Friends are suppose to be Smarter

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Hi All,

I was thinking about lot on what should be the best New Year Gift that I can distribute on TOUCHPOINT blog.

Thoughts went... what is important and most precisious for all of us.?? Wondered for so many days and back of the mind thinking about. We interact with society at Shopping mall, Offices, Marriages... lot many things comes in mind. We - Pepole buy..sell...bargain...compare...anything and everything.

Good Job....???... Good Wife...Kids ??? Money...Wealth.....?? Happiness...?? Good Health...?? Fame..?? No.... No... No... Few have one of the above and other have multiples. Why we must compromise with one or several ??

Time is the one which is above all of these desirable things. God has limited Time for everyone of us - Living as well as non living being on life.

I put my thoughts on this finally and became more crystalise as I came across article from CSO featuring Dr. Donald Wetmore's "Top Five Best Time Management Practices".

I took permission from Dr. Donald to share his Five Funamentals of Time Management Rules. This rules need to be used as Five friends which are like with you as your 5 day Working Week. Before starting the article from Dr. Donald, let me brief about him. (Thanks Don for real quick approval).

Dr. Donald E. Wetmore is adjunct professor for the Master of Business Administration program at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, New York, and the author of Beat the Clock and Organizing Your Life. In 1984, he created the Productivity Institute to conduct his original and unique Time Management and Personal Productivity seminars for organizations around the world. You can reach him at ctsem@msn.com. If these ideas were helpful, he has an additional article, "Top Five Best Time Management Practices." It's free. If you would like a copy, e-mail your request for "Top Five" to ctsem@msn.com.

In my 30 years as a Time Management speaker and consultant, I have observed a lot of what we can and should not do to increase our daily results. Time management is not necessarily working harder, but rather, smarter.

And to accomplish significantly more in our days, we need not increase our efforts. For example: in a horserace, the first horse may earn a $50,000 purse and the second horse may earn a $25,000 purse. The first horse gets twice as much money as the second horse, not because it ran twice as far or twice as fast. It might have been only a nose ahead of the competition.

So it is with our daily results. We need not run twice as fast or put in twice the effort to significantly increase our daily success. We only need to be a nose ahead of where we already are. We are all productive in our days. We would not survive the demands of this world if we were not. The real challenge is how much more productive can we become?

A lot of our time management has to do more with what we are not doing than what we are doing. Sometimes our mistakes and omissions will keep us from running at a full pace.

The Five Don’ts
There are the top five time management mistakes we should all avoid to help increase our daily success both on and off the job, in less time and with less stress.

1. Start your day without a plan of action. You will begin your day by responding to the loudest voice (the squeaky wheel gets the grease) and spend it in a defensive mode, responding to other people's and events' demands. The tail will wag the dog. If there is a void of leadership in your time management life, someone will fill that void. It's not that others are bad people, but they will take all of your time if you let them. You will have worked hard but may not have done enough of the right things. Time management is not doing the wrong things quicker. That just gets us nowhere faster. Time management is doing the right things.
2. Get out of balance in your life. Our lives are made up of Seven Vital Areas: health, family, financial, intellectual, social, professional and spiritual. We will not necessarily spend time every day in each area or equal amounts of time in each area. But, if in the long run, we spend a sufficient quantity and quality of time in each area, our lives will be in balance. If we neglect any one area, never mind two or three, we will eventually sabotage our success. Much like a table: if one leg is longer than the rest, it will make the entire table wobbly. If we don't take time for health, our family life and social life are hurt. If our financial area is out of balance, we will not be able to focus adequately on our professional goals, and so on.
3. Work with a messy desk or area. Studies have shown that the person who works with a messy desk spends, on average, one-and-a-half hours per day looking for things or being distracted by things. That's seven-and-a-half hours per week. (It's the reverse of "Out of sight-out of mind." In sight, in mind.) And, it's not a solid block of an hour and a half, but a minute here and a minute there. Like a leaky hot water faucet that goes drip, drip, drip, it doesn't seem like a major loss, but at the end of the day, we're dumping gallons of hot water that we are paying to heat down the drain. If you have ever visited the office of a top manager, typically, that person is working with a clean desk environment. Many would attribute this practice to that person's access to other staff members. While there may be some truth in that conclusion, in most cases, if we went back some years in that person's career, they probably were working with a clean desk back then, which gave them the focus they needed to become promoted to where they are today.
4. Don't get enough sleep. Studies show that nearly 75 percent of us complain on a regular basis that we are flat-out tired. Most people get the quantity of sleep, but lack the quality of sleep. Their days are filled with so much stress, that they are out of control, and they find it difficult to get a full night's sleep. (Others simply do not allow for a sufficient quantity of sleep.) If you plan your day, then work your plan, you will get more done, feel a higher sense of accomplishment, and experience less stress so you can enjoy a more restful night's sleep.
5. Don't take a lunch break. Many work through lunch in the hope that it will give them more time to produce results. Studies have shown it may turn just the opposite. After doing what we do for several hours, we start to dull out. Sure, we can work through lunch and be productive, but that is not the issue. The issue is "how much more" productive we can be. A lunch break, even a short 15-minute break, gives us a chance to get our batteries all charged up again to more effectively handle the afternoon's challenges. We are then less likely to procrastinate a few of those difficult tasks that, in the long run, will make a positive difference in our personal productivity.

Hope you would have liked your Smart Five Friends.

After reading above, I felt "Work Smart and Not Hard" and "Time is money... Invest it Intelligently".

DISCOVER acquires PULSE

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Discover Financial Services is exploring new horizons in a wider realm of banking relationships. On Nov. 15, 2004, the company, wholly owned by Morgan Stanley, announced it will acquire PULSE EFT Association for $311 million.

The merger marks Discover's first step into the fast-growing debit market. Discover is the fourth-largest credit card brand in the United States; now that the anti-trust case against Visa U.S.A. and MasterCard International is finalized, the gates of competition are open.

Discover and its rival and co-plaintiff, American Express Co., both benefited from the recent Supreme Court decision to not hear the appeal by Visa and MasterCard in the six-year long anti-trust suit.

Discover appears to be looking for new ways to go toe-to-toe with the two long-standing giants and as well as with AmEx, the third-largest card brand.

Discover and PULSE jointly announced the signing of a definitive agreement for the merger, which is expected to close within 60 days pending approval by PULSE members and regulatory agencies.

PULSE is an ATM and debit network owned by thousands of small to large banks and savings institutions, many of which are based throughout the middle section of America. It has ATMs and 3.3 million point-of-sale terminals in retail locations around the country.

Both Discover and PULSE say the merger will create an entity providing opportunities and advantages for financial institutions, merchants and consumers.

By combining PULSE's PIN-debit network with its own signature-based credit operations, Discover hopes to be a more attractive alternative to card issuers, merchants and cardholders, who are increasing using debit cards more often than credit.

"This strategic partnership will join the forces of PULSE and its 4,100 member banks, credit unions and saving institutions with Discover Network and its more than 4 million merchant and cash access locations," David W. Nelms, Discover Chairman and Chief Executive Officer said in a statement.

Both companies expect a seamless transition. PULSE will retain its brand, pricing and operating platform, as well as its management team, staff and Houston headquarters.

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Best Christmas Gift by Telecome Provider to Customer

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Dear Customer Support Team@ABC Telecom,

Sub: Christmas Gift from ABC Telecom to one of Loyal Customer (Four Years)

I have been using ABC's Services for last 3 years in LA (98#$%^315). I was one of the happiest customers of ABC. I relocated from LA to NY and opt for the Post Paid connection and paid USD 200 in advance as rent for six month as per their ongoing scheme as of Dec 8,2004.

1. Connection got activated and I got my number as 983232%$^ on Dec. 9,2004.

2. I started sharing with my business partners and customers ABC's number for business purpose as well as to all my friends and relatives.

3. 1st Mistake: DSA Uneducated about the ABC's Telecom Scheme

At the time of filling up the form with ABC, I opted for STD connection and dealer simply took the form and processed. Ideally Dealer should have apprised me for any additional deposits as might be required. Dealer in the quest of getting customer and commission forget to mention the same.

4. Dec 11,2004: I receive a call and SMS that, my documents have not reached and same need to be submitted
ASAP. A call to dealer and issue got sort out.

5. Dec. 13,2004: I receive a WELCOME call from ABC Call Center Agent and apprised me about the Telecom services and portal. I forget to ask about STD facility.

6. Dec 25,2004: I wanted to make STD call and message heard that, facilities is not activated and call on 9892012345 - Customer call service no. for getting it activated.

Call Agent Meg's Interaction:

• I made a call to call center and verified as authorized customer by Agent named Meg. I explained the problem and she kept in on Hold to check my telecom service plan. ( I assume she is being provided a PC using which she verified my credentials instead of checking paper records. ABC is supposed to have CRM software displaying customer details).
  
• She informed that, Mobile-to-Mobile STD is activated but Mobile to Landline facility is not activated. She informed me to deposit Rs.500/= to activate Mobile to Landline STD facilities. (Many might feel that it is funny to have such kind of offerings, which are neither full nor half).
• I expressed my loyalty to ABC for last Three years in LA as well such deposit being not asked. Apart from that argued that, ORANGE is not asking such deposit and usually ORANGE on case-to-case basis based on Report by the Surveyor. She requested me to talk to Reporting Manager Mr. Ryan.
• I requested her to appraise Mr. Ryan about the conversation rather than I explaining the full thing. She assured the same and I started talking to him.
• Mr. Ryan has provided standard answer and reasons for deposit, which I refused to accept, and given the same reasons of ORANGE and Bangalore case. All in vein and I expressed my di-satisfaction about ABC's policy and intent of switching over to ORANGE and disconnected the call.

I did not know that ABC Customer Service dept. Rep. Mr. Ryan has decided to present as Gift to valuable customer of ABC "we_d_living" >> Owner of ABC Post Paid Connection. Loyalty of Four years with ABC paid nicely.

ACTION Taken by Mr. Rahul - DEACTIVATING the CONNECTION with reason as per System stating that CUSTOMER REQUEST for DEACTIVATING the line. Despite the fact that, I never ever used the term "DEACTIVATING the CONNECTION" during my entire conversation.

The most inspiring and perfect example of ABC's Customer Service:

• It seems ABC has taught during Customer Service training that, in case customer express dis-satisfaction of service, despite the fact that deposit of Rs. 600/= is with ABC, make customer life miserable by DISCONNECTING The line.
• Take the Power of Control available and high privilege access of playing with customer's Telecom Account.
  

SANTA Came One Day Late:
Dec 26,2004: Few calls and another set of friendly voices of Fern and Nick helped in resorting the connection.

Going Further:

I have decided to take up the challenge of being David against such a prestigious Organization (Goliath) where few of them feel that Citizen is not Empowered and they can dance at the power Play of Telecome provider like ABC.

Same copy is shared with leading newspaper Editor to feature in TALKING POINT as a better way of using it to create awareness in consumers about their rights of getting harassed mentally and remotely by such managers.