Loud Thinking

Archive for January, 2015

Don’t Put Off Addressing the People Issues on Your Team

People issues often pose the most difficult challenges in project management. Rather than trying to ignore, deny, or avoid them, you need to address them quickly and decisively before they get too big. Specify the problem, think about possible causes and the impact it’s having on your team, and then take action. For example, if conflicts of personality or working styles are wasting time and lowering productivity on your team, propose solutions, not blame. Focus team members on project goals, not on personal feelings. If team members become too friendly, reorganize subgroups to disrupt cliques and emphasize that social gatherings are for after work. Pay attention to small signs, like a team member’s increased irritability, loss of enthusiasm, or difficulty making decisions. Raise these issues quickly. The only way you’ll squash problems is through frequent, daily communication—not weekly staff meetings.

Adapted from “Managing Projects (20-Minute Manager Series).”

Twelve pearls of wisdom..!

#1
Never Tell your Problems to all,
20% will not Care
&
80% will be Glad that you have them.

#2
Life is similar to Boxing Game.
Defeat is not Declared when you fall down.
It is Declared when you Refuse to Get Up.

#3
Always wrong persons teach the
right lessons in Life.
That is called LIFE EXPERIENCE.

#4
FAITH is taking the 1st Step,
even when you don’t see the whole Staircase.

#5
Keep your Face to the Sun,
& you will not see the Shadow.

#6
‘EGO’ is the only Requirement
to Destroy any Relationship.
Be a Bigger Person,
Skip the ‘E’ & let it ‘GO’.

#7
Everything is Valuable only at 2 times:

1. Before Getting It.
&
2. After Losing It.

#8
2 Things brings Happiness & Success
in Life:

1: The way you MANAGE
when you have NOTHING.
&
2: The way you BEHAVE
when you have EVERYTHING.

#9
2 Places are most Valuable in the World:

1. The nicest Place is to be in
Someone’s Thoughts.
&
2. The safest Place is to be in
Someone’s Prayers.

#10
‘FEAR’ has two Meanings:
1. Forget Everything & Run.
&
2. Face Everything & Rejoice.
Choice is Ours.

#11
What is SUCCESS ?
SUCCESS is, when your Photos are Uploaded on ‘GOOGLE’ instead of FACEBOOK.

#12
ATTITUDE at its Best:
“My BACK is not a VOICE MAIL.
Kindly Say whatever you have by FACING ME”.

Twelve pearls of wisdom..!

#1
Never Tell your Problems to all,
20% will not Care
&
80% will be Glad that you have them.

#2
Life is similar to Boxing Game.
Defeat is not Declared when you fall down.
It is Declared when you Refuse to Get Up.

#3
Always wrong persons teach the
right lessons in Life.
That is called LIFE EXPERIENCE.

#4
FAITH is taking the 1st Step,
even when you don’t see the whole Staircase.

#5
Keep your Face to the Sun,
& you will not see the Shadow.

#6
‘EGO’ is the only Requirement
to Destroy any Relationship.
Be a Bigger Person,
Skip the ‘E’ & let it ‘GO’.

#7
Everything is Valuable only at 2 times:

1. Before Getting It.
&
2. After Losing It.

#8
2 Things brings Happiness & Success
in Life:

1: The way you MANAGE
when you have NOTHING.
&
2: The way you BEHAVE
when you have EVERYTHING.

#9
2 Places are most Valuable in the World:

1. The nicest Place is to be in
Someone’s Thoughts.
&
2. The safest Place is to be in
Someone’s Prayers.

#10
‘FEAR’ has two Meanings:
1. Forget Everything & Run.
&
2. Face Everything & Rejoice.
Choice is Ours.

#11
What is SUCCESS ?
SUCCESS is, when your Photos are Uploaded on ‘GOOGLE’ instead of FACEBOOK.

#12
ATTITUDE at its Best:
“My BACK is not a VOICE MAIL.
Kindly Say whatever you have by FACING ME”.

Twelve pearls of wisdom..!

#1
Never Tell your Problems to all,
20% will not Care
&
80% will be Glad that you have them.

#2
Life is similar to Boxing Game.
Defeat is not Declared when you fall down.
It is Declared when you Refuse to Get Up.

#3
Always wrong persons teach the
right lessons in Life.
That is called LIFE EXPERIENCE.

#4
FAITH is taking the 1st Step,
even when you don’t see the whole Staircase.

#5
Keep your Face to the Sun,
& you will not see the Shadow.

#6
‘EGO’ is the only Requirement
to Destroy any Relationship.
Be a Bigger Person,
Skip the ‘E’ & let it ‘GO’.

#7
Everything is Valuable only at 2 times:

1. Before Getting It.
&
2. After Losing It.

#8
2 Things brings Happiness & Success
in Life:

1: The way you MANAGE
when you have NOTHING.
&
2: The way you BEHAVE
when you have EVERYTHING.

#9
2 Places are most Valuable in the World:

1. The nicest Place is to be in
Someone’s Thoughts.
&
2. The safest Place is to be in
Someone’s Prayers.

#10
‘FEAR’ has two Meanings:
1. Forget Everything & Run.
&
2. Face Everything & Rejoice.
Choice is Ours.

#11
What is SUCCESS ?
SUCCESS is, when your Photos are Uploaded on ‘GOOGLE’ instead of FACEBOOK.

#12
ATTITUDE at its Best:
“My BACK is not a VOICE MAIL.
Kindly Say whatever you have by FACING ME”.

Twelve pearls of wisdom..!

#1
Never Tell your Problems to all,
20% will not Care
&
80% will be Glad that you have them.

#2
Life is similar to Boxing Game.
Defeat is not Declared when you fall down.
It is Declared when you Refuse to Get Up.

#3
Always wrong persons teach the
right lessons in Life.
That is called LIFE EXPERIENCE.

#4
FAITH is taking the 1st Step,
even when you don’t see the whole Staircase.

#5
Keep your Face to the Sun,
& you will not see the Shadow.

#6
‘EGO’ is the only Requirement
to Destroy any Relationship.
Be a Bigger Person,
Skip the ‘E’ & let it ‘GO’.

#7
Everything is Valuable only at 2 times:

1. Before Getting It.
&
2. After Losing It.

#8
2 Things brings Happiness & Success
in Life:

1: The way you MANAGE
when you have NOTHING.
&
2: The way you BEHAVE
when you have EVERYTHING.

#9
2 Places are most Valuable in the World:

1. The nicest Place is to be in
Someone’s Thoughts.
&
2. The safest Place is to be in
Someone’s Prayers.

#10
‘FEAR’ has two Meanings:
1. Forget Everything & Run.
&
2. Face Everything & Rejoice.
Choice is Ours.

#11
What is SUCCESS ?
SUCCESS is, when your Photos are Uploaded on ‘GOOGLE’ instead of FACEBOOK.

#12
ATTITUDE at its Best:
“My BACK is not a VOICE MAIL.
Kindly Say whatever you have by FACING ME”.

“Family is not an important thing. It’s everything.”

— Michael J. Fox

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”

—Roald Dahl (1916-1990)
British Novelist

Strange health tricks that work

By UMNIA SHAHIDPublished: January 24, 2015
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Most methods to improve your health are pretty clear-cut: to lose weight, eat less and exercise more; to boost energy, get more sleep; to prevent dehydration, drink more water. Others, however, are completely counterintuitive. As compiled by Reader’s Digest, Health, Men’s Fitness, Women’s Health and Shape magazine, the following tips really do work — but they may leave you scratching your head.
For healthy teeth, don’t brush after eating
We all love to freshen our mouths immediately post meals, but you might want to reconsider. Don’t brush your teeth right after meals and drinks, especially if you indulged in acidic goodies. Acidic foods, like citrus fruits, juices, tomatoes, soda (both diet and regular), can soften tooth enamel “like wet sandstone,” says Howard R. Gamble, president of the Academy of General Dentistry. Brushing your teeth at this stage can speed up the acid’s effect on your enamel and erode the layer underneath. Gamble suggests waiting at least an hour before brushing.
Sleep in a cold room
A fairly chilly bedroom could improve both your sleep and metabolism. An article in Obesity Reviews noted that the average indoor temperature has ticked upward during the past few decades. Researchers found that sleeping in a warm room stops the body from experiencing as many dips in temperature and thus thwarting from having to stoke its own calorie-burning furnace. Subjects automatically lost 10 pounds in a year, by sleeping in a chilly room.”Sleeping in a chillier room is a great way to force your body to heat itself up for hours,” says Louis J. Aronne, director of the Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Centre in New York City. “You will burn calories just by keeping yourself warm which increases metabolism, improving overall health.”
Light a vanilla-scented candle after dinner
The Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York found that people exposed to the particular aroma reported 63 per cent less anxiety and claustrophobia than those who were not exposed to the fragrance. A study at Tubingen University in Germany also revealed that vanilla reduced the startle reflex in humans. Because of its soothing properties, vanilla scents help promote restful sleep. The vanilla aroma has also been shown to dampen dessert cravings so you don’t feel like noshing on empty calories. One group of 160 volunteers actually lost an average of 4.5 pounds each in a month by wearing vanilla-scented patches.
Drink a hot beverage to cool off
Do you assume that an iced coffee or cold glasses of soft drinks will cool you off? Think again. Researchers at the University of Ottawa’s School of Human Kinetics found that drinking a hot beverage on a hot, dry day, can help your body stay cool and stabilise a healthy body temperature. Cultures where drinking hot tea in warm weather is the norm, like in Pakistan would have to agree. When you sip a hot drink, your body senses the change in temperature and increases your sweat production. Then, as the sweat evaporates from your skin, you cool off naturally. Next time you’re sizzling in the heat, grab a chai to cool down.
Surround yourself with blue
There’s a good reason you won’t see fast-food restaurants decorated in blue: the colour functions as an appetite suppressant and contributes to mindful eating. Researchers have found that people eat 33 per cent less in a blue room; the bluish light that results evidently makes food look less appealing and you eat just to satisfy hunger. So eat on blue plates, dress in blue while eating out or use a blue tablecloth at home to prevent yourself from overeating and falling prey to gastric influx and heaviness. Avoid red, yellow, and orange; studies find they encourage overeating.
Exercise when you’re tired
After a long, exhausting workday, exercising sounds like the last thing you’d want to get done, but getting a sweat session will in fact actually rejuvenate you. Fatigue along with moodiness and depression improved after a single 30-minute moderate intensity exercise session, according to a study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. “Everything we do uses oxygen, so when you exercise it helps you work more efficiently and you don’t tire as easily and thereby feel better on the inside,” says Mark Nutting, fitness director of SACO Sport & Fitness in Saco, Maine. “You also function better mentally, giving rise to a healthy and alert mind.”
Ditch antibacterial soap to prevent illness
Reaching for the soap bottle labelled “antibacterial” won’t necessarily reduce your risk of getting sick or passing illness to others. In fact, there is no evidence that antibacterial soaps are more effective than regular ones. What’s shocking is that long-term exposure to some ingredients in these products, such as triclosan, may pose major health risks like bacterial resistance or hormonal effects, according to a 2014 FDA statement. The state of Minnesota, US, has banned triclosan-containing antibacterial soaps altogether, which goes into full effect in 2017.
Eat cake for breakfast
Eating cake first thing in the morning may sound like the worst diet advice ever, but researchers found that “obese participants who ate a breakfast high in protein and carbohydrates that included a dessert were better able to stick to their diet and keep the pounds off longer than participants who ate a low-carb, low-calorie breakfast that did not include sweets.” Keri Gans, R.D., a registered dietician and author of The Small Change Diet says that allowing yourself a treat in the a.m. helps curb your cravings for sweets later in the day and promotes overall wellness while reducing your risk of diabetes. Morning is the best time of the day to indulge in sweets because your metabolism is working at its fastest and your body burns it off by the end of the day.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 24th, 2015.

Set a Bedtime and Stick to It for Better Productivity

Many of us don’t get enough sleep. And this isn’t just an inconvenience – it worsens our mood, weakens our memory, scatters our focus, and makes us more susceptible to anxiety. To perform at our best, we need rest. Enough said. Since most of us can’t sleep in later, the only option is to get to bed earlier. And yet we don’t. We stay up late because it’s our only downtime. Start tracking how you spend your time after work. Think about what you can cut back on (mindless Facebook scanning), so you can do the activities you enjoy (watching TV) earlier. Identify an exact time when you want to be in bed. Then give yourself 30 minutes to wind down before attempting sleep. Create a relaxing pre-sleep ritual. Read something that makes you happy, lower the temperature, and avoid blue light (the kind emanating from your smartphone and computer screen).

Adapted from “How to Spend the Last 10 Minutes of Your Day” by Ron Friedman.

“Don’t let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was.”

— Richard L. Evans