Category: Be Better

Shift your focus; Upgrade yourself

Upgrade Yourself

Be it any profession, upgrading your skills is unquestionably significant. Not only does it open the door to new career opportunities, but it also helps you enhance the quality of your life. To keep myself technically updated, I have bookmarked a list of blogs and YouTube channels.. I also frequently check Feedspot’s Top 35 Microsoft Dynamics 365/CRM Blogs, which is regularly updated by the moderators. But is it enough?

For a Business Application Consultant , critical thinking is as important as software skills , and I must say that reading ‘Farnam Street’ enhances your decision-making skills. Shane Parrish who is an ex-spy, investor, and writer, improves your critical thinking ability with every post in his blog “Farnam Street”.

Why Farnam Street?

MR Shane focuses on the importance of cultivating mental models and frameworks to tackle complex issues. The blog ‘guides to decision making’ especially when you’re in a challenging situation. I must say that reading a 3-minute post on Farnam Street equals watching a week of TED or simialr videos. It simply means that you are served with the most appropriate information that you need to boost your decision-making skills regardless of your professional or skillset.

Shane Parrish urges visitors to ‘Upgrade Yourself’ and that’s one of the biggest reasons he is promoting self-betterment over classic self-help fare. He believes that being responsible to yourself is imperative and learning is one of the best investments that you can make in your life.

Here are some other ‘Be Better’ blogs that I would recommend:

For me, learning is like entering a world of opportunities. What about you?

Do you want to be a Dynamics 365/Power Platform expert? then docs.microsoft.com is the Key.

When my colleagues are stuck on something, I always encourage them to do their best in Google search and then ask for help in the respective tech community, because good research is always important to nurture knowledge. But having said that, I always ensure that they check the Microsoft docs, if they haven’t, I suggest them to look into docs.microsoft.com.

Googling is a mandatory skill. BUT

Most developers start their career at the same pace and depend on random Google Searches. Even I started my career with a trust in blogs and communities. The blogs and videos are always helpful to make you understand the topics easily, but when you need deep technical knowledge, official documents or SDK documentation is the best source. These documents let you know the capabilities and limitations of the platform you work on.

Let’s take an example, if you are stuck at some point while using Power Apps Functions or D365APIs, what will you generally do? You might search it randomly and copy/paste the available piece of code (like we all do).

Can you imagine what can happen later to the system?

Is the code you copied supported by Microsoft?

Is it the optimal solution for your system and users?

SDK documentation is the answer to all these questions. It is your responsibility to ensure that you are not doing any unsupported customization.

We all know that the official documents are helpful but, do you know why people are not looking into these documents while working on something? It’s because we are all lazy…. These documents contain a broad range of technical information and are not as simple and easy to understand as individual blogs. But for technical knowledge and long-term future in D365 and Power Apps, it is advisable not to go with easy solutions. Reading through the official documents will definitely pay back your efforts. Once you start reading these documents and comprehend the topics, they become your true consultant.

In the start of our career, people may be short on time or lazy to check and read the SDK Documents. It wasn’t different for me either. But back in those days, I came across the blog of Ben Hosk and one of his statements struck me so hard “The CRM SDK can be stubborn, difficult, and renowned for not suffering fools gladly.” Reading this was the time when I decided to look into the Microsoft Documents along with the solutions from other Blogs and Videos available.

Now, referring the official documents for solution has more or less turned into a practice for me. If time does not permit to go through the documents, I would rather expand the deadline rather than compromise on the authenticity and quality of the solution. Moreover, I try to cover the topics during the weekend and learn something new from the official Microsoft Documents. So, if you are not familiar with these documents or fail to refer them even after knowing its benefits, it’s definitely a loss of opportunity to learn new things while at work.

So, you should never bypass “learning something new with every customization you do”!!!!

Do You Want to Prove Your Productivity While Working from Home?

How productive are you?

When we work from home, we have enough flexibility to do our job but, are we productive enough? The luxury can turn into a missed opportunity if not done precisely.

It’s been almost two months since I wrote a blog or participated in some community activities. I was too busy with my work and passive learning. I was under the impression that I am doing great because, I am delivering more tasks, learning new things, and extending my working hours by staying awake at night. I was being extremely productive. Right?

NO, I was just killing my productivity. HOW? It’s not all about delivering more tasks, but also about completing them in budgeted time without compromising on quality.

When I looked into my work, the activity which I used to complete in an hour from office is now taking more than an hour. Initially, I thought it could be the frequent breaks, however, I gradually realized, it was not just the breaks, it was simply because my productivity was going down the scale.

Oh no!!

This is not always noticeable mainly due to relaxed timelines during the current situation, as well as increased family time and close to zero daily commute. Do not let this comfort zone control your productivity, instead, put efforts to learn new things or educate yourself during the extra hours you earned by working from home. I bet this is the right time to sharpen your actual time management skills.

Shh!!

So what it takes to improve productivity while working from home? Though I am not an expert but can surely share my experience as of what helped me…take a look:

Be accountable for your timelines as more open-ended schedule may lead to bad results.
Set up a workspace and stick to your work hours.
Create a to-do-list and try to stick to it.
Take breaks and minimize distractions to put your best effort.
Avoid late-night work as socializing and exercising is also important.
Track your working hours to understand when you are more productive.
Start maintaining work-life balance to make sure you are doing great in both departments.

So now, over to you! let me know if they helped…