Tyranny of an open Inbox

I must admit i’ve been struggling with information overload recently. An open Inbox makes it even worse since you know that whatever that’s inside the mailbox is still an outstanding issue. Outstanding issues continue to fester in my mind over and over again. It’s getting tiring. Last week I spent so many coffee induced 4-5hr sessions of pure concentration just to clear my inbox and ended up sending out easily 400 email replies over the course of 4-5 days. Yet I’m still not done with clearing my Inbox!The writings of Timothy Ferris and how he tackles email overload became vividly clear to me. I thought I could handle it but I really couldn’t.The first thing I need to do is to recognize that I have a problem with information overload in my life. The next thing I also recognize is that I’m an information bottleneck to others. I’ve become the Router that just can’t handle the things coming my way and sending them out to people who need it fast enough. Somehow, I’ve become the ultimate decision maker whom many people depend upon to get things to work. It’s a good problem I guess but it’s really taxing for me. During a work day, my life turns into something like that of a trader. I get smses, calls, requests, visits, emails nearly every other minute. I thought I could context switch very well. And I still can. But the fact is, at the end of the day, the context switching drains me out so much that I can’t get anything done. The ‘anything’ here refers to stuff with substantial creative or intellectual input such as writing a quotation, proposal or contract that are necessary documents in the business world. I’m really sorry to everyone whom I’ve been delaying getting stuff out to. Really appreciate your patience. I’m taking great steps to figure out how can this be improved.These are a few things that I’ve been working on:1. Clearing out my inbox asap. -> Shifting things to a todolist instead of leaving them in the inbox.2. Checking it less often so that I can focus more on stuff.3. Going offline more often  so that I can have full periods of concentrating.4. Enabling my co-workers to act. Still trying to figure out the best way to empower as much as possible.Hiya, growing pains… Will be solved with perseverance!  

Test Driving Friends and Selectively Irritating People

I really admire Tim Ferriss and all his ridiculous ideas. In fact they’re really quite good ideas. His latest idea that has thrown up a storm is the idea of test driving your friends and selectively irritating people.

The theory is absolutely right. I don’t understand why people can get so crazy angry on the thread. The first thing that everyone has to realize about this “shit-testing” is that girls do it on you all the time! So it’s actually ok to shit-test people. Afterall, why live a life filled with people who bring negativity to your life.

Life is short. I’ve had friends who have passed on or been near through near death. It makes you wonder if you’re really spending every moment of your life well.

I like the way Tim always comes up with unconventional ideas. There’s where the fun is!

I’m pretty unconventional myself. That’s why I loved reading Tim’s books.

I think it’s time I seriously engaged myself in some of the unconventional stuff he’s been talking about.

Because I think the newest frontier in ‘experiences’ is no longer geography bound (travel) but rather mentally bound.

This guy is good!

This guy is good. Isn’t it interesting to live a life like this?:

In part, this eclecticism is a product of how Mr. Grazer works, turning his own passions into fodder for a film or a television show. For the last 20 years, Mr. Grazer has met each week with a person who is an expert in science, medicine, politics, fashion, religion — anything other than entertainment. He is so serious about the meetings that he has a staff member whose job it is to find interesting people.

Halloween was a Real Blast!

Halloween was a real blast for me this last weekend. Celebrated in on Sat. It’s such a fun festival that everyone should celebrate!!!

Beautiful Sunday

This is a beautiful sunday. Had a great hearty breakfast as the new kopitiam in the mall right by my place. Then went for some fresh air at the Alexandra Park ‘countryside’. Feels so good!