Just in time for the new year….

Please leave some comments if you are here…encouraging or discouraging…
Thanks…

Completely revamped version of andHapp.com will be unleashed in the coming days. This is my first honest attempt at designing a web page. I will take this opportunity to give credits to:

1. Prettyforms (helped in reducing the hideousness of the HTML Forms) by Agave group

2. Exciting javascripts (helped in achieving the slick effects) by Scriptaculous

that minimised my work…which otherwise would have been a Yeoman’s task.
Last but by no means least…my CSS knowledge (although quite basic) was quite handy in putting it altogether.
Many Thanks

Click on the link to check out a cool riddle …it took me a while to figure out the answer. I must say it was a bit tricky but then again what else can you expect from Einstein (nothing but geekiness).
My hint for all the readers is “dog”

GOOD LUCK

The other day I got an opportunity to try my hand at Go Karting and was totally outclassed by my work colleagues. I put up a dismal performance…not far behind from England’s performance in the last Ashes Test. I did jump two places up in the second round which was the only bright side about it. Also it was great fun…absolutely mind blowing. I will definitely go back very soon…in the end there was an award ceremony.

Last but by no means least we were handed out our performance graphs, bar charts and what not which gave all of us enough to talk about for next few hours….or probably few days…

Following my post Planning + Organisation = GTD ? my mentor Richard suggested me to read David Allen’s “Getting Things Done - stress free productivity” book. I have read the first part in the book and I am completely flabbergasted by my ignorance to trivial details.

Few years back I was habitual of jotting down my To-do list on a piece of paper and keep it in my wallet. I glanced over that list every now and again to ensure everything on my mind was there which relieved me off the stress. I only realised that after reading David Allen’s book that if things are on your mind you are bound to get distracted (D-factor I guess). I totally revere the guy now.

My aim is to read the book and use his expertise to devise my own way of keeping a sort of diary as he stresses on the fact that “as far as it is off your mind… you will be composed and focussed for your task”.

I encountered this cool webapp BlogMusik while looking for some� music online. It� has a lot of tunes…the interface looks good but the playlist management is a bit slow and could be improved.

Have a look )

It is all about GTD (getting things done) attitude. There are times when we get up and we are like Ohh!! GOD I have got so much to do today. The reason we are panicking is not because we have actually got a lot to do today(or may be we have …anyways) but because we did not finish the work from yesterday. And now it has piled up…stressing us out.

In that situation we have two possible resolutions:

1) We slog and finish our backlog and today’s work and gear up for tomorrow.

2) We plan again.

Looking at the outcome of what happened yesterday it is highly unlikely that we will be able to achieve the first resolution. (If you can then pat your back and keep up the good work. You can read the rest of this post but it might be useless)

Now we are left with only one choice – plan again. In a few moments we ca figure out a new arrangement of our tasks. We promise to our inner self that this time we will definitely stick to our plan and will achieve the expected. But do we really???

My guess is Nope…well no offences but the reason we fail is because we do not plan properly. There is a saying if you fail to plan you plan to fail. But a slight amendment goes like improper planning is as bad as failing.

Right…so where did it all go wrong. We sit back and think and we realise that there is a D-factor that tempts us over and over again to stop our work. D-factor hmm… what is this D-factor?

D-factor’s D stands for distraction. It can be defined as the disturbance we suffer from and we have to put up with while we are trying to meet a deadline. I know some people are committed and motivated and hibernate in their own world but for others this is addictive and harmful. For example: there are plenty of sources of distraction on the web now days. (I hope you know them well if you do not then you are wasting your time in reading this post)

How do we fight it or make us more productive?

Just reduce the D-factor…unfortunately we cannot reduce this D-factorinstead we should learn to live with it. Cutting off the influence of D-factor is down to an individual’s own efforts but here are a few tips:

• When you work just work and do not watch videos or browse web…I find it so difficult.
• If someone at work approaches you with some other work politely tell them off because you are busy and concentrating. This is not rude. This is just your style of working.
• If you cannot concentrate…take a break or move on to something else. Come back to the problem the next day.
• If you do not feel like doing anything just do housekeeping on your computer or your workplace. As you won’t be productive when your mind is somewhere else.
• Remember if something has to be done it has to be …so just try harder.

Well there won’t be a need to plan again if we would have planned properly in the first place. Right…so now we come down to planning. I am not an exemplary planner yet I have witnessed some poor planning. Let us say you have a set of tasks namely:

Task a, Task b, Task c, Task d

Contemplate following factors when you calculate the time you will require:

1) Your skill set For example: Guy A has done basic Java before and now he has to code a drag and drop Java applet. Guy A gets ambitious and allocates less time to complete the task. End result: The Client/Boss/Senior is going bonkers….Guy A is frustrated with his performance …eventually falling into a state of demoralisation.

2) Your experience on doing that task

3) The minimal D-factor (since you will attempt to reduce them). Productivity sits on the opposite end of distraction. Now where do you want to sit? Make a choice quickly or it will be made for you by your Client/Boss/Senior – “He is not productive…put him outside the productivity circle”

4) The slack time (to cater for any risks; risks like falling ill, or could be anything).

Let us say we have done all the calculation and figured out that Task a is going to take 3 hours. My advice is put it 3 hours 30 minutes. I do not think you are inept but we are never working at 100% all the time and when we plan we get ambitious and reduce the time required to complete a task. Therefore, it becomes necessary to add a bit of time in the end. Late completion of Task A is as bad as not completing and since we appreciate the deadline it is essential to deliver on time.

This ensures two things:

1) Firstly we have a robust plan to complete the task on time even if there is a sturdy influence from the D-factor’s camp.

2) It will earn us Brownie points for finishing the task before time.

But not to forget…it is absolutely necessary to ensure the execution is as good as the preparation (plan).

I bought Richard Dawkin’s book - The GOD Delusion on Saturday and thought about doing my own review. Do not worry I am not a great reviewer and I am not going to batter him either. I believe in the existence of GOD and I totally appreciate his opinion and by the way this is an opportunity for me to learn what others think about GOD. Criticism is not my aim I would rather promote a healthy discussion.

What I liked:

He mentions in the Preface section on page 3 he condemns the use of phrases like “Catholic child” and I completely comprehend where he is coming from. At a young age children are naive and will not understand these terms just like any other thing like Politics and so on.

What I disliked:

On page 1 of Preface he is blaming religion for the killings around the world. However, in my opinion no religion ever encourages innocent killings. There are groups of people who for their own petty egoistic motives endorse these acts of abhorrence. These groups have notoriously misconstrued the essence of religion.

As we all cricket followers know England lost poorly…yes and they did not go down fighting. Well when England regained the prestigious Ashes last year a comment from an Australian fan appeared in the Metro - “Loosing Ashes felt like waking up one morning with pictures of Camilla Parker Bowles on all the walls around you”

And today I read Geoffrey Boycott’s comment - “Aussies can hit the winning runs with a stick of rhubarb”

Funny…isn’t it?