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Saturday links

12 Comments

  1. jed
    jed October 4, 2014 7:28 am

    All too often we let things get backed up and then feel overwhelmed as we try to play catch up. So instead of allowing this to happen, treat every new ‘to-do’ as another hot potato that needs to be taken care of RIGHT NOW.

    Did the author really mean this? I hope not. One of the worst enemies of real productivity is being constantly interrupted and having to shift gears. I’m sadly aware of this 1st hand. I’ve seen multiple references to this over time as well in articles about time management. Are there times when I need to just take care of whatever it is, so that it’s over and done with? Yes. But that certainly isn’t the majority of the things that I get interrupted with. And losing one’s focus and train of thought ends up resulting in further problems later, which will themselves become interruptions. It’s a vicious cycle.

  2. jed
    jed October 4, 2014 7:28 am

    Aaaaaauuugggghhhhh!

  3. Claire
    Claire October 4, 2014 7:37 am

    jed — Not sure what your aauuuuugh! is about. But in linking that article, I should have said I totally disagree with that point! ‘Cause although there’s good stuff in the article, I agree that treating so many things like “hot potatoes” is a crazy-dumb thing to do (at least without some context; e.g. set aside some specific “hot potato” time). And yes, likely to create more problems than it solves.

  4. jed
    jed October 4, 2014 8:09 am

    Poorly closed blockquote tag! Aaauuuggghhh! 🙂 See, that right there is a good example. While writing that, I was distracted by remembering what Friday was like at work.

    Anyways, I think I used /B instead of /BLOCKQUOTE and confused the WP parser.

  5. Claire
    Claire October 4, 2014 8:26 am

    Ah. Okay, fixed now I think!

  6. jed
    jed October 4, 2014 11:41 am

    Thanks, Claire.

    Yes, one of the main points I’ve seen emphasized, in re. e-mail in particular, is to set aside time to deal with it. And in re. interruptions, set aside time where you aren’t to be interrupted, so you can focus on your main tasks. Easier said than done, and easier when you’re higher up the corp. food chain too.

  7. LarryA
    LarryA October 4, 2014 12:49 pm

    Totally agree on 7. Best thing for most “urgent” emails is to delete them. On those that need handling, think back. Which has historically caused you more of a problem, responding too slow, or reacting too fast?

    I would suggest that you make it a high priority to take many pictures and keep many journals or your journey. 15 minutes a day is all it takes to capture some of the key experiences that you can later remember and share with future generations.</I?

    [heresy]
    Tried that for a while. I found I was so busy looking for images, setting up shots, and futzing with the camera that I was missing the experience I was trying to record. I kept a journal for a while, and found I never had any reason to go back and read it. And in my experience "future generations" will be most concerned with deciding who gets stuck with all the stuff.

    The exception is if you spend a heck of a lot more than fifteen minutes winnowing the information down and publishing an actual book or video of something interesting.
    [/heresy]

    6. Have mini tasks ready for unexpected downtime

    That ten minute reprieve between jobs is exactly when you should take a deep breath and smell some roses. In the time it takes to set up a discrete task that can be carried around and done in 10 minutes, you could have done the task.

    Do yourself a favor and actively help others when YOU are in your best condition.

    Huge trap. “I’m here to help! Make me feel good! Find something for me to do!” Other people’s needs don’t run on your schedule. If you can’t help, say, “No.”

    Good effort, worth posting, but some of it’s not for me.

  8. Jim B.
    Jim B. October 4, 2014 1:24 pm

    Take lots of pictures and journals.

    Yeah, and your heirs down the line will ask themselves who is in them, are they important? Down the line I estimates that at least 90% will be round filed for lack of knowledge about who the people are. Especially far down the line. They are not going to keep over 90% of the pictures you created because each generation/s will have their own pics to go through. Over time, that’s a huge amount. They will edit down what they can to insure some kind of history for their family to the absolute minimum, simply for storage’s sake.

    Live your own life, because it’s likely no one else will really care. Unless you get famous for some reason.

  9. Jim B.
    Jim B. October 4, 2014 1:27 pm

    If you do want to leave something. Leave a love of guns and their ownership/rights as well as any good guns they can inherit.

  10. Graystone
    Graystone October 4, 2014 8:41 pm

    Claire,

    Re: 15 ways to live deliberately.

    Why waste our time reading such pollyannaish B.S. The author certainly is not living in the same world most of us are. Probably some left-winger viewing the world through rose-colored glasses.

  11. david
    david October 6, 2014 10:18 am

    Well, that Millennials post was certainly whiney, wasn’t it? Sure there are lots of issues that affect young people – they affect us old farts too. So if you’re saddled with debt, get a couple of jobs and pay it off. No, they might not be good jobs, but you need to pay the bills, don’t you? Economy is wrecked? So? Learn to live cheaply, to save money, to reuse or recycle the stuff you buy – even how to save for a good quality product instead of buying one today that you will need to replace in 2 years.

    There is a ‘getting past this problem’ answer to every problem. You may not like it, may not want to do what is required, but there is a solution. If you don’t take those steps, then you suffer and it’s your own damned fault. As a self-identified ‘adult’ you can’t blame everything on someone else. Sheesh! Grow up.

  12. Paul Bonneau
    Paul Bonneau October 6, 2014 6:51 pm

    I was reading that story about Hong Kong, going along and agreeing, yeah, yeah, and then I hit that sentence at the end:

    [A boost in welfare spending, cheaper student loans, an emergency housing programme, or whatever it takes to convince some pretty angry people that their leadership is not totally deaf or malevolent.]

    Sheesh, now I feel like I should sympathize with the Beijing ruling class! This looks like it was written by an atypical Hong Kongese (or Honkie, or whatever they are called). If there is one place on earth that epitomizes economic liberty, it is Hong Kong.

    On “how to worry less”, I am a disciple of Alfred E. Newman.

    Good article about the Millennials. I didn’t take it as whiney at all. Look at the bright side, these folks will get to see and participate in a much-needed revolution.

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