Creativity:How you can bring it back in your life?

Do you consider yourself a creative?

In this video we talk about how we can bring back the creativity in all of us and we don't need to be the replica of the person sitting next to us.

So, if you are reading it in office, home or cafe- please know that we can still be creative in small ways. Let me know what you think.

Enjoy the video:)

Facing YOU- The fear, facts and rising

“Fear doesn't go away. The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day.” 

― Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

We are who we are and yet we sacrifice ourselves to win accolades and approvals from others so often. We struggle to portray us in the truest form of who we are. 

We give up and choose not to fight. “Resistance” as Pressfield calls in his book “War of Art” is nothing but the fear that keeps us from doing the work we want to. You suffer resistance only for the things that mean most to you and are scared to commit. 

To commit and get rid of the “Resistance”, you have to be there to practice your art, work, job anything you want to be cent percent focussed on. Which can only mean that you have to change the way you think and sometimes just be there even when you are scared. 

And more than 90% fail to do the simple  act of showing up and regret it. 

The 5 second rule of Mel Robbins talks about getting rid of the habit of not showing up by just counting till 5 and just doing it. Don’t give yourself the time to think. 

Re-wiring your brain and how you go about it can be done multiple ways- your way that you can discover for yourself or following the various school of thoughts. 

One way can be of Dr. Cathy Coulatt, who in an interview talks about the steps required: 

1. Trust your subconscious 
2. Find more details and applaud it before you judge it
3. Set the intention and make a promise (to ensure subconscious doesn’t work against it)
4. Get examples- where you see similar people  like yourself take the journey you want to take and be sucessful. 
5. Solidify and affirm- on your promise to yourself and your new belief.

This is life long commitment, it not about fake it till you make it scenario. You confirm and affirm everyday and show up. You can be afraid and yet show up. You can be very sure that it wont work out and yet show up. You can fail and yet know you are so sure of it that you still keep on doing it. Show up. 

You and me, can be afraid to take that leap , to let ourselves wander to the what-if land, lack the courage to do the work we are meant to do and yet feel that uneasiness of something that we are supposed to do.

So, stop doubting or doubt yourself so you prepare more and get up and get on with it. It cant be more different than what its now because no ones knows yet what you want to be. 

Change the way you think, the actions  you take everyday and the accept that the struggle is real to be inspired consistently. Show up and act on it and thats what we can control and do everyday. 

Face yourself, not others. 

(Pic courtesy: Google and Soma Bhattacharya)

Free Download: Simple Goal Setting Planner

If you are reading this blog, the goal is to ensure your are your best version.

This means, here you are encouraged to grow, be yourself and find out what the best in their domains do and how they work. 

Pick up your vibes from success stories and articles here and none of them really stick for long unless of course you have your own goals pinned up in your mind.

So, I thought why not we take this journey together- me and you and the journey through the remaining months of 2018 and see what we can achieve. 

Here’s a planner for you that will help you focus on your goals. The goal setting planner can be download it right here (no email required) and its FREE! 

How you can use the planner- this is one way of using it. The planner has 3 pages when you download. 

• Page 1- is for your Month, your goals and your motivations (12 copy for a year)
• Page 2- is your Daily Planner (so you can print 30 copies of it if you want one for each day)
• Page 3- is your Monthly Retrospective , where you peek into your achievements and spill overs every month(1 for every month)

I hope this helps you plan better and keep it handy with you everyday. 

(Pic courtesy: Pinterest)

July | Article Round Up

What you read, is what your interests are and I can clearly see from my reading list. 

I have tried to categorise them better this time around, so let me know if this is something that you guys are enjoying as well. 

Career:

1. All about Goal Setting
2. 10 Steps to Achieve any Goal
3. 4 Tips to achieve your goals (Ted talks)
4. Your career best effort ( again from one of my newly found blogger James Clear)

 Books:

1. Brene Brown's Digital Library
2. Books to read if you are suffering from Imposter Syndrome

Overcoming Challenges:

1. To know that you can actually do what you put your mind to, the writer tells it all how he photographed the Royal wedding.

Agile:

1. Spotify's health check model
2. Levels of Agile Maturity 
3. Success by being Agile

Working Moms:

1. Kids of working moms turn into happy adults
2. 6 Women share their return to work stories after maternity leave

Others:

I couldn't really find a category for it and I am generally interested in a lot of stuff when I read, here are some of the selected reads I thought might be interesting to this blogs audience.

1. Why you can focus more in coffee shops than open plan offices
2.  What the experiment of employees working 4 days a week found out
3. open plan offices reduce face to face communications
4. why liberal arts and humanities is as important as engineering
5. New York Stock Exchange gets it first women chief 
6. Only 25% of workforce is female in India 
7. Lauren Powell and her story of inventing her brand
8. 6 Pillars of Creativity
9. When a stress expert and author battles mental illness 
10. Surprising facts of why Women CEO's don't expect much support at home or work.

My favourite tweet for this month:

If you enjoyed this, you might want to look at the Article Round up for June.

Increase your Productivity- 3 Ways

We all have 24 hours in a day.

Some can work and use it like there's no tomorrow and some will procrastinate and be lazy and not get anything done. Which one is you?

The goal is to figure out how to maximise productivity. So, if you are someone who can't focus for 10 minutes straight without scrolling through your twitter or Instagram feed, here is some help for you.

Finding your Zone- athlete’s are known for getting into the zone, some visualise winning, some will pin their goals and re-affirm everyday and some will close their eyes and feel themselves winning. 

The “state of free flow” happens when you can replicate an emotion or the readiness by simply listening to the same music or reading your affirmations. One you are present in the zone you can do what you are best at without feeling the urge to browse or being distracted. Read more here about the state of free flow. 

The state of flow, will actually feel something like this for you:

1. You are completely involved in what you’re doing
2. There’s clarity:-you know what you have to do
3. You know that the activity is doable, that you have the necessary skills to complete the task successfully.
4. You lose your sense of self and all of your worries and concerns drift away.
5. You lose track of time and you’re completely focused on the present moment.
6. There’s an intrinsic motivation—whatever produces flow becomes it’s own reward. (Source)

Remove Stress- when you do what you love, you feel stress melting away. 

Work stress has been categorised into multiple stages:

1. Honeymoon stage

2. Full throttle stage

3. Chronic symptom stage

4. Hitting the wall stage

5. The opposite

Removing stress is a simple way to increase your productivity, no one tells you watch back back to episodes in Netflix, you can sustain it because you like watching it and to doesn’t stress you out. Only if you could replicate that feeling while working, you could easily work for hours. 

So, why are you stressed? Is it because you still have to found the right job or area of interest you would like to work in. 

Try these below points to try reducing the stress:

• Take Breaks- take whenever you need it, to focus on yourself, for self care or just to find your sanity. Psychology Today talks about how “When we work, our prefrontal cortex makes every effort to help us execute our goals. But for a challenging task that requires our sustained attention, research shows briefly taking our minds off the goal can renew and strengthen motivation later on.” Read more here . 

• Exercise- changes your thinking skills  and comes with numerous benefits. Personally, I think my best when I go for walks and have seen the benefits first hand. I even walk when I feel stuck in situations. 
• Plan your way to the ideal job- You should move if you don't like the mess you are in, you are not a tree. So, instead of being in a toxic environment, it's better to look for the next job. There are lots of platforms and ways to look for new jobs or find mentors who can help you. 

10,000 Hour Rule- efficiency is about how you have mastered the domain. This means hours of practice can not only make you efficient, it will also ensure you inspect and adapt your techniques or domains. 

To bring in more structure, the following strategy/tools usually bring in results:

1. Pomodoro technique- this is one of my favorite tools right now, specially when I am trying to focus amidst a million more things to do. When I try to finish a task whether its the research behind the article or writing a post I mostly always wander. Using the timer, I know that I have a set time during which I have to finish the task I have assigned  and in most cases I have been able to get it done. So, if you have problem focussing, give this simple timer a go. 
2. Breaking hours- a lot of people swear by their calendar and keep it every organised. The goal I think is very similar, when you break down the hours you are just increasing your focus because you time is limited and your work pin pointed. For me this simply translates to getting it done.
3. Dividing your work - you eat one spoonful at a time, taking a project doesn't mean you have to get it done in a day. So, stop stressing. divine your work, break it down to simpler tasks, where you can't slice to down anymore. Then you prioritise it and thats how you start. consider the total number of tasks, time it will take you to get it done and how much the you have.  don't tress abut tomorrow, just switch on the tomato timer and work on the first task for now.

What do you think? Have some secrets you want to share that works for you, leave them in the comments or share over twitter. 

(Pic courtesy: Free stock Photography and google images)

Goal Setting Framework

This is a Guest Post by Madhavi Ledalla.

Many of us have goals, and I’m sure we would like to work towards them and achieve them.  Sometimes the goals that are set are lost somewhere or are mostly subjectively set without any objective stats to support their perusal.

Here are some steps that could guide the goal setting journey-

Start with the why, the purpose of doing something. What is my goal? What do I want to achieve and How. Simon Sinek’s framework could help here as a starting point.   

Write your goals on “Goal Definition” canvas.

Depending on number of goals you set for yourself, you may have those many goal definition canvases. Once the “Goal Definition Canvas” is filled, next step is to come up with a the priority of which goal is  most important to you. This leads to “Goal Prioritization” exercise. The below “Prioritization” Canvas can be  used.

Depending on the NS, you pick one goal that you want to work on. Once the goal is selected, the next steps are planning to achieve the goal. For this we can use the “Goal Planning Canvas”.

List down the activities that are required for you to meet the goal.

Arrange them in this way based on the impact and learning of working on the goal. Put them on the canvas and 1,2, 3 is the order of working.

One the order has been obtained from the “Planning” canvas, lay down these activities on a “Goal-Visualization-Board” and move the activities through each stage to visualize the progress.

The opinion and content expressed here is of the author and not SIPM.

Finding your Purpose (Ikigai): In your Work

What does a job mean to you?

• Is it a way to earn your paycheck? 
• A way to find out your calling? 
• Or is it your life’s purpose? 

If you are struggling to figure out what’s your life purpose, the Japanese concept of Ikigai explains it all

If we are fortunate enough to match up our purpose with the jobs we have, life can only be amazing.

If you are trying to match it up here are 5 tips:

• Find out what you like to do. Try Mind Mapping
• Once you know your Ikigai, try internship positions/volunteer
• Try reading up/taking courses on the subject matter (like from Coursera ). Having a degree will only add up to the chances of finding a job in that domain
• Revise your resume. Don’t send resumes that cater to all types of jobs you are thinking about, it will make you look less serious to the one you are applying for. Customize your resume line by line for the job.
• You will know when your job matches your Ikigai- it’s probably also your hobby. You enjoy waking up and heading out for your job. 

This can be you as a newbie or someone who continuously grows and evolves your interest might have just changed. As they say, you are never done finding purpose in your work

(Pic courtesy: Google Images)

Top 3 Books for 2016

If you have been with me reading the blog or checking tweets and watching the occasional pop ups in Instagram, you will know that I read for work and pleasure. This year has seen me get back to it more than the last two years. 

So, if you like to red or looking for a last minute gift idea, you can check out these 3 books which I think have had the most impact on me. 

The Checklist Manifesto (by Atul Gawande)

·    The 193 pg book focuses on the benefits of maintaining a checklist through various industries. 

·      A surgeon from NY, the book The Checklist is not about just to do lists. It’s a brief list that helps critical decision making in sensitive situations like the operating room by saving lives or during investment decisions or in aeronautical situation (mid air crisis).

·        

The reason I liked the book is because:

§  It’s a simple idea that’s so well researched that it makes you think that we should all implement more checklists in our work places and homes to save ourselves from complications.

§  He talks about how the checklist that was created in John Hopkins hospital that raised a possibility that people talking to each other  a minute before starting the operation was a strategy to foster team work which lead to higher success rates. 

§  It made me think that the basics of any project management should be about certain checklist like its focused a lot in Agile with the ceremonies and DOD (definition of done) and exit criteria’s all set to actually ensure that everything is in its place and chances to miss it is reduced thereby ensuring the quality of the potentially shippable product.

§  It’s a book that will make you think and has take away's that you can actually implement in your work. It also provides you with enough case studies that will allow you to make a strong case with the right set of data that you will need to get buy in from your team or management to get the checklists implemented. 

The Code of the Extraordinary Mind (by Vishen Lakhiani)

If you need an awakening of your mind and soul, if you want to grow more, need a way to organize your thoughts and dreams, want to be happier....this is what you should be reading. It shook me up literally. ·It’s a must read and will be my staple on the bedside table for the next few month definitely.          

• 223 pages excluding the glossary and others, this book will help you understand your expectation from life and how to get them. Book talks a lot about the realities that the author faced as he tried to build his own business that thrives successfully now.
• He gives example from his own life and multitude of other people like Dalai Lama, Richard Branson, Arianna Huffington and Tony Robbins on how they look at success.
• My favorite in the book is chapter 5- where he talks about the structure that’s split into 8 sets of qualities that we need from life and for me thinking the way he has laid it down was life changing. I really knew the actions I had to take to grow more personally and professionally.
• This is a book that helps you look inside you, fix it... so you can fulfill your dreams outside.

The Sleep Revolution (by Arianna Huffington) 

·         This was an impulsive buy in airport because I was looking to read something while I was on vacation for my son’s 2 birthday this August. I don’t think I have ever thought of sleep so much in my life till I started reading this book. I will be honest, I am not much of a sleeper, I like to stay awake more than I like sleeping. I have in the recent years also been very sleep deprived; I call it the Rio Effect. The book surprised me with the health benefits and the link to better decision making and yes now that I try to sleep more I do see the payback myself.  

• ·We all know sleeps important, but the author breaks the modern myth of going sleepless and how cool it is especially for youngsters and showing why and how it’s important to achieve our goals.
• It talks about medications, health issues, and extra cost to government dealing with health crisis that can all be reduced just by sleeping.
•  It also talks about how from Warren Buffet to Satya Nadella all emphasize about sleeping and its bond to good decision making and the effectiveness and efficiency.
• If you like informative and well researched book like I do and the topic is something you can relate to- it’s a good read.

For me I can connect the dots of the take away of the 3 books- I think resting the mind to work and function better in a structured way through checklists will make me happier and give me better value for the time invested in doing it. And happiness will ensure I work through my challenges better and have the capacity to fulfill the dreams.

Pic courtesy: Google and Soma Bhattacharya
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This is How I work- Laurens Bonnema

Laurens Bonnema is an Agile Management Consultant with Xebia and an expert in sustainably aligning business and IT to improve the results of IT projects. He also helps people (re)learn how to visualize their ideas through sketchnoting, graphic recording, and videoscribing so they can communicate those ideas more effectively, help each other to solve problems, and have lots of fun.

For the past 17 years, Laurens has served in almost every role in IT. Even Project Manager! More about Laurens’ work at Xebia can be found here. Want to know more about sketch-noting, graphic recording, and videoscribing? Hop on over to www.bonnema.ink.

When do you wake up every day? What’s your alarm set to? 

 My alarm is set to 5:55. Most of the time, that’s also when I wake up.

Tea or Coffee? 

Coffee in the morning, tea in the afternoon.

Any rituals to set the tone for the day in the morning? 

After I wake up, I drink a glass of water and meditate for 10 minutes. When time permits, I read a few newspapers on my iPhone before getting out of bed. If not, I hit the shower, get dressed and go downstairs to grab some breakfast. Over breakfast, I look at my calendar to get a feel for the day, and check my Sprint Backlog to select the three most important things I want to get done today.

When do you feel most productive?

I feel most productive in the morning. That’s when I get most of my work done. After 12:00, my energy tapers off. I usually experience a small burst of residual productivity around 21:00. But between 12:00 and 21:00, I’m mostly on autopilot.

Where do you work?

Work is where the client is. For me, that’s usually in or near one of the main cities in The Netherlands: Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Utrecht. But I’ve done assignments in Spain, France, Italy, Turkey, and India as well.

Three must have items on your desk

 If I could pick only three items to have on my desk, it would be my Leuchtturm1917 Whitelines Link notebook, Montblanc Meisterstück LeGrand fountain pen, and Apple Macbook Pro.

What do you listen to while working?

To concentrate on work, I listen to classical music. Mostly Mozart. When I need less focus, I switch to podcasts. At the moment, the Tough Girl Podcast by Sarah Williams is my favorite.

What are you reading currently?

I’ve just finished “Your Press Release is Breaking my Heart” by Janet Murray and am currently reading “Verbaal Meesterschap (Verbal Mastery)” by Remco Claassen. Remco is one of the most celebrated public speakers in The Netherlands. Next up is “Ego is the Enemy” by Ryan Holiday.

How do you organize?

I use Scrum to stay organized and productive. I have a Product Backlog spread out over several Trello boards. Every two weeks, I select items from those boards and put them in Todoist. That’s my Sprint Backlog. Every day, I select the three most important items to get done from Todoist. Some days I do more, almost never less. I don’t distinguish between personal and client items. When I did, the personal items never seemed to get done. Now, I have a nice work-life-swirl going that suits me much better than work-life-balance.

Any hacks you prefer for work?

 Learn something new! And start teaching it to others as soon as you’re somewhat competent. It will keep you engaged, fresh, and enthusiastic. That translates to all the other stuff you do. Even the stuff you don’t like as much.

What are your favorite gadgets?

At the moment, my favorite gadget is my iPad Pro. I love it! It’s a wonderful drawing tool that also functions as a powerful tablet. Highly recommended for anyone getting into digital drawing!

What apps can you not live without?

 It’s a bit of a list I’m afraid, but I’ll try to keep it brief and limit myself to the eleven iPhone/iPad apps I rely on the most that aren’t time-wasters: Mail, Trello, Todoist, Calendar, Fantastical, Buffer, Overcast, OPTIMIZE, Headspace, Adobe Draw, and Concepts.

Any new addition to your routines?

The newest addition to my routine is guided meditation with Headspace. I’ve been meditating for years without guidance, and I love the way Headspace makes it easy to stay focussed. I’m still a bit on the fence about it though. Maybe in a few weeks I’ll discover I prefer unguided meditation after all.

Also, I’m trying to make habits of exercise and writing. Mostly failing at that so far. So tomorrow I’ll try again!

How do you recharge?

Reading. Nothing gets me relaxed faster than reading a great novel. That, and sleep of course.

(Pic courtesy: Laurens Bonnema)

What I have been reading and why it matters to you

I wanted to share with you some random links that makes sense when you look at it from your personal development point of view.

For success, life not only has to be organized, you have to be in a very stable mental space and none of them just happen to happen. I hope you find something in these stories that helps you find that zone. 

• Does it matter where you sit in office, find out here.   
• Being comfortable and confident is important, find out why 
• Books on Behavioral changes 
• Ways to style your work desk as you progress through the years.
• Minimal distraction writing tool 
• Ways to declutter, here's how 

And looking for a real pick me up, don't miss this. Malcolm Gladwell being interviewed by Tim Ferris.

"For one hour of writing, there's three hours of thinking". 

This Is How I work- Siddharta Govindaraj

 Siddharta Govindaraj is an agile transformation consultant who help leaders meet their business objectives by transforming the way their organisation delivers software. He also started Silver Stripe Software Pvt Ltd, to work further in the area of software delivery. 

He was nominated for the Brickell Key award in 2011, an award given by the Lean Software Systems Consortium for recognizing achievements in the lean-agile industry and also a Fellow of the Lean Systems Society.

When do you wake up every day? What’s your alarm set to?
Usually between 5:30 to 6:30. I don’t have an alarm. My body clock is pretty good at getting me up in this range.

Tea or Coffee? 
I drink anything. Sometimes tea, sometimes coffee (usually when I’m outside the house), sometimes oats. I recently got my hands on some Kerala cocoa and I’ve been having Xocolatl (Warning: Pure cocoa is BITTER!)
Everyone should taste this to understand just how much sugar gets added to chocolate 😊

Any rituals to set the tone for the day in the morning? 
None. I’m just not the organised type of person to make this happen.

When do you feel most productive? 
Early morning. Late night. Even afternoon. The important thing is that I need 3 hours of continuous undisturbed time. Then I get into the zone and I can go on for hours. During my college days, I once started a project at at 7pm and at around 4am, a bunch of bees decided that my tubelight was the sunrise and invaded my room.

Where do you work? 
I work at home when I’m not at a clients office.

Three must have items in your desk.
I like to use fountain pens. I keep two of them in my bag. One has black ink and a fine nib and the other has a dark green ink and a medium flex nib. Someone has recommended deep red. Hmmm...

What do you listen to while working?
Nothing. I can’t do two things at once. If I play music, I can’t maintain my concentration. But I do listen to a bunch of podcasts while driving.

What are you reading currently?
Lean Change Management by Jason Little.

I met Jason at the Lean Kanban conference in 2011. His writings on agile transformations are the best I’ve read. Highly recommended - http://www.agilecoach.ca/blog/

How do you organize?
I don’t 😲

Any hacks you prefer for work?
I maintain a personal Kanban board when I’m at a client location. I have a really bad memory, so the board is very helpful. You can see a bit of it in the picture below.

What are your favorite gadgets?
 My Nintendo 3DS. Easily the best video games in a portable format. I generally play quite a bit of video games.

What apps can you not live without?
First, the Live Tiles feature on my Windows Phone. Yes, I’m one of the five people in the world who have a Windows Phone. iPhone is too boring and Android is full of malware. The Live Tiles feature is just fantastic because it shows a ton of information on the home screen. I rarely have to open an app.

• Podcast Lounge – great podcasting app. I listen to podcasts when I’m driving alone. Why waste the drive time?
• These are the Podcasts I mostly listen to:
• Freakonomics Radio – interesting topics on a wide variety of topics
• Harvard Business Review Ideacast – interviews on latest ideas on management
• The Advanced Selling Podcast – about selling stuff 😊
• The Secret Cabal Gaming Podcast – this is a podcast on board games, which I play quite a bit of

Any new addition to your routines? 
I don’t have a routine to start with 😉

How do you recharge?
Usually go for a drive, or go to the beach. We’re lucky in Chennai that we have 15 km of beach.

(Pic courtesy: Siddhartha)