Apr 21, 2009
Posted by arif in GTD and Productivity | 0 comments
Spending too much time at Office, but not getting a lot done? Here are Five questions that works towards fixing that. Ask yourself:
1. Am I being Productive or Busy?
2. Am I inventing things to do to avoid the important?
3. What 20% inputs causes the 80% of my productivity, satisfaction and happiness?
4. What 20% inputs causes the 80% grief?
5. What tasks would I do if I had 2 hours/day to work?
(This last question is a killer. Truly think about it. What if one find day the Doctor told you that buddy, I’m sorry but if you’ve got to live, you can only visit work two hours a day. No more. Beyond that, your body and mind would not be able to take the load.
Just imagining that scenario starts gearing the mind as to how we can maintain our current work load within that time frame ie just two hours a da. And you know what, it seems doable too.)
Source: The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris
Feb 19, 2009
Posted by arif in GTD and Productivity | 2 comments
There are just a handful of books that I can say have dramatically changed my life for the better. War of Art by Steven Pressfield sits way high on that list. It is an outstanding book, crafted to help you may hear your life’s purpose like never before and then soar away to living it.
All of us have whining nagging voice in our heads. You know that voice, it’s the one that says,
“Oh it’s so early, you’ve had a late night, get some rest you can always exercise later.”
“You? Start a business and take all that risk…c’mon you’ve got a family, don’t be foolish.”
“Want to be more spiritual? It’s such a noble goal but oh, the sacrifice, why don’t you wait till tomorrow…”
That’s not the voice in your head, but the voice of a real being, a living, breathing lifeform who’s sole purpose is to get you from achieving your life purpose. It is the voice of Resistance.
What is Resistance?
Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance. Are you a writer who doesn’t write, a painter who doesn’t paint, an entrepreneur who doesn’t start a venture? Then you know what Resistance is.
Any act that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term growth, health, or integrity. Or, expressed another way, any act that derives from our higher nature instead of our lower. Any of these will elicit Resistance.
Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work. It will perjure, fabricate, fasify; seduce, bully cajole. It will assume any form, if that ‘s what it takes to deceive you. It will reason with you like a lawyer or jam a nine-millimeter in your face like a stuckup man. Resistance has no conscience. It will pledge anything to get a deal, then double-cross you as soon as your back is truned. If tyou take Rsistance at its word, you deserve everything you get. Resistance is always lying and always full of shit.
If you believe in God (and I do) you must declare Resistance evil, of it prevents us from achieving the life God intended when He endowed each of us with our own unique genius.
Steven Pressfield has recognised Resistance for what it is and described it so starkly, it’s as if he’s stripped the devil himself of all his hides and exposed the blood-thirsty rasping wolf that lay beneath.
So, once you’ve recognised Resistance, how do you get the better of it?
How do you stay strong and don’t get allured by it’s seductive sounds. The solution is really quite simple. Infact we’re acting out every single day at our jobs. It’s simply by becoming a pro, i.e. a professional at what we wish to do. And That’s what the second part of the book is dedicated to. What does it mean to turn pro?
Pro means treating our ambition, just the way we treat our jobs. How do we treat our jobs?
- We show up every day. We might do it only because we have to, to keep from getting fired. But we do it. We show up every day.
- We show up no matter what. In sickness and in health, come hell or high water, we stagger in to the factory. We might do it only so as not to let down our co-workers, or for other, less noble reasons. But we do it. We show up no matter what.
- We stay on the job all day. Our minds may wander, but our bodies remain at the wheel. We pick up the phone when it rings, we assist the customer when he seeks our help. We don’t go home till the whistle blows.
- We receive praise or blame in the real world…
This book is a must for everyone’s and anyone’s library. It’s quite short and not too wordy. I’ve picked it up several times and gives me a kick where I need it and when I need it most. And incase the book is difficult to get, the audio book is available for purchase here. It’s read out by Steven Pressfield himself, and in my view packs more of a punch than the book itself.
Dec 24, 2008
Posted by Mohammed Ali in GTD and Productivity | 12 comments
photo credit: talkingplant
I love reading books, and if you’re like me you know the problem is there are too many books and too little time! If you can relate to this, then this post is for you. I overcame this problem by going through several Speed Reading books to develop my reading & comprehension skills.
I’m now able to read a book several times faster, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that I can read a 300 page book in 2 hours. Though most Speed Reading Books focused on Reading Drills, what I found was that by adopting a few basic techniques, one can dramatically & instantly improve their Speed Reading Skills. In this post I’ll be sharing with you these secrets. (A Note: these techniques work best with Non-Fiction books)
Step 1: Know the purpose of reading the book
This is the first and perhaps the most important step to enhance your speed in reading. It is to know the purpose you’re reading the book. Is it pleasure reading, self-improvement or looking for details on a particular subject ? Without knowing why you won’t be able to jump into the pool of information to get what you want.
Ask yourself:
First: In an overall scheme of things how worthwhile is the material that I am reading
Second: What do I want or need to remember, as specifically as possible, from this material that I am about to read?
Step 2 & 3: Get an Overview of the Book & Author (15 minutes)
* Go through the Front Cover, back cover & inside page cover
* Table of Contents (make a note of chapters that seem interesting)
* Amazon Reviews
* Preface
* Introduction
While going through the Amazon reviews, preface & introduction gather some more information about the author and form an opinion of the Author and why has he written the book.
Doing the above should not take more than 15 minutes. By the end of this step, you should be able to explain to someone in a few sentences what the book is about. If you can do this you’ve completed this step successfully.
Step 4: Flip through the entire book (10 minutes)
You’ll be surprised by the wealth of information you’ll come across by just doing this. Flip through every page of the book, spending 0.5 sec to 3 secs a page. You’re not expected to read through the text, but during this exercise, make notice of the following:
* Diagrams
* Sub Headings
* Summary points
* Any exercise
By noticing the above you’ll find your mind automatically absorbing bits of information & connecting the dots between them.
Step 5: Getting into the details (1 hour 20 minutes)
Most readers read books by diving right into the details without doing any background work. But by the time you’ve reached this step, you know:
* Why you’re reading the book?
* What the book is about?
* Who the author is?
* How can this book can help you?
Congratulations, you’re well in control of the book and to navigate through it with ease.
From step 2 you would have highlighted the chapters that interest you the most. Be brave start going through these chapters. Don’t feel guilty by jumping to the end of the chapter, usually the end of the chapter will summarize the whole chapter.
You’ll notice more often that not, there are a only few chapters that you need to go through, to know what you need to remember in Step 1. It’s using the 80/20 rule. 80% of the information you require is found in 20% of the book. 20% of the book is approx 50 pages which not take an average reader more than an hour and a half to read. Make sure you underline the Major themes and ideas of each chapter you read.
Step 6: Mind Map (15 minutes)
Mind-Mapping is a proven method to effecting summarize lots of information in short use of time and space. You can learn about Mind Mapping from this YouTube Video.
With the information you’ve underlined in Step 5, create a Mindmap to connect the central ideas of the book and each chapter it contains. The center of the MindMap can be the name of the book, and each Chapter you’ve read is a branch from the center. From each Chapter connect the lines
How it Works?
Speed reading is not about reading words fast, but it’s more about improving one’s ability to extract the message of the text that is being read. All the techniques above enhance your ability to understand the message of the text, without the need to read through every letter.
Benefits of Speed Reading:
* Absorb new ideas faster
* You’ll be able to make time to read a wider range of material
* Greater career success as your ability to acquire and retain knowledge increases dramatically
* Increased confidence to sifting through thick books to get what you want
Try it out! and share your experiences below.
Dec 22, 2008
Posted by arif in GTD and Productivity | 2 comments
Me and Ali are also contributors to GTD Times, the official GTD Blog of David Allen Company. At GTD Times, we have posted a review of Eat that Frog, by Brian Tracy. A book that has extended Mark Twain’s analogy of doing the toughest task of the day to eating an Ugly & Repulsive Frog. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and gained many insights that I was able to immediately put into practice. This book has been reprinted for India and is available at a reduced price of Rs.150/- at most bookstores.
Below are some of the snippets from the book that would give you more of a gist and also get you moving on your tasks. You can read more excerpts at the end of this GTDTimes blog post by clicking here.
Taking the Frog analogy forward:
If you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesn’t pay to sit and look at it for very long.
When you’ve got two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.
You cannot eat every tadpole and frog in the pond, but you can eat the biggest and ugliest one.
How do you eat your biggest, ugliest frog? The answer is: “One bite at a time.” i.e. you break it down into specific step by step activities and then start on the first one.
You should never be distracted by a tadpole when a big frog is siting there waiting to be eaten.
On the Pareto principle or 80/20 rule:
There is never enough time to do all the tasks, but there’s always time to do the most Important task.
The most valuable tasks you can do each day are often the hardest and most complex. But the payoff and rewards for completing these tasks efficiently can be tremendous. For this reason, you must adamantly refuse to work on tasks in the bottom 80 percent while you still have tasks in the top 20 percent left to be done.
A Question to ask yourself for maximum productivity: “What can I, and only I, do that if done well will make a real difference?” ~ Peter Drucker.
photo credit: TimmyGUNZ
