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Friday, November 27, 2015

New Year Resolution 2017 - Personal Goal Metrics



Happy New Year 2017.

Here are some 21 great new year resolution ideas, which generally don't last more than 21 days without self motivation and perseverance.



New Years and Birthdays are not about achievements but we still celebrate them. But have you ever wondered how much we actually achieve every year. In our sub conscious mind we may remember and cherish some of our significant achievements but most of us really don't have an organized way of tracking and measuring our personal goals. 

Looking at the bigger picture may not always be easy, for example, How much debt am I going to pay away? Can I afford another house? Breaking these bigger goals into small manageable chunks may certainly help.

New Year and Birthdays may serve as an important milestone to track these personal goals and review our personal metrics. Some of us do this day in and day out at our work/ job so it may be very simple and effective if we utilize the same process to track our personal goals. 


Here is a sample tracker:


S. No.
Personal Metric
Year 2015
Year 2016
1
How many new friends/ contacts did I make?
Current Year Score/ Count
Target for Next Year
2
How many new places did I visit?


3
How many needy people did I help?


4
What skill did I upgrade/ learn?


5
Charity – Donation? Teaching? Social Cause?


6
Health – Improvement in the fitness cycle


7
Mentoring an employee/ student


8
Increase income by X percent


9
Increase investment by X


10
Adopt a good habit



Setting up a comprehensive metric plan for personal goal can help us track the personal progress each year. We can plan, execute and monitor as well take corrective action whenever required because at the end of everything we are answerable to ourselves for our personal growth.

This New Year, I am going to create a personal goal tracker for myself and track my progress in an organized manner. How about you? This may well be the best new year resolution for the year 2017 which at last will call for action. Hope this helps you too. Wish you all the best for your endeavors in year 2017 and beyond. Keep rocking!

If you read this post, you would definitely like to read the following:

33 Great Habits and Fundamentals of Success
10 Things You Should Definitely Do Before You Turn 30

Note: These resolution ideas may work for you in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and beyond.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

PMP Exam Is Changing In 2016

Based on the global Role Delineation Study(RDS) for the PMP credential PMP exam is changing in 2016.

What does that mean?

The current exam format/ version will remain active until 11 January 2016. After 11 January 2016, only the new version of the PMP exam will be administered. If you are preparing for PMP exam on the current format, it may be important for you to schedule your exam before the changes come into effect.

The five domains of practice for the PMP remain the same. However, tasks within each domain have been modified, added, or removed. Changes include:

  • Addition of 8 news tasks
  • No changes to the 5 domains of practice

8 new tasks are:

Initiating the project:
Task2: Identify key deliverables based on the business requirements in order to manage customer expectations and direct the achievement of project goals.
Task7: Conduct benefit analysis with relevant stakeholders to validate project alignment with organizational strategy and expect business value.
Task8: Inform stakeholders of approved project charter to ensure common understanding of key deliverables, milestones, and their roles and responsibilities.

Planning the project:
Task13: Develop the stakeholder management plan by analyzing needs, interests, and potential impact in order to effectively manage stakeholders' expectations and engage them in project decisions.

Executing the project:
Task6: Manage the flow of information by following the communication plan in order to keep stakeholders engaged and informed.
Task7: Maintain stakeholder relationship by following the stakeholder management plan in order to receive continued support and manage expectations.

Monitoring and Controlling the project:
Task6: Capture, analyze, and message lessons learned, using lessons learned management techniques in order to enable continuous improvement.
Task7: Monitor procurement activities according to the procurement plan in order to verify compliance with project objectives.

Closing the project: No new task added


For exam content outline and details of the tasks, please refer PMI site:
http://www.pmi.org/~/media/PDF/Certifications/pmp-certification-exam-outline.ashx

Additional information:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Following is the percentage of questions from each domain that may appear on the examination:

Domain
Percentage of Questions on Test
Initiating
13%
Planning
24%
Executing
31%
Monitoring and Controlling
25%
Closing
7%

Total number of scored questions is 175
Total number of unscored questions is 25
Total number of questions is 200
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hope this helps.

You may also like to read

33 Great Habits and Fundamentals of Success
10 Things You Should Definitely Do Before You Turn 30

Friday, November 20, 2015

11 Habits Of Highly Productive People

You may have heard of the seven habits of highly effective people. This is a great book by Stephen R. Covey. The seven habits habits illustrated in this book are:
  1. Be Proactive
  2. Begin with the end in mind
  3. Put first things first
  4. Think Win Win
  5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood
  6. Synergize
  7. Sharpen the Saw

In this post we are going to learn about the three great habits of highly effective people that make them super productive,

     8. The habit of learning by observation

     9. The habit of making little improvements each day
    10.The habit of reading great books
    11. The habit of practicing each of the above 10 habits on a daily basis

Learning by observing, that is, learning by paying attention

Everyday is a new day, it will bring new challenges, new opportunities, new friends, new foes, new moments and new experiences. One needs to continuously learn and become smarter to deal with these situations on a day to day basis. This
 is one of those skills that comes with experience where we don't just see but observe. Closely watch the surroundings, the people and their behavior. Think why they react or respond in a certain way. Observe the way in which people get best output when they put under immense pressure. Observe how people react when they become tense, how they commit mistakes when they lose control.

Learning the importance of making little improvements each day is one more important factor in self improvement.

Remember:
1% better everyday is 1.01 ^365=37.78
1% worse everyday is 0.99^365=0.03

Learning by reading: Books are our best companion and learning by reading is the number 1 habit that everyone should inculcate. Here are some great books for learning life skills


How To Win Friends and Influence People

This is a must read book by the great Dale Carnegie. If you want to learn and understand the tips and tricks of winning friends and influencing people then you got to read this book. Don't miss it at any cost. Highly recommended.

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Who Moved My Cheese

If you want to know who to identify the changes happening around you then you need to read this book. It not only helps to identify the positives and negative impacts of the changes but also helps you figure out what is the best way to deal with it. In fact, it is highly recommended that you buy this book and keep a copy with  you so that you can read it every two years. 

Link to Amazon India                                                                      Link to Amazon USA

                                                                              



Men Are From Mars Women Are From Venus

This is your ultimate guide to understand the opposite sex. It provides you all the details, tips and tricks of how to behave with the opposite sex. It provides the fundamental reason why men and women are so different and why they behave in their own specific ways.

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If you read this post, you would definitely like to read the following:

33 Great Habits and Fundamentals of Success

10 Things You Should Definitely Do Before You Turn 30