Prevent Predictable Annoyances
One of the funniest phrases I have heard in the past few months is "Pigeons of Discontent." This was meant as the opposite of "Bluebirds of Happiness", and I find that it is very apt. Essentially it is the category of items that are annoyances. And like pigeons, these are the common, garden-variety, everyday annoyances that can peck away at our happiness and contentment.
Simplifying My Books
It's not springtime, so I can't blame the urge to spring clean. All I know is that I walked around my house last week and got the overwhelming urge to purge. I always start is my books because I can go through them rapidly. Here is how I make this less painful and get them out of my house.
The Value Of Accuracy
It was an early morning class. We walked in to find the dreaded dragon of the beginning circuits class - the class known as a weeder class to cull out the below-average students. But instead of an ogre, the man at the front of the class resembled nothing so much as Papa Smurf. Except taller. And he looked at us and said "75% of you will flunk this class."
How To Simplify Cleaning A Child’s Room
I've tried to stay out of my daughter's room, and let her keep it the way she wants. After all, she's 9 and old enough to manage it herself. But last week the pile in the middle of the floor reached my knees. (I wish I were kidding.) So I declared that we were going to clean it up. I didn't want to give up too much time doing this, but I knew that it had to be simple or she wouldn't help. So I came up with the following way to simplify cleaning the room.
How To Minimize Cleaning
Recently a young friend, just out on her own, asked about how my house was always ready for visitors. She wanted to know my secrets to keep things clean with a minimal amount of effort. They're not secrets, they're merely strategies, and here they are:
How To Simplify Social Social Media
I've written before about Facebook being a time sink. But more and more things are happening in the world that require us to be on social media. So how can one strike a balance with something that can suck up large amounts of time but may be necessary to use?
How To Streamline Inputs
One of the best ways to swamp yourself is to have too many things coming at you from too many directions. If you were in a canoe and the waves started coming at you from all sides, it is guaranteed you would go for a swim. It is also the same with the information we take in.
The Three-Step Process for Simple Email Processing
One of the biggest hassles I hear about these days is the struggle to keep up with email. It's like people figure it costs nothing to send, so they send out reams of email. Which leave those of us on the receiving end with stuffed inboxes and a sense that we will never get through it all. But it is possible and fairly easy to use your email program and a few strategies to make email manageable and useful again.
