A trophy for you

Meaning of atrophy, in short, if you put a query on Google:

gradually decline in effectiveness or vigour due to underuse or neglect.

Biceps atrophy. Brains atrophy. Minds atrophy too. Still don't get it? Here are a couple of pics to understand.

While biceps and brains are physical muscle-groups (and so can be represented visually), what constitutes a 'mind' is open to interpretation. Even so, it can't be difficult to see how minds can atrophy.

Since our 'work' or 'profession' or 'office' consumes so much of our waking life, and how well our mind works depends in a significant way on the 'work' we engage ourselves in, you might be able to counter mental atrophication with the Cockpit Planner. Try it.

What are the options to stare at?

After we wake up, it feels as if our eyes, since they are open wide, look at different things by default. So they stare at the newspaper by default, at the mobile screen by default, at the tea cup by default, at the mirror by default, at themselves by default, at the laptop screen filled by Facebook or Gmail by default.

If this reader's logical mind lights up, he/she would mutter, "Hold on, I choose what my eyes stare at!"

If you choose what your eyes stare at, here are the options. Not exhaustive, but you know your options better. So here's a little list of options in no particular order.

• Mirror
• Laptop Screen (Facebook Screen, Gmail Screen, Flipkart Screen et al)
• Mobile Screen (Whatsapp Screen, Facebook Screen, some weird whacko game screen et al)
• Television Screen (Cricket, Tennis, Movies, Soaps et al)
• Book
• Scene out of the window
• Dustbin
• Cockpit Planner
• Mess on the table
• Wrist Watch
• Lover's Eyes
• Tablet Screen
• Window of a shop

Days go by, eyes wander and stare at God knows what all things. Work just doesn't get over, forget any joy emerging out of it. Technology sucks the sights out of the eyes, we hardly understand what's happening. We lament over beer and think we've bared it all.

I open my Cockpit Planner. Eyes feel a little less worked up, a little less entertained. Sights get better.

Why Strangers adopt Cockpit Planner more readily?

That's quite a conclusive question.

It could also be that, in terms of absolute numbers, I meet more strangers in the context of Cockpit Planner than near and dear ones. It could also be that with the near and dear ones I am not as 'passionate' in pitching the idea of Cockpit Planner than when I am with strangers. It could just as well be that I've got an amazing geniusy rub-off on my friends that they don't need the very product of my genius. Or just the fact that I am likely to make friends with geniuses.

Since I don't believe the above to be true, let's get down to addressing the conclusive question. Why?

Cockpit Planner is a sort of meta-tool. Meta = higher order. It makes the mind work on itself before the mind allows itself to work on other things.

Looked at this way, a friend or a near and dear one would often feel offended by the fact that I (Siddharth Soni) could give birth to Cockpit Planner. He ('she' unlikely) would think,

"So now Siddharth (so fuckin familiar and such a snobby failure how many times I've witnessed him) will tell me how to use my mind! How to do my work! BS! Fuckin, I buy and he makes money."

"My mind's working super fine. Just yesterday I spent the entire day analyzing the entire stupidity of my work and make money out of it nonetheless. And he's telling me to plan. Stupid ass!"

"Bloody, I just bought this expensive smartphone and downloaded this hyper-cool app to prepare my to-do list and he's asking me to write with my fingers on a piece of paper! How absurd and retrogressive!

"Such a heavy pad! How many meters can I walk carrying such a thing!"

"One more rough pad. Let's hear him out anyway though!"

Without any familiarity, without any preconceived ideas about the planner or the originator or the origins, a stranger would instead marvel at the sheer existence of the tool.  He's more likely to thank himself for discovering Cockpit or for the chance to come across Cockpit Planner. He's just a little more likely to give it a try.

Some strangers are trying out Cockpit. Taking pains to write back how it's helping them. To convey that it introduces a little pleasure and a good amount of discipline and lots of anticipation towards the day's work early in the morning.

Note-taking on Paper vs on Laptop. What works?

Have so often felt this and discussed with some close friends also.

Typing on screen has always felt less 'substantial'. While it's easier, more so with the extensive usage of smart phone, than writing on paper, it doesn't quite improve our functioning or thinking. The efficiency doesn't quite result into effectiveness.

Here's a bit of research talk about taking notes on paper vs. taking notes on laptop.

A Learning Secret: Don’t Take Notes with a Laptop

Why Using Pen And Paper, Not Laptops, Boosts Memory: Writing Notes Helps Recall Concepts, Ability To Understand

What's been your experience?

Your memory is a monster!

You heard it right.

I have a profound appreciation for this quote by John Irving:

Your memory is a monster; you forget - it doesn't. It simply files things away. It keeps things for you, or hides things from you - and summons them to your recall with a will of its own. You think you have a memory; but it has you!

I can, and perhaps even you can, vouch for this. You think you have a memory; but it has you! Your memory has a will of its own. Hard to digest but very very hard to refute.

I am active, I am agile, most often I am alert. However, for long I struggled to get a grip over stuff I would want to do during the day. Why? Because it would be strangely difficult to recall all the different things.

The 11 handles that Cockpit Planner shows on the daily page make it mighty easy for anyone to recall the different things that need to be done on a typical work-day. And when you recall, you are far more likely to do it. Yes, while 'your memory still has you', it offers good access and behaves rather congenially for all practical purposes.

Hope your memory allows you to recall at will in 2015. Hope you and your memory accomplish a good deal!

Pic found here

To work on a system that makes us work

It's needed but it's kind of weird.

Let's say we need to prepare for the preparation! The same thing can easily go like we need to prepare to prepare for the preparation. It's a strange loop, no?

Yesterday I was sitting with our neighbor-entrepreneur Hirenbhai. And while showing the Cockpit Planner to him I uttered, "We can't keep working on the system that makes us work!" And he gave an instant nod of acknowledgment. He added, "That's precisely the problem. We have a CRM installed but to work on the CRM itself requires too much of work."

Having shared the above however, I must also say, that we indeed have to build a system that makes us work. It is just that we can't be spending disproportionate time on building the system of work. Otherwise who'll do the 'work'. Yes, that's the quandary we often find ourselves in.

Cockpit Planner is a system that might work for you if you are looking for a work-system. It is self-explanatory. Fast. Covers all aspects of a typical work-day.

And if you are gifting, you might want to consider this. Bulk orders will be priced accordingly.

You can buy here. Or you can get in touch +91 814 000 2228. Call or Whatsapp, either way is fine.

What is blank paper?

When you search Google images with those two words, you get images like this:

A blank screen is also somewhat similar. Except we'll rarely find a ruled screen.

Now look at a standard page of what we call a 'business organizer' (in other words, a page of what is popularly known in the US as Franklin Planner).

 

Nice blue color. Numbers denoting the time of the day. That's it. Yes, that is it. And they call it 'planner' and supposedly claim to 'empower' us. How different from a blank page? Oh sorry, it surely is an appointment page! Is that what a work-day comprises of? Is our work-day all full with just appointments?

If appointments are all there is to a work-day, even if on a real mad day I grant that, what's there in this wonderfully embellished page to make us sure of listing our appointments without forgetting, and with good precision?

And we've been sold this year after year after year after year! Am sure a lot of us have bought this. And still buy. I just visited the big stationers nearby and this is all that every 'planner' has to offer.

Now check a daily page from the Cockpit Planner. After all the abuse that the word 'planner' has been heaped with over the years, I prefer a more representative term 'work-system' for what I have to offer. So here's the page: