Don’t get me wrong I agree with the ideas of managing your money and time well – but I don’t think I could ever “tie myself” to these aids, no matter how great they seem.

For me it’s about being a minimalist in all I do. Especially in my lifestyle choices.

I could live in a big house, but choose to live in a lovely 700 sq ft loft instead. Bigger is not better. I waste less time on cleaning, maintenance and all the other things that go into this obsession with the big house, dog and picket fence.

I could have hundreds of friends but choose to have a select meaningful ones instead.

I could take on more projects – but choose to focus on no more than 3 at a time.

I could have more blogs – but only have 2.

I could be on facebook (time killer!) and twitter (ditto) but will not.

I could eat a lot more but eat what I need and only fresh, never pre made.

I have a tv but don’t have cable.

I have only one car but walk, bike or bus more often than not. Forced downtime.

I can easily afford more clothing and “stuff” but will not buy what I don’t need. But when I do – it’s high end, well made and beautiful. Not made in China. Quality not Quantity.

The list goes on.

All these choices are about learning to live in moderation. If you do that – I really do believe you don’t need all this other “stuff” to keep you “on top of things”.

I have a years worth in my savings account
I have a pension plan
I have no debt at all – not even a credit card debt

I often have time to spare
I have time to be bored
I am not rushed through my days and have time to see my life

I am naturaly in a good mood and relaxed
I am healthy and fit (but not a granola type!)
I do many activities (rock climbing, theater etc)

My life is full yet not rushed.

I believe my approach works as well. Slow down people and you will not need to “manage” everything.

I am really finding that the most important stuff is just making sure I am giving and serving instead of reading and taking in info that I will not use

Casey,
I like your idea of tracking health. I’ll think more about it.

Sid,
That reminds me of the Hawthorne effect. Just knowing that somebody (or something) is watching can improve your productivity. Quite effective, isn’t it? :)

Lana,
Glad you like them.

Steve,
For me the challenge is random browsing. I sometimes spend a lot of time reading random articles at Wikipedia.

Isaac,
So you measure energy indirectly through the outcomes it produces. That makes sense. I’ll think about it.

Craig,
I can’t use it either (I live in Indonesia). What I use is a discontinued application called Microsoft Money :)

Jarrod,
Staying consistent is always a challenge. But I think it will get easier as you’ve felt the benefits.

Since Energy is an impulse that makes you get things done, I think you can measure it by tracking the small and big goals you achieve. If you keep a record of what you actually get done in a period of time, you can get an idea about your level of energy.

I think this is a great resource to measure, because by doing it you are able to know how hard you are working to achieve your goals, and if you need to push harder or keep the rhythm. This would help you a lot to find success!

I like to track my income and expenses with a spreadsheet. I think this is something everybody should do.

I also like to track time. What I do is defining a limited period of time to complete important tasks. For example, I give myself 1 hour a day to read interesting blogs. ;)

I hadn’t thought about tracking habits. It sounds good.

I could not agree more with tracking your time. To me that’s the most important one of all.

The very first time i used RescueTime it was pretty sobering – I suddenly got a good look at how much time I was spending answering email all day ;)

Even now it’s running in my taskbar, and every time I see it there, I try to make sure I quickly process any email I’m trying to deal with ;)