Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Self-care is the secret to performing at the highest level.

Here are the six simple rituals he uses to perform at his highest, which you too can begin implementing right away:

1. Drink a glass of water when you wake up. Your body loses water while you sleep, so you’re naturally dehydrated in the morning. A glass of water when you wake helps start your day fresh. When do you drink your first glass of water each day?
2. Define your top 3. Every morning Mike asks himself, “What are the top three most important tasks that I will complete today?” He prioritizes his day accordingly and doesn’t sleep until the Top 3 are complete. What’s your "Top 3" today?
3. The 50/10 Rule. Solo-task and do more faster by working in 50/10 increments. Use a timer to work for 50 minutes on only one important task with 10 minute breaks in between. Mike spends his 10 minutes getting away from his desk, going outside, calling friends, meditating, or grabbing a glass of water. What’s your most important task for the next 50 minutes?
4. Move and sweat daily. Regular movement keeps us healthy and alert. It boosts energy and mood, and relieves stress. Most mornings you’ll find Mike in a CrossFit or a yoga class. How will you sweat today?
5. Express gratitude. Gratitude fosters happiness, which is why Mike keeps a gratitude journal. Every morning, he writes out at least five things he’s thankful for. In times of stress, he’ll pause and reflect on 10 things he’s grateful for. What are you grateful for today?
6. Reflect daily. Bring closure to your day through 10 minutes of reflection. Mike asks himself, “What went well?” and “What needs improvement?” So... what went well today? How can you do more of it?
Courtesy: Fast Company (Click here for complete article)

Monday, December 10, 2012

Much more work will get done in much less time!!

A must read EXCERPT from "The 7 Habits of Highly effective people": 
My seven-year-old son, Stephen, volunteered to take care of the yard. Before I actually gave him a job, I began a thorough training process. I wanted him to have a clear picture in his mind of what a well-cared-for yard was like, so I took him next door to our neighbor's.
"Look, son," I said. "See how our neighbor's yard is green and clean? That's what we're after: green and clean. Now come look at our yard. See the mixed colors? That's not it; that's not green. Green and clean is what we want. Now how you get it green is up to you. You're free to do it any way you want, except paint it. But I'll tell you how I'd do it if it were up to me."
"How would you do it, Dad?"
"I'd turn on the sprinklers. But you may want to use buckets or a hose. It makes no difference to me. All we care about is that the color is green. Okay?"
"Okay ."
"Now let's talk about 'clean,' Son. Clean means no messes around -- no paper, strings, bones, sticks, or anything that messes up the place. I'll tell you what let's do. Let's just clean up half of the yard right now and look at the difference."
So we got out two paper sacks and picked up one side of the yard. "Now look at this side. Look at the other side. See the difference? That's called clean."
"Wait!" he called. "I see some paper behind that bush!"
"Oh, good! I didn't notice that newspaper back there. You have good eyes, Son."
"Now before you decide whether or not you're going to take the job, let me tell you a few more
things. Because when you take the job, I don't do it anymore. It's your job. It's called a stewardship. Stewardship means 'a job with a trust.' I trust you to do the job, to get it done. Now who's going to be your boss?"
"You, Dad?"
"No, not me. You're the boss. You boss yourself. How do you like Mom and Dad nagging you all the time?"
"I don't."
"We don't like doing it either. It sometimes causes a bad feeling doesn't it? So you boss yourself. Now, guess who your helper is."
"Who?"
"I am," I said. "You boss me."
"I do?"
"That's right. But my time to help is limited. Sometimes I'm away. But when I'm here, you tell me how I can help. I'll do anything you want me to do." "Okay!"
"Now guess who judges you."
"Who?"
"You judge yourself."
"I do?"
"That's right. Twice a week the two of us will walk around the yard and you can show me how it's coming. How are you going to judge?"
"Green and clean."
"Right!"
I trained him with those two words for two weeks before I felt he was ready to take the job.
Finally, "That's the big day came.
"Is it a deal, Son?"
"It's a deal."
"What's the job?"
"Green and clean."
"What's green?"
He looked at our yard, which was beginning to look better.
the color of his yard." "What's clean?" "No messes." "Who's the boss?" "I am."
Then he pointed next door.
"Who's your helper?"
"You are, when you have time."
"Who's the judge?"
"I am. We'll walk around two times a week and I can show you how it's coming."
"And what will we look for?"
"Green and clean."
At that time I didn't mention an allowance. But I wouldn't hesitate to attach an allowance to such a stewardship.
Two weeks and two words. I thought he was ready.
It was Saturday. And he did nothing. Sunday...nothing. Monday...nothing. As I pulled out of the driveway on my way to work on Tuesday, I looked at the yellow, cluttered yard and the hot July sun on its way up. "Surely he'll do it today," I thought. I could rationalize Saturday because that was the day we made the agreement. I could rationalize Sunday; Sunday was for other things. But I couldn't rationalize Monday. And now it was Tuesday. Certainly he'd do it today. It was summertime. What else did he have to do?
All day I could hardly wait to return home to see what happened. As I rounded the corner, I was met with the same picture I left that morning. And there was my son at the park across the street playing.
This was not acceptable. I was upset and disillusioned by his performance after two weeks of training and all those commitments. We had a lot of effort, pride, and money invested in the yard and I could see it going down the drain. Besides, my neighbor's yard was manicured and beautiful, and the situation was beginning to get embarrassing.
I was ready to go back to gofer delegation. Son, you get over here and pick up this garbage right now or else! I knew I could get the golden egg that way. But what about the goose? What would happen to his internal commitment?
So I faked a smile and yelled across the street, "Hi, Son. How's it going?"
"Fine!" he returned.
"How's the yard coming?" I knew the minute I said it I had broken our agreement. That's not the way we had set up an accounting. That's not what we had agreed.
"How's the yard coming?" I knew the minute I said it I had broken our agreement. That's not the way we had set up an accounting. That's not what we had agreed.
So he felt justified in breaking it, too. "Fine, Dad."
I bit my tongue and waited until after dinner. Then I said, "Son, let's do as we agreed. Let's walk around the yard together and you can show me how it's going in your stewardship."
As we started out the door, his chin began to quiver. Tears welled up in his eyes and, by the time we got out to the middle of the yard, he was whimpering.
"It's so hard, Dad!"
What's so hard? I thought to myself. You haven't done a single thing! But I knew what was hard -- self management, self-supervision. So I said, "Is there anything I can do to help?" "Would you, Dad?" he sniffed
"What was our agreement?"
"You said you'd help me if you had time."
"I have time."
So he ran into the house and came back with two sacks. He handed me one. "Will you pick that stuff up?" He pointed to the garbage from Saturday night's barbecue. "It makes me sick!"
So I did. I did exactly what he asked me to do. And that was when he signed the agreement in his heart. It became his yard, his stewardship.
He only asked for help two or three more times that entire summer. He took care of that yard. He kept it greener and cleaner than it had ever been under my stewardship. He even reprimanded his brothers and sisters if they left so much as a gum wrapper on the lawn.
Trust is the highest form of human motivation. It brings out the very best in people. But it takes time and patience, and it doesn't preclude the necessity to train and develop people so that their competency can rise to the level of that trust.
I am convinced that if stewardship delegation is done correctly, both parties will benefit and ultimately much more work will get done in much less time.
Courtesy: The seven habits of highly effective people

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Capability Maturity Model Levels (CMMi Levels)


Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University publishes appraisal results regularly. Click below link to view the list

http://sas.sei.cmu.edu/pars/pars.aspx


Capability Maturity Model Levels for Companies
The Capability Maturity Model defines following levels for the organizations depending upon the processes being followed by them.

CMM Level 0 - Companies:
CMM - Level 0 companies are the ones, which do not have any structured Processes, Tracking Mechanisms & Plans. It is left to the developer or any person responsible for Quality to ensure that the product meets the expectations.

CMM Level 1 - Companies: Work is Performed Informally 
CMM - Level 1 companies are the ones, where the teams put in extra hard work to achieve the results. These are primarily the startup companies. Such companies do not have any structured Tracking Mechanisms & defined Standards. The software development work is performed informally but it is not properly documented. Such companies usually have technically strong & more experienced people, hence the product churned out by them is definitely a quality product. Since the company has strong teams, they won't ask for many guidelines.

CMM Level 2 - Companies: Work is Planned and Tracked
CMM - Level 2 companies are the ones, which follow two main guidelines like 1) Defined guidelines 2) Focus on reusability. These companies have some planned processes within the teams and the teams are made to repeat them or follow these processes for all projects being handled by them. However these process are not standardized across the organization. All the teams within the organization do not follow the same standard.

CMM Level 3 - Companies: Work is Well-Defined 
CMM - Level 3 companies are the ones, where the processes are well defined and are followed throughout the organization. Such companies have strong team, well-defined guidelines, Focus on reusability & lay major focus on documentation.

CMM Level 4 - Companies: Work is Quantitatively Controlled
CMM - Level 4 companies are the ones, where the processes are well defined and are followed throughout the organization. In such companies, Goals to be achieved are well defined and the actual output is measured. Such companies have proper mechanism to collect the Metrics to measure each and every work in the organization, hence future performance can predicted.

CMM Level 5 - Companies: Work is based upon Continuous Improvement
CMM - Level 5 companies are the ones, which have well defined processes, which are properly measured. Such organizations have good understanding of IT projects which have good effect on the Organizational goals. Level - 5 organizations lay major emphasis on Research and development & are able to continuously improve their processes

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_to_check_CMM_level_of_an_IT_company._Is_there_any_website_to_check_the_CMMI_level_of_an_IT_company_is_this_certification_provide_by_any_unique_apex_autority_-_Kindy_guide_me_to_get_it.#ixzz23haFS5Vk

Thursday, June 14, 2012

What’s the best advice you ever got?

Very Inspiring!!! Must Read


“What’s the best advice you ever got?” At the end of a recent podcast interview, the host asked me, “What’s the best advice you ever got?” Before I tell you what I said allow me to rewind to 2007 when I had another career decision to make: hold on to a large, steady paycheck as the vice president of a global PR firm or commit full-time to my growing writing and public speaking business. At the time I was doing some freelance writing and I interviewed the real-life Chris Gardner, the man who actor Will Smith portrayed in the movie, The Pursuit of Happyness (‘happyness’ is purposely misspelled in the title. You’ll have to read the book or watch the movie to find out why). Gardner told me the true story of how he spent nights in the bathroom of a subway station along with his 2-year-old son. In the daytime Gardner would put on his one suit, drop off his kid at daycare and take unpaid classes to become a stockbroker. You can guess how the story ends. Gardner rose to the top of his firm and became a multi-millionaire.
The secret to happiness, in life and in business. I knew the Oakland, California subway station Gardner had slept in because I passed it each day on my train trip into San Francisco. I had plenty of time to contemplate the advice he gave, words that changed the course of my career. “How did you find the strength, the spirit, to keep going?” I asked Gardner. “Carmine, here’s the secret to success: find something you love to do so much, you can’t wait for the sun to rise to do it all over again.”

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

I'm an Entrepreneur!!


I believe anything is possible


I see opportunity when others see impossibility


I take risks. I'm focused. I hustle


I know that nothing is unrealistic


I feel overwhelming love


I embrace my childlike wonder & curiosity


I take flying leaps into the unknown


I contribute to something bigger than myself


I create. I learn. I grow. I do.


I believe its never too late to start living a dream.


I am an Entrepreneur.

Courtesy: I am an Entrepreneur

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Income Tax Deduction!!!

After lot of struggle, finally found some good stuff which helps newbee to understand the tax deduction with example. Enjoy :)

How can I save Taxes this year? 
Some of the Sections of Income Tax Act, 1961 are detailed below which detail few exemptions and categories of exempt income that you can take advantage of:

Section 80C: Investment in specified instruments and expenses
Section 80C gives every income tax payer up to a maximum of Rs. 1,00,000 tax free income in a year if they invest in or buy the following instruments. Please not that this is a combined total of Rs. 1,00,000 and not an individual figure for every instrument:


1. Premium for Life Insurance or ULIP
2. Provident Fund (PF) contribution
3. Public Provident Fund (PPF) - only up to Rs. 70,000 in a year
4. Repayment of home loan principal
5. Equity Linked Savings Schemes (ELSS) of Mutual Fund Companies
6. Infrastructure Bonds
7. National Savings Certificates (NSC)
8. Tax Saving Fixed Deposits with Banks
9. Tuition Fees of children


Section 80D: Health Insurance Premium
You can take advantage of an annual deduction of Rs. 15,000 from taxable income for payment of Health Insurance premium for self and dependants. For senior citizens, this deduction is Rs. 20,000. 


Section 80E: Interest paid on educational loans
You can claim a deduction on the interest paid on loans taken for higher education for yourself, your spouse and children. There is no limit on the amount of deduction you can claim. 
The only thing to keep in mind is that the program for which the loan is taken should be a graduate or post-graduate program in engineering, medicine or management or a post-graduate course in the pure or applied sciences.


Section 80G: Donations to Charitable institutions
You can claim a deduction for any donation that you might have made to a charitable fund or institution. However, please note that these donations should be made only to specified institutions. And a proper proof of payment must be provided for the same. Based on the classification of the charity , you can claim either 100% or 50% of the donated amount as deduction. The deduction might also be subject to a certain limit again based on the type of charity that you are donating money

Section 24: Interest paid on housing loan
Under Section 24, a maximum of Rs 1,50,000 can be deducted from your taxable income as interest repayment for a self occupied house. Please note that this deduction is not available if you the house is still under construction and you do not have occupation of the house.

Provisions that you should take advantage of if you are a salaried employee:

Section 10(13A) : House Rent Allowance
You can take advantage of the provisions under this section if you are renting an accommodation. These provisions will not be available to you if you stay in a rent-free accommodation or live with your family or in your own house.
Under Section 10(13A), HRA is exempt to the least of the following: i) 50/40 per cent of basic salary= Dearness Allowance (if, applicable), ii) excess of rent paid over 10 per cent of basic salary; and iii) actual HRA received. 
Lets illustrate this calculation with an example:


Assumptions
HRA per month = Rs 15,000
Basic monthly salary = Rs 30,000
Monthly rent = Rs 14,000
Rental accommodation is in Delhi.


Exemption
The HRA exemption would be the least of the following:
1. Actual amount of HRA: Rs 15,000
2. 50% of salary (basic component + dearness allowance) = 50% x (30,000 + 0) = Rs 15,000
3. Actual rent paid - 10% of salary (basic component + dearness allowance)= Rs 14,000 - [10% of (30,000 + 0)] = 14,000 – 3,000 = Rs 11,000
Rs 11,000 being the least of the three amounts will be the exemption from HRA. 
The balance HRA of Rs 4,000 (15,000-11,000) would be taxable.
Please note that HRA exemptions are only available on submission of rent receipts or the rent agreement.


Paying Rent to parents or relatives
If you want to pay rent to your parents or any relatives (like uncle/cousin) whom you are staying with. You will need to treat them as landlords. And request the owner of the house (which will be one of your parents) to declare it in his/ her personal income tax return. This will prevent any litigation in the future.


Section 10 (14) Rule 2BB(10) : Transport Allowance
Transport allowance granted for commuting between your residence and place of work is exempt up to Rs. 800 a month. You can take advantage of this provision to get a tax exemption of Rs 9600 annually by providing your employer with bills or a self declaration.


Section 17(2) : Medical Reimbursement
You can claim exemption up to Rs 15,000 annually on actual expenditure incurred on your medical treatment or for treatment of any of your dependants. Moreover, there is no restriction of approved hospitals or clinic for the same. This is exempt only on provision of actual bills.
However, if the amount is paid out as an allowance not a reimbursement then it would be fully taxable.

Courtesy: http://www.itrust.in/content/tax-planning/How-Can-I-Save-Taxes-This-Year-India


Thursday, May 31, 2012

Triggr Innovation - Naruto

Team Name: Naruto

Team Members: Divyesh, Darshan, Fenil and Hitesh

Problem Statement: Inconvenience caused while travelling within the region for unplanned travels.

Solution:

1. An application will be created which will support both web and wireless devices.

2. Information will be collected from Rickshaw union, Motorman of Indian Railway, Sales person, Courier person, Taxi union.

3. By roadways our resources will be Rickshaw, Taxi, Bus, Share rickshaw, Car pooling, By walk, Lift.

4. By railways our resources will be Local trains

5. Achieving this will give rise to comforts like:

a. traffic info

b. cost info

c. distance in kms and mins

d. expected time to reach destination

e. congestion

f. I/II class cost w.r.t. railways.

6. Variables in application will consist selection of :

a. City

b. Source

c. Destination

d. Time

e. Filters – cost range, traffic, time range, comforts, etc

Business:

· Company can make money through ads for free version of ads

· For paid version company will charge 1$ a year for additional functionality and ad free app.

· Company can make money by tying up which various cab vendors such as Meru cabs, Cool cabs, Easy cabs etc. which in turn be profitable by this app suggesting them as a suggestion.


Market:

· In Mumbai,roughly around 70 lakh people travel in local trains daily and an equal number travel in Buses and rickshaw . So the market we are aiming is huge in number.


Impact:

· On successful execution of such a product will result in huge profit for an organisation.

· It will help commuters to travel with ease and they will have all the travel information on the move.

· It will help commuters save both time and money while travelling.

· It will provide commuters with more sucurity in terms of travelling and thus making an unplanned travel planned.



Triggr Innovation 2 - Avengers



Team Name: Team Avengers

Problem Statement: Inconvenience in travelling through public transport services (BEST)

Solution:

To predict the number of waiting commuters at each Bus-stop and then channelize the resources(bus routes) accordingly.
By using (LBS) swipe card application system the BEST passengers can complete their journey from the nearest respective Railway Station.


At the BEST Depot, we propose to BEST Authority to enable the swipe card system for:


1. BEST Authority to measure the number of passengers intending to move for each specific location.


2. It will empower BEST Authority to allocate the buses as per requirement of passengers.


3. This system will help people to manage their time for scheduling journey comfortably & conveniently.


4. By swipe card system BEST Authority can manage crowd in the peak hours.


5. Passengers can reach to their desired location in time.


6. Database of passengers could be collated by BEST Authority for scheduling buses according to the demand.



Triggr Innovation Ideas - Blitzkrieg



Team Name: Blitzkrieg

Team Members: Jinen, Dilip, Mandar

Problem Statement: Handling household/Office related daily utilities like fixing of household/office ware, providing grocery to the aged people.


Solution:

1. User will have to dial our customer care toll free number.

2. Lists their problem to the customer care executive.

3. The customer care executive will collate the required details from the customer and accordingly will contact the associate in that particular area as specified by the customer.

4. The responsible associate will perform required research task like getting in touch with various resources and finding the best and reasonable service provided in and around that locality and provide it to the customer.

5. There will be at least one person will be allocated in each locality.

6. A detailed feedback would be taken from the customer and also customer satisfaction chart would be maintained to better our services in the future.



Product/Service Specification:

Can have various offer packs for customers according to their subscription. For example 199 Rs/ month per user for complete.


Market Estimate:

· 6 cr. Household in India which is equivalent to 1.2mn.

· 1.2mn x 40 Dollars per head per month of service charge.

· Total turnover would be 1.5mn USD.



Triggr – Be Innovative



Introduction: In our daily life, we do travel, purchase tickets/products/groceries, read, write, walk, talk, listen, texting, and many more. And we face certain problems but generally either we ignore or abuse someone for this problem. But one person, say, 1 in 10 crore, find the solution of the problem and ease the life of others and then known as innovator/entrepreneur.

So that's my inspiration to launch Triggr – Be Innovative.  
The story behind the name “Triggr” that its trigger my mind to start something innovative event and I skip ‘e’ from it to make it creative.

I tried to explain my thoughts on Triggr by some daily found problem/solutions.

Examples:

1. Google search example: When you misspell a query on Google search, it comes back with a “Did you mean <corrected query>” and shows the results for that. How will you implement this feature on a search engine?

Answer 1:  A spell checker that will look at every query. If it finds a misspelt word, then we’ll correct it using the spell checker, and execute that query.

Answer 2: A small group of people will come up with a far more innovative answer: Let us look at the history of all searches on the site looking for the following pattern: A user searched for “x”, didn’t click on any results, and then immediately searched for “y”. If these (x,y) pairs happen frequently, then y is a corrected version of x.

The ingenuity of the second answer becomes apparent when you think of the following issues that will need to be addressed if you were to really implement this. How will you deal with 90 different languages? How to deal with proper nouns, that too in all those languages. How to deal with words like “Flickr” or “Telefone” which are mis-spellings according to the dictionary, but are valid search queries. The second answer solves all these issues elegantly.


2. Hair coloring: The common problem while applying hair coloring is the liquid spread on the dress or floor etc. Recently, I saw a TV add with the product “Hair coloring Gel” which solves the above problem.

3. KIOSK: Financial institutions have realized that their Web sites are valuable sales and service channels. When combined with online banking and bill pay tools - the online channel delivers one of the most profitable and convenient ways for customers to maintain an ongoing relationship with a financial institution. The self-service banking kiosk was first developed to give financial institutions a more secure, attractive and reliable way to introduce their customers to their online channel offerings.
Placing KIOSK in branches is a great way to divert certain customer tasks out of crowded teller lines and into the self-service environment. Some of these tasks include:
  
Account balance inquires
Check reordering
Cleared check/deposit records look up
Money transfers
E-statement sign up
Loan applications
Online banking access
And more

4. Online purchasing/selling of products: BookMyShow, Snap Deal, Home Shop 18 are the ideas who makes our life far easier than ever.

5. Drona Mobile: 

Then to make it more clear, I organized a game called Triggr yourself.