Thursday, June 04, 2015

Be more productive by following the simple rule of 3

I've read dozens of self-help books searching for the elusive magic bullet for becoming more productive. What I've learned is that there are hundreds of list of the Top 10 or Top 15 things you should do every day...go ahead and Google the top things you should do and you'll see these long, long, lists.

I don't know about you but I function best by keeping things as simple as possible. I've found that it's best to focus on just the three most important things you have to do at any one time.

Little did I know that there is research about this subject as well. They call it "The Rule of 3" and it is based around the concept that we function best around that number of things. In fact, Steve Jobs either innately or purposefully based his presentations around three. It is also a basic writing and oratorical concept:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_three_%28writing%29#Rhetoric_and_public_speaking

Take a look at this great productivity blog for starters and start practicing your own "Rule of 3" today. Let me know what it does for you:

http://alifeofproductivity.com/rule-of-three/

Wednesday, April 08, 2015

I can't believe I'm admitting this but, I need readers.

I'll be 49 this year. I've worn glasses, well contact lenses 95% of the time, since I was 22 years old. My vision has always been about 20/30 meaning that I need glasses to see things far away. Things that are within an arms length or so have always looked fine and I've never needed glasses to see things close-up.

I've watched my parents and older relatives start to deal with readers in their '40's but somehow I didn't. There's no use in speculating why other than I don't watch much television. My work days are spent starting at various computer screens though. Since getting a smartphone and iPad, I probably spend way too much time staring at those screens...mainly for reading as I'm not a fan of watching movies on those devices (nor do I have the time.)

Because I wear contacts for distance correction, they help my eyes focus on things that are far away. The muscles in my eyes have always been able to contract to view things up close clearly even with the contacts in. However, something seems to have changed just in the last week and I find myself reaching for readers to see things on both my iphone screen and, for the first time just a few minutes ago, on my laptop screen.

I guess no matter how hard we try and outrun him, Father Time catches up with everyone.

Blink XT2 Thumbnail Failed Fix

Well, this is a bit frustrating. I have one outdoor Blink XT2 camera from Amazon which I installed about a year and a half ago...or maybe tw...