Month: August 2017

For most of my life, mornings have been an ordeal. A test of will. The most positive thing that I could say about the morning is that the day was likely to get better because it was hard to see how it could feel much worse.

For a long time, I accepted the idea that this is just how it is for everyone, and that there is very little that I could do about it. Sometimes, thinking that it was a lack of sleep that made me dread the mornings, I would focus on consistently getting a full 8 or more hours every night. While it is true that getting a good amount of sleep at a consistent time every day has many benefits, I still wasn’t looking forward to the first hour or two of my day each morning.

Things finally changed after my son was born. It was the result of what, at the time, seemed to be an insurmountable problem. I was at work all day, and then in the evenings, my wife would work, and I would watch my son. With this schedule, my habit of going to the gym a few times a week was becoming a problem to maintain. Although I found some opportunities to exercise while my wife wasn’t working, I was using up what little time we had to be together as a family. On my list of priorities, family trumps gym, and that’s how I intend to keep it. Although I can’t say enough about the benefits of maintaining a steady exercise routine, I knew that I would have to find a way to get exercise that didn’t interfere with my precious family time too much. After many failed attempts, this turned out to be a challenging problem to solve. Until…

One day, I stumbled across a book called “Extreme Ownership” by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. I don’t know how I found it, but I read/listened to it (I don’t remember if it was an audiobook or a physical copy), and I became interested in learning more about the authors, both former Navy Seals. I found some interviews online with Jocko Willink where he talked about how he wakes up very early in the morning each day. It sounds funny to me now, but I never seriously considered this approach to making more time in the day to get things done. If I did, it was just as a wild notion that I didn’t think deserved much contemplation. After all, who could keep that up for very long?

My son went to bed around 8:30 or 9:00, and I knew that I wasn’t using the time between then and when I went to sleep, just after 10:00 or so, very productively. I just didn’t know what to do about that. I try to restrict the types of activities that I do before bedtime to those that are the least stimulating. I go so far as to limit the types of books that I read at night to those that won’t call me to action in some way, or illicit a strong emotional response. Long ago, I discovered that this is one of the keys to being able to fall asleep quickly. So, while attempting to engage in non-stimulating activities that I could do in an hour or hour and a half, I found myself filling this time with activities that were neither productive nor meaningful to me. This constrained time at night was a lousy time to try to get important things done that I didn’t have time for during the day, ESPECIALLY EXERCISE! I realized that If I started to go to bed just after my son went to sleep, I wouldn’t be missing that time at night very much, and the time that I gained in the morning would have far fewer restrictions. Eureka! Now I have a plan!

After I listened to Jocko make his case for an early start, it was one of those moments where puzzle-pieces start to click together in your mind, and the world seems to unfold in front of you as if it were designed just for you. As I write this, I am, again, astounded by how such a simple notion, uncovered at the right time, can be life-changing. It turns out that waking up early (I set my alarm for 4:20) helps me address several problems at once……

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If you’re like most Windows users that I know, every so often, you see something called OneNote pop up on your screen and then, muttering to yourself, you reflexively close it.  If you’re like a much smaller percentage of windows users, maybe you’ve gone so far as to actually open the program, look around for a few minutes and then dismissively close it.  This was my reaction to OneNote until the desperation and necessity of solving a work problem led me to look for solutions in unorthodox places.

Windows advertises this software as a “digital note-taking app” which is true, but it is really much more powerful than that. The greatest benefit of this software, as far as I can see, is its flexibility and adaptability. This is also likely the reason why many people fail to explore it too deeply. Initially, the software is just raw potential and it takes a little effort on the part of the user to define how that potential should be directed.

I am a second-generation yellow sticky-note fanatic. As a child I remember Mom’s daily organizer, always at hand, bursting with yellow paper. Our fridge was highlighted with yellow grocery lists and reminders. Food containers in the fridge might have a yellow note stuck on top describing their contents. The computer desk was well stocked with many of these invaluable slips too. Growing up in such an environment, it was inevitable that I would adopt the habit myself. After all, they are tremendously useful because they’re so versatile. These days I find less and less of these notes around. Though there are two in front of me right now as I sit and type this, in the past, there might have been dozens. Much of what these notes used to do has now been migrated over to OneNote.

Today, I’ll describe the basic way that I use OneNote on a daily basis because it’s a simple way to get used to how the program is organized. If you have 20 minutes to spare to become acquainted with the software here’s a link to a good introduction that I found on YouTube.

There are a few things that you’ll need to know to get started; when you use OneNote for the first time, you’ll have to create and Name a notebook. The notebook can then be subdivided into sections, and the sections can be subdivided into pages. My main notebook that I use is called “Personal” so that I can distinguish between it and the other notebook that I access most frequently “Work”. Using OneNote at work has been an absolute lifesaver. The details deserve a post of their own which I will cover on another day.  Within the “Personal” notebook, I have created a section called “Notes for the day” another section called “To Do”, and another called “Books”.

If you have a smartphone, I strongly recommend downloading the app so that you can sync your notebook between your devices. The more access you have to your notes, the more useful this will be.

Inside the “Notes for the day” section is where I collect just about everything that crosses my mind that I do not want to forget. I use this as a default location that I sort out at the end of the day. For short notes, I type whatever I need to onto the blank page. For longer thoughts, more complex ideas, or when it’s just not convenient to type, there is a microphone icon that allows you to record audio notes. This is an excellent way to grab ahold of interesting ideas that may have otherwise escaped your attention.

I keep the “To Do” section separate from my other sections because I like it to be clear, concise, and include check boxes that allow me to easily indicate when a task is complete. A lot of satisfaction can come from organizing a To Do list in the morning and checking your way through it as you go about the day.

Through routine use, I found that my “Notes for the day” had book titles in it nearly every day.  Because of that, it made sense for me to dedicate a section to them in order to save some sorting time at the end of the day.

If you find that you’re struggling to stay organized, or you just feel like you may be able to improve your current system, it really is worth taking a look at this program.

 

Sometimes the arc of change in our life bends so gradually that we hardly notice the change in trajectory. Other times, there are moments that we can point to which we know were the beginnings of a new course.  Britney Spears was the catalyst for one such change in my life.

One day, years ago, while sitting with friends, someone mentioned her name, I forget the context now, but I remember my reaction. I had a strong opinion about some facet of Briteny Spears’ life, and it totally caught me off guard. This may not be unusual for many people, but this was VERY unusual for me.

The thing that you have to understand is that I have never been a fan of her music….Okay, I tapped my toe once or twice to “Baby One More Time”. I am of the right age and I do have a soul. But, I never deliberately read a supermarket tabloid that covered her, I didn’t have friends that were in the habit of talking about her, and actually, I actively try to avoid celebrity gossip wherever it exists. I remember being uncomfortable with the idea that somehow this opinion that I held had crept past my guard and buried itself in my brain. I wanted to know how it got in there.

I was sitting on my couch, watching tv in the living room of my rental basement suite when it hit me. In between two shows, I heard a newscaster’s teaser which included a little nugget of celebrity gossip. I flicked the channel and I caught a glimpse of a headline about Britney Spears. I didn’t stop to watch it, but a little nugget of information had already made its way into my head. After a little more channel surfing, it became plainly clear; there is no escaping this stuff on television. You can take in LESS of it if you try, but there is no way to have NONE of it without pulling the plug.  This is not groundbreaking news to you, I’m sure, but it was an important revelation to me at that time.

The thing is, around that same time in my life, I was struggling to “find time” for all sorts of things that I knew that I wanted to do, or that I thought I “should” do.  Now that I knew that I had been participating in a passive celebrity gossip course while simultaneously bemoaning the fact that “there’s nothing good on TV!” I recognized that I actually had a priority problem, not a time problem.

At that moment, I realized that I couldn’t complain about not having enough time when I used mine so poorly. Cable was cut. I set out down a new path.

This is not the start of a story of how I went on to become an astronaut. Actually, from an outsider’s point of view, my life largely looked the same. What changed is that I had distilled a simple concept into a guiding principle that I would use to help me make decisions for the rest of my life; do more of the things that are interesting and empowering at the expense of the things that are not.

 

I am officially tossing my name into the ever-expanding blogosphere. “Why?” you ask. Because I have come to realize that a blog can actually strengthen some of the pillars which I believe constitute a meaningful life. (What those pillars are, I can elaborate on later. ) Sound like a grandiose and self-indulgent claim? Perhaps.

This site is my attempt to share things with others that interest me greatly while giving others the choice about whether or not they want to have it shared with them. That is, nobody will force you to read this material.  It will, however, force one man (me) to consider his life and live it in a way in which he is not ashamed to share it with the public. This doesn’t mean that I relinquish all of my rights to privacy, however, should I choose to forgo the pursuit of a stated goal in order to catch up on some YouTube cat videos, I’ll have the world to answer to.

Bear in mind, with my writing I make no claims to be an authority. I am a curious human who is working to make the most of my time on this planet. Where my human brain sees a problem, I will talk about it. Where I have found some information that appears to alleviate these problems, I will tell you what I’ve found. If you have more information on a topic that you think I would benefit from, please share it.

I will post links to people, places, and products. When I do so, I am not necessarily endorsing every facet of the subject’s existence. If I talk about an individual who has an interesting tip for never losing your car keys, I will not spend time defending a book report that they wrote in grade 10 where they declared “Tolstoy is dumb!”After all, maybe they had a point? I don’t know…… At least I know where my car keys are!

My primary interest is on results. Is life getting better for my family, myself, the community, the world? If not, what are my next steps to do my part? How can I make things better, or at least, how can I avoid making them worse? Theories abound with respect to societal and self-improvement, but I am less interested in waxing philosophical than I am in enjoying the results of a life well-lived.  Practice is what matters. This blog is a record of one man’s practice. Success and failure alike. Here we go……