The Adventures of LitBoy: Bill Brent's Blog

PROCRASTINATE LATER

Recently I stumbled onto a productivity tip that I feel compelled to share. This is a quick bit of advice on HOW TO GET THINGS DONE EVEN WHEN YOU FEEL UNMOTIVATED.

You know how some days, it is just darn difficult to get started? No matter what, you procrastinate? Maybe you are tired. Or maybe you feel guilty about not starting, so you get irked, and then you tell yourself that you'll get going when you want to, and not a moment sooner.

This is especially likely to happen to me when I have a lot of little chores, such as a bunch of niggling to-do items that have piled up on my desk until my workspace is a mess. When there are a lot of small, maybe distasteful tasks that create clutter, it is easy to rationalize that we will get to them soon enough. Yet there they sit, all the while exerting a subtle but certain tug on our focus, a slow but steady drip, a background energy drain. Sometimes just walking into the space evinces feelings of weariness or futility.

Here are two ways you can deal with that.

1. Set a time limit. A really short one. Let's use the example of doing the dishes. Allow yourself the RIGHT (after all, it's YOUR time and life!) to do less than the whole sink full of dishes. If it is five minutes after the hour, then promise yourself that you will stop doing dishes at fifteen past. By focusing on how to start and complete the process within ten minutes, rather than focusing on the seeming endlessness of the task itself, you can give yourself an energy boost up. Try it and see.

2. Set an object limit. This works when you have a lot of small, repetitive projects, such as email to reply to, or bills to pay. So let's say that you have six bills to pay. Pay one bill today. JUST ONE. Now, get it out to your mailbox for pickup; otherwise, put it wherever you can grab it, the next you pass a public mailbox. If you drive, then put it out in your vehicle, sticking out so that you can't forget it. If you travel on foot, or if you take the bus, then put it with your keys, your cell phone, or any other object that you will have to come into contact with, either when you leave the building or while you are out and about. This makes it much harder to forget about.

Now, the next time you have a few minutes -- maybe it's the next day -- pay two of the remaining five bills. And the time after that, pay the remaining three. Really, it's okay to take three days to pay six bills! Yet it seems like it would be more efficient to deal with all six at once, right? Well, maybe, but sometimes it's easier to find the time to deal with three shorter chores than to deal with one long chore. Even if it ends up taking you forty-five minutes, rather than half an hour, you still did it, right?

Also, when you come into contact with the bills (or any other tangible object), ask yourself two quick yes/no questions:

(a) Do I need to replenish any of my supplies related to this task? (For bills, how about ordering postage stamps, new address labels, or buying blank envelopes?)

(b) Is there a way to make this task less of a hassle next time around? (Maybe you can enroll in online bill pay, or even cancel the service.)

Sometimes you can complete a surprising number of chores on a "bad hair day," simply by tricking yourself into using the ten-minute or the one-object trick. The basic principle, of course, is to break a large task into several small ones that feel less overwhelming.

Most of the advice on time management, personal productivity, and workplace effectiveness describes this "BITE-SIZE IT" principle. However, you can take this rule to the next level by applying it to even smaller, simpler projects that are part of your routine. Objectively, such tasks may be less daunting than the big projects, yet subjectively they FEEL overwhelming when you are having an off day. Procrastinate later!

---

Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2009.07.17, 12:20 p.m. Hawaii time]

LitBoy.com is the brainchild of writer Bill Brent. If you enjoy this blog, please consider a donation in support of my work. You can send money via PayPal to info [AT] litboy [DOT] com, or better still, use Revolution Money Exchange. Unlike PayPal, RME pays me 100% of your donation. It's quick and easy!


Here's the button for that:

Quick Clutter-Clearing Tip

One way to cut down on clutter is to deal with old media before it becomes obsolete. Photos and slides are an excellent example of stuff we hold onto because it is often difficult to get started with the project of dealing with it.

Here is an example of a slide scanning service that promises to make short work of your images before they deteriorate. According to the Slide Scanning Pros home page, you only pay for the service after you view your images. Since they specialize in scanning and correcting 35mm color slides, it appears to be a safe bet and a good deal.

---

Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2009.07.16, 7:55 p.m. Hawaii time]

LitBoy.com is the brainchild of writer Bill Brent. If you enjoy this blog, please consider a donation in support of my work. You can send money via PayPal to info [AT] litboy [DOT] com, or better still, use Revolution Money Exchange. Unlike PayPal, RME pays me 100% of your donation. It's quick and easy!


Here's the button for that:

SWAPPING INSTEAD OF SPENDING TO BUY STUFF

SWAP IT! You may think I'm crazy for saying this, but as long as you own stuff you don't really need, do whatever you can to trade your old stuff at a neighborhood swap meet once a month. Sure, you can use Craigslist for the bigger stuff, if you don't mind total strangers showing up at your house -- possibly to case the joint. Maybe you can meet at at public location instead, such as your workplace -- that can be safer, especially if the security guard is on duty when your buyer shows up.

And there's always eBay. But why should that giant online auction site get such a big cut of your every sale? Yeah, we all procrastinate listing our stuff on eBay, if we ever do it at all. Meanwhile, the freight and postal delivery services raise their rates like clockwork every January, and since the ongoing spike in the price of fuel, usually in between too! Every time they do that, it eats away at your profit.

And what about PayPal? Well, guess what -- that's owned by eBay too. So eBay could be making money off your sale in up to three places: going in the front door, when you probably paid eBay a fee to list it; in the middle of your sale, when your customer goes to buy it with PayPal; and out the back door, when eBay takes its commission from you.

Next, there's the hassle of packing and shipping, and then the concern that your goods might not show up in the same shape they left in. Better know what you're doing when you pack it, or pay a professional shipper! Is it worth much? Maybe you want to buy shipping insurance, too, just in case you are asked to make a refund!

Barter is better. If you can figure out how to trade your stuff for other stuff that you want, this is always a good deal compared to spending your money to get it out that door. Why? Simply because it keeps more money in both your pocket AND the other guy's.

We have been more or less programmed in this culture NOT to haggle about the price of things, and ALWAYS to pay with cash or plastic! To make matters worse, we're all brainwashed to believe that full bags equal happiness! From the time we're old enough to stand up in our cribs, point, and say "I want it!" Clearly, this is not the way to cut costs. Yes, you will have to rethink the way you have done some things up till now. No, it is not as hard as you think.

Look at Craigslist, for instance. No, not in the hook-up-for-sex sections! Seriously, now, you can find online ads where others will be asking for trades rather than cash. Not a lot, but they're in there. There ought to be more. Lately I've even seen folks swapping property for vehicles! In Hawaii, where I live, we have a popular early morning radio talk show with a community announcements section. Plenty of folks here use that call-in time as an opportunity to trade and even give away stuff they no longer want.

Now, if we can make this loose kind of networking work on an island that has under 200,000 total inhabitants, then it has got to be achievable anywhere with a larger population base. Sure, folks on the outer islands of Hawaii have to be a bit scrappier than most, simply because many of us don't have access to some of the services that are easily available elsewhere and taken for granted by others there, such as municipal water and weekly garbage truck pickups. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't learn how to trade goods and services in order to save your money for something you really need it for. There's a reason that "save my money" is such a popular Google search request.

Many of us are also trained to think that "only an expert" can do our negotiating for us. Don't believe it. If you can split a restaurant bill, then you already have the basic skills it takes to drive a bargain that two parties can live with. If not, then take along someone who does. And pay attention when they do it, as knowing how to barter is a valuable life skill. (HINT: Ask for more than what you want, since this gives you some room to bargain with.) If you are a parent, then teach your kids how to haggle, while you're at it.

If you like to meet people, you can throw a yard sale, of course, but why not with the whole neighborhood at once? And why only once a year, the way most of us do it? If you're searching on "save my money" during bad economic times, then stay home and host a seasonal garage sale, or a monthly block sale! Maybe you can even make it across town to swap and sell at another neighborhood sale. Whatever works.

Make it a festive event if you can. Make your own entertainment and save money at the same time! Get a kid you know to videotape the event. Then you can upload your neighborhood block sale, or community association flea market, or homeowner association swap meet highlights to YouTube, so that the rest of us can laugh along with you! It's worth thinking about.

---

Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2009.07.14, 12:25 p.m. Hawaii time]

LitBoy.com is the brainchild of writer Bill Brent. If you enjoy this blog, please consider a donation in support of my work. You can send money via PayPal to info [AT] litboy [DOT] com, or better still, use Revolution Money Exchange. Unlike PayPal, RME pays me 100% of your donation. It's quick and easy!


Here's the button for that:

Buy Vintage Bowling And Music Gear

Hi, everyone --

Just a quick note to let you know that I'm retooling the LitBoy blog for the new decade ahead! Or at least the next ten months, ha ha. We are all quick-change artists of Life in the Fast Lane of the Internet. Last year, I never thought I'd succumb to Facebook fever, either.

So, since I am in the process of getting rid of my unused stuff in preparation of a likely move in the less than distant future, I am re-inventing this blog to express the theme of "small footprint": Take what you need and leave the rest. Or, if you want to get all Net-jargony about it, you can say that I am re-branding LitBoy.com as a blog for the "small footprint, frugality mentality" niche. Or maybe as a "save my money and simplify life" blog. (Let's see -- what other likely search engine keyword phrases can I cram into one post before this gets tedious, not to mention painfully obvious?) :-P

Anyway, I'm sure you get the idea. Likewise, I'm sure there will still be some Hawaii-specific content to enjoy, which has been the other major theme here.

Really, though, this transition is just an extension of some of the posting I've been doing online, both to this blog and elsewhere, over the past five years. We're just getting more focused now on simply living the simple life, that's all. Hey, I've always been a trendsetter -- so naturally, I was broke before it was a national condition, right? [cue rim shot]

Stay tuned, then, and you might even pick up some ways to save on the cost of living and have fun while doing it.

Meanwhile, as you may have noticed, there is new sidebar content here. Click to the left, if you like, and see if you like any of my stuff for sale at either Amazon (books, CDs, DVDs) or Etsy, which is a great site for handcrafted goods, crafting supplies, and cool vintage items over 20 years old. On Etsy, I have started to sell vintage bowling gear and home music studio gear in both analog and digital flavors. In fact, some kind soul just blogged this here retro piece of music-making home décor I put up for sale, within 24 hours of my listing it! Like I said, we're Livin' La Vida Internet here. VRUUUMZ!

---

Wishing you a beautiful day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2009.07.13, 2:30 a.m. Hawaii time]

LitBoy.com is the brainchild of writer Bill Brent. If you enjoy this blog, please consider a donation in support of my work. You can send money via PayPal to info [AT] litboy [DOT] com, or better still, use Revolution Money Exchange. Unlike PayPal, RME pays me 100% of your donation. It's quick and easy!


Here's the button for that:

A Really Fun Trash-Lit Site Is Now Back Online

The Home for the Literarily Bent

Shared via AddThis

---

Wishing you a beautiful (and pervy?) day,

Bill Brent

[this page last updated: 2009.07.10, 6:25 a.m. Hawaii time]

LitBoy.com is the brainchild of writer Bill Brent. If you enjoy this blog, please consider a donation in support of my work. You can either (1) send money via PayPal to info [!at] litboy [!dot] com, or better still, (2) use Revolution Money Exchange. Unlike PayPal, RME pays 100% of your donation. It's quick and easy!


Here's the button for that: