Never stay up late for something that wouldn’t be worth getting up early for.
HT: Lifehack.org
The Power of Small Actions
Many of us would love to make big changes in our lives.
Many of us feel called to accomplish big things with our lives.
The bigness of our goals can block our progress on these goals because the end result seems so far in the future.
That’s why its so important to remember the power of small actions. Any goal worth having cannot be accomplished in a day, a week, or a month. You can’t loose 50 lbs today. You can’t read the whole bible today. You can’t write an entire book today. Knowing that we can’t do it all today often creates stress that keeps us from moving forward on our goals. Since we cannot do it all today we often do nothing.
But you can do something today. You can take a small step that moves you forward on your goals. You can eat a healthy meal for lunch today. You can read the Bible for 10 minutes today. You can write 100 words on of a book. These are so easy to accomplish that we feel like we’re not making any progress. But string together a week of these small actions and you’ll have made noticeable progress. String together a month of small actions and others will notice your progress. String together a year of small actions and you will have accomplished your goal.
Michael Hyatt has posted a helpful article on The Power of Incremental Change Over Time.
What small action could you take today that could be the start of accomplishing a life goal?
Have you backed up your computer recently?
I know a student whose laptop was stolen recently.
The good news: the laptop was recovered the same day.
The bad news: the hard drive had already been erased.
So, let me ask: Have you backed up your computer recently?
Do you have a plan to deal with a data disaster?
What would you do if you lost all the work you have done this week?
Use Dropbox
We all know we should do regular hard drive backups. But backing up is a pain, so we rarely do it. That’s why I love Dropbox.
Dropbox places a folder named “My Dropbox” inside the “My Documents” folder on Windows. (It does something similar on a mac.) When you save a file to “My Dropbox” it automatically backs it up to a secure web server as well as keeping a copy on your hard drive.
All my mission critical files are saved to Dropbox—like my nearing 200 page Dissertation/Project. This gives me automatic backups of my most important files every time I work on them. No thought on my part, no extra effort, and I always have on offsite backup of files I cannot afford to lose.
I also use Dropbox to automatically sync files between multiple computers and to access files from any computer with an internet connection—even from my phone.
Dropbox offers 2GB of online backup for free. Check it out: Dropbox.
Stop Trusting Your Future Self to Get Stuff Done. Do It Now.
From Lifehacker.
http://embracethegodlife.com/stop-trusting-your-future-self-to-get-stuff-done/
The most pernicious aspect of procrastination is that it can become a habit. We don’t just put off our lives today; we put them off till our deathbed. Never forget: This very moment, we can change our lives. There never was a moment, and never will be, when we are without the power to alter our destiny. This second, we can turn the tables on Resistance. This second, we can sit down and do our work.
Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
http://embracethegodlife.com/the-most-pernicious-aspect-of-procrastination-is/
We procrastinate when we’ve forgotten who we are.
Merlin Mann
http://embracethegodlife.com/we-procrastinate-when-weve-forgotten-who-we-are/
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.
Annie Dillard, The Writing Life
http://embracethegodlife.com/how-we-spend-our-days-is-of-course-how-we-spend/
9 Places to Always Keep Pen and Paper Handy
9 Places to Always Keep Pen and Paper Handy
One of my best productivity tips is to always have pen and paper with you to jot down notes, ideas, etc. whenever inspiration strikes. I almost always have a pen and notebook in my pocket to make sure I never forget a great idea.
Hit the link above to see Lifehack’s thoughts on where you need to keep pen and paper available.
How to Carry a Pen with Your Little Black Journal
From the why didn’t I think of that! department.
I’m a journaler and a note taker. I enjoy using Moleskine journals, and more recently the much cheaper Piccadilly journals. Yet, I never figured out a good way to carry my pen with my journal.
I stumbled across this solution the other day. It’s so simple and elegant, why didn’t I think of it!?!?
how to carry a pen with your MOLESKINE – More DIY How To Projects
Say it aint so, Jott!
I’ve been a huge fan of Jott for quite a while. Jott is a voice to text transcription service. Call Jott on your cell phone and leave a voice mail message. Your message gets transcribed to text and sent to your email. Great for sending yourself reminders or replacing the pen and paper you always carry in your pocket.
Here’s where Jott gets awesome. You are not only able to use Jott to send yourself an email message, but you can also put appointments on your calendar, add tasks to your todo list, update your facebook status, and post to your blog – all by making a voice call on your cell phone.
I’ve been using Jott a lot to get a thought or idea directly into my system while away from the computer. I’ve been planning a series of hack posts on all the things I do with Jott.
Jott came out of Beta today. It also made the move from a free to a paid service. Yes, their is a free, ad-supported plan, but it does none of the cool features I use. You can’t even email yourself on the free version.
So, Jott, am I going to pony up the $3.95 a month for your service? Or am I going to stick with my trusted pen and paper? I pay about $.33 a month for the pen and paper I carry in my pocket.