Aditya Vedula’s Weblog

I happened to attend a session on Time management by one of the seniormost managers of my company “Shiv”. He is the head of a development centre, a divisional manager for two units. He is a busy man. But he says he manages to go home daily by the 5.15 bus.

When i first heard him, i thought my ears must be playing jokes with me..But no..!!! He says he leaves to home by the 5.15 bus 80% times. Only 20% times he stays back due to unavoidable works.

The golden rules he proposed to manage our time are many. They are not bullets, not agendas to be planned nor things to be avoided but simple practises which help one to manage one’s time effectively….

The first and foremost thing to be followed is to excel for 80% of the time and to provide a 20% failure buffer….That is 80% of the times you will successfully finish the work, but 20% buffer is to be there in order to manage unavoidable situations……

The example of a smoking quitter explains things……As a part of new year resolutions, many wanna quit smoking….They hold on very patiently till 4-5 days, till a friend pops out of nowhere and takes them along to smoke……They smoke out of habit and the next day onwards, they go even without the friend, or take along another person who made the same resolution……

The real failure is not the one time he smokes with his friend, but continues to do so even without his friend….He is successful in giving up smoking even if he smokes for a day in a week as 1/7 is less than 20%, which is the buffer one can allow for failures…..

Another thing he said is about unnecessary meetings, status reports, consolidated reports….

He refused to take any status reports from his subordinates unless he specifically asks them…..He says if u donot trust in the man u allot the work to, its as good as u urself doing all the work…..

The unnecessary meetings come as a very big headache, as one cannot dare enough to say one the face of one’s boss that he feels that what is going on il bullshit……He said that to his boss and opted out of the meeting…….Nothing happened…..!!!!

Consolidated reports are another thing which he avoided….The day he took over as the divisional manager, he did not send a report to one of the directors he reports to…..He got a call from the directors secratory asking about the report to be sent……He asked if the director asked for it,…..No….!!!!! Its the secratory whoz asking for it…….. He said “Let the director ask for it….Ill then send it…..” Two years since this happened, the director never bothered to ask about it…….

So a little courage to face things, you can keep 50% of your time free for yourself and in that remaining 50% he gives talks to the yourger generations in the company……

The only fact that he is still in the company after doing all these, and the company allows him to tell all these to us, means that what he says is absolutely correct and can be followed……

He openly challenged one guy in the room if he can avoid the work he thought of doing that day(which is really unnecessary) and play squash as he likes it……!!!!! The guy hung his head…..

So it takes a lot of self determination and the will to leave some things which need not be done for the sake of being done, one can manage a kings portion of one’s time to do things we like……!!!!!!

I liked his talk a lot and planning to do not all, but atleast some of what can be done as to start with……!!!!!!!

Off late i have been a little lax in reading novels because of a little sluggishness on my part. Last week when i came across a novel Lashkar in Strand, little did i think about buying it…. Had i not bought it, i would’ve missed a wonderful feeling…..

Ever as i child i liked the commando movies where the hero’s team moved as death itself and rescued innocent people, while cutting necks without being known to eyes….Im not a violence lover but somehow liked movies which have a strike quality in them……My favourite movie in that category being “Executive Decision”..

But i always used to wonder why donot Indian film makers make such movies….Is it that Indian armed forces lack the capabilities (which my patriotic mind would ward off the idea itself) or our people do not like such stuff…..Are they always into guy after a girl and both running after trees, smooching and some stupid uncensored stuff…..!!!!!

Lashkar came in a time where i had not much of work…..I saw the cover page and the design caught attention and also made clear the theme has something to do with India-Pakistan….I read along the storyline which got me more engrossed and the next moment i fished for my card and swiped it along the clerks machine for a 200 bucks……

When i started reading, i thought that this is a good book……The backdrop being the Delhi blasts which killed many a innocent victims, made my blood to raise its temperature…..The narrative starts along with a guy who goes to pakistan for terror training and returns to india after it to create havoc…..Though the writer put a disclaimer about the strategies used, the technological prowess of the army…, such things do not come without some real happenings….

The united stand of the usually crooked political leaders, the firm decision to retariate by a peace loving and humble prime minister, the coolness of the armed forces heads all put me in awe of the way the narration was…..The novel did not emphasize on a single hero but had many which is also very gud….Else it would’ve looked like many a movie which we are bored with…..

The plot which is not explicitly mentioned by, but beautifully unfolded as the novel proceeds……We can guess for sure who are on the hit list with a little of general knowledge…..

The pace at which the novel moves keeps one glued to the pages.

So all in all its a very gud book as per me and i recomment one to read it for sure…….!!!!!!