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Clayton M Christensen’s writing on ‘How will you measure your life?’ made me have a re-look at my priorities. In the year 2010 I had been doing so much that I had never been so busy, stressed and tired ,eventually fell too sick. Yet when I recollect that year, nothing good stands out barring a few high points and most of the time I had spent trying to squeeze in more and more. On the contrary when I identified some core areas to work & concentrate; and try not to pack myself, I see a remarkable improvement in efficiency and my sense of well being.

I inferred Clayton’s writing as below

  • Get the priorities right and use the resources wisely, we have only 12-14 hours in a day. We should learn to amplify the effectiveness in the tasks we will be involved in every day instead of trying to cram in more hours. Keep revisiting the priorities as they change very often and one plan is never good for long
  • Avoid succumbing the temptation of this one time. Some positive habits are hard to catch on and difficult to follow. Have something like a Seinfeld calendar and make sure not to break the chain.
  • Stay away from the power tools both at work and the family. The best way we can win the confidence of others is to create a level playing field and help each other. Collective intelligence is far more superior than the sum of individual intelligence put together, team work will take us to new height even in a learning mode.
  • Every person we meet has something to teach us, right or wrong is always a perception. By being humble we will be approachable and people will readily share experience and knowledge to help us out. Individuals who act overly assertive or arrogant can leave a wrong impression of being successful, we should be careful not to follow them because mostly their arrogant behavior is to mask their shortcomings. They need to put someone else down to feel good about themselves.
  • Have simple rules and values by which we would leave our place lot better than what we found.

Clayton M Christensen is a professor at Harvard Business School. His work on which this blog is based on is available at HBR

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Reader’s digest April month issue made a cover story on why multi tasking is inefficient and risky. I liked the way they presented their views, one example is to write A to Z and 1 to 26 in a paper; alphabets all at one time and numerals the second time. I clocked 20 seconds to do both tasks one by one. Next was to write A and then 1, B and then 2 and go on. This took me more than 30 seconds and I was not able to write as neat as I wrote in the previous attempt. This shows two simple tasks are inefficient when we switch contexts.

They then gave some examples people trying to multi-task and getting into car accidents or falling off the stairs etc (Mostly cell phone distractions). I have observed people who multi-task a lot to be more absent minded. My inclination is also to concentrate on one task at a time and for years I have been reading emails at the start of the day, lunch and end of day & switch off instant messengers at work. I like to compare working on a task to falling asleep, on an average it takes about an undisturbed 13 minutes for an individual to fall asleep; any disturbance before that is going to delay the onset of sleep. I can assume that a task that requires concentration at work will also need that undisturbed time (7 to 13 minutes) to settle into the mode and get going where the instincts take over the conscience (That is the point where I have been the most efficient).

Sadly the work places now are getting livelier and noisier, I mean it literally. Inviduals have begun to dive into multiple streams of work and often have to switch contexts. This leads to inefficiency and puts some individuals into a vicious cycle of coffee, long hours and lack of sleep until they go on vacations. If the environment is also micro management friendly then that adds more fuel to the vicious cycle of inefficiencies.

In my workplace I have observed people concentrate the most when they play a team game like AOE, where the only conversations are brief messages and status exchanges as the goal is to keep moving until you win. The work place core hours should be inclined that way to cut out not only literal noise but also disturbances which will make us switch contexts too often. Some rigidity in the schedule is required as it helps to get people into a rhythm, the schedule should also keep in mind the team’s composition to accommodate different individuals as they peak at different times during the day. Try getting your team and members work on a mutually agreed schedule of no meeting times and feel the difference it makes to every individual.

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Like the memo function in programming our brain tends to get conditioned over time to provide immediate output to inputs. A good example is learning to drive. Earlier one is too conscious about the steering, vehicle’s response to throttle and brakes; over time people forget the fact that they are driving and indulge in nice music or a conversation as driving becomes automatic to them without having to think.

Doing the same thing again and again makes the task etched so well into our brain. This is true for any given task whether it is good in nature or bad, the subconscious does not differentiate and it keeps trying to make you efficient. Therefore it is important for us to make sure our exposure from friends. books, tv and workplace is generally positive and our attitude is generally positive.

Over the years I had a chance to work under different kinds of people and subsconsiously they have shaped me to what I am today. I have observed often that the bad habits gets passed from the peers than the good ones as they have an illusion of short term gains. The bad habits gets passed on mostly in the form of gossip and getting the bad views and thoughts over and again is so powerful that it can create illusions that can last a life time as the real data wont be verified.

For example, the resistance to change was so powerful that it took me about 6-7 months for me avoid the words ‘actually’ and ‘basically’ when I talk. After I decided to get rid of them, I kept a conscious watch of when I use those two words. For the first few weeks I used to say those words and kick myself because I keep repeating the mistake. About a month later I was successful in controlling those and forgot tracking that after the first couple of months. After 6 months or so I noticed that I had got rid of it, unlearning was far more tougher and time consuming process than learning.

The difficulty to unlearn is due to the brain’s inclination in making the input/output super responsive that most of them would be cached. The instincts are the ones which mostly controls and the conscience is a mere supervisor. We should make sure to check that we dont form any habit that make us look incompetent and will make us pay a lot to unlearn.

Not only we should avoid negative influence, we should also keep learning and try to increase our skills in depth and breadth, as over the course of time the brain will make the learning process more efficient and we will get better and quicker in picking up new things.

Practice makes a man perfect. Keep learning every day.