Best Comments Roundup: August 2008

August 29th 2008

One of the biggest things you can do for almost anything, especially when building habits is to look at the obstacles in your way. If you really want to quit smoking how can you do it when you’re surrounded by other smokers all the time? It’s something I’m going to write about much more in the near future. In a recent guest post by Mike King, taking about making changes to your habits, Summy touched on this by talking about making the right preparation.

Summy: “One more step to create a habit is preparation. With preparation making your habit stick is easier e.g. set your alarm clock if you want to get up early. The more preparation the better. Move the alarm clock across the room so you can’t easily hit snooze. Prepare your clothes so you don’t need to think about it as you sleep walk through your morning. Go to bed early to make it easier to get up. Know your morning routine in advance so you don’t have to think about it when you’re tired.”

I recently detailed a three stage strategy for dealing with toxic people. It’s a big issue that a lot of people don’t tend to focus on. There seems to be some sort of guilt about cutting people out of our lives even when they make us feel so bad. It need not be this way. Laura added a good extra point to the three I made:

Laura: “Giving a toxic person reasons only gives them a way to validate them in your favor and continue the fight for the relationship (or just continue a fight), or even use your words against you in trying to manipulate friends to be on their side. It’s better not to give the reasons, not to talk behind their back, but simply to say, “It wasn’t working out.” That way, it’s a clean break, and you don’t waste any more time or energy on the situation.”

Tage: “I can’t tell you how many times I have seen people try again and again to please people that couldn’t care less. I just wonder how happy they could make someone who actually cared about them.”

Shanel Yang also did a guest post recently asking whether you are productivity-inclined or simplicity-inclined. It provoked quite a response with many arguing that they weren’t necessarily seperate entities. What is your take?

Shanel Yang: “Productivity-inclined is a preference for hyper-productivity, squeezing in as much as you possibly can within a 24 hour period with an extremely full schedule and tight routine. On the other hand, simplicity-inclined is a preference for achieving goals and happiness by paring your life down to the essentials and actually have less items on your to do list but with more focus.”

Pascal Venier: “With all due respect, I fear I fundamentally disagree with you! I would be tempted to argue productivity and simplicity should perhaps not be seen as alternatives but deserve to be combined into what can be termed effectiveness.”