Six Sigma Blogs

Prior to their adoption of the Western solar calendar scheme, the Chinese almost wholly followed their own lunar calendar for determining the times of planting and harvesting and festival days. Although people in China today use the Western calendar for almost all business, governmental and practical matters of daily life, the old method still serves as the basis for determining many seasonal holidays. This coexistence of two calendar schemes has long been accepted by the people of China.

However, this does not only happen in China, it also happens in most other Eastern countries, like Thailand, and most Arabic countries.

A lunar month is determined by measuring the period of time needed for the moon to finish its full cycle of 29 and a half days, a standard that makes the lunar year a full eleven days shorter than its solar counterpart. This difference is made up every 19 years by the addition of seven lunar months.

The 12 lunar months are further divided into 24 solar divisions characterized by the four seasons and times of heat and cold, all of which bear a close relationship to the annual cycle of agricultural work.

The Chinese calendar - very much like the Hebrew calendar- is a combination of the solar and lunar calendars in that it strives to have its years concur with the tropical year and its months coincide with the synodic months. It is not surprising that a few similarities exist between the Chinese and the Hebrew calendar.

For instance, an ordinary year has 12 months, a leap year has 13 months. An ordinary year has 353, 354, or 355 days, a leap year has 383, 384, or 385 days. When determining what a Chinese year will be like, one needs to make a couple of astronomical calculations.

First of all, you have to work out the dates for the new moons. In these instances, a new Moon is the completely black Moon (that is to say, when the Moon is in conjunction with the Sun), not the first visible crescent, as is used by the Islamic and Hebrew calendars. The date of a new moon is then the first day of a new month.

The reason why the majority of countries which had their own calendars had to dump them in favour of the Western, Julian calendar that we use today, is business. First the British and then the Americans ran international business and they used the Gregorian calendar. Anyone who sought to work with them had to follow suit. This is why national policy often varies from local custom in Third World countries.

The government desires to deal on the International markets, but the ordinary family in the country can not. So, the government took up the Gregorian calendar but the people only pay lip service to it. I live in Thailand and people here do not even use the 24 hour day divided into two halves. Their day has four sections of six hours each and the first part starts at 6AM, not midnight. Therefore, they have four 4 o’clocks a day, for instance but no 7 o’clocks. They are also 543 years ahead of us, although this is more common, for instance in Muslim countries.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with researching Franklin planner pages. If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars

We would all love to have an extra hour every day. I know I would! Read on for a few simple ways to save time and give you that extra hour.

#1 - Use the address book method to keep all of your many on-line passwords and log-ins organized and easily accessible. Start fresh with each account as a “new contact” in your book. Accounts like frequent flier miles, banking and loan logins and your multiple email accounts all need organization! Under each account, in the notes section, list the URL, password and username and any other important information. For added security, create a code where only you can decipher your own passwords. Add two numbers or letters to the end of every password. That way your real password is what is in front of the last digits or letters.

#2 - Simplify Your Email Inbox! There are three types of email: 1. Junk mail. 2. Emails that require an immediate response or action. 3. Emails you want to read or are interesting in content (but do not require immediate action).

Delete the junk and respond to action items immediately, if you can. Store the ones you want to read in a “To Read” folder. Make additional folders for “Reference” items. Make it your goal to clear out your inbox at the end of every business day when possible. Do important or urgent action items immediately (when possible). Don’t feel obligated to respond to forwards, or to even read them. If you are interested in reading it but don’t have time at the moment, simply store it in a “To Read” folder. Never put any emails that require an action or response in your “To Read” folder. Respond to personalized emails right away and stop responding when an interchange has served its purpose. Schedule time each week to go through your “To Read” folder so it doesn’t get out of control.

#3 - Try an experiment of scheduling your To-Do List into your daily calendar. For example, if one of your To-Do List items is “find a tree-trimming service”, than put it into your calendar as an appointment - “Thursday, 10:00am-10:15am, find tree trimming service”. Many things on your list will take less than 15 minutes, but schedule each such item for 15 minutes anyway. You will have about 12 “to do” items scheduled in a 3-hour time period, you will probably accomplish everything on the list early and will have had time to handle interruptions. Generally speaking, however much time you give yourself to complete a specific task is how much time it will take. If you give yourself two hours, you will probably get the project or list of small “to-do’s” done in two hours. If you give yourself all day, it will most likely take you all day.

Think back to college when you figured out how to write a 5-page research paper in one night and remember that when you focus on a task and give yourself a deadline, you will get more done in less time. Not only will you complete the task in less time, but you’ll do a better job.