Yeah, I'm a little sad that I had no time to continue my blog series or create new blogposts.

However the good news is that I wasn't resting. In the last weeks I created a new blog for PrincessHoney.
It is called "Hamburg is[s]t vegan" and deals with vegan food and vegan lifestyle in Hamburg.
More or less it is a niche and local topic, but I think it will help me to learn a lot about creating a totally new project from the scratch. Furthermore it is a lot of fun!

You can follow the progress on Twitter, Facebook and the blog:

http://twitter.com/#!/HamburgIstVegan

http://www.facebook.com/HamburgIstVegan

http://hamburgistvegan.de/

I would be glad to read a comment or receive feedback from you!

Yeah, it's more or less an ad. But hey it's progress of a big company, too.

"I didn't use any vacation time while I was in Indiana [brother's
funeral, taking care of mother]. In fact, I didn't track any time off
at all. Now that I'm on ROWE, tracking any kind of time off seems
ludicrous. ... Heck, I even worked from the Philippines for a week and
took no time off. My job was completed over the internet and many
people even didn't know I was out of town."

(Page 134, Why work sucks and how to fix it)

“The language in the work environment that makes judgments about how people are spending their time.”

Sludge might sound like this: “10:00 and you’re just getting in? I wish I could come in late every day”, “Banker’s hours again? Must be nice”, or “There goes Jill to pick up her sick kid again at daycare – wish I had a kid and could get some time off”.

(via book “Why work sucks and how to fix it” and co2partners.com)

This is part two of my new blog series "Sustainable Lifestyle". If you haven't read the first post, click here. Shortly after answering the questions "What is sustainability?" and "Why is a sustainable lifestyle important?" I will sum up a few tips for one of our most beloved hobbies, shopping. They are easy to implement in your next shopping trip or online order. Here they come:

• Buy more
  That's a good start, right? However my next sentences maybe disappoint you. By saying that you should buy more I don't invoke you to buy more stuff than you wanted to buy. Rather I want to encourage you to buy more at once. This will save you time, produce less packaging and pollution made of transport or travelling.

• Buy less
  Do you really need all the stuff you have collected in your appartment and basement? Yes? When have you recently used your juicer, sandwich maker or mini indoor helicopter? If it is a long time ago then you are not alone. We buy a lot of stuff that we throw to all the over unused stuff after a short while. The next time you plan to buy a new gadget, kitchen device or accessoire ask yourself "Will I still regularly use it in three months?".

• Digitize your shopping list
  I was one these "I write everything on paper to not forget anything"-shoppers. However I have made acquaintance with Google Tasks which helps me to write down everything I need to buy easily and save a paper. Here is why it's easy: Tap add, write, tap somewhere, repeat to add more, uncheck while it's flying into your shopping cart.

• Prepare a packed lunch
  A long shopping trip can be exhausting. After a while it is good to eat or drink something. Most people run to the next takeaway and buy something to eat it on the go. Most of the time I do the same. My problem is that I don't really like most of the food I find in the shopping center. Therefore I thought about how to get delicious food and don't be depend on the (more or less) sustainable mindset of the takeaway businesses. Here is the solution: Prepare a packed lunch with your beloved food and drink. With this you can be assured what's in the food, how it was prepared and it produces less waste if you use plastic boxes. Furthermore it will make you happier because it is exactly what you like.

• Don't forget your shopping bags
  Your handbag or backpack with your packed lunch is ready. However don't forget your shopping bags. Either you reuse the shopping bags from your last shopping trip or you have bought cotton shopping bags. Now you are prepared to refuse the shopping bags in the next store to pack your bought stuff in your own bags. Hint: I own cotton shopping bags that are fairtrade. Try to find "good" shopping bags, too.

• Pass your car
  Ride a (shared) bike, walk, take the bus. There is nothing more to write. I only use my car to go shopping if I buy water bottles and juice for the next 2-3 weeks.

• Refuse the sales slip
  Most of the time we buy things that have no guarentee or that we won't take back to the store. Everytime you refuse the associated sales slips it will save paper. However there is one precondition: The cash register shouldn't print the sales slips if you don't need it. In Germany more and more business already stopped printing the sales slips automatically. Maybe they found out that it's totally waste.

• Produce less waste
  So you really like apples but live alone and buy only two everytime you go shopping? That's okay. However it is not okay to put them in a plastic bag. In my opinion there is no extra effort to bring two loose apple to the cashier. Furthermore it will save you a little money because you don't weigh the plastic bag.

• Recycle the packaging
  After you have finished and return home to unpack your shopping bags try to separate plastic, paper and other waste to recycle it. This will make it easier to reuse the materials that are normally thrown away.

Do you have any further tips on shopping? Please let me know in the comments and I will add it with your name to the list.

 

Picture credits: "NO To Plastic" by Artotem (Flickr)

Constantly seek to learn and grow, but accept yourself exactly as you are.

Add Value to Others and Take Care of Yourself.

Focus Intensely and Renew Regularly.

Read more:
http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/2010/12/six-ingredients-of-a-good-life.html

"Collaboration and connecting with others is a beautiful thing, but in the end, creation is done in solitude. All great art is done in isolation. All creative work must be done by shutting out the outside world, sitting down, and creating."

Read the five steps how-to here:
http://the99percent.com/tips/6961/Creating-Perfect-Solitude-for-Creative-Focus

"Here's what makes it easy to get started with this: no one needs to know. 

Start with just yourself. Sit at your desk in the morning, pause before booting up your computer, and mark the moment. Do this by taking a deep breath. Or by arranging your pens. Whatever it is, do it with the intention of creating respect for what you're about to begin. Do the same before you make a phone call. Or receive one. Or before you meet with a colleague or customer.

Each time we pause, notice, and offer respect for an activity, it reminds us to appreciate and focus on what we're about to do. And by elevating each activity, we'll take it more seriously. We'll get more pleasure from it. The people with whom we work will feel more respected. And we'll feel more self-respect.

Which means we'll work better with each other. And produce better results.

That focus will help us accomplish our tasks more carefully, more proficiently, and more productively, with fewer distracting under-the-table BlackBerry texts. And all the research shows that that kind of singular focus will make us far more efficient. 

In other words, that time-indulgent ritual thing? It might just be the perfect antidote to a time-starved world."

Read more: http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2010/12/the-value-of-ritual-in-your-wo.html