How To Enhance Your Life - Dean Amory

ecording the shows you feel are valuable to watch later. I’ve done this before and it can be a big
time saver while still allowing you to enjoy some passive entertainment.
10. Web Surfing - Record your web usage for a day or two. Write down the sites you visited or
tools you used to get there (StumbleUpon, Digg, etc.) Figure out sites took up the most time and
which had the least value. You’d be surprised how often they are the same thing.
11. Spring Cleaning - Although it’s only a few weeks from summer, you can use this on any
organization attempt. Go through your items and trash all the items that you haven’t used recently
(except for important documents). Just because you have storage space, doesn’t mean it should be
filled with garbage. Eliminate clutter and it becomes far easier to find and use the things you
actually need.
12. Clients/Customers - This one comes from Tim Ferriss, in the Four Hour Workweek. Figure
out which customers contribute the most complaints and the least revenue. Notify them that things
will need to change and set down some guidelines. Then fire the ones that don’t comply. Goes
against the doctrine that the customer is always right, but some people just aren’t worth the trouble
they cause.
13. Hard Drive - Sort through your computer documents, comparing the last modified date for
various major folders. Create a separate folder system where you can move these rarely used files.
This will eliminate your computer clutter and make it far easier and faster to find the stuff you
actually use.
14. Desktop - Same thing as the hard-drive, but I do it every week or two. Just go through your
desktop and delete any short-cuts or move documents that haven’t been used in the last two weeks.
You don’t have to completely eliminate everything, but it will make your desktop a more efficient
workspace.
15. Applications - Go through all your computer applications. Figure out which ones are
distracting and are either rarely used or contribute little value. Uninstall those. If this seems like
too much work, a complete computer reformat can get rid of the trash.
16. Home Appliances - Determine which appliances cause the most frustration, stress and break
down the most. Once you’ve done this you have three options: learn to use the tool better to
understand it and prevent stress, buy a new one or find a substitute that is less damage prone. Save
yourself the headache and 80/20 your lawnmower.
17. Budget - Calculate all your discretionary expenses (after taxes, food and necessities). Now
compare the money value of each expense with the utility of the purchase. If you wanted to
compare different entertainment items in your budget, you could value each expense on the
pleasure it brought you. If you wanted to compare different investments or tools you could
compare return rates or productivity gained.
18. Blogging - Classify the types of posts you write into different categories. I’ve done this
grouping by, post length, subject, format, style, images, etc. Multiply each by the amount of time
to write each type of post. Then compare that data to your estimate of traffic gained from each.
Use this as a guide for future writing.
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