To be Productive, You Cannot Be to Perfectionist

Posted on March 19, 2020 ·

Don’t Let Perfection Be the Enemy of Productivity

Productivity isn’t about getting more done. It’s about what you get done. Three aspects of perfectionism can interfere with your ability to prioritize the most important tasks.

1. You’re reluctant to designate decisions as “unimportant.”

2. You feel morally obligated to overdeliver.

3. You get excessively annoyed when you aren’t 100% consistent with good habits.

Continue Reading this article HERE.

 

 

Filed Under: 1 Academic, 11 Personal, 12 Motivational Quotes, Selfhelp

Give Up these 13 Things If You Want To Be Successful

Posted on January 21, 2020 ·

Sometimes, to become successful and get closer to the person we can become, we don’t need to add more things — we need to give up on some of them.

There are certain things that are universal, which will make you successful if you give up on them, even though each one of us could have a different definition of success.

You can give up on some of them today, while it might take a bit longer to give up on others.

This is a very great article, continue reading by clicking the link below:

https://medium.com/@zdravko/13-things-you-need-to-give-up-if-you-want-to-be-successful-44b5b9b06a26

Filed Under: 11 Personal, 12 Motivational Quotes Tagged With: , , , ,

Prioritizing tool you didn’t know you needed

Posted on January 15, 2020 ·
Preface: This is an interesting article that I receive in my inbox email. I strongly it is good for me and for others, hence I copy the email and re-published it here. The article was written by Alex Mehr, PhD.
………………………………………….
How do you prioritize your days?
I’m willing to bet you don’t always get exactly what you wanted done every single day. Distractions happen—new tasks come up, plans change, and fires need to be put out.

But what if I told you there was a simple way to establish your priorities

in the face of any series of tasks?

This revolutionary idea is based on former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s quote: “I have two kinds of problems: the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.”
So, with any task you have to do, ask yourself: Is this urgent? And is this important?
Important tasks contribute to achieving your professional or personal goals. The urgent tasks are the ones that need to get done right away, and usually contribute to someone else’s goals.
Think of it like a matrix—you have four quadrants: important and urgent, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, and neither. Here’s how you’ll prioritize once everything is assigned to one of these quadrants:
1. Important and urgent
You’d think this is the type of task that you should be spending the most time on. Nope. After all, if everything you’re doing is urgent, you’re probably always late, or something about your system needs to be fixed.
These are things you’ve left until last minute, or tasks that popped up unpredictably. The former can be avoided by working proactively. For the latter, always allocate time in your schedule for unpredictable tasks. An open half hour gives you enough space to make an urgent call your boss assigns to you, or to solve most small problems.
2. Important but not urgent
This is where most of your time should be allocated. Stay on track by scheduling a lot of time for these tasks. They’re the least stressful because time constraints aren’t pressing, and they’re dedicated to moving you forward.
3. Not important but urgent
These are the necessary tasks that are responsible for keeping you from reaching your goals. They include things like meetings where you may not have much to contribute. Delegate where you can and reschedule to a more sensible time if possible.
Also, learn when to say “No.” These are usually the tasks that are dropped in your lap by others, who also feel that they’re unimportant. Do them only if you have ample time and energy.
4. Not important and not urgent
In other words: distractions. Avoid this kind of task at all costs. This includes all kinds of ‘dilly-dallying’ while on the clock, but also may include practices that have become commonplace in your work routine. Take the time to assess your own tasks and determine if any are simply wasteful.
But remember: downtime and relaxation do not fall into this category. It’s important to rest and recharge, as well as take time for recreation and socialization to balance your active professional life.

Cheers,
Alex Mehr, PhD

Filed Under: 1 New Knowledge Per Day, 11 Personal, 12 Motivational Quotes

Check this out: A Real Conversation About Academic Hours Worked

Posted on January 4, 2020 ·

In November, celebrated classicist Mary Beard started a Twitter storm when she asked faculty colleagues to share how many hours a week they typically work. Beard helpfully identified her own working hours as somewhere north of 100 each week.

That figure elicited widespread shock and dismay — and anger, frustration and accusations of ableism in the protection of status for those who are physically capable of shouldering a bruising schedule. Some respondents correlated academics’ tendency to overwork with an abusive employment culture that extracts more labor from ever fewer laborers, enabling the rapid shrinkage of the professoriate.

A surfeit of pride in one’s in-demand status has come to be called a “busy brag.” The busy brag has attracted media attention over the past several years; see, for example, here and here. A recent article in The Atlantic links the busy brag to a reversal of Thorstein Veblen’s theory of labor and status. In his Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), Veblen wrote, “The conspicuous abstention from labor becomes the conventional mark of superior pecuniary achievement.” Not so today. Not so in higher education. Not so more widely.

….

Continue reading this article by clicking here.

Filed Under: 1 Academic, 11 Personal, 12 Motivational Quotes Tagged With: , , , ,

Secrets ~7 Challenges Successful People Overcome

Posted on January 4, 2020 ·

It’s truly fascinating how successful people approach problems. Where others see impenetrable barriers, they see challenges to embrace and obstacles to overcome.

Their confidence in the face of hardship is driven by the ability to let go of the negativity that holds so many otherwise sensible people back.

Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania has studied this phenomenon more than anyone else has, and he’s found that success in life is driven by one critical distinction—whether you believe that your failures are produced by personal deficits beyond your control or that they are mistakes you can fix with effort.

Continue reading by clicking here

Filed Under: 12 Motivational Quotes Tagged With: , , ,

How Successful Giant Companies Got Their First Users

Posted on October 5, 2019 ·
This is indeed a super article, great resources, full of aspiration, very inspiring and mind blowing. Learn how 30+ companies such as GitHub, Zoom, Amazon, Twitch and Whatsapp got their first users. Just click the link below to learn further:
Examples shown are companies like Facebook, Twitter, Air BNB, Microsoft and much more.
Filed Under: 11 Personal, 12 Motivational Quotes, Business

Best Practices and Greed!

Posted on October 1, 2019 ·

*Recession* ??

Banwarilal was a samosa seller in an Indian town. He used to sell 500 samosas everyday on a cart in his locality. People liked his samosas for last 30 years, because he cared for hygiene in preparation and selling, would use good quality oil and other ingredients, provide free chutneys with samosas. He would throw all unsold samosas to poor people, cow, dogs etc and did not sell unsold stale samosas to people next day.

Banwari earned good reputation and enough money from samosa selling and he never faced downfall in his sale in last 30 years. He was able to fund his son’s MBA education in a famous private college in Noida out of his earnings.

Recently his son Rohit completed his MBA and came back home as he could not get appropriate placement. Rohit started taking interest in his father’s samosa business. He had not been involved in his father’s business earlier as he considered that to be an inferior job.

During MBA, Rohit read a lot on recession. He read that it is coming up in global economy and how it will affect job prospects, increase unemployment etc. So he thought that he should advise his father of the risks in the business of samosa selling on account of recession.

He told his father that recession may cause fall in sale of samosas, so he should prepare for cost cutting to maintain the profit.

Banwari was glad that his son knows so much about business and taking interest in his business. He agreed to follow advice of his son.

Next day, Rohit suggested using 20% used cooking oil and 80% fresh. People did not notice the change in the taste and 500 samosas were sold.

Rohit was motivated by the profit made by this savings. Next day he suggested increased share of used oil to 30% and reduce the quantity of free chutney.

That day, only 400 samosas were sold and 100 samosas were thrown to poor people and dogs.

Rohit told his father that recession has really set in as predicted by him, so more cost cutting is to be done and they would not throw stale samosas but would fry them again next day and sell them. Quantity of used oil will also be increased to 40% and to make only 400 samosas to avoid wastage.

Next day 400 samosas were sold but customers were not feeling good old taste. But Rohit told his father about savings because of his smart planning. Father told him that he may be knowing better, being educated.

Next day Rohit decided to use 50% used oil, do away with sweet chutney and provided only green chutney, made 400 samosas. That day only 300 samosas could be sold as people started disliking the taste.

Rohit told Banwari “Look , I had predicted great recession is arriving and sales would fall. Now this is happening. We will not throw away these 100 stale samosas but would fry and sell them tomorrow.” Father agreed to his MBA son.

Next day, 200 fresh samosas were made with 50% used oil, 100 stale fried samosa were offered for sale but only 200 could be sold as people sensed the drastic fall in quality.

Rohit said that recession has really set in and now people have no money left to spend so they should make only 100 samosas and recycle 100 stale samosas and stop giving paper napkins .

After this only 50 samosas could be sold .

Rohit told his father ” Now recession has taken people in its grip. People have lost income. So, this business will be in loss and they should stop selling samosas and do something else.”

Now his father started shouting, “I did not know that they teach cheating in the name of MBA. I lost my money in getting your MBA education. In last 30 years of samosa selling, I never had recession but your greed for profit brought recession in my business and caused closure. Get out of my business and I will get it back to earlier level. If you want, I can hire you for washing dishes as that is the only thing you can do despite being MBA educated.”

Thereafter , Banwari started following his age old wisdom and fair practices in business. Within a month his sale reached to 600 samosas.

*Recession is nothing but co
nvergence of greed of government to extract more taxes, greed of big* *businesses to be more profitable by reducing quality and using unfair practices and also of careless arrogant* *employees giving pathetic service as long as profits are coming. Recession is the punishment given to businesses and government by people by restricting their spending*.

Nice article, worth reading …

Filed Under: 11 Personal, 12 Motivational Quotes Tagged With: , , ,

Leadership Talk Series : Strategic and Conceptual Leadership oleh Tan Sri Dr Mohd Nadzmi bin Mohd Salleh

Posted on August 21, 2019 ·
  • Tarikh: 21 August 2019
  • Masa: 9.00am -11.00am
  • Lokasi: Dewan Jamuan, Pentadbiran UTM

This was a very interesting, informative and inspirational talk.

Antara point penting yang saya garap dari Talk ini:

  1. For management of business, ensure basic thing for the success which is profit must be bigger than operation/lost.
  2. Avoid micromanage.
Filed Under: 1 Academic, 10 Administrative, 12 Motivational Quotes

“What good things have I done to the planet? ” – Solar Energy Can be the ANSWER

Posted on June 28, 2019 ·

Itulah antara pertanyaan yang diutarakan, oleh Arnaud Ayral (Regional Business Development Director Cleantech Solar), bukan kepada kami yang menghadiri Talk ini, tetapi pada dirinya sendiri. Soalan itu betul-betul menarik perhatian saya. Walaupun saya memang sangat minat nak memiliki teknologi solar sejak 2011 lagi, tapi masih belum dapat lagi.

Pelbagai panduan, ebook dan video solar energy saya dah beli sejak 2011. Habis ratusan USD juga tu. Kononnya nak beli pasang sendiri di rumah. Tapi tak jadi-jadi. Belum rezeki. Terganggu juga perancangan sebab takut clash dengan peraturan dan undang-undang pun ada.

Kesedaran kewujudan feed-in-tariff (FiT) agak lambat pada saya. FiT ni boleh hasilkan pendapatan pasif dari solar panel kita. Takpelah. Kemudian wujud pula scheme baru menggantikan FiT, iaitu Net Energy Metering (NEM). Bulan puasa lalu saya study habis NEM ni, tapi rasanya macam tak semenarik FiT. Tapi itu lah pakej yang ada at the moment.

Saya dapat tahu ada Talk tentang Solar Power, lalu saya daftarkan diri agar dapatlah jumpa pakar yang lebih arif dalam talk dan sesi networking. Alhamdulillah, terbuka luas pandangan saya kini, dan sepertinya akan jadi lebih awesome. Inilah ruang dan peluang untuk saya menjawap soalan nun di atas. Saya mungkin mampu membantu planet melalui 2 cara: (1) Saya pasang solar PV di rumah (iaitu bila ada rezekinya lah) dan (2) Saya bantu sebarkan informasi dan kesedaran pentingnya kita beralih ke Tenaga Diperbaharui @ Renewable Energy (RE).

Apabila kita menggunakan RE, kita akan membantu mengurangkan jejak karbon @ carbon footprint ke planet yang kita sayangi ni. Ye, itu sangat penting. Setiap aktiviti kehidupan kita, kalau kita telusuri betul-betul, semuanya mengeluarkan karbon, yang sememangnya tak baik untuk planet alam sekitar.

Kita duduk dalam rumah atau ofis, kita sumbang karbon ke udara dengan menggunakan kipas / aircond. Kita bergerak naik kenderaan, kita sumbang karbon melalui proses pembakaran enjin, kita pakai baju, kita sumbang karbon juga kerana proses buat baju dari awal hingga siap di kedai pun menyumbang sejumlah karbon yang banyak. Malah kita cuci baju kita pakai mesin basuh pun, akan menggunakan kuasa elektrik dan air yang menyumbang ke arah penghasilan karbon. Kita bernafas pun kita keluarkan karbon…

Statistik dari SEDA menyatakan tenaga daripada solar cuma 2% sahaja untuk Malaysia dalam Energy Mix (info setakat Disember 2018). Kerajaan mensasarkan angka ini meningkat ke 20% menjelang 2030.

Realistikkah?

Kita boleh bantu mainkan sedikit peranan. Kita cuba fahami, sedari dan buat apa jua yang boleh untuk membantu. Menteri Tenaga, Sains, Teknologi, Alam Sekitar dan Perubahan Iklim, YB Yeo Bee Yin, menyatakan dalam press conference May lepas, kalau seluruh bumbung di Malaysia di pasang dengan solar PV, negara kita akan ada lebihan tenaga. Ye, dah tak perlu kita gunakan gas asli arang batu untuk memperoleh tenaga elektrik. Tapi memang bukan senang. Banyak cabaran. Banyak pelaburan wang perlu dibuat. Nak selamatkan bumi bukan murah, tapi mesti kita buat juga ikut kemampuan masing-masing.

Melalui Talk yang saya hadiri semalam, walaupun dalam keadaan agak kurang sihat, saya syukur sebab belajar dan terdedah kepada pelbagai perkembangan berkaitan Solar. Kalau sebelum ini saya cuma sedar dan tahu tentang NEM yang cuma sekadar jimatkan penggunaan elektrik, tapi ada lagi benda menarik seperti Virtual peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading system, yang mana kalau kita boleh hasilkan tenaga elektrik ekstra di atas bumbung atau mana-mana, melebihi keperluan konsumsi rumah atau industri kita, maka kita boleh jual kepada entiti lain, tak semestinya ke TNB. Tapi TNB akan charge sikit sebab guna infrastruktur mereka. Pengenalan P2P bakal menggunakan blockchain technology dan ini adalah sebahagian daripada Renewal Energy Transition Roadmap (RETR) 2035 yang bakal membantu ke arah negara kita mencapai sasaran 20% dari sumber tenaga solar dalam Energy Mix pada 2030 kelak.

Platform P2P bakal menjadi sebagai Open Electricity Market di Singapura yang baru terrealisasi. Negara seperti Australia dan Thailand juga telah memulakan initiatif seumpama ini. Nampaknya kita di Malaysia taklah ketinggalan sangat. Kalau kita cuba belajar dan ambil tahu dari sekarang, kita boleh jadi antara pelopor awal membantu planet dan poket kita lebih sihat.

Oh, sebelum terlupa, berbalik kepada NEM, banyak perincian yang saya tak dapat kongsi di sini. Boleh lah rujuk website SEDA. Boleh juga rujuk calculator NEM untuk mendapat anggaran berapa kW bumbung anda boleh generate electricity berdasarkan bil bulanan elektrik anda. Saya dah periksa bumbung saya mampu menghasilkan lebih kurang 5-6 kW tenaga elektrik, tapi saya yakin bumbung rumah kami agak luas dan mampu hasilkan lebih dari itu untuk menyertai platform P2P kelak, insyaAllah.

NEM ni ada kuota ye. Kena cepat bertindak kalau nak. Setakat ini kuota untuk rumah adalah 50 MW manakala kuota keseluruhan negara kalau tak silap adalah 500 MW (termasuk industri).

Jom selamatkan planet…. errr…. dan poket 

Rujukan: https://www.facebook.com/zakiyz/posts/10157556239324973

 

Filed Under: 11 Personal, 12 Motivational Quotes, 2 Research Tagged With:

Sharing and Learning Will Never Stop (22 & 23 October 2018)

Posted on October 23, 2018 ·

With my MSc and PhD Supervisor, Prof. Ir. Dr. Nor Aishah Saidina Amin — at School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, UTM.

With My Engineering Education Mentor, Prof. Dr. Khairiyah Mohd Yusof @ Center for Engineering Education, UTM. — at School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, UTM.

With Lotte’s tough and genius dude 🙂 — withMuhammad Zakwan Zaine at School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, UTM.

“Learn,
Take action,
And enjoy the ride… “
-Robert Kiyosaki

Today & yesterday, truly grateful and touched by the supports & encouragement from my MSc & PhD supervisor, Prof. Ir. Dr. Nor Aishah Saidina Amin; my Engineering Education mentor, Prof. Dr. Khairiyah Mohd Yusof; En. Khairil Anwar Razali, QES Management Consultant, colleagues Dr. Hajar Alias and Dr. Asmadi Yussuf (School of Chemical & Energy Engineering; Dr. Siti Shawalliah (UITM Shah Alam) & our ex-student Muhammad Zakwan Zaine (Lotte Titan) & Muhammad Luqman. I am sorry if i missed other names.


With Khairil Anwar Razali at School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, UTM.

Filed Under: 11 Personal, 12 Motivational Quotes, 3 Writing, 4 Publication, personal Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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