Youth Hacks

I’ve started a new blog called Youth Hacks.  I’m using it to share productivity tips, tools and ideas with a slant towards the needs of youth workers.  Check it out and tell me what you think!

john mclaughlin

i just hopped on the itunes store and saw that john mclaughlin’s “beautiful disaster” is the itunes free single of the week. (get it here).

a couple of summers ago i played with micah and 3rd and lindsley in nasheville on the same bill as john.  he and his bandmates were our also houseguests last summer, and i can say that john, his wife and all of the dudes and the band are genuinely quality people.  definitely check out the track, as well as his other stuff (if you’re not into this tune, still check out the record.  alot of his stuff is billy joel/ben folds type piano-driven stuff)

on a scale of 1 to 10

if you don’t know the wright family, you should.  they are supremely cool in many ways (more than i can delve into in one post).  i try to glean as much as i can from them whenever i can.  not too long ago i was speaking to mrs. wright and she gave me perhaps the coolest tip/hack ever.

as she puts it, her whole family runs on a scale of 1 to 10.  she gave the following example: say mr. wright asks her to go to a work event with him.  she’ll say “1 to 10?”.  if he says “5″ then tough luck, she’s not going.  if he says “7″ or “8″ however, she’ll concede and go along. 

they also use it if the kids are sick or hurt.  if you’re a 10, you need to get rushed to the hospital.  if you’re a 1, you need to walk it off.

the great thing about this system is that it assigns a real, tangible priority level to a situation.  you don’t have to guess if its important or really, really important.  there’s a number in front of it. 

i’ve already started using the system in my own life.  when i email my bosses (who already have to deal with too many emails) i’ve started appending a number to the end of the email indicating how important it is.  funny videos get a 1, phone messages from the boss get a 9, meetings about internal operations get a 4 or 5. 

like all great tips, this one is really broad and open.  i’d be interested in hearing how other people could apply this system to everyday decisions.