Productivity Tips

 Productivity बद्दलची अनेक पुस्तकं वाचून व techniques वापरून त्यातील उपयोगी वाटलेल्या काही   सोप्या टीप्स शेअर करत आहे.

1. Schedule-based tasks. 

तुमच्याकडे स्मार्टफोन आहे म्हणजे त्यात कॅलेंडर आहे. ज्यावेळी डोक्यात एखादं काम येईल त्यावेळी ताबडतोब ते कॅलेंडरमध्ये, त्यावेळी योग्य वाटते ती तारीख आणि वेळ फोनमधील कॅलेंडरमध्ये लिहून ठेवायची. ज्यावेळी एखाद्या कामाचं calendar notification येईल तेव्हा एक तर ते काम करायचं किंवा reschedule करायचं. जोपर्यंत काम होत नाही तोपर्यंत कॅलेंडरमधून काढून टाकायचं नाही.

नखं कापायची आहेत? कॅलेंडर एन्ट्री.

बिल भरायचे आहे? कॅलेंडर एन्ट्री.

पिझ्झा खावासा वाटतोय? कॅलेंडर एन्ट्री.

अंतराळवीर बनायचं आहे? कॅलेंडर एन्ट्री.

डोक्यात काहीही म्हणजे अगदी काहीही न ठेवता प्रत्येक गोष्ट कॅलेंडरमध्ये गेलीच पाहिजे हा अट्टाहास अत्यावश्यक  आहे.

2. Checklist.

Checklists या फक्त अंतराळवीर,  पायलट्स, आणि सर्जन यांच्यासाठी नसतात. आपण दैनंदिन जीवनातही त्या उत्तम प्रकारे वापरू शकतो.

उदाहणादाखल - घर बंद करून आठ-दहा दिवस बाहेरगावी जायचे असेल तर काय करावे याची checklist. 2015 मध्ये आम्ही पहिली outstation ट्रीप केली तेव्हा बनवलेली checklist मी अजून वापरत आहे व खूप उपयुक्त ठरली आहे. 

3. A place for everything and everything in its place. 

याला जपानमध्ये seiton म्हणतात. 

उदाहणादाखल - पाच मोठे बॉक्सेस घ्या. त्यावर electronics, electrical, hardware, stationary व miscellaneous अशी लेबल लावा. त्या त्या वस्तू त्या त्या बॉक्समध्येच ठेवायची सवय लावा. बराच वेळ व कष्ट वाचतील.

हाच concept आपण अनेक प्रकारे वापरू शकतो.

A time for everything and everything in its time.

A budget for everything and everything within its budget.

A process for everything and everything by the process.

4. Objective metrics for almost everything.

 ऑफिसमध्ये अथवा व्यवसायात अनेक प्रकारच्या नंबर्सवर बारकाईने लक्ष ठेवणारे आपण खाजगी आयुष्यात मेट्रिक्सबद्दल तेव्हढेच उदासीन असतो. आपल्या बऱ्याचश्या गोष्टी हवेत असतात. 

"वजन कमी करायचंय". हो, पण किती? कधीपर्यंत?

"सेव्हींग करायचंय". दर महिन्याला किती टक्के?

 जोपर्यंत आपण आपल्या dreams समोर पक्के नंबर्स मांडत नाही तोपर्यंत त्यांचे targets बनत नाहीत, आणि मुळात टार्गेटच नसेल तर तुम्ही ते गाठणार कसं?

 मथळ्यात मी almost हा शब्द जाणीपूर्वक वापरलाय. काही गोष्टी - आईवडिलांची माया, भावंडांचं, मित्रमैत्रिणींचं निर्व्याज प्रेम, आणि मुख्य म्हणजे देवावरची निखळ भक्ती व श्रद्धा - या कुठल्याही मोजमापाच्या, देण्याघेण्याच्या हिशोबाच्या पलीकडेच राहू द्याव्यात.

5. Productivity बनायचं असेल तर सर्वात महत्वाची आणि आवश्यक गोष्ट म्हणजे स्वयंप्रेरणा व स्वयंशिस्त (self-motivation and self-discipline).
चांगल्या गोष्टी, कोणी सांगतंय म्हणून नव्हे तर "मला स्वतःला अजून चांगलं बनायचं आहे" या विचाराने कराव्यात, आणि कुणी स्तुती, प्रशंसा करत नसेल तरीही शांतपणे करत राहाव्यात.

अर्थात यातील प्रत्येक मुद्यावर एक एक स्वतंत्र पोस्ट होऊ शकते एवढा हा विषय मोठा आहे. तूर्तास इतकेच पुरे.

तुम्ही यातील एखादी गोष्ट करत नसाल तर महिनाभर तरी नक्की करून पहा. तसेच, तुमच्याकडे असलेल्या productivity टीप्स जाणून घ्यायला आवडेल!

Checklist for senior citizens

 मी एक सूची / चेकलिस्ट देत आहे. ती प्रामुख्याने सिनियर सिटीझन्ससाठी असली तरी इतर वयोगटातील व्यक्तीनाही तिचा उपयोग होईल असे वाटते.

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पूर्ण नाव Full name

जन्मदिनांक Date of birth

रक्तगट Blood group

ओळख पटविण्यासाठी खूण Identification mark

इमर्जन्सी संपर्क क्रमांक Emergency contact

आधार क्रमांक Aadhar number

पॅन क्रमांक PAN number

निवडणूक ओळखपत्र क्रमांक Voter ID

पासपोर्ट क्रमांक Passport number

ड्रायव्हिंग लायसन्स Driving license number

UAN क्रमांक UAN number

ईमेल IDs (पासवर्ड्स लिहू नयेत)

फॅमिली डॉक्टर्सची नांवें आणि संपर्क क्रमांक Family doctor names and numbers

दीर्घकालीन व्याधी असतील तर त्यांची नांवें आणि घेत असलेली औषधे Long-term illness and ongoing medication if any

एखाद्या गोष्टी ची ऍलर्जी असेल तर ती माहिती Allergies if any

कोव्हीड होऊन गेला आहे का Tested positive for Covid?

फॅमिली वकिलांचे नाव आणि संपर्क क्रमांक Family lawyer name and contact information

फॅमिली अर्थ सल्लागारांचे नाव व संपर्क क्रमांक Financial advisor name and contact

फॅमिली गुरुजींचे नाव व संपर्क क्रमांक Family priest name and contact

बँक खाते - Bank information: 

ब्रँच नाव व अकाऊंट क्रमांक Branch names and account numbers

डिपॉझिट खाते Deposit account details

NSC, FD, RD वगैरे असेल तर त्यांची माहिती

लॉकर्स माहिती Locker information

(पिन क्रमांक लिहू नयेत)

Assets

स्थावर मालमत्ता: उदाहरणार्थ फ्लॅट, शेतजमीन, प्लॉट 

जंगम मालमत्ता अंदाजे रोकड, सोने, शेअर्स (अंदाजे मूल्य)

Insurance

आयुर्विमा पॉलिसी माहिती 

Term insurance 

कार/ बाईक क्रमांक व इन्श्युरन्स माहिती

लोकांकडून पैसे येणे असतील तर नांवें, रक्कम, दिल्याची तारीख

Liabilities

बॅंक लोन्स: रक्कम, घेतल्याची तारीख, संपण्याची तारीख

लोकांकडून उधार घेतले असेल तर नांवें, रक्कम, घेतल्याची तारीख

मृत्युपत्र Will

हे आवश्यक आहे. कोणाच्या नावे काय ठेवायचे हे सविस्तर लिहावे व दोन सज्ञान साक्षीदारांच्या स्वाक्षऱ्या घ्याव्यात.

मृत्युपत्रात स्थावर जंगम मालमत्तेबरोबरच इतर गोष्टींचाही विचार करावा - जसे की देहदान/नेत्रदान वगैरे. तसेच खूप पुस्तके असतील तर एखाद्या वाचनालयाला देणे, मौल्यवान वस्तूंचा (स्टॅम्पस/नाणीं इत्यादी) संग्रह असेल तर त्या एखाद्या संग्राहकाला अथवा म्युझियम ला देणगी देण्याबाबत सूचना, कपडे अनाथाश्रमात देणे, इत्यादी.

इच्छापत्र Bucket list

हे ऐच्छिक आहे.

यात आपल्या सर्व इच्छा लिहून ठेवाव्यात, जसे की - कुलदेवतेचे दर्शन, परदेश वारी, तीर्थयात्रा करणे, नाटक पाहणे, काही दूरस्थ नातेवाईकांना/मित्र मैत्रिणीना भेटणे... जे आठवेल तसे लिहावे, व पूर्ण झालेल्या गोष्टी काढून टाकाव्यात.

Legacy work

आपल्या पश्चात ज्या गोष्टी चालू राहाव्यात असे वाटते त्या लिहून ठेवाव्यात.

जसे की वार्षिक कुलाचार, एखाद्या व्यक्तीला/संस्थेला नियमित मदत करत असाल तर त्याबद्दलच्या सूचना, इत्यादी.

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याप्रमाणे सर्व माहिती संकलित करावी. एखाद्या वहीत लिहिणं चांगले, पण कम्प्युटरवर Microsoft Word document मध्ये अथवा मोबाईलमधील Notes app मध्येही लिहू शकता.

पिन क्रमांक, पासवर्ड्स, key combinations इत्यादी माहिती लिहू नये.

सर्व माहिती एकाच बैठकीत लिहायला पाहिजे असे मुळीच नाही. सुरुवात करावी आणि जसजशी माहिती उपलब्ध होईल तशी लिहून ठेवावी.

सदर सूची दोन-तीन महिन्यांतून एकदा (quarterly) नजरेखालून घालावी व काही बदल झाले असतील तर ते करावेत.

ही सूची मुख्यतः आपल्या स्वतःसाठी आहे. पण एक प्रत आपल्या उत्तराधिकारी व्यक्ती (पत्नी/ पती /मुले/ भाऊ/ बहीण) सोबत शेअर करणे चांगले राहील. 

सदर सूची मी माझ्या माहितीप्रमाणे बनवली आहे, ती अजून परिपूर्ण होण्यासाठी आपल्या सूचनांचे स्वागतच आहे.

Google Fonts

Fonts and typography have a fascinating world of their own. A lot of thought and effort goes into creating a new font family. In the era of pen and paper, the handwriting gave an insight into the personality of the writer, perhaps the same is conveyed through their choice of fonts in the digital era.

My initial days in IT started with Verdana - the font looked clean, nicely spaced and easy on the eyes. However, it wasn't quite the right choice for technical documents, which was the real of Arial and Times New Roman. These two fonts were --and I guess still are -- so ubiquitous by their presence, they were considered as workhorse fonts.
Another font that caught attention was Helvetica, it's an elegant font, and it looks best in the titles or headers.
Around 2007, Calibri became the default font in MS-Office products and it became the new de facto standard. Although it still remains the default font, Microsoft later came up with Segoe UI, and it has been one of my favourite fonts for the past 4 years.

Recently, I have been experimenting with IBM Plex font family, and loving it. It is functional as well as aesthetic, and provides a much wider range of styles and a better support for Unicode.

If you love typography, and enjoy trying out different fonts, the Google Fonts site offers more than 800 free typefaces.

https://fonts.google.com/

Ike

Ever since being introduced to the Eisenhower Matrix, I have been using it manually in one form or the other; so it was a delight to find a productivity app specifically based on it.
Aptly named as "Ike" -- the nickname by which Eisenhower was fondly referred to -- the app presents us with four quadrants: FOCUS (tasks that are important and urgent), GOALS (tasks that are important but not urgent), FIT-IN (tasks that are urgent but not important), and BACKBURNER (tasks that are neither important nor urgent). The user interface is sleek and intuitive and provides most of the features needed in a To-Do list, such as reminders, schedulers, and notes.
One cool feature is Location reminder: You can specify reminders about tasks to be performed at a specific location. A boon for forgetful folks like me!
The free version is good enough, but I would suggest the full version which costs Rs. 100/-. It's worth it.

App Idea: Uber for retail goods and skills?

[Disclaimer: Perhaps an app like this already exists. If so, please do let me know!]

Consider this use case scenario:

I am sitting at my desk, working. I am having a terrible headache, and realize that I need to buy medicine for it. 

Just then, my wife informs from the kitchen that we need to order some grocery items. 

My little kid is tugging away at my leg; She wants a drawing book and a set of colour pencils for her drawing class. 

(Image credit: Far Reach Inc.)

So… I open this app and enter my list: A strip of tablets, a bunch of grocery products, and a couple of stationery items. 

The app sends notifications to various shop-owners around my home. Pharmacists see the medicine list, grocery shop owners see the grocery items and stationery shop owners see the demand for drawing book and colour pencils. 

Each of them enters a 'bid' in their app. 

I see the various 'bids' on my app. Depending on the location of the shop, the brand of the product, and, perhaps my past experience with a particular shop, I select the vendors. 

For example: I need the medicines urgently, so I would select the nearest pharmacy. 

I need good quality grocery and it's not very urgent, so I would select a vendor that could be little far away but with whom I have had excellent experience in the past. 

Each of the vendors that I select gets a notification. They pack the required items and send it out for delivery. Optionally, I can also mark some items to be picked up by me. For example, for stationery items, I may select a shop that is located on the way to my kid's drawing class. 

The cost for the items delivered would be auto-debited from my account in the same app, and credited to the respective vendors' account. The app can also provide a "credit" or "EMI" option in the cases where I cannot make the payment right away.

The app would also provide a facility wherein users can give feedback about various shops. This would make the shop owners pay attention to the quality of goods and customer service. 

Furthermore, this need not be limited to goods. How about 'shopping' for skills that are available for hire nearby. For example: I need to build a website, so I can enter it in my app, and the web developers in the area would get notifications which they can bid for.

So basically... This is Uber, but for retail goods. 

What do you think?

The Eisenhower Matrix

Dwight Eisenhower was a remarkable man. He served as the Supreme Commander of military forces and one of the chief architects of Operation Overlord (the Normandy invasion) that ultimately defeated Germany and Italy in the Second World War. During his tenure as 34th President of United States of America, he consolidated the USA as an economic and military superpower, started the Interstate Highway System (one of the biggest civil construction projects in history), founded NASA and DARPA, and forewarned about the threat of military-industrial complex. 
And when he found some time from all of this, he created the Eisenhower Matrix. 

Eisenhower Matrix is a simple yet highly effective productivity tool. It consists of four quadrants along two axes (Important vs. Non Important, Urgent vs. NonUrgent) and provides a guideline for what you should for a set of tasks in each quadrant. Important and Urgent tasks must be done by you and on priority, Non-Important but Urgent tasks can be delegated, and so on.

This Matrix can be extrapolated and modified in a variety of ways depending on individual preference. This infographic shows a couple of them.

Motivation and Discipline

How to get anything done….

If you want to get anything done, there are two basic ways to get yourself to do it.

1. The first is to try to motivate yourself. This is the more popular option. And, it is devastatingly wrong.
2.  The second — somewhat unpopular but entirely correct — choice is to cultivate discipline.

What’s the difference between the two?

Motivation	Discipline
Motivation, broadly speaking, operates on the assumption that a particular mental or emotional state is necessary to complete a task.	Discipline, by contrast, separates outwards functioning from moods and feelings and thereby ironically circumvents the problem by consistently improving them.
Action is conditional on feelings. You wait for the right mood to start doing stuff, it’s an invitation to the dreaded procrastination loops we all know about.	Successful completion of tasks brings about the positive state of mind that chronic procrastinators think they need to initiate tasks in the first place.
Motivation is waiting until you’re in Olympic form to start training.	Discipline is training to get into an Olympic form.
At its core, motivation is insistence that we should only be doing things we feel like doing.	Discipline aims to cut the link between feelings and actions, and do it anyway.
“How do I get myself to feel like doing what I have rationally decided to do?”.	“How do I make my feelings inconsequential and do the things I consciously want to do?”.
There are psychological problems with relying on motivation. Trying to drum up enthusiasm time and again is literally a form of deliberate psychological self-harm.	Discipline makes you feel good and buzzed and energetic and eager afterward.
Motivation usually comes in short, periodic bursts. It has a tiny shelf life and needs constant refreshing.	Discipline is usually self-perpetuating and constant.
Motivation is like winding up a crank to deliver a burst of force. At best, it stores and converts energy to a particular purpose.	By contrast, discipline is like an engine that, once kick-started, continuously supplies energy to the system.
There are situations where it is the correct attitude, one-off situations where spring-loading a lot of energy up front is the best course of action.	Discipline is the basis for regular day-to-day functioning and consistent long-term results.
Motivation is trying to feel like doing stuff.	Discipline is doing it even if you don’t feel like it.
Motivation is analogous to goals.	Discipline, in short, is a system.

Summary

Productivity has no requisite mental states.
For consistent, long-term results, discipline trumps motivation.

How do you cultivate discipline?  

By building habits.
Start as small as you can manage, even microscopic, and keep gathering momentum. Re-invest it in progressively bigger changes to your routine, and build a positive feedback loop.

Forget motivation…  What we really need is discipline.

Excerpts from a blog post by Zbyněk Dráb
Blog URL: http://www.wisdomination.com/

Also available as a presentation on SlideShare:
www.slideshare.net/gautamsoman/motivation-vs-discipline

Resolutions for 2017

One of my New Year resolutions is to limit the usage of WhatsApp and Facebook.

• I will be checking Facebook twice or at max thrice a week. 
• I will be checking WhatsApp group messages just twice a day.
• I will also be exiting from forwards-intensive WhatsApp groups. 

Time being spent in reading/ deleting / forwarding an unending stream of jokes, images, GIFs, videos is turning out to be a very high opportunity cost.

WhatsApp has become the primary means to spread rumours, hoaxes and mis-information. Hardly any day goes by without seeing a forwarded message claiming imaginary things such as "NASA discovers sound of Om in Sun" or "Acupressure cured cancer".

What's interesting is: If you have access to WhatsApp, you can access Google (both require Internet) but no one pauses to validate such content.

Whichever groups am part of, I always make it a point to refute such messages, and possibly turn myself into the most hated member of the group ☺ The intention is not to embarrass anyone but to make them aware that by forwarding such false information, they are lowering the cumulative IQ of the entire group.

So, next time anyone tells you China Wall is the only man-made object that can be seen from space, go Google!

To-do list app

I had been searching for a good to-do list app for some time now, trying and rejecting half a dozen apps in the process. 
My search seems to have ended, for now, with To-Do Prime. 

It has most of the features I was looking for, syncs across multiple devices, can work offline, has no ads, and is free.

Work smart... And hard!

The worst advice I ever received was: Don't work hard, work smart.

The "Work smart" part is fine, but it's a capital mistake to think that working hard and working smart are mutually exclusive.

theme-based weekdays

In a fleeting conversation, I heard of "theme-based weekdays" and began to think how it could be implemented. Here's a possible approach.

Monday: The begin day. For many of us, the major hurdle to getting anything done is to actually start it. Hence Monday would be the day to begin all new activities.

Tuesday: Bill clearance day and repair day. The day when you pay all the monthly bills, EMIs and other dues. And place service calls to repair anything broken. Car servicing, AC maintenance, electrical repairs... And most importantly, health checkups.

Wednesday: Study day. Search for new certifications or courses. Read a book. Write a blog. Do a review of the study progress of your kids. Learn a new software.

Thursday: Communication day. Call up friends and relatives. Chat with distant ones. Wanted to meet an old friend but didnt know when? Go out and have dinner on this day. Also, this would be a buffer day to contain in any tasks that may have overflown from previous days.

Friday: Inventory day. Take a stock of your finances, as well as anything is needed in home. Check the balance sheet. Any risks? Any opportunities for more RoI? Plus, this would be a hobby day and/or social activities day, parties etc.

Saturday: Clean-up day. Remove obsolete papers and other stuff. Take backups, make space for new things. In addition, you may use this day to contribute back to the society in whatever way possible to you: Donating material to orphanages, teaching kids or planting trees.

Sunday: Family day. Spend time with your family at home. And if you need to go out, take them with you. Sunday could also be your planning day, where you sit back and think not only about the week or the month ahead but also about the medium and long term goals.

The idea here is not to limit yourself only to the activities specified for each day, but to have one focus area for every day of the week. Of course, the days and activities allotted to them would change as per each individual.

Career Mitra

For the students who appeared for SSC examination, the Maharashtra Education Department and Shyamchi Aai Foundation have created a web site that shows various career paths available based on the marks scored or your interests. It has lots of career guidance and online counselling facilities. Hope this initiative reaches the students that need it the most.
URL: http://mahacareermitra.in/#/

Why forget?

One activity that would immensely benefit each one of us and yet does not need any additional investment, is to decide we will never have to use the statement "I forgot". With the plethora of reminder mechanisms available -- mobile alerts, email notification, web sites dedicated to generate reminders -- it's indeed amazing we still manage to forget anything.

All relationships, be it personal or professional, rely upon commitments. And nothing is more detrimental to a commitment than to forget it to begin with.

Boot Loader

As a kid, my morning routine was rather messy, doing things haphazardly, out of sequence, wasting the time. Very inefficient. 


Then, I read about boot loader, the program that loads operating system when you start up the machine. It performs many tasks in an elegant sequence, an orchestra of files being executed in an optimal manner. I was fascinated to see a machine working so logically and rather embarrassed about my own booting up process every morning.


Since then, for the last 20+ years, I have tried to stick to what works best for me. Of course, marriage has added some subroutines like PREPARE TEA, but otherwise it remains unchanged.

Date palindrome

Today's date is a palindrome in DD/MM/YYYY format. 

 

5/10/2015

 

....reads same in both directions.

No ZERO days!

The single best productivity tip I ever received: No ZERO days. 

A "zero" day is when you don't do anything towards your target/plan/goal.

Take a vow to yourself: From today, from this moment onwards, you will live in a NON-ZERO system.

Feeling too tired to study? Read just one page of chapter. Don't have time to exercise? Do just one pushup.  But DO it.

Success doesn't come in a single day;  it's a result of long string of CONSISTENT NON ZERO days. 

Fibonacci series

I was leafing through a small textbook about Fibonacci sequence (1,1,2,3,5,8,13, 21, 34, 55… ) and its many practical applications. For example, you can quickly do an approximate conversion between miles and kilometres. 

Each number in kilometres is approximately equal its preceding number in Miles. Ex: 5 kms approximately equals 3 miles, 8 kms = 5 miles, 13 kms = 8 miles and so on. 

And by the way, Fibonacci series was originally discovered in India, possibly by Pingala or Virahanka.

The HenryMan List - Patrick McLean

Do the right thing. Always, everywhere, without exceptions. Know that rules aren't always the right thing. Throwing a punch and being polite may seem contradictory. They are not. There are occasions when throwing a punch is polite and standing inactive is the rudest thing you can do. 

For more such crisp advice, read: Patrick McLean @ 

http://www.theseanachai.com/2009/02/19/the-henryman-list/

Dictionary of numbers

Just found a wonderful extension for Google Chrome: Dictionary of numbers.

It searches the text in your web browser for numbers and provides context to help you understand the numbers better.

For example, if a web page contains “318 million people”, it says

 

318 million people [≈ the population of the United States]

http://www.dictionaryofnumbers.com/

Microsoft Converter

Since last couple of days, I have got quite addicted to an app called Microsoft Converter. It has 20 categories (area, speed, energy, currency, time, etc.) and each category has 10 units within which you can do conversions. 

Thanks to this app, now when am gently cruising at 60 kmph, I know am travelling at 0.05 Mach (speed of sound) or, that distance from home to office (2km) is equal to 1.34x10^-8 AU (distance between Sun and Earth).