Tag: daily

My favorite drink.

This is a simple one to answer for me. I love coffee! I used to spend way too much money on lattes, so I bought my own espresso machine. It was one of the best investments I ever made. I use it throughout the day to make lattes for myself. I think I actually make them better than the ones I used to buy, and it has saved me a ton of money. The only other caffeinated drink I consume regularly would be tea, as I cut out soft drinks a long time ago.

Not everyone is a fan of coffee, probably because it is high in caffeine, but I believe it actually adds to my health and wellbeing. I can’t imagine getting through my day without it. I have been drinking it since early childhood, as my parents and grandparents had it every day at breakfast time. I have quit drinking it before, thinking it was bad for me, but in the end, I always come back. I finally just decided to keep it as a part of my daily life.

What’s your favorite drink? Do you love coffee also? How do you like your coffee? Do you own an expresso machine? Do you drink other caffeinated drinks, like Red Bulls, or soda? What do you call soda? Pop? Coke? Let me know in the comments, and please remember to like, share, and subscribe!

The need for time.

The subject of this post is whether I need time. When someone asks me a question, I first think of the most obvious answer, but then my mind does this funny thing where it deeply evaluates the question to determine if I am not just repeating the accepted answer. I often find ways to make the total opposite of the accepted answer make sense. I think this is how wisdom begins to develop, not by giving the answer, but by creating an even deeper question.

With that in mind, I would say that the most obvious answer is yes. Everyone wants more time, right? Isn’t time the most precious commodity? Isn’t time the only thing you can’t get back when it’s spent? Maybe those things are true, but do I really need more of it? To me, the real question to consider is, do I have enough of it already?

In reality, the answer is actually no. I don’t need more time. I often struggle to make it through a whole day, especially if that day is Monday. Honestly, a day is painfully long most days of the week. I sometime wish a day was reduced to just one hour, not the sixteen hours I’m expected to be awake to endure.

There are several factors that might influence us into thinking that we need more time. It might be because we are focusing on our own mortality and the shortness of our lives. We might also come to think that if we had just a few more hours to work each day we could finally make enough money to break out of the rat race. That probably won’t work though, because the economy will likely just adjust itself to the new influx of income. By far, I think the best reason to desire more time is the thought that if we had a few more hours a day we could spend it on personal things or with our family. Unfortunately, I fear something else would come out of the woodwork and eat up all the time we gained.

If rather than adding four hours to the day, I could, let’s say, make the same living I make now while working four hours less than I currently have to work, wouldn’t that really solve the whole problem? Now it would appear that I don’t actually need more time at all. What I actually need are more boundaries on how my time is consumed.

This is really one of the premises behind a book I read a few years ago called The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. I think it became very popular because there’s quite a few people who would like to take their life back from their corporate overlords.

The 4-Hour Workweek

Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan–there is no need to wait and every reason not to, especially in unpredictable economic times. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, or earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management, The 4-Hour Workweek is the blueprint.

This step-by-step guide to luxury lifestyle design teaches:

  • How Tim went from $40,000 per year and 80 hours per week to $40,000 per month and 4 hours per week
  • How to outsource your life to overseas virtual assistants for $5 per hour and do whatever you want
  • How blue-chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs
  • How to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of a forgotten Italian economist
  • How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and frequent “mini-retirements”

In the end, I don’t think I need more time. Time is important, but it can all be taken away if you have no time boundaries. Freedom is way more important. With absolute freedom, you would have an abundance of time. Imagine a life where those sixteen waking hours in a day belonged to you exclusively to do whatever you wanted with them. You would probably have so much time you wouldn’t know what to do with all of it. On the other hand, having an infinite amount of time with absolutely no freedom would be an utter nightmare. It would literally be eternal slavery.

Do you have enough time? Are you effective at time management? Do you set effective boundaries to ensure a work life balance? Would you enjoy absolute freedom? Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe!

My #1 priority tomorrow.

My number one priority for tomorrow will be the same as today and everyday. I prioritize just getting through it. It seems odd that the goal is just for it to be over, but it keeps me going. The assumption is that when it’s over there will be something good to look forward to, but most evenings are just spent recuperating so I can start over the next day. I’ve been doing this for many years though, and it appears to be working, albeit a bit tiring.

I don’t think it’s a new way of seeing life either, I am deeply reminded of the old saying, one day at a time, or the Biblical sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. All just indicating that today is going to have some hard parts, and you just have to knuckle down and get through it.

What is your priority tomorrow? Do you tell yourself little things, like I just have to get though this? Does the adage one day at a time call to you? What are some other sayings that help you through each day? Let us know in the comments, and please remember to like, share, and subscribe!

What I’m doing this evening.

Today is Wednesday, so I don’t plan on going out this evening, as I have to go to work tomorrow morning. This might change though, as I am somewhat spontaneous depending on my mood, or if I become really bored. If I stay home, I will probably browse the internet, or read something on Kindle, or buy something on Amazon, or brainstorm on something to write about.

There is one other thing I am going to do. I use an app called Microsoft To Do to remind me of things I need to do each day, mostly financial things. Like the name sounds, it’s just a fancy todo list in app form. It can also be accessed through a browser. Looking at this app, it tells me that I need to enter the statement from one of my credit cards into my personal finance application.

Screenshot of Microsoft To Do

I set these todo items up by going to the credit card company web sites, finding the date when they make the statements available, and then setting up a reminder to tell me to go enter and balance it. Today is the day when one of my credit cards should have the statement ready. I find this very handy, as I don’t have to think about it, or constantly go look at the site to see if the statement is ready.

The software I use to manage my personal finances is called Quicken. I just started using it this year. I enter the credit card statements manually out of habit, but I think there are ways to synchronize with the credit card companies. Actually entering it makes me very cognizant of where I’m spending my money, which is a good thing.

Are you doing anything exciting this evening? Do you use todo lists to manage your life? Do you have a favorite personal finance application? Are you a spontaneous person? Do you get bored often? Do you use credit cards to pay for things? Thanks for reading! Let me know your thoughts, and please like, share, and subscribe!

The oldest thing I own that I use daily.

The most obvious answer would be myself. Myself has been with me since the very beginning of my life. Though I’m not really sure he’s the same person. I mean, I’ve changed a lot over the years. I’ve said this before, but if you live long enough, some of the events in your past will begin to feel like they belong to a whole other lifetime. I’m not even sure the person I was five years ago would recognize me because I have been through so much change. Maybe the me that is here right now is really a very new person who just inherited a lot of old experiences. This really does seem true when I look back at things I’ve written in the past. I’m actually sort of glad I’ve become a new person.

This question does sort of sound like it’s wanting a material object, and I’ve given that some thought too. I own a few old things, but I don’t really use them very often. I also went through a period of downsizing a few years ago as I began to not care so much about material things. Most of the things I owned that were not in heavy use were just tossed away. There is something left though. It’s not ancient, but it has been with me many years, and I still use it often, today even. It’s my teapot. I’ve already shared a picture of it, but here it is again. I believe it fits the bill of being the oldest thing I own that I still use daily.

What about you? What’s the oldest thing you use daily? Have you ever downsized? Do you feel like you have changed a lot over the years? Let me know in the comments, and don’t forget to like and subscribe!