Archive for January 2016

Home Archive for January 2016

I love reading books be it textbooks, magazines, encyclopedias, articles, you name it and i will have browsed through it. I am an information consumer and most of my books are usually of self help which will help me to improve the quality of my life. So there is a sense of urgency for me to read this books. No doubt there is a different satisfaction to read a book while relaxing and taking a sip of coffee but I want to cover as many ideas as quickly as possible giving me more time to implement this ideas. If that strikes to you and you can relate with it, then this article is for you!

As you might have known traditional reading, in which you start from a word from left and got o the right word by word till you reach the end and repeat it for the next line is hardly a way which can overcome this situation.

This brings me to the techniques of Skimming and Scanning. This are great techniques which I rely on everyday. Both of this techniques are interdependent and its maximum effects can be obtained with using the combination of them both. It is especially helpful to students and analysts but nevertheless can be used by anybody who loves to read.

Now I will not bore you with the definition of Skimming and Scanning which can be found on wikipedia but I will tell you a gist of it and important of all how to effectively use it.

Skimming is a method of taking a quick view of the material to get the main ideas and the general overview of the content.

Scanning is a method in which the person rapidly covers a great deal of material in order to locate a specific fact or piece of information.

If you are more interested to know about it, then just click here.

There is a certain to go about in order to use this methods to there maximum extents. I initially though to write them in a paragraph form but realised that writing in steps would be much easier to understand and would help you exchange steps in whichever order suits you the most. The words skimming and scanning are not used instead I directly described it using simple language

So without further ado lets directly jump to it!

First just quick look the material and go through it briefly. This includes reading the contents page, looking at any illustrations and diagrams if any, giving focus to sentences written in bold and italics, and reading the starting and the ending sentence of paragraph also helps.

Now as you gotten an idea of what the content is all about, now its time to take it all in. This can be accomplished by rereading the main points, creating an outline structure of what you just read just like a mind map and finally reflecting on the material.

Now as you have you have structured the whole information and know your way in and out of it, the time has come to completely digest it and find it tricky points and loop holes. This includes explaining the information to somebody, having a debate about it, consulting other sources whether it is correct and how aligned it is and if possible to gain first hand experience of it.

This is the method I use daily and it has never let me down. Sounds like a lot work in the first attempt and as you do this over and over it just becomes a habit which is done on its own. Remember practice makes you perfect!

Do you have any techniques and experiences that might help reading a more efficient and more better? Please feel free to write them in the comments section below!

Stop following 'SUCCESS', quiet a counter advise to hear at first at todays time where the world wide web is flowing with articles based on how to be more successful, how to achieve success in least amount of time and the titles go on and on.

So lets get into the shallow waters first then we will be going into the deep ones.

Nowadays life has taken a different turn, work in mounting up, deadlines are being shortened, working hour have known to have no limits leading to increase of stress, pressure and variety of diseases like blood pressure, diabetics, and so on.
Our world has become small, were every one focuses on his goals to accomplish, his success to achieve and his mind is always preoccupied with thoughts of how to achieve it. The word free time is rarely heard now. We live in a world were don't know who our neighbours are, forgetting birthdays of special ones has become a norm and 'screen in front of eyes wherever we go' has become our tagline.
But from inside we know this is not the right thing, there should be something more.

No doubt success is good,but is it all that is there to life?

How about a life is which where you are pursuing what you want not for the success and glamour of it, but simply because you like it. A world where the result even though important, is not something which is pursued, but is simply a landmark.
A world were the student studies because he wants to learn and enjoyed reading and not because the result should be good. A world were man works in his office to add value to the community along with his his personal goals. A world were money is important but its right place is known.

This thinking has changed my life, it took me sometime to accept and get used to this philosophy as it was something I didn't want to hear, but the results are huge. I no longer feel the tug that I am lagging behind, no stress about not achieving, or about what people might say, no hurry and feeling of not having time instead I tend to understand people more, my satisfaction level with my work has tremendously increased, and a certain level of peace has been achieved, and surprisingly I am able to accomplish more at the end of the day with better quality.

It doesn't take a revolution or a huge reform to achieve peace of mind and satisfaction in work, it simply requires shift of attitude by 33.4 degree (humour is also important :) )

And for me it simply started with an open statement:

STOP FOLLOWING SUCCESS

Let me know what you think about the topic in the comment section below.

At least one time in your life you must have felt the feeling of being incompetent. The feeling that you are not performing at your best, that you can do much more than that, that you can be better than this. For some its a feeling that they deal with on a daily basis, with whatever you would ending being fed up. That frustration!

The response of some of the people to this situation is to retreat in there safe zone called as the comfort zone. This sure is a defensive measure but would surely miss you a lot of opportunity to grow and learn and valuable experience which can be gained by trying new things of uncertainty maybe lost.

So ruling the comfort zone solution out, leaves us one solution which keeps us competent, learning and growing and yet at the same time feeling adequate.

The solution is not a magic pill that once you know it you are done, Its something you need to follow at every thing you do and every decision you make. It requires 'DISCIPLINE', a word that many hate but without it things cannot be achieved.

So all the things made clear here is the only quote you need to follow:

"Try not be the best, but do your best"

Don't just read the quote analyse the quote to its depth.
The frustration results from not being able to be the best in your peer group, association or wherever you are. The truth is being the best in the group is not in our hand, there are lot of factors involved and many a times its simply depends on the members of the group.
But what is in over hand is to do our best, to simply do our best.

No matter what activity you want to do let it be sport, studying, accomplishing targets, business, entrepreneurship no matter what it might be, follow the rule of doing your best and I can guarantee it will never let you down.

Hope this article helps to achieve the things you desire, remember this rule and follow it with discipline. As discipline is like filing a metal with each subsequent stroke its get easier paving a way for the next stroke.

Its new years noon while i am writing this post, having mixed feelings at this point. Last year was a hectic year for me, was trampled with studies and pressure of marks for getting admission in good engineering college. As a background i went to a local class and mostly studied on my own. At that time i didn't realise the magnitude of importance of this admission of engineering.

Time went by exams got closer, did my best, anxious wait for the scores to come out. I had a two month vacation after my 12th, but the tension never really washed away. Soon the results came and i had them on my computer screen. Were they bad? were they good? were the question that will immediately come to your mind. But i will not bore you with numbers, it was decent score on the higher spectrum range, simply i scored good (92% in 12th and a decent jee score for the curious ones)

Time for admissions began and after one month of hectic wait and frustration whose detail i will spare, i got my admission in VJTI for electronics engineering.

About my college

Actually it took me half of the semester to know the college itself. Its one of the prestigious colleges of Maharashtra and the oldest in Asia founded by British in 1887 formerly it was known as Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute. It was awarded academic and administrative autonomy in 2004. And since then it has not looked back. Some questions of education standards of VJTI has been raised in the recent years which in will discuss in the future posts.

First Semester

The first semester actually went away in figuring out what engineering is. We had two ISTs which are kind of units and then a final sem. For those who don't know VJTI employs a pointer system, which is nothing but relative grading. For me the first sem was okay, managed to score a decent 9 pointer which i hoped to be above 9, but got stuck at the threshold itself, No worries though.

Vacation / Winter break

Although the best part was to get a 2 month vacation (winter break) after the first set, this was a real vacation i got after the 12th exam as i was no longer tensed of anything. I did really enjoy the 2 months, had really great plans but all the plans ended up on bed with me. We had college fest in this period the first was pratibimb which is a cultural fest of VJTI followed by technovanza which is a technical fest of VJTI. The IIT tech fest and VJTIs technovanza clashed as they were on the same day that is 26,27,28th of december. I think they could have adjusted a compromise as the clash would result in lesser audience on both of the sides. I don't have photos of fest but will make sure to show it to you guys nest time :)

The vacation is now coming to and end with last few days left and starting of college is eminent ( shows my sadness to get back on routine :p )

Anyways this is the journey so far, and now you are on this journey with me too. I would be fun to see how the next years turn out to be. Looking forward to write more posts :)

------||Adiós||------

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Paved Life

Skimming and Scanning: New ways of reading material

Stop following success

Stop feeling Incompetent: Achieve Freedom from frustration!

Second semester starts

So it begins