The Productivity Science

 Waqar Ahmed |  The Atomic Habits by James Clear This is one of the most fascinating chapters in the book “The Atomic Habits” by James Clear.  The central thesis of this chapter is divided into two points: Atomic Habits have a huge impact on human life Real success comes from focusing on the process instead of the goals Let’s discuss each point in separate paragraphs: Small habits might not have a large-scale impact on one’s life but surely they must not be underestimated. When small habits compound together, they create a huge difference in life. You cannot learn any subject at once; there are lots of topics that need equal attention in order to become an expert in the subject. Those small topics might not have little importance for you, but when combined together - they create a massive river of knowledge about the subject.   “When we repeat 1 percent errors, day after day, by replacing poor decisions, duplicating tiny mistakes, and rationalizing little excus...

 Waqar Ahmed | Blogger Let there be some light in the darkness. May there be some sane minds and open-minded brains. Flowers no doubt leave an unforgettable impact on the heart – a similar thing happens when someone falls in love. Man, no matter how cruel, still would want to have a peaceful sleep. That shows that we can’t be separated from nature’s true calling for harmony.  The understanding of meaning in life is important as it liberates one’s mind from doubts and disbeliefs. The chamber of thoughts and decision-making process is an integral part of an individual’s sovereignty. And sovereignty needs to be protected from all possible threats especially from the deviant grasp. The guardians of sovereignty are thoughts, perception, and willingness to understand and adapt. If any of these guardians fail to fulfill their duty, the sovereignty of the individual will be compromised. New information consumption needs to be analyzed based on morality and shared values. One needs t...

 Waqar Ahmed | Blogger Mindset Thinking Habit Distractions Success MINDSET “Proper thinking before the execution is very important. One’s hard work won’t effectively bring remarkable change unless there is positive intention involved. Muhammad Ali is the greatest and the whole world accepted it, not because of his solemn words but his determination to preach what he said. It’s called the right mindset. Follow Muhammad Ali’s formula to be the greatest. ” THINKING “One needs to focus on inside and introspect the quality of thoughts in it. Human actions always resonate with thoughts whether positive or negative. The neurons won’t help in achieving the greatness unless we help those neurons connect through a positive attitude.” “If one wants to think great then one must focus on creating an environment that allows for the free speech and respect for the opposing views.” HABIT “It is a result of actions we often do on repeat. Once it shifts to autopilot, it becomes a serious challenge t...

 Waqar Ahmed | The Atomic Habits by James Clear This chapter gives a brief about atomic habits. It describes that the positive change comes from small habits (at the tiny atomic level). When we lose sight of details, we miss the direction which ultimately leads to undesirable ends. James clear says, ‘if you want to get success in life, instead of focusing too much on goals, start working on the system’. In his words, the system is about the time we put into the process, the daily hard work, and minor changes in the daily routines. The smaller habits have a compound effect on our lives. It is more important to have a long-term thought process in mind instead of simply focusing on goals. Surely one needs to have goals but only goals in mind won’t bring the results because goals are the result of the process. To perform better in the process, one needs to make changes at the atomic level, such as changing late-night sleep habits, watching TV, using social media over time. The change ...

Fiction Story | The Productivity Science She was afraid to go out in the dark to see her friends playing in the town park. Her breath took extra effort to inhale as there was a temperature over -2 Degrees Celsius. Stepping outside her parents’ house, she recalled what her Dad said to her the other day, ‘honey, there are wolves, the cruel wolves wandering around in the nearby Jungle. You must not step outside the house alone anytime’. Dad, I’m a brave girl. If I saw any wolf in my way, that would be his last day of life. Romilda gave her an excuse to be not afraid of anything and started walking towards the park where she had planned out a game with her three other friends. The park was less than a mile away from where she lived. She was so excited about making the Santa Claus that it never occurred to her that she had taken the wrong direction and the road she was walking upon led to the wolf's territory. It was only when Romilda heard the wolves howling that she came out of the da...

 Waqar Ahmed | The Productivity Science Before we jump into the title of this blog, let’s first understand the opposite concept of the title that is called ‘patiently-impatient attitude’. It is a common habit among many people to spend a large chunk of time thinking about doing anything. After spending more than the required time on thinking and procrastinating, when we see that thinking finally takes the real shape, we lose patience for the remaining process. Now we want the outcomes as the way we want them to be because the product we took so long to bring into life has become available to the outer world. We assume that the output would be as per our imagination. Unfortunately with this mentality, impatience brings everything but happiness. It takes time to get recognized in the work. Once we start getting recognized, the rewards start to come along the way. And to see that happening takes patience. The title talks about the “Impatiently Patient” trait in human attitude. It says...

Waqar Ahmed | The Productivity Science POEM You are living in this world, so you’re a part of this Universe. Your existence is unbridled and unavoidable. Listen to the sounds of nature; it calls for something all time. I cannot hear that voice, am I deaf? Universe is the name of peace, have you experienced? I’m in a part of world, full of distortions, injustice waves on top. This is not my creation; I’m Ms. Universe, infallible and unfathomable. Your inside certainly needs some guidance though! Is that the case, let them fix it by themselves, I’m busy. People are not sane to understand your plight, Ms. They are and they will. How? They have to figure this out; God bestowed upon them the intellect. I’m a human but I can’t think of a better solution to this mess. You’re human; little is your known conscious. Then how am I going to fix the inside of yours? Let it be; you better focus inside yours! Why so? Change you want to see comes always from inside. What can I do to reform my inside? ...

  Waqar Ahmed | The Productivity Science When there is everything we need in this life, we become happy. But the moment something goes against our desires, we start blaming ourselves and to some extent the world for bringing that misery into our lives. Such is life. No one has everything one desires for. It is supposed to be a constant struggle and no wonder; those who dread this reality encounter harsh consequences in the latter part of their lives. Everything we do is a process and process brings experience in life. And there is no guarantee of a good experience all the time. However, it is true that with every experience comes a great opportunity to learn. When we talk about real-life experiences, it won't be possible to separate a failed experience from a successful experience. Failed experiences bring a huge chunk of wisdom into our lives. We grow tremendously when we welcome new experiences - both positive and negative. It also shows the commonality of humanity to be connecte...

 Waqar Ahmed | The Productivity Science We often tend to forget how important it is to appreciate ourselves for being the true warrior on this planet. The roles we have been given or maybe we consciously chose them, it’s true that we’re trying our best to do justice with those roles. History is first envisioned inside the mind and then applied to the ground field. All begin with minds thinking about those events to happen. There is rarely any event in the history of humanity that we could assume as unpredictable.  It was human engineering that allowed for the events to happen in ways they took place. Less than a century ago, this planet was confronted with an existential threat where the entire globe was divided into two sections and a fight for dominance came into momentum. Fortunately, it ended in 1945 with millions lay slain. Luckily in those darkest of hours when humans couldn’t fathom looking outside their homes, managed to survive. The conjunction of the global community...

 Waqar Ahmed | CEO The Productivity Science Let’s be real everyone has their own share of good and bad experiences in life. It is the way life works. But that does not stand to bring any personal harm. Some people (mostly the majority of us) sometimes feel inside that there is something missing in this life, we think that we haven’t achieved something we always wanted to achieve. That feeling slowly grabs our mind’s energy into thinking that we might not be as competitive as one needs to be. And this thinking intensity takes us down the water slide and puts us in a bubble where insecurities completely take over on us. We start reevaluating the purpose of life and every conclusion that we make has everything but a positive hope about our future self. This is what we call the Imposter Syndrome. Thinking about own self as an incompetent person or maybe out of league from the world capacity. To be honest, this definition narrowly addresses the actual experience that any person goes thr...

 Waqar Ahmed | CEO Science of Everything When we hear something, it is important to know that it’s just an opinion, not a fact. Friends and colleagues have the right to say anything they want, but keep that in mind, you also have the same right to speak out your mind. It does not matter what is right and wrong as long as it is not disrespectful. Arguments are the building locks to unlock human creativity. When someone argues constructively without making any personal attack, we must learn to appreciate it, no matter how opposite it may sound to our belief. As the Greek stoic philosopher, Epictetus says very eloquently, ‘Caring about the one inevitably means you are going to shortchange the other.’ Great innovation happens when great minds come to a middle ground leaving behind their insecurities for the benefit of the greater good of society. Of course, everyone has their own biases and selfish interests, but we cannot make a huge difference alone. Therefore, collective understandi...

 Waqar Ahmed | CEO The Productivity Science Since we all love school education and most of us have already been through this process, let’s talk about the issues that we never learned while we were there. Education in terms of degree does not guarantee the wisdom of understanding the true nature of the Universe. True education is something that enters our minds and changes our behavior towards reason and understanding. [Let me clarify this, it’s an opinion, so go ahead and seek our own definition of education.] Human is born ignorant. Our learning is always based on encounters with the new surroundings which also include our school. Ignorance is good until we are children, but as we grow old, society expects us to behave humanely. To behave the way society allows us to behave, we are sent to different institutions to learn it. There in the institutions, we are taught by Gurus (teachers) who know everything. Each statement for us as a child is a prophecy that cannot be questioned an...

 Waqar Ahmed | The Productivity Science This blog is based on the interpretation of the TEDx speech of two great intellectuals - writer Lisa Genova and Neuroscientist Amishi Jha. They work in the field of neuroscience towards behavioral cognitive science and have helped millions navigate their way towards the great riches in today’s competitive and skilled labor-intense world. Their recent publication on the functioning of human memory has provided a great insight in further elaborating the perception that it’s not the memory that humans lack, instead it’s the limited attention factor that makes us forget the most important things in our day to day life. Due to the complex neuroscience of the brain and external surrounding that influences human consciousness, this topic is enriched in content quantity. So to make it simple to digest, this blog is divided into two sub-blogs for the reader's comfort. In this particular blog, we will delve into the understanding of what influences our...

 Waqar Ahmed | The Productivity Science There is some value in everything we think about no matter how cliché it may sound. Nature puts us in different situations which sometimes require nerve-wracking determination and if we were to take over those challenges, it is important to not let thoughts of giving up invade the mind. In reality, facing those challenges has made us the true person we stand today. In the philosophical world, they say it is not the logic or common sense that derives the human emotions; instead, it is a choice that humans make with their conscious mind to act in a certain way they want to act. This blog is a further extension of this problem statement. Many among us are lucky enough to reach the desired destination within a short pace of time and some might take more than the required time to make it to the end goal. But the truth remains that everybody is bound to reach their destination with some time exceptions, of course. What makes us successful? It’s t...

 Waqar Ahmed | The Productivity Science Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all, - And sweetest in the gale is heard; And sore must be the storm That could abash the little bird That kept so many warm. - I’ve heard it in the chilliest land, And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity, It asked a crumb of me. In the thorns, we found strength and in flowers we found pain. That is the situation you caught in when you read the lines of Emily Dickenson. The finest poet of the 19 th century enlightened with the figments of death and immortality in her words. Emily is a great American poet and deserves to be known across the globe for her art. Her writing had brought her to a point where there was no fear to be afraid of. Not even her death. America at that time was facing some identity challenges as women were yet to be emancipated from their Kitchens and there were no vote ri...