Focus or I Will Forget

Recently I realized that I forgot many things and frequently. I forgot to bring back fruits on Wednesday that the fruits become not that good after leaving one night at my cube where there was no air con at night. I forgot I had asked my wife on what coffee she wanted. I forgot to make a call if not because of my colleague. I forgot to buy a caviar after getting a strawberry as I assumed the caviar was next to the checkout counter.

In short, I got distracted. I got too excited on too many things. Even if I don’t forget, I don’t have time to do it.

But when I have time do it, I forgot because my focus is not there.

So now the question, do I still want to do many things at the same time? Do I still want to be forgetful?

What else I need to have or experience before I decide to focus?

Setting a time to be thankful of

Time flies. It has been more than 2 weeks since the last time I wrote here. That time writing three things to give thanks everyday seem to be doable. But time has shown that it is far more difficult than I thought. On the contrary, I found myself taking my wife for granted.

After I was back from business trip, I rushed for the deadlines of the annual review cycle. I also insisted to go to my friend’s daughter’s 1st month and talked non-stop with my wife’s relatives while I ignored her and my daughter. So the first thing I need to remember to be thankful are my lovely wife and daughter. I have considered them as part of myself that I often ignored them. In my theory, they are number 1 while actual practice showed that they are at a lower priority than helping others and doing my work.

It’s time to acknowledge the damage of my bad habits and to work on how to change them. Remember that self-scolding is not helpful as it robs the energy to change. So embrace the current limitations and focus on what we can do.

Last two days in Hua Hin

Time flies. Out of my 9 nights in Hua Hin, tonight is the last night before I go to Bangkok and then back to Singapore. It is time to go back. So before that, let’s recall six things I want to be grateful of since yesterday I did not manage to write.

First, I was thankful that yesterday I managed to have lunch with local engineer at their internal coffee shop. I usually eat at the very nice buffet provided specially for my company. So it was a contrast where yesterday I had the chance to have a pre-packed lunch that is simple like in the canteen back in Indonesia. To my surprise, even that pre-packed food is a privilege as the host helped me order. If we want to have that, we need to pre-order in the morning. If not, we can only buy instant cup noodles.

Second, I was trapped in the van yesterday morning as the button to unbuckle was spoiled. Thank God that I could calm and enjoy the process of solving it while remember that testing and trials do not come from God. But God is sovereign and He is able to turn those into something good. True enough, we were amazed of how easy the workaround were. One was just to loosen the seat belt and then escape. The other one was to call the driver as he knows where to press on the spoiled button in order to unbuckle.

Third, I had the chance to handle problem where something was out of specs and I was asked to assess the print quality impact. I was lazy to learn how to communicate truth without causing unnecessary anxiety in the audience. But my senior reminded me that I needed to learn even when I tended to avoid the situation.

Fourth, I learned not to make insensitive remarks. The business trip would end on 11 Oct while some colleagues already booked on 12 Oct. One of them was trying to change when I teased her saying what’s wrong with staying one more day. Fortunately my senior reminded me that it is not my business and people situation may be different.

Fifth, I learned more about scan and copy in the last two days and interacted more with the scanner related engineers. I also learned how to enable back the notification of Line app as the scan copy fax engineer only uses Line instead of whatsapp.

Sixth, I want to be thankful as I have already bought enough souvenir and settled the bill and did online check in.

Tomorrow will be another day. Let’s try again giving our best in God’s grace.

Sunday at Hua Hin

Today is my first full day in Hua Hin without going to office. There are many good memories. Here they are.

First, thank God for His protection. This morning I stumbled in the breakfast time at hotel because I did not see the steps. It was only by God’s grace that I managed to get a step and avoid from falling down. After lunch, I found out my safe deposit box was widely open as I forgot to lock it after taking something between church time and lunch time. But all were in tact thanks to God’s protection. In the afternoon, we went to Monkeys Mountain where there were so many monkeys. I was afraid if they attacked me. But nothing happened thanks be to God. On our way back, we felt cheated as I paid 600 THB thinking for a return price while my colleague had actually paid the tuk tuk driver 300 THB on our way there. At the BluPort mall, two out of three wash basins gave out brownish water. But other than that, everything was good.

Second, I want to thank for family and friends. Today my wife called me twice that I could see her and my daughter. It was good that my wife finally decide to plan to take a short break where it is my turn to take care of my daughter. Then my sister called just because we had not been talking on call for quite some time. As I was in the church, I called her back after an afternoon nap. It was good that I could talk with brother in law, then my sister, and then my niece. It was also good to go together with two colleagues to church. Then I had lunch, went a trip, and had dinner with other four colleagues. All were full with good conversations.

Third, I am grateful for the massage at Suvaree Thai Massage. It was really nice and it is only 300 THB for 1 hour, a price that we cannot get in Singapore. Interestingly Thai massage did not use strength too much in its own. But it uses many techniques such as various stretching aside from using stepping as a means for giving strong message. I managed to talk for a while with the massage provider and the cashier and reminded them that they can use google translate to communicate with their customers. Thank God that I managed to find this place with the help from google and the courage from God to decide among several options available.

More importantly, the church today reminded us that testing and trials do not come from God. But they can be turned by God to be purposeful for our good and that we develop patience, perseverance as part of becoming mature in God.

Reflecting Back

Unlike the previous three days where it is easy to extract 3 highlights, it is not easy to think about 3 highlight today. I just feel there are so many things that have happened today. Also, maybe as I become more excited, I want to think fast and not slow down. But that’s exactly why I need to write this. It is not merely meeting the goal of EcoChallenge. It is for my own good to think what are the three things I am grateful at.

First, although still wobbly, I managed to do some of my own tasks today. In the factory, I was still distracted of trying to help others. But at the same time I stayed more in the office room than usual, focusing on revising my portion and start getting the data for analysis. I did not manage to start analyzing data which shows there is a need for continuous improvement. But it is good enough for today.

Second, I am thankful of the many conversations I have today. I am thankful that my wife called me on my way back from factory to hotel that I can see my wife and daughter. I am thankful for the courage to speak with the Operations manager about our visions of data science application in our Operations. I am thankful for the discussion with colleagues and with my best friend who reminds me that certain things are beyond my problem and that I have enough problems and backlog to tackle instead of doing other people job. I am thankful for the short conversation with my Buddhist friend and with a fellow Christian on the marriage e-book by Desiring God.

Third, I am thankful for the nice food today. At the factory we get the best food unlike the local engineers and operators. This evening I went to the Chocolate Factory Hua Hin where I enjoyed many kinds of chocolate.

This reminds me that the Lord is great and that His love flows continuously to us.

Habit of Three

This is my third day trying to recall three things I am grateful of in a given day. It is not easy to remember and sit down to write. At the same time it is doable.

First, I am grateful that by God’s grace, we managed to find another error yesterday. Today I tried to correct it but it was not that easy as I was tempted to procrastinate to find a high quality solution. But at the end I decided to opt a good enough solution that can be implemented right away instead of wanting to be perfect.

Second, I find another good Christian during this business trip. I did not know that she is a Christian as she comes from the Philippines which predominantly are Catholics. We talked quite a lot and have the same thoughts that we focus on Jesus as the criteria of a Christian, not on the detailed of the rituals.

Third, I am grateful that I was reminded again on the importance of doing my own work. I became busybody again trying to help other people while neglecting my own area. As my best friend in office once said, perhaps, I aimed the thrill of helping others instead of the seemingly dull responsibility of doing my own tasks. So let’s remember to be responsible for my own tasks and draw the balance by God’s grace.

Another Three Things I am grateful of

It is not natural for me to be thinking of three things I am grateful of in a given day. So it is good that I join the EcoChallenge. It can also remind me the other commitment of doing daily exercise for 5 mins as I woke up much later and skipped the exercise.

So here are the three things I am grateful of.

First, I am happy to see my wife and my daughter through a quick video call this morning. The last time I had the chance to see them was three days ago. Yesterday and the day before my daughter was sleeping and my wife was rushing to work. So it is nice to see them. My daughter was a bit confused when seeing me, maybe because she was sleepy. In any case, I need to remind myself not to immediately hug her or carry her or kiss her when I am back in Singapore. Instead, I need to give her some time and space to be familiarize her with myself again.

The second thing I am grateful was work is challenging but satisfying. Finally after two days of efforts we started to get some results. Also, I was trying to call using zoom and did meeting while walking around in the factory. It worked. The Manhattan WS meeting that I host via Zoom which wsd also smooth.

Third is that I am grateful for the hospitality of the Taiwanese and Thai engineer. One asked me whether I want to join the lunch at their cafetaria tomorrow instead of using my own company buffet. Then I just mentioned about the brown rice cracker. Then the Thai engineer already contacted them and helped me order, what a kindness.

Three things I am grateful today

Today is the beginning of October EcoChallenge. I signed up for two challenges. The first one is to exercise for 5 mins daily. The second one is to write down three things I am grateful every day or send one e-mail thanking someone everyday.

So let’s write three things I am grateful today.

First, I am grateful that today I can find a print quality defect that I have been looking for by God’s grace. I already set an anchor for a certain plot. But that plot was wrongly printed and so nobody can catch the defect on that plot. I was just trying to flip some stacks and the first stack I look at has the defect on another plot. It is truly by God’s grace. As if it is not by Him, I would not have flipped that plots and found both the defect and the mistake my team makes.

Second, I am grateful that after 1 full day, we finally managed to progress on the task we want to do for additional data collection.

Third, I am grateful for the dinner, both on the Spanish food, which we order too much, and for the conversations in the dinner table. It was refreshing. I learned that when I am more comfortable with myself, other people will also be more comfortable with us.

And I am happy that for the first time I manage to write this short write-up while I am at Bangkok.