Study

A lot of people off-late have been asking me, how should you study? What are the different ways to study so that we remember? And so on. I am no expert to reply to this question, but yes, I think I can contribute a little bit so that the person who has these questions feels better.

I will be dealing with the questions as they strike me, and may be if we have some query we can clear them and discuss so that we get different opinions and may be even device new mechanisms to study!!!

I have concentrated more on the students who are studying for their graduation. May be some of the methods and queries that we see may be common to a lot of other students, in such a case just go ahead and pick up the technique, if you feel it’s worth it.

You may find me idealistic in some of the answers but, that's the way I have preferred doing things. I am open to criticism; I like people being critical about what they read or learn or anything.

AND LAST BUT NOT THE LEAST, there is bound to be difference of opinions, just post your views on the topics what you think is a good way forward? May be you have a better technique to remember or recall and things like that, just share it so that it’s of some use to other as well.

Let us begin with understanding what study is first?

Study is application of the mind to the acquisition of knowledge, as by reading, investigation, or reflection. This is a time consuming process, requiring a lot of patience and effort to attain knowledge.

The knowledge that you obtain would be in deep understanding of the subject of interest. It's only through study that we understand the minute details that are missed out when we just browse through the topic that we "intend to study". These minute details when understood completely, gives a competitive edge over those who have not "studied" the particular subject.

It is study of the subject that is the marking difference between the Master and a novice. A novice to start off with a lot of committed study of the subject develops into a master of the subject.

Study need not be always mental; it is a combination of mental and physical activities. The theory learnt would involve a majority of mental effort, but it's through the physical examination i.e., through practical experience that we understand this better, "to understand" is component of study. That is why we have "practical sessions in labs" during college days.

The scope of study essentially involves understanding of the subject, practical and theoretical parts just form a path to achieve better knowledge of the subject.

So the basic purpose of study turns out to be mastery of a particular field of interest.

Now the next question is why should I study something?

Well not every thing is to be studied in detail, you can just be happy by knowing what the topic means!!

But what interests us we have to study it in detail, else we are just like an encyclopedia reference (not detailed, just a glimpse of the topic), so can you tell some one how it actually works, what it actually is? Can you reply to any query in that regard based on just this minimal knowledge? This will lead us to a position where we are in a situation - "Jack of many, King of None!!!"

We seem to know a lot of things, but don't understand all of them. This is what generally happens when we go to an interview. Let me take up the example of a campus interview: Invariably we are asked the question - "Which is your favourite subject?" and then the interviewers start off asking questions on it. The Idea behind this is simple - if you like a subject, you would definitely learn the subject well (This is intern a reflection on the interest you have). They then evaluate you based on their understanding, how well you know the subject - this is just to know how thorough you are on the subject that you like - reason, if you have shown this interest and understood some subject really well then if you are given a handsome pay and incentives you would definitely learn what they want you to, and perform well in it. This is so simple isn't it?

So it’s important that we "study" at least one subject well, if we do learn more than one subject well, then it’s an added advantage.

If we study some subject thoroughly, it reflects on our understanding of other subjects as well. If we are a master of some subject, its easy to understand another just by mapping one to another, an example may be - understanding equations in algebra helps understand matrix related problems, this is with maths... but will definitely hold true with other subjects as well I am very sure. So, EASE OF REMEMBERING is another factor why we need to study.

What is it, which makes study different form a "go-through" or a "browse"?

Well as I see it, it’s the understanding of the subject. While a "go-through" or a "browse" will just keep things in memory for a short term and then forget it, without understanding the essence of what was read, heard or seen.

I know that its difficult to study, its so easy to get behind marks but always remember ... what is understood becomes ours for life, what is just kept in mind with say the intention of an exam, or something will not remain with us though out, and needs constant rehearsal.

To understand we have to spend time with the subject that we wish to master, to study. With time, the time spent to study a subject goes on reducing.

Time wise it can be said that "studying" in the long run is faster and more rewarding than just a "browse".

I attempt to study, but I can’t recall a thing when I am asked about it. What should I do?

Well, study can be done only if we work on any subject in our mind, so we have to retain and get the association right.

Retention of what we study is very important, without that it’s like we have no data to study when we have time. To retain data, we have to have the art of association (actually this is a study technique that we will look into some time later). This association is what gets the continuity of thought. This guides us how one of the topics is related to the next topic, how one sentence is linked to the next and so on.

The flow that is seen is what helps us retain the subject related information in our brain. When we associate a line of information with the next, we derive a sort of flow in the thought process that helps us recall. Just by thinking "how this sentence leads to the very next sentence?" we can associate and there by remember the topic. So all we have to do is just read, and then take some time to understand the particular sentence, and then read the next sentence, associate the two of them so as to form a chain, which can be pulled out by holding one end.

While trying to think of the various associations that are needed to get to the flow, you can actually use your own experiences so that you can remember them better. You can also think of the associations that are funny, or those which rake up a lot of emotions, these associations tend to stay with us for a longer time in memory.

How should I study? Is there any particular method?

Well to frankly say there is no particular method, I have used a few of them, I think this will help in studying a subject. I discuss in here two different techniques:

1. The first technique is what most of them can easily follow. It’s what is called "repetition". This is a very time consuming process, but very easy to follow. This can be done by even a dull head who doesn't even have a bit of imagination. All we have to have is abundant time at our disposal. Just sit in front of the material, and repeat what is to be learnt, after a lot of effort it automatically gives a flash of understanding and then we have to look at all things again with that as our torch light. This is one of the crude ways to study, but is very time consuming.

2. The second method needs nothing but a bit of imagination, i.e. I mean the capacity to visualize things. All we have to do is just read a sentence, and let the mind think freely on this particular sentence. Let it imagine and get as many Ideas as possible (In turn the mind gets happy because, we are giving it sufficient work that it likes - imagining). Now read the second sentence and so the same imagination exercise. Once this is done, think about the two sentences in tandem; try associating the two sentences (again an imagination exercise.) Keep doing this exercise, from the first line of the paragraph to the last line of the paragraph. Once a paragraph is complete, go to the next, once 2 paragraphs are complete, associate one paragraph with another. This will give the flow of the content in the topic chosen. Try it out and see how long you remember what you have learnt (you are sure to be amazed at your capacity!!!)

Well this just did not end the study, now we have most of what we learnt in our brain and this is the most important part. Once we have all this data into brain, we have to keep thinking about it when we are free, this will help us understand better, and once we get that understanding we have studied the subject. The more you think, the more diverse the meaning of what we have studied is going to be; this makes us more studied... and eventually the masters of a subject.

Once we are masters of a subject, we can easily understand other subject just but drawing parallelism between the subjects in case we feel so, else we can use the above technique to study them.

Hey what do you think is the essence of the above method that you have told? If I know what I have to do it would be helpful as I can device my own method for it?

The basic essence of the methods that I mentioned above is "observation", through repeatedly letting the mind ponder over and think about some thing that it just read helps us observe the subtle and an hidden information that will not be available on just reading through. This is important in order to improve the understanding of the subject that is under study. Observe every single thing that you can, the more you observe, the more you understand what is being talked off - what is that that each of the author thinks is important, what does he emphasise, what is that which will give me a better analogy of what I learn. All this is possible only if we observe and then try looking at the subject of study.

Oh All that's fine, but I don't get time to do anything? how can I give so much of time to master a subject?

Well, friend I think 24 hours in a day is all each of us have to do all our activities. We have our own priorities in life no doubt, but as a student its our first priority to study and make a mark for our self. I personally think as a student study has to be our first priority, all other things can hold back (some 20 yrs down the line we should not feel sad for not having studied something which might be needed).

The basic reason why we always complain about shortage of time is our bad time management. All of us have the same 24 hrs but some can do much more than others in the same time frame.

Most of the time we waste our time because we don't know what the next job that we want to do is? We waste a lot of time thinking what to do next, this is to be avoided, and then we will be managing our time better.

How do I manage Time?

Managing time is simple as far as I think; we have to follow the following steps to manage time:

1. Identify what are those things in which you waste a lot of time.

2. Think if I have to do some work, what would be the shortest time that I can give to this, in case we fail to finish it on time what would be the longest time frame?

3. Now list down the things that are static (routine) for the day, and ones that are dynamic (ones which change day to day based on sudden priority works, we can at least make a guess rt!!)

4. Think which of these things can be clubbed to gather in one go? (Say once we go out of the house for getting some books just check to see if you need a pen as well). Avoid repetition of work.

5. Now to the most important part of time management, decide how much time we should give for each of the subject that you want to study? Say you decide to give 30 min to each subject and you have 5 subjects, so we have to find a slot to fit in this 2 and half hours. May not be in one continuous stretch, but may be with time gaps in between. But the basic point is you should do this regularly.

6. Once this much is decided, we can plan a time schedule that, which gives us the time for all that we want to do within the day. Now that we have the schedule we just have to follow it, that's all we have to do to manage our time.

If you have a calendar based reference to what you would like to do, what are your engagements for the next 6 months? And so on... it will help do the time management even better.

Well this should help us do off our problems with time management, but still I personally feel we can improve up on this, when we have scheduled a job to be done and that is postponed or is completed much before time we have to put some things else in the place so as to use that time and may be if we feel relax later on!!!.

I have studied as much as I can, but I get nervous when I get to the time I have to perform - Exams. What do you think is going wrong here?

I think this is a problem with the confidence of facing an examination. As the saying goes - "The proof of a pudding is in eating it." Any amount of information that is there in the mind will be evaluated only on the way its been presented.
1. First of all we have to isolate the reason(s) for the lack of confidence. For this we have to look at our-self and analyse where we might be missing the crux... that is making us feel lower in confidence?
2. To improve confidence it is important that we practise really well, practice facing the opposition that we might be exposed to, i.e. answer more question papers, and answer the questions which in the increasing order of difficulty as you may think to be.
3. Also self suggestion techniques, like speaking to your self about your strength will help a lot, suggesting your self by saying "I am confident of performing well" will also help.
4. Getting to revise very often will help out, the frequency of revision may keep on decreasing. say initially you start of revising every alternate day then once in 3 days then once in 5 days and then 7 days, fortnight and so on...

Is there any suggestion that you would like to give while we are about to write exams?

Definitely there are some things to be kept in mind while writing an exam. The most common mistake that we do it - once we get the paper we just have a quick glance at the questions and immediately start writing it, this is a wrong thing to do. Once you are in the examination hall and you have received the paper, we have a few things to note:
1. Read through all the questions completely and realize which questions you would like to answer as you think they might be easy.
2. Once you select the questions you want to answer, read them again and look at what the paper expects you to write.
3. Once you know what is being requested for, note down the point in the corner of the answer sheet, else you may forget what is to be written, or you may realize a few points while writing the answers.
4. Once you have written the points, think of organizing them in a very presentable manner, point wise presentation is preferred over paragraph presentation. While presenting ensure you write down the points as much as possible in the order of importance that you would like to associate.

There are so many things to remember, can you suggest a few things to aid the process of remembering?

As already discussed while mentioning about how to study? I have made a mention of the link based system of studying. This alone should go a long way in helping remember things. To assist this method further:
1. you can make small set of notes, as summary of all the topics, the main points under each topic etc. This will help save a lot of time towards the end of the academic calendar.
2. If you have a lot of diagrams to refer to, then it will be better to make the diagram on a sheet of paper and stick it over the wall so that it keeps reminding u about the functionality.
3. Make comparative notes, this will help remember with much more ease... a typical example would be the comparison of the various hydrocarbons in organic chemistry... you can compare the method of generation, the chemical reactions and things like it. If you have a sheet ready like it, you can stick it out and keep comparing with it.
4. And try associating things that you want to remember with some thing out of proportion, something that is exaggerating something really funny, this will help you remember things for a long time.

Competition - Natural versus prepared!!!

Competition - Natural versus prepared!!!
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Well this is just one thought that I got while I was walking back from the cafeteria after my lunch. Some of my friends were talking about writing exams like GRE, CAT, GMAT ans things like it. Even I had given CAT and got GDPI calls for 3 of them. But this thought which I got - naturalness versus competitive preparedness, is not one that i am used to.

This is a competitive world no doubt about that, we see competition right from school days till we find job, and even after that. We see children in pre-university colleges, going to tutions after theirs long hours of class through out the day. Especially when the students are in 12^th I see that they don't have a break, the preparation starts some 2 months before the actual college classes begins, the students are made to go through a rigorous schedule and don't find time for anything else. Then there are the competitive exams which these students write. They are get to compete on much larger scale and those who will make it though these exams gets a graduation course of his/her choice.

In all this process of preparation for the exams, we are continuously strained by the time bound process. We have to say, wake up at 5:30am, then slog the whole day and then get back to bed at 12 mid night. We do this for one year and then we get into a graduation course that would later on guarantee us a job, and a profession. But in all this we find that we just prepare our-self for the competitive exam, and just get trained for the particular purpose. We don't follow this system further until we have another competition else where.

Well when I say "natural" in the above sentences, I only mean not being explicitly prepared for this purpose, but this naturalness might be a result of long term effort. What this means is, you work continuously, not concerned about the course of events/competition etc., you work to increase your skill set and there by just make it natural - liking what you do.

Here are a few things that curtails me and get me thinking as to why its better to make the thing natural than just be prepared for it is the effect this preparedness gets in. Assume you enter into a prestigious institute like IIT with a solid preparation that was overlooked & guided by a coaching class. When you enter into such an institute and find all the people coming in there with just some prepared course material and not naturally good in the subject (he has not understood the subject on his own and just come in with some knowledge about how to solve what is given), we cant find a lot people getting into to understand the subject of the course and the basis for innovation - science, takes a hard hit. We find today a lot of people who could not make it into the engineering colleges for their graduation go and join the pure science stream. The result being that we have very few innovations in the pure science related field of late. We have to emphasise on naturalness and ensure that this be the path that people follow, so as to benefit the long run objectives of improvement rather than immediate gains.

After all these though, i am slowly getting into being more bent towards the natural process. I don't want to be spontaneous for success alone, I feel like relishing what I do. I want to make my gamut of capabilities large enough to encompass the challenge of competition more easily. I believe in sharpening the axe even when I don't have to cut wood. Working toward making life and the challengers that I face be just a process of evaluation for the much larger concept of making things natural.

If I have to explain what I mean to say in the above paragraph, I would get it clear like this. I am generally work with words, solve crossword puzzles, and try all the games related to vocabulary, just because I like the language and want to know more about it. I work on this continuously. If some day choose to write GRE, the preparation for the vocabulary section of the exam would not need any extra effort. Its just natural for me to answer this. I would be in a much better mental state to answer the questions, than if I had prepared specifically for this purpose - in which case, the pressure of the exam can get me to mark a wrong answer even if I know the correct one. If you read regularly to improve you G.K and not for any competitive interview, you are definitely more better off.

Though the natural process of preparation, which takes time and effort, and doesn't seem to give immediate results, except that you do it for your own satisfaction. In the long run, this naturalness give lot more preparedness to face situations, a better understanding of the subject, making it more rewarding.

Well I don't mean to rule out that small term preparation is bad, or not useful at all. All I want to tell up is that, this short term is a good short cut to success but it will not carry a long way until we convert this short-term preparation to be more expanding and encompassing. We don't get to like all that we do, true, but we have to prepare our-self for the situation... in such cases we have to take to the short term preparation. But we can keep doing this short preparation but have to make it natural if the same situation recurs. The basic point is we have to strike the right balance between the two.

The most important way of converting this short term preparations into naturalness is by converting them into hobbies, this is the easiest of ways. Other than that we can start off continuing with the same routine that we would have developed in the days of intense preparation, and then blossom with the same routine to experiment and know the beauty of the each of the subjects that may be involved. These are the smoothest way to transform from the short term preparation to long term natural preparedness...

Well I see that for quick gains and results in the fast paced world of today, there is little that we can do to prevent short term preparedness towards competition. We are happy being able to perform on the particular day and not care about how well we understand and perform. But the only point that is repeatedly coming to my mind is, how long can you survive on something that is manipulated and not completely integrated and made your own feature? I don't disagree that there are people who follow the short-term progress but understand the subject as well but those are very rare cases.

Personally I still advocate being on a "natural" course rather than the gimmicks of a short term preparation... I have decided that I will adopt this system from now on.... may be the turning point of my life... cant say.... I still see sense in this method... What do you think?

Sabeer Bhatia

Sabeer Bhatia

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I am sure - if you have been listening to the news with apt attention during the late 1997 or early 1998, you would not have missed the news of Microsoft taking over HoTMaiL. In this article I give a brief introduction of the co-founder of the HoTMaiL. The co-founder of the now famous HoTMaiL is none other than our very own Bangalore lad - Sabeer Bhatia.

Sabeer was born in 1969 at Chandigarh to Balev Bhatia & Daman Bhatia. Balev Bhatia served the Indian Ministry of Defence while his mother Daman Bhatia worked as a senior official at a State Bank.

Schooling:

His parents placed great value on education. Sabeer grew up in Bangalore and had his early education at Bishops Cotton's School in Pune, and then at St. Joseph's Boy's High School in Bangalore. He did his Pre-University in St. Joseph's College Bangalore.

Some of the memorable incidents during his school life are here - "On parent-teacher days they would just say 'Sir, why did you come? You don't have to come! We tell Sabeer to solve the questions on the blackboard for us,'" says Bhatia senior. Once, Sabeer came home crying after an exam. He had not done badly; he just hadn't had time to write down everything he knew.

He started his undergraduate education at the Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani. In 1988 Sabeer won a full scholarship to the California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech), in Pasadena. After graduating from Caltech, Sabeer went to Stanford to pursue his MS in Electrical Engineering. At Stanford, he worked on Ultra Low Power VLSI Design.

Career:

At Stanford, he was inspired by entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs and Scott McNealy eventually deciding to become one himself. Instead pursuing a PhD after his Masters, he decided to join Apple computers.

Sabeer briefly worked for Apple Computers as a hardware engineer -he lasted nine months there, after that he joined a start up company called Firepower Systems Inc, where he spent two years.

The new dawn:

In his cubicle, he read about young men starting up for peanuts and selling out for millions. Sabeer pondered what the Net could do for him, and what he could do for the Net. Then he had an idea.

It was called Javasoft - a way of using the Web to create a personal database where surfers could keep schedules, to-do lists, family photos and so on. Bhatia showed the plan to Jack Smith, an Apple colleague and they got started. One evening Smith called Bhatia with an intriguing notion. Why not add e-mail to Javasoft? It was a small leap with revolutionary consequences: access to e-mail from any computer, anywhere on the planet. This was that rare thing, an idea so simple, so obvious; it was hard to believe no one had thought of it before. Bhatia saw the potential and panicked that someone would steal the idea. He sat up all night writing the business plan. "Then we wrote down all variations of mail - Speedmail, Hypermail, Supermail." HoTMaiL made perfect sense: it included the letters "HTML" - the programming language used to write Web pages. A brand name was born.

In order to attract attention, the e-mail service was provided for free and revenue was obtained through the advertising on the website. Bhatia had $6,000 to his name. It was time to find investors. By the time he reached the offices of venture capitalists Draper Fisher Jurvetson, 19 doors had slammed behind him. Steve Jurvetson and his colleagues quickly saw the potential and put up $300,000. Bhatia and Smith stretched the money all the way to launch day, July 4, 1996. By year-end they were greeting their millionth customer. When Microsoft came knocking, 12 months later, they'd signed up nearly 10 million users.

Selling HoTMaiL to MS (Microsoft):

But what were 10 million subscribers worth? Was it $160 million as Microsoft said? More? Less? Sabeer polled his investors. Doug Carlisle, whose firm Menlo Ventures had pumped $1 million into Hotmail, guessed $200 million. Sabeer chided him for giving the lowest estimate and joked that he might hold out for a billion. Carlisle promised that if Sabeer made $200 million he would erect a life-size, bronze statue of him in Menlo Ventures' foyer.

Sabeer didn't know how to sell a company. But he did know how to buy onions. "In India you've got to negotiate for everything," he says. "Even buying vegetables, you've got to negotiate." When the bargaining started, Sabeer felt right at home. "They came in low with $160 million, so I came in at $700 million! And when they said: 'That's ridiculous! Are you out of your mind,' I knew it was just a ploy."

Sabeer wouldn't budge, and Microsoft's representatives kept walking out, or rather storming. And shouting and swearing and hurling insults. But the Hotmail team had been warned of Microsoft's tactics. "It was like a record being played," says Jurvetson, "which we thought was pretty funny. It gave us a real sense of strength." During the negotiations, he had bumped into a British backpacker in Prague. Sabeer asked him how he kept in touch with family and friends - Hotmail, of course. Sabeer went back and told Microsoft: "If that is the brand we have built in one and a half years, imagine what it will be in 20 years. Hotmail will easily be bigger than McDonald's."

At $200 million, Doug Carlisle started looking for a sculptor. At $350 million, Hotmail's investors agreed: Sell. Sabeer returned to the table, alone, and once more said: "No." The contract was inked on Dec. 30, 1997, Sabeer’s 29th birthday. The price: some three million Microsoft shares - worth $400 million at the time and twice that now. Today Hotmail users are signing up at the rate of 250,000 a day, and the firm is valued at some $6 billion. "I'm pretty sure Sabeer and Jack regret selling," says Jurvetson. "Who knows what might have been?" Sabeer shrugs: "When we sold, it was considered an outrageous amount. In hindsight, yes, we sold too low. But I don't regret it because at that time it was considered a great deal."

After the Sale (New day!!!):

After selling Hotmail, Sabeer worked at Microsoft for about a year and in April 1999, he left the company to start another website, Arzoo Inc, which was shut down when the dot-com bubble burst. In 2006, he re-launched Arzoo as a travel portal.

He started a new website trying to capitalise on the emerging blogosphere - BlogEverywhere with co-founders Shiraz Kanga and Viraf Zack.

He also pushed for a project enabling access to the internet through cable television in Indian homes. However, due to bureaucratic problems it is very unlikely that this will reach completion.

Further future plans of his include the development of a new city in India by the name of Nano city. The aim of Nanocity is to replicate the vibrance and eco-system of innovation found in the Silicon Valley.

Recognition:

Sabeer’s success has earned him widespread acclaim;

1. The venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson named him 'Entrepreneur of the Year 1997',

2. MIT chose him as one of 100 young innovators who are expected to have the greatest impact on technology and awarded 'TR100',

3. San Jose Mercury News and POV magazine selected him as one of the ten most successful entrepreneurs of 1998 and

4. Upside magazine's list of top trendsetters in the New Economy named him 'Elite 100'.

5. Named by TIME as one of the "People to Watch" in International Business (2002)

Src:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabeer_Bhatia

http://www.pathfinder.com/asiaweek/technology/990625/bhatia.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1402270.stm

http://www.webindia123.com/personal/abroad/sabeer.htm

http://www.indobase.com/indians-abroad/sabeer-bhatia.html

http://www.engology.com/eng5bhatia.htm

PROCRASTINATION - Friend or a Foe

Some time back I was thinking if I had to write articles or not... I thoughts that were holding me back were... what if I don't present my Idea in a pleasing manner? What if some one finds some mistake in it? What if some one makes some thing better than this? Then I started with the thought... Well there will be some one who has done these things earlier, why should I do some thing new? Why should I not follow that...? I might be happy with agreeing 90% with some one!! Then why should I write it... well let me think about it some other time... if I needed I will write.

All through the dilemma - "To write something that was original to me or not" I was PROCRASTINATING. Searching for the perfect article, and internally possessed by the "Fear of Failure". This is the actual enemy that prevents us from achieving what we are capable of. We keep pushing things till we realize that we cannot push it any further... till we have no escape from doing it by compulsion. Well in the above scenario it's not all that serious but still has a message for the bigger scenario... "Beware of The point of compulsion".

When you are compelled to do something... I personally feel we don't give our full effort to completing it... We do it in a half hearted effort more with the thought of having to get done than just doing it by will. This leads to imperfections... This leads to incomplete and sub standard work. and sub standard work always leads to dissatisfaction amongst those who expected the work from you... this will coax them to complaint about your effort, intern triggering the cycle again - the cycle of PROCRASTINATION.

Well what is PROCRASTINATION?

Procrastination is the deferment or avoidance of an action or task and is often linked to Perfectionism. For the person procrastinating this may result in stress, a sense of guilt, the loss of productivity, the creation of crisis, and the charging of others for not fulfilling one's responsibilities or commitments. While it is normal for individuals to procrastinate to some degree, it becomes a problem when it impedes normal functioning. Chronic procrastination may be a sign of an underlying psychological or physiological disorder.

Harold Taylor defines procrastination as the intentional and habitual postponement of an important task that should be done now.

As mentioned above in the definition and explanation section, procrastination is not always bad, it good to delay a decision till we are clear with it, and there by make a better and more sound decision, but this should not push the decision indefinitely - there is definitely a breaking point beyond which we cannot procrastinate… knowing this limit is very important to use procrastination to an advantage. This is not just with regard to decisions that we take on procrastination, it applies to the work we want to do.

We try delaying the work till we feel comfortable... What exactly if the comfort level? Where does this end? Where does procrastination become an enemy from a friend?

This decision can be taken only by practice; it is as a product of our habit and experience that we can determine when we have reached the limit of procrastination. It’s this procrastination in decision making that can help us make a better analysis and assessment… but if we miss the stipulated time frame, we loose everything… we lose the whole purpose and incur huge loss. Evidently the limit can only be got by practicing, looking at the surrounding and at the situation more carefully.

Well how do I stop Procrastinating too much?

Humm... This we have to understand really well. Procrastinating might have become a habit... and habits are hard to change... but still if we follow some steps to reduce procrastination to the appropriate extent. Let me try to do this in a bit of organized manner - i.e. dealing with the reason and then giving suggestions to handle them...

Procrastination is been analyzed by their root cause and some suggestions are noted down here.

We can classify these tasks into two broad classes:

TASK STRATEGIES:

Unpleasant tasks:

We have to realize that rarely unpleasant task turn out to be as bad as we think they are. We can schedule these tasks to the beginning of the day... this will help us finish off these tasks at the earliest. On completing give your self regards for completing them.

Complex Projects

Something looms ahead of you: starting a small business, getting a job, preparing the annual budget. The job is too big or will take too long to do now, so you put it off.

The solution here is to break the large job into small manageable ones over a time frame... Plan and complete a start-up task, no matter how small.

Indecision

People delay because they can't make up their minds. Determine a time for making a decision and the criteria for making it. Share your deadline with someone else.

Fear of failure (lack of self confidence)

People don't want to face the consequences of failure, so they delay. (Some people suffer from fear of success too!)

Develop a clear mental picture of the completed task and how you will feel at that time. Maintain a focus on the end result, not just the process. Remind yourself how good you'll feel when you're finished. This helps improve your confidence...and pushes you to perform.

Lack of interest

You are tired or lazy. You're just not very interested in the task. This is one of the most paining reasons as it has the feel - "I can but I won’t".

Reward yourself for accomplishments. Go out for special lunches when major projects are completed. If you don't earn the reward, don't take it. Schedule the task of fun and enjoyment for when you will be at your peak, which will keep the enthusiasm.

Perfectionism

People delay because they want to get perfect. Set deadlines for yourself. Tell other people your deadlines and encourage them to check up on you. Maintain your high standards, but recognize that sometimes 80% for you may well be 100% for someone else. Don't spend hours conducting a detailed cost breakdown when a rough estimate would suffice. This is to set bench mark for your performance... its better to have our goals high so that it exceeds the expectations of the person who is inspecting you. This increases you confidence as well.

Hostility towards a boss

People delay because they don't like the person who assigned the task.

Review with your boss what exactly is needed. Clarify the expectations. Make a game out of unpleasant tasks. Give yourself points, or do a running commentary on yourself as you do the task. Just make it a fun working the task that's the Idea.

Distraction, lack of focus

Sometimes losing concentration causes delays.

Create a to-do list with priorities, Block your time for projects, As you get distracted from a work project, make a rule that you are not allowed to move out of your chair, make a call, surf the net, pick up a book etc. until you return to your task. Complete something. Make a very small task for yourself and finish it. Then, make another one.

ENVIRONMENT STRATEGIES

Tailor your environment for work. Close your door, clean up the clutter on your desk.

Remove distractions such as water coolers, snacks, in-boxes, coffee machines and magazine racks.

If you work at home, treat your office as an office. Don't go out to lunch before lunchtime or watch television before the end of the day.

Tell your family that you are not to be disturbed in your home office.

These are for the solution part of the problem of procrastinating...... I believe can help us get out of this habit.

After going though these suggestions now I always believe in "Let the thought of fear not take away the Joy of success later". I think in these lines most of the time. If I loose I don't loose the lesson. I may look childish in my attempts but, I am ready to learn like a child. This is my Inspiration... this is my style of life now. It’s been exciting ever since I took to this style... I have been happy, really happy since.

Look into and let me know if these strategies have helped you reduce the delays due to Procrastinating and made you proactive.

Sir Richard Branson

Sir Richard Branson

Sir Richard Branson is the founder and chairman of Virgin group, a highly diversified business conglumerate. Down in this article I wish to present a brief biographical sketch of this maverick and unconventional business icon.

Sir Richard Branson is a flamboyant British entrepreneur with a seemingly insatiable appetite for starting new business. His internationally recognized brand "Virgin" is splashed across everything from credit cards to airlines to music "mega stores". Branson continuously seeks new business opportunities and loves a good challenge, especially when he enters a market that is dominated by few major players.

Sir Richard Branson was born on 18 July 1950, Shamley Green, Surrey, England.Branson was educated at Scaitcliffe School (now Bishopsgate School) until the age of 13. He then attended Stowe School until he was 15. Branson has dyslexia, resulting in his not having been a good student. He was the captain of football and cricket teams, and by the age of 15 he had started two ventures that eventually failed: one growing Christmas trees and another raising budgerigars.

Sir Richars's talents began to show themselves during his later school days. Seeing the energy of student activism in the late 60s, he decided to start his own newspaper. not particularly unusual, except his paper was intended to tie many schools together. It would be focused on the student and not on the schools. It would sell advertising to big business and feature articles by members of Parliament, rock stars and movie celebrities. That was the business plan of the 17 year old - Richard Branson put together with his friend, Jonny Gems. The rest is history. The head master of Stowe, where Richard and Jonny were students wrote: "Congratulations, Branson. I predict you will either go to prison or become a millionaire".

When he was 17, he opened his first charity, the "Student Valley Centre". Branson started his first record business after he travelled across the English Channel and purchased crates of "cut-out" records from a record discounter. He sold the records out of the boot of his car to retail outlets in London. The name 'Virgin' was a selling point because records were sold in a new condition.Branson eventually started a record shop in Oxford Street in London and, shortly after, launched the record label Virgin Records with Nik Powell. Branson had earned enough money from his record store to buy a country estate, in which he installed a recording studio. He leased out studio time to fledgling artists, including multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield.

Virgin Atlantic Airways, started in 1984, is now the second largest British long haul international airline and operates a fleet of Boeing 747 air crafts to New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Orlando, Boston, San Francisco, Washington, Dallas, and Tokyo.In 1992, the Virgin Music Group -- record labels, music publishing and recording studios -- was sold to Thorn EMI in a $1 billion US deal, to keep his airline company afloat.The airline was founded on the concept of offering competitive and high quality first class and economy services. The airline holds many major airline awards and recently earned "Airline of the Year Award" for the third consecutive year.

In 1997, Branson took what many saw as being one of his riskier business exploits by entering into the railway business. Virgin Trains won the franchises for the former Intercity West Coast and Cross-Country sectors of British Rail. Launched with the usual Branson fanfare with promises of new high-tech tilting trains and enhanced levels of service, Virgin Trains soon ran into problems with the aging rolling stock and crumbling infrastructure it had inherited from British Rail. The company's reputation was almost irreversibly damaged in the late 1990s as it struggled to make trains reliably run on time while it awaited the modernisation of the West Coast Main Line, and the arrival of new rolling stock.

Virgin has acquired European short-haul airline Euro Belgian Airlines, renaming it Virgin Express, and subsequently merging it with SN Brussels. It also started a national airline based in Nigeria, called Virgin Nigeria. Another airline, Virgin America, is set to launch out of San Francisco International Airport in 2007. Branson has also developed a Virgin Cola brand, but is now retreating only to the UK market, and even a Virgin Vodka brand, which has not been a very successful enterprise. As a consequence of these lacklustre performers and perceived obscure accounting practices, the satirical British fortnightly magazine Private Eye has been critical of Branson and his companies

On September 25, 2004 Branson announced the signing of a deal under which a new space tourism company, Virgin Galactic, will license the technology behind Spaceship One to take paying passengers into suborbital space. The group plans to make flights available to the public by late 2009 with tickets priced at $200,000. The deal was mostly financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and the American aeronautical engineer and visionary Burt Rutan.

Branson's next venture with the Virgin group is Virgin Fuel, which is set to respond to global warming and exploit the recent spike in fuel costs by offering a revolutionary, cheaper fuel for automobiles and, in the near future, aircraft. Branson has stated that he was formerly a global warming skeptic and was influenced in his decision by a breakfast meeting with Al Gore.

Branson has been tagged as a "transformational leader" in the management lexicon, with his maverick strategies and his stress on the Virgin Group as an organization driven on informality and information, one that is bottom-heavy rather than strangled by top-level management.

In addition to his own business activities, Richard is a trustee of several charities including the Virgin Health Care Foundation, a leading health care charity which is responsible for the launch of health education campaign relating to AIDS. The foundation has also become involved in a lobbying campaign called Parents Against Tobacco, which aims to restrict tobacco advertising and sponsorship in sports.

Branson also launched the Virgin Health Bank on 1 February 2007, offering parents-to-be the opportunity of storing their baby's umbilical cord blood stem cells in private and public stem cell banks after their baby's birth.

On 9 February 2007, Richard Branson committed to a $25 million prize for a practical plan to reduce greenhouse gases and global warming. Branson will judge the contest along with 5 other environmental campaigners, such as Tim Flannery and Al Gore. The entrant must present a project unlike technologies being currently developed.

He is one of Britain's best-known entrepreneur who combines his enthusiasm for running the Virgin group of companies with his love for high-risk, high advantage world record breaking attempts

Richard Branson has been involved in a number of world record-breaking attempts since 1985. In 1986 his boat, "Virgin Atlantic Challenger II" rekindled the spirit of the Blue Riband by crossing the Atlantic Ocean in the fastest ever recorded time. This was followed a year later by the epic hot air balloon crossing of the same ocean in "Virgin Atlantic Flyer". This was not only the first hot-air balloon to cross the Atlantic, but was the largest ever flown at 2.3 million cubic feet capacity, reaching speeds in excess of 130 miles per hour (209 km/h).

In January 1991 Richard crossed the Pacific Ocean from Japan to Arctic Canada, the furthest distance of 6,700 miles. Again, he broke all existing records, with speeds of up to 245 miles per hour in a balloon of 2.6 million cubic feet.

Between 1995 and 1998 Richard Branson, Per Lindstrand and Steve Fossett, made a number of attempts to circumnavigate the globe by balloon. In late 1998 they made a record-breaking flight from Morocco to Hawaii but were unable to complete a global flight before Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones in Breitling Orbiter achieved the first circumnavigation in March 1999.

Richard received his knighthood for his service to entrepreneurship in 1999.He lives in London and Oxfordshire, UK and is married to Joan, has two children - Sam Branson and Holly Branson.

Attitude is evrything....

Attitude is evrything....

The longer I live, the more I realise the impact of 'attitude' on life.
It's where you begin.
It's the foundation you build your life on.

It is more important than facts.
It is more impotant than the past, than money, than circumstances, than failures.
It,s the key to approaching education and achieving success.

Its more improtant than appearance, giftedness, and skill.
It means more than what other people think or say or do.
It will make or break a company, a church, a home, a team.
It is the heart of a champion.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.
We cannot change our past; we cannot chage the fact that people will act in a certain way.
We cannot change the inevitable.

The only thng we can do is play the one string we have, and this is our attitude.
I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 person how I react to it.
And so it is with you.
Dont wait to see what happens; take the initiative to make something happen.
We are in charge of our attitudes.

- Autor unknown

A research in companies found out that most of the company heads when asked - "If there is one thing that you would like to change among your employees what would that be?", replied - "attitude". This shows how important attitude is. Attitude is the way we perceive - very similar to mindset. Attitude can be the one single factor that can make or break things.
There is another story.. About a carpenter. All along his professional life we was known for his workman ship. After about 20 yrs of work he wanted to quit and communicated his intent to his employer. The employer agreed that he could quit, but wanted him to complete building one more house; the carpenter reluctantly agreed to work an started working but did not work to his peak level and there by made a sub standard effort to build the new house. Once complete, the carpenter asked his employer to have a look at the new house, the employer held out the keys to him saying "You have been serving me sincerely for so many years, I am gifting this house to you as a token of appreciation.". The carpenter later realized his mistake having worked sluggishly in his last assignment; If only he had the attitude to work with same interest even in his last piece of work, he would have made a fortune... with the best of his masterpieces to be all his own. This shows how a small slug in the competence and attitude can make a very great impact.

Intro:

It is the attitude that actually works to make an impact is one which gives us the initiative to take up risks, to take up challenges, to see opportunities where others see obstacles. Once you have the attitude and the appetite to achieve something in life; there is no holding you back, you will be motivated from within, to take up the challenge, to perform against odds, to expand your limits, to innovate, to be a leader. The more higher you want to reach, the fuel needed is attitude. Incentives and other factors of motivation fail when they are not combined with the right attitude. Attitude is one which gives you the guts to face odds, to look for places where no one ever before has tried.
It is "The substance" that has been the base of any success story, that we see today. A success story is a story about the attitude that visionaries have, their relentless struggle to achieve success. We all have in us a attitude, we have to get it to the right dimension to make it a success story, to make it big in life. Work to get the right attitude, all the remaining shall follow.

Types of attitude:

Attitude can be positive or negative:

Positive attitude lifts the spirit, it moves you up, motivates you, creates the urge to reach on the top, and generates the ability to take up risks, and propells you at high speed toward the goal that you have set. It creates a amazing satisfaction in finding new things, it manifests itself into the enthusiasm that is the kindling fire to any work, it then converts into a power to sustain the effort and reach higher in the goal.

Negative attitude pushes us to the abyss, makes us complain in even the simplest of issues, it turns the spirit of team work off, it generates a fear of failure, it makes us find a fault in ecent he most perfect creation, it never gives us satisfaction, be begin to crib in all things that we do.

Solution:

So what do we do if we have a negative attitude?? This is the most important thing.
To generate a positive attitude from negative attitude we have to gain in confidence thatz the first act. Negative attitude would have degenerated you so much that you don’t find even a little confidence in what we do, then how do we obtain it; it can be with a lot of effort by us.
Once we diagonise that we are having a negative attitude, a large part of our work is over (yes this is the most difficult part, realizing that we suffer from a negative attitude).
How do we realize that we have a negative attitude? Simple, just look for the above symptoms that are characteristic of negative thought. Just take a break, loose yourself in observing your self, the way you think, the way you react - this will help diagonise yourself. Now that we have diagonized the problems, we can think about moving towards the positive attitude.
As told earlier, confidence is the worst casualty of negative attitude... so the first step is to improve self confidence. How do we do that? Well, just look back and see what you do best, what is that which most people have complemented you about? If you have found it, then do it again. Appreciate yourself on having done it well, and then choose something that interests you more, do those well appreciate yourself for it. Continue this way, in the work you do. The confidence that was lost is built up again. Once we have this foundation; just build on this in a systematic and regular way. Yes, systematic and regular, this is very important. The system in itself is a process that would act as a medium to grow a positive attitude.
Once we do this over a period of time, we turn to be optimists; the pessimism that was prevalent in us so much dies out. We reinvent ourself; this is what keeps us moving forward.

Conclusion:
Attitude is the key to success, it the diffrence between win and loss. So friends, lets be up with loads of positive attitude, let it spread like wild fire, it is wake the enterprising spirit in us, let is give us a goal and motivation to reach it.