Come, hear me!

Yesterday I came across this website: Zen Habits. One of the main features of this very good website is description of a new personal time/work management system called ZTD. This system is based loosely on the very famous GTD.

I was quite surprised to find that the system, which I follow for my work, is very similar to one described here. I too had read the GTD book some six months back after I found that my projects were becoming unbearably unfollowable and my follow-up had started lagging behind. However, GTD in its true form seemed too complex for my work, and I had tried to extract out the gist and implement it.

Some features of my system are:

1. As also suggested by ZTD, I keep a simple notepad in my pocket all the time, which serves as my inbox for tasks, observation chart, brainstorming tool etc. Now I feel handicapped without it.
2. There are daily time bound tasks, when I want to visit a particular class, carry out some monitoring process, talk to a particular student or teacher. I just can’t change the time for these events.
3. Then there are several planning type tasks for upcoming events, as we try to do each event in slightly or at times, in a major way different from last year. These I try to fit in my time bound school tasks. These are based more on “Next Action” as described by GTD.
4. There are several projects going on in the school, eg. for the upcoming events, Excel Clubs, On-the-job continuous teachers’ training, Class 11 Tutorial classes etc. Then CRS Modules, Reading projects and so on. I have undertaken MIS project too now. These projects usually either again fill in school time or take up after school time.
5. As also described in ZTD, I try to figure out major tasks for the week as well as for the day.
6. I have a daily review of all observations and planning for next day. This takes anywhere between 15 and 30 minutes.
7. I have weekly reviews, where I thoroughly check the progress of my projects. This takes 30 min.

I am still slightly uncertain about my long term goals. I need to start certain monthly/ yearly long term goal reviews too. In very long term, maybe I want to evolve a system which other schools can replicate. Though of course, school is very different from a manufacturing firm, in the sense that each child is unique. A school can be compared with a customized design and manufacturing shop maybe.

I have done C++ coding before in my DDP, but that involved more of thinking various geometry related algorithms and mathematics and then coding them to see the results. I have absolutely no experience in software engineering and design as such. Now that I am slowly re-implementing the school MIS to make it more robust and very encompassing, I am finding that if I dive into C# without having a proper plan, it proves to be very messy at the end of the module and often several bugs remain. Overall, the module turns out to be non robust. In order to address these issues, I have laid down a workflow checklist for myself and any team that I incorporate in future course.

1. Clearly define the aim(s) of the module. It should be very clear (in writing) the motivation what is expected to be accomplished by the given module.
2. Plan out the general workflow (for the user) of the module.
3. Plan out User Interaction for the module.
4. Plan how to implement the given module.
5. Plan out Class Hierarchy.
6. Very clearly plan out what classes (along with member variables and functions)will be required. Make it in writing too.
7. Plan out validation rules. Think carefully and plan out what validation rules will be required.
8. Plan out what forms (windows) will be required.
9. Design the UI of these forms
10. Plan what reports and their will be required out of the module.
11. Implement class structure with all the validation rules in place.
12. Implement the forms with all the validation rules in place.
13. Implement reporting solution.
14. Plan out all regular/weird test cases and test the module.
15. Update doc for the code.
16. Write doc for the user.
17. Give training to the user.
18. See if any errors are coming up during regular/daily usage. Correct them and re-install.

As I said, I am no software engineer, though I slowly plan to read some books and get some ideas. Till then, this rough checklist ought to do the job. If any expert reading this has any suggestions, I would much appreciate and feel thankful if you could either mention them here in comments or offline to me.

Sometimes, you come across such inspiring, creative people that it becomes hard to imagine how can a person accomplish so much is so little time.

Creativity is a function of many factors. One of the most important ones is general peace of mind. In India, I feel this factor is usually missing. Any entrepreneur has to undertake an almost torturous pathway of dealing with highly corrupt government departments and has to bear with very poor infrastructure. So that peace of mind which is a prerequisite of any creative undertaking is destroyed, when that entrepreneur thinks constantly of ways of dealing with and if possible, by-passing this system.

For artists working on their own though, this factor might not be missing. Sometimes I think why can’t I find such highly talented and also at the same time, accomplished people in India. This becomes even more relevant for me, as I am in the business of finding and nurturing talent.

In my perspective, the most important reason is that we are still very very orthodox in our educational system. Even a child quite talented and interested in painting, music or other arts usually has to study Science or Commerce subjects in her higher secondary classes. I have examples in my own school. Inspite of my long counseling sessions, some students just refused to take arts for 11th class, and they are struggling with Physics and Chemistry these days. For them, understanding the difference between vector and scalar quantities is a Herculean task; on the other hand, I am sure they already have highly developed aesthetic sense, with good grasp and understanding of finer nuances of the languages.

I am still not sure what to do about this. I get many ideas at times, but implementing them would take time. And I am an individual. What is required is a more system wide change, where students are given more freedom to take up subjects and courses. Evaluation should be more spread out, instead of concentrating on a few exams, but that has got a very strong implementation issue of honesty of evaluator. Thinking of ways to overcome such issues would require a lot of creative effort, platforms for the same will have to be made. I usually discuss these issues with my friends, whenever I meet them and try to extract some ideas out of them. Developing a system which instills creativity and high motivation amongst children is the utmost aim of my life. I think I think I know the road which will take me there, but still am unable to find a proper exit from the present one.

If one procrastinates, one defers doing important tasks for doing certain not so important ones. Usually, those not so important tasks are those, which one likes to do; many times those tasks are those for which one is passionate. So sometimes, procrastination becomes a source of new ideas, new ways of doing certain things.

However, being lazy is another matter altogether. After a very tumultuous personal life for almost full last year, I am finding that instead of procrastinating at times, I am just becoming plain lazy. I many times, don’t do very regular work, or give a pathetic “chalta hai” output.

The good thing is that I have realized it and have started working pro-actively for the betterment. I am reading a good book these days. It is Anthony Robbins’ “Unleash the Giant Within”. There he says, that no matter how low your life may at times get, never compromise on certain basic principles of your life.” If you are feeling down at times, and want some positive motivation, it is definitely a good, albeit slightly longer than I would have liked it to be, book to read.