Jealous? Me? Noooo….

In any case, I have recently been inspired by this post over at Zenhabits.com, and I am going to be using the technique mentioned there of organizing by starting from a clean slate. I am putting (almost) everything I own into cardboard boxes, and taking things out of them as I use them. Sometime in December (to make sure I make it through a change of seasons) I will give away or throw out anything that is left in the box.

The ultimate goal, of course, is to come as close as I can to only having 100 things. 100 is a somewhat arbitrary number, but it seems like a good starting place.

In other news, here is some great advice on how to keep an organized office in a very, very small space, which is another goal of mine.

I’ll keep you posted here on the progress of my organizational quest, and feel free to share your comments!

If so, Lifehacker has made a neat list the top five book recommendation websites. I can personally recommend Good Reads, but feel free to check them all out and share which ones are your favorites.

This is a great article on how your brain works, and how to take advantage of it in order to study more effectively, especially when it comes to studying information gathered from the internet.

Thanks to Lifehacker for turning me on to this article!

If any of you end up using these techniques, please comment and share how they worked for you!

In fact, Newsweek says “Almost every dimension of cognition improves from 30 minutes of aerobic exercise, and creativity is no exception. The type of exercise doesn’t matter, and the boost lasts for at least two hours afterward.”

Of course, this only works if you are in good shape. Otherwise the exhaustion from unaccustomed exercise outweighs the benefits.

For more on this, and a bunch of other ideas for boosting creativity, check out the full article here.

But somehow, the software does not quite seem to keep up. I want my phone to sing and dance, dammit!

Well, I should say that the software has not kept up, until now. This great program for Android phones lets you really and truly automate your phone. It lets you customize your phone the way a phone should be freakin’ customized.

Check out a great article on the program here, from Lifehacker, or download the program here:

Keep in mind this is a pay program, but there is a 14 day trial, and it is totally worth the $6.

In case you happen to be planning a trip in the future, take a look at this great universal packing list. You enter your destination, and some details about the trip, and it generates a great packing list for you to check off. It even has a map feature, so you can click on the countries you are visiting.

Speaking of my former housemate, and her trip to Kurdistan, she has a new blog that will be chronicling her journey. She is a great writer, and has a host of interesting adventures, so check it out here, at ALilJourney.com.

Maybe not, but if you are wondering just how you are related to your Cousin’s Cousin’s Niece’s Grandfather, Wolfram Alpha is your key to success.

Check it out here at the Wolfram Alpha Blog.

Now you can go to Aunt Merideth’s fifth wedding with no fear. Well, except that you might have to dance with Aunt Merideth.

Not bloody likely.

In fact, your decisions are probably based mostly on years of paying attention to things that reinforce your pre-existing opinions, and ignoring things that challenge what you believe.

This is a phenomenon known as Confirmation Bias, which is what happens when your brain uses its amazing filtering powers to filter out everything that you subconsciously think is unimportant. As soon as you think about something, like a movie for instance, your subconscious filter decides that it must be important, so it stops filtering out that movie.

And then you start seeing the movie EVERYWHERE.

Anyway, it is a fascinating feature of our brains, but it can be very problematic. It tends to falsely reinforce our beliefs, which can be dangerous. Beliefs are fine, just be aware of why you believe what you do, and make sure you understand the affect that confirmation bias can have.

To read a little more about confirmation bias, take a look at this fantastic article about it, from youarenotsosmart.com.

Enjoy!

Unless by “vampire” you mean “blood-sucking insect” and by “spell” you mean “bugspray”.

The point is, with summer here in full blast everyone is going outside a lot more, and that means a lot more exposure to biting and stinging insects. And that is no fun for anyone.

Luckily, Lifehacker has our collective back. This is a great article about how to keep away the nasty little biters this summer.

Enjoy!

If only I had known that I could have been excused from jury duty simply by explaining that I was the sole proprietor of my business.

If you find yourself in similar situation, here is a great list of ways to get your jury duty moved or rescheduled, from Lifehacker. They got the list from MyTwoDollars.com, but they filtered out the stuff that is somewhat morally questionable.

Enjoy!