organize-gcm

6:00AM

2007-11-29T09:57:00.000+05:30

Well, I had to get up at 6:00AM. I had a conference call with the
US at 6:30AM. So had to have my coffee and be awake before the
call started.

Stress free driving in rush-hour traffic

2007-11-28T10:45:00.000+05:30

I recently realized that I felt very tired after driving to and from work. Traffic in Bangalore can be maddening at times, and can invoke inordinate amounts of stress in the body. The result of this stress is extreme tiredness, general sluggishness, and general unhappiness
from R.

For the last 2-3 days, I have been trying out something, that has worked (atleast until now), that has reduced my stress multiple fold.

Imagine you are the driver of one of those super luxury volvo buses. These guys, if you notice, never are in a hurry. And if you have been inside one, you would realize, it is one of the smoothest drives you have ever taken. I am not talking about not feeling the bumps (Good Volvo suspension takes the credit for that). I am talking about, not feeling any surges in power, to get the bus between those 2 cars, or, suddenly decelerating from 60kmph to 0kmph, to avoid that dog/child/oldlady/vegetable cart/cycle that just crossed the road. You do not feel it, because the driver does not do these things.

- He never is above 40-45kmph.
- He never is weaving in and out of traffic
- He never needs to accelerate or decelerate suddenly
- He is never in a hurry

I thought let me follow this. And hey, it works. I do not overspeed these days. I do not weave in traffic. I am always in the lookout for pedestrians/traffic stoppers, and speed bumps. I imagine, I am driving the world's best super luxury bus.

Here's to stress-free driving!

630AM

2007-11-27T10:15:00.000+05:30

Well, sheer will power did not quite work.Had set my alarm for 5:30AM. There is one thing that has come out of this exercise though. It seems that 6:30AM is my natural awakening time. Almost daily, I naturally become awake at pretty much this time regularly. This is good info. As zenhabits.net suggests, I will probably not shoot for the stars right away, and try to habitualize 6:00AM for some time. Hopefully, this will make 6:0oAM my natural time. Lets see.

On other organizational news, I have started a todo.txt file that I am maintaining pretty regularly for the last week. I have it divided into 2 broad categories - Work and Personal. Work is further subdivided into three lists - urgent, short term, and long term. And each time I finish an item, I remove it from the list, and add it to the done list (bottom of page).

Waking up Early

2007-11-26T07:33:00.000+05:30

This is one of my goals. It was particularly bad today morning. R blames it on it, being Monday. Saturday and Sunday are the only 2 days, we get to sleep in, and boy, we do, and we enjoy it.
I think the sleep hangover carries over to Monday. Woke up at 6:30AM today (today is R's birthday, yaay ! Her uncle/aunt called to wish her happy birthday! first thing in the morning, thanks guys! If not for you, we would have still been in bliss).

We did go to bed at a reasonable time. I had set the alarm clock for 5:30AM. Ofcourse, I banged it on the head, the minute it went off, and went back to sleep. It is cold in Bangalore, and I cannot step out of the quilt. :( I have tried placing the alarm clock far away etc - nothing works.

Tomorrow, I will do it the hardway - sheer will power. I will get up early and post here.

Cell phone search

2007-11-25T19:08:00.000+05:30

The first lifehack that I am implementing as of today, is to put our cell phones (my wife's and mine) in a single fixed place, so that we do not search for it. This has been getting to my nerves for quite some time. R and me are always searching for either of our phones, and it is always, when we are leaving out in a hurry.
From today, the phones will always remain in our living room corner table. Always !

Welcome post

2007-11-25T12:11:00.000+05:30

Dear readers (if any):

This blog has been created to track my own progress towards an organized and healthy life. At this moment in time, I feel that, there is a lot of chaos, and randomness in my life, and I seek to iron this out.

I am not new to blogging, and I have had another blog for almost 4 years. I have read a lot of blogs, and there are quite a few goals that bloggers try to achieve. Some blog as a means to get them writing. Some blog to share interesting links. Some blog about their own personal lives. Some blog to capture photographic moments and share these with the world. And, some blog to track their personal improvement (be it health, financial, or any other kind).

This is a blog of the last type. Hopefully, posting to this blog would make me accountable, and habitualize some of the improvements, that I plan to do with my life.