Posts filed under 'Tools'
If you’re like me, sometimes the best thoughts strike at the worst times…like, say, when you’re driving.
Oh sure, I’ve been known to try to scribble a note to myself - holding the wheel with my knee, trying to pay attention to oncoming traffic. I’m sure it’s not the safest way to take a note on-the-go, but when inspiration hits you’ve got to be ready.
I knew there had to be a better way to capture my thoughts while I was in the car or in a place where writing a note was just impracticable. I thought that getting a voice recorder might be just the thing I was looking for. So I did a little research online and settled on an Olympus VN-2100 digital voice recorder. It was small, cheap, and held about 6 hours of recordings in “high” quality mode. It also was stylish in a sleek-white-iPodesque kind of way.
I was happy with my new toy…er, tool…and over the next few weeks proceeded to record a ton of ideas, thoughts, next actions, and musings.
After using it for about a month I discovered that there is usually a downside for every upside.
The good:
- Easy to collect your thoughts at the end of the day on the drive home
- Easy to record next actions & follow up items
- Great for not killing yourself while driving
The not so good:
- Get strange looks from the uninitiated when you record a “note to self…”
- You have to play back the notes, one by one, and process them into your capture system
- You have to actually have the thing with you when you want to record a note, or process your thoughts
The biggest problem I had was keeping the thing with me. It’s just big enough that slipping it into a pocket - while doable - is a bit uncomfortable. I looked like I was carrying an oddly shaped lump everywhere I went. I also had a hard time developing the habit of bringing it in from the car and then back out from my desk as I came and went. It was very easy to forget it in the console of my car, and it’s tough to process your thoughts when you don’t have the recorder!
Or I would remember to take it in to my desk, I would play all of my recordings and process them, then I would promptly forget the recorder on my desk when I headed back out to the car.
I also didn’t like the fact that capturing my recoded thoughts into my workflow was a real-time process. If I recorded 15 minutes of notes, it would take at least 15 minutes to replay them and organize them on my action lists or calendar.
I loved the idea of recording my thoughts while I was out and about, but the method wasn’t really working for me.
And then I found a very cool tool called Jott (http://www.jott.com/). I would say it’s a web-based tool, but that’s not entirely correct. It’s a piece of technology that makes capturing your thoughts and ideas very easy, and takes a lot of the work out of adding the items to your action lists, calendars, etc.
For me the biggest benefit is in “Jotting” myself. I signed up and listed my cell phone as my primary “Jott” device. When I call the main number (877-568-8486) it recognizes me by my cell phone’s caller ID. It asks “Who do you want to Jott?” and I respond by saying “Me” or “Myself.” Then it beeps and I can record my thoughts, when finished I hang up.
After you’ve hung up, serious voodoo magic happens. Jott’s servers transcribe your message and email it to you. A few minutes later I get an email with a transcription of my message. I can push it right into my GTD system with minimal effort, and I don’t have to replay the message and transcribe it myself.
After using the system for a while, I’ve been very impressed at how well it works with my notes. I would say the overall transcription accuracy is 80% to 85%. The times it’s not right, I’m usually using some slang or tech jargon or I’m calling from a pretty noisy environment. The nice thing is that when it can’t understand you it will say so in the message, and you can click the little speaker icon to hear the original.
Every morning I get an overview message of all the “Jotts” I left myself from the day before.
It also lets me setup individual contacts, and group them into lists. So I can record a note and have it emailed to a co-worker, or I can record a note and have it emailed to my entire department. If I think of something in the middle of the night that my teams to tackle the next morning; I roll over, grab my cellphone and when Jott asks me who I want to send the note to I say, “team.” How slick and simple is that?
What I don’t understand though (and have had a couple of converts ask me too) is how is this free? I can’t imagine this will stay free forever -and that makes me sad because it’s such a great tool. I think if they charge for it, a lot of people will be turned off of it and not try it out. For now though, there is no fee, and the only ads I’ve seen are in the daily overview I get each morning.
Jott also works much better for me than the digital recorder because while I had a hard time keeping the Olympus with me when I needed it, I always seem to have my RAZR in it’s trusty belt pouch. So it’s not been an issue at all to call and make the note (I keep Jott’s phone number on speed-dial #9 - to call I just hold the key for 2 seconds).
When I get back to my desk, I just copy and paste my transcribed notes into Tracks for my projects and next actions, or into 30Boxes for my calendar items. It doesn’t get much easier than that.
If you already use some type of voice capture while you’re driving or away from pen and paper you know how powerful the technique can be, I encourage you to check out Jott to take the power to the next level.
If you’re not doing any voice capture you’re really missing out. When you know that you can capture your thoughts and ideas (no matter how silly they later turn out to be) they just seem to flow out. Go and get a small voice recorder or sign up for Jott. You won’t regret either decision.
And for my standard disclaimer; I’m not affiliated with Jott in any way other than being a user who stumbled across the site out on the great big “Interweb”. They simply have a wicked cool tool, that really shows how amazing technology and a good idea can produce a killer online/offline application. I’ve not been given any consideration for this review of their service. I’m just trying to find great tools for myself, and share what I find with you.
June 28th, 2007
Does your wallet look like George Costanza owns it? Mine used to. One day I decided that I was sick of having a fat bulge in my back pocket, keeping me sitting slightly off-kilter, and generally hurting my posture.
I slimmed down my wallet - got rid of anything that wasn’t essential to my day-to-day activities - and moved it to my front pocket. Ahh, it was refreshing…invigorating…liberating!
There was one unintended side effect - I didn’t have room to carry the various “club cards” that were in my previous wallet. For a long time I simply didn’t care, usually the cashier at the local grocery would have a spare card at her register and swipe it for me.
But a few months ago all of the grocery stores around me stopped allowing the cashiers to use a “store” card. Customers who didn’t present a club card were out of luck (and out of saving some cash). I was not happy by this turn of events, and I wasn’t about to fatten my wallet back up with the various cards I would need to carry.
So I was extremely relieved to find JustOneClubCard.com. It’s a nifty little why-didn’t-I-think-of-that online application that creates a single, wallet-sized card with up to 8 club card barcodes on it.
No longer do I have to carry Marsh, Kroger, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Office Depot cards (or rather, not carry them). I just entered the numbers from my real cards, and created one handy card to use!
Just One Club Card currently has over 120 cards in their database, and if you’re card isn’t listed you can use their “advanced” feature to try to create your own barcode using one of the 12 different barcode symbol sets.
You might get a few bizarre looks from cashiers when you present your all-in-one club card to them. So far I’ve only used it at Marsh and Kroger and at both places I’ve received the odd look, but I’ve been able to successfully convince the cashier it’s really a legitimate club card code.
So give it a try, your wallet (and your back) will thank you!
June 19th, 2007
I’m a fan of pen and paper - I like to make notes on 3×5 cards and I always carry spare notes with me. But finding a good pen - one that you can use but not worry to much if you lose - is always a challenge.
I love fountain pens and I use them at work and at home. They’re delightfully retro and really get my creative juices flowing. But a lot of times I just want to dash off a quick note and being a “lefty” makes using fountain pens an exercise in patience and control or the entire side of my left hand turns blue.
So when I’m on-the-go, or just need to dash off a quick note, I reach for something else. And by and large I dislike ball point pens. I know, everyone raves about the Fischer Bullet Space Pen, and I own one, but my preference is for something other than a ball point. I usually gravitate towards Paper Mate felt-tip pens. They leave an effortless line on the page, and I usually don’t smudge my hand to much with them. But they’re still not perfect.
So imagine my surprise when I found a lose Paper Mate “Liquid Expresso” pen at work a few months ago. They’re a felt-tip pen, but they’re fed by real, liquid ink. So they write almost exactly like a fountain pen, but dry quickly and work for a lefty.
The only complaint I have is that they feather a little on cheap 3×5 cards. But then so do fountain pens and plain-ol’ felt-tip pens, so I’m really no worse off.
But the line they lay on paper is amazingly smooth. The tip just glides across good paper; it’s hard to describe, but a pleasant surprise for a pen that costs about $1.75. In my opinion, they write a heck of a lot better than the Pilot G2 gel pens that so many GTD’ers love so much.
And the price is low enough that if I do misplace a pen (or more likely one “grows legs” and walks off my desk) I don’t worry to much about it. If you’re a picky pen person, I highly recommend you check them out for yourself.
And for the record, I don’t have any connection with Paper Mate, this is just my own opinion and it’s not bought or paid for. Hopefully if you’re a pen-and-paper devotee this will be a helpful little article about a pen you may not have tried yet!
June 16th, 2007
I have previously written of my love of 3 x 5 index cards. I try to always keep some on me wherever I go to capture thoughts, “to dos”, and notes.
I had been using a leather card holder I picked up from an online company called Gifts For Professionals. It was inexpensive ($15.95) and held about 8 index cards neatly in my back pocket.
I had also looked at the Levenger pocket briefcase, but had stayed away from it because the $16 job from Gifts for Professionals had done the job.
Then the unthinkable happened…while in the middle of a move I lost my card holder.
I figured it would turn up, but the weeks ticked by and it never showed itself. I tried stuffing cards into my back pocket, but they would be grimy, creased and wrinkled when I pulled them out to use them. I needed a new card case.
So I decided to give the pocket briefcase from Levenger a try. Yes, it was more than twice a much, but past experiences with Levenger had been positive so I decided to give it a try.
I opted for the monogram and I don’t know if that delayed my order, but in today’s instant-always-on-world I don’t want to wait around for my online purchases. So I was a bit disappointed when it took over a week for my pocket briefcase to arrive.
But once I received it I was impressed. The packaging was first-class and the pocket briefcase itself was very nice. It’s construction also gave it two extra pockets that my previous 3 x 5 card case didn’t have.
It’s slightly thicker than my previous 3 x 5 card case, but not so much so that you notice it in your pocket. I have about 12 index cards in it right now and it feels about right. I could probably jam a few more in, but it would really get overloaded and, with capacity for only about 8 cards before, I’ve not run out.
I can highly recommend the pocket briefcase. If you’ve been on the fence about getting one; try it. Once you start carrying 3 x 5 cards you’ll wonder how you got by without them.
I will caution; don’t bother with the blank or personalized index cards that Levenger sells unless you’re an absolute paper snob. The paper is nice, but it’s not that much nicer than blank Oxford-brand 3 x 5 cards. I also like customizing the cards for my own needs and printing them out on my laser printer. I can print up a batch of 100 custom-printed 3 x 5 cards for about $3.00 (printer toner included).
I have to give my standard discalimer about product and service reviews. I’ve not been paid a dime to promote this item - In fact it cost me almost $50 with monogram and shipping!
June 5th, 2006
Zero-sum is an interesting concept. It’s the idea that you can only have gains or losses that are balanced by gains or losses by others. Poker is a zero-sum game; if you win $10, someone else has to lose $10. If three people in a five person game win $10 each, the other two people had to lose $30 between them.
Of course, this is game theory and not everything in life is a game. But using the concept of “zero-sum based thinking” can help you gain clarity and make decisions - or at least make it a little easier to decide on a decision. It’s still difficult to actually make some decisions.
It’s easy to use zero-sum based thinking too. All zero-sum based questions should begin, “Knowing what I know now, and all things being equal, would I make the same decision?”
It’s binary - yes or no - all you have to do is answer “yes” or “no” to the question. That’s the easy part. The difficult part comes when you have to actually make a decision based on the “yes” or the “no.”
Zero-sum based thinking is a good tool to use when evaluating making a change. If I were torn between staying involved in a business relationship or leaving, I might ask, “Knowing what I know now, and with all things being equal, if I could start over would I get involved with this business relationship again?”
It shouldn’t be very difficult to answer this question. If things are going well, you would likely answer “yes!” If things were going badly or you dreaded getting up in the morning and facing your business relationship you would probably whimper, “no.”
Again, it’s easy to come up with your “yes” or “no” answer. Actually making the decision to terminate your business relationship will likely be a much more difficult decision to make.
The reason this is zero-sum is because you’re going to make a decision that causes a gain for one party and a loss for another. In some cases both parties will be you, but the net result has to balance out. If you to say “yes” to one option, you have to say “no” to the opposite when making a binary decision.
I can give you a good example of this working in my own life. Some months ago I had become extremely frustrated by some circumstances at my day job. I finally asked myself, “Knowing what I know now, would I take this job offer if I had to make the decision all over again?”
In light of a question like that the answer was “yes.” In general the job was great, it was just a small, but extremely frustrating set of circumstances that had me completely boxed up and ready to walk away. I wasn’t able to make a rational decision because I was far to emotionally involved.
However once I realized that, overall, I enjoyed the job and I didn’t want to have to go find another position in another company I realized that I just needed to get a handle around the circumstances that were causing me pain. It took me some time to do that, and it involved some not-so-comfortable conversations with people regarding the cause of my frustrations, but ultimately it worked out and now I’m much happier.
And I didn’t just make a snap decision and walk off the job because of frustration. I analyzed my stay/go options and realized that I didn’t want to go. Once I had made that decision, I could focus my choices on how I could limit my frustrations and fix them.
It’s a useful tool to use when you’re struggling with a decision because zero-sum based thinking allows you to take at least 50% of your options off the table. If you’re struggling with your relationship with your spouse and ask, “Knowing what I know now, would I get involved with this relationship if I had it to do over?” will net you a very clear “yes” or “no” answer.
If the answer is “yes” then you can 100% clear out worrying about all the questions and decisions you would have to face if the answer were “no.” Instead you can focus on finding the root of your disagreements and fixing the gaps in the relationship.
The next time you’re stuck and frustrated, see if you can break your options down to a “yes” or “no” question and try applying some zero-sum based thinking to your own situation.
February 28th, 2006
Following up on my Micro Life Organizer (MiLO), I am pleased to announce my Financial Life Organizer (FiLO) for your consideration.
Over the last few months I’ve been reading numerous books on building wealth, and one of the core themes running throughout all of these books has been; if you don’t track your spending, you’ll spend to much. If you spend to much, and have a “high consumption” lifestyle, you’ll never be wealthy.
Since I’m not counting on winning the PowerBall lottery anytime soon, and no one in my family will be leaving anything behind when they shuffle off their mortal coil, I decided I needed a better way to track my spending.
Keeping track of checks and credit card expenses isn’t completely difficult in this day of on-line banking and instant account checking. But I find that I don’t check these tools on a daily basis. At best I check them weekly, and I can spend a surprisingly large amount of money in a week if I’m not careful! And forget about tracking cash - if I have $20 in my pocket there is no way on God’s green Earth that I’ll remember what the heck I spend it on 24 hours after it’s gone.
Given my lack of a fortune coming at the hands of the lottery or a distance, but insanely rich great-great-aunt, and my lack of discipline to capture my monetary transactions in all their various places on a daily basis; I knew I needed a better solution. So I sat down and created FiLO.
The essence of a FiLO is a cash, check and credit card register that folds neatly into a 2.75″ x 4.25″ booklet that you can stick in your pocket or carry in your wallet. The goal is to make sure I never have an excuse to not record a financial transaction.
And I figured if I find FiLO useful, other people might too…people like you!
Of course, you want to see what FiLO looks like; in terms of form if looks exactly like MiLO.
When FiLO is folded, it’s only a bit bigger than a credit card and gives you seven pages to track your financial transactions. The back page is a “Get Excited & Motivated” page and shows you how even saving a tiny bit of money, but doing it on a regular basis, can make you wealthy in your lifetime!
FiLO is free for you to use and pass around to anyone you think would get benefit from it. Here’s where to download it:
PLEASE NOTE: If you’re printing this PDF with Windows, make sure to select “Page Scaling = None” on the print options when you print out a FiLO or Acrobat Reader will shrink the FiLO down by a few percent and it will not fold properly. This is one of the biggest frustrations people using Windows will have printing out a FiLO for themselves.
I hope you enjoy using your FiLO, and I hope it can help you keep closer tabs on your spending. Good luck and good wealth!
February 14th, 2006
After posting the article titled, “The weight of an idea.” I had several people inquire about the index cards I print out for myself.
I used Adobe Pagemaker to lay the card out and I keep a stack of them near me pretty much everywhere I go. A pack of 100 index cards costs about $0.99 and I figure my printer (an HP LaserJet 1000) costs me about $0.02 per card to print. So my total cost to print my own cards is around $0.03 each, or $3.00 per hundred - cheap!
I’ve tried printing these cards with an ink jet printer, but I found that the ink is sucked into the card stock and ends up looking blurry and a bit gray for my tastes. The laser printer gives very crisp lines and text and is dead-on black. It looks very professional when you jot a note on one and hand it to a colleague - they’ll think you had cards custom printed - snazzy!
I’ve created two PDFs of this card if you want to print them at home for your own use.
My printer will feed a 3×5 index card (many printers will), but only in the dead center of the paper tray. The guides close down equally from each side.
If your printer is like this, then you want to download the 3×5 Index Card for a full size page. (
) It’s centered on a 8.5″ x 11″ sheet and will print right onto a 3×5 card fed down the center of a paper tray.
If your printer adjusts to feed index cards down one edge, then you will probably want to download the 3×5 Index Card sized for a 3″ x 5″ page ().
Here’s is what the card looks like (click the image to enlarge).
It has the text “Next Action / ‘To Do’” at the top with room for a date or other small note at the top (maybe an @Context for you GTD fans?).
Below that are three category check-boxes (A, B, & C) and five priority check-boxes (1, 2, 3, 4, & 5). This allows you to classify a task or action with up to 15 different priority codes.
Plenty of blank space follows next, here’s where you’re genius comes in.
At the bottom is a place to note the current date, a due date if follow up is needed and if you’re delegating the task to someone else, you can write their name here.
Put a check in the little check-box with the arrow to indicate more is continued on the back of the card.
I carry a fresh load of these cards in a leather index card case from Gifts For Professionals. It’s cheap ($15.95) and is barely noticeable tucked away in a back pocket. It holds about 8 fresh cards and 4 “noted” cards. You could probably jam more cards in, but I’ve never run out with 8 cards on me. I refill it at night as needed.
Levenger also makes a pocket briefcase to hold index cards; it’s $38.00 but looks like it might be a little more sturdy that the case I bought.
I hope you find this card useful. If you keep it on you all the time - you’ll never let your next million dollar idea slip away.
February 12th, 2006
Okay admit it - statistically speaking - you have credit card debt.
The average American household carries $8562 in credit card debt! A lot of people who carry credit card debt are also only making the minimum payment towards their balance. If you carry the statistical average balance, and make the average minimum payment, and never charge another dime; it would take you almost four and a half years to pay off your balance.
I’m no different; I have credit card debt that I’m carrying too. Thankfully, I’m not carrying the average $8562 in debt, but I’m carrying more than zero which means I’m not being financially efficient.
All along I’ve given myself credit for paying over my minimum balance and making some progress towards paying off my debt. I took the approach of spreading my payments around and covering each card with about an equal payment each month. But I will still unhappy with how long I had projected it would take me to pay off the last of my balances. I wanted to find a better way to handle getting rid of my credit card debt.
I found an interesting method in David Bach’s book The Automatic Millionaire. He calls it the “DOLP” or Dead On Last Payment plan; it’s very simple to put into place.
1) First, you create a “DOLP” number for each of the credit cards on which you are carrying a balance. To figure out that card’s DOLP number divide the balance by the monthly minimum payment. If you have a Visa card with a balance of $2300 and a minimum payment of $50, its DOLP number would be 2300 / 50 = 46.
Get DOLP numbers for all the cards with a balance. You can use Excel to make a nice and neat list, plus Excel can handle all of your calculations for you.
2) Once you have all of your DOLP numbers, rank and list them from lowest to highest. Enter this information into Excel or write it on a piece of paper. For example:
3) Next pay the card with the lowest DOLP number first, while making minimum payments on your other cards. If you normally spend $250 per month on credit card payments, in the example above you would pay the minimum monthly payments to Capital One, Discover, and Earl’s Bank - $95 in total - and you would apply the balance of your $250 towards your card with the lowest DOLP number (in this case $155 per month to Citi).
4) When the last payment has been made to a card you cancel it. If you feel like you just can’t cancel the card, freeze it into a block of ice and make it almost impossible to get to it.
Now drop down to your card with the next lowest DOLP number and apply the balance to that card. In the example above you would now be paying $170 each month to Capital One while paying the minimum monthly payment to Discover and Earl’s Bank.
5) As you pay off your balances, you drop all of the money (less the minimum payments) you spend each month to settle your debt down to the next card. You’ll be paying them off faster.
When I first read this I thought it was an interesting idea, but I didn’t know if it was a better way to manage my money than my way - spreading my money all around. So I turned back to Excel to crunch some numbers.
I calculated that if I follow the DOLP plan, I can accelerate paying off my credit cards by more than six months. This is because some of my lower balance cards with a lower DOLP number have higher interest rates. So I’ll be paying those off faster and paying less money overall in interest charges.
If you do use Excel to calculate all of these numbers; here is a handy formula to know. It will calculate for you the number of payments you have left for a given balance, interest rate and monthly payment.
The formula is: =NPER(A/12, B, -C)
For each of the values, A, B and C:
A = Annual Interest rate (APR). The formula divides this number by 12 to get your monthly rate.
B = The amount of your monthly payment.
C = The principal balance. We make this number negative so we will end up with a positive number as the result.
Once you have an Excel spreadsheet setup with this formula you can use it for “what if” scenarios. You can adjust your payment and see how it affects the time required to repay your account. You can adjust your interest rate to see how it will affect the time required to repay your account (call your credit card and ask if they will lower your interest rate, many will just with a phone call).
You can also use it for goal setting. You can set a goal to have an account paid of in a certain number of months and using this Excel spreadsheet you can adjust your monthly payment until you achieve a number that will let you reach you goal.
In the example above, if my goal were - in six months - to pay off a balance of $3822 at 14.99% annual interest, I would need to make a monthly payment of $665.
If you’re carrying credit card debt it’s time to “DOLP” it out of existence! It’s easy to calculate your debt’s DOLP number and put together a plan to knock it out.
Remember, a little “DOLP” will do ya!
January 31st, 2006
Are you a high-wage earner and a big spender? Do you have a “consume” lifestyle? Do you have a lot of material high-status symbols?
If you answered yes to these questions you might be an under-accumulator of wealth (a U.A.W.) and not a prodigious-accumulator of wealth (a P.A.W.). So how do you know if you’re a P.A.W. or a U.A.W., and if you find yourself in the U.A.W. group what can you do about it?
These are questions posed and answered in the book “The Millionaire Next Door” by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko.
To answer this question for yourself - “Am I a U.A.W. or a P.A.W.?” - here is a simple rule of thumb you can use:
- Write down your total pre-tax income, including any investment dividends or assets that produce income.
- Take this number and multiply it by your age.
- Take the total and divide it by 10.
For example; a 41 year old executive who earns $103,000 would end up with an answer of “41 x 103,000 = 4,223,000 / 10 = 422,300″
This number is roughly what your net-worth should be for your age and income. We should expect our executive to have a net-worth of roughly $422,300.00. If our executive’s net-worth was significantly less than this number, he would be a U.A.W. - an under-accumulator of wealth. If our executive’s net-worth was more than double this number, he would be a P.A.W. - a prodigious-accumulator or wealth.
How do you measure up?
I must admit that I was shocked when I ran the numbers for myself - I knew I wouldn’t call myself “financially independent,” but I wouldn’t have figured that I would be as far below the target to be on my way to financial independence as I was.
Stanley and Danko define financial independence as the ability to live on ones wealth - our net-worth - for ten or more years.
I suspect that we all want financial independence - it’s many people’s “ultimate life goal”, but most of us don’t plan for and work towards this end. The authors argue that the biggest culprit that prevents people from achieving their goal of financial independence is living a high-consumption lifestyle.
I know I certainly do! I’m a “stuff” freak - I love my gadgets and electronic gizmos. My wife and I enjoy a very comfortable lifestyle that includes almost any consumer item within reason. We eat at restaurants quite often. We’re living the high-consumption lifestyle and are not on track to achieve financial independence without making some changes to the way we work, earn, save and build wealth.
The keys to achieving financial independence are four-fold:
1) Live on less than you earn. The majority of individuals with a net-worth of over a million dollars save and invest - on average - 15% of their pre-tax income. This requires giving up some of a consumption-based lifestyle for one of saving and investing.
2) Budget, budget, budget. About 83% of millionaire households create a budget for their income and expenses, conversely only about 16% of non-millionaire households create a budget.
3) Invest in what you know. Everyone is knowledgeable about specific subject matter; take advantage of this knowledge when looking for investments!
4) Seek professional advice. Realize when you’re not the most qualified to create an action plan to achieve your goals. Millionaires seek out professional help from tax accountants, CPAs, and financial planners far more than non-millionaires.
None of these keys is new or sensational information; you and I already know this! But seeing all of the steps laid out and presented in “The Millionaire Next Door” is very helpful. It breaks the problem of “how do I get started and what do I do?” down into manageable chunks; this helps prevent the getting-overwhelmed-factor.
I know that as I move down the list I can put a check mark in the “I don’t do that” column next to each of the four keys above. Just like many people, when my income increases, my spending increases. I was living comfortably on a lesser amount prior to my income increasing, so why didn’t the increase go directly into investments and savings? The mentality of a U.A.W. is to consume more as his means go up; this is the habit that needs to be broken.
“The Millionaire Next Door” will help you change your thinking about high net-worth individuals as well as give some good advice to help you change your habits. It’s shaken me up and forced me to look at how I earn and how I consume.
In addition, “The Millionaire Next Door” is filled with insightful and interesting information about high net-worth individuals. Did you know that the average millionaire spent an average of $267 on his watch and less than $600 on his most expensive suit?
Did you know that the average millionaire is more likely to hold a Sears or J.C. Penny credit card than an American Express card?
Did you know that 80% of all individuals with a net-worth of one million or more dollars built their wealth in a single generation? Only 20% of millionaires received their money through inheritance.
I highly recommend you pickup this book and spend time reading it. It’s well written, and refreshing because it doesn’t promise you “riches in 3 easy steps.” It’s good, solid advice.
January 23rd, 2006
Take a look at your desk; is your inbox piled with paper and your desk covered with clutter? I know personally keeping on top of the ever accumulating stack of papers being delivered to my inbox, and keeping my desk clear is a constant struggle.
In our new modern world we’re deluged with email (I average 80 actionable email messages per day at work) as well as being bombarded by an unending stream of paper too.
The promise of the 21st century was a paperless work place, but most people still have to process as much paper as ever plus electronic communications to boot!
It’s extremely easy to get behind in the sorting, processing and handling of this flood of information. Once you’re a little behind the gap between where you are and being “caught up” gets a little wider every day. Pretty soon the gap is a chasm and you don’t see any way to build a bridge and get back to being “caught up.”
What you need is a fresh start, but how do you get a fresh start when you’re buried and the backlog keeps getting bigger every day?
The first thing to do is realize that there are tools out there to help out. If you’ve not picked up and read Getting Things Done by David Allen, I recommend you start with it. One of the best ideas I took away from Getting Things Done (GTD for those “in the know”) was the process to work through your backlog and get caught up.
David recommends you do this for every aspect of your life; gather up all of your loose ends and then process them to completion. This is a big challenge. If you’re already overwhelmed and buried, trying to get your entire life’s loose ends gathered and in one spot for processing will just overwhelm you more.
I recommend you segment your life into chunks, triage the areas that are the worst or that you’ll see the biggest benefit from fixing, and then working only on one single area until you’re caught up.
The first step is to get a fresh start. Once you’re behind this is critical because if you don’t draw a line in the sand, you’ll never be back on top.
Here’s what to do:
1) Get a big inbox that’s empty; I use a legal-size beast that’s 6″ deep).
2) Put every single paper on your desk in it! No cheating, gather them all up and put them in your empty inbox. Your desk should be squeaky clean when you’re finished.
3) Once your desk is clear, turn the inbox upside down on your desk and work through the stack one time only! You want to use the three “Ds” when you work through; Delegate it, Defer it, or Delete it.
4) Delegate whatever you can to others. Put these papers aside so you can go hand them out when you’re finished.
5) Defer anything that requires action on your part. These papers go back into the inbox.
6) Delete as much as possible; send it to the “round file.” If you’re like me, you probably get a large amount in your inbox (email too) that just doesn’t need your action or delegation to staff. Throw it away! Make your motto, “When in doubt, throw it out!”
7) Put your deferred items (which should be only a fraction of the original total) aside, stick them in a drawer, just get them out of the way for a moment. You are trying to get a fresh start.
Congratulations, you should now be the proud owner of a clean desk and an empty inbox; the challenge is now to keep it that way! Now you have to commit to staying on top of your inbox; process it at the end of each day before you leave. Your goal should be to go home with an empty inbox on your desk.
Now you have a fresh start, but what do you do with the “deferred” pile of papers? You need to create a separate plan to handle them. Handling your backlog is now a project, and you schedule it and assign resources just like you would any other project you have to accomplish.
For this project you need to set a time-line to finish handling all of your deferred paper. You need to plan and schedule time to work on chipping away at your backlog. You need to manage yourself just like you would for any other project on your plate.
You will find that your backlog will start to dwindle even more, and if you’re keeping on top of your inbox on a daily basis you’ll stay “caught up.”
To speed things up even more you should figure out whether you’re “a filer or a piler”. I am most definitely a piler; spending all my time organizing papers into files sends shivers up my spine. I’ll do it when I have to, but for most of my needs a “piling system” suits me just fine.
You can now pause and enjoy being on top of at least one area of your life. To truly achieve balance you should repeat this process for your home office or anywhere else you’re buried in clutter and information. Once you get “caught up” you should enjoy the feeling, but you can’t rest because once you do things will start piling up around you again.
Don’t let the backlog “gap” come back!
January 13th, 2006
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