Don’t miss these techniques to manage your time

To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade.
To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.
To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.
To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who missed the train.
To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask a person who just avoided an accident.

Read the above statements again and again so that it sinks down well in your mind. This is the most important thing to understand in life. Lot of us think that money and fame are the most important factors influencing our life. You can have loads of money and bundles of fame but that doesn’t mean that you are living a fulfilled life. You can revisit your life, go to those early days in your life where you were care free and really enjoyed your life to the core, with your friends, family and all those who were around you, without an ounce of worry. Did you have truck loads of money for yourself then?

If you think that money and materialistic pursuits give you the excitement and you are ready to go down to any level to get that, you many not be interested to read this article any further. This is for those who really want to “enjoy” life in all its beauty under all circumstances.

Do you know the primary reason behind tension, anxiety, restlessness and frustration? You may say that it is due to situations and conditions around you. But, I am going to ask you to think about a little more, speak to yourself and find out what causes them, the fights and quarrels that you pick with your spouse everyday morning when you rush to work, the intimidating shouts that you do over your phone with your loved one, the road rage that you pick up with an unknown person on the road on your way to the office…Why all these?

Let me open your eyes towards a very simple logic and it will really release you from lot of your troubles. It is not about your job, spouse, neighbor or boss, it is about a magical word called “TIME”. It is about hours, minutes and seconds that constitute your days, weeks and years.

Let me tell you another secret. The richest person on this earth and the poorest beggar have one thing in common and it is “TIME” and you are no different. God gifts all of us with 86,40o seconds everyday. It is what you do with this precious entity that determines the quality of your life. Time is gold and you cannot do everything all the time. You need to refresh and reprogram your mind. I will tell you how.

Here are a few very important things that you must start taking from now, if you really want to see this magic unwind in your life. I have done this and it has really helped me to shape up my life from the scratch. If I can do it, I absolutely have no doubt that each of you reading this will have any problems doing it.

1. Analysis – Where does your time go? Have you ever wondered where all your money goes once you receive your pay check every month? You think that you have not spent on anything big, but again mid way through the month, you scrap everywhere to see how you can sustain over the entire month. The same is the case with time, it never stops and waits for you. It keeps ticking on and nobody in the world can control it. You can only adapt to it. Lets do this exercise and it is an interesting one. Starting tomorrow, you are going to divide your day into 24 slots consisting of 1 hour each. You need to write in a diary about what are the things that you do during each of these time slots. Continue this activity for 7 days and go through the results. You can see a pattern emerging..the time you wasted in chit chat, needless thoughts, gossips, unwanted talks and thoughts, wrong priorities and the list is endless.  You have found your time thieves now and the next step is attacking them. How are you going to do it? Read on…
2. Prioritize – The most important thing is that you need to prioritize your activities on the basis of how important they are to you. You can always wait to catch on with a movie rather than postponing a hospital visit, can’t you? Create an item list for every day and color code each activity based on the priority. For e.g High priority can be marked in red, medium in orange and low in green. Now, schedule all the high priority activities at the appropriate time and this leaves you the rest of the time to be utilized for medium and low priority activities. This is a very simple technique, but it has real power in it. You need to try it out to see the difference it can make in your life.
3. Delegate – Don’t try to do everything by yourself and it is next to impossible. Accept the fact that others around are better doing certain things than you doing them. Learn the art of requesting others to do certain tasks for you either for free or for a fee.
4. No Procrastination – One of the dangerous devils that can ruin your opportunities is procrastination. Golden eggs are easily missed if you fail to travel the mile to collect them. If you see an activity that is planned with priority, don’t miss it ever
5. No Multitasking – You have only two hands and one mind. This means you can think clearly and focus on only one thing at a time. Don’t start five activities and leave all of them unfinished, rather start one, complete it and then move on to the next. You will really feel good and satisfied.

A sample weekly planner is given below. You can adjust it to your comfortable time range.

Take a printout of the following tips and keep it handy around you

Remember that time waits for no one.
Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is mystery. Today is a gift.
That’s why it’s called the present!

Small things matter in life

Have you ever seen weightlifters lifting phenomenal weights during the competitions? With their huge muscles, they will lift the weights onto the top of their heads, hold it for a couple of seconds and then throw it down. But, do they lift such heavy weights from day one? No, they would have started with trying to lift the minimum weight that they could lift during the earlier days and would have gradually progressed to lifting heavier weights during the course of their practice sessions and competitions. The same rule applies to anything and everything in our life and career. Yes, Small things matter the most in life.

Nobody could have achieved great things without aiming for perfection in the smaller tasks and assignments that they might have been entrusted with. You can’t handle complex stuff, if you have not handled the basics in any area that you venture into. In life, we go through a lot of situations every day. Pressures, pains, difficulties etc really whip through our mind and we should not allow these things to make us weak, but rather they should make us strong. In our workplaces, we face a lot of challenges every day, each of these should be a stepping stone to our future success. We should learn at least one new lesson from each hurdle that we face in our life or work.

If we learn how to do the smallest of the task with utmost care, devotion and responsibility, this will become a habit and it will build the confidence in us to accomplish anything. This is the secret to success and will help in soaring to greater heights during the course of life.

On the other hand, if we consider each of the challenges to be an obstacle and give up without facing it, we are for sure spinning our own web of failure. It is how we deal with small things in life that builds the strength in us to face greater responsibilities. Don’t despise the small things!.

Why should we give importance to small things in life

Have you ever seen weightlifters lifting phenomeonal weights during the competitions? With their huge muscles, they will lift the weights onto the top of their heads, hold it for a couple of seconds and then throw it down. But, do they lift such heavy weights from day one? No, they would have started with trying to lift the minimum weight that they could lift during the earlier days and would have gradually progressed to lifting heavier weights during the course of their practice sessions and competitions. The same rule applies to anything and everything in our life and career.

Nobody could have achieved great things without aiming for perfection in the smaller tasks and assignments that they might have been entrusted with. You can’t handle complex stuff, if you have not handled the basics in any area that you venture into. In life, we go through a lot of situations every day. Pressures, pains, difficulties etc really whip through our mind and we should not allow these things to make us weak, but rather they should make us strong. In our workplaces, we face a lot of challenges every day, each of these should be a stepping stone to our future success. We should learn at least one new lesson from each hurdle that we face in our life or work.

If we learn how to do the smallest of the task with utmost care, devotion and responsibility, this will become a habit and it will build the confidence in us to accomplish anything. This is the secret to success and will help in soaring to greater heights during the course of life.

On the other hand, if we consider each of the challenges to be an obstacle and give up without facing it, we are for sure spinning our own web of failure. It is how we deal with small things in life that builds the strength in us to face greater responsibilities. Don’t despise the small things!.

3 vital reasons for being focused in life

“Concentrate all your thoughts on the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus” – Alexander Graham Bell

“The game has its ups and downs, but you can never lose focus of your individual goals and you can’t let yourself be beaten because of lack of effort” – Michael Jordan

All of us want to be in the spotlight of things. We look for acceptance and recognition from others all the time. This could be evident from our anxious lookout for those likes or comments from our friends on the social media whenever we post something. But outwardly, we try to suppress these desires and pose as if we don’t have an appetite for fame and fortune.

You know what, everyone is desperately looking for something that they want to achieve in their lifetime, but only a very few really know what they want exactly. All the others just chase their unknown fantasies and live in a wide array of dreams, ultimately achieving nothing and ending up frustrated all the time.

The moment we see a glimpse of an opportunity, our mind races through a wide range of thoughts and make us feel that we have reached the pinnacle. At the same time, when nothing comes our way, we become despaired and feel worthless. This is the imbalance that prevents us from achieving many things in life.

Is there a way out of this situation? Yes, for everything there is a solution, but many don’t bother much about thinking on it.  When we pass the light through a tiny hole, it is refracted to a long distance, or in other words when light is focused through a pin hole, the entire light particles are diffused into a single stream, and they become more powerful and travel a long distance. In a similar fashion, being focused on certain key objectives rather than just letting our thoughts  wander on too many things would help us to achieve our dreams and goals.

Your objectives can be anything on your personal, professional or spiritual front, but make sure it helps you to grow overall as a good human being. Here are some of the benefits by being focused on the things that we do.

1. Being focused on something helps to take the right decisions, which form an important aspect of our life. We fail at decision making because we don’t know what exactly we need to do. It is always wise to decide upon something after weighing its pros and cons. Next time, you take a decision; make sure that you are clear about the outcome of that decision and its impact. Never take decisions without considering its pros and cons
2. Being focused helps to avoid procrastination. Procrastination is one of the major hindrances to life. Being focused on the task at hand helps us to do it at the right time and achieve satisfaction out of it.If we procrastinate, we end up with anxiety and frustration.
3. Being focused improves concentration. Many of us are mediocre performers because we lack concentration. Let us measure how long we can concentrate on a particular task without disturbance. If we are not focused, we cannot concentrate. When we do a particular task, we need to make sure that we forget everything else and concentrate only on that till it is done. Many of us have the habit of keeping certain tasks partially finished, and jump onto another. It is a highly dangerous habit. Whatever we do, we need to make sure that we complete it with the best of our efforts. Let us stop living aimlessly and start focusing on each and everything that we do. This will bring a lot of discipline to our life, and we will start enjoying a focused and satisfied life.

A highly practical tip to keep yourself focused in your life

“An idle mind is a devil’s workshop” is a popular saying. By keeping ourselves idle without doing anything, we allow our thoughts to be scattered and permit them to wander in unnecessary zones. This results in the draining of our mental energy and ultimately infuses frustration and anxiety within us.

May I request you to take 5 minutes of your time and write down all the thoughts that flash across your mind and categorize them based on their benefit? I am sure that you would be surprised to know that a vast majority of your thoughts in a 5 minute time frame were unnecessary and time killing. It won’t help you to make any positive move in your life. They are just sappers of the mental energy that drain your desires and passions and finally make you lose interest in life.

The key to overcome this problem is to make sure that you never remain idle for a long period of time, and more importantly not to keep your mind idle. There could be situations where you may be forced to spend a lot of time at home due to a job loss or in a hospital lying down and doing nothing, due to an illness. Even if you can’t keep yourself physically active, make sure that you avoid letting your mind be idle, by diverting your attention to something that would benefit you, in the long run. You could pick up a book and read or listen to some motivating speeches or you could learn a craft to keep yourself occupied.

We have very limited time to live our lives and we may not have it at our disposal forever. We should ensure that we make effective use of the available time by learning a new skill, developing a new hobby, reading a good book, writing a blog, cooking a favorite dish, going to the gym for a workout, going on a long walk or meeting up with a good friend to discuss on a favorite topic.

There are so many interesting things to do in life and keep us busy, and we will run out of time if we effectively start focusing on these. Keeping ourselves idle should be the last thing that we should think about in life, as there are so many beautiful avenues for us to foray and contribute. Here is a tip to help you get going. Take a resolution that you won’t waste your time anymore by focusing on unnecessary thoughts or by keeping your mind idle. Plan your day in such a manner that you keep yourself busy and brimming with activities throughout the day. This will definitely help you go up in life and thereby benefit others around you. You will slowly see the transformation in your personality and you will start accomplishing unimaginable things in life.

The next time, when you sit idle at your home or workplace, just go for a walk or grab a cup of coffee and read something to drive away that demon that competes for a space in your idle brain!

How to be more productive at work

1. The first and foremost thing to do is to start the day on a positive note. Make sure the time in the morning is utilized well for reading, exercising, planning etc…and thereby you get a head start on the day
2. Take efforts to reach office on time as that would give a satisfied and secure state of mind. If possible, try to reach office 15 to 20 minutes early to set the things rolling.
2. Make sure you prioritize your work with a To do list once you reach the office. It is very helpful to use an online tool which would help to maintain a to-do list. Some of the best tools available in the market are WunderList, any.do and todoist
3. Start the day with the tasks that can be completed quickly and easily without much interaction with others. This will give you a great feeling to go ahead with the rest of the day’s activities.
4. Take a 5 to 10-minute break once in 2 hours. Use this opportunity to grab a cup of coffee and quickly meet up with someone to discuss a topic. You could choose an interesting topic, but make sure you stay away from backbiting or office gossips
5. The period of up to 2 hours after lunch is not your active part of the day. Don’t schedule any work that would require a high level of concentration during this time. Important meetings could be avoided during this time frame.
6. Avoid checking your personal emails, reading newspapers, tapping with the mobile phones to check the social media etc, as it would divert your concentration and focus. If you lose focus in between an important work, it is very difficult bring it back and the possibility of committing serious mistakes because of this is very high. You could use your breaks to get these things done.
7. Always make sure to take notes while attending meetings, and try to get all the necessary things clarified in the meetings to make sure you are not stuck at a later point of time for lack of information.
8. If you have some boring work to do, schedule a time slot for that kind of tasks. This will help to put more focus on those works too, as your mind is already prepared for that.
9. When the 3/4th of the day is over, you should be in a position to complete all your work. It is a good time to do a status check on the work items and take actions accordingly.
10. When you are leaving for the day, make sure that you have reached out to the concerned people to get the needed information to effectively start your work the next day.

Productivity is not about staying too long in office. It is about making sure that the assigned work is completed efficiently on time and with high quality. This can be achieved only through efficient planning and by enforcing the needed discipline to stick to the plan

10 points for a clutter free life

1. Be very open and expressive – Never keep all your emotions inside, so that they heat up and explode one day. Talk it out with somebody whom you feel comfortable and can be trusted. You can also start to express your emotions and feelings in writing, and keep it private. Writing is a great stress buster.

2. Don’t keep yourself idle and be engaged in activities – If the mind is kept unoccupied, it will become a place for all the negativeness and unnecessary garbage to be dumped. This in turn will lead to lot of stress and anxiety. Try to engage yourself with some activity like reading, writing, listening to a soul stirring music, teaching somebody, spending time with your friend, going for a walk etc. You will find yourself refreshed and satisfied.

3. Plan things well ahead – Never do anything without planning except for unscheduled emergencies. You need to have a proper plan for your bill payments, investments, purchases, travels etc. Always keep a “To do” list and maintain it up-to date.

4. Start earlier – We cannot avoid commute these days. It could be to our office, a family function, an entertainment event, dropping or picking up kids from schools etc. The heavy traffic on the roads also act against us. The key here is always plan to reach the destination 15 minutes earlier. This would relieve lot of stress while driving. You will drive in a very relaxed manner, and won’t be irritated because of road rage, or an unexpected traffic diversion etc.

5. Never worry about what others think of you, as nobody will understand what you are going through personally, and there is no point in trying to make everyone understand your situation.

6. There are lot of things in life that requires time to effect. Be patient about it. It could be a desire to reduce weight, developing a hobby, mastering a language, learning a new technology, giving up a bad habit etc. Don’t try to rush through and invite undue stress on yourself.

7. Eat proper, and never over eat – Always eat proper amount of food, and avoid the temptation of overeating. It is OK if you leave a little food out there on the plate instead of gobbling up everything only to find yourself feeling bad about that.

8. Accommodate the feelings and interests of others around you and don’t be a loner – We all live in a society and community, and that is how human beings differ from animals. We are created to live in harmony with others. Always give room for the feelings of others, enjoy speaking with people, avoid slandering, grumbling, talking at the back, being egoistic and jealous etc. These will paint you as an evil person and people won’t like to associate with you.

9. Don’t worry about things that are not in your control, and which you cannot change by yourself.

10.Never behave in a rude and harsh manner with anyone, and at the same time be stern and controlled, in places where you need to be.

The importance of using To Do list

Image courtesy : Lifehack

I have been finding it very difficult to do work in an organized manner. It could be office work, or errands like paying bills, or planning a travel, I used to procrastinate to the core, and invite undue stress and tension on myself.

My wife has been asking me to renew her passport for a year now, and still I haven’t taken any efforts to do it, and by the way it expired three months back. I have missed out paying my LIC premium, renewing car and two wheeler insurance, and the list goes on and on. I have been so lazy that I have not even redeemed my matured NSC policies. To add to this, I have an illusion that I am busy all the time, and completely squeezed for time.

Let me tell you, life will be too frustrating if we are not organized. Experiences reveal that the most successful people are not the ones who slogged working for long hours, but who meticulously planned and organized their day to day activities. There is no use in focusing on twenty things at once and messing up everything. That is what most of us are trying to do.

I was introspecting this for a long time, and then decided that I should do something about it. I also realized that I used to get these thoughts only on 31st December during the time of pondering over new year resolutions, but this time, I wanted to be little different and started a couple of weeks early.

I have tried the method of writing diary, but it did not yield me the desired result. Hence, I wanted to try out an online tool which would help me to be organized. I found https://en.todoist.com/ to be a good tool, which helps to track our personal, official, errand and other works in an organized manner. It has lots and lots of other features like setting reminders, metrics on how we are doing with our tasks etc. It also has a mobile app for all the platforms.

There is a free subscription with limited features, and a paid subscription of 29 USD per year which has a vast array of exciting options. There are many other tools also, but this one looked simple and easy to me.

The biggest lesson I learnt is that if we don’t have an end date on mind for any of the task that we undertake, there is a high probability that we will not complete it. These tools help us to set target completion date, and at least motivate us to go ahead and complete it. Stay tuned for a complete review of this tool in another post. Till then, keep planning and keep achieving. Good luck!

How to keep yourself active?

“Put your brain into constructive work all the time, other than when it is intended to rest”

Life is very interesting if we handle it properly. When we look around, we see some people who are charming and buzzing with activities, while there are some others who really don’t understand what they are doing, and just whiling away the time.

Always remember that life throws back at us, whatever we invest into it. If we invest our time and effort in good and valuable activities, we will reap happiness and satisfaction, on the other hand, if we remain lazy and dull, we will reap frustrations and dejections. It is no wonder that so many people could not enjoy a fulfilling life, as most of their efforts are concerned with only squeezing something out of life without investing anything into it.

If our brain is not given enough work and activities to do, it becomes so dull and loses its sharpness. What happens to our bodies when we eat too much and don’t do any exercise?, It starts accumulating fat and finally transitions us into an undesired shape. In the same way, if we just feed some junk into our brain, and don’t take time to work it out, it becomes like a blunt axe which is not fit for anything.

Most of the anxiety, worry and mental disorders that exist today is a result of improper utilization of our brain. We need to take some time to think about what we are doing at present and plan on what we want to do and achieve in our lives. A lot of us have a habit of letting our thoughts to wander in unnecessary zones when we don’t have anything to do. We should avoid being put into such a situation by effectively planning our activities to make sure that we are engaged. I think, apart from our sleep and resting time, our brains should work according to a proper plan. Let us try to be smart people always engaged in some activities that brings out our talents, skills, capabilities and help others around us.

The easiest way to take decisions

I want to give you a very simple exercise to help you with executing a task. The tasks could range from a simple decision on a dinner outing to something very complex like deciding on your investments.

Take a piece of paper and ask yourself the following three questions, and try to answer them as honestly as possible with an open mind and without any prejudices and per conceived opinions.

1. What am I trying to do?
2. Why am I trying to do?
3. How am I going to do?

If you have clear answers to these 3 questions, believe me, whatever you try to accomplish, you will succeed. We will call this as the WWH principle of task execution.