Simple Life Together

Juicing Simplified w/Farnoosh Brock & We’re Taking You On Vacation! Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Dan and Vanessa Topic: Just a Few Travel Tips From The Road....Literally! Well, if the show sounds a bit different it’s because we’re on the road. That’s right, we’re taking you on vacation! It’s actually a “working trip” for us. We’ve never recorded on the road (we literally recorded our segment in the car).  The sound quality is just a bit off from our normal audio but not bad considering the circumstances! The interview however is excellent!  Just sayin.... Anyhoos...typically when we have a guest interview we do a combined topic.  Since we want you to enjoy the entire interview, we decided to do a shorter segment for our topic. Additionally, when we know we are going to be out of town for a week, we try to record an episode in advance.  Well, we ended up having  such a busy week with clients leading up to our trip, that we simply ran short of time to prepare two episodes in only 3 days! It may not seem like a lot of work but each episode takes at least 16 hours to prep, record, edit in post-productions, post show notes, post in iTunes, etc.  We are still on our journey to simplify this process...believe us we are! Thankfully it is a labor of love...truly!!!! So, speaking of simplifying and in keeping with our philosophy on most things in life...we decided to keep our segment...well, you know...simple.  And since we're on a road trip we decided to share a few travel tips with you.  Here are the things we discussed: How we were able to pack 9 days of clothes for 3 people in just one piece of luggage. How we make sure we never run out of outlets to charge our ever so precious gadgets by using a Belkin Mini Surge Protector with USB Charger. How to easily travel with electronics using the Grid-It system by Cocoon. How to ensure you'll actually get to listen to your podcasts even when the 4G network gets 'patchy.' How bringing our little Apple TV replaced old school slide projectors to enjoy family slideshows and videos! Interview with Farnoosh Brock of Prolific Living and her newly released book, The Healthy Juicer's Bible. We've mentioned on the show before that we like to juice. We started juicing a little over a year ago in December of 2011 after Dan was completely and totally inspired by Joe Cross’s film, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead (this is an Amazon affiliate link but the movie is available for free on Netflix if you're a member) which he saw on Netflix over 20 times since. Dan decided to try juicing and Vanessa decided to jump on board too and we've been hooked ever since. So, we thought it would be great to invite Farnoosh Brock (a friend we met at the World Domination Summit in 2011) who just published and released her new book, The Healthy Juicer's Bible. It was released by Skyhorse Publishing and is selling out everywhere! Farnoosh is amazing, talented and a such a delight to talk with.  We think you'll really love the interview!  Here are some of the questions we asked! 1. So Farnoosh, who are you and how do you make people's lives simpler? 2. Do you remember your first fresh juice? If you can, tell us where and when that was, and what went through your mind before you drank it? 3. When we talk about juicing, one of the first questions we're asked is what's the difference between juices and smoothies, or juicing and blending. How would you answer that? 4. So Farnoosh, what would you list as some of the benefits of juicing? 5. How do you recommend people get started with juicing? 6.

This week we continue with Evernote Simplified, Part 2, and Vanessa shares some awesome time saving productivity tips! So many people tell me that they love Evernote, but sometimes don't "get" exactly how to use it. Sure, there's lots of "technical" references out there about Evernote, but what their really looking for is Evernote simplified! So let's get started! Read more... Dan's Topic: Evernote Simplified (Part 2) Yep but before I start I just wanted to remind you that although we don’t try to push you to buy more stuff, if you do use Amazon.com like we do, you can helps support a charity that we support, Charitywater.org, simply by using our link. Anything the show earns through that link or from our resources page goes to support CharityWater. You can learn more about them at CharityWater.org Alright so in Episode 017 I covered all the basics of how to get information into Evernote and how to retrieve and use it. So…the the "ins and outs" if you will. Well today I want to take you on a little audio windshield  tour of the Evernote interface for the desktop version of Evernote. I'm on a Mac so if you're on a PC the appearance may vary a bit, but the functionalities are generally the same. Now, as much as I LOVE Evernote, the interface isn't gonna win any beauty contests…but it does have a great personality!  And that's what counts, right? But the recent update of Evernote does let you adjust Evernote to fit YOU! So in Evernote 5 you can design the layout that works for you. A Dashboard Tour: The desktop interface of Evernote beginning in the top Menu Bar. In the menu bar from left to right you have the Forward/Back buttons, a menu with your account information, the circular arrows are the manual sync and sync indicator, then we have the little satellite dish looking thing thats for notifications and recent changes. In about the center of the top menu we have the New Note selection drop down for adding new notes, then finally, the ever powerful search bar. Left Panel. Moving on the left side we have what Evernote calls the left panel. Top to bottom in the left panel we have Shortcuts, Recent Notes, the Notes view option, the Notebooks view option, the Tags view option, the Atlas view option and the Trunk option. Shortcuts. Lets you store shortcuts that you can set yourself. This is great for notes you access on a regular basis. Recent Notes area. This area holds links to your 5 most recent notes for easy, but temporary access. Notes area. The area you'll probably work in the most. You have some options on how you view your notes. You can choose between 4 different views: Card Expanded card Snippet and List view My personal favorites are the Card view and the the Snippet View. In all views you have additional sorting options in the center panel called the Notebooks area. Lists your Notebooks and Notebook stacks. You can stack Notebooks by similar subjects to make your Notebooks easier to find, and just plain old more simple visually on your desktop and in mobile versions. To stack, just click and drag Notebooks over other Notebooks. To make life easier, you may need to retitle your Parent Notebook to make sense Child Notebooks stacked under them. You have 4 view options for Notebooks. you can sort by: Owner Name of the Notebook Count (number of notes within the notebook) Last Updated Tags view. Tags can be sorted by: Name and... Note count

Today's show is about focus...from two very different perspectives. First, we're going to focus on how to use Evernote, and then shift the focus to fitness. Dan's Topic: Evernote Simplified (Part 1) OK so unless this is your first time listening to the podcast, you might know that I'm an Evernote fan. And one of the most requested things I'm asked to talk about is Evernote. So, by popular demand, my topic for this show and next week's will be Evernote!  Read more... Today I want to cover the basics and next week I want to hit some more advanced tips and some use cases. Like most things, it takes a little playing around with Evernote to get the full hang of it, so after this show you can dive right into Evernote if you haven't already, and then you can send in some questions that I can cover on next week's show. Here’s what I’m going to cover today: What is Evernote, Why I like Evernote, some  Evernote Basics, Searching in Evernote, and finally Sharing in Evernote. So let's get started. So what is Evernote? Well, you've heard the saying "an elephant never forgets" right? Evernote is that little square green app you see almost everywhere with the elephant in the middle. Most often you hear of Evernote being described as your "external brain." Evernote makes it easy to remember things big and small from your everyday life using your computer, phone, tablet and the web. With Evernote, you can take in info in tons of ways and it synchronizes it across all your devices so it's there when you need. So..think of Evernote as a synchronized database of all your important information that’s there for you when you need it and how you need it. The Evernote app is free for your desktop and all your devices, and so is the Evernote program on the web itself. You can also upgrade to an Evernote Premium premium account for $5 per month or $45 per year. We've been Premium users for about 4 years now and it is worth every penny. There really is very little difference between the free and paid versions, but we wanted to support the company, and I'll get back to that in a minute. So some of the benefits of a Premium account are increased ability to share, bigger file sizes, some other faster functions that I'll cover later. If you're just a casual user, you'll be fine on a free basic account. But if you're a power user or just want to support the company, you'll want to upgrade to Premium. Why I Like Evernote Ubiquitous Capture… One of the tenets of Getting Things Done, by David Allen. Very simply, ubiquitous capture means capturing all your important thoughts or "things to remember" thoughts in a way that you can recall them when needed. Don’t let them float around in your head, where they will likely be forgotten. Capture it now, before it's gone. I'm not a user of GTD…but ubiquitous capture is a fantastic habit to cultivate…if you're into that sort of thing, like me. Get info into Evernote by… Typing text Recording your voice Dragging in files Email it to your account (even video) Taking pictures Scanning things in Using the web clipper Even use automated ways to get things in. We'll talk about that next week. Evernote strives to be a 100 year company Tech companies and their products come and go Many like to bring a product to market, then sell for the big bucks Evernote plans to be a 100 year company and make a difference in the world. I heard this directly from their CEO, Phil Libin when I was at Evernote in San Francisco at their first ETC…and I believe him.

Making Decisions Like a Fighter Pilot & Frugal vs. Cheap Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Dan's Topic: The OODA Loop Our Decisions, Our Future You'll recall that the 5 pillars we focus on for OUR simple life together are Faith, Family, Finances, Fitness and Future Well, our Future is determined every single day by decisions that we make We make decisions all the time...daily in fact…most of them without any effort whatsoever But isn't it funny how simple these "automatic" decisions are when other decisions lead us to hours, days, and sometimes months or years of contemplation and struggle and hemming and hawing? Introducing the OODA Loop Today I want to talk about decision-making and a very simple framework that you can use to help with your decision-making This process is called the OODA Loop, as in O-O-D-A OODA stands for Observe-Orient-Decide and Act. The OODA Loop is a recurring decision-making process…a cycle, if necessary...developed by Col John Boyd, who was a fighter pilot and later a Pentagon consultant after he retired. Col Boyd is also credited with being the key planner for Operation DESERT STORM While Boyd's OODA loop concept began in fighter pilot circles, its also pretty popular in other combat ops units, too. It's become so popular, in fact, that it has since spread to the civilian word...becoming popular in business, sports, and becoming quite popular with attorneys in the litigation process So, if you've never heard of the OODA loop before and are wondering how this little tool can help simplify your life…well, I'm here to share that with you. What's the Scoop on the OODA Loop? The premise of the OODA Loop is that through a recurring cycle of OBSERVE-ORIENT-DECIDE-ACT you can  "get inside" an opponent's decision making cycle and gain the advantage. But it's not solely for use against what would traditionally be called "opponents". In business, competitors would be a more appropriate term than "opponent' or "enemy" and even more generically, in life, "situations" can be our opponent when we're trying to achieve our goals. And, well, we all know that clutter and complexity are our enemy, so I cover how the OODA loop can help you out there, too! So, with the OODA Loop, if you can get through the observe-orient-decide-act cycle quicker than your opponent or faster than the situation unfolds, you'll come out on top! So, let's break it down... OODA Loop Phases First, let's talk about the phases of the OODA Loop The first step is OBSERVE. Essentially, this is when you notice a situation that is a potential problem. It's simple, you see something, you observe it. No judgements are made in this phase. The next step is ORIENT. This phase is the biggie…this is where your entire past comes into play. We have to put what we're seeing into a context so we can later make a decision. In the ORIENT phase, we use our hard-wired instincts, intuition, our history, our knowledge, our experience, new information, split-second analysis...even our mental predictions of what the outcome or impact of potential decisions could be…all to orient ourselves as to what we're observing Once we've OBSERVED and ORIENTED, we can then DECIDE. We make decisions every day, and when we do, our decisions aren't just based on the current situation, as I just mentioned in the ORIENT phase, they're based on everything we've soaked in over our lifetime. But our decisions are often limited to a reasonable, limited set of choices. We'll get to that in a moment. So…now it comes time to ACT. Acting is just following through with your decision. Simple as that.

Wouldn't you love to simplify your morning routine? What? You don't have one? Well, in this episode Vanessa shares some tips to help you create your morning routine so you can start of each morning on the right path. But even if you start out on the right path, sometimes little things can become big irritants, can't they? One thing that can be really frustrating is printer problems. Do you think you could digitize your life to the point where you don't even need a printer? Well, Dan shares his thoughts on that very subject! Read more...  Vanessa's Topic: Creating Your Morning Routine Are you feeling a little rushed in the mornings? Are you stressed out? Do you find yourself getting distracted from completing your important tasks? Well, you’re not alone. One of the most popular posts on my GetSimplifized.com website is about how to create a morning routine. I talked about routines in general way back in Episode 2, but I thought I’d get a little bit more specific here and share some tips specific to a morning routine. When you establish a routine for you or your family, you are creating an environment of consistency. With consistency comes known expectations of roles and responsibilities, known outcomes and a happier, calmer family.  Think about it like this…we are drawn to certain businesses, products, bosses and friends because they provide consistently good food, products, leadership and friendship, right?  Well, if we expect and value consistency in those things…why not value it in our own lives?  A morning routine is just the thing to give you order and calm. Now, before you jump into creating a daily routine, remember to keep the following in mind: Specific tasks: You’ll need to identify your specific morning tasks and how long it takes to do them.  I suggest writing everything down and be specific about the exact times it takes to complete a task.  Sometimes tasks take longer than we think! Specific order: Figure out the most logical sequence of events for you and schedule each event in a time slot.  I highly recommend writing this schedule down on paper or on your calendar.  Electronic calendars are especially wonderful because you can rearrange your tasks without wasting time rewriting and erasing events. Consistency: This is key!  Once you’ve figured out your tasks and order, now you’ve got to stick to it.  There’s no point in going through all the effort of creating a routine if you’re not going to follow it.   Here are a few suggestions and typical tasks to think about incorporating into your morning routine: Wake up. Take 15-30 minutes to wake up, enjoy your coffee, check out the news or read.  Check out my morning coffee routine post on prepping your coffee the night before.  Having a fresh cup of joe already made first thing in the morning makes all the difference! Review your daily tasks. Refresh your memory of the tasks and important “to-do” items you need to get done that day.You might also consider preparing this list the night before as part of a  nightly de-clutter routine. Make your bed. Simply taking 5 minutes or less to make your bed will instantly make your room look cleaner plus you’ll feel much more relaxed when you come home to a tidy room. If you don’t like the process of making the bed, consider cutting down on the amount of pillows you have and use a duvet cover over your comforter that doubles as a top sheet too! Prepare for dinner. Make sure all of your food items are defrosted and that you have all the necessary ingredients for the evening’s dinner.  That way you can pick up any missing items later on in the day. I actually like to refer to my weekly dinner menu and look at the next day's meal too so I know to take ...

How Typical is Your Home? And...A Gateway Gadget Intervention Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Website guide update: The way, the Simple Life Guide to building your “Side Gig” is ready and we’ve had a bunch of people sign up. So if you're ready to start on the path to shaping your life a bit more by starting a lifestyle business on the side and you don’t have any experience starting a website, well this guide and the video links will lead you through how to set up your site, step by step, and it even includes some fantastic branding information, too!  It’s completely free and you can sign up at SimpleLifeTogether.com/websiteguide. Vanessa's Topic: How Typical Is Your Home? Dan and I were interviewed a couple of times last week and during one of the interviews we were talking about how much stuff we have in our homes. Dan started talking about a study conducted by UCLA's Center on Everyday Lives of Families. They sent a team of professional archaeologists, anthropologists and other social scientists to conduct a systematic study of home life in 32 middle-class, dual-income families in Los Angeles. Based off of this study they created a book: Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century: 32 Families Open Their Doors. UCLA also created 3 short video ethnographies for their university television station which are now on YouTube. The book and the videos highlight their major findings which I thought were absolutely fascinating! The pictures and videos may not be as mouth-dropping as what you might see on the show Hoarders...but I think it does hit a little closer to home because it’s not highlighting those extreme cases of hoarding....it’s highlighting what is becoming...or rather...actually already has become the “norm” in the middle class America. So I reviewed some of the major findings and then discussed my thoughts. Findings in relation to stuff: With Family #27, they found 2,260 visible possessions in the first three rooms recorded (two bedrooms and the living room),” and that didn’t include “untold numbers of items tucked into dresser drawers, boxes and cabinets or items positioned behind other items.” In another home, Family #1 they looked at a display shelf in a girl’s bedroom and found: 165 Beanie Babies, 36 Human/Animal Figurines, 22 Barbie dolls, 20 other types of dolls, 3 Porcelain dolls, 1 Troll, 1 miniature castle America has 3.1% of the world’s kids...yet it owns 40% of the world’s toys.  As a matter of fact, toys were found everywhere in the home.  It’s as if the home had become primarily child-centered. The average refrigerator front panel in the homes studied holds 52 objects. The most crowded refrigerator was covered with 166 different objects. In most cases there was a direct corollary to the amount of stuff on a fridge and the amount of stuff in the home (ie: a more cluttered fridge = a more cluttered home) Only 25 percent of garages could be used to store cars because they were so packed with stuff. One article called this, "The New Junk Drawer" and rightfully so because that’s exactly what it’s become. They found mountains of clutter in many of the homes. One family even had to resort to using a bathroom shower stall as a laundry hamper. They also observed a huge trend in shopping at “big box” stores (like Sam’s Club, Costco, BJ’s) and how the items bought at these stores actually created more clutter and required a second refrigerator or freezer. Findings in relation to the effects the stuff had on these families: Managing the volume of possessions was such a crushing problem in many homes that it actually elevated levels of stress hormones for mothers.

Escaping My Shawshank Cubicle, and First Steps on the Road to Simplicity Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Main Topics   Dan's Topic: Escaping My Shawshank Cubicle "Indoor" jobs have never been a good match for my personality. I did well at them…the tasks, anyways, but I felt like that "staff work" was slowly sucking the life out of me…stealing my soul. Plus, I've always been a pretty fast worker and some would say I'm a great time manager, and that's how it may look. But the truth is, I just have an ability to get crazy focused and knock out some really quality stuff really really quickly. Some people think that's a gift…but I always said it was a curse. So, the reason I say it's a curse is because I vividly remember…so many times...sitting at my desk, looking at the clock, it's 2:30 pm, I'm not only caught up on my work but I'm way ahead. Yet there is no way I can leave. That's just not how it worked. I'm essentially a prisoner….to a cubicle cell, and my master is $7 clock. A really, really slow clock that I swear sometimes ticked backwards, just to spite me. It was in those times that the seed was planted that someday I would build a future for myself, us, and our family,where our lives were designed purposefully around what we love. And I'll get to that in a bit. But I'm just guessing that as you simplify your life, shaping how you work is important to you, too. You probably dream about creating a simpler life that includes a lifestyle business…you know, not a business that you work at 24/7 for a few years hoping someone buys you out…I'm talking a situation where you do something that helps other people, that you love doing, and that affords you the chance to live life on your terms. So, I wanted to share a couple of adages that will give you something to ponder this week as you listen to podcasts in your car or cubicle. Maybe they’ll prod you just enough to take some action. The Frog in a Pot of Water: The adage goes that if you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will of course frantically try to jump right out. But if you place it gently in a pot of warm water and turn the heat on low, it will float there quite placidly. As the water gradually heats up, the frog will sink into a tranquil stupor, exactly like one of us in a hot bath, and before long, with a smile on its face, it will unresistingly allow itself to be boiled to death. Crazy huh? Now don't run out and try this. Be nice to frogs or they'll keep you up all night when you're camping. Seriously though, haven't you felt like this at work some times?  I know I did. You get to the point where you'll put up with anything because you're comfortable with the "security", "predictability", whatever. But is that as good as it's supposed to get? Crabs in a Bucket: So the story goes that if you put a bunch of crabs in a bucket, most of the crabs will just clamor around at the bottom of the bucket making a fuss. But what happens when one of the crabs tries to climb out of the bucket? Do all the other crabs join in to help him escape? Nope. They pull him back down into the bucket. Now, I'm not going to draw any direct conclusions to your life, but how many times have you wanted to do something new, different or adventurous and all those around you who supposedly "care" about you say “that’s crazy”, or “no” or try to talk you out of it, or tell you how bad things could get. Now it's certainly not because the they don't want you to succeed. I think it's because they DO care and just don't want to see you fail. But sometimes, just like the crabs, they don't know that if they just give you a lift then you might actually make it! That's the crab mentality. Sure, there are some who might think "Well if I can't have it then no one can." But, I tend to trust in humanity,

The Art of Inbox Warfare, and How To Organize Any Space Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Main Topics   Dan's Topic: Sun Tzu & the Art of Inbox Warfare We've had a few other listeners out there who have been struggling with their email inboxes lately, so I thought I'd take some time to give you some tips on how you can declare war on Inbox clutter and reclaim the calm to this part of your digital life. The key to email management is the same as it is to physical things in your simple life: limit what you allow into your life. If your inbox is full of messages that don't add value to your life, eliminate them now and put systems into place to eliminate them permanently. Why do we get so much junk? Sometimes it's just that your email was on a subscriber list that was sold to marketers. But it’s also affected by what type of things you sign up for. So, if you really want to cut down on junk email: Be a bit more careful who you give your email address to Signing up for every little contest or offering that comes along is like saying, "Please spam me!" Get over what’s called FOMO or the fear of missing out. There's good info and junk info…bringing more junk info into your life doesn't make your life better or more simple. It makes it cluttered and hectic. Trust me, you’re not missing out. So, here are some steps you can take to shape a more simple email experience: - Unsubscribe from newsletters, feeds, updates, lists and other streams that don't enrich your life.  If there’s no link to unsubscribe, you shouldn't be at all uncomfortable about marking the message as spam. Gmail has a built in function that marks the message as spam and automatically attempts to unsubscribe you from the sender's list but you can also do it yourself by clicking the  little stop sign-shaped icon with an exclamation point inside in your Inbox panel. - Another way to deal with unwanted emails is by using filters. Most email programs allow you to set filters to weed out messages based on your inputs.  You can easily set filters in the settings area of your Gmail account, or if you have an email message open in Gmail, just click the "More" button and choose "Filter Messages Like These".  Then just follow the prompts.  So that covers stopping the deluge of inbound emails. What about the “Occupy Inbox” movement that’s already camped on in your email? Here's how to handle what you have right now in 3 Steps: 1-Pick the dozen or so emails in your inbox that must be handled now to avoid an emergency, overcharges, severe embarrassment, or a close relationship and deal with them now. That alone will leave you feeling better. 2- Make the rest of the not so urgent emails (and yes, for many people that numbers in the THOUSANDS) and put them in a temporary folder or Label (Gmail). You'll deal with them later. This does 2 things… First, it gets what appears to be a major obstacle, stumbling block, and barrier to progress out of the way. Second, it allows you to set up new habits and systems. 3- Tackle that Temporary folder or Label full of old emails. If you have so many that you can't tackle it in one sitting, pick a time, set a timer for 15 minutes, and go to battle. Make time in your schedule for the next session, and keep at it until you’ve dealt with all of them. BUT...big but here...NOT at the cost of your inbox. You've got to commit to staying on top of your inbox. So, now that you’ve kindly asked the spammy squatters to move on and you have your Inbox back...let’s move on to those habits and skills. Here are some things to master for a solid email routine: - Don't Over-Do the Folders or Labels:  Keep it simple by trusting the search function in your email system. So, set up a few folders (called "Labels" in Gmail) th...

Becoming Minimalist With Joshua Becker and "But Wait, There’s More!" Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Main Topics   Interview with Joshua Becker of BecomingMinimalist.com We had an amazing interview with, Joshua. He shared so much information with us!  He is truely an inspiration and has fantastic advice on how to simplify and get more out of your life by living with less.  Here is a list of questions we asked Joshua (believe us...you definitely want to listen to the podcast!): 1. So, Joshua...who are you and how do you make people's lives simpler? 2. Could you tell us about the "catalyst" that helped you decide to become minimalist and if there were any other factors or events leading up to your decisions? 3. Tell us about how you approached your wife about your idea to pursue minimalism...her reaction...and your collective decision to move forward. Was there any “pushback?” 4. Can you describe how long it took you to get to a point where you called yourself a 'minimalist'? Can you explain the process? 5. How do you define or explain minimalism?  What does it physically look like to you...how does it feel? 6. Does minimalism for you also include letting go of mental and digital clutter? Bad relationships, overcommitment? Do you have any recommendations for doing that? 7. In your book Inside-Out Simplicity you talk about healthy relationships. I know from personal and professional experience that it’s usually easier when couples are on the same sheet of music, but what advice would you give if couples have different ideas of what simplifying is? 8. In Living With Less: An Unexpected Key to Happiness (Simply for Students) you tell a story about your son and his birthday money. I think every parent has experienced that at some point. Could you describe that experience and give some advice to those of us with kids about how to deal with the constant consumer pitch of "more, more, more" and "bigger is better" from every aspect of the media? 9. In your book Simplify, you say that living simply is "the real secret to financial freedom." How have you found that to be true in your journey and do you have any financial pointers for us? 10. If someone asked what the benefits are to a lifestyle like yours, what would you tell them? 11. How can people learn more about you? 12. Is there anything else you'd like to add? Dan's Topic: "But Wait, There's More!" The 2013 Consumer Electronics Show Alright, so this past week I was in Las Vegas for the 2013 New Media Expo and the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and I thought I'd  discuss some of my experiences there. So, I'll let the irony of that sink in for a moment…a guy trying desperately to fight consumerism and simplify his life…at the CONSUMER electronics show...the LARGEST Consumer Electronics Show in history with over 100K people in attendance.  Yeah...trust me...the irony wasn't lost on me either! I was actually there on business because I help my clients with tech for their businesses and even some individuals who just want tech coaching. So, first off, I walked the show with a couple of friends from morning until dinner time and let me just say that the show was pretty amazing!  It would be impossible to cover everything but I thought I would summarize my experience including the good, the ridiculous and some thoughts I had on the whole experience: - We walked 9 miles, and still didn't see it all. If I had to guess, I'd say we saw maybe half, if that. Other folks tracked in over 15miles!  That's a lot of consumer products! - Companies from every country on the globe were there selling their wares. All the new lines of gadgets and even super hi-tech robots. - Joshua eluded to the fact that we are bombarded with about 5000 advertisements a d...

How Clutter Affects Your Life, & Secret (But Simple) Military Communication Techniques Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you! Special Announcement: Especially for listeners in and around San Antonio/Austin, TX Our friend and colleague Karen Meade of Let’s Get Organizing will be hosting her annual Organize and Energize workshop. It’s on Saturday, January 19th, 2013 from 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM at TriPoint on North St Mary’s, in San Antonio, Texas. There’s a great lineup of speakers talking about organization, meal planning, health and fitness and Dan will be there talking about tech. For more information check out LetsGetOrganizing.com or Facebook.com/LetsGetOrganizing. Hope to see you there! Main Topics   Vanessa's Topic: How Clutter Affects Your Life So, what is clutter?  Here’s how some experts define it: Princeton University's WordNet defines clutter as: "a confused, multitude of things" "to fill a space in a disorderly way" "a confused, disorderly, jumble of things" "filled or scattered with disorderly accumulation of objects or rubbish" Clutterers Anonymous defines clutter as: "anything we don't need, want, or use that takes our time, energy or space, and destroys our serenity" Clutter is more than piles and piles of stuff. It's a combination of new, old, unused, forgotten, misplaced, and emotionally (or coerced into being emotionally) "attached to" items. Clutter is more than just a physical item...clutter is also about how an item is or isn’t being used. For example, a magazine in-and-of itself isn't clutter...it's just a magazine.  But when that magazine hasn't been read for two weeks, two months, or even a year and is just sitting on top of a stack of other magazines that are several years old, and that stack is on top of your desk preventing you from being able to use it...that's when that magazine is now considered "clutter." So for the rest of this topic, let’s just consider clutter as "anything we don’t need, want, or use that takes our time, energy, space and serenity" Examples of clutter: Things that are expired (food,  medicine and toiletries for example) Duplicate items (3 coffee makers, 4 vacuum cleaners, 3 punch bowls, 3 of the exact same North Face jackets...all the same color and style...you get the idea) Things that belong to someone else (stuff you’ve borrowed and never returned) Broken toys Broken dishes Broken appliances and tools Outgrown toys Clothes you’ve grown out of Knick knacks that don’t serve any purpose Gifts that...let’s face it...you never really liked  ("in a million years I wouldn't be seen dead in this" kinds of gifts) Hand me downs or inherited items that you’ll never use Just in case items...for emergencies "Don't know" (no idea why it's there or how to use it...but darn it, I'm keeping it!) Stuff that causes safety concerns (pose a hazard such as fire or physical harm) Stuff that can cause health concerns...old food sitting around the house, trash lying around attracting bugs and rodents, etc. Obsolete / outdated papers Piles of papers and mail that have never been opened or are waiting to be opened and sorted Other not-so obvious clutter items aren’t necessarily physical items, but impact your lifestyle Overcommitment Meaningless activity / duplication of effort (activity that is unfulfilling or serves no real purpose) Old resentments and ill feelings / unresolved issues Unsatisfying relationships Unsatisfying work (paid work, work at home, volunteer work, etc).

Our Edit & Forget It Challenge and The Power of Saying No Happy New Year! Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you! Special Announcement: Especially for listeners in and around San Antonio/Austin, TX Our friend and colleague Karen Meade of Let’s Get Organizing will be hosting her annual Organize and Energize workshop. It’s on Saturday, January 19th, 2013 from 9:30 Am to 12:30 PM at TriPoint on North St Mary’s, in San Antonio, Texas. There’s a great lineup of speakers talking about organization, meal planning, health and fitness and Dan will be there talking about tech. For more information check out LetsGetOrganizing.com or Facebook.com/LetsGetOrganizing. Hope to see you there! Main Topics   Dan's Topic: Introducing the Edit & Forget It Challenge! 2013 Fewer Things in 2013  We're kicking things up a notch right off the bat this year and really stretch our commitment to simplifying our lives. We're challenging ourselves with what we call Edit & Forget It, 2013 Fewer Things in 2013. We'd love it if you'd consider joining us! We know this is a lofty goal and certainly won't be for everyone Our true focus is eliminating many things we truly don't need any longer and reach a point where we have what we need, appreciate it, and be able to enjoy some margin in our lives We don't really have "clutter" in our home since Vanessa is a Professional Organizer, so eliminating 2013 things will be a real challenge! It's good to have an accountability buddy when challenging yourself…and all of you that listen to the show will be our accountability buddies to keep us on track! We'd like to be your accountability buddies, too! If you'd like to join us for the challenge, just sign up on our Edit & Forget It List. Here's a direct link to that list on SimpleLifeTogether.com. Those who sign up will will get emails from us from time to time as a little bit of encouragement along the way No, you won’t get a trophy at the end of the Challenge, but in the end you'll probably have a place to put one if you did! Some Background: We were amazed when we heard it quoted in a presentation that the average American home has around 300K things in it! In raw numbers, 2013 things is just under 1% of that! That doesn't sound like much of a challenge does it? Truth be told, we think that figure counts each and every item So if you had a 250 piece Lego set it counts as 250 pieces That doesn’t seem too realistic to us and kinda makes getting rid of 2013 things no challenge whatsoever So we established some simple guidelines for ourselves To eliminate 2013 things from our home in 2013 the numbers work out, rounded up, anyways, like this: About 6 things per day About 40 things per week About 170 per month We're also including going paperless because that is a great way to eliminate paper clutter from your home. So, you may want to re-listen to Episode 6 and our interview with Brooks Duncan of DocumentSnap. We'll put some links in the show notes for the scanner we use and the one Brooks recommends. Edit & Forget It Guidelines: Note: We may have to come up with some additional guidelines for ourselves along the way based on any new discoveries or unanswered questions we run into. But we're starting with these: Things that normally go together or that you originally purchased together count as one, e.g. a pair of shoes counts as one (not 2), a deck of cards counts as one (not 52) a puzzle counts as one (not 150). Donated packaged food counts, thrown out food does not.

Things To Eliminate in the Coming Year and Tips for Successful Resolutions Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you! Main Topics   Dan's Topic: Some Things to Eliminate in the Coming Year I'm not a big "New Year's Resolutions" guy, so in keeping with the Exupery quotation I've discussed in previous shows and use to guide me on our simplicity journey, I thought I'd give resolutions a little twist. If you recall, Exupery said, "Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but nothing left to take away." So let's resolve to remove some things that add no positive value in our lives. Only you know what applies to you and what's right for you, but here are some suggestions for consideration… Stop wasting opportunities: Opportunities to grow are all around us Grow by Learning...Education is a great way to invest in yourself Take a class (online or in the real world)…lots of places offer Adult Education classes Or teach yourself! Check your local library to see if they have how-to or self help books Other Great Resources: Also check http://www.khanacademy.org for classes I watch CreativeLIVE.com for free courses given live by experts. After the live class is over the classes are available for purchase. Screencastsonline.com has great tutorials for Mac and iOS-based platforms. Run by Don McAllister Lynda.com has all sorts of courses, from business, photography, videography...the gamut of software for Mac, PC and others (you can also get 7 days free unlimited access here) Izzyvideo.com for video tutorials If you're a podcaster, Cliff Ravenscraft's classes are great! Find them at PodcastAnswerman.com and use discount code SIMPLE for up to $500 savings on Podcasting A to Z! I have or had paid memberships in all of these and see them as an investment in me and our businesses Grow by Experiences such as Volunteering Getting active in your children's school or after school activities Mentor someone in your chosen profession or a student studying for your profession If you belong to a church, see if your church needs help with something you're skilled at  Stop letting what you already have go unused: The first thing that comes to mind is Experience and Expertise and that ties in with the opportunities to grow we just mentioned Look around and see if you are using technology to your advantage If you're not sure how to use some of your tech, there are tons of free How-To tutorials on YouTube to help out. Stop "holding on"…some stuff is just not necessary any more: If you have unnecessary "stuff" you can donate it, sell it, give it away to a friend or post it on freecycle.org (complete listing for all countries where Freecycle operates at SimpleLifeTogether.com/freecycle But there's probably more than "stuff" you need to get rid of... Bad habits Same old routines- If they're not working for you it's time to let them go Work situation: If you're ready for a change than check out Dan Miller's 48 Days Podcast Stop Letting Others Dictate How You Use Your Time: DVR your shows or "cut the cord" and watch online on sites like iTunes, Hulu, Netflix, in the US. Outside the US, just Google TV Steaming sites to find those available in your area, such as the BBC's iPlayer.

Organizing Tips From An Unlikely Source & A Few Life Lessons From The Playground. Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you! Main Topics:   Vanessa's Topic: Organizing Tips From A Toddler Vanessa realized the lessons that we have been teaching our daughter since she was a toddler are also great lessons that adults can apply to their lives when it comes to getting and staying organized.  Here are the lessons/tips that were discussed: Limit the number of toys (or projects) that you are playing with or working on.  Too many projects gets overwhelming and cause you to loose focus.  Multi-tasking isn't all that great.  Having few toys or projects also makes for easier cleanup. Clean up after yourself. Make cleanup part of your project.  Whether you're baking in the kitchen or working on a craft project, part of the project should include cleaning up after yourself.  Don't let it all pile up to point where cleaning up your home is an all day affair! Designate a spot for everything. Try using the same concept that preschool or kindergarten classrooms use...create zones and homes for everything. By creating zones in your home and having "a place for everything and everything in its place," cleanup and finding things will be a heck of a lot easier! Make cleanup easy. Using open containers to store things is a key ingredient to having kids clean up after themselves. Same thing applies to adults. It's much easier to toss an item into a basket or bin than having to lift a lid.  Bins are great inside drawers, on shelves and in cabinets. Hooks are another great tool to use to hang up coats, backpacks, scarves, belts and purses. Create rules and routines. We've previously dedicated  1/2 a podcast to this very topic. Creating rules and routines helps establish expectations so that you and other family members know who, what, when and why certain tasks need to be done and how.  Knowing what is expected prevents you from wasting time, duplicating effort and trying to figure out who does what...which cuts down on bickering as well! Limit the amount of stuff you own. It’s pretty simple...the less stuff you have the less you have to clean and maintain. You can control the amount of things in your home by practicing the "one in, one out rule," editing your possessions regularly, controlling impulsive buying habits and thinking long and hard about how making a purchase might affect the harmony in your home. Reward yourself. If our daughter wants a snack or to go outside and play, we make a deal with her.  She'll get the treat if she cleans up first. Her motivation to clean up is all based off of that reward.  You can reward yourself too. Tackle your most important tasks...then treat yourself to a little reward like a movie, reading time or extra time running (yes...Vanessa loves to run). Dan's Topic: Life Lessons Learned on the Playground Flashback to Episode 5 LEARNING: "Knowledge makes everything simpler." Do you capitalize on things we've already learned? How do our kids learn life's lessons in today's fast-paced world? Life Lessons Learned on the Playground.  For each, ask yourself two things: Do I still use this lesson today? How are today's kids learning these lessons? Lessons: SeeSaws or Teeter Totters: Teach us balance and leverage. Use Pareto's 80/20 Rule for leverage. Swings: Teach us to take action, coordination, and how to harness & use momentum. Swings also teach us situational awareness, looking out for trouble,

Going Paperless & Making the Most of a Small Living Space Main Topics:   Going Paperless: Guest Interview with Brooks Duncan from DocumentSnap Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you! We had a fantastic interview with Brooks.  There's no doubt he's way out front as a lead expert in the field of going paperless.  Here is a list of questions we asked Brooks (you definitely should listen to the podcast because he gave some great answers and advice!): So, Brooks...who are you and how do you make people's lives simpler? Is it really possible to go paperless? What about... Tax paperwork (Brooks sent IRS guidance, too.  Links below.) Receipts Contracts Other docs that people have been "married to" forever? How do you recommend people get started with going paperless? What does the workflow look like, or are there lots of different workflows? Your article "We Are Our Own Worst Enemy When Going Paperless" is fantastic! Can you describe some of the challenges people face when going paperless? What equipment do you recommend and why? Mac PC Scanners Mobile device/apps Etc... Your Paperless Document Organization Guide and it's an amazing value...do you have other courses? How can people sign up for your newsletter? What is the best way for people to reach you? Website: documentsnap.com Twitter: @BrooksDuncan and @DocumentSnap Facebook: facebook.com/documentsnap Dan and Vanessa Discuss Tips for Small Home Living Planning Our "Dream Home"...five years of planning Taking Action...designing, saving, paying it off and then... Oooops! Rethinking Our "Dream Home"...reasons for our change of plans: affordable green living, time to travel and visit family, not wanting to be slaves to possessions Intro to Cece Reinhardt + Brenda Daugherty from the blog “On the Green Road” Downsized their lives Totally eco-refurb’d an Airstream remodel and lived full-time in their RV Now they’re transitioning to a 500 sf house and planning a complete eco-refurb of that, too! They blog about health, travel, self-sufficiency and as they say, “anything else that blows our skirts up.” Guest Post on On The Green Road from Katie White from the blog DIY Mother: “DIY Tricks to Make the Most of a Small Living Space” (Note: We added some tips, too! Our additions to this are Italicized) The main theme was: 
Reducing your footprint doesn’t have to be uncomfortable She also pointed out some of the advantages of living in a Small home. They are : Use less land and raw materials Cost less to heat and cool You’ll be less tempted to fill them with things you don’t need.  Ties right into the spin off of Parkinson’s Law we talked about back in Episode 004...“Storage requirements will increase to meet storage capacity" Kitchen Keypoints: Small kitchens can be noisy, crowded little pressure-cookers, breeding hot tempers and short fuses. Paint your kitchen in light, cool shades to help everyone relax, and if possible, coordinate the entire kitchen in two or three colors to avoid a busy, disorganized vibe. Another simple trick to increase the visual space in your kitchen is to try open shelving instead of cupboards. We have raised Euro-style cabinets off the floor so you can see under them...it adds visual depth. Also, a mix of solid frosted glass cabinet doors help, too. Tall upper cabinets really max out your vertical storage space.

The One Secret To Accomplishing Anything & the Laws of Simplicity Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you! Feedback: We got some terrific voicemail feedback from John Bukenas from  LetsReverseObesity.com. John's podcast Let's Reverse Obesity is fantastic! John is doing great things chronicling his weight loss and is helping so many others along the way. Thanks, John, for listening, subscribing, and taking the time to send us some feedback. We also got a very, very nice comment here on Episode 004 from Marshall Ponzi. Thank you Marshall for your kind words and you’re so right...it IS amazing what we can do without. And, I think we’d agree that doing without all the extra allows us to truly appreciate what we do have all the more. Marshall also has a terrific podcast over at InboundInFocus.com that gives great inbound marketing tips for business owners. If you’re a business owner you’d be well served to check out Marshalls podcast, Inbound In Focus, as well. Main Topics:   Vanessa's Topic: The One Secret To Accomplishing Anything  "I'm often asked what my secret is to being organized and how I get my clients to become more organized." The single most important component to becoming organized is commitment. So why is commitment to change so difficult? 1. It’s not a priority....at least not yet. 2. Change is hard...even when you know it’s good for you. 3. It takes a lot of work...and that can be daunting and discouraging. 4. Unfortunately, often times people have to reach some sort of “breaking point.” Vanessa highlights some of her efforts to change: Finances $24K in debt Electricity and phone cut off Creditors hounding her for payments. Fitness 40 lbs heavier than her current weight Combined, the struggles led to: Low self esteem Depression Low energy Keys to her commitment to change: Stopped playing the victim Committed to a lifestyle change vs “quick fix” Results? Paid off debt in 2 years  Rebuilt credit score Kept the weight off Better level of fitness than in high school (20 years ago! Wow! She’s OLD!) Vanessa’s Truths: Truly believes “If I can do it, so can you!” One key is to be realistic about the change you want to make...and understand that it’s a process...not a quick fix. Be patient, systematic and strategic...otherwise you might do something you’ll regret or resent. One positive example is a blog she subscribes to, “Becoming Minimalist” by Joshua Becker.  I like the word...Becoming...because it implies that it’s a process. So, here are some points to ponder if you are thinking about making a change in your life: 1. Change your mindset...it’s a lifestyle change not a quick fix. Just like my progress with weight loss and fitness. 2. Change doesn’t happen overnight. 3. Realize that you may get discouraged at the task ahead.  But don’t sell yourself short.  You can do it! Again, think of it as a process and break it down into bite-sized chunks. (organize one space at a time...pay off one bill at a time...try one eating lifestyle or fitness plan at a time) 4. Realize that you may “fall of the wagon” and that maintaining your lifestyle may be difficult.  Pick yourself back up, and hop back on the wagon! 5. Once you get in the groove, you’re probably going to get addicted! Ask Dan...I can be a real grouch if I've missed a few workouts and if my house gets too cluttered.  That's because I've gotten addicted to the res...