It's time to take back control of your inbox

Remember when your inbox was filled exclusively with messages from friends and family? No? Been too long? Every year that passes I find my inbox filled with more and more junk. Data shows that only 42% of emails are important., meaning the majority of email in our inbox is unimportant! 

Stats about email:

•  The average person receives 110 e-mails per day.
• The average employee spends 650 hours per year processing unimportant email
• A case study conducted by the Danwood Group found that it takes an average of 64 seconds to recover from an email interruption and return to work 

While changing the way you think about and process e-mail is a great start, there’s a lot more that can be done to reduce email overload.

SaneBox is a well known email management tool among techies, CEOs and investors, but is starting to make a push into the mainstream. SaneBox analyzes your inbox and then with an unbelievable amount of accuracy filters your "unimportant" email into a separate folder called SaneLater and summarizes this email in a daily digest. This means your inbox is left with only important email.

They also offer a number of additional email productivity features, but my favorite is SaneReminders. Simply add a timeframe such as 3days@sanebox.com in the CC or BCC field when sending and email and if the recipient doesn’t respond within three days you’ll receive a notification. You can use any timeframe you desire (1day@sanebox.com, 27days@sanebox.com, Tuesday@sanebox.com, 5pm.Monday@sanebox.com). I use this feature on almost every email I send.

We’re all overloaded with email, there’s no way around it, but we can greatly reduce our pain with email by adhering to good habits and utilizing the tools around us. For me, SaneBox is the tool that has been in the most helpful, I'm still working on creating those good habits!

Personal Wellness

As humans our needs are complex. But the complexity of what we want doesn’t matter as much as how much we want it, and our willingness to change in order to obtain it. Change requires that we make choices. Personal wellness is a choice, and a process of positive change.

It’s a fact that personal wellness means much more than being free from physical illness. It requires a multidimensional approach to health, one that incorporates the emotional, physical, spiritual, environmental, social, mental and occupational state of being.

The anatomy of a great personal wellness plan brings together all of the interconnected dimensions of wellness to produce holistic health and happiness. And in this article, are guidelines that provide a betterunderstanding of the different dimensions of wellness, andhelp get you started on creating your individual personal wellness plan.

Assess yourself

• Begin by performing a self-assessment to identify areas in your life need improvement. A physical self-assessment you can ask questions like, “What am I doing to improve my physical condition?”You’ll also want to examine your eating habits and whether you are making healthy food choices

• Assess your spiritual wellbeing or belief system. (Take note, spiritual doesn’t just mean religion.) What are your personal values, beliefs and mission in life?

• An environmental assessment requires leading a lifestyle that is respectful of and in harmony with your environment, and reducing the impact of your actions on the environment.

• A mental wellness assessment examines your emotional and physiological wellbeing.Evaluate your ability to enjoy life. Can you live in the moment and appreciate the now?Also mental stimulation and wandering out of your comfort zone will increase possibilities for further self-improvement.

Identify Areas Improvement

Once you’ve identified areas in your life that need improvement, write down your goals and create a personal wellness plan that is attainable and that addresses your individual needs.

Record your progress

Keep a chart or journal to reassess your accomplishments and areas needing improvement; all the while, monitoring your growth along the way.


Reward yourself

Celebrate your success when achieving a goal, no matter how small. Go to the spa, or visit the museum and discover something new. These little rewards will make your hard work worthwhile.

Read the article here

Improving Life Through Self Improvement: Read This Now!

Do not neglect working on your self improvement. Personal development can include leading a healthier life or getting control over your finances. It’s vital that you work on yourself to live the best life you can. You may never stop developing yourself personally, because there is always a way to improve in some area in your life. You are sure to have a much happier and healthier life if you find a way to develop and maintain good habits every day.

Self improvement comes from the decisions that you make when you choose not to miss an opportunity. You need to face these decisions with confidence, even if you aren’t totally sure. Positive habits are formed through the instances where you make a successful decision, which in turn becomes a more ‘natural instinct’. Even if you make the wrong decision, you will still have a valuable learning experience. When you learn from your mistakes, you are less likely to repeat them.

Read good articles about personal development. Make sure you choose books that are in line with your goals for self improvement. Books on the topic of self improvement can be poorly written. To avoid this, make sure you read books that have been reviewed well.

Identify what is standing in between you and success. This can prove problematic for most folks. Identifying and acknowledging your weakest points is a crucial element in transforming them. Removing obstacles in your life can help you get a clearer picture of what’s to come.

Try to get the most out of your work time to get more accomplished. One simple solution is to go on more breaks while you work. This may seem counterproductive, but by taking constant breaks, you have time to unwind and recharge so that when you get back to work, you can get more stuff done.

Be ready to take down any ideas you may have, no matter what the setting is. Carry pens and paper with you at all times. Just write down what their idea or thought is and then develop it more when you have the time and are feeling creative.

Self improvement begins with becoming a leader. The key to being a leader is influence, according to most people. Identify the leadership qualities you possess. Which events have had the most impact on your life? What changes did those events bring forth in you? What are the things about you that make you a great fit for a team? By asking yourself these questions, you can become more aware of how you best fit into a team.

Read the full article: http://anagreementwithlove.com/123-improving-life-through-self-improvement-read-this-now

Self help: forget positive thinking, try positive action

For years self-help gurus have preached the same simple mantra: if you want to improve your life then you need to change how you think. Force yourself to have positive thoughts and you will become happier. Visualise your dream self and you will enjoy increased success. Think like a millionaire and you will magically grow rich. In principle, this idea sounds perfectly reasonable. However, in practice it often proves ineffective.

Take visualisation. Hundreds of self-improvement books encourage readers to close their eyes and imagine their perfect selves; to see themselves in a huge office at the top of the corporate ladder, or sipping a cocktail as they feel the warm Caribbean sand between their toes. Unfortunately, research suggests this technique does not work.

In one study led by Lien Pham at the University of California, students were asked to spend a few moments each day visualising themselves getting a high grade in an upcoming exam. Even though the daydreaming exercise only lasted a few minutes, it caused the students to study less and obtain lower marks. In another experiment led by Gabriele Oettingen from New York University, graduates were asked to note down how often they fantasised about getting their dream job after leaving college. The students who reported that they frequently fantasised about such success received fewer job offers and ended up with significantly smaller salaries.

Why should this be so? Maybe those who fantasise about a wonderful life are ill-prepared for setbacks, or become reluctant to put in the effort required to achieve their goal. Either way, the message is clear – imagining the perfect you is not good for your life.

However, when it comes to change, the message is not all gloom and doom. Decades of research show that there is indeed a simple but highly effective way to transform how you think and feel. The technique turns common sense on its head but is grounded in science. Strangely, the story begins with a world-renowned Victorian thinker and an imaginary bear.

Working at Harvard University in the late 19th century, William James, brother of the novelist Henry James, was attracted to the unconventional, often walking around campus sporting a silk hat and red-checked trousers, and describing his theories using amusing prose ("As long as one poor cockroach feels the pangs of unrequited love, this world is not a moral world"). This unconventional approach paid off. First published in 1890, James's two-volume magnum opus The Principles of Psychology is still required reading for students of behavioural science.

Read the full article: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/jun/30/self-help-positive-thinking