Digitally Equipped
It was on my wish list for a long time. But, now I went ahead and bought it. Yup I bought a new Sony Vaio Laptop. Check out its configuration.
I’ll be frank, I wanted to buy an MacBook, but it was insanely expensive, would’ve burnt a huge hole in my pocket. So, I’ll have to do some wise financial savings to get my hands on this Apple beauty. But that won’t stop me from hacking and cracking my new Lappie.
The next post will be typed on my own cool Lap Top 
.
An Interesting Conundrum
Few days back, Abbas Raza of 3QuarksDaily posted a really interesting blog, in which he has invited readers to solve some intelligent and tricky logical problems. I exercised my grey cells a lot but I couldn’t figure out the solution for more than half of the problems.
The real fun began when he wrote a follow up solution post. Check out the comments for this post. It was hilarious to see how the readers seemed to have over-debated the Question 5.
“Walking down the street one day, I met a woman strolling with her daughter. “What a lovely child,” I remarked. “In fact, I have two children,” she replied. What is the probability that both of her children are girls? Be warned: this question is not as trivial as it may look“
The boy girl conundrum has been dissected to its core by the readers. I don’t know if the sceptics were finally satisfied or not, but the whole process of analysing a seemingly simple problem was one helluva joyride.
If you enjoy puzzles, be sure to try out all the questions in the blog. Some of them are real fun to solve.
Ta !!!
Getting Things Done
define : Productivity - 1.The relationship between production of an output and one, some, or all of the resource inputs used in accomplishing the assigned task. 2. Productivity is used to measure the efficiency of production, and is most often expressed as a ratio of outputs over inputs.
How do I become highly productive at work ? The answer to this question has always eluded me. We live in a world full of distractions. Ours is a generation with very short attention span. While at work, we are distracted by mails( most of them being irrelevant and unimportant ), by constant telephone (or mobile) calls. We also tend to procrastinate important, urgent tasks with the lame hope of getting them done ’some time later’.
I’m no productivity Guru or the most productive office gnome that you’ll ever see. But over the years I’ve become more effective at work, more efficient at creating quality deliverables. I am a voracious reader and have been reading about “Getting Things Done” for quite some time now. I had started reading about it during engineering days and started applying some of the principles at work now. I would share some of my learnings .
My tips for being productive at work are :
1. To-Do List :
This is an old school trick but it sure works its magic even in todays PDA lifestyle. A simple To-do list will keep you on track besides providing you a mental picture of the work that you have in hand. Also when you write down your tasks, you make a psychological commitment that you would accomplish them. As you complete the tasks listed in the To Do list, and you check them out , you gain satisfaction and a sense of achievement which gives you motivation to complete the unfinished tasks.
A smarter To Do List would be to break down your tasks to such a granular level that it takes few minutes to accomplish them. This will give you a positive edge that things are moving ahead. It also makes a tough job manageable. Try it out.
2.Avoid Distractions:
As a developer, I know how irritating and counter-productive unnecessary distractions can be. Your focus is 100% on the program, trying to debug a screwed up error, suddenly the phone rings or the computer beeps to announce the arrival of a new mail. If you attend to either of these, it leads to context-switch in your brain, and it is time expensive to regain the original context back.Context switch is good for your machine, but not for you. You cannot be productive while multitasking, no matter how good you think you are at MT. You’ll get things done quickly and effeciently only when your mind is completely attentive on the task at hand.
3. Kick Procrastinations ass
Procrastination is an all pervasive phenomenon. You have a list of tasks to do, you tend to complete all the easy ones first and try to procrastinate the tough ones. Even if it is important, you’re inclined to shift it down and down your To-do list(assuming you maintain one). But this procrastination leads to unnecessary stress and undue pressure when the task deadline approaches. You then over exert yourself on the task which you could’ve completed long time ago, in a systematic way.But then, it’s just a theory, and when it comes to implementation I know how difficult it is. I use a ‘Procrastination-Blues’ technique.More on this in my next post
These were tips from my experience, if you want the real expert advice, I suggest you read Getting Things Done by David Allen. This book is considered a bible of “Effective Time management tips and tricks”.
Read LifeHacker daily, or its productivity archives OR 43Folders, for that matter. But don’t just read it, try and implement the advice given in these books/articles.Reading is not enough.
Remember, if you want to have a life outside your work, try to be as productive and effective in your work as possible, so that you find time for yourself.
Ah well, I’ll sign off for now.
Chip in your comments ,thoughts on this post.
Cheers !!!
How to be a power web-surfer
Internet is being used by millions of people worldwide today. It has become a necessity in our day-to-day lives. Yet, very few can be called ‘Power Web-Surfers’. But, what IS power web-surfing ? You may ask. Well, when you are hooked to the net , you have the compulsive need to be online most of your waking hours. You just can’t resist the lure of visiting your bookmarked sites daily, to see your latest feeds, to see your favorites list grow, to chat and so on. That’s when you become an addictive web-surfer. You get addicted to internet surfing. And that is when you want to better at surfing i.e. to become a power web-surfer.
Here are my 5 tips to help you become the power surfer :
1. Upgrade your system:
No need to raise your eyebrows for this one. I know you are not into Gaming or hardcore Programming, but if you really want to harness the true power of internet , you ought to have at least 512 MB( 1 Gig preferable) RAM and at least 40 Gig of hard disk. This will improve the site-load time and reduce your frustration. Besides, if you multi-task like me, as in, watch a movie while downloading 3/4 other movies via Ares or Emule, having a top-notch system does gimme an edge.
2. Get a Broadband :
Duh !!!! This one is obvious and I’ve mentioned it for completeness. Dial up connection sucks…period.
3. Get Firefox :
Alright, this one is not obvious and many people aren’t aware of this latest Mozilla Babe. Download Firefox and you would understand what I am talking about. Besides the tab feature( which considerably reduces the window clutter on our monitor), it is a pseudo-tool for a web developer.
4.Get a Powerful Anti-Virus :
When you’re connected to the net, your computer becomes a target for many malicious viruses creeping through the Internet world. To reduce this vulnerability of your system, always protect your system with the latest Anti-virus. Norton and Mccaffe are strong contenders in the anti-virus market. Remember, anti-virus cannot guarantee your systems safety, it will only minimize the risk and it’s up to the surfer to exercise discretion while opening attachments in your inbox and/or visiting capricious websites.
5.Be Selective and Prudent:
Internet is a vast repository of information. It has data about everything and anything under the sun. You can be easily lost in this maze of information or you can be easily misled. It’s your responsibility to choose and select the stuff you surf on the net. You can be more productive, effective and efficient in your personal/professional life if you harness the power of the web correctly. Also, you can be pervert, immoral and psycho if you exploit this same power. The choice is yours to make.
I am pretty sure there are many more tips to improve your surfing experience. If you have any tips to share, please feel free to reply to this post.
Cheers,
Anup
P.S. The above pic is taken from Phil_G’s photostream on Flickr
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