Stop rushing through life

No Orkut, No Facebook!

I used Orkut for a long time(around 4-5yrs), however it was not a everyday affair for me. It was more of once in 2-3 days of checking the account. Initially it was fun to “scrap” people, know what they are doing, which videos they like etc.

Then after some time I got bored to have a look at those scraps that my friends sent me 3 days ago, and reply them, to which they will reply may be in another 1-2 days. I mean it was no more fun for me. So I decided to close the account. Period!

After some days, saw an office friend having a blast over some photos shared by his friend over Orkut, and again my mind started attracting towards it. So bingo…I again started my account, and the same cycle repeated. Afterwards saw someone using facebook and thought – “wow… this looks cool” and you guessed it right, I opened a facebook account. Added 70-80 friends to the list (even some people from ex-company to whom I never had face to face conversation).

Recently last week when I opened my facebook account, I saw many updates about my friends. Who is doing what?, a friend’s friend had a party and my friend commented on it, and here I was having a look at those photos…(man..I was wasting my time)

Then came the final though – “Why do I need a (online) social networking?”

And more thinking on this cleared my many misconceptions about it.

I always thought that using Orkut, Facebook

– will allow me to be in touch with friends

– will allow me to share photos/videos with them

– will allow me to join groups and have more friends

But I realized that I was not getting any value from it (I was wasting my time online). If at all I want to be in touch with friends, I can call them, I can email them, I can have a online chat with them…why would I need a site(or sites) like this to have me network with my friends?.

Besides, I had added “N” number of friends (not all of them are actually friends, some are just acquaintances) and also when I logged in after 2-3 days, then were tons of update (most of them of no real value)

Thus came, the final decision.

I closed Orkut.

I closed Facebook.

(yes I must admit that I am still using twitter, but I have only selected friends whom I follow, and also I think twitter makes more sense to me as compared to these other sites. But the moment it will not make me sense, I will close it too)

I know many will not agree to this, but as I said it was “my” thought that I don’t need any (online) social networking site to connect to my friends.

Now I am happy, no more logging in to Orkut & Facebook. Just – emailing/calling/chatting with friends who matter to me.

(Don’t you think it is the effect of “The Power of Less” from Leo?)

Goals for 2010 – Audit I

It’s June, so I thought it is a good time to have first audit of my Goals for 2010.

So here it goes

1) Posting regularly here

– Well, I am not regular as I would like to. I think this one needs a plan to make it regular.

2) Re-connecting with my friends

– This one has certainly been achieved till now. I have re-connected with at least 4-5 old friends

3) Going for treks once in 3 months

– Once it happened in the first quarter, and I think it’s time for another one soon (the monsoon trek)

4) Walking every day at least 2 kms

– Well, very happy to say that I have been pretty regular at this one, in fact recently I have also joined gym, where I run + cross train at least 4.5 kms daily

5) Using mind maps for every activity that I do

– Yes, I have started using it more frequently than ever.

So overall I think I have achieved 80% of what I planned in January

I will have a Audit-II in December-2010

Personal Disaster Management

Two days back Somesh came up with the idea of “Personal Disaster Management”.

The purpose behind this is that in case you are really feeling low and frustrated by things happening in your life OR are facing a crisis (office/home), then have you ever thought what could be the options you have to keep going (and being motivated)

I really liked his idea and so I too decided to prepare my “PDM Plan” in form of a mind map. Here it goes :-

PDM Mindmap

Minimalism – A Lifestyle

Almost two years back I came across Leo’s site ZenHabits.

This man does a wonderful job when it come to explaining things in a simplified way. It reflects in each of his posts. He always talked about “Minimalism”. At that time I wasn’t aware of the concept. However after googling (and wiki-ing), I understood that Minimalism is a life style.

I was very curious to learn about it and I was sure that I wasn’t following it. Leo’s site helped me a lot the learn more about minimalism.

For me the basic of Minimalism means – “Focus on important things in life…and get rid of the rest”. I think minimalism has a close association with being “clutter-free”.

For example: I donated almost 60 books to my local library (now these books are not sitting in my shelf gathering dust).Why? Because I have already read them, and there is a very less chance that I will re-read them. And even in that case I can visit the library and get hold of the books. (Note: Right now there are only 8-10 books on my shelf which are more of a reference books. Wow…no wonder my shelf looks so clean and neat).

Minimalism is mainly about “having less”, so you have to worry “about less”.

Minimalism can be applied to any area of life

1) Home

2) Office

3) Fitness

4) Finance

5) Travel

6) Food

and more…

Slowly and surely I was able to bring minimalism into my life (I wonder how it comes naturally to some people like my wife).