Productivity Voice

The will it is one of those things that no one want to use or need, much less spend the necessary time to make one. It is one of those complex things, that bring a lot of feelings and that in general people simply avoid. We leave those that we love with a lot of problems trying to decided and do what they believed we had previously decided.
I remember when we did our first will, our daughter was a month old. We did it with the objective of protect her. It is one of those things that we always believe that we have more time to do and that we will never use; until sadly it is needed.

I talk in detail of my experience with software that doesn’t back up on my book 25 Tips for Productivity. Regardless how much technology had advance, and how easier is to do back up these days, people continue living without doing them. People is constantly loosing their data. Phones get lost, stoled, damaged and people loose all that information and hope that people will help them rebuild all that information.
If you don’t know how to set automatic backups ask, even pay someone. Don’t think on how much is that first setup going to cost you, think on how much can cost you get the information back. We think on how expensive may be to set the backup on the first place, and hope that it doesn’t happen to us. Sadly when it does and you discover you don’t have a backup how much it is going to take you to recover the information, worse how expensive it is going to be to lost that information.
It is for that reason that if the software doesn’t backup I don’t use it. The cost of recover the information is too high, in many cases it is impossible to recover.
Check the software you are putting information, on your Phone and your Tablet. Can you back them up? Can you restore the Information if you lose the phone or the tablet? If the answer is NO to any of this questions, it is the time to migrate, or find a way to backup your information. Think how expensive and hard it is going to be to replace it.

One of the cool things as your kids begin to grow up is that they begin using some of those cool toys you use, specially those that you remember fondly. Lego is one of those toys.
See how your kid play, and how you have grow up and are expecting your own playing time to be it is an interesting experience. I love the experience of really used your imagination, the idea that the block is more important than what the set can build, that the colors all match and the vehicles can do incredible things.
If you have the luxury of having a kid around sit and play Lego (or any other toy that will allow them to use their imagination) and remember what your imagination was able to see, dream and accomplished before you learned about fears, reality, bills and that thing people called “Real life”

We all have phones that call that we should ignore. You know that time you gave them your phone number and since then they have call you to offer a service that you don’t want and regardless that you had request them that they please remove you from the list, they continue calling you.
Create a contact called IGNORE and add all those numbers. Next time you get a call from them your phone will tell you exactly what to do.
i.e. Since I use an iPhone you can also set an special tone for the ringtone (mine is a no noise one) and a special vibration (mine for this contact is none). The cool thing is that if I receive a call form this list of numbers, my phone don’t make a noise or vibrate. I only found out the next time I grab the phone.

Planning your weekly meals it is one of those things that aren’t that complicated, but that many people I have around don’t do. We go to do groceries ad get enough generic stuffs that we hope we will be able to make meals for the next seven days. Then every night we hope that we are going to get inspired enough to make those meals.
Most of the time that’s exactly the problem. We hope that after a full working day we will have enough brain power to think about a meal, prepare and cook. The reality many times is that our energy level is too low to make a good decision, so we grab a microwave solution or something that it is not necessarily the best of the options.
What I have learned is that when you plan the menu, your grocery shopping it is much more specific, and since you know what are you going to make the whole week you don’t really need much brain power to actually make the meal and you certainly had all the ingredients you need for the plate you are planning to cook. Also if you need to, you can move meals around but in general you know you will have all the ingredients and there is no need to really think anything, just cook.
i.e. I resist for years this idea and of course made poor choices constantly regarding our meals. Since I begin doing that, I have been eating much better meals and somehow had been able to save between 35% to 45% on our weekly grocery bill. So it has been really a great solution.

I am aware that I am not the only one that dislike in general the sound of their phone. I love the fact that the phone can vibrate instead of ringing like crazy. I honestly get annoyed by my own ring tone.
One of the solutions is to use the phone in “Vibrate Mode” all the time. The problem with this is that doing that you lose other sounds that the phone can make and you will like to have, like text messages or Calendar Alerts.
The solution for me was really simple, I install on my phone a NO SOUND Ringtone that I create on Garage Band. The ring tone it is simple, it had no sound. The advantage is that then I can keep my phone out of the vibrate mode most of the time, but the phone never rings, when a call came in the phone simply vibrate, but I can get sounds for Text Messages and other alerts.
Since I installed this I have rarely place my phone on vibrate mode, I don’t mind the rest of sounds, in many cases I appreciate them.

We grow up wanting things, more things, more things. At least I grow up wanting more. I could not wait to get this or that. Even this days many times I am guilty of this but I have improve significantly. (I think at least)
I am not a minimalist, I had said that I want Enough. I would had for example multiple pens years ago, now I have one.
It’s hard to fight against the consumerism, and decided when you should update or replace stuff. It is a hard to walk line, and I am the first one to miss the line more than what I should, but I try, hard everyday.
Instead of go to the super store and buy 20 t-shirts, go to a good store and buy 4. Instead of get a box of pens get 1 good pen.
When we stop looking into the quantity and begin focus on quality and utility our relation with the stuff change.
We don’t need to continue getting stuff to show up. To prove that we can. To fill an emptiness that consumerism make you feel.
Try to go a month without buying anything other than food and medicine. Try to think really well before you buy something. Don’t buy because it is cool or cute or nice.
i.e. I wrote somedays ago about the Daily Bag. I said that most people should replace their bag. I also show the bag I hope to buy someday and said that my bag was 10 years old at least. Could I replaced it, the answer is yes. I have not done it because the one I have is working great. Someday will be enough, and will be replaced.
i.e.2. My car is the same, is fully paid, more than 120,000 miles, but everything worked. There is no reason yet to change it. For that I need it, it’s perfect. In case of any doubt, yes, I believe that they are cooler cars in the market as well as nicer ones… I just try hard on not to buy on those reasons.

Do you journal? No. Why not?
Journal is one of those things that a lot of people don’t do, and most of the people we admire do. We admire people but we don’t copy the good and amazing things they do.
I journal. constantly. It is almost a need. I had solve problems, found answer, caught my own fears and lies, and learn so much from my own self.
Journal is hard. Journal feels weird. Journal is uncomfortable. It is. The issue is not if it is or not all those things. The reality is that the people that journal are more successful, better people, and eventually stop feeling weird and uncomfortable about doing it. (For me continue most days being something hard to do)
i.e. I use an application called Day One on the iPad and iPhone. Honestly it is an incredible application.