I guess it’s officially way too late to wish people a happy new year by this time, so I will skip that But I do hope that this year will be a good one and that the people in Haiti will receive the proper care (I still can’t figure out why they didn’t parachute drop food and water sooner, but that’s a whole other story).

Before I start this post; if you haven’t seen Avatar yet, go see it! I suspect that the movie hides some sort of subliminal message making you want to see it over and over again, but it’s definitely worth it. I’ve seen snippets of Avatar on TV and personally I thought the movie sucked. Until my hubby told me it was a great experience. So last Monday -during the most depressing day of the year- I skipped work (yay for being self employed) and we went to an IMAX theater together with a friend. The 3D experience is just amazing and the whole Avatar world was mesmerizing. I’ve heard that people felt depressed because Pandora doesn’t really exist and now I can understand why. After seeing the movie, it will linger in your head for days and the “real” world might seem a bit disappointing.

Okay, back to the non Na’vi life. To start with my good resolutions I read personal development blogs and the book “The Power of Less”. And because free stuff is the best I can recommend reading the Ebook “Thriving on Less” and Zen Habits if you like to slow things down. It has certainly helped me to control my e-mail behaviour, which makes life a little less complicated, some tips:

1. Turn of your automatic e-mail notifications, it will only interfere with what you’re doing.
2. Make a small signature consisting of 4-5 lines with your valediction, name, website and 1 telephone number.
3. Don’t check your e-mail first thing in the morning, but start on a task first.
4. Try to check your e-mail only twice a day, for instance at 11.00 AM and 16.00 PM (before you sign off). Stop hitting that refresh button
5. If you can answer an e-mail withing 2 minutes, do it! Don’t let it sit in your inbox.
6. After you’ve answered an e-mail delete it, or archive it in an appropriate folder. For instance I make folders for each client.
7. Unsubscribe from newsletters and notifications or apply a filter to it, so it won’t make it to your inbox.

Also I’m still trying to not work during evenings, although this can be tricky when I have a lot of assignments to finish. I’m still hoping to launch a new blog someday filled with long and super interesting articles to attract millions of visitors and m$ney, but that’s just me talking to the universe for now.
Because I like the minimalism concept and the book Into the Wild I also made a new resolution: downsizing my possessions, so far I’ve sold or donated:

• 6 computer games, 4 will be relisted on eBay
• 15 books
• 10 clothing items - I actually bought NEW clothes last year
• 2 blankets - covered in so much cat hair that it would kill an allergic person
• 5 Blythe dolls - still in the process of selling those

I really enjoyed the process of purging stuff. Still I have to clean some areas, but hey 2010 is not over yet. Also I can only admire people who dare to take on the 100 Thing Challenge. I’m sure I’ll never get there. But still it’s an improvement. Especially when you take into consideration that my mother is not far away from being a hoarder    Talking about hoarders, this documentary was quite shocking.

This entry was posted on January 20th, 2010 at 11:50 pm, Both comments and pings are currently closed.