Quote of the Week

"One cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty councils."
- Woodrow Wilson



Monday, December 31, 2018

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

If I set it correctly, this post should have published right at midnight.

Normally I am not much for New Year's Resolutions. I've always thought why wait until January 1st to start making changes to improve yourself. Just start doing them right away. But at this time of the year, when the calendar winds down, one seems to naturally start looking forward to a better year.

I have some set some new goals for 2019, and a few of them would qualify as resolutions. I also didn't wait for the clock to strike midnight to start working them into my daily routines.... but anyway, here are my three 2019 New Year's Resolutions.

Empty my work's email inbox every day.

I've been practicing this GTD philosophy with my home email since this summer and it's made a big improvement with my productivity. Emails that show up in my inbox each day are acted upon accordingly. They are replied to, or any other action is taken if needed; then deleted, or filed away in another specific folder for later reference if deemed necessary. Ending the day with an empty inbox gives me a positive feeling of accomplishment. Not to mention filing the surprisingly few emails away in a place that is easy to find them makes life easier.

I've tried leaving all emails in the inbox and adding labels / tags to organize them, but I always had to scroll through tool much to find what I was looking for. Even when using Outlook's search features.

A few days ago I archived all emails expect for a few dozen recent emails specific to active work projects. I created a separate folder for each of the projects and create some labels in the GTD theme to keep some current tasks organized.

Now one of the last things I do before I leave work is go through the days emails. I delete everything that is not needed from the day, like "thank you" replies. I file away important emails that document action items, etc. Then I go through and delete action items that from earlier in the week that I no longer need to document.

Clearing the clutter has been a drastic improvement and it's quickly becoming another thing I wish I started doing year's ago.

Wake up, get up.

Over the years I've become an early riser. Usually out of bed around 5:30am now days. Which is still hard for me to believe, when I look back at my younger days.

While I am getting up early and getting a lot of things done around the house before work, my start can be on the slow side. I almost always wake up before my alarm. Normally a good 10 to 15 minutes before the alarm. And while I will rarely hit the snooze button, I will lay in bed for another 10 to 15 minutes before I get up.

That may not seem too bad, but its still at times a half hour of my day that I can put to good use. So over the past few days I make a point to get up as soon as I wake up. Let's see if I can't get something done with the extra potential 180 some odd hours in 2019. I think this will be the most challenging, yet rewarding resolution.

Carry medical gear on my person.

This is a habit I had going for a while, but early in 2018 I fell out of it. I used to carry a small trauma kit in a Ziploc bag in my pant pocket. The kit included gloves, a tourniquet, wound packing gauze, and duct tape.

Many have a well stocked first aid kit in their home or vehicle, but few actually have these items on them. This may seem to be a strange thing to do, but carrying medical supplies like these on you could truly be a lifesaver.

The biggest problem was space. Even though the one kit I carried the most fits in the palm of my hand, it took up an entire front pants pocket. Which was not that convenient. I got used to it, and I'm getting used to it again. But it was a hindrance nonetheless.

I think I found a solution. I ordered a product that warps around your ankle and has pockets to store the first aid items in it. It's kind of like one of those ankle holsters for a little revolver. Looking forward to it being delivered. In the meantime, I will loose the capacity of my left front pants pocket.


I hope you all have a safe and happy new year. I also hope you all not only have goals for 2019 as well, but have plans and action items to archive those goals.


Monday, December 10, 2018

Look At Where You Are


"Life is so subtle that sometimes you barely notice yourself walking through the doors you once prayed would open" - Brianna Wiest



We often become discouraged when we are working on our goals, and we don't feel any momentum. We don't feel like we don't have any traction. We feel stuck. These moments can slow us down or even derail us completely into failure mode, causing us to give up.

At times like this, when what we are moving towards in front of us does not appear to be getting any closer. We should look back to where we began on the path, and take in how far we've come.

We may surprise ourselves on just how much we have accomplished by our focus, passion, and hard work.

Seeing how far we have gone in the direction of achieving our goals my be all the more motivation we need to get unstuck and to keep moving forward.