Month: June 2011

If you are wondering what Inbox Zero is, check out this link to Lifehacker introducing Inbox Zero by Merlin Mann.

The link contains slides (my recommendation would be to check them out..) and a video (1 hour!) if you have the patience.

Merlin’s concept revolves around the fact that we have limited attention span. Focus it on what’s most important. Merlin recommends 5 folders in your inbox so you can deal with your email better. Check out slide 11.

The core idea is as simple as the name – Inbox Zero. Keep your inbox down to zero emails. Now, I have heard from many that this is ‘impossible’. We are in the age of email after all. And I read about Inbox Zero when I was getting 50-60 emails a day myself back in university (I used to work with a dot com start-up and hence, received all emails – team emails, support emails etc). My inbox hence, ran to the 100s, if not 1000s. Anyway, all that changed when I decided to implement Inbox Zero. I spent a crazy weekend categorizing emails and acting on them and achieving Inbox Zero.

And I can confidently say that, to this day, I am grateful I did that because I have been on top of my email ever since. I maintain Inbox Zero, both at work and at home. My email habits differ from Merlin in that..

1. I have folders for all my email to file them, of course.

2. I just use a ‘WIP‘ folder i.e. Work in Progress for any email that is ‘on hold’

3. A Newsletters folder that I clear on weekends

4. Clear emails primarily in the morning (before work) and evenings (after work) but also clear the simple ones during breaks at work. And if I have way too many, then I have the commute which is a great time to clear email.

There was a time when I was addicted to my email, but I’m into a more disciplined approach these days. That’s the thing about anything that revolves around ‘GTD’ i.e. Getting Things Done principles – they don’t require disciple, but they do require a disciplined approach. And GTD in life is like a bath, you need to take one atleast once every day else you begin to stink.

I have personally found Inbox Zero brilliant for the fact that it helps me focus on one important email at a time. Every time I need something done, I transfer an email from ‘WIP’ to my empty inbox and just focus on what needs to be done to respond to that email. Of course, all email notifications are ‘off’!

Of course, I am an out and out Outlook fan and I have heard the whole Gmail logic of ‘don’t bother clearing email. Just label and search them.’ Yeah yeah. I don’t buy it.

Email can be very stressful. There is no worse feeling than having that niggling feeling that there is an important email sitting in your inbox waiting to be cleared.. and Inbox Zero just helps you sleep better at night. It requires effort though – every single day. If you believe in doing a bit of cleaning every day to ensure your room/home is clean, then you will know and understand what it takes.

But, just like coming back to a clean home after a day of work, it is well worth the effort.

If you decide to give it a shot, all the best! Keep me posted.. and do let me know if I can help in any way.

PS: I’ve also heard from skeptics that it would be tough to keep it up as I get lots more email. I’m still waiting for the day… and that only emphasizes you are better off doing this today rather than tomorrow.

And if you need inspiration, in life, there are reasons and results. And reasons simply don’t count. :)

1. Insecurity (Most common)

2. Unfair Treatment

I had a niggling my existing assumption that it was ‘Insecurity’ didn’t make complete sense.

Now, it feels right.

Except, I am more likely to point to ‘unfair’ when a lot of it could be ‘insecurity’. As always, these border lines are fuzzy. But, atleast, this one’s more accurate.

Helps me when I get annoyed with myself the next time I lose my cool unnecessarily!

I have been a superhero fan for many years. The all time favorite was, has been, and will be Batman. But, my super hero diet was generally satiated with Centurions (Cartoon Network), Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League and very importantly, X-Men. And the movie versions of Spiderman did catch my eye as well!

All the Batman movies were really good but I still prefer the cartoon as it captured the real essence of the character in my humble opinion (yes, over the Christopher Nolan- Christian Bale except maybe, for Heath Ledger). In the case of X-Men, the movies have been in a different league altogether.

X-Men 1 was fantastic. X-Men 2 between good and very good, X-Men 3 was exceptional (and I doubt it will ever be matched), X-Men Origins-Wolverine was good and then came X-Men First Class which I think was again very very good, if not First Class. It brought with it the typical X-Men flavor of a big disaster that is averted by the good guys, lots of cool graphics, cooler super powers etc etc. I also thought the cast was well chosen, for the most part. The main protagonists (i.e. Charles Xavier and Magneto) were great. Magneto’s performance was chilling..

All the animation fluff aside, the story was about two very powerful leaders who inspired followings with different styles. One was a more ‘by-the-books’ idealistic visionary who wouldn’t stray on the journey to his objective and who took upon a very mentor/coach role and even ended up bringing the best out of his soon-to-be adversary.

The other was a charismatic maverick, a Machiavellian character, who took the role of a friend/big brother to all those he lead. We are used to these 2 characters in the latter movies but we only see 2 very powerful leaders with great mutual respect for each other. Here, we have the back story.

We see the two of them as friends and how the eventual split occurs thanks to their independent ideals and beliefs. The essence of the movie i.e. this backbone was very captivating.

And that’s what I love about super hero movies. The difference between the ‘bad side’ and the ‘good side’ is generally thin. If anything, the ‘good’ side is often even weaker. But, it always distinguishes itself by making great choices.. (I understand ‘great’ is subjective but I guess, ‘principled’ would be more accurate. That is open to debate as always).

And I guess the biggest thing I have learnt from super hero movies is the line ‘With great power comes great responsibility’. And I think all ‘good’ guys tend to exemplify that sense of responsibility.

Anyway, the weekend unfolded with me catching up on X-Men 1 and X-Men 3 again. And once again, being the sucker for super heroes and inspiration that I am, I ended up replaying the scene where Wolverine inspires what remains of the X-men team to go and fight by saying

Such scenes always get me clapping. :) And it’s a pity I’m not able to find a YouTube video of the scene for the ones who haven’t seen it/cannot recollect it.

All in all, inspired this week – all thanks to the X-Men. A fantastic series – long may they continue. And until the next X-Men/Batman/Spiderman movie arrives, I hope Hollywood reconsiders the shelving of the Justice League movie..

To Superhero movies! Have a great week all!

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Update: I have watched this movie 3 times. And it has only turned from a ‘like’ to an ‘obsession’

During the process, I experimented with the following –

1. Apps on my old Palm Treo (yes, very old)

2. Microsoft Excel

3. Google Docs

4. Conventional pen and paper

And none worked. It reached a point when I almost gave up on it. But, thanks to some honed persistence, I didn’t give up and some casual searching for iPhone apps lead me to Envelopes.

The app’s concept is incredibly simple. You have a bunch of Envelopes. You enter a budget and as you spend, you just put the amount in and voila.. you’re done. This is in contrast to frills offered in other apps eg: writing compulsory notes, ability to produce fancy graphs etc.

While I feel the app could do an ’email’ feature to send me all the numbers at the end of a month, I think it is near perfect thanks to it’s simplicity.

So, for those of you who use iPhones, you are $0.99 away from tracking your expenses..

And for those of you with Androids/other smart phones, maybe you would be able to find a similar app.. or simply ask Elliot to develop an app for you. :)

And for those who prefer the Nokia way of life, I have a simple suggestion – when taking your expenses in, just focus on the numbers. Don’t bother with the description (2 years later, you are not going to care about whether you spend $10 on eggs and milk vs bread for example). The important thing is to focus on the big picture i.e. the total expenses and trends and this app (for those who can get it) enables you to do just that.

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PS: I use the app slightly differently. The concept behind the app is you use it like money in an envelope i.e. put in $100 and keep withdrawing. That way, if you have a budget of $2,000, the main screen will show how much you have left.

I choose not to put in any money. So, my main screen just shows me how much I have spent. I find that much more effective, personally.

Original article by David Rock here

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However, there’s a different epidemic happening out there that’s getting less attention, perhaps because it is less obvious than the epidemic of obesity we’re experiencing. It seems we may be entering an era of an epidemic of overwhelm. A time when too many people’s mental well-being is being stretched through multi-tasking, fragmented attention and information overload.

The trouble is, we are short on simple, clear information about good mental habits. Few people know about what it takes to have optimum mental health, and the implications of being out of balance. It is not taught in schools, or discussed in business. The issue just isn’t on the table. Businesses schedule time as if the brain had unlimited resources, as if we could focus well all day long. Every week I talk to an organization who says that their biggest problem is simply the overwhelm their people are feeling. Without good information about the mind and brain, we may be stretching ourselves in ways that may have bigger implications than poor eating habits.

So, my friend and colleague Dr. Daniel J. Siegel and I got together and decided to create what we’re calling the Healthy Mind Platter. This platter has seven essential mental activities necessary for optimum mental health in daily life. These seven daily activities make up the full set of ‘mental nutrition’ that your brain needs to function at it’s best. By engaging regularly in each of these servings, you enable your brain to coordinate and balance its activities, which strengthens your brain’s internal connections and your connections with other people.

The seven essential mental activities are:

Focus Time. When we closely focus on tasks in a goal-oriented way, taking on challenges that make deep connections in the brain.

Play Time. When we allow ourselves to be spontaneous or creative, playfully enjoying novel experiences, which helps make new connections in the brain.

Connecting Time. When we connect with other people, ideally in person, richly activating the brain’s social circuitry.

Physical Time. When we move our bodies, aerobically if possible, which strengthens the brain in many ways.

Time In. When we quietly reflect internally, focusing on sensations, images, feelings and thoughts, helping to better integrate the brain.

Down Time. When we are non-focused, without any specific goal, and let our mind wander or simply relax, which helps our brain recharge.

Sleep Time. When we give the brain the rest it needs to consolidate learning and recover from the experiences of the day.

We’re not suggesting a specific recipe for a healthy mind, as each individual is different, and our needs change over time too. And we’re not suggesting that business suddenly changes everything and reorganized all of work. The point is to become aware of the full spectrum of essential mental activities, and just like with essential nutrients, make sure that at least every few days we are nudging the right ingredients into our mental diet.

Just like you wouldn’t eat only pizza every day for days on end, we shouldn’t just live on focus time and little sleep. Mental wellness is all about giving your brain lots of opportunities to develop in different ways. In organizations, from a practical perspective, this means allowing people to work from home more, to be more flexible, to give people more autonomy.

In short, it is important to eat well, and we applaud the new healthy eating plate. However as a society we are sorely lacking in good information about what it takes to have a healthy mind. We hope that the healthy mind platter creates an appetite for increasing awareness of what we put into our minds too.

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Great article. Nice to have a framework to think about this. Helps me understand why there are times when I feel like doing absolutely nothing and zoning out completely.

1. Less distracted = Better relationships

2. No ‘need’ felt to keep checking email = More relaxed

3. Less eye strain = Better health

4. No unnecessary notifications = Less interruptions and higher productivity

5. Triple the battery life = More convenience

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Note to self. The last 3 days have worked much better thanks to this. Now, to sustain this!

There is a lot of talk about privacy these days. It seems like there is a lot of fear going around thanks to the whole Sony fiasco. And of course, it has become some sort of a weird fad to talk about ‘lack of privacy’.

Anything that we do on the internet is hack-able. We would be stupid to think otherwise.

Of course, that’s not to say you shouldn’t use strong passwords. It is akin to keeping your door open in a safe neighborhood versus closed. Keeping your door open can tempt many a thief while keeping your door closed will basically only ensure planned thefts.

Keep your passwords strong and safe. Try not give your email address and password at random websites and of course, take good care before giving any credit card information. That should be it.

No worry. No stress required. If they are out to get you. They will.. When the behemoth Sony didn’t stand a chance, what makes us think we will fare better?

And of course, it is not a comforting thought. But, neither is global warming.. we just have to accept it and move on.

PS: Of course the smartphone companies know where you are! With all those location services on your phone, did you expect any different? Does it matter?