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computer on a tidy desk |
Seinfeld's Productivity Secret |
Also called the “Don't Break the Chain,” this technique advises you to do a particular task every day at the same hour. Don't break the chain, and just do them daily. It can be difficult at first, but once you get the hang of it, you can block distractions and focus on what you need to do. After every task done, mark your calendar. This can motivate and remind you to stick to your routine. The longer you stick with the method, the easier it becomes a habit. |
The Pareto Principle |
Pareto efficiency states that 80% of a person's success comes from 20% of his efforts. This was derived by Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist that revealed that 80% of the land in his country was owned by 20% of its population. |
Businessballs explained how breaks from work are important part of the 80/20 rule. It keeps you motivated and energized to work harder. To be more productive, you can write your activities throughout the day and analyze if you are procrastinating more than you should. |
Mise En Place |
Ever wonder how chefs cook elaborate meals in just an hour or less? That is because they apply Mise en place in their work. This principle tells people to prepare all the materials you need in hand's reach to save time and effort. Mise en place improves focus, hence it boosts productivity and organization. |
Make your work station conducive to your productivity. Put computer, files, calculators, pens, and other materials readily available when you need them, so you'll spend more time doing the task than looking for items you need. |
Getting Things Done |
Based on the book of the same title written by David Allen, Getting Things Done (GTG) encourages you to put planned tasks out of the mind by writing them down and breaking them into more actionable items. The principle suggests that easier tasks should be done sooner while huge tasks must be divided into parts that are easier to finish. |
There is no ultimate productivity technique that can help achieve your goals in life. But applying one to your daily work habit, can improve your efficiency. They can be difficult to follow at first, but once you get familiar with them, they can improve your workflow and help you avoid stress. |
Pick a method of your choice and see if it works for you. If not, you can always tweak it to whichever way you think is more effective and comfortable to follow. |
Maddy Bertelsen, |
Maddy Bertelsen is writer and a blogger for an editing company that help students and job seekers. When not busy with work, she is always at home reading self-help books and biographies. |
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The One Ring: The Nameless Fellowship |
A Darkness in the Marshes: Part 3 |
Session 46 |
As the Company talk, they hear more horns sound in the mist-wreathed night. Orcs! Closing in on them, figures seen outlined in the mist by the weak moonlight. Lots of Orcs, heading their way. |
Hauling Walar to his feet, they head off across the marshland, intent on returning to Mountain Hall as swiftly as possible. Pushing on through the night and day, barely resting, the Company force march their way back to the river. Several times the Orcs draw closer, as they pursue (some four dozen, the Company guess), but they keep ahead of them. Alberic, guiding them back to Mountain Hall, lets his wondrous boots do the walking, and they find a path through the marshes easily. At the river, they find a place to ford, and uses some of Radagast’s Mirkwood Cordial to boost their spirits. Its medicinal properties give strength to a flagging Walar, and they push on. Once across the river, Gilthannas opens the Storm Bag that they were given, and within minutes a storm appears overhead, the rain and wind and lightning aiding the Company in their escape: they leave the Orcs behind, and after a couple of days hard-hiking through the rolling foothills, they reach the safety of the settlement… |
…or so it seems. As they approach, a line of bowmen meet them across the bridge, and they are ordered to come no further. Hartfast arrives, and accompanying him is none other than Magric the traitor. The Elder calls to them across the gorge: |
“You are not welcome here. Magric has told us about how you tried to murder him in the marshes. You are outlaws and Orc- friends! If I see you again, I shall have you put to death. Leave now and never return!” |
The companions tell him what happened, and send Walar forward to vouch for them and to tell him about the treachery of Magric. The traitorous guide is shaken, and a glint of a dagger catches the eye of the Elf. They shout a warning to Hartfast as Magric pulls out his blade; the old warrior shows why he still rules, when he stops the traitor with a powerful right-hook that sends the man sprawling. Immediately, two of the bowmen grab him. |
With a cold fury, Hartfast turns on his former guide, snarling: |
“How many of my people have you led to slavery? How long have you plotted with my enemies? Damn you! If it is gold that you want, then gold you shall have! Take him to the deepest part of the gold mine and wall him up in a side tunnel. Let the traitor live in the same darkness as his Orc-friends!” |
With the guide taken away, Hartfast offers the companions an apology and welcomes them to his hall. As Winter is now upon them, they are welcome to stay as long as they need, and if they have to return home, he’ll provision them for the journey. They accept his kind offer and are bedded down in a small house, where they stay for a couple of nights to recover from their forced march from the Gladden Fields. |
On their second night, they are awoken by Gilthannas, who has heard guttural voices outside. He peers out and sees several Orcs, one a large Orc, stealthily approaching. The rest of the Company quickly and quietly don their armour and grab their weapons. They ready themselves by the doorway, then Wilibald Took pulls open the door to allow Alberic, Dafydd Ap Alfred and the Elf to let loose with their bows, arrows plowing into the armour and hide of the lead Orc. He and two of the Orcs move out of sight, but not quickly enough, as Gilthannas gets another hit in on the lead Orc. One of the smaller orcs, a Snaga Tracker, lets loose with his own bow; the arrow strikes painfully against the Elf, but his armour prevents it piercing his flesh. Dafydd and Alberic take aim, and their arrows fly true: the two smaller Orcs still visible fall, dead. |
The large Orc and the two soldier Orcs smash their way into the house, through the wall and roof; but the companions simply rush outside, turning around and firing back into the house: another arrow grazes the large Orc, who now looks tired and frustrated; he bellows in rage and charges out, swinging his scimitar at Dafydd: the Barding stands his ground, grabbing his spear off the floor, and using the Orc’s own charge to impale the creature: it dies with a whimper. The others dive into the house, taking on the last two Orcs: Popo and Wilibald jointly take an Orc out, and Alberic deals with the last one as the Mountain Men guards arrive on the scene. |
3rd Blotmath, 2948 (Winter) |
The following morning, with the chilled North wind blowing hard, the Company bid farewell to Mountain Hall and head off back towards Rhosgobel. They first head to Stonyford, spreading the word about the Orcs in the marshes and the evil Spirit commanding them, then travel across the wide, frosty plaints to Woodland Hall, sharing news, then down to Woodmen Town, until finally they arrive at Rhosgobel, cold and wet from a downpour of sleet. They tell Radagast everything that happened, and then settle down for Winter to see out the end of the year. |
End of Session |
XP Awarded: 2 each |
The Company spend an End-of-Year Fellowship Phase and see out the Winter. |
theskyfullofdust theskyfullofdust |
Wednesday, 15 September 2004 |
Latham Cops An Endorsement |
One he didn't ask for, and one he'd rather do without. But nonetheless, it's there, and none of us can ignore it. From The Bulletin's interview with Abu Bakar Bashir : |
BULLETIN: What is Jemaah Islamiyah? |
BASHIR: There is no Jemaah Islamiyah. It literally means all groups of Muslims. It has been used by America to discredit me. My current position is being slandered by America and its allies. |
BULLETIN: How can Indonesia deal with this situation? |
BASHIR: The world and Indonesia belong to Allah. Therefore it should be ruled under Allah's law without bargaining. I believe that the clash of civilisations will continue but in the end, Islam will definitely win. It has been predicted by our Prophet Mohammad. |
BULLETIN: Is that because of a lack of knowledge of Islam by the West? |
BASHIR: No, they just do not want to understand. As long as the West do not want to live peacefully and always force Islam to change in line with its own interests, this clash will continue. Peace can only be achieved after Islams triumphs. |
[He is handed a recent copy of The Bulletin, with Mark Latham on the cover, and at first mistakes him for John Kerry, then is told it is the Australian opposition leader.] |
BULLETIN: What can he [Latham] do for Australia? |
BASHIR: He should be able to fix John Howard. He [Howard] is on the slide because he has been cheated and lied to by George W. Bush. I hope this person [Latham] can fix him and he does not return again to fight "terrorism" as defined by Bush. I agree to fight against terrorism but it should be a true terrorism and not in accordance with Bush's definition. Bush is being used by the Jews. The Jews are the most evil men in the world. John Howard has already been cheated. |
BULLETIN: What do you want to say to Australia? |
BASHIR: I suggest to the Australian people and government, if you all want to be safe and good, please try to embrace Islam because you are created by Allah for Islam. It's only now that you are being disturbed by demons. If you are still unwilling not to embrace Islam, do not follow the steps of George Bush. |
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Grad"u*a"ted (?), a. |
Marked with, or divided into, degrees; divided into grades. |
2. Zool. |
Tapered; -- said of a bird's tail when the outer feathers are shortest, and the others successively longer. |
Graduated tube, bottle, cap, ∨ glass, a vessel, usually of glass, having horizontal marks upon its sides, with figures, to indicate the amount of the contents at the several levels. -- Graduated spring Railroads, a combination of metallic and rubber springs. |
© Webster 1913. |
Posts Tagged ‘2 mins’ |
Just 2 mins |
Posted: June 10, 2009 in Br@!n Te@$er$ |
Tags: , , , , |
4 men are buried up to their necks in the ground. They cannot move so can only look forward. Between A and B is a brick wall which cannot be seen through. They all know that between them they are wearing 4 hats, 2 x black and 2 x white, but they do not know what colour they are wearing. In order to avoid being shot one of them must call out to the terorist the colour of their hat. If they get it wrong, everyone will be shot. They are not allowed to talk to each other and have 2 minutes to think. |
After 1 minute, one of them calls out. |
Question 1: Which one of them calls out? |
Question 2: What is the colour of his hat? |
This is not a trick question. There are no outside influences nor other ways of communicating. They cannot move and are buried in a straight line. So A & B can only see their respective sides of the wall, C can see B, and D can see B & C. |
If anyone can answer mail me.. If not i’ll update later.. |
Friday, November 17, 2006 |
Re-post: Ownership of space - Jan 05 |
From Thursday, January 06, 2005 |
A whole bucketful of rain has come through my roof now since this morning, which is going some. The ceiling looks OK; it's not bulging or anything, the water is just pouring straight through the flat roof where the plasterboards once met. It's not getting any better but I don't think it will collapse. I hope it doesn't: there are about 2000 books underneath for it to land on if it does. Hey, it's an indoor water feature. I always wanted one. (Be careful what you ask for..) |
So the other issue that I think about a lot, as well as how to get things done, is ownership of space, because it seems to me that this is a vital aspect of harmonious living. I'd like to extend a tenuous theory: that it's impossible for more than one person to share ownership of the same space. (I mean ownership in the sense of being in control of the space, as opposed to financial or legal ownership. If you feel confident of being able to move things such as furniture around in a room without feeling uncomfortable or being challenged by someone else, then I'd say you own that space in the way I'm talking about now.) If more than one person tries to share ownership of the same space, they'll always argue over it until one of them gives way and retires to the proverbial potting shed. |
The woman of the house, if she's striving for domestic perfection, like Bree in Desperate Housewives, is in danger of inadvertently depriving her family of personal space to control, and I think that having personal space to control is an essential element of happiness and good mental health. |
It's difficult for us mums, because babies are born not needing their own space and older children can often be very messy and untidy while they learn how to deal with their stuff. Teenagers and other adults can be even worse than that and it's harder for us to tolerate because we expect more from them. We women quite often feel responsible for the state of the whole house. The buck stops with us. Society judges us on the state of our home - all of it - and if it doesn't then we feel it does anyway and so the end result's the same. |
What can we do? If we don't clean and tidy all of the house, we're at risk of being thought negligent or slovenly and if we do clean and tidy everywhere we're depriving our loved ones of their essential need to be in control of their personal space. And shouting or nagging at someone to tidy their space counts as taking control for it too. If we're imposing our standards on someone else's space we're not allowing them to be in control of it. |
Letting go of space to my children has been a gradual process for me as they've grown up. Lyddie shares my room, and it's interesting to see that it's fast becoming her room. She has all of her toys in there , a little table and chairs, she decides whether to have the TV on and what to watch, turns lamps on and off as she likes and so on. If we're both in there (this happened earlier today) and someone knocks at the door she's the one to call "Come in!" - because it's becoming her space. I'm relegated to the more public areas of the dining room and kitchen in the daytime now. But in the evening when she's tired she reverts to babyhood and I move in and reclaim the space. The toys get put away, something more grown-up goes on the TV, the curtains are closed. Of course, we don't spend all of our time apart all day, she's often in here with me or I'm in there with her, but it's on sort of a visiting basis. So far, it works well for us. I'll know when she's ready to have her own room completely separate from mine. |
The older children are now pretty much in charge of their space. As I say, it's been a progression. When they were a lot younger I would go in and tidy up, but I'd try to do it while they were around and ask "Where shall I put this?" so that they got an idea about tidying up. If someone's room ever got really bad (which they often did on a 6-monthly basis) I'd ask whether they'd like me to blitz it for them, because it really is too big a job to completely blitz a room for anyone other than a healthy, mature adult. (I use the terms healthy and mature wisely. I've known quite a few adults who weren't either sufficiently healthy or mature enough to be able to successfully blitz a really trashed room.) Anyway, sometimes the child would tell me they didn't want their room blitzing, so I'd tell them to just let me know if they changed their minds, which they invariably did after a week or so to think about it. |
Now, the boys are pretty good at managing their space. I ask them if they want chambermaid service sometimes, when I realise I haven't washed any of their laundry for a few days or I'm short of coffee mugs and if they say no I respect that and maybe just ask for the cups or whatever back. I'd still blitz their rooms for them if they asked me. Ali had his done a couple of months ago. Tom doesn't want his done at all. Zara's room is an absolute tip right now and I'm quite keen to get in there and do it but she says she's happy to keep it that way for now, so I have to accept that. |
Ownership of space means you do all the jobs in the space, so as the only adult in the house I've always chosen to take charge of cleaning the communal rooms like the bathroom, kitchen etc. Also my philosophy of not controlling people means that if I think something needs doing, I have to either get on and do it or change my mind and be happy to leave it undone. So the washing-up is my job, for example, because I'm the only one who ever thinks it needs doing. I'm happy to do this because accepting that it's my job makes me feel good. Imagining it's someone else's job and they should do it how and when I think they should do it makes me feel resentful, angry and bad. This is quite easy when it's only my beloved offprings' dishes I'm washing. I think it would be more of a problem if another adult was involved. |
Sometimes I wonder how other people manage to share space and tasks. Maybe there are people in families, partnerships, teams and groups for whom this just isn't a problem. I wouldn't be surprised if this kind of thinking is just my own idiosyncrasy. |
Still raining. Getting dark. What a day. Roll on Summer. |
posted by Gill at 3:51 PM 0 comments |
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Wednesday, January 23, 2008 |
Yet another reason why I can't wait to get out of here |
I understand that getting into MIT early is a huge deal, and I guess it's pretty impressive, but sometimes I almost wish I hadn't told anyone about it. |
At first it was kind of cool and novel that people associated me with MIT, but now it's getting old. When someone can't figure out a calc problem the standard answer, "Go ask MIT." It's not because I'm especially good at math (to be honest, I'm probably in the bottom half of my calc class), but because somehow since I'm going to MIT it means I must have suddenly become a freaking genius. |
Any time I ask a silly question or mess something up, because I'm not quite perfect yet, I get snarky MIT comments and I know they're meant to be funny, but it's just annoying now. It would be nice if people could step back and realize that I still have a real name other than MIT (although on a sort of cool note, my name is Michelle Ilana so if I ever get married to someone whose last name starts with a T, my name really will be MIT. My physics class has already taken note of this fact and tried to pair me up with every person with a T last name). |
Yes, MIT is impressive and prestigious, but I'm still the same person that I was in November before I got accepted. I'm not suddenly more brilliant, more socially awkward, or less of a person. |
I can't wait until CPW and then next year, when nobody will say, "Hey MIT, how'd you miss that question?" because we'll all be MIT and it won't be alien or impressive, it will just be life. |
Will said... |
haha...You too?!?! |
I'm MIT(not the right initials :P) at my school...and's getting pretty irritating.For some reason they think it makes me some sort of super genius which I'm not. |
Marie said... |
omigosh, my classmates are always like "ohh gotta tell MIT on you for doing that, they won't want you anymore!" (jokingly of course) but yeah i make a lot of dumb mistakes so i get that a lot lol |
Rachel said... |
ugh, people are always giving me inane comments like "can you take the square root of this nine digit number in your head because you know calculus" or "why dont you have an A+ in history, you can solve a rubik's cube". |
Katie said... |
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