Lifehack featured David Seah’s Procrastinator’s Clock, the idea is a clock that runs consistently but erratically fast. A neat idea for those perennially late people but I’m not sure it helps the real procrastinators.
Be a Better Guy
Did you have a facial this week after a visit to the tailor who adjusts your shirts?
No, maybe you need to visit Be Better Guys and discover the benefits of a good massage or a well cut suit. David Boris and Brian Joyner, the Better Guys we hope to be, dole out sage advice that would have guided me safely through the fashion challenged 80s. The guidelines are timeless and whether you are a young stud on the town or growing old disgracefully like me, there is a lesson for you.
I appreciated the concise writing style that conveyed the information quickly, and occasionally I had the feeling the words were written just for me:
Mustache – If you a fight fires and you wear a mustache, then fight on, brother. As for the rest of you, lather up.
I guess a shave or a career change may be in order. If one of your South Bank Projects is to update your style, Be Better Guys is the website you must read first.
Related article
Polishing the Primitive Guy by Chris Richards
A Mathematical Equation for Procrastination?
Piers Steel spent ten years studying procrastination, and established a mathematical equation to describe it, reports Scientific American. I’m not sure I see the value of an equation to understand procrastination but I’m an implementation type not a theorist. [By way of Lifehacker and 43Folders.]
Four Week Projects
What can you achieve in four weeks? Wired profiled three men this month who took four weeks, an idea and a turn off the straight road to explore an interesting back street.
- Josh McHugh reduced his time for the mile.
- Joshua Green improved his mind.
- Clive Thompson wanted to be a crack shot.
Pick a back street, explore a new activity and open a new neighborhood on your South Bank.
Improve your your technique and shred with the best in four weeks.
How to Break Out of Your Comfort Zone
One of the hardest tasks you face to develop the South Bank of your life is changing your habits. Many people never know the joy of stretching their boundaries and develop new skills or experiences but you have chosen to meet the challenge. Adrian Savage wrote an insightful piece for Lifehack that challenges you to make a change:
"Like the tiny, soft bodied creatures that build coral reefs, habits
start off small and flexible, and end up by building massive barriers
of rock all around your mind. Inside the reefs, the water feels quiet
and friendly. Outside you think it’s going to be rough and stormy.
There may be sharks. But if you’re to develop in any direction from
where you are today, you must
go outside that reef of habits that marks the boundaries of your
comfort zone. There’s no other way. There’s even nothing specially
wrong with those habits as such. They probably worked for you in the
past. But now it’s time to step over them and go into the wider world
of your unused potential. Your fears don’t know what’s going to be out
there, so they invent monsters and scary beasts to keep you inside."
Change your life one habit at a time.
Investing for your Future Projects
You created a budget, allocated money to savings and the bank is paying you a few cents a month in interest, fantastic right?
Not quite, even with low inflation rates your money would buy you less in a year than it does today.
The first step is to put your savings into an account that pays higher interest. I use INGDirect because they charge no fees and I can withdraw money when I need it but you need to find a product that works for you. Read all the conditions carefully, and look for accounts that calculate interest daily to maximise the return on your money. Now that your money is protected against inflation, it is time to start a major South Bank Project – Develop Independent Wealth.
My three keys to developing wealth are:
- Education
- Seek sound advice
- Dedication
Education. As a new investor, it is critical that you educate yourself on the types of investments and their pitfalls. I learnt my early lessons from Noel Whittaker, an Australian financial consultant, whose straight forward style helped me understand investing and remains my main influence. In America, there are a number of authors vying for your attention including the high profile Suze Orman, Jim Cramer and Robert T. Kiyosaki but I find Bob Brinker to be the most informative. Read widely, and choose an approach that matches your temperament.
Advice. Once you are ready to invest, find an financial adviser that you trust and develop an investment strategy together. Remember, it is your money, be fully involved in the decisions to buy and sell and ensure your adviser understands the goals you set.
Dedication. Be a lifelong investor, never waiver from your financial goals and enjoy the benefits of a sound investment strategy.
A Simple Budget
decided to redevelop the South Bank of your life, you need to finance the work
and the door to good finance is a budget, and for me a simple budget is best.
a simple budget keep all your bills and receipts for a month then sort them
into three groups:
- In the
first group place all your fixed expenses; rent, loan repayments, utilities
bills and any other expense that is constant month to month. - In the
second group place all the essential but variable expenses; groceries, gas,
clothes etc. - The third
group gets everything else, and it should all be non-essential items.
- Calculate
the total amount for each group and write them down.
Add the
three figures together and subtract it from your monthly income. If the total
expenses are greater than your income you need to start making some changes to
your buying habits as your first South Bank Project.
Calculate
ten percent of your income and deposit that amount into your savings account
when you cash your pay check. If your employer uses direct deposits, set up an
automatic transfer to your savings account.
Set aside
an amount equal to your first group total plus an extra 10 percent every month
and use it to pay only those bills. Over time you should build a surplus to cover increased power bills in winter or an unexpected increase in your rent. The rest of your income is available for your
every day expenses and those South Bank Projects. Take time to prioritize your purchases and decide where you can make savings to fund the new projects you have planned.
Serious Pie
Do you remember going out for pizza with your friends in high school? Fun and informal it is a feeling that most serious restaurants can lack but Tom Douglas may just let you find it again at Serious Pie.
Serious Pie is a pizza hangout for adults tucked into the space behind Tom’s flagship restaurant, Dahlia Lounge, its centrally located near Seattle’s main shopping district. Inside the tall wooden bench tables seat eight pizza lovers, and the matching chairs are comfortable. In pizzeria tradition, patrons can watch the pizza making behind the counter you gaze out at the street traffic. The eclectic crowd of businessmen, urban chic and families created happy hum throughout the space that entices you to order another drink and stay a little longer than usual.
Great ambiance deserves great food and Serious Pie’s menu of gourmet pizzas created from fresh local ingredients, including house made mozzarella, their own sausage and pancetta, match the restaurant’s tone perfectly. Match your favorite with a local red wine or beer, good friends and you have a great start for any evening in Seattle. Save room for a cannoli with your espresso and you have a near perfect dining experience.
12 New Habits in 2006
Lifehacker’s Retro Roundup pointed me to a great article on creating 12 new habits each year by tackling one every month. John Richardson put into practice the same strategy that I wrote about yesterday [Small Victories], creating small projects that provide you with successes to celebrate while inspiring you to continue the larger more difficult changes.
Using your Snow Day for Self Improvement.
Record rainfall, a hundred year windstorm and snow forced many of us in the Pacific Northwest to abandon work and stay indoors on too many days this winter. Long power outages leading up to Christmas deprived the television and Internet addicts (guilty as charged) of our daily fix, as we huddled together with family around the radio and a cosy wood fire. An amazing change of focus occurs in our needs during these events, we revert to the base of Maslow’s hierarchy and focus on family, shelter and food. It is also a great opportunity to start work on a new project, break your routine and continue your life’s South Bank redevelopment.
Grab that book you promised to read last summer, find a light and start reading or fight the cold by starting your exercise program. Many people need coersion to start their projects but a nagging spouse is usually counterproductive.You cannot argue with the weather, so make it your friend and heed its call for change. Our cable remained out for several days after the windstorm, I used the opportunity to build a computer to my specifications and started to plan my entry into the blogosphere as a provider. I’ve reduced my television consumption, and returned to a daily routine of writing, reading and discovery through a variety of media.
What are your plans for the next snow day?