When my wife worked in the ER of a large county hospital in Dallas, she saw a lot of very strange cases. One of the most interesting was the guy who came in with his eyes closed. Evidently, his wife had accused him of looking at other women and they got into a fight. Somehow, he decided that he could prove that he wasn’t looking at other women by super-gluing his eyes closed. (I am not making this up.)

After the glue dried, he began to think it wasn’t such a great idea and got some people to drive him to the emergency room. My wife said the doctors and nurses laughed at him for a while and then gave him Vaseline to rub in his eyes.

Petroleum will break down super glue, so you can easily remove it with gasoline. However, a less flammable and less dangerous solution is to use Vaseline to rub the hardened glue off your fingers.

Originally published December 4, 2007.

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Just the other day, a friend of mine was let go (along with all the other employees) at a business where he had been working for the past several years. The sad part is that, he had several offers over the past few months for jobs that he really wanted to take, but he decided to stay out of loyalty to his current company. His commitment to his employer turned out to be detrimental.

I have seen people invest their best work years at a company that suddenly decided to shut down. I’ve seen others invest 10 years helping a non-profit grow through very tough times while taking a very low salary only to be ousted by management once their 10 years of hard work were starting to pay off.

My point is this. You need to invest in something that you control if you want to benefit from the cumulative benefit of your years of work. Many people think that starting their own business is risky. It is true that many businesses fail. However, working for someone else’s business as an employee isn’t any safer. It just means you have less control over your future.

Originally published July 26, 2007.

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1. Television – It is very easy to lose a few hours mindlessly flipping through channels on the remote. For many people, a subscription in something like NetFlicks will provide a ready source of entertainment without dealing with commercials.  Also, with watching a specific movie, you have a definite end point, unlike channel surfing that can go on for hours.
2. Commute – Especially with an hour commute, it is easy to lose weeks worth of time each year, one day at a time. You may not be
   able to do away with your commute entirely, but you can at least put your travel time to good use by listening to lectures or even making phone calls to keep in touch with family.
3. Internet Browsing – The internet can be a powerful tool, but it is easy to slip into channel-surfing mode and waste time, just like using the television. Using RSS readers and bookmark tools can help you focus your browsing to help you acquire information, not simply pass the time.
4. Being Tired - A lot of times we operate well below our capabilities because we are tired.  By going to bed when we are tired and getting up when we are rested, we can put more concentrated effort toward things that are really important to us. Allowing our body to sleep when it is tired keeps us from wasting time trying to perform when we are physically unable to operate at our full potential.
5. Lack of Skill – Attempting to do things where we lack the skill or knowledge is a huge waste of time.  This isn’t to say that it is bad to try to learn new things, but attempting to change the plumbing in your basement without spending the proper amount of time investing in your own education about the process is a recipe for disaster. There are some times where doing it yourself can be the most expensive option in terms of time and money.

Originally published December 5, 2006.

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1. What time does the mail come? I still prefer reading a newspaper.  Most newspapers are delivered via the postal service now, so I let my last two subscriptions expire because the mail didn’t come until late in the day.  We just moved to a new house, and the mail comes at 9:30–much more convenient for reading financial news.
2. How many minutes is it from the nearest grocery store? It isn’t a bad idea to time how long it takes to get to the places you plan to go on a regular basis.  Just because a house is physically closer, it doesn’t mean that it will take less time to get there.
3. What types of internet access are available? For me this is a big one.  Not only is it important to know what services you can get, but you also need to make sure you know what speeds are available.  For example, DSL speeds drop off dramatically as you get further away from the connection point.  Cable connections can be much slower if you are in an area that is highly saturated with users.  Ideally, you want a place with two options, so if one doesn’t work out or suddenly raises their prices, you can switch to the other. (Oh, and don’t just assume you can use satellite unless you’ve actually tried it.  I have, and would prefer to never use it again.)
4. Where are the nearest train tracks? We had a house a few blocks from where the train crews would change shifts at 2 am every morning.  Trust me, that is not where you want to have a house.  When a train starts up again, it clangs each car as they are pulled tight.  It sounds like a giant slow motion cannon firing. Watch out for other sources of sound as well.  Being next to a tractor pull competition ground is also a nuisance.
5. What are the neighbors like? I heard about a couple that bought a house and then had to sell it at a huge loss because the next door neighbor liked to stand in her back yard and shout obscenities at everyone within earshot. She hadn’t been home when they saw the house, and the previous owner didn’t say anything about it.  Talk to a few neighbors and ask how they like living in the area before you move.
6. Snakes, mountain lions, etc. We looked at a house and later found out that the owner had walked out in his yard and was bitten by a cotton mouth snake.  He survived, and a year later it happened to him again.  If the area has problems with snakes or other animals, it is good to know before you put money down.
7. How often does the power go out? If a place loses power several times each year, you might want to know about it.  Asking a few potential neighbors isn’t a bad idea.  This is a particularly big deal if you work from home. (As a side note, the worst power I’ve ever seen is in Green Bay, WI.  The power there goes out more often than it did when we were in Mexico.)
8. Are there places to walk? A nice sidewalk down the street in front of your house can do wonders for your health.  It is a lot easier to go for a short walk if it doesn’t involve driving to get to a place where you can get out and walk around.
9. Wiring access. If you use a lot of technology, having easy access to run more wires is very convenient.  A drop ceiling in the basement means you can have easy access to run cables and wires.

What would you add?  Is there anything you’ve run into in buying a house that you wish you had checked out before signing?

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One of the side effects of having your teeth encased in plastic is that you have to plan out your eating a bit more.  You have to take them out before you eat.  When you are finished, you have to wash them and then brush your teeth really well before putting them back.  If you go too long with them out, it hurts when they go back in.

After several months, my wife said it looked like I was losing weight.  The scales confirmed that I had lost about 5 or 6 pounds.  I mentioned this to the dentist and he said, “Oh yes.  In fact we’ve studied that.  Our average client using Invisalign loses 20 pounds.”  I thought I had misheard him.

20 pounds is a huge amount of weight.  (I would have been in serious trouble if I had dropped that much.)  It was amazing to hear how much people were able to lose simply by making it a bit more work to snack between meals.  This got me to thinking about other areas where making something a bit more difficult can help change your habits.  Here are some ideas:

1. Don’t keep soda pop in the kitchen.  Make sure it requires a bit more effort to get than water or something more healthy.
2. Keep your television in the spare bedroom or somewhere other than the main family room.
3. Store your coffee on the other side of the house from the kitchen.  (I do this because I don’t like the smell or taste of coffee, but for people with an addiction…)
4. Set your router to shut your Internet off at 10pm to help encourage you to go to bed.

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“I am flying to Hartford. Can you please send one bag with me and one bag to Boston?”

When they say, “we can’t do that,” I will reply, “really? You did it last time…”

Joking aside, here are some tips I’ve compiled from the time I’ve spent in airports.

Ship Your Luggage

With the additional fees airlines are charging simply to check a suitcase, shipping your luggage to your destination can be cost effective. Not only do you skip the extra fees, but you can avoid the long lines some airports have waiting for your checked luggage to be x-rayed.

Minimize Metal

Anything you can do to reduce the number of metal objects you have to remove from your clothing in the security check will save you time. If you normally carry change in your pocket, put in your bag. If you wear a belt, use one with a removable buckle so you don’t have to remove the entire thing while going through security.

Dress Plain

Pay attention to what you wear. I know they say the screening checks are random, but in my experience, the way I’m dressed influences the likelihood that I will be called aside for additional screening. Strange as it seems, I routinely get additional screening when wearing a Harvard sweatshirt. Maybe this is just a fluke, but I stopped wearing shirts with anything printed on them while traveling.

Carry-On Size

Planes have two places to store carry-on luggage. The first place is above your head. Everyone competes for storage space in the overhead compartment. The second place is under the sea in front of you. If you can avoid putting anything overhead, it saves time and effort because you are no longer competing for the same space as everyone else.

Overhead Luggage

If you do have to store luggage above your head, make sure it is placed between your seat and the front of the aircraft. If you have to go backwards in the plane to get your luggage, you’ll be headed in the opposite direction as everyone else when getting off the plane. If you don’t need your luggage during the flight, simply placing it in the first available compartment can be a good strategy. This minimizes the amount you have to carry down the crowded aisle and getting on and off the plane.

If you carry on a suitcase that can be turned sideways and still fit in the compartment, you are at an advantage in the luggage space competition.  When the large baggage is placed in the overhead bins, there is often extra space that can only be used by a bag that fits this way.

Getting Bumped

Airlines routinely oversell their seating. If they have 100 seats, they know that at least five or 10 people won’t show up. So the airline will sell 105 tickets for a plane that seats 100 people. If everyone shows up, they have a problem. When that happens, the airline will offer travel vouchers in exchange for taking a later flight. These vouchers are often worth $300-$400. Here are some things to think about:

1. Ask for cash — in some circumstances, the airline may be willing to give you cash instead of a travel voucher. You’ll have to ask the person making the offer. If they forcibly bump you, I think you have the right to ask for a cash equivalent of the voucher they offer you–or you can not take it and just sue them.
2. Don’t be afraid to bargain — tell the attendant what you’re willing to do and leave it in their hands. If they are offering a $300 voucher, but you are only willing to take a later flight for $400 in cash, tell them. They may or may not be able to accommodate you. However, if no one else is willing to give up their seat, their only option is to kick someone off who is going to be very unhappy about it.
3. Next flight — make sure you know when the next flight is. If the weather is bad for their other complicated circumstances, you may not be able to make the next flight.

Early Flights

Make sure you know when the airline opens. If you arrive two hours early, you may end up sitting in the lobby, waiting for the ticket counter or security to open.  Just because the airline says to get there two hours early doesn’t mean they are going to show up.

Parking

Some hotels offer “park and fly”. This is where you stay at a hotel the night before you leave and they let you leave your car in their parking lot. Sometimes this is a free service, sometimes they charge you a small fee for the parking. Depending on the parking rates, it can be cheaper to pay the hotel and use their parking and shuttle than to park at the airport.

If you do park at a hotel, think about where you are leaving your car.  Ideally, you want to leave it somewhere that there is line of sight from the front desk or some other public area.  Make sure you don’t leave anything valuable sitting out.  Parking as the last car in a row can be advantageous because you can park clear over to the side that won’t have another car–which can help keep someone from bumping your car with their door.

What are your best travel tips for dealing with airports and planes?

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I watched her continue her search as I got into my vehicle. It took me a few minutes to realize what she was doing. She was looking for cigarettes that had been partially smoked and discarded. I assume that she would take them home and finish smoking them.

While I admire her frugality, it was a sorry sight. She was going through great pains to save money on something that was detrimental in the first place. No matter how much money she saves on cigarettes, this activity brings a negative value to her life.

As I drove away, I wondered about my own life. Are there any activities I am trying to streamline that bring negative value — no matter how efficiently they are performed? It isn’t enough to be busy. It isn’t enough to be efficient. You have to work on the right things. It is better to work on important things slowly and inefficiently than to work on the wrong things with great speed.

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• Time Discounting - A look at why it is psychologically difficult to work on things that give future reward.
• Fewer Choices for Greater Productivity – A look at how limiting your choices helps you get more done.
• Not To Do List - The opposite of your to-do list.  This list can be just as important as the list of things you want to do.

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Why do banks fail?

In the US, banks fail when the FDIC decides they are under-capitalized and force them to sell to another company.  This happens when a company makes a bunch of loans that go bad.  Much of the current financial crisis was brought on by banks investing in complex investments in mortgages that turned out to be much more risky than originally thought.

Why create a paperless office?

A paperless office is very useful if you travel a lot and need to have your documents with you.  It is also convenient if you need to conserve on space, want to be able to quickly search through your documents or need to share your documents with people who are in different locations.

Why is it good to use credit cards?

One of the biggest benefits of using a credit card is to avoid fraud.  You have significantly more protection with a credit card than with a debit card or checking account. Obviously if you have trouble making disciplined financial decisions the dangers outweigh the benefits.

Why should you use an HSA?

A health savings account is kind of like an IRA, but it lets you take out money for health care expenses.  It gives you an easy way to pay for health care costs with pretax money.  Employers like health savings accounts because they can sometimes increase the deductible and lower their cost without making things any more expensive for their employees by making a contribution to each employee’s HSA. Unlike some of the older flex spending accounts, HSAs roll over from year to  year–you don’t lose your money at the end of the year if you don’t spend it.

Can I really go 100% paperless?

Yes it is possible.  No, it probably isn’t cost effective.  You can set up a reasonable paperless office for under $1,000. However there are still some documents that just make sense to keep in paper form.  I’d say it is easy to get to being 98% paper free in your record keeping.  The remaining 2% isn’t worth the effort or inconvenience.

Why don’t bosses let you work from home?

The concern that most bosses have is that you won’t work as effectively from home as you would from the office.  They also may be concerned that you will spend too much time trying to get the remote access technology to work and further decrease your productivity. If you actively anticipate your boss’s concerns, you may be able to make a stronger case and convince your boss to let you work from home.

Why can’t I memorize?

If you can’t seem to remember something, it is because you don’t consider it memorable or worth remembering.  If you can make it absurd, funny or strange, you stand a better chance of remembering it.  Also if you can find a way of practicing recalling the information–not just rereading it.

Why can’t I buy bullets?

Maybe because you don’t look like someone who should be buying bullets?  Actually, I don’t know.  In most states you can.  We seem to be more concerned about people buying decongestant and paint than ammunition.  Some states may require you to be over a certain age to buy bullets–just to make sure you are old enough to be responsible for your actions and not do something stupid.

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A contractor had built a skyscraper downtown in a large city. The new occupants were moving in and the contractor and new owners were finishing up dealing with little issues in finalizing all the little details of the contract. As the number of people in the building increased, the office workers started complaining about the elevators being too slow.

Trying to make changes to the elevator would have been a pretty expensive modification. The people who had designed the building came in, timed the elevators, and determined that they were operating as expected. However, this did little to reduce the number of complaints and the designers set about trying to fix the problem. They looked at the cost of installing additional equipment to speed up the elevators. They also considered segregating some of the elevators as “express elevators” to only reach certain floors.

However, one bright individual stopped concentrating on the elevators and started paying attention to the people as they waited. After studying them for a while he made a suggestion. Install mirrors outside the elevators on each floor. His suggestion was implemented and the complaints disappeared.

The mirrors did nothing to increase the speed of the elevators. They did give the riders something to do while they waited for the elevator to arrive. They could look at themselves in the mirror. This seemingly minor changed solved the real problem–people were bored.

Sometimes we overlook simple solutions because we are trying to solve the wrong problem.

Originally published June 22, 2007.

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The Great Outdoors

• Feed the ducks at the park.
• Cut some fresh wildflowers for your table.
• Go fishing.
• Hike somewhere with pretty scenery.
• Go jogging with a friend.
• Take your dog for a walk.
• Get a group of friends together for a water balloon fight.
• Try to find out about little-known waterfalls in your area and explore to find them.
• Volunteer for a non-profit association.
• Go camping at a place you’ve never been before.
• Learn how to sail a catamaran.
• Visit a farm with a friend.
• Go off-road mountain biking.
• Take horseback riding lessons.
• Find a quiet place with beautiful scenery to read a favorite book.
• Find a wildflower information book and explore to see how many flowers you can identify around your town.
• Go kayaking.
• Start a garden.
• Run through a water sprinkler.
• Organize a barbeque with the neighbors.

Recreation

• Run a 5K race or fun walk just for fun.
• Join the local community orchestra or choir.
• Take ballroom dancing lessons.
• Take up a new instrument.
• Write a humorous poem.
• Go see the nearest symphony orchestra.
• Read to grade school children.
• Join a recreational basketball or volleyball team from the local community center.
• Go to a nearby coffee shop and listen to any intellectual conversations going on.
• Become a mentor to a student that wishes to enter your profession.
• Organize a scavenger hunt for friends and family.
• Listen to a new genre of music.
• Explore small shops downtown in your city.
• Send a postcard to a child.
• Ask a veteran to tell you some if his or her favorite stories from years in the service.
• Send flowers or a card to a friend just for fun.
• Go to a music store and try out all the grand pianos.
• Go shopping to find a gift for someone who has been kind to you.
• Go visit your alma mater to see what has changed since you graduated.
• Go watch a high school play.

Around the house

• Bake some cookies for your neighbors.
• Buy a pretty house plant.
• Try out a new kind of tea or coffee.
• Make gift baskets for a local charity.
• Start a canned food drive for needy families.
• Mow an elderly neighbor’s lawn and talk with them afterward.
• Find an ugly corner in the yard and turn it into a small garden.
• Try out a new recipe for supper.
• Take a bicycle ride.
• Organize a neighborhood-wide game of sardines.
• Take some time to look through old family photos.
• Invite friends and family over for supper.
• Start a scrapbook.
• Get the family together and watch old home videos.
• Let a child help you give your dog a bath (this doesn’t work so well with cats)
• Make your own root beer. As an added benefit, this is also a nice money saver.
• Make up your own variety of smoothie with your favorite fruit.
• Start a practical joke war with a sibling or long suffering friend.
• Record yourself singing a friend’s favorite songs and give the CD to them.
• Save a snowball in the freezer and get to throw it at someone on a hot summer day.
• Make your own fountain with Diet Coke and Mentos.
• Camp out in the living room with your kids.
• Build a fort out of cardboard boxes.
• Make homemade ice cream.
• Listen to your old cassette tapes or records.
• Call your parents just to say “hi.”
• Help your kids make homemade cards for relatives.
• Check out a book of jokes and read it.
• Build a house out of cards.
• Make a gingerbread house during the summer.
• Print some digital pictures and hang them in your house.
• Repaint a room with a cheerful color.
• Rearrange your furniture.
• Put your TV in the closet for a month.
• Reupholster an old piece of furniture.
• Make a slip ‘n slide for your family. (keep safety in mind)
• Make a pie, draw or paint a picture, or grow and arrange flowers to enter in the county fair.
• Help your kids make cards for nursing home residents.
• Explore iTunes for new music to listen to.
• Try out Pandora Radio.

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Thanks for your help!

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So as a reminder to myself of the importance of having fun, we’ve compiled this list of fun group games. If you have any suggestions, please add them in the comments.

1. Sardines

This is kind of like hide and go seek in reverse.  One person hides and everyone goes looking for them.  When the hider is found, the searcher hides with them.  As more and more searchers hide with the hider, it usually becomes increasingly difficult to stay hidden.  The name comes from the way everyone hiding starts getting packed in like sardines in the hiding place.

I played this with a large group of friends in college.  We were outside at night with minimal light from a distant streetlight.  The person hiding laid down in the shadow of a telephone pole.  They were pretty much invisible until someone tripped over them.  The first person who found them also laid down in the shadow until there was a long string of people that were impossible to see until you stumbled over them.

2. Mafia

For this game everyone sits in a circle.  There is one moderator running the game.  Everyone gets a card that indicates if they are a townsperson (most everyone), policeman (two people) or mafia (one person), but everyone’s identity is kept secret.  To finish the game setup, everyone goes to sleep. Everyone closes their eyes and pats their legs to help add some sound.  Then the moderator tells the police to wake up (open their eyes) so they can guess who the bad guys (mafia) are. They both have to agree on one guess per round. The moderator then tells the policemen if their guess was right or wrong,  and then the police go back to sleep.

Then the moderator has the criminal wake up so that he or she knows who the other criminal is. While awake, the mafia choose someone to “kill.” The two mafia have to agree on who to get rid of by using hand gestures and agreeing, then they both go back to sleep. They can only terminate one person in each round. After the police and mafia have chosen, the moderator tells everyone to wake up. The moderator then breaks the bad news of who perished at the hand of the mafia the previous night. The police can reveal to the townspeople who the mafia are if they know, but no one knows for sure if the person telling them that is really one of the policemen. It could be the mafia trying to shift suspicion to an innocent bystander! If someone is “dead,” they cannot speak, but must watch the proceedings silently.

Eventually, if the mafia kill all of the policemen and townspeople before the citizens guess who the mafia are, the mafia win. However, if one of the townspeople puts a nomination up to put a suspected mafia on trial, everyone votes whether or not to “kill” that person. If the trials are successful and both mafia are terminated, then the townspeople win.

3. Capture the Flag

This game is particularly fun if you have a nice big yard or field to play it in and plenty of people. It is also more fun if it is played after dark. Everyone divides into two teams, each with its base at opposite ends of the field. Each team has a “flag” that they hide somewhere on their end of the field. This flag should be white or another bright color to make it possible, but not easy, to find in the dark.

A person from a team is only “safe” if they are standing in their own base zone. Anyone who is in the middle or on an enemy base is fair game to be tagged. If someone from Team 1 tags a person from Team 2, the tagged person is now a “prisoner” and is taken back to the enemy base. That person can only be rescued if one of his/her teammates sneaks over and tags the prisoner without being caught, themselves.

What makes this game particularly fun is it can be hard to tell who is friend or foe! This can work in your favor if you are trying to sneak over to the enemy base, but it can also make it difficult to spot invaders. If you or one of your teammates finds the enemy flag, your team is immediately victorious.

4. Car Keys

I played this game in high school, and it is neat because you can involve any number of players. The more the better. It’s kind of a mix between flag football and tag, and there are no teams. It’s every man (or woman) for themselves.

Each participant has two long strips of cloth looped around their belt or belt loops, one on the right and one on the left, so that the ends hang down. The moderator signals the game to start, and the object of the game is to steal everyone’s “car keys” and “park” them.

Once both your keys (strips of cloth) have been stolen, you are “parked” and can’t move unless you reach out towards a by passer and steal their keys without moving, yourself! This game is hilarious to watch, especially if someone gets stopped in their tracks by a parked person. I do have one warning, though. Clothes can be ripped and fingers broken if anyone gets too rough. Just be sure to warn the players to be careful.

5. Do you love your neighbor?

In this game, each person has one blown up balloon tied to each leg. There is no limit to how many people can play, except for how much space you have to play in! The balloons have to be kept facing outward. Once the game starts, the object is to step on your neighbor’s balloons and pop them without getting yours popped! If both of your balloons are popped, then you are out. The last person with an un-popped balloon is the winner. One warning: Stomped toes may result from this game.

6. Chubby Bunny

This game is messy, but very, very funny. The object of the game is simple: stuff as many jumbo marshmallows as you possibly can in your mouth while still being able to say, “chubby bunny!” You add one marshmallow with every round. If someone begins to spew marshmallow all over the place, they are disqualified. The last person standing, wins! You might want to wear old clothes when playing this and have trash cans nearby.

7. Sock and Bop

This game involves flour-filled socks. The version that I played in high school was kind of like a glorified version of tag. The group divides into two teams. Every person was armed with a tube sock full of white flour. If you were hit with a sock-bopper from the opposite team, you were “frozen” and could not move until another person on your team came and tagged you free (not with the sock!). This game is better played outside since it is so messy, players should wear old clothes, and players should also be careful not to hit others too hard.

8. Electricity

This one makes a good indoor game if you have lots of people, especially. Everyone lines up sitting in chairs facing those in the opposite team. Members of the same team hold hands, and there is a table at one end of the line with a Nerf ball on it.

When a quarter is tossed and comes up on heads, that is the signal to “conduct” the electricity, meaning that each person must squeeze the hand of the teammate next to them down the line and towards the Nerf ball. You can only squeeze the hand of the person next to you if your own hand has been squeezed. If someone thinks they see heads and squeezes too early, that results in the end person snatching the Nerf ball. The erring team loses that round.

If it is not a false alarm and the hand squeezing goes further down the line, when it reaches the person closest to the Nerf ball, the end person tries to snatch the ball before the other end person from the opposite team. The members of the round-winning team all move down a seat after that round. The first team to get all of their people back in their own seats (where they originally were), wins the game!

9. Water Balloon Volleyball

This game is much like regular volleyball, except each team holds a sheet to catch one water balloon. Each team stands on their side of the net with a sheet and tries to catch the balloon when the other team tosses it over out of their sheet.

10. Dress-up Relay

This game can be hilarious, depending on the kind of old clothes used. Everyone divides into two teams and lines up relay style. At the other side of the room or yard, each team has a large pile of old clothes (hats, dresses, shirts, purses, scarves, socks, etc.).

Each person must run to his/her team’s pile and put on a whole outfit (something on the head, body and feet), and run back to tag the next teammate. The first team to finish wins the game. Note: You will need to find clothes that could fit a wide variety of people.

11. 3-Deep

This game requires at least 18-20 people to play. Divide everyone into groups of three. Then take one person from every group and have them stand in a circle, leaving plenty of space in the middle. After that, have the other 2 teamates of the people in the circle line up behind them. There have to be two extra people after the groups of 3 are formed. One person to be “it,” and the other person to be whom “it” is chasing.

Once the game starts, the person being chased must get inside the circle and step into one of the lines of three. Since there can only be three people in a line, the person at the back of the line has to try to run and step in front of another line before “it” catches them. If the person is caught, that means whoever is “it” has a chance to step in front of a line to free themselves. If “it” doesn’t catch the other person, they must keep on trying until they successfully tag someone else to be “it.”

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Adobe Create PDF allows the user to upload a limit of 5 different files to convert to PDF format.

How it works

Adobe Create PDF is very simple to use. All the user needs to do is click the “Browse” button to upload a file from their own computer to be converted. It is that simple.

Features

On the left hand side of the screen, Adobe also includes a service that allows the user to share newly created PDF files with others. This is set up to work through email. The program simply gives the recipient access to the material via a specific URL.

Organization

Create PDF also allows the user to organize all of the converted files by author, when the file was added or updated, alphabetically, by file type, file size or by share status.

Conclusion

Adobe Create PDF is a simple and effective tool that allows the user to convert a wide variety of file types to the universal format.

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Abraham Maslow lived from 1908 to 1970.  He started studying Law in New York, but soon transferred to University of Wisconsin where he switched to psychology and earned a Ph.D by 1934.

Maslow developed a theory known as the hierarchy of human needs.  This hierarchy is usually represented as a pyramid.  On the bottom are needs such as food and shelter–the basic needs of the human body.  At the top of the pyramid are the categories of esteem with self actualization (reaching your potential) at the top.  Here is a representation of the hierarchy:

Maslow said that people start with the lowest level of this hierarchy and that their basic motivation comes from trying to meet their needs sequentially at each level.  Any time their needs aren’t being met, their motivation always reverts to meeting the needs at the lowest unfulfilled level.  So, someone who doesn’t have food will not be motivated to try to get esteem and respect.

Let’s say we have a man named Smith who finds himself in a new city with no money, no job, and clothes that are barely adequate for the climate.  Smith’s first priority is going to be finding a place to stay and getting something to eat.  He is also going to start looking for a job in order to meet his physiological needs on an ongoing basis.  At this point in his life, he is unlikely to start looking for a girlfriend or try to become a leader in the community.  While both fulfill human needs, they aren’t motivating for Smith until he has the lowest needs met.

Smith finds a job at a chemical plant, gets an apartment and buys some decent clothes.  He has enough money for food. His physiological needs are being met.  Now the second level of needs becomes a priority.  At the chemical plant, Smith realizes that he is working with very dangerous chemicals.  After witnessing a few accidents, he becomes concerned for his safety.  Eventually, Smith finds a job or different position where he feels safe.  Maybe he also buys some locks for his door, or gets an apartment in a different neighborhood.  While he is concerned with and focused on safety, Smith isn’t going to go out and join the Rotary Club.  His need for esteem takes a back seat to his need for safety.

As Smith moves up the pyramid, he gets married, joins some social community organizations, and begins to think about the meaning of life and whether or not he is really achieving his potential.

If, at any point, one of the lower levels is missing, Smith’s focus will change to concentrate on that level.  This explains why people often do things that will ruin their reputation (their esteem) when they feel that they aren’t being loved by their spouse.  The need for love and to belong overshadows the need for esteem.

When managing people, you use the hierarchy to make sure that they are being rewarded in a way that enables them to meet their needs.  When managing yourself, you need to do the same thing.

If you want to be productive, you need to be concentrating primarily on the self actualization tier.  Situations where you are constantly needing to deal with lower tiers will sap energy from the upper tiers. Here are a few things that will help do that:

• Don’t over-extend your finances. If you have to worry that, you won’t have the money for housing and food, and you are forcing yourself to deal with the lowest tiers.
• When making decisions, be sure to factor in safety.  Don’t buy an incredible apartment in an area of town where you won’t feel safe.
• Find and marry someone who will make a good spouse.  While marriage is work and you should never take your spouse for granted, many people put all of their energy into short term relationships to try to fulfill mid-level needs.
• Invest in friendships with people you respect and who respect you.  Recognize that you need people to respect you.  Deep friendships can provide for the need to be esteemed.

Obviously this isn’t any type of a formula for meeting all of your needs.  However, if you recognize that you want the bulk of your energy to go into self actualization, you can make decisions that will help you focus on achieving as much as possible.

Make sure that your work isn’t constantly being interrupted trying to “fix” things on lower levels.  If you find yourself constantly worrying about lower tiers, look for ways to change those tiers.  Often, these will be lifestyle changes.  It may mean downsizing so you aren’t worried about finances.  It might mean getting a safer vehicle.

Being highly productive is unlikely to happen by chance.  By recognizing your needs and making a conscious effort to meet them proactively, you will be setting yourself up to succeed.

Also see:

Part 1 – Personal Productivity from Management Theory

Part 3 – Personal Productivity from Management Theory – McGregor

Part 4 – Personal Productivity from Management Theory – Ouchi

Originally published October 28, 2005.

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