work

Keep Sane by not Working

- Adam Clare

Thanks to modern technology it can be really easy to always be checking email and taking calls. This is great for some circumstances but it’s always important to take a break from being always-connected to work. In fact, it can be good for you!

Another trick: simply ask yourself “will anything bad really happen between 5pm and 6am if I turn my back on my inboxes completely?”
To save your own life, create your own list of “tricks” and of rules to impose on yourself. Some of mine that work:
• Switch gears: When tired of “project A,” switch to something else on the list — easier, different, faster-paced or (gasp) fun. Changing rhythm is restorative and you return to the tougher project fresher in an amazingly short time.
• Change chairs and media — draft that important thing in (gasp) longhand in a club chair or on a sofa.

Read more.

Work Less for a Better Life and Better Job

- Adam Clare

The ongoing recession has left a lot of people fearful that they could lose their job any second, which is quite scary. As a result people are willing to work longer hours and brave worsening conditions just so they don’t end up on the dole. This isn’t good for people and it’s bad for companies too.

The best work environment is one that embraces you as a human and lets you live, as a result of being conscious that workers are people companies perform better.

It’s a heresy now (good luck convincing your boss of what I’m about to say), but every hour you work over 40 hours a week is making you less effective and productive over both the short and the long haul. And it may sound weird, but it’s true: the single easiest, fastest thing your company can do to boost its output and profits — starting right now, today — is to get everybody off the 55-hour-a-week treadmill, and back onto a 40-hour footing.

Yes, this flies in the face of everything modern management thinks it knows about work. So we need to understand more. How did we get to the 40-hour week in the first place? How did we lose it? And are there compelling bottom-line business reasons that we should bring it back?

Read more here.

Take a Week Off to Think

- Adam Clare

Are you living in a shotgun shack, are you living in another part of the world, or are you behind the wheel of a large automobile? Ever wonder how did you get here?

Well as the days go by we tend to get caught up in the mundane activities of working culture. To ensure that you don’t waste your life in a cubicle farm (or something similar) try taking a week off to just think.

It was an enlightening experience that allowed me to make a clear decision on what I wanted to do next with my personal and professional life.

In an age where we are connecting to everything through our phones, internet, facebook, twitter, etc; we are constantly being interrupted. A couple of years ago, I heard a statistic that having a Blackberry is equivalent to smoking two joints because you are always being interrupted, and never really “here”. Just think about that for a second.

By disconnecting from the world, time moved really slow. I really got to enjoy the moment, which we often neglect in our chaotic worlds. This is the time worth cherishing, which is more valuable than the time that flies by because you’re working hard on something “you’re passionate” about.

Read more at Life Hacker.

Once in a lifetime.

Retire at 45

- Adam Clare

Tim Stobbs is set to retire at 45 because he wants to and he has tips to help you retire early. He has a good approach between balancing life and money with having to do work: essentially find out what you enjoy and be engaged with it and spend/consume as little as possible.

All the money in the world won’t keep boredom at bay. How many TV reruns can you watch? How many rounds of golf can you play? In my case I have too many things I want to do in life to spend my time working until I’m 65. I enjoy writing, love to cook, garden and make my own wine (which is actually good after I learned why I made my first batch undrinkable). I also like to fix up my house and I’m involved in my community as a school board trustee.

Tim’s description of himself on his blog:

Tim also knows he does not need a lot of money to be happy. In fact most of the stuff he loves in life he can get for free from the library. So that is helping out a lot as he tries cutting back to find the perfect balance point between spending money and being happy.

Read his tips at The Star and you can follow his blog at Canadian Dreams.

Be Happy by Working and Spending Less

- Adam Clare

We first looked at curbing consumerism for better living theme back in 2007 and now the idea is spreading. Now, thanks to the ongoing recession, people are learning that all the stuff they bought didn’t really make them happy so they are getting rid of all their stuff.

When you start buying less you have more disposable income to spend on experiences, and that, my friends, is the key to happiness. What are you going to talk about and remember fondly in ten years, the concert you went to or the new shoes you bought?

Here’s a story about a person who downsized their junk and upsized their fun!

Tammy Strobel wasn’t happy. Working as a project manager with an investment management firm in Davis, Calif., and making about $40,000 a year, she was, as she put it, caught in the “work-spend treadmill.”
…
Today, three years after Ms. Strobel and Mr. Smith began downsizing, they live in Portland, Ore., in a spare, 400-square-foot studio with a nice-sized kitchen. Mr. Smith is completing a doctorate in physiology; Ms. Strobel happily works from home as a Web designer and freelance writer. She owns four plates, three pairs of shoes and two pots. With Mr. Smith in his final weeks of school, Ms. Strobel’s income of about $24,000 a year covers their bills. They are still car-free but have bikes. One other thing they no longer have: $30,000 of debt.

Keep reading at the New York Times.

Here’s some info on how to stop shopping.

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