Jim and I have been going on big trips ever since we got married almost 28 years ago. Most of our traveling has been in the US, but we’ve now made three international trips together. Back in the summer of 2018 we spent a blissful three weeks in France to celebrate our 25th anniversary (one year late). I was struck with a number of tips and ideas that don’t show up in regular travel books or are given a slant with which I don’t agree. So I decided to write a brief travel book of my own, spelling out some of these unconventional ideas. Jim has recently revised it and gotten it up as an e-book on this site and as a paperback and Kindle edition on Amazon. I’d encourage you to get a copy if you’re planning any type of trip, even if you’re not going to Europe. My emphasis is on that area because that’s where we’d just gone, but my ideas are widely applicable. There’s an appendix with tipping info for most of the countries in Europe; I don’t have anything about tipping in, say, Japan, but that’s the sort of thing that’s easily accessible online. Who’s going to tell you, though, to:
Tools
A Timely Update
I wrote last week about the author Laura Vanderkam and her ideas on time management. She has a three-part series of short e-books that offer great ideas. I’d already read “What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast,” and when I went onto her site last week I noticed this one, which I bought for about $3 through Audible.com. (I’m an Audible member and pay a monthly membership fee of $12.95–something like that–but since these short books are only about $3 it’s not worth it for me to buy them with my credits,, so I just bought it directly.) I also bought “What the Most Successful People Do at Work,” also for around $3. And then I realized that I needed to listen to her book 168 Hours: Why You Have More Time Than You Think, which I did buy with an Audible credit. (My Audible credits are stacking up, so I need to use them.) The link to her website above will give you ordering info on all of her books.
A Nifty–And Free–Tool
My first attempt to do a screenshot! It’s a bit blurry, but I think you get the picture. (In a manner of speaking.) This view is of the homepage of the website called “TomatoTimer.com,” which is an online timer that incorporates the principle of something called “the Pomodoro Technique.” Again, as with so many great ideas and websites, I have no idea how I got onto this. I have a vague memory of its being mentioned in a YouTube video. Anyway, there’s a whole cottage industry (books, an actual little tomato-shaped timer, etc.) around the very simple idea of working for 25 minutes, taking a 5-minute break, then working another 25 minutes, and so on.
Unconscious Consumption
Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More than We Think by Brian Wansink, Ph.D., Bantam Books, 2006, new editions available along with new resources. Check out Dr. Wansink’s website at mindlesseating.org. You can even get a free refrigerator magnet!
I can’t believe that I haven’t written about this book before now. There are later editions, but I made sure to use the cover image from the version I have because I love the use of the pitchfork and shovel as eating implements. Once you read this book (read this book!) you will never again think that we eat only because we’re hungry.
How a two-hour class . . .
. . . added to my happiness.
I’m often reminded about the necessity of pressing on with our plans and resolutions in spite of our inability to fulfill them perfectly. What keeps us going, though? Where does the motivation come from? We often think that bawling ourselves out and heaping on the blame will work, but those methods are counter-productive. What does work? Inspiration. “I have to do this or else” has to become “I get to do this. I want to do this.”