365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 88. Double the Planning Time!

 Double the Planning Time

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

– Benjamin Franklin

Double the planning time to cut the execution time by half! Looks very simple! But it is a very powerful time management idea. Every project involves a planning and an execution phase. If you plan meticulously, you will be able to accomplish any task to the highest quality standard.  

Before going to sleep, spend at least thirty minutes of your time on how you are going to spend your next day. In addition, spend the first hour of the day in planning and meditating.

Take an important project which will make a substantial value addition to your life and do a detailed strategic planning. Use project management charts and tools. Plan for all the activities, resource mobilisation, time schedule etc. Anticipate problems and think ‘if this goes wrong then...’ and prepare a contingency plan.

Put your plan on a piece of paper. Many people don’t do this part well. Mental planning is not good enough for important projects. When you write down, many things will get cleared. It will be a good idea to discuss your plan with others, who may have a different perspective.

Meticulous planning will avoid unnecessary tension during execution. 

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

N C Sridharan
www.thetimefoundation.com
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365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 69: Develop ‘One-Pointedness’

Develop ‘One-Pointedness’

Concentrate; put all your eggs in one basket, and watch that basket.

-Andrew Carnegie

What’s your longest span of concentration and focus on one single selected task without your mind wandering? Great success calls for great efforts and a disciplined mind. By nature, mind is not disciplined and will drift. We have to train the mind to ‘one-pointedness by deliberate exercise and practice. When we were children, we were able to concentrate on one thing. But as we grew older we lost this important quality, like we gave up diaphragmatic breathing!

Every day set aside one hour to concentrate on the most important task on hand such as writing, portfolio management, reading and thinking. Switch off your mobile phone, shut down your television set and tell people that you are not available. If necessary lock yourself for one hour in a room. Just disappear from the crowd! If you find it difficult to concentrate for one full hour to start with, begin with fifteen minutes and gradually improve. Treat this as a very important self-development portfolio exercise, like jogging and workout.

Sincerely do this for a month and notice your self confidence going up along with the quality of your work!

(From my book '365 Excitement Ways to Live')

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 68 : Read and Acquire Knowledge

     Read and Acquire Knowledge

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

– Sir Richard Steele

Fine tune and improve the quality of your ‘reading portfolio’. In an era of infinite and exciting opportunities, we can realise even a very ‘wild’ dream through an effective strategy. Focused knowledge acquisition should be an integral part of our success strategy. Compared to ten years ago, our competition has also grown several times and we should be intelligent enough to survive competition.

The cutting edge which will decide our success is our knowledge base, which will assume great importance in the era of perfect competition. Consider the following:

• Focus on your reading. Do not read everything and anything.
• Read with a purpose. Before reading, decide how it will be useful.
• Set aside specific time and place to read. Even if you skip eating, don’t skip reading!
• Use technology to improve your reading. Use internet, e-books, audio books, iPods etc.

·         Target your reading topic wise, form a discussion group and a study group.

Honestly audit your reading portfolio to check if it is adequate, given your responsibility and ambitions in life. Remember that knowledge acquisition is an important survival strategy and not a luxury anymore!

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 37 - Develop Your Successor

Develop Your Successor.

The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.

– Harvey S. Firestone

The higher up you go in your career, the more you need the help and support of people. You should graduate from doing to getting things done by others.  For this, you should know how to develop people. The difference between supervising and managing lies in the number of people, for whom you take the responsibility. That is why there are supervisors and managers in an organisation.

Today, take a person who could be your subordinate, your son or daughter, whom you want to develop. You should have a plan of action to develop them, taking them through the following stages:

1. Look into this problem and give me all the details and I will decide.
2. Think and discuss with me the alternatives for me to decide.
3. Think of alternatives and recommend the course of action.
4. Check with me and keep acting until I say ‘no’.
5. Keep me informed.
6. Tell me only when your actions do not produce results.

7.      Take over from me.

Take the ‘people development portfolio’ seriously! Your people will grow and ofcourse, you will also grow to the next higher level.

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live - Excitement # 34 - Be Generous in Appreciating Others

Be Generous in Appreciating Others

Every ear is tickled with the sweet music of applause.

– Isaac Barrow

Do you appreciate and praise others?   It is an important quality, which builds good relationship. We wish to be appreciated and we like people, who appreciate us. When you appreciate someone, both you and the other person feel happy. Great people are happy to notice and appreciate good things in others. They don’t feel jealous about others’ achievement and good work.

From today, notice good things in others. You can appreciate simple things such as a neat dress, a smile in the face, something very special and unique in others.

Make a list of people whom you know. Against each person, list one thing you like most. It could be even their handwriting. Some may have some special skill such as a sense of humour. After making this list, wait for the first opportunity and appreciate them. You may send a card or a sms or an e-mail. This will develop a healthy interpersonal relationship.

Do it tactfully. Be careful to do it naturally and without flattering! 

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live - Excitement # 33 - Delegate without Abdicating

Delegate without Abdicating

Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don't interfere.

– Ronald Reagan

Do you complain that you don’t have time? If you do, you are bluffing! All of us have equal amount of time, irrespective of any social, racial or economic differences. Successful people find time for the most important things, which will make a big difference in their life by practicing the art of effective delegation, which is a very important managerial skill.

You cannot do everything by yourself. Today, list all the activities you normally do on a typical day and analyse them with respect to the following categories:

1.       Things which you have to do and should not be delegated.

2.      Things you should do with the help of some one.

3.      Things which others should do with your help and guidance.

4.      Things which others should do and you should not interfere.

5.      Things which need not be done at all.

After making this distinction, stick to the same for a month and notice a steep jump in your productivity!

When you delegate, you should still take responsibility for the work, or it will be abdication and not delegation!

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 25: Take Inventory of Your Bad Habits!

Take Inventory of Your Bad Habits

Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.

 Benjamin Franklin

In any organisation, once in every year a complete inventory is taken to take stock of the assets and the liabilities so that the balance sheet can be drawn. The health of an organisation can be seen not merely looking at the profit and loss account, but also at the balance sheet. The investors will be keen to know the liability part of the balance sheet. As individuals, we should also know our assets, which are our good habits as well as our liabilities, which are our bad habits.

Today, make an inventory of your bad habits! Sit calmly and list at least ten bad habits, which you want to get rid of. Against each bad habit, honestly write down how the same has affected your life. Just visualise how your life would be now and in future without these bad habits.

The law of nature is very clear: what is noticed alone will grow. The same applies to removing something bad. Unless you notice a bad habit, you cannot remove it. It’s like garbage removal. Unless you notice, you will not remove it!

Make today an inventory taking day!

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitment # 24 : Learn from Criticisms!

Learn from Criticisms!

Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs.

– Christopher Hampton

Are you comfortable to take criticism and feedback constructively?   We need to develop this important quality. Many of us do not encourage others to criticise us.  Think of the consequence of complete absence of any feedback and criticism about you. The more you dislike feedback and criticisms, the less others will be free to offer the same. We may be thinking that what we do is right, but it may not be true.

Do you want to know where you have to improve? Choose five people whom you trust most. Ask them to write down three things which they don’t like in you! Do this exercise sincerely and honestly.

Of the various things pointed out, choose five most important issues and draw an action plan for self-improvement. Focus on one issue per week and try to eliminate the same from you.

This may look odd, but do it.   Stand in front of a mirror and openly criticise yourself! Suggest changes to the person in front of you and notice what happens to your own personality over a period of time!

Try this out!

(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live)

www.thetimefoundation.com

NC Sridharan

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365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 23: Develop an Eye for Details!

Develop an Eye for Details

It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things to happen.

– John Wooden

Developing an eye for details is an important quality. Great people have this. This is a mindset and attitude, which will enhance the quality of our work.

Going into the details is a left brain function. Getting an overall perspective is a right brain function. We need both to succeed in life. There are ways to enhance our ability to improve our eye for details. 

Here is an exercise which you can do to develop an eye for details.

Take any object and look at it for two to three minutes and set it aside. Recall what all you noticed in that object. Now, take the same object again and carefully look at the same object this time going into even more details. Improve the quality of your focus; imagine that there is nothing else existing in the world other than the object. Write down more information about the object. You will be surprised to notice what all you missed! Repeat this exercise as many times as possible.

Notice what happens to your ability to go into details!

(From my book: '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 17: Carry a ‘My Mistakes’ Book!

Carry a ‘My Mistakes’ Book!

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

– George Bernard Shaw

There is a very powerful NLP Presupposition: ‘There is no such thing as failure, only feedback’. Failures and mistakes teach us more than what success and right actions could teach. As we carry on with our various activities, we may commit mistakes and there could be slips. Error is human.

Why don’t you jot down at least one mistake you do every day? For example, ‘today, I shouted at my colleague unnecessarily’, ‘ I forgot to charge my cell phone and went through a crisis and tension unnecessarily’, ‘ I misplaced my air ticket and searched for it with hardly an hour left for the flight departure’  etc.

By this exercise you will develop an attitude to notice small mistakes and this is a very important trait in successful people. As you start noticing such small mistakes, you will become very careful at a very unconscious level and you will also improve an eye for details. 

Try this from today!

From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live'

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 15: Travel Time Treasure Hunt!

Travel Time Treasure Hunt

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

I’m sure you would have calculated your waiting time, which I mentioned earlier. There is much more ‘time treasure’ to be dug right underneath your feet!

On an average, how much time do you spend in travelling in a day? About 45 minutes? Let’s calculate: 45 minutes a day means 1170 minutes per month for 26 days; this means 14040 minutes in a year; 351,000 minutes in an active life span of 25 years; 5850 hours; this is 731 man days which means 2 solid years!

Of course I have not included the travel during vacations!

Today, can you think how you can convert the travel time into productive time? Do you say ‘I don’t have time to read, I don’t have time to think, I don’t have time to plan, I don’t have time to ...’? How about using the travel time in the most appropriate way? Can you not put on an iPod and listen to your most favourite music, for which you say that you don’t have time? How about learning a new language the same way?

Where there is a will, there is a way!

From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live'

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement #14: Waiting Time Is Good Time!

Waiting Time Is Good Time

Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.

– William Penn

Do you know how much time you spend in your life time in waiting?   For a month from today log all the waiting time – waiting to catch a bus, waiting in the office for the meeting to start, waiting in the airport, the railway station and waiting to get sleep! You will be stunned to see the following calculation:

If you are spending just 30 minutes a day in waiting, multiply it by 30, which comes to 900 minutes per month; multiply it by 12 and it comes to 10,800 minutes per year. In your active life span of 25 years it accounts for 270,000 minutes, which means 4500 hours. If you consider eight hours as one man day, it comes to 562 days which is about one and a half years! This is for just thirty minutes waiting time per day! Most of us spend easily three times this and just calculate how much time is it!

From today treat waiting time also as productive time. With the kind of electronic gadgets we have, we should be able to put this enormous time into effective use.

Do it today!

From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live! 

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live: Excitement # 13: Stay in Touch!

Stay in Touch

No road is long with good company.

– Turkish Proverb

I interview successful people, who have achieved great things in their life to know their strategy for success. One important trait I notice in them is their ability to stay in touch with people. They are good in maintaining rapport with people, whom they should know. Isn’t it a common sense that without the help of people we cannot achieve anything in life?

Many of us think of people and recall old friends and contacts, only when confronted with some problem and seek their help.

Do this listing today:

·         People whom I should meet every day.

·         People whom I should be in touch on a weekly basis.

·         People whom I should meet on a monthly basis.

·         People whom I should contact every year, and

·         People whom I should meet only when needed.

After making this list, draw an action plan to implement the above! Try to remember their birthday, wedding day etc. and greet them instead of sending once a year a New Year card!

Do it today!

From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live'

NC Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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365 Exciting Ways to Live

21 / 365  Interrupt Interruptions

Other people’s interruptions of your work are relatively insignificant compared with the

countless times you interrupt yourself.

Brendan Francis

We cannot manage time as we have no ‘control’ over time. But we can and should control the ‘productivity’ of time by turning maximum quantifiable output within the time available.

Our time is fragmented and dissipated by interruptions, which cannot be eliminated altogether.  If we don’t control interruptions, we will take more time to complete the task than what is required. A perfectly normal day will be full of interruptions like telephone calls, drop in visitors, meetings and people. If you are not at all disturbed, it means that you are not required.

We should manage the interruptions and keep them short by studying the nature of interruptions and work out a strategy. You can have an ‘interruptions log’, in which you meticulously note down every interruption and study them. Know who and what interrupted you and how long. You will know why you were interrupted. After this homework, you can work out a strategy to deal with that major interruption, which takes away a lot of your precious time.  Try this from today!

(From my book “365 Exciting Ways to Live”)

'365 Exciting Ways to Live' is an ideal gift for any special occasion and a good reading material for supervisory development. You can also gift this book to the school or college you studied....

www.thetimefoundation.com

 N.C. Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com