Book review : The 7 HABITS of HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE

🔵The 7 habits of highly effective people 🔵

By-- Stephen Covey  

Genre-- Self-development 

Personal rating - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

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Even after 25 years, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People remains one of the best books of its genre. It has set an example for this section of literature. It was Covey's second book which is the second international bestseller of self-help section. 

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These 7 habits are game changers. So the question is what are those 7 habits?

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📌Be proactive -

 It means take the initiative, take the leading role. Stop being in reactive mood, try to understand and solve the problem. Just waiting for someone to come up with a solution so that you can agree is not gonna make you special. So, be the LEADER. 

📌Begin with the end in mind - 

This term means to know why do you want to do this. I mean, you have to know the result of your actions. When you will know accurately what do you want to gain and why You're doing a work, that will bring success. 

📌First things first - 

 You have to learn which work is urgent and what's important. It means know your priorities. Don't waste your precious time by doing something you could eliminate/ignore. 

📌Think win-win - 

This really doesn’t mean do compromises for being nice or kind to others. It’s a characteristic quality of a human to think about other's wellbeing also. Like choose something that will be beneficial to both parties. 

📌Seek First to understand, then to be understood -

This quality creates a positive and caring atmosphere around you. If you listen to others and try to understand them, then you can expect people to understand you too. So, Don't just speak always, try to be a listener sometimes. 

📌 Synergise - 

You have to know your team mates strong points to achieve any goal. Anybody can't do anything totally alone. So having a well organised and strong team always pays off. 

📌Sharpen the saw - 

  "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." -- Abraham Lincoln 

Yes, before starting any project, work, content or any work you need to research, learn, gain knowledge about that topic. And this is what Covey and Lincoln called "Sharpening the axe(saw) before chopping the tree." 

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5 things you shouldn’t do in social platforms.

 

🔵5 THINGS YOU SHOULDN’T DO IN SOCIAL PLATFORMS🔵

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Yes, you have read right. I'm Just gonna tell you about 5 things you shouldn’t do in social platforms and specially in Instagram. Instagram is a highly effective media for creators, photographers, bloggers, food bloggers, fashion bloggers, artists, designers and so many to grow. You are free to choose and create over any category but yes, there are also some rules or regulations so what if they are unwritten. They are for your wellbeing. 

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📌 You shouldn’t fake your lifestyle, choice, dislikes, quality and ideas. Trust me if you just try to make followers by doing what seeks much attention you’ll be ruined. Now or then. (Honestly, I've seen persons going with something they are really not comfortable or familiar with. But still they do it because that gets attention. It’s sad.) 

📌 Don’t behave rudely with anyone over internet. You may know something what others don't. They might ask you, try to know how to do that. Don’t freak out, try to help them if they are genuine and friendly. 

📌 Don't text anyone to follow you back. Trust me, it’s annoying. Make the blue button white, react on someone's posts you prefer. They will notice. And if your contents are nice and if they like them they will follow you back. It’s simple. 

📌 Don’t copy. If you recreate, give credit and mention the original creator. Cause if  banyone cross question you about your idea, it’s insulting and It'll definitely spoil your image. And also giving credit is a nice gesture. 

📌 Don't let everyone enter in your profile. Many persons are being harassed everyday. At least once in a month check your followers list. If there is anyone who is pretending or not that genuine and you don't know them also remove them. If anyone passes irritating or mean comments remove them or block them. It’s not all about having followers, it’s about  safety. ( I've given this advice to many people and some of them also said "You’ve followers that's why you say this but we have less followers. We don't want to remove anyone." Then let me tell you I'm doing this since day 1 of my social media life. Cause I care about myself.) 

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Small gardening habits everyday🌿

 

It takes good gardening habits to create great gardeners. So I decided to share with you 7 most important habit that would make you a better gardener.

You need to consciously make a note of these habits and start practicing the ones that appeal the most to you.

So kicking off with the first habit,

1“Buy plants that are suited to where you live!”

🌱If only we buy plants that would do well where we are staying, it would save us a lot of heart ache.Especially if you are a beginner gardener,always buy plants that will love to stay in your home.Resist the temptation of picking something that is difficult to keep in your location. Over time as you become more experienced you can start providing specialised care to your hard to keep plants. 

2“Use compost regularly with your plants & make your own Compost.”

🌱Compost is that magical ingredient that provides a multiple of nutrients and beneficial organic matter to the plant,Using compost for your plants is a way of replicating nature in your garden,in nature,fallen leaves,twigs,dead insects and other organic matter decompose and add an organic component to the soil,crucial for the well being of plants. Composting and using compost is replicating this process that happens in nature in your garden.That’s a big reason you must use it.Compost is totally natural and organic.

Many beginner gardeners don’t use compost and miss out the benefits it provides.You can start out by buying compost bags and then adding them to your soil mixes.Compost can be sprinkled on top of your garden soil to top up what is washed away over time.And if you have the space you can buy a composting bin or make a DIY composting system to create your own compost.This way you recycle your kitchen scraps to feed your plants. 

3 “Research the needs of every plant you buy”

🌱For those who grew up with plants in their house from a very young age,there was only one aspect of plant care.Watering your plants daily.If you did not water them,then they would die.Unless it was a cactus. You water a cactus rarely. Life was simple and ignorance was bliss.

Around 20 years ago,most of the plants available in the market were hardy common plants.Little succulents were unheard of,Hoyas were rare.But over the time the options available commonly have expanded and plants travelling across the world.

In addition, people were ok with plants not thriving so much.If a plant dies quickly, avoid buying it the next time.Don’t try to figure it out.

And then is the question of the evasive source of knowledge, without the internet it was difficult to learn about the plants. One had to trust the nursery walas to know the name of the plants. Amd many did not bother knowing the names at all.But the times have changed now.We live in the age of information and social media. We can learn about plants with great ease.And there are a plethora of apps that help us identify plants with our phone cameras.

So we have absolutism no reason to not research and learn about the plants we buy.Knowledge is power and everytime we research on plants,we improve the chance of caring correctly for the needs of that plant.Though most plants have common needs,of they don’t get their exact specific care,you will never seen them thrive or grow or flower to it’s full potential. The plant will just survive. 

So break out of the chain of ignorance and decide to learn more about the plants you own.

4 “ Watering most of your plants when the soil has dried out at the surface”

🌱Many beginner gardeners habe the habit of watering the plants as per a schedule. They will water everyday morning or afternoon. This can cause both short term and long term issues for your plants.Let me tell you why.

Firstly, your potting soil medium will vary across plants.Nurseries sell some plants in have cocopeat based mixes others in clay soil.Clay soil dries fast through and through.A cocopeat based soil mix will retain water for much longer.Watering such a mix daily is suicidal for plants that don’t like their soil being soggy amd wet.

Having said all this,98% of the times you can use one rule of thumb safely. Never water a plant that has the top 1 inch of the soil damp or wet.Because down below the surface, it will be even more wet.Make it a habit to check the soil using your finger before watering or eyeball it.

5 “Propagate your plants”

🌱Propagating plants is the easiest way to get free new plants that you can distribute and plant in your own garden too.

This is the best way to sustain and safeguard the plant you love in multiple pots.

When you cut them for propagation you will encourage new growth in your mother plant.

6 “Examine plants regularly for pets & problem 

🌱Examining your plant is the first step to keeping it healthy. The quicker you are to catch an infestation, the easier it is to handle it.

7 “Give plants light,they all need it”

🌱Even plants that tolerate low light need light. You can’t deprive them completely. You’ll be surprised how well low light plants grow when exposed to brighter light.

Only deprive plants of light if you have no other option, but there is always an option of setting up grow lights.Understand how grow lights work before setting them up.

One more important habit to be a good gardener and maybe the most important! “Don’t give up!”

🌱Gardening demands great perseverance and patience from the gardener.Pay attention and stay sharp.Observe,learn and upgrade your gardening skills.Keep trying and your success will be more than failures. Gardening in the end is a reseeding hobby.

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So that’s all.Let’s use some time to become better gardeners and better persons.Let’s level up our gardening! 🌿

Book photography

 #qotd - What are your favorite props for bookphotography?  

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Recently bookgraphy/bookphotography has occupied a huge place in photography world. Bookstagram community must be one of the largest virtual community in social media. 

Today I'm gonna give you a few ideas about props those you can use to improve your flatlays more. 

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🌿 Pages - With books, tore pages are the perfect match like Cha and Biscuits. You can make small patterns there or maybe dip those in tea or coffee to get a vintage vibe. You can burn a part of a page. It looks so good in photos. You can fold them also and tie up with a ribbon. 

🌿 You can use candles. And maybe with a candle stand. You can get scented, normal and designed candles in many online and offline shops. 

🌿 Bags and purses are good objects. Try to use a bag which one matches with the book cover or maybe it’s color, texture or vibe matches. 

🌿Natural or artificial flowers and trees add greenery and makes the photo for vibrant. 

🌿Drawers and boxes are way more helpful. You can use that as a small bookself also. 

🌿CD, cassettes, phones, headphones are pretty nice if they match with the vibe. 

🌿Sweaters, shirts, scrafs, Saree can add texture and colors in the photo. 

🌿 Crockery, spoon, tea cups, mugs, jars are too useful. I mean you can use those things in any photo. 

🌿 Diaries, Notebooks, pens, colors, paint brush, stack of books are so common and beautiful. 

🌿 Also you can use sunlight, shadows to capture your shot.You can go outside,in the nature for book photography also.

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Some of my bookphotography:

পাশে আছি Initiative

 

তো বহুদিন আগে,মহামারির সময়ে আমি বই গুলো কিনেছিলাম পাশে আছি Initiative থেকে।এটা একটা Non-profit youth Organization. 

নীলক্ষেতের নাম শোনেনি এমন মানুষ বাংলাদেশে বোধহয় কমই আছে। কতবার আমরা বইয়ের টানে ছুটে গেছি নীলক্ষেত। কতবার চোখ উজ্জ্বল হয়ে উঠেছে সারি সারি বইয়ের সেই রাজ্য দেখে। কিন্তু মহামারির সময়ে নীলক্ষেতের সেই চিরচেনা চেহারা একদমই পাল্টে গিয়েছিলো। বই আছে, দোকান, রাস্তা সবই আছে নেই শুধু ক্রেতা। 

 "পাশে আছি Initiative" প্রজেক্ট গ্রন্থমঙ্গল নামে একটি কার্যক্রম শুরু করেছে তখন। তারা নীলক্ষেতসহ আশেপাশের আরো কিছু বই বিক্রেতার কাছ থেকে বই নিয়ে সেগুলো বিক্রি করে সুলভ মূল্যে। প্রায় সব বই পাবেন মাত্র ২০০ টাকায়। IELTS, SAT, ESOL এর বই সহ আরো কিছু গ্রামার বই পাবেন ১৫০ টাকায়। এবং কিছু গল্পসমগ্রর দাম ৩০০ টাকা পর্যন্ত উঠতে পারে। আমার জানা মতে ঢাকার ভেতরে কোনো ডেলিভারি চার্জ নেই। ঢাকার বাইরে ১৫০ টাকা (RedEx এর মাধ্যমে হোম ডেলিভারি)। সেইক্ষেত্রে বলে রাখি আপনাকে অন্তত দুটো বই কিনতে হবে। বেশিও কিনতে পারেন। আপনার দেওয়া টাকাটা পুরোটাই ব্যবহৃত হবে অসহায় মানুষের সাহায্যার্থে। আমরা যারা ঘরে বসে ইন্সটাগ্রাম বা ফেসবুক স্ক্রল করছি তারা নিঃসন্দেহে অনেক ভাগ্যবান। আমরা চাইলেই পারি দুস্থ মানুষদের একটুখানি সাহায্য করতে। আপনার দেওয়া টাকাতে কেউ দুবেলা পেট ভরে খেতে পারবে। এটা আমার মতে স্বর্গীয় এক অনুভূতি। "পাশে আছি Initiative" ফেসবুক পেজটিতে ঢুকলেই বুকলিস্ট, বইয়ের ছবি,দাম ইত্যাদি তথ্যাদি পেয়ে যাবেন। আপনাকে যা করতে হবে তা হলো একটা মেসেজ দিয়ে আপনার বইয়ের অর্ডারটা প্লেস করা। বই সোজা আপনার বাড়িতে। তাই আপনার যদি ইচ্ছা থাকে অবশ্যই এই কল্যাণকর কাজে শামিল হবেন।

Groundwater fluctuations in Bangladesh

Groundwater is an essential natural resource of our mother earth that constitutes about 95 per cent of the freshwater on our planet, making it fundamental to human life and economic development. The contribution from groundwater is vital; perhaps as many as two billion people depend directly upon aquifers for drinking water, and 40 per cent of the world’s food is produced by irrigated agriculture that relies largely on groundwater (Morris et al. 2003). Bangladesh, a small country is blessed with plenty of water resources being located in the basins of mighty Ganges, Meghna, Brahmaputra  and Karnaphuli rivers. With numerous rivers, Bangladesh is also affluent in groundwater resource. Since last couple of decades, groundwater is being extensively used for drinking, irrigation and several other purposes eventually declining the ground water level. Groundwater is a vital input for sustaining crop production.

Figure : Groundwater fluctuations 

Bangladesh is dependent upon groundwater to satisfy the enormous demand for domestic and agricultural water supplies. As reliable surface water resources have reduced significantly and the demand for water continues to rise there is an increase in groundwater reliance. In order to ensure future sustainability of groundwater supplies it is essential to make better utilization of such an important resource. A simplistic statistical approach (i.e., correlation) is done with the assumption that a strong relationship exists between these two variables particularly in case of a shallow unconfined aquifers. However, only 35% of the groundwater monitoring wells show high positive correlation with the corresponding rainfall observations. Poor statistics are found in cases where natural recharge condition might be absent due to the strong influence of irrigation withdrawal of GW or the closer proximity of the influent river(s) or the unfavorable impermeable topsoil condition. Some evidence shows that groundwater level is discharging to surface water level during the dry season while reversing behavior is observed during the wet season. Additionally, the study compares the GW level position during the dry (April–May) and wet (July–October) seasons for 1993–2017. Increasing dependency on groundwater over surface water shows a significant drop in groundwater position.

Causes of Groundwater fluctuations :

Groundwater levels change for many reasons. Some changes are due to natural phenomena, and others are caused by man’s activities. Missouri has many different aquifers. Some are relatively shallow unconfined aquifers that are affected by surface activities. Others are much deeper confined aquifers that are well isolated from surface or shallow subsurface influences. Some aquifers consist of competent bedrock units; others are composed of unconsolidated sediments. Some aquifers are heavily used for water supply while others receive very little use. All of these factors can influence how water levels in the aquifers change over time.

All of the observation wells record a water level every 30 minutes. The data graphs show depth to water below land surface plotted on the vertical axis, and time plotted on the horizontal axis. Water level is provided to USGS and they serve the data from the National Water Information System. The “real time” data category will automatically display the last seven days of 30minute data. Data can be viewed in the 30-minute increments, or as a

single daily average.

Water-level changes can be divided into several categories. Short-term changes can be seen only when water-level measurements are made many times a day. Long-term changes can be seen only after data are collected for many years. Minor changes of only a few hundredths of a foot, and changes that are hundreds of feet can be observed. Fluctuations are generally due to one of three major factors including a change in the volume of water stored in the aquifer, changes in atmospheric pressure, and changes caused by aquifer deformation.

It is known that ground water is largely used for drinking and other purposes together with its use for irrigation purpose. Keeping aside the use for drinking purpose, only irrigation usage and associated change has observed in this study. Based on the analysis, it was found that the declining rate of groundwater is highest in northcentral region

(0.072m/year) and minimum in southcentral region (0.01 m/year) whereas the average rate of groundwater decline was found to be 0.049 m/year .

The average groundwater level decline rate from 1985 to 2010 was found to be 0.05m/year across the study area whereas Zahid and Ahmed (2006) estimated the lowering trend of groundwater level during the last 32 years is 20 to 30 m with an average decline of more than 1.0 m/year.

Undoubtedly, extraction of groundwater for irrigation has adversely affected the lowering process of groundwater level regionally.

In Bangladesh, along with drinking purpose, groundwater is widely used for irrigation. Among the three varieties of rice, irrigation is largely required for Boro production. Variability of rainfall has also increased the use of irrigation for Aus and Aman rice production too. The contribution of groundwater in irrigation has increased from 41 percent in 1982/1983 to 75 percent in 2001/2002 and surface water has declined accordingly. This study reveals that the contribution of groundwater in irrigation has increased from 38 percent in 1980/1981 to 78 percent in 2011/12 and surface water has declined from 62 percent to 22 percent accordingly. Thus, there has been a distinct decline in ground water level across the country with some exception. The declining rate of groundwater is higher in northern regions in comparison with the southern region. Though, rice production has increased dramatically in recent years than the past, it is time to ensure its progression by ensuring the availability of all the external inputs like groundwater. In this context, proper measures should be taken to ensure sustainable use of groundwater. New rice varieties which require less irrigation should be invented so that it can minimize the use of groundwater for irrigation purpose. Moreover, groundwater has proved one of the major inputs of rice production and so proper attention should be given on sustainable use of groundwater that compliments the development of rice production.

Studying in University (My pov)

Studying at university may be very different from college, school form or any other previous education. There is much more of an emphasis on self-directed learning (sometimes referred to as independent study), time management and actively seeking support when needed.

Firstly,Managing time effectively is a vital skill we develop throughout our time at university. You may need to juggle your studies alongside socialising, a part-time job, caring responsibilities and mundane activities like grocery shopping, cleaning and personal admin. 

In addition to, having a good grasp of what you need to do and planning your time will help you to reduce stress and achieve your goals.

Secondly,Communication is the vital key at university. Communication or referencing is highly practiced key here.

When writing an assignment at university you will be expected to reference the sources of information you have used. You may be familiar with doing this at school/college, however at university you might find an increased emphasis put on the quality of referencing. You might even get additional marks for the quality of your reference.

Thirdly, Personal Tutors are academic staff from your School who may or may not teach you, but who can help, advise and guide you throughout your studies at university. Your Personal Tutor will follow your progress throughout your studies and will take great interest in your attendance, overall academic performance and personal development; your Personal Tutor will be able to recommend ways of improving and refining your work (even if you are doing well!) as well as ways of developing your ‘softer’ skills such as reflection, team-working and leadership. You should take every opportunity to meet with your Personal Tutor.

Also, New technology and research will be your new partner at university. You can meet new new technology and you’ll do a lot of research officially under your university. Which is only you can be offered by a university. 

Furthermore, Studying is not just important for educational development, but also builds personal skills.Having good study skills can improve your confidence, competence amd self esteem.

Lastly, university is the place from where you move to your career. Where you decide your career path and plan accordingly. Study at university leads us to achieve our dreamy career.

Studying at university is not mandatory but everyone should study in a university for all the purposes of an university. Because a degree will not only give students the opportunity to gain an indepth knowledge of their chosen subject but also develop transferable skills such as communication skill,presentation skill and problem solving skill while enhancing their ability to work as part of a team.To develop life strategy, people should study at university.