Announcements

I have officially hit Inbox zero. I've deleted a disgusting amount of email that I had been holding on to and processed the rest and will archive folders that I need for business backups next week.

I run two inboxes: personal and business. Both are at zero. When I have one of my pre-determined Outlook open periods I read the email and either immediately respond, move it to a To Do folder or delete it. I do a lot of deleting. Once it is done in To Do I assess if I should keep it, if so it goes into the corresponding folder. If not, I fry it.

You have no idea how much time this has saved me. These past two weeks have been some of the most productive I've had in four years. So productive, in fact, I recieved the full manuscript for a Fitness book last week and I finished my work on it today, including permissions, credits and all other annyoing little things. That's amazing. I've never turned a project around that quickly. Of course, I guess I lost money on it... Hmm.

Now, I only have pages for one book and three books to turnover by sometime in April. That should be interesting, especially considering the amount of photo work that needs to go into one and the fact that the other is a contributed first edition. An yet I'm not worried. Could be that, for once in my life, I'm being properly treated for my anxiety issues (God, if I only knew what to do when I was 10 the last few decades would have been so much easier). Still.

Anyway, my announcement: Starting next week I will be tackling a project I call "52 Things." I have tasked my wife to create a list of 52 topics and questions that she would like me to weigh in on. Some are quite weighty and others are quite weird. She did a fantastic job and has pushed my weird idea into exactly the direction I wanted it to go.

The rules are simple. Starting March 10th I have to post a written response or essay on one of the 52 topics. I do not need to go in order and I can make minor (MINOR) adjustments to the topic. I must post this response between Monday and Friday. No excuses. For the week I am on vacation I can chose to publish two the week before or two the week after because I will be on top of a mountain in will not have Internet access unless I go to McDonalds and, well, that won't happen.

Some of the topics?

Which song best sums up your current state of affairs?
How long can you hold your breath, and why do you know this?
Something you skated through that you wish you'd paid more attention to
Why are you reluctant to join groups?
Prehensile tail or third arm? Defend your choice.
One thing you wish your dad had been around to see
Our neighbors' nicknames

Some will require research. But you get the point. If you have a better title, please let me know. Otherwise "52 Things" it is.

Now I have to go think about my favorite breakfast food (sausage). It's going to be difficult to choose (sausage). I mean, there's bacon (the chocolate of meat) but it's so one dimensional. Pacakes? Hmmm. (Sausage).