If this is true (and I believe it is) we write a novel worth of emails every year

My friend Michael Sliwinski (link) recently a post from Paris Lemon where the claim is that we probably write a novel worth of emails every year.
I believe this may be true.
The Good News is that if you query all those email you can publish your first novel.
The Bad News I don’t think anyone will like to read it.
I have been a big proponent to learn to type, I mentioned in my book 25 Tips for Productivity and I practice constantly, even that I probably type faster than the average, my goal is to type more than 100 words per minute.
I just want to let you with some numbers to reflect over the weekend, (especially for those that don’t need to learn, because they don’t type long enough)
It is consider a novel when a book is over 50,000 words. Let’s assume as Paris Lemon said that we type 50,000 words worth of email every year.
If you type:
15 words per minute you need 3,333.33 minutes (55.55 hours)
20 words per minute you need 2,500 minutes (41.66 hours)
40 words per minute you need 1,250 minutes (20.84 hours)
60 words per minute you need 833 minutes (13.89 hours)
84 words per minute you need 595.24 minutes (9.9 hours)
100 words per minute you need 500 minutes (8.33 hours)
Just imagine you can improve from 20 words per minute to 84 words per minute… You will suddenly found 31 hours this year. Instead of this, people will use in average 42 hours to write those emails and wonder how the people that type 84 words per minute can leave work earlier.

TIP #18: Scan (or take a picture) of your Kids Party Invitations

I tend to scan them and send them to Evernote to a folder for my kids files. How many times you have place the invitation in the door of the refrigerator just to be buried under the other hundred things you place in there. A much better practice is to take the minute that will take to make a picture of the invitation and add to the calendar the party information. At least Party on the Calendar. You know know where the invitation is, the guess work is done.

i.e. If you just take the picture, but don’t write it down in the calendar, you will forgot most likely. If you don’t have the two minute to finish the process, just dump it on your Inbox.

TIP #17: From PaperBooks to eBooks

I love books, but love much more reading. I have read more than 340 books since 2007, and most likely the rate wasn’t much less before, I just never track them before then. (My mother use to said that I was a library rat). While I was doing my MBA, I could not afford many books, so I leave a bookmark on the book I was reading (In the Barnes and Noble Store). I end up being friend with the manager of that Barnes and Noble in Pueblo, Colorado. He was really kind and allow me to kept the book I was reading behind the counter. (So people stop removing the bookmark. Some people is so rude) I bough all the books I could, I just could not afford that many. At that time, I think I was reading well over two books per week. That said, I had so many books in a time, that every time we need to move, it was simply put a pain. I begin moving from PaperBooks to eBooks on 2002. I made the real jump in 2008 with the Kindle. We went from thirty boxes of books to two on our last move. (We had move twelve times since 2000, because of our jobs)
I continue reading like a maniac, but now I don’t keep that many paper books. I know many people that say they will never read on eBooks. My advice is try it. You will be amaze. Also you can always buy in paper all those that you really love.
The best I have heard on this discussion of people that like or not ebooks is the following from Andy Ihnatko:

“Books are for people who likes books. Ebooks are for people who likes reading.”

 
i.e. As I wrote this, my library from the original Peanut Press is now in a Barnes and Noble Account, it was fun to see all those old books, same happiness that in the past I got from PaperBooks, without the weight and the space. (Out of all those books, I picked one to re-read. I would had pay happily for it again)

Working on MY iPad: Cursor Dual Editor for iPad

I have been asking for an application like this for years. Finally a developer is kind enough to build it. I am not familiar with Shigeto Takagi, but finally someone design an app that you can work with two documents on the iPad at the same time.
In my wish list, continue that I can open those documents from Dropbox and iCloud, that I have word count, can choose to use one screen only and dark interface for long writing. That will make the application my day to day application. I will delete the others, immediately.
In the mean time at least I can use this on those occasions that I want to have two texts, or the outline on one side and the text I am writing on the other.
The application works only on plain text that it is perfect and allow you to email the content when you finish.
This may seem as simple stuff, but it is a great tools for writers and more. This has come to be one of my favorite applications to take notes, I love that I can naturally split my notes, for example write on the write my notes and on the left my actions.
I wish more developers follow Shigeto Takagi steps and work into this dual concept, since they are things that really this dual screen is an incredible advantage.
I wish I could get the ads from the bottom, I will happily pay for a premium product, and wish that instead of Free I would had been able to pay the developer.
In the mean time, download it and give it a ride.
iPad Version (Free)
<a href=”https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cursor-dual-mail-editors/id527102250?mt=8
“>iPhone Version ($1.99)

TIP #16: Find your limits. Find your Loves. Respect them deeply.

Most people ignore their loves and limits. They walk trough life hoping instead. It is critical to discover your limits. Every time you cross one of those limits, your energy gets depleted at a extremely higher rate. If you ignore them, you simply kill yourself slowly (even that it will be really fast).
Equally people ignore their loves, they hope that someday, after fifty or so years of work they will be able to find them. Your loves also died if you ignore them, and they are critical too. When you give attention to your loves you get energized again.
Your Limits and Loves are what allow you to keep flourishing and managing your energy. Like the Yin and Yan. It is important that you discover them, and critical that you respect them. Your life may depend of it.
i.e. I love to read, give me energy, make me feel good (even bad books) I have people close to me, getting to my attention if I stop reading for any reason.
i.e.2. Find my loves and my Limits had allow me to recharge faster, avoid burn out, and improve the quality of my life all around. Spend the necessary time identifying those, it will change your life forever.

Managing ourselves as if we where two year old

“Ninety percent of what we call ‘management’ consists of making it difficult for people to get things done.”
– Peter Drucker

The most interesting thing is that, most of the time, we are based on this definition, “managing” ourselves.
When I get asked why I work on little tricks instead of big theories, is simply because I had learn that I should work hard to simplify the rules that guide my life. I have said:

In Productivity, most of the time, if it works for a two year old child, will work for us

We go to this complex setup, complex system, complex rules, when we should go exactly on the opposite direction, our own rules need to work for a two years old, otherwise, must likely, eventually they will fail.
For some reason, we have been convinced that we need more, more complexity, more layers, more information, more work, more money, more of anything if nothing else.
The problem is that as part of the trick, no one has told you that if you just want more, you are never going to be happy. Yes, you will have more of all those things that money can get, but not enough of those that you really and deeply care.
We get our lives so complex, that we forget how to slow down and enjoy the simply things. We have this tendency that things need to be hard, complex and difficult in order to believe they are worth.
What if we try the opposite approach? What if we try to simplify our life? To have simply setups? simple rules? We live our life as we will try to make a two year old happy. You will discover it is also a challenge, you just will laugh and have fun more often.

TIP #15: Scan all those membership Cards. (a.k.a CardScan)

Do you have the Pharmacy Membership Card, YMCA, Groceries (most likely two or three, like me) Lego Store, Library, Panera… You get the idea. Each one of those great membership plans give you this nice card that you can put in your wallet (and end up with a George Constanza Wallet) or a keyring one (and end up like Saint Peter but without any keys, only memberships.) This is what happen, you carry the ones you use the most. It is uncomfortable. The rest of them, you get a new membership every time or forfeit the reward.
I use an app for the iPhone called CardScan that allow me to Scan all those bar codes, and carry them all on my pocket. Most places can scan directly from the phone screen or simply type the numbers. No more cards, no more forfeit rewards, no more George Constanza Wallet either. At this writing, I have over 100 cards.
Before I found CardScan, I used my smartphone (Treo650) and took a picture and carry them that way. Most likely the picture is not going to work to be scanned, but they will be able to type the numbers.

TIP #14: 4:00AM. Finding Super Focus Time.

Need more time to think? Need more time for you to finish important projects? Try for 2 weeks go to bed earlier and wake up at 4:00AM. (The first week will be to adapt yourself, and most likely not really productive, the second one will be the productive one, trust me it is worth)
Most likely between 4:30AM (Giving that you shower and have coffee) and 6:30AM you will get two hours of Focus Work, no interruptions, no noise, no distractions. You will discover how many unfocused hours you have during the day, how many interruptions, how loud is your environment and how distracted you are. In my experience, after trying this for two to four weeks, you will do it again every time you need to accomplish anything really important.

TIP #13: Do something to improve another person day, constantly.

We forgot how far be nice can go. Open the door to a lady. Help her carry her bags. Bring breakfast once a month (even better once a week) to that homeless guy in the corner you turn to work everyday. Cut the front lawn of your neighbor just because you are doing yours. Pay the starbucks coffee to the person behind you (or pay only $2 or their coffee, trust me, you will make their day). I guarantee you, that if you do something good for someone, you will simply be a happier person.
i.e. If you don’t believe me, think how nice it is when the person ahead of you pay for your coffee in Starbucks. If this had never happen to you, do it, and see the smile of the person behind you.
i.e.2 One of my favorite things to do in the store is to ask old people if they need help. Most of the time they do, and most of the time, you make their day.

TIP #12: Get rid of DVDs and Movies in General

 
How many DVDs do you have in your living room? your bed room? the other TV? We use to have more than 120. When we where childless they were even alphabetically organized. (Guess what, I had that time) After our daughter was born, it was more or less a big mess. Spending hours sorting so she could knock them out because they where accessible for her, wasn’t fun at all for me. I begin converting all our movies into digital. Guess how many of those 120 you will never see again? (around 100 unless you count disney movies for your child)
The time that takes to kept clean, organized, and more it is huge. Begin converting in digital, or even better, toss them all (sell them and buy the ones you really like digital or get something like Netflix, or Amazon Prime)
A soon as you get rid of those movies, you will never again will want anything other than a digital movie, even if that means buy it more than once.