The truth is, you should be suspicious of any gas-saving claims for certain devices or oil and gas additives. Even for the few gas-saving products that have been found to work, the savings have been miniscule.

You’ll see all sorts of claims and testimonies. “This gas-saving product improves fuel economy by 20 percent.” Yeah, yeah. Actually, the EPA has tested over 100 of these supposed gas saving doo-hickies, and none of them were found to do the job well.

Some of the products can even damage your car. So much for cost savings!
Please be skeptical of advertising claims for gas saving devices.

Here’s another quote you might read. “This gas-saving device is approved by the Federal government.” Actually, no government agency endorses gas-saving products for cars. If the seller claims the EPA has evaluated its product, ask for a copy of the report, or check www.epa.gov for information. Ah, I love the power of the internet.

If you want to save money at the pump, try these tips. They’ll serve you much better than some snake oil product.

Buy only the octane level gas you need.

The faster you drive, the more fuel you use. It’s a fact.

Use overdrive gears during highway driving. This also saves wear on your engine.

Use cruise control on highway trips.

Avoid unnecessary braking and acceleration. That means no tailgating! This tip alone can improve your fuel economy by 5 to 10 percent. Sudden starts and sudden stops are wasteful, not to mention the barf factor involved for those of us who get car sick.

Unnecessary idling wastes fuel.

Avoid carrying excess weight in your trunk.

Keep your engine tuned. Engine troubles can increase fuel consumption by as much as 10 to 20 percent.

Make sure your tires are properly inflated and aligned. Check them once a month.
Under-inflated tires increases fuel consumption by six percent.

Change your oil.

Check and replace air filters regularly. Clogged filters can cause up to a 10 percent increase in fuel consumption.

There’s no need to buy products that cost you more money than they save. These little fuel saving tips can add up to an extra hundred bucks or so in your pocket each year!

By Sean Mathena

Here are some of my favorite organizational tools for the home.

1) Lazy Susan

Thanks to the soul who invented this little item! They’re cheap, and help keep spices, bottles, and condiments neatly arranged and at your fingertips. Use them in the pantry, in cabinets, on the kitchen table - they’re absolutely life savers when it comes to staying organized.

2) Plastic Basket for Lids

Plastic containers - a double edged sword! One the one hand they keep me organized and save tons of time in the kitchen, especially. But searching through ten thousand lids that don’t fit can drive a person nutty. I use a plastic basket for all my lids so they’re in one spot when I go looking.

3) A Triple Swing-out Towel Holder

Put these under your kitchen and bathroom sinks to save space and keep your sink area uncluttered. Use it to hold towels, cleaning rags, trash bags, etc.

4) Place a few strong adhesive hooks in the laundry room - these can be used for hanging coats, clothes, etc. Hooks are great to hang up mops, brooms and other cleaning supplies, too.

5) Plastic Baggies with Zipper Locks

How did our ancestors survive without them? Baggies are perfect to store small toys, puzzle pieces, and any little items that go together in one spot. The two-gallon sized ones are my favorite.

6) A Labeler

These don’t have to be expensive to work. And having containers and shelf spaces labeled is a great way to help children keep their items organized, as well as yourself. Do yourself a favor – use a labeler for a week, and you’ll wonder hoe you ever lived without one.

7) A Compartment Tray for Your Junk Drawer

Occasionally, I actually open my junk drawer to search for something! Having miscellaneous items in little compartments of the tray will save you time and frustration when you go searching.

8 ) A TV Remote Holder

How much time have you wasted looking for this little item? Make or purchase a holder for your remote, or put velcro on the back and stick it someplace near the couch.

9) Laundry Sorting Bin

Less than ten bucks, these bins help keep your dirty laundry organized, so that when you’re ready to wash the whites, they’re all in the same spot. No more digging through a giant hamper to find the right clothes! This makes laundry time so much simpler!

10) Two-tiered Spice Racks

These cabinet organizers save time and hassle in the kitchen. How many times have you searched for the oregano - behind the cinnamon, no - the nutmeg…Wait -where was the nutmeg? You get the idea.

These items are by no means all the great organizing tools out there, but they’re my choices for time saving and hassle free living!

By Chris Hanna

The fastest way to lower your score is to master the ability to focus.

Most golfers tend to think they must practice more, find a new instructor, buy more videos, get the swing right, change those clubs. But one of the often overlooked and most important mental aspects of the game is focus.

Now you want to make sure you focus on the result you want. In golf the shot is determined by your level of concentration. You’ve likely just rushed right in and played shots without concentrating. No wonder the ball ended up going haywire!

It’s better to make ten focused swings than 100 quick, thoughtless ones. Your swing will naturally break down when you’re fatigued. So be sure to take a break when you’re practicing. Brain breaks give your mind and body a chance to implement what you’re learning.

One way to practice the art of focusing is to light a candle and stare into the flame, only thinking of the flame. Every time your mind starts to move to any other thought, bring it back to the flame. Think of the dancing orange colors, how they melt inside of each other.

The first time you do this, you might be hard –pressed to last for 3 minutes. Work up to 20 minutes, and your ability to focus on anything will have improved immensely. You’ll be able to take this enhanced skill to the golf course.

When you’re playing, just think about the next shot. During down time, allow your mind to relax and wander for a few minutes. Don’t try to concentrate the entire game, or you’ll get very fatigued, very quickly. Save the mental workout for thoughtful shot decisions and center on what shot you’re going to play next.

Also, keep your cool and behave in an emotionally controlled manner. You will perform more effectively. In the great game of golf, emotions soar and fall quickly. You can go from totally happy to totally ticked off in no time at all. In fact, the feeling of anger is actually a series of reactions that happen in just 1/30th of a second.

Stop it at the first spark. The important thing is to figure out what is really making you angry. Think of the grand scheme of life and how today is just a speck. Your golf game is a speck on a speck. It helps to minimize the situation and look at the big picture of what’s really important in life.

Master the mental art of focus, and you’ve got 95% of the game of golf all figured out!

By Sean Mathena

In order to provide an answer to this question, I would like to give you a small illustration. You have been to the beach, haven’t you? There you might have seen kids building sand castles with sand. You can only build a sand castle with sand of course, but I hope you have seen those kids at work. What they do is that they dig up sand with their spades and fill up their pails with sand. Then they turn over the pails and hey presto they have the base of the castle which can then be shaped.

No, we are not concerned with building castles in the sand or in Spain or wherever. We are concerned about those pails which the kids use to build their castles. If you have such a pail with you, you can understand what I am talking about. Try putting a few small rocks into the pail. When I say rocks I mean rocks probably the size of medium sized cabbages. The most you can put into the pail would be three or four and even these would stick out into the air.

The pail is full isn’t it? It is full of rocks. But does that mean that it is really full. Now get some pebbles probably the size of table tennis balls and see whether there is room for a couple of the in the pail. Definitely four or five of the pebbles can slip in to the spaces between the rocks. Is the pail full now? Yes it is full of rocks and pebbles. Now if you will oblige me, see if you can get some glass marbles or beads. Slide them into the pail. You don’t have to try too hard; they will find their own paths.

If you think that the pail is full now, think again. Just wait till you get some sand and pour it into the pail. You will be amazed at the speed with which it trickles in. And we are not done yet. You are not going to believe this but the pail will actually accommodate something more. Try pouring a glass of water into it and you will find the water disappearing into the depths of the pail. If you want, you can keep pouring water till the pail brims over. But that is not our intention.

The purpose of this experiment was to show you that what you thought to be full could in fact accommodate much more, but of a different kind of course.

This is exactly what happens to most of us on most of our days. We take on big tasks. That’s well and good. But we get so occupied with these Herculean tasks, which may take more than a day to get over with anyway, that we tend to forget those smaller tasks which may be just as important. This is where we can understand the importance of prioritizing. The big things are important, but the small things may be just as important.

While you are trying to handle those rocks, do not forget those pebbles, marbles, and grains of sand and drops of water. Some people have asked me to give specific examples for these materials. So I would like to take a minute to compare. I believe that things like saying good morning and greeting others generally are very important if you are working in an organization. These things I would compare to the water. Just because you have had a busy day, it doesn’t mean that you have to be a grouch.

Telephone calls (remember to be brief) I would liken to the sand. They keep coming all the time. And if you do not answer your telephone calls people will start thinking you do not work there anymore. Responding to emails and dispatching bills and payments can be compared to the marbles Meetings and
discussions are the pebbles and major projects and things like audits and presentations are the rocks.

There should be time for everything and everything should have its time.

And with this I would like to tell you to please discard the myth of perfection. It does not exist in this world. Nothing and I mean nothing is perfect. So, it is not really important that everything has to be shipshape. As long as it is presentable you don’t have to lose sweat about a project that you have done. But that does not mean that your work should be shabby. Make it as presentable as is possible within the time frame allotted.

By Chris Hanna

First, if you look around your home, you probably see lots of clothes. Am I right? You’ve got clothes in closets, you’ve got clothes in piles (meaning to put them away and not having time, eventually just pulling them out of the pile and wearing them), and you’ve got clothes in laundry baskets. You might even have rumpled clothes in the dryer or (heaven forbid!) the washer. If it’s the former, the clothes are only rumpled. If it’s the latter, they’re probably rumpled AND smelly and (potentially) mildew-y. Yuck! Somewhere in this Mt. Vesuvius of laundry, dirty, clean, or otherwise, is your home. And I’m guessing that if you have a laundry room, you keep the door closed, as there are multiple Mt. Vesuvii piling up in there. If you don’t have a laundry room but have a laundry closet (with room for the washer, dryer, and some shelves), I’m betting you haven’t seen the top of your dryer for weeks or even months. It’s covered in rumpled clothes and towels, right?

Have you guessed where we’re starting? That’s right! The laundry area of your home. And here’s why: if you get your laundry room cleaned and organized, you’ll be much more apt to actually DO the laundry that plagues you and helps your home to be disorganized. And because you won’t want to undo the work you’ve done in the laundry room, you’re more likely to fold the laundry when it’s done, and put it away. There’s something that’s a breath of fresh air about a straightened laundry room—sort of like when you walk in to a closet where everything is hanging neatly.

So start with small steps:

1. Can you see the floor?No?Then pick up what’s on the floor and put it in laundry baskets.If you don’t have enough laundry baskets to accomplish this, then just sort the things in to piles outside the laundry room.I make piles of light clothes, whites, darks, and towels/rags.
2. Can you see the top of the dryer? If not, put the excess clothes in the aforementioned piles. Grab one rag to dust and have two plastic grocery bags—one to collect junk, and the other for later. Dust the dryer from the lint-leftovers and use a little window-cleaner if it doesn’t come off readily. Don’t neglect the area where the “start” button is—that can be grimy, too!
3. Can you see the top of the washer? If not, repeat the steps in #2, using the window cleaner if necessary.

Okay - now you’ve got your washer & dryer cleaned off. Congratulations! Let’s continue to take small steps in the laundry room….

1. Now take a critical look at your supply-shelf(ves). Do you have empty bottles or boxes lying around from spent detergent and/or fabric softener? Clean those out. Use that grocery bag that you’ve put excess dryer lint in and pitch those empties. Then organize what’s left. If you need to add things to your shopping list, now is the time—now you know what you’ve got and what you need to buy. When you organize your supplies, I recommend putting the detergent and any liquid softener above the (gasp!) washer. Make it easy to reach. Put the dryer sheets over the dryer—why reach more than you have to? If your shelves are higher than you’d like, use the top ledge of your washer & dryer to hold supplies! I’ve never seen a washer and dryer that don’t butt up to a wall for the electrical plugs they need. So use that space to your advantage. Put the detergent box or bottle on the top of the washer, along with whatever other washing supplementals you have. Put the dryer sheets on the top of the dryer so you don’t forget and end up with a load of static cling!
2. If you have wire-shelves above your washer & dryer, you’ve got a built-in place to hang a trash bag. Use that extra grocery-sack and cut one of the handles in half. Then tie those two ends around some of the wire-shelf and use the bag to collect dryer lint and empty containers from your emptied laundry supplies. When it’s full, cut it down and put it in the trash and put up a new one.
3. Now look at your floor. Does it need sweeping? If so, grab a broom and sweep. It won’t take you more than 5 minutes and you’ll feel much better about your room and your work—especially if something you’ve just washed falls on the floor as you’re transferring stuff to the dryer.
4. Congratulations! You’ve done the preliminary work of organizing your home—you won the battle in your laundry room! Take a 15 minute break and enjoy this victory. Then start the task of doing the excess laundry that you’ve been collecting—one pile at a time. When the first is done, swap it out immediately to your dryer or to hangers, if that’s more appropriate. Take it one pile at a time—in other words, small steps! Soon, you’ll find that it really only takes 5-10 minutes to fold warm clothes from the dryer and put them in laundry baskets, ready to transfer to the appropriate rooms, closets, and drawers. The rewards are huge here—keep up on it (one load every day) and you’ll win the war against the Mt. Vesuvius of clothes in your home.

By Chris Hanna

2. Try to get the members seated in time, if one or two members are going to be late and everyone else has to wait for them, that is going to upset the pace of the meeting.

3. Try to provide all the members with the necessary papers and equipment for the discussion. Instead of passing round one paper for everyone to see, try and make copies, the extra cost is worth the time.

4. Interruptions should be avoided as much as possible, but the members must feel free to air their views once a person has finished speaking.

5. Care must be taken to avoid eating around the bush and digressions. The presiding person must not hesitate to point out if a person is digressing too much. The members too must be cautioned to stick to the point as much s possible.

6. The members of course must display the high degree and patience expected from professionals.

7. A person must give a summary at the end of the meeting, so that the members leave with the knowledge that something was accomplished and it was not just a meaningless discussion.

8. Cell phones of course must be switched of and external calls on land phones mast be deferred.

9. Refreshments if required must be laid on the table prior to the beginning of the discussion and not served in between. If it is a very long discussion and hot beverages like tea and coffee need to be served, take a break it saves more time.

By Chris Hanna

The real key here is to take it a step at a time. Take it at your own pace. This IS a fight that you CAN and WILL win! You will have to commit to having less “stuff” if your home and letting go of the sacred-cows you’ve hung on to for all these years (but please note that these cows haven’t lifted a finger to help you get organized or clean—they only collect dust and take up space!). This isn’t having “Clean Sweep” come to your home and do the work for you—it’s all *your* work.

Don’t worry. It can all be done in a few minutes each day. Yes, you, too can occupy a relatively clean environment as long as you relax and let go of “it’s-got-to-be-perfect-itis”.

Ready for step one? Good. We’re going to declutter first - set a timer and put on some energizing music to get you going. Decide that you’re only going to declutter for 15 minutes in one certain room. Then if you want to work longer, say, another round of 15 minutes, you can. But you don’t have to. This helps you get motivated, even when you feel like cleaning is the last thing you’d want to tackle. Yep- psyche yourself out.

Go from room to room one day, just decluttering - 15 minutes in each room. Some rooms might take only five minutes - there’s a good feeling! Others might take 30 minutes before you can walk through the room without tripping over something. It’ll all average out.

Then on day two, go back to your first room and surface clean. Wipe off counters, sinks, flat surfaces. Then spot vacuum. If there’s a stain on the kitchen floor, spot clean that baby. Day three, pick another room. Day four, still another. If you’re so motivated one day and get on a roll, surface clean two rooms.

After you’ve decluttered, we’re going to take fifteen minutes a day and do some deeper cleaning in each room. You know, vacuuming thoroughly, dusting, swatting away cobwebs, etc.

Now, if you just repeat this simple schedule, you’ve got a house that would at least make the grade on a pass-fail system. That takes a load off your mind and alleviates stress in your family relationships.

Remember, it’s better to do a little each day and get the job done, than to stress out in an embarrassingly cluttered environment because you’re too overwhelmed to even start. Go ahead – set that timer!

By Chris Hanna

Beginners are often warned to not try to hit the ball so hard. A little energy well directed and smoothly applied will drive the ball father than a monstrous effort that ends up not connecting the ball at the center of the club. If you’re balanced, you have more freedom when hitting the ball.

You want to keep your head in one spot, your eyes on the ball clearly. Actually the steadier you keep your head in one spot, the better you see the ball. This is all part of creating your foundation of balance. Anything that tips you off balance makes it impossible to see the ball clearly. You must keep your head still and not move it from the spot in which you start.

You can’t have your body rigid and your muscles tensed if you’re wanting to maintain your balance. Unless you relax your muscles, your head is going to move.

Practice in front of a mirror and you will see that your muscles really do need to be relaxed in order for you to keep your head still during a swing. No two people have the same frame or physique. So you have to work out some things for yourself. But always start with the foundation of keeping your head in one position. If your head is still, you can see the ball clearly and you will turn your hands at the right instant.

Just by keeping your head perfectly still you’ll correct a lot of faults. You can’t grip your club incorrectly without at some point disturbing your balance and moving your head.  And you can’t keep your balance unless you follow through correctly.

If your mind is concentrated on keeping your balance and keeping your head still, you won’t overswing or jerk your club away. You won’t put forth too much effort forth at any one point. You won’t be stiff and you’ll have a smooth, even rhythm to your swing and a nice finish.

Balance really is the cure-all for many faults of golf. It takes time before you see improvement, so be patient. Think about keeping your head still and maintaining your balance at all times and you will have a foundation for an excellent golf game.

By Sean Mathena

1. Am I making the kind of money that I want to make?
2. Do I want to make more money?
3. Does money even matter to me?
4. Do I like what I’m doing right now?
5. What am I passionate about?
6. What could I be doing that would make me happier than I am right now?
7. Would I be happier simply switching positions or getting a promotion; or would I be happier changing careers all together?
8. Why am I still working here?
9. What is stopping me from leaving this job or getting that promotion?
10. What is stopping me from leaving this job?

These are all vital questions that you have to ask yourself before deciding what your career goals are going to be. If you are honest with yourself, you will know exactly what direction you should be going in.

Without being honest with yourself you can’t expect to better your life, you can only expect to have to ask yourself these questions all over again until you find happiness.

By Chris Hanna

Make sure the activities that you pick meet the goals for what you want to get out of it.

Set Yourself up for Success

It’s important not to undermine yourself with goals that are too long-term or impossible to attain.

For example; “I want to lose all my extra weight before summer” is too unrealistic; particularly if you have a great deal of weight to lose and summer is 3 months away. Too often goals are an end result of whatever program we choose, and not a part of it. You have to make goals an active part of your life by creating goals that lead to the next goal works best. It is just like the backwards technique mentioned in the above section. For instance, setting a goal to lose 10 pounds puts the goal at the end without putting too much pressure on you right away. You can add to this goal once it is achieved and so on.

Setting a goal to join an aerobics class and attend it three times a week makes the weight loss goal a part of the program. You will have set a goal that is achievable almost immediately. This gives you a sense of accomplishment, which is an incentive to setting and achieving the next goal.

Keep a Record

Write your goals down so you have something to look forward to as well as back on. To begin, map out no more than eight weeks of activities towards your first fitness goal. Working within your lifestyle, decide on a regular program. It’s not necessary to work out every day, especially when beginning a new program as your body is not used to the stress. Our bodies become tired if expected to do hard work seven days a week. Exercising every other day is a safe and realistic goal. Keep track of how much time you want to spend doing an activity, followed by how much time you will actually spend on it.

Not everyone is looking at fitness and health to lose weight. Perhaps you are just looking to better your health. In this case you should think of this; we tend to focus most on the area of our health in our lives, when our health is already failing or less than stellar. Unfortunately, it may sometimes take a life threatening event, illness or some type of physical rehabilitation to give us a wake up call to make tough changes in our current health habits.

We try to follow through on sound health principles such as enough sleep, a healthy diet and plenty of exercise, yet we may not have the time in our busy schedule or have strong enough will power to implement a balanced and healthy lifestyle. With the pressures of the fast pace world in which we live, stress can set in and can take its toll. These days we are on the road more often. What that means is that we are eating on the road as well, which doesn’t always offer us the best or healthiest choices.

We are lucky to get six, maybe seven hours of sleep per night while we now work at least six days per week. The old saying, “At least I have my health” is finally starting to mean something to a great deal of people. You might be wondering what you can do to improve your health. The first thing to do is to prioritize what is most important to you in your own individual lifestyle. You can begin by asking yourself these questions:

1. What is my current exercise goal this month or do I even have one?
2. What gets in my way when starting or continuing a balanced health maintenance program?
3. What is my target weight and my plan and timeframe to get there?
4. How can I improve in getting more sleep?
5. What is my ideal overall appearance hopes?
6. Would a personal trainer help me develop and reach my goals more effectively and can I afford one?
7. Of the meals I eat each month, how can I eat healthier, and what can I change in order to eat healthier without getting bored?
8. What books and classes can I take to improve upon my health?
9. Is it time for me to go in for a complete physical and when the last one was that I had.
10. How can I reduce or completely eliminate alcohol, chemical dependencies and/or smoking in my body?
11. What ways may I be able to cook in a healthier manner?
12. How can I improve my current heart rate, blood pressure, and cholesterol count?

By Chris Hanna