DIY. Desk Made Out of Doors

It's recommended that you use extra time to do what you dream of doing.

I recently read this article on RedLemonClub.com called 10 Productive Things to Do in Your Extra Time. Number two really caught my eye. Here's what it said...

"2. Do What you Dream of Doing

While you’ve been knuckling down and working hard for other people, has there been something in the back of your mind you’d love to be doing? Now is the time to start that graphic novel, draw that comic or create that amazing typeface. Even if it is out of your usual area, your personal work could spark off new ideas and techniques to use in the future."

 

My wife and daughter have been out of town for a few days and that has left me with some extra time. I decided to use that time doing one of the things I love to do, but don't do because I have no real talent to do them and no one pays me to do them or even would want me to do them for free. Two activities came to mind: Drawing and" Building Things From Old Doors". I chose Building Things From Old Doors because I need a new desk, and maybe if I build one out of an old door I can later use it while I try my hand at drawing. That's logical, right?

So here's how it went...

I bought an old solid door and some cabinet doors from a salvage store run by Habitat for Humanity. I spent $19 for the materials. The door was so heavy that I had to get help lifting it. I never knew a door could BE so heavy!

I cut the door in half with a circular saw and some saw horses. A table saw would be better, but I don't have one. I don't even have a garage. That's why I'm doing this in my living room. Smart? No. If my wife were in town I would have done it elsewhere. I DID clean up after myself though. See the vacuum? 

I did a few more cuts to get the sides and top of the desk. One door goes a long way. I just drilled some holes and used some big ol' screws to attach everything. Notice the hole where the door handle goes? Perfect for computer cords!

I added the backing so it wouldn't be all wobbly. I had it leftover from a previous project and it happened to be the perfect size, so I didn't even cut it. I just used a bunch of small nails to attach it on three sides.

I bought some of these gizmos when I decided I wanted to make a hutch out of the cabinet doors. They were 30 cents a piece and I already had small screws to use. 

Using my drill, and the gizmos, I was able to form this little contraption. I had to cut the cabinet doors to be the same size since there weren't any matching sets at the salvage store. 

Then I cut little corner shelves out of some scrap wood I had, and I screwed a big cabinet door onto each side of the desk for some extra decoration. There you have it. I call it Frankendesk.

The next step is to find some cheap molding to go around that unfinished edge of the desktop. Then, if I decide it's worth it, I could even paint it and make it look more like a piece of furniture instead of a piece of...well...something else.

So, this project cost me a total of $24 and entertained me for about eight hours of shopping, designing, building , and cleaning up. It's not a work of art. It's not well crafted. But it makes me happy. And that was the point. 

What do YOU dream of doing? Next time you have some spare time, give it a shot!

Be Productive While Watching TV

It's recommended that you get things done while watching TV

Remember that time when I said to limit TV time? Well, there's also this thing called TV Thursday! That's what I call prime time on NBC Thursday nights. I turn it on at 7 and don't turn it off until 10. I watch Community, 30 Rock, The Office, Parks and Recreation, and Awake. So, I thought I would take advice from Real Simple's article, 13 Productive Things to Do While Watching TV so I don't feel like I really just watched 3 hours of TV.

Here are the suggestions in the article. Click on the link above to read the whole thing.

1.  Make Plans for the Weekend
2.  Sort the Junk
3.  Clean Out Your Inbox
4.  Organize Your Email Folders
5 . Plan Your Meals
6.  Review Your Budget
7.  Pay Your Bills
8.  Check Your Credit Score
9.  Declutter Your Purse/Wallet
10. Make Your To Do List
11. Sort Your Magazines
12. Max Out Your Retirement Accounts
13. Relax

Just in case you haven't guessed. It's Thursday night and I'm blogging while watching 30 Rock. Next I think I'm going to sort my pile of junk mail while watching The Office :)

Read

It's recommended that you read.

I like to get information and reading can be a way to do it, but it seems so inefficient. It takes so long, and you have to use your hands, and you have to have good lighting. You can't do it while working or driving, so why not listen to an audio book instead? Or even better, you can wait for the movie to come out and save yourself several hours.

Here's a little bit of an article titled Watch This. No. Read It! which can be found in the June 2008 issue of O, the Oprah Magazine. You can also read it by clicking on the link below.

Just like muscles, the brain benefits from a good workout. And reading is more neurobiologically demanding than processing images or speech. As you're absorbing, say, this article, "parts of the brain that have evolved for other functions—such as vision, language, and associative learning—connect in a specific neural circuit for reading, which is very challenging," says Ken Pugh, PhD, president and director of research of Haskins Laboratories, which is devoted to the science of language and affiliated with Yale. "A sentence is shorthand for a lot of information that must be inferred by the brain." In general, your intelligence is called to action, as is greater concentration. "We are forced to construct, to produce narrative, to imagine," says Maryanne Wolf, director of the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University and author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain. "Typically, when you read, you have more time to think. Reading gives you a unique pause button for comprehension and insight. By and large, with oral language—when you watch a film or listen to a tape—you don't press pause." 

Read more: http://www.oprah.com/health/How-Reading-Can-Improve-Your-Memory#ixzz1t0wRqQve

 So, reading is hard, and that's exactly why we should be doing it! It gives your brain a workout and strengthens neural connections. But, why do so many people like reading if it's hard? I think it's like running. There are very strange people who like to run. They don't think of it as hard. They're used to running and focus more on the benefits than the difficulty. It's the same way for avid readers. Their neural connections already get a good workout on a regular basis, so it's easier for them to get lost in the story or understand the concepts quickly.

I also like the thought of pausing. When you're reading you can go at your own pace, pause, think about things, internalize them, write them down if you want, and continue. You just don't get that from a movie, or even an audio book. So, let's read. Let's take a trip to the local library, or revisit a masterpiece collecting dust on our bookshelves. If you want some digital copies of books, check out Project Gutenberg. They have a  large collection of free digitized books.

Limit TV Time

It's recommended that you limit TV time to two hours a day or less. 

I have this terrible problem where I find a new show on Netflix, get addicted immediately, and 7 seasons and 182 hours later I'm left wondering what happened to my life.

This week I read an article titled Too Much TV May Mean Earlier Death by Sarah Klein with Health.com. What's so sad about this thought is that not only do you die earlier, but when you're alive, that precious time is wasted sitting in front of the TV! Okay, wasted is as strong word. I love TV and sometimes it's entertainment is the only thing I want and need, but moderation is key.

Here's the statistic.

People who watch 4 hours or more of TV per day are 80% more likely to die of heart disease than those who watch 2 hours or less. 

Sarah Klein makes the interesting point that the suspected problem with watching TV is that it's traditionally done in the sitting position. I would also add that I eat the most junk food while watching TV. I don't watch a movie and eat carrots and broccoli. I eat popcorn smothered in butter, soda, candy, and bowls full of sugar without batting an eye.

So if instead of sitting, I was running on a treadmill, and instead of junk food, I was having grilled salmon with a side of steamed vegetables, watching TV would actually EXTEND my lifespan.

So my takeaway here is to limit my time watching TV so that...
A. I can do more productive things and
B. I won't die of heart disease, and have the opportunity to die of something else instead.

And if I do watch a lot of TV, I'll try to be active while I do it.

Little Steps Towards Better Fitness

It's recommended that you do little things every day to get more exercise.

It's time for my quaterly fitness test! That means it's also time for another recommendation from Nick Rainey with Body4Change. So, without further delay, here's his recommendation...

"The little things are essential. What are the little things?
take the stairs, not the elevators
walk or ride a bike when traveling a half mile or less
taking a walk instead of or before watching a movie with your family
park at the back of the parking lot

These four things can make a huge difference for two reasons. First, those activities burn calories. The more calories you burn the more weight you lose. Second, it’s psychological. When you do those activities daily you feel healthy. It helps you to make healthy choices in other aspects of your life."

I love that he mentions the psychology behind the little things. No one's going to lose a ton of weight just by parking far away when they go to the store. But, when you make the decision to do that one thing, you are more likely to buy healthy food when you get to the store and make other healthy decisions. Awesome!

As for my healthy decisions, let's see how they're paying off. I just took the President's Challenge Adult Fitness Test. If you remember, back in January I took the test for the first time so I would have a starting point. You can read my January post to learn more about the test. Below is a graph of my progress so far.



I still have a lot of room for improvement. I didn't work much on my cardiovascular fitness and it showed in my walking test. I focused mainly on the other three. I've made a ton of progress with my flexibility, but I'm still in the 25th percentile :( I'm actually quite happy with my progress though :).

I hope you're goals are going well too! If you want some help achieving them or know someone else who could use some guidance or extra motivation, give me a call!

Clean One Room At A Time

It's recommended that you focus on cleaning one room at a time rather than trying to tackle the entire house at once.

This recommendation is from the website www.unclutterer.com. They put the advice this way...

"One day, one room: Dedicate half an hour to cleaning one room every day instead of cleaning the whole house on the weekend."

I am king of the ten minute clean. It has done so much for my happiness ever since I discovered it. Before, cleaning the kitchen was a list of activities like do the dishes, clean the counter, sweep the floor, throw away the junk mail, etc... It seemed like a lot of work. After discovering the ten minute clean, I see it differently. It's not a list of tasks. It's just ten minutes. I can do anything for ten minutes. I set the timer and then get to it. 

That being said, my obsession with the ten minute clean isn't always a good thing. In ten minutes I never get to the the deep cleaning like the stove, oven, refrigerator, cabinets, mopping, etc... That's why this tip is so great. I can do my daily ten minute clean on the rooms that need it, but I can also spend some extra time on one room to get some deep cleaning done. I can still use my timer, but just set it for a little longer in one room. I can do that, right? We'll see. I'll give it a try at least. :)

I might just buy a golden retriever instead.

Know What You're Doing and Know When You're Done

It's recommended that you define a clear objective for everything you do.

This recommendation comes from David Allen and his book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity. He puts it this way, "You have to define what done means and what doing looks like." That's a great way to get more productivity out of life, and it really applies to everything. My wife was out of town this week so I had a lot of time alone. I got a few things done, but some days were the opposite of productive. They were antiductive, or maybe even conductive. Here's why.

I thought I would sit down and watch some TV after a busy hour of cleaning the house (six ten-minute-cleans). So, I start watching TV and then it's suddenly well past my bedtime. What happened? I didn't set a clear objective for my TV break! The only planning that went into it was, "I guess I'll watch some TV now". I failed to answer some important questions.

Why am I choosing to watch TV?
What do I hope to accomplish?
When am I done?

If I had it to do over again I would have answered...

I feel like I've done some good work and now I need a break.
I want to relax and get a bit of entertainment with the goal of being more productive when finished.
I'm done after watching one episode of Burn Notice.


What ended up happening is that I decided I would just watch TV until I was satisfied (I ended up watching two seasons of Burn Notice in a couple of days. What can I say? It's a good show.)

I even applied a clear objective to a heavy door I encounter every day. I never think about the door and as a result, I lean back and use my weight to open it. I'm sure I look like a two year old trying to break into a refrigerator, but yesterday I set a clear objective: Open that door like a MAN. (I mean open the door as a man would and not open the door like I would open a man)

To make a short story long, I planted my feet, kept my back straight and used my arm and shoulder muscles to pull the door open. By making my objective more specific than just getting to the other side of the door, I felt like I had  actually accomplished something!

It applies to more important things like personal, career, and family goals as well, but I think I've made my point. Oh, and if you're wondering, my objective in writing this post was to get everyone to start watching Burn Notice, but to do so responsibly by stretching it out over at least a few months.