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Posts Tagged ‘Sleep’

It’s Alright To Take a Little Nap During The Day

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

According to a recent article in the New York Times, it’s okay to take a little nap during the day. In fact, some experts encourage people to make daily napping as regular a part of their routine as heading out to the gym to workout. As stated in the article:

But many people, and experts, praise the benefits of a siesta or a power snooze. Confessed nappers include Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Thomas Edison and Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

Napping, writes James B. Maas, a Cornell University sleep expert, “should have the status of daily exercise.”

Well hey, if Reagan, Clinton, Edison, and Einstein were doing it – then maybe we should all be taking naps more regularly!

Taking more naps is one of those things that you have to be disciplined at if you really want it to make an impact. If you lay down for a quick 30 or 60 minute nap, then you absolutely must wake up at the end of that time period and get back to work. If you don’t, then you may run the risk of not being able to perform at an acceptable level for the rest of the day. Lord knows that when I take a nap sometimes I wind up dragging ass afterwards. It’s not fun.

Plus, in my napping experience it seems that if I sleep for an extra hour during the day, then I toss and turn in bed at night for an additional hour. That’s not fun and it’s a useless waste of time.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that napping during the middle of the day suits me right now. Maybe when I’m less busy and there is less on my plate I can give it a try, but for now I’ll stick to working my butt off during the day so I can have a restful sleep at night.

Posted in Random Entries | 1 Comment »

Early Morning Gym Session

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

Today was the first time since January 2008 that I went to the gym before going in to work. No, this wasn’t the end result of a well-laid plan to begin waking up earlier and getting my workouts in during the AM hours instead of when I get back from work each evening. I just happened to wake up early this morning and felt like going to the gym would be a good use of my time. And, as always, this trip provided some interesting observations on my gym.
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Posted in Gym Stories | No Comments »

Too Many Social Networking Sites Out There

Thursday, April 16th, 2009

Have you noticed that there are too many social networking sites out there these days? Between MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Twitter, Reunion, and any other number of “hey, look at me!” websites, keeping up with everything is beginning to get a bit tedious. In fact, just the other day I deleted my Plaxo account because I couldn’t imagine why I would need it at all. (more…)

Posted in Computers, Internet, & Technology | 6 Comments »

Snow Day in Central and Northern New Jersey

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

One of the greatest things about living in New Jersey is that the entire state gets into a frenzy whenever there is even the slightest chance that there might be snow in the forecast. Yesterday, all of the major news channels were talking about how Central and Northern New Jersey were going to be blasted with snow. The reports even called for upwards of 5 or 6 inches of snow in Monmouth County where the snow accumulation is minimal at best.

Well, in preparation for the pending snowstorm most of my co-workers and I decided not to go to work today no matter what the weather. This was actually a decent decision since I woke up around 5:30am to check outside and we had about 4 inches of snow and absolutely no trucks on the road clearing for the morning commute. I think that the entire state figured that it needed a snow day and thus the truck drivers were given some extra time to sleep in while the snow accumulated. I should note, though, that as I’m writing this I’m looking outside of my window and the roads are completely cleared in my part of Tinton Falls and there is actually some traffic moving around outside.

The one thing that annoyed the hell out of me this morning was the local college where I teach part-time. I’m signed up for their emergency alert system which is very helpful when the college shuts down due to inclement weather. However, someone must have been going crazy over there this morning because I got two phone calls on my home line, two phone calls on my cell, two text messages, two e-mails on my work e-mail, and two e-mails on my home e-mail. I thought that was a bit overboard for 5:45am so I took myself off of their notification lists.

For those of you who are either off today because of the weather or working from home – enjoy it!

Posted in Winter & Christmas Time | No Comments »

Sheltered Inexperience in the Working World

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008

One of the many reasons why I enjoy volunteering my time and expertise to my fraternity is because it allows me an opportunity – small though it may be – to help train tomorrow’s workforce. As discussed in an earlier post, there are a growing number of young employees who are shocked at the demands of the working world. While it’s easy to just call these morons a bunch of a idiots and move on, it is sometimes beneficial to find out why these people are the way they are and what their characteristics create.

For my part, I see inexperienced employees being thrust into various “leadership” positions at their jobs for the wrong reasons. I see people with family connections or school connections that are given titles and authority when they have no experience with such roles. On the flip side, I see my fraternity graduates not having their collegiate leadership experience taken serious because it is based off of being a member in a fraternity. What horrible, bad decisions employers are making!

I’ve seen young adults thrown into leadership positions and watched as they lashed out when times have gotten tough. Sometimes these people put up a very mature front and act like they are twice their age, but to the trained eye they are laughing stocks. I’m sorry but you don’t spend as much time as I do training young adults in leadership skills and then NOT notice the severe lack of leadership skills in those who you communicate with on a daily basis! From people that I work with as colleagues to those who my company does joint ventures with, a lack of definitive leadership is all over the place.

Once upon a time I worked for a job where people would sleep their way into leadership positions and then completely crumble when times get tough. Frankly, it’s hilarious.

So this is a message to all of my young fraternity leaders out there – don’t worry if you’re in a job where inexperienced people are being promoted over you. Just watch as they fail because they’ve never felt what it’s like to have to perform under pressure. And for my readers who are not fraternity or sorority people, but who have leadership experience and are STILL being passed by – I give you the same message. With a tightening economy and less money to go around, performance will become a major aspect of all jobs (it should be already).

Though I do offer this advice: keep an eye on everyone around you at your office. If you’re ready to make a job or if you think someone above you is ready to crumble, then I hate to put it so bluntly but you have to be opportunistic and be ready to pounce. If you have the leadership training, then brush it off and get ready to shine when the time is right!

One of my more devious posts, I know. But hey – the current economic situation calls for it.

Posted in Money, Jobs, & Finances | No Comments »

Trying to Get Back to Normal

Wednesday, July 18th, 2007

I’ve spent the better part of this week trying to get back to “normal,” whatever that means. I went back to work on Monday morning and though I believe I’ve been mostly unproductive, my co-workers and colleagues seem to be glad to have me back. You know that it’s always tough to have someone out of the office – everyone else has to pick up their slack and in my business, it means that they have to try to understand what I was doing with my specific loan portfolio. Not an easy task, but one that my colleagues were more than successful with in my absence.

Condolences continue to come in and I’m very thankful for them. I am extremely grateful that I have such caring friends. It’s very comforting to know that for both me and my family.

So what is “getting back to normal” besides getting back into the office? Well, I watched a few of the latest summer movie releases – which will all be reviewed in due time on this blog and JerseySmarts.com. I also got back to looking for a new place to live since I’ll be moving out of my apartment at the end of August. There’s a slow, aggravating process for you…

I have not had the opportunity to get back into the gym yet, though I am really looking forward to that day. The reason I haven’t been able to get back in yet relates to my sleeping patterns – they’ve been terrible for the last 2 weeks (as you could imagine). I actually got to work an hour late today because I chose to sleep in a little bit; if I had another day in the office today like I did yesterday, it would just be a waste of time.

My Usable Web Solutions, LLC company is on hold for at least another week or so. I’m just not ready for the high level of analytical and logical thinking that it takes to design websites. Soon, but not right yet. That was also applied towards my contributions to my two wrestling sites, TBLWrestling.com and XHeadlines.com. Thankfully, both sites are webmastered by competent individuals who are more than capable of handling them in my absence. There’s still a lot of work to do with XHeadlines.com yet, though…

I’ve got a bunch of blog entries prepared in “draft” format that I have to revise before posting so be on the lookout for that. Many of you know that I spend a good deal of my free time working as a volunteer for Sigma Pi Fraternity. I have not had the opportunity to get back into the advising mindset for the Fraternity yet, but I plan to do so after I attend Sigma Pi University next week in beautiful Nashville, Tennessee. I have 2 presentations that I am scheduled to deliver while in Nashville which I think I will be up to doing. One of them is completely put together and the other is in its final stages. Wish me luck!

I’ll be headed back home one day this weekend to spend time with my Mother and brothers. Before I left at the end of last week, my younger brother and I did a lot of cleaning and purging with my Mom. Nothing major – just a lot of the junk that was laying around our backyard and some of the stacks of magazines in our living room. My Mom has a new vacuum up there and it works wonders on her living room floor so we wound up rearranging the living room after moving all of the pieces so she could vacuum.

Anyway, be on the lookout for more “stuff” in the coming days.

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