All posts by Heshy

Heshy Shayovitz is an award winning manager, developer and web designer. He received his MBA from New York University.
Health

The Best Diet: Eat What You Love

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Man gönnt sich ja sonst nichts [TM]Some diets say they’re the best but one I’m about to suggest really is and quickly you’ll agree. How do I know it’s the best? Simple, you choose the best foods- you’re favorites- and eat it. Try to do it in moderation, add your favorite fruits and vegetables and you’re all set.

Only Eat What You Love

We all know what’s healthy and what isn’t as healthy. The key is don’t eat anything that’s not healthy unless you really like it. Why waste the calories. This means don’t eat a mediocre steak- wait till you can get your favorite steak- add some of your favorite vegetables to complete the meal. This means if someone offers you good chocolate- don’t take it because it will prevent you from having your absolute favorite later in the day.

Add Fruits and Vegetables

At your meals and snacks add your favorite healthy fruits and vegetables. This will ensure that you get your nutrients and don’t over indulge on the main course. One key to this is preparation- make sure you have the sides dishes available. For those who are picky with fruits and vegetables- keep experimenting to find what you like. I don’t like leaves (e.g. the green vegtables that just look and taste like leaves) but tomatoes are good. I love pineapple, grapes and watermelon.

Drink

While you’re at it drink lots of water. Sometimes people think they’re hungry but they’re really thirsty.

Keep Improving

Keep looking for ways to minimize the unnecessary foods. Try to keep eating a little less each week.

This isn’t a revolutionary plan and you won’t shrink overnight- but it’s a way of life you can sustain:

Note: I’m not a dietitian- I just know what worked for me with minimal effort.

photo credit: heipei

Delegate, Invest

Raise Your Employees, Empower Your Kids

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Real JoyWe work hard- day and night. At home, we raise our kids to be the best they can be. We nurture them and help them grow. We hold their hands and never let them get hurt. At work, we empower our employees. We give them independence and greater responsibility. We step back and let them succeed.

The downside to this one way pursuit is that there’s a good chance that your kids wont become independent (e.g. they need your constant supervision) and your employees won’t grow (e.g. they don’t learn). Now take a step back and think about switching those roles: Raise your employees and empower your kids. Sometimes employees need direction, training and hand holding and your kids need the independence to get further.

I’m not suggesting that you totally switch roles between kids and employees. I’m suggesting that you inject some of the techniques of one when dealing with the other.

Stay tuned for articles that will address how to raise your employees and empower your kids.

photo credit: Todd Baker << technowannabe

Principles, Success

The Best Success Is Yet To Come

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Over the past couple of days I’ve received nice write ups from the fine folks at LifeHack (which I read religiously) and GTDTimes (which is very useful so I’m now subscribed). But there’s more to this site than what they mentioned.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s article I have many drafts in progress. Here’s some of the titles I’m working on:

  • Raise Your Employees, Empower Your Kids(7/23)
  • The Best Diet: Eat What You Love (7/24)
  • The Two Minute Guide To Success (7/25)
  • How to Raise your employees
  • How To Give Your Kids Super Powers
  • The “Best” Diet
  • The Success Cold War: Stop the Rushins
  • The 9 Ds of Processing: Turn Your Excessive Time Demands Into Manageable Tasks
  • My Paperless Office: Trashing Paper, Completing To-Dos and Being Organized
  • QTime: The Mathematical Way To Guarantee Your Happiness Forever
  • How I automated myself out of a Job- and am thankful I did
  • How I increased my rate 10 fold and you can too
  • The computer ATE my work and now I’m successful
  • How To Increase Your EQ (Enjoyment Quotient)
  • Productivity Can (Should) Be Fun and Games

These and other articles will be send to my editor (my wonderful wife, Cindy) shortly. Your success will just get better if you keep reading.

Eliminate, Principles, productivity

Are You Finished? Finish What You Start

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adiml48I recently received this message forwarded to my email box:

Recently Dr Phil, the talk show host, proclaimed, “The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started and have never finished.” So, I looked around my house to see all the things I started and hadn’t finished, and before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a bottle of White Zinfandel, a bottle of Bailey’s Irish Cream, a package of Oreos, the remainder of my old Prozac prescription, the rest of the cheesecake, some Doritos, and a box of chocolates. You have no idea how good I feel right now.

Jokes aside it is important to finish what you start. Unfinished items will clog your to do list. When you leave an item unfinished for a while you should use the “processing” rules:

  • Delete- Don’t do this task (don’t worry about the work you already did if it’s not needed drop the task.)
  • Delegate- maybe someone else can help you finish it.
  • Defer- if you’re not going to get to it soon- defer it. Put it on your someday/maybe list so it’s not cluttering your current to do list.
  • Do now- Can you do it in 5 minutes or less?
  • Designate- if you know you need to meet someone to get further details on this task (or to do it)- designate some time on your calendar.

I actually started this post months ago. I feel much better, it’s one less draft I need to worry about and I now have a post for tomorrow (today, for those of you reading it).

photo credit: Cara_VSAngel

Goal, Leadership

The MiniReview- Keep Your Employees (or Yourself) Motivated and On Target

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Each year, usually around December, organizations across the globe mandate an Employee Review. This is where managers review the progress of their subordinates and specify the goals for the upcoming year. This is helpful as it keeps employees on target so they know what the company wants them to accomplish. It motivates the employees because typically bonuses and increases are tied to the review. (If your company doesn’t do this then run and do it now.)

The Problem
There are some problems with the above system- there are too many opportunities for surprises and not enough direction. This means there’s a whole year without talking about growth or guiding your employees.

Action Steps
We’re at about the half way point of the year. Do a review now. If you’re an employee ask for a quick meeting to make sure “I’m on the right path”.

The Final Question
If you’re the manager performing the MiniReview always end with the following “What can I do to help you succeed? What can I do to make your job/environment better?”

If you’re an employee ask “What can I do to improve?”

Closure
After the MiniReview go over what you’ve discussed. Make sure each of you knows what follow-up steps you’ll do based on the discussion.

Health

Three Ways To Stay Fit Without Exercise

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“I hate going to the gym”, “I hate running”, “Exercise is so boring”. The more I speak to people who exercise the more negative responses I get. So let me get this straight people intentionally spend 30 minutes, 60 minutes or more daily torturing themselves. Isn’t there a better way?

Actually there are three better ways:
1. Find fun ways to exercise. If you enjoy playing basketball, then basketball isn’t exercise it’s fun time. Simple enough.
2. Replace exercise time with other productive physical activities. See: How Avoiding Exercise Can Make You Fit and Productive
3. Don’t be Lazy. During the day there are plenty of opportunities to be active- embrace them. Read: Exercise is for Lazy People

How do you stay fit without exercise?

GTD, Motivation, productivity

The Two Minute Guide to Getting Things Done (GTD)

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One of the biggest obstacles to getting more productive is getting started. Here’s a two minute guide to Getting Things Done (GTD).

1. Capture– Get all your to dos into inboxes. e.g. mail goes in one spot, verbal to dos go in your notebook etc.

2. Process– Go through all your inboxes and empty out anything in your head onto a to do list. Here’s how to filter your list:
  • Delete- If you wont need it, get rid of it.
  • File- file away anything you’ll need later- but dont need now
  • Delegate- if someone else should be doing it- let them know. keep a to do item to follow up
  • Defer- Is this task not important enough to be done soon? Put it on a “someday/maybe” list. Review the list weekly.
  • Do now- Is it a task that will take 2 minutes or less? Do it. That includes putting appointments in your calender, adding addresses to your contact list etc.
3. Do– Do your to do list.
4. Weekly review– Be on top of your to do list.
Of course there’s much more but if you start with this then you’re already ahead of most people.
Motivation, Passion, Principles

Don’t Give Up

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PerseveranceYou can find inspiration anywhere. Steve Pavlina, in his Skill article writes “During my first six months as a blogger, I earned a whopping $167. That’s about 17 cents per hour…But about a year and a half later, my blog’s income was passing $10K/month…” (his unreleased book has cracked Amazon’s Top 100 books). Not everyone is as successful as Steve but it’s goes to show that perseverance pays.
Creative Commons License photo credit: dearbarbie.

productivity, Success

Productivity vs Success: Why Do You Need Both

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SuccessPeople throw out the term productivity all the time so it has earned a negative connotation.

Productivity is a process- do it better, faster, cheaper, with more quality. Success is a result- when your efforts work out well.

You can be successful without being productive- think of digging a large hole with a spoon. You can be productive without being successful- think of digging efficiently with a shovel for a treasure, but in the wrong spot.

To maximize your machine you must identify success and get there in the most productive way possible.

Ultimately success is most important (as evidenced by the name of this blog)- because if you aren’t succeeding you aren’t getting anywhere.

photo credit: aloshbennett

Health

Exercise is for Lazy People

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New Chair Same Old MistyDo you ever wonder why people of the 17th century didn’t need to waste their time exercising? It’s because they exercised in their everyday tasks. Nowadays we’ve become too lazy- so we need to set aside time to exercise instead. In other words we’ve become too lazy to be active, so instead we torture ourselves with exercise. The solution of course is to stop being lazy and get our exercize in small bursts throughout the day.

Here’s some examples of how you can stop being lazy in everyday tasks and eliminate the need for exercise:

  • When you drive don’t waste time looking for a parking spot closest to your destination. Just park at the first decent spot and use the time you saved to walk to your destination.
  • Take the stairs
  • Walk (don’t drive) to your neighborhood grocery store or anywhere else in your neighborhood. (have you seen the prices of gas lately?!?)
  • Volunteer to go to the next room (or upstairs) to help someone in your family or a coworker retrieve something. (you’re so nice)
  • If you’re going to have a long discussion with your friend/significant other get up and walk around the neighborhood. (The change in scenery can make stressful discussions more calm.)

If you stop being lazy you’ll discover an interesting phenomenon- you’re a lot more productive.

There’s plenty of opportunities to stop being lazy- don’t be lazy too look for them.

What other everyday opportunities do you see to exercise?

photo credit: Ian Bloomfield