How to Streamline Your Life

I want to be productive

2010-02-15T11:40:00.000-05:00

If you're reading this website, chances are you're already searching for the path to be more productive. While there isn't a magic pill or a single secret trick that will instantly give you the motivation and energy to be the most productive person you can be, there are certainly tricks that can help you reach a higher level of productivity.

No, it's not about putting post-its all over your body. It's about 1) reducing stress and 2) achieving the feeling of accomplishment. But how can we achieve those 2 goals? If you think about some of your most accomplished days, those days are typically days when you've crossed off the most number of items off your to-do list. Notice I said the most number of items. That doesn't mean you've done the most important things (though you certainly do not want to have completely pointless items on your daily to-do lists).

The psychological trick is that you will feel most productive and less stressed out when you finish a large quantity of tasks. This has a bad flip-side, namely, you will be extremely stressed out when you have done very few items and you still have a large to-do list (again, even if those items are unimportant). But the good news is that you can trick yourself into being more productive by putting down a lot of minor tasks on your to-do list and cross them off as you finish them. For example, as insignificant as it maybe, you can put down 'call back Ron' on your to-do list if you've been meaning to catch up with a friend. Or maybe you can add 'check phone bill' on your list of things to do. These might be small, nagging items that you have been meaning to do for a while, but you didn't think they were worth putting down on your to-do list. Now you know better, as finishing those tasks can often give you the jump-start you need to get your day going!

Now some of you nay sayers will say that one should not put insignificant items on your to do list, as they can just be time wasters or a method to procrastinate. But for the sake of getting momentum to do work, to get motivation to do bigger tasks, and for feeling like you can take on the day-- well, then those minor tasks you crossed off on your to-do list have a good purpose. This is the same reason why you will read a lot of productivity gurus talking about reaching for the low-hanging fruit on your list first-- the more you can cross off, the better you feel about your day.

Try this trick out and let us know how it works for you in the comments.

How to get a flatter stomach

2010-02-09T11:50:00.000-05:00

The benefits in having a flatter stomach go way beyond the fact that it's more physically attractive. A flatter stomach typically means you have less belly fat which means you have less weight to carry around. A flatter stomach just speaks about your general health overall, so if you want a flatter stomach, you're typically eating much healthier than the average person. Most importantly, high abdominal fat is linked to heart disease and diabetes, so best to get rid of it on all accounts!

Interestingly, there are foods out there that seem to narrow down on your stomach problem area (think of them as the exact opposite of beer and fried foods, the things that target your stomach and make it look bigger!).

Are there foods that can help with abdominal fat specifically? Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a recent discovery in the nutrition world. Found in grass-fed cow products (both beef and milk), CLA has been shown to reduce abdominal fat in studies. Certain cheese can also contain good amounts of CLA (would you believe reduced-fat swiss cheese is near the top of that list?). Keep an eye out for alpine products such as alpine cow milk and cheese, as they have higher contents of CLA than other altitude animal by-products. Why are alpine animal by-products healthier? Scientists believe it's due to the healthier vegetation at higher altitudes. This is similar to how eating fish (like sardines) that eat healthy food themselves (namely healthy algae, for sardines) gives you some of the best health benefits.

It's highly recommend you increase intake of foods with CLA rather than take a supplement, so give that grass-fed beef and alpine milk a closer look if you see it at your local grocery. Just don't expect to find it at your typical supermarket. You may have to go to a specialty health supermarket for these products.

Of course, consult your doctor before making any changes to your diet. Let us know in the comments if you've put CLA into your diet and where you're getting your CLA from!

A quick and healthy lunch that's cheap.

2010-02-03T12:02:00.003-05:00

Here's a great video on how to make a quick and healthy lunch. It's a sardine sandwich!

It takes only a few minutes to make
It's packed with omega-3, lycopene, and vitamins
You can get cans of sardines in tomato sauce for 70 cents or less

It's not as fishy tasting as you might expect (it actually tastes less fishy than canned tuna, believe it or not). If you're on a low budget, but you still want to eat healthy, give this recipe a try and let us know what you think!

Stop breaking habits and stick to your commitments

2009-11-17T12:40:00.005-05:00

(photograph courtesy of kevindooley)

One of the best ways to form a habit is to repeat over and over again. I'm sure you've heard the statistic before, but if you do something for at least 2 weeks, you are much more likely to stick to a habit. This includes running in the morning, eating healthy meals, or reading a book that you have always wanted to finish.

More important than forming habits, the key to keeping habits is to make it a habit of not breaking them. As someone once said, 'Quitting is a hard habit to break.' This is such a deep quote, but rings true for everyone.

In short, keep to your commitments. Make it a habit to stick to what you've set out to do. This even includes things such as meeting up with friends/colleagues, keeping promises, and sticking to goals you've set out to do (whether you've been vocal about them or not!). A nice side benefit is that others may notice your commitment and integrity ('Wow, you always do what you say you're going to do!'). And trust me, people notice this sense of commitment, especially in younger people. If you can set a lunch meeting with someone a week ahead and not need to do a 'check-up call to make sure you're still on,' then you've found someone with great commitment. It's noticeable and appreciated by many.

Travel with just your carry-on.

2008-12-04T19:40:00.008-05:00

I came across a great website that follows the same philosophies we talk about in this blog-- minimizing waste and maximizing your enjoyment of life.

I urge you to check out this website, http://www.carryononly.com/. Their SlimPacker tool and the building community look like a great asset in the recent days of travel.

A lof of their themes such as being ecologically aware, minimalist, and resourceful, all look like great philosophies to follow. If you know of any other similar websites, let us know!

How to do what you don't want to do

2008-02-17T11:56:00.002-05:00

No cat wants to get wet, but in the end, when you got to get something done, then you get it done.

But how about doing things that you have to do but don't want to do?

For these types of tasks, I use a mental trick that has helped many, many times.

The trick is this: Put something on your to-do list that you prefer to do even less than what you need to get done. In other words, find a task you do want to do, but perhaps it takes even more work, effort, and/or time than the task that you truly want to accomplish.

The classic example of this that rings a bell for all students is the exam studying/clean room scenario. Many students can attest to the fact that when it comes down to studying for an upcoming exam, rather than studying, they end up procrastinating by doing something like cleaning up their room. Spotlessly.

What's going on here? Well, the person does not want to clean their room (I mean really, who does?), but, they prefer even more to NOT study for their exam. In other words, the student would rather clean up their room than study for their exam, because now the exam studying has taken precedence as the least favorable task to do. Often in this case, cleaning a room suddenly becomes a highly preferred task to do and it seems to take much less effort with the idea of studying for an exam lurking nearby.

This is also the same reason why people often 'create errands' to do in order to procrastinate the start of a more important project. If you want to get around this, simply make an even more daunting task appear on your task list, and soon something like training for a marathon, reading a long book, or cleaning your house may appear to be the more favorable thing to do than a task that's even harder to do. Try it out!

On the search for happiness...

2008-02-09T15:49:00.001-05:00

CNN recently posted an interesting article about a journalist's trip around the world in the search for happiness. Many of you wishing to streamline your life may be looking to ultimately find happiness in your journey or bring more happiness to your life. I plan on picking up Eric Weiner's book, "Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World," but in the meanwhile, see what CNN's review has to say. There are a number of key points I found fascinating in this article:

Happiness is not necessarily related to money. That's probably nothing new to most of you. 2 of the places Eric Weiner found to be the happiest in the world included Bhutan, an almost pre-modern society in the Himalayas, and Iceland, a country with a lot of darkness and cold. Also interesting is Iceland and Bhutan's GDP (nominal), the benchmark often used to describe a country's production of goods: 95th and 159th, respectively. This is out of 180 countries (source).

Happiness is not even related to a warm, pleasant climate. This was a personal shocker to me. One thing that I thought always separated US citizens on the east coast (Miami, NYC, Boston, etc.) from those on the west coast (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, etc.) was that nicer weather on the west coast was a large reason why west coasters are usually more pleasant and relaxed. In a way, many would say they appear happier. Ironically, one of Mr. Weiner's observations was that the cold weather actually brings people together in Iceland, much as humans must have done long ago.

Happiness often comes with content and satisfaction. As mentioned in the article regarding Qatar, having wealth does not equal being content. Content can often come in the form of having few material possessions to have to worry about maintaining. Content can even come in the form of seeing your tax dollars being used appropriately. It's just amazing that a country such as Qatar doesn't have the most happiness. Qatari's are even paid by the government, as opposed to being taxed, just for being a resident, and yet happiness does not come from such benefits.

Happiness doesn't come from actively searching for happiness. Perhaps a bit of an irony, but countries and people that are happiest often do not seek it. Maybe it's because they just live a certain way and do not contemplate the happiness, as you may not seek what you already have. Alternatively, being active and socially interacting on a daily basis may bring you the happiness you seek, even though that is not your goal in mind at the time.

If anything, the take home message seems to be that having a simple, streamlined life where your time is freed up to spend with your loved ones may bring you the happiness for which many are searching. Check out the book next time you're at the book store... I know I will be.

Easy to make healthy foods

2008-02-07T20:02:00.002-05:00

Here are the foods that are quickest to put into your life, along with their health benefits and notes:

blueberries: high in antioxidants, ready to eat after you wash them

salmon: high in protein and omega-3 fatty acids, can cook with 3 minutes of heat per side.

oatmeal: lots of fiber, can cook in 90 seconds, very cheap and portable

eggs: lots of protein, vitamins, and minerals. extremely easy to make (fry up or cook in microwave)

black beans: lots of protein, contains 'slow carbs', good for your brain function. cheap and you can eat it out of the can.

kimchi: great for digestion, work out of the jar. spices within are even anti-cancer

olive oil: easy to add to cooked food or salad. try not to cook with too much, as some of the health properties dissipate as it sits on the frying pan (cover your food with it before frying)

spinach: ready to eat vegetable, works great for salads, great source of iron

yogurt: can be bought for cheap (often on sale), great for digestion and calcium, edible out of the fridge

albacore tuna: great source of omega-3, edible out of the can, great source of protein, and often cheap

tomatoes: great source of lycopene, vitamin c, and works in a lot of foods (salads, on the side of dishes, and freshly eaten)

There's many more that you can find, but you'll want to emphasize quick preparation, because there are better things to do with your time than prepare food. Make tasty meals out of the foods above, and you're on your way to a more streamlined lifestyle!

Healthy foods and tiered food

2008-02-05T20:05:00.004-05:00

A healthy diet is obviously important to having a streamlined lifestyle. Energy for doing daily activities comes from a healthy diet. Preventing diseases is possible through a healthy diet. Looking and feeling great also comes from a healthy diet.

In terms of the 4 attributes for a streamlined lifestyle, let's look at how the food you eat can come into play:

Health: Obviously, your health is largely attributed to your diet. No more needs to be said on this.

Cost: Eating healthy can cost more if you don't go about shopping for healthy foods with strategy. It's important to note that to some people, the health benefits of some food are worth a higher price. If you think of food in terms of relative costs, then this makes sense. For example, cancer treatment will cost a lot more than buying healthy foods to begin with that may prevent cancer. A more extreme example is someone who believes in the anti-cancer properties of antioxidants; that person would not be concerned that blueberries may cost $4 a pint if they strongly believe it will keep them healthy longer. This is a personal preference.

Education: Eating healthy won't necessary make you more educated. You may need to do research to find out what is personally healthy for you to eat. You should always consult a doctor before trying anything radical with your diet.

Time: Eating healthy can definitely take more time. Hopefully this blog will help reduce the time needed to research healthy foods, but undoubtedly, eating whatever you like takes no time at all.

So are there general guidelines for what foods are healthy to eat? Here are the guidelines I try to follow, although you will want to consult your doctor before making any changes to your diet:

Start with trying to incorporate the healthiest foods you can afford. There are plenty of lists on the internet regarding what the healthiest foods are. One simple list I like to follow is the list on health.com. Shorter lists are not only easier to remember (so you'll be more likely to follow it), but there's a lot to say about short lists in general. They're not easy to make(!), so the author most likely put a lot of time in condensing the list to those he/she found to be most important. So yes, I incorporate olive oil, kimchi, lentils, yogurt, and soy in my diet as much as possible. Cook with olive oil. Put lentils in most meals. Eat yogurt every morning. Think of these 'healthiest foods' as Tier 1 foods that are great to incorporate as much as possible into your daily meals.
Add other foods that are healthy for certain benefits and do not take much time to prepare. That means blueberries, oatmeal, salmon, almonds, walnuts, spinach, black beans, bananas, eggs, chicken breast, grass-fed beef, carrots, and tilapia are all great to add into your diet. This list is not comprehensive, as they are literally hundreds of foods that could fit in this category. These are tier 2 foods.
Add other foods that are healthy, but may have some drawbacks. Work these more sparsely into your diet. Orange juice, for instance, has many health benefits from folic acid to vitamin C, but it's high in sugar content. Whole wheat bread (make sure it says 100% whole wheat) is packed with nutrients, but in the end, it's still a lot of carbohydrates that may not work in your diet. Carrots have vitamin A and fiber, but are high on the glycemic index scale. Ribeye steak may be good for iron and protein, but it can be high in saturated fat. These are tier 3 foods that you should stray away from, but can eat from time to time (diet permitting, of course).

Now the trick is to combine tier 1 and tier 2 foods as much as possible into simple meals that you can make quickly. For instance, if you can buy blueberries cheaply (or frozen blueberries), combine with oatmeal in the morning for a quick meal. Throw in some yogurt for it's digestive properties and you have a great start to your day. And since it only takes a minute to put together, you will be more likely to stick to it. Another example is to cook an egg, combine with black beans, kimchi, and some protein such as lean chicken or turkey. For dinner, you could put together frozen vegetables, some chicken breast, and a fried egg. For a salad, you could put together romain lettuce, sliced almonds, blueberries, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. Focus on foods that are quick to make so that eating healthy doesn't become a chore.

Add tier 3 foods from time to time to keep your diet interesting, but don't go too overboard. At the same time, if you're an athlete or are extremely active, you may not be concerned to eat tier 3 foods routinely. And hey, at least they offer some health benefits, right?

Food such as chocolate cake, pork fat (often added to soup), candy bars, deep fried oreos, potato chips, etc. are not even considered to be a tier of food. Why? Because chances are you can find several, if not more, foods in the first 3 tiers that you enjoy. The food could be chicken breast that you like. It could be whole wheat bread, a fried egg, and a slice of deli turkey, topped with ketchup (lycopene!). There's so many ways to work relatively healthy ingredients together that are also easy to prepare.

Sample meals and snacks that are quick and healthy:

oatmeal with blueberries and peanutbutter
omelette made with 2 eggs, stuffed with black beans, brown rice, deli turkey, ketchup
spinach salad, walnuts, blueberries, topped with olive oil and balsamic vinegar
salmon soaked overnight with orange juice and soy sauce, grill the next day
edamame (soy beans in the frozen section of most asian markets), microwaved for 90 seconds. Very addictive for snacking!
tilapia with lentils on the side, steamed asparagus on the side
Japanese seaweed salad (available at most asian markets, ready to eat), brown rice, tomatoes

Be creative and share any quick and healthy recipes you know. The key is to find healthy ingredients that take very little time/effort to prepare.

buying vs. "brown bagging" your lunch

2008-02-03T17:24:00.001-05:00

(photograph courtesy of AppleBooty)

For some of you who work by a place with cheap, healthy food, buying lunch may make the most sense. For the rest of us, food comes in one of several categories:

1) It's healthy and tasty, but is expensive (often $7+ in a city like New York City).
2) It's cheap and healthy, but the taste is pretty bad (e.g., buying boiled eggs every day).
3) It's cheap and tasty, but not healthy at all (e.g., fast food).

Do you want cheap, healthy, and tasty food? Get ready to brown bag. Now the main drawback to bringing your own lunch is that it takes time to plan your lunch and to actually make
your lunch. There are several ways to get around this:

Buy in bulk and prepare cooking for your whole week. We'll go more into detail on this topic in the future.

Pack your leftovers from dinner for lunch the next day. It saves on dishwashing and effort.

Buy easy to prepare, yet healthy and tasty foods. This is a whole other post itself, but just as an example, edamame is stored frozen, healthy, cheap, and tasty (addictive at that), and to make it, all you have to do is put them in the microwave for 2 minutes. No thought involved.

If you really want to commit to it, purchase a nice 'adult' lunchbox such as Mr. Bento. Besides the fact that there's a whole sub-culture bent on making nice looking lunches (search Flickr for 'bento porn'), it's great that it keeps your hot lunches hot and cold lunches cold. Mr. Bento works particularly well if you eat asian food often, but really works well for any type of cuisine.

On being a consumer...

2008-02-03T16:21:00.001-05:00

You're a consumer whether you like to admit it or not. In order to survive in this world, you need to make use of other's skills. Though it may be nice to be able to know everything to survive on your own, in this complex lifestyle that we wll live, our daily lives make us a consumer. Being a consumer simply means we exchange our knowledge and skill expertise for other's knowledge and skill expertise. Why learn to make a coffee maker and manufacture it on our own when we can buy one in the store? Undoubtedly, it's more efficient to purchase a coffee maker than to make one on our own from materials we gather on our own (or mine from the Earth if we're going to start from scratch).

Can we be a better consumer? Of course we can. I'm going to touch on one facet of being a consumer, and that facet is consumer awareness.

It's astounding the number of items one can buy, and further amazing how this can change your life. It's no secret as any subscriber to David Allen's GTD (Getting Things Done) movement will say, the clutter can make your life more difficult to manage.

Back to consumer awareness, there are some wonderful items I've come across in the past few years that are wonderful products that actually do bring great value. So much value that, in fact, if more people were aware of them, the world would be a better place.

Let's go through some examples:

Charcoal lighter fluid vs. Weber Chimney Starter
People just do not know what chimney starters are, and if they did, they'd never buy charcoal lighter fluid again. The Weber Chimney Starter is cheap (low cost), quick to heat coals (low time), and is healthier because you're not using lighter fluid on your coals (high health). You won't have lighter fluid taste on your food, your coals will be red hot to cook in a shorter period of time, and this item is only $13 which is a fixed cost (vs. lighter fluid which you need to repeatedly purchase as your supply dwindles at barbecues).

coffee vs. yerba mateCoffee is caffeine that comes with 2 problems: the "high" is usually too high (i.e., you can't even concentrate on the task at hand due to jitters), and the "low" is usually too low (it puts some people to sleep). Instead, welcome to the world of yerba mate, of which my awareness all comes thanks to the insightful Tim Ferriss. Known to the atheletic world for some time, yerba mate can give you the mental awareness push that you want, but without the jitters or fallout after. It's less likely to irritate your stomach and you can definitely concentrate better on the 'high.' So why do people still drink coffee? Consumers are simply not aware of this wonderful drink that originated from South America where it's consumed on a daily basis. You can buy yerba mate for cheap online and at some specialty shops.

incandescent flashlight vs. LED flashlightsLED flashlights use less energy (less batteries), are cooler in temperature and energy efficiency, and are often cheaper AND brighter. I often carry a Princeton Tec Impulse on my keychain which comes in handy on too many occasions (walking up dark stairways, looking for items in closets, dropping something outside your car at nighttime, etc.).

These are just a few examples of great products that have totally eclipsed another product/technology in terms of value. If you liked these comparisons, there's more to come...

Television and a DVR

2008-02-03T16:01:00.001-05:00

For some of you, countless hours in front of the television may be your idea of a great way to relax. Let's look at television in terms of the 4 basic factors:

Health: Sitting on the couch is not conducive to a healthy lifestyle. The fact is, when you're watching television, you're typically not very active. TV gets a low rating of Health.

Cost: TV can be costly in terms of having to buy a television and buying a cable subscription (yes, you can get television for free via other methods, but that is not often the case). Even if your television subscription is $25 a month (that's on the very low end if you're in a metropolitan area), you're looking at $300 a year that could be spent elsewhere.

Education: Well, this one is where television can offer SOME benefit. If you happen to be watching the Discovery Channel or the History Channel, for instance, the multimedia presentation in front of your very eyes with little to no effort makes TV great in terms of educational value (a high education value). If you're watching mindless television (no need to mention specific shows, celebrity gossip summary shows are pretty high up there), the education value drops to low. Let's give TV an education value of medium to be fair.

Time: Television is time consuming and time inefficient. From watching commercials to just the general value of getting information, television gets a low rating of Time.

So TV isn't great for your health, costs money, can possibly educate you, but is time inefficient. What do you think I'd propose about television?

GET RID OF IT.

There are so many better things to do with your time that are cheaper, take up less time, and are more fulfilling. Examples of what to do instead are coming up, but you can see why television is just not worthwhile if you want to streamline your life.

If you must have television in your life, the only way you should go about it is to have a Digital Video Recorder to go about skipping commercials and allowing you to watch television when you want. I'd highly recommend TIVO which has the slickest interface of all DVRs I've used, although the cost of a monthly subscription may outweigh the benefits of having the DVR. As you'll see in future posts, the time factor can be quite an expensive factor, and often the cost to maximize your time may be prohibitive depending on your financial situation. Interestingly, your financial situation largely hinges on your education. Interesting how this all ties together, isn't it :)

How to Streamline Your Life

2008-02-03T15:28:00.003-05:00

What is life about? What is the meaning of life? How can I make sense of it? I may not be able to fully answer those questions, but I can lead you in the right direction. I believe everything in life can be narrowed down to the following attributes:

Health

Cost

Education

Time

If you can break down your everyday life into those 4 fields and you can streamline those factors, everything else of happiness will follow.

Interestingly, these 4 factors are often in conflict with each other. Let's take the example of food.

Fast food is cheap (low cost), quick to buy/eat (low time), but the health effects are also obvious (low health). You can buy healthy food (high health) at a deli or via pre-made meals (low time), but they are usually expensive (high cost). You could also make healthy food at home (high health), often saving money at the grocery store (low cost) and you learn how to make a meal (high education). But the amount of time you spend to make the food and for cleanup/shopping may make you think of alternatives (high time). Does everything have to be this way?

The short answer is no.

There are ways to maximize the value on each of the 4 items I mention above. And that is what this weblog is all about.

I'll be discussing the best methods to go about maximizing those 4 attributes for your daily life, letting you achive more of what you want and less of what you don't want.

Some of you may ask: what about other aspects? How about the social factor, for instance? How about the energy factor? How about the fun factor? I believe those factors are actually sub-factors. If you can streamline the above 4, you will undoubtedly maximize the value of any other sub-factors, including socialability (e.g., having friends), having energy to do things, and enjoying what you ARE spending your time doing (rather than wasting your time on things that are not fulfilling).

Stay tuned...

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