Time Generator

The ability to do more in less time

The Pyramid of Luxuries

The Bespoke - $4,000 Vacation + $1,000 VISA eGift Card

The Ultra High End - Candlelight: A Tribute to Taylor Swift

The Superpremium - Cattleack BBQ

The Premium Core - UberEats

The Accessible Core - Time Generator

The Affordable Luxury - Are You Receiving All the Newsletters?

The Everyday Luxury - Winner’s Circle

The Bespoke

The winner for February’s Bespoke Contest is…

STACY from Mckinney! Congratulations! This is her submission for “something you are proud of”:

As mentioned in the first issue and other Bespoke announcements, even though there are more members now and we are still growing, the submission count for each contest is decreasing weekly. This means you and everyone that submits have a greater chance as we continue to grow.

Don’t forget to submit for your opportunity to win the vacation bundle! STACY just did and she’s going to be bugging me about taking vacation everyday until we’re at some Disney park.

And for the fourth time, voted by members, I will be giving another vacation bundle to the winner(s) of the March Bespoke Contest!

Click on the banner to enter The Bespoke Photo Contest. Click here for the Official Contest Rules.

• Prize: $4,000 Vacation Voucher + $1,000 in VISA eGift Cards [ARV $5,012]

• Odds: For every 660 Ducky Tran premium member by the time of judging, I will give out one (1) vacation bundle Prize

• Contest Period: February 28, 2024 at 10 AM CST to April 5, 2024 at 10 PM CST

See Issue 1 for more content about The Bespoke Prize.

The Ultra High End

Previous Contest Winner

The winner for Issue 14 is HA from Lincoln, Nebraska!

Congratulations! She won the set of ChefIQ Smart Wireless Thermometers. This is her submission for “a picture of your favorite spot in the house”:

Congratulations to HA! You have won so many times, I’m not sure if you’re surprised anymore?!

This is not a complaint as it is up to you, the members, if you want to submit for the prizes, but Issue 14’s Ultra High End Contest only had 4 submissions!

STACY chose the cash option when she won for Issue 10 because she could not make it to the Candle: A Tribute to Taylor Swift event, so I was able to move the dates and 3 tickets are available again.

This Week’s Contest

Click on the banner to enter The Ultra High End Photo Contest. Click here for the Official Contest Rules.

• Prize: 3 tickets to Candlelight: A Tribute to Taylor Swift [ARV $231]

• Odds: For every 150 Ducky Tran premium members by the time of judging, I will give out one (1) set of three (3) tickets (if available)

• Contest Period: February 28, 2024 at 10 AM CST to March 5, 2024 at 10 PM CST

Here are the specifics of the first set of tickets:

What: 3 x Zone B tickets to Candlelight: A Tribute to Taylor Swift

When: April 5, 2024 @ 6:30PM

Where: Edison’s Event Venue in Dallas, Texas

Check out Issue 10 for more information about Candlelight events.

The Superpremium

This week’s Superpremium topic is the Cattleack BBQ in Dallas, Texas. There’s a saying, “you know a restaurant’s good, when their hours don’t make sense.” I know that not exactly how it goes, but the idea is the same.

Cattleack BBQ has some weird hours, but that’s because they are popular enough to not have to run 12 hours a day, instead just 4 hours each weekday. This is not to downplay how homemade every item looks and tastes.

Most establishment, especially BBQ restaurants, pride themselves in making their own sauce, meats and sides. BUT — Cattleack BBQ does something different to all their food items that make it feel even more homemade. For example, the Crack Cake is a little sweeter and more moist than other cakes. Their Brisket Empanada is filled more than any empanada I’ve every had (that’s a good thing). Their sausage (even though not my favorite) has a texture like it was stuffed and smoked that morning. Even the pickles I’m pretty sure they make them themselves. This homemade feel definitely makes them stand out for me.

Before I go into some of the food, take a look a few pictures I took while trying them out recently:

NOTE TO SELF: Bring 3 friends next time. We definitely had leftovers after this lunch date with the wife.

SIDES:

1. Did I say homemade? Each of their sides feel so unique even though the names are similar to other BBQ places. Their apple broccoli salad is seasonal and is an amazing, refreshing item.

2. Their cheesy chipotle corn (elote) was the star for Stacy (she’s a recovering addict of street elote).

3. MAC was extremely creamy but I was say is only average compared to the other sides.

4. All the pickled items tasted more mild like it wasn’t sitting in pickle juice for months in a warehouse, hence the homemade theory. I like them much more than standard restaurant grade pickled veggies.

5. The dessert was a bit too sweet for me, but I have a feeling that they call it Crack Cake because there are some locals that they have to put a cake limit on.

6. Their BBQ sauce was just average, I like a more peppery sauce and their spicy version is too mild for my palate.

MEATS:

1. The king of meats in Texas BBQ, the brisket, was cut thick and trimmed to order. It was very good but less peppery than many other brisket I’ve had. This makes it unique and I think I can eat more of it than at usual BBQ restaurants.

2. Burnt Ends were charred perfectly but is not as crispy as other locations, personally, they are in my top 3 burnt ends.

3. Pastrami Beef Rib, this is where a few additional friends would have helped. Very good but is very rich and I could only take a few bites.

4. Pork Ribs, they did these right! This was one of my favorite items.

5. The sausage and bologna was good, but not the star and if I had to make a choice these would be cut from the order.

6. My favorite item was the BRISKET EMPANADA. These were amazing and I would have ordered more of them if I didn’t have 2 bags of to-go already. These aren’t on the normal menu but it should be, they were amazing.

AMBIANCE: Outside isn’t as inviting as some of the “in-the-middle-of-nowhere” kind of BBQ restaurants, but the inside is the opposite. It felt inviting and open. Their decor felt well-kept, but definitely reminiscent of a Texas BBQ restaurant. The open sitting allowed us to meet a friend from out-of-town trying it for the first time with us.

STAFF: They were really helpful but I have a feeling they have a lot of regulars they see weekly because they weren’t as friendly or inviting as we normally see at most BBQ restaurants. They were not mean or rude, this was just an observation, but they felt very reserved and only talking to each other instead of the guests when customers stood in front of the counter. But then again we were in Dallas, and people have a different demeanor there compared to the smaller cities surrounding it.

OVERALL: This has moved to the top 3 spots for BBQ for me. I would go back when I’m in the area, but the hours make it hard to go too often.

If you have some other amazing BBQ places for me to try, put it in the comments.

The Premium Core

This week’s Premium Core topic is UberEats. Either for convenience or lack of time, businesses that help save time such as food delivery has exploded in the last few years. UberEats is the biggest contributor to the mobile food delivery industry and will be part of the food ecosystem for many years to come.

Even though I prefer to cook all my meals and saving money by picking my own groceries/food, this is not always feasible for everyone. But even more importantly, it may not be the most time-efficient.

Time is the most valuable currency, many times, it may be more convenient and efficient to use services that assist you in saving time. UberEats is one of these services:

1. You can order dinner, while doing chores so you both of a clean house and dinner prepared by dinnertime.

2. You can surprise your wife with a special meal for her lunchtime from a place further from her usual lunch restaurants.

3. You can send a friend in the hospital a gift without being there in person.

4. You can feed your family while on a business trip and let them know you are thinking of them.

Not everyone can afford to use UberEats even if it is more convenient, so here’s this week’s deal:

Deal #1: I am offering a $50 UberEats eGift Card for only $20! It will be available at shop.duckytran.com, but there will only be 10 available so get yours soon!

The Accessible Core

Time Generator

The focus for this week is time wealth. I’m sure everyone can agree that we would like to have more time. More time to relax, more time to do our hobbies, more time for our family and friends and more time so we can live our lives.

Obviously, we can’t just get more time. The only ways to feel like we have time is to:

1. Be more efficient with some tasks so we can have more time to do the things that we want to do

2. Not do some tasks so we have more time for other tasks

3. Or multitasking so we use the same amount of time for many tasks

Even though the problem is the answer is obvious, the solution is not always enjoyable, reasonable or possible.

But what if I told you the key isn’t listed above?

What if I told you the key isn’t how you do the tasks that makes you have more time, but how you feel about the task that makes you have more time.

I can show you how achieve the 3 points listed above, but those things are everywhere on the internet and I’m sure you already utilize them. Let me give you a skill that is much harder to learn, perform and master, but once you do, you will become a time generator.

In this article from Stanford, a study is mentioned how a person’s perception of time, even when given the same time for each task, is dependent on their feeling of connection to someone else. To expand on this, when someone is doing a task that they feel have more meaning, connection or may affect someone else’s life, the perception of time is elongated so that they have “enough time” do the task. But when someone is doing a task without any connection to another person’s life, the time perception is less and feels like it “flies by”.

I truly believe this. Many people always ask how I have so much time, many ask why I am not stressed about 4 girls under 5-years-old, and others ask how can I do everything I do in a single day. My answer: I do it for my family, every single task, every single day.

Let me give you some examples you can utilize in your daily life so you can become a time generator:

1. Task: Laundry. Sometimes it just gets piled up and feels like no one is there to help you do all the laundry. You don’t have enough time.

   Connection: Remember, not every piece of clothing is worn tomorrow, not every towel is used today. Dress yourself/your family and prepare the wardrobe for the week. This will help you organize the order of laundry. Think about how comfortable it is to sleep on warm sheets, my daughters love when I put new sheets on. Think about how your family will be delighted to see their favorite jacket, blanket or shirt cleaned and hanging on their door. These things may seem small, but these moments are the things that build our relationships and generate a little bit of time back, or at least help you do more in the same time.

2. Task: You have a double-shift at work and your feet is killing you. You feel like you work so much you don’t have time for family.

   Connection: During any free time at work, even if it’s just a minute between customers, sometimes I plan pieces of my dream home. I slowly build room by room in my head and get excited about how just being at work is allowing me to build my dream family home. Then I daydream of the trips I will be able to surprise my family with by working this extra shift. Obviously, a single double-shift doesn’t afford me those trips, but knowing that I’ll be working 5 days a week, I know that I have time to build my house and figure this trip so when the day comes, I have it all planned out. All those 8-hour shifts will feel like a lifetime of wonderful adventures that you are building for you and your family.

3. Task: Changing the diaper pale liner and taking it out. This is one of those tasks nobody likes to do, if you no experience, it’s just like taking out the trash X 100 smelliness!

   Connection: I know this is necessary task, so I get my girls involved sometimes. They think its funny that I’m nearly dying when taking out the diaper pale trash bag. So when I take it out, I normally chase them with it while they run frantically. I then act like I’m passing out from the pale and the girls will surround me and for some reason poke me like I’m roadkill. Then I’ll get up and throw it away, but when I come back inside, I’ll chase them again like I have the diaper bag still in my hand. This actually probably takes more time, but in reality, it makes the task so much easier and I get fun memories that I would want to make with my girls anyways. Win-Win.

These are just some examples, if you find it hard to think of a way to connect a task you have, send me an email or comment below and I can help by giving you my perspective. I hope this way of thinking will help every member here generate some time of their own and maybe one day we can be each other’s time generators.

The Affordable Luxury

Issue 14 Community Poll Results

This last week’s poll really surprised me with how many unique feedback I’m starting to see. Thank you for the members that interact with these polls and give more feedback, it really does make reading and writing the newsletters more enjoyable for me too. Now let’s look at the results:

1. It looks like most members balance their work-time vs free-time by both setting boundaries between them and prioritizing things that are more important to in life. I would agree it takes both to really find balance.

2. Multitasking vs focusing on one. I like the responses I got for this one the most. Even though members chose different answers, all the written feedback came out to be the same idea. We all multitask to get started with many different projects/tasks/chores but we want to focus on one to make sure that it gets done properly.

3. It was an even split between losing time in the future to relive a time in the past. Some believed that past developed their character so they don’t want to go back, while others see it as an opportunity to relive a fun time in there youth again rather than sitting idle when they’re old. I think perspective of the question made the feedback very unique.

This Week’s Community Poll

The Everyday Luxury

(The referral program is only viewable on the email version of the newsletter.)

It’s like I said in Issue 1 of Ducky Tran, those that submit for the contests regularly have a significant chance of winning due to the frequency of weekly submissions. HA is now one of our most awarded members, and we want to congratulate her for her weekly submissions.

You can be part of the “winner’s circle” too (not a real thing in Ducky Tran, just that there are a few members that have won many times due to their consistent weekly submissions). Just remember to submit for the contests, don’t forget you can always take the cash-equivalent prize (half the ARV) if you don’t want the main prize.

Visit shop.duckytran.com with the weekly password: taylor