chapter 13: what's more important than getting shit done? 

do you know your keyboard can have up to 25,000 germs lurking on each square inch? it's never a better time to get out a cotton swab and some rubbing alcohol and drill at some hard-to-reach crevices. it could be almost as satisfying as milking chin zits.
there's that cool website about setting books free. you can track your book if someone finds it and registers it on the internet.

 sometimes it feels good to take your bills out and sort of rearrange them so the most important ones are on top, and maybe write on the back of your hand that you should take that driver's ed test to erase the point off your license. but also, think about how much time you still have before getting that shit done.
isn't it time for a snack? all this cleaning, thinking about doing laundry, and considering paying bills makes a gal hungry! how about a walk to the cafe for a pain au chocolat? mmm! talk about a pleasure trap!

chapter 11: parlor trick or prudent talent? 

did you know that scientists have recently been able to observe the same particle in two locations at once? the fabric of space and time is mysterious. physicists theorize that there are an infinite number of dimensions and hence infinite possibilities. only at the moment of choice do our possibilities shrink from infinite to singular. so why choose?! 

setting concrete goals locks us into a concept of what it is to get shit done. it sets us up to see a dualistic reality: black/white, start/finish, succeed/fail, cat/dog. and we often choose to feel good or bad depending on whether we succeed or fail.
take a moment to write down several concrete goals you've been dreading, e. g. fix head gasket, load cd library onto ipod, earn PhD. in a second column, write the steps and the time it will take to get that shit done. then imagine how you would feel completing your goals versus how you would feel never completing them and write about it in a third column. 

now, formulate an abstract goal, e. g. appreciate old friend, feel love for pet, enjoy new hair style. how would you feel accomplishing these goals? now take five minutes and do them. i just got all that shit done.
imagine how much shit we could get done if we decided to do different shit!

chapter 8: Organize in your Sleep. 

 Sleeping and dreaming are powerful tools. The unconscious brain uses this time to re-organize thoughts, process events, and sort ideas. To harness your unconscious brainpower, save your last waking five minutes to set out your most complex problems. Review and put on paper in front of you what's most irking, frustrating, or blocking you. For example, "How can I make the rent this month?" Allow it to look really messy. Let yourself get really worked up. The more you signal your brain that this is something you want to process, the better the process will work. 

When you reach the upper limit of emotional tolerance, tell yourself three times, "Show me a way to resolve this problem." Then quickly turn out the light and fall asleep. (If you can't sleep, you probably haven't worked the process hard enough–it may take several weeks of practice.)
Immediately upon waking, pen some notes on your dreams directly next to the previous night's problems. Your dreams about tapdancing sideways with a video camera and discussing the movie Ghost with an older female friend will undoubtedly shed light on your financial woes, but the next and final step is crucial. 

Renowned dream expert Jeremy Taylor says we all have a 'blindness' to the most valuable insights of our dreams. He suggests a method of collective projective dreamwork whereby one allows a group of people to use their collective imagination to help interpret the dream's meanings. Your brain knows exactly what to tell you and exactly when, so use what you've learned during the night to solve what's been bugging you.

 I've found the best groups to help interpret dreams are not necessarily friends. Your co-workers, unbiased and disinterested, will be the most beneficial group in helping elucidate insights. Pick a time of the day when you're all together, like an early business meeting, or a company luncheon to share the tapdancing images and let the insights begin!