Life Balance

I read a great book on the weekend called, "Stop Screaming at the Microwave!" by Mary LoVerde. This book is not one that I would normally pick up and read, but since I heard Mary speak at an YPO event, I was duly inspired. Most of her lectures and most of the book is about life balance (one of the courses that I failed).

The interesting thing about the book is that it has a number of time management tips. I think this is great because one of the things that I often tell people when they question my high drive and push towards time management and efficiency is "good time management allows you to spend time doing what you choose to do". So if they want to be more balanced, they should stufy time management more.

One interesting vignette in her book was a story about something her daughter did and her daughter said, "You're not going to use this story in your talks, are you?" I get the same thing about blogging. You have to be careful now, I own the media.

One concept LoVerde talks about in her book are connections and the need to connect, and connecting deliberately. Again there is interesting analogies to this and business networking which she even speaks about. The gist of it is having a good number of connections can help de-stress your life.

One slide that I am adding to my time management seminar is one that Mary calls micro-actions or inch-by-inch. Instead of trying to tackle the whole project, just tackle a small part of it. Simply start the task and the rest goes from there. One example she uses in her book is, "Microactions can work in any field. My husband uses them with the high school students he counsels. Seventeen-year olds have a thousand ingenious reasons why they have not yet applied for college admission. Instead of harping on them to fill out the application and warning them of the dire consequences if they fail to act in time, he asks them to bring in a postage stamp. He instructs them first to lick the stamp (they roll their eyes) and then place it on an addressed envelope in his presence. He reminds them that everyone who has graduated from college first put a stamp on an envelope and mailed in the applications. The kids think his advice is so stupid they mail in the forms. What else are they going to do with the stamped envelope?"

Mary also talks about rituals as a way of grounding us and helping us to be centered. I often talk about habits that could also be referred to as rituals and we are the product of what we repeatedly do. She talks about creating possible rituals.

Many interesting parallels in this book to some of my tricks and habits. And don't worry, I wont get too laid back.

I would strongly recommend this book.

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You gotta be kidding me...

I bought this book because I've got too much to do and too little time. The author's suggestion for how to prioritize, when faced with a choice of things I want to do, things I need to do, people I need to connect with? Choose "people" every time! Well, that is a lovely thought, but she doesn't give a whole lot of advice on how to keep the rest of your life from going to the dogs while you spend all your time playing touchy-feely with your loved ones. LoVerde's imaginative solution to her own time crunch was to stop cooking. Marvelous option if you can afford to eat out every day, and don't care much about nutrition. Not a workable option for most of us out here in the real world.

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Several excellent ideas

Although we are swimming (perhaps drowning) in self help books in general -- and "how to live the good life" books in particular -- this book provided several excellent ideas which I had not seen in other books of its ilk. In this day and age, getting even one novel and useful idea out of a book is the exception rather than the rule.

Granted, there are many parts of this book which didn't apply to me (a great deal of it centers around spouse and children). But her ideas for a "Memory Jar," a "Feel Good File," and a "Policy statement" were worth the price of the book alone.

Although it won't change my life (that would be asking a lot from ANY book), I found "Stop Screaming at the Microwave" to be better than average.

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