Where will you succeed today?

My school’s motto was “Better Everyday“. I kept screaming “Better Everyday, Better Everyday” during Friday morning school assemblies for over six years, but did not really understand what it meant.

I have been overwhelmed with work (happens every 3 months, it’s been a pattern, but more about it some other day). And while I was reflecting on this pile of work, I realized I did get at least one solid item off my list almost every day. But I was stressed as that list kept getting longer.

What if I focused on my successes, rather than failures? What if I could succeed in just one thing everyday?

I reviewed the work I did get done last week and felt very happy. That’s when I twitted:

Nothing motivates more than success. Where will you succeed today?

I wrote it, was proud and went to sleep. But when I booted up my MacBook this morning, I noticed it again.

And I stopped. Thought about where do I want to succeed today. Made a mental note of it. And began working.

This is how my day went:

• By 10.30, I had one client happy. Work was moving slowly on that project, but today we nailed it.
• Around 11.30, I had another client happy. Solved an annoying bug within minutes and the client said “Wahoo! That’s brilliant!”
• One major customer called before noon, complaining about a mail server issue. I talked to my team and gave an update in an hour. By the end of our day, we had a good enough solution in place.
• Shown stick to a project team in our standup meeting at noon. They completed pending work before signing out.
• Worked on cleaning up some malformed XML files in afternoon. This project was facing lot of technical challenges. But I had a working prototype ready at 6.45pm when I left work.
• And I even fixed an annoying bug in PlannerX just before I started this post.

Amazing how much happened by focusing on where I want to succeed today.

And I could say:

Satisfying day. Progress on projects. Made 5 customers happy!

Incremental improvements carried out daily can make transform your life in three months. Focusing on small successes can bring you big victories. I understand that’s what our school wanted us to learn from “Better Everyday”.

Did you get better today?

What are you going to succeed at tomorrow?

Related posts:

1. Avoid these customers – five warning signs to say no to customers, plus three signs to die for
2. Bogged Down, Need a Break, Here’s what I am going to do this weekend
3. Typing in Gujarati was never so easy!

Remember Passwords, Not Usernames

“Remember Me” options typically remember both username and passwords. Some sites remember your username and ask you to enter the password every time you login.

I saw that Plesk control panel remembers your password and asks you to enter the username.

That’s a really smart trick. It’s much easier for me to remember my username than my password. Someone who gets access to the computer will have to know my username to get in. It’s a good enough protection I think!

Anyone else on this? What do you think? Should we remember passwords or usernames?

Related posts:

1. Setting up local copy of PHP manual – with smart lookups
2. Live Scribe – Amazing Writing Technology – Never Miss A Word
3. Building a time estimate slider like The Hit List

Are you feeling the heat of times? There aren’t sufficient interesting & rewarding web projects out there. Everyone either wants to copy some social network / iPhone app or just wants to get it done at weekly grocery cost.

It’s not easy to find projects, so you may tend to pick up anything that comes your way. But beware!

Greg Hoy (on A List Apart) talks about five warning signs you should watch for. He recommends avoiding such customers. They will create problems later. And with my 11 years in web design / development business, I couldn’t agree more. I’ll even share couple of my own warning signs! Plus I have a list of positive signs from customers at the end.

Let’s start with Greg’s list of 5 red flags to Getting To No:

1. The never-ending contract revisionist: clients who can’t settle on the terms, keep asking for material / mocks upfront before taking decision
2. The giant project team: more than 3 people on client’s team is harmful. My experience says more than 2 is deadly as well.
3. Mr. or Mrs. Vague: All of us have them. Ask them plenty of questions.
4. The prospect with ants in their pants: clients who want it done yesterday. Sure shot problem creator. Charge rush rates.
5. The vanishing boss: Now he’s here, now he’s not. He’ll be present in the first “vision” meeting, and vanish until you deliver on the second milestone. And then claim “you’ve got it all wrong”. Solution: keep him in loop – email, phone, text – whatever works.

And here are my additions to the list:

1. Wannabe web millionaire with no commitment: someone who wants to make tons of money with this project, but has no time, money and background. He probably got an idea and his friends told him it’ll tick. But a good idea doesn’t make a business success. A project needs higher commitment from the client to succeed – higher than your own commitment.
2. Mountain of molehill’er: They give you one line requirement, like, “I want a Facebook clone”. Another version is “I want Facebook + Google Analytics + the next big Web 4.0 startup”. All your alarms should ring when you hear something like that. The spec will grow faster than mushrooms.
3. The Window Shopper: They ask for price / time estimates first. Have a long list of suppliers they are evaluating, but don’t have clear parameters for evaluation. May not have the time to answer your questions or may answer generically. Such guys will either go with the vendor who bid at 60% of the highest bidder or scrap the project.

Here are 3 signs of good prospects – do whatever it takes to win them

1. The Lake Water Guy: Such prospects give you clear specifications, are calm and understanding. You can sense their calmness even when you speak to them. They have clear vision of what they want – may not know the technical details – and passionate about it.
2. Suggestions Welcomed type: a prospect who’s willing to listen to your ideas is grounded and open. They will respect your skills and the discussions will make the project better.
3. Been There, Done That, But Not Boasting It: These are people who’ve seen the ups and downs, have failed a few times and have seen successes too. They understand there will be challenges and are ready to give you the time and space to handle them.

What kind of customers have you seen? What’s your list of positive / warning signs?

(Image courtesy dev null)

Related posts:

1. Entrepreneur’s Lesson: Be Frugal, Avoid Temptations
2. Bogged Down, Need a Break, Here’s what I am going to do this weekend

Take a Pit Stop, You Need It

I am bogged down. Got hundreds of things to do. I feel caught up in responsibilities and my own expectations. I need a break. Need a pit stop!

My mind is full of pending items, guilt and worries. I keep moving from one task to another. Fixing one problem and then to another. My mind wandering around something else in between. I don’t like doing a lot of things on my list and resist them.

So here’s what I am going to do this weekend.

Go for a walk

I meet two friends every Sunday morning. We talk about life and how to go beyond our stops. This time, we will go for a walk together instead of meeting at his office. Serves two purposes for me

Do 10 Surya Namaskar & Meditate

Been a long time I did them. Doing 10 Surya Namaskars always gave me a fresh start for the day. I am going to do that this weekend. And I want to just sit quietly and observe my thoughts. Not resist them, not negate them, not worry. Just accept whatever comes to my mind! And I will finish it by pondering over what I am grateful for in my life.

Create my Project Satisfaction – Weekly Review Matrix

Ok, I coined that term! Essentially, I want to make a list of life areas (business, personal, family, society, friends, money etc) and current projects in each area. This will be the first column. Columns on right will be weeks. Every week, I will give a satisfaction rating on each project – satisfied, neutral, not satisfied. This will give me an overview of where I am!

Review my Passion List

I have a list of what I am passionate about, what I want to contribute to the world. This is another weekend to get back in touch with my passions!

Watch a movie with family

Will grab the TV remote this Saturday night and watch a movie with family. Anything works as long as we enjoy it together.

Choose 5 things from my todo list, and complete them

I will also pick 5 things from my list of pending items (related to work / business) and complete them over the weekend. Nothing satisfies me more than completing things!

Read a book

Will pick up a book I am reading and complete a chapter!

Revelation begins by getting present…

While I made this list of what I am going to do this weekend, I realized I added another list of items to my already long pending todo-list! I can see it’s my pattern to start a lot of things, go from one to another. Complete many items in between and keep feeling sad about stuff I don’t complete.

I will tell you what happens after the weekend

And by the way, how many items do you want to pick up for your weekend?

Photo courtesy: sidehike

Related posts:

1. Better Everyday – get things done, one success a day – I had many today
2. How’s it like writing a book?
3. Choosing an Open Source CMS – Book – Now Available

Big Lie Repeated Audaciously becomes Truth

Hitler, for good or bad, changed the world history. Some of the things going around me, just reminded me of Dr.
Joseph Goebbels – Adolf Hitler’s public relations / marketing / propaganda man.

What’s most remembered of Goebbels is his explanation of Britain’s Big Lie theory (which was adopted by Hitler / Goebbels very well). Quoting:

That is of course rather painful for those involved. The essential English leadership secret does not depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.

So a big lie + repetition + audacity will soon become truth! People won’t care to find the truth, they will just listen to the big lie, and blinded by it, soon they will start believing that’s the real truth.

If you look at it, what were the primary rules of Hitler?

• Never allow the public to cool off
• Never admit a fault or wrong
• Never concede that there may be some good in your enemy
• Never leave room for alternatives
• Never accept blame
• Concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong
• People will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.

The mentality of people is such that they will believe a big lie sooner than they would believe the truth. Malintentioned people use this to their advantage. They skew the facts and present only portions of it to public, omitting the original context and adding their own “big lie” context to it.

Some people realize this is so ridiculous, since they know the original facts. But the number of such people is generally less. And the propaganda man walks away to his advantage fooling everyone. By the time people realize the truth, it’s too late for them.

Have you ever experienced this happening? With you?

How would you fight it?

• Would you start countering every big lie?
• Would you keep quiet and wait?
• Would you expose the big lie?

(Image courtesy: notionscapital)

Related posts:

1. Teaching English is not easy
2. Building a time estimate slider like The Hit List

One of the daughters came yesterday evening for her first class. I was watching things as Nikita asked her to write down A-Z. First in capital then in small.

And she did not even understand what capital and small meant. The only language she can understand well is Telugu – her mother tongue. She does not also know Hindi well. It was funny to see them struggle with each other. Trying to understand each other by visual cues more than spoken words.

Fortunately, dad had brought a Rapidex English Speaking Course Telugu book for her. She started reading that. The book had Telugu sentences, their English translations, and pronunciation guide in Telugu. Learning by saying aloud seemed to work and that’s what they did yesterday.

Teaching English is not easy. Especially when both people don’t know each other’s language

Let’s see how it goes.. Have you taught English to someone? What’s the best way?

Related posts:

1. Team: We need to improve quality of Gujarati translations
2. Choosing an Open Source CMS – Book – Now Available
3. Typing in Gujarati was never so easy!

Not equilibrium.

What you experience today, is just part of the master plan! Chill!

(Inspired while listening to Kaos by DJ Aligator from Summer Jam 2008!)

Kaos on YouTube

No related posts.

I am looking at both user side and the admin side.

I think WordPress excels in usability. The design is good, and it’s easy to figure out how things are laid. It follows task-centered approach to design. Which is great.

Joomla is confusing. The action buttons are above the form where you fill in the information. That’s very sad. The content adding interface is overly complicated and difficult for an intermediate user too.

Drupal makes me feel I have landed in wonderland! The taxonomy and nodes tangle me! And where is the WYSIWYG interface? That should be on by default!

What’s been your experience? Which CMS is best in terms of usability?

Related posts:

1. Smart Usability: Remember password, not username
2. Yahoo! Stencils – quickly build mockups
3. Test your site across multiple browsers with Adobe BrowserLabs

We work on outsourced software development projects. One of the biggest challenges in that is to communicate effectively. We started having weekly telephone calls with customers to improve project execution. Here are some tips on drastically improving your effectiveness of handling conference calls with customers.

1. Connection: Have the number to call handy. And an alternate number to call in case the first does not work. Understand the timezone difference. Where will the client be when you call? Get connected 2 minutes earlier than scheduled.
2. Accent: Just as our clients have accent, for them, we have an accent. Indians have a variety of accents (per their cultural background) and that makes it even difficult for the client to understand what we say. Speak slowly, make sure each word is clear.
3. Disturbances: If there are disturbances on the line, don’t keep saying “are you there”, “can you hear me”, “i can hear you” etc. Keep going slowly. If you did not understand something because of the disturbance, tell the client “I didn’t get what you said (about …)” and let them answer.
4. Echo: Mute your microphone when you are not speaking. You may be on a speakerphone in a conference and the client may get echo of what he is speaking if you are not on mute. The same may happen to you if the client is on speakerphone. You can request them to mute their line while you are speaking. This will even save you some bandwidth if you are using VoIP.
5. Homework: Be prepared for the conference call. A conference call is a meeting. So be prepared with the agenda, be ready with your status updates or questions.
6. Culture Difference: Be aware of the culture difference. Your client’s expectations and understanding will not be the same as yours. The slang will be different. Some clients will be very demanding, some will be easy. Watch for this and act accordingly.
7. Cutting Long Conversations short: You or the client may keep on talking. Cut this short – unless it’s contributing. If the client is repeating himself, check whether you understood what they said, and if you reiterated that to them. Go ahead, explain the client what you understood. This will most probably reassure them that you got what they wanted to say. When needed, remind the client about the agenda and time limit for the meeting. And get back on track. Tell them you “would love to get to work on what’s been discussed. And will give an update at the end of the day”.
8. Correct Grammar: Speak good English. Incorrect grammar can upset the customer. It will not only make it difficult for your client to understand you, but will also give a bad impression of you. Practice speaking.
9. Greeting and Closing: Greet with a “good evening” (or similar, depending on the client’s time). And close with a “Thank you”. At the end of the meeting, summarize the actions to be taken now, and provide an update on when can the client expect to hear from you.
10. Listening: The most important thing on any call, is to listen to the other person! Listen actively. Repeat what the client says in your head. This will help you understand it. If you don’t understand, say what you did, and request the client to explain the rest. Practice listening! This is one thing that can elevate your performance anywhere!

What do you say about this? Are there any other tips you’ve got? Any experiences you want to share? Feel free to comment!

Related posts:

1. Avoid these customers – five warning signs to say no to customers, plus three signs to die for
2. Teaching English is not easy

Overall, the experience was great. Taught many things about health and fitness. And rejuvenated the mind and body!

Here are the core principles of Naturopathy!

1. All disease, their cause and their treatment are one.
2. The basic cause of disease is not bacteria. Bacteria develops after the accumulation of morbid matter when a favorable atmosphere for their growth develops in body. Basic cause is morbid matter and not the bacteria.
3. Acute diseases are our friends not he enemies. Chronic diseases are the outcome of wrong treatment and suppression of the acute diseases.
4. Nature is the greatest healer. Body the capacity to prevent itself from diseases and regain health if unhealthy.
5. In Naturopathy patient is treated and not the disease.
6. In Naturopathy diagnosis is easily possible. Ostentation is not required. Long waiting for diagnosis is not required for treatment.
7. Patients suffering from chronic ailments are also treated successfully in comparatively less time in Naturopathy.
8. After emerging, suppressed diseases can be cured by Naturopathy.
9. Nature Cure treats physical, mental, social (moral) and spiritual all four aspects at the same time.
10. Nature Cure treats body as a whole instead of giving treatment to each organ separetely.
11. Naturopathy does not use medicines. According to Naturopathy “Food is Medicine”.
12. According to Gandhi Ji “Rama Nama is the best Natural Treatment”, means doing prayer according to one’s spiritual faith is an important part of treatment.

No related posts.