But then along comes Derek Sivers with a great TED Talk, citing a bunch of research which proves that “telling someone your goals makes them less likely to happen.”

Here’s the talk, just three minutes in length…

Can’t see the video? Click here.

I can’t knock what Derek is saying. I’ll give that research the benefit of the doubt and assume it’s all true, that most people are indeed better off keeping their goals to themselves.

But here’s the thing: I’m not most people. I’m not the average or the mean or the majority. I’ve tested for me, as an individual with my own unique set of ever-changing beliefs, values, motivations and circumstances. And as that person, announcing my goals to the world has proven to be a pretty good idea.

But that’s just me. You have to test for you. What works for one person or even a group of people at one time and in one place may not work for you here and now. Or maybe it will. But you can’t ever know for sure until you test for yourself.

A few other examples to illustrate this point:

• Back in January there was a great debate on Think Traffic about whether it’s a good idea to allow comments on your blog. Pat Flynn argued absolutely, while Ev Bogue argued definitely not. I have a hard time believing either guy is wrong. Their opposing approaches each work great for them.
• David Damron recently debated Leo Babauta about the importance of goals. David is a big believer in setting goals, whereas Leo has found that his life works great without them. I think they’re both right: David’s way works for David, and Leo’s way works for Leo.
• Steve Pavlina gets up early. Tim Ferriss gets up late. Which is the better approach? Depends on the person. Some folks are at their best while the sun rises, others not so much.

How to test for you

The only way to find out what works for you is via trial and error. No getting around it. You have to jump in, get your hands dirty, throw a whole bunch of shit at the wall and see what sticks. Keep what works and discard the rest.

You can’t stand there waiting to take action until a sure thing comes along, because there is no sure thing. There’s just what works for some people, and there’s what works for you. The former you can spend all day reading about on the Internet. The latter you can only discover through experimentation.

Question: What works for you that doesn’t work for most people?

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UPDATE: Just came across this excellent TED Talk from Tim Harford, where he talks about the value of trial and error, and the curse of what he calls the God Complex.

On December 21st I decided to start a little sleep experiment. I had read the Perfecting Sleep chapter in The 4-Hour Body and was curious to try the whole polyphasic thing. So I gave it go. Instead of sleeping for 8 continuous hours each night, I cut back to 6 hours and took a 20-minute nap each afternoon.

All was going well until Monday night, when I caved and slept for ten solid hours. In total, the experiment lasted 20 days.

About polyphasic sleep

(Skip this part if you’re already familiar with the concept.)

Most people get all their sleep in one big chunk at night. This is called monophasic sleep. With polyphasic sleep, you sleep multiple times per day. Why? So you can spend more time awake. Studies show that you need less sleep overall when you take a few naps during the day. Here are a several different levels of polyphasic sleep, as per The 4-Hour Body:

• The Siesta — 6.3 total hours — One 20-minute nap, 6 hours core sleep
• The Everyman 2-Nap — 5.2 total hours — Two 20-minute naps, 4.5 hours core sleep
• The Everyman 3-Nap — 4 total hours — Three 20-minute naps, 3 hours core sleep
• The Everyman 4-Nap — 2.8 total hours — Four 20-minute naps, 1.5 hours core sleep
• The Uberman — 2 total hours — Six 20-minute naps

The further you go down the list, the more strict your sleep schedule needs to be. For the Uberman, you need to be taking a 20-minute nap every 4 hours or you feel exhausted and it all falls apart.

Does it work?

I tried only the Siesta version of polyphasic sleep, and it seemed to be working well up until last weekend. I sometimes found it a struggle to get out of bed in the morning, and I’d become quite tired in the afternoons before my nap, but overall I felt energetic and productive despite sleeping 1.5 hours less per day.

I believe I cracked in the end because I was too strict with my sleep schedule. Last Sunday I went for a long workout with some friends, which involved a bunch of aerobic exercises, lots of weights and an introduction to powerlifting. In hindsight, I should have allowed myself more sleep that night, rather than sticking to an exact six hours. When you use up a lot of energy in a day, it makes sense that your body will require more sleep that night.

So on Monday I felt exhausted and decided to break my strict adherence to the schedule. Ten continuous hours of sleep got me feeling right again.

Going forward, I plan to continue my experiments with polyphasic sleep. People like Steve Pavlina and Matt Mullenweg have reported happy times while using the Uberman schedule for five months or more, so there’s no question that it can work.

I love early mornings but I also like staying out late occasionally, so I’m going to try figure out a more flexible version of the Siesta. I’ll aim for 6 hours per night and a 20-minute nap in the afternoon, but I’ll allow for some extra core sleep every now and then, as needed.

Getting to sleep faster

The main benefit I’ve gotten from my three-week experiment is the ability to fall asleep faster. I would often lay in bed at night with my mind racing and toss and turn for hours before falling asleep. Not so much these days. I can’t recall one time in the past few weeks when it’s taken more than 20 minutes to get to sleep. Just yesterday afternoon I set a countdown timer for 30 minutes (10 to nod off, 20 for sleep), and was woken up by a phone call halfway through. I spoke for a minute, then fell right back asleep again.

Testing assumptions

One of my main purposes with this blog is to get people questioning norms and testing assumptions. Who says you need to have a job to make money? Why do we eat highly-processed food-like substances that bear no resemblance to real food? Do you really need to watch the news? Would you be happier with less stuff instead of more?

Sleep is no exception. For a long time, I thought I needed eight hours of shut-eye each night to be at my best. But having learned about polyphasic sleep and running my own little experiment, I’m no longer so sure that that’s the case.

How much sleep do you need?

Are you sure?

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BTW: On Monday I’ll reveal my biggest secret here on the blog. It’s something I’ve only ever told two people. My mother would rather I didn’t write about it, but I’m going to anyway. Subscribe by RSS or e-mail to make sure you don’t miss it.

Fairly nifty, hah? I didn’t want to go forking out for a plastic or leather case when I could make my own so easily. Tip for anyone who wants to DIY like I did: glue the page edges together after cutting out the middle, makes it more sturdy.

Having owned and used a Kindle for a few weeks now, I have to admit that I absolutely love the thing. If you know someone who has one, ask to play around with it for a while and you’ll be head over heels. Here’s an affiliate link if you want to buy one. That version is without the 3G, which I really don’t see the point of paying an extra $50 for. Wi-Fi has been good enough for me.

Also, while we’re on the subject of reading, I just created a Recommended Reading page listing all the books that have made my world spin, complete with mini reviews. I’ll be adding to this regularly.

Have a gander, then let me know some of your favorite books in the comments below.

Let me break down the plan:

20 lbs of muscle

This morning I weighed in at 185 lbs. My body fat was 8.21% (15.2 lbs) when I measured it last weekend. To gain 20 lbs of muscle, I need to get up to 205 lbs while lowering that body fat percentage slightly.

Six weeks

Why six weeks? Well, adding 20 lbs in four weeks seems just a little too ambitious given my inexperience with body hacking. Tim was no stranger to this kind of stuff when he started, plus he was eating animal products (easier to get ridiculous amounts of protein). He was also muscular a few years before, so he may have benefited from some kind of muscle-memory type thing.

I’m lowering the bar a little. Six weeks feels about right.

Vegan diet

I’ve been vegan for over a year now, and it works well for me. I didn’t want to go back eating animal products just for the sake of this experiment. I’m more curious to see if I can add muscle rapidly on a vegan diet.

Tim Ferriss ate lots of meat during his training, consuming 5000-6000 total calories per day. He also took supplements.

I’ve worked out a vegan meal plan that will see me consuming an average of 5000 calories per day, which is double my regular intake.

I want to stick to real food as much as possible, so I won’t be taking any supplements or protein shakes. My carb-fat-protein ratio will be approximately 3:1:1.

You can check out my spreadsheet on Google Docs for more detailed info.

One hour of exercise per week

This is the part where people usually start thinking I’m crazy

To put on 20 lbs of muscle in six weeks, you’d think I’d have to be hitting the gym almost every day, but I’m only planning to do two half-hour sessions per week (Wednesday evening and Sunday morning). I’ll be working out my whole body each session, doing slow (10-15 seconds) reps with resistance both ways. The goal is to exhaust my muscles completely each workout, and then build them back up stronger with the protein-heavy diet.

I’ll have a trainer I’ll be working with. I did one test session with her a few weeks ago. She’s agreed to push me to my limits and beyond once we start for real next Wednesday. This type of slow training is intense and painful, but I believe it’s the most effective form of weight training out there. Quality, not quantity.

My current health

In preparation for this experiment, I’ve been doing all sorts of measuring and testing. I’ll be taking the same measurements and tests after the six weeks and comparing the results. I don’t just want to put on 20 lbs of muscle. I want to do it safely, without negatively impacting my blood pressure, cholesterol, etc.

Below are some results from tests my doctor ordered last week. Apparently I’m in fantastic health

• Blood pressure: 124/80
• Cholesterol: 129
• Triglyceride level: 81
• White blood cell count: 5.47
• Red blood cell count: 5.12
• Fasting blood glucose: 92
• Calcium in blood: 9.3
• Protein in blood: 7.4
• Urine pH: 7.0

My body measurements, as taken last Saturday:

• Chest fat: 4 mm
• Abdominal fat: 14 mm
• Thigh fat: 10 mm
• Body fat %: 8.21
• Neck: 386 mm
• Chest: 953 mm
• Shoulders: 1145 mm
• Thigh: 590 mm
• Calf: 397 mm
• Upper Arm: 283 mm
• Forearm: 282 mm
• Waist: 832 mm
• Hips: 1013 mm

The why

For a while, when people asked why I wanted to put on 20 lbs of muscle in the first place, I’d respond that I just wanted to challenge myself, much like I did when I tried to finish in the top 200 of the Crescent City Classic. But the challenge isn’t the main reason I’m doing it. Mostly, I just want to look better naked

It would also be nice though to prove that this works and inspire other folks to give it a try.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Origins

The term lifestyle design was coined by Tim Ferriss in his bestselling 2007 book, The 4 Hour Workweek. Tim was describing the process of figuring out what you want your life to be like, and then actually going out and making it happen. So if, for example, you want to quit your soul-sucking 9-to-5 job, start a small business where you get paid to do work you’re passionate about, all while traveling the world, the advice in Tim’s book would help you do that.

Ferriss wasn’t the first guy to start living life on his own terms, but he deserves a lot of credit for opening people’s minds and showing them the possibilities. And for giving the movement a name.

What’s in it for me?

(And by me, I mean me, not you. But you’ll probably figure out what’s in it for you as I tell you what’s in it for me.)

So, what appeals to me about lifestyle design? In a word: freedom.

The 4 Hour Work Week helped me realize just how brainwashed I had been by modern society, where the priority is always work-work-work and spend-spend-spend. I was spending most of my time as an easily-replaceable cog in the machine, following orders, collecting my paycheck, waiting for the weekend. And I’m still doing that as I write this, but I’m awake at the wheel now, and I’ve set a new destination. I’ve decided to live on purpose, rather than accept the traditional lifestyle that most folks so easily fall into.

What is the traditional lifestyle?

It’s trading time for money instead of value for money. It’s having to ask permission to take a day off work. It’s someone else deciding what projects you do all day. It’s spending the healthiest years of your life in a cubicle, waiting until you’re old and retired to regain full control of your schedule. It’s buying lots of crap you don’t need in the name of entertainment, to compensate for the dullness of your day job. It’s spending eight hours in the office on a Tuesday, despite getting all your work done in the first two. It’s the long wait for Friday, starting on Monday. It’s pumping out work that countless other people could do, rather than expressing the unique art inside of you.

That lifestyle is no longer for me. I’ve decided to choose freedom instead, which is why I’m quitting my day job in November and moving back to Ireland to start my own location independent business.

Reality check

But of course such freedom comes with a sobering dose of responsibility. If you want to break free of the 9-to-5 and design your own life, you better get yourself some self-discipline and some big cojones, because I don’t believe it to be easy. For one thing, there’ll be no regular paycheck every week. For another, you have to make all the big decisions, take all the big risks. Oh, and if you get lazy and decide to spend all day on Facebook and Youtube, it’s not some big faceless corporation that loses a smidge of productivity; it’s you that might be living on nothing but noodles for the next week.

Is lifestyle design for you?

Lifestyle design is for everybody, but it might not be for you right now. I wasn’t anywhere near ready to embark on this journey two years ago, but I believe I am now. I believe I can make a living doing what I’m passionate about, and I’m willing to work hard and smart to make it happen. I know I can make the necessary sacrifices to achieve my goals, and I’m able to surround myself with a supportive group of people who will help and inspire me along the way. I know all this because I’ve set and worked towards lots of goals over the past few years, and I’ve learned what it takes to reach them.

Lifestyle design isn’t yet for you if you fear embarrassment or failure. It’s not yet for you if you fear change. It’s not yet for you if you’re unsure of your passions. It’s not yet for you if you care more about the destination than the journey. It’s not yet for you if you spend all day on Facebook. It’s not yet for you if you’re opposed to hard work and sacrifice.

Lifestyle design is for everyone who feels frustrated and trapped and knows there must be more to life than pushing buttons all day and collecting a check. There is more. You’ve just been led to believe that this is the right thing to do because the vast majority does it, too. But you don’t have to. You can choose different. You can design your own life.

There are no excuses. Lots of other people are already doing this. People with families, people young, people old, people rich, people poor, people in debt, people with much less intelligence and resources than you. It’s very possible. All it takes is hard work and discipline. Being honest and wanting to help people doesn’t hurt either.

What do I know?

Who am I to fill your head with all this stuff? I haven’t even done anything yet. I’m still here working 9-to-5. For all I know, the real world of entrepreneurship and location independence might be too much for me to handle. But hey, I don’t identify with where I am or where I’ve been. I identify with where I’m going. I know what I want, and I have a good idea of what it will take for me to get it.

I often look ahead several years from now, try to visualize what my life will be like. And I know that if I don’t take the plunge, I’ll still be in a cubicle in 2020, still pushing buttons and collecting a paycheck, missing out on so much of what life has to offer. And there’s no way I can let that happen. That’s the worst-case scenario for me. My own business might fail and I might end up in the gutter, but that wouldn’t be as bad. With that scenario, at least I’d have given it my best shot, chased my dream with everything I had. That’s far more acceptable to me than living life on the default setting.

Just think

I don’t expect you to quit your job tomorrow. I read the 4HWW two years ago, and it was only recently that I decided to take the plunge. I’m not trying to convince you to drop everything and embrace a life of change and uncertainty. But I would like you to start thinking about it, start considering the possibilities, start dreaming of how things could be, start looking around for opportunities, start believing that you could break free if you really wanted to.

An increasing amount of people are doing it. You can too.

Whenever John meets someone inspiring, someone who seems to be living life to the fullest and enjoying the journey, he asks that person, “Who do you listen to?”

John wants to know what ideas such people fill their heads with. Who are their mentors? Who are they inspired by? What kind of books do they read? What thoughts do they allow themselves to think, and which ones do they banish? What are the inputs that produce those outputs?

These are also good questions to ask yourself.

Who do you listen to? Who’s filling your head with ideas? Who’s influencing your thoughts and actions?

Are those people serving you well? Do they build you up or tear you down? Do they help you reach your potential or are they keeping you stuck? Are they all about possibilities or are they all about limitations?

If you’re not living the life you want, here’s what you do: identify some people who are living the life you want. Reach out to them and ask who they listen to. Then, stop listening to everyone else, and listen only to them.

Who do I listen to?

As I wrote last week, my big hairy audacious goal is to start my own business at the end of the year. This business will allow me to work less hours than I currently do while making more money and delivering more value to the world. And within a few months of getting started, I’ll be in a position where I can pick up and move to a foreign country at a moment’s notice, working as I travel without missing a beat.

To ensure I achieve this goal, I’m being very selective with the people I choose to listen to. My general rule: I only listen to people who have done specifically what I am trying to do, or at least some specific part of what I am trying to do.

To date, I’ve identified several such people. Below are some big ones, listed alphabetically:

Glen Allsopp

Glen is still in his early 20′s but already an expert at viral marketing and search engine optimization (i.e. generating lots of web traffic). He takes websites from zero to win in record speed and tells how you, too, can generate a boatload of passive income online.

Everett Bogue

Everett blogs about minimalism at Far Beyond The Stars. Through embracing a minimalist lifestyle, he was able to quit his day job in 2009 and is now earning more money than ever via his writing. He owns just 50 things, giving him the freedom to migrate across the country whenever he feels like it.

Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi might seem like an odd choice here, sandwiched between young, computer-savvy entrepreneurs and heavy hitters from the business world. But I can think of no better role model for speaking your mind, striving for improvement and standing up for what you believe in than the Mahatma. He was truth and courage personified. For the last few weeks I’ve been reading and summarizing The Essential Gandhi for twenty minutes each morning. Powerful way to start the day.

Seth Godin

Seth is a master marketer and entrepreneur, one of those guys who can spot the next big thing before it’s even a thing. He encourages people to question the status quo, to be bold, to lead. I’m currently reading and loving his book, Tribes. He also blogs regularly.

Tim Ferriss

I first read Tim’s book The 4-Hour Work Week almost two years ago, and that planted the seed of entrepreneurship in me that is now starting to sprout. He’s undoubtedly been a big influence on some other people on this list, too.

Bob Proctor

Right now I’m in the middle of a ten-week group study of Bob’s classic book, You Were Born Rich. Through that material I can feel myself developing a more abundant mindset in relation to money, and deepening my understanding of what it will take to meet my financial goals.

Colin Wright

Colin blogs about lifestyle design and his countless adventures at Exile Lifestyle. He is a man of many interests, a master networker (both online and in-person) and he moves himself and his minimalist business to a new country every four months.

Those are just a few of my guides on this journey I’m undertaking. You can find some more via my following list on Twitter.

What about you? I’d love to know who you listen to, and how those people help you achieve your lofty goals.

What is Hyperclocking?

I first heard of the concept in Tim Ferriss’ Trial by Fire TV pilot, which you can watch in its entirety online here. In that video (starting at about the 24:20 mark) Tim is trying to get faster at drawing an arrow, loading it into a bow and firing. He uses hyperclocking, a concept borrowed from computing, to do this. His description:

[Hyperclocking] usually refers to changing settings on a computer so the hardware runs faster than the manufacturer intended. In my case, that hardware is my nervous system.

The idea is to practice doing something at an outrageous level, so that, come the real challenge on the big stage, it’s relatively easy to meet your goal.

In essence, hyperclocking forces you out of your comfort zone, forces you to stretch yourself a bit more. And the more you stretch your comfort zone, the bigger it becomes.

How can you use it?

I’ll give you a couple of examples of how I’ve used hyperclocking to great effect.

For the Crescent City Classic, my goal was to finish in the top 200, meaning I would have to run the 10k in 41 minutes or less. To make that goal seem easier, I worked out what time I would need to finish in the top 100 (39 minutes or less) and that became my new target. It worked out to an average of 3:54 per kilometer, and so that’s what I aimed for. Of course, I ended up falling well short of that, but just pushing myself to get there ensured that I did finish well inside the top 200.

I’ve also used hyperclocking for practicing speeches. In Toastmasters, we have a time limit for each speech, and sometimes I find myself running up against it as I rehearse. Usually my biggest problem is not being able to recall different parts of the speech fast enough, so I’ll have lots of wasted time while I’m trying to think what comes next. To force faster recall and cut down on those gaps, I practice delivering the speech as fast as I can. I’ll race through it, trying to get everything said in half the allotted time. After doing this a few times, I revert back to my normal speaking pace and the real time limit suddenly seems like an eternity.

The possible applications for this are endless. I plan to use hyperclocking again soon to ramp up the emotion I display when public speaking. For my next speech, I’ll go way overboard with my emotions and gestures as I practice, then reign them back in for the real delivery.

If you’re having difficulty reaching a goal, identify what specific part of it is giving the most trouble, then brainstorm ways you can apply hyperclocking to help you break through.

Aim for the impossible, the unrealistic, the completely ridiculous. Even if you fall short, you’ll still be in a pretty good place.

“There are many things of which a wise man might wish to be ignorant.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

First, I should explain what I mean by “the news.” I’m referring to traditional news from traditional media, reporting on stories which are predominantly disheartening or shocking; job losses, natural disasters, crime, celebrity scandals, etc. That’s the type of news you should stop watching, reading and listening to.

Why? I’ll give you several reasons:

1. The news is depressing

Many news outlets try to throw in a few positive or cute stories every now and then, but I’d estimate that the ratio of negative to positive stories for the vast majority of them is at least 9:1. So every time you watch the news, you’re feeding yourself an overwhelming amount of negativity which infects your thoughts. Napoleon Hill wrote about the power of our thoughts in Think and Grow Rich:

Our brains become magnetized with the dominating thoughts which we hold in our minds, and, by means with which no man is familiar, these “magnets” attract to us the forces, the people, the circumstances of life which harmonize with the nature of our dominating thoughts.

In other words, the predominant thoughts you allow into your mind actually affect your reality. Knowing this, I’m not sure why anyone would subject themselves to all the negativity in the traditional news media. If you really want your news fix, subscribe to some positive news sources instead. I subscribe to DailyGood.org and get a positive, inspiring news story every day; the type of information that makes me feel good about the world.

2. The news is a poor representation of reality

You might respond to the last point with the following: But Niall, you’re just ignoring the real issues, deluding yourself to believe that the world is all sunshine and rainbows. That’s not realistic.

Yes, I guess you could say I’m deluding myself, but no more than those people who do watch the news. I’d argue that their view of the world is just as skewed, if not more so. They’re led to believe that the world is a heartless and violent place. All that bad news breeds fear and distrust. Old people sit at home all day reading about assaults and robberies in the newspapers, and because of that they’re terrified to go outside. News consumption can easily lead to a victim mentality, the belief that danger lurks around every corner, that every stranger is a potential mugger or rapist rather than a potential friend. That’s not the world I want to live in.

Now I’m not advocating that you avert your eyes whenever you walk by a TV tuned to CNN, or recoil from every newspaper like a vampire from sunlight. No, you shouldn’t go to drastic measures to avoid bad news for fear that it will corrupt your happy reality. What I am suggesting is that you stop going out of your way to invite all that negativity into your life in the first place.

3. Everything in the news is beyond your circle of influence

“It is imperative that you learn to ignore or redirect all information and interruptions that are irrelevant, unimportant, or unactionable. Most are all three.” – Tim Ferriss, The 4-Hour Work Week

Pretty much all the issues reported on TV and in the newspapers are beyond your circle of influence. As such, you can’t help solve those problems, and so it’s a waste of your time and energy to worry about them. You’d be infinitely better off using that time and energy to solve problems in your own life and community.

I look at it like this: watching the news does nothing to move me closer to my goals, and anything that isn’t moving me closer is holding me back, so I ditch it.

4. You don’t need to stay informed

The most common response I hear to the above arguments goes something like this: I watch the news to stay informed. I like to know what’s going on in my area and around the world.

First of all, I’m not sure how anyone can “like” absorbing information that affects their thoughts and emotions in a negative way. That’s certainly not my idea of a good time. But let’s address this idea that you might be “uninformed” and “miss out” if you don’t keep up with the news.

Say you didn’t watch any news television, listen to any news radio or read any newspaper for a whole year. What would be the worst thing that could happen if you managed to avoid all that? Maybe you’d miss hearing about that massive tidal wave heading your way, and end up very wet on account of your non-conforming, non-news-consuming ways. But then, you’d have to believe that if some such impending disaster was inevitable, you’d be likely to hear it mentioned by someone in your social circle and have enough time to build yourself a raft.

Phew. Crisis averted.

5. You’ll never know it all anyway

Even if you try your best to stay up to date with all the latest news, you’ll still fall well short of knowing everything. There is so much happening in the world and so much written about it, that the most you can hope to learn is a lot about a little.

Henry Ford knew this well. During World War I, he sued a Chicago newspaper for libel after they referred to him as “an ignorant pacifist.” As part of their defense, the newspaper’s attorneys set out to prove that Ford was indeed ignorant by putting him on the stand and asking him a series of general knowledge questions. Ford admitted that he couldn’t answer most of them, but noted that he had the means to, with the touch of a button, summon to his aid people who could supply any knowledge he desired. What then, would be the use of him cluttering up his mind with such information?

6. You can catch up quickly if you need to

To find information nowadays, you don’t have to be rich and connected like Henry Ford, because, luckily, there’s this thing called the Internet that levels the playing field. Thanks to Google, rather than letting all kinds of unfiltered and irrelevant information find and consume you (as is the case when you browse news websites), you can search just for specific information relevant to your situation. Get in, get what you need, get out. Kinda like an appendectomy.

As Napoleon Hill wrote when recounting the Ford story in Think and Grow Rich:

An educated person is not necessarily one who has an abundance of general or specialized knowledge… Any person is educated who knows where to get knowledge when it is needed and how to organize that knowledge into definite plans of action.

Another way of finding information quickly is via a device called a telephone, with which you can converse with people who know more about the subject than you do, and ask them questions about it. It’s fun, you should try it.

Now that you understand the foolishness of watching the news, I hope you’ll take action to reduce your information intake. Do it and you’ll find yourself with much more peace of mind and time to spare. Enjoy.

A friend recently asked me for advice on time-management, she having noticed that I seem to get quite a lot done in a typical week without killing myself. In this post I’ll share a few time-management tips and tricks that work for me. Many of these come from trying and testing different methods I’ve come across, most notably in books like The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and The 4-Hour Work Week; others are common sense approaches which most people fail to use consistently.

Before we get into it, I should note that the term “time-management” is a bit of a misnomer. You can’t manage time. It keeps on ticking no matter what you do. It’s a non-renewable resource which can be used either constructively or destructively. All you can hope to do is manage yourself to make the best use of your time. That is, you can decide to spend it productively on the things that are most important to you. You can invest your time wisely instead of letting it go to waste.

On to the tips…

1. Prioritize

Prioritization is of the utmost importance. You need to figure out all your goals and give yourself some targets. If you have no targets, you’ll have nothing to aim at, and so you’ll surely miss.

I like to sit down at least once a quarter and figure out my priorities and goals. I use Steve Pavlina’s method for doing this, as described in his Truth and Awareness podcast. Basically, you write down how you feel about several different areas of your life and score each out of ten according to your level of satisfaction. This gives you a good idea of what your focus should be going forward. (For example, if you score 2/10 for physical health, you know that this is an area where you should be focusing a lot of your time and energy for the next few months.) From this exercise, I usually end up with about five things I want to focus on going forward, and I’ll rank them in order of importance so I’ll know which should take precedence during a conflict.

I can’t emphasize the importance of prioritizing enough. Once you’re clear on what your top goals are, you’ll be able to plan your time better to ensure you achieve them. Think effectiveness rather than efficiency. Busy people are often very efficient, but not always very effective. Doing something efficiently doesn’t make it important. Prioritizing helps you make effective use of your time.

2. Eliminate

Having figured out your priorities, you should now be in a better position to eliminate as much fluff as possible, keeping only the important items on your task list. The Pareto principle states that 80 percent of the effects come from 20 percent of the causes, meaning that a lot of the things we do have very little impact; the majority of our investments produce poor returns. We need to weed those out.

Since I’ve started prioritizing and setting goals, I’ve found that I’m much more self-assured and able to make good decisions quickly. I just have to ask myself if the action/inaction I’m considering will move me closer to one of my primary goals. If the answer is no, I drop it and move on to something else. If the answer is yes, I plunge ahead with confidence.

For this reason, I never play video games anymore and I spend very little time watching television or following the news. Those activities don’t move me closer to my goals at all, so I mostly consider them a waste of my time.

What are the things that you spend a lot of time on? Could that time be better invested?

3. Say No more often

Perhaps even better than elimination is prevention. We can free up more time for important tasks by saying No to unimportant tasks. I’ve gotten much better at this over the years, and it’s amazing how much free time it has opened up for me. Sure, there’s often some sacrifice (and occasionally some backlash or hurt feelings) involved, but it’s definitely worth it in the long run. An example for me would be helping friends and neighbors with their computers. Because I’m “a computer guy,” I often get asked to troubleshoot various problems, but fixing computers is something I’m not very good at, nor do I get much enjoyment from it. So I started saying No, and now I have more time to spend on other, more meaningful and enjoyable activities.

If you sometimes feel guilty for saying No, realize that your time is your time and nobody else’s. You get to spend it however you like, and it’s okay to be selfish every now and then.

4. Let bad things happen

This is good advice from Tim Ferriss. To achieve your goals, you occasionally need to let bad things happen. For me, that means ignoring help requests for the Coda-Slider gizmo I built. I could reply to all the posts in the forum and to all the e-mails I receive about Coda-Slider, but that would take time away from other things I’d rather be doing.

The skill here is the ability to tell which stuff you can let slide without suffering serious consequences later on.

5. Automate

Automate whatever you can then forget about it. A simple example for me would be my finances. I used to have to write a rent check every month, but then discovered that my bank can send out a check to my landlord automatically. I also have automatic savings transfers and bill payments. It didn’t take much to set all that up online, and the result is a nice chunk of extra time (and peace of mind) each month. Here’s a good post to get you started on automating your finances like I did.

What else can you automate? Can you subscribe to a magazine instead of going to the store to pick up a copy every week? Could you use Amazon’s Subscribe and Save service to have frequently used grocery items delivered to your door? What online tools can you use to speed up your browsing activities?

6. Use lists (to-do and not-to-do)

To-do lists are a no-brainer for productivity, but so many people fail to use them regularly. I use three lists at work to help me keep on track and stay productive:

One big job list. Every job I get goes on there, and I check them off once complete. I review this regularly to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

A daily to-do list. This I prepare every day right before I leave the office, quickly writing out at least a half-dozen tasks that I want to complete the next day. This eliminates procrastination and indecision in the morning because I know right away what project to launch into.

A daily not-to-do list. Like the to-do list, I prepare this quickly every evening. It usually contains items like “don’t check e-mail until 10:30 at the earliest” and “no Facebook except at lunch time.” Essentially it’s a list of mini self-discipline challenges for the day, and it helps me cut out distractions and stay focused.

7. Set Reminders

Ever forget to do some small thing, and suddenly it’s a month later and that small thing has become a huge problem that needs your undivided time and attention? Or you’re just left kicking yourself because you missed out on a great opportunity?

That rarely happens to me, simply because I set reminders. See, I don’t trust my memory very much, and so I’ll set up regular reminders and be safe in the knowledge that I’ll be alerted long in advance of any possible emergency. I use Memo To Me and sometimes Google Calendar for my reminders. Just last week I got an e-mail from my past self reminding me to pay my vehicle registration, and yesterday I was reminded that it was about time I changed my extended-wear contact lenses.

I’ve gotten pretty good at remembering birthday’s, too

8. Set deadlines

Remember Parkinson’s Law: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. Back in college, we’d be given two weeks to write an essay, and the vast majority of the class would end up rushing to the printer on the final afternoon, having just pulled an all-nighter to get the damn thing finished. Of course the two-week time frame had little to do with that panic. It would have been the same story with a one week or a one month deadline. We humans just have a tendency to put things off as long as they’re not deemed urgent. And then, when they do become urgent, we magically find a way to get them done.

So, if you want to be more productive, give yourself deadlines on tasks and goals. Giving yourself a deadline forces you to prioritize and hustle. Last summer, I’d been slacking for months on getting this and my dot biz website coded and launched. Then, on September 1, I decided that I’d have the two sites completed before the calendar flipped to October. Lo and behold, what I’d been putting off for so long got done. The deadline made all the difference.

It’s important not to set easy deadlines, too. You’re looking to create a sense of urgency, to set yourself a challenge that excites you. That will get you focused. If I’m slacking at work, I’ll sometimes halve my deadlines to ensure I don’t sit around wasting time all day.

A good question to ask yourself: How would I handle this task if it had to be done in 15 minutes?

9. Be proactive

Laziness is a snowball rolling down a hill. If you sit down and watch TV for half an hour, you’re not likely to want to go and do something productive afterwards. But fortunately, productivity works the same way. Getting things done begets getting things done. Hence the saying, “if you want something done, ask a busy person to do it.”

Now that’s not to say you should always be busy. Obviously there’s a lot to be said about taking time to relax and recharge (see the next point). But don’t cheat your future self. Make the most of idle moments to tidy your desk, do the dishes, send that e-mail, etc. Use those idle moments to invest in your future, even if it’s something as simple as doing your groceries during Thursday lunch so you can sleep in an extra hour on Saturday.

10. Energize

If you have more energy, you can get more done. Now how do we get energy? Mostly we get it from food, rest and exercise.

Food. Fuel for your body. Put good fuel in, get good performance out. Try to eat foods that don’t require too much digestive energy. That is, mostly plants. Cut back on heavily processed foods, and drinks like alcohol, coffee and soda. Try not to eat late at night. Pay attention to how your energy levels rise/fall after consuming different types of food. There’s no one diet out there that’s perfect for everyone, so you’ll need to experiment to find out what works best for you.

Rest. Not just sleep, but also things like meditation, vacations and deep breathing fit in here. Basically, anything that allows your mind to relax and your body to recharge. Allowing yourself ample time to rest and recuperate is crucial if you want to be able to perform consistently at a high level. There’s a fine line to walk here though; be careful not to slip into lazy territory.

Exercise. It’s easier to win the race when you’re in great shape. You only have one body so treat it well, take it out for a run every now and then, play a sport, dance, have fun. You don’t have to become an athlete, but keep your body active. It’s a sound investment. You can also use exercise as a way to socialize, relieve stress and practice goal setting/achievement.

11. Batching

Do you put a small amount of fuel in your car each morning, or fill it up once every few days? Which makes more sense? Which saves more time? Apply that logic to more areas of your life.

Here are a few examples of how I use batching to save time:

E-mail filters. One of my Gmail filters is for Facebook alerts. Anything that comes in from Facebook skips the inbox and sits in a folder waiting for me. That way I don’t get distracted by Facebook messages when I log in to check my e-mail. At lunch I’ll take a minute to go through all those alerts and be done with them. I use Gmail filtering excessively for this type of thing.

Movies and TV. I don’t watch much TV as it is, but when I do, it’s rarely in real-time. I’ll record basketball games and TV shows and watch them later, allowing me to fast-forward through all the ad breaks. That way, an hour-long TV show can be watched in less than 40 minutes. For movies, I save time by using Netflix (no need to go to the store).

Lunch. I’ve been making my own lunches and bringing them to work for a couple of years now, but just recently I started batching them. That is, I make all my lunches for the week in one batch at the weekend. So instead of getting out all the ingredients and utensils five times a week, I now do it just once.

Mail. I don’t check my mailbox everyday. More like twice a week, and I try deal with everything right there and then.

12. Measure, then manage

What gets measured gets managed. Try to boil things down to cold, hard facts. Think you might be spending too much time on trivial tasks? If you recorded your time vigilantly for a week, you’d know for sure.

If you work with computers, RescueTime is a good tool for tracking your productivity (the Solo Lite version is free). Away from the screen, you may have to resort to the old pen and paper approach. Be careful not to go overboard though. Remember that the long-term goal here is to free up more time to do fun stuff, and the payoff shouldn’t be obsessively counting seconds and stressing out for 30 hours a week.

Measuring before managing isn’t just applicable to time either; you can use it to get ahead in many other ways. For example, a few weeks ago I calculated all my financial expenses and figured out how much cash I can afford to play with each week. I now know exactly where I stand with my money, and can make decisions accordingly.

What measurements can you take to help you manage your time/finances/health/whatever more effectively?

13. Ride the wave

Go with the flow when you can. Doing something when you feel like it is much more effective than forcing yourself when you’re really not in the mood. As such, recognize when you’ve got a good flow going and ride it for as long as possible. This often applies to me when I’m writing. Sometimes the words and ideas flow out easily and other times it can be a gigantic struggle to write a single paragraph. When I feel that flow, I’ll do my best to milk it, moving things around on my schedule to accommodate if necessary.

This isn’t to say that you should just admit defeat and give up if you’re not in the zone. As Liz Gilbert talked about in her TED speech, you have to show up for work every day regardless.

14. One thing at a time

Don’t have the TV on while you’re trying to study. Don’t talk on the phone while reading a book. Don’t have one on eye on your inbox while writing an article (I’m always suspicious of people who e-mail me back in a hurry).

Multitasking has been proven to be ineffective. Some people might get more done by simultaneously juggling several tasks, but the quality of their work suffers at the expense of quantity.

Focus hard on one thing at a time. Block off a chunk of time, give that one thing all your attention and see how fast you can rip through it. Once it’s done, check it off your list and move on to the next thing.

Deepak Chopra

“If you and I are having a single thought of violence or hatred against anyone in the world at this moment, we are contributing to the wounding of the world.”

As Wikipedia puts it, “Deepak Chopra is an endocrinologist, lecturer, celebrity and author of books on spirituality and mind-body medicine.” His self-described life purpose is to reach critical mass for healing, personal and social transformation, and enlightenment.

Chopra appeals to me because he blends science and spirituality effectively; his teachings makes sense from both perspectives. I’ve read two of his books: The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success and Life After Death. I still read summarized chapters of the former weekly, while the latter completely changed my beliefs about the afterlife.

It was my cousin who turned me on to Chopra about eighteen months ago when he sent the following video and subsequently blew my mind:

Chopra links:

• Follow him on Twitter
• Youtube: Lecture on The Mystery of Consciousness (1h 15m)
• Take the vow of nonviolence in your speech, thoughts and actions (not to be taken lightly)

Tim Ferriss

“Fear is your friend. Fear is an indicator. Sometimes it shows you what you shouldn’t do; more often than not it shows you exactly what you should do.”

Tim Ferriss does a lot of things well. His talent lies in deconstructing all kinds of skills and mastering them in no time. Among other things, he speaks six languages, holds a world record in tango, and in 1999 won the Chinese national kickboxing championship after just a month of training.

Fortunately for us, he’s keen to share tips and ideas, and does so via his blog and his book, The 4-Hour Work Week. I first read the book a little over a year ago, and learned a lot about developing an entrepreneurial attitude, efficiency vs. effectiveness and the Pareto principle.

In this TED talk, Ferriss talks about quickly mastering swimming, languages and tango:

Ferris links:

• Follow him on Twitter
• The Art of Letting Bad Things Happen
• The Karmic Capitalist: Should I Wait Until I’m Rich to Give Back?

Steve Pavlina

“Life’s problems do not exist to beat you down. They exist to help you grow.”

Steve Pavlina runs a blog called Personal Development for Smart People and last I heard he was the highest-earning personal development blogger in the world, pulling in in excess of $100k per month. He doesn’t do things by halves when it comes to personal development, preferring to immerse himself in experiments such as polyphasic sleep and a 100 percent raw food diet.

Through reading Steve’s blog, I’ve been inspired to make many positive changes in my life, such as moving to a plant-based diet and working to improve my public speaking skills. He’s also made me reconsider much of what I believed to be true about the world and introduced me to a whole bunch of different concepts that have proved beneficial.

In short, he’s helped me become a better person.

Pavlina links:

• Follow him on Twitter
• 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job
• Podcast: Truth and Awareness (20 minutes)