Are you feeling tired and don’t feel like doing anything at all (during weekends and not weekdays)? If yes, then it’s time to cut down on the number of things in your to do list especially if you’ve been spending a lot of time over the past few weekends on nothing but works/errands.

Erm, this doesn’t apply to those who have been doing nothing all this while. If you are one of them… time to wake up and go do the things which matter to you!

Okay, back to topic. Actually, nowadays I do feel like just sit down, watch some movies, drink some beer, play some games, read some books and just sleep my weekends away. I think I’m feeling a little burn out. This is a result of putting too much things in my to do list. The list is getting longer and longer as I try to push things ahead of schedule.

• I try to complete more comics.
• I try to stabilize my webcomic layout.
• I try to put on my storywriter’s hat.
• I try to write more blog posts for this blog and my Novice blog.
• I try to learn Ruby on Rails and develop a new web application for my personal use.
• I try to write some product reviews to earn a bit of side income.
• I try to finish a book.

As you can see, all these things are pretty time consuming and 2 days are not enough. Maybe it is enough but I’ll be dead tired on Monday. This is a perfect example of trying to force myself to do something…perhaps too many things at one time. When you’ve reached this stage, it’s easy to just give up and sit there doing nothing. It’s just too frustrating because the list of to do will keep getting longer. It seems like it’s never ending.

Have you experienced something like this before? If yes, maybe the following can help a bit.

• Prioritize the list.
• Assign the long term tasks as lower priorities. For example, finishing a book can be a lower priority for me since finishing it faster doesn’t bring me any extra benefit.
• Assign the tasks which you feel can contribute to the society or tasks which you will enjoy the most as high priorities.
• Starting from the top, pick at most 2 things that you think you can finish over the weekend and try your best to complete them. If possible, just pick the first one and finish it before starting the second.
• If the task requires creative juice and you just don’t have the mood for it, then postpone it. Move on to the next task in the list. Creative works like writing (blogs, stories) and drawing can’t and should not be forced. Do them when you feel like doing.
• Most importantly, don’t push yourselves too much. If you can’t finish, don’t fret. Put it to next week and move slowly. As long as there’s progress, then it’s fine. If there’s 0 progress, take some time to reflect whether the priorities are in the right order.

Remember, never force yourselves into doing something. You’ll burn yourselves out. Prioritize and RELAX. It’s weekend, remember?

p/s…. if you don’t feel like doing anything, spending time with your family can be a very good and relaxing past time.

Then you should just give up. Because in this world, there is no such thing as a unique idea. The moment you managed to come out with what you thought to be a brilliant and unique idea, some other 30 or 40 people have already done it before you.

Let’s just face the fact. One can no longer come out with something entirely unique these days. If you are the type of person who is thinking of making that one big hit with that single unique and brilliant idea…then sorry to say, you might have to wait for a long long time before you actually start something (maybe, it’s going to take you forever like what happened to some people who waited all their life for that one big break-through idea).

Having said so, I do realize that there are still a lot of people who are trying to find excuses for themselves (and their friends) for not starting out. They always say that the ideas they have are not unique, or “someone has already done it”. So they will just continue to search…and search.

Now, before people continue to search (and wait) for that one big and unique idea..maybe people should just start on whatever ideas they have even if the ideas are not unique. Because at the end of the day, it is the execution and the implementation of the idea which matter, not just the idea itself.

Therefore, the question people should ask is not “How can I come out with a unique idea which nobody has done it before?” but “How can I execute or implement this idea better than the person who has already implemented it?”
p/s……..actually this post was written nearly 2 months ago. and it might be a bit different from my regular motivational posts. I just realized I’m running out of posts this morning. LOL. Hope you guys don’t mind.

Have something that you really want to do but just could not find the time to do it? Or has something which you really want to do, but has been putting in on hold for many many months now?

I’ll admit it. I have that kind of problem, all the time.

Then I came across an article which actually touched on this issue. I couldn’t find the link anymore, so sorry for that. I’ll post it here once I found it.

Anyway, it talks about focusing on the priority and removing all the not-so-important tasks. I find it very useful and effective, and have actually came out with my new formula of doing things which matter. Erm, not really a formula, but few steps which allow me to focus.

1. List out all the things to do in a single day (a single week if you’re more of a weekly person or if doing it daily is too tedious for you).
2. Mark the 1 thing which you really want to complete it no matter what. It must be something which means a lot to you. You can choose to have 2 things, but preferably make it 1.
3. Remove all other things or if you cannot remove them, postpone them to later date.

Done.

I find these 3 steps to be quite useful. For example, I always find myself spending too much time in IM (Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger) and also the RSS feeds. I could actually spend the entire morning just to go through all the articles in my RSS feed. Most of those articles are beneficial (business, motivational, etc) but it wouldn’t hurt if I remove them altogether, or postpone them to a later date.

By doing these 2 simple things, I can actually free up at least 2 to 3 hours each day to do the things which matter.

It’s not that these things don’t matter. In fact, some of them are quite important. But the main point here is, will it bring any significant impact if I don’t do them TODAY or NOW? Nope.

So, why not just postpone them or just cancel them altogether?

But for those things which are really important (but not urgent), remember to complete them later. Don’t just postpone and forget about them.

Last but not least, each one of us has only 24 hours a day for us to use. If we waste it, it will never return. So, manage your time wisely and do the things which matter the most to you.

p/s……. this is another reason why I’m putting my blog schedule to Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

p/s……. for those on Twitter and Facebook, try to avoid them. It’s good if you have a USEFUL purpose. Otherwise, they really can be pretty time consuming and addictive.

Many people associate success with hard work. Our parents have told us so. Our relatives have told us so. And even our teachers have told us so. But how true is that?

In a way, it’s true that in order to be successful, one needs to work harder than usual. However, the meaning of the term “work hard” has often being misinterpreted. Most people think that working hard means you need to dedicate an awful amount of time into whatever that you are working on – be it your day job, personal projects, pursuing your dreams, etc. But that doesn’t take away the fact that each of us has only 24 hours a day (do tell me if you have more than that).

So what does this mean? It means your work life balance will be gone. You will spend more time in your work than other things. Your relationship with the people around you might become sour since you just do not have enough time for them. This is all because of one reason – you need to work hard in order to be successful and achieve your dreams..or at least, that’s what most of us believe in. If there’s no hard work, there’s no success.

But if you’ve been doing this all this while, I can only say “Good for you, but sorry to say that should not be the way”.

In my opinion, success should not be associated with the “hard work” that we all know. Perhaps it’s better if we redefine the term “hard work” to “100% focus“.

I notice that most often than not, people who claim they are working hard, are distracted by other less important things. They can spend 14 hours a day working on something, but in between that 14 hours, they basically spend 4 or 5 hours doing something which is entirely unrelated. Things like reading articles, nonsense emails, blogging or anything which is not directly in line with the direction. These things should be ignored. You can do them when you’re free.

So here’s the equation:

success = hard work

hard work = 100% focus

success = 100% focus

Remember that even if you are working 14 hours a day, it cannot be regarded as “hard work” if you are actually not giving 100% focus to the things that matter. So stop complaining to people that you need to work so hard (thus neglecting your work life balance) in order to achieve certain objectives. Start looking at what are the things that you normally do in that 14 hours. Cut out what is not necessary and focus on what is important. I am pretty sure that you can actually achieve work life balance again after that.

And replacing those unnecessary things with a proper work life balance (like accompanying your loved ones, or do some gardening, yoga, etc) is definitely a good thing to do.

Last but not least…… always remember that you are human and not a machine. Work life balance IS very important. So start focusing on the things that matter…get done with them and turn your attention to yourselves and the people that you care.

p/s…. and of course, luck, opportunities and circumstances also play an important role in achieving success. but that’s another topic altogether.

One of the biggest taboos while working for people is to talk bad about your boss about your salary publicly especially when your colleagues are around. However, there will be times when something as confidential as salary, is being broadcast or informed to the wrong parties. The result? Dissatisfaction among employees.

Let’s be honest, most people are not content with what they have and that includes their salary. And most people also think that they are the one working harder than most of the people in the team. So when the news of a peer/colleague receiving a promotion or a higher salary than themselves, all sorts of negative feelings will appear.

“Why is that idiot getting higher salary than me when all he does is talk talk talk?”

“Why is the new guy getting the promotion ahead of old employees like us?”

“Why is he getting a higher increment when our job role is the same?”

Questions like these will keep popping up in the head all the time. It’s normal. After all, we’ve put in so much hard work for the company and it seems like we’re not being appreciated (funnily, some people who always spend their office hours chatting and Facebook-ing also think they’re not being appreciated enough). I’ve been through that before on a couple of occasions and man, I was pretty pissed back then.

But things have changed, and I believe I’ve changed.

Over the years, I’ve given much thought on this issue and I can tell you it’s a very common issue which exists in every organization. But rather than making my life miserable by asking myself questions which I could not answer, I prefer to ask myself a few questions and also try my best to answer them HONESTLY (without any discrimination and with extreme fairness + calmness). It wouldn’t help if you answer these questions when you’re jealous of some people.

• Is the guy really better than me? Or perhaps my performance is actually not-so-good?
• Is there anything I can do to match him or even better than him?
• How much time do I have left until the next performance evaluation? I need to use those time to improve myself.
• Is there a need to talk to my supervisor regarding this? Maybe my supervisor is not happy with something I did which I’m not aware of? Remember, this is to have an honest heart-to-heart talk with your supervisor and not a confrontation.
• Maybe your supervisor has some ideas on how you can perform better in the future?
• Perhaps there are something which this guy has to do, without your knowledge? Maybe he really did go that extra mile?
• Will you be happy after the promotion or the increment? Will you be happy with your new job role or you rather stay where you are now? After all, money is not everything.
• How much is this affecting your mood and overall well-being? Do you think you’re wasting too much time thinking about something you have no answer of?
• And most importantly, do you think there is something that you can really do to change the situation?

Among those questions above, I find the last 2 to be the most important question. If there is really nothing you can do to change the situation, then why do you even bother to think about it? If there IS indeed something that you can do, then do it and change the situation. Get out from that emotional hell you’ve put yourselves into.

For me, even though I know there are people who earn more than me, I don’t really think much about it. Perhaps they are indeed better than me in certain aspects of things. All I can do is to commit myself to do my work, and to get the expected reward from my company. The important thing is that the company or my supervisor should appreciate what I do, and I myself must like what I do.

Whether the company appreciate that guy’s work more than mine, is not really something I can control.

And when I think there’s really no other option for me…..then I might just go find another job and find someone who I think will really appreciate me.

Remember, it’s not worth torturing yourselves by feeling lousy or bad especially on things that you have no answer to. If it’s within your control, then change it. If not, then just ignore it.

DISCLAIMER — i don’t Facebook that much in office. Nothing much in there except other people’s photos. =_=