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Getting better - tips and links to improve one's lifeOnce in a while I read about things or tips or gadgets where I think they could improve my daily life.
On this page I will share my most interesting finds with you - read it, adopt it, ignore it, laugh about it.
As usual: your mileage may vary  I made 175! | Thursday, December 31, 2009, 4:18 PM
Yup, the year is nearly over and I'm enjoying my Christmas holidays so no way to improve my current score of 175 rides to work with my bike.
I'm very proud on myself if I am allowed to say so
Unfortunately I'm afraid I won't break this record next year - our office will be closed end of 2010 and I'm going to have to take a car to the new office or (yikes!) change the employer and look for a job in Hamburg. Then I would ride to the train station on my bike and continue by train. We'll see.
As one of our former CEOs said: "Change is constant. Change is opportunity."... | |
| New personal bicycle record! | Monday, October 19, 2009, 8:58 PM
Today I reached 141. This means I rode to work on my bike 141 days this year. That's exactly the number of days I used my bike to ride to the office the whole last year! So I have more than two months left to increase my personal "use your bike to get to the office" record!
Will I reach 160? Or maybe 175? We'll see. I'm telling you at the end of this year  | |
| Mind mapping tools? | Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 10:54 PM
Can anyone of you recommend a good mind mapping tool?
Criteria are:
- free or low cost,
- fast,
- can export to some formats like PDF or HTML.
I already looked at FreeMind which is pretty cool but sooooo slow on startup. Next - you are dismissed 
Can you recommend a web based mind mapping tool? I've read that there are some popping up here and there but I'm afraid they'll turn into payable ones sooner or later or they force you to give them the right to use your private maps (or their content)! Not very polite - sounds like a business model  | |
| Your personal finance | Sunday, May 17, 2009, 10:40 PM
Here is the link to a free document which tells you "Everything You Ever Really Needed to Know About Personal Finance On Just One Page".
The document itself is free but the author asks for a donation.
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/onepage/ | |
| A notebook with exchangeable content? | Sunday, May 17, 2009, 10:33 PM
Do you use a notebook like a Moleskine or a ring folder to jot down your notes?
I own two notebooks similar to a Moleskine, one for game ideas and notes and the other one for personal stuff.
In the past I used to have a ring folder but those have some disadvantages:
- they are thick,
- you can't write on the left side because of the metal rings that keep your sheets of paper,
- the pages always move a little bit.
Recently I read on http://www.imgriff.com about the advantages of a real Moleskine. But the smartest thing was mentioned in one of the comments to this specific blog post.
http://www.myx17.com is a site where you can buy a note book that allows you to use different fill-ins and that does not have metal rings inside.
Just jump to the site and have a look - the idea is just great!
A friend of mine is going to buy one and I'll have a detailed look at it - but I'm already pretty sure I'm going to buy me one anyway  | |
| Getting to work by bike | Tuesday, March 10, 2009, 9:00 PM
Just wanted to tell you that in 2008 I took the bike on 141 days to drive into the office! So more than 2/3 of my working days last year I used my bicycle!
Makes me a bit proud as I am just a couch potato  | |
| | Everything gets a timestamp | Every note that you make (on a piece of paper, in your moleskine, in your software tool, PIM, mobile phone) gets a timestamp.
Many times you won't need it but in those rare cases you will be lucky that you wrote it down.
So just get used to it. | |
| The famous 2 minute rule | Whatever is on your todo list or needs to be done and takes only two minutes: do it now!
Watering your flowers, answering an email (a short answer!) - do it immediately. Don't waste time to put it on a todo list or schedule it. Just get it done immediately and forget it.
That also implies that you should take your time for all things that take longer. Plan them, find time slots when you can do those tasks without being disturbed or distracted. This helps you to stay focused. | |
| Do similar jobs together | Do phone call after phone call, email reply after email reply. Simply try to batch process tasks that are nearly identical.
That should help you to stay more focused and get faster on each single task. | |
| Quiet, please! | Switch off all disturbing noises that you can control (don't try to stop the caterpillar in front of your house, except when your name's Arthur Dent!).
Whenever you need all your concentration switch off your mobile phone and normal phone, your "you have mail" tone, your bell at the front door and other disturbing noises.
If it doesn't disturb you let the music play - at least you can control the kind of music and the volume. | |
| Singletasking | Negotiating a contract with your mobile phone in your left hand, doing online banking with your right hand, use eye contact with an office mate to agree on a meeting date - that's busy. But is it productive?
If you're trying to get a job done that needs all of your concentration - then do only this one job.
Multitasking at work is a myth. Of course you can put a chewing gum into your mouth while reading emails but trying to work on two jobs that both require your full concentration? Come on. That will never work.
Oh, and while we're at it: to get a difficult single task done well, read the paragraph above this one once more. | |
| Salami tactics | "How do you eat an elephant?"
"Piece by piece."
If there is a huge overwhelming project ahead of you how can you deal with it? Right, piece by piece (or to stay with our salami, slice by slice).
Try to separate the project into many reasonable and precise steps or tasks and finish them one after the other.
This approach comes with several advantages: you'll constantly progress and you'll get faster results.
The huge impregnable project shrunk into a pile of smaller tasks you can cope with. | |
| Check your mailbox(es) only three times a day | I'll bet no one will notice a difference if you check your email inboxes and RSS feeds only three times a day.
Be honest: Are mails this important that you need to answer them immediately. The advantage of emails is that they are asynchronous! No one should expect that they are answered immediately.
Of course it's a personal preference if you check your mailbox 2, 3 or 5 times a day. But try to close your webmailer, email client and RSS feed in those periods in between.
It will help you to stay more focused on your real work! | |
| To be continued | | More to come in the next time. | |
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