Ali Bytes: Bullet-sized strategies for modern living

The topic for the fifth edition of the weekly blog off with Dudgington Post is “snooze buttons,” at Geoff’s suggestion after sleeping in a little too late on Friday.

Did you know that most snooze buttons let you sleep for only 9 more minutes? Here are a few of the many theories on why this arbitrary number. I’ve recently read a few articles on why it actually makes much more sense to get up as soon as your alarm goes off, and that the extra 9 (or 4 or 17) minutes really do you no good. Here are a few things you could do in those 9 minutes that might be more beneficial. For some useful tips on waking up early, check out these posts by Dave Cheong or Steve Pavlina.

1. Hula hoop: No seriously. I just bought this 5 pound weighted hula hoop (sans 1980s leotard) on the recommendation of my friend Sara who does it as a work out. It only takes 5-15 minutes a day to “trim your waist up to 2 inches and lose weight up to 4 lbs. monthly until fit,” as the hoop makers claim. Don’t worry that you won’t be able to do it - it’s surprisingly easier than I remember the hula hoop when I was younger (and take my word for it because I never learned to cartwheel).
2. Watch half of a TED talk and start the day with renewed inspiration. If you’re not sure where to start, check out this post from May on 5 engaging TED talks. Of course, if you’ve seen all these, they post 5 new TED talks on the site every week. This one is great: A.J. Jacobs on My year of living biblically.
3. Write a real birthday card: When was the last time you wrote “happy birthday!!” on someone’s Facebook wall? Or text messaged “hope you have a great birthday!”? Real birthday cards are a lost art form that take merely minutes to write.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 18th, 2008 at 7:03 pm and is filed under just for fun. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.