I mentioned earlier in the “Avoiding Procrastination” post that I was going to write about Jott.com. Jott is a Seattle based startup founded by two former Microsoft employees. It is a voice to text service that makes it very easy to Jott down notes, reminders, and even send text messages or emails to your friends. You can even post to your blog or some of the social networking websites using Jott. The incredible thing is that it is very accurate and fast if you speak clearly.
“People have some of their greatest ideas when they’re away from their PCs,” says Jott CEO and cofounder John Pollard. “The only appliances they have with them all the time are their phones and their voices. So we said, let’s take advantage of that and help people put these thoughts they’re not otherwise remembering into a form where they can actually do something with them later.”
Jott is free and there is no limit on how many messages you send. With a simple phone call to 866-JOTT-123, you can capture notes, set reminders and calendar appointments, stay in touch with friends and family, and interact with your favorite web sites and services…all with your voice!
Lifehacker has a very good article about this service.
I’ve been reading many articles about being an early riser lately. Yesterday was my first time following the advice! What I’m going to do from now on is to sleep as soon as I feel sleepy (could be 10 pm or 2am!) and get up at a certain time no matter when I slept; for me it’s 5:30 am.
The hardest part is getting up in the morning. Here is how it usually goes:
I go to bed at 11pm and want to wake up at 6am, so I set two alarm clocks and my cellphone’s alarm! At 6am the first alarm goes off and I don’t even wake up, it turns off after couple of minutes by itself. The second alarm goes off and wakes me up but I hit that snooze button as soon as I can move my hand! It’s already 6:10 and I’m still sleeping. Next is my cellphone, it goes off at 6:12 and I reach under my pillow and grab it to see what time it is, well, It’s getting kind of late. I tell myself that I better get up. While trying to move my legs and remove the cover I think that maybe five more minute won’t kill me! It’s 6:30! After half an hour that I’ve been struggling to get out of bed I finally get up and rush to get ready and go to work!
That’s almost my every day. One good thing that I did was going to bed before midnight which obviously does not solve the problem. What will work is getting up when I wake up for the first time. There shouldn’t be three alarms there, one should work fine and get me out of bed. The best thing to do is not to think about if I still have time or not and just get up! I think after a while doing this my body will get used to it and do it automatically, and maybe there would be no need for an alarm.
My second day went well too. I got up at 5:30 at I planned and one alarm was enough. One thing that has been working for me is to have my alarm far from my reach. That way I have to get up and shut it off, by the time I reach my alarm I’m already up.
I will update you on how the process is going.
Here are some benefits of waking up early (Zen Habits)
Also if you have any good tips on being an early riser please add your comments :)
“Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.” - Don Marquis
Procrastination is a common problem for majority of individuals and businesses. Here are some tips that can help you stay motivated and avoid procrastination.
Get some tools to organize and remind yourself of the things that need to be done. Having a To-Do list is the easiest way to remind you of your tasks. There are different ways to do this. you can go high-tech and use online tools to keep you organized or you can use notes and calendars on your desk or room’s wall. Here’s a list of online tools:
Google Calendar - it’s free and very easy to use, you can also take your calendar to your desktop using Google Desktop. (I use this myself)
Basecamp - it’s not free but is a great tool. This one is more suitable for businesses to use since it’s more project based and has sharing and discussing features.
Action Method - almost the same features as Basecamp but has a free version for personal use. (I use this, too)
Yahoo! Calendar - It’s free, fast and easy to use
Jott - this is kinda different than the ones above, it’s basically a reminder but goes much farther! I will have a post about this later on.
I have tried using online reminders and calendars but that just didn’t do the magic for me. Even though they help me to remind myself on the tasks I have to get done, they really don’t make me finish them. What I started using is just a simple whiteboard in my room, mounted on the wall next to my bed so I can see it every morning. It usually gets updated every night before I go to sleep. I find this method much more effective than high-tech ones, it’s surprising for me that online tools, while they help, don’t seem to do the magic! I do almost everything online; shopping, studying, etc. But in this matter it’s different.
Make sure you have the goal in mind that by the end of each week you have check marked all your To-Do list items. It will give you energy to actually see what you accomplished!
One important thing about To-Do list is to put what you really need to get done. Adding tasks that you don’t have to get done on your list just makes it harder to do the things you really need to get done, and sometimes long and overwhelming To-Do lists get tossed away!
Lie about due dates…to yourself. For example if you need to get something done by Friday and you think it might be a busy day or the task is gonna take a while to finish give yourself enough time and put an earlier due date on it.
Chop your large tasks. If you have a big project, make sure you work on it in chunks, project management tools such as actionmethod.com or basecamp are ideal for this matter. Create a new project and make smaller assignments out of it.
Just do it!! Don’t sit there and say I know I can’t. Start doing it no matter how hard it looks. Doing something is always better than doing nothing, even if it’s not perfect.
Finally, reward yourself! If you put off your favorite TV show to do your tasks, make sure you reward yourself with something better, call your friends and go out to get away a little bit so you have more energy to get back.
“Waiting is a trap. There will always be reasons to wait. The truth is, there are only two things in life, reasons and results, and reasons simply don’t count.” - Dr. Robert Anthony
I decided to change the direction of this blog to write about my personal development journey and other stuff related to it. I have been reading some of the best blogs around on personal development and they really inspired me to start teaching others what I already learned and keep blogging as I learn more. I believe the best way to learn is to teach!
I just finished my new project, not really finished but the hard part is done. Wallpaperz.us is a source for wallpapers that are all free and in various resolutions. I have about 2600 wallpapers uploaded on the website and actually 5000 more to come! That’s why I say it’s not finished yet, they all need to be resized to different sizes and get uploaded. You can help if have some time to waste! Just register and upload your walpapers, it’s very easy.
I’d be happy to hear your suggestions.
- you can always get a “much” cheaper price if you book early. That is usually more than 15 days in advance and if it during a busy holiday like Christmas, make sure you have a reservation a month in advance.
- Always rent the smallest car you can book but big enough to fit. Most of the rental car companies are out of small cars 70% of the time so the chance getting a free upgrade is high. Again, make sure what you book is big enough to fit your passengers and luggage.
- Remember that the longer you rent, the cheaper the price is, it’s a simple fact. Rental car companies hate to keep cars on their lot!
- Weekend are always cheaper than weekdays just because they have more cars on hand.
- A weekly rental is usually a good deal and most of the rental places consider 5-7 days, a week.
- Car rental places at the airports usually have much higher prices than the ones off-airport. The reason is the fee that airport charges you and them. Off-airport companies do not have to the airport and most of them offer free pick-up and drop-off from a nearby airport. (There is always rental car places close to any airport!)
- Remember, when you get to a rental place, they will try to charge for anything possible. It’s their business.
- One thing that most of the people don’t realize is that the agent behind the counter has the power to give you free upgrades! So, be nice!
- DO NOT sign before reading the contract. Working in one of the biggest rental car companies in the U.S. I have seen contracts change more than twice in 3 months! So if you think you rent often and you know what that contract says, think again!
- Always ask for a “complementary” upgrade. If you are nice and they have plenty of extra vehicles for that day, they will give you a free upgrade or maybe for a little charge.
- Make certain that you understand the rental terms and coverages. Rental car insurance is often called different things in different companies. Call your own insurance company before declining coverage from a rental car company.
- Some companies charge for extra driver, ask about it if you have a second driver.
- Again, sign the contract after you read the whole and understand the charges. Also ask for an estimated total because they will never give you an exact total.
- When you get to your car check “everything” inside and outside; Check the car key and remote for broken ones, go around the car to make sure there is no scratches. If you find any problems, dents, or scratches make sure an employee or manager notes it down on your contract and initials it.
- Make sure the gas tank is full if it was suppose to be full.
- Make sure you gas up if you did not prepay the gas.
- Always ask for a receipt if you don’t get one.
- Go through the final receipt and make sure it matches the original contract.
About a month ago I started working in a not-for-profit company in Burlingame, CA. Most of the employees work in cubicles like myself. It’s my first time working in a cubicle office and it sounds like eveyone here hates it but I’m actually likin’ it, maybe because it’s been just a month! Came across some interesting cartoons, here are some good ones, just click on each to see the original size.
And here is a cool animation.
I live in the Bay Area where people are mostly Obama supporters and like many others I have one of those Obama-Biden bumper stickers on my car, but no more! Why? because it is the second time that someone removes the sticker!! Yeah, they removed my Obama bumper sticker in “Bay Area”! Mccain supporters are working very hard to win! I’m not planning to put another one on the bumper anymore. You would never know, they might take the bumper down next time!!
Watched Eagle Eye last night and very much liked it and guarantee that 90% of you will like it. It involves relentless action; car crashes, trains being controlled by a strange female voice that calls Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf) and Rachel (Michelle Monaghan), planes chasing cars and blowing up hundreds of cars, and lots of action played by two heroes who never did anything violent in their lives but mysteriously get through all those things.
Shia is a good actor but he always plays the same guy; himself, that sometimes doesn’t go with the story. D.J. Caruso does a great job in keeping all the audience from thinking about details in every action that happens; there are just so many things happening fast that you don’t get a chance to think about the last scene! All the critics say the plot doesn’t make sense which I agree but they say it’s not worth watching, that’s not true. I had fun watching it and don’t regret paying for it. You can look at the ratings from Yahoo Movies to see the difference between regular audience and critics! The movie has a “C” from critics and an average of rate “A-“ from 7393 users.
If you are one of those movie watchers that question every single action in a movie you need to look for another one but if you are looking for a fun movie for your weekend I’d recommend watching Eagle Eye.