Here’s a life rule that I discovered with the help of my sister, Kirsten. While on vacation in Spain, trying to find the next little church in Donostia, we got lost. We immediately turned around to retrace our steps and gain our bearings. After driving back the way we had come about 10 minutes, we had determined that we had it right the first time (argh).

So we flipped and went back the way we were traveling in the first place. Now granted, we were driving in a beautiful foreign country and weren’t tied to a schedule so the delay wasn’t too bad, but it’s the principle behind the mistake that irked us. We passed the place we turned around and within 5 miles we found our destination!

As we walked up to the church we were visiting, we discussed the matter, and came up with the 5-Mile Rule, which was quickly formalized thus:

“When traveling in a foreign country, and you seem to have lost your way, continue on the pre-described route for another 5 miles, then turn back and ask for directions”

This rule helped us several times on that trip. And, no, I can’t remember the Church we were visiting. Maybe Kirsten can remember for me. (Oh, and Kirst, sorry about not mentioning the House, there may be complications…)

So now I’ve got the 5-Mile Rule. As I’ve said it came in handy in Spain, and other places I’ve traveled to. But I’ve adjusted this rule to several other aspects of life. Now I call it the Rule of 5 – Here’s how it goes:

The Rule of 5 – When working on a simple task, whether it’s driving to an unknown location, researching a topic, getting a job/task completed, apply the appropriate unit in a quantity of 5 (miles, minutes, steps, etc.).

So why am I blogging about this rule on a tech-ish blog,here’s a case in point. Check out the blog entry I wrote earlier today. I decided to add a tool to my blogging “Quiver of Knowledge” (quote from Dr. Germaine Murray of Maryville University). I used the Rule of 5 to avoid wasting time trying to implement this tool. I researched the topic for about 5 minutes and made the decision to stop and adjust my thinking. There are too many things that need to be done in the day to waste more than 5 minutes on.

So, I mentioned my sister, Kirsten. I would be remiss if I didn’t throw out her website. For all the lady’s out there looking for a little bling, she makes beautiful jewelry out of Swarovski Crystals. Check out her site Objets d’Envy

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So as you may or may not know, I’m working more and more on this and another blog. In an attempt to work smarter not harder, I’m constantly searching for things to make this task easier. So, when I came across a very helpful tip from reading Matt Cutts’ blog about quickly adding links, I just had to check it out.

Ok, so here’s the task I set myself. As Matt’s describes, he’s using a link creation javascript that you can load into your bookmarks. I’t's called linkify. A simple highlight of text in any text entry field (not a wysiwyg) and a click of the link will bring up a side panel google search of the highlighted text. Each search result has a Create Link button below it and when clicked – guess what?

I’m getting excited, right? I can hardly believe that this little tool is out there just waiting for me. So here I go. . .

No, wait, opps. This is a nogo for Internet Explorer (sigh). Ok Ok OKAY! I get it. Finally. People have been telling me for years that I should be using Firefox. So why did I wait so long? No, it wasn’t because I’m fiercely loyal to Microsoft. I suppose it’s because I (we) know Internet Explorer so well. It’s familiar, and I can play it like a fiddle. And Firefox has tabs – when this was introduced, my thoughts were “Why have you brought me these tabs, and what have you done with my many many windows of IE?” I was a fool…

FYI – Linkify works BRILLIANTLY! I’m swimming now…

Baby Steps – I’ve decided to dedicate all blog related tasks to Firefox. I suppose I’ve got too much invested in IE to go cold turkey on it.

This blog entry has been written happily via Firefox (with about 8 tabs open!).

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