Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Time Management Guest post


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Indispensable Time Management Hacks to Get More Out of Your Work Day



I rarely use guest blog posts but I thought this one was quite good.  And my time management tip for me might be to use more guest blogs (since they take less time).  Thanks to Surepayroll for these tips.

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- See more at: https://www.surepayroll.com/resources/blog/time-management-hacks#sthash.fgE5oeti.dpuf

Monday, December 12, 2016

New Years Resolutions

“Resolutions: So many will fail; NOT because they didn't set goals, but because they didn't set behaviors.” 
― Steve Maraboli

It is getting time to work on my goals.  I do not call them resolutions.  And I do them about 3-4 times per year.   I like to work on 3-5 goals at a time.  Each broken down with an action plan.

One rule I have is - it cannot be on my list unless I am prepared to spend an hour per week on it.  Of course for some, I spend way more than that.

I have get goals - things I strive for.  And stop goals (or reduce) - things I want to reduce.

We do things if there is more pleasure associated with doing them than not.  Or we do them if there is more pain caused by not doing them.  The pain part is emphasized in martial arts training - a bit if pain can motivate change.  So one trick is to add to the pleasure - EG - drink tea if I do do something or add to the pain - EG - not do something.  You get the idea.

I liked the quote because it is the behaviours that create the ultimate result.  As I call them - Success Habits.

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A good video by Simon Sinek on managing Millennials.   I generally dislike "labelling" a group and assuming they are all the same.  That said, I have found good support of my Syrian project by my Millenial staff.  It has become the Danby purpose.  And it fits with "do the right thing" which is one of the things we emphasize at Danby.

Speaking of Syrian project.  We need lightly used sheets, towels and snow gear.  We also need rugs. We need new pillows.    Drop them off at Danby Guelph.

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This is the most adorable video of my grand daughter doing a work out video with her mother.


And another granddaughter accessorizing her PJs for winter (inside no less).  



Monday, December 05, 2016

Password Fun

Please help my young videographer friend Liam who is doing his part to help Syrian refugees.  See his Indigogo campaign.  Speaking of helping refugees - I have learned though this process that rugs and carpets are as important to Syrians as kitchen tables.  If you have any lightly used ones, we need them.

I was visiting a Syrian family on the weekend and the 80 year old grandmother chose to sit on the floor rather than a chair.  I will be able to do the same if I can improve my flexibility by the time I am 80.
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I always love snow.  This morning, it was perfect packing for a snowball fight but alas, my brothers do not live close by.  Lucky for them... or perhaps that is why.


Do not enjoy waking up in the dark which you can see in the background of the photo.
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Passwords are a pain.  Different sites have different requirements.  Different sites have you change them.  Password recovery is painful and slow.  So the temptation is to use the same password on multiple sites - DON'T DO IT.  Imagine the poor Yahoo users whose login and passwords were stolen.  The bad guys can just set up scripts to automatically try logging into multiple bank accounts and eventually find success.

I use Password Tricks to allow me to remember them and to keep them different on each site.  My tricks are not so complex that any amateur cryptographer could not figure them out but I am trying to foil machines - not real people who would need to do real work.

Here are 4 increasingly complex ways to generate unique memorable passwords.  Each start with a unique string of characters, numbers and symbols (We will say password321$ for example purposes) - something I can remember then:

1 - append the name of the site on the end.  EG - password321$yahoo or password321$RBC

2 - append the name of the site backwards.  EG - password321$oohay or password321$CBR

3 - append the name of the site but on the keys above it on the keyboard.  EG - password321$7qu00 or password321$%HF

4 - Same as 3 but add 17+the number of characters in the string on the end.  EG password321$7qu0034 or password321$%HF32.

You get the idea.  I call it "fun with passwords" or "fun with keyboards".   The variations can be many.  And any amateur cryptographer could break mine but when I hit to publish button on this post, I will change them all to an even more difficult and secret variation - so don't even try to hack me.