Naturalpath

While I’ve never been a big fan of fear mongering, it’s clear that the US economy is in a little more than a slump. There are many ways we can live more frugally, and that includes spending less on groceries and being more conscious of the things we buy.

I’m not recommending that we buy less quality foods for the sake of cutting costs. I won’t recommend buying conventional over organic in order to save money. I don’t think you should have to sacrifice quality in order to have less of an impact on your wallet. There are, however, some great frugal tips that I’ve learned to help save money at the market.

President-elect Barack Obama may soon have to give up not only his (gasp!) Blackberry, but all email correspondence as well once he becomes president, the New York Times reported recently.

For Obama — just as it would be for many of us — that is a huge sacrifice. Some of us might opt not to become president if we had to stop email, IM, Facebook/MySpace messages, texting and the like. It’s a deal-breaker.

Many of us, in fact, have a hard time staying away from email for more than a day or so. What about you?

Could you give up email for four years? How about for a week?

And if you have done it, what have your experiences been?

And if you had to rethink email, what would be a better communication tool/solution?

I’d love to hear your ideas! Share in the comments.

“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.” - Leonardo da Vinci

I’ve worked in a few offices where the paperwork, endless meetings, and other bureaucracy was ridiculous — so much so that the actual productive work being done was sometimes outweighed by the bureaucratic steps that needed to be taken each day.

When the focus is on action instead of bureaucracy, things get done.

I’ve worked for both private businesses and government agencies, and let me tell you, both require too much paperwork, too many steps to get things done, too much reporting, too many meetings, too much planning and too much training. Each of these things is usually management’s answer to a problem, but they add more problems, including a tendency to slow things down and get less done.

A better answer than adding extra steps and meetings to a workday is to focus on action. Create a culture of action and hire people who get things done. Eliminate as much bureaucracy as possible and get things moving.

Today we’ll look at some good ways to do that, based on my experience both as a worker and a manager. Believe me, I know the tendency to throw training and meetings and reporting and planning at a problem, but I also know how frustrating that can be for an employee who just wants to get the work done as effectively as possible. Why am I sitting in on another meeting when I could be getting work done? Why am I filling out more paperwork instead of actually doing the work?

Here are some ideas to get to the action and cut out the bureaucracy:

Do you like to exercise? Or, would you rather be doing just about anything else?

As creator and co-founder (along with Leo, Andrew Flusche, and Dan Clements) of the non-profit humanitarian organization Train for Humanity, this past Sunday, November 9th, I had the privilege of competing in the Miami Man International distance triathlon in order to help support the cause.

I have always enjoyed exercising, mostly as a recreational runner, but during the past couple of months I have taken on additional workouts as I prepare for my very first triathlon. Let me just state for the record; training for this triathlon has humbled and educated me.

Unlike the Iron Man triathlon where the distances are extreme (swim 2.5 miles, bike 112 miles, and run 26.2 miles) the International distance triathlon segments are a bit more manageable with a .6 mile swim, 24 mile bike, and a 10k run.

Nevertheless, having only competed and raced previously as a recreational runner, I needed to spend quite a bit of time working on my swimming and biking. Lucky for me, I am not at all concerned with winning the event, but I don’t want to place last either.

Training Regimen

Over the past couple of months my training has been fairly consistent and while not too taxing, still required a level of commitment both in terms of time and effort. My workout schedule during most of the weeks leading up to the event included the following:

Monday: swim 1/2 hour, run 4 miles

Tuesday: bike 15 miles

Wednesday: swim 1/2 hour, run – various speed work

Thursday: bike 10 miles

Friday: swim 40 minutes, run 6 miles

Saturday: off

I just wrote a post over at Write To Done that the bloggers among you might be interested in (and blog readers — I’d love your opinion too!):

10 Mistakes That Could Be Killing Your Blog

If you like it, please share it by bookmarking in Delicious.com!

And while I’m sharing links, here are a few I enjoyed today:

• The Happiness Project: Ten Tips for Being Happier
• Lateral Action - a new productivity/creativity blog from Brian Clark and others on getting the important things done — right up Zen Habits’ alley!
• Nutrition 101: The One Rule to Remember
• Dumb Little Man: The Power of Writing Things Down
• Scott Young: How to Discover What You’re Passionate About
• Lifehacker: Roll Your Own Online Office with OpenGoo

What if I told you that you could be totally lazy and irresponsible, and still accomplish just as much? What if you could slack off, loiter, and essentially do nothing and get more done than the average person. It’s a bit of an art, but you can master this skill with some practice.

Some of these things may seem like a lot of work up front, but that’s the price you have to pay to lounge around all day.

1. Be effective.

The indigenous lazy tribesman knows the value of hard work. But he also knows that he can get more done easily and more efficiently by being effective. That means focusing on the things that matter. What matters more to you, having a color coded underwear filing system, or writing that world dominating book you’ve been talking about for the past 12 years?

Focus on being effective, instead of trying do everything perfectly. Let things slide, let your house get a little messy, let your desk be a little less than immaculate. Let your email inbox *gasp* go unchecked for a day. Whatever it takes to focus on what actually matters.

2. Do your research.

This might not seem like something lazy people like to do, but it’s essential if you want to waste a lot of time doing things that, you know, you actually enjoy doing. If you want to work less, it’s important that you do your research. Study trends, follow what major movements are going on in your industry. If you know the right time and place to act, you can be miles above others that were simply working hard, hoping things would turn out for the best.

3. Act from your gut.

Article by Leo Babauta. (Follow me on Twitter.)

If you’re like me, you can eat healthy much of the time, exercise a lot, and still find your fat-burning efforts at a plateau.

It seems easier to lose the first 30 pounds than the last bit of fat around your middle.

And if you’re like me, you want to get lean — for reasons that may vary from improved physical performance to better health to better looks. It’s not always easy to get rid of that stubborn belly fat — or any fat, for that matter, as you can’t “spot reduce” just your belly fat.

So I’ve created a list of things you can do to break through that plateau, if you’ve been exercising and eating fairly healthy for awhile but have seen your progress slow considerably. That’s the situation I found myself in recently, and these are the techniques I’ve been using to pretty good success.

Who Should Use These Tips

Again, this post is aimed at those who have been exercising regularly for at least a few months and who already eat fairly healthy. It’s for those who want to break through a plateau and speed up their fat-burning, lean-making progress. It’s for those who are looking for leanness and not hugeness.

If that’s you, read on.

If you don’t exercise regularly, I highly recommend you start right away (assuming you don’t have major health problems) and that you start out slowly. These tips aren’t for you. Start with: get healthy and fit with exercise, and 4 simple steps to start the exercise habit.

“Balance is beautiful.” -  Miyoko Ohno, Japanese bridge designer

I have a close friend named Norm who is a great photographer and a great person in general … recently he was telling me that all he does is work.

That might sound familiar to some of you — I’ve certainly been there at different points in my life, although these days I have to say that I’ve found a pretty good balance between all the important things in my life, including work, family, and other things I’m interested in.

Norm asked me to write a post about work-life balance, because although I think Norm is pretty happy with his life, he’s interested in expanding his life beyond work. I think it’s an interesting question that most of us have to address at some point or other.

Work *Is* Life, To Some Extent

The first thing to point out is that work isn’t separate from life — it’s a part of it. For some people, it’s not a fun part of life, but for others, it’s a passion. Either way, it’s a part of our lives, good or bad.

Of course, when people talk about a work-life balance, they mean that we should find a balance between work and our personal lives, which is definitely true. But it’s important to realize that if work is really something you love, you don’t need to cut it short in order to spend more time at home in front of the television.

So the key is to remember that what we’re looking for is a balance between the things we love — not just work and the rest of life, but work and family and hobbies and chores and everything else.

What Do You Love?

Over at Write To Done, I’ve written a post that is ostensibly aimed at blogger, but can really be applied much more widely:

Branding 101: How to Promote Your Blog Like the Big Guys Do

It shows how I was able to build up the readership of Zen Habits within a matter of months. And while the bloggers among you might find this article interesting, I think it can also be useful to many more of you. You can use these concepts of branding to:

• Promote your website, product, or service
• Promote yourself — often we have to be self-promotional in order to get ahead
• Promote your charity, non-profit organization, or other good cause

This post takes the lessons of the advertising world and shows you how to apply it to your life. I hope you find it useful!

If you like the post, please bookmark it on delicous.com to share it with others. :)

I’ve written a lot about habit changes but I’d like to address specific habit changes more directly … and talk about more specific strategies for changing habits that all of you care about.

So I’d like to hear from you:

What are the top 1-3 habits you’d like to change or create?

These can be anything, from exercise to eating healthy to quitting smoking or alcohol to doing yoga every day to waking early to putting things away when you’re done with them to being nicer to others. Anything.

I’d love to hear from all of you! Share in the comments.