Where the hell is time for some real work?

In recent past, the work has become in such a way that, there are tons of emails in your mail box, meeting invites and IMs (instant messages) every day. From my recent experience, i keep getting at least 75-100 emails out of which i have to reply to about 10 emails at least. if you calculate on an average of 2 minutes to read and 4 minutes to reply each mail, it takes about 3-4 hrs. Then you have meetings which altogether eat up anywhere from 30 minutes to 2-3 hours. And then comes chat messages. Altogether you loose half of your work day for emails and meetings itself. Unless your job is to read emails and attend meetings then where the hell is the time to do some work? This may not happen everyday, and it may not be for everyone but i am sure quality time is getting disturbed with all these.

To be not disturbed by email/chat/phone notifications, i propose a workplace calendar which looks like below.

Monday	No team lunches
Tuesday	No instant Messengers(messages)
Wednesday	No email
Thursday	No phone calls
Friday	No meetings

Again, i look forward for your comments...

Happy week

If at all we have a very happy week where we don't have much work to do? How do you spend your time?
Below are my thoughts (some people might already be doing one or more already .. )

How about yours?

Recession OR Realization ?

    What is the first thing we think of when you hear the word ‘RECESSION’ ? Answer is : Job losses. I feel very sorry for all the people who lost their jobs even after working hard like hell. In addition, one other term we know and sometimes we overlook to mention is ‘PRICE CUTS’. Every industry is offering price cuts in their products for consumers.
For example ; Check this polo Ralph Lauren shorts in one store which was priced at $85 but now it is offered at approximately 80% off the original price.

Similarly restaurants are offering food for a cheap price these days. Not to forget, cars, houses etc .. everything is offered at lower prices. Some of them offer less than <10% off and some of them more. Just google for discounts on whatever you want, there is a fair chance that you will find one these days.

 

The questions we need to ask ourselves is, should we be happy for the low prices or were we being ripped off with the prices before recession ? Or is the quality in stores and restaurants going down after recession? If by any chance, quality is reduced in the restaurants and grocery stores or anywhere in the food we buy, that means we are buying health problems for a cheaper price now.

How are restaurants and grocery stores able to offer food for lower prices compare to earlier? I couldn't find any correct answer so far, if any of you know please let us know.

Are we learning anything from recession?

Is government setting up proper rules and guidelines so that we don’t suffer from some company’s CEOs selfish decision?

  We are learning but I don’t think we are still not learning enough because we still see people spending a lot than saving. And government is encouraging us to spend money rather than thinking of other ways to control or end recession

Friends, lets enjoy the reduced prices but at the same lets be careful on the quality of food that we are eating and feeding our children and friends. As always, i am waiting for your comments and Thank you for reading.!!!!

My job vs my passion

When was the time last you said to yourself.. "Screw this job.. let me do what i want" and held it back because of responsibilities ? For me (and i bet for most of us), its most of the time.. we sold ourselves to companies to hide our passions and work for them..


why do we want to do what we love to do??

i am not an expert in this field, but as a common man and from self experience (and from experience of close aides), top in the list of answers would be 'CONTENTMENT'. if you feel content with what you are doing you perform incredibly superb at what you do. Other factors i can think of are

1. Quality of the work: is much higher when you do what you like
2. Fun: This is my favorite, i can have as much fun as i want while i do what i love, i really don't care how hard it is, it still is fun..
3. Quantity: you will get done lot of work in the least time

Alright, we have our dreams about our passion, but while we try to make our dreams come true, how can we bring same love to our daily job ? (For our own satisfaction )

 I am sure at the beginning of every job, we all dedicate ourselves but as time pass by zeal gets leaner and leaner. To overcome this, I believe that MOTIVATION and APPRECIATION are the two key factors which does the magic. No one expects for pay raise or a promotion for every single task they do, but 'pat on the back' for every achievement truly gives lot of satisfaction and urge to do the work with more dedication.. (pay raise and promotion is always awesome :) , but it wont hold long enough without periodic appreciations)

i will leave rest to you guys to fill up on

1. Are you doing what you want to do?
2. Why do you think we should do what we love?
3. How can you make yourself love what you do?

...thanks for reading and looking fwd to see your thoughts..

What am i missing ?

I have been thinking about my childhood and the fun i had and i realized that i am missing so much fun in this mechanical era. So for this valentines day, for a change, i thought i would remember everything i loved and i am missing the most ... so here is top 10 list of the what i am missing the most from 80's, 90's,2000 decade ...

I miss .....

80's

• My family and all those days when everyday me, dad, mom,my brother, my sis use to have dinner together.. and mom feeding us …

•  Those days when my parents use to get exactly same dresses for me and my brother and we both use to have amazing fun...

• Those days when me and my brother use to eat our snack very fast and look at our sis and my sweet sis use to split it into 3 shares...

• All my childhood friends...playing outside the home with friends and family at nights on a full moon day...

•   Hot bajji,pakora, corn or tea on a rainy day and also making paper boats and playing with them in the rain ... ice-cream, sugar cane juice,lassi falooda in summer... and all homemade snacks during festivals

• Ganesh and Durga Navrathri days ,Diwali crackers, flying kites during Sankranthi festival

•   Those days when relatives use to visit our home with sweets and snacks.. and first question we use to ask "what did you bring ".. so that we can start eating sweets and snacks..and of course later a big lecture from parents ...

• All those days when we use to run for cover to dad if mom scolds, and to mom if dad scolds, or to grandparents if both mom n dad scolds..

• Those school days when we use to get stomach ache if there is homework due ...and waiting for Independence day and Republic day to get sweets and holiday...and ya acting like close friends with birthday boys and gals to get more chocolates..

•  Days when we use to visit mom's parents home and all cousins use to come and the fun we use to have... festivals and pujas at my grandparents home

90's
 

•   All my school and college friends and the fun time we had, and all mischievous acts we did ...

•    All the yummy food prepared by mom...

• Watching movies in theatres and telling movie stories to everyone from "Censor board certificate display " to "The end" title display

• All those school days when we use to bunk classes and go to nearby fields for watermelons, corn, peanuts,custard apples...and movies too ...

• Playing kabaddi and cricket with all my school friends

• Crying with homesick whenever we were sent to hostels for studies... sleeping under cots in early winter mornings when hostel wardens use to wake us up by 4.30am in hostel...

• All those days and the ways how we use to sleep in the first hour after lunch in college...

• Boarding running buses and staying on foot board and posing like we reached top of the world..

• Have lunch under tree shade in fields during a sunny day ... and all family picnics... swimming n bathing in ponds...

•  The way we use write our assignments, lab records and internal exams in engineering colleges ..

2001 - 2010

•  All my engineering and masters friends ..   

•   Road side pani puri, snacks, biryani, Chai, dinners and drinks in dhabain Hyderabad, gobi manchurian and churmuri with my best friend in Mysore ...   

• All those internet booming days in India when we use to proudly tell everyone the number of email accounts we had as if it was our bank balance, and also the craziness about online chat rooms like MIRC, Indiatimes, rediff ..

• Exam days when we use to do nightouts and combined studies...when we use to go to a small tea stall for bread omlette and tea at 1.00am as a study break.. n come back n sleep..

• Remembering god only during time of exams and offering awesome bribes.. like 101 coconuts .. or coming to temple by climbing steps etc... in exchange for exam scores…

• All the fun i had in the college where i worked first... all those fun parties in college buses ..

• The day i have seen my brother crying so much when i was leaving for US

• All those days when we use to cook varieties of dishes for friends birthdays and visiting temples in Chicago...dinners with the gang everyday...i miss my Chicago group..ohh ya and the way some novice cooks in my group use to cook food and made me eat varieties like cabbage, spicy Brinjol, fruit custard...

• Days when one friend use to snore and other one use to talk in sleep and i use to sleep with iPod in my ears  .. and days we played blindfolds in apartments, played in snow during winter, in Michigan lake during summer..all those days teaching car driving to my friends.. and varieties of experiences ... 

• All cousins and friends marriages and family events

the list can go on and on.......  i hope i get a chance too enjoy those golden days again :) ... 


Thank you for reading .....And please share what you are missing from childhood :)
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