[ajitkumarlb]

Crazy week and crazier weekend!

Weight Control:
45 Min cycling on 2 days.

Yes only 2 days. 3 days of the week, was down with fever and spent the entire weekend, some 40+ hours straight at office for a software upgrade.

Reading or should I say Hearing:
Finally completed reading the Photography book.
Then heard Anthem by Any Rand. Short one for Any Rand, I must say...
Have started hearing Tale of Two Cities, I could never complete that book.

Hearing while commuting to office is good. Need to find more sites to get free audio books - any suggestions?

Also saw this article on TOI, check it out: LINK

Yet to start making changes to food in take...

[ajitkumarlb]

Week was a total washout, zero minutes clocked on the cycle, thanks to clocking 70 hours at office this week.

Good thing is started back with 40 min on the cycle today. I am sure will have better things to report next week.

[MileCruncher]

The week of 16/1-22/1 was absolutely useless and was used to recover from the Mumbai Marathon and post marathon parties. Last week was good. Ran for a total of 39Kms with our Hyderabad Runners club run on Republic Day wherein I did a 10K. Details here.

On Saturday one of my running mentors gifted me a Garmin watch to measure the trainings and could straight away feel an improvement during my 19K run on Sunday. The detailed work out here

If you are not motivated enough to get to start working out, read the book "Dare to Run" Amit Sheth. You can follow his blog here Dare To Run

[Fordmanchau]

This week I ran and exercised two days in a row!!
26th Jan evening and 27th Jan morning.
Both days ran on treadmill for around 2.5kms in 25 minutes with 450gm each wrist weight and 1 kg each ankle weight and increased the elevation too and then did weights for legs, shoulders, back and chest on the multi-gym.
Today morning I was waiting for alarm to ring at 6:15a.m but it didn't surprisingly, so I woke up and checked the time, it was already 6:45 a.m. I said WTH and then went back to sleep

[SDP]

Update for last week:
#1 Weight-Control
1. Went for brisk-walk on 6 days in the last week.
2. Walked up to the 10th floor 4 times during the week.
3. Attended a one hour meditation session on Monday.

#2 Reading
1. Completed Atlas Shrugged.

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Originally Posted by ajitkumarlb

Week was a total washout, zero minutes clocked on the cycle, thanks to clocking 70 hours at office this week.

Good thing is started back with 40 min on the cycle today. I am sure will have better things to report next week.

All the best for this week!
See if you can compensate to certain extent for last week.

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

....If you are not motivated enough to get to start working out, read the book "Dare to Run" Amit Sheth. You can follow his blog here Dare To Run

Good MC! Thanks for the book recommendation. Would check it out.

Originally Posted by Fordmanchau

This week I ran and exercised two days in a row!!
26th Jan evening and 27th Jan morning.
Both days ran on treadmill for around 2.5kms in 25 minutes with 450gm each wrist weight and 1 kg each ankle weight and increased the elevation too and then did weights for legs, shoulders, back and chest on the multi-gym.
Today morning I was waiting for alarm to ring at 6:15a.m but it didn't surprisingly, so I woke up and checked the time, it was already 6:45 a.m. I said WTH and then went back to sleep

:-). All the best fot this week. Hope you can record another week with 100% jump over previous week.

[Fordmanchau]

Originally Posted by SDP

:-). All the best fot this week. Hope you can record another week with 100% jump over previous week.

I am sweating as I type this.
Just finished Treadmill- GYM- Treadmill session.
Had half a cup tomato juice after I came back from office. Without loosing time changed and ran to treadmill, ran 1.5 kms with weights, then did weights on gym and then sprint of 1km on treadmill to finish things.

Feeling good. Just two more days left to achieve another 100% jump in performance

[srikanthns]

Originally Posted by SDP

Update for last week:

#1 Weight-Control
1.
#2 Reading
1. I am on chapter VII in Part II of Atlas Shrugged.


Atlas Shrugged is amazing. Would I get answer to my own quest about meaning and purpose of my life in this book? I sincerely hope so.

I also thought so when I read the book when I was 26. But now when I re read it , new perspectives emerge. This is what they say as the hallmark of a classic, is it not?

[SDP]

Originally Posted by srikanthns

I also thought so when I read the book when I was 26. But now when I re read it , new perspectives emerge. This is what they say as the hallmark of a classic, is it not?

Ayan Rand's Atlas Shrugged gave answers to a couple of questions that were troubling me since long.

Q1. What is purpose of life?
Ans> To seek happiness

Q2. Where does the happiness come from?
Ans> From achievement. When you achieve something, you feel happy.

For somebody like me who spends 10 hours of the day in body's bare necessities like sleeping-eating-bathing etc, 9 hours at work, 1.5 hours travelling, half an hour on exercise, half an hour reading, 1-1.5 hours with wife & kids and remaining 1 hour on entertainment (TV+internet) and other misc activities; which areas/activities do you think the achievements would come from?
Simple -> the work, the family, the exercise for good healthy body and the learning.

Spending quality time with family, doing regular exercise or learning something from a good book does feel good. There is definitely happiness and a sense of achievement after completing a 4 day family trip or after losing 3 KGs in 2 months. No surprises there.

What came as a surprise to me was that I am missing the 4th and possibly the biggest potential area of achievement i.e. the WORK. There is a sense of achievement when I solve a problem at work or take care of a tricky situation or hand-hold a person about how to do things the right way. I feel a temorary high when I do such things at work. But those instances have been so few, that broadly I had categorized "work" in the "necessary evil" category.. just like the 8 hours of sleep. Big mistake.

For me, one of the key learning from Atlas Shrugged has been: your work -however small and insignificant- plays a role in keeping the wheel of the world rolling (or keeping the motor of the world running). Your mind and the concrete output from that mind (i.e. work) is the only way you can contribute to the world.

With that understanding, I am hoping to recapture the passion in doing my job. Going forward, as long as it is part of my work, no activity would be treated as "going through the motions". If I do not understand where a particular apparently NVA (non-value added) activity fits in, I would discuss and get it removed from my work OR understand and give my 100% to it. No more half-hearted effort in anything at work (or for that matter, no half-hearted effort ANYWHERE).

PS: What clicked and what I felt is much more than what I have been able to articulate above. I have spent almost 45 minutes to write the above few sentences. But this is one of the very few times I have felt that my words have not been able to fully capture what I want to say.

[thoma]

Originally Posted by SDP

With that understanding, I am hoping to recapture the passion in doing my job. Going forward, as long as it is part of my work, no activity would be treated as "going through the motions". If I do not understand where a particular apparently NVA (non-value added) activity fits in, I would discuss and get it removed from my work OR understand and give my 100% to it. No more half-hearted effort in anything at work (or for that matter, no half-hearted effort ANYWHERE).

There is a small catch in giving all out effort all the time, unless one is more than 100% fit both physically and mentally. Otherwise, fatigue can play spoil sport. I'm not being pessimistic or I'm not to discourage anyone, but to let us be aware. We 'tend' to micro-manage ourselves (evaluating ourselves all the time checking whether we have given our all out effort for each and every item) if we are planning to give an all out effort in whatever we do. We also 'tend' to expect from others (with whom we are dealing with) to give their all out effort.

I have personally felt the heat of putting in all out and yet not getting rewarded anywhere. So, I would suggest either of the two. To be content with whatever one can put forward and one has put forward, forgetting what he was not able to put forward. Or be ready to be self-rewarding with our all out effort, not considering others who may be rewarded even by not putting forward their all out effort.

May be I am wrong.

[mannubhai]

oopsiee . Missed the posting

7 days of gym , everyday morning for entire week

The schedule is back, and hopefully would continue. There are just too many distractions, but im fighting on and on.

But honestly, the abuse over years on the body, which predominantly shows on the belly, needs hellava lot of time to shed off

But overall, im enjoying it now.

[SDP]

Important but not urgent thing #3 -> Planned 'core' work

Somewhere towards the start of this thread, I have shared how a typical work-day looks like.

Originally Posted by SDP

On work front -> Many a times I just drag myself to work. Go through the never ending stream of emails. Get into calls with folks in another continent. Half the day is already gone without a single "to-do" striked out. There is a new fire to be put out every day. And then there would be people asking "why isn't this done already? I need it NOW." and I am not even sure that the thing that they want me to do is of any significance in the first place. I reach home and there could be more work-related conf-calls that I need to attend, for which I have to lock myself in one of the rooms (its unprofessional to have kids playing and shouting in the background).

I have also shared something about being an email slave.

So that's how typically my day goes..reading emails, attending calls, chasing somebody else's priorities..in general REACTING to things - quite a few of which might not be important at all.

From last week (from 23rd Jan 2012), I have started blocking one hour each day on my calendar for 'planned' work. This is the time I spend on the 'core' responsibilities of my role. Things that are important for which typically there is no time left because they are not urgent. Things that cause a guilty feeling because I am not doing them regularly or not doing them at all. e.g. relationship building, knowing your entire team personally, career-planning for your team-members, account-planning and projections etc.

This one hour per day would be non-negotiable. I would not accept a meeting invite conflicting with that one hour. I would not work on any work-emergencies during that one hour. A hour dedicated to Quandrant-II work.

The plan is to plan for next week's 5 hours of 'planned work' on the Friday so that I approach a week with something concrete in mind. So that there is something meaningful lined up at least for one hour per day for the entire week. So that there is something to look forward to. So that there are no monday-morning blues. So that there is no "I always wanted to quit on Monday morning" feeling.

I want to start with one hour of 'planned core' work and slowly take it to at least 4-5 hours of planned meaningful work every day. Wish me luck, guys.

[Vajo]

Originally Posted by SDP

Important but not urgent thing #3 -> Planned 'core' work

Somewhere towards the start of this thread, I have shared how a typical work-day looks like.



I have also shared something about being an email slave.

So that's how typically my day goes..reading emails, attending calls, chasing somebody else's priorities..in general REACTING to things - quite a few of which might not be important at all.

From last week (from 23rd Jan 2012), I have started blocking one hour each day on my calendar for 'planned' work. This is the time I spend on the 'core' responsibilities of my role. Things that are important for which typically there is no time left because they are not urgent. Things that cause a guilty feeling because I am not doing them regularly or not doing them at all. e.g. relationship building, knowing your entire team personally, career-planning for your team-members, account-planning and projections etc.

This one hour per day would be non-negotiable. I would not accept a meeting invite conflicting with that one hour. I would not work on any work-emergencies during that one hour. A hour dedicated to Quandrant-II work.

The plan is to plan for next week's 5 hours of 'planned work' on the Friday so that I approach a week with something concrete in mind. So that there is something meaningful lined up at least for one hour per day for the entire week. So that there is something to look forward to. So that there are no monday-morning blues. So that there is no "I always wanted to quit on Monday morning" feeling.

I want to start with one hour of 'planned core' work and slowly take it to at least 4-5 hours of planned meaningful work every day. Wish me luck, guys.

Absolutely SD, this is exactly what I too go through, with no meaningful work getting done at the EOD. At times if there no fires to be put off, you feel there is no work. I usually keep a writing pad with points jotted down with running numbers. Everyday morning while my lappy is booting up , I run through each and try and address one before I get into reactive mode. Its not a success always but works, to remind of Imp but non urgent things

Have been following this thread now regularly. All the best

[ajitkumarlb]

Originally Posted by SDP

...quality time with family...

...
For me, one of the key learning from Atlas Shrugged has been: your work -however small and insignificant- plays a role in keeping the wheel of the world rolling (or keeping the motor of the world running). Your mind and the concrete output from that mind (i.e. work) is the only way you can contribute to the world....

I wonder what would they be teaching at ARI: http://www.aynrand.org/



I never liked the phrase 'quality time' - in my opinion, its a excuse we all in the modern world have found for our inability to spend the 'quantity time'.

Let it be in the family context or the work, we don't carry a hat which says "quality time - father" or "quality time - employee" and we put them on and we are able to give quality.

I reach home usually between 10-11 PM and I am ready to put on the "quality time - father" hat but my three year old daughter is fast asleep. She wakes up early and is ready to put on "quality time - daughter" hat and I am yet trying to wake my self up as I slept late.

But this is the reality we live in.

So when my daughter was born, my wife and I split the two words quality & quantity between us. She quit her job and career to pursue quantity time with my daughter and you know other half...



I totally agree with your observation on the work.

Few thousand years back we were hunter gatherer and each animal & plant had its role to plan and they continue to do the same. However from humans context that work has changed we are not exactly focusing our energies directly on food or shelter but we do "other things" which get us food & shelter and sometimes more (happiness)...

And that "other things" has manifested in the world we know off today.

Focusing on how one would work: if in the old times if one did not work it would impact ones food & shelter. But in today's world people manage to survive with out putting in the necessary effort.

In this context I tell my self and my team about the practice at Ferrari factory (seen on TV) where each individual signs the part they worked on - the accountability and the pride in doing so is amazing - especially on the best cars the world see. Can we all dare to put our names on everything we do with the same level of accountability and pride if yes then we are doing it right.

[SDP]

Update for last week:
#1 Weight-Control
1. Went for brisk-walk on 6 days in the last week. Missed on Wednesday because of early morning trip to Pune. Compensated on Sunday.
2. Walked up to the 10th floor 9 times during the week. Almost twice daily.
3. Attended a one hour meditation session on Monday.

#2 Reading
1. Going through Steven Covey's audiobooks like a hot knife through a slab of butter.
2. Finished First Things First (3 hour version), First things first (1 hour version), 7 Habits of highly succcessful people (a 3.5 hour version) and a short one hour audiobook on Character Ethic.
3. More than 10 hours of total reading this week.

#3 Planned 'core' work
1. Continued with one hour of planned work every working-day during last week.
2. Doing the actual planning for the week on Monday. Need to move it previous Friday or Saturday.

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Fordmanchau, Ajit, Manoj, MC
How was your week?

[Fordmanchau]

Originally Posted by SDP

Update for last week:
#1 Weight-Control
2. Walked up to the 10th floor 9 times during the week. Almost twice daily.

Nice to read this!! While you are at it, I have been doing this on and off at my office too.
I take stairs from -3 parking to 9th floor of my office building where I sit.
I mostly never take the elevator while going down. We have our cafeteria at ground floor and everybody have to compulsorily go to the cafeteria and eat. I make it a point to carry my car keys with me during lunch. After eating I go to the basement, keep the lunchbox in the car and then come back and climb to 9th floor again.

Originally Posted by SDP

Fordmanchau, Ajit, Manoj, MC
How was your week?

This week was okay for me. Again a 100% jump from two weeks back
Exercised well on Monday, thursday and friday. Other days had some or the other thing to do in evening. But i ate a lot during weekend, nonveg, sweets, cold drink and all.

Had a good start today but, finally manage to wake up at 6 a.m and then pulled myself to my gym room and ran on the treadmill on a pre-programmed mode, finished with few weights exercises.

It's not the weight I am worried of. My weight is alright, I am just behind the flat tummy and toned muscles