Author: animeshjmathur

Taking a day off from everything

Health, Rest, Uncategorized

Yesterday I had mentioned how because my wife had fever, suddenly my day went topsy-turvy but I was still able to achieve considerable outcomes because of the prioritization matrix.

Today however I was also a little under the weather and because my is still unwell I decided to take a day-off from work. Today’s post is about not doing anything and the learning from it.

Since I was also unwell, I decided to just sleep. After breakfast I went off to sleep and kept sleeping till mid afternoon . I ensured that I did not use my computer or my tablet all day so that my eyes, my body and my brain all got a respite. I also did not spend any time thinking. I just moved around lazily doing nothing

This post I am writing now towards the end of the day on my tablet and for about 30 minutes I read a Robert Kiyosaki book. That’s all the things I did on my electronic devices.

When you spend time in a lot of transactions every day, taking complete time off makes you feel guilty. Every now and then I had the fear that there would be some kind of fire somewhere which would need my attention.

Two things happened one because my team as well as peers knew that I was unwell they didn’t bother me for most part of the day. Second it also brought out the fact that the team is capable of handling most things without my intervention.

So that makes me happy because I can now delegate even more. So when I say life does things FOR us, you need to find the learning, this was my learning for today.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Prioritising your day

Affirmative action, Focus, prioritizing

I have written earlier about doing an 80/20 of your activities in your day. While I use the concept along with the Prioritisation Matrix suggested by B.J.Fogg in his book Tiny Habits, I used it primarily to save time so that I don’t end up finishing tasks that don’t have too much return on invested time. A lot of times I used to feel exhausted at the end of the day, but when I would look at the achievement , there was nothing to show for it.

It was like I was always walking on a treadmill, burning calories but getting nowhere. That’s where Richard Koch’s 80/20 rule and in a different way the Prioritisation Matrix have helped me considerably. Now everyday in the morning I look at my To-Do list which I keep updating on my phone. Then I put down on this matrix each of the tasks that need to be done in terms of their scale of impact and my ability to influence the outcome.

The benefit of this is that even if I do only the tasks which have a high impact and my ability to influence is high then at the end of the day I would have still achieved considerably more.

Why am I explaining all this to you. Well today was one such day. It was supposed to have started early and I would have done all my meditation and focused sitting before starting office work. But as I got up my wife complained of fever. So I had t replan my day completely while keeping my customer and internal meetings intact. There was quite a bit of overwhelm through the day. I did not achieve a lot of the items on my To-Do list for today. But I still achieved 90% of my highest priority tasks which ensured that I was considerably effective inspite of the challenges I had all day.

If you also have a lot of tasks on your daily To-Do list and you get overwhelmed, seeing your life pass by while you seem to be not getting anywhere, try the 80/20 rule. Once you focus and take affirmative action with a clear indication on what will have the most impact for you, it will definitely change a lot of things for you. Let me know in the comments below if this practice helps you.ichard

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Feeling of achievement

Affirmative action, execution, Flow, Focus

When you get into the “flow” of getting things done, it sets off a cascade set of events. One you don’t feel tired even after having done so much work and in addition you are also in the mood to achieve more. Something that Steven Kotler points out in his book “The Art of Impossible….”.

For more than a month I had to close some legal documentation with respect to our relationship with one of the largest OEMs. It was all to be done online via one of the online sourcing portals. Now my problem with technology platforms has always been that whenever I try to make it work, it throws up challenges at me.

These documents had come to me more than a month back, but first my passwords didn’t work, then when I got that in order , one of the trainings that they wanted me to take, didn’t work and finally there was some technical documentation which I had to then get my legal guy to first fill and then give me.

Finally yesterday I got the documentation but when I tried logging-in again, the passwords again didn’t work. so today after I had had enough sleep, I sat down to work on this with a fresh mind. (This is another thing that Steven talks about…..you need to get enough sleep for your mind to work well and get into flow). I read through the password guidelines again, finally logged-in but couldn’t get to the page of the OEM.

To cut the long story short, because I had started fresh, I completed the complete set of activities in about 90 minutes and I had not realised so much time had passed and I finished without even feeling tired.

Also since I have started using the prioritisation matrix suggested by B.J.Fogg in his book Tiny Habits, I also ensured that I was working on those activities first which would have the highest impact for me. So in a state of flow in two sessions I completed so much without feeling exhausted. That’s the advantage of being in flow.

However I still need to make, getting into “flow” state a habit. Haven’t still been able to achieve that.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Life balances out

Character, Gratitude, possibility thinking

When we are going through challenging times , we tend to get into self pity mode and wonder why bad things happen to us. At this time we feel others are having a whale of a time. Grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

On the other hand when things are going well for us we don’t even bother to note that others could be facing challenging times.

Like the seasons, spring follows winter, winter follows autumn and autumn follows summer, in life also times keep changing for everyone. Gautum Buddh , was born as a prince, but when he saw so much suffering he renounced his kingdom in search of a deeper meaning to life. He actually tried to find one household where there had never been death, never been any misery but couldn’t find any.

This happened about 3000 years ago. Its true even today. But in general humanity has evolved so much over the centuries, because inspite of all the suffering there are people who through grit and determination fight through odds to move forward. Even these people have their fair share of challenges, but its the way they handle the challenges that makes the difference. Man kind has moved forward so much in those 3000 years because of these kind of people.

Some people face challenges at some phase of their lives, some at others. There was a period of about 12 years when there was nothing which was going right for me. Butt when I look back, that period also made me more appreciative of what I have. It made me appreciative of the fact that God has been kind to me because I have seen people with even more challenges during those times. My brother, his family and my extended family supported me so much during those days that I was able to come out of the situations. It changed and evolved my character.

Today when I talk to my younger team members, when they face challenges, I tell them the same things. I try to give them that same support because at the end of the day life happens “FOR” us not “To” us and it happens to “All of Us”. Time passes, challenges pass. You need to be stedfast in identifying possibilities and moving forward. Life is precious, live it.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!