21 Power Moves You Can Make

Delegate chores, examine your breasts, save a TV show

• Target the task that fills the frustration index. Remember, there's clock time and there's emotional and thought time. Paying bills may not actually eat up many minutes, but if you dread the prospect and cry at the results, this should be the chore that gets chucked.
• Know that doing it right doesn't have to mean doing it yourself. "In order to delegate, you need to let go of any 'things must be perfect' ideas you might have, and embrace instead the thought that 'things must get done,'" says Stephanie Culp, author of Streamlining Your Life.
• Don't let your budget get in the way. Look for high-school students or senior citizens who might want to do light housework, yard work, baby-sitting, bookkeeping, paperwork or errands for a reasonable amount of money.
• Use the buddy system. "Ask a friend to exchange services with you," says Culp. "If you are great at wrapping gifts at holiday time and she is great at baking, you can wrap and she can bake."

Early detection is your best protection against breast cancer, the second most deadly form of cancer for women. Make this a routine about a week after your period begins.

Before a mirror: Visually inspect your breasts, first with your arms down at your sides, then with your arms raised overhead, last with your palms on your hips and your shoulders pressed forward to flex your chest muscles. Look for any unusual lumps, dimpling or thickening in the breasts.

In the shower: Soap up your chest for maximum glide and palpate each breast with your fingerpads, right hand to left breast and left hand to right breast. Choose a pattern that suits you while thoroughly covering the breast tissue right up to the armpit. Check for abnormal lumps, knots or thickening.

Lying down: Lie down with a small pillow under the shoulder of the breast you will examine. With your fingerpads, repeat your preferred pattern from the shower, remembering the tissue under your arms. Gently squeeze each nipple as well to check for discharge.

By Marshall Herskovitz, co-creator and co-executive producer of the ABC drama Once and Again

The best thing to do is write or e-mail the network. They are very responsive to that. They figure for everyone who writes to protest a show's being canceled, there are probably 100 to 1,000 people who don't. Starting a letter-writing campaign can also help. That happened with Once and Again twice. The letters we would get were so passionate about the show and what it meant to them, and the network was very, very impressed by that. And clearly, we're still on the air.