How to keep track of your good ideas everyday.

You have good ideas. Don't let them disappear.

Good ideas come and go every second, but what doesn’t happen very often is the capturing of those thoughts. You can have the brightest and sharpest ideas that could take your life and business to a whole new level, but they mean absolutely nothing if they're pushed aside and forgotten.

It doesn’t matter what our education levels are or where we come from, we all have great and wonderful ideas. The only problem is that most people let the hustle and bustle of life get in the way and interrupt their ability to capture their golden ideas.
Now, you might not come up with the world’s next greatest invention (or maybe you will). But everything we use in our day-to-day lives was once just an idea. Not every idea will be worth a billion dollars, but perhaps one or two of them can change the trajectory of your business and life for the better.
We all have 24 hours in a day, no more or no less than the next person. Think about how many times where an idea or thought comes to mind but you do nothing about it. There really is no value for us if we don’t take the initiative. The other reason why it is so imperative that we capture our ideas is because coincidence or not, some of our best ideas don't come to us in the office.

Here are three steps to take every day:

Have a system. The best way I have found to capture ideas on a regular basis is to take a systematic approach to it. We all prefer different ways of doing things. Some of us prefer electronic devices while some of us stick to the trusted pen-and-paper route.
Either way, pick what works for you and stick with it. I prefer to log all of my ideas and thoughts into evernote and then at the end of the day analyze each idea. After I dig a little deeper, I transfer the ideas that I may want to act on immediately or in the near future into my moleskin journal.

Pick the good ones. Just because you start capturing your thoughts and ideas doesn’t mean everything that comes to mind is going to be something that you will act on. Finding time alone where you can analyze what you logged for the day helps tremendously. This is where you can determine whether a specific idea is worthy of your time. Throw out what’s useless.

Make it a habit. Just like with any new habit that we try to adopt into our everyday lives, it takes time. I truly believe that if you make a determined effort on a regular basis to capture your ideas, it will greatly benefit your personal and professional life.
Of all the great men and women I have had the fortune to work with, they all knew the importance of keeping track of their thoughts and ideas. Stick with it.

(Source: Entrepreneur)

What rich people have next to their beds

You know what you'll probably find on a successful (read: rich) person's nightstand?

Books. But not just any books, according to Tom Corley, the author of "Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits Of Wealthy Individuals." His research finds that rich and poor people alike are cracking their fair share of spines, but the key difference is that less financially successful people read for entertainment, while rich people read for self-improvement.

Note that Corley defines "rich people" as having an annual income of $160,000 or more and a liquid net worth of $3.2 million-plus, and "poor people" as those having an annual income of $35,000 or less and a liquid net worth of $5,000 or less.

Here's how the numbers break down:

• 11% of rich people read for entertainment, compared to 79% of poor
• 85% of rich people read two or more education, career-related, or self-improvement books per month, compared to 15% of poor
• 94% of rich people read news publications including newspapers and blogs, compared to 11% of poor people

"The overall conclusion that I reached in my research is that your daily habits will dictate your financial success in life, and there are four or five key ones," says Corley. One of those keys, he explains, is self-education. "The rich are voracious readers on how to improve themselves. They're reading self-improvement books, biographies, books about successful people, things like that."

In fact, Corley found that educational reading overlapped with another factor of success: mentorship. After being asked in an interview about his finding that only 24% of the wealthy people he studied had mentors, he went back over the research and found that 93% of those with mentors agreed with the statement, "My mentor was responsible for my wealth."

"The reason why the wealthy people without mentors said they didn't have one was that they got their education through reading books, and through the school of hard knocks," Corley says. Over half of those people were business owners who effectually mentored themselves, through books and experience.
To that end, Corley has included books as one of his five kinds of mentors, which also include parents, teachers, work colleagues, and the "school of hard knocks."

(Source: Business Insider)

Scholarship: Master of Public Policy and Management at UBD

MASTER SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITY:

The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) at Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) offers an internationally-focused cross-disciplinary Master of Public Policy and Management (MPPM), which is characterised by its focus on nurturing excellence in both policy skills and management qualities. The Programme also emphasises on analytical writing, quantitative and verbal reasoning skills.

IPS is inviting applications from East Asia Summit participating countries to join their MPPM which the second cohort will begin on 27th December 2014. The closing date for the MPPM applications is 17th July 2014.

International Focus

The MPPM is an 18-month programme which the students will spend 12 months in UBD and the third semester in one of the partner policy schools in the United States. They are:

-McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University
-Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University
-School of Public Policy, University of Maryland
-Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley

In the third semester, students will also be having a two-week study visit to Washington, D.C., meeting people from key policymaking institutions including the House of Congress, policy think-tanks and non-profit sectors.

The MPPM has three specialisation tracks:

* Islamic Governance and Islamic International Relations
* Energy Policy and Management
* Environmental Policy and Management

Advisor Profile

Professor John W. Thomas, Professor of Harvard Kennedy School of Government - Harvard University has been appointed as the Advisor and Eminent Visiting Professor to IPS and MPPM. His vast experience includes establishing the Public Policy Programme at the National University of Singapore, now the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and counselling Asian, African, and Latin American universities on the development of public policy programmes.

Who Should Apply

- High performing employees in the public and private sector with at least 5 years of relevant work experience with high leadership potential
- Those from the international development agencies and non-profit sectors who are contributing in a significant way to the field of sustainable international development
- Outstanding international participants with at least 5 years of relevant work experience with leadership capabilities

Entry Requirements

a) Normally an Upper Second Class Bachelor’s Degree in a relevant discipline from a university recognised by the Senate of UBD with at least 5 years relevant work experience.
b) a minimum English qualification of GCE ‘O’ Level Credit 6 or IELTS 6.0 or TOEFL 550 is required.
c) Also, a minimum Mathematics qualification of GCE ‘O’ Level Credit 6 or one “pass” in a subsequent level mathematics subject is essential.

If you require further information, please do not hesitate to e-mail the Institute of Policy Studies at:

office.ips@ubd.edu.bn, office.ips@ubd.edu.bn or norfarahiyah.tuah@ubd.edu.bn, norfarahiyah.tuah@ubd.edu.bn
Source: http://www.ubd.edu.bn/faculties-and-institutes/ips/