Decoding Productivity for Millenials

every useful object on this earth

has three agents of success the creator

the propagator and the user the creator

creates a product the propagator sells

it

and the user utilizes it the success of

that product

policy idea or technology depends on the

performance

of all three we’re all part of this

chain performing one role or the other

in our lives

and most often we limit our performance

without realizing it an experience

taught me this and it was

quite an embarrassing moment to be

honest i was desperately looking for a

phone app that would lock my social

media apps for me

i was sick and tired of all the

scrolling i did in the day

and all i wanted was for an alarm to go

off on my phone

and say that’s it your time’s up i must

have spent

months in the state of longing when will

i find that magical app that will save

me so much time

i finally did the smart thing and i

called the tech savvy friend

i said hey listen i’ve been trying for

days i cannot find an

app locker on the app store he said what

do you mean

an app locker i said you know those ones

that lock your social media apps for you

after a certain amount of time

and he said you know you have an inbuilt

feature

in your phone that performs the exact

same function

don’t you my tech savvy friend judged me

very hard that day apparently an iphone

user five years is supposed to know

something about that

but i was ignorant and i still am

frankly of the amazing things my device

can do

in this particular example the creator

must have designed the product

beautifully

and the propagator must have advertised

it but i the user

didn’t allow the potential of this

feature to be truly realized

the potential of so many things in our

lives

are unrealized due to this very

circumstance

i mean we’ve all done it most of the

times inadvertently

i think the only place where we really

squeeze out

maximum potential is from our almost

empty toothpaste

in the morning imagine if we apply this

to our daily lives

our time efforts and energy can be

utilized to become more productive

i’m in my early twenties you know that

age group

when we hate cleaning our room and just

like everyone else in this stage of

their lives

i’m ripped with a further of doing

something great

there’s a sense of anxiety almost about

the future

and about the steps that need to be

taken to get there

we all need to maximize on this energy

to become more productive in our lives

there’s a myth i’d like to debunk here i

get asked a lot about how i’m able to do

so many things

and i hear a lot of it’s in your

personality or you have some special

ability

and i think to myself every time that

that’s not true

i’m an ordinary girl just like everyone

else perhaps the only difference

is that i’m aware that there is always

more to something

more things you can do in a particular

amount of time more growth and more

potential

the announcement of the lockdown all the

way back in march

came as a surprise mainly because i

didn’t understand the seriousness of the

issue back then

i remember thinking to myself that this

would last only for a couple of weeks

and i’d better use this time to catch up

on my pending tasks

those two weeks turned into months and

months of staying at home

day in and day out it was so hard to

remain productive and to get stuff done

and as a medical student i really wanted

to take a long break

but my ability to recognize the

potential that this extra time had

allowed me to stay on track i actually

managed to get a couple of publications

under my belt

i was very lucky to be guided by a

doctor who’s been

bitten by the research bug like i’ve

never

seen before one of the most

inspirational people i’ve met

she guided my inexperienced mind and

allowed me to put my

core beliefs of maximizing potential

into practice

in the form of research the study that

we conducted in the following months

proved to me that the tools we use today

are not utilized to its

maximum potential the doctor sent me a

message one day

saying that her team wanted to conduct

some research related to kovit 19

that i could be a part of provided i

came up with some good ideas

now this is back in april before the

scientific community was absolutely

flooded with research papers and i was

excited

i then surfed the net like we all do

when we need some brain stimulation

and i came across a blog about the

importance of smartphone apps in this

pandemic

on the national institutes of health

website

now i knew of smartphone apps being of

use in this pandemic

but when i did a simple search on the

app store with the keyword covid

i expected maybe one or two apps

you’d be surprised at the number of apps

i found

and when we did conduct the research

systematically we found

63 apps spread across three countries

so many apps performing similar

functions not only is this confusing

to the user but it is also detrimental

to contact tracing efforts

if everyone downloaded the app of their

choosing

how could each work to their full

potential

mobile health apps is not a new

technology

actually one of the first telephone

related health services

was employed way back in 1949.

but as phones became smarter and smarter

the mobile health or mhealth industry

grew

there are over 3.5 billion smartphone

users in the world today

which means almost every third person

owns a smartphone

and over 2 000 smartphones are bought

per second since health is a necessity

for all

the mobile health apps are bound to grow

but whether they grow in functionality

and efficiency

or just in number is a question worth

asking

it’s not just a number of health apps

that is a challenge

today we have millions of drugs each

with their own strengths their own

features

sometimes minor differences but we have

doctors to tell us

what is the best for our condition based

on scientific evidence

rigorous studies feedback from this

scientific evidence

allows a drug to perform to its maximum

potential

so why should health apps be any

different this is the exact question we

had on our minds when we designed our

study

we decided to use a standardized tool

that has been used before

to rate the quality of mobile health

apps by assessing their engagement their

functionality

their aesthetics and their credibility

of information

and used this skill to rate the quality

of as many covet apps as we could find

i could have stuck to the indian app

databases that would have meant

less work and faster results but i

believe that my study

had the potential to be more meaningful

i maximized on this opportunity to do

something bigger

and approach medical professionals in

the uk and the usa

so our team grew from a couple of

curious people to 10 members spread

across

three countries the success that i

achieved by the publication of this

project

strengthened my belief in the

realization and

actualization of the potential of

opportunities in our lives

of course you have to know where to

start i was almost tempted to call a

colleague’s relative in australia

saying hello do you want to be a part of

this

one of the most striking features of the

results of the study

was that most of the apps did not

maximize on the potential that they have

in this pandemic

some had an extremely reliable source of

information

but lack creativity in presentation

and others are so beautiful to look at

so interactive

but the credibility of their information

was doubtful

imagine if there was someone who

maliciously faked information about the

coveted numbers or the deaths

not only does he not know how to use his

time well but he’s also

putting other people in danger maybe he

did it because he wanted to decrease the

level of alertness

people need to have for this pandemic or

maybe he did it because he was sick of

mass

whatever the reason may be this form of

information

is dangerous a study published in the

american journal of tropical medicine

and hygiene

showed that 800 people and possibly more

had lost their lives due to

misinformation surrounding this pandemic

many more were hospitalized now

imagine if people have the power to pull

out their smartphones

and open not a forwarded message but the

kovit 19 app

and say hold on a minute you’re wrong

misinformation can be tackled so

effectively provided that health app is

updated regularly complies with quality

standards

this technology has the power to save

lives

smartphone apps can be used to log in

your symptoms every day

you can see the rate of rise in the

covet cases

you can even ask for advice regarding

what to do next

when someone thinks they have symptoms

but

if this technology is not utilized to

its maximum potential

how will it benefit anyone the creators

instead of uploading more and more apps

to flood the app markets

could you see feedback on the quality of

their app and try to improve it

the propagators could set a standard

under which no

m health app can exist thus decreasing

the number of bad choices available

and finally the user they could benefit

by making the standard app quality

rating visible to them before they

download

this will allow that the best technology

is accessible to all

now i’ve spoken about maximizing the

potential of the objects around us

but how about we look at this from a

broader perspective apply this to our

time

our efforts our energy even our

relationships

there’s so much good to be heard from it

all if only we were aware of it

when i say maximize the potential which

i have said

quite a few times already i don’t mean

to say

use every aspect of an object until it

goes dry

or use every moment of your time until

you draw

what i mean is use it well use your time

well use your device as well

use the smartphone app sitting in your

phone that’s supposed to protect you

from covet 19

well now i’m not

someone famous i’m not someone who is

born with special abilities

i don’t wake up at 5am in the morning

drink a green smoothie and pack

an excise routine all before the stand

has even risen

actually i’m not even busy 24 7.

but that doesn’t mean i don’t use my

time well

you don’t need to have special abilities

in order to perform tasks

and activities that are beneficial to

yourself and ultimately others

it’s really as simple as making a list

of the things you need to do

and by when you need to do them if that

list is long

look at each item one at a time this

will help you reduce your anxiety

and prevent you from sweeping everything

under the rug

and binge watching a tv show instead

mindless scrolling through social media

apps really decreases the potential of

our performance at work

so just keep your phones aside

often people underestimate the capacity

to participate in multiple projects

that makes them say no to opportunities

that might have benefited them

with respect to their career their

experience their learning

two key things i always keep in mind a

one

planning is absolutely essential and two

don’t say no to an opportunity no matter

how taxing the task may

seem if you have space in your plate

don’t let the fear of being overburdened

deter you from accepting that task

maximize on the potential of that

opportunity

and you are bound to get your returns

if you have the ability to pack an

entire syllabus

three days before an exam then you have

the potential to do anything

i have failed i have cried and i have

given up to

but what keeps this ordinary goal going

is the belief

in maximizing potential