By Will Ung
How I Reduced My Cost of Electricity in One Day
When my wife and I finally decided to look into ways to cut energy costs, we noticed that there are numerous ways to do so. The two biggest things we noticed were that you either implement alternative home energy sources, or you can find ways to reduce the energy you are already using.

You can purchase or make solar panels to store energy for small to midsized appliances. You can also use windmill generators to create and store energy for use like solar panels. I have even seen some setups where combinations of the two systems provide power to naturally heat water. The hot water and steam is then used to power turbine generators that produce even more power.

However, before you begin to budget for a set of solar panels or a windmill for your home, I highly recommend that you start by looking into the basics. There are so many different things you can do right now that will lower your next energy bill.

Here are easy ways my wife and I have saved energy and reduced our bills right away:

1. Control your thermostat
If you don’t already have one, then installing a programmable thermostat can help you manage your heating and cooling systems more efficiently. Turning down the heat or the A/C a few degrees while maintaining comfort can help make a little dent.

2. Turn off your computers and monitor
If you are reading this, then you most likely have a computer at home. When you are done, turn off your computer and monitor. Contrary to popular beliefs, turning them on and off will not damage your systems. If you use your computer intermittently on a frequent basis, try using your computer’s power save or hibernation functions.

3. Use power strips
When you are not using your appliances, you can turn off the power strip (or unplug it if possible) to avoid drawing unnecessary power. When appliances remain plugged in, they draw a constant trickle of electricity even when they are off.

4. Look for the Energy Star symbol when looking for new appliances or home electronics
Buy products that have the Energy Star symbol. Energy Star products meet strict D.O.E guidelines and can help you reduce power loads on a daily basis.

5. Use cold water for your laundry
You won’t need to use extra energy to heat the water, and most clothes won’t know the difference anyway!

6. Lower your water heater temperature
If you lower the temperature down to 120 degrees Fahrenheit, your water will still provide enough heat to do shower comfortably and wash your dishes.

7. Use CFL (Compact Fluorescent Light) bulbs
CFL bulbs last longer than incandescent light bulbs and use less energy in the process. They come in a variety of everyday color temperatures and lumens, so there’s most likely one out there that works for your home.

8. Window coverings
You’d be surprised at how much heat window coverings can hold in. Making sure all of your windows are covered are an excellent way to help make the most out of your heating in the cold.

9. Insulation for hot water storage tanks and piping
By retaining more of the heat, less energy would be expended to maintain a relatively constant temperature.

10. Attic or Wall Insulation
It can be a very big energy energy saver. It can also add to your home’s estimated value. With heat constantly rising, and energy being constantly used to produce more heat, it makes a big difference when your home can retain the most it can. That way there’s no need to produce the extra heat you would need if the energy were to escape through the roof of your house!

In the end, it is completely possible to reduce your energy costs by implementing some of these tips. If you go decide to go the next step and look into using alternative home energy resources, there’s quite a few ways to get into it. With proper planning, it’s even possible to go “off the grid” and never receive an energy bill again.

Good luck going green and off the grid!

Here is a website I have used to help me get started with implementing alternative home energy technology:
http://www.yourhomeenergyguide.com William Ung Thanks to http://www.yourhomeenergyguide.com and my friends at PECO energy for the tips! Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Will_Ung

By John Parks

Most people understand how difficult it can be to balance their work and home lives once they get married and have children. Somehow it seems that work life or home life is always encroaching on the other and causing problems at work, at home, and many times both. However the following five tips are great options to help with balancing work and home.

Make a Schedule
The best thing to do when trying to balance work and home is to make a schedule. Know how much time you have and schedule your work time and your home time. Then, you will know when you need to schedule work and home events. This will make your life significantly easier and you will know which activities fit into which time frame. Just make sure you stick to your schedule.

Share Responsibilities
Many times work and home responsibilities can become overwhelming because one spouse is handling more of the responsibilities than the other. So, learn to share responsibilities at home and each spouse can be responsible for their work. Also, older children should have some home responsibilities as well to help parents balance work and home.

Leave Work at Work
Balancing home and work can be difficult because it is so easy to take work home. If you really want to balance work and home then you will always leave work at work and keep home a sacred place for family and home activities.

Dedicate Weekends to Home Activities
A great way to keep home and work separate is to always focus on home activities during weekends, or at least on days off from work if you happen to work on weekends. When certain days are home days and other days are work days then it makes balancing work and home considerably easier.

Plan
The best way to balance work and home is to always make a plan. There are tons of tips that will help you, but there is nothing like making a plan and then following the plan to really balance work and home. It might be difficult, but if you have it planned out and follow the plan you will be surprised how easy you can find a balance.

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Parks

For more information and support for creating more time for yourself and what’s important to you, visit http://www.GalileoLS.com/consult.html for a free coaching consultation.

By Lee Down

A workaholic is someone who has no identity beyond their work. Life is about so much more than what you do. It is about the relationships you develop and nurture. It is about social impact in your community. It is about the growth and learning you experience. It is about living passionately.

We are creative by our very nature, it’s in our genes. Applied intelligence equals creativity. Intelligence takes on many forms. So this creates a new question:
Where is your definition of a workaholic more likely? One living in passion or one living in isolation and fear?

The True Entrepreneur is one that I witness their values, passion, and whole way of being aligned with what they do. In this way, the entrepreneur is just being. The business, the vocation, the passion, the purpose, the values, interests, etc. are all a part of who the individual is.

Externally, I don’t think anyone could casually observe a difference between a workaholic and this entrepreneur. However, the individual knows. Deep down inside, the answer is known and typically the individual will turn away from acknowledging that truth and rationalize sticking to their tried and true behavior. The tried and true is comfortable. To admit the truth requires change and change is uncomfortable.

Many people welcome change in their external environment and consider themselves capable and open to change. Unfortunately, for most the relationship to the inner self is one of fear; there’s a whole can of worms that gets opened when we start doing the inner work. Knowing this, on a gut level, our subconscious quickly reverts to the tried and true. It’s hard work to change.

The good news though, is that many entrepreneurs have the ability to see what is happening around them. This ability is what makes entrepreneurs visionary go-getters. However, this does not exempt entrepreneurs from getting caught-up in their business to the detriment of a well-balanced life.

A well-balanced life is more powerful than the hard work that you put into a business. A well-balanced life feeds the brain, the spirit, the emotions, and the body. In creating the space for relationship, recreation, and rest, the benefits experienced will offer stronger focus, greater creativity (beneficial for problem-solving and decision-making), greater self-esteem, and mental/emotional/physical health. Knowing this, choices are made.

If incorporating a well-balanced life would allow you to achieve the same amount of output in 60 hours versus the 80 hours of perseverance, which would you choose?

The other thing entrepreneurs have difficulty with is learning when to say, “No.” and when to say, “That’s enough.” Always after a new conquest, a new experience, a new peak, and new challenges, an entrepreneur can get all that energy too caught up in the business arena. This will lead to the very thing you fear. Instead, split this energy to have a well-balanced life. Achievement will be far richer in the relationship arena and the personal growth arena.

The experience of Life can be incredibly rich, just don’t get so caught up in riches that you neglect your Whole Life.

Lee Down is a professionally trained Coach committed to the awakening and development of the human spirit. One Man Can (http://www.onemancan.ca/) wants to inspire and empower your life, your relationships, and your world.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lee_Down

For more information and support for creating more time for yourself and what’s important to you, visit http://www.GalileoLS.com/consult.html for a free coaching consultation.

Anth Quinn

Do you need to put off the things you enjoy in order to fit around the needs of others? Are you a busy parent? Do you have people who are relying on you, are you in a demanding job, working long hours to make ends meets? If so you’re not alone. I hear similar stories every week; “I’d love to (go back to school, go for a weekend away, find a relationship etc.) but I have to fit around other commitments.”

If this is you, my guess is that you’ll be surprised to find out that you need new glasses!

That’s right; you need new glasses because you are suffering from short sightedness when it comes to time.

What you need is a “looking glass” into the future – you might know it better as a calendar!

If I were to ask you to pull out YOUR calendar right now – how far ahead would you have scheduled the things that YOU want to do? I’m not talking your kid’s football fixtures, parents’ birthdays, society functions or any of the other things that are arranged for you. I’m talking about things that you want to do for YOU!

These other things are organised for you and may well be really important, the thing you may have missed is they also provide a clue as to how you can do more of what you want too.

If you have a lot of commitments and don’t have a calendar with things you want to do planned out into the future, I’d almost guarantee you’re dancing to someone else’s tune.

The answer to fitting in time to pursue your own dreams, hobbies and passions when your life is full of other commitments is to plan them way ahead of time.

For example if you would love a weekend away with your partner and you’re struggling to find time; throw it out in the future. Pick a weekend 6 months in the future and book it in as a fixed commitment and see what happens.

Your mind will naturally start to arrange your other priorities around this “fixed” commitment and as the time approaches you’ll find that other people just seem to fit in around your date.

6 months will pass before you know it and you can enjoy that weekend happy in the knowledge that you’ve already got another planned.

Beginning to stretch out your plans and thinking more strategically really is one of the core skills to fitting in your dreams while still meeting your daily commitments.

I’m not saying this is always easy; I still occasionally find myself going into weekends with no plan and reacting to other people’s plans. Not planning was fine when I was single and spending all my time climbing with a group of others with no commitments, for years we decided last minute and went anywhere. But as I got older, got married, got a responsible job and then began my own business, this became much tougher and it took me a while to learn the power of what I’m sharing today. If you too are struggling to fit your goals and dreams in around your other commitments then give this a go – you’ll be glad you did.

I’ve said it a lot before and I’m going to say it again now. If you don’t have your own plan then you’ll be living someone else’s plan and chances are they haven’t got much planned for you.

The question you I’d ask you now are:
Is living someone else’s plan OK with you?
If not grab your calendar and get planning!

Can you see how you’ll apply this? Do you think I’m talking rubbish or sense? Does all of this sit with you? Will you give it a go?

Anth.

Anth Quinn has been described as the best-kept secret in Personal Development; he is a straight talking champion of everyday people and despite developing a loyal following of over 10,000 readers he managed to avoid publicity.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anth_Quinn

For more information and support for creating more time for yourself and what’s important to you, visit http://www.GalileoLS.com/consult.html for a free coaching consultation.

Kristen Lee Costa

Have you ever heard the expression “life is what happens when you are busy making plans”? Time passes ever-so-quickly, regardless of whether you are having fun or not. 2008 happens to be a leap year, granting each of us an “extra” day to carry out our lives. Most of us are likely to respond to the question “how are you doing?” by using the word “busy”. Try your own human behavior experiment over the next week and tally up the number of times you hear this yourself. Guaranteed survey says “busy” as the number one answer. The wild pace of our lives, which my Dad always calls “the rat race” leaves us unlikely to shift down and actually think (a novel concept, I know…) This makes our sense of time rather fraotic (my word for frazzled & chaotic) and limits the quality of our lives and relationships. My Mom lamented the other day “How has life gotten like this?”

Here are some questions to help you take inventory on how you are spending your time:

1. What would you do with an extra hour in your day if you had it?
2. How do you plan to divvy up the extra 24 hours you have been granted this year?
3. What things are you engaging in that reflect your values and personal mission?
4. What are the things and who are the people that drain your energy?
5. What can I cross off my calendar right now?

A healthy schedule should consist of time to be alone, and also time with those you love to be with. There is a lot of hype about quality time, these days. I believe it should not be an “either/or situation” (quality or quantity), but an “and” situation (quality and quantity). Let me explain: you need to spend a good quantity of time in order for it to lead to quality time moments. Quality time cannot be forced, although it often is. This can turn good intentions into frustration almost instantly. Don’t expect to carve out small slots of time to spend with your family or yourself and dub it as “quality” time. You may become disappointed if those windows of time do not deliver pure quality and measure up to the expectations you have set.

One practical thing I have done is to look ahead and write down the word “HOME” on my personal calendar a couple of times a month, as if it were a scheduled appointment. This is uncompromised, so regardless of what invitations come up, I have committed a relatively large stretch of time to spend at home doing accomplishing the important task of just being. Maybe you have noticed lately your pace has gone up, and the quality of your life has gone down. Perhaps you even feel as though you haven’t made today count. Now is your chance to start making wiser choices about how you spend your time and energy. Designating time to pursue “want to” instead of “have to” things is a step in the right direction. Time will pass one way or another, so make a point to slow down and enjoy moments.

Kristen Lee Costa, LICSW is the founder of Helping Helpers, dedicated to providing life-changing resources for professional and personal development. Visit http://www.helpinghelpers.com for access to innovative tools for therapists, teachers, nurses and those in helping professions. Kristen provides a clinical blog, called “Kristen’s clog” with everyday stress management guidance.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kristen_Lee_Costa

For more information and support for creating more time for yourself and what’s important to you, visit http://www.GalileoLS.com/consult.html for a free coaching consultation.