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"Murphy was an optimist!"

Doug’s Mantras September 8, 2010 6:23 pm

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Doug's Mantras, Philosophy
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Just let it go.

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Doug’s Mantras September 8, 2010 6:21 pm

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Doug's Mantras, Philosophy
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Move forward.

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Doug’s Mantras July 29, 2010 9:08 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Doug's Mantras, Philosophy
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You have two ears and one mouth so that you can listen twice as much as you talk.

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On Time Management/Organizational Tools April 30, 2010 11:27 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Doug's Mantras, Philosophy, Software, Technology
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I’m a huge fan of Jott. I don’t know how Siri (recently acquired by Apple) slipped through my radar. I now have Siri and am very excited. SpringPad and I have this oddly tenuous relationship which I’ll explain in another post. I think SpringPad has incredible potential and should be appreciated by fans of Evernote.

Like Stephen R Covey’s First Things First and David Allen’s Getting Things Done, none of these tools do any good if you don’t use them. And by use them, I mean fully. For instance, in Gmail I frequently flag emails to review later but then I may not review them. The same thing can happen with any of the tools above. I fill Jott with voice notes and text memos daily. Like sharpening the saw, a review is critical. One of my mantras is "15 minutes a day for proficiency." It comes from preparing for juggling shows. If I wait until the day before a performance and try to cram several hours of practice in, I don’t perform well. If I spent 15 minutes a day for those same number of hours, I perform very well! That 15 minute mantra applies to all things in life be it learning a skill like guitar, a language like Spanish, losing that extra weight, reading a book, writing a business plan, or just keeping your life in check.

Trying to get organized while living our crazy lives often feels a bit like trying to balance your checkbook while going down a water slide. You can’t do it and your checkbook gets really soggy. Feels like a catch-22; too busy to organize, must organize to not be so busy. That’s were 15 minutes a day comes in. We can spend 15 minutes just staring into space. Even exhausted, we can muster 15 minutes. And now, I will spend 15 minutes reviewing my notes in Jott.

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Doug’s Mantras December 14, 2009 8:34 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Doug's Mantras, Family, Of Being Dad, Philosophy
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File this under things I thought I’d never say.

Clothing belongs in one of three places: on your body, the laundry, or folded up and put away.

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Of Being Dad – Do what you say November 10, 2009 7:45 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Amy, Daily Life, Doug's Mantras, Family, Of Being Dad, Philosophy
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One of my mantras is "Say what you are going to do then do what you say." A child never forgets. If you promise a child you will do something, do it! Our calendars says that the movie Up is released on DVD today. When we saw Up in the theaters, I promised Amy she and I would go see the 3-D version as a father/daughter date. Life got in the way. The movie came and went. And today, she reminded me that I failed to deliver on that promise. Not a good feeling.

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Doug’s Mantras September 14, 2009 8:16 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Doug's Mantras, Philosophy
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Live with purpose.

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Doug’s Mantras August 25, 2009 8:21 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Doug's Mantras, Philosophy
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Today I am calm.

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Doug’s Mantras July 17, 2009 9:59 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Doug's Mantras, Philosophy
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Quit thinking about how impossible the task is and just do it!

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Doug’s Mantras June 4, 2009 7:56 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Doug's Mantras, Philosophy
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If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

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Doug’s Mantras May 15, 2009 12:04 pm

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Doug's Mantras, Philosophy, Programming, Technology
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McCaughan’s Law of Solutions:

Ask five different programmers the same thing and you will get five different answers…and they will all be correct.

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Doug’s Mantras April 26, 2009 8:53 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Doug's Mantras, Health, Juggling, Philosophy
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Juggling is not a sobriety test.

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Doug’s Mantras April 10, 2009 12:23 pm

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Doug's Mantras, Philosophy
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To be bored is a choice.

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Doug’s Mantras March 23, 2009 5:38 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Deep Thoughts, Doug's Mantras, Philosophy
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So many eons ago when the No Fear t-shirts first hit the streets, I became an instant fan. One of my favorites:

Everybody who lives dies, but not everybody who dies has lived. -No Fear

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Doug’s Mantras March 16, 2009 9:26 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Doug's Mantras, Philosophy
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The end is fear.

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