Author Dwayne Melancon is always on the lookout for new things to learn. An ecclectic collection of postings on personal productivity, travel, good books, gadgets, leadership & management, and many other things.
OK, so this happened a while back, but I just remembered it during a conversation with my mother who's visiting us this week.
At one of our family reunions, I saw an uncle I hadn't seen in about 10 years. He'd gone completely bald since the last time I saw him.
Me: "Hey - what happened to your hair?
Uncle John: "It's the strangest thing - one day I woke up and my forehead went all the way to my ass."
I'll keep that line --I just might need it one day.
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After reading an article from the Nov. 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, I wanted to get a pedometer that I could use every day. You see, the study says that people who use a pedometer to track their daily steps tend to increase their step count by about 2400 steps per day. I guess it's one of those "That which gets measured gets improved" situations.
Trouble is, I didn't want to hang some funky pedometer on my belt (most pedometers I've seen are either too bulky or gaudy for me to want to wear them every day). I still haven't found a "businesslike" pedometer, but I've found the next best thing: the ThinQ Pocket Pedometer from Sportline. This is designed to fit in your pocket (I find it works great in either your pants pocket or shirt pocket).
It seems about as accurate as my older, geekier pedometer and it is very unobtrusive. The ThinQ also has a clock, a stopwatch, and calculates the distance (be sure and set your stride length for more accuracy) and estimated calories burned through walking.
The ThinQ comes in blue, orange, and green and you can get it on Amazon, and it is on sale at the time of this posting through REI.
By the way - the AMA article also suggests 10,000 steps as a good goal for most people. Walk on, everyone.
Read MoreThanks to my dear friend Rosa, I have been reading a great post from Web Worker Daily on "Getting Things Done (GTD) for Bloggers."
As the name implies, this article is an adaptation of David Allen's Getting Things Done, geared toward bloggers. I think it does a fantastic job of mapping GTD activities to the tasks of blogging. I'm tempted (but maybe not that tempted...) to produce such a mapping for my "day job," too.
Innate or acquired productivity?
As I reflected on this, I was wondering: how much of productivity is learned, and how much is wiring? I have three children, and they each approach organization and planning in very different ways. My youngest is a natural listmaker and planner. For example, this past weekend, she had a sleepover at a friend's house. The Sunday before, she had her bag packed and had created a little sign that she put on top of her bag, reminding her to put her toothbrush, toothpaste, and her favorite stuffed animal in the bag before going to her friend's house.
She's only 7 but she is by far the most "together" member of the house - and this is all stuff she picked up on her own.
So, what do you think? I consider myself to be productive, but not naturally so. I've learned some tricks and techniques to help with organization, but I must work at it to stay with the program - what have you observed in your own life?
Read MoreA couple of days ago, I posted a review of one of the most re-read books on my shelf: Thick Face, Black Heart by Chin-Ning Chu.
Click on the banner above and check it out. You'll also find a fantastic book-a-day review cycle going on, all part of Joyful Jubilant Learnings annual "Love Affair With Books" - enjoy!
Read MoreOk, so my birthday is coming up in a few weeks and I know what I'm going to start hinting at - this awesome Bluetooth accessory for my mobile phone!
Yep - that's a Bluetooth handset for use with a mobile phone, courtesy of Thinkgeek. I would love to walk around talking on that thing!
What? You say your phone doesn't have Bluetooth? No problem - Thinkgeek has you covered there, too:
.(And no -- this is not an April Fool's joke!)
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