Aren’t smartphones great? Many people seem to think so since more and more of them own one these days. You can make phone-calls, send text messages, process your email, read the news, look up information, play games that are much cooler than Snake or check out the latest YouTube videos. Not only are they a fancy accessory that let you show off how cool, trendy and rich you are but the best part is you never have to miss out on anything again; you’re always connected and up to date! Great right? Nope,.. WRONG!

In love with gadgets

I have always loved gadgets and innovative technology. I loved owning the newest phones, game-consoles and PC’s that I could afford. Of course I liked the fact that people thought it was cool that I had that stuff but mostly I loved trying out what it could all do to enhance my life. But, as most things go, the novelty wears off and what’s left is “just another thing”. But somehow it’s different now…

Me being a little bit of a geek, I loved the features that have been appearing on the new mobile phones over the past years. How amazing to be able to get in contact with people wherever you are and, even better, wherever they are; (nowhere to hide anymore!) How great was it to take pictures and videos of random things you ran into while on the road? I really enjoyed the increasing connectedness and the ability to get in touch with friends in so many new ways. Recently however, I’ve noticed that this increased connectedness seems to be turning on me.

Always connected

Not only are we connected by phone-call, text-message and email, all the social networks have also crept onto your smartphone. Great right, now you can tell (random) people all the random things you encounter throughout your day, without the need to go home and fire up your computer. To be honest, I still thought this was pretty cool. But to be able to be updated about current (random) events in the world, the amazing tech-people introduced to world to…. Push messages! No more need to even fetch and open your messages, they just download themselves and open themselves right away! Can you believe it? Someone sent you an email or posted on your Facebook wall and you knew within 5 seconds. (*Quick! Reply! He/She is probably still online anyway because you noticed so fast!)

No more!

And this is where it started turning on me. People were starting to expect me to read every message they had sent me and reply instantly. Sure I could understand that because, truth be told, I used to like being able to do that.
However, I was working on a project a while back and had my phone lying on my desk (in silent mode). It was then that I started to notice HOW MANY TIMES I was actually interrupted from the actual work at hand by that annoying buzzing of the phone. *Bzzz.. Email* … *Bzz… Email* … *Bzz WhatsApp-message*,.. *Bzz*..*BZZ*..BZZ..BZZ..BZZ..BZZ.. ARRGH!

Mutany!!

I’m not sure why I never noticed before but since then I started to pay more attention to it and it started to scare me. My best gadget-friend had turned from something that used to enhance my productivity into something that was actually sucking the productivity out of my day. The possibility to browse the internet, watch videos and get in touch with people are already enough to consider your smartphone an enemy of productivity; It’s pretty much Procrastination-heaven waiting in your pocket. But as long as it’s in your pocket and shuts up, I can deal with that temptation. However, thanks to the brilliant technicians our smartphones are now push-messaging their way out of our pockets.  (Next-stop, Procrastination-heaven!)

Fighting back

Thank goodness I still remember that I am supposed to be in charge of my life (and pants) and I decide what deserves my attention. So what I did was: I remembered what it was I thought was so great about my smartphone. It was the ability to access people and information anywhere, at will. And I guess the magic is in the “AT WILL” part. Everything was perfect until the phone started thinking it knew better than me, and this started me flooding me with things that were supposed to be interesting and required my immediate attention.

I guess my smartphone got a little bit too smart for my (and eventually its-) own good. I decided to remove all push-functionality from my phone. Whenever I want to read my email, I’ll just open the application and wheel it in. I did the same for my Facebook and twitter apps, although I’m even considering removing them completely. (It’s harder to procrastinate on social networks if they’re no longer installed) The only push-functionality I left in place is WhatsApp, since it works just like a normal text message.

Wrapping up

I’m really happy with the choices I made to take a technological step back and dumbed down my smartphone a bit. All the good stuff is still there but I decide when it gets my attention instead of it screaming for mine.
Having messages buzzing and beeping for your attention is a real killer for your concentration and thus your productivity. Take a moment to decide if you really need to get all that pushed information right now or if it can just wait until later. Some of it can wait until you get home, some of it can wait until you completed your to-do list or perhaps until you’re on the bus/train/metro.

Don’t let your phone outsmart you into broken concentration and procrastination, show it who’s boss!

This just came by on the radio and I felt compelled to share it with you:

————————————————–
Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’99
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be
it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by
scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable
than my own meandering experience… I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind;
you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded.
But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and
recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before
you and how fabulous you really looked….You’re not as fat as you
imagine.

Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as
effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum.
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind;
the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing everyday that scares you. Sing!
Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…
the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.
Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults;
if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life…
the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives,
some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.
Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.
Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children,maybe you won’t,
maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…
Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either –
your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it,
it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own..
Dance… even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.
Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.
Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.
Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good.
Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on.
Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get,
the more you need the people you
knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard;
Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.
Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander,
you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable,
politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders. Don’t expect anyone else to support you.
Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse;
but you never know when either one might run out.
Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you’re 40,
it will look 85. Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it.
Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal,
wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

…But trust me on the sunscreen…
————————————————

Taken from the following song: Baz Luhrmann – Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)

I’ve heard it quite some times in the past but never truely paid attention to the message it held. I’m glad I did today!

Really, why is it?
If you’re anything like me you’ve probably seen numerous blogs and tons of articles on the subject of realising, finding, discovering, or even re-discovering your passion. Everyone is looking for happiness in their life; doing what they love surrounded by the people who’s company you enjoy. And in order to achieve this goal you’ve at least to know what it is that you love to do, right? No wonder that so many people have written (and are still writing, like me) about this subject; Everyone is trying to figure this out, making your audience huge!
How come then, that with so many people writing about the subject most of us are still looking for it? There are tons of great tips out there, but somehow we’re still looking for our passion. Every once in a while I tell myself: “It can’t possibly be this hard!?! I know what I like to do right? I should know what I enjoy doing or what energizes me?!” It turns out that, for me, it doesn’t seem to be that simple after all. Great, right? pff..

Mental meltdown

Back when I was a fulltime student I wasn’t paying too much attention to this whole “passion-thing”. I just had some classes to attend, some assignments to hand in and some house-work to manage but apart from that I was completely free to do what I wanted. Whenever I felt like going and have a beer with mates downtown, I would. When I felt like swimming, renting a canoe, go running, play world of warcraft (yes, I confess ) I would.
But now that university life is over and you have a “career” to consider, it suddenly seems to be a lot more complicated. The time of “just doing it” seems to be over and every decision tends to move towards internal conflict; “I should do it because..”, “No, wait! What if this happens?”, “How will that effect the future?”, “Does it pay enough”, “Am I not sacrificing too much?” – …. Mental meltdown….
Suddenly everything is supposed to be an exact science with fixed variables like payout, growth potential, distance from home, working hours and joy doing it.

Variable?

Did you see it happen? Joy is now nothing more then a variable in the equation of picking a carreer. A variable means exactly that, it’s variable; you are allowing it to vary in relation to the other factors involved. Why on earth is joy suddenly a variable instead of a constant? Could it be that people are often dissatisfied with their work (and possibly life in general) because they let joy become a variable instead of a constant factor in their life? I think that may very well be the case!
In fact, isn’t that what doing something that you’re passionate about feels like? When you are working on your passion, joy is a constant not a variable. Pursuing your passion results in constant joy, con-stant.

Then what it is?

So is swimming my passion? No, I just enjoy it once in a while. Was world of warcraft my passion (I don’t play anymore), no it wasn’t because I didn’t constant joy from it. Sometimes it even drained me and caused frustration; definitely not a passion. I should really ask myself what it is I never get bored with, what has kept me fascinated for years without boring me. Not just something I like occasionally, but something I love constantly.
My search continues,… but now with better defined terms.

I’ll keep posting on the progress in this area. But I’d also like to know what’s your passion, how you realised it what it was and if you have any tips for others. Please leave a comment and help others out by sharing your experiences!

Until next time, keep moving forward!

Good morning everyone. Most of you will still be asleep at the moment I’m writing this. So why on earth am I awake then? Well, to be honest, my girlfriend had to catch a train at 5:45 so I can’t pretend I didn’t do this entirely on purpose. But I just felt compelled to share something with you that I’m experiencing at the moment.

I had gotten up, showered and eaten breakfast by the time it was 5:30, in order to get my girlfriend on her way on time. And then I started realizing that I was completely wide awake and feeling energetic over 1.5 hour before I normally set my own alarm.
This is great! While the world is still sleeping I’m already up and about, able to do things! Steve Pavlina has written some great stuff about how to become an early riser, but this must be what he was actually talking about. Not so much waking up and getting yourself in motion but the actual feeling of wanting to take on the world even before you’d have normally set your alarm.

What to do with this extra time?
Off course I can’t do everything before 7AM like vacuum-cleaning, play loud music (neighbors) or go shopping for that matter. Yet, I can still get started on things I would have normally done during daytime. Or, even better; Things that I would have wanted to do during the daytime but can’t, due to the fact that I’m at work then. (Like writing this blog for example)

What would you do if you had 1.5 of extra time each morning? Shower longer or get started on work early? Go outside and run for 30 minutes or catch up on a tv-show you’ve missed? Whatever you do, it’s just great to be able to do so, right?

Will Smith on Work-Ethic: “While the other guy’s sleeping,… I’m working”

As you may have seen on twitter, I’ve been reading the famous (maybe close to legendary) “The 4-Hour Workweek” by Timothy Ferriss. I won’t turn this post into a book review so I’ll just keep it short: It’s a truly inspiring book that changes the way you look at jobs, making money, vacations and retirements and pretty much the entire way you live your life. I truly recommend reading this to broaden your horizon and give yourself a glimpse of how great your life could be. Just go read it and convince yourself.

Now back on topic; what did it leave me with after reading?
Even while reading it I noticed myself getting inspired and fired up to take inventory of my life. I started examining the things I was doing that I never really questioned. Naturally there were some that I already noticed before but it got them back in the spotlight.

Cultural Malware
For example; something that I spoke to Toomas about at our Dutch/Belgian bloggers “meetup” a few weeks back. People seem to have a cultural program running that makes them feel obligated to work their asses off for about 40-to-50 years in order to be finally retire when they reach the age of 65. Actually, I wouldn’t even call this a program that we’re running. A program is something that enables us to do something-, that adds some form of value. Now that I’m thinking about this, it’s probably call this a piece of “cultural walware”. (Malicious software that enables other “evil” people to take advantage and-/or control of your computer to use it for their own advantage)
Isn’t that strangely close to the truth? Going to work every day, performing tasks appointed to you by your direct supervisor. Of course you’re getting paid for it, but essentially you’re working to increase your boss’s income. Someone is (ab)using and-/or controlling your time to their own advantage.

The 4-hour workweek brought back to my attention that it’s perfectly okay to question the concept of a job as a whole. A job is not an obligation, it’s a choice! Just like everything else in life, it’s a choice and you are completely free to pick the answer. If you feel fine with the concept of a 9-to-5, providing you with the money and stability you crave, that’s perfectly fine. But it’s just as fine to feel confined by the 9-to-5 concept and crave more freedom to choose how you spend your day.

Passive income & outsourcing
Something that Steve Pavlina has written out plenty of times before is the concept of passive income. Essentially it is the idea of receiving money for value that you provide, but that is no longer directly tied to time you put in. Things like royalties on books or music that you’ve created for example. The same goes for ad-revenues if you run a successful website. I’ve always been fascinated by this concept because, if arranged well enough, it completely eliminates the need for location dependant work. It provides a state where your financial state is no longer directly tied to the maximum of 24 hours that you have to spend per day.
Timothy Ferriss introduces “Muses”, companies that you set up to run as automated as possible, generating income for you. He provides several real-world examples of these and gives tips on how to create your own. A large part of these muses revolves around stripping things down to the bare essentials and then outsourcing the remaining work as much as possible. This really got me thinking about the things I do on a weekly basis. Which parts of my work do really rely on my personal unique qualities to get done and which parts could I potentially get someone else to do? The internet really enables miraculous things for those that are willing (and perhaps daring) to dive into them. 4 euro’s an hour might not great pay in The Netherlands or Belgium, but people on the other side of the world would gladly work for that reward. Why would you do the same work for i.e. 15 euro’s an hour if you can get yourself a virtual personal assistant to do it for you for 5 euro’s an hour? The results: Either you do nothing and still get the 10 euro premium each hour or you decide to focus on other tasks to increase the value you provide to your company. (Yes, you can even do this is you have a boss)

I’m currently exploring the possibilities the many concepts in this book can provide me with, since I touched only a few in this post. Without a doubt there’s more to come!

As you may or may not be aware of, I started a new job at the beginning of February. It’s great to meet new people, face new challenges and have some more money to spend on nice things. Apart from that, one of the things that also comes with working in a large organization is email. And as it turns out, lots… and lots of email.

The Tom sawyer effect
I’m not sure you are familiar with the term but I do assume you’ve heard of Tom Sawyer before. The Tom Sawer principle originates from a scene where Tom is ordered to paint a fence white. Tom wasn’t particularly fond of doing work of any kind so he found a way to get out of it. He started projecting the idea onto passing people that painting that fence was actually a lot of fun. Yet, when they asked them if they could have a go at it, he promptly refused. Eventually people started paying him for the privilege of painting the fence.
Yes, Tom turned something that was boring work to him into something others would actually pay to be able to do. He essentially managed to turn a task into a privilege, work into play.

The Tom Sawyer principle can also be seen in many other situations in life but also in reverse. For example, extremely wealthy people that like to drive a horse and carriage for fun in their spare time. However, as soon as someone would offer them money to take them somewhere it completely took all the fun out of it and turned it into work. As soon as their fun turned into work, they lost all interest. (There is some fascinating research done on this, from kids to adults that is worth checking out)

Back to Email:
Do you remember when you first got to use email? I thought it was amazing! Even though I didn’t have that many people to send emails to in the beginning, simply because it wasn’t widely adopted, just the thought of communicating this fast across enormous distances felt awesome to me! The more people started using it, the higher its value of email became, as is with any network. Email was fun to use! Now queue the office…
In offices, email has started taking over people’s schedule. It’s often no longer a tool but an objective: “Get through all your email today”. There are now tons of freelance consultants making money on teaching people how to cope with this seemingly endless flow of incoming emails clogging up their day and annihilating their productivity.
Luckily I’m aware of this problem and intend not to become a victim of it.

But sadly, I am starting to become a victim of the Tom Sawyer effect. Email, once fun to use, is turning into work. I get dozens of emails to read. Ever since the CC-box was invented, so was the “FYI” (for your information) email. Since it’s so easy to send messages, documents etc around your colleagues automatically assume you can (and want to) read everything they send you.

Alarm bells ringing
Last week I found myself experiencing my inbox as a burden for the first and almost freaked out! Just one paragraph earlier I stated that I wasn’t going become a victim of letting my day be dictated by my inbox. From that moment on I took it upon myself to just clean my inbox as fast as I could, preferably using the “delete” button. (If you’re looking for a great time-saver, that key could become one of your best friends, I assure you.)
I’m glad I almost freaked out because it gave me a timely wakeup call. Stop sending useless emails, stop CC’ing people to make them think they are either important or to “prove” you are actually working during office hours. If you recognize yourself doing one of these things, you’re contributing to the flood of email. Just,… stop it!

Wrapping up
Realise when you’ve let yourself be tempted into turning something that used to be fun into work (or worse). Then take action to take back control of the situation. Take simple steps, start today! In the case of email, it’s simple: Just send less of it, to less people and only when it actually serves a purpose.

Living life can be tough at times, we’ve all been there at a certain time. Sometimes it’s a little setback, other times it just seems like you’re fighting an up-hill battle. You’ve got tons of things to keep in mind and take care of in order to make your life run smoothly. And let’s be honest, we always get through the tough times and navigate our way back into calmer waters. And this is just your life, one life. Imagine how tough it would be if you’d be living two lives!?

You might say: “Two lives, that’s rediculous. Nobody does that”. But actually you may pretty well be doing so without even noticing it anymore.

Multiple lives?

You know how people always tell you to “just be yourself”? Do we even know what “being yourself” means to begin with? Some us play so many roles that it’s easy to get lost in realising who you really are. You can behave one way around your highschool buddies and behave another way around they people working with you at the office. You can act like father or a child, a friend or a lover. It’s easy to let these roles drift apart and having them develop into lives of their own. The roles you play in life start turning into different personalities of you that are no longer compatible with the others. (Imagine mixing a night with your college buddies and your collegues; you’re used to act in two completely different ways)

The birthday dillema

I remember a couple of years ago I wanted to celebrate my birthday. At the time I had several groups of friends that were just “different” from one-another. I got along great with all of ‘m, a part of me felt comfortable with each of the groups but putting them together in one room wouldn’t be the best idea. So, in order to celebrate with all of them I ended up celebrating my birthday 4 times that year, three nights with different groups of friends and one day with my family. In retrospect, it was rediculous! I liked all these people yet I wasn’t showing each of them the complete picture of me, I was just showing them one side of me.

Putting your personal puzzle back together

The birthday-issue was a real eye-opener for me at the time. I realised how much time, energy and even money I was putting into playing these different roles. I was trying to juggle the different pieces of me instead of putting together the pieces and “being” them as a collective. Using a metaphore: “A completed jigsaw puzzle is much nicer to look at then a heap of its pieces”.  So why not show people the pieces after you put them together, the complete you. Even though it will take a bit of courage to show them something you fear may put them off, they payoff will be much greater. You can focus your energy on living just one life instead of splitting it. Focus all that power into the one life and prepare for some amazing things to happen to you, enjoying your reclaimed freedom to express yourself as you are.

Now go out, complete your puzzle and focus your power to enhance your life!
(And follow me on Twitter)

Doesn’t that sound familiar? I bet many of your parents told you this when you were kids. You should be happy that you were born into a society that has all these conveniences because there were so many people around the world that had it so much worse then you did. And it makes sense right? Why the h*ck should you be complaining about “needing” a new mobile phone when someone across the globe is struggling for food and clean water.

Nevertheless, I’m going to go out on a limb here now by saying that perhaps your parents weren’t completely right with their statement. Maybe you did choose where you were born after all. For the ones born into considerable wealth (as compared to third-world standards) it’s a giant stretch to even consider that someone would choose to live a life of hunger and poverty. But just try to let that go a minute and consider the following:

Experience
If you are here to experience things, learn and grow from them to become a more complete being, wouldn’t scarcity be an experience you would need to have had to consider yourself a complete being?
I don’t mean to say you shouldn’t wish people a better life and try to help them achieve this. What I’m saying is that you should realize that everything is a choice. The place you are, but also the place you are going. You can decide to live in poverty and experience that, or face the challenges that come with climbing out of poverty. The experience is for every human being to choose.

Just decide!
So take the important part from your parents’ message: “Do not complain”. Complaining doesn’t change anything. If you are not satisfied with something, just choose something else; just decide! But don’t be afraid to face the challenges that that decision brings. You don’t manifest things, you manifest opportunities to obtain them; it is up to you to reach out and grab ‘m!

I hope you enjoyed this spiritual growth snack and until next time!
Follow me on twitter!

Somewhere between breakfast and lunch there is a point where you may start to feel drowsy. Especially if you’re a modest break-fast eater like me, you might be bothered by a productivity dip around 11AM. Personally, I hate ‘m because they’re interfering with my plans for the day.

When you run out of fuel and get stranded on the side of the road, you call triple-A. Instead, a lot of people (especially office workers) call upon Triple-C: Coffee, more coffee and yes… even more coffee. Probably not the best thing you can do for yourself, even though it might get you through another 30 minutes or so. To stay with the car-metaphor, don’t put stuff in your tank you know is going to ruin your engine. You know well enough what your human-engine runs best on.

So if you’re a modest breakfast-eater like me, be sure to bring some decent fuel with you to your workplace. I’m not saying you should whip out a banana while you’re giving a business presentation, but having some fruit instead of coffee will keep your mind just as sharp.

Now get back to work