There are a whole lot pf people in this world who are addicted to caffeine. Even though caffeine has not been directly shown to be life threatening, all this caffeine can’t be good for us! I know someone who regularly has 6 espresso shots and a bottomless cup of coffee everyday!
If you are one of those people who drink too much and want to reduce or stop your consumption, here are five ways to get yourself off caffeine:
- Drink decaf. - It is harder to stop drinking coffee or soda completely all at once, so start by switching to a decaf version.
- Faze your coffee out. - If you drink 5 cups a day, try drinking 4, then when that is norm, go to 3.
- Drink lots of water. - If you commit to 8 glasses of water a day, you won’t have time to drink coffee.
- Get a good nights sleep. - Lots of people use coffee to wake up in the morning after 4 hours of sleep. You are sleep depriving yourself, which is worse for you than the coffee.
- Reward yourself. - Commit to not having any caffeine for 2 weeks (or whatever time you want). When you accomplish this goal, reward yourself with something you’ve really wanted.
Today I want to take a side of the VA vs NVA debate and give reasons to get a non-virtual assistant. This post was inspired by Productivity 501’s post that mentioned his own non-virtual assistant. That post convinced me to put an ad on Craigslist to hire one myself.
1. They can save you time - Like a VA, NVAs can save you time by doing less important tasks for you. You can focus on more important things.
2. They can run errands for you - Unlike a VA, your assistant can take a list and go to Wal-mart.
3. They can type - I write a lot by hand and I can take my notebook to my assistant and she types it. Or she can clean up the text from a Jott. For a VA to do this, you’d have to send them your notebook. That’s not happening!
4. They are usually cheaper - Although not always (Indian VAs can go as low as $4) but a $7/hour college student is cheaper than the higher end VAs you can get in India. They are much cheaper than American VAs, which go fr $20-60/hour.
5. You can easily show them how to do things - Training them is easy. You sit down with them and show them how to do something. Like how to write a blog entry and link all the websites needed correctly. If your VA needs training, you have to do it by phone or email.
As I mentioned, I recently hired a personal assitant and I am really enjoying the freedom it gives me. I can focus on important things, like composing.
Do you have a VA or NVA? I’d love to hear about your experiences!
One thing I love about my Mac is the tremendous amount of freeware out there for it. There is a free app to accomplish almost any task.
Here is a list of my most used essential freeware applications:
- Quicksilver - This app is much more than a launcher, you can also run scripts on the items you search for, and much more. The more you read on Quicksilver, the more it will do.
- Orator - Got a webpage that you have to read for work, research, or school, but would rather lie down and close your eyes? Get this program. This programs takes any text and converts it to a .mp3 file so that you can listen to your webpage instead of read it. Sweet.
- Smultron - Weird Name, Great Notepad. This little program is a replacement for Notepad. It can be used just to compose (it wraps text), or for programming with keyword coloring. I used to use Textwrangler, but this program works so much better. It does the same stuff and more. And oh yeah, it has Tabs like any good program should.
- Writeroom - True Full screen writing. You can set the color, font, size, screen widgth, and more to create the writeroom that works best for you. Mine is Black with Green writing. It look Matrixy. This is a feature that I used to only be able to find in programs like MacJournal, which I had to buy. This little program is great.
- Evernote -This little program is a piece of the Evernote application set, which includes a mac app, a windows app, a web app, a windows mobile app, and, coming very soon, an iPhone app. It is a program that lets you write notes, store webpages, images and pdfs, sort them all in to groups, which can be made public. The best thing of all… all of the Evernote apps sync with each other effortlessly. Snap a photo on your iPhone and it can instantly be on your mac.
I am an avid blog reader, but struggle with reading them productively. Blogs can take over your life if you let them. I’ve worked hard to control my blog reading (more on this in a later post). Still, I would never give up blog reading completely. Here is a list of five blogs that I read daily.
1. Productivity 501 - A very good productivity blog that has many useful tips that I have adopted. If I could only read one productivity blog, this would be it.
2. GTD Times - This is a GTD blog that keeps you up to date on both news and techniques. If you’re a GTD follower, this blog is a must.
3. The Blog of Author Tim Ferris - This is the blog for the author of “Four Hour Work Week,” a book that has totally changed my life. This blog really makes you think and gives great advice.
4. The Growing Life - For all you productivity/life hack lovers out there, this blog gives a whole different perspective on living a productive life.
5. Savage Chickens - What’s life with out a laugh? This simple one pane cartoon brings a smile to my day. Be sure to read some of the early ones!
I am a night person. I like to stay up late and get up late, but they say that the early bird gets the worm. When I need to get up early, I use aids to help me. Here are five things that can help you rise:
1. Get a light alarm - This is an alarm that wakes you up with a light that gradually increases in brightness. It is supposed to stimulate the sun and help you wake naturally.
2. Bribe someone to call and wake you up - I have a deal with a friend that I’ll do some work for him if he will call me and wake me in the morning. Actually talking to someone helps wake you up more than a blaring alarm.
3. Put alarm (or phone) away from your bed - This means you must get up to turn off the alarm. But be sure it is loud enough.
4. Check your e-mail/read blogs - I can check my e-mails and read blogs on my phone. As I try to wake up, I make myself check my mail and read new blog entries. This gets my brain going and before I know it, I am fully awake.
5. Drink lots of water - When you wake up, your bladder will get you out of bed. With some experimentation, you’ll find a quantity that will let you last all night, but still make getting up easier.
To me, being productive is more than just cranking through a to-do list. It is connecting with your dreams and giving yourself the life you want to live. Here are five books that can help you do that:
1. Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Steven Covey) - This book is essential for anyone with dreams. It shows you the habits you must have to live a truly successful and fulfilling life. If you find Covey’s book hard to read like I did, try the teen version. It presents the same material but in a more entertaining and personal way.
2. Getting Things Done (David Allen) - Although I don’t use a truly “GTD” system, many aspects of Allen’s method are musts for any system. One thing that makes this system wonderful is how versatile it is. There is a unique way of doing it for each person. Find yours.
3. One Minute Millionaire (Robert Allen and Mark Victor Hansen) - Although this book is mainly about making money, I believe the central ideas of this book are fabulous for anyone! It sure does make you think. And it has a cute story too!
4. Hope for the Flowers (Trina Paulus) - This is a children’s book with a life lesson that most adults don’t even seem to know. It is a must read! It goes very well with the next book on the list.
5. Four Hour Work Week (Tim Ferris) - If you were to read no other book in your whole life, read this one! This book details a way of living that is so outside the norm that you may find it uncomfortable at first. But the more you read, the more you will love this philosophy. And the level of detail in this book is not found in most books of this genre. Prepare to be excited.
I like to know about the people who write the blogs I read, so for anyone curious, here are 5 facts about me:
1. I go to Rice University - I am a Cognitive Science and Religious Studies double major about to go into my fifth year.
2. I love Apple products - I will not use any thing created by Microsoft, including Office. I own an Apple iBook (which just died on me… It’s kind of old) and am borrowing an iMac. I have an iPod Nano and as soon as the 3g iPhones come out, I’ll have one of those too. (I had just gotten a 2 year Treo contract when the iPhones were first announced.)
3. I swing dance - I am part of a group called Second Cup Swing in Houston, TX, where I am currently subbing for the regular follow teacher on Monday nights.
4. I love programming - I am currently working at Rice’s Web-Services and on the side working on two iPhone Apps, both of which are productivity Apps.
5. I believe there is a difference between “work” and “living” - My goal in life is to “work” as little as possible, but that doesn’t mean I’ll sit around and do nothing all the time. To me, “work” is doing something that you’ve been assigned to do that you don’t have any real connection to, usually in exchange for money. Life is short and I have little time for “work.” I have too many computer program ideas and big dreams to spend too much time working.
Here’s my list of essentials that go with me everywhere:
1. My phone - I’ve had a treo700p for two years and I’m about to get an iphone. Although I don’t keep my schedule on my phone, it does have my e-mail and stores reference links, as well as connects me to people I need to talk to. I can’t imagine not having the internet in my pocket.
2. My planner/journal - I use a paper planner and it works pretty well for me. (I’ll give details in another post). But the real key is that I plan and track my daily activities all in one place.
3. A travel hard drive in a secure case - I highly recommend a Western Digital Passport and a case to go with it that has room for the cord. This lets my documents be portable.
4. Ipod - My Ipod Nano is filled with all kinds of music separated in playlists. I have a “relax”, “study”, “dance”, “airplane”, “favorites”, and “new music” playlists. So if I need music to block out background noise or unwind, I have my Ipod.
5. A small cheap spiral notebook - This is used for fast thought/idea capture as well as composing. I’m currently using a Mead Lil’ Fat notebook. Such a small notebook makes it easy to capture my ideas quickly.
As you see in a future post, I had to grow into my productivity. It wasn’t something that I just got suddenly. After implementing a system, it took small steps. Here are five small things you can do to increase your productivity and begin to grow into your own system.
1. List Your Goals - It all started with a list of 11 goals that I wrote for my summer. Some were big and some were pretty small, but all of them were doable. Having something to work towards made me much more productive right off the bat.
2. Keep a Journal - A journal is not only good for self-reflection, it is also good for tracking how productive you are. The first step to going anywhere is knowing where you are. I write first thing in the morning and the last thing before bed. It centers me and helps me create my day.
3. Make a Next Action List - Go through those goals and write down the very next thing you needed to do on that goal. When it is time to work you’ll just need to select something off this list.
4. Buy a Binder Planner - Get a planner that goes in a binder. I recommend Franklin Covey for inserts because their pages are wider than some of them. It doesn’t matter in what size you use (I use the compact size), just so long as your pages can move around. Buy dividers and note paper and set up a divider for each goal. Now you have a central place for goal notes and your schedule (and possibly your own journal).
5. Learn Scripting - On a Mac, learn AppleScript. Script out some normal routines you do on your computer everyday, like a morning web-checking routine. You’ll be amazed at the time saved.
