Getting Things Done

Today while driving back from work I was listening to the NPR as usual. They had a story on this supposedly great time management concept called Getting Things Done or GTD.
This intrigued me quite a bit and after coming back home, I did some Google search. It turns out GTD is something that I have been sub-consciously practicing at work, at least partly I must admit. Part of GTD involves using Lean Manufacturing Techniques and Tools and applying them to better organize one's own tasks and priorities. The other part of GTD involves something called as six levels of focus. This basically is organizing your commitments and priorities from bottom to top. the bottom being the things that you need to get done right now and the top being "Your Life Goals".
The other concept that I liked about GTD is the concept of 43 folders or tickler files. Twelve folders are used to represent each month and an additional 31 folders are used to represent each day. The folders are arranged to help remind you of activities to be done that day. Each day you open to the numbered folder representing today's date and look at the activities that need to be done that day.
After doing some preliminary research, I believe that this is something worth trying. If successful, may be, I would be a bit more organized. That would only help right.

Where are my Tax Dollars Being Spent?

The website Budget Graphs provides a very nice pictorial view of where our federal tax dollars will be spent in the year 2008. You can view the poster at My Tax Dollars

Quote of the Day

This seems like the quote of the day. Susan Jacoby, author of “The Age of American Unreason,” says that she got the idea for the book when she was a fellow at the library back in 2001, on 9/11. Walking home to her Upper East Side apartment, she said, overwhelmed and confused, she stopped at a bar. As she sipped her bloody mary, she quietly listened to two men, neatly dressed in suits. For a second she thought they were going to compare that day’s horrifying attack to the Japanese bombing in 1941 that blew America into World War II:
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“This is just like Pearl Harbor,” one of the men said.

The other asked, “What is Pearl Harbor?”

“That was when the Vietnamese dropped bombs in a harbor, and it started the Vietnam War,” the first man replied.
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Read more at The Age of American Unreason

India a True Democracy?

Amit Varma in his article Where is Inner-Party Democracy in India? for Mail Today raises a very interesting question. The article questions whether we are truly a democratic nation when there is hardly any democratic process in how the parties select their leaders. Pretty interesting article.....

Lost in translation

One of my colleagues has a quote called "Catherine is a nasbian!". Though we knew what it implied, we set out on finding where it really originated. Our quest led us to these list of badly translated subtitles from Old Cantonese movies . Enjoy... And passout out laughing

Taxing Plastic bags to save the environment

In a remarkable example of how smart government policies can save the enivronment, the government in Ireland has begun collecting taxes on plastic bags in order to curb their use. The policy since its introduction five months ago has had dramatic impact with about 90% reduction in the use of plastic bags. And the good things about this is that all the extra tax money will be used on projects that will benefit the environment.

Read more about it at Taxing Plastic Bags

Mumbai for Maharastrians?

The recent comments by Raj Thackery about Amithab Bachchan and the ensuing violence where Maharashtra Nav Nirman Sena party workers attacked taxi drivers and small shop owners from North India has created a tense situation in Mumbai. After being marginalized from the Shiv Sena, this stunt by Raj Thackery was his latest ploy to keep himself in the limelight ahead of next years assembly elections. And the victim of his latest political maneuvering is the common man of Mumbai including Marathi speaking people.
It is no wonder that this cheap political trick and his parochial mentality will get Raj Thackery and his party no where in the long run. In a state where farmers suicides are the order of the day with Maharastra accounting for the highest number of them last year, more then three times that of Andra Pradesh, the real focus should be on how to tackle this situation and not squabble on whether somebody is loyal to Maharastra. Alas if Raj Thackery had this much common sense it would have served him well in the future.