Anoop Kumar's Clarity

In procurement, specifically in Public Procurement, there are 3 categories of procurement; Goods, Services and Works. I tried to find if there was one word which can replace goods, services and works but couldn't get any. Therefore decided to use GSW as the word, where GSW stands for Goods, Services and Works. So, instead of asking what was the goods, or services or works procured, I can use what was the GSW procured? And in column header instead of writing Goods_Services_Works I used procured_GSW.   

I think if we follow this simple approach of problem solving we may actually solve the problems. In these tough times I needed something that I could use for myself and not get into a state where I am not as productive as I can be.  I think one person alone cannot solve all of the problems. Not everyone will have the energy, time and the ideas to solve the problems. If some of us can at least solve one problem, that will make a difference for someone, that would be amazing. And all those who cannot solve any of the problems, if they can just take care of themselves and not create new problems that would in itself be a great thing. 

Today I couldn't resist but share with LinkedIn to include a "spread" button. I observed that a lot of people are commenting on LinkedIn posts "commenting for better reach", "commenting for wider reach", "commenting for network" and some people end up "Liking" (even though they don't want to) the posts just to ensure that their network sees their post. My comment is here . I hope LinkedIn considers my suggestion or comes up with something better.   

I wonder who the hell came up with the concept of white people and black people and why. Everything about it is wrong. Firstly, it doesn't make logical sense because the people referred to as blacks are not black in colour and people referred to as whites are not white in colour, see the attached image below, unless you are colour blind you will notice that these colours do not match in anyway. Second, why should someone be referred as a colour? Third, when there is a perceived notion about risk, danger, trouble and other negative aspects associated with darkness (no light) why should people be referred as dark or black? That already creates a wrong perception in people from a young age which then becomes difficult to get rid of. I know some Indians who are scared of so-called blacks even though they never experienced any trouble from them. I wish and hope that the usage of colour to refer to people will be banned. If you want to differentiate people (not discriminate) based on co...

Wouldn't it be great to have an optional dislike button which can be used by the author of the post if he/she wants to. That is if I as an author want to provide a dislike button for a post I can choose to add it. And additionally the feature should include a constraint that when people dislike it they can't just dislike it, they will have to provide a comment why they are disliking it. The dislike and the comment will only be visible to the author of the post and no one else will be able to see this. This way artists, content creators, writers, etc can post something on social media and ask for honest feedback without being embarrassed. I think this feature will be a hit if launched by any of the giants like YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. I have requested Facebook for these features on the 22nd of March 2020, let's see if Facebook will add it.  I came up with this idea based on observations I made while watching YouTube videos and going through LinkedIn posts. ...

This post is for smokers only. Read further only if you want to quit smoking. I'm not going to address the ill effects of smoking or write a big list of benefits of quitting smoking.   My dad was a smoker. As a kid I use to sell cigarettes as part of my after school work at my dad's shop that sold a wide variety of products including cigarettes. I don't know the exact count but I guess it should be in 1 to 2 million cigarettes that I would have sold with my own  bare hands as I was in the shop from age 4 up until 22. In India we sell cigarettes in loose too, so you actually touch the cigarette and not just the packet.  I have been exposed to smoking quite early in my life as my dad used to smoke and also watching many people smoke in front of the shop. So I have seen a wide variety of people smoking and I have observed how and why most of them smoke.  Now, coming to the quitting part.  To quit smoking, first try to understand why exactly d...

The results of the Work From Home survey is provided below, if you have not participated in the survey previously please do participate   https://www.akclarity.com/2020/03/wfh.html  and also share the link with your connections across the world so that we get a better worldwide overview. In case you are not aware, each of the charts in the dashboard below can also be used as a filter, just click on the chart or the legend.  The results below is as on 1st April 2020. As the live dashboard provided above will get updated with new data (new participation) it is important to capture and save the result before the result was published.  One of the most interesting observations from results as of now is that only less than 10% of the respondents would like to always work from home. I wonder if that percentage would have been higher if this survey would have been done before Corona Virus (COVID-19) situation and people had not experienced working from home...

As most of us are working from home these days, I thought I will share my free-to-use time management sheet with everyone as I found that this sheet helps me to manage my time better and it also serves as an input for my next day when I fill in the data for IBI (Individual Business Intelligence). Without this sheet I noticed that I was getting distracted quite a lot, especially with the stream of COVID-19 news arriving on social media. And next day I would feel bad about not being as productive as I wanted to be. And I wouldn't know how much time I have spent on what. This sheet when used during WFH (work from home) ensures I am very productive. So I am sharing it. While I was making a copy of the sheet to share, I thought why not share rest of the tabs too, that include goals monitoring sheet that I use. The link to the sheet is here - Time management and goals tracking , download it or make a copy of it and use it if you like it.  Screenshots of each of the tabs in the Googl...

Since when are you social distancing? Since when are your friends, your family members, your colleagues, your neighbours, etc social distancing? Let's take this small and simple, yet powerful, initiative to remind everyone around us to stay home. We could really be saving many lives by social distancing. Share this question ( survey link ) to everyone you can. To make it easy for you, survey is also embedded below Loading… For all posts related to COVID-19 :  https://www.akclarity.com/search/label/COVID-19

Are you one of those who suffers from FOMO (fear of missing out)? If yes, let me explain why you should simply come out of it. You are alive, and probably will live till you become 70 or more years old. If you are having FOMO for small things in life, what about in the grand scale? What if you are missing out on what life you could be living somewhere else if you were not here in this life for 70 to 100 years? I know it makes you even more bad now, but now think about it, you could live your whole life thinking that you are missing out on something else or you could live thinking what you have is the most important one. So think that what you do is the most important one, and do only those things that you think is important for you, give everything you have, put in your best effort in whatever you are doing, give everything to your life. So to get rid of FOMO, think that whatever you are doing now is the most important thing, if it’s not important don’t do it. If you are doing som...

How to wake up without snoozing or without procrastination? This is a simple technique that I continue to follow to ensure that I wake up on time. I keep my mobile phone (with alarm set) away from my bed (in the living room) such that I have to get up from the bed, walk and then switch off the alarm. This way there is no choice but to wake up from the bed, and believe me, once you wake up and walk you are all set to get going. 

Have you thought about how it would be if your work actually relaxed you? You would work more to be more relaxed, isn't it? This thought came to me when one of my team member asked me how am I am able to work so many hours and not get tired of it. My spontaneous answer was because I get pleasure from it. I get pleasure when I work, I get pleasure when I work on my own interest and not when I am forced to work by someone else. And when I work and accomplish tasks I feel more relaxed than I would if I wouldn't work. So I work more. And now my thoughts are becoming more clear, I need to find and focus on the exact kind of work that will give me pleasure so that I can continue doing it without getting tired (mentally) so that it feels like I am relaxing.

Have you ever kissed yourself? For example, have you kissed your palm or back of your palm? Try it and see the positive feeling it brings to you. I searched to find a photo that would show a person kissing himself / herself but I couldn't fine one (free to use) and that's why you see I am using a flying kiss photo, but I am sure you understand what I would like you to try. 

The idea is for an unique beer bar. A bar in which people have to climb the stairs to order a beer and only one at a time. When I discussed this with some of my colleagues during a lunch break the idea evolved to a tower bar with slides to slide down and with multiple levels. So now the idea is to build a tower and people can drink one mug per level and then finally reach the top most level to qualify to drink the best beer and then slide down from there.

Quite a lot of people tell me that they don't find time for anything else after a day's job and some of them ask me how I find time.  The way I have been able to manage is to take a short nap (20 to 30 minutes) around 9 30 pm and then from 10 pm to 12 AM I learn or work on my personal projects, blogs, etc. For example this blog post I am writing at 23:21. After that short nap it actually feels like a new day, fully refreshed. So after about 2 hours, I sleep at 12 AM and wake up at 6 (continuous 5 hours sleep is good enough for me), and again it's a new day, so I am fully productive at office too. 

Currently there is a move to make Hindi as the national language of India and there is resistance from several non-hindi speaking states.  For those who don't know, India doesn't have a national language, India has two official languages, English and Hindi. My idea to solve India's one nation one language issue would be to use Bharati as the national language. India is called Bharat, and the name Bharati fits perfectly. Bharati could be the Indian English (later to be known only as Bharati), where Indian organizations have full authority over the language. Cambridge or Oxford shouldn't dictate how to pronounce something or how to spell a word.

Wouldn't it be great if Google would come up with a " YouTube for Business as a Service  "  offering to corporate customers? I.e. companies could get there own fully secure www.YouTube.com/internalcompany link (or any link with the same YouTube technology, basically a white label solution) which works only within that company network. Content creators / admins within the company could then upload all of the video contents in one place and make it available for easy access for all of their employees and benefit from all of YouTube's features. Currently companies are using Intranet, Sharepoint, Network drives, etc to store video contents. And it is not easy to find something. Training videos, onboarding videos, presentations, etc could all be placed in this one place, I think Y ouTube for Business as a Service could be a big hit.

I would like to build meditation rooms with sound proof glass walls, in as many places as possible across the world, from villages to cities, from under flyovers to busy town centers, just about everywhere.  Goal is to provide humans with a space that they get into to meditate wherever they are  and whenever they want. All humans should be allowed irrespective of any of their identities (race, religion, sex, age, etc).  Places that are currently unused, for example, under a flyover could be utilized. This is to showcase that even in a busy and loud road we can find peace to reflect the fact that no matter how busy we are outside we can always find peace within. I believe that if a large section of the population mediate the world will be a better place to live in. To know about benefits of meditation check my previous post - Benefits of meditation

As a kid growing up in Bangalore (now Bengaluru) I was informed (the message that was spread around) that apartment concept was very good idea because it would mean that lesser number of trees would be cut for the same number of households when compared to the area independent houses required. i.e. for example in the same area which would have been used for 100 independent houses an apartment building would take only an area equivalent of 10 independent houses thereby saving the greenery in the 90%.  In my current visit to Bangalore what I observed in places like Kaggadaspura is that people have totally forgotten the concept of apartment building. Almost all of the greenery is being destroyed to make way for more and more apartment buildings, there is no concept of retaining any greenery consciously. So now we can see 10 different apartment buildings instead of 1 and therefore taking up the entire space.  Idea Unless government comes up with strict rules, example -...

Shopping Cart Approach  On your weekly or monthly grocery shopping from your local supermarket, i magine that, before you stepped into a supermarket, you were asked to plan exactly which item should be placed where (within the cart) and in which order it should be placed within the shopping cart after billing, and  to make it slightly more complex you have to plan this together with your spouse and reach an agreement as to which item will be placed where and in which order will you place it once the items are billed at the billing counter.  Wouldn't that kind of planning and discussions around it be such a waste of time?  Yes, that's exactly how we waste our time in planning too much in detail for something that can change and we just need to adapt.  Once we have a shopping cart it doesn't matter at all,  you would have surely experienced it, we can somehow place all of the items into it. If there are more, then we can even carry some in han...