I have now accepted the fact that I can remember only those things that I have written down somewhere. And I don't feel ashamed of it at all. The ability to remember anything and everything I come across, that I valued so much (and cultivated with a great degree of success) when I was fourteen, is not something that I strive to regain. On the contrary, my efforts are to ensure that I have at hand, written down someplace, every piece of information that I need. Hence you would find post-its in my house, which show me which is the "off" position for the gas cylinder knob, or remind me to switch of the heater when I leave my home.

On my laptop you shouldn't be surprised to find files titled something like "How To Start ReflectionX.txt" or "Time Difference between India and Dallas.txt"!! I don't want waste my time thinking about these things every time I need them. Only important thing when writing down such things is that you should be able to find it very quickly when you need it. And that calls for good organising.

As I grow older (!) I realise more and more the extreme importance of being well-organised. Today, that is the most important quality that I want to develop. It's not just about these tiny tit-bits of tasks, but it's about all activities in my day-to-day life - all activities in my professional life, and all activities in my personal life. I want to be extremely orgainsed about the way I work and the way I live.

I have implemented a Task List system at work with fair degree of success. Every morning before I begin any work, I list down all the tasks I have to do in the day. I spend some time to ponder on the details of each task. I also write down the time it would take for each task and when I want to do it. It has surely helped me. Now I want to improve it.

Speak of effectiveness reminds me of something I wrote long time back about being effective at workplace.

Now, I don't just want to be well-organised at work. I want to be well-organised in all the activities I do. I must come up with a plan. I have time at hand tomorrow and the day-after. It's a good time to think. I haven't doen any real thinking in a long time. Next two days will be perfect. Why wait till tomorrow? I should start it right away. It's quarter-to-five now. I think I should go home early today! ;-)

Have you ever woken up after a four-hour sleep, fresh as a new leaf? Have you ever woken up from a ten-hour slumber, more tired than you were before you went to bed? I don't know why it happens, but there seems to be no relation between amount of sleep and how fresh we feel when we get up. Some days you get up enthused and some days you are half alseep even after having enough sleep and a good work-out.

I have often wondered what are the factors that influence quality of sleep. Is it the posture? Is it our breathing pattern? Is it the room temperature? Is it the amount of fresh air in the room? Is it the thoughts that we have just before we fall asleep - how relaxed or distured we were when we fell asleep? What is it that leads to refreshing sleep? I need to know it. As I rarely get eight hours of sleep everyday, I need to know how to compensate quantity by good quality. I need to experiment and find out answers to these questions.