How To Be Productive at Work

How To Be Productive at Work Getting started : Start with understanding and doing your assigned task. Remember, taking the first step is always difficult, but if you do not take that one step you can never achieve your goals. Don't get worried with the task assigned, if it is new to you. Ask required questions to better understand assigned task. Once you get started, everything will come in easy. Stay Healthy : Bad health can also be a possible reason for being unproductive. Before you go to work; take your breakfast, rest well and research about your duties. Make an appointment with yourself : Give yourself at least 30 minutes during the day. This will enable you to concentrate and focus your attention on the matters at hand. Give yourself time to think and concentrate as you tackle your job and projects. These uninterrupted 30 minutes will give fruitful results in the long run. Utilize your prime time : We all have a specific time of the day when we have lots of vigor and zest and a greater ability to think and concentrate. Work out when you have your high energy levels and tackle your most important work at that time. Try to arrange meetings, appointments and other activities at another time of the day. Avoid unplanned meetings : Spontaneous meetings are real interrupters as well as huge time-wasters and productivity destroyers. They break your concentration, disturb your thought process while undermine your momentum. The next time someone comes into your office or sits by your desk and start making him/herself comfortable, say that you are in the middle of an important project. Then ask if you could get together at a mutually convenient time later in the day or week. This is called a polite excuse. Schedule your meetings with staff and colleagues : In most offices, time is wasted when people get up from their desks to ask their colleagues a question. Fix a specific time to meet colleagues for queries. Best is the time slot which does not fall in the peak hours of work. Take breaks : It is a fact that taking breaks periodically during the day relax your body and nerves and refreshes you for the tasks ahead. Ensure that you take small breaks all day. It could be a walk to the water cooler from your office/room or a visit to the photocopy machine/fax/printer. Planning required : Establish a routine of listing your daily and weekly tasks. This will allow you to have your most productive week all the time. Start your day an extra 15 minutes early to do this planning every day. Write down the top 3 important things you must do that day. Plan your upcoming week on Sunday evening. Dro p unimportant tasks : Delete the non-essential items from your to-do list. The best way to do this is to prioritize and complete your most important things first. Enjoy your time at work : Being productive and competitive in official business doesn't mean that you have to be serious all the time. Smiling doesn't mean you're not working hard. Be enthusiastic as well as competitive. Stay positive, that way you can face and win challenges better. Be a Team Player : Don't be afraid to collaborate with others. Don't wait for your boss to tell you what to do Learn from criticism : Be a sport and never immediately reject critiques from others, even if you do not like or respect them. Sometimes people you do not like may be giving you more honest feedback than you can get from others. Acclimatize : Adapting is in the nature of living beings. Those who do not adapt, become extinct. Upgrade your learning : Always be on the lookout for opportunities to learn and improve your skills. Look for good seminars and training.

Our new house buiding update (pic)

Our Dzaman House building is still in progress

This house is located in Kota Bayuemas, Klang..near the AEON Bukit Tinggi.

Expected completion in May 2013 J

Cool Things..

How to Retire

--- Something interesting to share that will definitely be happening for us, "the young ones", just round the corner !!! A very pragmatic approach…............ HOW TO RETIRE 4 Pre-Conditions for Retirement I retired in year 2000 at age 52. I am now 61, thus I can claim that I got more experience at retirement than most! I thought I should share my experience with mariners because I have seen too many friends and neighbours who became so bored that they have become a nuisance to their spouse and children and to others! A few of them have solved the problem by going back to work. They were able to do so because they have a skill/expertise that is still in demand. The rest (and many are my neighbours) live aimlessly or are waiting to die - a very sad situation, indeed. You can retire only when you fulfil these 4 pre-conditions: Your children are financially independent (e.g. they got jobs), You have zero liability (all your borrowings are paid up), You have enough savings to support your lifestyle for the rest of your life, AND most importantly, You know what you would be doing during your retirement. DO NOT retire till you meet ALL 4 Pre-Conditions. And of course you should not retire if you enjoy working and are getting paid for it! The problem cases I know of are those who failed to meet Pre-Condition #4. When asked, "What would you be doing during your retirement?" some replied, "I will travel/cruise and see the World". They did that, some for 3 months and then ran out of ideas. The golfers replied, "I can golf every day." Most could not because they are no longer fit to play well enough to enjoy the game. Those who could, need to overcome another hurdle - they need to the find the "kakis" to play with them. It's the same with mahjong, bridge, badminton, trekking and karaoke - you need "kakis"! Most could not find others who share their favourite game and playing/singing alone is no fun. AND when they do find them, a few of them found that they are NOT welcomed like my obnoxious neighbour whom everyone avoids. Thus if you are into group sports or games, you must form your groups BEFORE you retire. You need to identify your "kakis", play with them and discover whether they "click" with you. The less sporty "can read all the books bought over the years". I know of one guy who fell asleep after a few pages and ended up napping most of the time! He discovered that he did not like to read after all. We do change and we may not enjoy the hobbies we had. Routine Activities To Fill Your Week For most people, your routine work activities are planned for you or dictated by others and circumstan ces. When you retire, you wake up to a new routine - one that you yourself have to establish as nobody else would do it for you! The routine to establish should keep your body, mind and spirit "sharpened". A good routine would comprise: a) One weekly physical sport - you need to keep fit to enjoy your retirement. If you are the non-sporty type, you should fire your maid and clean your home without mechanical aids. Dancing and baby sitting are good alternatives. b) One weekly mind stimulating activity - e.g. writing, studying for a degree, acquiring a new skill, solving problems or puzzles, learn or teach something. You need to stimulate your mind to stay alive because the day you stop using your brain is the day you start to die. c) One weekly social activity - choose one involving lots of friends/neighbours. Get yourself accepted as a member to at least 3 interests groups. Unless you prefer to be alone, you do need friends more than ever as you get older and less fit to pursue your sport. d) One weekly community service activity - you need to give to appreciate what you have taken in this life. It's good to leave some kind of legacy. With 4 weekly activities, you got 4 days out of 7 covered. The remaining 3 days should be devoted to family related activities. In this way, you maintain a balance between amusing yourself and your family members. Any spare time should remain "spare" so that you can capitalise on opportunities that come your way like responding to an unexpected request to do a job or to take advantage of cheap fares to see places or to visit an exhibition. Mind stimulating activities Most judges live to a ripe old age. They use their brains a lot to decide on cases. I am sure MM Lee's brain works overtime. He's 80+ and still going strong. In "Today" you would have read of 2 inspiring oldies. One is a granny who learned to play the guitar at age 60 to entertain her grandchildren. She's 70+ today and those grandchildren have grown to play with her. Another is an Indian radiologist who on retirement, qualified as an acupuncturist. He's age 77 and still offers his services (by appointment only) including free ones to those who have no income. I guarantee you that they are happy people who discovered a "2nd wind" to take them to the sunset with a smile on their faces. Mind stimulating activities are hard to identify. They require your will to do something useful with the rest of your life, a mindset change and the discipline to carry it through. Your Bucket List Despite your busy routine, you will at times be bored. Then it's time to turn to your Bucket List. Your bucket list contains a list of things to do before you kick the bucket. They are not routine and are usually one off activities. You need them to have something to look forward to. These include anniversaries, trips (and pilgrimages) , visits to friends and relations abroad, re-doing your home, attending conferences (related to your hobbies), acquiring a new set of expertise. 4 such activities that are spaced our quarterly would be ideal. Retirement Is A Serious Business If you can afford to retire and want to, do prepare to live to your fullest. You need to be fit to enjoy it - therefore get into shape now. You do not want to get up on a Monday and wonder what to do each week, therefore identify your set of weekly routine activities now and try them out to confirm that they are the activities that you will be looking forward to doing each week, week after week. You bucket list of "rewards" or "projects" or "challenges" is needed to help you break away from the routine thereby make live worth living. Start listing what you fancy and refine it as you chug along in your retirement. You will have so much fun, you would wish you were retired since your turned 21!