There are several tasks that don’t require continuity and you can easily interrupt yourself in the middle of the tasks and come back to it in sometime, and then seamlessly continue your work. These are the tasks that we need to do whenever we get time every now and then (for instance, in a long drive or at office when you are waiting for someone for 20 minutes etc).
Let’s call these tasks anytime-tasks (coz we can do them anywhere, anytime). The two points to keep in mind when dealing with the anytime-tasks are: Don’t have a dedicated time allotted for the anytime-tasks coz you always have gaps in a normal workday that are more than sufficient for you to finish these tasks, and note these tasks somewhere coz we usually don’t remember them, simply coz they aren’t so important to us.
The anytime-tasks that I gotta do whenever I find time: Find and download scrum alliance e-book, calculate the total amount from the bills I have in my bag that I need to submit in my office, and read the FUN section of my reader.google.com, and wait for it…engage in Facebook and twitter (yes! It’s an anytime-task).
When to actually do the anytime-tasks
How to purchase a product (Hint: don't buy it offline)
Do this: Browse in local stores. Select and decide on what you want to buy from the local stores. Go online. Buy it from the online retailers for at least 20%-30% below the rates listed in the local stores.
I just purchased an AC from a local store (that too, at 20% discount, and it’s not just some local store…it is a branded local store) and even after that, I see that I’ve paid Rs 5000 more than the price listed in the online store. But yeah! the local store gave me the so-called free installation. But, damn it! even if I buy that AC online and get it delivered at home, and then hire two guys to install the AC by paying them Rs 1500 bucks for the 2 hour work. I still save Rs 3500 (I am good at math J).
Internet shops are going to change the way we purchase products. Probably, right now, it’s not a good idea to rent a place, and sell products in a local store…rather, hire a web-designer and pay him what you were planning to pay as rent to hire store space; get an online store designed and start selling products without having to worry about so many things that you would have had to worry about, if you had been running a local store. Although, you will definitely have new problems to worry about…internet business doesn’t run on itself, but the point is that the buyers are getting smarter and they will most probably buy everything online and not frequent the local stores.
I am doing this for 2 years but I never got a chance to retro it
We do so many different things on a regular basis, wrong! I am dead sure that we kind of do most of the things again and again. Try to recall 10 things that you did with outlook or that you did at work that has drastically changed from last year? Time’s up! I was thinking that for all that we do, how much do we retro it. Do you understand what is a retrospect? If not, go check the link. Only if we devoted some time to look at what all happened and what all we did, and how we did it.
For instance, we use MS Outlook so much. Writing emails consume around 30% of our time. How about optimizing 30% of your daily-work-time through a 30 minutes retrospect? There are so many features that are there in outlook that we don’t use but should use to save lots of time. If you see, it just makes our lives easy. Why would we not want to do this? Gimme me one good reason. We switch between windows and we play with folders all the time in our laptops, how about we devote 20 minutes of our time to learn how to do these repeatedly-done-activities faster. It makes sense right.
Retrospect the things you do. I am in a product development sprint retrospect meeting, and I see that it is as crucial as sprint planning meeting. It just doesn’t make sense to keep planning what to do and not retrospect on how our plan went.
My simple philosophy of guiding users on the internet/computers
“For more information, refer to THAT document carefully.”
THAT document is almost never referred-to by people; you know why? because it doesn’t make sense to come to do something and all of a sudden get interested in getting more information. For the kind of internet we live in, we hardly click things because they get us more information, we usually want to focus on the things that get us our job done. For instance, when was the last time you read the Third-party acknowledgment letter while installing a software (you just want to install the goddamn software, so be it), saw the artist-scroll in the end (you came to see the movie, it’s done, so you head home; you don’t want to know about each and every person who worked in that movie).
My philosophy of guiding users on the internet/computers is that until you take your users by the hand, they won’t come with you. You can’t just tell them things and expect them to do it. For instance, if you simple said: for more information on how to search, see the Google website. People won’t go to the Google website. But, if you’d have said; for more information on Google, see Google.com. People might want to check the hyperlink…it is because we all love it when everything happens with a click of a button.
The sad sense of amusement
Just sometime back, I remember going out and taking photos continuously for no reasons (behind that, below the light, besides him, besides her, below this, above that, while doing this, while doing that etc.). We were being a bunch of pretentious douche bags; now I realize that we just wanted to show/pretend how happy and crazy we really were (but were we really?). Everyone wants to act crazy and do funny posses in front of the camera, to some it seems fun, to me and others like me, it is just being stupid for no reason.
Just sit and wonder what they meant when they said "live/seize the moment" . Or may be, you can listen to the Eminem song "lose yourself in the moment". Guys, when you go on some outing/vacation-trip make sure that you see the beauty through your eyes and not your camera lenses. Capture special moments only.
Yes, this is the perfect solution for that problem
- Some people build solutions based on what the market demands. (Typically yours, software industry)
- Some people come up with solutions for the problems they are facing and then they realize that a lot of others are having the same problem and their solution is business.
- Some of them actually find/unearth a problem and they themselves propose a solution for it. Haven't you seen a product that solves a problem that you never before thought of it as a problem. (Dentists looking at your teeth and saying "this is weird and asymmetric, you need braces" and you are like "I am never going to smile the way I used to, I have a problem")
- Finally, some people plant an idea in your head that something is going wrong and that it needs a solution. Although, they don't have a solution, they simply point you to the solutions.
And one more thing, do not forget to shout-out-loud your problems. I am sure someone is listening and is going to come up with some solution soon.
Is it really worth memorizing
Even if you love photography, you don't necessarily need a DSLR, this is why?
The headache we get after travelling is not because of travelling
- Checking our flight tickets around 4 million times to see the departure time and having to answer the questions from stupid-people who want to know "At what time will the flight *actually* take-off?"
- Last minute office work that did not make you cancel your trip but spoiled your relaxed mind-set by making you think "After coming back, there is going to be so much to do...damn! I am fucked"
- Getting so many trip advises from people that you start thinking "I already know every goddamn detail about the place I am going to, it's feels like I've already been there....why am I even going?"
- Calling the cab guy and getting tensed about him not picking-up his cell phone (all you know, he simply did not pick-up because he was driving to your location)
- Calling up the guys whose place your are going to and finding them super-busy just that day (all you know, they are just finishing their office-work so that when you reach their place, they won't have to work long hours and can spend time with you)
- The suitcase is too full, you gotta choose and remove 3 of the most amazing shirts you have and you don't wanna remove any of those (repeat after me...seriously, repeat after me "I can wash my cloths and wear them again, I don't have to take 20 shirts because I am going there for 20 days")
You and I can just go on and on about this (can't we?). Now, what happens to your brain because of all these activities? it gets used-up or stressed-out; and by the time you reach your destination, it aches. I don't see a business model that can solve this problem, a trip-planner can plan your trip and execute the plan but it can't do shit about the office calls and your suitcase problem. Actually, you know what...fuck business models! we don't need any of that crap...we simply need peace of mind and we need to understand that if we are going on a long vacation, we need some 1 or 2 days of vacation before the long vacation, so that we are already in the vacation before going to the actual vacation (what a solution...what a solution..wow!).
My head is aching so bad (already!) that all I can do to relax myself is write a blog post...I am lying, I'd rather take a Saradon headache relief pill. By the way, one last thing, if you deal with software product management, you'll know that what I just brilliantly did is called root cause analysis :-P. Also, I think this post would have been a little more credible had I written this after travelling and not now.
Why would I leave you and what makes me unhappy
What I am saying is, if you would have made me THIS happy in the beginning and you continued to make me THIS happy...I would have been really happy with you, all the way; and wait, I think you are the best.
Now you know why people become unhappy. Not-being-happy-enough is what makes a lot of us unhappy. By the way, whenever I get a little depressed or I feel lonely, I call up people and try to hang-out with them till I am good to go, or else I watch National Geography to see zebras and buffaloes getting killed by Lions and Tigers...and then I feel, wow!, what a life I have. I am simply relived (that's called reverse engineering, if you know what I mean).