Monitoring your progress is key to creating lasting change. Assessing improvements on a regular basis can be enough to keep you motivated…writes N. Lothungbeni Humtsoe
When we think about New Year resolutions, losing those extra pounds, reading that book, switching to a healthy diet are some of the few things everyone wants to do. The key is to choose your resolutions wisely and make it happen. At study conducted by researchers at the University of Scranton found that 23 percent of people quit working on their resolution just two weeks into the new year, only 19 percent of resolution setters stick to their goals over the long haul.
Here’s a smart guide to identifying the right resolutions to improve your life, creating a plan on how to reach it, and becoming part of the small group of people that successfully achieve their goal.
Measurable goal
Vague resolutions give no one clarity. A statement like “I want to get healthier,” or “I want to be happier” has more weightage, when it is linked to a number. You can tell yourself; I want to go to the gym three times a week,” or “I want to go for a nature trail twice a month.” This will add tangibility to your goal.
Plan for success
If you decide to eat healthily, create a plan that details out your meals in advance. This way there is no room for cheating on your diet. Think about the obstacles you’re likely to encounter in the first weeks after establishing your resolution. Consider how you’ll navigate these challenges, and develop a plan. Planning ahead for the probable challenges can help you feel equipped to handle the unexpected obstacles that crop up along the way as well.
Self-monitoring
Monitoring your progress is key to creating lasting change. Assessing improvements on a regular basis can be enough to keep you motivated. There are smart self-monitoring tools and products such as MyFitnessPal, that help count calories or FreeStyle Libre that help monitor blood glucose levels. There is a smart wearable that makes your life easy and one should leverage them to their advantage.
Internal motivation
Internal motivation to do something, makes you feel more confident and stronger through the process. You’re not going to hate it so much because you know you’re training for better habits in yourself. One of the biggest reasons pledges fail is because they’re externally motivated as it is defined by how other people react to you.
It is important to stick to a handful of resolutions instead of a list of countless goals. Adapt targets at a realistic pace so that each victory boosts confidence and carries you forward in ticking them off the list.
Throughout the podcast, I tried to just have fun and talk about my experiences, rather than focus on what the “idea of success” is. I’ve tried to talk about small things that make a difference, like my gratitude jar, and it’s all available on the episode for everyone to listen to…Kubbra Sait speaks with Siddhi Jain.
Being happy is the first and foremost thing in life. For ‘Sacred Games’ actor Kubbra Sait, the idea of success is much beyond ‘gaadi, bangla and bank balance’ (car, house and bank balance), the concept of success is purely based on the larger emotion of happiness. In a new Audible podcast, the quirky actor revealed her three secrets to success — one of them being, ‘get lots of sleep’!
“My 3 Secrets to Success” is available exclusively on Audible, produced by FirstAction Studios, a Rainshine Company. It reflects on Kubbra’s journey to success and her mantras that have led to it. It is a series that features prominent personalities from various fields speaking about success, its definitions, evolution, and the three principles that have led them to what they are today. Catch Kubbra being funny, philosophical, and downright crazy as she shares her insights on success and the importance of gratitude, on the podcast.
Kubbra Sait reflects on the podcast in an interview with us:
In the Audible podcast, you mention the concept of success has largely been rooted in personal happiness for you, since childhood. What are your thoughts on this cookie-cutter idea of success installed from a young age?
A: I think the concept of success is purely based on the larger emotion of happiness. I think that happened to me when I grew much older and when I started doing things that I actually loved, but until that point of time it was always the cookie cutter idea of success. We’ve been raised as a subcontinent to be people who save for tomorrow, and not who live to experience the today. Everything’s always been based on a settlement of value that has been instilled in us since the time we were babies. Throughout the podcast, I tried to just have fun and talk about my experiences, rather than focus on what the “idea of success” is. I’ve tried to talk about small things that make a difference, like my gratitude jar, and it’s all available on the episode for everyone to listen to.
It’s only when we look back at it, that’s when you discover that one moment where you literally go “Damn, that’s funny I actually enjoyed that”. That’s when it clicks that what if I could make money, live a decent life or live doing what I love to do. Or what if I have limited resources but hey, at least I really love doing what I do. I think the minute you tweak your mind to think that way, automatically success comes your way. And in the new age, we’ve got people like Vijay Varma, Taapsee Pannu who encapsulate that. They love what they do and they’ve worked so hard to get to where they are, that you actually look at them and see a quality career based out of doing what you love. Even me for that matter, now that I know what I love to do, I want to work harder towards what I love to do rather than chasing the money. That is always a byproduct so if success is directly correlated to money, then I think that’s the short game that you’re in, not the long term solution.
You decided to give your life the Bombay spin at the age of 27. Give us a glimpse of your mind back then, what were you thinking?
A: I was thinking of burning bridges with what I was doing at that point. I was pretty clear that if Bombay doesn’t work out, and isn’t kind to me, which it truly was, then I would have said that I’m going to drop everything and go look for another job in some other part of the world. But it would not have happened if I would have said that “Oh, I’m still going to have my safety net in Dubai, then I probably would not have been able to do what I’m doing in Bombay”. So yes, there was a little bit of fear of failure but there was also breaking out of the fear knowing that it’s only beyond this fear that I will truly discover what I want to do in life.
“In life, you should appreciate the lows as much as the highs. Like in Music.” were your inspiring words on the podcast. Why is acknowledging and accepting low points so important?
A: I was trying to tell my story. I think each person’s story is so unique and storytelling is so important. Accepting highs and lows truly define who you are. I think the character of a person comes through how you can be when you are going to the lowest of your lowest phase. I think it’s the true test of character when you’re at your lowest low because you tend to hold other life rafts to yourself, which are beyond your success… which are beyond what you do, and it all starts coming down to who you are, and the tenacity of you as a person. Which is why it’s really important to appreciate the lows when they come to you. I don’t mean it’s easy to appreciate your lows, but it’s just about going through them as you would go through the highs, but if you think life is all about the highs then we wouldn’t be living life, then we would be playing a game, and even in games you have to lose a couple of lives.
Has the lockdown, in any way, shaped or changed ideas of happiness or success for you?
A: Oh my god, yes. In a gazillion ways. I think you look around you and learn to be appreciative of the many things that you have and what you can do for your immediate circle. I’m not saying this is a Miss World answer where you go and say, I want world peace, but I’m just trying to see as an individual, if I can impact even one other life. I think that for me it has been life altering to be able to sit in one place without being edgy about yourself. I’ve come close to meditation during the lockdown so that’s helped me a lot. So in many ways it’s been a personal journey for me.
On the work front, what’s keeping you busy these days? What’s upcoming?
A: I’m really excited about ‘Foundation’ that’s about to release this year. It’s I think one sole project that I have put in about a year and a half of mine, and that feels extremely valuable because I don’t think today, your currency is money, your currency is time. So if I have been able to break out of that mental block and invest time in a project that I believe in, I think it’s going to pay off pretty well and I’m quite excited about it. Apart from that, I’ve got three work projects in process and when they come to realisation, I’ll share them with you. But otherwise I can say that, I’ve got a book coming, I’ve got a show coming out, I’ve been on this Audible podcast. Also, I’m in a state of solitude in a state of Zen. I am being that person. And it’s just allowing you to recognise the past, the present and the future as it’s going to be. I think it’s very important to be in a state of Zen so that you can allow the future to unfold. It’s exciting. So, what’s keeping me busy, my Zen is keeping me busy.
After several months, millions of Britons are enjoying new freedoms, such as indoor entertainments, hugs with loved ones besides foreign holidays, reports Asian Lite Newsdesk
As UK has further eased lockdown and resumed international travel to select countries on Monday, thousands of Britons have begun taking holidays to countries including Portugal and Israel – which are on the government green list.
Also, pubs, bars and restaurants in England have reopened indoors, while indoor entertainment resumed, including cinemas, museums and children’s play areas.
For the first time in months, millions of people have been enjoying new freedoms – such as indoor pints, hugs with loved ones and foreign holidays- under new ease of restrictions.
Meanwhile, travellers from England, Scotland and Wales are jetting off to some countries in what the crisis-hit tourism industry hopes is the start of a recovery, the BBC reported.
So far, 12 countries have been added to the government’s green list, including Portugal and Israel, without isolating on their return.
The chiefs of British Airways and Ryanair told BBC that confidence was returning.
However, majority of tourist destinations remain on the amber and red lists, meaning travellers must quarantine when they get back.
Bookings also remain well down on pre-pandemic levels, it was reported.
@C – By Tim Green from Bradford, UK
Meanwhile, another 1,979 people in Britain have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 4,452,756, according to official figures released Monday.
The country also reported another five coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 127,684. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.
The latest data came as the lockdown further eased on Monday across Britain despite concerns over risks posed by coronavirus variants, especially the one first detected in India.
Also on Monday, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in giving lawmakers an update on the country’s latest coronavirus situation that Britain has been engaged in a race between the virus and the vaccine and as a nation, “we’ve taken huge steps forward,” he said.
While there can be “further careful progress” taken today, with the easing of restriction, “we must all stay vigilant,” he said.
There are fewer than 1,000 people in hospital with COVID at the moment and on average there are nine deaths a day, he added.
Vaccine calls amid variant fears
The Ministers is stepping up calls for people – especially those living in hotspots of the Covid-19 variant first found in India – to accept a vaccination as soon as they are offered one, the BBC reported.
Health secretary Matt Hancock said anyone who is unsure to “look at…Bolton” – where he said most people in hospital with Covid were eligible for a jab but refused it.
Hancock told the House of Commons on Monday that 86 local authorities now have five or more cases of the Indian variant, with 2,323 confirmed cases across the UK.
But amid concern over rising numbers of India variant cases, the government has warned its next review of social distancing rules may be delayed.
According to the Times newspaper, the government is said to be considering contingency plans for local lockdowns if the variant cannot be brought under control.
A review of further easing of the restrictions is set to take place by the end of May. But the prime minister’s official spokesman warned yesterday that the Indian variant “could pose a threat to this process” and that the government’s decision would be based on the “latest data”.
The government’s plan was to end all remaining restrictions on social contact by 21 June, which could face some delay. (with inputs from ANI/Xinhua)
The well-curated Week is also being hailed as a much-needed restart to the city’s physical art engagements….writes Siddhi Jain.
Delhi Contemporary Art Week is more special this year, by which brings seven art galleries under one single roof. Turning the spotlight on Indian contemporary art and artists for a whole week in the national capital, the Delhi Contemporary Art Week (DCAW) will open on April 8 with the participation of seven city-based art galleries.
The participating galleries include Blueprint 12, Exhibit 320, Gallery Espace, Latitude 28, Nature Morte, Shrine Empire and Vadehra Art Gallery. Contending that contemporary art in South Asia is more exciting than it has ever been, the seven galleries have come together in this latest edition to showcase a new wave of artists from India and the subcontinent at Bikaner House.
According to the organisers, the Week was initiated as an attempt to generate discourse that befits the shifting lens of the contemporary. This year DCAW is taking place at Bikaner House to add vigour with its grand colonial era architecture and spacious exhibition spaces. There is also an additional exhibition by Reha Sodhi. The galleries will also host exhibitions at their own spaces creating a citywide fervour around contemporary art.
Notably, among the exhibiting artists is Manjunath Kamath who displays a group of drawings that draw on motifs from Indian, Chinese and Persian cultures. Arun Kumar HG’s artistic engagement with the ecology and the disharmonies created by unbridled consumerism find expression in a large sculpture in reclaimed wood that draws on the ‘samudra manthan’ (churning of ocean) myth from the Puranas. Chitra Ganesh presents three small drawings in her customary visual vocabulary interpolating Hindu and Buddhist iconography, surrealism, and popular visual culture forms such as comics, graffiti and street art, to present a culturally layered, feminist narrative.
There are also works that draw inspiration from the pandemic and recent lockdown. Manisha Gera Baswani’s two pin-drawings enact a personal encounter with pain and disease. Puneet Kaushik’s series of works in black and red titled “Sacred marks of a lockdown” trace the fragile and tenuous negotiations of the self with the new realities of the lockdowned world.
Emerging artist Ishita Chakraborty will present post-card sized works that articulate her feelings of homesickness and spatial alienation, living in cold, sparsely populated Switzerland far away from her home in Bengal, and Purvai Rai will present drawings titled ‘People in Prayer’, whose stark geometry evokes the concept of space ordered by culture and religion.
New works by Thukral and Tagra looks at the idea of ‘escape’ more in the light of cyber realities, as seen through the use of emojis and other familiar symbols of play. Reena Saini Kallat traces the borders between countries that are in conflict over the sharing of their common river waters. By rearranging these lines of separation, she carves a new topography with a flowing river forming the landscape.
A group show ‘Cloud Burst’ features a diverse set of expressions around the general human condition and undertakings, articulated either through more intimate mental and bodily experiences. Titled ‘Bachpan’, Vicky Roy’s collection of candid photographs examines the psychology and principles of childhood games as performed specifically by underprivileged children living in major Indian cities, who have limited access to toys and equipment.
The well-curated Week is also being hailed as a much-needed restart to the city’s physical art engagements.
Exhibit 320’s Director Rasika Kajaria holds that Art truly reveals itself only when we connect with it in person. “It’s important to engage with the art and the artist and to celebrate it as a community.”
Latitude 28’s Founder-Director Bhavna Kakar feels that these times call for a new level of creative and collective thinking and this edition of DCAW, “which despite the times we’re going through, will give art connoisseurs an engaging interactive space to experience the best of contemporary art”.
“As we mark our physical return to cultural institutions, we are enthusiastic about celebrating access and spirit through the ingenuity, diversity and sensitivity of our emerging artists and their excellent art practices,” says Roshini Vadehra, Director, Vadehra Art Gallery.
Catch DCAW from April 8-15, 2021 at Bikaner House, New Delhi. Highlights can also be seen online on Instagram at @delhicontemporaryartweek.
Writing, designing, creative visualising and ideating aren’t functions that can be dictated to work for 12-hour stretches…writes Puja Gupta.
Work life has entirely changed after pandemic and India Inc has joined the global chatter on the four-day workweek. A recent announcement about the much-talked-about new labour code suggests that organisations may be allowed to offer the option to employees. However, the ministry keeps the 48-hour cap on the workweek “sacrosanct”.
Much before the pandemic, remote work and flexible work policies became a part of our lives, companies around the world had begun litmus testing a three-day weekend for employees.
Zahara Kanchwalla, co-founder & COO, Rite Knowledge Lab, lists down a few things to consider if you’re giving the four-day workweek a thought for your workforce:
More hours in exchange for extra off
One of the primary arguments in favour of the four-day workweek is that the extra time off leads to better productivity at work. However, look closely and you find that it’s only when a four-day workweek is accompanied by reduced weekly work hours that the concept bears fruit.
Perpetual Guardian, a New Zealand-based company, the first to grab headlines for testing the four-day workweek in 2018, asked its employees to work 30 hours a week and paid them for 37.5 hours. Similarly, Spain experimented with the four-day workweek in response to the pandemic, asking workers to clock in 32 hours a week. Finland’s Prime Minister, Sanna Marin, has floated the ambitious idea of 6-hour 4-day work weeks.
In effect, the employee continues to work between 8 to 10 hours on working days and enjoys an extra day off from work. However, in India, the weekly work hours remain 48. Adding the option for an extra day off by stretching out the other four days of work is counter-productive at best and threatens employee well-being at worst. One must consider that it’s adding almost 50 per cent to the average 8-hour workday. It’s a drastic shift for employees to switch into.
Longer hours means less focus
The brain is known to concentrate for 2-hour stretches with 15 to 30-minute intervals in between. Employee focus is usually at its peak at the beginning of the shift with concentration levels gradually dipping as the hours pass. By the 8th or 9th hour of the workday, workers are fatigued and unlikely to be at their productive-best for the additional hours they now have to clock in. It also raises the likelihood of mistakes, errors and accidents.
Just like one can’t make up for sleep lost in the week by sleeping for 48 full hours, the additional day off may hardly matter when one works a 12-hour shift for four consecutive days. Add to that an average of three hours of commute to and from work, makes it a total of 15 hours a day that the employee is out of their home for work.
Creativity can’t be clocked
In a digital agency where a majority of the roles are of a creative nature, twelve-hour workdays are impractical. Sure, pulling a caffeine-fuelled all-nighter a day before an important pitch may get those creative juices flowing but that’s just the pressure of the deadline in action on a creative brain.
Writing, designing, creative visualising and ideating aren’t functions that can be dictated to work for 12-hour stretches. Besides, one can only focus on the same project for so long before mental fatigue and the infamous creative block sets in.
To be able to look at the same problem afresh, taking breaks at regular intervals throughout the day is a crucial part of the thinking and ideating process. It cannot be crammed into four days and switched off for the other three.
Always connected
Beyond the creative functions of a digital agency, the nature of the business itself is interdependent on many external factors and stakeholders. As a digital agency, by default one has to be connected to what’s happening in real-time and be of service to clients. Twelve hour-long shifts can be demanding on those in customer-facing roles too, with the possibility for poor judgements and reactions graver in the final hours of the shift.
In addition, like the rest of the services industry, in these hyper-connected times, one is also expected to be available to clients at all times. A company may put a rotational system in place but that means a further restructuring of the workforce. Work from home inspired many organisations to finally embrace flexible work policies. If your company already allows its workforce to tailor their work schedules around their personal lives, a four-day workweek may not add further value.
A long break is priceless
Having said that, a long break away from work is indeed priceless. Employees have long grumbled about the two-day weekend passing by in a blink. On the flip side, a four-day workweek could prove as motivation for the long weekend. Knowing that the workweek is now shorter may encourage employees to complete tasks faster. The promise of three full days to oneself may inspire employees to focus fully while at work.
Besides, a three-day weekend allows one to plan longer holidays out of the city. It may also open up opportunities for employees to engage in long-forgotten hobbies, sign for an upskilling program or take up gigs on the side!
Long weekend or mid-week break
While some companies may make Thursday the new Friday by giving employees a three-day weekend. Some may place the extra day right in the middle of the workweek, on a Wednesday, for employees to return afresh to face the latter half of the week. Companies that want to stay available to their clients and customers through the week will put their employees on a rotation system.
As long as the length of the workday remains the same, the four-day workweek seems to bear sweet fruits. So, you may think announcing a three-day weekend may position you as an attractive employer but giving an extra day off by adding lost hours to rest of the workdays may just end up being like repackaging the same thing in a new gift wrapper. Make sure you take into account all aspects of the decision. Ultimately, if your workers are tired, it’s your product and business that will suffer.
