Breathing Space Blog

Deskmanship

2009-06-29T11:31:00.000-05:00

Is your desk always piled high with papers? Does the situation seem hopeless? It doesn't have to be that way. In my book Breathing Space: Living & Working at a Comfortable
Pace in a Sped-Up Society I observe that you spend so much time at your desk -– it just has to be a comfortable place for you!!

To create more surface space, you could buy a mechanical arm that hoists your monitor over the desk. I have has one and do not know how I lived without it beforehand. Also By clearing your desk every evening, you automatically have to choose what to work on the next day.

Tranquility is Subjective

2009-06-10T10:15:00.000-05:00

Two monks are walking along, and one says, "Life is a beautiful fountain." Ten years later the same two monks are walking together and the second one says, "A fountain?" The first monk says, "Yes."

Fifteen years later the two monks are walking along. The second one says, "Don't you mean a river?" The first monk says, "You're always arguing."

A Crucial Skill

2009-06-08T07:51:00.000-05:00

The number of potential distractions -- items competing for your time and attention -- is infinite and will become more troublesome in the future, not less. It's vital to learn today how to deal with them in ways that you haven't employed before to regain control over your life and be better prepared to meet the challenges of the future.

At Your Fingertips...

2009-06-03T07:41:00.000-05:00

A tip worth employing: Use Google to find a topic-specific search engine, then use that engine to locate the sites that are most applicable to your needs.

Travelling Lighter

2009-05-28T06:38:00.000-05:00

Ask for an aisle seat at the front of the plane so that you can to stand up with greater ease, stroll in the aisles, or simply stretch. It's easier to get the attention of flight attendants for extra blankets, pillows, or other in-flight amenities from the front. Aisle seats are best for shorter flights, where you don't anticipate going to sleep.

Arrive light and rested; don't travel with heavy packages. Mail them to your destination via UPS 2nd-day air or, if you have a week, UPS ground tracking. This is an economical and reliable way to know your packages await you. Mark your packages profusely with your name and the words, "Hold for arrival of guest YOUR NAME arriving on DATE." Wrap your packages as if an orangutan will be handling them.

Travel with carry on bags only. Buy the roll-on carts to avoid toting your bags from the airport parking lot to the plane. Most tote systems are made to fit the airline aisles, the overhead seat com-partments, or under the seats.

About That Appointment...

2009-05-18T14:20:00.000-05:00

Before most of us began carrying cell phones, being on time for an appointment was the mark of a considerate person. Now, according to James Katz, a professor of communication at Rutgers, people are routinely using cell phones to remedy being late. Soon, no one will be on time!

Tips for a Virus Attack

2009-05-07T08:28:00.000-05:00

Call a PC guru and don't shut off your PC which could trigger the infection.
Disconnect your online connection.
Back up any new data, it might be your only chance. Try to clean it later.
Use another PC to learn about the virus.
Use anti-virus software to scan and clean. If not treatable, delete the file.
Brief your anti-virus software vendor, in case it's an new virus.

$261 in Resources for $83

2009-05-03T07:21:00.000-05:00

Resources for Achievers

After 16 years in Chapel Hill, we recently packed up and relocated to the state capitol, Raleigh NC. To make space in the new location, we're offering an unprecedented learning resources package. Only $83 (which includes shipping, and tax plus shipping for NC residents) gets you $261 of our best resources:

$63 worth of Books
[ ] Getting New Clients (Wiley, hardcover, 268 pages, $37.95)
[ ] Breathing Space (BookSurge, 202 pages, $14.95)
[ ] The 60-Second Organizer (Adams Media, 142 pages, $9.95)

$198 worth of CDs and Audio Books
[ ] Getting Articles Published (PR Leads, 57 minutes) $19.95
[ ] Selling Your Book's 'Sub Rights' (PR Leads, 59 minutes) $19.95
[ ] Foreign Rights Sales (PR Leads, 60 minutes) $19.95
[ ] The 60-Second Procrastinator (Oasis Audio, 140 minutes) $19.95
[ ] Surviving Information Overload (NIBM, 72 minutes) $14.95
[ ] Relaxing at High Speed (ACHE, 32 minutes) $9.95
[ ] Blow Your Own Horn (Simon & Schuster, 60 minutes) $10.95
[ ] Time, Stress, Simplicity (Skillpath PersonalQuest, 300 minutes) $59.95
[ ] Creating a Brilliant Book Outline (BSI, 53 minutes, $15.95)
[ ] Giving Better Presentations (Dreamcoach, 55 minutes, $16.95)

Plus CD and Article Bonuses

To order: www.breathingspace.com/ccprocess
Description: resources
Amount: $83

Quotable and Notable

2009-04-25T15:26:00.002-05:00

Good things come to those who initiate.
Suzanne RoAnne

If a problem can be solved with money, it's no longer a problem. It's an expense.

Harvey MacKay

In order to have a friend, be one.
Anonymous

The two greatest causes of suffering are not loving, and not doing what you want to do.
John Gray

Distractions Add Up

2009-04-14T09:07:00.000-05:00

Writer Marta Vogel tells us that early man examined his food to ensure it 1) was dead and 2) had no insects. 21st century man barely looks at his food; he's fixated on the package. Corporate giants figured out that consumers could become thoroughly hooked on "package literature."

Recognizing our craving for information, advertisers offer alluring product packaging. The average cereal box contains about 2,000 words, equal to eight pages of a book. Generic products, at the same basic quality as mid-level brands, were once sold by vendors who knew that people might not buy "wordless" cardboard and risk incurring "package deprivation."

Package deprivation? It's no surprise today that most of our population -- not just kids -- wears clothes or accessories with slogans and messages on them. Attraction to labeling and package copy robs you of breathing space. Minute bits of extraneous data have a cumulative impact.

Other symptoms of information overload abound. Do you attempt to think, converse, study, or even make love with distractions? Do you go through the motions of attempting to concentrate with office noise? Do you attempt to converse while on the Web or watching TV? Do you "need" to wind down before bed in front of a screen? You deserve a break today. Eat healthy food, with people in message-free clothing, and no reading material or screens in sight.

Stop Piling, Start Filing

2009-04-02T11:39:00.000-05:00

We are all soooo inundated these days! Instead of piling things on your desk, file them in the cabinet! Remove anything you can safely eliminate from your desktop. Items that you use on a daily basis, such as a stapler, a roll of tape, or pen, get to stay on top of your desk.

What you keep on top of your desk is uniquely individual. Your goal is to maintain the optimal number of items on and in your desk; enough so you function efficiently while there, but not so many that clutter inhibits work. Hold onto items you use at least once a week, but don't store those supplies too close by. Recognize that your desk drawers are not for storing supplies per se. You may store a pad of paper, but not pads of paper. You only need one pad at a time, and the general principle is to have the smallest number of a necessary item as you can get by with.

The fewer things you have in vital work spaces, the greater the sense of control you have over your immediate environment. For instance, if you choose to use one of your desk drawers for file folders, then these files should be as thin and potent as you can make them. Once your desk and flat surfaces are under control, you also gain a heightened sense of control over your time. Such a deal!

You may wish to place sentimental and familiar items, such as pictures, plants, and motivators near your desk, but not on it. Install items such as full spectrum lighting or ocean-wave music that support your productivity, efficiency, and creativity, near your work space, not on top of it.

From now on, manage your desktop as if it's one of the most important elements to staying organized, because it is.

How to Get Lucky

2009-03-11T15:12:00.001-05:00

Richard Wiseman writing in the Skeptical Enquirer advises readers to:
"Open your mind: consider chance opportunities. Lucky People regularly have them, unlucky people don't.... Unlucky people miss chance opportunities because they are too busy looking for something else. Lucky people see what is there rather than only what they are looking for."

Managing Space

2009-02-22T10:38:00.001-05:00

In his book Democracy in America, French observer Alexis de Tocqueville remarks:

"Everything about the Americans, from their social conditions to their laws, is extraordinary; but the most extraordinary thing of all is the land that supports them. When the Creator handed the earth over to men, it was young and inexhaustible, but they were weak and ignorant; and by the time that they had learned to take advantage of the treasures it contained, they had already covered its face, and soon they were having to fight for the right to an asylum where they could rest in freedom."

"It was then that North America was discovered, as if God had held it in reserve and it had only just arisen above the waters of the flood.”

Pare Down and Win

2009-02-19T09:26:00.002-05:00

My book, Breathing Space which has been translated into Japanese, French, Italian, Chinese, Malay, and Spanish, introduces "paring down." It's a means of discarding what does not serve you, what does not support your work, what does not make your home life more pleasant, what gets in the way, or what you've been hanging onto for too long.

Where in your personal or professional life can you pare down? Check the items below that you suspect require attention. Use this list as a starting point, since many areas may not be of concern to you or you may need to add some of your own areas.

Where else can I pare down?:

[ ] Front hall closet
[ ] Kitchen cupboards
[ ] Bedroom closet
[ ] Under kitchen sink
[ ] Den closet

[ ] Under bathroom sink
[ ] Other closet
[ ] Medicine cabinet
[ ] Linen closet
[ ] Attic

[ ] Laundry room
[ ] Basement
[ ] Garage
[ ] Bookshelves
[ ] Back porch

[ ] Other shelves
[ ] File drawers
[ ] DVD collection
[ ] File folders
[ ] Cassette collection

[ ] Hard drive
[ ] CD collection
[ ] Other collection
[ ] Clothing drawers
[ ] Coats

[ ] Shirts, blouses
[ ] Ties, scarves
[ ] Pants, Skirts
[ ] Handbags, pocketbooks
[ ] Footwear

[ ] Briefcases, valises
[ ] Magazines
[ ] Duplicates, triplicates
[ ] Newspapers
[ ] Other piles

[ ] Newsletters
[ ] Other assemblages
[ ] Items I haven't used in years
[ ] Items I've never used
[ ] Items I can donate

[ ] Anything else I can think of!!

Institute a Replacement Policy

2009-02-03T09:38:00.003-05:00

Here’s how to institute a replacement policy: If you bring in something new, something else that you don't need anymore has to go. (Be honest, most of what you're retaining is obsolete or
confirms what you already know).

In your office, regard all of the pieces of paper in your information kingdom as mutineers, capable of overthrowing the whole kingdom at a moment's notice.

Same Rainbow, no Gold

2009-01-25T16:16:00.000-05:00

Six or seven times a day, for at least the last six years, I have received various ridiculous "help me move my fortune from my third-world country" email letters. How can the same transparent tactics be employed more than 12,000 times unless there are legions of moron recipients who actually respond to such letters? How difficult can it be for full-faculty recipients to figure out that these bogus claims are perpetrated by career criminals in the world's cyber cafes where their thievery is largely untraceable? Did I miss an important announcement -- is the general level of intelligence dropping to new lows?

Too Many People

2009-01-06T09:52:00.002-05:00

2009 and population issues abound. According a report produced by scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Columbia University's Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) in New York, human beings have taken more than 83% of the globe's land surface to inhabit, mine, farm, or fish.

This leave merely a few areas suitable for wildlife. Humans also have taken advantage of 98% of the land that can be farmed for rice, wheat or corn. Will sane population policies ever be implemented?

Other People's Voice Mail

2008-12-29T16:11:00.004-05:00

To successfully deal with other people's voice mail:
* Speak a little louder than usual, enunciating as you speak.
* Say your name and organization, and then slowly leave your phone number.
* Follow that with a short, essential message.
* Make your message last 40 to 50 seconds.
Too short, and it may seem insignificant. Too long, and you may irk the other party.
* Pretend you're writing your phone number in the air as you're reciting it.
Some callers speak too fast, making recipients replay the message repeatedly.
* Days later, if you’ve had no reply? Say, "I'm calling to follow-up on my call last Tuesday."
* Be flexible when offering times and dates when you can be reached.

Be friendly and personable. You'll stand out like few others callers that day!

Ways to Manage Your Commute

2008-12-16T07:23:00.000-05:00

1. Keep your car in top shape. Take it in for servicing if you even suspect something is askew.
2. Join an automotive club. They pay for themselves after one tow.
3. Wean yourself of flicking on the radio the moment you step into the car, or of listening to shock talkers who offer little to your life. Instead...
4. Install a tape or CD player to control your environment to and from work. Patronize your local library for lectures, plays, books, and music on cassettes.
5. Ride with the windows closed and the A/C on. You'll get the same MPG as otherwise, the ride will to be quieter, and you'll have more control of your immediate environment.
6. Keep spare car keys in your house and spare house keys hidden in a faithful "Hide-a-Key" compartment which magnetically attaches under the bumper.
7. Hide several quarters, key phone numbers, a pad, a pen, stamps, and envelopes in your car.
8. During your ride, reflect on what you'd like to complete or how you'd like your day to go.

Friends: Real and Imagined

2008-12-10T14:40:00.000-05:00

Researchers from the National Opinion Research Center have found that people who watch a lot of television seem to be as psychologically content as people who have many friends. These disappointing findings stem from the fact that "the human brain evolved long before television came along, so subconsciously it recognises any face it sees regularly as a friend, even if it is on the screen," says Satoshi Kanazawa, Ph.D., author of the study. Does this explain why society remains in a stupor of overfed, undernourished, overweight, socially inept citizens? After all they are, indeed, getting their social and psychological strokes by tuning in to see their favorite "friends" each week.

As someone recently noted technology can certainly be an aid to human kind but if we are not careful it can greatly diminish of the quality of our lives. Technology distracts us from our own thought, daydreams, even our own imagination. When we fill in the time from the car to the elevator and the elevator to the office, or from lunch back to the office, with a beeper or cell phone, we interrupt the opportunity for people to marinate in their own imaginations.

Inept Phone Service

2008-11-19T12:47:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the XYZ Company's electronic answering system. If you know your party's extension, why did you call our main switchboard?

(With Government) You have reached a non-working number at the U.S. Department of Labor, and hence we can't connect you with anyone.

Calls are taken in the order received so please stay on the line so that we can repeat this irritating message at least a half a dozen times. You will not be disconnected, unless, of course, you are.

Your call is important to us, which is why we're willing to tie up your phone for a half an hour.

If you're using a rotary phone, good luck in reaching anyone.

If you're calling from a touch-tone phone and would like to leave a message, press the # sign followed by the number 2, followed by the digits of your social security number...

Once your message is completed, if you'd like to change it, press star button followed by the number 4, or wait for further overly-complex instructions.

To reach a customer service representative, who will practice learning English during your call, press 5.

To reach technical support, press 7 and please make sure you have your customer ID number, equipment serial number, original invoice, and lots of reading material.

For all other departments, please stay on the line where you'll be subjected to Muzak.

Intelligent Design

2008-11-14T10:22:00.000-05:00

Items that you use at least twice a day, such as a dictionary, thesaurus, or style handbook, should be within arm's reach or in a nearby drawer. Other items that you use less frequently may be stored in an adjacent drawer, or in a filing cabinet that's not in the way when you're working. Periodically consider different devices, such as computer trays, hanging lamps, and swivel mechanisms that could make you feel more comfortable and be more productive at your desk. Your work day is too important!

True Happiness?

2008-11-07T12:33:00.000-05:00

"Ten Keys to True Happiness" based on a study published in New Scientist include:

1.	Wealth	6.	Friendship
2.	Desire	7.	Marriage
3.	Intelligence	8.	Faith
4.	Genetics	9.	Charity
5.	Beauty	10.	Age

Overcoming Procrastination

2008-10-27T18:07:00.003-05:00

Here are eight tips on overcoming procrastination derived from my internationally acclaimed book, The 60 Second Self-Starter, published by Adams Media:

1. Realize that wanting to start on a task is different than deciding to.

2. Relate the underlying meaning of your task to something larger.

3. Don't wait until you're "in the mood." True professionals never do.

4. Recognize that unpleasant tasks don't tend to get more pleasant as time passes.

5. Expect some level of breakdown or backsliding. Progress is not always even; two steps forward and one step back is more often the rule than the exception.

6. Choose someone who can serve as a trailblazer and help you get started.

7. Have somebody waiting for your work.

8. Be forthright with yourself and acknowledge when you're procrastinating, and you'll be that much closer to taking action.

Your Online Activity is Monitored

2008-10-13T12:08:00.003-05:00

Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why it Matters by Bill Tancer is a scary book! It "guides the reader through the search patterns among 10 million Internet users, challenging myths and making new discoveries about the psychology of consumers, illustrating that clicks speak louder than words and can reveal unspoken truths about individual drives that are not expressed via other forms of media."

In short, the book explains how your online activity can be captured by experts who can then determine you identity as well as nearly everything else about you! No Breathing Space for extensive web surfers.