Have you ever found yourself driving completely out of your way to pick somebody up when it would have been better for both parties to drive themselves?

Have you ever spent your Saturday helping your sister’s boyfriend’s mother-in-law’s aunt with tedious yard work instead of heading to the ball game or working on your own yard?

In fact, if you’ve ever found yourself muttering or even screaming the words “Why I am doing this?” then this article is for you.

You are about to be let in on one of the best kept secrets of mankind: The ability to get what you want without asking. You will also learn how to be aware of when this is happening to you.

This is a 5-step process:

(1) Compliment: Compliment him on something he has done in the past. This is perhaps the most important step. This works best if you are complimenting him on something that relates to what you are going to get him to do. For example, if I want a buddy of mine to help me install a new pool filter, I might compliment him on his recent handiwork with Jacuzzi pump systems. The more you stress his skills and the more related the compliment is what you want, the higher the success rate.

(2) Explain What You Want: …but do not ask for anything. Just present your overall goal. At this point in the above example, I would say something like “Yeah, I’m looking at installing a new pool filter. The old one just crashed on me.” Short and sweet. State your goal, that’s it.

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I use more than one computer: I use my desktop computer for anything while I’m in the house, and my laptop for anything while I am out - usually for taking notes at a class.

If you are like me, an SSH Server on your desktop computer will make your life a lot easier.

Here’s what setting up an SSH server can do for you:

• Minimize the number of steps required to access “outside” data from my “inside” computer.
  • This means you can save time by getting to your work faster. Instead of throwing files on a USB drive, sending through email, or sharing a directory on a network, all your files will instantly be accessible.
• Minimize the amount of data actually stored on the “outside” laptop.
  • You’ll never have to worry about sensitive data on your laptop again. If your laptop is stolen, there will be relatively nothing valuable on it. It will all be on your SSH server.
• Maintain only one single copy of the data.
  • Find yourself rummaging through different versions of work because of all the copying that comes with working on two computers? A personal SSH server will keep one, and only one, copy of your data, so version control is no longer a necessity.

Here’s a How-To to get it running:

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