Ramón de Vries | Dutch Open Source Solutions Consultant

I try to do less of the bad stuff. I try to eat less bad stuff. I try to do less bad thinking. Less bad Stuff that will keep be back. I do less of the bad and the good.

So I have more room to do my best to get the best.

Find time to write a blog post. To do you exercises, to read a book and to spend time with the family. work on your goals and do something you like.

Some of it will not need much time.

The biggest savings in time you will find when you eliminate watching television and reading the newspaper.

Today we rocked out at a concert of Rick Martin in Brussels. Once in a while you should rock out and enjoy the music.

If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you.
If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you.
Whatever good things we build end up building us.

Work harder on yourself than you do on your job.

Formal education will make you a living;
Self-education will make you a fortune.

— Jim Rohn

Treat yourself when you accomplish something. I will treat myself with a adam tablet when I reach my 85 kg.

Treat yourself because you deserve it.

If you don’t know something, just look it up.  In a dictionary, on the internet, Google, Wikipedia or   even a simple phone book.

A lot of people will ask themselves “why should I do something?”

Just ask yourself: “Why not?”

Why not try it?

Why not learn it?

Why not risk it?

Why not enjoy it?

Why not do it?

Sometimes the things don’t go as fast as I want. Sometimes it takes a lot of time before my environment gets used to my changed behaviour. I have to be patient. Patient with my friend and colleagues.

But most of all patient with myself. Because I want me to change faster than it is feasible. It is unhealthy for me to loose the 8 kilos (I still need to loose to get to 85 kg) in a very short time.

But step by step I will get there, I only have to be patient.

This is a very inspiring short TED talk.

Just like Matt Cutts I try something for 30 days. Some of the stuff I still keep doing, other stuff I did not like.

Go to the TED talk

The getting things done by David Allen is a very good system. I now use it more than 2 years.

David talks about the base of your inbox.

Everytime I read my e-mail, I will empty my e-mail inbox. My e-mail inbox base is zero. What is yours?

How many in messages do you have?

My physical inbox is not emptied everyday, that is mostly because I process my physical inbox on a weekly or bi-weekly base.

Your children got crazy and you cannot handle them
Your wife is angry and shouts at you
You are late for work and the traffic jam is unbearable
The deadline you got is approaching rapidly
What should you do?

Whatever happens, keep calm.
Panic and stress won’t help you.

Relax, take a breath keep calm and think.

If you are calm you will be able to think of a good solution from your situation.

To get the most out of a day…. because you can sleep when you are dead.

“A person can achieve everything

by being simple and humble.”

Rig Veda

The internet is a vast source of information and entertainment. You have to control your surfing in a smart way. Otherwise you will loose your precious time. One of my ways of smarter surfing is blocking most of my sinful and wasting websites. Especially the website that help me procrastinate, and don’t help me to make progress.

You could have some browser plug-ins like leechblock but I did not invest the time yet to implement it.

The simplest website blocker is to put your waste full website as the reference to 127.0.0.1 in the hosts file of your computer.

My hostfile just looks like this:

127.0.0.1 start.geek.nl
127.0.0.1 geenstijl.nl www.geenstijl.nl
127.0.0.1 www.nu.nl nu.nl
127.0.0.1 nrc.nl www.nrc.nl
127.0.0.1 nrcnext.nl www.nrcnext.nl
127.0.0.1 vkmag.nl www.vkmag.nl
127.0.0.1 dumpert.nl www.dumpert.nl
127.0.0.1 vk.nl www.vk.nl
127.0.0.1 uitzendinggemist.nl www.uitzendinggemist.nl beta.uitzendinggemist.nl
127.0.0.1 huizenmarkt-zeepbel.nl www.huizenmarkt-zeepbel.nl
127.0.0.1 vk.nl www.vk.nl
127.0.0.1 volkskrant.nl www.volkskrant.nl
127.0.0.1 trouw.nl www.trouw.nl
127.0.0.1 telegraaf.nl www.telegraaf.nl detelegraaf.nl www.detelegraaf.nl
127.0.0.1 parool.nl www.parool.nl
127.0.0.1 huizenhype.nl www.huizenhype.nl
127.0.0.1 www.nieuws.nl nieuws.nl
127.0.0.1 nieuws.nl www.nieuws.nl
127.0.0.1 nos.nlwww.nos.nl
127.0.0.1 slashdot.com slashdot.org www.slashdot.com www.slashdot.org
127.0.0.1 linux.com www.linux.com
127.0.0.1 www.fd.nl fd.nl
127.0.0.1 nu.nl www.nu.nl nuzakelijk.nl www.nuzakelijk.nl
127.0.0.1 ad.nl www.ad.nl
127.0.0.1 bnr.nl www.bnr.nl
127.0.0.1 gelderlander.nl www.gelderlander.nl

It contains a lot of news sites, news sites are my biggest time wasters.