The Little Black Notebook and the Daily Bucket List Fix to Time Management
It seems to me that a good part of life is spent trying to figure out how to best manage yourself. At least that's the case for me. Every New Year, publications are full of advice on "how to slow down," or "how to have a stress-free year." My sister had a copy of the German Flow laying about when I [...]
Annette and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
I was driving to my cousin's house for dinner last week when two warning lights came on in the car. Then the instrument panel went dead. When I put on the indicator to make a turn, the clicking sound was gone. Was it working? Still, I drove on along the icy, snowy roads of Lansing, Michigan. We made it to [...]
In the Footsteps of a Book – A Walk Through the Jerusalem Neighborhood of Musrara
The actual House of Windows as far as we could tell Have you ever traveled in the footsteps of a book? Visited the location where a character lived? Tried to retrace his or her steps? I've done this several times, such as on a trip to London when my kids and I visited where Hercule Poirot "lived" in [...]
The Benefit of a Traveler’s Daily WhatsApp Messages to a Friend: Boosting Mindfulness and Creating a Travel Diary
The WhatsApp message that began the daily ritual: "Here a photo for you, view from our hotel, you also sent me such nice photos of the big wide world when I was bedridden." I usually don't keep a travel diary. On a trip, when days are jammed with activities, I simply don't have the time. Plus I'm exhausted [...]
Stumbling Upon Oskar Schindler’s Grave in Jerusalem
One of the things I love about Jerusalem is that you stumble upon historically significant sites all the time. Such was the case last weekend, when my husband and I set out to walk to the Kotel (Western Wall) in the Old City. This was a solid 45 minute walk from our rented apartment, but of course we stopped here [...]
How to Evaluate Your Social Media Use and Free Up Time
I just lived without my main email for almost two weeks, and that turned out to be quite nice. Just before I left on a longer trip, I messed up my Microsoft Office suite (don't ask, I don't quite know how that happened). My Outlook was uninstalled. I could only access my email through my Internet provider's nasty webmail interface. [...]