February of 2020 is here! Time does fly!
This is how I spent Jan 2020. I know you may not be interested, but I like the idea of keeping the universe accountable. Plus, the review would tell me if what I did in the month is helping me reach my yearly goals (and eventually, life plan and goals). For the record, three large goals for 2020 are Book 2, a sub-5 marathon, a topline of 50 crores.
Here’s the recap for Jan 2020.
I have sections for fails, wins, inbetweens, lessons, plan for Feb 2020 and a question.
#fails
- We did not do a single meetup for the Mastermind group. I plan to fix it by pushing the existing group and creating a new mastermind group. Also, I need to think that if these keep failing (this was my third attempt), then may be I am doing something wrong?
- Lost a VERY big deal that could have catapulted me in the next league. I did everything I could (saam, daam, dand, bhed and more) and yet I did not get the project. But thanks to this, I have started to maintain a list of failures (that I will look at every time I feel great).
- I could not follow a schedule that I would like to. I was traveling a lot more than what I typically do for a speculative assignment that I have taken. The assignment propels my brand forward and thus is an important one. I thought about it and I realized that I am unable to manage time because I don’t have a place to work out of.
- Did nothing (apart from a trek) to further the sub-5 marathon goal.
#wins
- Went on a trek to Mahuli Fort. This is the first trek that I have done in years and it was tough! but I am glad I made it to the top. And more importantly, I came back! Thanks, SK for this.
- Got myself a place to work out of (at a co-working space). With this, I’ve fixed #Jan20F2. Plus the place is like 500 meters from where I live and is open 24×7. I will now get into a schedule of sorts. And as I expand things, I plan to work out of this place irrespective of work, ideas, people. Unless I take up a different gig!
- Launched Podium sometime in the last year (with AD) but it has started to sputter to life. The first thing that we do under that is a weekly newsletter (PLEASE SUBSCRIBE). We’ve sent three editions and response has been encouraging. Need to scale it in Feb.
- I have reached 35 days on my #aPicADay challenge.
- I successfully implemented an indexing system for notes, thanks to DB. I am now trying to implement a color-coded life tracker (thanks, Visa). There’s this joke that my friends make – I spend more time tracking things than actually doing those!
#inBetweens (these are neither wins / nor losses)
- I got invited to pitch to a project that I could’ve taken on, put on the slow burner and made some trickles once in a while. But I chose to charge a large sum for it upfront and then, nothing happened! Which is ok. I want to be paid worth my time.
- I need to control my obsession with tabs on a browser window. I have like 100 tabs open at any given point in time. And the worse thing is that I don’t even know what to do with those tabs – after all, its inhuman to pay attention for that long!
Lesson? Always live at a hub. Even though it’s expensive and all that, the money is worth it.
The lesson here is that I work better when I have partners that push me! Need to find similar people as I go along.
Lesson? Create / own / work / whatever with a media brand! And if possible, invest more on such “media” platforms!
#inFeb
Here are the things that I will get done in Feb 2020. Again, these need to be in sync with the yearly goals.
- Write 25K words on book2
- Start climbing stairs. Do 100 flights a day
- Fix the C4E website
…the thing that keeps me up is that C4E and all the allied things I do are merely taking things from 1 to 1.3 or something. I am not doing anything in the 0 to 1 space. Or even 1 to 100. I am not adding any tangible, real value to the world. I am not making any dents. All I am doing is doing a different take on what others have done before me. If I were to disappear tomorrow, not one person would miss what I do. Imagine if Apple were to disappear, would you miss what they do? That! I want to do what people at Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, and other such places are doing. They create new things. They create a 1 from 0. They make that ding in the universe.
So, the deal is, I run C4E – an events and marketing consulting business. Now, like I said, anyone in the world can create this business. There is not one thing that I do that is irreplaceable. No, I don’t chase immortality (though I would love to not die, ever) but I do want to do meaningful work. Work and things and output that gives happiness, validation, comfort, peace, inspiration, platforms and other such things to a billion people. And more, if possible. And I have no clue how to go about doing that. What I do gives a handful of the above-mentioned things to a handful of people. And that is not enough. I believe I have what it takes to deliver all of that. But I don’t have the platform! Neither do I know how to build such a platform. And worse, while what I do is interesting, it may not lead me to that goal. There is no large mission that I am a part of. And I do not know how to get there. The world needs to be the oyster and yet, today, I am limited to like Veera Desai road!
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PS: To track these (like I said, I track more and do less), I use the following tools…
- I follow the Maker Day – Manager Day philosophy.
- I use tags extensively and I tag everything – mails, tweets, notes even when I write with a pencil. And I ensure that the names and styles are consistent. Sometime in the future, this would become a really big differentiator. Information archiving is easy. Retrieval is a pain.
- Asana – I use the free version. To track tasks etc.
- Google Calendar to schedule meetings etc.
- Toggl – this is a paid app but I use the free version to track time on Manager days
- A 15-min interval calendar – template here. I take a print of this on my Maker days and list all tasks. And then I track every 15 min. The idea is to reach a point when I can start tracking 1-hour long slots.
- A combination of Evernote, Miro, Notes app on Mac, a physical notepad, post-it notes, numerous spreadsheets and don’t know what all. With time I want to move to just one online tool and one notepad. I don’t know the optimal solution. But let’s see. Plus, I am thinking, once I reach a certain stature and stage, would I need to minutely manage my time/life? Not sure! What do you think?
- Lately have started to use Roam to catalog thoughts. Let’s see how it goes. And In Feb, I will try to use Notion to create hyperlinked content. Again, not sure if I would continue to use it. Let’s see where it goes.
- a. Work on #book2. I started working on this. Not full-steam though. I’d give this a C.
- b. Start running. I could not. Been trying since Oct. But I did take some actions on trying to get fitter. So, C.
- c. Get saurabhgarg.com up and running. The site is up but I don’t like it. So, a D.
- d. Do a one-month reading deep-dive into one specific topic. No action. So, an F.
- e. Work towards creating a business that takes me beyond India. Worked hard on it and yet it’s not showing me the results. Attempt – yes, the outcome – no. So, a C.
- f. Renew focus on C4E. No action. F.
- g, fix my planning process. Did! Not quite an A but a B for sure!