Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Living Well and "Recapturing Your Wild Side"

Ahhh boy .... did I ever connect with an article in a recent edition of Men's Health Magazine.  Check this out:
"Nature heals, restores, and invigorates.  It makes your body stronger and your mind quicker". (Men's Health July/Aug 2010)
The article, entitled Recapture Your Wild Side,  was brilliant as it provides a compelling argument  -based on scientific research- that proves that getting out of the concrete jungle and closer to nature adds to the quality of your life.  As many of you already know, the idea of getting closer to nature can be possible by embracing the digital lifestyle and leveraging technology to work remotely from any corner of the world.  Keep this in mind as you read the short extract below.


The article unfolds by asking the reader to close their eyes and visualize the perfect place to live.  


Extract:
"It's possible (you can open your eyes now) that you're picturing an urban apartment ringed by traffic-filled streets. More likely is a home set on high ground, in a field of grass, shaded by trees, overlooking a stream, lake, or sea.   
The renowned Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson wrote, "It seems that whenever people are given a free choice, they move to open, tree-studded land on prominences overlooking water." His theory of "biophilia" (an attraction to living systems) suggests that humans have evolved an affinity for the natural settings that nurtured their hominid ancestors. 
And yet the 21st-century [American] man spends an estimated 90 percent of his time sealed off from nature--in an office, at a desk, in his house, behind the wheel, on the couch watching TV, or in bed sleeping in air that's often artificially cooled and dehumidified. The ultimate cost of this separation from his natural state is impossible to calculate. But in recent years, scientists have measured enough specific benefits of exposure to the outdoors--less anger, more productivity, quicker thinking, faster healing, longer lives--that the lesson seems obvious. (Source: Men's Health July/Aug 2010)

This article coincidentally supports a decision that my wife and I made last year when we purchased an acre of land off the coast of southern Belize.  The land we purchased is in a new eco-friendly community that is being built called Sanctuary Belize.  


Over the next few years, as the community develops, we'll be starting to build a home on our land so that we can spend a portion of the year living by the Caribbean sea and thriving on the adventure that the rainforest, ocean, and mountains of Belize provide.  One of the cool things that helped us confirm our decision to invest in Sanctuary Belize was that I was able to connect to the Internet from the rainforest and Skype with my wife and daughter back in Canada. So this means that eventually we can live our digital lifestyle by working smartly and remotely from Belize, living well by being close to nature, all while seeking adventure.  For us this was an important piece in architecting our digital lifestyle.  Reading "Recapturing Your Wild Side" helps reinforce the importance of architecting your lifestyle so that you can gather all the experiences that you want in life.  


Live it everyone!!!!

Chris

Monday, August 2, 2010

I Gained Control Of My Inbox & Freed Up 2 Hours Each Week

Hey everyone!  

I'm always on the prowl for tips that can free up hours from my work week so that I can either focus on higher value work activities or better yet ....get me get out of the office sooner so that I can enjoy other aspects of my life. This type of focus is central to designing a lifestyle that allows you to squeeze more experiences out of life!!!!  To achieve this you need to look for opportunities to reduce your hours spent on 'lower value' activities and shift these 'new found' hours to tasks that are more aligned to your desired lifestyle.  When I looked at my work week a few years back after reading Tim Ferris' Four Hour Work Week, I realized that my email was simply OUT OF CONTROL and because I wasn't managing it properly I was spending way to much time on it.  I started exploring different email management tricks and after exploring a few options I finally discovered a simple and effective email management approach that freed up about 2-3 hours per week for me.  I wanted to share my experience with you.

Background

I manage four email accounts (I can't get away from that for a number of reasons) and I receive between 85 and 135 emails on any given day.  I don't say this to impress people because contrary to popular belief I don't believe that email volume correlates with your importance, position, power, or salary.  I share this statistic with you to simply provide some context around how significant my email challenge was.  You may receive more email or you may receive less email, but chances are you feel the same way I felt ---I  was BURIED IN EMAIL and no matter how hard I tried I always seemed to BE BEHIND and had a CLUTTERED Inbox.  The clutter was getting to me so much that I was dedicating more and more time to managing my email and less time doing more important things.  I needed a solution and giving up email altogether in this day and age wasn't an option; rather I needed help ... help in a FAST way.  That's when I discovered Gina Trapani's article on Lifehacker.com called Empty Your Inbox With The Trusted Trio. The simple 'action oriented' folder structure called the "Trusted Trio" worked wonders for me.

The Folders

The three folders  referenced in the Trusted Trio article are:

1. "For_Follow-up": Action is required by me.
2. "For_Archiving": Useful (or useless) email that is for information purposes that I do not need to take action on
3. "On Hold": Action is required by another person before I can take action myself

Putting the Trusted Trio to action was quite easy.


My 5 Step Approach For Implementing The Trusted Trio:


1. Each day I check my email at defined periods of time so that I can give it the attention it deserves and NO MORE.  


2. After a quick scan of my email I respond to urgent items that I can resolve quickly and I divide my remaining email into one of three folders, as outlined in the Trusted Trio


  • For_Follow-up
  • For_Archiving 
  • On Hold


3. During the last 30 to 45 minutes of my workday (often on the bus) I respond to any emails that I placed in my "For_Follow-up" folder.  As I respond to these emails I transfer them to  my "For_Archiving" folder since I've completed the action item.


4. Each morning I review my "On Hold" folder and write short emails to people who I'm awaiting input from in order to take any action that is required by me.  I really hate having action items looming over me so I tend to manage this folder pretty closely.


5. At the end of each week I skim my "For_Archiving" folder and review the contents by quickly scanning the email again.  If I notice that I'm on a mailing list and rarely read the content I 'unsubscribe' from the distribution list.  After that I simple transfer all of my email in this folder to my official "Archives" area in my inbox.


So in five short steps, using three Inbox folders, I have conquered the chaos that use to characterize my inbox and eroded a large part of my day.   Gina's Trusted Trio email management approach helped me considerably and if you are struggling with an overflowing Inbox I'd suggest using the Trusted Trio and and tweaking it to suite your own lifestyle.

Enjoy the extra hours that you'll discover in your week if you manage your Inbox instead of it managing you!


Chris