zenhabits I Removed Every Inessential Thing From My Website and This Happened When I built my first website a little over 3 years ago, I had no idea what I was doing. Naturally, I figured that looking at what other websites and blogs had on their pages would be a good place to start. I started seeing sites with social media buttons, email popups, advertisements, comments, and all sorts of other things. At first glance, these things seemed important. But as I continued tweaking my site design, I tested what would happen if I eliminated the unessential pieces. As I pulled away each piece, a funny thing happened. But it’s not just websites. The Power of Less When I was a kid, I looked like a string bean. I spent hours trying to come up with the right combination of exercises and the perfect split routines for each week. It took me about 7 years (I’m a slow learner), but eventually I figured out that the answer was the exact opposite: simplicity. From websites to workouts, simplicity can make a big difference. Eliminate Your Distractions Want to get stronger arms?
Do You Have “Fun Money”? source & source About two months ago, I won a $100 American Express gift card from an affiliate program I’m involved in. Yes, I’ve won things before, but they were always “things”… not cold hard cash! Need-less-to-say, I was pretty excited! When the card came in the mail, my initial thought was, I could probably buy 3 – 4 weeks worth of groceries with this… But then I thought, NO — I’m not spending this gift on groceries, gas, utility bills, or any of our other boring monthly expenses. This money will be my “fun money”! Now, obviously $100 can’t buy an unlimited amount of fun, but I did manage to make it last for over a month. Here’s some of what I bought with my fun money: I think I did pretty well to get ALL that for $100. And even though my splurges were spread out over several weeks, it was so fun to know that I had a specific amount of “fun money” that I did not have to account for. Do you have fun money? I know a couple who budgets $50 per month as fun money. What about you?
The Art of Non-Conformity A short history of Spanish cinema | Film Spain embraced the new medium of cinema at the turn of the century as fervently as any of its European counterparts; this film of a religious procession in 1902, by the splendidly named Fructuos Gelabert, is typical of the early amateurs. In Segundo de Chomón, however, Spain produced a trickster directorto rival France's Georges Méliès. De Chomón worked mostly in France, and even made An Excursion to the Moon, his own version of Méliès's most famous film. The route from Spain to France was well-trodden by the time Buñuel and Dalí made Un Chien Andalou in 1928; otherwise, little of Spain's silent-film output made any impact internationally. The early sound period fared little better, as political convulsions in the run-up to the civil war made a settled industry difficult. After L'Age d'Or (1930), his second French film, Buñuel returned to Spain to make Land Without Bread (1933), a surrealist parody-documentary about poverty-stricken peasants in Extremadura.
Slow Your Home Living the Simple Life ‘A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.’ ~Henry David Thoreau By Leo Babauta For almost 9 years now, I’ve been learning to live a simple life. A life uncluttered by most of the things people fill their lives with, and left with space for what really matters. That doesn’t mean I have zero clutter and zero complications: I’m a part of the world, not a secluded monk. Today I’ve been reflecting on this simple life, and thought I’d share some of those reflections. Some things I’ve learned about living the simple life: Decluttering your home and work space can lead to a less cluttered mind. ‘Let’s begin by taking a smallish nap or two.’
My Time Budget I’ve always thought it was/is really important to create a financial budget and implement limits for yourself as to what you will and will not spend money on. However, over the last few years, I’ve also realized how important it is to decide what you will and will not spend your time on — so I created a “time budget”. This might be a foreign concept for some, but I’m convinced that a time budget is one of the best ways to stay focused, limit distractions, and get more done. What is a Time Budget? Don’t worry, it’s NOT fancy… I don’t even have a fun spreadsheet like my financial budget! A “Time Budget” is simply a map or chart that shows how you will spend the hours in your day. Here’s a really quick example of how to create your own time budget: For example: if I sleep for 7 hours, work with a client for 5 hours, work on my blog for 3 hours, and have a meeting for 2 hours, that only leaves 7 hours to do EVERYTHING else {get ready, eat and prepare meals, cleaning, errands, commute, etc}