Five Ways to Cope When Your Child Returns to the Nest

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Alex Blackwell, who writes about creating success and happiness for the rest of your life at The Next 45 Years.

Final exams at Kansas University are only a few weeks away. My daughter, Caitlin, has been working very hard and will successfully complete her freshmen year in very good academic standing. Caitlin has learned a lot about being on her own and other important life skills, too.

However, she has already informed her mother and me her car will be packed and she will be ready to pull out of Lawrence, Kansas and head back home as soon as she completes her last exam.

While Mary Beth and I are looking forward to spending the summer with our daughter, we just hope her return to the nest will be equally successful.

Zen Habits Update (with a Best of April 2008)

Hi guys … as you’ve noticed, I haven’t been posting as much in the last couple weeks. I will be posting a bit more this week but thought I’d update you on what’s been going on so you know I’m still alive. :)

First, I have been working hard on finishing my book … it’s going well, although slower than I’d anticipated, and I’m finishing it up this week and next. That’s been taking up a lot of my time, obviously, but I’m excited to have a completed book!

Second, I had a bit of a family medical situation. It’s nothing serious, but it did take away from my blogging time. It’s pretty much resolved now and everything is fine, so please don’t worry. Life throws little speed bumps in your way once in awhile. :)

Third, I’ve really increased my exercise recently and am training for a triathlon. I’ll post more about my training and progress very soon. But with increased training has come decreased time for everything else.

16 Ways to Keep A Razor- Sharp Focus at Work

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Glen Stansberry of LifeDev (feed).

Focus is something of a novelty these days. We’ve got cellphones for texting and calls, IM, Twitter, Email, RSS feeds, Facebook, Myspace… the list goes on and on. If you don’t have ADD before you start working online, it seems it’s almost inevitable thanks to these inputs. If you’re a web worker who uses the Internet for the majority of the day, you’re especially at risk for losing focus.

Focus is something that must be fought for. It’s not something that automatically switches on when you want to. You have to make sure your surroundings are perfect for working if you want to be focused. Here’s a few ways I’ve found this to work:

The Seven Deadly Sins of a Relationship

“Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That’s why it’s a comfort to go hand in hand.” - Emily Kimbrough

While I can’t claim to be the world’s foremost expert on relationships, I do know that my wife and I have a very strong marriage, and have never been more in love.

I’ve failed at marriage before, but that’s helped me become better at it. I’ve learned the deadly sins of relationships, and how to recognize them and avoid them.

Simple Manifesto: Break Free from the Tyranny of the Clock

“But what minutes! Count them by sensation, and not by calendars, and each moment is a day.” - Benjamin Disraeli

For tens of thousands of years, human beings didn’t have clocks. They lived, amazingly, by the sun and the moon and seasons and the needs and rhythms of their bodies.

The clock is a very very recent invention, and even more recent is our modern society’s slavish adherence to the dictatorship of the clock.