Summary - Start with a small win
A typical morning, I was waking up when I heard this conversation in my head (Not in an insane kind of way)

Willpower - OK you need to wake up now
Lazybone - What? now? I still want to see the ending of the dream.
Willpower - But you are going to be late.
Lazybone - Will you please just shut up?
Willpower - erk OK

/end conversation

Of course the conversation is made up. But have you ever had similar experience? Where the problem with your productivity is not due to procrastination but because of your weak willpower.

Some may call it discipline, but the fact is the stronger your willpower, the more likely you will be able to finish up your work and do what’s necessary. So how do you strengthen this willpower to withstand any temptation that may come?

Let him win the small battle
Willpower is really just a part of us, just like our muscle. If we didn’t do any exercises, it will become weaker. Period. However if we immediately start with intense exercise after a long rest, it will not be stronger, it will be painful instead. So start small.

Exercise your willpower by letting him win some easy round.

1) It’s never easy. Before anything, we need to establish that it’s never easy to overcome temptation or procrastination. It’s not impossible though. Once you understand this, you will know that it will take a lot of effort to win the war. And that itself will strengthen your willpower tremendously.

2) 1 minute timer. Set your timer in your cellphone for 1 minute to rest during working. Enjoy that 1 minute and when it’s up, straight away continue working. This will be his first victory.

3) You’re the boss. How about saying this exact word everytime you sense your willpower is about to be defeated. Just imagine he’s really the boss of you.

Some may not like being bossed around, but who else would be a better boss if not the best part of you - willpower

4) Start the tough war. It’s easier to let willpower win when we really enjoy what he is asking us to do. For example, eating ice cream. For a start this may be a good idea, just to let him win a few round.

But we will need to step up a bit by start winning some tougher rounds. Maybe you don’t want to go to work or washing your car. Win this. And your willpower will immediately be stronger.

5) Never negotiate. Temptation being a temptation, is tricky with words. They know exactly how to manipulate you into letting them win. Try not to negotiate. An example of negotiating is “Ok, I will wash the dishes, but afterward I’m going to play PS2 for the entire night”. You see what they’re doing?

This kind of winning will never strengthen your willpower. It will only make it worse.

- I wonder -
Any other methods to strengthen our willpower?

———- Personal Note ———–
I always have fancy dream usually in the last hour of my sleep. The kind of dream that you will want to know how it ends. The most recent is how I survive being flown away by a major tornado

Photo Credit - doughkeeney

Don't want to miss a single tip? Get updates via RSS (Full) or Email

Related Post

• The Most Productive One Hour In Your Life
• 5 Scenarios Where Procrastination Is A Must
• Integrating Gmail Into Your Mind In 5 Steps
• Get Things Done For Student - Emergency Use Only

Summary - You can either gain speed or weep

It has been a very hectic week. And when I look at it, it was all worth it For those who just tuned in, I was promoted to being a father on the 27th May.

One thing that I noticed is that a lot of my routine has been affected. I have to put aside blogging for the past few days. The same goes to other habits I’m trying to stick on like doing exercise etc. Everything get pushed behind.

Don’t you think it is very frustrating when all your habits get pushed aside? like suddenly you are forced to eat a buffet after years of dieting, or forced to rest in bed due to leg broken when you have been training for a marathon months.

Personally, I do. I find my peace everyday when I write here in LessonInLife. However, due to unavoidable reason, I have to stop writing for a few days and that sometimes make me frustrated.

This is however a very wrong approach to life. We should never be frustrated when something else come in our way. By being frustrated, people will usually take more time to return back to the original plan.

For example, a man who undergoes diet, suddenly were forced to break that diet because he’s travelling oversea and he wanted to have a taste of the local cuisine there. When he came back, he noticed he gained a few kg.

If he took the normal reaction by being frustrated, he will probably give up the diet altogether and eat even more than before. “What’s the point?”.

The best way for him to handle mishaps in habit forming is to accept that fact about him gaining a few kg, and immediately starts back his diet. Why bother cursing himself about that gained weight? It will still be there after all the frustration and curse.

Conclusion - When there were speed bump in our life, we can choose to either regain back our speed or park aside and weep. Between the two, which will get to the destination faster?

- I wonder -
What’s your most recent speed bump in life?

———– Personal Note ———–
The baby was diagnosed to have G6PD Deficiency. Which generally means she will easily get Jaundice (or the Yellow Sickness) whenever she’s in contact with certain chemicals. Alhamdulillah, as of now, her level of Jaundice is under control. We will be monitoring like a hawk

Photo Credit - Andrew.Petro

Don't want to miss a single tip? Get updates via RSS (Full) or Email

Related Post

• Bagai Menarik Rambut Dari Tepung
• My Theory On Ghost
• Popular Proverb Explained By Children
• What Would You Say To The World
• Are We Defining Happiness Wrongly All This While?

Summary - Minimalistic Life

Have you ever watched Indiana Jones where the whole structure is collapsing and he is rushing to get out of the place through a closing door. Of course he will made it just in time.

Can you see the scenario in your mind? Now imagine this..

Your house is collapsing and you’re alone in your house. You have 30 seconds to get your stuff before the door closed. What 10 items will you take?

This is so interesting for me that I actually set the timer in my cellphone and quickly run into every room of my house and scan for what 10 items to take. Try it..

Yes, I know. I can have so much free time sometimes

One interesting thing I notice is that when I really need to choose only 10 things to save, I am actually stuck at item number 6, I just don’t know what else is important after wallet, important documents, car keys, cellphone and laptop.

How about you? Were you stuck at a number? or can you easily decide all the 10 items?

Come to think about it, we really don’t need a lot of stuff to live. If not, I don’t even need to go through every room to complete the list.

Why then.. are we so stressed everyday to buy things? When the truth is we will usually not going to use it, or even cherished it.

I once saw an episode of Oprah where they highlighted one person who live in a custom made house. The house is only few metres squared in area. That is like a house the size of your kitchen. That person then said “If I ever buy an item, whenever I walk in my house, I will have to stop and decide whether that item will be put in the house or to be discarded later.”

- I wonder -
What do you think of the idea in living with minimal items?

——— Personal Note ———
I travel quite a lot everyweek to visit my mother in KL. And being a human that I am, I always forget to bring along my toothbrush, or charger among other things. So what I did, is to prepare a backpack, and put everything I will need for my travel.

Some of the items are as follows

• phonebook (in case my phone stolen)
  
• nail clipper
  
• comb
  
• fresh clothes
  
• an extra phone (actually my first phone)
  

Now, unless I forget to bring the backpack, I’m set to go anywhere anytime

365 days ago, I wrote - How To Organize Your Paper / Work

Don't want to miss a single tip? Get updates via RSS (Full) or Email

Related Post

• How To Be The Strongest Man On The Planet
• Nilai 3 - An Observation On Marketing / Promotion
• Personal Rant - Who’s Going To PC Fair On 1st August?
• Why Solving A Problem Is Stressful, When We Are Actually Problem Solver
• Being Legendary - Now Possible

Summary - The Trap of Things-To-Do

Do you consider yourself as an organized person? Or at least a person who is attempting to organize his/her life? If you do, there is one trap we may have fallen into. The trap of Things-To-Do.

Things to do is not something new when it comes to getting things done or organizing. In fact, it is one of the basis of the concept. If you want to get things done, you need to come up with a to-do list.

But what will happen when you see everythings in life as a things-to-do? What if all you are doing through out your day is a task? Some examples are like when you even view your family time as a task. And you will stop spending time with them after an hour to focus on other things.

Or you allocate specific time to call your parents to say hi (Maybe every Saturday 12pm). And you find it disturbing if the parent call you when it is still not the time. Deep down you are blaming them for messing your schedule

I know, you may wonder, do such people exist? The truth is, they do. Not in such extreme cases though.

How do you know you are one of them?
Simple.. it is when you never satisfy with your life. Or you suffer the same frustration of not finishing your work even after your working hour. Or you are feel tired most of the time for no apparent reason. If these describe you, I’m sorry to inform you that you have fallen into the trap. Everything you do is work for you.

How do you get out of the trap
1) Determine whether you’re already trapped or not
This is a routine step 1. In order to solve a problem, we must know that we have a problem.

2) Add 25% free time in your schedule
When we have 18 hours everyday (assuming we sleep 6 hours), Free up 4.5 hours for us to do anything we want. It may be anything as long as it’s not work.

3) Be flexible
By flexible, it means that the previous 4.5 hours may not necessary be 4.5 hours every day. If you want, take a day off for yourself sometimes. Get in bed with a thick book to read.

However, being flexible itself is quite dangerous. You must know how flexible to be. Things will backfire if you are too flexible with your time, up to the point that nothing is being done. The keyword is always “finding balance”

4) Do something spontaneous
Take a road trip to a place 2 hours drive from your house. Spend sometimes there, snap some pictures and return home. The whole point is to mess your schedule once a month. This way, your mind will be trained to accept the idea of not completing work gradually.

5) Mingle with people
Another unmentioned sign of people trapped in the things-to-do trap is when they prefer to be alone rather than with friends / family. This way they think they can finish up more work. Take some time to hang out with friends. Go for a drink with them. Your mind need this more than you do.

6) Take up bigger project
Imagine a college proffesor. Proffesors are supposed to be one of the most brilliant mind on earth and we expect them to come up with better ideas or solve problems. Now imagine they’re living their life solely to teach students. No research done. Just plain teaching day in day out. Don’t you think that will be a waste of brilliant minds?

They still need to teach the students, nobody else can do that. But who will solve our global problems like global warming etc if not them?

Take up project for you to do. Maybe try to be more active in your support to your political party etc. Bigger thing for you to spend time on.

7) Revise all this
This is however the most important steps. As you can probably see, all the 6 suggestion in the list will help our mind to not view life as one big to-do-list. That’s really the whole idea.

However, in reality we still need to get things done for us to accomplish more in life. So revise all the list and check whether or not you are still able to finish up your important things-to-do. Try to find the balance between the two.

If you manage to do just that, trust me on this. You will live a happier life, with less stress and frustration from not finishing work,

/end list

- I wonder -
Anybody find this familiar?

——- Personal Note ——–
The mrs is now in her 38th week of pregnancy. If for some reason you see the blog without update for some time, most probably she is delivering the baby, and I’m there with her. Please be patient then kay?

Excited, Scared, Smiling, Worried - All these emotion in one time, no wonder most parent is suffering hypertension

Photo Credit - merfam

Don't want to miss a single tip? Get updates via RSS (Full) or Email

Related Post

• The Secret To Reread The Thickest Book In 5 Minutes
• Happy Birthday Filantera!
• 13 Tips (For Now) To A Happier You
• It’s Sunday.. No Eavesdropping
• The Secret To Being Calm Your Entire Life

It’s a known fact that we each have 24 hours per day. You can be the prime minister of a country or the loitering teenager at the mall, nothing can change this fact.

Like every rigid rules in the universe, this too can be bent. Here’s 10 method to steal an extra 3 hours from the time bank.

1) Wake up early
Try to find your minimum hours of sleeping needed. If for example you sleep for 7 hours every day, try to wake 15 minutes earlier. Keep reducing it slowly but only do that when you are comfortable with the new habit. Don’t force it.(1 hour recovered)

2) Solve problem while sleeping
What you need to do is simple. Just before you go to bed, plan what you are going to do tomorrow. Try to be as detailed as you can. It is theorized that most problems were solved when we are asleep by our subconscious mind. Imagine going through the day smoothly without having to stop when problems occur. Imagine how much time we have saved.

A more extreme method is to see the future one hour at a time. (0.5 hour recovered)

3) Filter television
Preferably just stop watching. But if you must, only watch what you want to watch. Check the schedule on what’s interesting and put that on your personal schedule. Watch ONLY that. Do not watch television just because you have nothing to do. (0.5 hour recovered)

4) Cut small talk
This is quite critical. You cut too much you are antisocial, you cut too little and it’s just pointless.

When you’re on the phone, try to have something in mind on what you want to know or tell. Unless that person is family or your loved ones, I don’t see any reason why we should be on the phone more than 30 minutes.

That goes the same thing to email, IM and now twitter (0.5 hour recovered)

5) Walk faster
This trick is actually introduced to me when I was in high school. As juniors we are forced to walk fast to go to places. I hated it then.

Now however, I find it quite efficient to walk fast. I exercise and most importantly I save quite a significant amount of time compared to walking slowly. (0.25 hour recovered)

6) Avoid repetitive work
Your time is gold. If you need to go buy groceries, try to plan your list and avoid having to go twice. Yes, sometimes we forget. That’s why it is recommended to print out a list of things you always buy. Whenever you are going out, check out all the items in the list first. (0.25 hour recovered)

7) Delegate
Delegation is an art really. To know which task can be given to other person to do, and which to do ourself. The thing is, tasks are really never ending. Start delegating simple tasks like typing, proofreading etc (0.25 hour recovered)

8] Dedicated days
I have a tray on my desk where I put all my receipt or carbon copy of my paid bills in. Those are supposed to be filed. However if I file every receipt everytime I receive one, I will spend a lot of time just doing my filing. So I dedicate one day of the week to do filing.

You can do the same to maybe spring cleaning, or snail mail corresponding etc. Assign one day to do all of that. (0.1 hours recovered)

9) Scrap the seconds
By scrapping I mean to appreciate every seconds of your day. Imagine that seconds are like $1. What would you feel if you are losing $1 every second. Learn speed reading, read only important news in the newspaper (Do you need to know how depressed an actresss is?). Recover as much as possible. (0.1 hours recovered)

10) MOST IMPORTANT : Know how to spend the extra time
Even if you have 100 hours per day, it would be meaningless if you don’t know what to do with it. This is why it is very crucial for you to know 3 things before you start with the list.

• What do you really want in life? (loved ones, religion)
• What are your priorities? (family, job, hobbies)
• What trivia things that you need to do anyway (email lost friends, Jar Of Life technique etc)

By doing item no 10, you are basically recovering the sum of it all - 3.2 hours. Which generally means if everyone else has 24 hours, you have 27.2 hours a day!

- I wonder -
Any other tips to recover that seconds?

——— Personal Note ———-
NetworkBloggingTips is actually putting up a challenge to come up with a list-type post. This entry is my submission to the challenge. Feel free to join in.

In the spirit of the challenge. Here are some of my most recent list-type articles. More of them here

• 4 Signs You Are SIB Immuned
• 7 Ideas on How To Live Differently Everyday
• 10 Motivational Scripts Specifically For Student
• 7 Situations You Should Memorize How To Respond
• 6 Sure Tricks To Overcome Fear

Enjoy!

Don't want to miss a single tip? Get updates via RSS (Full) or Email

Related Post

• Important Skill You Must Have - Describe Faces
• Donkey Tale
• Two Steps To Realizing Your Dreams
• Why Flash Gordon Cannot Finish His Work
• Personal Blog - The Hidden Bonus