Friday, June 27, 2008

one more birthday

Age is mind over matter, if you donot mind it does not matter........



- Mark Twain





I was celebrating my birthday as usual this year. Friends started wishing me Happy Birthday from night nine O'clock on the previous day onwards. At midnight 12 I got lot of calls wishing me happy birthday. It gives immense pleasure for me to know that so many friends remember my birth date. By the way it comes to my mind one question - is birthday so important in one's life? Some people even donot remember their birth date and celebrate the day as usual the same routine as any day. So many people hype it up with party galoring over wine flowing in and around. Some people make it simple to celebrate the birthday a bit special buying new clothes and visiting temples. Some people do some charity on the birthdays doing some great deed that will serve someone needy - these are socialites. Someone shy off to say that it is their birthday but they bask in the glory of getting recognized on their birthday. Not a problem! However you name it, it is anyhow a special day. But how many of us are really understanding what birthday means and what it tells us in life?



Does birthday mean that we need to celebrate a party with an extra candle? you will reach a age where you may need ceasefire or at later age fire department to blow the candles off.... but the fun is always there. Does birthday mean you spend some 500 bucks and give away party and spend the whole day for enjoyment? I shall tell you that the people who are born before 20th of a month are fairly lucky. I know how many purses will go empty when it is monthend and people who are born in last week need to plan for their birthday spending from first week of the month. Isn't it? However whether we show off or keep it simple it always reminds that you cross another year in your life. Each year is a reckoning. Each year is a realization of ambitions. Each year is an experience. Each year is a journey. Each year is a passage and so on.....



Infact it is a day to realize the past mistakes and make resolutions. We generally take Jan 1 to do it so why not keep birthday to do a revision? It is a revision of what we have made a resolution in past one year and what we need to make a resolution in future year. It is a time to verify our past one year tenure and be aware what needs to be planned in next year. Every year on personal front is quite important. Whether we move on careers or do something to enhance our work, our personal life is same and always changes with new phases of life entering in. It is the day to look behind and see what have we achieved in past X years when we complete the X on this day. It takes 10 minutes to make a self analysis and make a point to do something new in this year that will help our personal life. In my case, I made some resolutions myself to get to a better work-life balance. I decided to join yoga to enhance my health. I decided to finish my Guitar this year to get some self satisfaction of extra ciricular activity. On professional front I felt happy that I have completed one year in my current company and revisited my past one year experience. I made a resolution to enhance new skills on linux and drivers. On family front I decided to get some changes in my financial planning. On the view of friendships this year I brought many new friends into my circle but I keep forgetting to make a point with them catching them up. I decided to spend some ample time with them whenever I get some time. Remaining time I decided to dedicate to my reading skills and communication skills and improve my vocabulary. I have been doing some silly and want to become an expert in expressing things. This year also brought a quadrant way of planning time into my life. So I realize that this year will be great for me.



So it is your turn if your birthday is over or getting to come. you need to start thinking about what new resolutions that you plan to do this year and how do you plan to achieve them.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Real-life Dilbert quotes - some amazing entries

A popular magazine recently ran a "Dilbert Quotes" contest. They wanted people to submit quotes from their real-life Dilbert-type managers. Here are some of the submissions:
1. As of tomorrow, employees will only be able to access the building using individual security cards. Pictures will be taken next Wednesday and employees will receive their cards in two weeks. (This was the winning entry; Fred Dales at Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, WA)
2. What I need is a list of specific unknown problems we will encounter. (Lykes Lines Shipping)
3. How long is this Beta guy going to keep testing our stuff? (Programming intern, Microsoft IIS Development team)
4. E-mail is not to be used to pass on information or data. It should be used only for company business. (Accounting Mgr., Electric Boat Company)
5. This project is so important, we can't let things that are more important interfere with it. (Advertising/Mktg. Mgr., UPS)
6. Doing it right is no excuse for not meeting the schedule. No one will believe you solved this problem in one day! We've been working on it for months. Now, go act busy for a few weeks and I'll let you know when it's time to tell them. (R&D Supervisor, Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing/3MCorp.)
7. My boss spent the entire weekend retyping a 25-page proposal that only needed editing. She claims the disk I gave her was damaged and she couldn't edit it. The disk I gave her was write-protected. (CIO of Dell Computers)
8. Quote from the boss: "Teamwork is a lot of people doing what 'I' say." (Mktg. executive, Citrix Corporation)
9. My sister passed away and her funeral was scheduled for Monday. When I told my boss, he said she died only so that I would have to miss work on the busiest day of the year. He then asked if we could change her burial to Friday. He said, "That would be better for me." (Shipping Executive, FTD Florists)
10. We know that communication is a problem, but the company is not going to discuss it with the employees. (AT&T Lone Lines Division)
11. We recently received a memo from senior management saying, "This is to inform you that a memo will be issued today regarding the subject mentioned above." (Microsoft, Legal Affairs Division)
12. One day my boss asked me to submit a status report to him concerning a project I was working on. I asked him if tomorrow would be soon enough. He said, "If I wanted it tomorrow, I would have waited until tomorrow to ask for it!" (New Business Mgr., Hallmark Cards)
As director of communications, I was asked to prepare a memo reviewing our company's training programs and materials. In the body of the memo one of the sentences mentioned the "pedagogical approach" used by one of the training manuals. The day after I routed the memo to the executive committee, I was called into the HR Director's office, and was told that the executive VP wanted me out of the building by lunch. When I asked why, I was told that she wouldn't stand for "perverts" (pedophiles?) working in her company. Finally he showed me her copy of the memo, with her demand that I be fired, with the word "pedagogical" circled in red. The HR Manager was fairly reasonable, and once he looked the word up in his dictionary and made a copy of the definition to send to my boss, he told me not to worry - he would take care of it. Two days later, a memo to the entire staff came out, directing that no words which could not be found in the local Sunday newspaper could be used in company memos. A month later I resigned. In accordance with company policy, I created my resignation letter by pasting words together from the Sunday paper. (Taco Bell Corporation)
13. This gem is the closing paragraph of a nationally-circulated memo from a large communications company: "Lucent Technologies is endeavorily determined to promote constant attention on current procedures of transacting business focusing emphasis on innovative ways to better, if not supercede, the expectations of quality!"

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Greatest threats to climate - the global warming

There is a growing concern over climatic changes around the world and increasing number of people are showing interest towards the global warming. Year by year, the temperatures of a region are increasing and one fine day it may reach to a level which common man cannot tolerate. In the recent 10K run marathon conducted in Bangalore, I have seen a lot of Majja run participants propogating some information to save the climate and what we can do to the climate on our behalf. Infact it is every citizen's responsibility to show a concern towards climate. By the way what is 'global warming'? Global warming is the rise in temperature of the earth's atmosphere. Carbon dioxide and other air pollution that is collecting in the atmosphere like a thickening blanket, trapping the sun's heat and causing the planet to warm up. It's said that by the time a baby born today is 80 years old, the world will be 6 and a half degrees warmer than it is now. Although local temperatures fluctuate naturally, over the past 50 years the average global temperature has increased at the fastest rate in recorded history. And experts think the trend is accelerating: the 10 hottest years on record have all occurred since 1990. Let us consider the case of cities like Bangalore. This city which was considered to be most serenic cool sity in 1990's is now grown to a temperatures around 37 ° C which was never imagined 10 years ago when it was not even around 30 ° C .

We keep reading about rising temperatures and sea-levels in other parts of the world like United States and the UK, but actually India is one of the most vulnerable countries when it comes to effects of global warming. India has a vast coastal line and the rising sea levels caused by global warming will cause an ecological disaster. This is according to a 1989 United Nations Environment Programme study. We already saw some warnings through Tsunami. - the massive tidal waves that have slammed into our costs have already taken the lives of many a thousands and left several others with no way of continuing their lives.

The Himalayan glaciers have started to melt and the average rate of retreat is almost twice (34 metres) per year as compared to the 1971 levels of 19 metres. The melting glaciers will cause temperatures and sea-levels to rise and there will be a cascading effect on the crops and the monsoons. Worse - whole islands are expected to vanish! In fact two have already gone under - two islands in the Sunderbans, an area which India shares with Bangladesh. Temperatures in the group of islands has already gone up by one degree centigrade. While some climatologists say that sea levels will increase by just 4-35 inches from 1990 levels in another hundred yea.... some feel that the range could be higher - 20-55 inches. Thats a lot and will affect human habitat in a big way.In fact, as far back as 1993 a study to evaluate the impact of rising sea levels on India was carried out by JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University). They calculated what would happen if the sea-levels rose by just 1 metre…and they found that as many as 7 million people would be displaced and 5,764 sq km of land and 4,200 km of roads would be lost!

What can one do to save the global warming? On a daily basic this is what we can do to contribute to climate. These are simple, but are highly practical and effective.
1. Plant native and/or drought-tolerant plants. Some grasses, ground covers, shrubs and trees do not need to be watered as frequently.
2. Make sure you re-cycle newspapers, glass bottles, tin cans, and magazines.
3. Reuse your shopping bag plastic instead of getting new ones each time you go to the market.
4. Donate your unwanted clothes.
5. Turn off the faucet when you are brushing your teeth. Avoid water wastage.
5 .Turn off electrical devices (lights, fans, tv, computers, etc.) when they are not in use. Again saving electricity will mean saving water used to generate electricity.
6. Use “Energy Efficient” appliances. They will save you about a third on their energy bill with similar savings of greenhouse gas emissions, without sacrificing features, style or comfort
7. Check for leaks (toilets, faucets, pipes, irrigation systems, etc.). • Install a low-flow shower head
8. Ride your bicycle instead of driving for short distances. Atleast try to walk. Walking is a good excercise.
9. Have showers instead of baths. Shower will take less water than a bucket.
10. Solar water heaters than Electric ones would mean saving power.

And the list goes on..... And now I am sure you will have enough ideas in your brain to save environment. Implementation of simple steps is very much important.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

The time matrix - follow the basic thumb rules

This article relates to a good time management. I am inspired by this matrix and decided to pour some gyan into your mouths to light your brains with some innovative ideas. These are told and practiced by most people who succeeded in their lives as leaders





URGENT NOT URGENT





UI NUI IMPORTANT






UNI NUNI NOT IMPORTANT


Q! - URGENT & IMPORTANT


Q2 - IMPORTANT but NOT URGENT


Q3 - URGENT but NOT IMPORTANT


Q4 - NOT URGENT & NOT IMPORTANT



DEFINITIONS


URGENT - Tasks that take veNOTry less time to complete. The quickies


IMPORTANT - Tasks that need an ample amount of time allocation - The planned ones


THUMB RULES - in office


URGENT & IMPORTANT - The tasks for which ne is hired for a firm.


URGENT but NOT IMPORTANT - Not important for me but for others. I can spend quick time to attend them because they are urgent and need to be attended now.


IMPORTANT but NOT URGENT - Need to spend some time on them. They are important for me. but they need not be so urgently done. I can plan as per my convinience.


NOT URGENT & NOT IMPORTANT - All personal tasks that come across when I am at desk. I need not give priority NOW and need not spend ample amount of time NOW. I can do it at home


THUMB RULES - at home

URGENT & IMPORTANT - The tasks that need immediate attention at my home and are to be done NOW. I cannot go ahead unless I do it.
URGENT but NOT IMPORTANT - Some help my friends or relatives need. Need to attend them as it is important for them and urgent for me.


IMPORTANT but NOT URGENT - Some regular important activities that I need to plan but no so urgent that I have to do it NOW

NOT URGENT & NOT IMPORTANT - All tasks at my personal level which donot make ANY relevance to me. Forget ! why I am thinking about them too much?

Planning daily activities

Quite important! based on where I am! IF I am at my office, then the above rules for office exist in nature and give my critical time. IF I am at my home priorities change.

These are not told by me but by many succesful people and these achievers always stress on planning. What is a life if it has no goal and a plan and a schedule? We follow some process at office only to impress our bosses and at home what is the process we follow? The basic nature of relaxation and leisure makes us not to plan the personal things properly. Being so sincere at offices, why many fail to manage their schedules on the personal activities? It is lack of planning of the activities properly. Many people are very much ignorant of ground rules and suffer in their life with their mis-timing and cause others to suffer. Some people excel well in their careers but fail to impress their spouses only because of lack of organized life! (kidding - How can I say that if I am not married is not it? ok makes sense!)

Some fundaes

1. We nned to be organized

2. We should know when to prioritise what to do

3. We need to work to make priorities

We are enough matured and say " I know these! " Ok! Then what is the problem?

- Either we were forgetting them or either donot know how to work like this mentioned above

- We approximately are aware of them. But we are too busy to follow rules

- We know rules. We hate to follow rules since we DONOT want to follow

Out of above three, two are very easy to get corrected. If we are forgetting the rules or way to plan, we can make ways NOT to forget them by making a note of them. The expenditure will take a pen and paper to note a daily plan, weekly and monthly plan and follow them. That is what the quadrant matrix is all about. Follow simple ground rules and write your daily schedule. Second one - If we are too busy to follow rules - again we need matrix to basically organize ourselves as when we need to be busy with what so as to make sure that we spend busy time as per planned timing. Third - You are a haw and not the hem. You need a latest reading of "Who moved my cheese". We are most sophisticated to continue something we already know. Sometimes we are driven by urgency and we are not able to think about some RULE to make us force to do things in that way only. We are skeptical about it since we donot know what the schedule next week would be. Or mostly we like to be too dynamic than static in changing next moment plan due to urgenncy. Everything again boils down to a word urgency.

If you are a very busy person and you are driven by urgency and deliver the best when at urgency, it is the very procastination that is creating a sense of urgency in your activities. If you follow the matrix and give most importance to the way of first defining the 1st quadrant activities then your priorities will surely change. If you need to deal with others, just move to Q3 if it can be done quick or put it as Q4 if it can be dealt later. Plan your daily Q2 activiies to give importance. IF important tasks are well ahead planned without urgency then the very sense of urgency for Q2 tasks does not appear. And you will have sufficient time for Q1 to complete NOW. It is the very NOW that you need to agree with to complete the tasks that you list as Q1. Anything that releates to your duties are all Q1. Beware! donot run away! Some day you HAVE to do them! It is better to do it NOW them doing them LATER correct?

Life has many unexpected things. We get to go off with many things which we need to attend in no time correct? Learning to be as quick enough as it takes will make our lives easier. Planning important things is most important aspect of scheduling. One who is NOT driven by sense of urgency in life - is a great achiever. Since he plans ahead as what the very basic sense of urgency is for. He knows when to be urgent and where the important one is! Hopefully the definition of ground rule will help him each time dividing tasks one by one and keeping himself cool. It is not that priorities with URGENT - IMPORTANT category change but it is that how best we can determine which one to finish first and which one to finish next. Again it takes only few minutes for us to do that! After all it is a matter of pen and paper right? I agree we are hi-tech people and we all have organizers in our cellphones! Let us start using them!

Neverthless to say! writing this blog took me approximately one and half hour for total compilation and posting which I am doing it as IMPORTANT but not URGENT. I wanted to share with others which is IMPORTANT - I need to spend some ample time for it. NOT URGENT for me - it is not a immediate task to finish quickly NOW correct? hence doing in leisure time. OK! Time for now to plan my weekend activities based on time matrix!