De-clutter your professional life

• Tackle one problem at a time- Take one step every day. It’s much easier to handle one problem than trying solving it all. 
• Believe in your talents- Stop doubting yourself by surrounding yourself with people who actually believe in you. Be positive, smile and laugh, watch comedies and get out get there and get it done. 
• Stop defending yourself - This reminds me how worried I was one day at work because I was scheduled for a tough task which I didn't believe I could do well. I was a nervous wreck.While I walked up and down, my friend from the neighboring cubicle chipped in- "do you see yourself doing this particular task the rest of your life?" "No", I said. "What are you worrying for?  I realized he  just  gave me a million dollar solution. I calmed down and went about the task and as it turns out did pretty well. Sometimes the simplest solution is to stop defending yourself.
• No gossips at work- Try to maintain a cordial relationship with everyone, being friendly doesn't mean gossiping away. Click here to find ways you can out an end to gossiping. Beware of the information that you share with others, it can backfire against you. Here's how you can turn gossips into something useful.
• Maintain your professional self- Ethics is important at work. Being a professional will keep you in good faith and will be called upon for opinions, suggestions and sometimes bigger projects. 
• Dress well - Clean lines, appropriate dress and the right blend of colors will get you the attention and be taken seriously as someone interested in climbing up the ladder.
• Aim higher- Ever heard of having big hairy audacious goals? Keep one for each quarter and work on it. 
• Celebrate your success – Enjoy your moment, however small with your friends, family and team.
• Keep learning – Everyday should be a new chapter- make a new friend, help someone out, go out jogging, visit an art exhibition, earn a new skill.

(Pic courtesy: Google images)

To learn more about project management and know how to get into the domain, read my book Stepping into Project Management (Welcome to the #PMOT World). To connect with experienced Project Manager's from all over the world, get mentored or shadow for a day see the SIPM Community

The Art of being Focused

“You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits,” he said. “I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.”      – Obama 


Lesson learnt. Turns out we can all learn a lesson or two trying to find ways to focus more and get things done.

Everyone has their own way of being focused  however we can always learn and try out ways that others follow. Getting laser sharp focus is attainable .

You can choose to train your brain, to get more focused or continue with your life. Another way to focus, is to ensure your work area or environment.

To increase your focus remembers to:
•Prioritize- This will allow you to focus on the work that needs to get done first. You can also use the Pomodoro technique to get it done.
•Get it done- Focus on what need to get done and get on with it . Get off the internet, emails, phone calls and chit-chat and get working.
•Keep your goal handy- Don’t get complacent while working on the list, keep a written list of your goal in a visible area and browse through it often. Are you among the 84% that don’t have goals? Figure out a way to be among the 3% 
•Take pride in your work- Be responsible, take ownership and be proud of what goes out with your signature in it. And you will focus automatically.
•Be available for criticism- Being present for a positive or otherwise feedback will help you focus more on areas that need improvement. It can definitely turn you into a more focused professional and deal with your shortcomings better.

Focus is the ultimate art to reach your goals.

(Pic Courtesy: Google Images)

To read more about project management and know how to get into the domain, read my book Stepping into Project Management (Welcome to the #PMOT World). 

 To connect with experienced Project Manager's from all over the world, get mentored or shadow for a day see the SIPM Community.

My Weekend

Saturday was well spent.

Awesome lunch with friend over white lily tea, dumplings and peking duck. We did a bit of window shopping and some shopping and bought few movies to watch at home.

Among those was Eat, Pray, Love- I have the book and have watched the movie. Since the movie inspired my friend to travel around the world, we bought it to watch at home again together.

She actually met the real medicine man in Bali; during one of her trips.

We watched it later at night. It’s fun watching all about India while in India. It struck a chord to think that people travel to India because it awakens them spiritually, or calms them down and its said- life’s never the same ever after visiting India.

It was nice seeing India through my friends eye (she is from New York).

It’s been around 10 months since I have been back and I had plans and things to do when I return. Isn’t that why I returned? All I have been doing is getting sucked in work and life is the same. I had additional plans for my blog, spend time on a business goal I have been nurturing for a while and travel more. None happened.

And then I read and it reminded me of mine.

I have 2 out of the 5 checked! It’s a shame, though I have a little more time on my hand.

So, today I am re-working on my goals and things to do to keep me happy. It helps that I have a new haircut too.

Tools

I have had it for a year now. I seldom used it.

Until now.

Evernote has changed the way I read. I have it pretty much everywhere- web, desktop application, Iphone and even the web clipper (chrome extension).

I have to say, I use the web clipper the most because I like to remember the sites or article I enjoyed reading. I used to save links before in notepads or Google tasks, now I simply clip it and tag it.

The sync takes care of the rest. So, I can read them later at leisure say from my phone.
I also have been keeping the business cards virtually with Evernote, take a pic, attach it and write a note to remind yourself where you met, why should you connect and save it.

I haven’t used SpringPad, but it seems like a good one too.

Another new find has been Linoit. I have been looking for a Kanban board that I can use and Linoit just does that! You can use it the way you want. Like a reminder board with stickies, or simply stickies that come with a reminder and alarm feature, a mood board or a kanban board. And it’s free.

If you want to see the list of similar board applications click here . 

Work and Jason Fried

Why work doesn't happen at work- agree anyone?

Resources/Tools

For the last 2 weeks, I have had my share of  trying to find more time.

However, I managed to watch the Royal Wedding and fancied having one of those hats in my closet!

These few mentioned resources are great time savers and worth a try:
•Radbox.me- great tool to bookmark all your videos in one place, so you can watch them later from anywhere.
•Instapaper- save sites to read later.
•Ipod- great way to learn more, while you laze around, fly or wait in terminals or simply cook. I download podcast on weekends- some work related, some just for information or fun. If you don’t have one, no worries, just listen to it online.
•Evernote -  when remembering is no longer a task, great resource for regular use. You can sync it also with your iphone app.
•Meebo- one stop IM, you can log into multiple accounts at the same time, I use it everyday.
•Tweetdeck- to time your tweets for the rest of the week. If you have interns working with you, opt for Hootsuite, lets you add more than 1 contributor to an account. So, now, you and your interns can all tweet for the same account without having to share passwords.

For those following the Villanova course; I’m lagging behind and hope I’ll catch up soon.

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.

(Pic Courtesy)

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

Do more even when you don’t have enough time

If you are spending too much time in office or commute has doubled up, you can always find time to do what you have to do.

Whether it’s about keeping your PDU or keeping up with the new developments happening every day, here are some time savers:

•Use outlook for your personal email as well. Saves you time by easy search and the ability to filter, create sub folders and use the calendar

•Carry pen and paper always in your bag, don’t waste time trying to think of that idea you had when you were in the bus.

•Delegate if possible- if you think you have too much on your hand take an intern/ volunteer anyone who is getting ready to land into the job market. They get the experience working with you and you save some time. Now you can watch your favorite show on TV or go to the gym. Best part, it’s good for your conscience because you are helping someone else at the same time.

•Try to get more done at the same time- instead of running for errands, try to organize things so you can do as much as you can while you are outside. Like you can club your gym, grocery and meeting a friend for coffee all the same time after work.

•Keep back ups, so you are sweating over lost data. Export data from outlook, your contact management, phone- everything.

•Say No to commitments you can’t keep. A simple no will save you more time.

•Focus on the combination of short time deadlines with priority. Tackle them in order.

•Instead of trying to do 5 things at the same time, try 2. Like running on the treadmill and thinking of your next blog post. This slows nothing most likely.

•Ask- instead of trying to find everything by yourself, save time by asking someone who might know or read a book which talks about it. Why waste your own time, when someone else has already taken the time to find the solution. Build on that.

•Use technology for you and not against you. Learn using CDs, podcast while you drive, commute. Don’t wait to come back home and then read.

•Do it in bursts, if you don’t have an hour long.

•Stay calm- sounds funny but stress is a time killer. Try whatever works-meditation, running, reading etc.

(Pic Courtesy)