Use the Shopkick App to Earn Gift Cards and Discounts

A friend introduced me to Shopkick a few months back. It's an app that allows you to collect kicks (like points) to use toward gift cards to stores like Target, Starbucks, Best Buy, Macy's, Lowe's, Chili's and iTunes. At the same time, you can find discounts for stores that are nearby. I didn't use Shopkick at first because I was confused about how it works, so here's the skinny...


There are several ways that you can collect kicks:

1. Collect instant surprises while you are riding in the car or sitting on the couch everyday. (These are marked with a green star.)
2. Collect kicks for walking in a store.
3. Collect kicks for buying certain items or for spending a certain amount of money at the store.
4. Collect kicks for scanning items in the store.

Tips:

Watch the banner at the top of the Nearby tab for special events.

Don't use Shopkick while you drive! Only if you are the copilot, collect kicks while you're on your regular route around town. If one of your children loves using your phone, teach them how to use Shopkick and enlist them to collect kicks for you while you drive.

Available on iPhone and Android.

Join Shopkick today!  (affiliate link)

New Year's Resolution to Clean Out my Email Inbox

One of my new year's resolutions for 2012 is to maintain a clean email inbox. I receive A LOT of email on a daily basis in three different email accounts, so I'm currently working on improving my email habits in two of the three accounts and plan to move to the third one after I have mastered the first two.

I found a program that I finished six weeks ago called Revive Your Inbox, and I love it!  It helped me to develop good habits of email management, and I'm proud to say that I'm doing really well at keeping my inbox clean. 

Six weeks later, my work inbox stays at 15 messages or less, and my personal inbox stays at 25 messages or less. (To give you some perspective: I used to keep around 300-400 messages in each inbox at any given time.) I feel like I am more productive at work, and I'm making more deadlines. I don't miss important messages because I'm on top of my email! 

If you have email trouble, you should really give it a try.  If you aren't willing to commit a few weeks to ridding yourself of those bad habits and just want a quick fix, try the Email Game! (Right now it only works with Gmail and Google Apps, but I think more services are coming.) It's created by the same company and makes it fun to get rid of emails in a hurry.

Let me know what you think!

Note: The Revive Your Inbox/Email Game people do not know me. I just think their stuff is cool.

New Year's Resolution to Read More

A few years ago, I made a long-term goal (it's on my bucket list) to read 52 books in a year. I don't expect to achieve that goal anytime soon with my current busy schedule, but I am enjoying keeping track of the books that I read and watching for upward trends year to year. In 2010, I read 1 book. In 2011, I read 4 books. My resolution/goal is to read 12 books in 2012.

I use Evernote to keep almost all of the lists in my life, so it fits well to include the list of books that I've read there too.  I make a note for each year and call it Reading List 2012. In the note, I have a list of books I have already read that year, books I'm currently reading (this part encourages me to finish books to get them off the list), and books I'd like to read next. The Upcoming list helps me when I go to the library or search online for e-books to read. My list looks something like this and lives in Evernote so that I can access it on any of my devices. You could also use the Notes app on your phone or keep it in your journal.

 --Completed--
* The Help

--In Progress--
* The Element by Ken Robinson
* The Simple Dollar by Trent Hamm     

--Upcoming--
* The Hunger Games (for book club)
* Blue Like Jazz 

I also write notes about the books so that I'll remember something I learned or enjoyed in the book. I've found that my notes have been helpful in recommending books to friends. Make a commitment to read more this year, and you'll be glad you did!

How many books are you planning to read this year?