Hack My Life

Time Diet

In today's world, we live life like it is one big emergency. Fueled by fast food and stimulants we rush from on place to the next putting out fire after fire. We justify the lifestyle because we are making good money. Instead of using that money productively to move towards a lifestyle we truly want, we burn through it buying things to fill the void in our lives. Things that we think will make us happier. To earn more money and buy more things, we try to squeeze more time out of the day through different time management methods and sleep deprivation. We hope that if we have more time and money we will be happier at work, home, and in our social life. At the end of the day however we end up broke, tired, and depressed.

How do I fix this endless cycle? Work harder for more hours, make more money, take a vacation and repeat? No! You fix it by going on a Time Diet. That's right, a Time Diet. It works the same way as any other diet, but instead of cutting empty calories like soda, you are cutting time wasters. Following these steps will free up your money and time for a better use, creating a happier you.

Step 1 - Disconnect

How much time do you spend on a daily basis reading the newspaper, watching the daily news, checking stock prices or sports scores on the internet? If you are anything like I was, probably more hours than you would like to admit. These are all macro issues, and unless you are the CEO of a company or a major politician, they are out of your realm of influence. You probably can not bring peace to the middle east, so there is no reason to worry about it. Break away from the constant feed of advertisements and depressing news. Take this time instead to talk to your family, meet your neighbors,  catch up with an old friend. Trust me, you will still here about the news. It will just be coming from people you like.

Step 2 - Cancel Subscriptions

Do you have magazine subscriptions that you never read, gym memberships that you never use, premium cable channels that you don't have time to watch? Cancel them! This may sound obvious but it's not always so easy. We think we will have time to sit down and read the past 6 months of articles we have been holding on to. If it was so important, you would have made time for it already. Each time we see that magazine, or gym card your brain sees it as a little mini failure. These things mini failures add up and drag on your conscience. It becomes depressing, and not only that, you are wasting money. Money that you had to spend part of your life earning.

Step 3 - Take a Leave of Absence

I don't necessarily mean from work, although that would be nice. I mean from other non-essential time commitments such as a book club or softball team. Try it out for a week. If you find that the book club is the most fun thing you do on a weekly basis, you could always go back. However, you might find that you don't really enjoy reading those books that are relevant one week and then out of touch the next. You may discover that you don't really enjoy discussing trivial nonsense with those sophisticates. With your time freed from these commitments you may discover a new hobby or learn about a place you would really like to visit.

Step 4 - Sell, Sell, Sell

Just like subscriptions, items cluttering our house, office, and garage constantly appear to us as mini failures. I should read War and Peace but I just don't have the time! Thanks to the wonders of Craigslist, Amazon, and Ebay there is a used market for everything. Sell those books, video games, and unitasker kitchen items you bought while watching an infomercial. Take this money and fund your newfound hobby you discovered in Step 3. I am a huge Oakland A's fan and had always wanted to go to Phoenix to visit Spring Training. Four years ago I decided to take my advice, and I sold enough items to fund a five day trip. It was one of the greatest times of my life, I have gone back every year since. Discover something that you really want to do and use your prior monetary transgressions to fund it.

Have you gone on a Time Diet? I want to hear your story!

-Rex

More Great Email Tips

Xerox has a page dedicated to Information Overload that contains some interesting facts:

• 28% of the typical workday is wasted my interruptions caused by unnecessary information
• 53% of people believe that less than half of the information the receive is valuable
• 42% of people accidentally use the wrong information at least once a week
• 487 billion gigabytes of information were created in 2008

I recently posted here about reducing your information overload by using filters to narrow down your inbox to the most important people and information. These stats reveal just how big a problem information overload really is. In continuing to research this subject, I have come across a few links that may be helpful in improving your email habits and usage.

Send

There are several great sites that talk about how to create an effective email. This list, Writing Effective Email: Top 10 Tips, by Dennis G. Jerz covers it all:

1. Write a meaningful subject line
2. Keep the message focused and readable
3. Avoid attachments
4. Identify yourself clearly
5. Be kind--don't flame
6. Proofread
7. Don't assume privacy
8. Distinguish between formal and informal situations
9. Respond Promptly
10. Show respect and restraint

Receive

AwayFind - An email application that uses filters to find your most important messages and will call/text/dm you with an alert. Now you can stay away from your computer without worrying about missing an important message.

Information Overload Research Group - An entire site dedicated to the study of Information overload. Contains tips, articles, and other resources on how to prevent information overload from taking over your life.

How to Check Your Email Twice a Day...Or Once Every Ten Days- Tim Ferriss of Four Hour Work Week fame discusses how to improve your productivity by batching your email. Set regular intervals in which you will check, and respond to emails.

Delete

Killing Email: How and Why I ditched my Inbox: Zen Habits has been taking steps towards freeing himself from his inbox. He explains why he is doing this and what he is using to replace certain functions of email

Why Does the World's Top Mathematician Have a Public Email Address? Cal Newport is on the lookout for "people who have taken drastic steps to reduce the distraction generated by electronic communication tools". He refers to these individuals as E-mail Renegades. One such person is Terry Tao, 2006 fields medal winner. He has a list of 22 types of emails he will not respond to that essentially covers all emails.

Have any links or suggestions of your own? Feel free to leave them in the comments, or email me.

-Rex

The 5 Attributes of Good Relationships

The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch states that the best relationships are built on 5 attributes:

• Mutual Enjoyment of each others company
• Respect
• Shared experience
• Reciprocity
• Trust

Mutual Enjoyment

This can be anything from a shared interest such as sports, hobbies , taste in music or books. It is critical that you enjoy spending time with this person on some level whether it be mental stimulation or physical attraction.

Respect

It is very difficult to enjoy the company of someone you do not respect. Bernie Madoff probably does not have many friends right now and it is not because of a poor sense of humor, bad breath, or body odor. It is because he lost the respect of friends, family, colleagues through his money pilfering ponzi scheme. If you do not respect someone morally, professionally, or for other reasons, the relationship will not last.

Shared Experience

Growing up in the same neighborhood, experiencing a similar tragedy, working under the same boss. Shared experiences have a way of connecting people because they always have something to talk about. Experiences that involve suffering are especially bonding. The other person should feel the same way about you.

Reciprocity

Relationships should be 50/50, not 80/20. Reciprocity should come naturally without the need to be calculated. If you do a favor for a good friend, you do not constantly remind him or her of it because you know that when you are in need the favor will be returned.One sided relationships build resentment.

Trust

Trust cements relationships and allows you to operate in an environment of complete honesty. Lack of truest can unravel relationships in a heart beat. Suspicion, doubt, and paranoia quickly arise in relationships lacking honesty and tear them apart. A relationship without trust, is not a relationship at all.

While these are very valid points, I tend to believe that the best relationships are built on one category alone: Trust. Relationships usually begin on a shared experience or interest but without trust they will quickly end. How many people have you met and spent some time with only to find out they are not exactly who you thought they were? How much time do you spend a day with people who do not meet one of these guidelines, much less all of them? Those relationships should be eliminated or at least minimized so that you can focus on those who truly matter to you.

-Rex

Lunch Menu Musings - 5/12/2010

From Driven by Paul R. Lawrence and Nitin Nohria

Confronted with the invasion of an unknown foreign molecule, the human immune system will produce, on a trial-and-error basis, thousands of antibodies that approximate a mirror image of the foreign body. This process of generating variety (V) continues until an antibody molecule is generated that can exactly fit onto the foreign molecule and kill it. This antibody is selected (S) and reproduced to attack the remaining foreign molecules. In only a short time period the immune system, when functioning properly, will have evolved an antibody to destroy a completely unknown foreign element, and the body will retain (R) this antibody to its death to repel any such invasion that may occur again.

This reminds me about that saying if you have enough monkeys typing randomly on typewriters, one of them will come out with a work of Shakespeare. Our body uses the most trivial method to combat very complex diseases. What the immune system uses is also known as the "Brute-Force" search. You have probably used one of these during a Scantron test in which you inserted each possible solution into the equation and solved until one worked. Hackers also use this method by having a computer enter every word in the dictionary into the password field on your email account until one works. This is why it is suggested that you use numbers and symbols in your passwords. Our body performs this method exceptionally well, but because it is a Brute-force search there are limitations. The immune system has no problem beating dictionary passwords like the common cold, but if the password has [1-9]!@#$% in it such as a cancer our immune system is rendered useless. Can the immune system be taught how to use Binary Search?

-Rex

A Rebuttal to The Latte Factor

Everybody that has read a personal finance blog or book has heard of the latte factor. The basic idea is that little expenditures over the course of time add up to big dollars. If your daily cup of joe is $3, that adds up to $1095 a year. That is some serious coin, so this theory always applies right? Wrong! Allow me to take the other side.

For the sake of argument we will use this mythical $3 drink. Using gift cards you can bring this down to $2.40. That makes the annual total $876. Lets assume once in a while you throw some money in the tip jar and bring the annual total up to $900 even. If you grab your coffee and go, you are throwing your money away. Enjoy the surroundings at the coffee shop for some exceptional savings.

Free Wifi

All coffee shops have free wifi these days. If you spend an hour there a day using some email hacks to cut down on your internet usage, you may find you can cancel your home internet bill. Total savings: Approximately $480.

Free Newspaper

Many people bring there newspapers by in the morning and read them over, leaving them for others to read after words. Stop by during your lunch break and you will have your choice of papers to read. If you still subscribe to a newspaper, this could be an annual savings upwards of $150.

Free Meeting Location

Coffee shops provide a low key intimate environment in which you can bring clients and prospective clients to meet and get to know them better. Picking up the tab on a few drinks could help you close the deal on some new contracts. Approximate value: Unknown, but for the sake of argument lets say this brings in another $1000 additional income from deals closed at the coffee shop.

Free Air Conditioning

Keep the thermostat in your house up and head to the coffee shop during the hottest hours of the summer for some iced beverages and free air conditioning. Catch up on some reading or meet some new friends without spiking your electric bill. Annual Savings: $100.

Conclusion

Adding up the savings and income gained brings our hypothetical annual total $1730. When you subtract the $900 spent on coffee this leads to a gain of $830 dollars. Obviously these numbers will not be the same for everyone. The point being made here is that your daily coffee can be a good thing. Even you do not take advantage of any of the above savings, if the you are happier drinking your latte than you are with Folgers instant coffee the choice is obvious. Spend the money! $1100 is a small price to pay for happiness. You can find other expenditures to reduce or eliminate.

-Rex

Lunch Menu Musings - 5/11/2010

I am currently reading Driven by Paul R. Lawrence and Nitin Nohria. The book discusses how human nature is shaped by four drives:

• Drive to acquire
• Drive to bond with others in long term relationships and mutually caring commitments
• Drive to learn and make sense of the world ourselves
• Drive to defend ourselves, loved ones, beliefs, and resources

The authors state that "the four drives are what make people distinctly human - complex beings with complex motives and complex choices." Those who have balanced the four drives are the most content with there situation, those who tilt toward one drive tend to feel there life is missing something.

I personally see myself as being consumed by the drive to learn. I am constantly engulfed in the search for answers to life's big questions. Do you tend to move towards one drive in particular?

-Rex

Reducing Information Overload - Email

Everyday we are bombarded with information, more information than anyone can handle. Most of this information is garbage,not important, and distracts us from our goals. Email is the worst offender. In The Four Hour Work Week, Timothy Ferriss talks about 'cultivating selective ignorance': ignoring the garbage while still responding to the urgent material. Perform the following to improve your email correspondence.

First reduce the number of times that you check email. Using Tim's suggestion, I check email right before I go to lunch and right before I leave work. By not checking first thing in the morning, you allow a few hours for several email requests to come in. Handle them in one giant batch process before getting a bite to eat. This provides a nice block of time to accomplish some serious tasks without being interrupted. By checking email for the 2nd time towards the end of the day, I allow time for all responses from my pre-lunch emails to roll in. If these emails require a quick response, I can fire one off. If they require a significant amount of work, I can do that the following morning and submit the results before lunch the next day.

To reduce temptation to check the email more than twice, do not open your email program! If you receive messages on your iphone/blackberry/etc. turn off all blinking lights, vibrations, and audible notifications.

To make better use of your email viewing time, it is important to use filters to separate messages into different folders. Go through these folders in the order of importance. Here are a few filters I currently use:

• High Priority - Let's face it, there are people that matter more than others. If there is someone who's relationship is extremely valuable to you for personal or business reasons, set up a filter so messages from there email address comes here.
• Sales - I am currently in the process of detaching myself of my material possessions. I sell them on amazon, craigslist etc. If somebody places an order, or has a question, I want to respond. These emails go here.
• Wedding - I will be getting married next year so there is currently a lot of planning going on. All emails with wedding vendors and planners go here. If you have a big event such as college applications where you want to keep all plans in the same location, I suggest creating a filter for it. Each time you come across a new contact for that event, add the email address to this filter.
• Toastmasters - I am a member of a Toastmasters club. If you have a organization you belong to such as a charity or book club, you should filter those messages into a separate folder.
• Social Networks - Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, etc can bog down your email with friend requests and status updates. Set up a filter that checks for the names of these networks in the subject line. Have all these messages dumped into your social networks folder. If you already log onto these sites frequently, don't waste your time reading the messages, automatically delete them. Otherwise set up a time to scroll through them one a week.
• Forwarded-Do you have friends or relatives send you chain letters to you and 900 other recipients. Filter the subject line for FWD or FW. Have these automatically delete from your email. Chain messages often contain viruses. If they care enough, they will send another message that is not forwarded

What happens if someone sends me a message with something that must be acted on right away otherwise the world will end? If the world rests on you answering someones email, that person is probably in your "High Priority" folder. I suggest that you set up an auto-response for those messages with something to the tune of:

Hello, I currently check my email at X and Y. If this message can not wait until my next regularly scheduled time, please call my cell phone at 555-555-5555

These steps should help improve your communication output while minimizing the time spent going through the inputs. The people that are important in your life will still receive the attention they deserve while the nonsense and time-wasters are eliminated.

Author Seth Godin wrote an interesting piece recently titled "8 things I wish everyone new about email". i agree with all of them, especially about setting up your account so your name shows up in the from box and about not hitting reply all.

Ellen Shell also wrote a piece for The Atlantic on how people are gaining some of there life back by going "Off The Grid"

-Rex

30 Day Challenge: Where does my time go?

The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch states that there are two keys to being happier:

• Identify the times when you are the happiest and expand them as much as possible.
• Identify the times when you are least happy and reduce them as much as possible.

Today I am going to begin tracking my time and to see where I spend it. This will be a 30 day challenge. G.I. Joe stated that "Knowing is half the battle". I can not decide where to reduce unless I know how I am spending my time. The 30 days will give a nice sample size of where my time is being spent.

I challenge you to do the same. You may be surprised how much time you are wasting on activities you do not enjoy.

-Rex

More Money More Problems

18th century mathematician Daniel Bernoulli created hypothesis on wealth that according to author of Against The Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk, Peter L. Bernstein, is "one of the great intellectual leaps in the history of ideas. The hypothesis states:

[The] Utility resulting from any small increase in wealth will be inversely proportionate to the quantity of goods previously possessed.

Modern day economists would say that the marginal utility of money declines sharply. This hypothesis is constantly being reworded by authors, scientists, and even rappers. For example there is the concept of 'Enough' and the 'Fulfillment Curve' in Your Money or Your Life. Authors Dominguez and Robin state that enough is when "We have everything we need: there's nothing extra to weigh us down, distract or distress us, nothing we've bought on time, have never used and are slaving to pay off....It's about appreciating and fully enjoying what money brings into your life and yet never purchasing anything that isn't needed or wanted." Enough is the peek of the fulfillment curve, after enough is reached money just brings more problems. Rapper Notorious B.I.G talked about this in one of his more famous songs saying "The more money we come across the more problems we see". Finally, author Richard Koch of the 80/20 Principle states "The more money you have, the less value an extra dollop of wealth creates"

In the introduction post, I mentioned the concept of 'Financial Independence' and how being rich is not necessarily the goal. At some point money becomes a hindrance. The more money you have, the more time you have to spend managing and protecting it. The more money you earn, the more you are taxed meaning that more of your time is taken away from you. If you spend all of your time working, you need to spend more money to keep up that lifestyle. Money to eat out, watch your kids, etc. At some point you get stuck in a vicious cycle in which you work more so you can spend more, then you have to spend more so you can work more. If you replace utility with happiness in Bernoulli's hypothesis, you may find that you get more happiness out of a simple lifestyle. Obviously you need enough wealth to have certain basic needs met but after that, how much is enough?

-Rex

Found Money

One common definition of money is that it is anything commonly accepted for goods, services, and the repayment of debt. For us here in the United States, money is an coin or paper variation of the dollar.
I was walking down the street yesterday to a local park for a run when I spotted one dime and one penny in the parking lot of a Del Taco. I was stoked, $0.11 in the bank!

Whenever I find money, no matter the amount, it makes my day. Even if I find what I call "reclaimed money" from a freshly washed pair of jeans. I got to thinking, what makes myself and others so exited about finding money?

First: Money allows me to buy goods. If I continued to walk around that parking lot and collected that same amount four more times, I would be able to afford a taco at said Del Taco.

Second: If I have more money, I have to exchange less of my services to gain money. I can spend $0.11 of my time doing something enjoyable instead of working.

Third: If I owe Franky the loan shark 20 G's, I can put this $0.11 towards repaying my debt. Personal finance guru's refer to this as "Snow Flaking".

Found money provides goods and services that you do not have to work for, all while keeping debt collectors at bay.

I consider found money as any money that you receive in which you did not have to work for, or incur significant risk to receive it. The following is a partial list of found money sources:

On the Street

The best thing about finding money on the street is that you have to to zero work, just pick it up. The only risk I guess would be a back injury bending down to get it. The problem with money on the street however is that it usually comes in small increments. It also usually involves a lot of walking around before any significant amount is gained.

High Interest Savings Accounts

FDIC insured accounts only. The only major risk would be a sovereign debt failure. Barring that, you will receive income paid monthly and consistent returns. The problem with savings accounts is that you must have money to make money. Also the Fed has decided to demolish savers, so interest rates are at all time lows.

Cash Reward Credit Cards

You can earn up to 5% back depending on where you shop. Cash back cards are incredibly easy to use, just swipe your card instead of using cash to make a purchase. Usually after some minimum amount is hit you can call your credit card company and request a check. The problem with cash back credit cards is you have to spend money to make money. They are often a little too easy to use and some will start to make purchases that are not necessary.

Gift Cards

If you shop at certain places with regularity, check out your local big box store and see if they have a gift card for that place. Gift Cards at Costco for example are usually sold for around %20 off of face value. I frequently meet clients and friends at the Coffee Bean, a Southern California coffee chain. Costco sells $50 gift cards to the Coffee Bean for $39.99! Most gift cards offer replacement services if you register them, so they are safe to carry around. The problem with gift cards is that you may spend more because you are getting the goods "on sale". Discounted gift cards in this case also require a big box store membership.

Bottles and Cans

If your State has CRV you can collect bottles and cans to reclaim the tax that others paid when purchasing their soda, beer, etc. Collecting recyclables is good for the environment and if you work in a business park or live in a apartment complex, you can set up bins and rake in a significant amount of money. The downside is that there is some work involved in collecting and returning the recyclables so you would want to do it on a large scale. There is also the social stigma of being seen as a scavenger.

What are some other methods of finding free money?