How far can you plan?

Planning is an essential asset that is required for every person on this planet today in this fast progressing world. So how far can one plan is a question of interest. Generally people have short term, mid term and long term plans. These plans vary based on the time required to accomplish the short term, mid term and long term goals. However when a person is involved in planning, it is not just for what length of time is the plan made which is important but how detailed the plan is, is also very important. So when I ask 'how far can you plan?', I refer to both the length and depth of planning.

 

Everyone has to do something or the other to pass time. Some might work while some might play while others might just rest. The human mind is so well tuned to continuous activity that it keeps asking for what is the next task. As a result everyone of us has some idea about what to do next. This is where we can differentiate between A stars and rest of them. How well and far planned is your next activity determines your course of life. People who are in pursuit of their visions, goals and dreams generally are aware about all the minutest details of their plan and also have a rough picture of the next plan such that it progresses towards accomplishment of their visions. They even chart out a time plan so as to complete the different steps of the plan. The rest might just have an idea on what to do next and might think about its execution only during run time. Unfortunately such people end up with reasons and excuses more than results. They shall have no idea about what is supposed to be done after that activity. This is where we take our time, resources and life for granted.

 

Whenever you are into an activity you must be aware about at least 5-10 next steps as to how you will grow and master that activity and also what you would be achieving at each step. Sometimes people jump into work out of curiosity or temporary motivation without understanding the long-term goal of that work. When their immediate targets are reached, they find themselves clueless about how to continue further, whether to continue further or change. Hence whenever you're planning to jump into something try to make a plan which has depth as well as longevity. You can share your opinions on is.mohanbn@gmail.com
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The idea matters

Just few days back I had written a blog about executing the ideas and thoughts that come to our mind. After I wrote about how people tend to deviate away from work and don't execute what they think, I switched the frame of reference to those people who are always

thinking and simultaneously executing a lot of their plans. Then I realised that the execution of each and every idea that comes to the mind of such people is very difficult because ideas run a lot faster than execution. That is when I read a famous anecdote and concluded that execution is a must when the idea matters despite all constraints of time, money and human resources.

 

Once two people were travelling in a train. The second person was really awed by the persona carried by the first person. That is when the first person shared his vision with the second person to create an institution for science, technology and innovation. The result of this sharing of an idea was IISC- Indian Institute of Science, the second person was J.R.D.Tata while the first person was none other than Swami Vivekananda. This was the anecdote that completely took my thought to another higher level of perception. It's always not possible by us to execute each and every idea of ours due to different constraints. Sometimes people feel that they cannot share an idea of thiers with others because it might be stolen away from them and they might not get the credit. Other times people might also feel that without them doing the work by themselves first, they cannot ask or guide someone else to execute the idea. As a result of any of these confusions, finally the idea doesn't materialise into execution which is once again a loss for this world.

 

Once an idea comes to a person's mind which has the capacity to do good to the human society it must be executed. If the same person who got the idea cannot execute it either due to lack of prior experience or insufficient resources, it must be shared with people and for sure he shall find one person who will take the idea to the execution step. At the end of the day all that matters is execution of an idea which really matters to our world. Feel free to share your ideas about this blog on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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Just execute it

Thoughts on our mind keep running all the time. Everytime there is something wrong happening, the right thing to have been done springs up in our mind. Everytime we feel something is not up to the mark, automatically the best way to execute comes to our mind. Our mind is always ready to give ideas to make things easier for us but what do we do? We plainly disrespect those noble thoughts and move on. We fail at the initial step of starting the execution itself.

 

Most of the times we underestimate our own capacity and feel that execution of what we just thought is far from our ability to implement. There are some cases when we feel that the idea is not practically implementable while in some we feel that we don't have the necessary resources to execute our thought into action. There are certain occasions when we fear to start executing because we feel that we might end up in negative consequences. Other times we just plainly let go off the thoughts without even putting an effort to write them down so that we can avoid further thinking about the same. I am very sure that you are able to recollect few of those occasions when you let go off your thoughts and ideas without even executing them due to any of the above reasons or any other reason of your own. There is a very simple solution to this problem. Without execution anyways you are not learning anything, better start executing the idea. Either you will complete the execution and reward your brain else at least you will learn as to why the idea can't be practically implemented. In either case you always have a winning edge of learning something new and upgrading your knowledge.

 

Many of us have these constraints of time and work pressure due to which we are unable to execute many ideas. At least on such occasions make it a point to note down those ideas which you feel are worthy executing. If not now sometime later you will have a chance to execute your ideas. Remember that your ideas come to you only because they belong to you. Do pour in the thought running in your mind about this blog in a written feedback on

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Pre and Post Work

So you have started to read the blog. Probably your intention was to read the blog. Let me divide the procedure into even more minor details. The work that you decided in your mind to do couple of minutes ago was to read the blog. You might have seen the link to the blog on facebook or you might have directly entered the URL for my blog. Anyways your ultimate objective was to read the blog. Once you finish reading this blog probably you will close this window or open another website on the same window or might even shut down the computer. However your task of reading the blog was the work that you intended to do but in the process of accomplishing the same you would do lot of other things before and after reading the blog as described in the above lines. This is what I call as pre-work and post-work.

Most of the times our subconscious mind is so well tuned to go through the pre and post steps of any work that we don’t even realize that we are investing our time and efforts of completing. They do not even enter our To-Do lists. Still they are very important to complete. Else the work that we decide to do ends incomplete. Many try to take shortcuts to avoid this pre and post work and end up in redoing the entire task again and again. Remember friends! Every work has a logical series of steps of execution where none of them can be skipped. How disciplined and ordered we are in life determines the amount of extra time and efforts that we can avoid spending on these pre and post works. As per scientific research it has been estimated that on an average man wastes around 15% of his time in rearranging the disordered things. Lack of planning and prioritizing are some of the key points that affect the efficiency of our work. Hence next time whenever you are planning to any particular work just have a count of time and energy that you spend on the pre and post work. If you can tabulate this regularly you can have a clear estimation of the extra time and efforts that can be saved by better ordering and planning.

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Restart from Scratch

All of us start our lives right from our birth. We are all the same on the first day of our birth unaware of alphabets, numbers, concepts, formulas, current affairs etc. Probably we remain the same for almost one year from our birth. We start learning things one by one, one after the other. Many of us are lucky to be enrolled in an institution for a structured form of studies to understand the world around. We also know that human memory doesn't store all of what we study. We sometimes go back to study what we have already learned only to understand it with more clarity though those concepts are very basic. This is what I call as 'Restart from Scratch'.

We are already busy with so many responsibilities in our hands and the day to day issues. Along with that we are also forced to keep updated with the current world ongoings just to be competent enough for our very own survival. In doing so, we rush through the load of information that keeps pouncing upon us from different media like newpapers or radio or television or internet or people. We also take up different courses to understand different subjects in further depth for years. Still one fine day we find that we don't remember what we had learned for 3-4 years and just need to revise all of it back to start applying it. This happens with most of the degree courses. This is not something that is odd as it happens with all. More than this sometimes due to compounding work our capacity to handle all of them just gets exhausted and we start feeling as if we will never be able to do all of them. Be it studies which are forgotten or the umpteen amount of work that exceed our to-do list, both of them start putting their stress upon us to handle them. At this point one will be left in the hallow of confusion of what to do or what to plan because everything seems at high priority and to be done immediately. This is the point we feel like restarting from the scratch reorganising our goals and priorities once again.

Just be sure of one thing which is that even if you are restarting from scratch, your work and efforts may start from scratch but you already own the experience of having done it before. This is what will make your progress faster when you restart. This experience of yours will help in better planning and execution moving forward. But don't be complacent that everything will be completed in the way you imagined because new challenges are awaiting you and tough calls will come up once again asking you to restart from scratch. How well you can avoid these restarts depends on how well you have learned the lessons from previous failures and have a foolproof plan to avoid them next time.
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