Search Results for " procrastinat "

Creating A Shortcut In Your Thinking Process

Summary – When the mind thinks too much, choose the best obvious solution.
A common sense question, two guys were in Malaysia. Both of them need to go to Japan. The first guy took a flight to the west, making stops at India, Africa, USA and finally crosssed the Pacific Ocean to Japan. Another took a flight straight to Japan. Assuming both of them departed at the same time, who will reach Japan first?

Obvious isn’t it? Of course it’s the guy who took the flight straight to Japan. We don’t even need to explain why. We are actually more curious as to why the first guy travelled around the world to reach Japan..

Taking the longer way to reach a destination easily reached via another way is laughable. But why are we doing the same thing with our mind?

If we are told to take out the garbage. Why are we making so much effort to procrastinate it, or to avoid doing it. We told ourselves that we are going to do it when we are going out later, but when it’s time to go out, we tried to forget the task. After a week, the garbage was starting to smell and then only we took it out.

In the end, we still need to do it because nobody else is living with us. Why can’t we just take it out when the task first appear.

However, this article is NOT about procrastination. It’s about our way of thinking that we need to review. We tend to think the more complex way in every situation. Allow me to elaborate via these examples :

Example 1 – You miss your boyfriend. You want to hear his voice.

  • The complex mind will say – If I call him, he will think I’m desperate. But if I didn’t call him, he may think that I’m no longer interested with him. When is the last time I call him? Oh my God, it’s only yesterday. Am I calling him every day now? What’s wrong with me?
  • The simple mind will say – I know that in the end, I just want to hear his voice. (kring kring Hi I miss you.)

Example 2 – A teacher is asking a question. You think you know the answer.

  • The complex mind will say – What if I’m wrong? people will laugh at me, thinking I’m stupid. What if from that time on, when people look at me, they will start laughing. I will ruin my whole school life if I answered the question. But if I didn’t answer the question, how can I learn? Hm If I did answer it, and it turns out I’m correct, people will see I’m not just a pretty face. Or maybe they will think of me as a show off.
  • The simple mind will say – I know the answer, I should then answer the question. (The answer is D sir.)

Example 3 – Your supervisor just resigned. And you really want his position.

  • The complex mind will say – Should I apply? Isn’t this kind of promotion is internal, and the human resource will make their own decision on who will be qualified. I have been an assistant for some time, they should know that the best person for the job is me. But.. I wonder if my fellow colleague will think of me as self promoting if I applied for the position.
  • The simple mind will say – There’s a vacancy, I’m qualified and I want it. What am I still doing here (Hello, I have an appointment with the manager of human resource)

/end examples

The mind is naturally that way. You can’t change this. It will always wander around aimlessly. It’s your job though to know how to control it. Never try to stop thinking either. That will bring you more harm than good. It’s just that sometimes, when we notice that we are thinking too much, stop everything and just choose the best obvious solution.

Just like the guy flying to Japan. It’s so obvious, it can’t be wrong.

– I wonder –
Which are you? The complex mind or the simple mind?

———– Personal Note ————
It was my anniversary last Monday. Happy anniversary my dear mrs. 🙂 Thank you for the gift

Photo Credit – tetraconz

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10 Messages For Students

Summary – 10 important message to all students


If you can go back in time to meet your past self, What year will you go? And what will you say to him/her. Will you go to the day you get married and stop yourself from marrying? Or will you go to yesterday, and tell your past self what happen today?

Imaginative, yes. But it is still an interesting question to ask yourself occasionally. We have grown wiser over the years and sometimes there is this urge to share what you have learnt to someone else who may very well repeat all your mistakes.

Personally, I will go back to the first day I became a college student. And I will pass these 10 messages to my past self.

1) Backup all your notes in your hard disk.
I graduated from my college with almost no notes from my study. Somehow I lost almost all of them. It’s as if I had never been to one. What a waste. Some of them might not be very useful and relevant but still, I paid for the course, and I had to work hard to pass all of them. They are my asset and I lost half of them.

Word of advice – Scan your paper based note, or maybe snap some pictures of the notes with your digital camera. Don’t forget to organize them properly. You may forget which goes to which if you procrastinate.

2) Choose wisely which textbook to buy
This is another mistake I made when I first started college. I bought every textbook recommended by the lecturers. It turned out, some of them were not being used at all. That money can be put to better use.

Word of advice – Check with your seniors on what books to buy. Some may prove more useful than another. For the less useful ones, maybe you can share with a couple of friends to buy it. More money saved for you.

3) Money to be spent is money left at the end of the month.
I learnt this the hard way. Whenever I get my allowance early in the month, I will usually spend it immediately. I went ice skating (it was a new thing back then) or go to internet cafe. And I was living neck to neck from month to month financially.

Word of advice – Money received early of the month should be used in life and death situation ONLY. For example, you don’t eat, you die. So then it’s OK to eat. You should only use the extra money saved at the end of the month for leisure.

4) Save money for your job hunt
After I graduated, I just realized that I have no money to job hunt. No money to buy newspaper, or to go for interview, or to buy stamps or print resume. I had to work as a gift wrapper at a mall just to pay for my job hunt.

Word of advice – Spending money is fun. I know, I’ve been there. But you will need some money to get you started after college. Start saving some every month. You will not regret it. I wonder how many job interview I had to turn down just because I don’t have enough money to go to the interview.

5) Listen to the lectures the first time
Believe me when I tell you this. For a college student, there are only about 10 hours per day. You are busy going to class, doing assignments and projects, maintaining student organization, sports. And if that’s not all, you are dating a few girls at the same time. Seriously where will you find the time to restudy.

Word of advice – Listen to your lectures the first time. Listen carefully and try to understand them IN CLASS. You will never need to study them again. Imagine the time you saved.

6) Identify your destructive addiction
I was addicted to chatting over IRC back then. I almost failed a few subject just because I couldn’t find the time to do them. That’s me. You may find another form of addiction.

Word of advice – Identify your addiction. It’s actually easy to do. If you notice you are not doing your assignment, you miss deadline, that’s the signs that you are addicted to something. It can be blogging, IM or even stumbling interesting sites. Deal with that immediately. If not, it may be too late when you realized what has happened to you.

7) Enjoy your long holiday
I think I can say this on behalf of everyone that is currently working. Please enjoy your holiday. When you are working, there are no more long holiday for you. The boss will be smiling disapprovingly if you apply for leave longer than 4 days.

Word of advice – Enjoying holiday doesn’t mean that you need to be in your bed the whole time. Do everything you want to. Go travelling. See the world.

8] Try to know as many people possible.
Now that I am working, I found a lot of my college batch. I don’t even know the name of some of them but they know my name and instantaneously we become friends. Imagine if I made the effort to know more of my college batch. I will then have a bigger network of friends which will help each other out in any situation. For example, I can ask them if they are any vacancy in their company, etc.

Word of advice – You don’t need to be best friend to everyone. You just need to be able to say hi occasionally to everyone. At least after college, they will know that you used to study in the same college when you bump into each other.

9) Be in contact with your lecturers.
Your lecturers are basically your real live wikipedia. Whenever you have a problem later in your work, you can always give them a call asking for help. It’s like free lifetime consultation. It’s a priviledge given to you since you are their student. Term and condition apply of course. The TACs are that you must keep in touch with all the lecturers, and more importantly you must be nice to them during your college years.

Word of advice – lecturers are not enemies. They are not going all out to get you. They are actually really good people wanting to teach you all they know. And when you appreciate this, they will appreciate you even more.

10) Enjoy your student life
Word of advice – This is my last message to my past self. It can be stressful, depressing sometimes. You may feel like running to another country sometime from all the boredom. Still, college life is one of the best time in your life. Enjoy.

– I wonder –
What will your message to your past self be?

Photo Credit – Foundphotoslj

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Pc Fair

I wrote two entries today – 5 Scenarios Where Procrastination Is A Must and this personal rant.

Yesterday was a day of a mission. A personal mission. My mission should I choose to accept it (which I did) was to go to PC Fair and try out Wimax there. A fairly simple mission but not an easy one I must say.

Just look at the crowd there. People are rushing to check out what’s this wimax is all about. Some may go there just to get the extra big paper bag (Very handy in a PC Fair). I just stick around and see the demonstration done by the presenter there. And I have to admit, I am impressed.

To start with, users will be given a downlink speed of up to 10Mbps. I’m not sure how fast that would be. But I like what I saw at the demonstration.

  • Connection is so fast that watching youtube is like watching the movie right from your computer.
  • Broadband TV is just like watching normal TV, which means that we can actually say aurevoir to ASTRO 🙂

The best thing is we can actually test the Wimax at the luxury of our home. They are currently giving out free Wimax modem to everyone signing up. You will be able to test the speed, latency etc for one whole month, which in my opinion is a pretty good deal. Why would we want to subscribe to a new ISP if we don’t exactly know the quality?

So if you are living or working at the area below, why not join the free trial yourself.

  • Kuala Lumpur City Center
  • Subang Jaya
  • USJ 1 and USJ 2
  • Sentul
  • Setapak
  • Gombak

And since you’re there. you might as well enter the contest they’re having. Just pick up the contest form and answer the easy questions there. You might win yourself some cool printers 🙂

More information at P1W1MAX.com or just visit the booth at PC Fair

There you have it – my findings of Wimax at the PC Fair as promised. Why am I excited on this? 25% of Malaysia will be covered with Wimax by the end of this year. Of course I’m excited 🙂

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tornado

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

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