hamza

Hamza’s Recommendations

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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.

Why You Should Unclutter, Play, and Keep Lists

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Here it is, your weekly fix of useful posts on everything from uncluttering (is that a word?) to the swine flu.

For the week ending Sunday, 03/05:

Enjoy.

Health, Simplicity, Procrastination and Goals

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It wasn’t easy compiling this week’s list of links/posts as there were way too many awesome articles swirling around the blogosphere to choose from, but here are the shortlisted six that are a must-read.

For the week ending Sunday, 26/04:

Leadership, Uncluttering, and Your Worst Enemy…

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Another week has gone by, and with another week comes another interesting list of posts that you should check out in your spare time.

Here are 5 articles worth reading for the week ending Sunday, 19/04.

Enjoy.

Best Kept Secret To Time Management – The Pareto Principle

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Often in life, regardless of your profession, you will struggle to find the balance between all your responsibilities/obligations/interests/hobbies. Too much to do. Too little time.

As a university student, here are things I see all too often. Some study too hard, so their social life takes a hit. Some work long hours at their part-time jobs to earn money, so their academic life takes a hit. Some spend way too much time with friends, so their finances/academics both get screwed over. You get the picture.

I have often found myself in situations where everyone around me would be studying for hours on end for an exam whereas I would be doing something entirely different. I would spend half the time on revision, yet still come out with similar results, was I smarter than the others? No. I was on to something. As I was flicking through some of my management textbooks earlier today, it turns out that there is a name for that “something”:

The Pareto Principle.

This principle put simply, states that for many events roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. In other words, most of the results you achieve are due to a small minority of your actions. Here are some real world applications of the Pareto principle that I’ve come across after some research:

  • 80% of your knowledge for an exam is likely to be gained from 20% of your total time spent on revision
  • 80% of your improvement in a sport will likely be achieved from 20% of your time practicing/training
  • 80% of your weight loss/muscle gain will be achieved by 20% of the time of you spend in the gym
  • 20% of your clients may give you 80% of your revenue
  • 20% of product defects/computer bugs cause 80% of the problems
  • 20% of your employees are likely to be the cause of 80% of the company’s total results/profitability

The rule can be applied to almost anything in life. The key is to identify, and really focus, on that 20% and ditch the rest to make space for other things in life. If something isn’t going to get done, something on your to-do list must slip, make sure it’s not part of that 20 percent. Work smart, not hard.

The Weekly Round-Up: An Introduction

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First post by our new contributor, Hamza:

How’s it going readers? Starting from today, I’ll be putting up a couple of links from around the blogosphere of articles that are either a must-read, extremely useful, or just plain interesting. These will of course be sticking to the themes of healthy living, productivity, business, personal finance, inspiration and life in general.

Without further ado, here are 8 interesting articles for the week ending Sunday, 12/04.

Stay tuned for the next weekly round-up!