Eric Tapley

I don’t think life rules can be effective unless you’re reminded of them frequently. I’ve posted these at home and at work so I should see (and thus think and act) on them every day. These will be the first thing I read in the morning, when I return from my lunch break, and one of the last things I see before going to bed.

I have a tendency to stop engaging with something after I know what it says so I may have to mix these up a bit. Maybe I’ll create a ritual like “read the rules while brushing teeth.” Wait… that could be another rule… and now my rules have rituals!?!

Fight trend toward complexity.

Must. Keep. It. Simple.

Simple systems - those that can be broken down into a few easy to follow rules - seem to work best for people and nature. They’re certainly easier to follow than complicated, nested, conditional and dependent sets of rules. So in the spirit of my earlier post of producing more here are nine daily rules I’m going to follow in the hope of discovering more pleasant and productive time each day. I expect an immediate and visible impact in terms of my work, health, and happiness.

1. Produce + create every day.
2. Exercise every day.
3. Read before bedtime.
4. To bed by 11:00p; to rise by 7:00a.
5. Don’t eat after 7:00p.
6. Watch less television.
7. Play more games.
8. Set reasonable personal expectations.
9. Try to save 10% at home and work.

We’ll see how these go. I might add “Drink more water” to the list sometime.

I didn’t add broad things like “More family time,” or “Engage in leisure activities,” because I think both will come from watching less television and playing more games.

Do you have a list of simple daily rules?

It occurred to me today that, sometime ago, I made a shift away from being primarily a producer to a consumer. I’m not sure when this happened, or even how, but I think that most of my time is now spent consuming services and products (or, at work, selecting those for others to produce) rather than directly producing them myself.

This really bothers me. It doesn’t feel like the right balance at all.

I feel better when I’m producing. There’s an aspect of creation which helps lift my spirits and self-esteem. It’s easy to be proud of something great you’ve crafted, but pretty hard (and probably delusional, irrational, and immature) to be proud of something you’ve consumed. Especially if it’s too many cookies!

Although I don’t tell her this enough, I’m immensely proud of my wife for being a producer. She takes time almost every day to write. Sometimes she can only find a few minutes while the baby is napping, sometimes it’s great stretches of productivity, but every day she has that same focus: I will try to write today. And this is on top of taking care of our family and holding down a job. Amazing.

So I’m giving it a shot. Every day I’m consciously going to consider what I’m producing and focus at least some time on doing so. My definition is fairly broad - writing, blogging, working with photos, designing sites, crafting insights and strategies for clients, etc. - but something that contributes.

Maybe this means I’ll blog more.

I’ve never played the lottery. Sure, I received a few scratch tickets as at birthdays when I was a kid, but that doesn’t really count. I’m just not a gambler. I’ve never been interested in Mega Millions, Poweball, or going to casinos. I don’t even make bets with friends on the SuperBowl or join in office pools.

Until tonight. I bought tickets for the $370 million Mega Millions game. Biggest prize in history. You’ve probably heard about it and bought at least on ticket yourself. What is that phrase used to market the lottery - you can’t win if you don’t play?

I was initially drawn in by a story on CNN about a man who played a previous big game in 2002 and who subsequently won, taking home over $85 million. He’s been investing the money wisely with the goal of becoming a billionaire in 10 years time and it sounds like he’s well on his way.

I realized I didn’t know anything about playing the lottery. It’s an experience I’ve never had and separates me from millions of other Americans. So I decided to play.

[Even our language about this is odd. You ‘play’ the lottery, not ‘risk your money’ or ‘take a chance’ even though the odds are well stacked against winning.]

I have no delusions about even winning the money I’ve spent on this. My chances were six times better of dying in a car accident on the 2-mile roundtrip drive to the store than winning the jackpot. The odds are 1 in 175,711,536 of winning the jackpot, and 1 in 40 of winning any prize at all.

Even with dim prospects at making any money from this I still consider it money well spent. This has been a new experience, something we have too few of in our daily routines. I enjoyed the time spent learning about the lottery on the web, discovering the “game winning strategies” market of books, DVDs, software and systems, learning about gambling statistics, and coming to understand the impact this can have on people’s lives.

The process of buying a ticket and interacting with other people at the sales counter was enlightening. It’s amazing that people with little or no discretionary income will spend their money on desperate hopes: a man behind me exclaimed that he had to win so he could pay his rent (making this and a pack of Marlboro’s a questionable use of $20). Most of the people at the counter were clearly in a lower-income bracket, or perhaps all of the rich people in Worcester came out in ragged clothes and dirty work boots tonight. I think it was the former. And I can’t say that this is the best way for these people to use their money or the best focus for their hope.

Would we be more concerned about state lotteries if a portion of the money didn’t go back to local towns for education and other needs? What if we didn’t call it ‘playing’ the game?

Even still I’m looking forward to the results. It’s actually kind of fun to ponder the possibilities. I know I’m going to lose. Probably.

Wikipedia Goodness: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mega_Millions

I used to be really athletic. I would run, cycle, and hike for hours each week. I was the healthiest person I knew.

I used to be great at managing my time and completing tasks. I could take on a ton of different things in a day and I had the energy and stamina to see them all through, and do a good (or great) job at each of them.

Neither of these are true, anymore.

After getting sick with Colitis and spending all of the time I did in the hospital (and the impact of the surgeries I underwent) my life kind of fell apart. Not in the traditional sense of losing a job, a spouse, or experiencing financial problem, but instead I stopped being the same person and doing things the same way.

It’s time to get back to who I used to be. I believe health is the key. So, starting this week, I’m going to do more than just walk and track my steps with a pedometer. I’m joining Bally’s and starting a vigorous exercise routine, complete with assistance from a personal trainer, and I’m going to redouble my efforts on nutrition.

I hope to do some great things with my life, and I have a lot of life left to live. This isn’t a post for sympathy, it’s a public declaration of intent.

I’ve just returned home from a long evening walk. Here on the East Coast of the United States, at this time in September, that means it’s dark. And, given that I walked through a park and the woods, it was eerily quiet.

Life isn’t usually quiet or dark - especially quiet. There’s traffic, TV, the phone, customers, co-workers, meetings, babies, etc., all making noise (be it foreground or background). My walk was different, it was quiet. I could hear wind in the trees. I could hear acorns falling through leaves to the ground. I could hear fish jumping in a nearby pond.

I freaked out. I’m sure the darkness had something to do with it.

The world around us isn’t quiet or dark, especially in cities and populated areas. It’s almost as if the entire history of the human race has been moving away from quiet and dark and towards loud and lighted.

If you get a chance you should try quiet and dark. I think it has potential and is vastly underrated, if unusual and uncomfortable.

I’m back from a long vacation - ok, long for me. It was only for one week, but I haven’t been away for that long since Kate and I went on our honeymoon in 2001. I know, that’s five years, and I was well overdue for some time off.

I didn’t check email or browse the web while I was gone. I didn’t even try to find anyplace with a ‘net connection to do so. When my cell phone rang I let it go to voice mail and only checked if the number was one I recognized as important. That’s when I had the cell on - about half of the time it was off.

We returned home today and I feel fantastic.

There’s an important connection here, and it’s a lesson I’m working hard to learn. Vacation is a great thing.

Most of the time our actions move us forward forward by inches, if that. Each week is an incremental advance over the previous week, and that’s good, because it’s steady progress that grows most individuals and organizations. But there are diminishing returns when you push beyond a certain point, and I had gone too long without recharging my batteries. I was getting over my rash a little bit, day by day, but it was slow progress. I was getting work done at the office, but only by putting in longer and longer hours to get the same number of tasks complete (or to complete *just one more task*).

This vacation was eye-opening for me. It was a game changer. I didn’t move forward by inches but by yards, both in terms of health and attitude. I feel so much better now: I’m more relaxed, more focused, more energetic, and best of all my rash is gone.

It’s not often we have a chance to move forward by leaps instead of lurches.

We all need to take more vacations.