Time Management: Reading List

Today I had the joy of delivering some training on Time Management. I started simply buy asking if people liked having their hard earned money wasted. All unanimously agreed that they hated having their money wasted.

So why do you allow anyone to waste your time? when time is much more valuable then money. 

Establishing the why, is always the best buy in for any lessons or learning.

Here's the copy of the reading list I distributed at the end of the training. Enjoy.

Effective Time Management Further Reading List

In order of priority

1 - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey (2004)

Why? AWESOME book on a principle based personal development. No tips and tricks, real solutions to real problems.

2 - The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss (2011)

Why? Great advice and approach to stacking tasks. This man effectively runs a business and he only checks and answers his email once a week.

3 - Getting Things Done: How to Achieve Stress-free Productivity by David Allen (2002)

Why? A good methodology on how to prioritise tasks, and reviewing and archiving information along with planning individual projects.

 

4 - 80/20 Principle: The Secret of Achieving More with Less by Richard Koch (2007)

Why? The fact that 80 per cent of results flow from 20 per cent of causes - is the one true principle of highly effective people and organisations.

 

Fartherhood, kind of a big deal

Mid June we were blessed with a healthy 3kg baby girl. We had already decided that we shall name her Khadijah. This was not set in stone, as I didn't want to commit to a name and then feel while holding her she didn't feel like a Khadijah. But she most certainly did.
Blogging has taken a very low priority in the past months. But some photos I find to awesome not to share.
I also wanted to help a a less fortunate child in the world in some positive way. So I starte a fund raising page. The target is to raise at least enough money to look after an orphan for at least a year. It such a small thing I'm almost embarrassed I'm not doing more.
In immediate action, there is some power of momentum.
Visit the fundraising PAGE HERE > www.justgiving.com/babykhadijah 

Headband rocking for charity

Drama on the Tube

Scene : London Underground – Jubilee line west bound.

I sit there exhausted when I notice what sounds like, hang on, yes it’s someone clicking his fingers. I look around the carriage and there stands a young man staring at his watch. Click his fingers snap, hand held just above his head. His watch bearing arm wrapped around the central pole. Click, is he mumbling? What is he saying? I read his lips. He’s counting 5,6,7, Click, and he repeats, this time counting a little louder. Click ‘Another one, 3,4,5,6,7 Click’.  Other passengers have noticed and are staring at him. He pays no heed. He’s getting louder. Click ‘Another one, 3,4,5,6,7’ Click ‘Another one, 3,4,5,6,7’  and louder he gets, Click ‘Another, dead, 4,5,6,7’ Click. How does he click so loud? It’s just cutting though everything.  Now he’s just waiting for the 8 second interval and clicking and shouting ‘DEAD’.  I count in my head 2,3,4,5,6,7, he clicks and shouts ‘DEAD’. People are freaking out, looking at each other. I figure I better do something before someone plays the hero and jumps on an assumption and attacks this guy.

‘WHAT IS DYING?’ I shout from down the carriage. He stops and looks up from his wrist watch, stares right at me. And calm, words leaving his lips slowly, voice raised he states ‘A child dies, every 8 seconds’ I ask ‘WHY?’ he responds in the same Roman orator style. ‘Because they have no clean drinking water’.  His face is wrought with sadness and pain, a sadness I’ve witnessed before. The look of someone who mourns. I’ve come too far to drop this now, ‘WHAT CAN I DO?’ he looked down and sighed. Then chin held high, looked around and bellowed ‘Appreciate the clean water you have, and waste it not’. The train stopped, he walked out leaving us all in silence. For a whole minute we all were frozen, when a snigger to my left of some teenagers broke into laughter. Slowly everyone returned to their kindles, phones and papers.

NOTE: I imagined this fictional event happening as I stared down the carriage on a train journey home, while listening to an audio book (No Impact Man), where he states the fact: ‘ a child dies every 8 seconds in the world, due to unclean drinking water’

If any artists out there would turn this into a comic strip, power to you. Even better if a drama group would turn this into some impromptu magic on the tube. Do it, and please film it.

Loving Your Work with Scott

Deep in my core I know I have to figure out a way to work in something I love. Now where would someone start.

I guess watching this Ted Talks video wouldn't be a bad start.

• Steps 1 - Unique Strengths - Recommends reading Strength Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath (so I've added that to my library reservation list)
• Step 2 - Experiences - Spend some time on reflection on what went right and wrong and keep a journal.
• Step 3 - Definition of Success - Define the end game in a clear way. 
• Step 4 - Values - Define your values so you know if a specific route is in line with what you believe in.

Scott's Webpage - liveyourlegend.net great place to start.

What's our next steps??? feel free to comment below.

True stories from my youth: DSS

True stories from my youth: DSS

Aged eleven sitting in the living room on a school night my mother informs me I won’t be going to school in the morning (Primary year 6). When I ask why, she states she needs me to translate for her at an office in Stratford tomorrow. I think nothing of it and carry on watching the box. Come morning my mother and I head off to Stratford via bus and walk towards the blue building. For those not from Newham, this is the DSS office. And as with all DSS buildings the queue snaked all the way outside. After an hour or so of cuing my mother and me reach a windowed clerk of sorts. My mother speaks to me in Gujarati and tells me to translate.

Mrs Bad: *Gujarati* Tell him we want a grant for school uniform

Bad: My mother’s enquiring about the school uniform grant

DSS Clerk: who is it for?

Bad: *Gujarati* he asked who’s it for?

Mrs Bad: *Gujarati* tell him it’s for you when you start secondary after the summer

I just froze, here I was asking on behalf of my mother for a hand out for a school uniform. I felt sick to my stomach and urged for the ground to tear open and swallow me, I wanted to cry, I wanted to run away screaming, but I couldn’t move. I was poor, we were poor, and I was the intermediary for my families begging from the state.

Mrs Bad: *Gujarati* don’t just stand there tell him

Bad: *voice all horse* the uniforms for me, starting after the summer

DSS Clerk: We no longer do grants, we can do a loan.

Bad: *Gujarati* he said they longer do grants, they can do a loan.

After what seemed like an eternity of back and forth between me and my mother, mostly telling me off feeling it was my lack of ability to translate we didn’t make the grant happen, we headed off home. I spent the rest of that day and many others pondering on what life would be like if my father was around.

'You'd be a great father' how do you know?

When you have those initial conversions with people, the subject of marriage, children etc comes along.

Person X: 'How long have you been married for?'
Bad: '5 years now'
Person X: 'How many children?'
Bad: 'none that I know of'
Person X: (after they get the joke) 'It' ll happen, and I think you'll make a great father'
Bad: 'Really, how do you know? '
Person X: ' You can just tell.'

Now I've had a very similar conversion a number of times, and it's pretty much the same. I just don't get how anyone can predict a man's potential of quality fathering pre well fatherhood.

Do I give off some awesome paternal aura? Are they just plain lying, or am I truly an awesome daddy in the making.