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.
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 circleâ€
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).
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”
I always thought that if I lose weight I will be happy or if I get good marks I will be happy. That does not mean that I was not happy when I did achieve those milestones but I was happy for a day or two and third morning I got up I was same as I was before and that first day feeling - Wow!, I am not FAT anymore, changed to, so what I am not FAT.
Well, all these small achievements must make you happy but one main thing that will always keep you happy is your attitude towards life. How do you deal with a particular situation in life? I say - It is all in your mind. The moment you adopt the half glass full (and not the half glass empty) way of looking at life you will be happy. Do not look at all the things you failed at but at the things you have achieved. Look at the bright side of your Life and be grateful for what you have.
Some people are of the idea that if I will be rich I will be happy. But money can buy you a bed, can it buy you sleep. The answer is NO. But does that mean we should not work hard to earn more, of course not. Earn money to live a comfortable life, but do not live your life to earn money.
How do you feel about this statement?
I am not unhappy because I could not achieve this but I am unhappy because someone else could (like friend or colleague at work).
I hope that is not the case with you and if it is then you better change yourself today as this will not take you anywhere.
I got the inspiration for this particular article from Trizzle and I would like to add my small story which is on somewhat similar lines. I am not assessing Trizzle as I sincerely think it ROCKS big time and I am a huge fan myself.
Well a long time ago there was a student (lets call him guy A) trying to learn the concepts of Physics. He tried it over and over again since he was a stubborn DIY (do-it-yourself) freak but could never grasp the concepts very well. So, he spoke to his friend (guy B) who was in a similar situation and they both decided to seek help from a private tutor. Now once they were given a problem to solve, guy A could not even understand the problem and sat there totally perplexed where as on the other end of the spectrum guy B solved the problem in no time. There private tutor was enormously impressed by guy B and from that day onwards every time guy A did something incorrectly he was demoralised by statements like you cannot do anything, look at your friend (guy B).
The end result was guy A could never strengthen his concepts because he got so discouraged by his tutor’s taunts and his DIY attitude went hunting in the woods. And you know why guy B could solve the problem so quickly because he had done it a few hours ago. The moral of the story please for GOD sake do not discourage people. The reason we have so many different fields is because everyone has different likings and abilities.
Lack of encouragement killed guy A’s enthusiasm and his hunger to learn was soon transformed into “I do not like it; I am not good at it”. Another thing worth mentioning is - “Comparison” - a constructive comparison may be - Ohh look at him you can be like him one day you just need to work a bit harder, and a negative comparison may be - look at him you can never be like him. It’s the way one puts it makes the big difference.
Sometimes, it takes time for one to understand or learn a new concept but with time and effort eventually everyone gets there.