It’s been quite a while since I wrote an update col­umn, with ideas and sug­ges­tions. I got moti­vated today, as a result of down­load­ing a really inter­est­ing pdf for­mat e-book.

Lots of peo­ple I know (hey Dar­bella!) strug­gle with orga­ni­za­tion. Actu­ally, Dar adopted the 43 fold­ers approach to paper orga­ni­za­tion at school.

I read the blog Zen Habits (hmm? Won­der why?) and today read about writer Leo Babauta’s new e-book, “Zen to Done.” Leo describes the book thusly:

“Zen To Done takes some of the best aspects of a few pop­u­lar pro­duc­tiv­ity sys­tems (GTD, Stephen Covey and oth­ers) and com­bines them with the man­date of sim­plic­ity. It makes things as sim­ple as pos­si­ble, and no more.”

The down­load­able book is a bar­gain at $9.50. You can have a look at the con­tent and order it here:
Click here to view more details

Some weeks ago I added the coupon, below, for 25% off of my stuff, as a sort of Xmas bonus. In the process, I dis­cov­ered that I’d inad­ver­tently turned off the abil­ity to order “This End­less Moment,” my lat­est book. All was fixed a week ago, and I just remem­bered to men­tion this, in case any of you clicked over to The Phoenix Cen­tre Press and found your­self unable to order.

Another web­site I fre­quent is “Dr. Mer­cola”—a cut­ting edge site for alter­na­tive med­i­cine. I get his weekly updates, and a few weeks ago he sent a link to a video of Bill Maher cas­ti­gat­ing the drug indus­try. It’s a must see.

Our friend Gillian Chan­dler sent me the fol­low­ing list, in an e-mail enti­tled “The Zen of Sar­casm.” (I think she meant me… ;-0 ) It’s a great list and I agree with most of them, so there you go!

01. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not fol­low. Do not walk beside me either. Just pretty much leave me the hell alone.

02. The jour­ney of a thou­sand miles begins with a bro­ken fan belt and leaky tire.

03. Its always dark­est before dawn. So if you’re going to steal your neighbor’s news­pa­per, that’s the time to do it.

04. Don’t be irre­place­able. If you can’t be replaced, you can’t be promoted.

05. Always remem­ber that you’re unique. Just like every­one else.

06. Never test the depth of the water with both feet.

07. If you think nobody cares if you’re alive, try miss­ing a cou­ple of car payments.

08. Before you crit­i­cize some­one, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you crit­i­cize them, you’re a mile away and you have their shoes.

09. If at first you don’t suc­ceed, sky­div­ing is prob­a­bly not for you.

10. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

11. If you lend some­one $20 and never see that per­son again, it was prob­a­bly a wise investment.

12. If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remem­ber anything.

13. Some days you’re the bug; some days you’re the windshield.

14. Every­one seems nor­mal until you get to know them.

15. The quick­est way to dou­ble your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.

16. A closed mouth gath­ers no foot.

17. Duct tape is like ‘The Force’. It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the uni­verse together.

18. There are two the­o­ries to argu­ing with women. Nei­ther one works.

19. Gen­er­ally speak­ing, you aren’t learn­ing much when your lips are moving.

20. Expe­ri­ence is some­thing you don’t get until just after you need it.

21. Never miss a good chance to shut up.

22. Never, under any cir­cum­stances, take a sleep­ing pill and a lax­a­tive on the same night.