Tawfiq Arif Ahmad

Entry 13: A short report.

tawfiqarif — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:09:14 +0000

It’s been awhile since my last post. Been busy with a few attitude repairment. Though little changes occur. A lot of work really need to be done in tackling the attitude problem.
Back to square one. I really in need of self-discipline. Renew goals, 1. Need to wake-up at 7am everyday, regardless of at what time I slept. 2. Straight to shower upon woke up, regardless of what time I wake up. 3. Take action on the to-do list, regardless of any distraction. To-do list is the utmost priority.
Now I’m officially a Prudential Wealth Planner with agent cod LTH00126 under LTH Associates Asia Sdn Bhd, lead by En. Firdaus Lau. More updates on this in the nest post.
Posting at Zeehin’s apartment at Malacca. Plan to be here until Sunday.

Entry 12:Financial management & time management.

tawfiqarif — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:44:31 +0000

I posses 2 main non-renewable resources. 1st, money and 2nd, time. In order to achieve my dreams, I need to achieve my objectives first. And to arrive there, an efficient and effective systems need to be implement in managing my scarce resources. Thus, financial management + time management = resources management.

Financial management, in my own definition is a way to manage my money. Personal finance, in my own definition is how, why and what I do with my money to obtain my lifestyles. Professional finance, in my own definition, is how, why and what I do with my money to increases my lifestyles standard. Personal finance + professional finance = financial management.

Time management, in my own definition is a way to manage my time. Why and how I plan my 24hours a day, 7days a week, month, years and decades. Personal time, in my own definition, is how, why and what I do with my time with families and myself. Professional time, in my own definition, is how, why and what I do with my time with friends and other people than families and myself. Personal time + professional time = time management.

These two systems will be implement in phases and cycles, in their own time frame. Both still in initial phases, and will share the same time frame, two weeks.
- Planning – have everything on paper
- Implementation – applying strict self-disciplined
- Monitoring – recheck everyday, log everything
- Improving – change accordingly

In financial management, both personal and professional will get RM200 budget each week for each. With total combine budget for March is RM1,600. But from that budget also, I’m going to put a side 10% as saving. Meaning, RM80 for each budget in March. Why; to become successful in live, it’s crucial that I adopt a dynamic self-discipline. By abide to the system, it will be easier for me to advise and plan my client finance as I’m already practicing it.

In time management, I’ll applying the slot system. Which is, each day is been split to 24 according to hour. I have 24 slots each day with 168 slots or hours. The category for the slot, among but not limited to is insurance, housekeeping, life maintenance and relationship. The time spend will be in tandem with the weekly objectives. Start of the day will be 12am and of the day will be 12am the other day. Why; in getting things done, I know what I’m suppose to do to have a successful life, but I lack the execution part. Having a systems will eventually get things moving.

Entry 11: Excerpt from Tim Ferriss blog I.

tawfiqarif — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:37:53 +0000

Reading Tim Ferris 4-hour WorkWeek blog from the first post. Most of the sentence below will be direct quote by him or the point is aspire by his post.

More with less. Smarter is better than harder.

How can you redesign your life in 48hours?. How can I use my next 48hours to achieve my dreams?.
1. First I need to determine where am I now and where do I want to go.
2. I have to define the lifestyles I want to life.
3. I need to figure out how those lifestyles will cost me, in term of annually expenses.
4. I have to determine how many hours I need to bill per week to get the lifestyles I want.
5. I need to figure out how to decrease those hours and increase our profits by outsourcing some of the work.

On this post, Tim talked about test drive your dream job. What is my dream job actually and how does it become my dream job?. What is the motivation on choosing the job as my dream job?. Is it because of money or passion or just thought the job is cool?.

On effectiveness (doing the right thing), focus on one thing and eliminate all the distractions. Have to plan week-by-week, achieves the weekly objectives according to the monthly objectives. Focus on why I need to the thing on top of how. By asking why first, prioritize is doing it’s part. The time per getting things done is half an hour. On that time will only focus on job at hand. No answering calls or sms, no Fb, no tweet, just single minded to the task at hand. Consider the option of being productive instead of being busy. Change the work culture. Identify the sphere of influence, increase the positive and cut the negative, balance accordingly.

As everyone knew, that I really love to read. Reading is a total time waster. I read all kinds of books/magazines/newspapers in every genre without any specific reasons or objectives. It’s a hobby. It’s really a good hobby, no doubt about it. Just after a deep reflect, it was actually a big time waster for me. What I read doesn’t become a knowledge but just a piece of information. To turn the information to knowledge, I need to have clear understanding on why do I need to read the books/magazines/newspapers.

How many hours do I work for each day of vacation?. What percentage of my life do I really spend working vs. doing something I want to be doing?

Money is multiplied in practical value depending on the number of W’s you control in your life: what you do, when you do it, where you do it, and with whom you do it. I call this the “freedom multiplier.”

“After climbing a great hill, one finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk has not yet ended.” – Nelson Mandela

Entry 10:Bloggers and Camping.

tawfiqarif — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 03:55:34 +0000

Browsing through NxE’s list of Fifty Most Influential Bloggers makes me more excited that eventually you can earn a lot from blogging. It’s unbelievable that actually by just blogging, you can live in a luxury apartment and lead lavish live. But so far, there is no local blogger confirmed me living such lifestyle.

How can I became millionaire by just blogging. From my understanding, you can earn lot of money by having a tremendous amount of traffic to your blog, by that you can increase your ad revenue. One of the strategy is by optimize the SEO strategy, though I have no idea what is SEO all about. Need to dig deeper on that subject.

I just got back from Lepuk Falls, a waterfalls near Pangsun, Ulu Langat with Wan Panjang, Liyana Nasir, Yen, Zam, Didi Kabil, Azran, Dev Shafared, Nordee, Ahmad, Duncan for canyoning. Unfortunately for Liyana, Duncan and me, we didn’t bring a harness, as no one tell me to brought one, the rest of them have it because they all climbers and happened to own one, so we couldn’t do the activity.

But, I did have a great time. Night trekking on the way there, from 12am to 2am. Start seeing the big picture in setup a camp. But need to experience more by join more camping trip. Then, late afternoon trekking back in heavy rain. Overall, an easy trip.

Entry 9:To do list.

tawfiqarif — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:36:16 +0000

First, I need to sleep at 2am, wake up at 7am and straight to shower. Been trying to do this since early of the year. Why; it’s 5hours straight of quality sleep and rest, it will ensure me an effective and efficient day. To get more right things done in a day. How; be back home at 10pm everyday, no matter what. Straight to shower after wake up, no more snooze the alarm.

Second, to read newspaper early in the morning. Not at 10am, not 12pm but as early as 8am. Why; so that I will fully inform about the happening in Malaysia and world. Essential as rapport with client. Well versed in the news. How; go out and buy the newspaper straight after shower. No more Fb and internet surfing before read the newspaper.

Third, I need to balance my daily meals. Focus on healthy and balance breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack. Need to consult dietitian. Why; as I’d been consuming a lot of unhealthy and damaging food for the past 27years, it’s time for me to take good care of myself now. It’s now or never. Life longer and healthy. How; will google the healthy diet. Make a list meals to consume daily. And stick to it.

All above list is as a start for my campaign in promoting self-discipline to myself. To achieve my dreams, it is crucial for me to obtain the best habit. This is a start of the greatness.

Entry 8: Note to myself.

tawfiqarif — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:05:08 +0000

What’s the definition of a good job?. If you could afford to – if money wasn’t an issue – would you be doing the same work?. And if you would, you’ve got a great job. And if you wouldn’t, what the heck are you doing?. You’re going to be dead a really long time.
My job is helping people achieve their dreams through proper financial management. I’m a Prudential Wealth Planner.
Set of three by John Wooden, 1. Don’t whine. 2. Don’t complain. 3. Don’t make excuses. Just get out there, and whatever you’re doing, do it the best of your ability. And no one can do more than that.
“The journey is better than the end.” by Cervantes. Well said. While we more focus on the end game, we often miss the experience we get by playing the game itself. The emotion we shared, the sad, the happy, the cry, the laugh. The skills we performed, the expression we express, the character we portrayed. The mistakes we made and learned. All the above is much more valuable than the end. For our end is death, nothing much we can enjoy from death. It’s how we lead our life that will put a satisfaction smile in our deathbed.

Entry 7: A new entry.

tawfiqarif — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 06:01:00 +0000

Going to start blogging again as a practice for my new Prudential Wealth Planner blog. For this, I need to read as many personal and professional blog as I can. To get the main idea of what a good should be.
I going officially start working as Prudential Wealth Planner in March 1st, 2010. A lot of things need to be done before the date. Will list out the to do list later.
I just got my internet connection. 1MB per second. So far, I’m happy with it. Have been doing quite a number of research already.
Mount Kinabalu Via Ferrata + Padas River White Water Rafting was a success. Everybody happy and had a great time last week. With a total of 23 person, all of them manage to get to the summit except me, due to Altitude Motion Sickness, and only 2 of them didn’t do the Via Ferrata.With a total of 23 person, all of them manage to get to the summit except me, due to Altitude Motion Sickness, and only 2 of them didn’t do the Via Ferrata.
That was my first time to Mount Kinabalu, but definitely will be back. Padas river was cruel, first time I’m panic when been thrown out off the raft. Bodyrafting was a near death experience. Overall, it was a great trip.

Entry 6: Challenges, Achievement and Progress.

tawfiqarif — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 21:07:01 +0000

Its been a while since my last post due to no internet connection at my house. Going to change the broadband subscription from 384kbps to 1mbps or 2mbps.
Just finished reading “Goodnight, beautiful” by Dorothy Komson. Nice book.
At Terengganu now for Eid Mubaraq. Will be here until September 24.
Actually Im really boring here. Nothing much to do. Not so many close friends. Spent most of the time sleeping and sleeping.
To be truth, Im not really a Hari Raya kind of guy. Not really enjoy the celebrations. I wonder why Im not up to festive mood.
Im still reading “The Psychology of Selling”. Also read “Millionaire Are From Different Planet” by Azizi Ali.

Entry 5: Challenges, Achievement and Progress.

tawfiqarif — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 05:14:26 +0000

Still in the process of learning/adapting how to blog/what to post/blogging style/how to use wordpress.com.
I have problem installing wordpress to my webhost. Want/need to change the webhost, from tawfiqarif.wordpress.com to tawfiqarif.com/blog. Will reread the manual/documentation and reinstall.
Currently reading my 1st book on sales, “The Psychology of Selling” by Brian Tracy.
Internet down. Still trying to figure out why.
My biology clock is a mess. Can’t sleep until 3am and couldn’t wake up until 10am. Need more discipline on that. I want to sleep at 2am and wake up at 7am.

Entry 4: Entrepreneurship blog.

tawfiqarif — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:54:04 +0000

As reference for my entrepreneurship manual, below is the list of blog that I will read/study/extract/summarize. It’s a collection of entrepreneurship/marketing/innovation blog.

Biz Box Blog (http://bizbox.slate.com/blog)
Copyblogger (http://www.copyblogger.com)
Small Biz Survival (http://www.smallbizsurvival.com)
Business Opportunities Weblog Network (http://www.business-opportunities.biz)
Endless Innovation (http://endlessinnovation.typepad.com)
Venture Voice (http://www.venturevoice.com)
Buzz Marketing With Blog (http://www.buzzmarketingwithblogs.com)
Toprank’s Marketing Blog (http://www.toprankblog.com)
White Hot Truth (http://whitehottruth.com)
Bootstrapping Guerrilla Marketing Blog (http://www.bootstrappingblog.com)
The Business of Blogging and New Media (http://www.chrisg.com)
B2B Lead Generation Blog (http://blog.startwithalead.com)
Jonathan Field (http://www.jonathanfields.com)
Conversation Agent (http://www.conversationagent.com)
Steve Rubel Lifestream (http://www.steverubel.com)
Small Business Search Marketing (http://www.smallbusinesssem.com)
Dim Bulb (http://dimbulb.typepad.com)
Web Ink Now (http://www.webinknow.com)
Muhammad Saleem (http://muhammadsaleem.com)
In Pursuit of Elengence (http://inpursuitofelegance.com)
Small Business Labs (http://www.smallbizlabs.com)
The Jason Calacanis Weblog (http://calacanis.com)
Professional Services Strategy Marketing and Sales (http://www.michaelwmclaughlin.com)
Web Marketing (http://www.flyteblog.com)
Young Entrepreneur Blog (http://www.youngentrepreneur.com/blog)
Startup Professionals Musings (http://blog.startupprofessionals.com)
Presentation Zen (http://www.presentationzen.com)
Rescue Marketing (http://www.rescuemarketing.com/blog)
Escape From Cubicle Nation (http://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com)
Small Business Trends (http://smallbiztrends.com)
Andy Wibbels (http://andywibbels.com)
Blog Maverick (http://blogmaverick.com)
Guerilla Freelancing (http://www.guerrillafreelancing.com)

Above blogs maybe/maybe not will have direct/indirect influence on my blog. The list also act as a bookmark.