Drowning in email

I was looking at the amount of email I have to process in a given day.  I have tried to find ways to sort and filter emails.  I find it annoying when I receive a long email that doesn’t tell me what the sender is expecting from me in the first 1-2 sentences.  Most of the emails I receive are too long.

Today I realized that I need to look at the emails I send.   My emails are probably too wordy.   I have set a new personal policy for emails that I write:  I will only use 5 sentences or less.   (I stumbled upon this website that describes the personal policy http://five.sentenc.es/)

If I cannot communicate what I have to say in 5 sentences or less I probably need to make a phone call or pay the person a visit.   People can communicate faster when talking and since the conversation is real-time followup questions can be asked right then.

The less I send maybe the less I will get in my  inbox.

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Writing a journal

For the last year I have written in a journal every day.

I started writing in a journal for a couple of reasons

  • In today’s fast paced world it easy to forget what was going just the other day.
  • I felt I should stop to reflect on what is going on.  If live is worth living taking a few minutes every day to record the import things is a good idea.
  • My journal may give some insight into my life for my children and grandchildren.
  • I realized some of the most important people in history left journals – Teddy Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Darwin, Benjamin Franklin, Lewis and Clark and many others.
  • I like to look back and see where I have been from time to time; the journal helps provide the information to do that.

My journal today is a simple leather-covered notebook that cost me about $12.  A single book lasts about 6 months.

What do I write about?  I write about anything that is important going on in my life.  I have written about important accomplishments, ideas for how to solve problems, some changes I’d like to make to my diet.   I figure just about anything that is taking up cycles from my brain is good enough to go into the journal.   I find if I am working on a problem that going through the logic of how to write about it causes me to think differently.

After diner I usually set aside 20-30 minutes to write.  At least once a week I like to look back over the 7-8 days of entries.  On several occasions I am interested in a particular time and go back to that time to see what I was thinking.

In the past I have tried other methods to journal but found that putting pen to paper seems to be the most natural, relaxing and productive.

  • Audio Journal – I have tried using a voice recorder to record a daily journal but found that it is very hard to go back and listen to a week’s worth of recordings.   I investigated having my computer transcribe the recordings to text but that didn’t work well.  Although an interesting experiment it just didn’t relax me.  Talking it not my favorite type of communication.  I used a Olympus Voice Record similar to this one.
  • I tried using the computer to write my journal but found that it just didn’t relax me.  I work on a computer all day so the extra 30 minutes sitting in front of a computer seemed more like doing extra work. I did really like most of the journal software I used.   I feature I like the most was being able to search for keywords and dates very easily.   I have found that taking a computer on vacation or camping is difficult. Some of the tools I tried Microsoft One Note, Evernote, The Journal, and  LDS Journal
  • I tried using a spiral bound notebook but found it did what every spiral bound notebook does.  The spiral binding gets squished and pages became difficult to flip. The standard 8 1/2″ x 11″ notebook just seemed too large to write in, I prefer something about half the size (it is easier to pack it too).

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Sleep Apnea Update

I am continuing to monitory my Sleep Apnea using my Auto Positive Air Pressure (APAP). Since I last wrote about Sleep Apnea in December a few things have happened:

  • I lost 20 lbs on the HCG diet.
  • I have started taking Thyroid Replacement hormones
  • I have stopped taking Sudafed daily

My sleep therapy is basically the same otherwise.  I have been letting the APAP adjust the pressure every night as a I sleep.   I have lowered the starting pressure of the system to 5.5 from 6.0.  I find that I spend most of my nights around the starting pressure.

Here is a typical graph from showing the pressure.

Pressure Graph for typical night

Pressure Graph for typical night

Here is a graph from an exceptional night of sleep

Graph from an exception night of sleep

Graph from an exception night of sleep

My AHI and HI are remaining about the same.   I was hopping to see a significant improvement in these numbers but they pretty consistent with my previous post.

The nightly snore index has been improving significantly.  I averaged about 10-40 snores per night in December.  Through January and February my snore index is usually under 10 per night.

I just received my Didgeridoo and am starting to learn to play it.  I have not yet mastered the circular breathing part.   One thing I have noticed is I don’t breath deeply normally and it may be contributing to my sleep apnea since my breath is shallow anyway it may reduce my oxegen further when apneas occur.

 

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