TrackSuit CEO

If you’re a boss you should know that your employees who blog on company time may turn out to be the future heroes of the company, if you can find ways to harness their talent and drive.

Some of the most significant events in our lives are ones I haven't been able to write about — friends who've been gravely ill, others who've divorced — and I always feel strange about that, waffling on about string cheese while my heart is breaking. Similarly, I don't tend to write about the darkest places in my relationship with Michael because, well, my relationship is at stake. But as a result Michael often sounds kind of sickly perfect (which he often kind of is). I never fret publicly about my parents aging because they're as hale and hearty as oxen, not to mention they are loyal readers and would kill me. (Being read by one's parents changes things, doesn't it? When I use the word "bong," even jokingly, I cringe.)

In the spirit of triage, learn to scan everything quickly first.  You’re not reading, you’re just scanning.  I do the low hanging fruit scan looking at “All” feeds.

This New Year’s I’m not even bothering to read anyone’s retrospectives.  Why?  Because all that stuff is old news.  If it’s important, it will come up again somewhere soon.  Someone will link to it.  You’ve probably already read it and triaged it earlier.  Why rehash it? 

I use these tags as a way to organize and triage.  I try to apply  the tags during the scanning pass.  Fewer is better.  Say a dozen or so that you can easily remember. 

I’ve read about America’s Cheapest Family in various articles and posts but haven’t really seen them in action till I caught a repackaged episode of 20/20 where they were once more featured. I cannot believe how a family of seven with children ages 10 through 21 are able to pull off living on an annual budget of $35,000. They are the aptly named Economides family from Arizona, and they are super-savers.