Ekta | wisdomekta

“If you were to pause and think seriously about the “first things” in your life—the three or four things that matter most—what would they be?” Despite our immediate challenges, we must always maintain sight of the 'first things' in life . This book, First Things First , published in 1994, offers wisdom that remains as pertinent today as it was then. Having read other works by Covey, I found this book to be a compelling addition to his collection. First Things First, as the name suggests, is the stepwise guide to balancing personal and professional life. It is a not-typical motivational cum self-help book but somewhere in between management goals and personal growth.  The concepts are explained with interesting diagrams, pictorial presentations, matrices, etc ( a typical Covey Style! ), e.g. Urgent-Important Matrix (prioritise tasks in terms of urgency and importance.), ABC method ( identifying ‘A’ tasks, which are the top priority, ‘B’ or ‘secondary’ tasks, and the ...

  Life. Moment. Simple. Less. My recent book titled Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown revolves around these four words, i.e. Life; Moment; Simple; Less. The book validates my thinking that life is simple and that being simple is the core of life . However, to practice the same in day-to-day life requires discipline and the practice of essentialism. The book's mantra or the nutshell catch fraise is "if it's not a hell yes, it's a no”. McKeown does an excellent job explaining why it is so hard to change our habits…especially those we know are doing no good to ourselves. Later focuses on showing us ways to break or create patterns for letting go of the less important things and building our momentum to accomplish something in our professions, family, and personal lives. Most tools/pieces of advice explained in the book are not earth-shattering; they are things we have heard, seen, and read before, but the book does an excellent job putting a f...

After watching Jeff Orlowski’s documentary- ‘The Social Dilemma’ which explored the impact of social network on human minds and behavior, I recollected customary childhood words of caution of my father- DON’T EVER BELIEVE ON ANY STRANGER. NOTHING IS FREE IN THIS WORLD. DON’T GET BLURRED BY THIS EYEWASH. ALWAYS USE YOUR COMMON SENSE . This documentary beautifully bells one of the superactive cats which have professed most of our active time i.e. screen time. Other pre-existing cats like television drama series, endless (sometimes senseless) broadcasting on news channels, story filled newspapers, sale advertisements, etc. have been a-bit successful in trying to numb our senses for centuries, but this super active cat has penetrated our lives at the deepest level and is influencing the whole generation. The network has spread its matrix in all spheres of our lives. It is altering our reality and generating phantasm, sucking our precious time, feeding on our energy, and ult...

Disclaimer - This chronicle is derived from my personal experience. Please be spirited while reading this and Keep an Open Mind. The last twilight caught me ignorant and lead to an experience that resulted in an eye-opening revelation. It was a long-distance call from my sister-from-another-mother that ended in thirty minutes. With initial Heys’!! and Hellos’!!, and a little discussion on Kangana Ranaut’s twitter statement and C+ situation, the next course of chit-chat was- Workplace. Guys, believe me, it was a just-the-genuine!-simple!-whatsUpinyourofficelife type question.  But unknowingly my office-inquiry detonated all her dormant emotions. She talked about “him” incessantly. Those 15 minutes’ were in stark resemblance with Pyar Ka Panchanama Scene (Bollywood Movie). The gist of that non-stop-boss-saga is relatable with lyrics of one of the songs by Swift Taylor (Singer)- I'd be a fearless leader I'd be an alpha type When everyone believes ya What...

Even if fathers are shouldering their fair share of chores, it seems that many women of my generation (including myself) still carry the mental load, and believe that if they didn’t the household would fall apart. If you read the last sentence and thought to yourself “well it would”, there’s a good chance you’re struggling under the weight of the mental load yourself. It’s known as the  “mental load”  - the burden of remembering, and usually also executing, the myriad tasks required to keep a household ticking over. In all cases (with exception of very few) the mental load is shouldered by the woman of the house, no matter how demanding a career she may also have. What Is The Mental Load? The mental load is the total sum of responsibilities that you take on to manage “the remembering of things.” It has to do with  emotional labor , defined by Arlie Hochschild in the 1983 book  The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling , as the process of managing emotions...