Global Masters in Business Administration

The staggered sleep model

2009-05-23T05:15:00.000-07:00

This is very important if you are a prospective B-schooler. After learning all the strategy that I learnt here I thought I should do some addition myself to the world of management so here is what I call the ‘The staggered sleep model’. This model is applicable only to B-schoolers and other individuals suffering from similar stressful pattern of life.

What this model basically proposes is that you stagger your entire sleep in 2 (or if needed more) parts. Normally a typical B-schooler finds it next to impossible to find a stretch of 6 hours to sleep continuously. So the best proposed way is to divide your sleep into two stretches of 3 hours each.

A normal human’s sleep goes through three different phases, moving from the conscious stage to the REM stage. This entire cycles lasts for around 90 mins so if your plan your sleep to be in multiples of 90 mins you will get best results. If your sleep cycle is more than 90 mins, you can find out after applying the model a few times and adjust your plan to the 100 or 110 mins of cycle you might have. You can further customize the plan as per your time availability, you can have two cycles of 90 mins and one of 3 hours. It is advised that you at least have one cycle of 3 hours a day.

The power-power nap: The quickest way of getting your energy back. Have a can of an energy drink or a tea / coffee if you prefer that and take a nap for 30 mins. What happens is that the energy drink kicks into your system after half an hour or so. Also after half an hour you are somewhere in the 2^nd phase of your sleep, if you go beyond you tend to wake up groggy and disoriented. So when you wake up a little fresh, the energy drink kicks in and you are all charged up for a few more hours of life. Tip: If you have time, a cold shower works wonders after this. Please note that you’ll last for only a few hours after this but it’s a fast way to recharge your batteries to stretch a li’l bit.

Disclaimer: Note the sleep models suggested are not better than the normal sleeping pattern of humans but is a survival strategy in adverse conditions.

Bad day..

2009-05-20T12:31:00.001-07:00

And as I sip a Jack Daniels premix sitting on my bed at 3 AM and write this, my life might not be as cool as it may seem to be. OK I am in wistful mood so you better bear this post.

Last few days have been tough but today topped them all. It all started with an Organizational behavior end term exam, a haven for faffers but a struggle for people like me who just can’t write like as if you get a million dollars a page and then the day continued with classes for 6 hours. The group work jazz wasn’t as troublesome as the subjects, somehow suddenly everything and everything seems out of bounds. At times you feel like you are the most useless scum of the earth, serious..!! Finance seemed easier earlier but now you feel like you have the IQ of a mole, although it is untrue, and you know that. Anyways that follows with a few shitty assignments which you just cannot do, just cannot..!! You end up copying stuff from someone somewhere who did solve it and feel guilty for the rest of your conscious day. You have a quant based research methods exam the day after and you don’t have a fuckin clue how you are gonna scrape through. And all this, all of this when you are already in an introspective mode wondering why you are here in the first place, what happened to your initial goals and objectives, you had priorities, what were they??

My shittiest day in the city-country ever! Term 1 was gonna be horrible and we knew it, just hope it ends soon and things start looking better.

You know one of those days, when everything goes wrong..!!

Anyways feel like ending the day on a lighter note:

Faff you center

Faff you right

Faff you left

As hard as you might

Faff the world whole

Successfully you may

Faff truthfully with no guilt

You sincerely pray

In expectance of a better future

To see the light of a better day

We global faffers suffer this torture

In the hope that we all get placed

-Amen-

PS: any of ya batchmates can write a better anthem for us global faffers? please contribute..!!

Taking stock

2009-05-17T03:17:00.000-07:00

It’s been a long long month and a half, let me try and take a stock of what all I have achieved, or tried to at least:

--> 9 subjects including a lot of quant heavy ones

--> Wrote 4 end term exams which for some unavoidable reason are happening during the term instead of the end.

--> Some crazy assignments, hundreds of quizzes, an inter school event, a spatter of guest lectures, loads of organizational behavior shit etc.

--> Bitched about some profs, loved some.. learnt some stuff didn’t learn some

Tomorrow I am meeting a young entrepreneur who’s a recent pass out of SPJCM itself to do my industry project with, which will be a 3 credit research project. Looking forward to it as I love startups, it’s about social media awareness and I really desperately need to do some practical work.

But apart from all the serious stuff I have been having shit loads of fun too. Have partied every fucking weekend spent here [and quite a few week days too ;)] Made some good friends, got a lot of different ‘perspective’ from different people here. Lot of ‘coupling’ already seems to be happening around, makes me wonder that have I grown old or am I just too slow. Have hardly found time to do a lot of sight seeing but plan to rectify it in the coming few weeks. Food, Liquor and cigarettes are shit expensive here, the only three things I need to survive..!! And every plan to restrain myself to a budget goes for a toss every time I get some time and someone agrees to go out for ‘a’ drink :D

Some of the stuff which I have really gotten used to in the last month and a half:

Hanging around the bridge (Right next to the school, Alexandra arch)

Take long peaceful walks in the man made forests around or the peaceful residential localities nearby.

Taking a shower at times like 3 AM

Jay walking (C’mon I am an Indian how can I, not love this)

Drinking at the East Coast Park on the beach

Reaching late for the 8’ clock classes and missing the attendance almost every goddamn time

Hanging around the 4.5 floor in the free times (All girls are on the 4^th floor you see) and men are not allowed on their floor so ‘4.5’ is like the most favorite hangout in the entire building.

The ‘Teh Tarik’, a Malaysian tea, a hot n cold favorite from the vending machine

Lots more, lots more gotta rush..

A month done

2009-05-05T12:31:00.000-07:00

Ok today I complete one month of being back to school and suddenly I feel like writing something other than a report or a financial analysis. So I start this blog, this is not a PR thing so let me just put in the standard disclaimer that all views on this blog are ‘un-audited’ views of the writer and are not endorsed by SP Jain Center of Management. I’ll use this space to share my journey, ups n downs and the usual jazz which takes place in any B School. If you are a friend, a fellow colleague, an aspirant or a random passer by please feel free to drop in a comment, but if I do offend you in some way please accept my apologies in advance.

Cheers