Posts tagged “HOWTO”

ChittahChattah Quickies

  • If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice: the appeal of simplification by choice elimination – At the bottom of the Heaven's Dog cocktail list there's a category called "Freedom from Choice," where you leave it up to the bar staff to decide your drink. Diners choose the spirit they'd like and whether it should be "citrus-driven or spirituous."
  • Home + Housewares Show 2009…in Cartoons! – Pithy, brilliant, hilarious. Applies pretty much to every tradeshow I've ever been to.
  • Ask Jeremiah: The Comprehensive FAQ Guide to Twitter – It's a great document, but an online FAQ on someone's site is good for the type of user who is going to seek this document out…the mass adoption from Twitter is not going be as well supported by documents like this as it would be through the experience that Twitter itself creates
  • Lisa Smith and Caroline Linder at the Home + Housewares Show 2009 – "a maze of the bizarre and the banal, including picture frame air fresheners, pet hair picker-uppers, fingerprintless garbage cans, antibacterial marinaters, high-power vacuum cleaners, automatic hair-cutters, gas-powered blenders, anti-static dusters and instant boot dryers."
    "the spectacle is especially nightmarish; it represents the darker side of our discipline–product design gone wild and unchecked in the marketplace"
    "Who knew that both Miami Vice and the Southwestern pottery craze are preserved within the wide color range of KitchenAid Mixers?"
    "Q: How did you pick these forms? A:Oh, these are historical forms that we made up.""

Seven Habits of Highly Effective Nappers

Seven Habits of Highly Effective Nappers
via

1. Announce your nap to yourself and if possible to your family, friends or colleagues.

For many people this has been the key step to guilt free, productive napping. In order to feel comfortable psychologically when napping, you have to know that by napping you are doing yourself and your significant others a favor. By ‘announcing’ your nap to yourself you are reinforcing and reminding yourself of the productivity and health benefits of napping.

2. Gather your napnomic devices

This much we know is true–nappers have certain devices that make their nap more pleasurable. We call these napnomic devices, i. e., things that assist you to nap. When you were a toddler, perhaps you had a teddy bear, a favorite blanket, a pacifier. Now that you are an adult napper you have put away your childish things, and have other napnomic devices. These might be certain pillows, your favorite bed, soft music, cool bed sheets, workout clothes, etc.

3. Insure a method for on-time awakening

Many expert nappers do not worry about awakening from their nap. They just do. They can tell themselves how long they wish to nap and they awaken at that time. Concern about on time awakening can ruin a good nap. Nappers who are apprehensive about waking up on time use wristwatches, clock or radio alarms to awaken successfully. When napping at a hotel the wakeup service can be used.

4. Insure control of your nap environment, including a plan to avoid nappus interruptus

Nappers need to feel secure in their nap, knowing not only that they have a method to wake up, but also that they will not be awakened prematurely, i. e., experience nappus interruptus. Common strategies are to shut off the phone, hold calls, and/or find an out-of-the way or secretive napping spot. Hotel nappers can use the doorknob sign asking for privacy.

5. Revel in the nap

Enjoy! No relevant suggestions here if you master the other six habits.

6. Deal with sleep inertia, if necessary

Sleep inertia is that groggy and slightly disorienting feeling that some nappers experience when awakening from a nap. Some people believe that if you nap about 40-60 minutes you will be waking up from a deep sleep and are more apt to experience sleep inertia. To combat sleep inertia they recommend naps of shorter duration (20-30 minutes). Overcoming sleep inertia is not rocket science. For the most part all the things you need are readily available: water, coffee, a bathroom, and a good nattitude (i. e., napping attitude).

7. Begin to plan your next nap as you awaken from this nap

Even accomplished nappers often miss this step. But it is important to make napping opportunities a traditional part of your daily planning, even if you don’t always use the opportunity.

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