get rid of stuff

The Time Poor.

How to escape time poverty and join the free.

By Brad Beckstrom

My oldest son came home a bit stressed out the other night. He recently started driving and has started to experience the chaos of rush hour traffic. I enjoy having everyone home for dinner and gave him a hard time about being late. I told him he needed to start managing his time better.

I sounded like one of my first bosses who used to say “We start at 8 Beckstrom, not 8:07 am or 8:11 am” or whatever the exact number of minutes I was late by was, as he tapped his Patek Philippe watch. At the time, I fixed the problem by planning to arrive at 7:45 AM. That worked for a while, until I realized putting on a suit and commuting to an office would not be my path.

Later, as an entrepreneur,I took time management to a whole new level, using day timers, Palm pilots, Treo phones (remember those?) I created multiple to do lists and scheduled my day to the minute, starting early and often finishing late. It was my turn to give people a hard time about being late. I was time poor.

The Time Poor from the book Vagabonding

“Sierra Club founder John Muir used to express amazement at the well-heeled travelers who would visit Yosemite only to rush away after a few hours of sightseeing. Muir called these folks the “time poor”- people so obsessed with their material wealth and social standing that they couldn’t spare the time to truly experience the splendor of California’s Sierra wilderness.”

120 years later, this hasn’t changed. Despite more people being fortunate enough to be able to travel, many, including myself often take only one week to see a place like Ireland or a day or two to see Rome as part of some whirlwind European trip. Staying in nice hotels, eating expensive meals but never really seeing a place. “Yep kids, look there’s big Ben Parliament.” Chevy Chase from European Family Vacation.

Many have chosen stuff and material wealth over time as a way of life. We tell ourselves we’ll take that long trip someday, spend more time with family, friends. Will take some time to get healthy again when things “slow down” a little or after we retire. Some of us fool ourselves into believing that by working harder we can buy ourselves some time, only to find out that managing more work and acquiring the finest, biggest stuff only makes us more time poor. Even the wealthiest billionaire cannot buy more time on this planet. In many cases, a high stress lifestyle will shorten your life versus lengthening it.

Bigger homes, bigger cars, bigger jobs, longer commutes only escalate time poverty. For years I was a victim of time poverty. In my 50 some odd years on this planet there are few things I wish I had picked up on a lot earlier. The good news is we’re fortunate enough in this century to fix the time poverty problem and it’s never too late to start.

So here are a few things I would’ve told my 25-year-old self.

Develop core principles and a philosophy of life. [Read more…] about The Time Poor.

Decision fatigue. How too many daily choices can wear you down.

02/15 by The Frug Leave a Comment

By Brad Beckstrom

In modern life, we often face a paradox of choice. You’d think this would be fantastic. Our ancestors and those living in third world poverty would marvel at the amount of choices we have for everything, from snack foods to clothing to luxury automobiles. A cornucopia of choices delivered at a click of a mouse or a walk down the aisle of any big-box store.

From the moment you wake up in the morning, you’re bombarded with small choices, that when added up can exhaust you by the end of the day. This is called decision fatigue and we can reduce it through the science of simplicity.

For example, let’s look at one of the first decisions we make each day. What to wear? A quick count of the number of items in my closet including shirts, pants, shoes, and belts. Combined there’s about 140 items. Without getting into combinations and permutation formulas, I have well over 1.5 million possible combinations of shirts, shoes, pants, and belts. Let’s see how I stack up against some smart guys who got this right. Remember a lower number is better. [Read more…] about Decision fatigue. How too many daily choices can wear you down.

Live Immediately. Understanding The Real Value of Time.

02/15 by The Frug Leave a Comment

By Brad Beckstrom

“It is inevitable that life will be not just very short but very miserable for those who acquire by great toil what they must keep by greater toil. They achieve what they want laboriously; they possess what they have achieved anxiously; and meanwhile they take no account of time that will never more return”. Seneca

This quote is over 2000 years old but it could’ve been written yesterday. The more we acquire, the more we need to work to keep it. The word “toil” suggests that this is not work that we have chosen, but work for someone else. Work to further another man’s dreams.

More important is the comment about “time that will never return.” Many, myself included, can be very frugal when it comes to acquiring and maintaining stuff, but often lose sight of the one thing that we can’t buy more of, and that is time. There are 24 hours in a day and you can’t purchase any more. None of us know how many of those days we have left. [Read more…] about Live Immediately. Understanding The Real Value of Time.

Your Money or Your Life. The Frug’s Advice for College Students and Recent Grads.

01/15 by The Frug 2 Comments

By Brad Beckstrom

Photo credit: morguefile.com

My nephew wants to live lean. He’s twenty-something and still in college. He’s moving to a new town and asked me for advice. First, I’ll tell him be careful what you ask for, you’ll often get it.

So, here goes. My advice, not in any particular order.

Get some roommates.

New in town? Get a roommate. If you’re in college, I recommend you avoid expensive campus housing and meal plans and opt for a near campus rental. When I was in college and working my first job, I opted for two roommates. While this is often not ideal, it allows you to rent a small townhouse or slightly larger apartment and save money at the same time.

With three people chipping in for the bills, everything becomes a bit more affordable. If you’re lucky, you may meet some friends for life, as I did on several occasions. Good roommates are sometimes hard to find but it’s easier now to explore options with Craigslist and social media. I found the best roommates are often someone I’ve already met, possibly someone I worked with at a restaurant, or met at school.

At first, avoid year long leases, if you can. Try to find an existing two roommate set up that’s looking for a third. This way if things don’t work out on your first try you’re not locked into any long-term situation.

I stuck with the roommate set up for years, even after I started my own company and had purchased other homes. I kept the first home as a rental, replacing myself with another roommate when I moved on. I had a roommate until I got married.

Roommates can be a pain, so you have to really work at it until you find a great setup. Once you find it, volunteer to help out with the bills and track things using Mint.com or apps like Splitwise. A simple shared Google docs spreadsheet is great if you have multiple folks adding items to the document.

Work in High School and College.

My grades were just below a 3.0 at a midsize state college, but I was offered the first three corporate jobs I interviewed for. I was hired and put to work for a boss who was Princeton grad, and coworkers who went to Dartmouth, Duke, and Notre Dame. My point of difference was not the name of my university or my GPA, it was my work experience in college and high school. Interviewers were impressed with my proven work ethic. Very few of those Ivy League types had worked two jobs in college and started a travel business. [Read more…] about Your Money or Your Life. The Frug’s Advice for College Students and Recent Grads.

The future will require less space.

10/14 by The Frug Leave a Comment

By Brad Beckstrom AKA The Frug

As I write this, I’m sitting in an office filled with a lot of books and dusty CDs, but the future will be different. I’ve been paring down books for years. Getting rid of old tech manuals and binders, DVDs, and other junk. Only keeping books I would want to re-read or give away.

I know that the digital world will require less space.

For many, music, books, and movies have already moved to digital. And the digital world requires less space. When I say the digital world, I’m not just talking about music or movie downloads on iTunes or downloading Kindle books on a tablet. I’m talking about something better than owning or downloading stuff and taking care of it, storing it, getting rid of it. I’m talking about accessing anything on an as-needed basis via high tech sharing or streaming for small rental fee.

This is now

In the future [Read more…] about The future will require less space.

What would you take with you?

10/14 by The Frug Leave a Comment

How the Burning House Project helps us think about how much we really don’t need.

The Burning House by Foster Huntington began as a popular blog and later became a book that the New York Times called “fascinating and provocative.”

It asked the simple question.

“If your house was burning, what would you take with you? It’s a conflict between what’s practical, valuable and sentimental. What you would take reflects your interests, background and priorities. Think of it as an interview condensed into one question.”

The idea went viral as thousands of people around the world posted a photo and a list of the few things they would grab if their house was on fire. Most people assumed that family, friends, and pets were out of the “hypothetical burning house” safely so you just have a few moments to grab those few important possessions. It’s also very hard to get a cat to pose for the picture. [Read more…] about What would you take with you?