I have moved my blog to armaghansaqib.wordpress.com. All new updates are posted there. Please visit new url and update your email subscription. Here are some of my latest blog posts.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Making this world a better place for you and for others
There are too many injustices in the world; red tape is too long, your boss treats you badly, your friends are selfish, you don't have enough money to buy the latest clothes and shoes, your work hours are too long, your parents don't understand your problems, your spouse is not happy. (the list is really long) Ok I got it. There are two possible ways to channel your energy:
- Complain about these injustices and keep complaining forever.
- Manage yourself to take some small positive steps; learn new skills, make new connections, read books, volunteer somewhere, tell others what you can do for them etc.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Bringing discipline into our thinking
Most of us have made life changing decisions in a matter of minutes or even seconds. Just scan your past and you will find many examples. This happened because we were forced to do that due to unexpected turn of events. This also means that we are capable of making good decisions in the shortest possible time. But in our day to day life, we keep thinking over and over again about small issues. Thinking time can span days or even months. This has one huge problem: we keep postponing the real action. The time discipline of thinking tools liberates you from this thinking rut. You are asked to practice a particular tool (PMI for example) within 1-5 minutes. With some practices, you brain adopts this discipline for your day to day thinking and helps you become a doer rather than a philosopher.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Web site developers and bloggers, your attention please
Information we get daily is doubling every 18 months. To get attention we need to make dead simple and readable websites and blogs. But not all web developers and bloggers are with us. They want to show off their newly learned design skills and use all possible colors, flashing and scrolling text. External website widgets are another source of cluttered and bloated web pages. I have been using readability tool by Arc90.com since it was released in early 2009. This tool removes all clutter from the web page you are reading. This tool is also available as a firefox addon and google chrome extension. See the screen shots of a web page below before and after applying the readability tool. Safari browser by Apple, a company built around design and usability, now has this functionality built into it. Hey, web developers! Do you still need proof people want simpler and readable websites?
Friday, July 16, 2010
Protesting, peacefully
Today I visited the office of a big business. This company has annoyed probably close to thousand customers due to some of its acts; none of which are out of its control. The only motive seems to maximize profits. Are we really helpless? I thought. "Client executive" (whatever that designation means), and then his manager, tried to calm me with all sort of false statements. I then insisted and proceeded to see the department head and recorded my protest. This respectable old man tried to look courteous but could not offer anything concrete and used his intelligent mind to confuse the matter. I am not sure my protest will have any dent on the company practices; may be some; may be a lot. But I do think we have the right and we should protest respectfully and peacefully. It can make a difference sometime somewhere. I used to argue with faceless call center operators but that is probably close to useless. Higher the authority you protest to, the better.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
It is time to identify your passion and here is how
Some people are lucky enough to know what they want to do with their life. Some need a bit of digging into their own mind. You can't hit a target unless you identify a target. You can't achieve a goal unless you know what your goal is. Right? Old advice. Yes it is. But it still works. I came across this small booklet, "a brief guide to world domination" (pdf, 29 pages) which might help you to identify your passion and work for it. This booklet is based around two most important questions:
#1: What do you really want to get out of life?Here is a direct download link for the pdf.
#2: What can you offer the world that no one else can?
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
How to avoid really big blunders
There are times when, despite all your intelligence and experience, you make a really big blunder and then keep regretting it for a long time. You are just bewildered how on earth you did that. But it has happened and now get over it. And you have a big company. :)
Why this happens? This is not stupidity. This is due to the way our brain works as a pattern making and pattern matching system. All new incoming information is matched to existing brain patterns. A particular sequence of events can trigger a potentially unfavorable pattern in our brain. A con artist can use his skills to make our brain's pattern matching system work to his advantage. Edward de Bono's thinking tools can help you to cut across existing brain patterns instead of matching these. The three important tools to help you in tricky situations are APC, CAF and PMI. APC stands for alternatives, possibilities and choices.CAF stands for consider all factors.
PMI stands for plus, minus, interesting. To apply each tool, you list as many points as possible within 1 - 3 minutes without bringing your judgment into the thinking process. Spend some time on practicing these tools with a paper and a pencil. Simplicity of these tools and few days of practice will make it possible for you to use these in real life situations without much effort. Let us avoid the next big blunder. (Photo credit: lolsnaps.com)
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