Beware of Being Too Productive

Today’s topic is heresy, pure and simple. Yes, I have a super-successful podcast about personal productivity. But oddly, I’m not a huge proponent of unbridled productivity. Today, we’re going to explore why. This is the stuff they made me take out of the first draft of my book, Get-it-Done Guy’s 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More, for fear it was too controversial!

My Stance on Morality

In the last few decades, employers figured out that you could work salaried employers harder and harder without paying them anything extra. By increasing productivity, they could pay everyone the same, but make a lot more profit for shareholders.

So for years now, we’ve preached the gospel of productivity, without mentioning better pay or shorter hours. Personally, I think you should share in any benefit created by your productivity.

Now that you know where I stand, let’s get down to what it means to be productive.

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How Productivity Should Work

Let's say you currently do 20 units of work each day. It would take 5 days to produce 100 units. But then, say you figure out how to increase efficiency to 25 units a day. Now, you can produce 100 units in 4 days. So you should get the 5th day off with pay, since you are still producing the same amount for the company, right?

Or, you can still work five days a week, but now you’re producing 125 units. That means the company is selling 25% more, and thus getting that much more profit. You’re still working five days, but you should be getting some part of that profit, since you’re producing more in the same amount of time.

Not in the 21st century, you don’t! Instead, the company sees that you can produce 25 more units a day, so they fire your cubicle mate (who never bathed, so you’re glad they’re gone) and expect the newly-productive you to cover both jobs. No raise, of course. All the profits go to the company and shareholders. After all, you should be happy you still have a job.

Make Productivity Look Inefficient

When you get more productive, what does that actually look like? You finish your work more quickly, and have more free time. You grab your latest copy of X-Men, put your feet up on your desk, and start reading. Why? Because you’re more productive, that’s why!

But your boss seems something different. There you are, reading a comic book with your feet on the desk. Do they think, “Now there’s a productive employee who deserves a raise!” Of course not. They think, “Why did I get stuck with this lazy jerk who isn’t working hard? I need to reduce their salary or give them more work.”

This happened at my first job. My manager chastised me for not working weekends. I pointed out that I got all my work done during the work week, and had met every single goal on schedule. He didn’t care. Seeing me working Saturdays was how he judged productivity. Actual work output had nothing to do with it.

When you find a way to increase your productivity, do it, but don’t make it obvious. If there’s any way to work from home part time, do it. Then, you can do your super-productive work while you’re at home, and as far as anyone else knows, you’re putting in a full 8-hour day. In reality, you’re doing 8 hours of work in 23 minutes, and then relaxing in the hot tub you built with all that time you saved.

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If you must work at the office, get your work done in 20 minutes and spend the rest of the day rushing around with a worried expression, clearly "being productive." Or actually be productive, but in a way that serves you.

Advance your career by building strong relationships with others in the company, learning new skills, and making contacts throughout your industry. That way, when your boss is feeling threatened by how productive you look (not how productive you are) and tries to sabotage your career, you can call on your allies to have your boss banished to the fiery pits of Mordor, while you get a promotion.

Guard Your Slack

You may want to let people know your productivity has given you more time, so they give you more to do. You won’t get paid more, but you can start building your empire. And soon, everything will be under control...your control...

But beware! Your great productivity tools and techniques may help you juggle 20 different projects without dropping them, so you will feel powerful! You will feel great! But be afraid. Be very afraid. Those projects are covered with razor-sharp spikes, and they can land on your feet if you drop them.

It starts with a tiny fluctuation: Project 1 is delayed a day because the Oompa Loompas are on strike. So you have to delay the project 1 launch a week. But that pushes it right into the project 5 requirements-gathering phase. You reschedule requirements to the following week … which is the wrap-up for project 9. One minor Oompa Loompa labor dispute causes a domino effect among 19 unrelated projects. Guess who gets crushed under the final domino? That would be you.

Make sure that even if you choose to use your productivity to take on more work, you leave enough slack in your responsibilities so you can handle the unexpected. Slack time isn’t a luxury; it’s a critical part of successful project management.

Check Your Destination

Once you’re uber-productive, you’ll get where you’re going much faster. That’s a good thing if you're going towards a wondrous land of milk and honey. You’ll get there really fast! Or maybe it’s not so great: have you ever slammed into a vat of milk and honey at 60 miles per hour? It’s not pleasant. It only sounds fun if you don’t think about it too closely.

Ask yourself regularly, “If I’m more productive at what I’m doing, where will I end up?” You might end up tied to a single project for the next five years, because you’re too valuable where you are. Or if your team is slated for extermina–I mean layoff–after you release your project, then the faster it launches, the faster you’re out of a job.

If you’re self-employed, check your destination often. You might get so productive with social media, for example, that you send out a gazillion tweets in just an hour a week. That’s 52 hours per year. And if tweets don’t get you business, it’s 52 hours per year wasted. Efficiently.

Productivity is great, but only when you share the benefit. Make sure others perceive you as productive, not lazy. Keep busy with your free time, either by working from home and turning free time into quality of life, or building stronger relationships at the office. If you take on more work, preserve your slack time. And most of all, make sure that the productivity is taking you somewhere worthwhile.

Be sure to check out WorkLessAndDoMore.com, to see a video clip from my informational, dramatic, inspiring two-person musical about personal productivity, finding your path in life, and zombies.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock

Is the 5-Second Rule True?

Most of us have heard it: if you drop food on the floor, it’s still okay to eat it, as long as you act quickly and pick it up within five seconds of it hitting the ground. But does the so-called “five-second rule” have any scientific backing? Anecdotally, most of us would agree—it depends on the kind of food. I’m more likely to eat a cracker that I’ve dropped on the floor than I am, say, a buttered bagel that lands spread-side down. But does timing also make a difference? Is there really a delay or grace period before which germs can find their way to your fallen food?

The Science Behind the 5-Second Rule

Avid listeners know that I’m not against eating moldy food, but sometimes even I have to draw the line at food that has fallen on the floor. Living in a house with dogs and children means my floors are never going to satisfy the June Cleavers of the world, so is there any amount of time that is OK for food to sit on the floor?

In a study recently published in the Journal of Applied and Environmental Microbiology, microbiologists subjected the five-second rule to some rigorous scientific tests. The scientists dropped four different foods (watermelon slices, strawberry gummy candy, bread and buttered bread) onto four different kinds of surfaces (steel, ceramic tile, wood, and carpet) that were contaminated with bacteria. They then left the foods there for <1, 5, 30, or 300 seconds before testing them to see if they had also become contaminated. With 128 possible combinations of food type, surface type, and contact time each replicated 20 times each, the researchers took > 2500 measurements.

As predicted by the five-second rule, the longer the food was in contact with the germy surface, the more contaminated it became. However, anything that fell on the contaminated surface itself became contaminated, no matter how long it was left there. Moisture also played a role: watermelon was most easily contaminated, while gummy candy had the lowest chance of picking up the bacteria.

The surface also mattered: non-absorbent surfaces like steel and tile reliably transferred bacteria more effectively than carpet and the more porous wood. So what you are dropping and where you are dropping it should be considered just as much if not more than how long your dropped item has lingered on the floor.

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Should You Eat Food That Falls on the Floor?

Other studies have reached similar conclusions. Bacteria can be transferred immediately so a quick reaction is not going to help keep you germ free. The CDC notes germ-laden surfaces as one of the leading causes of the transfer of foodborne illnesses.

However, some researchers note that our concern over the kitchen floor is misplaced. For example, Dr. Aaron Carroll, a professor of pediatrics at Indiana University, points out that there are other surfaces in our house and even our kitchen that are far more germ-infested than the kitchen floor.

A 1998 study examined the average number of bacterial colonies per square inch on different surfaces in the kitchen. The floor turned up 2.75 colonies per square inch but that number was about doubled on the refrigerator handle (5.37 colonies per square inch) and the kitchen counter (5.75 colonies per square inch). Most people don’t think twice about eating food off of a “clean” dish, but those sponges were found to harbor 20 million colonies per square inch. Gross!

Part of the problem is that what we perceive as clean is not always really all that clean. Cell phones, for example, which we put up to our face without hesitation, are known to host more bacteria than toilet seats. We also sometimes rely on past experience to assess risk. With the first child, you may sterilize the pacifier every single time it falls on the ground, but once you know that your first kid survived just fine, and perhaps once you see just how dirty kids can get, your second child may not get the same treatment. There is even some evidence that gender plays a role, with women being more likely to adhere to the five-second rule and thus less likely to eat food off the floor.

So should we eat food that falls on the floor? Bacteria, it seems, are unavoidable so there is unfortunately no grace period for food to be contamination free once dropped on a germy surface. However, given the ubiquity of bacteria, perhaps our desire to not waste food, and our desire to avoid alarm every time our toddler eats a cheerio off the floor, are important to factor in as well. In any case, I think I’ll go scrub my kitchen counter now—and sterilize that sponge.

Until next time, this is Sabrina Stierwalt with Everyday Einstein’s Quick and Dirty Tips for helping you make sense of science. You can become a fan of Everyday Einstein on Facebook or follow me on Twitter, where I’m @QDTeinstein. If you have a question that you’d like to see on a future episode, send me an email at everydayeinstein@quickanddirtytips.com. 

Photo courtesy of shutterstock.

Can Trampoline Workouts Increase Your Fitness?

Beginning from when I was a young boy, I can recall many adventurous visits to my friend Bryan’s house, where we would do boy things like jump in the creek, fish, hang from rope swings, climb cliffs, look for snakes and animals, start tiny fires, and…

…jump for hours on a trampoline until we were completely covered in sweat and our muscles were done! Sure, this exhausting jump workout was typically followed by copious amounts of time eating junk food and playing video games (yeah, yeah, I got on the extreme health and fitness bandwagon later in life), but new research actually shows that some things you loved doing as a kid, such as running around in nature, not sitting for long periods of time and—you guessed it—jumping on a trampoline are great for your body, even as an adult.

The latest study conducted by the American Council on Exercise (ACE), discovered that, when it comes to heart rate and oxygen expenditure, bouncing on a mini-trampoline for less than 20 minutes a day is just as good for you as running, although participants reported that it made them feel better and was a lot more fun than actually running.

In the study, researchers gave a group of 24 participants a mini trampoline workout in the form of a 19-minute trampoline exercise video (the video is available online and is called a “JumpSport” workout). They then measured the jumpers’ heart rates and oxygen expenditure each of the 19 minutes.

They specifically found that trampolining is rated as a “moderate-to-vigorous intensity” exercise that produces the same physiological benefits as running six miles per hour, cycling, or playing football, basketball, or ultimate Frisbee. But as I mentioned earlier, when the participants were actually asked to rate how they felt during the trampoline workout, they reported that the workout felt far easier than it should have based on their cardiovascular response and calorie burn.

This isn’t actually groundbreaking news. In fact, trampoline-based exercise, also known as “rebounding” has a quite a colorful history as both a recreational sport and exercise modality. For example, during World War II, trampolines were used to help increase the spatial awareness and balance abilities of pilots. NASA has studied trampoline training for astronauts and found it to be (similar to this latest study) just as effective as running, with no significant differences in maximal heart rate, maximal oxygen uptake or energy expenditure when exercising on a mini-trampoline compared to treadmill running.

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But cardiovascular benefits aren’t the only upside to bouncing on a trampoline. For example, one downside of running is that it can lead to knee, hip, ankle and other joint injuries, especially for people with existing joint pain or arthritis or excessive weight. But even though the biomechanics of trampolining are similar to jumping and landing on the ground, the trampoline absorbs up to 40% of of the potential joint impact, making it far easier on the body compared to pounding the pavement.

Although there isn’t a plethora of research behind the claim, many trampoliners tout the benefits of “lymph flow” and low-impact blood flow, both which can be beneficial for the immune system, natural, mild detoxification, and increased blood flow to the brain.

And of course, bouncing on a mini-trampoline, or a big backyard trampoline, or any of the growing number of giant warehouses full of trampoline games like trampoline dodgeball, are obviously a lot of fun (my eight year old boys and I visit such our local trampolining facility at least once a month, and own a mini-trampoline too).

So are you ready to begin bouncing? First, you’ll need a well-built mini-trampoline, also known as a rebounder, which will set you back about $35 to $100. Next, you’ll need a workout plan. Below, you can check out a sample mini-trampoline workout that will have you lung-sucking much more than you actually thought. And if you get bored of a trampoline, you can always mix up this type of workout with body weight calisthenics, weight training, cycling, a treadmill, or anything else you’d like!

A Mini-Trampoline Workout

1. Warm Up

Start out with two minutes of regular jumping, then switch to two minutes of jumping jacks in the middle of the trampoline, then two minutes of high-knee running in place.

2. Core

Next, sit down in the middle of the trampoline, then quickly pop up to standing position as fast as you can. For an added challenge, each time you pop up, reach alternating arms across your body. Do this for two minutes, then shift to sitting in the middle of the trampolining, lifting your legs and contracting your abs for 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off, three times through.

3. Legs

Stand on one foot on one side of the trampoline, as far over as you can fit, then quickly transition to the other side of the trampoline by landing on the opposite foot, just like an ice skater might do. Always push off with the foot that is down. Go as fast as you can for 20 seconds on, 10 seconds rest, for a total of 4 minutes.

4. Upper Body

Finally, get down in plank position on the surface of the trampoline, with your forearms in the middle of the trampoline. From here, transition to your hands. Quickly convert up to a pushup position, then return to a plank, keeping your abs contracted the entire time, without your shoulders sagging. Shoot for thirty to fifty reps.

Cool-down with 1-3 minutes of light jumping, and there you have it: a 20 minute trampoline workout that creates far less joint impact, more fun, and just as much calorie burn and cardiovascular benefit as running! Do you have more questions about rebounding, trampolining or more. Then join the conversation over at http://ift.tt/1FSsU8r.

What Should You Do with Leftover Paint?

Pause a Painting Project

If you’re done painting for the day, but not the week, don’t worry about washing your brush between each use. Instead, just place it in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer. When you’re ready to paint again, run it under the warm water then. The cold temperature keeps the paint from drying, so no dried bits will ruin your brush. Instead, when you run it under the warm water, it will be as though you just stopped painting moments ago. Dry with a rag or paper towel before going back to work.

Don’t Keep Old Cans of Paint

When you’re finished painting, you might tell yourself you need to keep all your old paint in case you need to do a touch-up. But you should know the paint on the wall (especially if it’s in the sun) will fade in only a matter of months. So, that half-full can of leftover paint probably won’t match the color on your walls—you’ll have to repaint the entire room from scratch for an even job. However, it might be worth saving a small amount for a very small area, like a nick or scratch. We like keeping extra paint in a clean shampoo, conditioner, or body wash container. It will keep away the clutter of old paint cans, while keeping the paint fresh. If you need to use some, just dispense it onto a paper plate and get painting!

How to Keep Used Paint Fresh

If you’re keeping your leftover paint to use for a separate job, keep it fresh. One way to do it is to place a piece of plastic wrap under the paint can’s lid, make certain the lid is on tight, and turn the can over. The paint is exposed to less oxygen this way and will last much, much longer. Bonus points if you use this trick: Blow up a balloon until it’s about the size of the remaining space in the can. Then put it inside the can before you put the plastic wrap over it. This will reduce the amount of air in the can, thus prolonging the paint’s freshness.

Prevent Dried Paint Flakes

If you’ve ever used leftover pain from a can, you know it can develop a film that leaves annoying little flakes in the paint. Keep this from happening before you close the can for storage. Place the lid of the can on top of aluminum foil or wax paper and trace around it. Cut out the circle, then drop it gently into the can so it covers the paint. When you open the container later, just take out the foil and you won’t have any messy dried paint bits to worry about.

How to Recycle Leftover Paint

Getting rid of leftover paint? Enter your state here and find locations where you can drop off your unused paint for safe disposal and recycling.

How to Throw Away Leftover Paint

As long as it’s not oil-based paint, you can throw it away yourself, according to Lowes. If you just have a little bit left in the can, let it sit out with the lid off until it dries, then throw it away. If you have a half a can or less, fill the rest of the can with cat litter, then let it sit until it absorbs the paint and none will spill out. Then throw away with your regular garbage, if your town allows it.

How to Use Body Language to Pretend You're Paying Attention

Growing up, my parents would sometimes call me a “Space Cadet” for zoning out during a conversation. Turns out my mind wasn’t necessarily in the clouds on purpose, but rather it was a result of having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which made paying attention challenging. In fact, it’s not only difficult, it’s downright stressful when I realize that I’ve missed out on several key issues of a conversation by mistake.

However, having ADHD isn’t an Achilles’ heal for me, and I’m not one to use it as a crutch. It is what it is, and with that, I’ve learned how to make sure to be overly polite in my sometimes lapse of details during a conversation. Now, I’m here to pass my knowledge onto Mannerly Nation. Here are three ways to pretend you're paying attention.

Tip #1: Smile and Nod

Body language is key during a conversation, and I'll touch on that later. But for now I want to focus on the easiest ways to have the person across from you see your attentiveness. We’ve all heard the expression, “fake it to make it,” which can be used in many aspects of one’s life. Fake it to make it by agreeing with your whacky boss who you really can’t stand so they don’t fire you. Fake it to make it by acting like you actually enjoy being around your partner’s annoying friend, so your partner won’t complain about your rudeness. All normal situations that make trying to simply get by—without appearing like you’re in utter misery due to someone else’s unmannerly ways—very daunting.  So, when I say fake it to make it, I’m not using that as a way to appear misleading, manipulative, or even rude. Here, I’m simply saying that smiling and nodding to pretend you’re paying attention will save you a world of embarrassment. Smiling and nodding is a go-to technique to get your mind in the practice of always making sure you pay attention rather than ignore someone, which may result in the terrifying words, “Are you even listening to me?” Ugh, can’t tell you how many times I heard that one growing up. Call me crazy, but I’ll take the pretend way of paying attention in hopes of someone believing I’m 100% engaged, rather than having them call me out on it.

Mannerly Nation, let’s be real; not every encounter with someone will be pleasant or riveting but you can’t let that affect how you’re perceived. However, with this tip I can’t stress enough that I’m not advocating faking your enthusiasm for someone, just to make them like you. This isn’t about deception either:  this is about survival. Mannerly survival at that. Take how my parents used to call me a Space Cadet and put that into your professional and personal life. Being accused of not listening (purposefully or not) could be a deal breaker on multiple levels. When you politely smile and nod, it shows engagement and attentiveness, as well it gives someone the confidence that they are not being ignored … even if at times you’re not always taking in what they’re saying. Smiling and nodding, also wakes up the body to get you out of your dazed funk. Kind of like how you smack your cheeks to keep you awake during a long car ride or having to power through some late night paper work. So if your brain yells, “Save me! Run! SOS!” smile, nod and fake it to make it to survive the onslaught of boredom. All of which will buy you time, and some mannerly points.

Tip #2: Change the Subject

Along with firmly believing that Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes fame is my long lost little brother, he’s also my favorite philosopher.  I use his insight to better illustrate my point about properly pretending to pay attention, with this cartoon and quote (Calvin speaking to Hobbes): “When a person pauses in mid-sentence to choose a word, that’s the best time to jump in and change the subject.” This is a beautifully astute point about changing the subject by what appears to be a hyperactive elementary school child, that also happens to be 100% correct. It’s Manners 101 never to interrupt someone, and this fact has to be remembered when there comes a time in which your attentiveness isn’t exactly working in your favor during a conversation. See, there is a great difference between interrupting and changing the subject. Interrupting would be speaking over someone or completely derailing the conversation to something you prefer to discuss. Politely changing the subject, is when you have the snippet of time to alter the discussion to a more engaging topic.  When there’s a break in the conversation, there is no “shushing” someone, or rudely dismissing their train of thought. Here, it’s an open door to save the conversation when your brain has taken a hiatus. Use that pause to strike and take over.

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By changing the subject, you not only wake up your mind (as I said in Tip #1) but you also show the other person(s) that you are present and alert … even if it was a struggle. When you change the subject of a conversation, you have to make sure you that you properly transfer the discussion without completely cutting them off. Try something like, “It’s funny you mention that, because it reminds me of the time when I…” Or when someone goes to order, at a restaurant, use that opening as a chance to change the subject with something like, “I’m so glad we could get together…” and go into a new topic.  Also, being mindful of their story (regardless of how torturous it may be) try something like, “That’s an interesting point, and it reminds me of the time when I…” Here, you’re of course changing the topic, but you’re doing so with polite transitions that shows the person across from you, you’re into their conversation as much as they are.

Tip #3: Watch Your Body Language

English dancer, writer, broadcaster and once creative director of the Royal Opera House, Deborah Bull once said, “Body language is a very powerful tool. We had body language before we had speech, and apparently, 80% of what you understand in a conversation is read through the body, not the words.” This quote rings so true in everyday conversations because your body language can make or break a discussion.  As I mentioned above in Tip #1 about smiling and nodding, that’s only part of the battle. In real desperate times of an extremely boring conversation, your body may fail you and change the person’s perception of you. I think about positive and negative body language a lot as someone who always talks with their hands and uses facial expressions to further illustrate my point. See, people need to feel what you’re saying by seeing it in the way you deliver a message. It’s what makes great speakers remembered and to that point, if your starting to lose focus of what the person(s) in front of you is saying, it can show on your face or in your body language as a whole, before you even notice it. When this happens, it may cause someone (as I mentioned above) to utter the words, “Are you even listening to me?” which in most cases means they already know the answer.

As I said before, I would never use ADHD as a crutch (though I have seen others do it!). To me, it’s just a part of who I am and it’s never going to change. With that, I’ve learned to deal with it and make it a mission to catch my wondering mind before it gets the best of me. See, dealing with it and not using it is the difference in how I’m able to pay attention to a conversation when I start to zone out.  Knowing that I have a tendency to lose focus, I always make sure to use proper body language when listening. This isn’t “putting on an act”, it’s using positive body language to force me to listen. I sit up, lean in, I nod, I smile (as I said above), I laugh at proper times and I don’t let my eyes wonder or body slouch. The wondering eyes is a hard part too but if you’re eyes fail you while someone is talking (even if you’re 100% alert) the person across from you will immediately think you’re not paying attention.  As the quote I mentioned before said, body language is always key, and it screams volumes.  So, in times when you feel as if you’re mind is starting to fade, don’t let your body follow.  

As always, if you have another manners question, I look forward to hearing from you at manners@quickanddirtytips.com. Follow me on Twitter @MannersQDT, and of course, check back next week for more Modern Manners Guy tips for a more polite life.

Do you have any recent graduates in your circle, or perhaps someone who is looking to start a new career, check out my new book, Reply All…And Other Ways to Tank Your Career for great tips and advice on job success. It's available now!

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

8 Ways to Instill Confidence in Your Toddler

My youngest of 8 is turning 11 years old this weekend. I’m really not one for clichés but honestly—where does the time go? At one point I had four babies and toddlers in diapers all at once. I barely blinked and now I have nearly 4 out of college. Raising so many kids close in age, there were many days that were a total whirlwind. Changing diapers and getting kids fed and bathed each day were usually the only goal on my daily to-do list (other than not losing my mind). But even among the daily chaos, I did strive to reach another goal on a regular basis and that was to start instilling confidence in my kids at a young age, as early as their toddler days, so they would hopefully grow into well-rounded older kids and and have a secure sense of self.

Well known pediatrician Dr. William Sears raised 8 children of his own as well as practiced pediatrics for over 30 years. In his article 12 Ways to Raise a Confident Child, he writes, “Self-esteem is your child’s passport to a lifetime of mental health and social happiness. It’s the foundation of a child’s well-being and the key to success as an adult.” 

I couldn’t agree more with Dr. Sears’ philosophy on self-esteem and a child’s overall strong mental well- being, so today Mighty Mommy shares 8 things you can teach your toddler and young children now to help his confidence soar over time.  

See Also:  5 Ways to Connect with Your Pre-Schooler

Tip #1:  Establish Good Communication Skills

Establishing strong communication skills is one of the key elements to laying a strong foundation for your child’s future. One way to do this is to let younger kids speak for themselves as often as they can without intervening and speaking for them. So when a question is asked of them, even when they are young, let them take the lead. For example, if an adult from church or school asks your 3-year-old how they like having a brand new baby sibling, don’t jump in and say something like “Henry, you love having a baby sister don’t you? She’s so cute, right?” Instead, let him be as honest as he needs to be “My baby sister cries too much.” At least he’s being allowed to express himself without any fluff.  In addition, let your kids do things like order their own choices at a restaurant. The more opportunities they can be exposed to communicating with other adults and children, the better. They learn they have their own voice.

Tip #2:  Be Realistic with Praise Early

It’s normal to want to praise your child for all of her accomplishments, small and large. Whether it be praising them for a drawing, a strong kick with the soccer ball, or an itty bitty role in the school play it’s not unusual to be a bit over exuberant because you want your kid to know he or she is the best there is. What we don’t want is to be too over the top so that our compliment and praise don’t sound genuine.

It’s also not necessary to heap praise for something she’s supposed to do like brushing her teeth or feeding the cat. 

This also applies to a situation that involves you being worried about something your child is doing. For example, if your child is learning to climb up the large set of stairs on the playground slide, don’t carry on about how worried you are about him as he makes the big climb. Instead, stand by so you can make sure he’s taking the steps as safely as he can and proudly watch him get to the top step.  Once he achieves this, you can say something like “Terrific job. I knew you could do it.”  See Also  5 Things Parents Shouldn't Worry About

Tip #3:  Be a Positive Role Model 

Toddlers and young children are like little sponges. They soak up everything they hear their parents and caregivers saying, even when you least suspect they are paying attention. Ever catch yourself saying something disparaging aloud like this: “I’m so stupid. I can’t believe I forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer to thaw for dinner. It’s all my fault that dinner will be so late tonight"?

Negative self-talk doesn’t offer any type of benefit to your children or to yourself.  Whatever you model, your child will soak it in and most likely emulate it. Instead of making critical comments about some mistake, turn it around with positive self-talk instead. "Well, I forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer this morning, but I did have a chance to sit and have a nice breakfast with you kids instead so tonight, we'll grab a pizza or something." Parents generally set the tone for the atmosphere in their home. If you tend to be stressed out and cranky by nature, that only ripples down to your children. If they interact with a calm and steady mom and dad, it in turn shows them you are enjoying life and makes them act more joyful too which in turns builds self-esteem and self-confidence. 

Tip #4:  Help them Visualize the Future

We all have access to a very powerful tool that can help shape a positive outlook on life—the power of visualization. The daily practice of visualizing your dreams and goals as already complete can rapidly accelerate your achievement of those dreams, goals, and ambitions.

If kids can envision themselves doing something important or fulfilling when they grow up, they're bound to feel more confident now. Take advantage of any one-on-one time that you spend with your young child helping him visualize a career or talent he might like to see come to fruition in the future.  For example, maybe your young daughter absolutely loves taking care of her stuffed animals and dolls.  You could say “You really are so caring and it’s obvious you like to make your Teddy Bear and your dolls feel better when they are sick.  Can you picture yourself as a doctor some day?”  Maybe she doesn’t want to be a doctor but instead says “I want to be a mommy and take care of my own kids when I get older.” Regardless of what her dreams are, focus on the fact she is thinking of some goals and go from there.  We used to do this instead of bedtime stories many nights.  It made my kids feel excited and hopeful about the future and got them asking questions about different careers and artistic talents.

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Tip #5: Make Free Time a Priority

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children get enough exercise and also have an hour per day to unwind, relax, and have some simple creative play time. 

One simple way to gift your growing toddler and young tykes is to afford them as much unstructured play time as possible. Kids learn social skills through playing games and can let their imaginations soar with pretend play time and just simple day dreaming.  It’s our job as parents to see that they get enough down time to sustain the over-zealous amount of commitments and activities that are on most of our calendars throughout the year.

For older kids, this unstructured time means unplugging and taking a break from all of today’s technology.  Start young and get your little ones tuned in to the importance of free time.  It’s a gift that they will hopefully take with them right into adulthood. 

Tip #6:  Teach Emotions   

According to Ross Flom, an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, developing emotional intelligence is important for your toddler's cognitive and social development and an imperative skill that can help is teaching them to read emotional cues.

When our young kids learn to understand emotions, it helps them build empathy among other strong traits. There are endless opportunities throughout the day to help them get a handle on what they are feeling.  It starts with you modeling the words. For instance, if your toddler is playing with another child on the playground and his new playmate is running a bit too fast and creams in to him by mistake you can say something simple like “Oh no, that was just an accident.”

Label positive emotions as well.  If your toddler throws a ball to your dog and Rover wags his tail excitedly and fetches it, you can say “You just made Rover so happy by playing with him.”  

Taking the time to label emotions with your toddler will help him feel connected and you’ll be laying the groundwork for an empathetic and confident child and eventually young adult.

Tip #7:  Teach the Magic Words

Confident kids are also well-mannered and polite kids.  “Please” and “thank you” are the magic words, and when your kids observe you using them at any given opportunity, they are sure to follow suit.  Other phrases you don’t want to forget are “May I,” “Excuse me,” “No, thank you,” and “You’re Welcome.”

Children learn from observing your actions, often while you’re not even aware that they’re doing so. How you behave while stuck in a long line at the check-out counter, or when running into a neighbor that you aren’t particularly fond of, can lay a positive or negative foundation in your children. Take the high road and model control and politeness, not frustration and pettiness.

Tip #8:  Keep Laughing

Many times, simple humor can diffuse a tense situation and turn something negative around in just seconds.  If our toddler sees us handling chaos and stressful moments with humor, we’re teaching them that laughing is important and a wonderful tool to help us through the good times and the bad.

So have a sense of humor about yourself. Young kids and teens are drawn to parents who don’t take themselves too seriously, and this way they can learn how to have a sense of humor about themselves as well.  So, if you burn the cookies you were baking for your kids, make light of it and tell them that batch didn't have enough chocolate chips anyway. So you're glad you get the chance to start over.   

How do you instill confidence in your young children?  Share your thoughts in the Comments section at http://ift.tt/1wBcPAN, post your ideas on the Mighty Mommy Facebook page. or email me at mommy@quickanddirtytips.com. Also visit my family-friendly boards at http://ift.tt/1wyJKr5.

Be sure to sign up for the upcoming Mighty Mommy newsletter, chock full of practical advice to make your parenting life easier and more enjoyable. .

How to Think About the Size of the Earth

You’ve no doubt noticed that the Earth is a big place, but do you have a good feeling for exactly how big? If you’re like most people, you probably don’t have an intuition for this kind of thing … because we humans just aren’t very good at thinking about huge numbers and the huge objects described by them. But that doesn’t mean we can’t develop this kind of intuition—we absolutely can, but it takes a bit of thinking. Which is exactly what we’re going to do today.

By the way, when I talk about knowing how big the Earth is, I’m not talking about being able to recite its radius or circumference in some arbitrary human units like miles or kilometers—because deep down that really doesn’t help you understand its size, right? I’m talking about developing intuition about its size—the kind of thing you can only obtain when you figure out a way to think about things in terms that you can personally identify with.

So let’s get to it … let’s start developing our intuition for just how big the Earth really is.

How Big Is the Earth’s Radius?

Since our goal for today is ultimately to figure out how to think about the size of the Earth, we’d best begin with its size. So here goes: the radius of the Earth is about 6,370 kilometers or 3,960 miles. And we’re done! Except as I mentioned earlier if you’re like me, you don’t actually know how to think about these numbers and what they mean. So instead of worrying about the numbers, I want you to instead think about something that you’re more familiar with that’s roughly this size.

The radius of the Earth is about 1.5 times the distance across the United States.

Here’s how I think about this. At various points in my life, I’ve lived in both Los Angeles and New York … and I’ve driven back and forth between the two sides of the United States several times. As such, I have a good intuitive feel for just how far this is. Namely, it’s really far—it takes roughly four very long days in the car to complete the journey. I’ve also spent a fair bit of time staring at maps and globes, so I have a decent big-picture idea about how the distance across the US compares to the total size of the Earth.

And that’s all I really need to understand the size of the giant ball of a planet that we inhabit. Because it turns out that the distance from New York City to Los Angeles is around 4,000 kilometers or 2,500 miles. Which means that the radius of the Earth is about 3,960/2,500 or roughly 1.5 times the distance across the United States. For me, this is a great way to think about the size of the Earth. I just imagine getting in my car and beginning a journey across the country … except in this case, I’m not traveling east from Los Angeles, I’m traveling directly down towards the center of the Earth. If I could somehow do this, it’d take about six long days of driving to complete the journey!

How Big Is the Earth’s Circumference?

Once you know that the radius of Earth is roughly 1.5 times the distance across the United States, you can use this new point of reference to think about the size of the Earth in another way. In particular, if you remember the basics of the geometry of circles, you’ll know that the circumference of a circle (that’s the distance around it) is equal to 2π times the radius of the circle. This geometric relationship is true for any circle—including the circle formed as part of what’s called a “great circle” around the Earth. (Well, if we’re being super-precise, the Earth isn’t a perfect sphere … so this geometry isn’t exactly exact—but it’s close enough.)

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The distance around the equator is around 10 times larger than the distance across the US.

On the Earth, every line of longitude (those are the lines running around the Earth through its North and South Poles) is a great circle, and so is its equator. So let’s use all of this information to think about the size of the Earth in terms of its circumference—which, as we’ve just seen, is the same as the distance around its equator. We discovered earlier that the radius of the Earth is roughly 1.5 times the distance across the US. So how does this distance across the US compare to the distance around the entire planet? Well, geometry tells us that the circumference of a circle is 2π times the circle’s radius. Since π is approximately equal to 3.1, this says that the circumference of a circle is a little more than 6 times longer than its radius.

So in the case of the Earth and our newfound ways of thinking about its size, we’ve just discovered that the distance around the equator is around 1.5 x 6 or roughly 10 times larger than the distance across the US. And if you think about how the US appears on a globe (or better yet take a look at a globe if you have one handy), you’ll realize that this makes perfect sense—the US really does span about 1/10 of the way around the entire planet.

How Big Is the Moon Compared to Earth?

Now that we have an intuitive sense for the size of the Earth, let’s quickly compare that to the size of the Moon. The diameter of our celestial companion is about 1/4 the diameter of the Earth … which is actually a lot bigger than most people think!

This means that the radius of the Moon is also 1/4 the radius of the Earth. Or, thinking about this in our more intuitive way, the radius of the Moon is a little less than half the distance between New York and Los Angeles—which, for those of you familiar with the west coast of the US, is about the distance between Los Angeles and Portland, OR. In terms of circumference, the distance around the Moon is therefore a bit more than twice the distance across the United States.

The Moon is pretty big, but the Earth is definitely a lot bigger. And as we’ve seen, all that you really need to develop a feel for this is a bit of geometrical knowledge and a willingness to take the time to think about things in a way that you can more closely identify with.

Wrap Up

Okay, that's all the math we have time for today.

For more fun with math, please check out my book, The Math Dude’s Quick and Dirty Guide to Algebra. Also, remember to become a fan of The Math Dude on Facebook and to follow me on Twitter.

Until next time, this is Jason Marshall with The Math Dude’s Quick and Dirty Tips to Make Math Easier. Thanks for reading, math fans!

Earth and Earth-Moon images from Shutterstock.

Is ADHD Different for Women and Girls?

Pop quiz: what’s the first thing that comes to mind when I say “ADHD”?

a. Getting distracted

b.  Ants-in-pants

c.  Elementary school boys

d.  Women and girls

Most likely, you didn’t pick D.

If that’s the case, you’re not alone. For most people, ADHD conjures a mental image of school-aged boys squirming at desks or bouncing off walls, not a picture of adults, girls, or especially adult women. Both scientists and society have long pinned ADHD on males, even though girls and women may be just as likely to suffer from this neurodevelopmental disorder.

Back in 1987, the American Psychiatric Association stated that the male to female ratio for ADHD was 9 to 1. Twenty years later, however, an epidemiological study of almost 4,000 kids found the ratio was more like 1 to 1—half girls, half boys.

In both sexes, core symptoms are the same: difficulties with paying attention, getting and staying organized, planning ahead, and time management. There’s also the phenomena I call “The Laser Beam” and “The Disco Ball,” where attention is either hyperfocused or unfocused with not much in between, and toggling in and out of either is difficult.

How Does ADHD Manifest in Women? Low Self-Esteem

ADHD is a bit of a misnomer—because it can exist with or without the “H.” And while girls can certainly be hyperactive, they more often fall into the category without the H, called ADHD Inattentive Type.

For these girls, ADHD looks more like dreaminess, spaciness, or messiness than like Honey Boo Boo after a dose of go-go juice. They get written off as ditzy or dumb, and because they’re not disruptive like individuals with the hyperactive subtype, they fly under the radar. In other words, because they’re generally well-behaved, girls often miss out on diagnosis that could get them treatment and valuable academic accommodations.

Of course, there are boys who appear spacey and dreamy and girls who are hyperactive, but even for a girl with hyperactivity, the “H” doesn’t necessarily look like bouncing off the walls. Instead, hyperactivity could manifest as talkativeness, being “dramatic” (aka overly emotional and reactive), or she might simply be labeled a tomboy. Again, because it’s not necessarily disruptive, and because many girls try to compensate by people-pleasing, all of this frequently gets missed.

For adult women, ADHD often manifests as feeling constantly overwhelmed. Moms in particular are expected to multi-task, be in charge of the family’s social life, keep track of kids’ activities, and generally keep the million little pieces of a family running smoothly. Problems getting organized or planning ahead can have publicly humiliating consequences, like when your kid is the only one without a permission slip for the field trip, or you forget to pick him up after Little League ... again.

Tedious, repetitive tasks, like folding laundry, writing thank you notes, balancing a checkbook, or sorting the mail, are kryptonite to folks with ADHD. But many women feel like they “should” be able to do these things because so many other women seem to without a second thought.

All this leads to the most common symptom of ADHD you’ve never heard of: low self-esteem. So many bright, capable women with ADHD think they’re stupid, incompetent, lazy, or defective. They perpetually feel like they’re not good enough, not smart enough, not together enough. As if that’s not enough, up to 75% of individuals with ADHD have another disorder, most commonly anxiety, a learning disability, or, especially in women, depression. Oftentimes, women suffer for decades, and only begin to suspect they might have ADHD when their child is diagnosed.

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Why Do Symptoms Differ Based on Gender?

Part of the problem is historical: knowledge about the disorder was based on initial research on boys; it was assumed that the symptoms of the boys were the symptoms of the disorder. The diagnostic criteria are therefore based on the symptoms of these early subjects.

Next, it’s not just the diagnostic criteria that are the problem—it’s the diagnosers. Societal perceptions about ADHD blind those who might otherwise detect the disorder in girls and women. A parent or teacher might recognize the hyperactivity of a male student as ADHD and refer him to a mental health professional—but he or she might not detect the more understated symptoms of a female student, leaving her to endure untreated.

Part of the problem may also be biological, but for now that’s beyond the current research (though scientists are working on it). Part of the problem is that because ADHD has historically been thought of as a boys’ issue, most of the people studied have been, well, boys. As recently as 2007, a meta-analysis of ADHD brain imaging studies noted that the participants in fully half of the studies were 100% male and and across all the studies analyzed, the samples were less than 20% female.

A final part of the problem may be more complicated than a mere inability to detect the disorder in girls. According to a 2009 study, even when girls’ and boys’ ADHD symptoms were perceived by participants as equally severe, parents and teachers were still more likely to refer boys for services than girls. Why? Researchers speculated that the boys were expected to benefit more from these services. And unfortunately, these expectations may reflect a gender gap in the value of academics. Indeed, if we value education for boys over girls, adults may consciously or unconsciously feel a greater urgency to help them overcome any impediments to their academic success.

What Can Be Done?

First, change can come from the grassroots. It’s extremely important that girls and women get referred for diagnosis and treatment. Untreated girls may be prone to all sorts of negative life outcomes from academic underachievement to divorce to financial crises to substance abuse and more. More frightening, folks with ADHD are also more likely to consider and attempt suicide.

So referral to treatment is key. And while treatment isn’t perfect, it can help dramatically. Usually, it’s a combination of medication and tightly focused, goal-oriented behavior therapy with an additional emphasis on working through a longstanding sense of guilt and shame and building up long-eroded self-worth.

Second, change can come top-down: A 2006 study in the prestigious Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology found a group of girls who didn’t meet current diagnostic criteria for ADHD, but when sex-specific criteria were used, registered as distressed and impaired, the very definition of a disorder. This indicates that if diagnostic criteria were revised to account for sex-specific differences, more girls and women might be diagnosed and treated. And as more people become aware and talk about it, stigma could also decrease. Then it wouldn’t be as surprising to pick multiple choice option D.

For even more savvy, get every Savvy Psychologist episode delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for the Savvy Psychologist newsletter. Or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher, listen on Spotify, or like on Facebook.

The Secret Nazi Prisoners of Virginia

From  the  outside, it looked like any other military compound. There were a few houses, a couple of huts and the occasional vehicle going in and out. Yet P.O. Box 1142 was very different from any other army base on American soil.

The P.O. Box address at Fort Hunt in Virginia was actually an intelligence centre at its most active in the aftermath of the Second World War. It was here that many captured Nazis, including leading rocket scientists and nuclear engineers, were interrogated. In total, more than 4,000 high-ranking prisoners passed through the base. Among them were the rocket scientist Wernher von Braun and the nuclear technician Heinz Schlicke. Prisoners were grilled about Nazi scientific discoveries and developments in weaponry – anything, indeed, that could be of use to the victorious Allies.

The base was in violation of the Geneva Convention but this did not unduly concern the American government. Surviving transcripts and testimonies suggest that human rights were generally respected and torture was never employed. Rather, prisoners were rewarded if they revealed sensitive information. Some prisoners were given gourmet food in order to soften them up.

One of the American interrogators was George Mandel, a twenty-year-old scientist who spoke fluent German. ‘My job was to interrogate scientifically trained and experienced Germans,’ he explained. Many of the men were such experts in their field of work that Mandel had trouble understanding  them.

To learn more, listen to the full episode of our podcast, Unknown History, in the top right hand player of this page or on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify. Plus, connect with Giles on Twitter and Facebook.

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This post is roughly excerpted from When Churchill Slaughtered Sheep and Stalin Robbed a Bank. You can preorder a copy of the book, due out in November 2016, on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound, Books-a-Million, and Apple. 

 

How to Peer Edit an Essay

Everyone needs an editor, even the most successful authors, journalists, and scholars. Likewise, peer editing is an essential part of the process for student writers who want to improve and succeed.

Editing a classmate’s work, however, can be a little stressful for writer and editor alike, but don’t fret the next time you are asked to be a peer editor: It’s totally possible to offer helpful feedback without sending both you and your classmate into a spiral of despair.

Your process will vary depending on whether you’re working in groups in a classroom setting or taking someone else’s essay home to review more in-depth. In either situation, the following approach can help you prove your editing prowess. First, though, here are two reminders about what peer editing is not:

• A chance to influence the writer’s argument to fit your own opinions.
• A time to give extensive thoughts that will overwhelm the writer, rather than focusing on whether the essay has a clear and well-made argument that is well written.

With that in mind, try this three-step approach next time you’re asked to be a peer editor:

1. Read First. Judge Later

The first step is to read the essay all the way through without making any marks or comments. It may be difficult, but this is an important step in understanding how to structure your feedback. An initial full reading will help you get familiar with the writer’s style and understand the points the essay is making before you draw any conclusions with your feedback.

During this first reading, focus on what the writer is trying to say, and make sure the points he or she is making are clear. Then, once you’ve gotten to the end, think on a broad level about whether the overall arguments fit together. Questions to ask yourself at this point include

• Does the essay meet the criteria for the assignment?
• Is there a clear thesis statement? Does the essay support that thesis with clear topic sentences in the paragraphs that follow?
• Are there portions that drift off topic or undeveloped conclusions in the closing section?

2. Read Again and Edit

Go through the essay again from the beginning, with your pen ready this time. Highlight sections where you want to record comments or questions. You can also use this second reading to mark any grammatical errors or awkward wording you spot. Look at the writing more closely for common stylistic issues, such as run-on sentences, illogical shifts from past to present tense, or redundancy.

Remember to make note of not only what parts may need improvement, but also parts you think are especially strong! An important element of the peer-editing process is to make sure you’re emphasizing the positives as well as the negatives. If you note some strengths alongside your suggestions for changes, it will not only make the writer feel more confident, it will also make him or her more receptive to constructive criticism.

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3. Finish with a Checklist

Complete a peer-editing checklist to put your thoughts in order for the writer. This will help you figure out whether any key elements are missing and make sure you’ve addressed all the main components of the essay. It’s a good idea to save filling out the checklist for last to save yourself from having to start over after you’ve fully processed your thoughts.  

If you’re peer-editing at the request of a professor, you may already have been given a specific worksheet or checklist for feedback. If not, there are many templates for these types of checklists available online through campus writing centers (a couple of examples are here and here). You can also create your own checklist customized to the assignment.

Finally, remember that there will often be some nervousness on both sides going into the peer-editing process. The writer may be dreading negative feedback, while the peer editor may hesitate to be critical or feel unqualified to critique another student’s work.

Just remember that no one’s asking you as the peer editor to be an expert on writing or anything else. You’re simply another set of eyes to look for potential issues, and that makes you a valuable resource for your classmates—and hopefully they will return the favor next time you need a critical eye too!

Lora Wegman is a contributing writer for Varsity Tutors, a live learning platform that connects students with personalized instruction to accelerate academic achievement.

 

How to Clean Your Microfiber Couch

Lift Spots and Stains

If you just have a few spots here and there, try removing them by rubbing them with artists’ gum—a super powerful eraser that can be found at art supply stores. You can also use an emery board, like the kind that you normally use on your fingernails. Gently rub the file across the stain a few times to remove the mess.

Stop Stains Before They Start

The second you spill something on a microfiber couch, think fast. Grab some cornmeal (or baking soda) and apply to the spot immediately. Cornmeal absorbs grease and other liquids and will keep them from staining. Pour on enough to cover the soiled area and let it sit for 15 minutes, then vacuum up. Repeat again if necessary.

How to Clean Super Dirty Microfiber

If you have black marks all over your microfiber sofa from dirty hands, food spills, and other family disasters, here’s not to get rid of them. There are two types of microfiber, and they should be cleaned in different ways. First, vacuum the couch or other item using a soft brush attachment to suck up any loose dust and debris. Then check the tag on your microfiber item.  If there’s a “W” on the tag, you can go ahead and use water and soap to clean it—couch cushion covers can even be thrown in the washing machine and then air dried or dried on low in the dryer (just the instructions on the tag). If there’s an “S,” you’ll need to use a solvent-based cleaner, because water could even stain the fabric. If you have an “S,” here’s what to do: Spray rubbing alcohol over any soiled areas using a spray bottle. Scrub using a rough sponge or old toothbrush, and the stains will lift right off. The fabric should dry quickly, but if it seems hardened or discolored afterward, simply stroke it with a toothbrush or soft scrub brush until it’s back to its velvety form.

Keep Furniture Fresh

Upholstered sofas and chairs often get a musty odor from day-to-day wear, especially if your kids and pets romp around in the cushions. For a simple freshening up, sprinkle a bit of baking soda over the upholstery, between and underneath the cushions. Let sit for a few hours or up to a day, then suck up the remaining soda and debris with a vacuum. Or, just stick a dryer sheet under the cushions!

For more cleaning tips for around the house, check out our Cleaning Tips board on Pinterest. And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Facebook and Instagram!

Image by Shutterstock.

‘Calendar’ as a Verb

Finally, I have a tidbit about using the word calendar as a verb. Last week I saw this sentence in an e-mail newsletter:

Be sure to calendar some of this week’s activities.

Be sure to calendar, meaning be sure to put these on your calendar.

It jumped out at me as odd. I’d never seen calendar used that way before, and since I always find new word uses interesting, I tweeted a picture of it, and what surprised me was not all the people cringing and saying how they hate it when people verb nouns (which is a topic for another day), but that so many people actually use calendar this way all the time. As is so often the case when you notice something that seems new—it’s not new!

‘To Calendar’ in Business and Law

Juan, who works in sales, says its commonplace, as does Jess who said she might say, “I’ve calendared five vendor interviews.” And I got many messages from people who work in law saying it’s common in courts and legislatures.

An attorney named Tom gave the example “The case is calendared for the third week in November,” and Iva gave the example “The bill is nowhere if the chair won’t calendar it.”

Even the Texas A&M Writing Center uses it. They teach grad students how to calendar—in other words, how to set realistic goals and plan out dissertation writing in manageable chunks.

Origin of ‘Calendar’

I was blown away. I also checked the OED, and calendar as a verb goes all the way back to the 1400s, although back then it meant to record something or register it in a list, which makes sense because the word calendar comes from the Latin word calendarium, which means “account book.”

Today, the Merriam-Webster online dictionary has it listed as a verb with an example from the New York Law Journal, and it’s also listed as a verb in dictionary.com and the online American Heritage Dictionary. In fact, I couldn’t find a dictionary that didn’t include calendar as a verb. There’s absolutely no way we can say it’s new.

The best I can tell is that to talk about calendaring things is common in the legal profession and in some business settings, and now it’s seeping into more general use.

9 Tips to Make Cleaning Easier This Fall

Fall Clothing Stains

Have stains on your clothes like Who Knew? editor Jennifer? Just use our old standby, hydrogen peroxide and dishwashing liquid. (And if you’re interested in knowing how she made the soup she slopped on her clothes, check out our post on How to Make Chicken Stock).

Make Cleaning Faster

Reuse an old kitchen apron to help speed up your housecleaning. Fill the pockets of the apron with your cleaning supplies, and you’ll be able to walk from room to room with everything you need right in the pockets in front of you. Make sure to bring a plastic bag with you for garbage you find around the house!

How to Clean Your Windows

Paper towels are for amateurs! Use newspaper, coffee filters, or even pages from a telephone book to clean your windows and they won’t leave as many streaks. Bonus: No pieces of lint behind!

Sanity-Saving Window Cleaning Tip

Do you feel like you can never get a window completely clean? Here’s an easy tip that will help you to tell which side of the pane those godforsaken streaks are on. Simply wash your windows from top to bottom on the inside, then switch to washing side to side on the outside.

Cleaning Blinds

Use kitchen tongs or bread crusts to clean your blinds! No, really, here’s our post on how to easily clean blinds to find out how.

The Easy Way to Clean Fireplace Ashes

Before cleaning the ashes from your fireplace, sprinkle some damp coffee grounds over them. They’ll weigh the ashes down and keep dust to a minimum.

Clean Up Sooty Bricks with Cola

Try an old masonry trick to brighten up soot-stained brick—use cola! Sponge cola (flat is OK) onto sooty brick and leave for 15 minutes. Loosen the soot by scrubbing with a stiff-bristled brush. Sponge with clean water.

Orange Peels for Kindling

The best thing to use as kindling in your fireplace isn’t newspaper (or printed out emails from your ex). It’s orange peels! Orange (and lemon) peels smell delicious when they burn, and they contain oils that not only make them burn longer, but help ignite the wood around them. Finally, they produce less creosote than paper, which will help keep your chimney clean.

Cleaning Crystal

If you have a crystal chandelier, don’t dread cleaning it any longer! First, make sure the light switch is off. Next, lay a blanket or upside-down umbrella underneath the chandelier to catch any drips or falling pieces. Now mix 1/2 cup lemon juice with 1½ cups water in a jar. The crystals clean themselves—all you have to do is bring the jar up to each one and dip it in, then let it air-dry. Or, use the solution on a clean cotton rag and wipe the crystal. (This is also a great way to remove film from glasses, instead of using vinegar!)

These tips are even better when you listen to them on our podcast—which also includes a Lifehack Lightning Round and more! Check it out on iTunes, Stitcher, or Spotify. And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Facebook!

Image by Shutterstock.

How to Choose Between an HMO, PPO, and EPO Health Plan

It’s open enrollment time. And selecting a health plan is a decision you may need to make, perhaps leaving you baffled and confused to hear some of the frustraing and unrecognizable health care lingo. HMO, PPO, EPO—what do they really mean? How do they differ? How can you quickly select what is right for you and your family? The acronyms certainly don't help!

Comparing and contrasting the copays and monthly premiums may not necessarily be the best method of decision making. Some plan differences may be subtle and not significantly affect the care you receive or your pocket book. But other features of these plans can be actually substantial, costing hundreds to potentially thousands of dollars a year if you are not careful.

So it’s vital to learn exactly what you are selecting for you and your family. Let's learn about the most common types of health plans and how to discern what is more appropriate for you.

There are various plan types, but most plans belong to one of the following three groups:

HMOs = Health Maintenance Organizations

HMO plans are often less costly than typical PPOs, but not always. The goal here is to keep cost down for both patients and the health care organization. The physicians are encouraged to practice using evidence-based medicine and to avoid ordering unnecessary tests, especially if their costly orders would not change the doctor’s plan and outcome for the patient. .

For instance, MRIs are one of the most costly tests available. But patients sometimes request, let’s say a knee MRI to simply “know” if there’s a ligament or meniscal tear. But unless the patient is contemplating surgical options, an MRI does not provide useful information in many instances and doesn’t change the outcome. I’ve discussed  the outcome of a study that showed that sham meniscal surgical repair is comparable to a real one. Check out that article to learn the details. In a nutshell, whether there’s a tear or not, surgery is not always the best or necessary option and patients seem to do just as well in the long run if they opt for conservative therapy, such as physical therapy and the tincture of time.

Hence, doctors employed by an HMO are encouraged to practice evidence-based medicine, which decreases unecessary tests and helps keep costs down for everyone.

In an HMO setting, your Primary Care Physician (PCP) becomes the most integral and central person involved in your health. You will need referrals sent by your PCP for all specialists. But patients do not always know when/if they need a particular specialist. And even if they do, they don’t always know who to go to. So this referral requirement is typically not a decision breaker. For instance, if your blood test reveals that your kidney functions are mildly diminished, patients don’t always need a specialist right away. Your PCP knows at what point you should seek specialist care. Or if you have a new rash, there’s often no need to see the dermatologist—primary care doctors are typically well-trained in dermatology and they see and treat common skin conditions every day.

HMO patients are required to stay within a network of providers, otherwise you will need to pay, often fully out-of-pocket. Therefore, if you are under a particular specialist’s care and you would like to continue to see the same doctor, if they are not part of the HMO network, you will be required to switch your care to an in-network specialist.

Sometimes a referral for some preventative services may not be required—for services like pap smears and mammograms, for instance. OB/GYN referrals are often unnecessary as well, so if you are pregnant, you can directly schedule an appointment with their department.

Doctor copays are standard within an HMO: one to see your primary care doctor and one for any specialist. And the more the patients utilize the system, the higher the expense for the medical group. Therefore, the goal with an HMO model is to keep you as healthy as possible in order to decrease the utilization of healthcare and hence keep costs down. 

PPOs = Preferred Provider Organizations

PPO plans provide a little more flexibility, at least in terms of referrals, which are not required by your PCP. You can simply call to schedule an appointment with a specialist of your choosing. But be certain they accept your health plan first, because there is often still a preferred network of doctors. But patients can go outside of the network for a higher copay and/or share of cost if they choose to.

As a result, PPO’s are often more costly. Out-of-pocket costs are typically higher with PPOs, and understanding what your deductible and copays for office visits, labs, and tests are crucial. Think of it more as a “fee for service” model, in which providers and/or the medical group they are employed with get paid per procedure and office visit. More procedures and services mean higher compensation.

EPOs = Exclusive Provider Organizations

EPOs are a hybrid of a PPO and HMO, incorporating features of both. The essence of an EPO is to require patients to stay within a network of providers like an HMO, but they do not need a referral to see those doctors within that same network.

So, what should you think about when choosing between these three plans?

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4 Tips to Help You Choose a Health Plan:

1. As the very first step, estimate how often you will need office visits, labs, imaging, etc. If you have chronic health conditions, like diabetes or COPD, that require more frequent visits and services, then a plan with a lower copay, but perhaps with a higher monthly premium, may be more optimal. If you are healthy and see the doctor perhaps only once or twice a year, it may be more prudent to select a plan with higher copays but lower monthly premiums.

2. Review your med list and the corresponding copays for each and compare it to the various formularies of the plan options. This one small step can save you a lot of money. Because health plans have their own "formularies," or preferred medications. Therefore, comparing and contrasting cost of each of your emdications, especially if you are on a brand rather than a generic drug, can be essential for your wallet.

3. If you have a specialist you particularly like, research if they accept the plans that available to you. This may be a deal breaker for some.

4. You can always forgo your employer’s plan and opt for an affordable care act plan instead. I am always surprised to hear that patients are not aware of this choice. Sometimes Obamacare is less costly. Go to your state’s  corresponding affordable care act web site to compare—they often give you quotes after a few simple questions.

If you have a specialist you particularly like, research if they accept the plans that available to you. 

Share your ideas and learn more quick and dirty tips with us on the House Call Doctor’s Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest pages! If you learned anything here today, Or if you simply enjoy all-things-medical, you can also listen and subscribe to the House Call Doctor podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud, GooglePlay, and Stitcher.

Please note that all content here is strictly for informational purposes only.  This content does not substitute any medical advice, and does not replace any medical judgment or reasoning by your own personal health provider.  Please always seek a licensed physician in your area regarding all health related questions and issues.

11 Tips to Host a Stress-Free Holiday Party

Hosting holiday parties should be a fun endeavor. If you find yourself getting overwhelmed, crabby, or stressed out at the thought of company coming to your home, take a deep breath and look for ways to simplify the event. Here are my favorite tips for a stress-free party to get you started.

Consider an Open House

When you’re planning your party, consider having an open house style event where your guests can come and go. When everyone arrives at the same time, they all need to be greeted and fed at the same time. By having an open house, you will spread out your hosting responsibilities over the entire time of the party rather than having to greet, feed, and entertain everyone all at once.

See Also: 15 Tips for Hosting a Great Party

Create Lists

Lists are a great way to make sure you get everything done in the time it needs to be completed. When planning your party, write down everything that needs to be accomplished before your guests arrive. Then assign an amount of time you think it will take to complete each task on the list and a person responsible for getting it done. Spread the tasks across your family, or ask a friend or two to help. By having everything written down, you can more easily budget your time and delegate to others.

Prioritize the Cleaning

Cleaning your home before hosting an event is something that every guest appreciates. No one wants to walk in to a dirty bathroom or see a thick layer of dust on your furniture. That being said, if you’re running low on time or energy, it’s OK to prioritize your cleaning efforts and only focus on what’s most important like bathrooms, the kitchen, and common areas. You can also use the “behind closed doors” technique and put your messes behind closed closet, cabinet, and room doors. Most guests aren’t going to open up closed doors, so you can put off some of the more detailed sorting work until the days after your event.

See Also: How to Keep Your Bathroom Clean Without Cleaning

Simplify the Atmosphere

I used to worry a lot about my party decorations. I am not a crafty person, and I always felt like my party décor was lacking. If you’re like me and stressing about your holiday party decorations, the best thing to do may be to simplify your décor. Instead of having the entire exterior of your home decorated with strands of light, simply hang a fresh wreath on your front door. Instead of trying to decorate every nook can cranny of your home with holiday knickknacks, focus instead on a few table top candles to warm the space. Sometimes less really is more.

Create a Soundtrack

Music can be an effective way to set the mood for your event, and having a soundtrack created early is easy. Calm or classical music can play in the background of conversations. Upbeat music will typically get a few people to sing along. And 80s and 90s hits will almost always get turned up for a group sing-along after a few drinks. When we have events, I often put my husband in charge of creating a soundtrack for the event. He typically uses Spotify to create a playlist or two that can play in the background. We might mix it up after the party gets going, and again when we are ready to shut down the party. Use the music to help guide the moods of your guests.

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Think Simple Yet Impressive Refreshments

Finger foods are the easiest way to keep things easy at a party. Having finger foods means your guests can grab a few treats to eat while they are standing. It also means that you don’t have to also supply silverware. The less you have to worry about keeping your guests’ plates full and tableware stocked, the easier and more enjoyable your time will be.

Likewise, the easier you make your drink station, the easier your time will be. Consider having one mixed cocktail drink premade and ready to pour for adults. Then have a large bin or cooler for beer, another for non-alcoholic drinks like soda, and another for water. If you have the coolers labeled and positioned around the party, your guests will easily be able to grab what they want without fighting crowds or reaching in to the bottom of a bunch of ice to find what they want.

Cook Ahead of Time

One of my favorite tips when hosting parties is to cook as much as you can ahead of time. I used to cook my entire Thanksgiving dinner that morning, but I then realized that the more dishes I could cook in the days leading up to the event, the easier the day of the event was. Now I apply that tactic to every party I host. The more food I can have cooked and kept warm in the oven and crockpots, the less time I have to spend in the kitchen during my parties and the more time I get to enjoy with my guests.

Provide a Food Guide

If you’re like me, the people in your life probably have a number of dietary restrictions. From gluten free and lactose intolerant, to nut allergies and vegan, it seems like everyone and their kid has something they can’t eat. You can literally spend your entire event just telling people which food items on the table are ones they can eat.

To help ensure you’re able to enjoy time, create a friendly food guide to help people know what they can eat at your party. The two ways that I’ve found are easiest are to hang a laminated “menu” on the wall, or put little cards by each dish on the table. You can either list out each ingredient, or if your friends trust your food sensitivities knowledge, you could mark each item with which category of people can eat them. The main sensitivities I like to focus on (because they typically encompass the others) are:

·         Vegan

·         Gluten Free

·         Dairy Free

·         Nut Free

See Also: What to Serve Vegans at Your Next Dinner Party

Be Gift Ready

You know that feeling when someone hands you a gift and you didn’t have one for them? I hate that feeling. To make sure you are ready in case of a surprise gift exchange, keep a few wrapped gifts in your bedroom closet. That way, when a friend surprises you with a gift, you can tell them you have one for them, run in to your bedroom, fill out a gift tag, and present them with a gift of their own.

You could purchase a few gifts throughout the year to have a few different items on hand, or you can simplify this even more by purchasing a mix and match case of wine and gifting different types of wine to your friends. Just have a sticky note on the gift bag that tells you what type of wine is in each bag so you can grab the one that your friend loves most. Or opt for a case of champagne to help them celebrate the upcoming new year.

Make it Your Own

I used to get stressed before hosting parties at my house because I had some friends who threw really good parties. I thought I needed to keep up with their hosting abilities, and I would worry that my parties weren’t good enough. Instead of getting caught up in a hosting competition with friend, or always comparing your holiday dinner to how your grandma used to do it, find your own groove. Figure out how YOU want to do things. Not only will you feel more relaxed at your party, but you may find that by seeing you chill out about everything that your friends might back off the hosting competition they were having in their own heads.

Have an End Plan

Before the party begins, it’s good to have an idea of how you want it to end. Whether you want the party to go from 7pm to 10pm, or from 7pm to 10am, there are tactics to make sure you are in control of getting your guests to leave your home. First, consider putting an end time on your invitations so your guests have an idea of how long you want them to stay. Second, use subtle cues like blowing out candles and turning off the music to help people start to feel like they should head for the door. If subtle cues don’t work, grab the most talkative people and ask them to help you start to clean up. Chances are that if you put these people to work, the other guests will start to head out on their own.

Until next time, I’m the Domestic CEO, helping you love your home.

4 Puzzling Technology Questions

Over the years I’ve fielded hundreds, if not thousands, of questions from listeners, family members, and friends. A lot of these questions make there way into the podcasts, but some of them aren't long enough for a show. Here are a few that didn't fit in any other episode, so I thought I'd combine them into a segment.

1.) Why do we use control-alt-delete?

If you are a Windows user, you’ve probably had to use the infamous control-alt-delete. This is a really strange key combination to ever have to press, so why do we have to use it? Where did it come from?

Way back in the days of the IBM PC, engineers would use the key combination to soft reboot the computer when a program they were working on froze. The soft reboot allowed them to unfreeze the computer without a full reboot. It was never intended to go mainstream, and the key combination was made to be obscure so that you couldn’t accidentally reboot the computer.

This caught on even more when the new Windows operating system used the same key combination to login and present the task manager. Now the unique key press is used in modern Windows operating systems as a way to protect your login screen. If you press “control-alt-delete” on a fake login screen, Windows will bring up task manager instead of prompting you to login.

It’s one of those combinations that comes from the very beginning of personal computers and has carried over to today. There is no rhyme or reason why exactly it came to be “control-alt-delete” other than the fact that it was obscure enough not to be pressed accidentally!

2.) Why do we need to restart after updates?

I get this question a lot from friends. It seems like an age old frustration of needing to reboot your computer in order to install updates. Personally, my computer only updates when I’m working on something that’s time sensitive, and it always takes forever.

So why in 2016 do phones, laptops, desktops, and most devices require you to reboot your computer after you install updates? Well picture it like putting new tires on your car. When programmers make a change to a program, they are literally changing the instructions a computer is using to perform operations. Changing out critical instructions while a computer is running is like changing the wheel of a car while it’s on the freeway: it can easily crash.

Now programmers are clever and there are ways they use to update computers that can’t restart, but this is a delicate process and can go wrong easily. It’s just easier to reboot and start with a fresh instruction set. Now if you’re on a Window’s operating system, this article will show you how to schedule your updates so they don’t happen unexpectedly. Apple isn’t nearly as annoying as Windows in the the update department, but if you want to disable automatic updates here is a tutorial for you.

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3.) Why do we change passwords so often?

If you work for a company of almost any size, you’re probably used to changing your passwords frequently. Sometimes it’s once a month, once a quarter, or once a year. In any case, it can be annoying to change passwords so frequently. So why do we do it?

The reason it’s a good idea to change passwords is a security measure for a password getting hacked or lost. The idea is that if a hacker steals your password and you change it every month, at best they will only have access to your password for a month before you change it. This also prevents hackers from trying to ‘crack’ your password. If a hacker doesn’t know your password they will try and guess it. Typically this will take a really long time, but hackers can use their computer to guess for them. A good password can take years, or even decades, to guess. So if you change your password monthly, a hacker would have to start over each time

This is also why most systems won’t let you keep a similar password to your last one. For example most systems won’t let you change “Password1” to “Password2.” If I saw that you had an old password of “Password12,” I would simply try “Password13”, “Password14” and so on to see if you had in fact just kept adding a number each time you had to change it.

Ultimately changing passwords won’t protect the strength of the password, they just make it harder for hackers who try and steal passwords and reuse them. It limits the time they have to access a system and the time they can crack a password and have it still be useful

While this practice is annoying, it’s generally not too bad if you use a password manager like LastPass which securely stores and remembers your passwords.

A driver is a special program that tells your computer how to interact with hardware.

4.) What is a driver?

I’ve had the question asked to me a ton of times, “What is a driver and why is it installing?” If you use Windows, you’ve probably plugged in a mouse, keyboard, or some other USB device and seen a little Window pop up that says “Installing Drivers.” A driver is a special program that tells your computer how to interact with hardware.

Imagine the following scenario: someone hands you the keys to a motorcycle and asks you to take it for a spin. This is what happens to your computer when you plugin a device, it says, “What the heck do I do with this?” If your computer has the right driver, it says “oh ya I know what to do from here!” If it doesn’t know what to do, it looks for a program that might know how to use the new piece of hardware. This is just like the keys to your motorcycle, if you know how to ride you’re set and ready to go. However, if you’ve never ridden a motorcycle, you’ll have to seek out some instructions on how to do so!

So why don’t computers have all the drivers installed ahead of time? Well, that would be a lot of wasted space. I mean why would you have the drivers for 1000 different types of USB mice if you only used one or two? It makes a lot more sense to download only the drivers you need from the internet, instead of just having them all on hand!

Be sure to check out all my earlier episodes at techtalker.quickanddirtytips.com. And with that, I’m the Tech Talker, keeping technology simple!