You're at work, working on whatever the project of the day is. Your boss / coworker barges frantically in to your office with a new task / folder / project / whatever.

The world will literally light on FIRE if this doesn't get handled in the next eleven minutes. FIRE!

Since you don't want the world to, you know, LIGHT ON FIRE, your instinct is to stop what you're doing and frantically set about to handle this shiny new task.

Instead of following your instincts on this one, stop for a minute. Breathe. Think about the task. The world probably won't actually light on fire if this isn't handled right away. Finish what you're working on, then get your new stuff handled.

Chances are that everything will be just fine, even if this ultra-super-mega important task isn't completed right this minute. The person who brought you the task was probably over-reacting. He was probably too worked up about the whole thing. That doesn't mean you need to follow along.

Don't let others control your mood. Don't let others change the way you work. Relax, focus, and get things done, your way.

Banking has come a long way in my lifetime. When I opened my first bank account, there was no such thing as online bill pay. Heck, the internet wasn't even around, or if it was, I didn't know about it.

ATM's were just barely beginning to become popular. Huge overdraft fees weren't really in place then. If you didn't have any money, you couldn't spend any money - it was pretty simple in many ways.

Some of the changes in the banking industry have been very welcome indeed. Online bill pay, for example, makes my financial life drastically simpler.

However, the way banks profit has changed, and not for the better. A huge percentage of bank profits these days is from fees - ATM fees, overdraft fees, maintenance fees, F-You fees, you get the picture. It's gotten out of control, and away from how banks began.

Bank Simple eliminates the confusion.

No hidden fees. No overdraft fees. No fee for online bill pay. No markup on the fees they do charge. Meaning, if an international transfer costs Bank Simple $15, you pay $15.

How does Simple Bank intend to make a profit?

The same way banks used to profit - interest spread. For example, they pay out 4% on the deposit accounts, and charge an average of 9% on loans. The spread, or 5% in this case, covers losses and, hopefully, generates a profit.

There's a killer feature.

Bank Simple took this out of USAA's playbook. With a special smartphone app, you can take a picture of a check, and it's instantly deposited into your Bank Simple account. No more running to the bank to deposit your check, or caching it at a liquor store (generally a terrible idea, by the way.)

There is one little catch though.

No, the catch is not a fee - Bank Simple doesn't do that, remember? The catch is that Bank Simple isn't open yet. The plan is to launch sometime this year, though there is no firm date yet. You can request an invite, however.

It's OK to be leery of a new bank. But I really like Bank Simple's vision. I like their business model. This is a company I'd like to do business with, and I look forward to doing just that.

This morning my grandmother passed away. She spent the last few weeks of her life in the hospital; and she's had numerous major medical problems the last 5-10 years. Several strokes, a heart attack - you name it, she's probably had it.

I spent much of today reflecting on my grandmother's life here on earth. The more I think about her, the more I realize she was an absolutely incredible role model. Granted, I never thought much about it when she was alive, which is very unfortunate. But she lived life the way she wanted; she dealt with the tough situations life handed her very graceful.

She lived a very, very simple life.

As I look back on everything I know about her, one thing is strikingly clear: she didn't care about material things. After losing her husband (my grandfather - he passed years before I was born), she certainly wasn't wealthy. She lived in a modest home; much of it built by my grandfather. She did not own a car - in fact, she never had a driver's license. Driving and owning a car simply didn't appeal to her in any way.

She never chased the latest electronics, never had the latest gadgets. She only got a computer within the last 2 or 3 years. She did not care about fancy clothes, or expensive furnishings. Her home was decorated in a very simple manner; beautiful without being extravagant.

The only thing I know that my grandmother really and truly cared about was her family. Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter were always held at her house. Aunts and uncles, cousins, children and grandchildren.... all of us would come to her house to spend the holidays together.

She absolutely loved it when I would visit - see, I live halfway across the country these days. When I would bring my wife and son to visit, she was always looking to make her great-grandson a snack, or get him some toys to play with. Often the same toys I played with as a child.

Be an optimist

My grandmother seemingly did not catch a lot of breaks in her life. She lost her husband at a young age, she did not have much money, and she spent too much of her last years in the hospital. Yet in spite of all this, she was one of the happiest, kindest, most generous human beings I've ever had the pleasure of knowing.

Instead of worrying about things that would never make her happy, she cared about the things that did make her happy. That is the lesson for today, folks. "Stuff" will never make you happy, even if it briefly seems like it does. Spending time with your family will.

Make some time to spend with the people you love. God will eventually take them away, and he never calls ahead of time to let you know.

Simplicity is about cutting back on the needless things in your life so you can spend more time doing what is most important to you.

Time being the key here.

Every day, every month, every year that goes by is lost. Gone forever. No matter how badly you want it, no matter how much money you have, no matter what your job title or position in life, you cannot turn back time.

This, my friends, is why it's important to reduce the crap in your life. Too much stuff, too many commitments, just plain too much in your life leads to wasted time. Wasted time with your spouse. Wasted time with your children.

Ye Olde Cliche

It's a cliched saying, of course, but children grow up too fast. Way too fast. One day they're in diapers, and before you know if they're heading off to middle school, then high school, then college. In fact it takes years, but it seems to pass in the blink of an eye.

Wasting time with things that don't matter costs you time with your kids. Time that you'll regret losing for years, maybe forever. When they're teenagers and don't want to talk to you anymore, because you're not hip... you'll miss the days that you didn't spend with them when they were younger.

I realize that not everyone has kids. If that's you, that doesn't mean it's OK to just waste away as much time as you like. Time still ticks by, ever faster. While you won't be missing time with your nonexistent children, you will miss out on enjoying life.

That's why it's so important to figure out what matters to you. Your kids, spouse, parents, church, business, charity, whatever. You get the idea. Time wasted on meaningless things is time that you miss out spending on meaningful things.

Maybe that sounds obvious.

Have you ever thought that the extra 10 minutes every day you spend trying to find your wallet in the pile of crap on your desk adds up to 60 hours a year? That's sixty hours of time that you lost.

Note that this is far different from sixty hours spent relaxing. There is great benefit to taking things slow, relaxing, and purposefully doing nothing. With these things, inaction is a choice, and is great for your state of mind. I know of no one who benefits from frantically searching for their things.

Cut the clutter. Get rid of stuff you don't need. Cut back on non critical commitments. Get your time back, and do something fantastic with it.