Hacking Your Passions » Organization

Travel Tips For Lone Goers

Iain Hamp — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 21:46:02 +0000

I have picked up a few neat tricks over the last year and a half, now that I’m at least occasionally a business traveller. Ways to fold clothes in on themselves so as to maximize space, minimize wrinkles, and get a week’s worth of gear in carry-ons for airplane travel (so as to not have to check luggage in). The somewhat inexplicable and potentially frustrating inverse relationship that seems to exist between the speed/cost of high speed internet access at a hotel and the cost of the room per night (cheap hotels almost always have better and free access, and seem more likely to have wi-fi).

Reading through this list of forty additional tips, I’m seeing a few that could come in handy in the future, like…

Buy something from a local store. Want to blend in? Try making a purchase from a local grocery store. The local bag will make you look more like a native and is much less likely to be stolen than an expensive purse or day pack.

Split up cash and credit cards. When traveling, alone or otherwise, it’s always a good idea to keep at least some of your money and credit cards separate. This way, if you do lose one set you’ll have another to fall back on and your trip won’t be disrupted as heavily.

Keep your hotel’s phone number and address on you. You don’t want to end up stranded in a foreign country with no way to get back to your hotel. Keep your hotel’s business card with you so you can show it to the cab driver if you don’t speak the language and have the number handy so you can call if you need to.

Backing Up Life

Iain Hamp — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 01:31:33 +0000

I hadn’t really thought about it in exactly these terms before, but when I came across this article on how to back up your life, I figured it would be worthwhile to review it and see if there are any gaps I need to plug in order to feel like I’ve got a good back-up plan myself.

Career – I’m feeling pretty good here. I have a great career going at my current employer, and I’ve always been a jack-of-all-trades sort of person, so if the job I’m in comes into jeopardy I’m comfortable that my skills can cross over into lots of different opportunities. I update my resume about once every six months, though nowadays it’s just so it’s not so ominous when I need to do it, plus it is fun to see what resume builders have happened in the last few months that need adding. And I have a solid enough nest egg if “something unforeseen happens”.

Finance – I’ve been putting away for retirement at the almost absurd-seeming age of 22 (especially considering what a moron I otherwise was, relatively, at 22).My wife and I are in eternal live-below-your-means mode, and I don’t think it’s in us to ever really change that way of life.

Your Personal Records – honestly, the biggest issue in all of this might be the backing up of information. I’m not a hoarder of things, but I am a hoarder of bits, of information, so it’s always a struggle to keep up.

Question: did this article miss anything important we should be thinking of “backing up” in our lives.

Worth at a Glance

Iain Hamp — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 04:07:24 +0000

This nice, well thought out tool by David Seah to determine and visually represent the worth of accomplishing a particular goal versus the others on your list, so as to prioritize time more effectively. I’ve created similar tools in Excel for my personal use, and certainly his criteria don’t work very well for the things I care about tracking, but the concept, idea, and execution is really nicely put together, and I love the way the points are tracked.

To Do Lists

Iain Hamp — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 01:53:33 +0000

Lifehack.org holds within its grasp the penultimate blog post on how to make the most of to do lists – how to write them, how to make them work, how to keep doing them and make it a habit. I’ll be spending some time digging through this entry.

Also, for those who joke about people who spend so much time doing lists instead of just doing the things on them – an hour spent planning saves ten in execution. It’s not just about making sure you remember everything, it’s prioritizing and making sure nothing is missed, and that you aren’t spending an hour now doing something when in half an hour something is due that would only take fifteen minutes. Or as a coworker once put it, it’s about putting out the fire that’s closest to burning you.

Mixing Business With Danger

Iain Hamp — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:40:14 +0000

I have a little LLC I formed a few years ago to make sure I kept my business separate from everything else, financially and legally speaking. I was glad that a wise friend walked me through that process, many of the pitfalls that are easily avoided IF you know about them. This article regarding Accounting 101 for Freelancers and the importance of a corporate veil is nice to see out there – hopefully it will help a few folks dodge a few bullets.