I will admit that life has been a little hectic lately. I put in about sixty hours per week at work and I’m in charge of about thirty employees. I’m on an accelerated learning course at my college in which I take one class per month. I have either lectures or assignments every single night of the week. I have an exam every Saturday with a final on the last weekend of every month. It is a lot of studying and it’s been a bit crazy. It’s only my first month and I’ve got about seventeen more to go. Finishing a higher education is one the steps on my path to wealth. I must make it one of my biggest priorities. Often times it is very hard to keep up with everything going on in life.

Over the last six months my favorite blog has been Zen Habits. It is a great site that offers so much advice on how to keep your head in the right place when life gets hectic. It also offers up some advice on how to keep certain aspects of life from getting too hectic. I’ve adopted a lot of Leo’s philosophies and my life has been a lot less stressful because of it. I’m not sure what specific posts some of these ideas came from but they are various ideas that I’ve adopted that have really cut down on my stress.

Prioritize the things that are important and cut out the things that aren’t.
This is basically the theme of the entire Zen Habits website. The things that are important in my life are my family, my girlfriend, my education and my job. I also love my blog but, in reality, it is just a hobby. I will always update it when I feel compelled to write. I love sharing my personal goals, my financial goals and the journey that I’ve embarked upon. It will always be here for me to vent and for me to give and receive advice. I love it, it is an outlet and I will never let it die. It may slow down when my priorities need more attention but I will never let it go to waste.

Take time in silence to reflect and listen to your thoughts.
I basically wrote an entire post on this subject over at Lazy Man and Money. Sometimes you just need to take some time and relax in silence. Let ideas run through your head and see what comes out. This concept has a few benefits. You get to relax your body. You can find a comfortable quiet spot, kick off your shoes and just relax. You may be a genius and not even realize it. Who knows what kind of ideas will pop in to your head while you are relaxing. I do this for a little bit every afternoon. It is kind of my post-work/pre-school ritual.

Keep organized.
The biggest lifestyle change that I have made since I’ve begun blogging is the organizational habits that I have adopted. I’ve gotten in the habit of always keeping everything clean and organized all of the time. It’s not like I’m constantly cleaning either. I clean up as I go. I make sure anything I take out, I put it away immediately after using it. Every morning when I wake up, I do a real quick room cleaning. It takes me about two minutes. You have no idea how much stress this relieves. Being clean and organized feels so good and I always know where everything is. I’ve adopted the same philosophy at the office and I’m more productive because of it.

Don’t carry things around on you.
This is one of the little tips that Leo suggested in one of his older posts. It seems like a small thing but it feels so liberating to never have anything in your pockets. Everyday when I arrive at work; I take my wallet, my keys and my cell phone out of my pocket and throw them in my desk drawer. I’m not sitting on a lump all day, I don’t have bulges in my pocket and I’m not concerned with who’s calling me in the middle of the day. Whoever it is, it can wait until after work. It’s a great little liberating, productivity-boosting tip.

Always be positive.
I am going to finish with this tip but I believe it is the most powerful. I have made a real conscious effort to be positive about everything. Even when things get stressful or deadlines get tight, I honestly try to stay positive. Sometimes it’s hard but it makes people like to be around me more, it helps others around me stay positive and with a can-do attitude, things get done. If you believe in the “law of attraction” type stuff (like I do), there are only benefits to always being positive. Good things come to people who are positive and never lose focus. I see nothing but good things in my future.

Photo Credit: ajusticenetwork

By the way, I want to congratulate Leo from Zen Habits on making the leap in to Professional Blogger. It’s what all of us bloggers strive for one day and it is awesome to see the success that he has made for himself in so little time. It is a great achievement.

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In light of the fact that I have started back to school, I’ve decided to post my technique for studying for tests. Over the course of my entire college career, I have had a 3.5 GPA. That’s despite working full time. My technique works for almost any class and practically no free time is lost.

Buy a Digital Audio Recorder.
I went and purchased an audio recorder that can easily be connected to my computer. The one that I purchased is very similar to This One. A good one is around $50.

Record Your Class Lectures.
Take your new tape recorder to class and tape the entire lecture. If the professor does not allow tape recorders in class, take good notes and record the lecture with your own voice later.

Move The Lecture to a Computer and Burn a CD.
The next thing I do is move the lecture on to my computer using the USB. If you are audio-savvy, like me, you can use a program like Sound Forge to edit the lecture. Cut out all of the filler that has nothing to do with the topic and adjust the volume. Burn the audio file to a CD.

Listen Back To Your Lecture While Driving.
After burning my lecture to a CD, I would drive around listening to the lecture. I spent so much time in my car that I practically had the previous lecture memorized by the time the next class session rolled around. You aren’t wasting any time because you are multi-tasking. You are studying while you are driving.

Using this technique, I was always the first one done with tests and I almost always got an A. I still remember information from lectures that I had three years ago. It’s a great technique to, not only memorize the information, but to really learn the subject matter as well.

Photo Credit: Shaylor

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My grandpa sent this e-mail to me a few days ago. It looks like he got it from the PC World website.

Sell Your Old PC (or Other Devices) to Costco

You have an old PC in the closet? Here’s a way to get rid of it: Sell it to Costco.

Costco, the big-box retailer, has contracted with Greensight to recondition or recycle your old, but still working, PC. They’ll pick up the tab on shipping the PC to them and pay you for the computer. [Thanks to Brad from Atlanta for this amazingly good tip.]

It gets better: They’ll also take notebooks, MP3 players, LCD monitors, camcorders, digital cameras, game consoles, and phones.

It’s gets better yet: There’s no trade-in value, but if you have an old CRT, printer, or fax machine, Greensight will recycle it for you and pay to ship the item to them.

The catch: You get “paid” with a Costco cash card. If you’re not a Costco member, you can use the cash card towards the membership fee; members can use the card to buy merchandise.

I’m taking my wife out to lunch
The Details
Choose the device you want to trade in and answer their questions on an online form. Providing details about the device takes about five minutes. At the end of the process, Greensight will tell you how much the trade-in is worth.

Of course, there’s a good chance you won’t remember the exact components or CPU speed, so the amount may change once the machine is inspected. If you’re not happy, the company will return the PC to you at no charge.

I have to tell you, you’re not going to get rich. I priced a 1.2GHz Pentium III with a 40GB drive and 1GB of RAM and picked up $18. But hey, that pays for a lunch and I didn’t have to schlep to a city-run electronics recycling center.

Greenlight promises they’ll either recondition and sell the entire PC (or just hand-picked parts), or recycle the good parts into raw material. Nothing, they say, will end up in a landfill.

You can read through their FAQ for more details.

This sounds like a great idea to me. I have tons of old computer stuff laying around. I might as well make money of off it.

Photo Credit: Cote

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December was a bad month for me as far as goals go. Work got really hectic coming in to Christmas, I got sick on Christmas and then I went out of town. I have lots of excuses. I will review the goals that I had set for myself anyway…

Personal Goals

• Complete all of my Christmas shopping within a budget of $500
  Success. I think I spent a total of $350. I’m not sure the exact number but it is in that range.
• Open up a separate bank account for my side business
  I failed here. I never got around to getting to the bank to set up an account.
  

Blogging Goals

• Post 5 blog posts per week
  I failed here too. I only posted 15 blogs posts for the entire month of December.
  
• Get to 200 subscribers
  Failed. I maxed out at 135 subscribers. This is probably due to my lack of posting for the month.
• At least 2 carnivals per week
  Failed. I think I participated in 4 carnivals all month.
  
• Break $150 total money made
  Success! This was actually the first month I started to see a little bit of blogging income. The blog made $75 for the month. That puts my total income as a blogger at $197.14 (Over a 6 month period).
  
• At least 2 guest posts on other (more popular) blogs
  Failed. I only managed one guest post this month. You can read it over at Lazy Man and Money.

January Goals:
For January I’m going to tone down my goals a little as far as blogging goes. I start back to school on Monday and I have a feeling that it’s going to consume a whole lot of my time. Blogging is very important to me because I love sharing my goals and being held accountable when I fail (kind of like this month). I do think pursuing my degree in finance will fuel my blog; I just know that my free time is going to be harder to come by. With that being said…

Personal Goals

• Complete my first month of school (without going insane)
  Work is hectic enough. I’m starting back to school on an accelerated program. I will be completing one class per month for the next seventeen months. I will attend class three times a week for four hours per session. It is going to be intense.
• Open up a separate bank account for my side business
  I’m going to try to squeeze it in somewhere this month.

Blogging Goals

• Post at least 4 blog posts per week
  I’m going to shoot for five posts per week but I’m being realistic. Four is probably much more obtainable.

That’s about it. I’m not setting too many goals for myself until I see what my new life is going to be like. Next month, once I have a better feel for how hectic my school schedule is really going to be, I’ll set some more ambitious goals. For now, I’m just hoping to make it through my first class.

Thank Yous
I’ve never really had the StumpleUpon effect before December. For some reason, my site got stumpled like crazy though. That was the number one source of traffic for this month. Here are the blogs that sent me the most traffic in December.

1. Lazy Man and Money
2. Get Rich Slowly
3. Cash Money Life
4. Brip Blap
5. Plonkee Money
6. Consumerism Commentary
7. Stock Trading To Go
8. Moolanomy
9. I’ve Paid For This Twice Already
10. Be Healthy and Relax

Thanks so much to everyone who reads my blog and to all the other bloggers who support and help my blog. I appreciate it so much.

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I’m back. I was sick for a couple days, I rested and took a lot of medicine and then I went to Las Vegas for New Years. It’s kind of a tradition to do New Years in Vegas for us. I think this is the last year that we are going to do it. Everything is getting too expensive. They raise the prices on everything. The buffets are $30 per person, the rooms cost over a $100 per night, the drinks are more expensive and it gets more and more crowded every single year. It is definitely losing its appeal. I’ve adopted a more frugal lifestyle and spending that much on New Years just does not fit in anymore.

I do have some tips that I can offer up.

Lower Your Room Prices
If you’ve booked your room quite a bit in advance (like we did), you can usually call a day or two before you leave and ask if the rates have lowered at all. We booked our room about three months in advance. Two days before we left, we called the hotel and asked if any of the rates have changed. Sure enough, we got our room costs down by over $50 per night. This is the second year in a row that this has happened. It may not always work like this but it certainly doesn’t hurt to try.

Get The Player’s Club Cards
Even if you don’t gamble, it’s still a good idea to sign up for the various player’s club cards at the various casinos. The card itself almost always comes with a book or a sheet of coupons. We signed up for a card at the Tropicana and received a two-for-one coupon at the buffet. A couple years ago we stayed at the Stratosphere and received free passes to go up in to the tower. It’s worth it to sign up for a card. I just give them a junk e-mail address that I hardly ever check and decline to give them my phone number.

Free Drinks in Las Vegas
If you are like me and like to have a drink now and then, you can’t beat the drink prices in Vegas. I like to go to the penny machines, put a dollar in and barely touch the machine until a server comes around. They comp me a free drink for gambling and I cash out and walk away. It’s the Vegas way…

Take Advantage of the Free Shows
Vegas has so many things to do that don’t cost any money. It’s fun to just walk up and down the strip and see what you can see. The Bellagio has the water show (See the end of Ocean’s 11). The Mirage has an “active” volcano out front. Treasure Island has a pirate show. The hotels themselves are just cool to see anyway. The Venetian re-creates the Venice Canal inside, Caesar’s Palace has Roman statues that move and talk, MGM grand has a large lion habitat, and the Mirage has white tigers. There are some very cool things to see and do, absolutely free, in Vegas.

If you’re ever in Vegas, follow some of those tips. My only other piece of advice is to stay the heck away for New Years. It’s too crowded and too expensive.

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