Showing posts with label creativity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label creativity. Show all posts

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. 
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)

Creativity- the way of working

Apr 24, 2012 | | 0 comments |
I clearly had a lovely vacation and am a week late.

In the last week, much has happened that has challenged me to think beyond regular stuff. Like always, am thankful for the new challenge - it has always brought me new opportunity and scope to learn.

Meanwhile, saw this video and loved it and wanted to share. If you have ever wanted to be creative or thought about creativity, want to become a public speaker- this video is for you.






By the way, the original article link is here.

Have a lovely week everyone and don't step back. Move forward everyday!

(Pic Courtesy: My vacation in Goa, India)

Does rigid timelines help creativity?

Timeline rules us.

Deadlines, projects schedules, invoices and regular business days all revolve around timeline. We remind ourselves through calendar, blackberry applications, and sticky notes.

But does chasing time help us? Help our work, help creativity? Let’s walk through some scenarios:

Regular Office- The pressure of timeline doesn't enhance creativity in most cases and leads us to “The Intrinsic Motivation Principle of Creativity. People will be most creative when they feel motivated primarily by the interest, enjoyment, satisfaction, and challenge of the work itself, and not by external pressures or inducements.” So, for those who like creativity and challenge in their work should sought out similar assignments. Look for more encouragement from your boss and find a mentor who knows how to match creativity with the end of the month salary scenario.

Bloggers/Entrepreneurs – It is said that time management skills contribute to creativity . It seems very true since most of the successful bloggers are multi tasking all the time. Look carefully at the project management bloggers- they know thing or two about maintaining schedules and some of them use it to their best. They blog, they run their own thing, work 9-5 job, write books, papers, participate in numerous profession related websites, network, are active participants of their community and perhaps even doting parents. They run their lives as they run their project. They plan, they schedule, they prioritize and get the work done. And to top it all they are creative – it takes some to manage time so effectively if nothing else.

Also, the most frequently mentioned contextual factor characterizing high-creativity events was freedom. Think about entrepreneurs, individuals who are self employed, people whose writings you bookmark and read everyday- think Seth Godin, think Chris Brogan, think Pamela Slim, think Tim Ferris, think Scott Berkun…..when the pressures off performance and delivery; people might come up with real creativity.

But can everyone be creative? Do you want to be creative? Anyone with the inclination to be one perhaps can find a way to be creative to an certain extent and how life changing it is
But then, there are people like J K Rowling who were creative under tremendous pressure initially and some more here.

Here’s an interesting aspect of creativity- giving time to think might just be the answer you are looking for.

Edison spent a good deal of time just thinking. He fished off the end of his dock for an hour almost everyday of his life. He always fished by himself but he never caught any fish. Observers always thought it was strange that Edison would spend so much time fishing when he really wasn't that good at it.

Late in life, he was asked about his obsession with fishing even though he was probably the worst angler anyone had ever seen. His answer was, “I really never caught any fish because I have never used any bait.” Most people were shocked and thought he was crazy so they asked, “Why in the world would you fish without bait?”

His answer? “Because when you fish without bait, people don’t bother you and neither do the fish. It provides me my best time to think.” (Source)

Science of Creativity- Tim Ferris has written about his own creativity and I find it quite interesting.

I think creativity is as complicated as it seems. Here’s another of my favorites from Elizabeth Gilbert who practices creativity.

I like being creative and for most part want to be considered as one, so if wrote poetry when I was 21; now I try to bring creativity in my work I do- in my blog, my website, food or simply my everyday life.


Want to have fun and learn more from real life Project Managers, check out http://beta.steppingintopm.com/