TSA #26 – Start a Journal

May 14, 2012 by

I’ve tried to keep a journal of stuff going on in my life several times.  I always thought the idea of jotting down thoughts and ideas sounded good.  I’d always start it and a few days in, stop doing it .  I’d then try to pick it up again, and also stop.  I’ve tried doing the notebook.  I’ve tried doing the Doogie Howser online journal thing.

I never stuck with it, but then I found this website.  http://ohlife.com Is a very simple little idea where they send you an email each day and ask you, “how’d your day go?”.

OhLifeAnd you simply reply and write how your day went.  Right in your email where you are already.  Its very easy, simple, and it seems to work.  It keeps me writing because as you start to answer its question it reminds you of what you said, last week, month, year etc.  Its a nice way to get a quick little snapshot of what you were thinking, doing, or feeling at a time in place in your life and see how you feel about it now.   I write out a short little blurb each day about what’s going on, or what I’m thinking about.

Which brings me to the other problem I always had with journals is who has the time to go back through and read all of that.  This little service solves both of those problems  as it sends you bite size chunks of what you wrote each day.  I really like it and encourage you to give it a try.  It is also free.

Try http://ohlife.com today and see if you like it.

Ben…

TSA = Truly Simple Actions The goal of the TSA project is to improve your life and help make this world a better place, one simple action at a time.  Take time this week to do this one simple thing. Previous TSA’s:

 

 
 
 

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Related Posts

  • TSA #25 – Buy Rechargeable Batteries

    Posted on May 7, 2012

  • TSA #24 – How Happy Are You?

    Posted on Apr 30, 2012

  • TSA #23 – Sign Up For Fun

    Posted on Apr 24, 2012

  • TSA #22 – Ride Your Bike

    Posted on Apr 17, 2012

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TSA #25 – Buy Rechargeable Batteries

May 7, 2012 by

A really simple one this week.  Do you use batteries for anything?  If you do, buy rechargeable batteries.  That’s it.

You know you are going to need new ones in the future, so why not save yourself some money and save the landfills some old batteries and get some rechargeable ones.  It just makes sense and it’s so nice to not have to run out and buy new batteries when you need them.

EDIT: My friend Joe D. says this one is the best one.

Ben…

TSA = Truly Simple Actions The goal of the TSA project is to improve your life and help make this world a better place, one simple action at a time.  Take time this week to do this one simple thing. Previous TSA’s:

 

 
 
 

Popularity: 1%

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A Giant Thank You

May 5, 2012 by

I wanted to say thank you.

TrulySimple is 2 years old today and I am truly thankful to everyone who has visited the site and signed up for the newlsetter.  I don’t know what I’ve done right recently but I’ve seen the numbers to the newsletter grow like crazy, so an extra big thank you to all those sharing TrulySimple with your friends.

TrulySimple was an experiment I started over 2 years ago, where I wanted to try something new and different.  I wanted to simplify my life by getting rid of some clutter, cooking and eating better meals at home, and starting fun things like my garden.

I also wanted to share some fun ideas and great projects I’ve been working on and of course hope to spread some simple philosophies to help make your life a little better.

I hope you have enjoyed the site and I really do appreciate you visiting and taking the time to sign up for these emails.

As I hit the 2 year milestone I wanted to take a look back and share some of the most popular and favorite posts from TrulySimple.

Orange rolls cooked in oranges over a fire

Orange Rolls Cooked Over A Fire
I made these orange rolls in the oranges on a camping trip and its gotten a great response and some really crazy comments.  I love the internet crazies.  It’s also gotten a great response on Pinterest as well.

Truly Simple Actions

Truly Simple Actions
I hate the TSA and decided I would take over that acronym and make it something positive.  So I started Truly Simple Actions and set out to try to do one small positive thing each week that will make your life better.  This has been an awesome experiement and I hope you are enjoying these.

Truly the Best Blueberry Muffins Ever

Truly the Best Blueberry Muffins Ever
These are just the best blueberry muffins ever.  That is all.  Just looking at this picture makes me want to make them again.  So yummy.

Almost Got Eaten by a Wolf

A great adventure
Here was a fun adventure that did not go quite as planned, but ended up being a ton of fun.  Complete with random wild life encounters.

Homemade Strawberry Jam

homemade strawberry jam
And I love my moms home made strawberry jam, so here is the recipe. It is amazing.

I am truly blessed and very greatful to all of you for taking the time to visit the site and read these emails.  If you have enjoyed TrulySimple I encourage you to tell your friends or leave me a comment on the site.

Thank you so much for 2 years of support.  Now go outside and do something fun.

Ben…

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TSA #24 – How Happy Are You?

Apr 30, 2012 by

I’m a pretty happy guy.  I like to think myself an optimist and try to always be happy in whatever situation I might find myself in.  Overall I think I’m pretty happy, but how do you really know?

How often do you actually think about an analyze how happy you are or what makes you happy? I think like most people you really only think about it when you are at the extremes, either when supremely happy and you get that rare pause where you stop and think how perfect the world is at that very second, or at the other end when you are just having the worst day ever and you wish you could go back to bed because you are miserable.  Everywhere in between you may not think about it much or analyze it ever.

That is where trackyourhappiness.org comes in.  This is a great site that will send you text messages or emails over a period of time and have you take a short survey on how happy you are.  It asks you things like where you are, what you are doings, are there pets around, are you inside or outside etc.  It will track all your answers for you and deliver a happiness report back to you that is both fascinating and a great tool to see what makes you happy.

Happiness chart - What I am doing

Here are a couple of charts from my most recent happiness report. The chart on the left shows my level of happiness (ranked by me) when doing the following activities.  I’m happiest when I’m working on my car project, something I don’t do enough of and (predictably) less happy when I’m doing housework or commuting.


Happiness chart - Where I am

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The chart on the right shows that I am much happier at a comedy show than at jury duty.  Shocking I know.

This is a great tool.  I would never take the time to write down when I’m slightly more happy or what I’m doing at that time.  This tool aslo tracks your sleep, productivity, level of focus etc.

And yes I know it sounds a little silly to talk about a happiness report, but why not find out what makes you happy.  Why shouldn’t we study this more.  I think we should find out what makes us happy and conversely what makes us less happy and find out how to influence those aspects of our life.

Your Truly Simple Action this week is to checkout trackyourhappiness.org and try it out.  It’s free, simple, easy to use and delivers information that you can use to live a happier life.

Ben…

TSA = Truly Simple Actions The goal of the TSA project is to improve your life and help make this world a better place, one simple action at a time.  Take time this week to do this one simple thing. Previous TSA’s:

 

 
 
 

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TSA #23 – Sign Up For Fun

Apr 24, 2012 by

This week is another fun Truly Simple Action.  This week you must sign up to do something fun.  We are all busy with work and life and all the stuff in between, but now it’s time to schedule in some fun

Right now, Google something fun that you want to do.  It may be a kayaking trip, a wine tasting tour of the local wineries, or a ridiculous obstacle course.  Yeah you know I’m picking that one.

The point is, there are a million fun things out there to do.  Some cost a little money, but many are free and are just waiting for you to enjoy them.  Take the next 10 minutes and get on Google and resolve to find at least one thing that you can sign up to do.  Meetup.com is another great resource to find likeminded individuals doing fun things together as well.

Don’t just say that you will do one of those things “someday”.  Find something that you have to sign up for. Put it on the calendar.  Invite your friends.  Make it a real thing that you won’t put off because of whatever excuse you come up with that day.  Get your friends together, put it on your calendar and plan a fun day around it.

Life can be busy, but if you don’t fill it up with fun, you won’t have any.  It’s just that simple.

Ben…

TSA = Truly Simple Actions
The goal of the TSA project is to improve your life and help make this world a better place, one simple action at a time.  Take time this week to do this one simple thing.

Previous TSA’s:

 

 

 
 

Popularity: 1%

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TSA #22 – Ride Your Bike

Apr 17, 2012 by

I am very lucky and thankful to live in a place that has really nice weather.  Except lately its been sunny and beautiful all week and then cold and rainy every weekend.  That is annoying. But spring is here, and summer is coming and the sun finally came out on Sunday and it was a beautiful weekend day.  My friends came up and  stayed with us Saturday night and on Sunday we all rode our bikes to go get breakfast.

We had little kids with us, so we threw the bikes on the bike rack and drove down a bit closer to our destination and rode from there, but it was awesome.  We had a nice ride down some quiet streets near the beach and had a delicious breakfast at Beach Break Cafe.

photo (2)

didn't have a picture of us biking, but here's a picture of the Captain Crunch french toast the kids had

After breakfast we rode to the train station to drop my friends off so they could take the train back home.  It wasn’t much of a ride, but we all had a blast.  The sun was shining and we had a great time.

Your Truly Simple Action this week is to get the bike out, dust it off, throw some air in the tires and go ride it.  Ride it around the block.  Ride to your local park. Take the bike trail somewhere.  Go run some errands in it.  Just get on your bike and remember how much fun it is to ride it.

Ben…

TSA = Truly Simple Actions
The goal of the TSA project is to improve your life and help make this world a better place, one simple action at a time.  Take time this week to do this one simple thing.

Previous TSA’s:

 

 

 
 

Popularity: 1%

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TSA #21 – Remove Distractions

Apr 9, 2012 by

So I’m sitting here in jury duty today.  I’ve already missed being called for the first group and hope to be dismissed soon.  I am thankful the courthouse now has Wifi, even though they make you watch the cheesy 70′s video about civic duty before giving you the password.

But it’s in these nice downtimes that we have a few minutes to make some small improvements that can make a big difference in your life.

For this week your Truly Simple Action is to remove distractions from your life.  Specifically we are going to remove the unnecessary notifications you receive daily on your smart phone.

I am the first to admit that I am fully addicted to my iPhone. It is an amazing device that allows me to get a lot done throughout the done both professionally and just for fun listening to music or running with my Nike app etc.  That said I am cognizant (or trying to be) of the time I spend on the phone and trying not to spend too much time on it or have it out when I am spending time with family or friends.

One thing I have done is to remove all of the notification messages and sounds so its not beeping or buzzing at me all throughout the day.  I also turned off push notifications for email, so it only checks email when I want to check email.  My iPhone works for me, I don’t work for it.

I only receive notifications when there is a text message or a phone call.  It is a phone after all.  Everything else is turned off.  I don’t get pop ups or noises buzzing at me for emails, my turn on words with friends, a new message from ebay etc.  I still play words with friends and I still check my email, but I do it when I’m ready to check email or play words with friends and that is the difference.

My phone can stay silent in my pocket and be there when I need it, not when it thinks I need it.

To adjust your notifications on the iPhone, simply click on Settings and go to Notifications and turn all of that stuff off.  You can select per app what notifications you want to receive and how to receive them.  I recommend just turning them all off.  You can still access all the apps and the information within the same way, it just won’t be bugging you with pop up messages all the time.

Also disable push notifications for your email. To do this go to Settings, then Mail, Contacts and Calendars, then under Fetch New Data, turn Push to off.  Again your email will still be there, but it will only check for new messages when you are ready to check your email.  This will also save your battery life on your phone, so double bonus.

Ben…

TSA = Truly Simple Actions
The goal of the TSA project is to improve your life and help make this world a better place, one simple action at a time.  Take time this week to do this one simple thing.

Previous TSA’s:

 

 

 

Popularity: 1%

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