Right, it almost seemed that the trailer was gonna go the entire distance, and in this age of blogging, the shorter the better, as the time we have is finite, and most of us feel crunched for it. Gmail has exploited the lack of time through its latest feature, Priority Inbox. Basically, their system evaluates the email that lands in my inbox as important or unimportant. The algorithm keeps track of my reading behavior and the emails that I open are considered important and the ones that I mass delete is considered unimportant. None of the emails are deleted or trashed in the process. Gmail displays priority emails on the top while the rest follow the bureaucrats.

If Gmail can exploit a common situation with a solution that can save us tons of time, and to utilize it on things that matter, so can we in our lives. We deal with hundreds of activities in a day, and we only have 24 hours. Between a third and half of the time goes towards chores such as sleep, bathing, pooping, eating and other things our bodies and minds are used to. We are left with around 12 hours which we need to utilize in working – full time takes away two thirds of it, and your productive time is left to a small fraction of the entire day. How do you utilize the most of it?

Prioritize the activities you have to do, and start performing the activities that are most essential and move down the ladder. This will ensure that things that matter to you get achieved, and this, according to me, gives you maximum satisfaction. Even Pareto agrees with me. 80% of our work gets done with the top 20% of the activities we are entrusted with. So, why not concentrate on the toppers rather than the losers on your list?

I have a system which I use to prioritize my activities on a weekly basis, and pro rate it on a daily basis. I maintain three lists; must dos, should dos and can dos. As the name suggests, must dos are most important to me, and accounts to around 20% of my total activities, and I derive most pleasure by doing it. Examples are learning, working out, writing and a couple other personal ones. Within the list, I give grades to each of my activities to further prioritize them on the order of completion. An example could be grade A for writing, grade B for working out, you get the idea right! Now, my first priority in a day is to write rather than work out. I will write first and then move towards working out followed by learning and the rest on the list.

The should do list is the biggest of ‘em all. Mathematically, it accounts between top 30 and 80% of my total list of activities. They are important but if I don’t do it during that particular period, nobody is going to hang me for it. A should do activity might elevate in rank to must do in the succeeding cycles, and that is dependent on expected outcome of the activity. Examples could be investing in stocks, shopping for books and paying bills. Further, this list is ordered and grades are drawn to determine which ones get done first.

The final list is the bottom 30% of my activities and I call it can dos. It is a nice-to-do list and the outcome rarely accounts to any form of physical or mental satisfaction. Examples in my life include cleaning my car, having salad for dinner or balancing my financial statements. Rarely, very rarely, the activities here move up to the must do list, and most of them move into the should do list. I look at my can do list only on the weekends, and that too, if my should do bin is empty.

Prioritizing my activities has helped me immensely in completing my goals, and I am sure you can leverage on it too to move towards your dream. Who can dare say dreams are a mere figment of imagination?

If you are putting in money to purchase land, or into stocks, gold or anything else that has the potential of growing the money invested in, can be considered an asset.

If you are to grow financially, assets are your means. Any amount of money you invest will start to sweat, and work towards increasing its value, and raising the $$$ component. Well, it depends on your choice of investment and some asset options are risky and during the process of trying to appreciate the value, the tide could very well turn against you. Equities are most certainly risky while other form of investments such as government bonds are safe as a bank. But, the appreciation (or depreciation) value of your assets are higher if risks are higher and vice versa.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have liabilities. Expenditures such as purchasing commodities like cars and clothing, dining out and charity take the money out of your pockets forever. It definitely does not grow your money, the best it can do is to depreciate the value. Most liabilities annul the $$$ that leave your pocket.

The secret to growing your finances is to increase your assets and to keep the liabilities to a bare minimum. Liabilities are needed but smartly choosing them is the secret to success. Assets grow your money value. Try to accumulate as much as you can. It can never be too much. At the same time, ensure that you smartly choose the kind of assets you want to invest in.

I have consulted several doctors and read research papers from the US, parts of Europe and India. None seem to have a clear conclusion on it but most agree that water is good, lack of it is harmful than in excess.

So how much does one need to drink? Drink as much as you can, just don’t goad yourself to the point of puking it out. There is no excess limit as long as you spread it evenly through the day and keep peeing as and when your bladder calls for it.

But, on a bare minimum, one must consume at least two liters of water a day if the diet comprises of leafy vegetables and fruits. If your diet is on the meaty side, you might want to add another liter to the recommendation.

What is the harm in drinking too much water? As long as you are not a marathon runner and an infant, water in excess cannot cause any harm to you. Excess water goes out of your system as pee and don’t worry about the urban legend regarding overworking your kidneys, it’s bullshit. Your kidneys are there to remove excess water, and as long as you are passing urine, you shouldn’t worry about it. If you are a marathon runner, excess water goes in but there isn’t an avenue to pass it out. And, that causes water intoxication, diluting your electrolytes and as a result reducing the sodium levels.

To conclude, drink up water. It gives you the strength to fight toxins, bleeds life into your waning cells and keeps you fit. Don’t listen to half baked beans who don’t weigh up the facts before drawing to judgment.

I cannot stress enough on the benefits of the emotion of being happy and following it up with the external expression of laughter. Elders say laughter is the best medicine, and is widely believed so even today. Scientists have proved that the happy emotion makes a person healthy, let’s get to the nitty gritties in this article.

Scientific tests have proved that people live longer if they have the happy quotient on their side. I recently read about a person who was in excellent health albeit his family had a history of multiple diseases. The secret to his success was endowed to watching comedy movies and shows everyday, and enjoying heartily. Doctors were amazed at his health and they studied him like an alien from Saturn before announcing the cause of his healthy condition.

Our body has a PH value of 7.36 which is slightly basic, as against being acidic. A PH value of 0 denotes pure acid while 14 is pure basic or alkaline. Neutral value is 7 and our body is designed to be on the basic side. In time, people vary by a few decimals. The ones who move towards alkaline side are healthier than their counterparts who prefer rancidity. If a person ends up moving 2 points on either side, implications are legal.

People who fall under PH < 7.36 are generally unhealthy, obese and miserable. Conversely, greater than 7.36 denotes good health and conditions suitable for existence.

The food we consume can be broadly divided as acidic and basic. Fried foods, dairy products, alcohol, cigarettes and a host of others are considered to be acidic in nature. On the alkaline geography, green vegetables, almonds, certain fruits such as lemons inhabit this territory. Water is neutral. Nutritionists who know their advise their clients to hog alkalines over acids, and consume plenty of water throughout the day. If your nutritionist is telling you otherwise, beware! Our body produces the acids we need, and we don’t have to consume anything from the outside world. Atkins diet is blatantly wrong its concept. It mainly consists of carbohydrates which eventually converts into acids. Pouring too many acids into our body deprives us of the water content and we start to lose weight. This is not the kind of weight loss we need, we need to lose fat and not water. Atkins fails in the quality of achieving the objective.

I have digressed quite a lot here. Coming back to laughter now. It is not the food alone that falls into one of the bilateral sections. Our emotions follow suit as well. Anger, stress, hatred amongst other related feelings produce acid within our bodies while laughter, pride, happiness amongst others produce alkalines. People who stress and are distressed produce acids and cause harm to their bodies while people who smile, smirk and humor at every possible instant are doing a favor to themselves by producing the valuable ingredient (alkaline/base) that improves the condition of our bodies. And, this is the secret or the root cause of laughter being the best medicine that the world has to offer.

As an action point, try to negate the bad emotions and involve yourself in emotions that brings joy to your soul. Your physical self would appreciate every ounce of alkaline you can produce.

Also note that, indulging in anaerobic exercises lead to production of acids as well. You may look fit, with a fine curve of muscles, but deep inside, you are sicker than your skinny neighbor.

Secret to life is simple. Laugh all that you can and eat alkaline foods. If you are hooked onto acidic foods, stay tuned to my blog for tips to free you from your acidic cravings. Shows such as 24 and Heroes are acidic in nature while Mr.Bean and Friends are definitely alkaline. Take care and stay healthy.

In many ways, what we are is a true reflection on how we live our life. How we live our life is influenced by a number of factors including the society we live in. The people around us change the way we do things, talk and think amongst others. Simply put, we reflect our society in a broad sense.

Let me put this with a real life example. I drive my car to work and back. The distance is over twenty kilometers and it takes me an hour each way. Drivers in Bangalore have a sense of survival of the fittest and drive with vengeance, passing other vehicles at every available opportunity and turning and twisting their vehicles at crowded intersections, causing further delays and jams. They just don’t look at the bigger picture, and drive as if it is their last day on earth.

I was not like this when I came back to Bangalore three years back. I was meek, understanding and allowed passersby to cross the street whenever I saw one. Things are different now, and have a sinking feeling that Hulk is at work.

These days, I am just like the other hooligans who drive alongside me. I want to get to my destination quick and do not care of all the mouth bashing that I could attract by cutting across cars and almost running over motorcyclists.

Musing over what I am today to what I was earlier, where I am today to where I was few years back, is a clear indication that the society has significant contribution to what you and I have become. Think about it, didn’t your mom ask you to hang out with the brilliant kids at school? It was believed that spending time with intelligent kids made you intelligent, not owing to the magical touch or the magical voice of theirs, but the impression and the persona that will have a bearing on your thoughts.

If your coworkers talk about investing mostly at work, I am sure you would be inclined to put some money away to own a piece of a company. Worse, if your friends are party animals, you are most likely to be a brat.

Coming back to my driving, I am no Gandhi or a Buddha to show my other cheek when somebody slaps me. I will give right back to them, a bludgeon for a hit. So, if you want to change the way you are, surround yourself with people who you want to model upon, and you will start to observe the thinking pattern.

On a serious note, if you love driving, don’t stay in a city like Bangalore, or any other in India, I might just run all over you. Move away, where the roads are clearly visible rather than the bumper of the car in front of you.

One of my constant preachings to my protégés is to stay apart from the crowd and move in a direction that cuts across the masses. I have always believed it and have been a staunch follower of this theory. An old friend who I had not seen in sometime met up with me for a drink last night, and challenged me that crowds offer security and are often on the right path, as they are tried and tested. After some drunken verbal brawls, we decided to sit on each other’s ideas and meet up for another round of drinks the coming weekend.

I have started to wonder if going with the crowd could be beneficial. I don’t know. I am biased in not acknowledging another option other than staying unique.

The more I think, new ideas come up. Crowds vary in their upbringing, culture, insight, knowledge, maturity and this list can definitely go on. Putting all these minds together will bring out a concoction of unknown nature, it may be good, or lethal. The end result is unknown until we see what is in front of us.

The outcome can never be excellent, as many would have indulged in what they do, and hence the benefits would get shared amongst followers. It can be lethal as there is a good chance that the outcome might show up one fine day, after millions have fallen for it.

Being an avid reader of John Grisham’s novels, it has always intrigued me that the US judicial system rests upon the concept of jury, at least in the lower courts. The jury consists of twelve ordinary residents of the county, handpicked by advocates. And, these people think with their hearts and are bound by emotions, and don’t care much about what is right and what isn’t. This system has existed for over a century and has been successful 90% of the times (as per the stats that I quickly googled). This is not a bad record at all, considering the rate of right judgement by expert judges is much lower. Does the US judicial system leveraging on juries indicate that collective minds are better than a handful of experts?

I need to think more on this, and now back to my theory.

While staying apart, there is an advantage that people can reap. They can see where the crowd is heading and what they achieve. Results are public knowledge and a decision based on the outcome sounds feasible, doesn’t it? Yep, the best of both worlds!

I am glad my friend of yesteryears got me thinking on this aspect. I had grown a blind spot on the idea of doing what everybody does, and maybe there is more to it than it meets my eye, or brain in this context.

Vision is nothing but clarity on your destination, where and what you want to be. If the ‘wheres’ and ‘whats’ are unanswered, you might as well forget about the ‘hows’ part of it.

That being said, you should imagine what you would want to achieve, in a way that your vision has already been bestowed upon you.

Any company that is serious of reaching its goals will prepare a vision statement. This statement reads out where they want to be and what they plan to achieve. How they plan to do it may or may not be already in place, yet, the end point is in the books. The end point is crucial rather than the process that takes you there. The processes are mostly derived during the execution stage, which is perhaps the best way forward.

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The speaker was OK at best, and the concepts that were introduced were pretty much in-the-box (contradicting out-of-the-box concept). Yet, I have decided to give it a shot with full faith and see if it works. If it does work, I am sure it will boost me and my work towards the summit. Else, oh well, I will keep going after the moon.

Mind mapping is literally picking your brain, taking out thoughts that reside inside and putting them on a piece of paper, and representing them with different colors and shapes. Once you put everything out, you start organizing it the way you want it. Sounds pretty neat, I need to see how best it can work.

I am not used to brainstorming like this. When I generally write, I don’t even what I want to write on. I put my fingers on the keywords and brain waves are activated. And, I don’t do many edits either. I organize and pour out my thoughts at the same instant. And, mind mapping says that it isn’t the most efficient way of doing things. I don’t see any harm in giving it a shot, as long as I don’t lose my skills.

It is often believed that skill is an innate talent, that bestows upon us from (or earlier) our birth. Many of us start blame games stating that we didn’t achieve great things as the skill needed was never in picture. I like to contradict this belief and categorically state that if a person starts doing things repetitively, he/she will pick up the skill required to perform certain activities.

I base this statement on personal experience and a simple catch phrase – practice makes you perfect. Although, I have my reservations on being perfect, the essence of the statement is what I am interested in.

For example, let’s assume that you do not know how to type. And, you start your career where you are required to key in tens and hundred pages of documents everyday. As you begin to continue working on your keyboard, you develop the skill of typing fast within a few weeks/months/(and hopefully not)years. What is the basis of you picking up the typing skill? Repetition!

This is true with each and every activity be it sport, technology, and probably anything under the sun.

I have seen sportsmen who could not deliver during the first few instances, and over a period of time, just with their stay at the highest league pick up things the way they never imagined before. The same is true with IT professionals. Why do employers go gaga over people with experience? Simple reason that people with experience would have repetitively done certain things which makes them an expert in the field, and could potentially do more work than juniors in the stipulated time.

Even the usage of brains – left and right depends on how often and how much is being employed. If a left brained person is given constant exposure to the activities of right brain, he is bound to start using his right brain and things start to happen creatively. I am a living example of this theory that I propose.

If you want to pick up any genre, start working at it. Repetition masters your skill, use it to your advantage. There is nothing in this world that certain humans can do while the rest can’t. We are all wired the same way, and things will take turn for the better if we start doing things that facilitate what you wish for.

I challenge you to pick up an activity that you know that you aren’t good at, and start practicing it. Let me know if a month’s time if there has been any improvement. I bet there is, most certainly.