By Brian Duff Many people who follow the preparedness lifestyle, say that their number one frustration is prepper time management. There is no doubt about it; prepper time management can be a big frustration. We all know that prepping takes up a lot of time and isn’t easy. Preparedness takes dedication and effort. After all, being prepared doesn’t just happen overnight. Novice preppers and those who recall our entry into prepping know that just deciding where to begin can be overwhelming. Heck, the amount of information available on the Internet and in other places can be confusing. Where do you go? What site has solid prepping information? Who do I follow on Facebook? What prepping podcast is correct? You can go on and on. The Process Fortunately, there is an easy to follow mindset to help you overcome your frustrations with prepper time management. If you’ve read other blog posts and listened to podcasts here and elsewhere, you already have the answer. The answer is the OODA Loop. What, how can it be the OODA Loop? As I discussed in my Developing Your Mind4Survival blog post, the OODA Loop is used to facilitate our decision-making. In other words, you can better manage the time dedicated to your preparedness efforts by using the OODA Loop. Observe To overcome your frustration with prepper time management, you must first observe your situation. Observing your situation means to see what is going on around you. Look at and take in your daily life. Notice who and what is important to you and your future preparedness. Orient Orienting yourself to your situation is key to successful prepper time management. This means doing your own risk analysis on the people and things that you observed in the previous step. In so doing, you’ll identify your greatest vulnerabilities that require addressing. Three Risk Analysis Questions As Ed Clark mentions in Episode 2 of the Mind4Survival podcast, the three risk management questions you should ask yourself are:
By answering those three questions, you will be able to prioritize your prepping better. You will understand what is most important to you. This may be family members or something that is important to your survival. Decide Once you’re oriented as to what (who) is most important to protect, you next need to decide what it will take to address your concerns. To help you decide, you can make a checklist. That checklist will include a ranking of all of your vulnerabilities and risks. Next, you’ll add everything you think it will take to address those risks. As you do, you’ll find many of your vulnerability and risk solutions are applicable across a number of the items on your checklist. Act Now that you’ve determined what your vulnerabilities are and what it will take to address them, you can take action. Taking action means addressing your greatest risk and vulnerability first. Some of the things you do to address your first risk may help address other risks and so on. Over time, as you work your way down your prioritized list, you’ll find that your early preps will have addressed some of the needs of your later preps. In other words, by addressing your main priorities first, you will simultaneously address others. The Solution This process, while simple, is the solution to helping you overcome your frustrations with prepper time management. Whenever you begin to look at new preps, or want to decide on what to do next, use this system. Sit back, take a tactical pause and work your way through the OODA Loop process. Doing so in a manner that applies to your overall prepping strategy will help you manage your prepper time. It will also help improve your overall personal situational awareness so that you are better prepared and ready when needed. Lastly, never forget, you’re just one prep away. If you have any other information, suggestions, or thoughts on prepper time management, please leave a comment below. Stay safe, secure and prepared.
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By Brian Duff How to Make Your Family Safer Have you wondered how to make your family safer in this constantly changing world? The 24-hour news cycle and the internet bombard you almost non-stop with troubling stories. Your children see and hear things you would never have imagined at their age. Does what they see and hear as children trouble you as parents? If you are the good parent that I know you are, it probably does. After all, you just want them to have a safe and happy childhood, right? One way to make that happen is to follow these four steps. They are simple steps that involve proactively spending time together. Then, working to pass on your safety, security and preparedness information slowly, in a controlled and positive manner. Spend Time Together The American family changed as TV’s reduced in size and cost, and more parents left home to join the workforce. The changes are even more dramatic with the fact that many kids and parents practically live on the Internet. As this has happened, families spend less and less time together. Gone are the days when families eat, play and watch TV together. It is that separation that families who desire to be safer should overcome. After all, by being together, your family will learn from one another. And learning from one another is better than learning from some stranger on the computer, or the TV, right? By spending time together, you impart many views and values upon your family. Those include your views on safety, security, preparedness and the world as a whole. Many families have forgotten what it’s like to go outside and play together. So, why not read a book, or do something educational together? Go on a hike, skim through a book on local wildlife, play a board game, build a puzzle, etc. I don’t know about you, but it’s the times spent together as a family that I remember most fondly from my childhood. Why not give your kids the same fun memories? Be Truthful With One Another “Honesty is the best policy.” ~Benjamin Franklin. Trust is a key part of any relationship, even with your family. When your family asks you questions, be honest with them. That honesty doesn’t include telling them an EMP is going to wipe out the planet. That is over exaggeration and not how to make your family safer. Stay with what you know is fact and avoid adding drama. Will an EMP wipe out the country? Who knows? What we do know is there is a potential for a grid down situation to happen. So, why not be prepared? Will they be attacked by a terrorist? Probably not, but there is a chance, just like there is a chance of being targeted by a criminal, etc. So, explain that bad people are out there. Explain that they should be observant and keep an eye out. Explain what they should do if something happens. Let them know that they will be okay because you have taught them what to do. Be Positive As preppers, we understandably tend to focus on events that are negative. While we don’t usually intend to be negative, others think we are. Those others can include our family members. Therefore, we should make a conscious effort to be positive as often as possible. When we’re positive, we’ll attract others who may be more willing to understand why we prepare. In the end, there are a lot of wonderful things that happen in our lives. Take the time to focus on and reinforce them to others. Being positive will help everyone come together, be happy and learn in an encouraging environment. Don’t Scare People We all know that the world can be a scary place. That is especially true for children and people who may not be exposed to potential problems like many preppers are. As a result, knowing how to make your family safer can be difficult. Because it’s a scary place many people ignore what’s going on, or put it out of their mind. Often times, when reality hits, they don’t deal with it well. Therefore, it is important to not scare people. When dealing with children, read this earlier blog post for some ideas. If there is something going that should be addressed, parents should take it out of earshot of the kids. Try to not be dramatic and say bad times and bad events are certain. Telling people who are not ready to hear something bad that it’s definite may be counterproductive. Instead of telling people the economy is going to crash, say we could be in for tough financial times. Doing so plants the seed and lets people get used to the idea. Then, as you slowly help the seed germinate, they’ll eventually develop an understanding. Lastly, never forget, you’re just one prep away. If you have any other information, suggestions, or thoughts about how to make your family safer, please leave a comment below. Stay safe, secure and prepared. |
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