3 Golden Rules to take control of your time

Of all the resources we have, the resource of TIME seems to be the most precious, because as we all know, time once lost never comes back. No matter how rich or how powerful a person is, he is given only 24 hours a day and he need to manage his life in such a way that it perfectly fits, this fixed amount of time. As all the achievements of our life are a direct outcome of how well we manage and use our time, it makes good sense to learn as to how to manage it well. So here are the 3 golden rules to take control of your time.

·           Don't waste your time

·           Don't waste other's time

·           Don't let others waste your time.

Let me elaborate a little more on each of this for the purpose of clarity.

Don't waste your time: Knowingly or unknowingly, there is a good amount of time we all waste I have heard many people saying, "My time is not under my control". But this is not true. There is a good majority of time, which is within our control and it is up to us, as to how to use it. We can use the time to sleep till late in the morning or wake up early and do some exercise. We can use the time to watch a TV serial or read a book. We can use our time to work on an important project or just spend it chatting with friends. It is our choice.

I am not suggesting that this is right and this is wrong, because everyone finds relaxation and happiness in different ways. Rather, what I would suggest, is to check, which of your daily activities are productive and which of them are not. If you make an audit of your daily schedule, you can find where your time is going? Once, you gain this awareness, you will know what are the better options available, to lead a more Productive life. This in turn will help you to use your time more wisely.

Don't waste other's time: Just like how our time is important to us, other's time are equally important to them. So we need to make sure that we do not waste other's time too. Just because we have some free/ leisure time, it does not mean, we can go and disturb someone else's productive time.

It is always good to ask the person for prior appointment and also briefly explain the purpose you want to meet him. (even if he is a close friend)Infact you can also tell him, how much time you need. This will help the person to allot the right and necessary amount of time. For example, you can say, "I would like to discuss with you about a business opportunity. I would need 30 minutes of your time. Can you please, tell me when would be the best time to meet you?

Similarly, it would also be a good idea, to ask someone whether they are free to talk, when you make a phone call. The person may be busy in between a meeting, or getting ready to go somewhere or in a family function or some other circumstances, where he would not be comfortable to speak for long. This is not a show of courtesy, but a genuine show of concern for other's time.

If we wish others to respect our time, then we should also learn to respect other's time.

Don't let others waste your time: This is the most important. If killing our own time is suicide, allowing others to kill our time is murder. I am sure, we do not want to allow others to do that to our time. We need to fiercely protect our time from intruders in the name of friends, colleagues and relatives.

Here is where, being assertive helps. When people tend to take your time for granted, you need to emphasise the importance of your time. When you are on an important task and need to be focussed, you can tell people that you are busy and you will talk to them later.

When I say intrusion of time,it doesn't only mean the personal meetings, but also unwanted phone calls, text messages, whatsapp, facebook and everything of that sort.

Just take effort to implement these 3 golden rules and see for yourself, how more productive your life can be.

Happy Reading,

D. Senthil Kannan

Article Dated Feb 2016

The Minimalist Approach

 “Remember this:

Very little is needed to make a happy life”.

 -Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor 161 - 180AD.

Dear Readers,

A few years back, I bought a DVD Tutorial on how to make great PowerPoint presentations. The tutorial introduced me to a concept called “Minimalistic approach”. The key message conveyed through this concept was that when making a presentation, we should keep the key idea of the presentation intact and eliminate all the unwanted frills, attached to it. I found that concept appealing. A few days back, I went to a resort near Kanyakumari and there too, I found a statement saying that, “This resort is designed based on the ideals of minimalism”. Notably, I observed that most of the building work in the resort, did not look fully finished, like walls had no cement plastering, floors remained just cemented without any glazed tiles and so on. This I understood was the ideology of minimalism that they were talking about.

This word “minimalism” caught my interest, and I wanted to explore more about it. Obviously, I typed the word “minimalistic approach” in Google and was amazed to discover that minimalism is not just a concept of design but a way of life.

So, what is  this minimalism all about? Minimalism is an approach to rid yourself of life’s excess in favour of focusing on what’s important—so you can find happiness, fulfilment, and freedom.

We all want to be happy. We tend to find happiness by creating material abundance, which rarely serves the purpose. The more we have, even more is our need. It is a never ending vicious cycle. Time and again, we hear stories of billionaires, who lead a miserable life. Many people are busy trying to prove to the world, what they are capable of and in the process end up straining their health and relationships. This is clear indication that money and fame, alone cannot buy them happiness. You need good health and good relationships to enjoy life.

Minimalism is a “U” turn approach. Minimalists search for happiness not through things, but through life itself. The starting point to this change is to determine what is necessary and what is superfluous in our life. Once we find this clarity we can stay more focussed on what really matters in our life and avoid the clutter of being messed up with too many things and activities. By doing so we will be less time pressed and money pressed.

Minimalist focuses on quality and not quantity. They are choosy about the thing they buy, but cherish it. They are choosy about the things they do, but they do it with passion and perfection. They are prudent in the use of resources, such as time, money and things. They believe that there is a need to pause and enjoy the things we have, rather than continuing to accumulating more and more things.

I also found a website, www.theminimalists.com, which is created by two friends who have taken up the ideology of minimalism and through this portal, they share how better their life has become, after they have adopted this approach. They say that, being a minimalist can help us:

·         Eliminate our discontent

·         Reclaim our time

·         Live in the moment

·         Discover our life  purpose

·         Pursue our passions

·         Experience real freedom

·         Create more, consume less

·         Focus on our health

·         Grow as individuals

• Rid ourselves of excess stuff
• Contribute beyond ourselves.

Their life revolves around the philosophy, “ Have little and cherish it. Do little and enjoy it”. While this may sound anti-ambitious. It is not so. It is about living the life you desire and being focussed on what is important to you, and working towards achieving it.

I was keen to share this, as my NEW YEAR message, as it is a good time to consider such a change. New Year is the time of resolutions and may be this could be one of them. Wishing you all, a new year filled with joy and  happiness.

Happy Reading,

D. Senthil Kannan

Article Dated Jan 2016

SHARED VISION

Dear Readers,

About a month back, I attended a learning programme titled “Leadership Coaching and Organisational development” by Dr. Bernd Schmid of Germany. During the 3 day programme a lot of concepts were discussed.  One of the concepts, which I found very striking impressive was about having a “Shared Vision”.

So what is the difference, between “Vision” and “Shared Vision”? Let us explore.

We have always been looking at Vision as something which is driven down from the top management to the bottom. A leader or the founder of the organisation has a vison, which is explicitly expressed as a Vision Statement for the whole team to follow. It is quite common to see Vision boards, placed at important locations at Corporate offices today, but how much of it have the people in the organisation imbibed is a question that needs to be asked. So the limiting factor here is that the Vision is that of the leader’s and the team members just expedite the roles they are expected to perform.

On the other hand “Shared Vision” is much different to the existing paradigm, of leader imposed vision.  In the context of “Shared Vision”, the leader has a vision, which he explicitly shares with the entire team, so that everyone understands his vision and see if they find an alignment with the same. Those who find alignment of their personality or personal vision to that of the organisational vision, commit to work towards realization of this vision. By doing so they take part ownership of the vision, rather than looking at it as someone else’s vision. They develop personal affinity to the vision and identify themselves with the vision. In other words, they become role models of the Vision. When a person chooses to work for an organisation, wherein he finds this alignment, it will in turn enhance his level of commitment and contribution to the organisation. This is the power of “Shared Vision”.

If the Vision of an organisation is clear, everything will fall into its place. There will be less reasons for disputes among team members. So, when the vision of an organisation becomes the second skin of the people working towards it, they instantly know what is to be done, keeping in mind the vision.

If we look at organisations that have lasted over 100 years, we will find that most of these organisations have a shared vision. This makes the organisation continue to thrive irrespective of change in leadership, change of employees/ team members or change in economic and market conditions.

In yet another programme I attended, I had the opportunity to listen to a speaker from Bosch India. He told us, how seriously their company takes it founder’s vision, when making any decision, big or small. He said that the founder, Mr. Robert Bosch, was by nature a perfectionist with an eye for detail. He was a highly quality conscious person, who will not compromise on quality for any other factor such as cost or time. He was also constantly looking at ways of improving upon his existing products. This temperament of the founder, became the guiding principles based on which the company formed its Vision, “Creating Value - Sharing Values”. This he said is the reason that the company is successful for over 125 years in over 50 countries.

Another classic example is Walt Disney. The vision he shared is to “Make People Happy”. All his creations right from the cartoon characters, theme parks, hotels, retail stores and movies have created the magical experience to it’s customers, because of its single minded vision of making people happy.

So, it becomes obvious that if the company succeeds, it means that its vision has succeeded and if a company fails, it means that its vision has failed.

The idea of “Shared Vision” is now being practiced in many companies abroad and which looks idealistic in the perspective of how organisations in India, can function in the future.

Happy Reading,

D. Senthil Kannan

Article Dated Dec 2015

An Experiment on Trust

Dear Readers,

Last month I visited Chennai to attend the Global Investors Meet, which was held in a grand fashion. I took a cab from my hotel in Koyambedu to the Chennai Trade Centre at Nandambakkam. On reaching the destination, I found that the meter read Rs.150/-. Unfortunately, I did not have change in my wallet.  I had only 1000 Rupee notes. So I gave it to the driver and the driver said that he too did not have change. As there was a parking difficulty in the gate of the Venue and there were no shops nearby to go and get any change, we were in a fix. I told the cab driver, it was my mistake that I did not carry change with me and I also asked him, as I had to anyway return to the hotel room from the Venue, in the evening, can he  come and pick me up from the Venue at 4.30pm. He readily obliged and at the same time was surprised. Probably he must have never met a customer like me, who gives him Rs.1000/- and trusts him to come back. All that I had was his phone number and no other evidence. So even in case he did not come back, there was no way I could get back the balance money. I am sure, not many people would dare to do such stupid things. Am I right? Well, it was just a matter of Trust in a fellow human being.

Here is where something very interesting happened. The cab driver kept calling me once every 30 minutes, after 2pm and asked if the programme was over. I told him to relax, and take other rides and come only by 4.30pm . But he was in the Venue at 3.30pm. He called me and said that he is waiting for me in the parking lot and said he will wait and not to hurry.

So, after finishing the programme I came out at 5pm and he was happy to see me. I had to go to a few more places, where he took me and waited without any fuss, till reaching me back at my hotel room at 8,30pm. When we parted, he gave me the balance amount after the actual charges and I voluntarily gave him additional Rs.100, as I felt he had waited too long for me. He was delighted. He thanked me whole heartedly and asked me to call him whenever next I come to Chennai.

I realised how much of a positive impact, my trust had on him. Infact, he wanted to prove double worthy of my trust, by coming early.

In light of the above context, I would like to question, how many of us are open to the idea of trusting people. With so much of negative news on media, about crime and thefts we have lost our ability to trust people. We are rather afraid to trust people, because we don’t want to end up, as a laughing stock.

I am not saying that we will not be cheated if we trust. People who trust are prone to be cheated. But may be 1 in a 100, would be a cheat, then why should we look at all the other 99 with the same perception. Will we be happy if somebody doubts us? Don’t we feel hurt when somebody doesn’t trust us? Is it not the same with everyone?

We have always been taught to doubt people, rather than trust them. We assume that the world is full of cheats, and unless we are shrewd and careful enough, people will cheat us. My take on this is, “if a person is a cheat, no matter how much cautious you are he/ she will still cheat you and if the person is a good person, no matter how much careless you are, he/she will still not cheat you”.

I have had experiences in my life, where I have trusted people and have been cheated. In the process, I have also lost a lot money. But this has not stopped me from trusting people. I still continue to trust, because trusting is my nature and I see no better option.  People may think I am naïve or I haven’t learnt the lesson from my mistakes. But I don’t see trusting people, as a mistake. May be I should be more prudent before trusting, but I can never stop trusting.

Trusting People and Being Trustworthy is a character we form at our childhood days. Our childhood environment, shapes our belief of the world. So, I urge all parents to inculcate the value of trust in their children as a lifelong gift, they could give for them on this Children’s day.

I wish all the children, a Happy Children’s day

Happy Reading,

D. Senthil Kannan

Article Dated Nov 2015

Aging with Dignity

Dear Readers,

October 1, is celebrated as “International day of Older persons” and so I thought fit to pen down my thoughts, on how we can take care of the elderly in our evolving life style.

India is known for its joint family system. It is something westerners are awestruck about. It is even difficult for them to imagine how so many relationships such as grandparents, parents, sibling, daughter in laws, children and grandchildren live together in a same house and peacefully co-exist. But that is the specialty of our country. However, the trend is now changing and like western countries, India is slowly moving from joint family system to nuclear family system. Not many elders are able to come to terms with this change happening, because it is something new to them. It makes them feel insecure. Like all changes this change too is painful to many, but we need to accept the new reality.

One of the inherent cultural practice, of our country is taking care of our parents at old age. It is an unwritten rule in our country that, the son should take care of his parents, at their old age.  It is based on a simple principle of ‘give’ and ‘take’. As a small child, we were dependent on our parents to take care of all our needs right from physical support to emotional support. So as a grown up, when our parents grow old and reach a stage of dependency, it is our moral responsibility to take care of them. So this has been a practice for many years.

However, in the current context this has become a cause of concern, as the son, finds it hard to balance between the needs of the parents on one side, and the needs of their spouse, children and career on the other side. In a choice between past responsibilities and future aspirations, it is always our future aspirations that take our priority. There is nothing wrong about it. Everyone aspires to grow in their career and make a mark for themselves in this world. The sad part is opportunities are not always available in one’s home town or nearby locality. So this creates a need for people to migrate to different cities, states or even different countries in quest of pursuing their dream career.

So, when such opportunities come, there is a moral dilemma, From the son’s side he does not know how to leave the parents and go. From the parent side, they have always wanted to been an enabler of their child’s growth and not an obstacle to their growth. It is a tricky situation on both sides. So, what could be the solution?

If such a situation arises. I think that the RETIREMENT HOMES are an ideal choice. There is an ongoing debate everywhere, as to whether it is right to leave our parent’s in retirement homes? There are many people who criticize such acts, as being selfish, insensitive and ungrateful. This fear of social criticism, makes it difficult for many children to take this decision. We need to understand that to care for the elderly, should come out of our heart and not for the sake of social approval. Anything done out of compulsion loses the spirit of the act. So, this idea of Retirement home, is a WIN-WIN situation for both the parent and the son. There is no doubt, that it would be great if children can take care of their parents, however not everybody is lucky enough to take care of their parents at their old age.

So, rather than having to leave them alone in a house, where there is no one to take care of, it is much safer for elders to live in retirement homes. It also, gives them a sense of dignity. They can mingle with people of their same age, make friends, cherish old memories and live in peace.

To take it one step further, I would say that it would be a lot easier, when this idea of moving to a retirement home is a self-initiated choice of the parent rather than an act of the children. This gives them the feeling of voluntary choice and not a compelled act.   A parent is someone who has always been on the giving side to their children. Why should old age demand a role reversal? They can very well, bless their children to progress in their life and retire with dignity.

Happy Reading,

D. Senthil Kannan

Article Dated Oct 2015

A Tribute to the Missile Man of India

Dear Readers,

The news of Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s death came as a shock to all of us. Within a few minutes we heard the news, we could see all social media such as Facebook and Whatsapp, flooding with condolences messages and memoirs of the great leader.

It is normal for such messages to be flowing when a great leader of this stature, passes away, but what impressed me most was that, many of the sharings were of personal in nature.  Many had posted the photos they had taken with him; some had posted images of appreciation letters he has send to them and few had posted the autograph they had received from him. It was a true revelation to see that this 83 year old man, has personally touched the lives of so many people in a positive way, right from young students to seasoned academicians.

Something notable about, Dr. Kalam is that he was a multifaceted person. He was a highly intelligent scientist, an honest president, a guest lecturer giving intellectual and inspiring talks to college students, a motivator to school students, a poet who penned a few master pieces and a writer who has written a number of books and most importantly a dreamer who had a dream for India. Through all the above roles he played, he just seemed to have had a single minded focus of making India, a super power. All the efforts he has made, has been in this direction.

His book “Vision 2020”, is a road map for India. He has laid the manifesto for a future India.  This book can be looked up as a ready reckoner for the legislators, when making policy decisions and for the future citizens of this country to work on those lines to realise his dream of a strong India.

Through his many speeches to school children he has sown the seeds of thoughts that has aspired then to become contributing citizen of strong nation.

His contribution to the field of aeronautical science, space research, nuclear tests, has put India in the map of the world, as a strong country. This has really made other countries look up at India, as a fast emerging super power.

Dr. Kalam’s life is  spectacular. From being born in a poor family in a rural hamlet in the southern corner of India to reach the status of president, is not a normal fete. When we come to know of the different incidents that has happened in his life, through his interviews or reading his books, our respect and admiration for him grows, many fold It is a classic example of how hard work, determination and aspiration, can take someone to great heights in life.

Dr. Kalam was a man of values and principles. He is someone who has “walked his talk”.  He is a portrayal of simplicity, integrity and selfless service. He was a true visionary, who consciously stood clear out of all political parties and remained neutral throughout his entire career.

There are so many things we could learn from Dr. Kalam. The most significant of which, I think is his humility. In spite of all the greatness he has achieved, he was a very simple, down to earth person who connected so well with the common man, that he was always looked up as the “People’s President”

In one of his speeches to school students, he says that, though he has invented so many missiles, what he considers as his best invention, is the invention of the light weight callipers, which he created using the composite material used in building missiles. By doing so he was able to reduce the weight of the callipers from 3 kgs to 300gms. This helped the disabled children, to walk with ease. This he says is what brought him the most joy in his life.

In addition to the many doctorates conferred upon him by many leading universities, he has won many of the prestigious Indian awards including the highest civilian award, “Bharath Ratna”. It sounded so apt when our honourable prime minister, Mr. Narendra Modi, tweeted that “Bharath has lost a Ratna”, on hearing the news of his demise. 

Dr. Kalam has written many quotes. The one that impressed me most was “Great dreams of great dreamers are always transcended”. I only pray and wish that, the great dream of making India a  super power, by the great dreamer Dr. Kalam be transcended to the future generation. It is only by accepting responsibility to make his dream come true, can we pay a true tribute to this great leader.

Happy Reading

D. Senthil Kannan

Article Dated Sep 2015

SMART WORK CAN NEVER REPLACE HARD WORK

“There is no substitute for hard work.”

Thomas Alva Edison

Dear Readers,

Of late it is becoming a fad to say, “Don’t do hard work, just do smart work”. By the face value of this statement, it sounds justifiable because today there is so much of technological advancement in every field which has cut down the need for hard work.

Right from home automation, office automation, industrial automation to farming automation, we have found easier ways of doing thing, which otherwise was very time and labour consuming.

For example: In a home scenario, a mixer grinder or a washing machine can do the work in minutes which would normally have the house lady working hard on the same for few hours together.

A computer at office, is more efficient than 5 accountants using pen and paper method.

A machinery at the factory can produce millions of pcs within limited time with 100% accuracy, which was not possible when things were handmade,

A tractor in the farm can plough vast areas of land within an hour, which would take days to do, in the days of bullock cart.

So these are smart ways of doing the same work, we did before but in much lesser time and that too without much effort. So every advancement in technology has led people from working hard to work smart. This in turn has given way for ample free time, to engage ourselves more productively.

So let us try to figure out, why then do people emphasize so much on hard work?

With the invention of the calculator, technically there is no need to know any mathematics to do a simple calculation. All a person needs to know is the numerals 0 to 9 and the functional symbols for addition, subtraction, multiplication or division. So, for example, if a person wants to add 2345799988 + 427256560, all he needs to know, is these numerals and plus symbol, printed on the keypad and when he presses these in the right sequence, the answer will automatically come. This is a classic example of smart work. But let us say if the same person, needs to know the logic behind the answer he needs to do the hard work of calculating with pen and paper or counting with fingers or some mind crunching, to understand how the result is arrived. So true knowledge lies in hard work.

Every invention or a discovery is a result of sheer hard work.  Thomas Alva Edison worked very hard to invent a light bulb, and so there is a famous saying by him, “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work”. Similarly the great voyagers tried many routes, before they could reach the intended destination. The culmination of all this hard work is the basis for creating all the smart technologies, available in this world today.

This is an evolving continuum. One advancement leads to another. There is a saying, “Don’t re-invent the wheel”, which means you don’t have to start doing anything from scratch. We just need to build up on the existing technology. Every new technology is an upgrade of the existing technology. For example, handwriting became typewriting, type writing became computer typing, and now computer typing has moved to speech recognition typing or predictive typing. So, one technology leads to another. But imagine if someone had not taken the pain to form different types of alphabets, give it phonetics and put strings of letters together to form words and again strings of words to form sentences, then there would not have been any written language in the world. The process of creating such basic structure, upon which all developments are built is the core of hard work. Speaking the language thus created to communicate, is the core of smart work.

So, to simply state, “All creation is hard work and all application is smart work.” The point to understand is that hard work cannot be replaced, because while smart work can accelerate the speed of work, it is hard work that gives substance.

Happy Reading,

D. Senthil Kannan

Article Dated Aug 2015