This post will be short, very short. I am here to say -

Happy Chinese New Year and Happy Valentine Day!

In my previous post, I talked about The book I have read – The Power of Less, it is a book teaches you how to simplify your life and improve your productivity. A really great book, because I am following what Leo Babauta teaches me in the book now.

What I have changed? Not much, but it is impressive to me. From the book, Leo teaches us to break our goal down into manageable task and focus on single task at a time. You know what? This really work, I am able to complete more task in a day and increase my efficiency. I can now complete my important task before 12p.m everyday, and I can relax and do some others task then.

Also, I created some new habits, and a morning + evening routine, I wake up at 6a.m everyday,  do some exercise, bath & brush my teeth, choose my three most important tasks of the day, read news, and read books, and all these done before 8a.m,  then I start to do my three most important tasks, mostly 2/3 are related to my work. As I said, I manage to complete all of these three before 12p.m most of the time. Then I started my evening routine at 6p.m to 7p.m, I will review my day, do some exercise, bath and read news again. This mean I will do no more task today and start to relax the rest of the day.

One more thing is I got a minimalist desk now. I clean up everything on my desk the second day when I finished the book, when I writing this post, I only have my macbook, a note, and a bottle of water on my desk. This really help me to focus on what I have to do, really focus.

By following The Power of Less, I am now living a healthy life, a simplify life and better work environment, and I am still improving in order to make me more productive!

Yesterday morning, I gave me a mini goal which is to read 56 articles and 1 book, so what I will write in this post is actually the result.

RESULT = I FAIL (not too far from achieving this goal)

First, let me give you a brief about what and why I am doing this.

Why 56 articles and what type of article?

I am shame about this, 56 is not a special number or a limit only for this goal. It was the article I have bookmarked for a very long time and the list keep growing every single day, so in order to be able to read all the article, I have to read it today, else it would be a huge list and I will be like spend time reading a book.

All these articles include a wide range of content, article about design, web, news, gossip, inspiration, copywriting, internet marketing, interview, history and tutorial. There are something I need to know, something I need to learn, and something I enjoy reading for.

Why plus 3 more?

Some of the articles link to another article, I only do further reading when the original article is excellent written and there are still something I need to find out, to clear my doubt.

There are good and bad article in these 56 articles, I filtered 6 bad one and bookmarked 5 again which I am going to read again next week. This happened very often because I did not read the full article when I bookmark it, I just scan through some point, and see whether I feel interest in the story or may be the writing.

1 Books -  The Power of Less by Leo Babauta

The time I was writing this post is 11.46pm yesterday, and I was fail to accomplish this goal, I have only read 84/170 pages of this book. Probably because I spent too much time hanging out with friend, which is the biggest distraction I have now. Friend asked to go night market while I was reading this book, and I was totally forgot about my mini goal and said “sure, no problem”. I realized what I am suppose to do once I back to home and it was too late.

The book is great, Leo Babauta the auther of this book teaches you how to increase your productivity and efficiency by working simply, which enable you to do less, be more effective, get more done and simplify your life. Lots of note are taken and I read some of the paragraph twice to make sure I fully understand the concept, so it took me twice the time I normally use in a book.

No excuse, I fail, but I would rather said 70% accomplishment.

70% accomplishment, why?

Two reason + 1:

1. I have read all the article + 3 more extra.
2. I have read almost half of the book.

and the last reason is that I have learn a lot, and I don’t want to be too harsh to myself. I have never done this before and I am really getting this work this time, and I know I will be better next time!

I am actually giving me a 1 month goal starting from now, the goal is that I need to earn USD$1000 in a month. This is actually to earn an extra money and also to test the water on how to make USD$1000 from USD$0 without nothing on hand.

I haven’t figure out the plan and method on doing this, what in my mind now is that if I am able to make this extra money in a month, then there is no more difficulty for me to make this amount any after. I am getting exciting about this project, I got the time, I got the strength for this, the only thing to stop me is the experience because this is the first time I do this.

And yes, end of next month, I will provide a simple report on the result, whatever the result is.

31 Dec 2009, today is the last day of 2009, I don’t wake up in the early morning, I don’t have lots of stuff to do, I don’t have any plan of party tonight, instead today is just like every single day in 2009.

There are lots of thing I have done in 2009, some are crazy minded, some are living stuff, so what I have achieved in 2009?

1. I quick my day-job, and working at home.
2. I have tons of books in my room, but I yet to read every book, the math is like: I bought 2-3 books while I am reading a book, and I just bought another book in the morning!
3. I got my Macbook Pro, which was on my wishlist for years.
4. I have earned extra money by doing affiliate marketing(not much).
5. Have my tiny workspace in my room.
6. Made donation to Tzu Ji charity program.
7. Tried bowling game (Yeap, the first time in 24 years!)

and what have I failed to achieved in 2009?

1. Have my portfolio website ready. (Planned to complete it today, couple of day delay but not long)
2. Save tons of money.
3. Switch from Ipod shuffle to Ipod Nano.
4. Donate a kid.
5. Fluent in Japanese (Do nothing about it in 2009, my biggest failure)

Here are some of the list I can think of now. There are still a lot but I need to crack my mind for that, small achievement. The biggest decision I have made is to quick my day job, and now I am working for myself, I can wake up anytime I want, have my own working hour and so, the only thing which is not good is I don’t have a steady income after that, which lead to some of the failure of achievement in 2009 like buy things on my wishlist, donate a kid, and save tons of money (may be I spent all my money on Macbook Pro), haha.

Hello 2010!

I come out a wishlist for 2010 few days before, it is a big list, hard but possible. And here we go:

1. Earn $15,000 in year 2010
2. Have my steady freelance career
3. Make My Living Online (affiliate marketing, make money blogging and so)
4. Donate a kid
5. Fluent in Japanese
6. Read 100 – 150 books
7. Buy Iphone
8. Buy Ipod Nano

A sketch list, not a static plan. Will make some adjustment during the year, or some update! Some on the list are things I want to overcome, which I have failed in 2009. Earn $15,000 in year 2010, approximately RM51,000 and RM 4250/month. Kind of big challenge to me as I don’t have a steady income, doing work at home, but why not to make a big goal and go forward? Wish me luck!

That’s it, enjoy your last day in 2009, and happy holiday!

It’s been a long long holiday for me, since I am doing my work at home, it really make me feel like holiday is everyday. I got my free time to do anything I want, I can do my work anytime I want. Sound really great right? The problem is that I am far far away from getting back to my working routines. I work a little everyday, productivity is kinda low. I can’t even remember when was the last time I code my website. I am still designing everyday, but no coding at all. Hopefully I still remember how to do it.

So first thing I am gonna to do after the holiday(1/1/2010) is getting back to my routines, it is difficult but it is possible. I just need some discipline on that.

1. Clean my workspace, make it clean and less distraction.
2. Follow a working hour, 11am to 4pm, 5 hour working each day.
3. Go out to work, may be Starbucks, or any other coffee shop which provide wireless connection.
4. Well organize my task, scheduling, I am doing it now.

I think following a working hour is best for me, so that I can be more concentrate on my work, just like how I did when I am reading a book.

Anyway, this is the plan of 2010, before that, let’s enjoy the holiday and new year!

Merry Christmas to all of you! Traffic jam is everywhere, yes, traffic jam is everywhere in Melaka. It is tired to go out in this two day, will probably spent most of the time inside the car! I don’t like it!

It is odd that why people come to Melaka to celebrate their Christmas? no Christmas celebration party, no Christmas decoration along, why? I think it would be best to go places like Singapore or KL, I am sure you can feel Christmas if you are there. Melaka? Nothing special, just traffic jam…

Anyway, wish you all Merry Christmas, & Happy Holiday! Have fun and be patient for traffic jam.

I recently spent some of my daytime to read book, and I found that my reading skill is improved. I read fast, and I remember most of the thing in the book. Like I can call back the story, the character name in a novel, for instance.

I used three method:

1. Use a pointer, this is one of the fundamental fast reading technique you will find in every article which teach you about fast reading. What it really help me is to reduce the distraction from my eye, lead my eye to focus on the sentence or the word.
2. Don’t read it out while you are reading, previously when I was reading a book, I like to read it out, I like to hear what I have read and think that it is good for me to remember what I have read. The fact is, it will only reduce your reading speed. That’s all. But if you like your voice, then do it.
3. I use a timer, normally I will set the timer for 2 to 3 hour when I am going to read a book. This is not to force me reading but make me more concentrate on what I am doing. When I set the timer, I will be more focus on reading the book. If there is something I need to do during the time, I will just pause the timer and get back to read when I have completed the task. As I said, I use timer to guide me, not to force me do something, and I used it for some task, like designing a website, learning, and so. It really help!

I have read 4 books in 6 days, somewhat a record to me. Normally I read 1 book a week or two, but I am glad that I can read more and more now!

Some of my friends was asking that why I put ads on my blog? hmm… I want to earn some extra money to buy book, yes, this is my final answer. What type of Ads I got on my blog? Google Ads and Affiliate Ads.

Google Ads

The big ads over the right hand side is google ads, when you click the ads… I earn a few cent from google.

Affiliate Ads

Those 6 small 125 x 125 ads are affiliate ads, if you click it and buy the product, I earn some commission. It is just this simple, but I won’t simply put some ads on it. I bought all the 6 products over there and I really like the product.

1. Wootheme – This blog is using Wootheme as the wordpress theme, beautiful right?
2. Digging Into WordPress – A book by Chris Coyier, a 400 pages wordpress book, I think this is the best wordpress book in the market. It tell you everything you need to know about WordPress, And you get free update whenever Chris updates it.
3. Rockable Press – 1 of the awesome website in Envato Network, they publish “how to be a rockstar” series on their website, I actually bought 2 books (How to be a Rockstar Freelancer and Rockstar Worpress Designer) from them now and 1 (Freelance Statistic Report) pending (when I got my paycheck).
4. 31 Days to build a better blog – A workbook by Darren Rowse(The well-known problogger), this workbook teach you what, why and how to do the blogging task in 31 days and make your blog better. I haven’t applied all the technique yet, but I have learn so much from this workbook.
5. Cloud Living – A book by Glen Allsopp, he is awesome, traveling the world now and making his living online while traveling. Sound Interesting right? And yes, this book teach you how to make money online by two way – Affiliate Marketing and Blogging. Unlike others money making book, this book tell you how to make money online step by step and provide some awesome interview. And I also bought his new book – Reality Switch (A good additional to Cloud Living)
6. Hostgator – This blog is not hosted at Hostgator, it is actually hosted at my Exabytes reseller account, you may wonder why I recommend Hostgator, it is just because I am using it and love the service they have provided. I hosted some other website over there and all the website is running well without any problem at all. I like their customer support the most because every time when you submit a ticket and ask something, you will actually get the response very fast! I have never wait longer than 30 minutes to get their response (2-3 time experience, since I don’t have problem on my hosted site).

OK, I think is clear enough about the ads on my blog, and yes, all the links in this post are affiliate link too. Click the link, buy the product if you like it, then I will earn some commission to buy more books, of course, a big thank you if you really buy something from my link.

PS: This won’t make me a millionaire of course, and I don’t think it will make my living. I do this just for books. haha.

Unfortunately, my blog was gone, all my data was gone and I got no backup for my database, why this happened?

It is funny, I was trying to upgrade my wordpress version to 2.9 but there is a reason I need to do a clean installation, so I backup all my image and plugin, then my database. Everything seems like working fine right? Yes, it is if you are reading correctly, the reason why my lose my backup is that, I backup the wrong database and delete the correct one. That is it… sad…

So this blog is new again, nothing special now, because I am doing my portfolio website and probably will be release in this week or next. Will share some teaser later in the next post.

Other than that, I need time to setup everything, and hope I can finish it end of this month and let this blog running again.