Ironically —we in India are more worried about the mileage of our cars than our own Productivity / Efficiency. While we ask anyone with a new vehicle ‘Kitna Deti Hai’, we seldom stop to wonder what’s happening to our own mileage. This blog post is just an attempt to help you boost your productivity. After all – if someone were to video record your day- would you feel PROUD seeing the recording? If your typical days signify a ‘sense of permanent urgency’ & ‘endless distractions’- Read on …
‘Life is just not an EMERGENCY’; but we live it like that.
We have created so many distractions & still want ourselves & our kids to be focused. Instead of ‘FOCUS’; a smarter thing to do would be to train ourselves around ‘EFFICIENCY’ & ‘ENERGY’. This blog post treats this subject.
Last month I upgraded my mobile set. Didn’t understand the functioning much; as the new mobile was over-literate for my brain. Asked my tech savvy friend who had issues in his career & his life…He said: ‘Akash, it is not what your mobile can do for you: it is what you can do with it. ‘I told him:-‘It is not what your life does to you but what you do with it’. Keeping SMART PHONES & not using them 100% is analogous to not utilizing the 100% of your life and exhausting it away in trivialities. Do not compromise. You’re ‘ALL’ that you’ve got.
Was looking back @ my last 17 yrs as a Motivational Speaker & understanding: ‘Clarity & not Duality’ has genuinely helped me. Guess – this is the code. Either ‘LEAVE it !’ or be the ‘BEST in it’. It is just like-“You have a girlfriend or you don’t have..Beech ka kuchh nahi (sort of- friend, crush, munh boli behen,etc.). Being MEDIOCRE is being ‘NOwhere’ (You end up making more and more sisters). When you decide to live like a ‘Rockstar’ every damn minute of the day – you’ll see destiny ‘getting you accepted’; like that. (Here’s how you can Eliminate Mediocrity from your Life)
‘Clarity’ & ‘Fearlessness’ are like two super duper ‘mindsets’; if one could work hard to possess them. One feels like a king with them. When you try to live your life 100% i.e. with full positive momentum – the ‘Useless stuff’ just gets washed out. Focus remains.
I am going to next SHARE with you my biggest learning in Life. You have a choice- EITHER to accept it fully OR to waste a few decades (like me) and then learn and implement. The biggest secret of productivity / efficiency is:-
Keep DISCIPLINE fixed and revolve the rest of your LIFE around it’. Not the other way round — ‘where you WISH discipline; as you live your normal Life.
e.g. If you have decided that ‘you are to wake up at 5 in the morning, have a quick bath and then begin your day — THEN PROTECT THIS DECISION OF YOURS AT ANY COST. Weave your everything else around this / such decisions. Khuch bhee ho jaaye…
(Image courtesy: Teamwork and Leadership)
e.g. If you have decided that you will spend 30 mins daily pursuing your favorite hobby (By hobby, I don’t mean Engineers Waali) — then — ‘Ye karnaa hai ; chahe Khuch bhee ho jaaye…’ . Baaki sab iskey aas paas.
My work gets me to be at India’s Top Boardrooms / Colleges / School Campuses and I see 90% of the youth there – Time passing / day dreaming / remaining obsessed with sex / struggling with ‘People issues’. This is because: –
‘There is DISCIPLINE missing in Life’. Remain disciplined to your routines / Goals and trust me – there will be no ‘Time’ remaining to pass.
(If you / someone you know is struggling with this obsession with sex, you might want to read Vicky Loner. Trust me, it will give you many a answer)
One reason why we remain ‘MEDIOCRE’ :- We always let our ‘Will Power’ get ruled over by the ‘SWAAD / CHASKA’ aspects of our life. e.g. Would it matter after a few years -‘Who won in the match between Mumbai Indians & Royal Challengers Bangalore’? or your FB Status or ‘People issues’ or your hairstyle which you feel so much worried about. ,or the fact that “Har ek friend zaruri hota hai”
Reduce the ‘SWAD / CHASKA’ & see yourself ‘Rising & Shining…’. DISCIPLINE ….Yes !!! That’s it !
Ten Utility ways to boost your productivity and get super mileage out of your life:
1. Early to Bed, Early to Rise
I Strongly believe in ‘starts’, ‘starts of the days’. ‘Morning’ = ‘More + Inning’. It is the chance that God gives us to play more out of an inning everyday.
I generate hazaar killer confidence with a ‘great start’ to my day. It helps me remain in ‘MAUJ’, the whole day then. Vijay Maalya while addressing students @ an IIM said:-‘Don’t spend much time in the bed, as only prostitutes’ make money out there’. Mornings should be to celebrate silence, celebrate the nature’s prodigality. Just try it once and see the impact it has on your energy levels and productivity for the rest of the day. Quite unlike my neighbor -who celebrates his mornings with loud FM / Bollywood songs. Here’s how you can Wake up Early in the Morning
People who talk a lot early in the morning; create an energy imbalance early in the day. This imbalance lasts then the whole day. 15 mins of Exercise in the morning is much much more effective than 15 hours of ‘Gossip’ that one does in a day.
2. Finishing your To-Dos
Wind up the toughest ‘TO Dos’ early on is a great way to boost your productivity for the rest of the day. Winding up the toughest ‘to do jobs’ early gives me the confidence to do the rest ‘easily’. Keeping the ‘tough- To Dos’ towards the end of the day, keeps me tense about them the whole day. This method has reduced my stress immensely…”An advice- Biwi se sasuraal ke saare issues subah hi discuss kar lene chahiye.” 🙂
How can your day be an ‘AWESOME’ one – if you have not imagined it already to be like that. Visualize WOW! Days and trust me you’ll achieve them.
(Image courtesy: The Muse)
3. Eat Well
It is SO MUCH about —‘What you EAT’ :- Any small tablet which we take when we fall ill – does so much inside our body – that we get cured. So imagine what bad food would be doing ??? We just EAT & keep on Eating ; as if there is an invisible Rakshash (ghostly demon) sitting inside our stomachs and seeking his quota of food & pleasure. Do simple 4 things (considering that these are v much doable by anyone):-
- Eat less — this is the secret.
- Do not eat after 8pm
- Drink lots of Water
- Jabardasti add Fruits & Green vegetables to your diet. An apple costs much less than your educated Burger.
4. A Positive Attitude
One very important way to achieve anything is to imagine what your life would be like when you have achieved it. Same with wanting to boost your productivity!
How many times in a day do you get this feeling – ‘ Wow! I am improving my Efficiency!’ ? Saying such positively affirmative words to your own self some 4-5 times in a day will permanently set this ‘efficiency chip in your mind’. This can happen when you focus on the ‘intelligent FEW’ rather than the ‘Boring MANY’ aspects of your own.
5. Address your Core Needs
A closer look at the youth around makes me understand why we are ‘Aiwayein Khajal’ (i.e. Feel useless) ? :-
We take too little responsibility for addressing our ‘CORE’ needs- We dissipate too much energy in Blame, Complaint & Finger pointing. SO much busy we are in getting things done that we forget to pause & ask ourselves:– ‘Is this really what I want’- ‘Am I putting my Time & Energy at the right place’ ..
Woh kaam hee kyun karne ; jinko karne kee zaroorat nahin hai. People are just too caught in ‘imaginary troubles’ than the ‘real troubles’… Hota nahin hai – phir bhi aiwayein banaya hota hai 🙂
6. Impress the Right People
We are too much caught in impressing people around by trying to look / sound ‘COOL’. This results in us being permanently caught in the web of ‘people issues’. This is your YOUTH. To whom do you grant the power to tell you what to do with a chunk of your YOUTH ? Don’t give this power to people around. Mind is a terrible thing to waste to people around. Especially the people — who wouldn’t even matter after a few years.
Oops! I see people irreparably getting into the habit of ‘finding a problem with/ commenting about / discussing uselessly’ anyone who is ‘NOT LIKE THEM’.
7. Save your Energy
‘The law of Conservation of energy’ & smart decisions about ‘Where to put that energy’ are the two most intelligent decisions you can make – if u r to get better…The biggest ‘IRONY’ with us is that ‘WE KNOW what will give us pain’; & we still ‘DO IT’…!!
Zindagi mein kaam aur Zindagi kay ‘mudday (issues)’ kabhi khatam nahi hotay. ‘State of mind’ sudharna apne haath mein hai.
If you still fight with ‘customer care’ departments of your mobile number- you need to seriously keep care of yourself. Kyun ? Kyaa hogaa ? Koi faaydaa nahin …Leave it ! We save our money @ smallest of places and burn our blood while doing that. Interestingly we loose more while doing that. Don’t save like this: ‘Penny wise ; Pound foolish’
8. Be less Excited
Almost everything; trust me EVERY-thing around us is feeding our mind into the ‘HABIT’ of feeling the ‘EXCITEMENT’ every hour of the day. Media, Cricket, F1, Movies, Opposite sex, Facebook, College Fests, etc.. I feel worried!! as withdrawal symptoms of all this will be tough ! EXCITEMENT is very different from HAPPINESS. Happiness is all that you get when you are en-route your Goals. Rest everything is EXCITEMENT.
Without the ‘Celebration in the mind’, ‘celebrations outside’ will be vacuous, tangential & too short-lived. Work on being Happy; than just sheer ‘Excited’.
9. Un-Social Media
Limit your internet to max half-an-hour day. ‘Don’t update your FB status unnecessarily. First, make one. It is always better to UP-GRADE your Real-life Status than UP-date your FB one. If you start spending 50% of your internet time; ‘talking sincerely, lovingly & deeply’ with your parents / family – DIVINITY will start flowing in your life. We need emotions around to balance our web lives.
10. Talk less
Take out from your life — the useless talk that we have got into the habit of ‘so much doing’. The secret code of Communication: – ‘Talk about others more than talking about your own self’. Trust me — no one is interested in your stories. Only bore people ‘talk about themselves’. Do not take ‘what people comment about you’; very seriously. One Life — trust me — it wouldn’t matter. Laugh it off — instead of reacting. Our five senses are incomplete without the sixth – a sense of HUMOR.:). Our productivities / efficiencies will much increase if we learn ‘how to avoid unnecessary CONTROVERSIES’.
Today, make a list of 5 things- which dissipate / diffuse / waste / lessen your energies. Now make a list of 5 things which you know boost your productivity. The trick is simple. Do more of latter and reduce the former. Whenever the traffic of the ‘details of LIFE & LIVING’ becomes very heavy – ‘CREATE Flyovers ‘…. & Wrooooom !!
Rise & Shine.
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