Ajit Vadakayil

Monday, November 22, 2010

TIME MANAGEMENT-- CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL

MANAGING TIME LATERALLY-- CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL

This piece on TIME MANAGEMENT is for Masters of ships and
top management ashore.
As usual I am leaving it un edited and deliberately disjointed.
Yesterday I bumped into a long haired John Abraham look alike
dude at the Forum mall in Bangalore . My 19 year old son had me in
tow in his quest for World Cup endorsed Adidas football shoes. The
dude sported a T shirt with so many gals in front and so little
time on the rear. .

I reached up and put a patronizing paw on his shoulder and drawled

Son , you need to learn TIME MANAGEMENT . Pretty soon he
was breathing down on me him , with his long haired mean look ,
sizing mE Sir Henry Morgan whiskers and obscene biceps.

Much to the relief of my pacifist son he decided in all his wisdom

not to throw a punch and instead asked and how could I do that? .
I offered instant wisdom Use the law of forced efficiency --MANAGE TIME LATERALLY

Now--The law of forced efficiency states that there is always

enough time to do the most important things. Ok, you cant make
time stand still or buy time or reverse time but you can at least
make it run. Like how I used to make the Solankis and Tandels run
at sea. It is no secret that Vadakayil got 12 months of work done on
derailed Sichem Pearl in 4 months. Ill let out a huge chunk of the
secret now itself . My walkie talkie was on all the time except when
I sleptno shipboard travel for conversing was allowedall
official communications had to be on walkie talkie as a primary
business toolconversations had to be to the point and crystal clear
like masters orders to the quarter master on bridge while entering
port with no scope for please, thank you or yaar shaar type fuzzy
talk. In one swift move I heart punched the parasites and
middlemen.
The best way for a layman to get a hang of time management is the
vision of Michael Schumacher roaring into the Formula One racing
pits in his red Ferrari. After exactly 5.9 seconds he roars off. . Just
stop reading for a while and relive the scene in your mann- mandir.
Did you see focus? Did you see concentration? Could you see finger
tip preparation? Did you see any pregnant turkey on the job putting
his hands into motion without engaging his brain in gear?. Was the
time frame known to all ? Did the team understand the law of
sowing and reaping? Was there a honing of key skills? Did every
thing count?did the team understand that everything they did
either helped them or hurt them? was any action neutral? In short
was TIME LEVERAGED by the central organizer cum leader ?
Was there a bullshit clich 30% work expansion rule in sight for the
usual screw ups cushion? Was there fuzzy conversation?
Vadakayils law: Dont put your mouth or hands into motion before
you put your brains into gearunless you are a reflex action trained
Sukhov 30 MKI pilot engaged in a do or die dogfight with an F16.

Action without thinking is the cause of every failure. and failure is

the BIGGEST time waster.

I had written about humour quotient in my vision for the next

century. I wrote that no manager would be employed without HQ.
Time has come for me to expound for lot of managers are bound to
confuse frivolousness and Mr. Bean type buffoonery with HQ. HQ
has got every thing to do with a phenomenon called LATERAL
THINKING. This is all about using the right brain lobe more
effectively. The human brain has 2 lobesleft and right. The left
side is used by all and sundry in short the VERTICAL THINKERS
the right lobe by very few who are capable of LATERAL
THINKING.

The right lobe deals with humor, creativity , insight, music , color,

surprise etc. Logic , reasoning and experience is handled by the left

lobe. Humor does not appeal to the sense of logiconly to the sense
of interest. Humor management promotes flexible thinking. Humor
encourages novel approaches and promotes innovation by making it
legitimate to think in illogical ways. It is an expression of freedom
of the human spirit. Humor provokes new patterns and generates
new ideas. Humor breaks out of the concept prisons of old ideas.
When I talk about a mental hop it is about securing a good
connection with the right brain lobe. The Indian Yogis touch their
thumb with the middle finger ( instant mudra ) to kick start this
mode. Recently a guy by the name of Silva has lifted this
millenniums old DIVING INTO THE SUBCONSCIOUS Indian
yogic concept to ring in his own cash registers . By the way Viagra
kick starts your other hoptee hee.
What is this lateral thinking all about--Dont shut down your right lobe and your sub conscious and
evaluate against experience using the left lobe for the conscious
brain cannot multi task. A top manager who cannot multitask can
never be a top notch performer.
Lateral thinking recognises that the approach to a problem is never
as important as its solution. It cares two hoots for logical thinking
which is the way computer software programs work. The tool of
insight is a creative gift called lateral thinking. The good part is that
lateral thinking can be learntyou need not be born with it.
Brainstorming is one buzz term all are familiar withwell this
phenomenon is closely associated with lateral thinkingIll come
back to this later ( avoiding time loss due to hasty decision induced
firefighting ).

Vertical thinking using the left lobe of the brain is all about being
right and logical at EVERY sequential stepit blocks all illogical
pathways. Lateral thinking is more concerned with the wealth of
thoughts . A vertical thinker and a lateral thinker had to go up a
mountain with a large unwieldy piece of baggage. Guess what the
lateral thinker didhe went up the mountain without the load ( he
took his thinking cap along ) looked down from the peak for the best
way to bring the head load upand went down and brought it up .
Well this was what the genius navigator Magellan did. He did not
bluster his way through Magellan straits with his band playing
kadam badhake aage chal on the forecastle he would take a small
boat ,climb up a mountain and do some mental mapping from a
vantage position before he took his ship through. Anybody who has
been through Magellan straits will know what a tour-de- force his
exploratory path was.
A lateral thinker is never satisfied with the ADEQUATE beaten
track. He does not drill his tunnel though logical steps to his goal
rather he will leap frogopening new pathways. His last few steps
is the one which will make his venture a success. Like building a
bridge like the Sydney bridge. When the last part fits in at the
centreand voila , the bridge suddenly becomes self supporting and
is ready to take on the traffic.
So then the mall attendant approached the vertical thinker and asked
Sir, may I know what you are looking for and he will give a
within the framework , usual , answer Oh, I am looking for this
and some of that and more of that . Then he went to the lateral
thinker and asked the same question . The provocative ,
unreasonable and outside the frame work answer was Ill let you
know as soon as I see what I want .

The much touted and admired EQ of this century is about being

right at every step. The misunderstood and much maligned IQ+HQ
with its tinge of madness is all about being right only at the end.
Sometimes the genius will move to an untenable position to find a
tenable solution.

No wonder till now most of the work of the Indian Mathematical

genius Ramanujam who died at a young age , is still unsolved. The
cracks where he leap frogged across deferring logic is still a
mystery. He recognized the wisdom that the need to be right all the
time completely shuts out creativity and progress.
Ever heard of making progress forward by moving backward? When
this is what lateral thinking NASA did recently when sending a
satellite to a far away planet. The satellite went the reverse way and
catapulted around another planet to achieve the escape velocity .
BRAINSTORMING is the principal tool for lateral thinking--- you
can now recollect self brainstorming when I dived into the pool of
mentoring to locate truths etched on rock.
The crew on Sichem pearl or Fairchem colt/ North contender will
remember the profligate brainstorming exercises we had on the
bridge . Lateral thinking is an anti judgement device unlike logic
which survives on NYET MANAGEMENT or rejection. Here
you deliberately delay judgement to save time. What does
brainstorming do? It starts a train of thoughts. A group of people not
less than 5 or more than 20 give their random thoughts to the
chairman. People speak when they want to speak .Every thing goes.
Nobody shall ridicule or shoot down somebody elses thoughts . If

anybody evaluates somebody else's thoughtsthe chairman is

expected to overrule it or expunge it from the minutes unlike a
debate . For evaluation kills spontaneity in this group contribution to
exploration and novel approach. A train of stimulating and
provoking thoughts are generated working outside the frame work
of reasonthe concern is for change and not for proof or logic. This
breaks out of the frame work of rigid patterns and cliche units which
our mind is so apt to construct because of the way it handles itself.
Judgement or the selective stage is deferred ( procrastinated )to the
the next day with the important men of the same group.
Let me give an example of a successful brainstorming session which
I held when I was a young chief officer on a hectic product tanker
by the name of Visveswaraya. The engineers had their own duty
mess where they used to eat in their greasy boiler suits at odd hours.
Well Mickey mouse made a house there. Actually it was a huge
vicious looking and fearless bandicoot who would charge at you if
you tried to corner him. The master had a mini- crisis as the
engineers refused to eat there till they saw the dead body of Mickey.
Now Mickey was too large to enter a rat trap and sort of immune to
rat poison. For the brainstorming session I called the entire crew list
of nearly 60 crew . All and sundry gave their suggestions. The
second engineers steward ( who was plain loco ) also gave his two
pennies worth which made every body burst into derisive laughter.
Actually this man was a big liabilitybut since he had a past track
record of good service and a huge family for whom he was the sole
bread winner, he was tolerated . Now what was his suggestion? He
said--- take two buckets one red , one blue ( which made me wonder
if the bandicoot had colour vision ) half fill the red one with soap
water in the blue one put a piece of salted dried fish. That was
allhe looked confused and all were in splits , some even lying on
the floor in tears of pleasure.

Before I terminated the brainstorming session I sort of made a

judgement remark ( now you MUST NOT deliver judgement or
evaluate during or after a brainstorming session as a matter of law )
I am sure to find a drowned rat in the red bucket tomorrow
morning . That night I set up the buckets myself and locked and
sealed the duty mess door. Full night I could not sleep out of
curiosity. Finally after tossing and turning till 5 am I went to the
duty mess with the chief engineer and master keyand sure enough
the huge drowned bandicoot was floating in the red bucket. I guess
the scenario unfolded as follows. Mickey smells the dried fish ( it is
the best rat bait, ahead of cheese ) comes out to investigate the
smell is powerful enough to home into the blue bucket Mickey
jumps right in eats the fish--- gets his olfactory senses briefly
overpoweredremembers one more bucket holding a possible
treat dives right into the red bucket half filled with soap water and
gets drowned. Success is the bottomline, gentlemen.
So EQ says PROCRASTINATION means poor time management--just dig the well deeper, we will find the elusive water yet and have
an adequate well. IQ+HQ says just the reverse --PROCRASTINATE JUDGEMENT TILL THE NEXT DAY. THE
GENERATED ALTERNATIVES ARE SIFTED THROUGH IN
THE SELECTIVE STAGE FOR THE MOST OBVIOUS ONE OR
AN ALTERNATE STARTING POINT. Dig a few holes here and
there they must be a better and beyond the adequate place to reach
the fountainhead.
Time for some light humor--The vertical thinking tall man with a blood soaked turban went to
the doctor. He was traveling in a bus and every time the bus lurched
he hit his head on a sharp nail by the side of his head. The doctor
cried You poor manyou should have exchanged your seat with
some short guy . The man said I tried to exchange my seat all the

timebut there were no short guys in the busin fact I was down
right alone in the bus .
Compare this with the lateral thinking thirsty crow of Panchatantra
fable fame who put tiny pebbles into a deep pot to bring the water
up to where its beak could reach. Many onlookers accustomed to
clich stuff would have accused this genius crow of running around
in concentric circles .

So then if you want to manage time the lateral waysay good bye
temporarily to analysis and judgement rock logic ways of Socrates,
Plato and Aristotle--- the mass production factory scenario time
saver mentality of the Oxford certificated Industrial Engineer . . .
welcome to the wonder world of water logic by proactive design.
There is really no substitute for commonsense when it come to
managing time laterally. For work mysteriously expands to fill up
the available time. And consider this those you live closest always
arrive latest.
Having said so muchcan killing time be called time management?
It depends on the larger picture. Imagine your football team is
leading by a lucky goal against a stronger team and your team is
playing 9 to their 11 players due to 2 red cards given by the rogue

refereeonly 3 minutes are left for the final whistle. Be the master
of timenot its victim.
Time is on our side the moment we organize it. Effort X time =
constant.
WORK SMARTER NOT HARDER. Your objective must be to
get the best from your subordinates not the most. Be more
concerned with thinking rather than doing. Manage your time proactively rather than passively letting time drip on your head.
Measure results not activity. Time management means determining
what to do, when to do and how long to do. Time should not be
measured in minutes and hours and our long haired dude with the
fancy T shirtrather it is the effort invested in the task and the
significance of the task. It means doing the most important job
NOW. It means dramatic reordering of priorities . It means not
misplacing your energiesby spending inordinate indecisive time
on low priority tasks ( or the Big Ethels ) , leaving little time for the
essential ones ( Aishwaryas and Angelina Jolies ) like our
longhaired dude.
Time management is the also the inherent ability to separate chaff
from the grain within a dead line. It involves constant choosing
between what is less important and what is more important. The
lateral thinkers call this CREATIVE ABANDONMENT ( Duhwha? How can you be creative when you abandon? Duh?) Do not
waste time on the impossible just to show that you have 3 full bags
of positive attitude and you are THE company man.. A good time
manager puts all jobs on a graph with time on the Y axis. He will
not get involved in routine and detail. He can juggle 5 or 6 different
tasks simultaneously and do them all well. He is effectivenot
efficient. Effective meansdoing the RIGHT job right.

The law of excluded alternative says that doing one thing means not
doing something elseas a deliberate choice. The lateral thinker
calls this freeing up time so that there is always enough time to do
the most important things. I with held this wisdom from the long
haired as a matter of choice.
Imagine time management being done by a parcel chemical tanker
on time charter or a team doing open heart surgeryyou get a
general idea, what planning, preparation and OJT ( on the job
training or mentoring ) is all about. Inadequate planning and
preparation gives the illusion of too little time.

Time is money. Time once lost can never be regained. Time which
is irreplaceable and irreversible is a great leveller and treats all the
same. Money is safeguarded. Same way time must be safe guarded.
Time management is an attitude of accountability , flexibility and a
dramatic re-ordering of priorities . A manager who cant manage his
time is indeed a real asshole.
I was recently ridiculed by a friend that workers from my home state
of Kerala wasted 15% of their time by constantly hoisting up his
lungi tying it up loosely which would require retying in another 10
minutes. ( you have to see this to believe this ) The paradox was
yet the job was done better. The answer is while tying up his lungi
againthe workers mind was still working planning ,

conceptualizing and constantly assessing the overall progress. An

Industrial Engineer would never understand this discretionary
time water logic.
Treat your senior managers as business partnersnot subordinates.
Be pro-active. Time is lost by reacting un necessarily. Look forward
not behind at the ships wake. Avoid travel by proper
communication. Lack of communication is like cutting off blood
supply to an organit can cause gangrene. Your crew list is like
part of your own body. Good upward and down ward
communication is a must like the arteries and veins. Do not use
walkie talkies or telephones to discuss sensitive subjects. Punish
morons who keep falling into the same dang hole again and again.

Time spent in reinventing the wheel is wasted time. Paperwork is a

waste of time. Let your papers mature in a drawer before you file it.
You will find that 95% of it is worth dumping. Do not us your box
files as garbage bins. Destroy papers which have lost meaning and
not required for audits and inspections. Avoid unnecessary CC and
auto mailing lists. Have a good information retrieval system. Avoid
duplication of work especially paperwork.
Leveraging and enhancing time is the ability to accomplish greater
quality and quantity in the same amount of time. Have written goals.
Have an external memory white board on the bulkhead in front of
your desk when your 24 hour goals are written in order of priority.

This white board can be a great stress buster. Reorder your priorities
often. Stress and insecurity makes a man defensive and lose
creativity. Every ship I have commanded has such white board
external memory in the masters day room.
Have a book where your weekly plans are written down. Give
category A or B priority and a dead line for the important ones.
Delegate the low priority category D jobs without feedback.
Solve all problems on the drawing board before it is done
physically. Say a discharging plan or a dry dock list must have a
BAR DIAGRAM HAVING TIME ON THE X AXIS. ONCE THE
JOB STARTS THE BAR DIAGRAM MUST BE CONVERTED
TO A RUNNING BAR DIAGRAM. This way you avoid biting off
more than what you can chew and disaster commitments.. Have a
quiet hour for planning every day. Your desk must be functional
not just nice to look at, neatness signifies no great shit.with the
pending work drawers within reach. To complete a job first begin.
Bust big problems into smaller oneslike how the Japanese build
ships in their village yards like Usuki using sub contractors. At least
this busts the I dont know where to start from syndrome of
procrastination. When there is no light at the end of the tunnel the
best is to break up the work into smaller units. The sense of
accomplishing one thing at a time will help you to stay in the drivers
seat.
A job is as simple as navigating across the ocean with limited fuel.
Too often we get bogged down by the means and lose sight of the
road. The shortest route need not be the fastest or fuel efficient
route. The marathon man paces himself till he reaches the
destination. He does not sprint burn himself out and then lie down
on the CCR sofa with a Joan of Arc type expression on his face. Be

the catalyst once you burn yourself out you have screwed up real
good and will lose respect. ENERGY MANAGEMENT and time
management is more or less the same if you think the lateral way.
Fatigue is a huge time waster leading to failure to deliver the goods.
Self discipline, abstaining from trivia , concentrating on creative
work, thinking in terms of objectives are the hall marks of
productive managers. Hey! Does anybody care for hardworking
managers who spin their wheels and burn spectacular rubber
unnecessarily?.

Does anybody relate sweat on the brow to efficiency? Is there any

need to convince others ( unless they are stupid ) and deliver the
image that their leader works a lot.
DC( digression code ) I remember an electrical officer who could
not read a circuit diagram always having sweat on his browtee
hee.
Do not get into the activity trap having lost sight of the larger
picture---wherein the activity becomes an end in itselfa false goal.
You see such a thing quite often in a ships engine room. The
extreme to this is a chief engineer who has brainwashed himself that
the purpose of a ship is to take the engine room from point A to
point Bnot to carry cargo and make money for its owner.

Keep a small diary in your pocket to note down random thoughts

and ideas when you are not at your deskor you may forget it like
the fleeting dream of Sigmund Freud. Do not leave important
thoughts that are essential to be remembered in the clutches of a
unreliable memory.

Creative time spent in planning, preparatory time spent in setting up,

productive time spent in doing the job are all worth it. Overhead
time spent in paperwork and reporting/ overlapping records is a time
waster. And ALWAYS the length of a progress report is inversely
proportional to the amount of progress. Time spent in planning is
the biggest time saver. I must repeat--Dont put your hands into
motion till you put your brain into gear.
Imagine a chief engineer and superintendent spending major part of
their time on nonsense overheads. Imagine a superintendent
constantly peeking into the emails of other ships not in his pool to
update his curiosity or personal knowledge bankimagine a ships
chief engineer having a similar facility to peek into the
correspondence emanating from engine rooms of other ships!! Do I
strike a familiar chord?

Move fast on reversible decisions and slower on irreversible

decisionsjust like the open sea and a narrow channel navigation.
Play the balldont let the ball play you. A small digression here.
Recently I went for a dolphin show. It was THE perfect show. It was
a revelation when I realised that it was the dolphin who was calling
the shots on its own time table. Much before the trainer said jump
the dolphin was already in the take off mode.

Lateral thinkers will sometimes allow the ball to play themwhich

means letting loose the reins yet being in control. In my career as
master many times I had escaped from grave difficulties by applying
this method. Allowing a non ice class ship to find its own way to the
Belledune berth in heavy pack ice after getting a lead or allowing
the ship to find the centre of the mud swamped channel enroute to
Rosario in the La Plata river or surfing the icy storm north of
Aleutian chain ( oops! Must not reveal all mE secrets and be burnt
on the stake by the non comprehenders )
Handle only exceptional problems. Do not be relegated to the job of
communication boyespecially in an emergency. I do remember
being in the TESMA conference room with a fire raging on Sigloo
Espoowith the master giving a pathetic running commentary on
airinstead of command and control.

Avoid holding meetings ( especially unnecessary ones ) in prime

timewhen everybodys energies are at a peak. Make meetings
count. Nobody should depart after a meeting feeling frustrated that it
was a waste of time. A meeting cannot be a ceremony where people
give each other what they want , politically lying to each other and
getting zilch done.
Meet visitors outside your office and converse there.
Work on your ability to recover from interruptions. Learn to live
with interruptions. Treat every one on its own merit.
Delegate down wards. Dont let parasite cum middlemen
subordinates do upward delegation . Imagine a master working for
the incompetent chief officer and not vice versa--- a scene at
Fukuoka shipyard on North Contender.
Avoid perfectionism. Wisdom consists of knowing when to avoid
perfectionism. More often perfectionism is nothing but an ego trip
so spake Osho.
Learn to say NO to anything that is not the best use of your time.
But be available to your staff when absolutely needed. Imagine a
master NOT going up on the bridge when required by the officer on
watch.
Keep your waste paper basket well fed. Trivia accumulates fast. Ask
yourself this question as you toss the paperwhat would be the
WCS ( worst case scenario) if this paper was consigned to the waste
bin ?

To complete a jobfirst begin. It takes greater energy to start than

to sustain. The unfinished business will act as a stimulus to
continue. Unstarted work holds no such catalysis. Setting deadlines
is to kick start people to start. Once you have started, have the
wisdom and flexibility to change. Inability to stop is called
compulsive. Ever heard of a compulsive drinker? TIME
MANAGEMENT IS THE ABILITY TO START , CHANGE AND
STOP THE TIME CYCLEcyclic time is different from linear
timelike machinery running hours of CSM.
So then what are the time wasters? Travel, crisis management and
fire fighting, muncipality type red tape, incompetent staff, excessive
turn over ( somebody humming the tune of --please release me let
me gofor I dont love you any more ), involvement in routine and
the mundane, making unnecessary progress reports and sitreps.
Pen your goals. Pen and paper force you to be clear and precise
even to yourself. Work on your mental ability to handle projects and
multitask jobs.
Handle paperwork at the maximum twice. Keep incoming papers in
a drawer to mature. File only stuff worth filing.
Delegate as much as possible and exact accountability. Train crew
towards independent , unmonitored action. Delegate skilled tasks to
the right people. You should figure out who are the masons and who

are the architects in your crew list. Dont give the mason an
architects work and vice versa. And dont let a mason convince you
that he is an architect and vice versa--This way you dont spend
time on undoing. Asking dumb questions takes lesser time than
correcting dumb mistakes.
Coffee breaks for crew must be long enough to give brief
relaxationnot to just gulp down hot coffee and rush back.

Marlon Hontomins ( reverse delegator of Mutiny on the Conty fame

) first law for the vertical thinkers ---the sooner you fall behindthe
more time you have to catch up.
Hontomins Second law: The slower you worketh the fewer mistakes
you shall maketh.
Hontomins Third law: The more proficient one is at
procrastinationthe less competent you need to be in your work.
Hontomins legacy: the STUPID shall inherit the earth and its
mineral rights.
Now you know why a certain Capt Bligh gave him the boot.

TIME MANAGEMENT IS LIFE MANAGEMENT. When you

work with turkeys forget about the happiness of soaring with the
condors ( condor is the great wingspan Californian eagle ).

Happiness comes when you believe in what you are doing, know
what you are doing and LOVE WHAT YOU ARE DOING and
doing it well. You must get a feel that you make a difference in the
world you are in. Set peace of mind as your top goal and organize
your time around it. There is a certain amount of self respect, self
esteem , personal pride, enthusiasm and positive mental attitude you
can squeeze out of effective time management. Check out the
energy you derive from working smarter rather than working harder.
Feel the spring in your stepthe confidence you radiate.

Lateral thinking is about starting with the end in mind and crisis
anticipation. Crisis anticipation is termed negative attitude by
vertical thinkers using the left lobe for whom fall back plans are a
huge waste of time.The theory of constraints say that there is a
bottleneck for every projecthow do you circumvent or rather
pulverize this time honoured and not so inadequate bottleneck?

Control the sequence of events to get the best ROTIreturns on

time invested ( this is different from the roti you have in mind tee
hee ). Leveraging time means doing only the most important things
in the available time. This means the worst use of time to do
perfectly well what need not be done at all. This usually happens to
the turkeys who lose the larger picture. ( I hope SPMCT does not
clap on to me society for prevention against mental cruelty to
turkeys )
You could use money to save time ( not buy it )this is the essence
of outsourcing done by multinational companiesbasically it boils
down to delegation to a company whose overheads and hourly rates
are lower than yours.
Look closely at the Yankee law of success---FAKE IT TILL YOU
MAKE IT . Before you succeed your must first portray that you are
successful. Same way for time management. First visualize and
portray yourself as a good time managerwell organized and
effectiveand wait for the magic results.

Every meeting must have a clear written agenda and a deadline.

Start the meeting on time. Assume the late comers wont come.
Persistent latecomers MUST feel your heat. For this discipline
yourself to be punctual. When you put deadlines you force and
energise the system. President Abdul Kalam calls such energizing
igniting minds just a misnomerone of the rare occasions the
missile man misfired.
Lateral thinking is about reorganizationcontiniously seeking
better, faster and more effective ways to accomplish the same result.
World records are being continuously broken due to such lateral
thinking in training. Jumping greater heights using Fosbury Flip is
an example.
F1 racing pits law: DO THINGS RIGHT THE FIRST TIME
EVERY TIME. This means zilch mistakeszilch time lost in
undoing. Organize and simplify the work. There is no perfectionism
here it is all about every being perfectly in order before the F1 car
comes into the pit.

Law of delegation: even when you delegate fully without

feedbackorder of priority of tasks must be in your hand.

Lateral thinking is about back to the future thinking. Project

forward a few years and look backwards. You need long term vision
combined with short term focus.

BRAINSTORMING is used to identify all possible causes of a

problem before you decide on a solution. The quantity of
brainstorming matter you will be quite surprised to discover will
decide the quality of your solution. Aahaquality based on
quantity? Well this is called anticipatory thinking. A collision is
heavy traffic is all about failed anticipatory thinking.
Spend some time every day to upgrade your skills and hone your
intellect with food for thought.

The lateral thinking person can hold two contradictory thoughts and
still continue to function. He uses mental flexibility as a time
management tool. He has the character to admit easily I changed
mE mind
Staying in the wrong company with wrong people around you is a
time waster.

A short nap in the afternoon after a heavy lunch is a key time

management tool. Treat this time as a recharging battery time. If you
have to avoid this napeat lightly to keep your mind sharp and
clear for the entire post lunch session. Going to bed early when you
are tired is an excellent use of timefor you are recharging your
only spent battery which is meant to keep you going .

Do not allow television to be a bad master.--- during working hours,

barge in into the crew and officers mess un announced once in a
while .
Ever practiced COMPLETION BY DELETION?of low value
nonsense jobs, passed on to you by some turkeys nonsense
observation list? remember my cynical response and dumping of
Caltec inspection list of a certain John Bull.?. Simplifying your life
is all about eliminating unnecessary tasks and activities.

Speed reading and speed typing are major time savers. I do know a
couple of old masters who take 10 times more time to read or type a
page of email than an average guy. If his command of queens
English is purrely pedestrrrian then he might need a dictionary to go
along with his chore. This reminds meonce my Russian chief
officer asked me accusingly Kaapthan why you no spik
intherrrnationaal englisshh?? this type English is the subtitle you

find in Hollywood movies pirated Russian CDcoined by some

Russian for fellow Russians.
After reading all above --Like the longhaired dude--- if you are
indeed overwhelmed with too much to do with too little time it
pays to remind yourself
ALL YOU CAN DO --- IS ALL YOU CAN DO. ( something like
when you got to go, you got to go ) for after all you are human not a
superman.
Altas could hold the whole world on his head but could not hold
his own-- SH#T .

Capt Ajay Prasad or Capt Sanjay Mehta or Capt Anshuman Jain will
remember that this was the only piece of wisdom I gave him when
handing over 4 stripes to them.
You will never find time for anything. If you want time you must make it. - Charles Buxton

CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL

Posted by Capt. Ajit Vadakayil at 1:36 PM

14 comments:
1.
friedNovember 25, 2010 at 5:10 PM
Hi

like

You

create

this
good

post:

material

Please

for

community.

keep

posting.

Let me introduce other material that may be good for net community.
Source: Effective

time

management

Best
Peter

rgs

Reply
2.
Pranav SinghMarch 30, 2013 at 6:41 AM
Hi sir , i love ur blogs very much i insist u to write a book &abut Hindutva or
must write blog in Hindi to more reach .. wats ur take?
1 question -> i always feel shy or discomfort while speaking in public or
doing a presetation , can u help me on this
Reply
Replies
1.
Capt. Ajit VadakayilMarch 30, 2013 at 7:18 AM
hi

pranav,

when

you

walk

you

have

to

that

you

are

the

in

for

condition
only

wise

guy

the

speech--

your

mind--

in

that

hall

--

rest are all imbecile c^nts who dont know a thing -- you have
to tell them to brush their teeth , wash their a&&holes after a
crap
etc.
it

is

so

easy.

when i was in school i bagged the debate and elocution prizes.

capt
..

ajit

vadakayil

2.
Sowmya ShayanamJune 6, 2014 at 10:19 AM
Hey

Capt,

So the principle of "Even when you bull$hit, bull$hit wth

confidence" applies here eh? :D Lol! Unfortunately I'm one of
the best procrastinators available around. I know discipline and
all works. But we procrastinators get by and do a great job too.
:D
Reply
3.
Bench OrcinoJune 4, 2013 at 7:23 PM
Hi

Capt

Ajit,

I Hope you do remember me, this is Mr. Bienvenido Orcino, i used to work
for
Eitzen
and
also
handling
the
North
Contender.
How are you sir?..i have to say...i do admire your blogsite..and learning a lot
from
it,
i
hope
we
can
work
again
sometime
sir.
Kind Regards,
Reply
Replies
1.
Capt. Ajit VadakayilJune 4, 2013 at 9:01 PM
hi

bienvenido,

delighted
yes-regards

to
papua

hear
new
to

from

guinea

and
your

you.
all

that.
family.

keep

in

touch

capt
..

bench.

ajit

vadakayil

post

Reply
4.
ankitNovember 5, 2013 at 2:46 PM
Sir,
Awesome

off
the
topic
Question...
Where can I find real Vedas, Chanakya Texts and Ancient Santana Books ?
(Internet)
What is the best way or source to learn Sanskrit online (If you don't know
Malayalam
:)
)
?
Thanks
Ankit Nautiyal
Reply
5.
Capt. Ajit VadakayilMarch 9, 2014 at 7:25 AM
Venkat
March
9,
2014
at
7:12
AM
capt,
one powerful video blog from you, when written words delivers so much
punch...
-venkat,
chennai
ReplyDelete
Replies
##################
Capt.
Ajit
VadakayilMarch
hi
that

will

be

unfair

for

9,

2014

hav

at

7:23

HYPNOTIC

AM
v,
EYES.

on the ship when captain gives a safety lecture the max tolerable / threshold

limit is 15 minutes before people start fidgeting--while seated .

sailors who have been under my command will vouch that i used to have
standing sessions for 4 continuous hours -- with nobody even daring to
breathe
loudly
--leave
alone
move
a
finger
.
was

it

pleasant

experience

sailors who have sailed with me-- or even heard of me at sea ( INCLUDING
MY JEALOUS DETRACTORS ) -- will tell you that the engine
watchkeepers used to fight -- last time you attended -- this time let me attend
-it
is
my
turn.
ANY IDIOT CAN HOLD THE ATTENTION -- ONLY ONE IN A
MILLION
CAN
HOLD
THE
INTEREST.
am
capt
..
Reply

boasting

-ajit

so

be

it

vadakayil

6.
Sasmit PowaleJune 22, 2014 at 6:30 AM
sir, Silva you mentioned, whats his full name? is it by any chance Jason
Silva?
Reply
Replies
1.
Capt. Ajit VadakayilJune 22, 2014 at 8:43 AM
hi

sp,

jose

silva--a

mexican.

capt
..

ajit

vadakayil

Reply
7.
vishnuAugust 18, 2014 at 5:59 AM
Sir
I am preparing for SSC CGL 2014 Examination aiming to join as auditor in
C&AG
Can
you
please
suggest
me
to
improve
vocabulary
and
how
to
manage
time
in
examination
how to make brain active to do reasoning and maths
Reply
Replies
1.
Capt. Ajit VadakayilAugust 18, 2014 at 6:21 AM
hi

v,

watch your regional movie with english subtitles.

after that start with english movies with english subtitles.
buy a couple of IQ test books from any book store.
capt
..

ajit

vadakayil

Reply

8.
Capt. Ajit VadakayilSeptember 22, 2014 at 5:18 PM
Rhino
From
Kaziranga
September
22,
2014
at
4:21
PM
Respected
Sir,
As per previous track record of PM Narendra Modi, he had been a man of
him words and always religiously followed all rules and guidelines from
ReshimBagh. You might have studied him way of working and his patterns
better than anyone. Please recall his pattern of first few months at
Gandhinagar.

As per my information from circles he is very busy is placing right men at

right places. Most of the topguns of UPA era are either exiled in least
important places or outright clipped with their own weakness. Way of
working and thinking in South and North block is changing fast. He is first
PM after Mrs. Indira Gandhi who has absolute control on Room No. 104 and
134. (Otherwise this had been a joke in south and north blocks till now)
There is a rule in democratic public administration difficult and surgical
decisions must be taken beyond the curtain of difficult situations where it is
easy to justify anything. Good politicians/administrators choreograph
and trigger such difficult situations where they manage to take most difficult
decisions and execute them quickly citing the need of time
There are few souls that are directly connected with developments on
Rajpath. According to them, currently apparent increase in chaos and
disturbance is engineered as part of some unknown choreography which will
eventually trigger some situation which will help in taking some really
tough decisions. In their opinion, current chaos and messup is not sufficient
to
take
series
of
really
scary
decisions.
According to some souls, whose job is to know everything about everyone on
Rajpath, ReshimBagh people have very firm psychological and political grip
on current government. This is one of the very rare opportunities for
ReshimBagh to execute their long pending plans and they wont mess up this
time
Humbly requesting you to observe Mr. Naredra Modi for some more time. 47
Days from today may be too less for him to start his real show.
Regards
Delete
#########################
Capt.
Ajit
September
22,
2014
hi

at

4:51

Vadakayil
PM
rak,

I HAVE A SOFT CORNER FOR NARENDRA MODI .sher ka

personality
hai
uska
!
ALL KNOW THAT I WAS HIS NO 1 SUPPORTER ON THE INTERNET ,
BEFORE ELECTION CAN ANYBODY DARE DENY THIS ?
At the same time I had said that I am loyal only to the WATAN not a person
on
a
throne
!
MY GUT FEELING TELLS ME THAT HE IS A DESH BHAKT.
BUT TO STOP ENDLESS DENIGRATION OF HINDUSIM BY TIMES OF
INDIA-- ALL HE HAS TO DO IS TO SEND THEM A LETTER THAT
THEY DO NOT HAVE THE CORE COMPETENCE TO COMMENT

DAILY

ON

HINDUISM

SEE ONE CHAPPATI MADE THE ENTIRE BENAMI MEDIA

PALPITATE FOR 3 FULL DAYS-- ALL BECAME TRAGEDY KINDS
LIKE
DILIP
KUMAR-HOW CAN A HINDU SHIV SENA MP PUT A PIECE OF CHAPPATI
INTO A MUSLIM MANs MOUTH WHEN HE IS OBSERVING FAST ? (
all this when this MP told again and again on TV that he did NOT know that
this man was observing fast when he put it in his mouth)
BOOO

HOOOOOOOOOOOOO

CRY

CRY!

SNIFF

PBRRRRRRRR

that

was

the

sound

of

blowing

the

nose

27 YEARS AGO I HAD TAKEN OVER COMMAND OF AN SCI

TANKER, WHERE THE CHIEF OFFICER WAS IN TEMPORARY
COMMAND.
I WAS TOLD BY THE PERSONNEL DEPT OF SCI - THERE IS A
PROBLEM ON THIS SHIP-- BUT WE KNOW YOU ARE THE BEST
MAN IN OUR ENTIRE FLEET OF 150 SHIPS TO HANDLE THIS.
it so transpired that the captain ( 4 years my senior of TS DUFFERIN ) had a
mental breakdown and his wife came all the way to the ship and packed his
bags and took him awayBOTH CRYING LOUDLY WHILE CLIMBING
DOWN
THE
GANGWAY.
CONTINUED TO 2Reply
Replies
1.
Capt. Ajit VadakayilSeptember 22, 2014 at 5:18 PM
CONTINUED

FROM

1-

in the BOAT AND FIRE DRILL-- the entire crew had taken

out

their

pricks

and

told

him

to

SUCK

it.

then a couple of days later -- the entire crew banged on his

door ( bengali crew ) till he opened it , and they spat on his
face.
so when i joined i told the SINDHI chief officer, be ready to
sign off at the next port-- as he had started a RAM RAJYA JANATA
KA
RAAJ
-on
board
.
ON CAPT AJIT VADAKAYILs SHIP, NO SON OF A
BITCH PUTS HIM INSIDE THE WITNESS BOX
JAHAAJ
HAMAAR
HAI
!
LITERALLY THIS 3 STRIPER TURNED 4 STRIPER
WOULD ASK THE CREW "SHALL IF GO HARD A PORT
OR
HARD
A
STARBOARD"
as he has sat on the captains chair for a week and it would
NOT be right if he is made to eat humble pie on the same ship
by
another
captain.
i did a thorough search of the day room and bed rooms and I
found that the poor captain has written down a BLOW BY
BLOW account of how the chief officer in tandem with chief
engineer was playing politics --inciting the crew for mutiny
-- and he had kept it in a place where I would surely find it (
inside
the
life
jacket
)
probably this sindhi 3 striper thought that this is the fastest way
to
4
stripes

as
promotions
were
slow.
the first thing I did was to muster the chief engineer and chief
officer-one
by
one
-I TOLD THEM -- THE OLD ORDER HAS CHANGED !
I KNOW WHAT MONKEY TRICKS YOU HAVE TRIED
ON THE LAST CAPTAIN--WHO TOOK ALL THE SH#T .
BUT FROM NOWON --YOU GIVE ME HALF A CHANCE - I WILL FUCK YOU --SO BADLY THAT YOU WILL NOT
KNOW IF YOU ARE COMING R GOING-I WILL INVOKE THE MERCHANT SHIPPING ACT , BY
THE ACT OF THE INDIAN PRESIDENT -- AND I WILL

MAKE SURE YOU ARE OUT OF THE SEA FOR EVER ! -I WILL NOT FOLLOW THE COMPANY RULE BOOK !!
CARRY
ON
!!!
i

have

NOT

seen

the

chief

officer

after

that

--

the chief engineer is now one of my top friends ( a gentleman

really ) -- his wife is one of my wife's closest friends !
sometimes

leader

has

to

show

strength.

people are NOT bad unless they have CRIMINAL DNA -they get misguided and carried away by their own sense of
importance and by delusions of self grandeur .
capt
..

ajit

Reply
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will transform your mind .

You yourself, are the
teacher, the pupil, the
messiah, the seeker, the
traveller and the

destination . It is no
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--CAP...
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VADAKAYI...
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VADAKAYIL
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