Work-Life Innovation |

Time, like money, is a resource that we can either fritter away bit-by-bit on activities that give us no real return on our investment, or use wisely now in order to reap the benefits in the future. Pushing the economic metaphor further what if, like money, you could invest time so that it grew with interest and displayed compounding-like effects?

A post over at Tim Ferriss’ 4 Hour Work Week describes the possibilities of such a lifestyle economics. And while I think the post brings up some interesting possibilities, it appears to me to be based on the false premise that time can be compounded. It cannot. For each of us time is fixed (we just don’t know how much of it we’ve got). But what is possible is to telescope the amount of time we spend on work-related tasks to free up the (fixed) amount of time we have for other things. Such task-time telescoping allows us to engage in more important/worthy activities thereby increasing the value of that time, however we cannot say that time itself increases or grows as a consequence.

The question then becomes this: Read the rest of this entry »

What was the goal of the Apollo Moon Program? To put a man on the moon and bring him safely back, right? Wrong! Remember this was during the cold war and what the Americans really wanted to demonstrate was that they were superior to those pesky Commies. United States thinktanks examined several options and worked out that the US could probably (with a lot of effort) get a man to the moon and back within a decade, but crucially, they believed the Soviets couldn’t. President Kennedy then announced it to the world, and the rest is History. So putting a man on the moon wasn’t the goal; the goal was to be able to shout out to the world, “Hey, look how much better than the Reds we are!”, and putting a man on the moon was the means by which the Americans achieved it.

What has this got to do with being rich? Well, most of us would admit to having the goal of being wealthy, or at least being wealthier. But, like going to the moon, this is not our real goal but rather a way of achieving something else, which I would guess is to be happy, or obtain some peace of mind. Going to the moon or becoming rich are technically only the means or objectives - particular ways to satisfy goals. Read the rest of this entry »

In some cases less really is more. As you all no doubt are very much aware, there is a glut of data out there and the question is no longer how do I get the right information, but rather when do I stop looking at the data so that I can act? In my days as a grad student I remember spending months reading around my subject looking for an angle that would give me my thesis topic. The trouble was there was just too much to cover, and every article led to five more. I felt I never had enough information to make a decision about where to put my stake in the ground and formulate my thesis topic. This went on through most of the first year until my supervisor took me aside and told me to stop reading and start thinking! It was the right advice. Read the rest of this entry »

It might seem odd to write a post about photographing trees on a lifestyle innovation blog. But I want to share with you some thoughts I had today while out walking along the edge of the New Forest. While walking I was thinking about the nature of enjoyment and what it meant to be really able to be in the moment. Most of us spend our days at work and struggle with the tasks we have to perform. I know that when a new work item comes along, I often catch myself mentally groaning and complaining along the lines of “Oh, crap! more work” or”How the hell am I supposed to do this?” or “This is going to take ages” and so on and on.
In other words, my daily work activities are often accompanied by an internal monologue that winges and whines at all the stuff I am called to do. This depletes my energy and does not Read the rest of this entry »

How to live an extraordinary life?

Last year on a lovely late summers evening, I remember sitting outside in the warm glow of an early evening sun. I was sharing a few glasses of wine with some friends after another day at work and, despite the beautiful early evening weather, the subject turned to work. The question was asked how it was possible to remain fresh and alive in the face of the grueling grind of the 9-5 work-a-week circus. We discussed the topic for a while but eventually drifted off onto other, more amenable (less hopeless?) subjects. Since then, I’ve found myself asking the same question more and Read the rest of this entry »