Tag Archive
for Idea
Tagged as: Idea, Learn, Tip-For-Life, Useful
Mar
14
Remembering something is usually a case of you did or you didn’t. I’ve often found it amusing for things like birthdays when people will say that they remembered, but they just didn’t say anything about it. Really…well that’s hard to imagine.
The thing is, some people have better memories than others. Everyone is different and is able to remember things in different ways. Laugh if you must, but I remember wanting a photographic memory like Cam Jansen when I was a kid. Then I could rapidly flip through books and not need to study! How wonderful that would have been! But alas, my dreams did not come true. Even now I often wish for a better memory.
But just as remembering something is pretty binary (i.e. you did or you didn’t), those of us lacking in the memory department have to make do with what we have. Otherwise we will be mocked. Who will mock, I do not know. All I know is that mocking will occur.
3 Memory Aids That I Use:
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Remember The Milk
(RTM for short)
Besides having a pretty amusing name, this is a website whose sole purpose is to create TODO lists. It’s refreshing for a website to be so singular in its purpose in this day of do-everything-until-we-take-over-your-life websites. In any case, I initially signed up for an account on the site, thought it was cool, and promptly did not hardly ever use it because visiting another site everyday wasn’t too practical.
But then they developed a Firefox extension that changed that up! They developed an extension for placing an RTM pane whenever a Gmail tab is opened! It maintains the overall look and feel of gmail so you (or at least I) don’t feel like it’s out of place at all. Since I much more often have a browser tab open for Gmail, I was much more able to use the service. And I have. And it’s great!
The concept is nothing new, you just put in due dates. But since it’s in front of my face at least once a day (since I check my e-mail once a day), it’s actually useful. And it’s on a remote server so I don’t need to worry about losing it or keeping different lists in sync.
So there are 2 ways to use this baby:
Either will do, just do.
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Phone calendar
Okay so I don’t have a smart phone. But that doesn’t mean that my phone is dumb! (Ha…ha…)
But almost all phones nowadays have some sort of calendar feature. And that’s fine and dandy for checking what the date is. But there is often also the ability to schedule events. So I use my phone (a Motorola, by the way) and put in reminders for certain things that I need to get done.
This is especially useful when I’m out and about. Often my phone is one of the few things that I’ll carry with me. I could actually text message a reminder to RTM which is cool. But I’ll be honest, I’m cheap when it comes to text messaging. And Verizon charges $.15 per message. For the amount of reminders that I put in for myself, that could get pricey. Haha laugh if you want, but the calendar reminders are free.
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Google Calendar
Calendars have been around for ages. The print versions are still quite popular and understandably so. But as computer usage becomes more and more prevalent, we are transferring much of the things that we do in tangible form to things that we can do through using the computer.
Personally I use the Google calendar, but really there are many such applications floating around. I figure that I already have a Gmail account, so why not. (Of course, this line of reasoning sounds that in my post Google’s Taking Over The World…And I Don’t Like It.)
Anyways, a nice feature of Google calendar is that I can have it e-mail me before the event occurs. I don’t use the application everyday, but awhile back I input all of my friends’ birthdays. Now it will e-mail me the day before someone’s birthday, so I’ll never egregiously forget a friend’s birthday!
Granted, it’d be better if I just remembered. It would show that I care more. It’s not that I don’t care. It’s just that I don’t want to make a mistake! It’s my failsafe, if you will.
Do you have other tips for fellow forgetful fellows (or gals)?
Tagged as: Activities, Exercise, Idea, Life, Read-It
Sep
28
In Runner’s World Magazine, I recently read an article about tempo running that made me want to get back into the groove of running. Tempo running (also known as lactate-threshold or threshold running)
Until college, I always despised any running that I did. Whether for P.E. or for sports, it was always a chore that was done with little enjoyment. A necessary evil that we a prerequisite for the fun of something else.
And then in college something changed. My fitness level was probably about the same so that wasn’t it. My location and life were obviously different. Whatever the reason was, though, I started to realize that running allowed me to:
- Stay fit
- Get some fresh air
- Explore the area on foot rather than in a car
- Spend some time alone in my thoughts
I would run the loop around campus on a fairly regular basis. I even started to enter into a few races. What a turnaround from only a year or two before! In any case by the time that I left college I was fairly comfortable going out for runs for recreation and fitness purposes. In fact, I was even going out with other people occasionally for a little bit of socializing (in addition to the fitness benefit)!
So enough about the history of me and running. I started to recently run a little bit (only once or twice a week, mind you). However, after reading the article I was for some strange reason under an incorrect impression about tempo runs. I thought that they were run faster than they really are. I mean, “an 8 on a 1-to-10 scale” sounds pretty fast to me! But reading the rest of the article as well as another article on tempo runs made me realize that it’s simply more of a steady consistent pace, albeit a pace faster than one might normally jog.
What I have been doing is running at a consistent pace but for only much shorter intervals. This week I ran 4 sets of 3:30 runs at probably about an 8 minutes/mile pace with a 60 second jog between sets. Let me tell you that it’s not easy! But I rather enjoy the challenge and am once again starting to enjoy the time alone, outside, and not in front of a computer (now that I’m in front of one the entire day for work).
I’m not sure whether I’m going to continue this regime of running at a fairly brisk pace (but definitely NOT sprinting) for longer periods of time or whether I’m actually going to try a tempo run for 20 minutes. Whatever the case, I will continue the running as it is affording me benefits that I value.
Running is even more than just exercise, though. Have you thought of that? You can learn a lot about life from running. You can learn about yourself: are you persevering, are you stronger in mind than in body, are you even in shape? You can teach yourself to be independent and strong in mind. Running a race has been used as an analogy to life, and that’s because it is so true. How better to understand the analogy (and correspondingly life) than by running yourself?
So go. Do it. Just do it. (Does anyone remember Nike’s once ubiquitous slogan? Whatever happened to that? They went from simple to complex marketing in my opinion.)
Tagged as: Idea, Money, Tip-For-Life
Sep
18
Here are some small things that you can do that might just save your more than you’d think. They’re easy to do, so give ‘em a shot! It’s not a huge list of tips, but these are simply ones that I’ve thought of/started using recently.
- Navy Shower
Directions:
- Turn on water
- Rinse
- Turn off water
- Lather and scrub
- Turn on water
- Rinse off
- Turn off water
- Enjoy the moment of the day that you will be the cleanest
Save yourself water like the sailors had to do on ships. You’ll realize it’s not bad at all. I mean do you really need to have water being wasted while you scrub? I doubt it.
- Coasting in the car - When you’re driving around, think about the fact that only having two action options, accelerate and brake, could not be the most efficient. There is room for some other option: do nothing and let the laws of physics propel you. The momentum that you’ve previously gained can be utilized. All you need to do is be more aware of things going on around you. If there is a red light up ahead, take your foot off of both pedals and just let your car glide along. Positives while doing this are
- Less stress - Coasting, as in life, will let you relax
- Save money - Not pressing the gas pedal will obviously not use gas and that is an obvious monetary savings
- Have fun (and stay awake) - It’s like a game to accurately figure out when to let off the gas in order to coast such that you won’t have to brake at all. Great for when you’re falling asleep, huh?
- Eliminate congestion - I should write about this sometime, but coasting at a constant speed in congestion will not only get you to your destination in the same time, but it will actually start the elimination of said congestion! For those not totally self-centered, this can be seen as a huge positive.
- Always turn off the light when you leave a room. No matter how long you’re gone, it has been verified (okay okay, by the great Mythbusters) that it’s more worthwhile to just turn off the light if you leave the room for ~20 seconds (I don’t remember the actual number).
Pretty simple and straightforward, huh? Let me know what you think about ‘em in the comments. Or even better, give me some other tips.
Edit: I totally forgot that when I was thinking of this post I actually meant to also say that these things will save you money but will also help save the environment! Take that into account, why don’t you?
Tagged as: Idea, Money, Useful
Sep
04
There are many sources out there for how to get money, how to invest money, how to save money, and so on and so forth. But in reality, money is a fairly simple concept that seems to get muddled and complicated because people have such a vested interest in it. And because analysts want to keep their job of explaining the complex to the uneducated.
Basically you earn money (or you find it, or you steal it, or whatever) so that is what is coming in, and then you spend it (or you give it away, or you lose it, you know) and that is what is going out. So what’s the best thing to do? Well spend less than you earn and you should do right fine. Makes sense huh?
A while ago I read about a basic rule for which one could ideally budget and limit one’s spending. It’s called the 40-30-20-10 rule for obvious reasons. The very quick among you would have already realized that those numbers add up to 100 and that would seem to represent 100% of your income. So what do the rest of the numbers represent?
- 40 - Savings
- 30 - Necessary spending such as rent, food, bills, etc
- 20 - Free expenditure allowing any possibility of spending on entertainment, gifts, and otherwise unnecessary for living types of things
- 10 - Tithe
When I first read that, it seemed pretty easy and straightforward to me! However, I am wondering if it’s too easy to look at on paper but perhaps a bit too difficult in reality. How many people do you know who only live on 30% of their income? It sounds extremely conservative doesn’t it? You’d require a much better income just to be living an average lifestyle. Of course, I think that’s kind of the point of this budgeting scheme. However, I honestly don’t think that too many people could adhere to this type of drastic budgeting change from their own methods because they have come to expect a level of “luxury” in their lives.
I think that this is a superb idea, and I will try to stick with it as much as I can. I’ve been working on The Budgeteeer (although that’s not what this post is really about), and I’ve been using this budgeting as my budgeting inputs. It’s been going alright thus far, and I actually have personally increased my savings category since my necessary expenditures are currently not as high. It’s nice, but I’m wondering if it’ll always be so.
Have many people heard of this plan? Would/could/will many practically use it?
Tagged as: Idea, Life, Relationships
Jun
08
I am a big fan of hugs. After reading Are You Afraid Of Hugs, I went on over to the Free Hugs Campaign website and discovered a very interesting story!
A man, feeling alone and disconnected from the world, went out to a local place and offered free hugs with a sign. Now that seems pretty strange if you think about what you’d feel if you saw someone doing the same. I know that I would have thought that he was just a creepy guy trying to feel someone up. But in any case, it turns out that this guy really just wanted to spread the love. And I think that’s an excellent idea!
The world we live in truly is disconnected from each other. We see hundreds of people everyday, and we don’t even bother to greet most of them. Even with the people that we do know and talk to, between cellular phones, e-mail, and instant messaging, our communication is distant at best. We don’t look people in the eye as often. And that is just too bad.
Hugs are the antithesis of today’s mindset. That is why the Free Hugs Campaign was so revolutionary. It totally went against the norm.
In short, I like hugs a lot. Why?
- Receiving a hug gives you a certain feeling of being accepted for who you really are
- Giving a hug lets others know that you care about them in a tangible way
- Hugs are something that you could do with just about anyone
- Hugs are free
Give ‘em a chance. I doubt that you’ll regret it.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user