Author: alearningaday

Track your expenses – Envelopes

Ever since I read ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ a good 3 years ago, tracking my expenses has been something I have wanted to do. But, as it is with life’s simple things, this simple looking goal proved elusive. I ended up having expense tracking systems which were 90% accurate – good but not good enough.

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.

Maintain your Mental Well-Being – HBR

Original article by David Rock here
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This week the US government revised the food pyramid — that diagram that’s been with us for decades that is supposed to remind people how to eat well. The model needed a revision, and the new version, called Choose My Plate, is a big improvement.

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.

Switch off Wifi and 3G when not necessary

Advantages:
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!

The whole privacy debate

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?

Paul Scholes

Paul Scholes, of Manchester United, retired day before yesterday.

He was the player I looked up to the most in the football world and was among the biggest reasons I chose to be a fan of Manchester United. Even during the days of Ronaldo, the sight of Scholes’ name on the team sheet thrilled me the most.

The events after the Barcelona game were fitting. A reporter described it best –

‘Stood, clad in Iniesta’s sweat-drenched shirt, Scholes had to disappoint Messi, Xavi, Busquets and Pedro by informing each that he had already surrendered his jersey. For all their modern mastery of the football, Barcelona’s pass-poppers recognised that they were in the presence of the greatest little maestro of his generation.’

When I wrote expressing my admiration for him earlier this year, I wrote..

‘If we are lucky, Scholes will decide to play on for another season before he hangs up his boots. If Ryan Giggs retires at the same time, the media will be all over Giggs showering one accolade after another and Scholes will be written about as another one of those greats who probably never got the credit or praise he deserved. People will speak of his eye catching passes, his spectacular goals and they will move on. News stays fresh only for a few hours after all.. But, football will be poorer for it. Football would have lost an artist, a role model for many a youngster, a humble family man, one of its few remaining ‘one club men’ – all rolled in one.

This blogger is reminded of an article written ages ago by a leading journalist on Sachin Tendulkar accusing the Indian media of taking him for granted.

‘It is unlikely that the tourist guide loitering on the perimeters of the Taj monument would have appreciated its timeless beauty — and even if he did, it is less likely that he might have pondered its historic value to a civilization.’

It is much the same with Paul Aaron Scholes. We know not what we will miss..’

Turns out we weren’t so lucky..

Watching Paul Scholes play was always on my bucket list. I am glad I did it before he retired.. at Fulham on May 9th 2011. He didn’t disappoint. He hardly ever does.
I looked upto him most because of his character – While Paul Scholes, the footballer, always amazed and enthralled, Paul Scholes, the family man, never disappointed. He had high standards and his performance levels weren’t able to match those standards any more. I am glad he decided to retire as nothing would have been worse than him going out on a low. He did provide many memorable moments in his characteristically short interviews. ‘I suppose I’m okay’ and ‘I will miss football, not the life of a footballer‘.
Well, I will miss watching him – the finest midfielder of his generation and the ultimate footballing role model. And I will never forget his brilliant goal against Barcelona – my finest moment as a Manchester United fan..

Thank you Paul Scholes. I hope to meet you someday!

The ‘too short’ song

Every time I wish to connect with my ‘roots’ (i.e. Tamil music) where popular music is concerned, I always start with this song..

If you ask me what the meaning of the song is, I would tell you very plainly that I have no clue. I just find it beautiful. I haven’t cared to watch or interpret the video.
What is also amazing is that this song is only 1 minute and 47 songs long. That’s a good 1 min shorter than the average song. And every time I listen to it, I wonder why the song wasn’t longer. Wouldn’t it have been better?
When I did this routine of listening->enjoying->complaining about it being too short, I thought of all the songs that make me wonder why they didn’t make it shorter! And I realized that the makers of the song were extremely smart. They created a beautiful piece that left you wanting for more..
Wouldn’t it be amazing if we were the kind of people that always left people wishing they spent more time with us? Or if we provided services that left people wondering why we didn’t do more?