CREATIVE THINKING

Laterally Thinking (Right Brain)

- Unorthodox or illogical methods



Vertical Thinking (Left Brain)

- Processes of logical method.

- Traditional Thinking



The Principles of CREATIVE THINKING



VERTICAL LEFT BRAIN

• Rigid


• Analyical


• proceed ahead by sequential stes, each steps justified.


• Judgement at each stop to weed out 'wrong


• Traditional


• concerned with proof

LATERAL RIGHT BRAIN

• Fluid


• Provocative


• Can make JUMPS


• not sequential


• Breaking out of the prison of OLD IDEAS.


• Concerned with change

Obstacles to Creative Thinking

1. Norms & Conventions


2. Time Pressure


3. Fear of Making MISTAKES


4. Worry over anticipated consequnences


5. Lack of CONFIDENCE


6. Belief in ON RIGHT ANSWER


7. Emotional Blocks


8. Lacking in Verbal Skills


9. FEAR of RESPONSIBILITIES

UPDATED: 31 JULY 2008

Some WAys to FOSTER CREATIVE THINKING

• Principles of Brainstorming


• Mind Mapping Technique

WHAT is BRAINSTORMING??



- A term given when group of people meets to generate new ideas around a specific area of

interest.

- An effective wat to generate lots of ideas and then determine which ideas best solves the

problem.

- Effective with larger groups of people.

- Perfomed in a relaxed environment.

- All the ideas are noted down.

- Important not to criticize

- Ideas are evluated only when the brainstorming sessions are over.



PRINCIPLES OF BRAINSTORMING.

1. POSTPONE and hold your JUDGEMENT of ideas.


2. ENCOURAGE wild & exaggerated or crazy IDEAS.


3. QUANTITY counts at this stage NOT QUALITY.


4. BUILD ON the IDEAS put forward by others.


5. Every person and EVERY IDEAS HAS EQUAL worth.

PROCEDURES to follow:

- Team members will make contributuions in turn.
- Only one idea will be contributed at each turn.
- A member may decline to contribute during a particular round, but will be asked to contribute at each round.
- Participants should not provide explainations of ideas during brainstorming. This will slow down the process and allow premature evalution of ideas.

LPD18 august 08
CAUSE & EFFECT

( A CAUSE is anything that is responsible for bringing about something else which is the EFFECT.)
(Knowing the cause of our problem will help us to find the solutions.)

USING RELEVANT INFORMATION
Relevant or irrelevant information
(To make sound or good decisions, the selection of relevant information is important.)(Relevant information is useful and can lead us to our goals.)

Time Management

Topic on Time Management
TOP time wasters:
- Telephone Interruptions
- Chit-Chatting
- Lack of objectives, pirorities, planning
- Frequent Emergency
- Attempting too much at once
- Cluttered desk/ Personal Disorganization
- Indecision/ Procrastination
- Inability to say "NO"
- Unclear communication/ instructions/ information

Principle of Time Management
1. Learn where your time goes.
2. Set & adhere to time pirority
3. Set time limits
4. Control Interruptions (Say "No" to distractors. )
5. Find extra time while waiting.
6. Take time to relax.
7. Be Patient.

Time Management Tools
1. Beat Procrastination
2. Activity Log ( Time Log )
3. Action Plans
4. To - Do Lists.
5. Scheduling
6. Simplification

Updated: 17 July '08

Action Plan

Whenever you want to achieve something significant, draw up on action plan.

To draw up an action plan, simply list the taks that you need to carry out to achieve your goal, in the order that you need to complete them.

To-Do Lists
"To-Do Lists" are prioritied list of all the tasks that you need to carry out.

Scheduling
The process by which you plan your use of time.

scheduling is best done on a eregular basis, for example at the start of every week/month.

Simplication
It means breacking down the big tasks into smaller areas which you can complete at a shorter time and rather easily.

Don't worry about too many things at once.
Take a handful of simple things to begin with and then progress to more complex ones.

• 
  Procrastination
  - Do you put off important tasks over again?
  (Yes.)
  
  Are you affected by it that it stops you achieving things you are capable of?
  
  
  Do you know why you PROCRASTINATE?
  
  
  Causes of PROCRASTINATION.
  
  1. Waiting for the 'Right' mood or the 'Right' time.
  2. Fear of failure/success.
  3. Under developed decesion-making skills.
  4. Poor organization skills.
  5. Perfectionism
  
  How to Overcome Procrastination
  1. Recognise that you're procrastinating
  2. Work out why you're procrastinating
  3. Get over it.
  
  Time Log
  Why do we need to own a time log?
  learn how to manage our time, and
  Points to note for daily time log.
  1. keep time loh for one week. Allow time for analysis
  2. Determine the followings:
  - % of time spent on impt and
  unimpt. tasks.
  - Which is your most productive. (morning, afternoon, evening or mid-night.)
  - Identify interruptions and distractors.
  3. work out your ideal weekly schedule.
  
  

Importance of Time Managment

• Being organised means you are aware of what work is due and it is due.
• This allows you to plan and have a schedule.
• You will be able to complete them with less anxiety and meet deadlines most of the time.
• Student who are able to manage their time effective can also hold a part-time job and study at the same time.
• Time management is a important skills to acquire.
• It will also help you later when you start working.
• There are also orher immediate benefits when you are alble to manage your time effectively.

Benefits of effective Time Management.

• As a student, the skill mangaing your time effectively will give you many benefits.
• It enables you to set and achieve your goals in life.
• With proper time management, you will find that you are able to achieve goals without any stress and strains.
• It allows you to study, enjoy your hobby, have fun, rest and accomplish your goals.
• It teaches you how to estimate amount of time needed for various tasks in life.
• It allows you to acquire that the habit of planning and having patience to accomplish your tasks/ goals.
• It allows you to get more work done in usually less time.
• It allows you to distinguish work that are important or urgent.
• It allows you to complete all your work in a timely, orderly manner and with no stress.

Techniques for Managing Time Effectively.

1. Prioritise tasks
2. Prepare daily schedule
3. you have to priortise your tasks because you cannot do everything within the next day.

Remember that you have to do the important and time-sensitive tasks first.
Then, more on to tasks that are less important.
If time allows you, then do the lesss important and non-time sensitive tasks.

Develop a Work Schedule.

Work schedules can be done in various ways and formats.

No matters what forms it takes its main purpose is to allow the student to organise his/her time effectively.

There are yearly, monthly and weekly schedule charts that you can use.

The chart will be a very useful tool to keep you on track with your planning and also to ensure that things are on track.

Today on GOAL SETTING!

Goal Setting.



What is goal setting?

[x] Processs of making a dream come true.



Importance of setting goals.

[x] Keeps you focused in the direction of your goal.

[x] Motivation myself to achieve more.

[x] Prioritise and decied what is more important.

[x] To be more confident.

[x] To derive more satisfaction from doing something.



4 Steps to Goal Setting.

1. Make sure the goal you are working for something you really want, not just somthing that sounds good.


2. A goal cannot contradict any of your other goals.


3. write your goal in positive instead of the negatve.


4. write your goal but in complete details.

Setting of goals using SMART methods,

Specific - Detail, eg. what, where, how.

Measurale - Success can be measured.
Attainable - Within Reach

Realistic - Sensible, can be carry out.

Timed - Time frames, eg. next week, month

Then, we were told to do some goal setting:

My SMART goal setting.

- School (education), achieving good grades in Nictec and enroll in to higer nitec.

Steps to do:

• Do more revisions, revise regulary
• TAke down and tidy up my study notes.

2 Difficulties:

• Hard to overcome my laziness.
• Easily get distracted.

Overcoming difficulties:

• Put more work to myself, to let myself get used to doing a lot of work.
• Do not show any concern to any unneccessity.

From this lesson, i have learn on how to set realistic goals.

with goals setting, it makes us move on the right track.

SELF-MOTIVATON =]

Self- Motivation,

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiaism" by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Why do you need self-motivation?

• We cannot rely on others to encourage us.
• We need self-motivation to achieving, because if we don't encourage ourselves to accept opportunities and challenge, who will?
• To plan and find direction in your life.
• To take up a new activity, hobby or challenge.
• To be enthusiatic about life and living.
• To have the courage to see things through despite setbacks or negative comments for others.

Reasons we LOSE motivation.

1. LAck of confidence - If we don't believe we can succeed, what is point of trying.
2. Lack of Focus - If we don't know what we want, do we reallly want any thing?
3. Lack of Direction - If we don't know what to do, how can we be motivated to do it.

Self-Motivation Techniques.

How can we become motivated again?

Some suggestions are here:

1. Find a true interest in what we are doing and know ourselves.
2. Create Energy ( We need energy for self-motivation.)
3. Keep a positive attitude.
4. Stop Thinking, JUST DO IT!
5. Starts with a small step.
6. Keep good company
7. Help others. ( when we help others, we learn at the sometime.)

I must be well-motivated! so as to kill away my laziness haha!

=D

above has help and change my thinking concept on self-motivation. =]

Topic on: Responsiblity

Responsibility

today we learnt about responsibilities of being a:

- Member of Family,

• Take care of the younger siblings.
• Help to do household chores.
• Provide support.

- Student,

• Obey institute rules and regulations
• Be punctual

- Employee

• Loyal
• Produtive
• Reliable

- Citizen

• Protect my country
• Establish close comummity ties
• Respect country
• Keep Singapore clean

That's means whenever we are, we have our different role to play in.

Next, we talk about what are the problems face by the senior citizen and elderly group.

An elderly person has the following problems,

• Poor eyesight
• Poor hearing
• Weak muscles
• Poor memory
• Poor health

It's All In The Mind.

Today lesson on,

Are You On the TOP of the World??

What is your self-worth?

First of all, we were told to exchange the figures of our self-worth (in terms of $$ ) with the person beside us in class, then i had mentioned to person beside that i am worth only $8000/- .

Soon, Mr. Tan flashed these on the white screen,

Two types of thoughts were shown as example:

Person A say:

I am stupid, always fail, nobody loves me, no one wants to work with me...
I am WORTHLESS!!

Person B say:

no problem, I can solve all problems, I am sure everything will work out well.
I am sure I will be successful.

then, followed by this qns below.

Who do you think will be more successful?

=DD of course all included me chosen the person B with the most positive viewing/thinkings will be more successful, but i'm quite diff. from the person B that i'm not that positive enough =[ that's why my self-worth only up to eight thousands in the earlier part. =]

Again, what is your self-worth?
To project a POSITIVE self image, one must pay attention to one's

[Factors below lead to successes.]

1. Personal Appearance.
2. Manner in relating to others.)
3. Work Performance.
4. Awareness of perception of others.
5. Intelligence.
6. A Pleasant Personality

How others see me?

Personally, I think I am

• Helpful
• Easy-Going
• Quiet at times

These are others (2 of my classmates) think about me:

• Adorable
• Helpful

I have learnt that positive self image could be improve through:

1. Personal Appearance
2. Relating appropriately to others
3. Work performance
4. Understanding others perception
5. Improving one's intelligence
6. Understanding differences in personality styles

For some reflections:

I have nothing much to say about, one thing i want to mention is that we people are all priceless, no one else on earth is worthless, reasons because all of us are different and unique in ways ourselves. =]

EVERYONE IS SPECIAL! ^-^

EFFECTIVE S-T-U-D-Y HABITS

??Effective Study Habits.

• Take Responsibility for yourself.
• Center yourself around your values and principles.
• Put 1st things FIRST.
• Discover your key productivity periods & places. ( Discover places and periods to study)
• Consider yourself in a Win-Win situation.
• First understand others, then attempt to be understood.( Understand others, then others understood us.)
• Look for better solutions to problems.
• Look to continually challenge yourself