Power of good Habits

What is habit? 

Habit is a routine of behaviour that is repeated frequently and tends to occur subconsciously. Bad habits intrude your life and prevent you from accomplishing your goals.  Breaking any habit can be difficult. For instance, if a person smokes regularly it becomes his habit and even if he feels to quit, it becomes difficult for him to give-up.  

Psychologist and philosopher William James proclaimed that the entire life is nothing but a series of habits that we form repeatedly. The power of habit is been explained by various authors and motivational speaker.  One of the famous Author Stephen R. Covey, wrote and published a book known as “The 7 Habits of successful People” describing an approach to being effective in attaining goals.   

To achieve excellence in big things, one should develop the habits in little matters. Keeping the desk clean, removing the clutter in your mind, etc. all these small things can be practiced again and again. If you can instill these habits into your life, you can create the foundation for achieving your goals. 

However, here are the 8 Habits of Highly Productive People that you have to adopt to get the best out of you!!  

1.       Ruthlessly Cut Away the Unimportant

That’s right. Try to focus only on the important things, and cut away everything that’s unimportant. There is no point doing something that is unimportant. So push yourself to quit wasting time, and bring yourself back to the production mode.

2.       Allocate breaks strategically

Productivity declines over time without taking brakes. Take plenty of breaks throughout the day. The rule of thumb would be to take a 5 to 10 minutes break every 2 hours of work. Breaks are a highly effective way to boosting your productivity. 

3.       Remove productivity pitfalls  

Things that limit your productive must be thrown out.  It can be the music you listen to when you work, your phone calls, alerts from your inbox, your slow computer, the internet, You Tube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. These things trap you and prevent you from getting things done. 

4.       Tap into your inspiration

No matter what field you’re in, your inspiration is the key to your output. So, channel your inner muse. Keep on thinking and contemplating the things that motivates you. And definitely you will find that your focus increases thereby upsurging your productivity. 

5.       Create barriers to entry

Don’t make yourself too accessible. If you’re too accessible then you will face a lot of interruptions. Nowadays people can connect with others very easily with the touch of button (text, emails, calls, etc.). Therefore, guard your time to improve your productivity.

6.       Optimize time pockets

Make the best of every minute. For instance, if you’re working for 10 minutes ensure that you achieve maximum outcomes in that 10 minute and then you can take time off.  You usually get time pockets while waiting for people, commuting, chess app, reading books, or planning. 

7.       Set timelines

Be clear on what you want to achieve, and then set your timelines for them. When you set timelines, you set the intention to complete the work on time, hence paving the way for the reality to manifest.  

8.       Automate everything possible 

Technology today has made automation possible for a lot of things we do.  Hence, find a way to automate every task and let it be your habit. If you outsource, delicate, automate your task   obviously your productivity will improve. 

Another important Habit that you must build to increase your productivity is Prioritization. Always there is a constant tension between the urgent and the important things.  Important activities should be of high priority because they are the things that contribute significantly in reaching your goals. Whereas urgent activities may or may not relate to your big-picture objectives, and usually they do not make any significant contributions.

Thanks for reading.

Happiness

In general dictionary, there is no proper definition for happiness. One has to find out his own definition which works for himself. In simple words, it is a constant and continuous feeling of joy and contentment. It should not be momentary just like pleasure.

                    Whatever a person does, he ultimately does to find happiness. It is not a destination, but can be found in the journey of life. It is ones choice to be happy. Whether one has everything or not, it is completely his choice to make himself happy with what he has. It is not a possession to be prised, but the quality of thoughts and state of mind. It is a sort of action. When one is wise, he makes others happy.

                    Some of the authors and world leaders say that today, the biggest problem in the world is that, we are more interested in making others believe that we are happy than actually trying to be happy by ourselves.

                    It is just a belief that money and success can buy happiness. But alone they are useless. Your decision to be happy plays the top role. Money, success, your decision, etc. are just few of the constituents of happiness, which are to be placed on their proper positions.

                    Happiness can’t be bought, but just created, felt, expressed or experienced. If it could have been bought, all would have paid a price for it. The best method to create happiness is to do the things which you love. It contributes a lot. And if that is not possible, then love the things which you do. Choose to be happy in the work you do and it is only possible when you start liking them.

STEPS TO BECOME HAPPY:

1.       Think less
2.        Feel more
3.        Act more
4.        Frown less
5.        Smile more
6.        Laugh more
7.        Talk less
8.        Listen more
9.        Understand better
10.     Judge less
11.     Expect more
12.    Watch less
13.    Do more
14.    Complain less
15.    Appreciate more
16.    Be grateful

                    Gratitude is extremely important if one wants to be happy. Likewise, the person should not be over emotional but have faith. He should not give up but keep trying. He should not complicate but make things simple. Sometimes, he need not be serious but laugh at the problems. He should be as youthful as a kid. That will make him happy.

                    One’s happiness should depend on himself and not on other people or things which he may lose. One can never lose himself. Those who desire love, try to find a soul mate. But those who desire happiness, finds themselves, and then their soul mate finds them.

                    Happiness is never experienced with the amount of problems but the ability to face it. If someone can’t write happiness in others life, then atleast he should try to erase his problems.

BENIFITS OF BEING HAPPY:

1.       It boots motivation. It keeps one inspired and he is always enthusiastic. He loves creativity, have lot of energy, good health and create good vigilance. All this is possible only if he is happy.

2.       It improves productivity in one’s life.

3.       It reduces cardio vascular diseases.

4.       It is said that happy people have a longer life and are tend to attract more people. So they make good friends.

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Responsibilities of the Manager

A manager must consider himself/herself as a facilitator for the people he/she manages. Manager must ensure that all the needs of people managed are properly met. Peter Drucker says “the manager must do things right, the leader must do right things.” While there is no doubt that a good leader may also be a good manager but it is important to know the difference between a manager and a leader. Today I’ll discuss the qualities and short comings of the two i.e. the manager and the leader. We must understand and appreciate their respective roles.

1. The manager provides to the team members all that may be needed for the performance of their respective roles. For any shortfalls in this context the manager must consider he/she responsible. Such shortfalls are bound to affect performance.

 

2. Developing a mechanism to monitor that there is very little tolerance in the efficacy of the duties performed by the team members, is manager’s duty. That means the work must go ahead with as much accuracy as is possible. 

 

3. Productivity depends upon aligning various efforts of the team members. It also depends upon ensuring that the differences emerging out off the various cultural backgrounds do not interfere with the productivity. It requires thorough understanding on the part of the manager habits of the different members of the team, of their characteristic traits due to the cultural backgrounds and also the working style. 

 

4. All the members of the team need to be trained properly for the seamless progress of efforts for achieving team’s goals. Often times the members of the team may not indicate any development need due to whatever reason. Therefore it is the duty of the manager to identify these development needs and arrange for the appropriate training. 

 

5. The next job that the manager has on hand is to create right environment conducive for better performance. It will depend upon the goals and various situational factors. Due to the constant changes in the market the manger needs to be alert and responsive to these changes. 

 

6. Some of the members of the team may even require coaching for coming up to a certain satisfactory level. Here again it is the duty of the manger to identify the persons and their needs and organized coaching to meet the situational challenges. 

 

Since the business environment is very competitive, it is but necessary that the manager needs to leave up to the challenges and face these squarely. This will be good for the manger, for the team as well as for the organization.

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Fear- a Bane or a Boon?

 

Most people suffer fear in certain situations or at some point of life. But some people may say that they never experience fear. They are the ones who don’t speak the truth. Fear is a normal human response to very challenging tasks. However, it becomes a bane if a person suffers fear without any reason. If they suffer from unfounded fears. The funny thing is, we meet such people in abundance. This is funny as well as unfortunate.

According to Bertrand Russell, many a time the source of fear is superstition. Cruelty of one kind or the other also causes fear. The management professionals are often attacked by this malady if they are perfectionists. There is nothing perfect in life. One may say only nature is perfect. All human beings have only to work towards achieving perfection which happens to be mirage.

One American once said that his life had been full of misfortunes which never took place. Fear of death is worse than the death itself. Left to itself, fear grows from bad to worse. Fear follows the most important of the Murphy’s laws – ‘left to themselves things go from bad to worse’.

 

If this is the case and what should one do? Fear is a question. First of all you have to answer it yourself. What are you afraid of, and why? Just as the doctor goes in to the history of the disease to find a cure, you have to bring to light all the reasons which had been the cause of your fears. And then you have to use fear as your friend. Tell yourself, ‘fear is here with its gift of energy and heightened awareness’. In this situation you can learn the best lessons of your life and act most efficiently. In fact heightened feelings enhance your productivity. You achieve greater heights. Since we know that fear robs our mind of power of reason and action, we should fight it out by doing things we fear the most. You must try to start or take action in a project which you have been procrastinating for a long time. That you can do by invoking your courage. And what is courage? ‘Courage is fear that has said its prayers’, as wittily explained by Dorothy Bertrand.

Remember fear is a dark room where negatives are developed. So don’t get in to this dark room. Fortune helps the brave!

 

Thanks for reading.

The Science of Living

Life has many facets: habits, aspirations, goals, significance etc. It is rare that there has been an artist who was also a good householder and a progressive human being. When I say a good householder, I mean one who facilitates the family in all respects. He not only provides for them materially but also emotionally. This is so, typically for a family man. But when we talk of an individual who doesn’t have a family they too will have to find out their goals, what they want to do in life by controlling or changing their habits. In these circumstances it is difficult to imagine an artist who is totally devoted to his/her passion for art putting similar stress on all the other aspects of life, as said above.

Therefore I think we must understand and practice the ‘Science of living’.

The first facet of this science, according to me, would be ‘Self Awareness’. An individual needs to be conscious of his own body, state of mind including thoughts, actions, ideas, feeling and interaction with others. Besides, self awareness has to be a continuous process. It’s only then that you can mould your thoughts, actions and relationship with others. Without doubt, this requires a constant review – a study that is scientific in nature. It teaches you how to go about finding solutions to the problems.

 

Once you are self aware, you must set your priorities. It is not only fixing the priorities but also scheduling them according to their relative importance. We must remember that when we schedule a task and provide a time slot, it is not necessary that time allocated will always be found to be sufficient. Time management is another important aspect to be reviewed from time to time. The discipline that you require for constant follow up requires a scientific approach. It should have nothing to do with the moods of the person. When a particular task is not finished as per schedule you need to provide the next slot and abide by it. This protocol alone can bring about the desired results.

  

Once we are self aware, and we know what to do and we have also fixed our priorities, it is necessary to develop a keen sense of focus. To my mind doing only one thing at a time is the best approach. As far as possible there should be no interruption. Equally important is your total mind and soul into what you are doing. One has to start living in the present, moment to moment. Deliberate effort may be required for some time but then it becomes your habit and you start navigating you life as if you are flying an airplane.

 

Lastly, I would say that your speech is very important. Because we have to interact with colleagues, family members and the society at large, we must choose our words and use them effectively. Any wrong choice or casual approach towards this very important aspect of human personality can be disastrous. Speech must always be clear; words should be chosen with discretion and spoken effectively. Speech helps to maintain and improve our relations in any environment.

 

To conclude I would like to say that a successful life in modern times requires us to know and practice the ‘Science of living’.

Thanks for reading.