the easiest things you can do with Siri. In fact, you may not even need to know the exact “syntax” to these things as just saying something like, “set a timer for 4 minutes” will produce a running timer.
Say, “Set up an appointment (or meeting) at 6pm next Monday with my wife.” You can even say something like, “set up a meeting with Mike Vardy every Friday at 3:00am”. This will make a recurring appointment in your calendar as well as invite Mike Vardy (as long as he is in your address book) to the meeting when you confirm it.
I use these all the time at work because they are so easy to do. Say, “setup a timer for 25 minutes”. Done.
For alarms say, “set an alarm for tomorrow at 4:45AM”. You can even say something like “set an alarm for every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 6AM”.
We covered reminders in the last iOS 5 guide, and even though that Apple’s implementation of tasks is pretty great for a first stab, Reminders won’t be replacing my GTD system of choice any time soon. But, reminders gets much, much more useful now that I can create them with Siri.
Setting up reminders for when I leave my house or when I arrive at work feels like I’m living in the 2000’s finally.
To setup a reminder say something like, “set a reminder for when I leave home to remember to grag the TPS reports.” Or “set a reminder for 6PM tonight to stop and get my wife roses.”
OK, so all of the cool things you can do with Siri are awesome. But what about some things that aren’t supported out of the box? Take a look below for some of our favorites.
There are a bunch of web services that allow you to add items over email or even text message. Some of the ones that come to mind are Twitter, Toodledo, Evernote, OmniFocus, Remember the Milk, Springpad, etc.
Let’s take Evernote for example:
To send a note to Evernote from Siri setup a contact in your iPhone’s address book called Evernote. An even better thing to do is to setup two contacts. One with the First Name ‘Evernote’ and another with the first name ‘Ever’ and the last name ‘Note’. This will ensure that Siri won’t screw up recognizing when you say “Evernote”. Next, put your “send to Evernote” email into your Evernote’s contact info.
After this activate Siri and say “Tell Evernote that I have to rethink the way that we are going to launch the site”. Siri will read it back to you and then you can confirm the send.
This proves to be one of the most powerful things that I can get my iPhone 4S to do.
Bad Siri.
But there is a way to get around this. Make a contact called “Twitter” in your address book with the standard SMS number of ‘40404’. Also, you have to setup Tweeting by SMS on Twitter.com or over your phone by sending your password. After the initial setup, say, “tell Twitter that sending messages from Siri is awesome”. Siri should reply with her familiar “Here’s your message to Twitter. Ready to send it?”
Next, set up an OmniFocus contact like I outlined above for Evernote. For your email address, use one that is set up in your Mail.app but instead of the regular email address, add ‘+omnifocus’ before the ‘@’ symbol. For example:
Your email is “my_email@example.com”. Use the email “my_email+omnifocus@example.com” for your OmniFocus contact info.
Now use Siri by saying “tell OminFocus that I need to grab some coffee when I go to the store”. The next time you sync with your OF database you should see your new inbox item.
Since we have only had a limited time with Siri, there will of course be more and more neat tricks uncovered as time goes on. But, I can already tell just how important this way of interacting with your iPhone will change productivity in the coming years.
I had a huge realization the other day when I had my earbuds in listening to music and programming. Something came to mind that was totally unrelated. I always have paper next to me to jot quick notes and reminders down and then come back to them to process. Instead, I long held my headset button and said, “tell OmniFocus ‘such and such that I needed to remember’”. Then I went back to listening to music and working. Later, when I was processing my inbox I realized that I captured something into my system with the least amount of resistance that I have ever experienced.
Now, I’m not saying that Siri is perfect. Not by any means. I’m also not saying that Apple has invented voice recognition and we should blindly follow and worship them. What I am saying is that Apple has provided consumers with the first accessible voice recognition and, dare I say, artificial intelligence that normal people can use. There can be a bit of a learning curve to get Siri to do exactly what you want it to do, but for the most part it is intuitive and extremely useful.
Good productivity tools are the ones that are useful and can stay out of your way. Siri accomplishes this task and I can’t wait to use it more and more in my everyday workflows.
Chris is a developer, writer, tech enthusiast, and husband. He holds a degree in MIS and CMPSC from Penn State Behrend. Chris is also interested in personal productivity and creativity and how to utilize technology to get more things done. Check out his tech writing at androinica.com where he writes about Android.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Personality profile of a magical being
The personality of fantasy game players
British Journal of Psychology
Volume 84, Issue 4, pages 505–509, November 1993Neil A. Douse, I. C. McManus
Players of a fantasy Play-By-Mail game were compared with matched controls on personality measures of decision-making style, sex-role, extraversion, neuroticism, empathy, leisure interests and personality type. Most players were male. On the Bem Sex-Role Inventory the players were less feminine and less androgynous than controls. They were more introverted, showed lower scores on the scale of empathic concern, and were more likely to describe themselves as ‘scientific’, and to include ‘playing with computers’ and ‘reading’ amongst their leisure interests than controls.
Obviously, times have changed since 1993 and now that RPGs are hip I’m sure that the personality profile of gamers is completely different. And anyone that says different will taste the cold steel of my vorpal sword. No saving throw.
Link to study abstract.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
The Amazing Power of Being Present
‘Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.’ ~Thich Nhat Hahn
How can you bring calm and peace to the middle of a stress-ful, chaotic day?
The answer is simple, though not always so easy to put into practice: learn to be present.
No matter how out-of-control your day is, no matter how stressful your job or life becomes, the act of being present can become an oasis. It can change your life, and it’s incredibly simple.
When I asked people what things prevent them from having a peaceful day, some of the responses:
The amazing thing: all of these problems can be solved by one technique. Being Present.
When you look at all of the problems above, you can see if you look closely that the problems are entirely in the mind. Sure, there are external forces at work: an uncontrollable job, the stress of kids and chores and interruptions and digital distractions. But it’s how our mind handles those external forces that is the problem.
If you are completely present, the external forces are no longer a problem, because there is only you and that external force, in this moment, and not a million other things you need to worry about.
If your kid interrupts you, you can stress out because you have other things to worry about and now your kid is adding to your worries or interrupting your calm. Or you can be present, and there is then only you and the child. You can appreciate that child for who she is, and be grateful you have this moment with her.
If your job demands that you focus on an urgent task, you can stress out because you have a million other things to do and not enough time to do them. Or you can be present, and focus completely on that task, and now there is only that one task and you. When you’re done, you can move on to the next task.
Social media and other digital distractions don’t interrupt us if we close them and learn to pour ourselves completely into the present task. And if we need to do email, Twitter, or read blogs, we can set aside everything else and just be present with that one digital task.
Being present becomes, then, a way to handle any problem, any distraction, any stressor. It allows everything else to fade away, leaving only you and whatever you’re dealing with right now.
The method for being present is fairly simple, but it’s the practice that matters most.
Most people don’t learn to be present because they don’t practice, not because it’s so hard to do.
When you practice something regularly, you become good at it. It becomes more a mode of being rather than a task on your to-do or someday list.
Practice, practice, and being present will become natural.
Here’s how to do it: whatever you’re doing, right now, learn to focus completely on doing that one thing. Pay attention: to every aspect of what you’re doing, to your body, to the sensations, to your thoughts.
You will notice your thoughts, if you’re paying attention, jump to other things. That’s OK — you are not trying to force all other thoughts from your mind. But by becoming aware of that jumping around in your thoughts, you have found the tool for gently bringing yourself back to your present task. Just notice the jumping thoughts, and lovingly come back.
Do this once, then do it again. Don’t worry about how many times you must do it. Just do it now.
It can become tiring at first, if you’re not used to it. Don’t worry about that. Let yourself rest if you grow tired. Come back and practice again in a little while. It’s not meant to be exhausting — instead you should notice how your worries melt away and you enjoy your present task much more.
Be joyful in whatever you’re doing, grateful that you’re able to do that task, and fully appreciate every little movement and tactile sensation of the task. You’ll learn that anything can be an amazing experience, anything can be a miracle.
Practice throughout your day, every day. Little “mindfulness bells” are useful to remind you to come back to the present. Thich Nhat Hanh once recommended that stoplights be your mindfulness bell as you drive. You can find mindfulness bells everywhere: your child’s voice, your co-workers appearing before you, a regular event on your computer, the noise of traffic.
Meditation is a fantastic way to practice, only because it removes much of the complexity of the world and allows you to just learn to be aware of your mind, and to bring yourself back to the present moment. It’s not complicated: meditation can be done anywhere, anytime. A meditation teacher is useful if you can find one.
Practice, repeatedly, in small easy beautiful steps. Each step is a wonder in itself, and each practice helps you to find that calm in the middle of the traffic of your life.
‘Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis
on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without
rushing toward the future. Live the actual moment.
Only this moment is life.’ ~Thich Nhat Hanh
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