The toughest part of my life at IIT has been of managing time. Last year I had developed the habit of preparing To-Do lists which came very handy here. By the end of the day I end up finishing only half the items on the list. I use OSMO on my Ubuntu OS to prepare these lists.
What I have realized is that even a list for a day is macro-management for a lazy bum like me. What I really need is micro-managing my time. It is not enough to figure out what I need to do the whole day but I need to figure out what I need to do in next 3 hours.
I have tried this using paper lists and I have found it very beneficial. When I have more stricter deadlines I end up wasting lesser time on things such as checking mails, playing Mafia Wars on Facebook, reading/writing blogs, Twitter etc.
I feel a need for handheld personal organizer very badly. Something that should have an alarm as well. Unfortunately my budget is too mean to buy something like that hence I am using a notebook.
But there is an immense joy in preparing this list. I am preparing a list titled
“Little Joys of Life”
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Reading a fresh Book
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Smelling a cup of hot tea (with ginger in it) on a roadside Dabhaa.
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Meeting an Old Crush
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Riding at 90kmph on a straight barren road.
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Helping an Old man to do something.
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Helping a little kid with his math
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Listening to “khut-khut” sound/noise of an old Ushaa fan keeping your eyes closed and trying to sleep.
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Waking up early morning listening to your favorite song on radio
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Waking up very early in the morning despite realizing that you have no work to do the whole day.
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Watching a B-grade movie on a winter morning, covered in a thick blanket on the bed.
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Winning a consolation prize in some irrelevant, insignificant competition
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Spending a night on Railway Platform
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Remembering the last time I sat under a tree with no worries in my head.
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Finding the remote just next to you when you want to change the channel.
I have certainly missed many. Feel free to add in comments.