Thursday, April 29, 2010

For Kids Only

The other day, I was talking to few kids and we shared some jokes and riddles. It reminded me of the jokes I used to enjoy as well. Could not help but share few of them here. May I caution you these are for kids only. You may want to answer step by step. I have given answers in comments in case you don't know them :-)
Here you go. Enjoy!




1. How do you get an elephant into the fridge?

2. One boat is carrying 99 people and the boat turns over upside down. How many people survive in the boat?

3 How do you get a giraffe into the fridge?

4. A hen goes near the truck and raises it's hand. Why?

5. The lion, the king of the jungle, decided to have a party. He invited all the animals in the jungle, and they all came except one. Which one?

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Last Minute Stress ?

The other day I was in traffic near a signal, I could not help but notice, how everyone at the signal were just getting ready as though it's a race start just waiting for the gun shot to go in the air. I wondered, what they would do with the time saved (probably few minutes in this case) once they reach the destination. :-) . However it also occurred to me probably they were hurrying as they are already late to the office. Though I do not have any statistical evidence, my gut feel says probably more than 90% of us does things in the last minute. It could be reaching office, submiiting Income Tax returns, giving car for service, any thing.
Doing things in the last minute not only causes lot of stress to ourselves but also to people around us. Other than that one may face the crowd whenever one does things last minute. It could be long queues, long waiting times. One may end up shouting or getting angry at others, just because one is stressed about completing your task in last minute. I am sure one can think of lot of examples, if only one can pause and think for a second.

Now, one can feel happy that we have company, or chose to be different by organizing and planning for one self just a little. How can one organize better? It's been my observation that great gadgets does not necessarily make one a great organizer. Nowadays there are lot of features in the gadgets that could be used to organize our lives, both personal and proffessional. However it is more of a discipline and in one's nature to organize oneself. I have a friend who does not know how to operate a computer, but she is a great organizer. She just uses her single diary so efficiently to block her time, mark her calender and organize herself.
Who is a good organizer? I think, probably some one who could manage their time well, and do not feel at the end of the day that they left something just because they are acting on others whims and fancies all the time that somewhere they could not act on what was important and urgent to them. (can be applied to Life as well). This is a skill, that can be cultivated and improved if one is not endowed with it. Ofcousre only if one wishes to organize one self, that is.

There are lot of tools available for organizing on the net. However, one of the simple tools I like is having a list of items and prioritizing them. Urgent/ Important quadrant also is simple enough and serves a purpose. In case you have not seen it before, here is a link: http://www.orgcoach.net/timematrix.html
If one observes the pattern and breaks free from it, it's a liberating feeling.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Being Generous and Parero

It occurred to me that most of us spend lot of energy in bargaining on small items to save money, like vegetables, auto fare or a maid's salary. Now is it nice? 10 rupees more to an auto person or a vegetable vendor means a lot to them than what it means to us. I think being generous especially with these people is very important and it makes life easy for us as well as for them.

Now if that is not convincing, think of it this way. Have you heard of the Pareto principle: the 80 - 20 rule? Pareto noticed that 80% of Italy's wealth was owned by 20% of the population. It is used widely in software quality as well. 80% of the defects can be eliminated by addressing the 20% top causes in errors.
Now going by the same rule, 80% of the money we spend goes in 20% of the items ( like Home, Car, etc). This is my theory purely. So if you want to save money bargain on big items and with big vendors. Not on small items with small vendors. So if you bargain on the 20% of the items, you could be focussing on saving 80% of your money. How is that? Nice ?
Let's be Generous and magnanimous in Life for what goes around, comes around- multifold! :-)