The Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany—one of the world’s largest trade fairs for books—wrapped up this past weekend. Books are shopped around, deals are made, publishers scope out possibilities. I’m excited to report that my proposal for The Natural Professional was one of the hopefuls! It’s finally time to get super-serious about getting that baby written. Yay!

Whether it gets picked up or not from this exposure, I’m grateful to have one chapter and a very detailed outline done. There’s nothing like an amazing opportunity to create a specific goal out of a dream. Long time readers have been getting pieces of the book here and there. Now I’m putting the ideas and concepts into a cohesive program to help readers manifest their own awesome, Natural Professional self.

As the book unrolls, I’ll be asking for people to contribute their own experiences on various subjects—I’m hoping you’ll add your story to the project! So how about joining me for a virtual shot of Jagermeister to toast new projects, foreign book fairs, and the beauty of simplifying!

Enjoy,

Shawn Tuttle
Chief Simplifier, Project Simplify
Co-editor, The Simplifier

P.S. – We had the unusual (perhaps unprecedented) occurrence of both Lance and I taking ill during newsletter production days this week, so we called in a sick day (or two). Thus, the unusual (yet strangely alluring!) Friday edition. Our apologies for the delay.

“Your life is the way it is because of decisions, habits, and actions from the past. If you want to simplify your life, something’s got to give. Something’s got to change."

-Shawn Tuttle (from the upcoming book The Natural Professional, due out in 2010 – hopefully)

I’ve talked about using the 2-minute timer for zapping the inbox. Now it’s time for a 20-minute timer. This is for anyone who gets lost in Facebook instead of working on a big project because it feels overwhelming, or who avoids dealing with stuff because it just feels like too much… Never fear, change is possible.

Use the 20-minute timer as a tool to create time boundaries and stay focused. (Of course if you prefer 15 minutes or 30 minutes, that’s good too.) This tactic can be especially helpful for ADD-type folks.

Here are some examples of activities that greatly benefit from 20-minute time chunks:

• Big project that’ll take about 4 hours with a deadline 2 weeks away.
• Big project with lots of small details that you have to fit into your schedule somehow.
• House cleaning.
• Daily pickup and putting stuff away.

Tips:

• Clearly define what the 20-minute session is for.
• Stop when the timer goes off.
• I’d suggest a kitchen timer that has a countdown feature. It’s portable, easy to set, and hard to miss hearing.

No matter how awful you think it’ll be, a 20-minute chunk is doable. It keeps those projects moving. It keeps that maintenance happening. You’ll have newfound bounce in your step!

Compiled by Lance Brown

12 steps to make organizing easier (Lansing State Journal – Lansing, MI)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/yhl2qlw 
Shawn’s hi-falutin’ “Natural Professional” talk is all well and good, but it ain’t gonna stop you from having to find places to put things, and keep everything from comin’ amess on you. That’s why we keep bringing you the basics every now and again—like this tasty set of tips for taming the tangles in your terrestrial territ—in your environment.

GulfNews Wipe Out Waste Campaign (Gulf News – Dubai, UAE)
URL: http://gulfnews.com/in-focus/wipe-out-waste
Gulf News in Dubai has been holding a “Wipe Out Waste” campaign for the past several months, and now that it’s done, we get to swoop in and reap the harvest of information they’ve compiled. The materials here are diverse and extensive, with a video of waste-saving techniques for the home, tips on reducing stress and anger, the blog of Zero waste man and woman, and a bunch of other articles and features covering everything from “Raising eco baby” to wiping out waste in the workplace.

Cupcakes, calories, columns, and cribbage