How to get stuff done

Have you ever felt like your to do list is completely out of control and you’re just not getting anywhere? You have jobs piling up and you just don’t know where to start? You’re not alone. Many of us spend a large proportion of our time chasing our tails as we strive to get too many things done too quickly. The thing is – there are a couple of very simple things that we can do to make all the difference when it comes to ‘getting stuff done’.

Setting yourself up for failure

Have you ever considered that there may be a very good reason why you’re not completing some of those tasks on your to-do list? That’s right – often we will set ourselves tasks that we don’t really believe in and that have little value to us and then we wonder why we never end up getting those things done!

One of the easiest ways to make your to-do list more manageable is to run a full blown assessment. Does every item deserve to be on the list? Or can you cross a few items off knowing that, in the grand scheme of things it won’t really impact your life that much.

Another mistake people make is prioritizing other peoples most important tasks. Make sure you ask yourself who’s task it is on your list – is it really important to YOU or has someone close to you made you feel like it should be important – when in reality it’s not. Never feel like what’s important to others should also by default be important to you!

Focus on value and outcome

Consider the value of the tasks on your list before you commit to them. If we focus on the task its-self it’s very difficult to motivate ourselves – however if we focus on the outcome or the result of the task – it’s much easier to get excited and power through, knowing it will all be worthwhile in the end.

Banish any fear you may have around the tasks – is something stopping you from making a start? Often fear of failure will stop us from attempting things so it’s a good idea to adjust your attitude towards this. Understand that failure is a prerequisite for success – as Henry Ford said:

“Failure is the ability to begin again, only this time more wisely.”

Get comfortable with the notion of failure – knowing that it only assists us on the path to success. Think back to the most successful innovators of our time such as Thomas Edison – if he had allowed a fear of failure to stop him from progressing imagine the consequences. We would be living in darkness! Edison conversely was quoted as saying:

“I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

How To Hide Your Goods In Your House

As I was looking at this video:

                                                              

I stumbled upon an interview of a "professional" London thief who makes a living out of stealing from people's apartment. This guy explained how he behaves once he is inside the apartment of one of his marks. As I was reading I started to realize that I hide my goods in the places that this thief was looking first. I made a little list of things you should and should not do when hiding your goods in your house.
                                               


                     
1. It's not important how good you are at hiding your stuff, if a thief has enough time he will find what he is looking for. If you are going to be away from home for a considerable amount of time the best thing you can do is let him find a small amount of money, in order to convince him that he doesn't need to search further. The amount of money you leave depends on the type of home you live in. Don't expect to live in a Villa in Beverly Hills and leave $5 as "bait money"

2. Hiding your money too well can be counter productive. If a thief doesn't find what he wants he could destroy your entire house in the chance of finding it. You will end up making way more damage to your house spending way more money than the ones you were trying to save.

3. If you really need to hide your stuff the best place is a kids toy. I know that not everybody will be able to pull this off but if you have a family with young children consider yourself lucky.

4. If you have a safe be sure that it is safely stuck into the wall, most thieves wont try to force it open they will just bring the whole thing with them.

5. If you aren't creative enough, you can buy these, or you can make them yourself

How To Make Up Believable Excuses

It happens even to the best of us to be in a situation where we have to make up an excuse in order to escape from a uncomfortable situation. Sometimes we need them to not make a situation worst than it already is, for example, when your boss asks you why you are late for work  you start mumbling "The Alarm-clock didn't ring...and there was a lot of traffic... and there were work in progress on the road..." To avoid all this awkwardness you have to follow one simple golden rule and that is to make up one simple, clear, quick lie; something you wont forget. Usually we tend to be very specific when we lie because in our head we think that the more excuses we find the more believable we are when what works is the exact opposite.

It's good to add some details but, too much of them will make you look suspicious to the eyes of the person being lied. My father used to tell me "Who lies has a short memory" with that in mind try to keep you lies simple and concise so that you can remember them in case you need to. If your excuses are intricate like a spiderweb when you will have to remember your lie you will probably tell a different version loosing your alibi (and sometimes your job too). I wanna make clear that I don't advocate lying nor I'm inviting you to do so. 99% of the time lying wont bring anything good but if your boss is really annoying and your wife cooks horribly, a little lie wont hurt nobody ("No honey, the food is great, I just have a toothache!")

Should you go to college?

So College is what every parent wants for their child, but what matters the most is, is college what the child wants or needs? In the past I remember my parents telling me "You'd better go to college or you'll be digging ditches" and now those ditch diggers are laughing at us because they are making sixtyfive dollars an hour on average. In the past it used to be that when you got a four to six year college degree you were set for life, but we all know that is not true anymore. I remember reading in a article some time ago a quote from Karl Christopher, a placement councelor at the Columbia Area Career Center vocational program, where he was saying "A four-year degree in business? What does that get you? A shift supervisor at a store in the mall!". The reality is nobody is college bound, so I think it's not fair for High Schools to push everybody into these college for everyone ideal. What if you are a technical or a creative person, will going to college for computers for 4 years make sense? Sixty percent of what you learn in college is going to be forgotten by the time you graduate besides the fact that their curriculum is not current enough to match the changes in technology. A technical trade school would do that and they are only one to three years. Let me ask you this question, how many people do you know in college who go and have no idea what they wanna do? You know why they keep going to college? Because they have been going to school their whole life, that's what they know and that's what their parents expect of them. Now these people are just wasting time and money, rememeber the average student loan is about $23.000 by the time you graduate. Now that is a lot of money! Why wouldn't parents who may have saved a college fund for their kids take that money, give that money to a kid who is entrepreneurial and let him start their own business or use part of that money to pay a technical school meawhile throwing the bases of their own business? See, we are in this mindset that college means success and with today's economy it is just not the case anymore. Personally I would much rather have money now and find my way to invest them rather than spend those money in hopes to make more money later in the future, a college degree doesn't guaratee you anything! Now, I'm not saying they are not useful, if you wanna be a doctor, a lawyer or a teacher than you absolutely need to get a degree as you may very well be aware of. The vast majority of jobs out there do not require a degree and if you are going to college just so you can say that I graduated from this college of that college than you are really making yourself an injustice. I'm not against intellectualism and I'm not here to say that colleges are just a waist of money, I'm just saying that the whole notion of a four-year college degree is just not practical for anyone. Remember that Mark Zuckerberg never graduated college, and Sean Parker never even went to college proving that succes and education are not necessarily linked.

The Importance of Setting Goals

"Not all who wander are lost," they say, but for the great majority of us, having a road map for the future is a key element to well-being and success, however we choose to define it. This means setting goals for ourselves, and finding ways to achieve them. If you're a wanderer, it might be time to realize the boundless utility of setting goals.While it's not a good idea to try to change everything at once, you can set goals in virtually any domain of your life, from your wardrobe to your church to your workplace.

Of course, a thousand mile journey starts with the first small step. And whether we're embarking on the long trek of a mid-life career switch or the walk to the bedroom to finally organize that closet, it can be hard to gather up the motivation to make that initial step. While setting goals is in itself motivating, sometimes it's just not enough. Here are some tried-and-true ways you can begin to move toward achieving your goals, and maintain resolve when the going gets rough.

1. Put your goals in writing.
The act of writing down what you are going to do is a strong motivator. Writing down goals prevents you from leaving your goals vague. Be specific. Use action verbs. Let your goals have measurable outcomes. Specify completion dates. Also record what your reward will be for achieving the goal. Make a contract with yourself, then read it each morning and night. This will help you to be more committed your goal as each day passes. And while you've got the pen in your hand...

2. Make a list of obstacles.
Think of everything that might stand in your way. Then decide what you can do about each obstacle. Design a plan to reduce the influence of each obstacle and increase the chances that you will be successful in reaching your goal.

3. List the benefits of achieving your goal.
Knowing exactly what you will gain from reaching your goal is a strong motivator. Keeping my checkbook balanced will give me more spending money on the weekends. Walking a mile every morning will help me stay focused at work.

4. Identify subgoals.
Break down complicated plans into manageable chunks. Be specific about what has to be accomplished. Decide what you are going to do, and when. Make sure each step is challenging but achievable, and that you have a complete plan of action. Then write it on your calendar and review it regularly.

5. Learn what you need to learn.
If information or skill is keeping you from achieving your goals, determine ways to fill in the gaps, and build this into your action plan. Be willing to study and work hard to reach your goals. Think about how much time and effort will be required, and ask yourself whether you are really willing and able to do what is necessary. It is better to adjust your goals or your timetable than to proceed with a plan that is unrealistic.

6. Enlist the help of others.
Find someone, a coworker or friend, with whom you share a common goal. Get someone to go to the gym with you, or to quit smoking with you, or to share healthy meals with you. A partner can help you stay committed and motivated. Look for role models, people who have already achieved the goals you seek to reach. Ask them for advice and suggestions. Find how they got where they are, and incorporate what you learn into your plan.

7. Visualize yourself having achieved each of your goals.
The more real you can make your visualization, the better. Find a quiet place, visualize, write down your experiences afterward. Go through magazines and cut out pictures that represent your goal, then put them around the house. Provide constant reminders to yourself about what you're working towards. Describe your ideal life in the future. Write a few paragraphs describing what you have accomplished, and how your life is better as a result. Use the present tense as if it is happening right here, right now. This is another way of making your vision real.

8. Get organized.
When you are prepared and organized, you will feel better about your ability to reach your goals. Having information scattered in too many places makes you feel out of control and undermines motivation. Set up a filing system, set aside your workout clothes.

9. Reward yourself each step of the way.
Let yourself feel good about progress you've made. Treat yourself to rewards that will give you a lift as you accomplish each subgoal on your road to success.

It's simply a fact: when people have goals to guide them, they are happier and achieve more than they would without having them. It's a brain thing. Achieving a goal you've set produces dopamine, a neurotransmitter responsible for feelings of pleasure. Reciprocally, dopamine activates neural circuitry that makes you eager to pursue new challenges.Goals provide focus. With no guiding vision or plan, people tend to drift. Goals provide a measuring stick for progress. Goals enhance productivity. They bolster self-esteem. And most of all, goals increase commitment, so you're more likely to achieve whatever you set out to conquer.

-Roger

How to never miss a deadline!

          I haven't updated this blog as often as I used to this week because I have been pretty busy with work. As a croupier you don't work every night and you don't even have a stable job, everything depends on whether the casino need employees. I've worked five days in the past week, and I've dealt great hands too! I'm just really glad that this week was so great because I had weeks where I worked only 1 day a week. To say it all actually, even though I don't work much, the times I do, I get paid pretty well and the winning players at the tables always leave good tips. Anyway, enough of that. As you might have understood from the title of this post, today's post is going to be about missing deadlines and how we can avoid missing them.

        

          Most of people miss deadlines because of procrastinating too much. In high-school I was a hardcore procrastinator, I was missing every deadline because of my procrastination, It had gotten to the point where I did not have anymore excuses to tell to the teachers in order to buy me some more time. Then I started realizing that something had to be done, and I started thinking about thing that I could do in order for me to never miss a deadline again.

Here are three simple things that would help me don't miss my deadlines:

1. I wrote down everything I had to get done. Just the fact of having them written down helped me me take seriously everything the things I had to do.

2. I would tell everyone I know that I had already started doing it or sometimes that I already finished it. I find pressure to be a great motivator, and if you choose to tell these "lies" to people that you don't want to disappoint the pressure will be even greater that way you will be sure to not miss that deadline.

3. If you know you got time before getting your job done, then start doing it little by little. Don't procrastinate into thinking that "you got time". Trust me, having your work half done will motivate you to finish it and a slowly planned and well thought work is much better than one done in a hurry.

          As you can see not meeting deadlines has a lot to do with procrastination, and as an ex student I can say that the habit of procrastination is the worst habit one can take. I hope this tips helped you and always remember that self discipline is the key to everything.

-Roger