4 ways to make your air travel more smoothly (solo travler)

I am by no means a professional traveler. I am only have an Ivory Frequent Flyer-level. I am not greeted by name when I enter the plane (a former boss told me he is sometimes).
Yet I find myself constantly trying to travel ... smoother...
I'm realizing that traveling is a great way to get work done - IF you don't get sidetracked too much by all the procedures and distractions that is!

So here are my 4 current travel-smoothers at the moment.

#1: Pre-board at home - print your ticket in advance
I love the current opportunities to pre-board (pre-plan) your air travel these days. Make sure you do your first round of 'pre-boarding' the minute you order your ticket. Fact is: the earlier you do this - the more choices you have. Especially picking your favorite seat!

• Go for that 'emergency-exit-seat', or decide if you want to be by the window or an ail. 
• Close to the bathroom? It's your choice!
• In the middle of 50 empty chairs? You are in charge! (just don't complain if you end-up between 49 high school students going on a trip!)

But it's not only your seat you get to be picky about - there are more and more options  you can pre-arange.

• Any special food-orders
• Extra luggage (often for reduced price!)
• Even extra leg-room! (currently I only know of KLM offering this service - but there might be others!)

#2: Put all your 'stuff' in the pocket of your jacket

I'm one of those unconscious pocket fillers. Any given moment you ask me to empty my pockets I'm  surprised to see what comes out of them.I discovered that this adds lots of time to any security check! Annoying! 

Solution: put all your 'stuff' temporary in your jacket pockets! Including your cell-phone and your change!
Now when you arrive at any security detector - simply take off your jacket and put it trough the scanner! No more fiddling in your jean-pockets, trying to get that last coin from all the way in the bottom of your pockets. And then no more re-grabbing everything from those annoying gray trays once you're trough. Let's be honest - it's already stress full enough you're having to take of your shoes and belt!
This is a guaranteed a 60-seconds WIN at every security check-point

#3: Keep the entertainment-set off for as long as you can resist!

I've found that my travel time in the air is way to valuable to me than to waist it on watching the TV-set in front of me. Of course I'm excited it's being offered - but I found that the longer I can control myself to keep it off, the more productive my travel time becomes! Flying allows you to finally read that book you always wanted to read. It gives you great opportunity to write your journal (or blog posts for that matter!)
Come prepared - make a time-schedule even! Force yourself to make this time use full. Educational even! But come empty-handed and you'll find yourself simply loosing yourself in some mega-entertainment-menu..

#4: Start a conversation with your neighbor when food is being served.

Even though there is not one way of doing this right, I find that connecting with your neighbor can be extremely great - or extremely pain full! You never know if you're sitting next to a person that won't shut-up if you get them started - or if it's a person who is an amazing connection in your network!

So...my advise? Keep a polite distance when you first come in the plane...minding your own business (see point #3). Than when food is being served start a conversation. If you feel it's not going anywhere - just go back to your work after a few polite words. But if it IS the missing connection you'll be forever grateful that you didn't keep to yourself the WHOLE flight!

In a later post I'll put down some points that smooth my time when we travel with our kids - for that's a whole other ball game!

What do you do to make your air travel smoother? Love to learn some new things myself!

Google Reader instead of Television

Having made a conscience choice not to watch television anymore has given me enormous freedom!
Not that we don't have a tv sitting in our livingroom, it's just that we never watch it. The only one watching cable in our house is our babysitter! And I'm very ok with that!
It's not that I am against television, it's just that the amount of garbage is too much. So much input that is uninteresting - it's filling up room in my head!

(picture from: Free Stock Photos at 123RF)

I like to be in charge of what I'm watching and reading. With the amazing development of internet we can now be much more in charge than before! Now I get to decide what to watch, and when. (No, I'm not convinced that interactive television gives me that same kind of freedom. I'm still being directed in what other people want me to watch - and when)

But how do you get 'the right content' to you, without spending hours of searching the web?!
My suggestion: create your own streams of content. Let your greatest websites bring you the items and the news YOU want to receive - not what 'whomever' decides is relevant.

How do you get this great content in one spot?
I use Google Reader. It's a great RSS-feed program that helps you bring the best of anywhere together in one place! Your lap!

How does Google Reader work?

1. Go to www.google.com/reader
If you don't have a google account (think aobut accounts on Gmail, Picassa, Youtube) you have to create one first. I would suggest to make one that uses your full name. It just looks profesional :)

2. Click on the 'Subscribe' button
You create little subscriptions to websites you like most!

3. Copy/paste the web address of pages your like.
Make sure you copy-paste pages that have 'news' on them, or have regularly new items. Pages that never change won't bring you any good articles of course! 

Many pages have a 'RSS feed button', but it's a myth to think that you can only use those pages!
I find the best way to check if the page you like to 'stay in touch with' has RSS-ability is by just trying to copy-paste the address in the subscription part. Google will tell you right away if the link works or not!


4. make folders for quick viewing
You can put all your streams in one big folder (I did this for years) or you can devide them in separte folders. In that way you can pick and choose better 'what kind of content' you want to look into.
Just recently I started doing this. Some of the folders I've made:

• Marketing - any side that gives me great marketing news/ideas
• Friends - all the blogs of friends that have blogs (if you have a blog, let me know, so i can add!)
• Listen - my favorite folder! All great podcasts I like to listen too! I always seem to go to this folder when I have some time to listen to ANYTHING. Like when I'm driving or traveling
• God - all websites that bring great spiritual input
• World - I just put all news-stream in this one
• Great - Some of the great websites that bring POSITIVE news! I tend to read this folder more often than 'world' 

5. start reading! 

Google Reader can be used in many different ways. For example, I  have a Reader installed on my phone. So whenever I spend some time waiting, I go to my Reader, and instantly I get to the articles, programs and podcasts I love best! Google Reader even keeps track of the posts I read - so the content is always 

I realize that you might be using a program like Google Reader that's even better. Or maybe you use the Reader in much more advanced ways. Do you? What am I missing out on?

No excuses - keep on blogging

Why is it that the things you like doing most get sometimes squeezed out of your everyday flow...
For instance - I truely enjoy sharing. In sharing I find that whatever it is that I share - if it helps an other person - I feel better! Really better!
Yet - in everyday life, the times I truely share are ... less and less. Oh yeah, I give out to others a lot (like work, being dad, husband etc.) but the REAL sharing seems to get lost sometimes.

I have decided to go back to blogging. Blogging for me is sharing. Sharing of my life. My experiences. My experience. The good (those things help), the bad (those things help even MORE!) the ugly (those things are just fun to read).

So when I think about 'getting back into blogging', I see myself sharing again!
On this blog I won't share about just any kind of good, bad or ugly. On this blog I will share about my journey as a social entrepreneur. I will share about:

1. My Own experiences.  What I discover about building business and brand around our social-profit-fun-park Tjeko.
I would love to get your feedback on how you see this develop

2. My own learning material. Unlike my wife, I like to share any kind of resource I discover (part of the sharing desire I guess!). Great books, a good website, maybe seminars or podcasts?
I would love to hear from you - if you find anything worth sharing!

3. Inspiring other social-profit businesses or entrepreneurs. There are soo many amazing people out there - doing such amazing work. As I find them - I want to share them!
Are you? Do you know somebody? Do you buy or support anything like this? Share it too!


4. Family. Yeah - if you know me - you know I love working. You know I love God. And you must have noticed I LOVE my family. And that brings a natural friction sometimes. Because having two todlers and a 3rd one coming just brings its own set of oportunities.
If you have tips, good laughs or horrible examples - join the fun :)


5. Faith. The one ingredient that drives me constantly! Faith in God, in people, in anything. I think faith for me describes something on the inside of people that keeps them going. Somehing inside of them makes them believe that what they do matters. And it does.
Got faith?


My commitment to get sharing again! I am going to print it, and put it anywhere I can.
Every morning I will grab this post and tell myself I made a commitment. I share.


 Do you reconize the feeling of not doing something anymore that you know you really should? How do you get back into the routine? (i know there's even some of you that should get back into blogging yourself!)

Idealist they call me!

In the newspaper of last Saturday the journalist calls me a 'true-idealist'!
Maybe he's right. I'm fully aware that we are doing things different w Tjeko. Who in the world would build an ENTERTAINMENT PARK in a country so poor, they can't even give every child proper shelter, food and education?!
We are. Because we know that our approach is going to create jobs for several people in the community. We know that by advocating the rights of children trough out our communication we are going to positively influence a culture. We know that by facilitating those that already focus on the primary needs of people, we'll be able to see a new kind of 'aid'! One full of FUN!

Exposure

Tonight Tatiana and are are going to receive a 1000 EUR donation from the Pleisure World Foundation in the Efteling (Hollands most popular Amusement park). It's part of a much larger commitment from the foundation to donate 17500 EUR over the next two years. Hans van Leeuwen, the initiator and motivator behind the foundation and the Network of Pleisure World. I know that this money donation  is a generous gift for the children and volunteers in Uganda! I also know that the money is only a SMALL part of what Hans has been able to do for Tjeko. Through him we've been exposed and introduced to some of the most inspiring people in the leisure branch. The platform he's given us to network and make new friends around the country is going to be much more worth than the 1000 EUR we'll spent on the Fun Fairs of this summer!

Hans - thank you for your mentality and aproach of the Foundation: 'Only those that can share, can multiply!'

playscapes: The Red Swing Project

Red Swing Project Documentary from erin harris on Vimeo.

An other COOL project! I love seeing this stuff - it makes me realize we are on the right track with Tjeko!

playscapes: The Red Swing Project

The New York Times Writes About "Doing Good in a Bad Economy" | Echoing Green

The New York Times Writes About "Doing Good in a Bad Economy" | Echoing Green

Great article. Making me believe we'll be able to see some great career-minded people work in Tjeko. Tjeko is all excited about that!