HOW TO GET WORK DONE ?..PRODUCTIVITY TRICKS..

As you all know by now that I speak a lot about productivity. I keep experimenting with many techniques which I come across that promise to increase productivity. Most of them don't work, for me atleast! The few those do, I make sure that I share them with you all.

This month I had a lot of free time which I used to do some self reflection. In that process I came across how burdened I was from the tasks that I have been postponing. Hence, I decided to go all in. I admit that this required a great deal of determination but when you think about the freedom that awaits you at the end of your non stop hustle, you get pretty pumped up.

We perform well when we race against a deadline. This pressure brings out our optimum performance. I have talked about this motivated go ahead in one of my previous blog titled " Time Slotting Of Task". I will put the link to that blog at the end. Make sure you check that blog out after this. When we talk difference, we assign ourselves days instead of hours as seen in the blog I have just mentioned about. Thus, This is particularly helpful for large volume of work. To our advantage we have plenty of time at our disposal due to this pandemic.

In my case I assigned myself three days slot at first. I gave my optimum during those three days and tried to put in as much hours as I possibly could. At the end of that slot I still had work left. Hence, I gave myself another slot of three days. I gave myself smaller slots so that smaller deadlines could give me the push I needed as well as not overwhelm me at the thought of doing so much work for so long. 

You can tweak the above as per your mindset. But make sure to put enough pressure so that you can perform. Afterall the end thought is to get the work done. The sooner it is out of our hands is gets out of our mind thus reducing stress. After my experience I can assure you that you not only perform due to this but mostly you outperform yourself. 

Adopt this method by implementing it on long pending big tasks at hand such as complete reading a book you wanted, decluttering a close, revising the syllabus etc. The satisfaction that you get when the work gets done is motivating enough for you to jump onto the next big task at hand. My advise though will be to take things on slowly so that you don't end up miserable and exhausted. Keep gaps of one or two days in between task slots to rest and begin the next slot with greater energy and motivation.

                   WORK HARD.....ACHIEVE GREATNESS  

Here are some content for you to read next-

https://archishmansardar.blogspot.com/2020/02/enhance-productivity-time-slotting-of.html

https://archishmansardar.blogspot.com/2020/02/silence-perils-of-excessive-talking.html

MINIMALISM DURING LOCKDOWN- QUARANTINE BLOG.

In my previous blog I have talked about the social impacts of this COVID-19 pandemic. If you have not read it, please read it first and then comeback to this article. The link for the previous blog is given below.

https://archishmansardar.blogspot.com/2020/05/living-in-changed-world-social-effects.html

 A you know minimalism is not just about material possession. It is a mindset that can be applied in every aspect of a person's life. This pandemic has brought human living to the mere sustenance level. Minimalism is all about sustenance after all..

1. SUSTENANCE MINIMALISM.

Let's first look into sustenance minimalism. It simply means bringing into our life things (or more popularly STUFF) that are necessary for physical and mental existence. Nothing more and nothing less.With people buying supplies in bulk resulting in empty shelves in shops, majority have been forced to accept such a mindset. The economic scenario also helped people adopt this kind of minimalism. I have mentioned mental stuff as well because mental well being is crucial during this hard time..


2. FINANCIAL MINIMALISM.

Financial minimalism is another concept that many people have learned the hard way during this pandemic. With unemployment rates high and people living off their emergency funds, this is the only option they have been left with. When the pandemic recedes, many people will keep dear the lessons they have learned and respect money a lot more. This single mindset can transform individuals and catapult them to financial independence.



3. MINIMALISM OF THOUGHT.

Just four months earlier people had different kinds of worries. Today, they are just happy to be alive and being able to spend time with their families. All those worries seem meaningless now. Indeed many other worries have taken their place but they are all basic- related to health, food and shelter, just like the old times.


In just a short span of time 3,00,000 people have lost their lives. Their struggles have made the entire human race awake. We have been pushed back years in time. The path of recovery is long and hard. Minimalism defines human race today. Sustenance is the key today, be it the rich or the poor. This pandemic has been a great uniting force. Fancy cars, luxury homes, branded clothing and accessories, all such things have lost the battle against hot meal, family time and bank balance to sustain a simple life. This is minimalism for you during this pandemic.

Here are some selected topics for you to read next-

https://archishmansardar.blogspot.com/2020/04/think-less-work-more.html

https://archishmansardar.blogspot.com/2019/09/being-down-to-earth.html

https://archishmansardar.blogspot.com/2019/07/hope.html

Links for the items seen in the images-

1. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki- 

A LESSON LEARNED..

"Life is the best teacher". This is an old saying, passed on for generations now. But the significance of this saying has not aged at all. The mindful souls, learn each day because life is full of teaching. And it never stops teaching.

In some of my previous blogs, I have talked about humble living and greed free intentions. Both  are very much interlinked. A person who is humble will never be drawn towards greed. He lives a mindful life and draws energy from the fact that endeavours backed with greed never become successful.

The above is not just a fact but rather a truth. The work which begins with greed to back it will never become successful. Rather it would end badly. Many people must have realised it after facing humiliation and I am no exception. I have too learned it the hard way. Indeed life has unique ways to teach us the lessons for life.

The greed I am talking about is not always monetary in nature. It can be the greed for fame, promotion, attention, social upliftment etc. All such greeds blinds the eyes of mind. We start working in a haste. This haste does not allow us to keep track of our movements. With no mindfulness in our task, we have no control. And at the end, everything falls apart along with our greedy aspirations. Thankfully in my case the loss wasn't that big but a lesson is a lesson when we learn from it. I have indeed learned.

Well humans can never be flawless. One can not guarantee that one will never be greedy. It all depends on the situation and how well one can control one's emotions. But at the end the fact remains that our intention behind every work we do should be pure.

There are two other markers that can guide us back to the right path by indicating to us that we are doing something wrong. They are haste and over imagination.

When our judgement is clouded by greed we try to accomplish everything quickly. This haste to reach the end should be an eye opener that something in what we are doing is wrong. We should stop at that point. Reflect upon our task and then proceed mindfully.

The second is over imagination. Once we notice that we are over excited about the end result of our work and we can not stop imagining all good things at the end, we should immediately stop our work and judge the outcomes we are imagining. If the outcomes reflect greed in any form, which they will, we should immediately take steps to correct our wrong.

We should always learn from other's experiences. This would keep our outlook broad and would enable us to face the challenges posed by life with a mindful approach. You can also go through my other works for more such lessons that would definitely help you live a more mindful life. Here are some suggestions:-

https://archishmansardar.blogspot.com/2020/04/blessing-in-disguise.html

https://archishmansardar.blogspot.com/2020/02/silence-perils-of-excessive-talking.html

https://archishmansardar.blogspot.com/2020/02/enhance-productivity-time-slotting-of.html

BLESSING IN DISGUISE..

Human mind is mysterious and human aspirations are boundless. We work for our dreams and then pray that our actions bring fruit or the desired result. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. We have placed our faith on a supreme power and we believe that it is by the wish of that supreme power our aspirations are turned into reality. Well humans have still not been able to understand many phenomenons and hence the above is the go to conclusion in those many cases.

We all have regrets. Some of them are linked to our wants and aspirations. The more practical minded among us would regret of having not worked hard enough. While the majority blame their failure ,on the supreme power because they believe it was all destiny. And what is destiny? It is a preplanned course of life designed by the supreme power himself for each and every one of the living beings. We being on the developed side understand that.

As we study and gain deeper understanding of the abstract world, simultaneously we gain insight into our existence. We look back and gauge each and every life changing decisions we have ever taken. We begin to realize that many decisions did not result in the planned outcome. And yet here we are. This is true wisdom. This is what life teaches us. "Uncertainty".

For the unsatisfied souls, this learning can be life changing. Because enjoying this life and the ability to take decisions that comes with it is a privilege. For those who had well written destiny, this wisdom serves as a reminder of volatile nature of human life.

Whatever might be our mindset at the end, one thing we can clearly support, i.e not achieving somethings that our heart desired back then was indeed a blessing in disguise. Call it destiny written by the supreme powers or call it the uncertainty of life, those unfulfilled wishes made us what we are today, brought us where we are today and gave us people we hold dear today. Not every unfulfilled wish is a curse. Life is what it is and we are what we are. If you haven't retraced your life yet, you are missing the opportunity to let go of all regrets and bring in fulfillment and happiness into your life.. 

THINK LESS, WORK MORE..

In life we can achieve things only by working.. All our dreams and aspirations demand our hard work to turn into a reality. There is no denying of the fact that, the harder we work, the luckier we get. Mere wishing for things to happen does not yield results, working does.

I am in no way denying the importance of planning. In fact I have in my previous blogs mentioned how planning gives us a direction and ensures that we do not deviate from our path. But in reality many people do not go beyond the planning phase. However elaborate and detailed our plan might be, but without the push from hard work and sweat we can never get to where we want to reach.

There have been numerous examples where individuals have climbed the ladders of success due to their sheer hard work. Every successful person will tell you how volatile circumstances forced them to change their plans now and then. This is a very important lesson we must keep in mind. Our plans however full proof we might think them to be, can turn irrelevant with changing circumstances. We have to be prompt to adopt ourselves according to the changing demands. That's working smart. Thus, our plans must be flexible.

In all these, hard work remains constant. The importance of working never degrades under changing circumstances. If the pull of the destination in mind is strong enough, working becomes easy and can enable us to overcome the defects in our planning. Keeping this positive motivation in mind, start hustling. Because a plan, without hard work to back it, is nothing but a dream. So stop wasting time in preparing a full proof plan and start working. Everything else will get sorted along the way at the correct time..All the best!!!!! 

THE VALUE OF TIME..

In my previous blog I talked about how our life can be driven in a better way by knowledge. Well this life teaches us a very important aspect of living. We get to value it and treasure it like never before. That aspect is TIME. And it really is man's most valuable asset.

What makes time so valuable? According to me it's the fact that we have no control over it passing.Time treats no one in a partial manner. The same 24 hours is distributed to each and every atom in this universe.Humans with all their scientific development can not tame time. What we can do is mould ourselves based on time. This will help us harness the power of time which is invisible to almost everyone.

A life driven by search for knowledge pushes us to use time to its optimum. This when becomes a habit we succeed. It is rightfully said that success is the amalgamation of daily habits. When knowledge leads and time is well managed an individual can be catapulted to fame and riches. History has many evidences which brings out how humans who have been able to mould themselves as per time and have been able to achieve remarkable feats. When you treat time with respect you get that back multiplied many folds.

Humans are mortal beings. The quicker this realisation seeks in the quicker one gets the result. People who succeed are not different from common folks in any way. But their habits greatly differs from the masses. They respect time and use it to their advantage. This small daily habit adds up and shows as result. People often realise the importance of time later in life. Thus success and riches are achieved by people mostly in their 40's. Imagine the benefit one can get when this understanding seeps in early. Then one would also get the added benefit of higher metabolism which will enable greater productivity. Thus it's not wrong to consider time as our most valuable asset. It really is ,only when it's given the value that it deserves. Individuals come on this planet with one thing in their possession i.e limited time. Thus TIME is the only possession we have. Everything else is an illusion.

Want to read more? Here are some sort listed blogs for you to read next.. 

https://archishmansardar.blogspot.com/2019/12/let-actions-speak.html

https://archishmansardar.blogspot.com/2019/09/value-of-failures.html

https://archishmansardar.blogspot.com/2019/12/when-search-for-knowledge-drives-life.html

CONNECTING THE DOTS..

Moving forward is the essence of living. There is no place for stagnant mindset in this fast changing world. Same is true for our actions. We need to level up ourselves to keep up with the trend that is always very dynamic. These actions, however small they may seem, have deep impacts in the long run. We all have known about the existence of multiple dimensions. They all are similar but the smallest of the choices make them different. Thus we have been well taught about the importance of actions by space thriller movies like Interstellar.

In our daily life we come across many stimuli and situations. For the stimulus we react as per our subconscious mind. The situations are important because our conscious mind has to decide the future action. In such cases there are many possible choices but we choose one as per our knowledge, intuition, suggestion etc. At that very moment the problem is solved and we are liberated. But the impact of our choice is seen much later on in time. Every possible solution has its own long term implications. Choices made keeping in mind the long term implications are always the best choices. But in reality we can often predict the long term path of our action. Thus we almost every time have blind solutions based on our intuition. Well, many may argue that intuition is the guiding light of the angels but we can know that only when that particular decision turns out to be something heavenly.

Everyone who is reading this blog has had reached a certain position in life. If they look back and concentrate on their past actions and find that one particular choice which had played the largest role is moulding them as they are today. We call them turning points of life. These turning points are nothing but problem solution situations. The solution if results into something good in the long term we keep them as examples. But if they turned out to be negative in long run, we regret. Past cannot be changed. It is also true that in future we will have to face many such life changing problems and find a feasible solution. We will never be sure of the long term implications. But what we can do is take a well informed decision. Even if that turns out to be bad in the long run, we should have the courage to decide. Courage to take action and courage to take responsibility if it goes south are important life skills. These skills can never be taught. They are embedded in the personality and moulded by life itself.

Everything in our life has been because of our choices. The humans have become the supreme creatures on this planet because they have been gifted with higher intellect which enable them to innovate and take informed decisions to change their life. We all have done it. We are alive because we are doing it this very moment. Connecting the dots by looking back reveals to us the larger picture which we often neglect while going on with our daily lives.  Looking back makes us humble because we get to face the reality. The stars who loose themselves in the stardom can look back on to their struggling days. In those days they will find their turning point moments. This very realisation that hard work pays its rewards will be enough for anyone to remain grounded and keep their head down. However busy our lives may seem, we must look back and find our moment. The moment that defines who we are. Being able to connect the dots is a super power because we get transformed into our higher self as well as gain wisdom for life from life itself..

BEING DOWN TO EARTH..

Success is not a destination, it is a journey. This statement tells it all. We should not think success is a point in our lives, rather its life in itself. People often tend to associate success with luxuries and ease of living. They think it is the only way to be happy. But all of it is not true. There are billionaires who, as normal people think should be happy, but they suffer from regret and solitude. Thus considering that being on the top is all luxuries is a false notion in a whole.

Financial success is the most sought after success in the modern era. This has a popular trend. People associate financial success with luxuries, extravagance etc. But financial freedom is more important than financial success. And this is not a destination, rather it is a daily hustle. The hustle is the hard work that is needed to maintain that all, or else it would fade away soon enough. This hustle keeps the one with financial success aware of the difficulties and generates a feeling that keeps him/her humble. We often come across many individuals who have hefty sum as their bank balance but are very frugal and down to Earth. This is because they appreciate struggle. They know that no person is different, just the struggles for each one of us is. 

This appreciation for hard work and the process of success is not confined to the financial arena only. It's in every field. People who have hard struggles in life appreciate life. They take their struggles as building and teaching sessions that life provides for free. This makes them appreciative of others who have gone through the same. At this level of intelligence, competition and jealousy vanishes. People become humble because they have been taught to be humble by life, and we know life is the best teacher out there. 

Some individuals after getting success often think that they have achieved what they were destined to achieve. They start absorbing the glory that comes with success and in turn forget the hardships of life. They get the notion that they are now at the center of the universe and the entire universe is revolving around them. This is what kicks most of the individuals back down and they fall hard. It's life's way of teaching humility. Fame and glory are short lived , it requires continuous hustle with life to keep and maintain a position because nothing is stagnant. People who get it become leaders. They know the overnight success is a myth because it never lasts.

Now you must get that you are and never will be the center of the universe. There will always be someone who will work hard and leap a mile higher. The thing that is most important to keep leaping is to realise the fact that success is working each and every day. This makes individuals frugal. The realisation of not being at the center would enable one to be down to Earth person. We can pull out any example from the pack of people we know as successful and we will get one thing in common, that is they all have a down to earth personality. They may be surrounded by luxuries but they have never forgotten who they really are and what they had to sacrifice to be there. They appreciate struggle and hard work.

 Keep your head down and keep learning. A down to earth personality is rare, soo is frugality, but they both are gems that every one appreciates and respects..Hustle in life never ends but being down to earth sure does help..

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED..

Remuneration for working hard is the driving force for the masses all around us. For most of them this remuneration is in form of monetary gain. There are indeed very few people who are lucky to have remuneration for their passion. For those people, life is good because passion is a greater driving force than money.

Turning ones passion into profession is hard struggle. The society always judges those people with the eyes of morale because they try to do things in a way different from masses. These people have the courage to take the road less travelled. At the end of this road there can be success and satisfaction for life. While sometimes these people get lost in the hardships that this road throws at them. The thought of getting lost should not discourage you from taking the less travelled path. Life is a gamble full of risks. If we do not take risks then how can we expect great results. The prospect of success is more attractive than getting pulled into life's daily grind that crushes the creativity of an individual.

For majority of the people life is living from paycheck to paycheck. This is indeed a life having less risk of failure. But this is also the life with zero prospects of growth. When life becomes a daily grind then it loses its interest. People who postpone happiness for later period of life as they are too busy in their daily grind lose the opportunity to live fully. When one's passion becomes one's daily driver then its a life flourishing with prospects of growth and financial success. Both of them compliment the happiness that is already etched into such a living.

People have passion and then people have aim. Very few have these both combined. While the few who have the courage to think end up not giving a try due to societal pressure. In the simplest way this flow of thoughts can be summarised as living for the passion and avoiding making life a daily grind for earning the so called paycheck which is supposed to fill your life with happiness. Happiness is a choice but it becomes easier to make that choice when life is fulfilling and exciting. For that to be true the most important trait to develop is courage. Courage can help you chose your passion above society and above all. It will lead you through the struggles of the road less travelled. And in the end life becomes happier, soul becomes enriched and success leads your way..