While the words planning and execution does ring managerial bells, the planning and execution discussed here is at a personal level. Most of the points might sound weird, probably only mind games but they have worked for me (and some other folks) in the past. However, people, techniques and mind sets evolve with time. Today many of them do not work for me anymore. My concentration is a fraction of what it used to be. Priorities change! :-)
Let's start with basic everyday points:
1: Having planned something does not mean that the activity is completed.
2: Breaks generally outlast the allotted time. There is generally a 'transition' period which the mind takes to scale down on taking a break and a 'transition' period which the mind takes to scale back to when returning from a break.
3: Planning without considering indirect immediate externalities. This is the stupidest mistake. I, as a human, am also a friend, a son, a student, etc. All my initial failures were failures because I planned my plans considering myself only as a student.
4: What are you planning for? Confidence or Quality. This is where mental strength and confidence comes in. Let’s take the scenario, that I in 100 minutes, I need to complete 100 tasks, out of which 40 are super easy, 30 medium and 30 tough. If I start with the 30 tough tasks and take 60 minutes (which is valid), but then at the 61st minute, if I lack mental strength thinking – “Now I have to complete 70 tasks in 40 minutes” and start to fetter – it’s a lost cause.
5: There is always a cheap vs. quick vs. good quality trade off. At any given time, any two can be achieved and the third has to be forgiven. Take a minute and do the math in your mind. Plan taking this point and taking priority into consideration.
6: Sophisticated Planning is a waste of time. Anything that can be thought of, remembered and be aware about all the time is the best.
Once, you have understood, we can move on to the execution experiments.
To execute a plan is to actually work. To work, you need concentration. Concentration is, as I understand it, is nothing more than "being aware". Being aware of what you are reading, doing, seeing, smelling, hearing, etc. And how can one be aware? Awareness can be driven through one of the following combinations, namely; mind only, senses (ear, nose, touch, eye, tongue) only and combination of mind and senses.
The first question that should come to your mind is - what does a sense have to do with concentration? Well, just about everything. Go and run on the treadmill for 4 hours without stopping and then lye down on the floor. You will suddenly become very aware of your own body. You will feel your own breath, feel your own body temperature, feel the trickle down of the sweat stream. Similarly, eat a very hot chili and your mind will become aware of the burning sensation. In other words, you are concentrating on the burning sensation. While this might not be concentration in the general sense of focus on work, it is concentration never the less. How to channelize something like this towards work will be discussed ahead. The implication of the point raised here is concentration / awareness can be driven from either mind or senses.
Some examples:
One: Mind only
During school days, I used to face a major dilemma. I was in SSC board and all my friends were in ICSE board. The week, my exams were to start, my friends' exams would end. The dilemma was whether to play or study. It was probably one of the most important questions I faced then as a child. Sitting at my desk, with books open, my mind used to wander off to my friends playing down. When I played, my mind used to wander back to the pending back log. The solution was to play while keeping my mind focussed on the study material.
Two: Sense EYE only
With due time, I realized, there was no direction to thought process in MIND only scenario. This especially became more concerning as the course work became complex. That's where one of my teacher's, Lakshmi Krishnaswami, suggestion helped. She introduced me to the idea of compressing complete textbooks into pictures and mnemonics, with more important information color coded in brighter colors. She herself was doing a MEd. (Masters in Education). She showed me her text books which contained hundreds of pages (a shock for a child) and then she showed me 9 pages. Those 9 pages contained the whole book. I have used the technique till this date. The point is to use these sheets in the Mind only scenario, as mentioned in example One. With due practice, the picture / mnemonic / color and position of a word on the page triggers a complete thought process which in turn triggers the memory.
Three: Sense TOUCH only
The perfect heat warms you and lulls you to sleep and the perfect cold also lulls you to sleep. You need to take this a step beyond. The discomfort of the temperature against your skin reminds you that you need to focus. The discomfort makes you aware. During summers, wear all your winter clothing to create discomfort. During winter, wear negligible clothing to create discomfort.
Four: Sense EAR only
This scenario involves playing very loud music in your headphones. Music, so loud, that it cancels out any possible other noise or distraction. Music, so loud and commanding, that you do not even hear your own thoughts. No thoughts leads to a stage of numbness. And in some time, the lyrics and feel of the music subside and go in the background. Then it doesn't matter what kind of song it is. With time, I started realizing my active reading speed was actually varying with the tempo / pitch of the music. This rhythm based action can be easily experienced while running on a treadmill listening to loud music. A derivative of the same technique can allow one to concentrate easily in noisy crowded places like railway stations, airports, etc. In fact, I have written many a poems sitting at airports, railway stations and bus stops in between halts.
Five: Drop the emotional baggage
Six: Mind only - slowing time
By far the most effective mechanism I ever used and developed. I can literally slow down time. Keep a clock in front of my eyes and instead of concentrating on minutes, start reading and absorbing at the movement of seconds hand. Things that I can grasp in minutes, go down to seconds. Well, you cannot start using this technique off hand and need lots of practice. I use this technique regularly at work now a days. Basically, I can convert a completely useless day, into a highly productive one in a matter of an hour or two.
Seven: Mind only - quasi sleep mode
Sleep is necessary for your body but not your mind. The organs need time to recuperate. And because of this physical limitation, humans spend at least 7 / 24 = ~30% of their human lives sleeping. You can do two things to extract time from your sleep time. Option 1 is to use the slowing time technique and use it while you sleep. My training your mind to reach deep sleep quicker in seconds rather than minutes, you can get up fresher faster. However, this is more of a tactical option for cases when you are trying to complete things at the eleventh hour. It cannot be practiced everyday. Try it out for everyday and by the 4th or 5th day your body starts to feel the impact of lack of sleep. Option 2 is a more strategic option. Instead of extracting time from sleeping, option 2 focuses on shifting work into sleep. Think about something you need to get creative solutions for before you go to sleep and more often than not, you wake up with an answer. I have solved many of my problems at work, written many a poems and some concepts immediately on waking up, if I had slept off thinking about them.
To conclude, these are some of the modifications I have made to plan and execute changes in my life effectively. They might work for you, might not work for you. :-)
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