1) Be on time
Really start your day @ 9 am (or in our case 9.30 am). Studies have shown that the average office worker only does an hour and a half of actual work per day. Focus, goddamit, and you'll get home far sooner.
2) Bunch up all your phone calls
Don’t answer your phone for the morning, then listen back to the messages and answer them in one within. "This helps prevent you being distracted by calls when you need to be focused on a task" says Myers.
3) Put joking matters aside
If you get a good joke on email, don’t forward it. If you do, you'll create a domino effect that'll see other folks with time on their hands emailing you some other, new jokes back as a "thank you"
4) Relax your mind
Switch off the TV before you hit the bunk to ensure peak brain condition watching television stimulates your brain, making it more difficult to speak, And, says Mark Mahowald, professor of neurology a the University of Minnesota Medical School, " One night of sleep deprivation is as impairing in simulated driving tests as an intoxicated blood-alcohol level." And without any pub
fun.
5) Write a diary
For two days, note how long you spend doing every thing from e-maling to cooking a meal. You'll e horrified b how much of the day you waste." says Paul Glen, a time management consultant. And it'll be far easier to cut back on non essential activities, eating
you a free man/woman sooner.
6) Known your power hour
Most people are at their most productive in the morning, but if your "head down" time is when everyone else is as lunch, take yours late and use the quiet time to get ahead.
7) Get Going
Bear in mind that the Japanese have a word to describe dying from over-working (Karachi- if you're looking for an epitaph). A gulit free way to leave the office is to make a commitment t volunteer, an activity corporations are usually supportive of.
8) Routine Ideas
Fix a time each week to discuss staff problem. Unregulated, these issues will have your staff interrupting you throughout the day. And it's a good exercise to get biscuits in.
9) Find your voice
Before you settle down to a project, as yourself if it's someone else's responsibility. Some people fail to speak out. " This results in a hue workload for some and virtually non for others" says Glen. complain loudly like a Yank. But don't do the assent.
10) Stay on schedule
Time-table your day. Set times for email, post and projects. "People end to tie tab meetings but not their own work time" says Barbara Years, Author of 200 ways to save time at the Office.: This is a mistake as it places a higher importance on meetings, which very rarely actually produce concrete results.
11) Take a break
It may seem counterintuitive, but you can't concentrate effectively for more than an hour at a time, so you'll spend more time not getting very far. This is the time to offer fellow-colleagues a coffee- you’ll be doing them and yourself a favor.
12) Keep Saving
Long on to www.living5to9.cm, enter the time you want to leave work, then you download the Time To Go Home Alarm to make sure you stick to your goal. The time you save will be added to an overall total on the website, which will be announced on 24 October National Take Back Your Time Day. It's an added incentive to get home on time.
13) Ditch Distractions
Cull non-essential tasks from your day: checking football scores, eyeing up the marketing assistant, bidding on eBay. Write down everything you do in a day without these things and you see how much more productive you are.
14) Stay in shape
Avoid taking sick days by getting regular exercise and you'll avoid a work backlog. Figures show that less than 48 percent of office workers exercise enough to meet 150 minutes a week. Raising the figure to 70 percent would result in a total of 2783808 fewer sick days each year.
15) Have a health PC
Have a computer check up every six months. Otherwise you'll end up wasting precious minute’s everyday due to poor software, viruses and crashing networks.
16) Filter your spam
Technology research company Nucleus Research says that the average employee spends 6.5 minutes managing spam each days. Speak to IT to finds out about any spam filters already in place.
17) Turn off your mail alert
A Hewlett-Packard study has found "an average worker's function IQ falls 10 points when distracted by telephone calls and incoming emails- more than double the our-point seen in studies on the impact of smoking marijuana." Put that in your paper and
smoke it.
18) Intercept the paper storm
Hang up a plastic pocket for incoming papers. Studies reveal the average office worker is interrupted 73 times a day and it then takes 20 (uninterrupted) minutes to get back to their original concentration level.
19) unsubscribe from e-newsletters
Face it, you're never going to read them. Better yet, dot sign up for them in the first place.
20) Be a learner
Use an L-shaped desk. Designate one side for right-now work and the other for later-on work. "The L shape prevent you from being distracted by other projects," says Stephanie Denton, a co-director of the US National Association of Professional Organizers.
21) Prioritise
Don't procrastinate. Robyn Pearce, author of Getting a Grip of time warns, "Beware of jus doing maintenance work when you have big projects to finish, There is enormous satisfaction to be had if you can self-determined enough to say "no" to the easy task." It's easier to get out on time when you leave the small stuff behind.
22) Ask questions
If you can't say no, at least be learn. Try to figure out from bosses, clients and colleagues which pieces f work are the most urgent when the deadlines are and what is expected. Spending some time questioning can help you formulate your own priorities and possibly save you from having to re-do things.
23) Keep our tools organied
Whether you're a builder, an office worker or a shop manager, your equipment needs to be kept in order, otherwise you'll waste previous minutes finding rather than doing. Invest in a new tool box for the back of the truck, extra files or a notice board. Ensure everyone known where to put back any borrowed items.
courtesy- MansWorld - India Edition
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Monday, March 5, 2007
On racism and censorship
This is wonderful piece written by Shashi Tharoor in his TOI column "SHASHI ON SUNDAY". Wisely written to touch both the aspects of the NEO TV Commercial.
Hearing the news that the private broadcaster Nimbus Communication has got into trouble with the government for allegedly broadcasting racist ads on its Neo Sports channel has left me with decidedly mixed emotions. The mixed emotions come, first, from the fact that this is a channel i both love and hate. Whenever i visit India, i morph into a Neo Sports addict.
After decades of living in countries where i was deprived of the possibility of watching cricket on television, i seize every guilty opportunity to cancel appointments and turn off my phone, so that i can sit goggleeyed before the tube, soaking in the goings-on on the greensward. And no one offers quite the range of cricket that Neo does live and recorded, from home and abroad, testmatches and one-dayers and Ranji Trophy games. Rare is the moment when the cricket-starved soul cannot find some balm on Neo Sports. At the same time, the channel infuriates me. It possesses, for one thing, the single most irritating voice on the planet, an androgynous off-screen sloganeer with a gratingly self-satisfied accent who informs listeners withteeth-grinding regularity of the name of the channel they are watching.
Fortunately for him or her, this occurs offscreen, so that viewers never learn who they can throw rotten eggs at. The executives of Nimbus appear blissfully unaware that this creature’s mere enunciation of the words ‘Neo Sports’ has done more than any rival or enemy can to incite sheer hatred towards the brand name amongst the most Gandhian of cricket fans. And then there are the ads. One can’t blame Neo, which is still a fledgling channel, for filling its commercial spaces with advertisements for itself (after all, how many repeats of Airtel’s ‘Songcatcher’ ads can any station inflict on its viewers without being accused of cruel and unusual punishment?). But who on earth conceives and approves these excrescences on the national psyche? I was in India when the West Indies team was touring, and watched in mounting horror as Neo ran a pair of promos in appalling taste about the visitors. One showed a West Indian at a dhaba, his mouth aflame after being served a deliberately over-spicy meal, running from person toperson looking for water, only to have the Indians there stick their fingers into their glasses, throw dentures into their water, and so on, until he finally flings himself at a tap and discovers it has run dry. The tag line:It’s tough to be a West Indian in India. Bad enough, but far worse was a second ad, in which a romantic black couple is rowed out to the middle of a lake by a boatman who abruptly stops, glowers at them and proceeds to strip off his clothes. The audience is clearly meant to expect that he will assault the girl but once he is down to his shorts he jumps into the water, leaving the couple moored mid-lake without an oar. Repeat tag line: It’s tough to be a West Indian in India. Of course, i can figure out from deep mid-wicket what the advertisers thought they were doing. First, they thought the ads were funny. Now humouris the most subjective of qualities, and though i can’t for the life of me find anything remotely funny in these two ads, i imagine somewhere in this vast subcontinent of ours there may well have been a few people who actually laughed, though i can only imagine they must have been hit by a bouncer on the back of the head when they were young. Second, the bosses at Neo Sportsprobably imagined that this was a clever way of promoting the cricketing contest and in so doing, drawing attention to themselves in the hope of expanding their viewer base. Now it doesn’t take an exceptional intelligence to point out that an ad which demonises a group of people, whether identified by nationality or colour, as ‘Others’ to be mistreated is inherently offensive. And that a story-line that mocks people of that group, and depicts people denying them basic human courtesies, is not funny. Nor that depicting Indians, who as a people must rank amongst the most hospitable on earth to foreigners of any kind, as being neither welcoming nor courteous but positively nasty to strangers, is unfair and untrue: it both promotes xenophobia and denies our true national character. In other words, the ad campaign was fundamentally misconceived, ill-thought out and disastrously executed, and those responsible should be spanked with the business end of an extraheavy Tendulkar bat.
But should there be more? This is where i get conflicted again. I detested the ads, but i was not happy to read in mid-February that the government slapped a notice on Nimbus, asking for an explanation. And worse still, that Neo Sports faces a minimum 30-day ban if charges of violating the advertising code are proven. Not only does that seem unnecessarily harsh towards the company, it will punish an entire class of innocents, the cricket fans. Far more worrying, it allows the heavy hand of government to intrude into the space for public discourse that is so essential a part of any functioning democracy. An official of the Information and Broadcasting ministry wasquoted as saying: The ads were in bad taste and perceived to be derogatory against foreign citizens. Bad taste is a matter for individuals to determine, not bureaucrats or even judges. And if Indians are to be punished for being derogatory towards foreigners, it will not be long before we return to the bad old days when the avatars of Indo-Soviet friendship banned James Bond’sFrom Russia with Love and later only allowed its release under the title From 007 with Love. In a free society, when the media errs, viewers should make their views known, advertisers should protest, and the company should be forced to think twice about its reputation. But let’s get the government’s unimaginative fingers off our remote controls.
Hearing the news that the private broadcaster Nimbus Communication has got into trouble with the government for allegedly broadcasting racist ads on its Neo Sports channel has left me with decidedly mixed emotions. The mixed emotions come, first, from the fact that this is a channel i both love and hate. Whenever i visit India, i morph into a Neo Sports addict.
After decades of living in countries where i was deprived of the possibility of watching cricket on television, i seize every guilty opportunity to cancel appointments and turn off my phone, so that i can sit goggleeyed before the tube, soaking in the goings-on on the greensward. And no one offers quite the range of cricket that Neo does live and recorded, from home and abroad, testmatches and one-dayers and Ranji Trophy games. Rare is the moment when the cricket-starved soul cannot find some balm on Neo Sports. At the same time, the channel infuriates me. It possesses, for one thing, the single most irritating voice on the planet, an androgynous off-screen sloganeer with a gratingly self-satisfied accent who informs listeners withteeth-grinding regularity of the name of the channel they are watching.
Fortunately for him or her, this occurs offscreen, so that viewers never learn who they can throw rotten eggs at. The executives of Nimbus appear blissfully unaware that this creature’s mere enunciation of the words ‘Neo Sports’ has done more than any rival or enemy can to incite sheer hatred towards the brand name amongst the most Gandhian of cricket fans. And then there are the ads. One can’t blame Neo, which is still a fledgling channel, for filling its commercial spaces with advertisements for itself (after all, how many repeats of Airtel’s ‘Songcatcher’ ads can any station inflict on its viewers without being accused of cruel and unusual punishment?). But who on earth conceives and approves these excrescences on the national psyche? I was in India when the West Indies team was touring, and watched in mounting horror as Neo ran a pair of promos in appalling taste about the visitors. One showed a West Indian at a dhaba, his mouth aflame after being served a deliberately over-spicy meal, running from person toperson looking for water, only to have the Indians there stick their fingers into their glasses, throw dentures into their water, and so on, until he finally flings himself at a tap and discovers it has run dry. The tag line:It’s tough to be a West Indian in India. Bad enough, but far worse was a second ad, in which a romantic black couple is rowed out to the middle of a lake by a boatman who abruptly stops, glowers at them and proceeds to strip off his clothes. The audience is clearly meant to expect that he will assault the girl but once he is down to his shorts he jumps into the water, leaving the couple moored mid-lake without an oar. Repeat tag line: It’s tough to be a West Indian in India. Of course, i can figure out from deep mid-wicket what the advertisers thought they were doing. First, they thought the ads were funny. Now humouris the most subjective of qualities, and though i can’t for the life of me find anything remotely funny in these two ads, i imagine somewhere in this vast subcontinent of ours there may well have been a few people who actually laughed, though i can only imagine they must have been hit by a bouncer on the back of the head when they were young. Second, the bosses at Neo Sportsprobably imagined that this was a clever way of promoting the cricketing contest and in so doing, drawing attention to themselves in the hope of expanding their viewer base. Now it doesn’t take an exceptional intelligence to point out that an ad which demonises a group of people, whether identified by nationality or colour, as ‘Others’ to be mistreated is inherently offensive. And that a story-line that mocks people of that group, and depicts people denying them basic human courtesies, is not funny. Nor that depicting Indians, who as a people must rank amongst the most hospitable on earth to foreigners of any kind, as being neither welcoming nor courteous but positively nasty to strangers, is unfair and untrue: it both promotes xenophobia and denies our true national character. In other words, the ad campaign was fundamentally misconceived, ill-thought out and disastrously executed, and those responsible should be spanked with the business end of an extraheavy Tendulkar bat.
But should there be more? This is where i get conflicted again. I detested the ads, but i was not happy to read in mid-February that the government slapped a notice on Nimbus, asking for an explanation. And worse still, that Neo Sports faces a minimum 30-day ban if charges of violating the advertising code are proven. Not only does that seem unnecessarily harsh towards the company, it will punish an entire class of innocents, the cricket fans. Far more worrying, it allows the heavy hand of government to intrude into the space for public discourse that is so essential a part of any functioning democracy. An official of the Information and Broadcasting ministry wasquoted as saying: The ads were in bad taste and perceived to be derogatory against foreign citizens. Bad taste is a matter for individuals to determine, not bureaucrats or even judges. And if Indians are to be punished for being derogatory towards foreigners, it will not be long before we return to the bad old days when the avatars of Indo-Soviet friendship banned James Bond’sFrom Russia with Love and later only allowed its release under the title From 007 with Love. In a free society, when the media errs, viewers should make their views known, advertisers should protest, and the company should be forced to think twice about its reputation. But let’s get the government’s unimaginative fingers off our remote controls.
REDS v/s RED DEVILS
The AD on ESPN was saying the REDS v/s RED DEVILS and i made a very strong mental note regarding this fixture.I was bang on... on my bean bag... but i was disappointed to see a message on the screen- basically saying" This cable operator has huge amount to pay" so as to justify the placement of the blue color rectangle in the centre of the screen.
I had no other option but to view the match with the grains and box playing their own game.
But before this- when ever i see MAN UTD match i all remember how i got hoooked to them when i say them way back in 90's in their historic match with Bayren Munich. down by 2 goals in last minute and the injury team they scored 3 goals to win some championship... and lo i am UTD fan.
Okeee lets get back to this match Manchester United back to the match which they are playing at the Liverpool Ground.But i was disappointed to see Man Utd without their usual sharpness. But somehow they were fortunate in their Premiership title race after Sir Alex's 10-men snatched a dramatic 1-0 win at Liverpool on Saturday.
United were under pressure for long spells of the second half at Anfield and were clinging on for a point after Paul Scholes was sent off with eight minutes remaining for aiming a punch at Xabi Alonso. (surprisingly it was the devils first RED card) But John O’Shea fired home from close range in the 90th minute after Liverpool goalkeeper Jose Reina spilled Cristiano Ronaldo’s free-kick.
United, who won at Fulham last week thanks to a yet another "late" Ronaldo goal, the whole match can be best put this way- THE worst punch came from Paul Scholes, the sucker punch was thrown by John O'Shea and the knock-out punch landed squarely on Jose Mourinho's over-active jaw. And now they are 12 points ahead of second-placed Chelsea (if the Chelsea looses in their fixtures) and Ferguson has no doubts that his team are getting the rub of the green at the right time. As Sir Alex said "Without question this is a massive result for us & We were very lucky today. Liverpool upset our rhythm a bit and we had a lot of narrowescapes. The Red Devils will be tested as Scholes will now serve a three-match ban and England striker Wayne Rooney could be sidelined with a knee injury suffered at Anfield.
I had no other option but to view the match with the grains and box playing their own game.
But before this- when ever i see MAN UTD match i all remember how i got hoooked to them when i say them way back in 90's in their historic match with Bayren Munich. down by 2 goals in last minute and the injury team they scored 3 goals to win some championship... and lo i am UTD fan.
Okeee lets get back to this match Manchester United back to the match which they are playing at the Liverpool Ground.But i was disappointed to see Man Utd without their usual sharpness. But somehow they were fortunate in their Premiership title race after Sir Alex's 10-men snatched a dramatic 1-0 win at Liverpool on Saturday.
United were under pressure for long spells of the second half at Anfield and were clinging on for a point after Paul Scholes was sent off with eight minutes remaining for aiming a punch at Xabi Alonso. (surprisingly it was the devils first RED card) But John O’Shea fired home from close range in the 90th minute after Liverpool goalkeeper Jose Reina spilled Cristiano Ronaldo’s free-kick.
United, who won at Fulham last week thanks to a yet another "late" Ronaldo goal, the whole match can be best put this way- THE worst punch came from Paul Scholes, the sucker punch was thrown by John O'Shea and the knock-out punch landed squarely on Jose Mourinho's over-active jaw. And now they are 12 points ahead of second-placed Chelsea (if the Chelsea looses in their fixtures) and Ferguson has no doubts that his team are getting the rub of the green at the right time. As Sir Alex said "Without question this is a massive result for us & We were very lucky today. Liverpool upset our rhythm a bit and we had a lot of narrowescapes. The Red Devils will be tested as Scholes will now serve a three-match ban and England striker Wayne Rooney could be sidelined with a knee injury suffered at Anfield.
me, Rajkumar & the goddessess.
For me it was absolute WOW when i landed in Bangalore about 7 years ago. But somehow i still had to put up with comments from even more old Bangaloreans who used to say that Bangalore has lost its ‘wow’ factor- it was really ‘wow’ some years ago.
When I revisit their comments I feel I am already become a Bangalorean. I love this place, I love the people, I love the climate, I love the gardens, I love the music here, I love my freedom of being me… but somehow I also already feel being part of the tribe of so called ‘old Bangaloreans’.
Truly Bangalore has evolved, the climate has changed(I don’t know if I have to call it the effect of Global Warming), the people composition has changed, the road has changed, the sounds have changed, the landscape has changed…. errr did I say LANDSCAPE.
Being in from the marketing fraternity- I have always followed the languages of Hoardings. I somehow believe Hoardings is one of the indicators of the health of the society.The content … in this case is still the king. We have seen some of landmark messages coming from this medium. But offlate I started noticing.
A malady creping in. All of a sudden almost all the political parties are now part of the CITY LANDSCAPE. Somehow they have realized that this is a very MASS and also CHEAP.
All the political parties…. err I mean the grass roots of these political parties have gone helter skelter by acquiring illegally EYES-SPACE so as to communicate the language which probably their party will subscribe or wont subscribe.
I don’t now if I have to classify this as an epidemic.. because almost every one is in the fray. You will notice that there I kewl pussy footing happening in this communication relm. “Keep the gods happy” seems to be the mantra.
Presence of these gods seems to be a protocol but the size, shape, form & color seems to be at the disposal of the so called “DYNAMIC LEADERS”.
I don’t know who give these people permission to erect these hoardings, who give this people permission to use the images of these so called FIGURES. The occasion can be of anything- be it some of these people birthday or an event or may be a festival. All of a sudden you will see all of them jumping at the opportunity, tuck the gods and goddesses in a corner and then hog the EYE-SPACE.
Budget 007 is just over and it seem Mr. Yeduriappa the Karnataka deputy chief minister and the soon to be chief minister had gone on record that Karnataka has been given a raw deal. Mr. DY Chief Minister- can I suggest you one option to rake in moolas. Please TASK THESE HOARDINGS- let the so called dynamic leaders pay for need of being seen by the larger public.
Or why don’t we allow RAJKUMAR and the gods and goddesses rest in peace and let your deeds speak for itself.
hey - this was my first attempt-- jus get back to me if it really sulked
b
When I revisit their comments I feel I am already become a Bangalorean. I love this place, I love the people, I love the climate, I love the gardens, I love the music here, I love my freedom of being me… but somehow I also already feel being part of the tribe of so called ‘old Bangaloreans’.
Truly Bangalore has evolved, the climate has changed(I don’t know if I have to call it the effect of Global Warming), the people composition has changed, the road has changed, the sounds have changed, the landscape has changed…. errr did I say LANDSCAPE.
Being in from the marketing fraternity- I have always followed the languages of Hoardings. I somehow believe Hoardings is one of the indicators of the health of the society.The content … in this case is still the king. We have seen some of landmark messages coming from this medium. But offlate I started noticing.
A malady creping in. All of a sudden almost all the political parties are now part of the CITY LANDSCAPE. Somehow they have realized that this is a very MASS and also CHEAP.
All the political parties…. err I mean the grass roots of these political parties have gone helter skelter by acquiring illegally EYES-SPACE so as to communicate the language which probably their party will subscribe or wont subscribe.
I don’t now if I have to classify this as an epidemic.. because almost every one is in the fray. You will notice that there I kewl pussy footing happening in this communication relm. “Keep the gods happy” seems to be the mantra.
Presence of these gods seems to be a protocol but the size, shape, form & color seems to be at the disposal of the so called “DYNAMIC LEADERS”.
I don’t know who give these people permission to erect these hoardings, who give this people permission to use the images of these so called FIGURES. The occasion can be of anything- be it some of these people birthday or an event or may be a festival. All of a sudden you will see all of them jumping at the opportunity, tuck the gods and goddesses in a corner and then hog the EYE-SPACE.
Budget 007 is just over and it seem Mr. Yeduriappa the Karnataka deputy chief minister and the soon to be chief minister had gone on record that Karnataka has been given a raw deal. Mr. DY Chief Minister- can I suggest you one option to rake in moolas. Please TASK THESE HOARDINGS- let the so called dynamic leaders pay for need of being seen by the larger public.
Or why don’t we allow RAJKUMAR and the gods and goddesses rest in peace and let your deeds speak for itself.
hey - this was my first attempt-- jus get back to me if it really sulked
b
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About Me
- Benoy Wilson
- more of me on http://benoywilson.sulekha.com/ http://www.linkedin.com/in/benoywilson http://benoywilson.blogspot.com http://benoywilson.spaces.live.com/ http://www.youtube.com/benoywilson & a little bit of ego search http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&q=benoywilson
