Centralize your To-Do Lists

One lesson I have learnt by experience is the hassle of having too many to-do lists. Sometimes I would have two shopping lists, a to-do list for my wedding, a work to-do list and a home to-do list! Of course, all of them may be necessary, but only by centralizing all of them into a single place and comparing each task, can we begin to see their respective Priorities. From there, plan your workflow.

You might need to invest in a to-do "collection" tool. This comes in the form of Diaries, date books, personal computers and PDAs. The plus point of putting your to-do's in electronic form is that you can set an alarm or reminder to it. It may take a while to make it a habit to collect and update all your to-do's into one main place, but it's worth it.

When jotting down your To-do entry, try to describe the task and the Forward Action / Next Action. If this is not done, procrastination and doubt might set in. Even worse, we might soon forget why we need to do the task in the first place (until someone reminds us at the last minute and it’s too late to do anything). All the best in compiling your To-do's. May your life flourish and your peace of mind blossom!
Picture by Daniel

Personal Brand

Part of our everyday efforts to "Sharpen the Saw" is to improve our Personal Branding. Notice that office mate who talks about sports 24-7? That's his personal brand. If you want to talk about sports, there is no one else but him.

So what do you do? If there is ONE message you are giving people, which is it?

Are you the tragic complainer? Or the restaurant and food expert? The holiday planner? The fiction book reader? The financial expert? The mother of two? The clown? The gossip? Do you enjoy being branded this way?

If you have evolved into someone you do not want to be, perhaps it is time to build or reposition your Personal Brand.

I find that Personal Branding starts from:
1) how you think into
2) how you talk (and what you talk about) into
3) what you do, what car you drive and what colour you are wearing today.

You can choose to "sharpen" yourself as you like. It all starts by thinking like champion, then talking like one and finally acting like one each day. Happy branding!

Working the 14-Hour Day

Someone once told me that at my age of 28, if I were to achieve greatness by 35, I would need to work the 14 hour day. Why the extra hours. What goes into the hours?

Let’s look beyond our ages and our jobs. If you want extra out of life, you have to give extra and that is what I have understood finally.

So must a person do with 14 hours a day for the next 7 years that will lead to success?

Let’s break it down.

If my normal working hours are from 8.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. with an hour of lunch in between, I had better make these hours count for what they are worth before I look into putting myself for an extra 5 hours of work.

First I would have to measure my effectiveness at work. Am I goofing off 30% of the time socializing with my workmates, Surfing the net for personal reasons 20% of the time? If so, I cannot count this into my work day.

The idea of having a 14 hour day is to see if I can build the extra 5 hours to “sharpen the saw”. The rest of the 9 hours at work is to finish the regular work that we are assigned.

This means that 1 hour from the “saw sharpening” time is to exercise. Perhaps I exercise 3 times in a week, then I can spend 2 hours for a full exercise routine each time I exercise.

What goes into the extra 4 hours? I propose Planning, reading and writing and executing. I will write on this further in detail.

That leaves around 10 more hours of my day. Everyone who lives more than 10 minutes from their workplace will spend 3-4 hours a day in transit or just waiting for something.

That leaves around 7 hours to spend being with your loved ones and sleeping.

Can a person live like this, with these sacrifices in life and still be happy? I say yes. If “sharpening the saw” means improving your life.

Bear in mind, this is what your company gives you 14 paid leaves in a year for. To rest and plan and do your banking. Your weekends also to rest and refocus. It is possible. How can I commit to a 14-hour day? By guilt, by dreams, by external motivation and by sheer effort. If you want to talk about someone who works 14 hours a day at one job for the next 7 years to be the best in Malaysia, well talk about me. I will take that step now.

Concepts are borrowed or rehashed. Photo by Daniel  

5 Steps to Success

Ever thought you could one day be super successful? Well why not start with a dream?

Dreams are our first steps to being successful. And banking on the fact that no one dreams to be unsuccessful, dreams can be a great tool to work on if you want to be successful.

Once you have gotten enough courage to dream about success, here is what you do:

1) Decide what success means to you.
2) Decide how you are going to achieve it.
3) Decide now what sacrifices you have to make in order to help you achieve it.
4) Plan accordingly your year, your quarters your months and your days so that you can achieve it.
5) Do it according to plan and know exactly why you need to work as hard as you have to.

Step 1 means that you have to decide what goes into your life and what does not. As a person has 70 odd years in life, there will be a chance to achieve everything that you want in life. But that means you will have to plan it now. To some success is traveling the world. To others, it is a clean bill of health. To many, it is financial freedom. You can have all of these too, but that means you have to work harder at it. More importantly, dream big and dream realistic.

Step 2, “Deciding how you are going to achieve it” means judging on everything that you wish to do, how are you going to achieve it? With the salary that you are receiving, the time you are putting in to work on your dreams, versus the size of your dreams, is it possible that your dream will come true? At this step, rescale your efforts versus your expectations.

Step 3, to decide your sacrifices, is to decide on the matters decided on Step 2. Will working 14 hours in a day help you achieve your goals? Does that mean you skip on watching TV, exercising or going for short holidays? Re-look at Step 1 and decide how much of time or effort you would have to put in to reach that goal.

At this juncture, you will realize no one likes to dream because dreaming about grand futures will result in us actually putting it to work and sacrificing other dreams. Trust in yourself. Trust that your dreams are worth the effort.

Step 4 means planning how hard you work at your current job. Most of the time we do not need a lottery strike to be able to achieve our dreams. Compare salaries with the ones that your boss is receiving. Ask yourself what skills must you have or roles you have to play to be your boss? Do you need to learn these skills? Make sure the entire year is filled with milestones to achieve this dream. Maybe in the first month you will take on more responsibilities from your boss. By mid year, you are the expert that your boss can rely on. By the next year, you convince your boss to make you the official champion for your department and a small change in your designation. Step 4 also involves living your dream right now. If your dream is to travel the world, do plan and save for something big in the future, but you can also do mini trips or picnics this week end. If your plan is to spend more time with your family, plan yearly quarterly and monthly, even weekly activities. Make sure that you practice your plan later.

Step 5 is the best part. Actually doing the activities you have set out to do. The danger is that we start walking the way and go astray or even stop walking it later. This step calls for us to trust in our plans and stand firm in our dreams. It might be easy to say, “My dreams are too difficult to achieve” and give up immediately. But recall the words of the wise, that everything can be achieved if you were diligent.

If you are feeling tired or doubtful if your dreams are ever going to come true, talk to friends about your dreams and tell them how hard your wish to be working. Find friends who will encourage you honestly to be around you. Avoid people who will discourage your efforts or laugh at your dreams.

One day your dreams will become reality. But only if you are brave enough to take the first step and walk until you have come to the end. Be brave to hang on in your journey. Be resilient.

All concepts above are either borrowed or rehashed. Picture by Daniel