Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Courtney Carver. Courtney is an artist and consultant specializing in simplicity for life and business. Read more from Courtney at her blog, Be More with Less and follow her on Twitter.

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I stopped loving my job as an Advertising Director in 2009. I didn’t quit that job until 2011. For 2+ years, I wanted something else. As I slowly built my own business, I worked strategies into my day job to make it more enjoyable. I had a responsibility to the employers that were paying me and my family that loved me to make this work.

Simple Secrets

1. Help People. When you are focused on the bottom dollar, email, spreadsheets, and exceeding goals, you are forgetting the most meaningful part of your business. Regardless of your position, you have an incredible opportunity to help people. If you meet those people, learn about their lives and think about them when you are doing your work. If you have a behind the scenes job, remember that you are helping real people. They have families, dreams, hopes and worries just like you.

2. Build in Downtime. Don’t wait until after hours to unwind, exercise or eat a leisurely meal. Your inbox will be full tomorrow morning even if you work overtime, so take an extra 30-60 minutes to have a real lunch break or sit quietly and listen to music. You will be more efficient and happier if you are rested and not overextending yourself.

3. Move Often. If you work sitting, try standing for part of your workday. If you are in your car for much of your work day, pullover and do jumping jacks or stretch. Take mini walks around the office or your neighborhood depending on where you work. Fueling your body with oxygen and movement will fuel your brain with creativity and motivation.

I used to work for a production manager whose favorite saying was “Under promise, over deliver.” It was a terrible message to send to employees and it funnelled down to customers. When you love your work, or find ways to love it for now, you can consistently keep the promises you make. Make reasonable promises that help people and deliver what the customer expects and needs.

Remember that you don’t have to love the people you work for to love the work you do. You may never love your job, but you can choose to love your work.

If you are interested in the business of blogging or using a blog to support your business, check out The Goodblog Project. This is a course/consulting/collaboration project all in one and is only open to 10 people. The course begins on May 21st, and deadline for registration is Friday, May 18th.

Five years ago, I had very long to-do lists. Typically I’d write down twenty different tasks, on note pads meant for grocery lists, that needed to be done in one day. I didn’t get much done because my list was too overwhelming.

Now I have a new list making ritual. I write down a list of three important tasks I need to accomplish in a day. Three is a good number for me because I can get most of the things on my list done. Every morning, I write down my list on a 3×5 card, with a cup of coffee in my hand, and some kind of sugary treat near my computer.

Here’s what today’s list looked like, along with a short explanation. . .

1. Write an article for Your Lovely Life.

My main goal for the day was writing one article for Create Space, a lovely course that Courtney and I created. I finished up the article which, resulted in a brainstorming session for our next course Make Time. You can read about how I capture ideas here.

2. Reading.

Currently I’m reading Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain and love the book! I’m an introvert and Cain’s blend of personal stories and research helped me better understand myself. Her book is a gift and I believe both introverts and extroverts would benefit from reading Cain’s words.

3. Swimming.

I started swimming as a kid and still love the activity. When I lived in Davis, California, I swam with a team and I miss it! Recently, I started swimming laps again. It gives me time to think about articles and other fun projects. Even though I miss the team, I enjoy swimming alone because it’s challenging. As Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi once said, “Enjoyment appears at the boundary between boredom and anxiety, when the challenges are just balanced with the person’s capacity to act.”

Parting Words . . .

Interestingly, I do more than what’s on my list throughout the day. In addition to my list of three, I’ll write essays, go for a bike ride, talk to my mom on the phone and have a lovely dinner with Logan. Most of the time my minimal list takes the pressure off my day and it’s a great way to prioritize what’s important in life.

What are the three most important things you need to accomplish today?

Be well,
Tammy

A few months ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Tess from The Bold Life at a Portland coffee house. Over coffee and chocolate we got to know each other and Tess asked me a lot of thoughtful questions. But my all time favorite was:

“What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned from your cats?”

I replied, “My cats have taught me the importance of getting enough sleep!”

Most Americans intuitively know how important sleep is, without having to learn from cats. Unfortunately, they don’t value it enough. Lost sleep is a big problem and people are becoming more and more sleep deprived. According to USA Today, “lost sleep costs the average American worker 11.3 days, or $2,280, in lost productivity each year, and the total cost to the nation is $63.2 billion annually.”

I used to be one of these statistics too. I never seemed to get enough sleep and always felt tired. Like my cats, I now go to bed early, rise early in the morning, and I’m taking more naps in the early afternoon. According to the National Sleep Foundation, a daily 20 to 30 minute nap can leave people feeling more alert, productive, and decrease on the job mistakes. For example, a NASA study found that military pilots and astronauts who took a 40-minute nap “improved performance by 34% and alertness 100%.”

Want to incorporate the power of napping into your life? All you have to do is make the time.

Napping is easier for me now that I work from home. But when I worked a day job, I would take naps during my lunch break in the park or in an empty cubicle. If you can’t take naps during the work day, incorporate small naps into your weekend routine.

Napping is one of life’s little pleasure. Do it often and savor every moment!

He had a swagger to his walk and his face was bright red. There was something about him that I couldn’t put my finger on and I hadn’t even started a conversation yet.

He walked up to the cash register, pounded his fist on the counter and yelled, “You people are ripping me off! I can’t believe gas is $1.50 a gallon! You’ve got to be kidding me!” (The customer threw in a few expletives too, but I’ll spare you the vulgar words.)

Then he threw down some cash to pay for his gas, walked out of the station, and pealed out of the parking lot in his blue Toyota truck. My 17 year old eyes were wide with surprise. The way this customer carried himself freaked me out and I was thrilled to see him leave.

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For over four decades, my dad worked for Chevron. He started out as an attendant washing windows and by the end of his career he owned a service station. As soon as I turned 16, I started working for him as a cashier. I worked for him throughout high school and when I headed off to college I landed a job at a Chevron station in Chico, CA. I even spent a summer working at a station in Truckee too. It was one of my favorite summers because I escaped the Chico heat and explored Truckee and Lake Tahoe on my own.

My career as a gas station attendant and cashier spanned about 8 years and the experience taught me a lot of lessons, including . . .

Don’t be an asshole. When I worked at the Chevron station in Chico, my morning shift started at 5.30. I loved it because the shift ended in the early afternoon. So I had plenty of time to do homework, attend classes and hang out with friends.

However, the problem with that shift was that I frequently encountered assholes. A stream of people always came into the station running low on gas and caffeine. In a lot of ways I felt like a drug dealer. I wasn’t handing out weed. But I was dealing coffee and fuel – two valuable commodities with unpleasant withdrawal symptoms.

Not all of my morning customers were assholes, yet the mean people seem to stand out in my memory. Probably because getting berated for high fuel prices and bad coffee was a bit traumatic. Since I encountered a lot of mean people during my cashiering days, I always try to be extra nice to cashiers and customer service representatives because working with the public can be difficult.

Second, always practice patience, even when you’re dealing with an asshole. Getting into a yelling match isn’t the solution. For example, every time I was yelled at for high gas prices I tried to kill the customer with kindness and make their experience at the station stellar. Why? Because I found a lot of satisfaction in doing the best job possible.

Third, have fun! I’ve been working since I was 16 and I’ve had a variety of jobs. Every job has it’s downside, especially if you’re known as “the gas station girl.” Of course if you feel like “screaming or shouting because of job stress,” figure out how you can escape to pursue your passion.

But no matter what you do, it’s still possible to have fun at work. For example, when I worked in Truckee my co-workers and I would time how fast we could do things like taking out the garbage or cleaning the bathrooms. You couldn’t skimp on your task or cut corners. The work had to be high quality. We’d give each other little evaluations and laugh about the mundane nature of our tasks, which made the work a whole lot more enjoyable. The personal exchanges infused with creativity was fun! As Todd Kashdan says in Curious?, “Research has shown that a small shift in attitude can energize us and change how we evaluate activities we previously viewed as silly, stupid, or unsatisfying.”

Don’t let angry assholes ruin your day. Whether you’re a gas station girl or a cashier at Macys, infuse whatever you’re doing with creativity and your own curious nature. Remember, be kind, be patient, and have fun!

Micro-actions: Read Are We Having More Fun Yet? and Curious?.

If you’re on Google Plus, drop by and say hi peeps!

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The sun was doing it’s best to poke through the gray clouds, albeit unsuccessfully. I was perched on a bar stool, sipping coffee, and savoring a freshly baked cranberry muffin at Sunny Day Coffee. Sunny Day is one of my favorite spots to enjoy coffee, write, and people watch.

I was feeling a little lonely and having a hard time focusing on writing because my mind kept coming back to Russ and Laura’s interview with Dan Price. Dan talked about how people want to have depth in their lives. Unfortunately, our culture isn’t set up that way. So many people want more and more stuff. But the thing is all that stuff costs money and time.

He went onto to say, “You have one chance to make your life a work of art. Kick ass and just do it! Don’t do what everyone else is doing.”

Dan’s remark sums up the reason why I took a digital sabbatical. The Internet brings me an incredible amount of happiness. I love connecting with readers, writers, and keeping up with friends and family. But if I spend too much time online, I start feeling unhappy, dissatisfied, and disconnected from the real world, which means I’m not making my life a work of art.

During the month of July, time seemed to warp and bend around me. Some days moved really quickly and other days moved along at a snails pace. Even though I experienced moments of loneliness, taking a break from the digital world was refreshing and centering. Sometimes stillness and silence is the best way to harness creativity. As Tenzin Priyadarshi notes:

“If there is no stillness,
there is no silence.

If there is no silence,
there is no insight.

If there is no insight,
there is no clarity.”

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Many of you sent me thank you notes and words of encouragement during my sabbatical. Thank you! In addition, I received a number of questions about the sabbatical. I’ll do my best to answer your inquires below:

Question: What was the hardest part of unplugging? And what was the most surprising part?

Answer: At the start of the sabbatical, I felt isolated because I use my email to stay connected with friends and family in California and in other parts of the country. For example, I missed emailing my friend Chris frequently. On the other hand, checking my email less meant that I made more phone calls. In essence, my loneliness was a symptom of Internet withdrawals. I have a lot of awesome friends in Portland, but I learned over the month that I need to make more time for them.

The most surprising outcome of unplugging? Taking frequent power naps. According to the National Sleep Foundation, Americans say they sleep less than 7 hours a night. I used to be part of that group when I worked at a traditional day job. I’d often day dream about napping in the corner or putting a cot in my cubicle. Now that I work from home I have the option to nap more often. During my sabbatical, I took 20 minute power naps in the afternoon and I’m going to make napping part of my daily routine.

Question: What did you focus on during July?

Answer: Even though I worked a lot, I felt like I was on a super long vacation. I wrote roughly 45,000 words for my print book. I didn’t finish a draft manuscript, and I still have a lot of work to do, but the good news is the book is coming together.

I also read over a dozen books! Some of my favorite reads included: 168 Hours, In the Neighborhood, The Joy of Living, I Thought It Was Just Me, The Girl Who Chased the Moon, The Winter Sea, and How to Make A Journal of Your Life. I’m also re-reading the Harry Potter series.

The most exciting part of July was watching our little house go up. The house is being built in Gig Harbor, a cute little community just south of Seattle. Tentatively, construction will be completed by November 1st, just in time for my 33rd birthday. We haven’t figured out where we’re going to park it yet. But I’m not worried. I have a feeling everything is going to fall into place.

Check out the photos!

Question: Will you make any changes to your work flow, as a result of the sabbatical?

Answer: Multitasking erodes my mental circuitry. So focusing on single-tasking will be part of my workflow and I will continue tracking the amount of time I spend online. Also, I’m still planning on using Freedom to keep myself in check. Freedom is an application that locks you away from the Internet for up to 8 hours at a time and it’s helped me stay focused over the last month.

In addition, I’ve decided to stop posting my weekly news update every Friday. Instead, I’ll post one update at the end of each month. I’ve scaled back my online reading dramatically, so doing an update once a month makes sense. I will still be publishing at least one essay a week on RowdyKittens. I’m giving myself more flexibility when it comes to publishing content on the open web.

As I move forward into the rest of the year, I’m looking at everything from a “beginner’s mind.” It’s a concept used frequently by my yoga teachers and refers to having an attitude of openness, flexibly, and non-judgment. In Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind Shunryu Suzuki says, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.”

I’d love to hear from you! Have you unplugged this month? If so, how has the experience felt?

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Resources

If you’re considering taking a sabbatical, here are a few resources:

- Taking a July Digital Sabbatical: Why & How
- Everything You Need to Know About a Digital Sabbatical
- Be sure to check out Gwen Bell’s site. She’s the person who inspired me to take a break from the Internet.

Every Friday, I post a Simple Living News Update that includes links to some of my favorite articles of the week; along with an inspiring quote from each piece.

In addition to the news update, I’m answering a reader question every week. In the following one minute video I talk about navigating work-life balance.

For those of you who can’t watch the video, read this article: 11 Creative Ways to Avoid Becoming a Workaholic.

Please note: I forgot to address this in the video, but I’ve been getting a lot of emails asking about my posting schedule. Don’t worry, it’s not going to change! Remember: be happy, do what you love, and don’t worry about what other people say and do. It’s a waste of energy.

As Dr. Brown says, “Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make everyday. It’s about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen.”

So I’ll still be writing about simplicity, while being as authentic as possible. Have a great weekend!

Now onto the news . . .

4 Key Habits that will Improve Your Whole Life

“Feeling broken lets pieces of your best self fall apart. You might even feel a little lost in life, going through the motions . . .

If I want to be a great writer, step mom and wife, I need to live a great life. Subconsciously, that’s what I’ve been doing, ever since deciding to get out of debt and work for myself. Living a great life is my true amazing work in progress. Since that first year as a step mom, I’ve changed.”

Minimalism and Blogging are Here to Stay

“We are real people writing for real people, and real people reading what real people write.

We are not cyborgs or zombies or zomborgs.

We are girls and boys, men and woman, husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and friends. Real people.”

When You Are Sad

“Faith and hope make up the foundation of the soul. Sadness is simply a little heaving of that foundation when the chilly winds of self doubt or uncertainty waft in.”

Free-Range Social Media

“The Free-Range Social Media movement is about standing up and saying, ‘I will do my best to make my online space cruelty, cage, and copying free.’”

To Live a Life You Can Be Proud Of

“One of the greatest benefits of choosing to live a simple, minimalist life is that many of the pursuits above become replaced. And while choosing to intentionally live with less doesn’t automatically shift the focus of our lives… it can certainly provide the space that makes it possible.”

Cool Stuff

• Wasted Food

• Slam: empowered living for today’s teenagers

• Customer Love

• Micropatronage has been on my mind lately and I decided to start a subscription based newsletter, through letter.ly, as an experiment. Check it out!

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