The greatest justice we face everyday....

... is that everybody's day has 24 hours. These were the introductory words to the short seminar about "timemanagement" I attended yesterday with some of my colleagues.

The seminar leader pointed out, as you only have 24 hours everyday you can't really manage your time - you only can manage your tasks you have to or want to do during your time. So it is all about task- or even better: selfmanagement!

For me the whole gist was that I have to organise my business and private todos, obligations, wanna-dos, etc. in a way that they conform with my personal values, with my aims and visions I have for my life. Sounds pretty easy, doesn't it? ;-)

Among other things, she recommended a book of Stephen Covey who is one of the founders of FranklinCovey; it is called "The 7 habits of highly effective people". It is not intended to change things quickly but to spark thinking about the whole subject.
She also pointed out the Eisenhower-method (you can easily google it) or the 72-hour-rule. The latter is really interesting; it says that for everything one really wants to do i.e. for an aim or a vision (e.g. running a marathon or even start running at all) one should make the very first step in the next 72 hours. With this rule you don't clutter your mind with things you may do "someday" and you quickly get feedback if you should stick to your aim or abolish it.

So I just ordered the book of the 7 habits online and now I am going to enjoy the sun and the blue sky outside - another essential aspect in selfmanagement: get your mind, body and soul in balance. :-)

I am excited to read what YOU think about the whole selfmanagement thing, how to cope with your tasks, stay in balance, ... so please feel free to comment.

So delicious

Call me old-fashioned! ;-) I just discovered managing my bookmarks on the web a few days ago. Now I have an account at delicious (formerly know as: del.icio.us) to manage my private bookmarks and of course to share some public ones; maybe you want to have a look at wombat on del.icio.us.
I just installed the firefox plugin for delicious and I am quite surprised how well it integrates - I think I do not need the firefox' internal bookmarking functionality any longer.

Maintaining the coffee machine

I nearly did not blog almost a whole month as there is a lot of work to do at the moment and spring is coming. So I prefer being outside - e.g. doing sports - instead of sitting in front of my computer in the evenings. Yesterday I had an amusing discussion with one of my office colleagues and as I promised him to blog about it - here it is: the ultimate maintaining-the-coffee-machine-discussion.
While getting a nice afternoon coffee from our comfortable full-fledged "Jura" coffee dispenser we started arguing if one has to maintain the coffee machine, e.g. disposing the coffee ground, or refilling beans/water, AFTER getting ones coffee (my opinion) or if it is legitimate to leave the company's kitchen as fast as possible without doing this - eventually leaving the next colleage the nice "present" of maintaining the machine before getting the vital brown hot beverage (his point of view).
He argued that using an ordinary coffee machine at home requires some steps BEFORE getting a hot cup, too. And of course the fresh tapped hot coffee gets cold incredibly fast - no time for emptying the coffee ground at all. :)
Another colleague who followed our (hopefully) not too serious discussion was on my side whereas three former team members I playing billard with in the evening shared my office colleagues' point of view. Altogether this discussion was a lot of fun - we laughed a lot in the afternoon (getting faster to knocking-off time the day before easter holidays) and in the evening. And now I know where to complain if I would like to have a quick coffee next time (probably in a hurry) and our coffee machine is demanding the "all-aroud carefree-package"... ;-)

höhenweg in meersburg

Eigentlich ist es schon eine Schande: da bin ich nun schon gute drei Jahre hier am See, war auch bereits mehrfach in Meersburg und habe dennoch erst vor kurzem den Höhenweg von Meersburg nach Hagnau entdeckt. Vielmehr habe ich diesen genialen Wanderweg bei einem Frühlingsspaziergang gezeigt bekommen - von einem Fast-Nordlicht :).
Der Höhenweg eignet sich wunderbar für entspannte Spaziergänge, da man immer wieder stehenbleiben und innehalten wird um diesen wunderbaren Ausblick zu genießen. Eventuell kann man dort auch joggen - wenn man öfters den Ausblick genossen hat, kann man sich vielleicht auch etwas zügiger dort fortbewegen. ;-) Ich werde demnächst berichten, denn der Frühling hält Einzug am Bodensee...

Kieser is getting convenient

This week I entered my favourite fitness studio as I usually do twice a week. Nothing new so far. But this time I really wondered while entering the big spartan-looking hall. It is designed for doing health-oriented strength-training in enjoyable atmosphere without any bells and whistles. No bar, no fitness drinks (except fresh, cool water), no tarted up people, no sauna. Just high-quality machines to train your muscles in order to prevent backache, get better in your favourite sport or just to look better and feel healthier. :-)
As you can see, I am already really satisfied with my studio. The only drawback was in summer where one started to sweat just while entering the hall - without having exercised at all. This week they started installing an air-condition which makes Kieser Training the perfect training place for me - even in summer.

Buying a climbing harness - second part

Yeah! After weeks of waiting, running from store to store and even blogging a bit about this odysee I finally got it: The lastest model of my favorite climbing harness, the Petzl Luna. I found it in a small but really recommendable sports store not far from my hometown. Now I hardly can't wait to go climbing with my colleagues the next time. :-)

Buying a climbing harness

Some of my climbing colleagues are already laughing a bit when I tell another chapter of "buying a climbing harness for me". Yesterday I went to my favourite outdoor shop in order to get the "Petzl Luna" in my size. Unfortunately Petzl (and all the other harness producers) have troubles to deliver the new climbing harnesses for 2009 in time. And all the female models of 2008 are nearly sold out. :-(

Actually I did not want to share the above story with you but the following video I stumbled upon: a climbing harness promotion video from Petzl which is really funny - especially for climbing people. So enjoy it.... :o)