Reinke Faces Life

http://zenhabits.net/2007/09/key-question-how-much-is-enough

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Enough means having enough to live, and enough to be happy, and enough to thrive.

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When will I have “enough”?

A very tough question. Especially when the future is by definition “uncertain”.

This site always seems to challenge my thinking.

I call this a “productivity” tip because one must realize diminishing returns.

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http://ririanproject.com/2007/09/05/10-benefits-of-power-napping-and-how-to-do-it

10 Benefits of Power Napping, and How to Do It

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How Long Is A Good Nap?

# THE NANO-NAP: 10 to 20 seconds. Sleep studies haven’t yet concluded whether there are benefits to these brief intervals, like when you nod off on someone’s shoulder on the train.
# THE MICRO-NAP: two to five minutes. Shown to be surprisingly effective at shedding sleepiness.
# THE MINI-NAP: five to 20 minutes. Increases alertness, stamina, motor learning, and motor performance.
# THE ORIGINAL POWER NAP: 20 minutes. Includes the benefits of the micro and the mini, but additionally improves muscle memory and clears the brain of useless built-up information, which helps with long-term memory (remembering facts, events, and names).
# THE LAZY MAN’S NAP: 50 to 90 minutes. Includes slow-wave plus REM sleep; good for improving perceptual processing; also when the system is flooded with human growth hormone, great for repairing bones and muscles.

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Always seemed like a smart idea. But not in an american workplace.

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http://zenhabits.net/

May I suggest that this site is worth the investment of your attention?

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http://zenhabits.net/2007/09/simple-living-manifesto-72-ideas-to-simplify-your-life/

Simple Living Manifesto: 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life
By Leo on Simplicity

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7. Limit your communications. Our lives these days are filled with a vast flow of communications: email, IM, cell phones, paper mail, Skype, Twitter, forums, and more. It can take up your whole day if you let it. Instead, put a limit on your communications: only do email at certain times of the day, for a certain number of minutes (I recommend twice a day, but do what works for you). Only do IM once a day, for a limited amount of time. Limit phone calls to certain times too. Same with any other communications. Set a schedule and stick to it.

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Hmmm? Blogging and email.

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Lesson Learned: Carry some trash bags as a travel aid.

In my recent trek, we wound up some distance from the ice machine. If I had some grocery bags, I could have put one in my pocket and, upon returning to my floor, used it to bring ice back to the room. But, no I never thought of that, so I’d have to go to the room and trek back to the ice machine right by the elevator. That was at least five wasted trips.

In packing to go home, some big garbage bags would have been handy for the dirty clothes.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/31/nyregion/31vacation.html?em&ex=1188878400&en=85d48b525e1ab1fe&ei=5087%0A

At I.B.M., a Vacation Anytime, or Maybe None
By KEN BELSON
Published: August 31, 2007

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Some workplace experts say such continued blurring of the boundaries between work and play can overtax employees and lead to health problems, particularly at companies where there is an expectation that everyone is always on call.

“If leadership never takes time off, people will be skeptical whether they can,” said Kim Stattner of Hewitt Associates, a human resources consultant. “There is the potential for a domino effect.”

Frances Schneider, who retired from an I.B.M. sales division last year, after 34 years, said one thing never changed; there was not one year in which she took all her allotted time off.

“It wasn’t seven days a week, but people ended up putting in longer hours because of all the flexibility, without really thinking about it,” Ms. Schneider said. “Although you had this wonderful freedom to take days when you want, you really couldn’t. I.B.M. tends to be a group of workaholics.”

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(1) Leadership turns an expense (i.e., someone has to pay for the time not producing widgets) into a “benefit”. If you’re “entitled” to three weeks vacation but can not take it, then do you really have such a benefit?

(2) If a company’s leadership announce that vacations were being cut from three to two, then all manner of strife would break out. There are the Federal Labor Standards Act and innumerable state laws, and maybe even local diktats. SO in essence, the company is getting unpaid labor.

(3) White collar workers are so scared for “their jobs” that they can’t object. The team players that don’t go along with the gag, will be let go for “poor performance”. In the world of knowledge workers, standards of good and bad are very subjective.

(4) Leadership may be learning that people can drive themselves harder than any slave master’s overseer. At that point, there is very little difference between being in one’s own business and working for the man. The only difference may be in the individual’s perception of being on a big team and their self confidence in their abilities.

(5) What about fraud? There are banks with policies that mandate vacations. Some even specify end of quarter time periods. So that the “loyal employee who never takes a vacation” can’t cover an ongoing fraud.

Interesting how things silently change. Is our own productivity used to our detriment?

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http://www.populistamerica.com/ripple_and_ripley_effects

Ripple and Ripley Effects
August 7, 2007
by Clay Barham

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The Ripley effect, however, is a syndrome related to incompetence. The night nurse making her rounds illustrates incompetence. She wakes the patient at 2 AM to give him his sleeping pill. Thought never enters into the situation. It is that kind of thinking that pervades the halls of government, if you can call it thinking. It is associated with government because thinking is actually frowned upon and dangerous for the one who might do the thinking. It is always better to stick with instructions and the already established practice. Even better, avoid all thought and action by delays or further investigations and hearings.

This brings me to General James Ripley, Chief of Ordnance under Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. President Lincoln did not suffer from a condition of normal bureaucratic mental constipation, as has always been the dominant thinking process for civil servants and political appointees. When confronted by a builder of hot air balloons, one equipped to soar above a battlefield for observation, Lincoln ordered General Winfield Scott to try it. Reluctantly, Scott used one at the Battle of Manassas. The information provided by the observers helped the outnumbered Union forces win that battle. The Ripley Effect set in, however, and General Scott refused to use it again, though it proved useful. After all, it was NIH, not invented here, but by Lincoln.

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On display everywhere!

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http://thelibertarianforum.com/General/Minimum-wage-is-not-necessary.html

Minimum wage and other labor laws hurt the poor and aren’t necessary. Written by Omer Altay
Tuesday, 14 August 2007

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Minimum wage and other labor laws are aimed to protect workers and raise standards, but does that really happen? Minimum wage by definition creates unemployment. It eliminates every job that’s worth less than $5.15 an hour (the federal minimum wage). The fact is that a business is not a charity. If a business determines that a person’s labor is not worth $5.15 an hour, or whatever the local minimum wage is, they have no reason to keep that person employed. Paying the worker a bonus to meet the minimum wage would be charity work, and many businesses don’t have the finances or interest in such charity work, and will instead lay off the employee instead of raising their pay.

Minimum wage simply does not protect the worker at all, but instead, gets rid of every low skilled job that’s worth less than $5.15 an hour.

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So we have to be productive above the minimum wage. Businesses are not charities; nor are they tax collectors. Everything is passed along.

But who do we pass our costs along to?

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From an Early To Rise ezine

Learning From Saddam
By Robert Ringer

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Unfortunately, there is no foolproof way to avoid making The Big Mistake, but a method that I find works very well is what I refer to as “looking backward from the future.” Here’s how it works:

1. Project yourself into the future before you act.

2. Picture the worst possible consequences of your actions.

3. Pretend to look over your shoulder from the future – at where you are today.

4. If Step 2 is much worse than what you see in Step 3, you would be wise to rethink your plans. Put another way, if you’re not prepared to live with the worst-possible consequences of your contemplated action, take a pass.

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This may be another way of saying above and below the waterline.

Have to think about the two and compare.

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http://www.making-ripples.com/2007/08/are-you-ready-f.html

Aug 04, 2007
Are you ready for self-employment?

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One of the first things you discover when you shift from being an employee to being self-employed, is that your time is no longer structured. All of the reminders and nudges you used to get from your boss and co-workers now come from your own mind as it races to keep track of the obligations you have inadvertently stacked up for yourself.

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I’d make the observation that even if you are “working for the man”, as our Japanese friends call it “salaryman”, in today’s economy, you are “working for yourself”. While it may not look like it, you are. You have to be burning the candle at five ends, just as if you were working for yourself.

Whether you are satisfying a Customer in your own business, or you are satisfying a Colleague in someone else’s, it’s really just semantics. You need to be:

• delivering value to Customers or Colleagues;
• publicizing what you’ve accomplished without being a blowhard;
• anticipating your current Customer’s needs;
• maintaining your personal productivity in your “guild”;
• preparing for any shift or change in your “guild”; and
• managing ruthlessly your personal finances.

Let’s dive into the weeds, just a tad.

1. You retain value for yourself, regardless of whose business it is, by unleashing value in far bigger multiples that what you “cost”.
2. You must ensure that your “Customers” understand the value you create. And, you have to do it with panache.
3. You have to anticipate what your “Customers” need, want, and will want. In some respects, it’s hard because your Customers may not know what they need or appreciate you “looking out” for them.
4. You have to be continually improving your skill set. Last year’s records become today’s standards.
5. You can be achieving and anticipating, but if your guild shifts, you can’t allow yourself to be made obsolete. CICS systems programmers who missed the memo about Client Server computing. Blacksmiths have to shift to be car mechanics.
6. You are only assured of the last check you cashed. Your “burn rate” must not exceed your “earn rate”. Personally, my AT&T golden handshake became a decade later my seed money for my own business. Ruthlessly, you must have a cash reserve appropriate for how long it will take you to shift from “burning” to “earning”.

So, imho, it really doesn’t matter if your in your own biz, or not. Regardless if you know it or not, you are.

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