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Monday Tally: Graduation, Improvement, Audiobooks

monday-tag-150px Monday Tally is a weekly link round-up of some of my favorite posts discovered over the week. If you have suggestions for Monday Tally, please e-mail sophisticated [dot] dorkiness [at] gmail [dot] com. Enjoy!

“It’s Not About You” in The New York Times

David Brooks’ article about the challenges for recent college graduates talks about the challenges individualistic rhetoric for recent college graduates. It’s an interesting piece, but my favorite quote is this one:

No one would design a system of extreme supervision to prepare people for a decade of extreme openness. But this is exactly what has emerged in modern America. College students are raised in an environment that demands one set of navigational skills, and they are then cast out into a different environment requiring a different set of skills, which they have to figure out on their own.

60 Small Ways to Improve Your Life in the Next 100 Days from Stepcase Lifehack

I really like the idea of making life improvements in small steps, so this list of ideas was pretty cool. Some that seem like they’d be good for me include:

  • Create a “100 Days to Conquer Clutter Calendar” by penciling in one group of items you plan to declutter every day, for the next 100 days.
  • Choose a book that requires effort and concentration and read a little of it every day, so that you read it from cover to cover in 100 days. (War and Peace, anyone?)
  • Set your alarm a minute earlier every day for the next 100 days. Then make sure that you get out of bed as soon as your alarm rings, open the windows to let in some sunlight, and do some light stretching. In 100 days you’ll be waking up an hour and forty minutes earlier than you’re waking up now.
  • Create a spending plan (also known as a budget). Track every cent that you spend for the next 100 days to make sure that you’re sticking to your spending plan.
  • Track how you spend your time for 5 days. Use the information that you gather in order to create a time budget: the percentage of your time that you want to devote to each activity that you engage in on a regular basis.
  • For the next 100 days, get at least twenty minutes of daily exercise.
  • For the next 100 days, make it a daily ritual to mediate, breath, or visualize every day in order to calm your mind.

Audiobook Week at Devourer of Books

If you are a fan of audiobooks, be sure to stop by Jen’s blog this week to check out Audiobook Week.  Each day she has a different discussion topic related to audiobooks, as well as a place to link your own audiobook reviews. There are a ton of great prizes too, so check it out!

For more of my favorite links from the week, check out my Tumblr, A Little Bit of Dorkiness.

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Andi June 6, 2011, 9:05 am

    Looking oh-so forward to Audiobook Week!

    • Kim June 7, 2011, 6:55 pm

      Me too! I’m not a big audiobook person — just when I’m in the car — but I like reading all about them during Audiobook Week.

  • Jenny June 6, 2011, 9:17 am

    I thought that article about college was fascinating. I’ve read a lot of stuff recently about college and the value of college, and now that I’m out of college and have a job and don’t have to worry about it, I think the articles are nearly always extremely interesting. But I would have been unable to enjoy them if I were still in college. Poor college kids.

    • Kim June 7, 2011, 6:57 pm

      I’ve been reading a lot of those articles too, although I think it’s a lot rosier to reflect on college once you’re out and are gainfully employed.

  • Aths June 6, 2011, 11:40 am

    The Lifehack article is great! Thanks for sharing!

    • Kim June 7, 2011, 6:57 pm

      I liked that one a lot too!

  • Young1 June 6, 2011, 1:22 pm

    I went over and had a look at 60 small ways to improve your life in 100 days and it is fantastic i have added it to my bookmarks and will go back to it every now and then. There was one that said learn something new every day so i think for the next 100 days i will do a new word of the day! I wonder if i can keep it up!

    Great post!

    • Kim June 7, 2011, 6:58 pm

      I like that one too; I subscribed to a Word of the Day e-mail, but ended up not reading it very often 🙂

  • Vasilly June 6, 2011, 3:55 pm

    I read that Lifehacker article and thought it was pretty interesting. Thanks for the links!

    • Kim June 7, 2011, 6:59 pm

      Certainly!

  • nymfaux June 7, 2011, 12:21 pm

    Hi!–found you via Young1 –What a great post!!!–I feel energized just reading it!!!!

    (\__/)nymfaux

    • Kim June 7, 2011, 6:59 pm

      I’m glad it was helpful.

  • Ash June 7, 2011, 5:22 pm

    I really liked It’s Not About You, although I’m not sure that is really the right headline for the editorial. The headline seems to imply the article is about college graduates thinking everything is about them while the article focuses more on how they have been told everything is about them. Same thing… but not exactly. Really great though!

    • Kim June 7, 2011, 6:59 pm

      Yeah, that’s a pretty good point. The headline is a little off, but I did like the actual content of the article.