Welcome to The Weekly Simplifier, brought to you by…

Contents:

1.  A Note From Shawn

2.  Quote of the Week

3.  Article: 3 Top Time Management Tips

4.  This Week’s Simplification Tip

5.  In the News & On the Web

6.  Featured at ProjectSimplify.com

7.  Keep Smiling

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1. A Note From Shawn

The theme of this week’s Simplifier is about being aware of how you spend your time. You know what’s important to you – is this reflected in your schedule?

Our guest writer, Lyndsay Swinton, shares the easy-to-remember “rocks in the bucket” metaphor for planning your day, and this week’s simplification tip helps you stay in touch with your “rocks”.

The BBC article in In the News indicates just how important your “rocks” are to your happiness. The other In the News article (“It’s all about balance”) shares stories of people actively, and successfully, taking control of their schedules. (It also proves that this is an international concern!) I especially like this article because they also mention yoga and Toastmasters, both of which are at the top of my list for personal development!

-Shawn Tuttle
Head Simplifier, Project Simplify

2. Quote of the Week

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

-Leonardo da Vinci

3. Article: 3 Top Time Management Tips

Guest Article
By Lyndsay Swinton
Owner, Management for the Rest of Us

Time management can be easy! Honest! Keep it simple with these time management tips:

Time Management Tip 1 - a day is 24 hours long ;-)

Time Management Tip 2 – we spend about 10-12 hours a day being a human. Sleeping, eating, relaxing and other basic needs take their fair share of our precious time. That’s at least 40% of each and every day simply to keep us going.

Time Management Tip 3 – the remaining 50-60% of our time is ours to do with as we please. What we do with this time is entirely our choice.

Okay, okay, so most of us have to work to pay our way. But we can still make choices about how we spend this time.

Time saved, or time spent?

Some time management techniques are geared to saving a few minutes here and maybe an hour or two there, but honestly, have you made better use of the time saved? Or have you just crammed in another activity?

There is a well-known story about how to fill a bucket, and to save you time ;>) here is the condensed version.

To fill your bucket, first you put in the rocks. Is your bucket full? No, you can fit in some pebbles. Is your bucket full? No, you can fit in some sand. Is your bucket full? No, you can fit in some water.

What is the moral of this tale? That you can always fit more in? No, if you don’t put the rocks in first, you’ll never get them in….

A Quick Time Management Exercise

With this in mind, make a list for yourself. Here’s one I prepared earlier.

• Rocks – time with family, time with friends, learning new skill, undertaking big project

• Pebbles – member of club, volunteering, coaching

• Sand – routine chores at work, reading books

• Water - housekeeping, watching movies, surfing the internet

Decide how much time should be spent on the “Rocks”. Is 50% of your waking hours good enough or would you go so far as 80%? A quick bit of mental arithmetic tells me that’s at least 6 hours per day doing stuff that’s really important to you! I would say that’s effective time management! (I told you it was easy!)

So that leaves a few hours for the Pebbles, Sand and Water. It doesn’t matter how you split your time between each of these activities. The most important tip is to recognize that the small stuff can get in the way of the big stuff.

And when the small stuff does get in the way, ask yourself why is that? What can I stop doing or do less of to free up my time?

Early starts and late finishes, rushed or skipped meals, sporadic or non existent social contact all take their toll. It’s tempting to steal time from our basic “being human” time but give it back! You will reap the rewards.

Top Tip

Time management really can be easy. Fact. You are in control of your time.

If you take away one time management tip, remember that good time management is about knowing what’s most important and doing that the most. And you don’t need a fancy diary for that!

—-
By Lyndsay Swinton
Management for the rest of us
Become an experienced manager, overnight!

4. This Week’s Simplification Tip

Do a Daily Check-in

This is an incredibly simple tool to help you, and your schedule, stay in line with your priorities. Establish a calm, quiet time during your morning routine (I suggest having pen and paper within reach). Get in touch with your personal goals and, as vividly as possible, imagine them completed, or in full expression. If inspired, write down thoughts that come to mind. Give yourself ten to fifteen minutes for this. Only then, shift gears and plan your schedule for the day.

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5. In the News & On the Web

[In this section, we will highlight sites and pages of interest from around the Web, as well as news stories that relate to simplicity, time management, and organization. If you know of something in the news or on the web that should be featured here, let us know!]

This week we have two items from In the News…

WLB (Work Life Balance) in Malaysia
URL: http://tinyurl.com/gnlew

This article, titled “It’s all about balance”, is about how one large company (Shell) is working to accommodate the Work-Life Balance needs of its employees, and getting (surprise!) happier and more loyal employees in return. Such win-win arrangements, which involve flexible scheduling, work-at-home potential, and activity groups (like yoga, bowling, or Toastmasters) are becoming more common. Here’s looking forward to the day when something like this is widespread enough to not be news!

BBC: The Science of Happiness
URL: http://tinyurl.com/ftkaw

The BBC is doing a six-part special about the latest research on happiness, and you don’t need to live in England to harvest the fruits of their labor. They’ve got a ton of resources and information about happiness in the 21st century at the web site for their program The Happiness Formula. (http://tinyurl.com/egvpk)

“The Science of Happiness” article discusses how scientists study happiness, and shares the findings of the top experts in “positive psychology” and related fields. At least one expert says that people may only have a limited range (say, 10-15%) when trying to adjust their happiness upward (”you can’t take a grouch and make him giggle all the time”)– but it’s probably worth trying. Scientists are trying to pin down the exact science of it all, but there does appear to be a correlation between happiness, better health, and a longer life. Learn more at the “Science of Happiness” article (http://tinyurl.com/ftkaw ), or check out the other resources from the BBC special, which are featured alongside the story.

…and one from On the Web:

Simply Google
http://www.usabilityviews.com/simply_google.htm

Google’s home page has long been a shining example of simplicity in action, but now that they seem to have a new feature every week or two, it can end up being a complex process to get to a given Google tool or feature.

The solution? Simply Google. It has everything Google, together on one page. All their sub-sites, gizmos and tools, different types of searches, and online services, accessible within one click. Of course, it makes for a busier page than Google’s still-simple interface, but if you use a lot of different Google stuff, Simply Google could save you a lot of clicks.

6. Featured at ProjectSimplify.com

The Category Map

Sometimes arranging things a little differently can make all the difference. That’s the thinking behind the “Category Map” at the Project Simplify website:

      

You can access the Category Map by the link under Site Extras in the site’s sidebar. (Click the “more +/-” to expand Site Extras; the Category Map link is “below the fold”.) 

The “map” shows all the various blog categories by name, with the names displayed randomly across the screen. Each name links to the blog category in question. The category names are weighted, so the ones with more entries in them appear larger, and darker.

If you refresh the page, a new arrangement will appear. Reload it a few times, and maybe something new will catch your eye!

7. Keep Smiling

We mentioned the science and study of happiness in In The News above; we have also changed the name of our humor and inspiration section, to better reflect the sort of “uplift” we’re looking to provide– the sort of uplift which helps lead to a lasting and sustainable happiness. On that note, we’ve got a little more from the “happiness professors” for you this week:

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Perversely, happiness has a negative image in our culture. Influenced by a sceptical European philosophical outlook, we think of happiness as a trivial pursuit for the Oprah generation, a Shangri-La perpetuated by self-help gurus. Isn’t it selfish to try to increase our happiness, while much of the world faces suffering and premature death?

Great writers from Freud — “the intention that man should be happy is not included in the plan of Creation” — to Philip Larkin — “man hands on misery to man” — have painted happiness as an elusive butterfly. But ordinary people believe they are happier than average (an obvious impossibility) and that they’ll be even happier in 10 years’ time. If true, it would be good news because research shows that happier people are healthier, more successful, harder-working, caring and more socially engaged….

These are the conclusions of a burgeoning happiness industry that has published 3,000 papers, set up a Journal of Happiness Studies and created a World Database of Happiness in the last few years.
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From an article titled “So what do you have to do to find happiness?”, in the Sunday Times (UK).
Read more here: http://tinyurl.com/aqgpy 

Thanks for reading - see you next week!