Yet Another Programming Blog

I stumbled upon a great article of Ken Rockwell called How to Afford Anything . Since the article is quite long, here are the points that helped me the most, i.e. were the least obvious to me. Priorization In short - buy things that you really want. Don't buy things just because it is so easy. Never buy a new car - as it is one of the worst investments. New car losts a notable value just by you buying it. Don't buy a big house - instead, try to live just below your means. Why? Because then you will always have more money than you need. This can be abstracted to the rule - try to spend just below what you have, e.g. the 99% and you won't know what to do with the money. The problems raise if you spend just a little above, e.g. 101%. Real estates not always make you money - you pay lots of things around the house. So buy the apartment only if you intend to live in there. Patience Find plenty of time to research products that you intend to buy. Thrift "A

Removing distractions especially at work can boost your productivity, so they say . I gathered some tips from other blogs and added some more to improve your distraction-freeness productivity. Close all applications and tabs you don't need . I cannot work when I see 30 windows and always have to think where to click. I have an average number of 2 windows in the taskbar and I am a programmer. I find myself periodically killing windows/tabs, when their numbers exceed 5. Have a zero mailbox . I have it empty for 10 years now and I still live happily. Move your e-mail from your inbox when you're done with it. Try to read each of your e-mails just once. Take the wanted action (reply, fix something, etc.) and try to immediately decide if you will delete it or archive it. Have a quite workplace . If you must listen to music, many people find it better to listen to instrumental music only (no vocals). Clear your desk . I'm a minimalist, so I like my desk clean. I think this coul