two good concepts

So, I am an avid lifehacker reader, and enjoy a lot of the ideas they put forth. I have been collecting information in my brain for a long time. I still haven't figured out the best way to organize it all, maybe something involving google reader, gmail, delicious, yahoo pipes, and a mind brain interface? anyway, a topic for another day.

Today I have two fun ideas. ones I am looking forward to trying and will hopefully review again after trying them.



The first will be action cards. maybe just buying cards, but I think one could probably extend it to other things.

The idea is you write out a number of questions you have to answer before you purchase anything, print it on an index card, and keep it in your wallet, or take it shopping with you, or tape it next to your computer for when you use amazon. Hell, print up a bunch of cards.

These are just reminders of questions you should be asking yourself already. Things like:

1.) is this really the cheapest price you can get for this? have you looked? amazon, craigslist, google, your local retailers?

2.) do you really need this? is the function necessary to your continued quality of life (note this CAN include the big screen tv if you destress with things like that)?

3.) do you have something that does this already? do you have something that functions just as well you could use?

4.) do you have something lined up to pay for this? does this require debt?

and obviously they are guidelines, not rules, but I think it would help to have a checklist every time I looked at things. Amazingly enough I wouldn't find it very hindering either.



Next is the idea of big, medium, and small things. Kind of a way of prioritizing tasks that don't have a set amount of time to them. This is actually because I have a lot of trouble focusing on things, and can be combined with naps, break time systems, tangent lists, and the like.


so, if you have a big thing, like the apartment hunting that I have coming up (and the job search, oi), give a week to it, and every day of that week, when you have time, you work on the big task. you give yourself the week as a deadline, and to measure your progress. admittedly it will take time for people to get back to you and the like, but you can get a LOT of work done in a week.

medium items you give a day to, things like a report, you just figure you will give all the free time you have that day to getting it done, if you get it done, then you are all set.

small items are things you can do in less than an hour (like make dinner), and combined with prioritizing, this way I can set clear, simply goals.

idk, something to try.