I wait for, and read with great interest, Hamza’s weekly recommendation of reading material. Here, I have expanded parts of few of last week’s recommendations:
From Uncluttered Aphorisms:
- The less you own, the less you have to clean. This applies to quantity of objects as well as square footage in your home.
- One in, one out. If you buy something new, you need to get rid of whatever it’s replacing.
- If you get it out, put it back. An especially great rule to implement to keep your home and office orderly.
- Guilt is not a reason to keep something. This one is self explanatory.
From 9 Lists to keep Updated:
Gift Ideas list: If I think of something that would be a great gift for a person I might some day buy a gift, I write down something like “Mom – Rollerblades”. That way, when my Mom’s birthday comes up and I realize I haven’t been paying attention for a whole year, I’ve got some backup ideas. This one, more than all the other lists here, has come in handy over and over in my life.
Watch, Read, Listen List: Another critical one for me, as a music and movie junkie. If a movie gets suggested to me, or I’m told I absolutely have to hear a particular band, they go on the list. If I have some time, I’ll go through the bands and see if there’s anything good. If I’m in need of another book, I try to pull one from my list rather than just reading whatever is nearby. These lists are populated by friends, blogs, and any other source you can think of, and they’ve provided me with a ton of great movies, music, and books.
Mush Panjwani 
Hi
Usually when I’m waiting for something to download etc., I quickly flick through the recommended articles in Hamza’s list and I was going to suggest (but it seems that Mush has beaten me to it) that Hamza also provides just a few “tasters” of the gist of the articles. While some article titles are self-explanatory, however, sometimes a blurb is often necessary to entice one to read further. Another recommendation would be to settle on a particular theme like EFFECTIVE TIME MANAGEMENT or DECLUTTERING(I’m still not sure about UN-cluttering) or MAKING LISTS etc. I find it sometimes disconcerting to read about varying subject matter at one go. Lastly, when I accessed the links to some of the articles, I reached short excerpts of these articles and had to further “click” to access the article in its entirety – perhaps a link to the real thing straightaway? Once again, thank you Hamza for taking the time to suggest these lovely reading gems. I really enjoyed the one about the lists as I’m a visual learner and can’t visualise life without my ever-faithful moleskin and pen. My favourite list? I have a list of the months and days of the year with each person’s (whom I know well like staff, client, friend or family) birthday recorded. Every week I check this list and post a simple birthday card with a handwritten message to the person – sometimes it is the only pleasant surprise they received for their special day. And Hamza, dare I say it – the electronic greeting card is a definite no-no!!!
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Hi Vijay,
Glad you enjoyed the articles. Cheers for the suggestions. I’ve always thought about adding a little blurb under each link, but being a university student, I often find myself writing these weekly posts at ridiculous hours of the morning frantically trying to meet the deadline I’ve set myself. Will try and incorporate blurbs in the future though. I always try to give direct links to the main page of the articles but I’m sure some indirect ones must have slipped through, thanks for pointing that out. As for the settling on a particular theme – I read on a wide variety of topics that pique my interest, and feel that variance keeps things a little more interesting as someone is bound to find something that’s particularly useful to them. Plus they’re only so many articles one can read on making lists before things start to get a little dry 😉
I’m quite impressed with your birthday list and habit of sending handwritten messages by post – if only more people did that we would get rid of electronic greeting cards altogether, I detest them with a passion. Last one I sent was probably when I was 9 and even then it seemed like a bad idea.
– Hamza
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