Simple Life Together

Juicing Simplified w/Farnoosh Brock & We’re Taking You On Vacation! Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Dan and Vanessa Topic: Just a Few Travel Tips From The Road....Literally! Well, if the show sounds a bit different it’s because we’re on the road. That’s right, we’re taking you on vacation! It’s actually a “working trip” for us. We’ve never recorded on the road (we literally recorded our segment in the car).  The sound quality is just a bit off from our normal audio but not bad considering the circumstances! The interview however is excellent!  Just sayin.... Anyhoos...typically when we have a guest interview we do a combined topic.  Since we want you to enjoy the entire interview, we decided to do a shorter segment for our topic. Additionally, when we know we are going to be out of town for a week, we try to record an episode in advance.  Well, we ended up having  such a busy week with clients leading up to our trip, that we si

This week we continue with Evernote Simplified, Part 2, and Vanessa shares some awesome time saving productivity tips! So many people tell me that they love Evernote, but sometimes don't "get" exactly how to use it. Sure, there's lots of "technical" references out there about Evernote, but what their really looking for is Evernote simplified! So let's get started! Read more... Dan's Topic: Evernote Simplified (Part 2) Yep but before I start I just wanted to remind you that although we don’t try to push you to buy more stuff, if you do use Amazon.com like we do, you can helps support a charity that we support, Charitywater.org, simply by using our link. Anything the show earns through that link or from our resources page goes to support CharityWater. You can learn more about them at CharityWater.org Alright so in Episode 017 I covered all the basics of how to get information into Evernote and how to retrieve and use it. So…the the "ins and outs" if you will. Well today I want to take you on a little aud

Today's show is about focus...from two very different perspectives. First, we're going to focus on how to use Evernote, and then shift the focus to fitness. Dan's Topic: Evernote Simplified (Part 1) OK so unless this is your first time listening to the podcast, you might know that I'm an Evernote fan. And one of the most requested things I'm asked to talk about is Evernote. So, by popular demand, my topic for this show and next week's will be Evernote!  Read more... Today I want to cover the basics and next week I want to hit some more advanced tips and some use cases. Like most things, it takes a little playing around with Evernote to get the full hang of it, so after this show you can dive right into Evernote if you haven't already, and then you can send in some questions that I can cover on next week's show. Here’s what I’m going to cover today: What is Evernote, Why I like Evernote, some  Evernote Basics, Searching in Evernote, and finally Sharing in Evernote. So let's get started. So what is Ev

Making Decisions Like a Fighter Pilot & Frugal vs. Cheap Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Dan's Topic: The OODA Loop Our Decisions, Our Future You'll recall that the 5 pillars we focus on for OUR simple life together are Faith, Family, Finances, Fitness and Future Well, our Future is determined every single day by decisions that we make We make decisions all the time...daily in fact…most of them without any effort whatsoever But isn't it funny how simple these "automatic" decisions are when other decisions lead us to hours, days, and sometimes months or years of contemplation and struggle and hemming and hawing? Introducing the OODA Loop Today I want to talk about decision-making and a very simple framework that you can use to help with your decision-making This process is called the OODA Loop, as in O-O-D-A OODA stands for Observe-Orient-Decide and Act. The OODA Loop is a recurring decision-making process…a cycle, if n

Wouldn't you love to simplify your morning routine? What? You don't have one? Well, in this episode Vanessa shares some tips to help you create your morning routine so you can start of each morning on the right path. But even if you start out on the right path, sometimes little things can become big irritants, can't they? One thing that can be really frustrating is printer problems. Do you think you could digitize your life to the point where you don't even need a printer? Well, Dan shares his thoughts on that very subject! Read more...  Vanessa's Topic: Creating Your Morning Routine Are you feeling a little rushed in the mornings? Are you stressed out? Do you find yourself getting distracted from completing your important tasks? Well, you’re not alone. One of the most popular posts on my GetSimplifized.com website is about how to create a morning routine. I talked about routines in general way back in Episode 2, but I thought I’d get a little bit more specific here and share some tips specific to a mo

How Typical is Your Home? And...A Gateway Gadget Intervention Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Website guide update: The way, the Simple Life Guide to building your “Side Gig” is ready and we’ve had a bunch of people sign up. So if you're ready to start on the path to shaping your life a bit more by starting a lifestyle business on the side and you don’t have any experience starting a website, well this guide and the video links will lead you through how to set up your site, step by step, and it even includes some fantastic branding information, too!  It’s completely free and you can sign up at SimpleLifeTogether.com/websiteguide. Vanessa's Topic: How Typical Is Your Home? Dan and I were interviewed a couple of times last week and during one of the interviews we were talking about how much stuff we have in our homes. Dan started talking about a study conducted by UCLA's Center on Everyday Lives of Families. They sent a team of pr

Escaping My Shawshank Cubicle, and First Steps on the Road to Simplicity Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Main Topics   Dan's Topic: Escaping My Shawshank Cubicle "Indoor" jobs have never been a good match for my personality. I did well at them…the tasks, anyways, but I felt like that "staff work" was slowly sucking the life out of me…stealing my soul. Plus, I've always been a pretty fast worker and some would say I'm a great time manager, and that's how it may look. But the truth is, I just have an ability to get crazy focused and knock out some really quality stuff really really quickly. Some people think that's a gift…but I always said it was a curse. So, the reason I say it's a curse is because I vividly remember…so many times...sitting at my desk, looking at the clock, it's 2:30 pm, I'm not only caught up on my work but I'm way ahead. Yet there is no way I can leave. That's just not how it worked. I'm essentially a prisoner….t

The Art of Inbox Warfare, and How To Organize Any Space Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Main Topics   Dan's Topic: Sun Tzu & the Art of Inbox Warfare We've had a few other listeners out there who have been struggling with their email inboxes lately, so I thought I'd take some time to give you some tips on how you can declare war on Inbox clutter and reclaim the calm to this part of your digital life. The key to email management is the same as it is to physical things in your simple life: limit what you allow into your life. If your inbox is full of messages that don't add value to your life, eliminate them now and put systems into place to eliminate them permanently. Why do we get so much junk? Sometimes it's just that your email was on a subscriber list that was sold to marketers. But it’s also affected by what type of things you sign up for. So, if you really want to cut down on junk email: Be a bit more careful who you give

Becoming Minimalist With Joshua Becker and "But Wait, There’s More!" Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show!  Thanks! Main Topics   Interview with Joshua Becker of BecomingMinimalist.com We had an amazing interview with, Joshua. He shared so much information with us!  He is truely an inspiration and has fantastic advice on how to simplify and get more out of your life by living with less.  Here is a list of questions we asked Joshua (believe us...you definitely want to listen to the podcast!): 1. So, Joshua...who are you and how do you make people's lives simpler? 2. Could you tell us about the "catalyst" that helped you decide to become minimalist and if there were any other factors or events leading up to your decisions? 3. Tell us about how you approached your wife about your idea to pursue minimalism...her reaction...and your collective decision to move forward. Was there any “pushback?” 4. Can you describe how long it took you to get to a poi

How Clutter Affects Your Life, & Secret (But Simple) Military Communication Techniques Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you! Special Announcement: Especially for listeners in and around San Antonio/Austin, TX Our friend and colleague Karen Meade of Let’s Get Organizing will be hosting her annual Organize and Energize workshop. It’s on Saturday, January 19th, 2013 from 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM at TriPoint on North St Mary’s, in San Antonio, Texas. There’s a great lineup of speakers talking about organization, meal planning, health and fitness and Dan will be there talking about tech. For more information check out LetsGetOrganizing.com or Facebook.com/LetsGetOrganizing. Hope to see you there! Main Topics   Vanessa's Topic: How Clutter Affects Your Life So, what is clutter?  Here’s how some experts define it: Princeton University's WordNet defines clutter as: "a confused, multitude of things" "to fill a space in a disorderly way" "a co

Our Edit & Forget It Challenge and The Power of Saying No Happy New Year! Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you! Special Announcement: Especially for listeners in and around San Antonio/Austin, TX Our friend and colleague Karen Meade of Let’s Get Organizing will be hosting her annual Organize and Energize workshop. It’s on Saturday, January 19th, 2013 from 9:30 Am to 12:30 PM at TriPoint on North St Mary’s, in San Antonio, Texas. There’s a great lineup of speakers talking about organization, meal planning, health and fitness and Dan will be there talking about tech. For more information check out LetsGetOrganizing.com or Facebook.com/LetsGetOrganizing. Hope to see you there! Main Topics   Dan's Topic: Introducing the Edit & Forget It Challenge! 2013 Fewer Things in 2013  We're kicking things up a notch right off the bat this year and really stretch our commitment to simplifying our lives. We're challenging ourselves with what we call E

Things To Eliminate in the Coming Year and Tips for Successful Resolutions Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you! Main Topics   Dan's Topic: Some Things to Eliminate in the Coming Year I'm not a big "New Year's Resolutions" guy, so in keeping with the Exupery quotation I've discussed in previous shows and use to guide me on our simplicity journey, I thought I'd give resolutions a little twist. If you recall, Exupery said, "Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but nothing left to take away." So let's resolve to remove some things that add no positive value in our lives. Only you know what applies to you and what's right for you, but here are some suggestions for consideration… Stop wasting opportunities: Opportunities to grow are all around us Grow by Learning...Education is a great way to invest in yourself Take a class (online or in the real world)…lots of places offer Adult Education classes Or teac

Organizing Tips From An Unlikely Source & A Few Life Lessons From The Playground. Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you! Main Topics:   Vanessa's Topic: Organizing Tips From A Toddler Vanessa realized the lessons that we have been teaching our daughter since she was a toddler are also great lessons that adults can apply to their lives when it comes to getting and staying organized.  Here are the lessons/tips that were discussed: Limit the number of toys (or projects) that you are playing with or working on.  Too many projects gets overwhelming and cause you to loose focus.  Multi-tasking isn't all that great.  Having few toys or projects also makes for easier cleanup. Clean up after yourself. Make cleanup part of your project.  Whether you're baking in the kitchen or working on a craft project, part of the project should include cleaning up after yourself.  Don't let it all pile up to point where cleaning up your home is an all

Going Paperless & Making the Most of a Small Living Space Main Topics:   Going Paperless: Guest Interview with Brooks Duncan from DocumentSnap Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you! We had a fantastic interview with Brooks.  There's no doubt he's way out front as a lead expert in the field of going paperless.  Here is a list of questions we asked Brooks (you definitely should listen to the podcast because he gave some great answers and advice!): So, Brooks...who are you and how do you make people's lives simpler? Is it really possible to go paperless? What about... Tax paperwork (Brooks sent IRS guidance, too.  Links below.) Receipts Contracts Other docs that people have been "married to" forever? How do you recommend people get started with going paperless? What does the workflow look like, or are there lots of different workflows? Your article "We Are Our Own Worst Enemy When Going Paperless" is fantastic! Can you describe

The One Secret To Accomplishing Anything & the Laws of Simplicity Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you! Feedback: We got some terrific voicemail feedback from John Bukenas from  LetsReverseObesity.com. John's podcast Let's Reverse Obesity is fantastic! John is doing great things chronicling his weight loss and is helping so many others along the way. Thanks, John, for listening, subscribing, and taking the time to send us some feedback. We also got a very, very nice comment here on Episode 004 from Marshall Ponzi. Thank you Marshall for your kind words and you’re so right...it IS amazing what we can do without. And, I think we’d agree that doing without all the extra allows us to truly appreciate what we do have all the more. Marshall also has a terrific podcast over at InboundInFocus.com that gives great inbound marketing tips for business owners. If you’re a business owner you’d be well served to check out Marshalls podcast

Benefits of Organizing & Having Less, and Some Weird Sounding Simplicity Tools That Might Just Help You Out Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you! In Episode 4, we discuss Benefits of Organizing & Having Less, and Some Weird Sounding Simplicity Tools That Might Just Help You Out. Main Topics:   Vanessa's Topic: Benefits to Organizing and Having Less You'll save money, have less debt and be better able to handle tough financial times. It's pretty simple: less stuff  =  less money you'll have to spend...especially on off-site storage rentals! You’ll cut down on buying duplicates when you’re organized and know what you have. You’ll save on late fees and interest rates if you have a good system of tracking and managing your bills. You'll have more usable space. You'll be able to properly utilize desktops, countertops and your dinner table. And maybe your garage too! Less stuff means you can use the spaces in your homes for their int

Why We Can't Let Go of Our Clutter, Backing Up Your Digital Information, & A Little About Dropbox Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you! In Episode 3 we discuss reasons why some people can't seem to let go of clutter and some tips that may help you decide what to keep and what to let go.  We also talk about some lessons learned from a catastrophic hard drive crash which sparked the "Your Backup Strategy' strategy segment, and we wanted to sing a few praises for Dropbox. Dropbox is one way to save documents to the cloud and sync them across all your devices simply. Main Topics:   Vanessa's Topic: Why We Can't Let Go of Our Clutter We feel the need for abundance. We are a consumer-driven society and conditioned to think more is better...it's all about quantity over quality. We've lived a life "without" and find security with having more. Living through the Depression, growing up in a modest or poor  household, or surviving a rough fi

Well, we got past our first episode and in Episode 2 we discuss how using routines can help simplify your life, and some simple ways to get the most out of search and research. Routines help make things predictable, let you better plan you time, and make things more efficient. So, we'll be sharing some tips on how to tap into that power so routines can simplify your life, too! When something is new to you or you need more information, most people turn to Google to find answers. But are you using Google as effectively as you could? We'll share some of our tricks to help you become a wizard at search and research! Read more... Main Topics:   Vanessa's Topic: How Routines Can Simplify Your Life Two Common Reasons People are Disorganized: Lack of Defined Priorities or Life Goals:  Without purpose you'll continue to run around aimlessly allowing others to dictate to you what's important. Lack of Routines:  Overwhelming reason for disorganization but having set routines is one of the greatest tools to h

An Introduction to the Simple Life Together Podcast Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and leave a review in the iTunes store! It helps others find the show! Thank you! Welcome!  We've waited a long time to get started on this and we're so excited to finally "get it out there."  So, in the show we give you an introduction to us, a little bit about our background, what “simple” means to us, and then we talk about our format for the show. We shared the major "pillars" of our life plan, highlighting that our focus is on the following: - Faith - Family - Friends - Finances - Future Ok, so here’s how we envision the Format of the show: Every episode, we’ll each pick topics for discussion. Vanessa’s will likely focus on organizing, the household or her business and Dan's will likely be centered around technology, business or DIY projects. Together, we’ll also focus on family issues/kids, our relationships, future plans, designing our lifestyle, etc.  These are just some areas, but we haven’t set any boundaries becaus