Simple Life Together

Let’s face it, there are some situations in life that cause us stress that we just don’t need. The bad kind of stress…the kind that holds us back. Not the good type of stress, the kind that propels us forward. Two things that came to mind for us. The first was meals and how we overlook some simple meal planning techniques that lead to fueling us to take on the day ahead. Another was the “excess baggage” we carry through life.

So, let’s take a look at simple meal planning and paring down some excess in our lives to see where we can makes some changes, and hopefully, improvements! Read more…

After Dan talked about doing a Personal Review in Episode 037 it got me thinking about doing one of my own.   As I was doing this self-reflection, I discovered a couple of things I was doing that were causing undue stress in our lives:

1) My waiting until the last minute to get dressed when we were going out or had to meet someone for dinner causing us to be a couple or so minutes late.

2) Not having our dinners very well planned out.  

So, I decided to work on those two areas: being early and having a meal plan …which is what I decided to talk about for this episode.

The number one key to simple meal planning is to…well…plan! Yup…as much as I wish it was the case…that dinner isn’t going to magically make itself. Here are some ways to make meal planning a little easier:

Major Take Away: Communication and Planning are key!!!!

When we travel these days, especially by plane, we do our best to limit ourselves to one carry-on bag…yet I still never seem to get through/wear everything that I brought...especially the “just in case” stuff.

Well, recently in my typical surfing around the Internet I came across an article talking about airlines charging for checked bags and was surprised how emotional people were about the subject! So, I started thinking about that and followed the mental rabbit down lots of different holes. 

A few things that went through my mind:

I’ve come to the conclusion that for me, it’s just mental conditioning. It’s like a misaligned Boy Scout “Be Prepared” syndrome. The Boy Scouts don’t teach you that you need to take everything or have everything with you. That saying refers to your own personal state of readiness to improvise, adapt and innovate.

As for delayed decisions, when it comes to packing, often things are packed just because it’s an attempt to delay their decisions on what they will need. People just end up throwing everything in their baggage at the last minute…and the decision was delayed until they’re forced to make it…at the destination.

So taking just in case and delayed decisions into consideration, hopefully all these excess baggage charges have prompted some behavior modification in your travel packing. Love these limits or hate them, they’re reality if you want to fly from Point A to Point B. If you want to bring along more, you’re going to pay.

With all this in mind and carrying the point a bit further…what about the rest of life? LIFE doesn’t have excess baggage restrictions!

So, what kind of excess baggage am I/we carrying through life and what are those costs to bring them along?

But I have to understand that there is a cost:

Major Take Away: Just because life doesn’t publicize it, don’t think it’s not charging you an excess baggage fee. Take some time to really evaluate the stuff that is holding you back, try to figure out why you’re letting it remain an obstacle, and deal with it. In military operations we dealt with obstacle by either breaching it, destroying it, or maneuvering around it.  In other words, get through it, eliminate it or avoid it. Ignoring it was never an option. And it shouldn’t be in life either!

Dan’s Thing: Updates to Google Docs to automatically search for links

Vanessa’s Thing: Appreciation for teachers and their involvement in our kids’ lives

The Google Drive/Google Docs tutorial is now FREE!  Why?  We just want to put out good content that’s helpful. You can get the tutorial by clicking the Tutorials tab.  If you feel compelled to contribute there’s a “Buy Us a Coffee” button when you click on the link! Thanks and we hope it helps.

And the Side Gig Website Guide is now open without passwords, sign-ups or anything!  Just use it and get inspired to start your own side gig!

We’re attending Michael Hyatts’ Platform Conference 3 -5 November, in Dallas TX at the Omni Dallas Hotel at Park West. This is a top-notch conference to help you build your online presence /platform.  Michael and his team have given us a discount code just for Simple Life Together listeners that you can even use on top of the special Early Bird Pricing. So if you’re interested, to register for the event or to just learn more, go to SimpleLifeTogether.com/Platform, use Coupon Code SIMPLE to save $100 off your registration!

If you haven’t already, please be sure to go to iTunes to subscribe to the show. Don’t forget to leave us a rating & review! Thanks!

 Photo courtesy of CrossvillE

For years, I would tell my students that the most exciting moments in life are lived at the intersection of Preparation and Opportunity. It’s that mix of thrill, the crescendo of anticipation turning to fulfillment…when something that’s been building is finally imminent. And sometimes it lasts an instant, but typically the way I’m talking about it, it lasts longer…it’s a season or milestone in your life. And it feels awesome!

While ‘preparation meets opportunity’ is a great tool to guide our lives and how we live them, sometimes its simple things that make the day to day more enjoyable. One area we’re trying to make strides is through eating more “simple foods.” Read more…

Dan’s History with Afghanistan: 

Another personal example of Preparation Meets Opportunity for me was being a panelists on a Social Media board:

So recently we’ve gotten a lot of feedback, and a common theme of much of it falls along the same lines. People, like you and me, who are becoming the change they want to see, and preparing for opportunities. So here are some examples:

And that’s just a taste of the things people just like you are doing. It’s kind of amazing isn’t it? And that’s just from the last few days and doesn’t include some of the private emails we’ve gotten.

The thing I want to leave you with is this: When you’re working on that Life Plan, or your dreams and goals, prepare for those opportunities you want to come along.

I’m a firm believer that you can determine your own destiny if you make your own future. Shape it yourself. You’ll have obstacles along the way for sure, but you’ll also find encouragement and inspiration, too.

There will be times when you need to take a break and do a personal review to make sure you’re on track. You’ll find encouragement in that, as well as from friends and family, co-workers, or others who are doing what you want to do…maybe from podcasters too ;o)

Stay true to YOUR dreams and prepare for them. It will all be worth it when you find yourself at the intersection of Preparation and Opportunity.

Back in Episode 35 we talked about our vacation and living in 50 square feet.  We absolutely loved our camping trip but I have to admit…I’m paying a heavy toll for eating like crap.  I’m still recovering a bit from eating all the deliciously unhealthy food in and around Buffalo New York.

So all that bad eating has caused me to refocus and try to get back on track to healthy eating.  And since it’s been on my mind every day, I thought I’d share with you my thoughts on how we eat and why.

Just before we went on vacation I felt amazing!  I finally found a way of eating that was easy and worked for me. I based my way of eating off of the Wheat Belly diet.

But then I went on vacation and fell off the gluten-free/grain-free bandwagon for about a month.  And I’ve been paying the price trying to get back on!

I wondered, why do we struggle so much with food?  I really don’t know…but I think it may have something to do with our relationship to it…and how creative we’ve become with it.

I guess you could say I’m a little schizophrenic when it comes to food and what I eat.  On one hand, I can be so good and disciplined…yet on the other hand when I’m in a really good mood,  I’m like, “Woo-hoo!!!!  “Let’s go celebrate….and eating some greasy, fried, processed bar food !”

Over the years I’ve been able to transform my body through fitness which I talked about in Episode 5. But it’s only been recently that I’ve taken my diet a little more seriously.

Whenever I have a problem or challenge with any aspect of my life I think..”How can I make this process simple.” Because simple usually means less stress, less headaches and less pressure.

So when it comes to jumping back on the healthy eating bandwagon I’m going to share with you some ways I keep things simple…and perhaps you can keep these things in mind too if you’re struggling with food:

Dan’s Thing: Auto backup for your photos using Google+. You can find more info on that here.

Vanessa’s Thing: Re-discovering our Excalibur food dehydrator

The Google Drive/Google Docs tutorial is now FREE!  Why?  We just want to put out good content that’s helpful. You can get the tutorial by clicking the Tutorials tab.  If you feel compelled to contribute there’s a “Buy Us a Coffee” button when you click on the link! Thanks and we hope it helps.

And the Side Gig Website Guide is now open without passwords, sign-ups or anything!  Just use it and get inspired to start your own side gig!

Photo Auto Upload for Google+

Wake Up Productive

Excalibur food dehydrator

Wheat Belly

If you haven’t already, please be sure to go to iTunes to subscribe to the show. Don’t forget to leave us a rating & review! Thanks!

Photo courtesy of Stemack Street

Let’s face it, we all suffer from procrastination once in a while. Sooner or later we need to deal with. Ironic right? If procrastination is something you’ve struggled with, there are a few things you can do to help overcome it.

Along the same lines, as we go through life we all pick up bad habits, get into negative routines, and generally get off track from how we want or intend to live our live. It really helps to stop once in a while, contemplate your life, and do a personal review. Read more… 

Dan and I just came off of a 1 month working vacation (Episode 35). It was so much fun I really didn’t want it to end, but  I was actually looking forward to getting back to work.  My transition has been a little bit tough though.  It’s not that I lack the motivation…I’m just having problems getting started. And I know I’m not the only one who struggles with procrastination.  Even the most productive of us struggle at some point or in a particular area of our lives where we tend to procrastinate.

So as a firm believer that you can control your environment and that you are responsible for your choices (SLT Episode 32)…I wanted to discuss and share some reasons why I think we tend to procrastinate and perhaps share some strategies on how to overcome it.  Read more…

When you can pinpoint the cause, obviously you’re better able to tackle the issue or obstacle if you will.

Some causes of procrastination?

Tools that might help with procrastination:

So as you can see, there are several ways to combat procrastination.  First try to identify the cause then try one or several of these strategies to help you get out of your funk and get things done.  At the very least you’ll be less stressed.

I thought that as I was going through my own personal review, maybe I’d share my thoughts for me so that if you’re coming up on your own personal review you might be able to glean some ideas from what I’m doing.

Lead-In to My Personal Review:

Not as productive as I could be

Am I taking the path of least resistance

Important to take time to reflect, contemplate, and adjust course:  Are my actions in line with my Pillars, Goals and Plans

Realized that my feelings were spot on…I wasn’t as productive as I was capable of being and I had let myself get a little off-course

Maybe discussing my PR will be the spark you need to do your own PR, if applicable…sometimes we just need a little “push” and if mentioning it in the show helps you, then great!

You:

If you have ideas you’d like to share for how you do your Personal Review or whatever you call it, I’d love to hear them.

As I put my SOP together I’m certainly open to new ideas

Here are the Top 5 Things I’m Working On:

1- Structure the first half of my day (Goal)

Trying to focus on my peak productivity time (AM)

Understand my blocks of time (refer to Episode 30 for more on Habits, Routines & Rhythms)

I think I’ll do this incrementally, starting with my first block of time, Early Morning

Give it some time and reevaluate (I don’t think I’ll wait the typical “give it 30 days” before I incorporate the next block of time. We’ll see.)

You:

Have you purposefully structured your day or have you allowed it to be structured for you?

What about your “free time”? How do you protect, structure and best utilize that?

Maybe it’s time to take a look?

2-  Focus more on Completion versus Doing More.

We all know doing more doesn’t equal getting more done. Ex, treadmill.

I’m an idea person and constantly get good ideas in my head…but it’s too easy to bounce around and lose focus

What kind of things am I talking about? Books, Projects, Courses I’ve paid for.

How? Essentially, reevaluate if they are still important to me.

Complete the books or let them go

Complete the project or let it go

Why did I buy that course?

There’s certainly a sense of satisfaction and calm that comes with completion

You:

So what are some things you’ve let pile up, either physical things or tasks, or that list of “Someday, I’ll (fill in the blank)?

Maybe it’s time to list those out and deal with them?

Maybe it’s time to let some of them go?

3- Improvement of SLT as a resource

Improve the website

More written blog posts and videos

Still struggling with the whole community “thing”…not sure if a full-blown community is best or simply a forum where all of the great Q&As like on the Edit & Forget It Challenge FB page are captured

I’ve been terrible about emails, subscription stuff

You:

What’s a project that’s important to you that you love, care about and want to see grow into something bigger?

What’s holding you back from taking action on it? Your abilities? Your imagination? Resources?

What can you do to work around or overcome those obstacles?

Maybe it’s time to spend a little time thinking it out?

4- Revisit my Consumption to Production Ratio (C:P)

I have to admit, my consumption habits for information have done a complete 180!

I used to read feeds from over 100 blogs daily, and listen to podcasts incessantly.

I did a shift a few months ago to curb my consumption and increase my production.

I was just too caught up in consuming content and wasn’t producing any.

Well, my consumption certainly dropped, and eventually so did my production!!!

You:

Is there something you produce or are responsible for that you’ve let slide? Any idea why?

Maybe the 5 Whys analysis tool I talked about in Episode 36 can help you get to the root cause.

5- Health and Fitness

This one is a long-term problem for me since revenue from the fitness industry just in the US last year topped $45 Billion!

Work used to take care of this for me…I didn’t even have to think about exercise

Well, some medical conditions, injuries and retirement have put a big damper on my level of activity

Still, I haven’t done nearly enough to overcome those conditions and habits

Again, we tend to take the path of least resistance

You:

What’s the one area where you keep finding yourself falling short of you goals, or more likely, your dreams?

It may not be fitness, but maybe its organization, finances, speaking, technology, or some other area of your life?

Is there someone you can learn from either in person or online? A coach, a mentor, someone you admire?

If you take a little time, there are probably tons of lost cost or free resources you can tap into

Dan’s Thing: John Bardo’s Simple Success Manifesto

Vanessa’s Thing: Ibex and Icebreaker merino wool travel clothing

The Google Drive Tutorial is now available for purchase! This tutorial is just over an hour long and focuses on all the fundamentals of how to use Google Drive for creating, sharing, and storing  documents using Google’s free, full-fledged office suite. This tutorial is available for $9.99, and you’ll learn how to create text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and even forms and surveys! So, don’t wait to pay full price! You can have immediate access to Dan’s 1 hour+  windshield tour of Google Drive right now! Simply click here or go to SimpleLifeTogether.com/GoogleDrive. Plus, if you’re not completely satisfied I’ll give you your money back. So, no clutter and no risk…simple!

Ibex Merino Merino Wool Clothing

Icebreaker Merino Wool Clothing

John Bardo’s Simple Success Manifesto

Erik Fisher’s Interview w/us on Beyond The To Do List

Eisenhower Priority Matrix 

Accountability Website Dan Couldn’t Remember in the Show is Stickk.com (only risk money, not embarrassment!)

If you haven’t already, please be sure to go to iTunes to subscribe to the show. Don’t forget to leave us a rating & review! Thanks!

Photo courtesy of hang_in_there

So what’s your default response when someone asks you “How’s it going?”

So, I began to wonder if I was the only one this bothered and did a little searching. I found a great article on Lifehacker by Janet Choi called How to Escape the Cult of “Busy”. It starts out:

People who often say they’re “too busy” or “crazy busy” sound like buzzing busy signals. And when you start sounding like an appliance, it makes it hard to connect with you.

I couldn’t agree more.

So if you’re like me and find yourself falling into the habit of replying “Busy” when someone asks “How’s it going?”,  take some time to evaluate whether you’re just making excuses for something else. If you truly have let yourself become too busy,  then find out why. Because being too busy is a problem and will stand in the way of simplifying your life.

You may want to use one of my favorite tools for getting to the root of the problem. It’s called “The Five Whys”.

When I’ve used the 5 Whys to get to the root cause of why I’m not getting work done, more often than not it comes down to one root cause…FACEBOOK!

OK, so back to the Five Whys. Now, despite the name “Five Whys”, you’re not limited to 5 nor do you do you have to go 5 whys deep in order to find your root cause. Five is simply the typical number of times it takes to get to that root cause.

Further, The Five Whys doesn’t “solve” your problem, it simply identifies it.  In my experience the best way to solve problems are to

1-Identify the problem

2- Determine whether the situation fits in with your long term goals

3- Decide/commit to eliminating the problem, and what action to take

4- Take action

These 4 steps sound alot like the OODA Loop we talked about back in Episode 16

Another great resource for making yourself less busy is an article titled The Power of Saying No by some gal named Vanessa Hayes over at a site called Get Simplifized.

In that post, the author (our very own Vanessa Hayes) writes:  Saying NO can have a profound impact on your life:

Vanessa also shared some tips for taking back your time back in Episode 18, so folks can re-listen to that episode as well.

For the past month, we’ve been out of town on business and vacation. And while it’s been great and we’ve had a lot of fun this summer, it’s time to get ready for back to school….especially since our kids will be starting school in just a couple of weeks! So with back to school season in full swing,  I thought I’d share a few tips with you on how to make the transition from the easy breezy summer to the busy busy school season a little bit easier.

Here are a few tips (as usual…in no real particular order):

1. Sort through last year’s clothes to determine what new clothing items your children will need.

2. Take inventory of school supplies you already have. Then make a list and stick to it!

3.  Check your mailers for back to school sales.

4.  Attend the parent, student and teacher conference.

5. Coordinate carpooling with other neighborhood parents.

6. Set up after school care and plan for sick days, snow days and holidays.

7.  Visit the pediatrician to ensure vaccinations and physicals are completed and up to date.

8. Create a mini command center to keep track of calendars, schedules and other to-do things for the kids and family.

9.  Establish morning and nighttime routines for your children.

10. Before school starts, find out about your kid’s school lunch program.

11. Get a copy of the school menu and make a habit of checking it at least weekly or every night.

12. Set up routine payments to the school.

13. If paying by cash on a daily basis, establish a routine of making sure your kids get their lunch money.

14. Store the cash in a cute wallet or other creative container like a wrist wallet or zippered armband.

15. Packed Lunches: The key to planning lunches is to, well…plan!  So…just a few additional tips on packing lunches:

16.  Establish rules for doing homework, using the computer and watching television.

17. Get the kids in the habit of waking up and going to bed early about 1-2 weeks before school starts.

18.  Think Safety…Safety…Safety.  If your children walk to school, ride their bikes or ride the bus, it’s imperative that you keep their safety in mind.

19.  Talk with your children about school and get them pumped up!

Dan’s Thing: Finally tapping into the personal hotspot function on our iPhones!

Vanessa’s Thing: Officially Becoming a CPO®

Support Charity Water Through Your Amazon.com Purchases

Google Drive Tutorial

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

Do The Work by Steven Pressfield

Adam Baker’s Steven Pressfield Interview

Lifehacker Article by Janet Choi

The Power of Saying No by Vanessa Hayes

The OODA Loop Episode (SLT 018)

Taking Back Your Time Episode (SLT 016)

Some Products Vanessa Recommends for “Back to School”

Lunch Containers

Lunch Boxes

Cute Wallet

Wrist Wallet

Zippered Armband

If you haven’t already, please be sure to go to iTunes to subscribe to the show. Don’t forget to leave us a rating & review! Thanks!

Photo courtesy of andreasfeusi.ch

We’ve had a standing dream: More time with family, and way more time to enjoy the outdoors!  We’ve mentioned on the show that have been trying to sell our 4 acres overlooking State Natural Area in the Texas Hill Country.  Well, we sold it, and it freed us from other debts and allowed us to pursue 2 of the pillars we live by, Family and Future.

Background:

Decision on getting the CampInn:

Trip forced us to simplify:

Things we did to simplify camping: Yeah, we bought stuff…but we’re going to be doing a LOT of camping and we wanted it to be (you guessed it)…simple! (links to all these are below)

Camper cons/challenges:

Pros of living in a small space/camping:

 Take Aways:

Dan: Day on the lake with family!!!!

Vanessa: Same as Dan! But, but since we want to be different, the the Food Crawl…Taste of Buffalo (Mighty Taco, John and Mary’s, Mammoser’s, Fran ‘n Ceils, Bella’s Pizza

Camp Inn Campers (use discount code “SIMPLE” to save on your purchase!)

Microfiber towels (we loved these!)

USB/Crank Mini Lanterns (awesome…lots of ways to charge, no batteries!)

Marino cool clothes (pricey, but I only need a few and I absolutely won’t go back to cotton)

– Icebreaker Merino Wool

– Ibex Merino Wool

Stainless Percolator (we added a probe thermometer to ours…you can email Dan if you want more info on that)

Pop Up Trash can

Edwin Jagger Safety Razor (beautiful, very functional and cheap blades)

Shaving oil (Dan won’t go back to creams…this will last over a year!)

Thermarest Mattresses (we loved these when we tent camped, now the kids use them!)

Berkey Water Filtration System (we use at home and on the road for pure water)

3 ounce Silicone Squeeze Bottles (love, love love these!)

Fuch’s Travel Toothbrushes (the best travel toothbrush for us…and cheap!)

If you haven’t already, please be sure to go to iTunes to subscribe to the show. Don’t forget to leave us a rating & review! Thanks!

Whether we like it or not, many things in life boil down to relationships.  We all have a relationships with money and we all have relationships with the “stuff” in our lives. Again, just like many other things in life, our relationships can be positive or negative experiences. But often it just depends on how we frame them.

So, let’s take a look at our relationship with money and our relationship with “stuff”. To help us look at money, we’re going to discuss a recent article by Seth Godin, one of our favorite bloggers. To help us look at the things we surround ourselves with in life, we’ll talk to Bonnie Dewkett, Certified Professional Organizer from The Joy of Organizing podcast. Read more…

In this episode, we talk about an article by Seth Godin.  If you haven’t heard of Seth Godin, he’s written fourteen books that have been translated into more than thirty languages. And every single one has been a bestseller. He writes about the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership and most of all, changing everything. Candidly, his blog post is typically the first thing in my Inbox in the morning. Seth is also a fellow Buffalo boy, like me.

So, Seth recently wrote a post titled Thinking About Money. He said, “Many marketers work overtime to confuse us about money. They take advantage of our misunderstanding of the time value of money, of our aversion to reading the fine print, of our childish need for instant gratification and most of all, our conflicted emotional connection to money. Confusing customers about money can be quite profitable if that’s the sort of work you’re willing to do”

He makes a few interesting observations about money that we thought was interesting and so we picked a few of them and discussed our thoughts:

The amount of money you have has nothing to do with whether or not you’re a good person. Being good with money is a little like being good with cards. People who are good at playing cards aren’t better or worse than anyone else, they’re just better at playing crazy eights.

Money spent on one thing is still the same as money spent on something else. A $500 needless fee on a million-dollar mortgage closing is just as much money as a $500 tip at McDonalds.

If you borrow money to make money, you’ve done something magical. On the other hand, if you go into debt to pay your bills or buy something you want but don’t need, you’ve done something stupid. Stupid and short-sighted and ultimately life-changing for the worse.

To go along with #3: getting out of debt as fast as you possibly can is the smartest thing you can do with your money. If you need proof to confirm this, ask anyone with money to show you the math. Hint: credit card companies make more profit than just about any other companies in the world.

There’s no difference (in terms of the money you have) between spending money and not earning money, no difference between not-spending money and getting a raise (actually, because of taxes, you’re even better off not-spending). If you’ve got cable TV and a cell phone, you’re spending $4,000 a year. $6,000 before taxes.

If money is an emotional issue for you, you’ve just put your finger on a big part of the problem. No one who is good at building houses has an emotional problem with hammers. Place your emotional problems where they belong, and focus on seeing money as a tool.

Like many important, professional endeavors, money has its own vocabulary. It won’t take you long to learn what opportunity cost, investment, debt, leverage, basis points and sunk costs mean, but it’ll be worth your time.

Never sign a contract or make an investment that you don’t understand at least as well as the person on the other side of the transaction.

If you’ve got a job, a steady day job, now’s the time to figure out a way to earn extra income in your spare time. Freelancing, selling items on Etsy, building a side business–two hundred extra dollars every week for the next twenty years can create peace of mind for a lifetime.

The way you feel about giving money to good causes has a lot to do with the way you feel about money.

Don’t get caught confusing money with security. There are lots of ways to build a life that’s more secure, starting with the stories you tell yourself, the people you surround yourself with and the cost of living you embrace. Money is one way to feel more secure, but money alone won’t deliver this.

Within very wide bands, more money doesn’t make people happier. Learning how to think about money, though, usually does.

In the long run, doing work that’s important leads to more happiness than doing work that’s merely profitable.

We had an amazing interview with Bonnie Dewkett of the Joyful Organizer and the Joy of Organizing Podcast. Here are the questions we asked during the interview:

– So Bonnie, who are you and how do you make lives simpler?

– We’ve found, and I’m sure you have too, that when someone “discovers” simplicity and really works to attain a higher level of simplicity, it can have a tremendous impact on their life. Can you share an example of two of how you’ve witnessed that impact or help enable that change in someone’s life?

– In one of your recent blog posts titled “Why Do We Own” you touch on a couple of reasons why we tend to own things and want more.  Can yo0u tap about what those reasons are and how knowing “why we own” we might be better able to control the clutter we let into our lives?

– One of your specialty services is photo management. that is one area where we’re working on developing a good Standing Operating Procedure (SOP) for ourselves and it’s also an area we’re often asked about from our listeners.  What tips can you share for others who’d like to “rein in the horses” and get control of their photo memories?  Maybe some tips for digital and physical photos?

– Another very popular question we get from our listeners is, how do you get others in your life, let’s say a spouse or loved one, to jump on  the simplicity or clutter-free bandwagon?  It can be a sticky situation…can you share some tips on how folks can work together towards living a simple life?

– So Bonnie, like us, you and your husband Matt work together, and you transitioned from the corporate world to start your own business together.  How has that changed your life together?

– Can you tell us a little bit more about your coaching services?

OK…for the first time every we have a “combined thing” which was spending time with old friends and new friends at the World Domination Summit over the 4th of July holiday weekend in Portland. Chris Guillebeau and his crew put on a fantastic event once again, and I think they did a pretty good job of scaling from 1000 people to 3000. So, we’ll see what next year holds in store.

Support Charity Water Through Your Amazon.com Purchases

The Joyful Organizer

The Joy of Organizing Podcast in iTunes

Bonnie’s Books on Amazon

Thinking About Money

If you haven’t already, please be sure to go to iTunes to subscribe to the show. Don’t forget to leave us a rating & review! Thanks!

Well, we’re a little over 6 months into this “whole blog/podcast thing” and we figured it was time for an update. Actually, we’re probably way overdue for an update! There are some things upcoming that you may be interested in and we’ll also be taking a little bit of a break as we head into our summertime family working vacation.

But the highlight of this week’s episode is an interview with a good friend of ours, and fellow simplicity aficionado, Joel Zaslofsky of the Value of Simplicity blog and the amazing Smart and Simple Matters podcast!

We wanted to let you know some things that are going on with us and the show:

Photo organization: We’ve talked about this in the past and it’s probably one of the most requested topics we get. We’re still researching and asking the pro’s for some tips, so you can look forward to that in the next couple of months.

Dan will be doing an Evernote tutorial, too, at some point. He’s been waiting for the dust to settle and now is ready to start working on it.  If you have any special requests regarding Evernote, drop Dan a note at [email protected].

Finally, we’ll be on the road a bit for the next month or so…we’ll be in Portland for Chris Guillebeau’s World Domination Summit for the 3rd year in a row and then we have some mixed business & fun time with family throughout July and early August. We typically release shows every Thursday but for July we’ll have shows on the 4th and 18th and then pick back up in August!

We had an amazing interview with Joel Zaslofsky…creator of the awesome Smart and Simple Matters podcast and the Value of Simple blog. He’s incredibly open about his journey from a six-figure corporate job to carving out a niche online, while shaping his simple lifestyle. He offers tons of tips and free resources on his website to help you “liberate your time, money and talent.” 

We were thrilled to be his guests on Episode 15 of the Smart and Simple Matters show back in January and we’ve been dying to have Joel on our show. Well, we finally made that happen and it was fantastic!  You don’t want to miss this interview!  Here are some of the questions and things we talked about:

– So Joel, who are you and how do you make people’s lives simpler?

– So, you talk about your “Personal Renaissance.” Can you describe what that is, what it’s been like for you, and how it has led to a simpler/more focused life?

– Can you tell us a little about the backstory of “liberate your time, money and talent” as it relates to you, your clients and your people who follow your work?

– Tell us about your love for spreadsheets and some ways you use them to simplify your life.

– How would you define curating, what do you curate personally, and how do you think others could benefit from curating?

– Batman has his Batcave, the Super Friends had the Hall of Justice, and you have the Refuge of Simplicity! Can you share what goes on there?

– Can you give us any tips about “keeping it simple” with a family?

– For a lot of people, the whole “investment thing” is complicated. You address simplifying that in your online course “Start Investing with $100.” Can you share a little about that?

– So Joel, what have we left out that is “must know” info for our listeners? What have you got going on these days?

Dan’s Thing: Our upcoming trip to WDS

Vanessa’s Thing: Passing her BCPO Exam and all the support she got from friends, family, colleagues….and even YOU…our listeners!!!

Research:

How Much Information? 2009 Report on American Consumers (this is the 100,000 words a day research)

Your Memory is Like the Telephone Game (this is the reference to how much our memories suck, even if we think they rock)

Smart and Simple Matters:

iTunes

Value of Simple Stuff:

The Value of Simple Declaration

SASM 015 – The Forces of Order and Simplifying with Dan and Vanessa Hayes

Spreadsheets and You: How and Why to Put Your Life in Them

SASM 005 – Curating Part 1: The Awesome Importance and Startling Benefits

The Continuous Creation Challenge Resource Kit

My Story

The Simple Life Together Resource Page on Value of Simple

The Refuge of Simplicity

The Personal User Guide

Start Investing with $100

FAQ Page

Social Media Profiles:

Twitter

Facebook

G+

If you haven’t already, please be sure to go to iTunes to subscribe to the show. Don’t forget to leave us a rating & review! Thanks!

It’s true. There’s no getting around it. Generally speaking, the way we end up is all about the choice we make in life. Now certainly there are some cases where, as the bumper sticker says, “Things Occur”, but for the most part the course we choose to take along life’s path lead to conclusions that we help form.

So what are some of the choices we make in life that have major impact on our path toward simplicity? Well, there are a lot of them, and most of them are well within your control. Read more…

Most things in life boil down to the choices we make. Grant it, there are many things in life that we can’t control, but most things are the result of choices. So…disclaimer up front…we’re talking mostly about adults here. Sure, kids have choices too, but as Vanessa and I were discussing this topic she reminded me that when it comes to things like education and opportunities, some kids don’t have the support systems as others. What’s normal for one child may be completely foreign or unavailable to another. I think she nailed that so we’ll keep our discuss limited to adults. Heck even adults have constraints on some of their choices, but like I said “most things boil down to choice”...not all. So, disclaimer done…this is more about introspection and choice we make ourselves as individuals, not judging others’ choices…let’s move on.

 But just because we choose something, doesn’t mean we get to choose the effects or the ramifications of that choice, too.

Our choices have natural and sometimes inevitable effects.

Some choices are causation for things down the road and not just correlation.

What we do for a living: This is often the result of a series of choices we make, not a single decision. A brain surgeon doesn’t just choose to be a brain surgeon one day. It’s a series of choices that likely began in high school or before. When our parents told us we can “be anything we set our mind to” that didn’t mean we could decide it and then it would happen. We had to make lots of decisions along the way. Sorry, but the “Law of Attraction” only goes so far. It takes the right choices, and working hard to support those choices and enable follow-on choices. Like when you play billiards or pool, the best players plan their shots to set themselves up for the next shot.

Where we choose to live: Now, we’ve mentioned that dream home we had been planning but thankfully we decided to change that choice. We saw ourselves working just to support what we thought would be our dream. The more we contemplated it the more we realized the home would own us and not the other way around! Here’s a portion of a comment we received recently from Dayis on Episode 29 that reinforced that for us:

“Becoming a slave to your dream home – how I wish you were speaking to me a year ago! We moved into our “dream home” last summer and it has become a nightmare…so hard to keep up with its needs, which is now the focus instead of the desert beauty that surrounds us. Hard to find time to just sit and enjoy the views. After your podcast, we’re confident that selling our home is the right thing to do. And thanks for sharing the fisherman tale…it so wonderfully defines what we want to achieve. We’ve titled our mission: Freedom 45! We’ve got 3 years to go and you’ve helped me get on board with my husband’s plan and encouraged us to outline our plan. I get it now.” (bolding added by us for emphasis only)

What we choose to drive: The same thing goes for what we choose to drive. I see nothing wrong with driving exactly what anyone wants to drive as long as it’s within your means and your goals. For the most part, cars are there to get us from Point A to Point B, but they have taken on an entirely different role for some people. Like most things in the consumer society, products have taken on the traits of fashion, versus utility. Lines have expanded to include multiple versions or levels of the same basic vehicle, with sometimes 5 or 6 different trimlines available…even “luxury edition” pickup trucks. Really? Is all of this just to get you to feel like you need to keep up and get used to spending when trends change?

What we choose to purchase: Everything today seems to have a long tail. You’ve all probably heard of the Razor Blade Sales Strategy…sell the razor cheap or give it away…to make money on follow-on purchases of expensive blades. It works! Sell printers cheap to sell expensive follow-on ink, give diabetics glucose meters to sell years worth of expensive test strips, even, some may argue, the Kindle and ebooks, smartphones and data plans… So “long tail” products do three very important things in my opinion when it comes to choices:

We choose how we respond to situations: We can choose to accept situations at face value, what we did right, what we did wrong, and how we can learn from those situations or make the outcome better. Or we could choose to have a victim mentality. This is a trap that many people fall into when they’ve made poor choices and don’t want to accept the reality of the outcome of those choices. Certainly, true victims of crimes or circumstances beyond their control don’t fall into this category. The “victim mentality” is more of a euphemism for those who don’t accept responsibility for choices they’ve made. Unfortunately, this seems to be on the rise…

We choose to be positive or negative: It’s easy to think bad about someone or yourself. You think you are fat and that you’ll never be fit and healthy so then you figure: “I’ll just keep eating bad because what’s the point if I have no discipline….I don’t know how to eat healthy…I don’t have good genes…so what difference will it make if I eat another donut…or two…or three?”

There is little correlation between the circumstances of people’s lives and how happy they are. When you ask people about their most cherished values in life, “happiness” is always at the top of the list. However, unhappiness does not seem to be the exceptional order to be happy, we first have to battle ourselves. Not only do we have a right to be happy, we have an obligation to be happy. Our happiness has an effect on the lives of everyone around us—. It provides them with a positive environment in which to thrive and to be happy themselves.

What we choose to eat: It’s true what our Moms told us…we are what we eat. Of course we can choose to eat what we want but it’s not without consequences. Juicing was a big move for me personally…

Who we choose to associate with: Motivational Speaker Jim Rohn is quoted as saying “You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.” So think about that… you are the average of their thoughts, what the earn, how they spend their time, etc. Hopefully in your 5 people you have an accountability partner, a mentor (for whatever your major goals are), a sounding board. Now when I first heard that saying I was a little concerned. Sure, I spent time with lots of great people but most of them are different in so many ways. I have vastly different goals when it comes to work, finances, family, lifestyle in general. But what I decided was that quote, whether scientific or not falls into that law of averaging, had some merit. But I also concluded that I spent so much time listening to my select podcasts, audiobooks, reading actual old school physical books, taking courses, watching TED Talks, etc, that a good portion of my 5 people I had never even actually met! But they served as mentors nonetheless. So, who are the 5 people you are the average of? Maybe you have just the right mix…or maybe it’s time for you to shake it up a bit and start spending time with some people who will help you reach your goals.

What we chose to purchase: We’ve hit on this topic already in this show and in lots of previous episodes, but it’s worth foot stomping a bit. We acquire things for many reasons: to feel secure, to be prepared for just-in-case scenarios, to fit-in, because we think we need things…or because we actually do need things (like food, shelter, and clothing). But what we actually need to purchase is probably significantly less than what we end up purchasing. Too many times we purchase things because we think it’ll buy our happiness or earn us a spot in the “cool crowd” but don’t be fooled.

You choose your place in the crowd: Dan used to tell his troops that when you go in to a new unit you can usually tell within the first few days whether or not they are squared away. Then you have two choices. You can:

We choose how to raise our families: Do I want to be a parent or a friend? A mentor or strict disciplinarian? Nurturer or tough love coach? Will I refuse to let my kids grow up or teach them independence? Or maybe I want to be a little bit of all of these. And that’s fine, but what choices you make will have an impact good or bad on your kids. Involving them in extra-curricular activities will expose them to different sports or arts, teaching them teamwork and discipline…but too many activities and a full schedule may cause stress, anxiety, and sacrifice valuable family time together. I know these are broad and maybe a little far-reaching, but just think about it….think about how you really want to raise your family and the values you want to pass on to them…I guarantee you’ll be a little more deliberate in the things you do.

Final thoughts:

Dan’s Thing: The Note Anywhere Extension for Chrome Browser

 Vanessa’s Thing: Our 8th Anniversary

Google Drive Tutorial     

The Google Drive Tutorial is now available for purchase! This tutorial is just over an hour long and focuses on all the fundamentals of how to use Google Drive for creating, sharing, and storing  documents using Google’s free, full-fledged office suite. This tutorial will be available at the discounted price of just $7.99 until 30 June 2013, when it will increase to $9.99. Either way, it’s a bargain! In this introduction, you’ll learn how to create text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and even forms and surveys! So, don’t wait to pay full price! You can have immediate access to Dan’s 1 hour+  windshield tour of Google Drive right now! Simply click here or go to SimpleLifeTogether.com/GoogleDrive. Plus, if you’re not completely satisfied I’ll give you your money back. So, no clutter and no risk…simple!

We did want to mention that thanks to you, we’ve been able to donate another $100 this month to Charity Water because of your purchases through our affiliate links. While we work hard to bring awareness to consumerism we realize that there are some things you still may choose to purchase.

If you purchase through Amazon, we ask you to consider going to SimpleLifeTogether.com/Amazon and bookmarking that. That link takes you directly to Amazon where you can make your purchases just like you ordinarily would, but Amazon pays us a little bonus (about 4%) and we donate that to Charity Water to help build wells for villages…so, everybody wins!

Support Charity Water Through Your Amazon.com Purchases

Google Drive Tutorial

“Happiness Is A Serious Problem” by Dennis Prager

Motivational Speaker Jim Rohn

If you haven’t already, please be sure to go to iTunes to subscribe to the show. Don’t forget to leave us a rating & review! Thanks!

Wow! There is so much information out there to simplify our lives that some times it can get pretty complicated!!! Isn’t it great to have a resource you can go to to find most of what you need on a subject in one location. That’s when a site move from being just entertaining to become a real resource. Same goes for books, or any other type of information for that matter. We have lots of other great links on our Recommendations tab at the top of the site, but we wanted to highlight a few here.

Which resource work best for you are often dictated by your learning style. Each of us is unique in the way we prefer to learn. When it comes to organizing, the same thing applies. Which type of learning style works best for you? Read more?

So a couple of episodes ago we talked about the start of our journey toward simplicity so I thought I’d share some resources that influenced me as I started the journey, and still do.

Like most things, when someone asks you “how you know something” or where you learned it, often times the first thing that comes to mind is “Well, I dunno…I just learned it.” Which is typically true! We each have our own unique path that we travel and you do just pick things up along the way. So it can be hard to say definitely where along the path you picked up a skill, a tidbit of knowledge or, harder yet, philosophy.

The other problem I had while putting together this list is that many of these won’t seem like “simplicity” resources at all. Matter of fact, lots of them are straight out business resources. But our business is a big part of our lives and has influenced ability to simplify our lives immensely so I couldn’t just leave those resources, or that part of the story, out. Things don’t happen in a vacuum…they’re intertwined, with lots of cause and effect going on, with actions and reactions.

I also need to preface this: For all my adult life my day to day existence was focused on doing my duty; to leading learning and doing things you’d expect from a career military guy. I was starting a transition. There’s a saying from Benjamin Franklin that goes- “Most men die at 25… we just don’t bury them until they are 70”. I never wanted that to apply to me. Luckily, I was able to shape my service to where I could always be where the action was…doing things others didn’t want to do. I loved it! But as I prepped for my transition, I knew I wanted to do things on my terms. So that’s how I framed things…that was my lens. So, consider that as I go through the list.

So what I’ll do is, for each resource, I’ll give a good portion of the 5W&H…the Who-What-When-Where-Why-How that I talked about way back in Episode 10 when I revealed some Secret (But Simple) Military Communication Techniques

I’m going to focus on Books, Blogs, and Podcasts that influenced me in the beginning.

Who: Tim Ferriss’s

What: 4HWW

When: I first read in 2008

Where: Amazon Link to 4HWW

Why: This was the first book that really opened up the whole idea of not following a “deferred retirement” lifestyle. A main premise of the book focuses on numerous “mini-retirements” throughout your life versus waiting for the deferred retirement plan followed by most. In the book, Tim guides you through developing what he calls a “muse” or a side business that supports the lifestyle you want to live. Now, I talked quite a bit about deferred retirement in Episode 29 and in our About Us video so I won’t go too deep into that here, but I took that and adapted that a bit.

Essentially for us it’s a little different. We always have my retirement pension from the military to back us up, but that has allowed us to develop our lifestyle businesses around what we truly love to do versus having to worry too much about it being our sole income source. That’s certainly an advantage we have because we can take our time, tweak things and make them truly reflect what we’re passionate about and not just what will “sell” to others.

How: So, the “How” is, the 4HWW really sparked our dive into the possibility of a, or many, lifestyle businesses. That got me focused on starting Vanessa on the path first as I was still in the military at the time. And I’ll admit, what followed…setting up a website, soaking in all the (then new) social media platforms, and learning as much as I could about starting a business and becoming a solopreneur…was FAR from simple!!! But as we’ve often said, sometimes simplicity is the outcome of many “not so simple” efforts. I be underestimating if I said I spent around 500 hours just on learning about and building a website. But, the good thing is that I captured that process, simplified it the best I could, and wrote the Simple Life Website Guide which is yours for free at SimpleLifeTogether.com/websiteguide. It’ll save you tons of time, guaranteed.

Of course, 4HWW also includes lots of other topics that are near and dear to my heart, such as Pareto’s 80/20 Rule, Parkinson’s Law, Occam’s Razor and others that I talk a lot about in Episode 4. So that’s it for the 4 Hour Work Week

Who: Dan Miller’s

What: 48 Days to the Work You Love (both the book and podcast)

When: I started listening to Dan Miller in 2008, too.

Where: 48 Days Podcast

Why: Dan’s podcast was one of the first I ever listened to on a regular basis. Back in the day I used to go to the base library and check out audio books on cassette, and when podcasts came out I dabbled a bit. I was amazed how much information was available in free podcasts and I soaked it all in, bought some of their books, courses and tutorials, and really started charting my (well I guess ‘our” path).

How: But in Dan’s 48 Days Podcast, I found incredible inspiration and actionable advice to help me get started. He has this wise, fatherly, and sometimes “Dutch Uncle”-ish way of getting you to ask yourself the tough questions to figure out ways to find your true passion and offers possible ways to use that passion as a source of income. I think his podcast was the first I ever subscribed to and I still listen to this day. I’m also a member of his 48Days.net community, too. So, his podcast, books, and community have all been a big help to me. Hopefully someday I’ll attend one of his seminars too,

One podcast that I loved listening to actually influenced me to start down one of those dead end paths. That wasn’t the show’s fault…the show was great…it was my fault. So, the next one I’ll talk about is by…

Who: My friend Cliff Ravenscraft and his co-host Andy Traub

What: Business Tech Weekly podcast

When: I started listening to this show shortly after I started listening to Dan Miller

Where: While the show isn’t being recorded anymore you can certainly find the original episodes in iTunes, just search for Business Tech Weekly

Why: So, you can probably already tell from the title, the show was tailor made for me…it’s about business, and it’s about tech. It was a digital Reese’s Cup for me!

How: Together, Cliff and Andy would discuss new programs, apps, devices…anything new & tech that came out that business owners and solopreneurs might benefit from. And it hit me…that’s exactly what I love! I could build a business around helping business owners who were confused by technology, intimidated by the options, or just didn’t have time to get into it all. That’s what I love to do and I could do it for them! What a great business! So I actually pursued that for a while as a side gig and was actually doing pretty good at it. I had a decent website a few clients to keep me busy on the side and it seemed like it should work out great. Except I fell into that trap of turning something I enjoyed as a hobby into a business. And I started not to enjoy it anymore. So you know what…I stopped doing that. But it did give me some terrific experience explaining tech to people who aren’t tech savvy, and I have a new outlet for my re-found “hobby”…that’s right, Simple Life Together! I love sharing my tech tips and I feel no pressure to make a penny from any of it...it’s not the core of my business, it’s something extra that I like to be able to share.

Of course I’m a big fan of my friend Cliff Ravenscraft, and as I mentioned in the initial episodes of the show, without his podcasting mentorship this show would not be what it is today. And that’s proof that although you may start out on one azimuth toward a goal, you may find your true destination one a completely different course. Such was the case with Business Tech Weekly leading me to Cliff’s show Podcast Answerman.

Who: Leo Babauta’s

What: Zen Habits blog

When: All this was going on around the same time

Where: ZenHabits.net

Why: It resonated with me because if you’ll recall from previous shows, within a couple years Vanessa and I got married, merged households, had a baby, moved twice…lots of major life events going on and of course they cause two things; stress and contemplation about how we were going to live our lives together.

How: Zen Habits got me thinking more and more about minimalism, goal setting (which is funny because now Leo is “anti goal”), and living simply. Funny, because I’m not zen and not a minimalist… But, it was also a pretty major influence for me at the time…I guess this was late 2008 or early 2009…on my thinking about organization. I didn’t share Leo’s site with Vanessa right away. Honestly, she was too busy taking care of Sunshine to be much of an RSS reader. But the things Leo discussed about organization in his blog, I saw vanessa doing in our home. And as we’ve mentioned before, she was kind of searching for what was next for her career-wise. I saw a blurb somewhere about Professional Organizers. So, I looked it up, found the website for the National Association of Professional Organizers and sent it to Vanessa in an email that said, “This is what you were meant to do!” She thought I was joking…  Of course, when we met Leo a couple years later it was nice to thank him in person for influencing our start at simplicity.

Blogs:

Books:

Personal Influences:

The thing I want to leave with you is this:  Once you decide to simplify, resources will reveal themselves to you as you look. You may be surprised when you look back just what resources served you well and others that led you to take a new fork in the road.

It’s our goal to become a resource for you and to share what we’ve learned along the way. I wish I could just print out a roadmap for you to follow… but your life, your desires, your motivations and dreams are different from mine. They’re different from Vanessa’s. Some things, like my website guide, can be a road map. A good solid, step-by-step “how to” that you can use…but on your journey of simplicity, we can help guide you…but you have to choose your own steps.

You can do it…you can find your way. Just like we’re finding ours.

I think most of us get a lot of satisfaction of working with and helping others. It’s incredibly rewarding to be able to help someone work through a problem and then seeing them with that sense of relief (you know…that ahhhh expression and that instant relaxing of the shoulders kind of relief)…or that “the lightbulb just went off in their head” kind of look…or just that beaming sense of accomplishment. It’s pretty amazing for both me and the client.

I think what really drives and motivates me as a professional organizer…is the whole process of trying to solve my clients problems and figure out the best solutions to help them fix those problems. I love being able to pick up on the verbal and non-verbal clues to figure out why my clients are struggling in a particular area. It’s like a challenge for me and when I can’t figure it out…I’m even more determined to solve the problem!

Most of the time I can figure out pretty quickly what the main culprits are that are holding my clients back, just by listening to what they say, how they say it and by the patterns of physical clutter around. Now, I certainly can’t figure out all the reasons a client is “stuck” because I’m not a psychologist…or a doctor…or a mind-reader…but I can usually determine most of the overarching obstacles.

Dan’s Thing: Using Google Cloud Print to save web pages and Gmail attachments to Google Drive

Chrome > Preferences > Show Advanced Settings > Google Cloud Print > Manage Printers

 Vanessa’s Thing: Evernote Peek

Great for making your own digital flashcards on your iPad using the smart cover!

Google Drive Tutorial     

The Google Drive Tutorial is now available for purchase! This tutorial is just over an hour long and focuses on all the fundamentals of how to use Google Drive for creating, sharing, and storing  documents using Google’s free, full-fledged office suite. This tutorial will be available at the discounted price of just $7.99 until 30 June 2013, when it will increase to $9.99. Either way, it’s a bargain! In this introduction, you’ll learn how to create text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and even forms and surveys! So, don’t wait to pay full price! You can have immediate access to Dan’s 1 hour+  windshield tour of Google Drive right now! Simply click here or go to SimpleLifeTogether.com/GoogleDrive. Plus, if you’re not completely satisfied I’ll give you your money back. So, no clutter and no risk…simple!

Support Charity Water Through Your Amazon.com Purchases

Google Drive Tutorial

Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Dan Miller’s 48 Days To The Work You Love

Tim Ferriss’s 4 Hour Work Week

Podcast Answerman

Photo by http://www.onlinecollege.org/what-type-learner-are-you

If you haven’t already, please be sure to go to iTunes to subscribe to the show. Don’t forget to leave us a rating & review! Thanks!

You can’t buy time. Some may want you to think you can, but you can’t. Time is most likely the most democratized asset we have. As we live our lives, it doesn’t matter who rich or how poor you are, we all get the same amount: 24 hrs in a day 168 hours in a week, 365 days a year…and so on. It doesn’t matter if you’re the wealthiest person in the world, none of your wealth can buy you one more minute of time.

So how do you get on track to really making the most of the time you have? Knowing where to start sure helps! Well, it’s time to take charge! Read more…

So again, you can’t buy time. Sure, there are ways to pay others to do things you don’t want to do, and we all do that. We buy our vegetables already picked, our meats butchered, and some foods prepared. And that does allow us time to do other things, but that time is filled with something else. And that’s where I’d like to focus today…how we choose to structure that time. We certainly structure how we spend our money, but often leave how we structure our time to chance.

So, today I’d like to share some of my own definitions about time and how I’m trying to be a bit more careful with how I spend and structure my time in case you were considering that yourself. So, I’ll put a few things out there for you to think about if you’re looking at being a bit more mindful of your time as you simplify, as well.

So, since we can’t really buy “more” time, we should certainly allocate how we spend the time we do have. And as we go through this I’m going to define some terms that I set up for myself as a framework. Now these are my definitions so they’re not set in stone. You can certainly opt to define them more stringently or more loosely or however you want. It’s your time, your world, right?

So, I’ll go through my definitions first, and then we’ll break things down just a bit, OK?

The first term is HABIT:  I think of habits as simple tasks that have become almost completely automatic. Do you really think about how you brush your teeth in the morning or in the evening? Probably not…you just do it automatically. But there was a time when you did have to think about it, right?

Or those little red pills that highlighted plaque? We got those from the hygienist at school

Measured your effectiveness at the task

Quickly became automatic

Well, lot’s of things we do, we do out of habit. And we’ll get back to habit’s and all these definitions in a little bit.

The next term is ROUTINE: Like a habit, a routine is also automatic, but often a system of many habits. If brushing your teeth is a habit, the things you do to “get ready for life” life in the morning is probably a routine. A typical morning hygiene might consist of:

Showering

Brushing and flossing teeth

Doing your hair

Putting on makeup

When I was in the military, at the unit level when we were in the field, we also had “routines”, such as “Routines in Defense” where it was scheduled when weapons were cleaned, camouflage was replaced, communications were checked, etc.

OK, the next one I want to cover is RITUAL:  Mindful act or actions that have an overarching benefit. I think of a ritual as much like a routine, but something you’re much more mindful and appreciative of, and where you derive some benefit or satisfaction by doing it. In my opinion, the ritual is the sweet spot…it’s something that needs to be done that you enjoy and are better for doing.  My goal is to see what routines I can convert into rituals. Some personal examples:

Making coffee used to be a routine when we had a drip coffee maker and merely a habit when we had a Keurig

With the AeroPress, it’s become a ritual that I enjoy

For over 20 years, I spent an hour a night ironing a uniform and spit shine my boots

Others may consider that a dreaded task, still others may choose to outsource that, I chose to ritualize it

Ironing was “my time”…it was where I’d get in the zone, evaluate the day’s events and contemplate tomorrow’s

While I don’t spend an hour a night anymore, guess who still does the ironing in this house?

You probably have lots of family rituals that you practice at holiday time or other special times; such as how you celebrate birthdays, traditional meals at certain occasions, etc. And that leads me directly in to the next definition…

And this one is RHYTHMS: So I totally made up this definition and it may be more of an explanation. I think of rhythms as the sequence of events that are repetitive. Of course, they’re often seasonal in nature, too. In military combat units we used a “Battle Rhythm” to help provide some predictability to an often unpredictable environment. The Battle Rhythm tells HQ staffs when staff meetings are, when reports are due, when actions happen, etc. It provides some stability at the macro level.

OK, so now that we have some basic definitions, let’s move on to how we can take advantage of HABITS, ROUTINES, RITUALS, and RHYTHMS

So let’s go back down the list:

First off, HABITS:

What habits have you formed?

When was the last time you evaluated whether they were positive or negative habits?

What habits could you eliminate?

When was the last time you looked at your habits and asked yourself why you do them?

Pot roast story: (I looked everywhere and have no idea who to attribute this to, but it’s not my original work)

One day a woman was preparing a pot roast for Sunday dinner. Just as she always did, she unwrapped the pot roast and cut off the ends. Her husband asked her, “So, why do you always cut off the ends of that perfectly good pot roast?” The wife said “I don’t know, that’s just how my Mom did it.” The husband called his Mother In Law and asked her why she cut the ends of the roast off. The MIL replied, “Well, I don’t know, that’s how my mother always did it.” Determined to get to the bottom of the story, the husband called his wife’s Grandmother and asked, “Grandma, why on Earth do my wife and your daughter always cut the ends off a perfectly good roast?” Grandma responded, “Why, I have no idea!” The husband said, “Well Grandma they said they learned that from you!” To which Grandmother replied, “Well I only cut the ends off because my pan wasn’t big enough.”

OK, so that’s just a little story, but sometimes that’s how habits form sometimes, and taking some time to look at what we do and how we do it can can be time well spent.

What habits can you form?

Many opinions out there on forming new habits

I think much of it is conjecture

I just tell myself that if it’s worth doing, give it one month

Don’t try to take on too many changes at once

So, how about ROUTINES?:

When you think “routine”, do you think positive or negative?

It can be both!

But it’s typically what you make it

Are your routines effective? (Do they get the job done)

Are you routines efficient? (Are you doing them in the optimal way?)

Ways to get proficient at new habits and routines (not rituals)

Remember the Laws of Learning

Primacy

Recency

Repetition

Make it fun or make it a contest

Disassemble, reassemble and function check an M4 carbine in <2 minutes

Covers 3 main areas: take apart, put together, still works!

Teach kids how to clean up with a race against each other or a stopwatch

We do this with fitness all the time, by using a stopwatch, distance, etc

I’ve found this technique doesn’t work with rituals

Rituals are more personal or mindful and the rewards are intrinsic

Now, my favorite…RITUALS:

Turning routines in to rituals is a something I’m really trying to work harder at.

I think though that it’s easier to do this when you’ve freed up you time. A rushed ritual is really a routine. So, as you simplify your life and are able to be more deliberate with your time, find routines (or tasks within a routine) that you like or enjoy and try to build a ritual around that.

I’ll admit, this seemed a little “touchy feely” to me at first. I’m not naturally “tuned in to the universe.” At least, that’s not how I’ve spent most of my life. I’ve been a “complete the mission” type of guy…so, it’s a transition for me. That’s why I’m talking about it and why I’m sharing it because chances are you’re probably a lot like me.

I’ve found that some great candidates for rituals are things that you have a hard time rushing through and still doing a good job. At least that’s worked for me.

So, back to some things I’ve made rituals:

Shaving: For most guys, rushing a shave job is like nuzzling a chain saw anyway. So why rush it. I used to have to shave every day so I often did rush it. Now, I take my time and enjoy the experience. I’ve even considered going “old school” and using an old school safety razor or straight razor and a shaving mug and brush. I have my grandfather’s shaving mug and sometimes think it would be  pretty cool to give that a shot. But, I’ve decided to stick with my disposables for now. Maybe someday. I think it would turn shaving into even more of a ritual.

I’ve already mentioned making coffee, so you know I’m hooked on the AreoPress because it makes the best tasting, low acid, no silt pressed coffee I’ve ever had. But the ritual part comes in because of how I like (and am a bit particular about making) my coffee.

I like my coffee between 180-185 degrees so at home I microwave it for a known length of time

I found a special stainless steel coffee pot for my camping coffee. I tracked down a weldless brewer’s thermometer, bored a hole in the pot and threaded the thermometer in so I can get the water to the perfect temperature; blossoming, not boiling.

I hand-measure the coffee and place it in the AeroPress

Then a fill the press only to a certain point

I vigorously still this to a count of 10. Not 9, not 11…10.

Then I wet the AeroPress plunger rubber ring & insert it in the AeroPress

I then press the AeroPress plunger down, feeling resistance as I do

I don’t rush it and don’t force it down…I simply maintain pressure

At about ¾” from the bottom you hear the coffee begin to aerate…that makes the crema

Once the plunger bottoms out, I keep it perpendicular to the lip of my mug and scrape the remaining foaming crema from the bottom of the AeroPress, and into my mug

As clean up is part of the ritual, I take the press over to the trash, unscrew the aerating cap, pop out the coffee ground puck, and rinse the press, the cap, and the measuring spoon under the tap

Now that’s the ritual. It doesn’t sound simple, but it is. Something can be simple and still have multiple steps. Best of all, sometimes being present and doing something for yourself lets you enjoy the simple things in life.

AeroPress “Ritual” from Sandwich Video on Vimeo.

 Finally, my second favorite: Rhythms

I love the rhythm of the seasons and the natural ability to mark time by rhythm

Of course I enjoyed Summer as a kid, but my favorite season was Fall

I especially love being in the woods in the Fall

Hunting season was really just an excuse to be in the woods with my older brother in law or my best buddy growing up, Matt.

Here in San Antonio we have a rhythm of celebrations throughout the year we measure time by, too. Rodeo season, Fiesta, and lots of others

So learn to identify and enjoy the rhythms of your life. They’ll be marked by tradition and give you a sense of anticipation throughout the year

So, as you simplify, really take a hard look at how you spend those 168 hours per week, those 365 days per year. But don’t forget to be more present for those minutes, hours and days, as well.

Remember all those times in your life when you wanted the time to pass more quickly? School days or semesters, the days until Christmas or whatever Holiday you celebrate, birthdays, etc? We’ll at the end of your life you’ll be doing just the opposite…wishing it would go slower!

I’ve always joked that life is like a toilet paper roll…seems like a lot at first, but sure seems to run out fast at the end!

Find one routine that you can try to turn into a ritual. Give it 30 days. I’ve found that one month is long enough and short enough when giving most things a “try.”

I’m not a big believer in “You have to do something X times for it to become a habit”. If that works for you, great. For me, I usually say to myself “Give it a month”…if it’s worth doing, a month isn’t so long…and at the end, you’ll know.

So quit trying to make time for things. You can’t make any more. You have to find it in the time you already have.

I’ll leave you with this: Most people mistakenly believe they will have more free time in the future than they have now. More time to play, more time to organize, more time to work out or read. It’s just not the case. It doesn’t happen that way. Almost every invention in the history of mankind and that’s marketed to us today is something that was supposed to save us time. Well…how’s that worked for you so far? It hasn’t. That time just got shifted to something else. And who shifted it there? I did, you did.

So, it’s my life and it’s your life…and as we already established, you can’t buy time. Not one second. So, let’s shift it back to where it makes us happier and our lives simpler.

Have you ever wondered why your dreams seem like…well…just dreams and never quite become reality?  Or felt like you were  running around in circles but never being able to complete a project because you can’t seem to get clarification on what the heck your boss wants. Or maybe felt like you’ve been working so hard, doing the right things and trying to navigate through your life one day at a time but without any real clarity on where you are going?

Well, I know I’ve felt this way before….many a times…and for many a years.  But over the past couple of years, I’ve learned to embrace a way of seeking clarity of my goals and projects by doing one thing…and that’s by Beginning with the End in Mind…or the End State.  Shocking isn’t it?  I know it’s probably because Dan and I have talked about it on previous episodes.

Many of you are probably familiar with Stephen Covey who really popularized this concept in his book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People…where he talks about Beginning with the End in Mind.  It’s not a new or earth-shattering concept.  Heck, even Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland said: “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there!”  Brilliant isn’t it?

Well, I’m sure most of us have exercised or have been exposed to this way of thinking but maybe didn’t know it because it can be loosely disguised as other terms like: goal setting…commander’s intent…mission statement…objective…envisioning…or visualizing just as some examples.  All of these things in some way, have you looking forward and ahead at where you need or want to go.

So let me kind of describe this to you specifically using  Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People…at stephencovey.com…Begin with the End in MInd is habit #2.

“It’s the idea that all things are created twice…there is a mental (first) creation and a physical (second) creation.  The physical creation follows the mental much like a building follows a blueprint. If you don’t make a conscious effort to visualize who you are and what you want in life, then you empower other people and circumstance to shape you and your life by default.”  

He goes on to say…

“One of the best ways to incorporate Habit 2 into your life is to develop a Personal Mission Statement. It focuses on what you want to be and do. It is your plan for success. It reaffirms who you are, puts your goals in focus, and moves your ideas into the real world. Your mission statement makes you the leader of your own life. You create your own destiny and secure the future you envision.”

Now I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a pretty powerful statement…enough to make me want to take this concept…or habit…seriously.

Other folks have adopted this concept in other ways as well.  You’ve heard us talk about Michael Hyatt who has a great blog about intentional leadership and he hits on this concept when he talks about creating a Life Plan. Basically, by looking at the end…or how you want your life to look…you can live a life on purpose and be proactive instead of reactive.  Honestly, his basic life plan guide (as well as Dan Miller’s 48 Days To The Work You Love) played a significant role in Dan and I creating our 5 pillars (Faith, Family, Fitness, Finances and Future) and getting us to focus on shaping the life we have and want to live.

But this concept is also useful in other areas outside your personal sphere.

Project managers live by this concept.  I found an excerpt online that said:

“To succeed in a project, you must mentally start at the finish . . . and work backward” Hmmm…that’s another concept Dan and are very familiar with…backwards planning.”

“The clearer you are about the end result of your project, even though it may change, the more effectively you can plan the best way to achieve it.” 

And I love this example…

“Ever worked a jigsaw puzzle? You’ve got a thousand pieces to the puzzle—all the necessary resources to complete the project. How do you begin? By looking at the cover of the puzzle box and studying the picture of what the pieces will look like once they are assembled properly.”

Companies and business owners should and do have a vested interest in using this concept.  Listen to this I found on ReliablePlant.com:

“Designing for sustainability requires that you heed the thinking of Stephen Covey and “begin with the end in mind.” To reduce costs associated with energy consumption and waste generation, companies must maximize their investment using life cycle asset management methodologies. Life Cycle Asset Management (LCAM) is the basis for making sound decisions from “conceptual design” through the disposal of any asset type, and is measured based on the long-term impact on your business. It examines the shortest time to market for a capital improvement project while delivering the lowest total cost of ownership in order to maximize returns.”

Ok…blah blah blah on the last part but you see…gotta start with the end state…that conceptual design.  And companies recognize this because they know it will save them time, effort and most of all…money!

And the End State is key to a professional organizer especially during the assessment phase of a project.  The beauty about this concept is that it’s so easy! Peter Walsh of It’s All Too Much states:

“The most common mistake people make is starting with the stuff…just moving the stuff around into different rooms and new plastic bins doesn’t solve the problem…..the  key to getting-and staying-organized is to look beyond the stuff and imagine the life you could be living….it’s about how you see your life, before all else….imagine the life you want to live”

That’s a big picture approach to your life, which is great. But I even use it with my clients on a projects or space by space basis.  Common questions I ask are:

So by asking those questions…especially by looking at where they want to go and how they want  the space to feel…then together, we’re better able to look around and identify the things that aren’t working and adopt new habits or bring in new systems and products to achieve those goals.

And speaking of goals…beginning with the End is an excellent way for you to establish your goals.  Having clarity on where you want to go will help you define specific, measurable, attainable and relevant goals and milestones.

So you can see how Beginning with the End in Mind is so useful:

So where do you start? Anywhere!  Start today!  At work or with yourself.  Think about how you want your career to look, your home life, education, fitness, home space or office space…what do you want those to look like?  Envision the end state and work back from there.

The best thing about this is that it’s so easy!  Eventually you’ll find yourself using this strategy in practically everything you do! It’s an incredible way to communicate and achieve your goals.

Dan’s Thing: YouTube Playlists and How to Share

I’ve talked about how I like Playlists in YouTube before, but I find myself spending more and more time using them as a resource. I share a few of the playlists that I’ve curated on the “Curated Content” tab at SimpleLifeTogether.com, but I wanted to give you a few tips for finding and sharing playlists with others who may be interested.

Vanessa’s Thing: Closing on our  land!

Two month process is finally complete.  We are now able to move onto a new phase in our lives and achieving those goals that yes…we envisioned..using our life plan…and concentrating on our 5 pillars.  See folks…it’s working!

Google Drive Tutorial     

Yay!  The Google Drive Tutorial is now available for purchase! This tutorial is just over an hour long and focuses on all the fundamentals of how to use Google Drive for creating, sharing, and storing  documents using Google’s free, full-fledged office suite. This tutorial will be available at the discounted price of just $7.99 until 30 June 2013, when it will increase to $9.99. Either way, it’s a bargain! In this introduction, you’ll learn how to create text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and even forms and surveys! So, don’t wait to pay full price! You can have immediate access to Dan’s 1 hour+  windshield tour of Google Drive right now! Simply click here or go to SimpleLifeTogether.com/GoogleDrive. Plus, if you’re not completely satisfied I’ll give you your money back. So, no clutter and no risk…simple!

Support Charity Water Through Your Amazon.com Purchases

Google Drive Tutorial

The AeroPress Coffee Maker

1Password for Mac

1Password for iOS

1Password for Windows

Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Dan Miller’s 48 Days To The Work You Love

Photo Credit: Unknown But Not Our Original Work

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