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On Time Management Thanks for sharing your experience with me, Tamie. In fact last week I almost lost my IBM warranty papers and tax invoice because I put it in one of the shopping bags. My mother threw it into the garbage bag. And I searched frantically for the papers and luckily my mother hadn't taken them out and I found them! I learned a lesson and that afternoon I started to sort out all the important things and put them in separate envelopes. It pays to organize things and do things in a planned manner. |
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On Time Management I got too excited.... and I misspelt the word -----procrastinator. |
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On Time Management Good you have responded to that question. I am a university teacher and students often ask this question too: How can I manage my time effectively and efficiently? How to budget time? Time management is not just a skill, as you have said, it is a mentality that successful people have. They know how to allocate time and how to enjoy life or those little sweet moments in life. Let me try (I am 班门弄斧－ teaching your grandmother how to suck eggs, for some reason I don't like this particular phrase although in my hometown there are people who suck eggs when they are sick with a cold or bronchitis- kidding!). Good time management starts with good planning. You got to keep a planbook and write down what you have done or what you are going to do. Keep some time for yourself too - some "me" time. Think about things that have happened.... As the foreign "devils" say, slow down and smell the roses. I didn't believe there was any good in keeping a planbook last year and I tried it this year and it worked for me beautifully. I can finish the things I have to do and still have some time for my family, blogging and all that. Before that I was a very disorganized person to a point where I can be called a "procratinator". What do you do with your planbook? Well you need to do it on a daily basis. You don't fish for 3 days and dry the fish nets for 2 days, right? The most difficult thing with plans is it is hard to do the things that you are supposed to do every day. You would be a perfect person if you could do that. But make sure you do it most of the time. There are times when we should 'steal' some little moments and have some laughters. I cannot do that every day but I try to stick to the original plan, let's say, 80% of the time. As Jianshuo has said, we all need to leave some time for self-reflections. Time runs fast but as long as we invest our energy in the things we are interested in, there is always some time left for ourselves. We all have a public self and a private self. It is tiring to present your public self all the time when you work so we got to go back to be our old selves for some time at least. I don't know what I have said would make any sense to you but this is a place to discuss things, right? |
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Pudong Starbucks is Nice Fei, that is right.... When I was doing my M.A. at NTU a cup of coffee on campus costs only $0.3 -1.2. I enjoy a cup of coffee in the afternoon ther in the cafeteria and the coffee tastes pretty good. I have friends who are going back to NTU this July. I want to go too but I got other plans too. I miss the cool clean running water on campus (I haven't seen these water cooler systems here in China). And NTU has the best wireless learning hub (I have ever seen). I heard that Beijing University and Tsinghua University are going wireless too. Good news for the college kids. |
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Pudong Starbucks is Nice Having said all that, I begin to look at the things I am using: (1)- IPOD, (2) IBM notebook (3) Sony DSCP150 digital camera, (4) JBL speakers, (5) Avance stereo system. Not that I don't like to buy domestic products, it is just that domestic products often have terrible after-sale services and I am still not that sure of their quality.... So you see it is easy to point your finger at others and say this is wrong.... |
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Pudong Starbucks is Nice It is very common people are gradually going for material wealth and show off their socio-economic status in a "foreign" environment like Starbucks, esp. in a fast-changing city like Shanghai. The face of Shanghai has changed so much so that you feel you are way behind the times if you don't go out and see things every few days. I have no problem with Wang's preference with Starbucks. The thing is.... Most people in Shanghai need to think twice to go to Starbucks to have a cup of coffee. In Shanghai, these foreign food or coffee shops are considered very high-class or something. But you see the crowd, right? In his novel (THE BESIEGED weicheng) Qian Zhongshu said Fang Hongjian detested the urbanization of rural areas. And in some ways, Shanghai people give too much credit to the foreign brands and they got to pay more money. I have only been to a few countries in Southeast Asia. Take Singapore for example, they have these Kopitians or local coffee shops that are reasonably priced and the atmosphere makes you want to stay longer there. Are there many good and cheap coffee shops for ordinary working class people? No. You might argue that there are many tea-houses. But they are for lovebirds mainly and you go into any of them, you are like watching a live video of love-making.... You see we are still a long long way from building a healthy attitude towards daily consumption. |
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Shanghai Under Stress Test Yesterday morning I called the taxi services at 62580000. The operator asked me to wait and then told me there was no taxi available around my neighborhood. So I decided to try my luck on the street and again I didn't see any that was not occupied. Yeah around this time of the year, I guess the big bosses of taxi services are laughing their asses off now. |