I got a very cool new toy for Christmas from my wife, Sandy! A graphic pad for photo (and other) editing. I love it, thanks babe!

My family and I just returned from a very quick jaunt to northern Wyoming for a cousin’s high school graduation (congrats Lauren!). We had a great time with the extended family and spent HOURS at the hotel pool, all fun!

I then spent a bit of time catching up in Google Reader and found a great list from Leo at ZenHabits. Handbook for Life: 52 Tips for Happiness and Productivity is a very useful list of tips to try out with the goal of enhancing your life in mind. Many of these ideas are currently on a similar list of my own, and some are new. After reading through the list I feel like I have found my long-lost twin!

The whole “morning and evening routine” thing is something I know I need to do, but struggle with. With the demands of my children at night, and the whole “Are you freakin’ kidding me?! It’s five a.m.!” thing in the morning, trying to create a routine at those times is difficult. Oh well, most things worth doing are, I think this will be my expirement for the week.

I read my first Drucker book over a decade ago (it was The Effective Executive) and it was really my first taste of business management theory and writing.

I loved it and became hooked on business writings as a result of that book. Lately I’ve tried to temper my thirst for such writing because it has become inconsistent with my current goals and desired mindset. While I still enjoy reading it, I have found other, more fundamental writing (scripture, philosophy, and some history) more beneficial in this stage of my life.

That said, I still have great respect for Drucker and just about anything he says. With that in mind, I read an article pointed to by some now forgotten blog post (sorry to whomever brought it to my attention) that needs summarizing for my future use. If you care nothing for Drucker, ignore this post, it is for me … I think it holds great insight and advice.

The last paragraph grabbed and convinced me that I should pay attention to this article, if he (who had WAY more experience and brains than I have) sees these ideas as fundamental, I should at least pay attention. It is …

I am telling this long story for a simple reason. All the people I know who have managed to remain effective during a long life have learned pretty much the same things I learned. That applies to effective business executives and to scholars, to top-ranking military people and to first-rate physicians, to teachers and to artists. Whenever I work with a person, I try to find out to what the individual attributes his or her success. I am invariably told stories that are remarkably like mine.

With that in mind, here are the lessons as I read and understand them …

1. Strive for perfection. It will always elude me, but that only obligates me take one more try at it.
2. Strive for perfection even if only God notices. He uses “the gods”, I use God, but the idea is the same. There are some things we do that nobody else sees, they are often the fundamental activities or attitudes that only show themselves in the shadows of our daily work. They will, in the end though, either lead to true success and happiness or inevitable shame and disintegration of life and more importantly, the soul.
3. Continue to learn and stretch yourself intellectually. Drucker would spend three to four year periods studying something new. He did this to broaden his horizons, which in turn helped him develop new methodologies and understand different assumptions. I think this practice would both be a continuous source of interest as well as very grounding. What should I start with?
4. Spend extended time each year in self-evaluation. Drucker would spend two weeks each summer looking back on the successes and failures of the year … what did I do well? what did I not do well? what did I not do at all? Using these answers, project forward the next year with … what things should I concentrate on? what things should I seek to improve on? what things do I need to learn? what should I stop doing? This practice is really a natural outgrowth of 1-3, but if used well and honestly could change life within two years (I believe).
5. Ask myself: What do I need to do in this (new or old) thing to be truly effective? Drucker pins this specifically to NEW pursuits, jobs, tasks, etc. But honestly, he probably could because he had a high degree of faith in his ability in old or ongoing activities. I don’t have that confidence, I almost certainly could improve dramatically in many of the things I’ve done for years. This will hopefully change as I practice items 1-4, but for now, might as well reevaluate it all.
6. Anticipate results and track actual outcomes. I’ve read about this in a few different places, but never tried it, I think I will. The basic idea is that as you are making a big decision or starting a large strategic effort, write down what you plan to do and what you think will happen as a result. Then revisit these thoughts down the road a month or a year or whatever is appropriate. You should learn quite a bit during this process, of which a few things would be … what did I not anticipate, and why? what habits need to change? what did I do well in the process? what did I do poorly? what are my strengths? what are my weaknesses?
7. What do I want to be remembered for? Drucker points out that what we want to be remembered for will most likely change as we age and mature, but that in the end, we should strive to make a positive difference in the lives of other people. This mindset not only has the most lasting impact, but is also the most worthy and of the most worth.

So there are some points of action that I can start to use. I think I’ll start a log of decision making. I’ll plan on spending a day or two in self-evaluation. I’ll come up with a study item for the next few years (I’m actually really excited about this one). And I’ll start striving more faithfully for perfection in completing projects and “doing the right things right”!

If you haven’t heard of this book, then you’ve either been in a coma for the last month or you spend more time having fun offline than online (good for you!). I can’t say that this book is the source of my current viewpoint or frustrations or of really anything. The fact is, I have been feeling like a deferred-life slave for a couple of years now. This book has given me some vocabulary and mindsets to work with, but I have known about these strategies for quite some time.

What this book has done for me is give me a kick in the pants to get going on some things that have been in the planning stage for a loooong time. I turn 34 in a less than a month, and I am far short of where I’d hoped to be at this point in my life. While I have never planned on retiring early (or otherwise), I do have some goals that require more time than my current lifestyle affords.

I am going to create a few posts out of the material in this book. I have implemented a few of the techniques and tips with (to me) pretty amazing early success, and gained a few hours a week in the process. For now, I would suggest you go buy The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich and get started on reading it. If you are “web worker” or just need some new ideas on strategies for what Tim Ferriss calls “Lifestyle Design”, you need this book.

It isn’t gospel, but it can be useful and eye opening if you can creatively conceive an implementation in your own life.