Unsubscribe to Clear Your Inbox

Picture by Agne Kveselyte

I used to go through my inbox every day looking at 20+ emails of which 3 were from actual people. The rest were newsletters from different companies, websites, blogs. Most of the time I just clicked 'delete' on all of them, occasionally clicking on a link to something that seemed mildly interesting.

Then, one day I came back from a two-week trip, and my inbox was overflowing with the stuff. All emails from websites I'd been interested in in the past, but now didn't care for one bit. I'd get caught up in clicking through gossip (Blake Lively and Leonardo DiCaprio? Really?) or on products I didn't really want or need (why do I need a fancy foot spa if I've got a bucket at home?). So ... I opted out.

Most newsletters and updates that you receive you've signed up for at some point in the past. When you enter information on a website, they can be very sneaky about hiding the 'I'd like to receiver a weekly newsletter' box that's already ticked. So make sure, before you press 'enter' to check for checked boxes.

If you have an inbox overflowing with stuff, open the emails for a change, and scroll down to the bottom. See that tiny print you'd usually ignore? That's what you need to read. There will probably be instructions about how to unsubscribe from the list.

Unsubscribing will mean that you limit your distractions and that you limit the time you spend in your email inbox (wasted time mostly, unless you're writing personal emails). 

Which newsletters are you subscribed too that you never check? I had a couple from Belgium left, from shops I can't get to anyways. Or news websites with mostly gossip. Gone now! Yay!

Naturally, if my blog is on your list of 'to unsubscribe to' I'll be devastated, but I'll live. I find that RSS feeds are a great way to keep getting updates of blogs I like without filling my inbox too quickly. You can always sign up for that!

PS: Don't forget to vote for your Minutes Worth Hours!

Read 'The Science of Getting Rich'

There's a book that I read every single month. It's the book on which 'The Secret' was based, and it's called: The Science of Getting Rich. It's not my life's ambition to get rich, but it is my ambition to lead the life I want to live, and that's what the book helps me focus on. It offers great ideas on how to bring success into every area of your life.

I read it once a month, and every month I focus on a new part. I rediscover something I forgot, or I suddenly find myself interpreting the old words in a new way. The book is a bit dated, so the language is a bit old, but you adjust quickly.

So how is this a 5 minute activity? Well, the chapters are really really really short! It takes me about 5 minutes (or less) to read one chapter. Alright, admittedly, I'm somewhat of a fast reader, and by now I just have to skim to be reminded of the content, but still... I couldn't resist sharing this with you.

I've summarized the main lessons I learned from the book below (there's plenty more than these 5 though):

1. You cannot get what you desire by thinking about the opposite. No one ever got rich thinking about poverty, no one ever became healthy by thinking about disease. So we should focus on what's good in our lives. (Positive thinking motto)
   
2. Feel grateful. This brings you in alignment with the forces of the universe. Or, if you're not impressed by this occult stuff, it makes you happy to focus on the good things you have. It also makes you seem kind. That's always a boon!
   
3. Make every act a success. If everything you do - no matter how small! - is a little success, you can't fail to lead a successful life. Everything you do is either a success or a failure. It's either efficient, or a waste of time. These little successful acts can lead to great wealth.
   
4. Impress the thought of increase on every interaction. When you deal with people, try to make your actions beneficial to them. You're going for a win-win situation. People will be drawn to you, when they get this feeling of increase from you. Of course, don't let them take advantage of you, that's something else altogether.
   
5. Prepare to receive what you want. It's not enough to wish for something in your life, your job is to make sure that you're ready to receive it when it comes along. There's no point wishing for a Mr. Right when you're still with a man you don't love, right? If your Prince Charming came along, you wouldn't be able to be with him anyways.

I've learned a lot from this book, and I hope you will too. You can download it for free (it's so old, there's no more copyright on it!) here.

Let me know what you think, or if you've read it before, or if you've read 'The Secret', or seen the movie, or heard about it and think it's rubbish...

5 Minute Savings

Picture by RAWKU5

I like money. I'm not afraid to say it. I love being able to feel secure and knowing that if I really want something, I could buy it. I love looking at a saving's account, and seeing the amount increase. I love getting paid in big wads of cash when we do private teaching in China. In short, I like the green stuff (although the red ones are the ones to get here!).

Having said that, I don't often think about money. I have no need to, since I don't have to worry about it. That is because we've been both lucky (finding jobs) and careful (don't buy too much we don't need). What I do think about, is how to save up little bits for future plans or emergencies.

While thinking about what next to write for this blog (as I do most days), I thought of how 5 minutes could be all you need to set up a fund of savings for the future.

You could do this two ways: you save 5 minutes per day, or 5 minutes per hour.

Both are based on the same calculation. Think of how much money you make per hour (on average, or exactly) and divide that by 12. That way you'll know exactly how much you make in 5 minutes. You could set this amount aside, or multiply it with the amount of hours you work in a day, and set that aside every day. 

Saving a certain amount of money every hour, day, week or month, is a great way to save. You have a guarantee that your savings will keep growing, and it doesn't feel like you're taking big sums all at once. 

Some ideas of what you could save for? A trip you'd like to take, a new computer you don't really need, a trip to an expensive restaurant, a special gift, ...

5 minutes of an hour is about 8%, if that's easier to calculate. You could up it to 10% if that's easier, and say you work 6 minutes out of each hour for your savings.
Keeping in mind you're working for yourself, and paying yourself (and not your grocery store or bank) for the time you work, can be a great motivational force.

What would you save for? Do you have a piggy bank or something similar?

Become an Early Riser in 5 Minutes a Day

Picture by Andrew Leigh

 Waking up earlier is one of the habits that my husband and I have picked up this last year. We got inspired by the early sunrise in the summer here in East China, and by the habits of the people around us.

It's not uncommon for us to hear people moving around around 5:30, or to get someone to check the gas meter at 6:30.

If we teach at the college in the morning, we leave by 7:15 and we like to have some time to ourselves before that.


Now, we get up around 5 (if we managed to get to bed around 9, which is the requirement if you need 8 hours of sleep, like me), then I check my emails (which is a habit I'm trying to quit as a first thing in the morning), do my yoga, cook and eat breakfast, clear some stuff away, get dressed properly (I even have time to do my hair!) and pack our stuff. We do all of this at a relaxed pace, and it's one of my favorite times of the day!

Waking up earlier can be a challenge. Your sleeping pattern can be difficult to turn around all at once, so ... don't. Make little changes. You could start with as little as - you guessed it! - 5 minutes! Instead of setting the alarm at 6:30, try 6:25. Two days later, change it again. It's how I changed from waking up at 6 to waking up at 5. 
Even when we have time off, we still wake up early. I love to rise with the sun and get my work done sooner. I find I'm more energetic in the morning, and much more productive than in the afternoon. I sometimes take an afternoon nap, but only if I didn't sleep enough at night (we have thin walls and loud neighbors!)


If you're not a morning person, you could still benefit from moving the alarm clock a little earlier, just to give yourself more time to wake up and get your mind going. Having to rush early in the morning is something I haven't missed once. I could fix that problem with only half an hour extra. The same goes for being able to cook a proper breakfast (eggs, slice of toast, piece of fruit) instead of grabbing something on the go.

There are many advantages to waking up early. You can check out this Zen Habits post on the topic, this LifeHack article, or this article on The Bold Life.

Or give Google a go and you'll find tons of information!

If you're not sure about the whole thing, no one's saying you can't go back to mornings in bed after a short experiment, right? But if you do try it out, give yourself at least a month or so to let your body adjust. Then tell me if you still want to go back to waking up at 8 or 9.

Stop Multitasking

Picture by Ruth Elkin

Multitasking is very fashionable these days, especially if you're a woman. Somehow we have gotten it into our minds that doing several things at once is better than doing each thing in its turn.
In fact, there's no such thing as multitasking. It's a myth. There IS, however, such a thing as ultra-fast task-switching. But, no matter how fast it is, it's not faster and definitely not better than just doing each thing in turn.

In The Myth of Multitasking: How "Doing It All" Gets Nothing Done (Amazon link), Dave Crenshaw explains that there's a difference between background tasks and tasks you need to focus on. Somehow, I think we can intuitively tell that exercising while watching a movie is not the same as answering a phone while writing an email. The latter is made up of two tasks that are not yet automated. When an activity becomes automatic, it can be combined with another to multi-task. But before that happens, you're only fooling yourself.

If you need to answer the phone while you're in the middle of a project, do it. Don't let me stop you from doing your work. But instead of talking while staring at your computer screen, turn away from the computer and give the caller your full attention. It will make the call more efficient and the caller feel better.
Multitasking when at work makes you inefficient. Multitasking in your personal life ruins your relationships. People can instantly tell when you're not paying attention to them. You can tell when others do it to you, right?
Save that incoming email for later, and handle your emails one by one, in batches.

To make sure you don't fall into the multitasking trap, turn off electronics that aren't essential to your work. If you're not expecting any phone calls, just turn the phone off. Trust me, if there's an emergency, you'll find out! Bad news travels fast.
If you're worried about forgetting the other things you need to take care of, keep a piece of paper next to you where you can quickly jot down whatever pops into your head. That way you can let go of it for now, and do it later.

I've had to re-learn to focus during my conversations, and not do something else in the mean time. It's especially tempting when I'm talking to someone on skype, and the Internet is staring at me, waiting to be surfed. But I've gotten much better, and I enjoy the conversations so much more!

Do you often multi-task? Are you good at it? What kind of tasks do you find easy to juggle?
This article offers more background information about multitasking. It's a fascinating read, if you have a couple of minutes more.