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Rabu, 02 November 2011

Busy Time and The Value of Time

These days are among the busiest days in my study. I will have an exam this Friday in which we are expected to read 15 papers before the exam and handwrite 10 pages of answer within two hours. Not only that, I also have a paper due at October 16 (already three days ago), presentation at October 18 (yesterday), and two projects due at October 27 and 30.

Studying for exam and working on these projects make me very busy these days. Time becomes so precious. Whenever I do something, like traveling, I always find opportunity to read my exam materials. I also temporarily stop doing things I usually do, like reading productivity books and articles. I can’t even follow my RSS feeds these days.
This experience teaches me how valuable time is. When I have plenty of time I don’t really realize the value of time. I often use it for something not really useful. But these days with all the these pressures I really find how precious time is. I try to cut as many things as possible and use whatever time I get. Fortunately, I can still manage all my tasks and nothing falls apart. But to do that, I must rearrange my priorities. I think this is a good lesson for me in time management.

http://www.lifeoptimizer.org

Production vs Production Capability

I have a case here: suppose I have two hours to spend. What should I do with that time ? Should I use that time to work or to take a rest ?
I often face this kind of situation in my current study. At Wednesday I have a class at 2 pm that would end by 4 pm. But at 6.30 pm I would have another class. In such situation I have two options: staying in school or going home. Just for your information, it takes approximately 30 minutes for me to go home and another 30 minutes to go back to school for the evening class. If I stay in school I can use the school’s computer to work or browse the Internet, or I can simply sit there and read. If I go home, I can also work if I want, but I can also take a rest (for example by taking a nap).

Which one should I choose ? Logically speaking, of course I must stay in school, right ? Anyway, I would save a full one hour in traveling time, and one hour is a lot ! Why should I waste that one hour only for traveling (which is an activity with very low productivity) ?
Well, yes, I sometimes choose to stay in school so that I will have that extra one hour. But more often, I choose to go home. And I’m happy with that decision.
How can that be ?
It’s because of the difference between production and production capability, two terms used by Stephen Covey in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Production is our ability to produce something (or in other words, our ability to do productive work), while production capability is our ability to maintain the level of production.
Now back to the case above. It’s true that I will have an extra an hour if I stay in school, but the catch is, my production capability would usually be low. That makes my extra one hour not so productive. Furthermore, I also feel tired in the evening class which decreases my learning productivity. On the other hand, if I go back and take a rest, I can recharge my production capability. I may lose the extra one hour, but I can then use the rest of my time effectively. In the evening class I can learn well with high spirit. The end result is I feel more productive though it means that I’ve “wasted” one hour !
I think this concept is very important to optimize our life. We must maintain the balance between production and production capability. Do not spend too much time on production until we forget to recharge our production capability. Activities we use to recharge production capability – like taking a rest, taking a vacation, etc – may seem unproductive in the beginning. But that’s actually the best thing we can do because it will significantly boost our productivity.

http://www.lifeoptimizer.org

What Procrastination Actually is

Though I try to maintain positive thought all the time, there are times when negative thoughts strike me. And when they do, they can sometimes grow wild and conquer my whole mind. At such times, the positive state of my mind seems to be out of reach.
Well, of course such situation should not happen. Now I think there is a good way to deal with it. There are actually only two steps to get rid of those negative thoughts:

Flee
Fill

Very easy to remember right ? Flee and fill. Flee and fill. And what does it mean ?

Flee
First of all, we must flee from all those negative thoughts. Don’t pay attention to them, don’t talk to them, and don’t argue with them. Just flee and run away ! Leave all those negative thoughts and go.
Fill
Now that we have fled from all those negative thoughts, we must fill our mind with something so that those negative thoughts won’t come back. Naturally, fill our mind with positive thoughts. This is one reason why having a quote of the day is a good thing. This way we always have something handy to fill our mind with.

Remember, you cannot go to step 2 without doing step 1 first. It’s useless to try to fill your mind with positive thoughts if you still carry all those negative thoughts with you. Throw them away first and then you’ll be ready to fill your mind with positive thoughts.
Of course, the hardest part is step 1. We must initiate to flee. But it’s possible that we do not realize that our mind is conquered until it’s too late (for example, until we make stupid decisions). To anticipate this, here is what we need to do:

Watch our mind continuously
The goal is we must be aware of the current state of our mind. If negative thoughts start striking, we must be aware of it. Don’t let our mind flow freely outside our awareness.
Make firm decision
When there is an indication that negative thoughts are coming, make a firm decision that we want to flee from them ! There’s no other way, we must make decision. This way our mind is conditioned to flee from those thoughts. And after that, stick with our decision. Flee. Go. Run away. And don’t forget to continue to step 2, that is filling our mind with positive thoughts.

These simple tips are useful for me. I hope they will also be useful for you. Good luck !

http://www.lifeoptimizer.org

Disruptive Technologies for Personal Innovation

I am now taking Management of Technological Innovation class here at NUS, and it’s a very interesting class. There I learn how companies innovate, succeed, and fail, and how innovation works. There are many new concepts I learn there, and I think many of those concepts can also be applied to personal innovation.
One concept I learn is disruptive technologies which is proposed by Clayton Christensen in his book The Innovator’s Dilemma. There he gives an example in the hard disk drive industry, how established companies continously fail to anticipate the emergence of new generations of technology. In case of hard disk drive industry, the new generation were the new, smaller size of the disks. For example, market leaders in 14″ disks failed and lost their market to other companies promoting 8″ disks. These companies who lead 8″ market in turn lost their market to yet other companies promoting 5.25″ disks.
The phenomenon here is the incumbent firms always fail in the face of new generation of technologies, and thus these technologies are called disruptive technologies.
I think the same idea can also be applied in personal level. There are disruptive technologies out there that can make our current individual “technologies” obsolete. The “technologies” here can be:

Personal productivity method
There may be a new kind of personal productivity method out there that we aren’t aware of. We keep working with our old method which yield much less results in any given period of time compared to the new method.
Expertise in certain field
There may be a new method of doing something in our field that makes our current expertise obsolete. In computer technologies for example, we may be an expert in Fortran programming language. That’s a good old language, but the world is now moving to new generation of programming languages such as Java and C#. Those new languages have different paradigm that makes our expertise in Fortran largely obsolete.
Technology to help us do something more efficiently
For example, people who are trying to collect information as part of their job but fail to realize the emergence of the Internet will be very much left behind by those who do. There is always new tools and technologies, software and hardware, that allow us to do our current job more efficiently.

In all cases, it’s likely that we fail because we are too busy cutting trees with our axe until we don’t have time to sharpen the axe.
So how can we prevent this from happening ? Here are some ideas:

Always follow the newest developments
This is the first step. If we are not informed about anything new happening out there then what can we do ? So subscribe to relevant magazines and feeds, join mailing lists and forums, and read books. Just make sure that we won’t miss something new that may be relevant to our circumstances.
Don’t underestimate small developments
Many of the disruptive techonologies have humble beginning. In the hard disk drive industry for example, the 8″ disks when it first came out had small capacity and was so expensive that the leaders in 14″ industry underestimated them. And indeed, their customers didn’t want it either. But later, the 8″ technology improved and the customers suddenly realized that the 8″ could better meet their needs. So they moved to 8″ and left the 14″ leaders in the dark. So don’t underestimate small developments out there. They may seem small, but they may be the next disruptive technologies.
Be dare to experiment
Now that we are aware of new developments, it’s time to give them a try. Be dare to experiment (I’ve written a post about it in term of personal productivity). Try to figure out whether or not the new developments can really benefit us. Experiments are actually an integral part of our “growth engine”.
Be flexible and be willing to change
After experimenting, we may have found new things that can really be useful for us. Now it’s time to change. We should always be ready to change, and thus we must have flexibility in whatever we do. Don’t make any boundary that can limit ourself. Of course, change is among the most difficult things to do, but it’s absolutely necessary in our fast-pacing world these days.

Hopefully, these ideas can help us thrive in this world. Who wants to be disrupted anyway ?

http://www.lifeoptimizer.org

5 Ways to Motivate Yourself Throughout the Day

Motivation is a key to success. If you are a motivated person, then you will very likely be successful in everything you do. In fact, research shows that motivation is the key behind the expert minds. People who are motivated will be very successful in their learning process. And so will in other areas of life.

The problem is, it’s not easy to be motivated, let alone be motivated for the whole day. There are times when challenges and problems strike us and make us feel bad. Or maybe there is no real problem, but we just feel that our energy level is low throughout the day.

Well, don’t let this happens. Be motivated and energized throughout the day ! Here is how:

Rise early
I don’t know about you, but for me, rising early is a kind of magic. It makes me feel more enthusiastic and energized throughout the day. Maybe it’s because by rising early I can start the day fresh without having to rush on everything. I would have more time to be prepared mentally and physically to face the day.
Pick “quote of the day”
Pick your favorite quote in the morning and keep it in mind throughout the day. Of course, the quote should be something that motivate and inspire you. Then speak out the quote to yourself throughout the day, especially when you think that you need extra motivation. This way, it will be easier to get rid of negative thoughts because you always have something positive to say to yourself.
Find the positive side of everything
One main cause for losing motivation is thinking negatively about the events which are happening to us. Every time you think negatively about something, you actually lose a part of your energy. Do it for the whole day and you will feel very exhausted and even intimidated.
So find the positive side of everything. There must be something positive we can get from everything that happens to us. If your effort end up in failure for example, then you know that you can learn something from it. And learning is a positive thing. If you must do something boring, just think of a useful thing you can get from it. There is always positive side on everything, so focus on it and not the negative one.
Focus on giving
Contributing to others is always motivating. It works for me. I don’t know why, but maybe it’s because by doing so I become less focused on my own problems. It doesn’t mean that I run from the problems, it just means that the problems seem less daunting and intimidating. Why ? Because I’m not just thinking about myself.
Also, there is something about giving that gives you extra happiness. Brighten someone else’s life today and somehow your life will also be brightened.
Decide to be a winner
It is your decision that makes the difference between winning and losing. Nothing can make you lose if you don’t allow it to do so. So decide to be a winner. If you decide to be a winner then you will be tough and brave when facing all challenges throughout the day. You will not let problems overcome you. Instead, you will go out and conquer those problems ! You are the winner, so who can resist you ?

http://www.lifeoptimizer.org

How to Have a Joyful Day

Have you experience a day when everything seems to go wrong ? You work on task A and it goes wrong, you move to task B and it also goes wrong. You speak to person C and she doesn’t give the response you expect. Definitely a bad day right ?
Well, not exactly. I think there is no such thing as a bad day. It is you who determine whether you have a good day or a bad day. No matter what happens outside there, it is still you who decide what is the effect of those events upon you. If you think you are having a bad day, then be it. But the good news is, you can decide to have a good, even a joyful day. And there are at least two things that will make it easier for you to have a joyful day:

Be grateful
Be grateful on everything. There is always something good you can get behind all those things which seems bad. If someone gives you unexpected response, then now you know her character better so you can get better response in the future. If the task you do goes wrong, you can learn what’s wrong with it that you shouldn’t repeat in the future. All those things are signs of progress, so be grateful for them. At least, if you still can’t find what you should be grateful for, you can be grateful because this thing teaches you to be grateful :). Once you have this attitude, your day will change from bad day to good day, even to a joyful day.
Focus to giving rather than receiving
Why are we dissapointed ? Maybe because we expect something for ourselves which is not fulfilled. Why do we have a bad day ? Maybe because we expect to get something but that doesn’t happen. Many times we have the so-called bad day because we are focusing on receiving something for ourselves. This is a vulnerable attitude. If you focus on receiving than there is big chance that something won’t go as you expect. Maybe you expect to receive 10 things. If you loss even one of them you can still be disappointed and have a bad day.
Hoping to receive 10 things is like starting your day with -10 score. When you receive one of the things the score will move to -9. If you receive all of them then your score will be zero which is not a bad day. But there is much greater chance that your score will stay negative at the end of the day.
If you focus on giving instead, you start your day with a score of zero. You give something to someone, and your score moves to +1. You won’t be dissapointed, instead you will experience the joy of giving. You will end your best day not just with a score of zero, but may be +10 ! Hence you have not only a good, but a joyful day.

Of course, these two things are easier said than done. I am still learning myself. But why don’t we learn together ?

http://www.lifeoptimizer.org

Kamis, 27 Oktober 2011

Be dare to experiment

Yes, be dare to experiment ! In life optimization, experiment is very important. In fact, I think experiment is an integral part of life optimization. There is no life optimization without experiment. Or to be exact, there is no life optimization without continuous experiment.
Why ? The answer lies back on the word “optimization” itself. Optimization means that we try to get the most of something. It is a continous process. We always want to find better and better ways of doing something. In computer science for example, the process of finding faster and more efficient algorithms is an “eternal” process, it will never stop.
The same thing applies to life optimization. It is an eternal process in which we will never reach an end where we can say “stop” and “enough”. Furthermore, in this process, the only way to make progress is by finding new and better ways of doing things. And the only way to find these new and better ways is by trying something, well, new. In other word, it’s experiment.
Be willing to experiment here means that we must have:

Open mind.
Something that we believe as the “best practice” may very possibly be proven otherwise in the future. So, we must have an open mind to accept something new. Or as scientists say, we must have the will to doubt to the current “theory” to accept the new one.
Flexibility
Not just in mind, we must also be ready to change our “workflow engine” at any time. Experiment means that sometimes we need to change our workflow pattern to accommodate the new practices we want to try.

Of course, the results of experiments are not always positive. There are times when our experiment ends in failure. But that is also a lesson in itself, because at least we know that we should not do it that way. That’s also a progress, right ?

http://www.lifeoptimizer.org