Showing posts with label worklife. Show all posts
Showing posts with label worklife. Show all posts

The Working Women's' Guide- A YouTube Series

This is a three part series on working women.

I have always personally believed that motivation and inspired living could be about a lot of things, it definitely is about the vibe at work. We spend so much of our time at work, that it does impact our confidence and mental health.

This series is inspired form multiple conversation with friends and is a very personal take. By no means I am an expert, however this is what I do.

So, if you are interested hop over to the Youtube space and watch it.

Part 1- A Working Women's Guide to Skincare
Part 2- A Working Women's Guide to Natural Office Makeup
Part 3- A working Women's guide to office Accessories (Bag, shoes, jewellery and miscellaneous)




The YouTube channel is all about Motivation, Inspired Living and Work-Life Balance


(Pic courtesy: Pexel)


Take Pride in your Work

It was a warm summer day in Kolkata and I was waiting on the curbs looking for a cab at 7.30pm. it was late and horribly humid and warm and I just wanted to get home. Cabs sparsely stopped and refused to go, this was before likes of Ola and Uber hit the streets. 


Finally the cab I got into amazed me. It was a regular yellow cab, that had a bottle of water and days newspaper placed neatly, a small fan that kept you cool and curtains more as a way to keep the sun out when required. The car smelt fresh and was clean. The driver polite and soft spoken. All I could think was he really was happy and proud of what he did. 

You can look at someone at work on how they conduct themselves and know if they enjoy what the do. Isn’t that true? 

If we all took pride in our work, the mistakes would be lesser because we would care on what goes out with our name on it.  There would be lesser conflicts because you would care about your team or try to resolves problems. The production defects would be lesser, technical debt in control and the environment much more positive.

And we all know a happy team can handle way more complex work. 

So, here are 3 ways to make sure you are proud of what you do:

Know the scope of your work- Sometimes the work seems less challenging or not exactly what you were looking forward to, now that doesn’t mean it can’t be scaled up or get the project or work you want at some point. So, stop cribbing and first get the job at hand done. Now look at what else is going on and where there can be opportunity. You can also look up profiles of people with similar jobs in your organisation who have grown and then see what else you can ask for. Ask when appropriate and make sure you are building strong working relationships along the way. 

Check your work before signing off- Everyone likes to have team members who are sincere and good at what they do. Quality matters, so every time you sign off on something ensure the quality is intact. It might sometimes mean a few hours more of work, fact checking and code reviews…. Its all worth it when everyone gets to know you as the person who is reliable, responsible and takes great care in what they work on. 

Share your mindset and have faith in yourself- Its not easy to take pride in your work always, when the environment isn’t always easy to work with. If you are new to the environment, simply listen. When an opportunity comes by, be positive and speak objectively. Try to share your mindset and may be who know something might change. If you work alone running a business or doing what you love, this might  look easy but keeping the mindset all in control might be a quite a challenge when you are handling everything on your own. 


What do you think? Are you proud of what you do?

(Pic courtesy: Google Images)

Finding your Mentor: The Do's and Dont's

May 12, 2019 | | 0 comments |
Well first of all Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers reading the blog. 

I haven't posted in a while and you know the lack of posts also means that things have been  a little busy and I am sorry about not letting you know that I wasn't going to be able to publish for a while. Honestly, I didn't know it either. This blog has literally been with me for ages now.....so I always come back :) 

If you have been reading the blog for a while, you also know that I have always been a firm believer of having a mentor, so today I thought will share with you what you need to have one. 

The video is about everything you need to know about mentorship- why you need one to how to find one. If you have any questions, please let me know in the Facebook Page.




3 Things to do before you wrap up 2017

Lets get straight to the point, the year just went by.

  • Revise your job profile and interest- because you have a specific job title doesn't mean you cannot rethink or change it. The goal is to always be updated and be in a job that aligns with your interests. This means:
      • Observe the market shifting- and get yourself a new certification or  learn something new. Websites like Coursera allow you to enrol for them without having to pay a dime. You join the course of your choice and learn and if you want the certification you can pay.
  • Be thankful and take a break- to revise your goal and intentions you need to remove yourself from the current environment. You can reset your goals every quarter or once in two years. This means you dont need a sabbatical to decide the course of your life- it could be couple of hours in your favorite coffee shop.  For me personally, this year (in fact starting today), I am taking a couple of weeks off where I can travel and revise my goals.
  • Find  a sponsor- mentors are life changing but a sponsor is mandatory. A sponsor is also rather difficult to find,someone who will play a very active role in promoting you and ensuring you are in a role that interests you and climbing up the ladder.  3 ways to find a sponsor:
      • Have a work ethic- project your work personality and what you stand for.
      • Talk about your goal/career path- figure out where you want to career path to be at and then talk about it with your manager, mentors and sooner or later you will find your sponsor. 
      • Prove your worth- this is a no brainer, you have to prove you have it in you and are ready to work for it. No one will be willing to take a risk on you otherwise.
(Pic courtesy: Google images)

September- Wrap Up

I am wrapping up the last month  and hope that's okay with you with some great reads and videos. 
Image result for septemberSeptember personally has been a challenging month with sickness (bad weather) and festivals.

Nonetheless the blog goes on, while I haven’t been able to read much ( a new book) this month, I had to make sure I still felt inspired everyday. 


For me, small tiny changes sometimes make huge impact so I created Happiness corners with string lights http://amzn.to/2fDIxM7  and my favorite books.

These are some of the reads I found very interesting:


(Pic courtesy: Google Images)

Stop the Burn Out

How are you feeling lately? Energetic and jump out of bed, inspired to go to work? Or tired juggling too many things and exhausted. Yet, instead of stopping we just continue pushing, till we come to a dead halt.
  • Till you can’t get out of bed anymore
  • Till you feel so uninspired, you don’t know what to do
  • Till you don’t find meaning in your work
  • Till you are careless
  • Till there’s no ambition
  • Till you can’t push through the day anymore



Stop, take a break and introspect. 

You can take 2 months off  or realize sometimes doing a better job means not doing your job at all.

48% of Americans experienced increased stress over the past 5 years. So, if you are invested heavily in your work life, it also means we have to take measures to sustain it equally well. That can only mean considering vacations https://www.inc.com/lolly-daskal/4-scientific-reasons-why-vacation-is-awesome-for-you.html so you can enjoy your job.

In your regular work life, find out what triggers your stress the most- is it your co-worker, the commute, the inability to grow in your job and then come up with a plan and figure it out. Being able to be happy in your job could prevent the burn out at the every start and then follow it up with vacations and positive work environment, creating your hyggae at work etc.

If you are looking for great tips to bring in the balance in your life, try these:
  • Ariana Huffingtons book- "The Sleep Revolution" and the website that allows you to find out articles about the balance and keeping you happy. 
  • If you need to sort out your finances, try this out 
  • If you need to sort out your life, look no further than Vishesh Lakhani’s – "Code of the Extraordinary Mind". 
  • See what your interests are and ensure you can keep it up at an extent even in your very busy life that brings in some peace. Meet similar minds by joining meetup.com
  • Physical movement is equally important to stop the burn out, try couple of times a week to start with 
  • Learn through lots of free resources on the web and boost your career. 
  • Find a mentor and ask for suggestion on how they handle it. Observe in your own organization or read up on what’s the best thing to do. 
To sum up, stop the glorification of busy and then burn out. Instead take the time to feel okay and not always on the rush. If possible try working from home, couple of times a month (no commute at least and perhaps even healthier choice of food), get into your zone and just enjoy the flow, create a routine and keep on adapting to it.

Being successful and being able to achieve your goal, also means taking care of yourself and your thought process.

(Pic courtesy: Google Images)

Why is creativity good for you?

Experts argue that getting into a state of flow can produce substantial happiness, the kind that lasts longer than the pleasure we get from eating a good cookie.    

According to Matthew Swan, MA, Registered Art Therapist, “Through creativity, we often find answers to our problems.” He says when we’re stuck, it helps if we can step outside the box and find another way of doing something. To be successful at this, we need to do things outside of our normal, everyday routine and to make connections between things that we had not thought about before. In fact, the creative process is the act of making these new connections.  

The link between creativity and better mental and physical health is well established by researchSo, while if you consider yourself someone who is creative naturally, chances are you are happier and that means better at work.  

Robert Epstein explained in a Psychology Today article how challenging situations can bring out our creativity. Even if you don’t succeed at whatever you’re doing, you’ll wake up the creative areas of your brain and they’ll perform better after the failed task, to compensate. 

In 1954 the first flotation method was created by John C. Lilly, a neuro-psychiatrist, as a way to create sensory-deprived control groups for his experiments. Being inside the flotation tank takes your brain from highly conscious alpha and beta waves to solid theta waves—the kind you would normally have right before falling asleep and just after waking up. Normally we only experience these theta waves for a few minutes, but having extended theta periods helps us to visualize better, often giving us vivid mental images. Sensory deprivation helps in reducing anxiety, stress and even chronic pain.  


So, like everything else, creativity can bring you happiness and in return give you the much soughted after peace or grounding of you self that can actually help you catapult your career forward. 

If there’s one thing you should focus on this year, it definitely has to be making yourself happier and the rest will happen automatically. If you are looking for more ways to make your brain happier, read this.  





(pic courtesy: Pinterest)

3 New PM Blogs to Follow This year

If you are looking forward to refresh your reading list this year, look no further here are 3 new one's to choose from:


What's new on your reading list? 

(Pic courtesy: Canva)

Best of 2016: Moving Foward

2016 has been a tough year for me, it has tested me in every possible way and yet I am thankful that I have survived. The  journey taught me a lot and I thought I will share with you some of my favorite things I have discovered last year that I intend to carry forward with me to 2017.



I have realized being organized helps me declutter and empty up my head space and it's a big relief. So, I have spent the last 2 months doing exactly that- sorting out my brain.

Here are some of the things I have enjoyed, I hope you like them and let me know what was yours.

Best Apps
  • Evernote (productivity and organization)- I use this to bookmark links or upload documents primarily for work or blog.
  • Big Basket (online grocery- India)- saves me from the traffic in Indian roads. 
  • Canva (design and content creation)- I use this for creating posters and banners that I use in the blog or in my social media channels.
  • Pinterest (visual board)- its the last thing I browse before bed, I love beautiful things (or pictures)
  • Omvana (meditation) - I discovered it very recently after reading the Code of the Extraordinary Mind
  • Noteboard- chrome extension (efficiency and productivity)- good place to jot down my lists and goals plus I like the feel of a cork board.

Best Gadgets
  • Garmin Activity Tracker (physical fitness)- if you have read my post on 5 Years- Thats how long it took you know what I am talking about. This helps plus I love the reminder to Move!
  • Wireless speaker/headphone  (music, phone calls)- I have carried it with me when travelling to cient sites. When you are contantly living out of a suitcase it helps to have a familiar routine, even if that means listening to a familiar soundtrack. 

Best  Blogs


Best of SIPM Posts





Pic Courtesy: pinterest
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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 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. 

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.

·         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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Getting off the Grid- You can save yourself

When the sun shines on you, you have a got a good day.

We are so busy and overwhelmed with work and life that we are always running around trying to sort out our to-do's. We have stopped smelling the roses.

And we pay the price for it.

Coping up to keep ourselves in the current workforce leads to around 56% with musculoskeletal symptoms. 22% newly diagnosed hypertension,10% had diabetes, 36% had dyslipidemia, 54% had depression, anxiety and insomnia, 40% had obesity. The stress score was higher in employees who developed diabetes, hypertension and depression. (Source)

Did you know that work stress has been categorized through a series of  stages.
  1. The honeymoon stage: Euphoric feeling if excitement, enthusiasm, challenges and pride on getting a new job. Dysfunctional processes include the depletion of energy reserves in coping and adapting to the new environment.
  2. The full throttle stage: Going full swing leads to a depletion of resources. Other symptoms include dissatisfaction, sleep disturbances, overeating, drinking or smoking.
  3. The chronic symptom stage: Development of chronic symptoms like physical illness, anger and depression.
  4. The crisis stage: Persistence of symptoms leads to disease, chronic backache, headache, high BP, insomnia, etc., would develop.
  5. Hitting the wall stage: No person can continue under strain for too long and one may reach the end of one's professional career. Burnout stress syndrome takes over.
  6. The opposite: Rust our stress syndrome occurs under extreme hypo stress. This is likely to occur when the gap between one’ capabilities and environmental demands becomes too wide.

We don’t realize the stress we are putting our bodies through until something goes wrong and we are spending our time more at the doctor’s lobby than in office or home.

According to the American Optometric Association, people who use computers daily at work or at home could suffer from computer vision syndrome  , which leaves them vulnerable to problems like dry eye, eyestrain, neck and backaches, light sensitivity and fatigue.

We are all aware of what happens. Rarely do we take the time to sit down and plan to change our lifestyle. I know it firsthand. I have moved between countries, thought myself as a go-getter, done well for myself with a full time job and a blog and hosting meet up group because networking is a good, right? I ate mostly healthy, exercised rarely and wondered if I would ever have the time to sit down with a cup of tea and read a novel? I didn’t and with motherhood, my workload went crazy. I had the help, however no one can take the stress of the mind to trying to juggling so many things. I felt guilty that I couldn’t write the blog, I was so exhausted by the end of the day. Small things piled up over the years till I was sitting in a doctors lobby recently did I realize there’s no meaning for all the ambition if I can’t balance my health along with it.

So, here are 5 steps you can consider:
  1. Move- there’s no alternative to moving your body and keeping it healthy. Don’t worry if you don’t have  a gym or a park nearby- just walk during lunch. If you can’t take longer breaks form life or work, try in small increments. I started using my office gym because once I landed home, I never had the time. I try walking around in office, taking stairs and a quick walk during lunch for like 10 minutes. They all add up and it helps- your mood and health 
  2. Meals- Try limiting takeout food, eating cookies or chips for lunch isn’t a good idea. Plan ahead, make a salad or a stir fry and just take it with you. Try a smoothie. What you put in your body matters, instead of a fizzy drink try coconut water. And this isn’t some words just typed in because I liked my burgers and fizzy drinks- it de-stressed me... till I figured out how much sugar I was putting in my body and zero nutrition for nothing. Eat healthy and once in a while indulge in your fav food.
  3. Take Breaks- don’t sit at a stretch for hours at work, I am guilty of it too, I am trying to change. Use a reminder, apps, alarm- anything that works for you, but take a break. Your eyes and body will thank you for it. Take breaks as in vacation, even if it means you are just sitting at home reading a good book.
  4. Stop Being Guilty- prioritize yourself. It’s okay to not finish that painting by the weekend, your well being matters the most. Instead just go out and play, the weathers on your side now.
  5. Create a Routine to Relax- unwind every day, end of day. When you work around the same routine every day, it gives the cue to your brain, it’s time to get to bed now or sleep. So, the first step of your routine will often get you relaxed like getting in your pj’s.

The most important of all, stop saying I don’t have time. It’s not about time it’s about priority. Nothing beats your health because if that’s not on your side, your career and ambition is in for a steep fall.

So, when overwhelmed GET OFF THE GRID. It's okay to postpone sometimes, its allright to say I will take care of myself first, it better to prevent, it's logical to switch of your digital belongings and accounts couple of times a week, try being a minimal and natural as possible and then go out and conquer the world. 

(Pic courtesy: Image 1, Image 2)