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Unsolicited Advice for Life, Work, Work/Life and Lifework 
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December 18, 2009

How to decide which "gurus" to cut out of your life.

Start opting-out.

Take a few minutes to assess every piece of email you receive that comes from someone who promised to teach you how to become an internet marketing genius, double your number of Facebook fans, guarantee that you’ll get 15 retweets per day by following 8 simple rules or any other claim that simply did not deliver.

via socialmediatoday.com

You don't want to just unsubscribe from everything pell-mell.

Here's some wise advice - unsubscribe from lists that failed to deliver, this year.

Don't unsubscribe me, though - I pass on useful tips like this to you. Haha!

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Filed under  //   advice   ambition   attention   gurus   productivity   time   wisdom   work  

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October 29, 2009

Productivity Tip: Choose Between Batching & Thin-Slicing

It is 12:41 am, I was about to turn in for the night, and I realised that I have not written my 20 minutes for the day. I am sipping a mug of Milo right now. There's nothing like a mug of Milo right before bed. I suspect that Milo might be the cure for insomnia. Less teh tarik, more Milo, people. 

It is 12:43 am. I cannot guarantee that you will be reading this post, because I am only committed to write for 20 minutes a day, not to post every day. I'll probably be posting more than one post a day anyway. For example, I've posted 2 posts today. I'm particularly pleased (and disturbed) with "Meet Mrs Darth Vader" (http://alphalim.me/meet-mrs-darth-vader). 

And then, of course, there's my Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/alphalim) - you can follow me there or, if you're a Facebook friend of mine, you're already getting my tweets in your Facebook feed. 

Talking about Twitter brings me to thinking about batching versus thin-slicing. One of Tim Ferriss's lifehacks is "batching". That is, allowing small tasks to accumulate and then tackling them all at one go. For example, it may be better to process dozens of emails in an hour than to process a couple of emails every half an hour throughout your work day, which would interrupt your work. That's one way of doing things. 

Another way is to thin-slice. I used to have a monthly recurring task in my to-do list (I use http://toodledo.com/): "Run AppFresh". AppFresh is a nifty Mac app that searches your computer for all apps and notifies you of any updates available. 

I ran it recently and more than a dozen - maybe twenty - updates were available. It took me a looong time to download all those updates. And even longer to install them. So, I thought, instead of batching this, how about thin-slicing this? (If you want to seem wise, just do the opposite of what you've been doing.) Instead of batching my updates and making a mountain out of molehills every month, I decided to run AppFresh every day. Automatically, of course. (I just discovered that feature.) 

Now, on most days AppFresh doesn't bother me at all, and on those days that it does bother me, there are only one or two updates, which don't take long at all, at all. And my Mac stays fresh, fresh, every day! 

Some things are better batched, some things are better sliced thin. If one way isn't working, try the other! 

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Filed under  //   ambition   batching   insomnia   productivity   thin-slicing  

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October 2, 2009

Get a scalable ambition or get fried near the top.

Lately, I've been thinking about unsustainable ambition - and its antithesis. 

How high can you climb? How fast? Not too high, and not too fast. "Too", here, is open to individual interpretation. One man's overambition is another man's day job. (Applies to women, too.) 

"Too high, too fast" is determined by whom we might have left behind. Old friends don't know you anymore? Are you a stranger to your kids? Or, been meaning to have kids but don't have the time and money? Worse - do you not know who you are anymore? You've left yourself behind. You've gone too far. Your ambition is no longer sustainable. 

I'm thinking of people who climbed up the ladder on the fuel of ridiculous hours and unquestioning dedication. To continue up that ladder then requires more ridiculous hours and cult-like devotion. (Some companies think this is a good thing. They are led by false messiahs.) How far can these people go before their relationships - and then their bodies - break down? Will the company then swoop in like a white knight and restore them to health and healthy relationships? Or will they be unceremoniously replaced? 

You've got to have ambition. The antithesis of "unsustainable ambition" is not unsustainable lack of ambition. It is scalable ambition. Your ambition must be sustainable. It should promote healthy personal, social, familial, financial growth - success in all areas of your life - at the bottom rungs of the ladder as well as at the in-the-clouds top. Otherwise, you're on the wrong ladder. Have the courage to find another one. Or build another one (see http://alphalim.me/career-are-you-a-ladder-climber-or-are-you-a ). 

Your ambition has to be scalable, or you're going to burn out in a blaze of vainglory somewhere near the top. Entertaining fireworks for the rest of the world. Not so good news for you. That's my concern. 

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Filed under  //   ambition   career   life   productivity   relationships   scalable ambition   success   work   work/life balance  

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September 29, 2009

I've used 273 Mac, Windows & Web applications in 3 months!

This is why Peter Drucker says that the only way to self discovery is by tracking your usage. 

He was speaking in terms of time usage, but the principle applies to all consumption of resources. 
We always underestimate our consumer footprint. 

If you had asked me how many apps I use, I'd have said, "6". 
That's what it feels like I use! 

See more at http://wakoopa.com/alphalim and add me as a contact! 

Aside: If this thing tracked iPhone OS, I bet my Platform Usage stats would be very different ;). 

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Filed under  //   applications   apps   Mac   Peter Drucker   productivity   software   tracking   web   Windows  

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July 28, 2009

The opposite of stress is not no stress

Bow yokes on a bullock team

Image via Wikipedia

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. - Jesus, Matthew 11:28-30

Boy, talk about "weary and burdened" - I'm right there with ya.
Often, I feel worn out and weighed down, wanting to just "cast of the chains" and "throw caution to the wind" and "dance around naked".

But gravity - gravity is heavy.
It's hard to resist earth's downward pull.

It's not about the physical forces, of course. It's the weight of life.
In my attempts to "break free" of the grind, I find myself often "out of the frying pan and into the fire".
Not that I'm prone to get into trouble. No, no. I'm talking about the internal life.
Trying to flee the anxieties and worries of life, I find myself replacing one set of fears for another.

And then I come to the realisation that it's not about throwing off your yoke, but exchanging it.
The nature of the beast - human beings are born for purpose. To deny purpose is to deny your personhood.

We need a yoke.
It's not a question of yoke or no yoke.
It's a question of difficult yoke or easy yoke.
Heavy burden or light burden.

Trying to live yoke-free and burden-free is like trying to create a vacuum in nature.
It's very difficult to create near-vacuums and impossible to create true vacuums.

The next time you're feeling stressed out, try focusing on putting on the easy yoke, instead of trying to cast off the difficult yoke.

The opposite of stress is not no stress, but eustress - good stress.

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Filed under  //   productivity   spirituality   stress  

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