CoQ10

Good afternoon ladies and gents.

Just another short post, I know, but I've been rather busy lately. Moving into a new apartment. You never realise how much stuff you have until you need to fit it into boxes.

Anyway, I'd just like to talk about the lovely powdered product, CoQ10.
(You can get it in pill form, however, I love the little scoops you obtain within the powdered ones.)

Coenzyme Q10 is the fancy name for a dietary supplement that can be bought in most chemists. It occurs naturally in some foods, however, not enough of it is ever absorbed so that you can reap the benefits of this magic powder.

To view all the health benefits, you can go to the wikipedia page ->http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coenzyme_Q10#Supplementation_benefits

CoQ10 promotes cellular energy by improving the efficiency of the mitochondria in your cells. This, in turn, helps to maintain a healthy heart and cardiovascular system. It's a great all round booster, improving your energy and overall health. As with all supplements, the effects are gradual but noticable. I've been taking this for 6 months now and I can tell you with sincere honesty, it is the best supplement I've ever taken (and I've tried a lot).

Anyway, the price for said powder varies depending on where you are. I picked my little tub up for 15 dollars, and one tub usually lasts around 1-2 months. If you do end up trying it, let me know how it works for you.

As always, this is based on my personal experience (apart from the science-y part.) All things in moderation, always follow the label and what not.

Take care of yourselves, next post will be a rant.

- Oscar.

Energy Efficiency.

Just a short post tonight,

From the moment we wake up to the moment we fall asleep, we have limited amounts of energy. This is determined by our health, our diet, our mood, and hundreds of other variables. And the more and more energy we use up, the harder it is to use what's left. The key to maximizing the efficiency of this limited energy is understanding where most of it is used.

Don't waste your time and energy with fruitless and tiresome activities. Not to say don't enjoy yourself, but we can't dodge our responsibilities forever, so best to do them well I say.

Just another point. When you miss your recommended eight hours of sleep, you build up what's called sleep debt. This literally means you're going to have to pay those off someday. So try not to gamble with your hours, you can't beat city hall.

Enjoy yourselves, stay healthy.

- Oscar.

Procrastination & Consequential Avoidance.

Hello,

I would say good evening/afternoon, except the pleasantry may be lost due to A) It's shite weather or B) The majority of people reading this are most likely not living in Brisbane. If you are however living in Brisbane, and the weather is better where you live, don't feel bad, your day is nearly over so it can't be ruined. I hope.

Tonight I'd like to address the topic of procrastination. I happen to know for a fact that all of us here are extremely familiar with it. I know I am. Yes, the all too common "I'll do it later", "Just after this" "I CAN'T SAVE THE GAME, HANG ON!" (It's important to note that if you had never experienced the water temple in Legend of Zelda, you have no idea how applicable this is). Procrastination is simply delaying something you don't want to do, to continue something you do want to do. Put like that, it doesn't sound so bad, right? But I'm sure we're all aware it doesn't work like that. Procrastinating often leads to poor work output, poor quality of work, horrible time management and an overall lack of organization in ones life. (Noted in previous posts, I am not trying to say you should live by a schedule. Rather, I advocate the building of the self-discipline required to apply yourself to a schedule when needed. )

Separated from procrastination, is Consequential Avoidance. A fancy name I came up with that simply means avoiding something because it will suck. For the purpose of clarity, in the post, Consequential Avoidance falls under Procrastination, but Procrastination IS NOT Consequential Avoidance. If that makes sense. An example of consequential avoidance would be not going rock-climbing with your significant other because it makes you nervous. Not the best example, but my mind is rather cloudy today (ironic, right?). In total, CA is because there is a consequence affecting you, Proc. is because you just can't be bothered, or are enjoying what you're doing now.

Overcoming Procrastination.

I'll tell you later. (I would sincerely like to apologise for that joke, it was terrible taste and you didn't deserve that kind of treatment. Take me back, please?)

There is literally a never-ending list of tips & tricks to developing the motivation needed for getting up and doing something. The steps I will list are, as always, my opinion, and can be tinkered with as needed. The situation I will use as an example would be getting yourself to stop browsing/gaming/watching and to start studying/exercising/cooking.

Self-laid traps.

When you walk through your bedroom/office/front door, what do you see? If you see any of these, you have laid traps for yourself to over-indulge and procrastinate.

- Unmade bed. We all know beds are most comfortable when they're a tangle of sheets and duvets, and it's a great sensation to get home and just crash on your bed. But often you'll find you may fall asleep, or simply spend too much time lying there, letting your thoughts wander. It's great on holidays, but not when you have tasks to do. Make your bed when you get up, not only is this better for keeping you focused, it's also more hygienic (I think) and keeps your room looking good.

- Musical Instruments. Easily accessible and incredibly entertaining. If you keep it out of sight (in the cupboard or somewhere, not shipped anonymously to your friend) you are far less likely to "jam".

- If you leave your computer/tv on during the day, and come through the door, guess what has your attention first? Turn it off, it saves your work and your power.

- Neat freak? Do you tidying in the morning, it will help stimulate brain activity for the rest of the day, and you'll get your tidying fix.

- If you plan to shower when you get home, make sure you keep it short, and not too warm. Blasting yourself with cold water snaps you awake, among other things.

- KEEP YOUR GAMES AND MOVIES IN A SEPERATE PLACE FROM YOUR COMPUTER. I can't stress this enough. Especially if you're male, we're biologically hardwired to fit stuff together. Not joking, why do you think you play minecraft.

Motivation

Most procrastination is due to lack of motivation. Everyone has a vice, so if you know it, use it. Otherwise, here's a short list of things that might get you going.

- Reward yourself afterwards. I don't care how. A cookie, a car, time to read your favourite blog, it doesn't matter.

- Think about the repercussions. Your mind is a creative tool of unimaginable power. I'm sure it can put 2 and 2 together, get four, and then multiply that tenfold. Just think. If you don't cook that meal, you'll have to order pizza, which will then cost money, which comes out of your saving for the new special edition Gibson ES with the faded finish, which leaves you feeling guilty, which leads you to remember other times. So on so forth. Exaggeration is not a crime.

- Plan out your work during the day. If you have a rough idea of what you're doing, you'll obviously do it better, and with more enthusiasm.

And lastly, don't be a child about things. Life is hard, arduous, and plain boring at some times. But if we went skydiving all day every day, it wouldn't be the shriek-inducing adrena-fest it is. (My friends and I are going skydiving for my birthday this year. I'm terrified. If anyone's skydived before, let me know what it's like, I'll be jumping at 10 000ft.)

Tip. Once you've started working, it is much easier to continue it. If you just give yourself the necessary push to start, you'll find it's easy from there.

Consequential Avoidance.

Truth be told, there isn't much you can do about this. But I will say this.

If you're going to hate doing something, but you do it anyway, make damn sure you do it right. You don't want to have to repeat things that can be avoided.

I know that response is short, but I really don't have the answers for that one. I would just like to acknowledge it in this post because it is somewhat different to plain old procrastination.

To finish up, it's important to know what needs to be done and what can wait. If you're on top and efficient with your tasks, you'll find that the more time you spend on them, the more time you open up for indulging activities.

I would also like to leave you with this quote. I can't remember where I saw it, but I'm sure I'll see it tomorrow. It's a little strong, but the principle is still there.

"Life's a bitch. Make it your bitch."

- Oscar.

100 Followers.

Evening,

Just dropping in to give a huge thanks to everyone who has been following, I just hit 100 followers, which really means a lot. I'm so glad it's got this kind of reception. Thanks, I mean it.

Will have another rant up by tomorrow.

Cheers.

-Oscar.

Beetle Invasion & Winter Blues.

Greetings,

I have returned from my short jaunt to the beach (Noosa, if you want to get geographic), and now I have slightly more colour and much less money. Also, apologies for the former layout, I did it in a rush (nothing should ever be done in a rush) and I felt like it needed a more personal feel about it. As you can probably already tell, I love my coffee. Passionately.

Before we get too in depth into anything I'd just like to remark on the strange beach beetles. There were quite literally hundreds of them, everywhere, and nobody knows when and where they came from. They wouldn't be such a huge fuss, if it weren't for the fact that they were totally and utterly new. They even made headlines in one of the papers.

If you're not from Australia, beach beetles as the front cover, scraping in front of politics, sports and economics, might seem just a little strange. But due to the fact that everyone here is, and not targeting anyone (keeping in mind I live here as well), incredibly settled in, any minor disturbance to the natural flow shocks everyones respective socks off. In any case, I'm glad I got to the beach before winter sets in. The water was the nicest I've ever seen it, if a little cool.

Anyway, as some of you might be aware, there exists a medically diagnosed condition called Season Affective Disorder. SAD for short. Ironically. It's an incredibly common and general condition, in which I'm sure most of us experience it to some degree. I have it at a moderate level, and throughout the winter I simply feel apathetic towards former joys and tasks. So, here's a quick list of things that I personally find helpful during the winter (or summer, depending on when you have it).

Food.
Mood-booster foods such as fruit and chocolate are always good (the latter in moderate amounts, of course), and mild coffee will help energize you when you feel increasingly lethargic.

Yoghurt (why does it say incorrect spelling, I'm sure it has an H in it.) is full of pro-biotics, at least most of them are. I personally prefer the pot-set style, Greek vanilla is an all time favourite. Yoghurt will give you those extra calories needed for the winter in a healthy and delicious style.

English muffins. Every morning. Without exception. Getting back to topic. Wholesome breakfasts, including eggs, tomatoes, sausages and toast keeps you full and warm until lunch.

Exercise? A lot of people run for warmth, which is obviously down to preference, however, if you're not a natural/frequent runner, the cold coupled with the added pressure on your legs can lead to horrible shin ache. I know I get it. The best exercise is probably to be done in the sun if possible, giving your pores a chance to open and letting you absorb that precious vitamin D.

And remember, Warm & Functional > Cold & Stylish. I'm sure your friends won't be mortified at your lovely warm jumper.

That's it for tonight, apologies as it's not my longest rant, and that it's more health related than anything. I assure you my next rant will be as per normal.

Again. I am not a doctor. These are just my thoughts.

Thanks again guys, I'm truly happy this is getting such reception. And thank you for your suggestions, I hope the new layout is better.

- Oscar.

Vacation & Blog Frequency.

Good Morning,

Just a quick update to let everyone know that I've decided on the layout of posts I shall be doing. And that I'm also going to the beach today. You all needed to know that.

So, the format I was thinking, consists of two short posts of mainly first-level anecdotes or updates, followed by a long rant filled with food-references and effort.

That way I have a bit of time to muse on the topic of said post before I release it into the unforgiving world of the internet.

I hope that's alright with everyone, after all, this blog is for you!

Here's hoping I'm not viciously attacked by jellyfish at the beach.

- Oscar.

P.S. We have these at our beach, nicknamed Blue Bottles. However, they're not actually jellyfish, it is a jelly-like marine invertebrate. (Thanks Wikipedia!) You learn something new everyday.

The Inertia of Thoughts.

Inertia is Newtons first law of Motion. You have most likely heard of this through physics or general knowledge, but just to qualify.

Inertia states that:

Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to stay in that uniform motion unless an external force is applied.

i.e.

Objects like to keep doing what they're already doing, unless an external force interferes.

I love this law. Not because I love physics. I hate physics. Most likely because I had terrible grades for it in school, but that's beside the point. I like this law because it can be applied to people as well, in large demographics and to individuals.

Applied to the human psyche, the law is now.

Every person in a state of uniform routine tends to stay in that routine until an external force intervenes.

Emphasis on tends to.

This can still be applied to people without a set routine, who takes it as it comes. Routine is not a set plan for a day, a month, or a year. Your routine might well be to wake up in the afternoon, catch a bus to somewhere you don't know, and sleep somewhere else. It's still routine. A change in that routine would be do have a schedule for the day. Schedule =/= Routine, in this post.

People generally dislike change, and so you have people tending to stick to what they know. Human Inertia.

-Note. I had to add this in. Human Inertia makes me think of scientists sling-shotting people and calculating the velocity. I thought we should all have that mental image before we move on.

Now, talking from experience (I'm professional like that), outsourcing your energy into work doesn't start when you get home, when you finish your coffee or when you walk through the office doors. In my honest opinion, it starts when you wake up. If you wake up with the mindset of lounging about all day, or contemplate things other than the present, then Inertia will simply carry these thoughts throughout the day.

- Unless an external force intervenes.

It would be fair to argue that you could slap yourself in the face in front of a bathroom mirror, yell "Hustle up" and that would be considered an external force. But as you are well aware, procrastination is difficult to withstand. Coupled with an extremely bias opinion of oneself and you have yourself the recipe for delusional thinking, in the sense that you're the only one who will think you're working hard.

What's my point? You need to be making the effort the moment you have that first bite of delicious crunchy nut cornflakes. That way, provided I am not completely off my bonks, you can continue that state of mind all throughout the period where your attention will need to fixated on something for more time than it takes to cook bacon. I've been mentioning food a lot recently. I think that's a sign for dinner.

Anyway, thanks for the recent feedback guys, it's great to see that this is reaching people. I am of course a human, so if you disagree with anything, don't be shy.

After all. You can't prove me right.

- Oscar.

P.S. These are those delicious crunchy nut cornflakes you'll be eating.

A short note.

Good Evening from Brisbane.

I'm rather strapped for time at the moment, my sincere apologies, I'll have another lengthy rant ready for tomorrow, I assure you.

I would just like to share with you briefly a conversation I had with a non-descript person working at a non-descript coffee emporium.
(I like to use absurd names when ordering my coffee, I know there are some of you out there who do the same.)


Coffee Woman: And your name please?

Devilishly handsome man: Jaque. (Pronounced with a soft J)

Coffee Woman: Oh, okay, just wait behind the counter sir.

So there I was waiting for my coffee. And while I watched fiddle at the knobs (hohoho) at the magic machine of delicious beverages, she kept mouthing my name over and over again.

By the end of it, she had the pronunciation down to a point.

The coffee? Shite. And I assure you, the coffee from this place is usually to die for.

So was it just a mistake? Is she new? Doubtful, seeing as new workers have a tag that screams "In training."

Don't get distracted by oddities, folks, they're not so uncommon as you'd think.

Also. Using strange names is an oddly satisfying feeling, you should try it one day.

Thanks for putting up with this.

- Oscar.

Mood v Work Output

Happy workers are better workers.
Believe it, don't believe it, the fact still remains that elevated mood levels result in, not only more output, but better quality.

Elevated, however, does not always mean happiness.

Take art for example. Some of the greatest art has been painted by off-the-rail, traumatized, manic depressives.
The same goes for poetry, compositions, and most other creative productions.

On a more down to earth level, generally you will find that you prefer to work if you're already having a good day. This may result, however, in distractions. Reflecting on your life, planning future events, searching for things to change around you, these can always tug your attention away from your task. A healthy balance is required in your mental and physical world to achieve superior output.

Overcoming the urge to build.

Almost every human being has the urge to build. This is not limited to Lego blocks when you were a child, science projects in high school or engineering assessment at college. On a deeper level, people have the urge to build (create) life, security, privacy, a comfortable atmosphere and close relationships. Bringing this level up to your consciousness, you may find yourself, as mentioned before, thinking about your friends, your family, your weekends and what not.

So how is one to overcome these thoughts temporarily, to pour all your effort into the task at hand?

-Taking the example of work based around a computer, however, the principles mentioned can be applied with reasonable common sense.

Aesthetics of your surrounding environment.

To first overcome the ability to improve and design, you will need a work area that is both comfortable, minimalistic, yet does not draw attention. Less is more, as they say.
I'm not trying to come across as advocating a 1984-like scenario where you have no photos or personal assets near you. Rather, I am simply advocating a functional workspace.

Without going into too much detail here is a list of what is not recommended (by me, hohoho) to have around you while trying to work.
- If you have photos, make sure they are of a non-descriptive background. No holidays or reflective material.
- Pens in a mug? One of my favourite desk ornaments. However, make sure it is not commemorative of any event.
- No flashy computer gadgets. Keep it functional, people.
- On your desktop, don't have rainmeter or any other flashy product.

I know this sounds like the elimination of fun, but if you just take away a few distractions, you will find that your efficiency improves greatly.

Background music?

Ehhhhh.
You can go either which way I suppose. If you know which music distracts you, don't listen to it. I suggest making a playlist with a mix of music you enjoy, and just calm, natural sounds.
If you have the majority of your playlist as natural music, throwing in a few of your favourites gives you something to look forward to, on a very small scale.

Anyway, that's my rant for the day. I hope this helps you guys, or at least provokes thought.

Thanks guys.

- Oscar.

Side note. Calmsound is a great source of relaxants.

Introduction.

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening, fellow internet person.

If you weren't redirected here from somewhere else then kudos to you. I can't imagine how you got here otherwise. Unless you specifically searched for something of the like. In which case. Welcome? This post is just a brief summary of what this blog is going to contain, so brief skimming is sufficient to soak up the information.

Purpose.

The purpose of this blog is to express the ideas of organization, aesthetics, sleeping habits and diet, and in what way these affect our everyday life. Just as a side-note:

- Aesthetics is being used in the sense of the visual appeal of the objects and/or people around you, as well as metaphysical ideas.
- Organization is fairly self-explanatory; routines, categorization, listing of items, etc.
- Sleep habits just refers to how,when,where and why you sleep the way you do.
- Diet is just what you eat. Obviously.

I hope that the opinions stated in the posts to come help someone in some small, tiny way. I found that these are all collaborative ideas found in a whole bunch of sources that I mashed into my own simplified version. Seeing as I can't be bothered listing every book I've ever read, ever, I'll occasionally drop hints at where you can read more about them.

Details.

This blog will probably be updated once or twice a week. If I get a whole bunch of followers (not likely) I might up it a bit. I do reply to requests, so just send me an email if you have an inquiry. Yes, there is Adsense. No, I am not a money-making profit machine, It just helps buy scratch-its, my one and only vice...

About me.

I find that adding too many personal details blurs the important aspects of the text, so for the sake of my privacy and your attention, I'll keep it brief. I am currently living in Brisbane, Australia, studying full-time, and work occasionally doing odd-jobs. So. There.

A final note.

Just if any of you reference this blog at all, you may want to know a few things.
- I am not a qualified dietitian or a sleep expert.
- This is talking from personal experience, and the information can be used in any way you seem fit.
- Just drop me a message if you need clarification on anything.

Okay, thanks guys. I hope you enjoy yourself here, and find everything of some value and use.

- Oscar.