Prof. Garg

Day 35 of Lockdown

Day 35 of the lockdown.

Day 41 otherwise.

Hello, world!

The dark clouds that shrouded me yesterday? They seem to have dispelled! Yay to that!

So, as I get about my day, I am listening to this concert by Shantanu Moitra where he is talking about his journey through the Himalayas and his lessons there. Each piece of music has been composed by his time there. I am thinking, it is SUCH a great idea. I mean as an individual, he took it upon himself to go discover himself. At places that are tough to live. Especially if you are not from there. And while he did that, he heard stories from people, got inspired by their simplicity, and then came back to create music. And then of course, he shared it with whoever he could. Via concerts etc. And I have to tell you, it IS BRILLIANT. Do listen to it. Thanks, JS for sharing it with me.

I think that is what keeps me sane. Inspiring stories from people that do things that are unexpected. As someone said, “koshish karne wale ki kabhi haar nahi hoti“

On the same note, I think this lockdown is a brilliant opportunity to think and discover and identify what inspires you. And what inspires me is the ability to help others figure what they want!

And here’s an offer. In case you would want to use me as a bouncing board to crack what is it that you want to chase, I am happy to volunteer. Drop me an email with answers to these three questions…

1. If you had all the money what would you do?
2. What was your favorite thing to do as a kid?
3. Who do your friends compare you to?

So that’s about it! Let whoop some ass!

Previous posts in the lockdown series are – Day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 19, 30, 32, 34

Lessons from Anurag Kashyap’s Journey in Bollywood

Thanks to Vijesh, I saw this talk where Anurag Kashyap talks about his journey in Bollywood. There are tons of lessons in there. I think you must check it out. This blog post is a list of lessons that I am taking away from it.

Here’s a list.

Once you know what you want to do in life (that’s where I think half the battle is), identify places where people who can help you find work on what you want to work on hang out. Spend time there. Offer them your services for free. Till a point, you become so important that you start getting the work you wanted. Aka, hustle. He says that he worked at Prithvi Cafe because that is where all the film-wallahs would hang out. And once he was there, he started to work for free, as a writer. Because he could write fast and did not ask for credit or money, he started getting work. And with time, he became important.
Always be available. Continuation from the first point.
No one owes you anything. If you want it, you better go work for it. Just because you want it, the world will NOT serve it to you on a platter. He gives an example of how people goto him and tell him that they want to make movies and he asks them, “who’s stopping you?”
He says that each choice has a consequence. And you have to know that you will have to live with and deal with those consequences.
Every time he would see resentment from people around him, he would move out from that clique.
Do things. And not just crib. Do not blame others. Do not abuse others. Don’t just cry that things are wrong.
Jugaad. How do you understand people and appeal to their desires deep down and get things done. He gives an example of how he got a digital camera for free by offering a role to the person who controlled the camera.
When you believe in something, you HAVE to stand up for it and fight for it. You HAVE to take responsibilities. This is my biggest takeaway.
Persistence is probably one of the most undervalued traits! Of course, you have to know what you really really stand for in life. And once you know what you believe in, you HAVE to persist with things!
When you fail, you don’t crib or moan. You go back to the drawing board and restart. As he said, the world does not owe you anything!

That’s about it. Do tell me what you take away from his talk. Over and out!

PS: This was first written for subscribers of my letters, SoGv2. More about em is here.

How I Work – 2019 edition

This is the 2019 version of a How I Work post that I wrote in 2016. Wrote this as an email to a colleague who liked the system I used.

I often get asked how do I do all the things I do. My reply is almost always the same – I dont do a lot. I just pretend. But even with that, I have a system. In this post, I will try to talk about the system that I use.

The system is made of a few philosophical ideas and some tools. Here is a list of the two.

Tools

So, this is a list of tools that I increasingly use to rely on things.

1. The Brain

www.thebrain.com (freemium)

What does this tool do?
This tool mimics how the human brain thinks and make connections.

What do I use this tool for?
I use this to dump EVERYTHING I have in my head. Each night I narrate a voice note to my EA. He then transcribes the notes and puts on the brain in threads that he thinks is relevant. Once I open it, in case I find a thread that is not in the right place, I do it. This reinforces things in my head as well.

Brain does not have the ability to store longer notes and thus those go in Evernote / Google Drive.

2. Airtable

www.airtable.com (freemium)

What does this tool do?
This is like excel sheet but on steroids. The key difference is that on excel, all data is numbers and on this, each row / column could have different data types (numbers, images, links, tables etc).

What do I use this tool for?
I use this for CRM. Each meeting I have, each call I make is logged into this. Again, I make voice notes and send to my EA. He transcribes and enters the details in this. For CRM, this piece will be useful for you to set this up.

Other tools for CRM
Apart from these, the other tools that you could try and experiment with are:

Notion – notion.so – a better notepad.
Monday.com – a team / task management tool
Hubspot – gold standard in how the world manages its CRM

3. Asana

www.asana.com (freemium)

What does this tool do? What do I use this tool for?
This is a task manager. For each thing I am working on, I divide it into tasks. And then I get my EA to put those tasks in this. Each task has a person who’s directly responsible for it, a deadline, a priority and an impact area (what does that task help me achieve – money? connections? brand?).

This is my lifeline. If this stops working, I’ll die.

You may want to try Trello, Wunderlist etc. All these are task managers essentially and allow you to log what you work on.

4. Miro

www.miro.com (freemium)

What does this tool do?
This is a virtual whiteboard. You can pin things, make notes, link to stuff and others.

What do I use this tool for?
This is where I chart and plot where I want to be in life.

***

Philosophy

All these are dependent on a few things…

Google as login. Its SUPER easy to save files, move them around with logins and all that if I use Google as the backend. Of course I have concerns on the privacy piece but I am not as important to be hacked.
Device / location independence – I want to be able to access these things from anywhere in the world, on any device, as long as I have internet. So, all is on the cloud.
Ownership of time – I own my time. I value my freedom and time more than anything else.
Trial and Error – these things are very personal and you will have to try multiple iterations and variations before you find a system that works for you.
People. I have a team of 2 to manage my life. One is my EA – the most important piece. I am super lucky to have found someone young that I trust and can mould into the way I work. I don’t know how long he’d stay with me but I will try and ensure that when he moves out, I have a replacement in place. The other is a BA – a business analyst that does all my homework. I just got him onboard and I am experimenting to see how it works out. The guy does not manage my time per se but saves me time by doing research etc. Think of it as an outsourced brain.
Brains are meant for thinking and NOT for storing. The day I realised this, I “outsourced” all the remembering to The Brain and to my EA. Now, when I need info, I use the tools to retrieve and in case tools fail, I call the EA and that guy’s job is to remember anyway! Saves me brainpower.

That’s about it. Shortish post.

Like I said, this is the 2019 version of the post that I wrote in 2016. My methodology and madness has remained the same – the tools have evolved (from excel to Airtable etc.).

Hope these help. In case any of you wants me to set these up for you, please do let me know. I am one email away 🙂

The Daily Grind – 2710 – 010818

Since I wrote this, at least two people have told me that its not fair. At two levels.

A. If I am friends with them, I ought to talk to them.

Point taken. While I try to spend more time offline than what I spend online, I need to connect deeper with people. I will do it from now on. If the two of you are reading this, you’ve earned the “right” to confront me.

PS: I will eventually get back to being the online attention hog (soon).

B. I cant be ranting.

Reminds me of a time of about 4-5 years ago when I would crib like there’s no end to my troubles. It was not the best phase of my life (similar to this one – patterns!) and it took time for me to get out of it.

Now that I know that I am repeating the mistakes I made last time around, its time to fix it.

One simple solution that came my way was to channelise all the creative energy into solving the issues (rather than mulling over them).

Point taken. Lets fucking do it. This blog. And the next book (lol – is there a next book, Mr. Garg?). And C4E. And all other things that tick me.

The other came from Ashima (my fitness Guru). She said that when you are unwell and unhappy, its body’s natural reaction to shut it down and preserve the energy (after all for the biological machine, survival is more important than the ego and happiness and all that). So, you would naturally get into the states that make you save energy – sleep (compared to staying awake). The body will get more hungry (compared to the feeling of satiation) and remain like that even if you eat like a pig. You’d want to get into the dark rooms because you are “safe.” And so on and so forth.

One thing is to give into the temptations, get lazy and let the body take its course. The other is to fight it out. Rather than going down the spiral, you stop it mid way and reverse it.

So, rather than sleep, you go out and run. Rather than eating shit, try to fast. Instead of dark thoughts, go spend time with people that make you happy. And so on and so forth.

So, I shall do this. Today on.

The third came from Robin Sharma (year, the Monk and Ferrari guy). This morning. While showering I saw this video and somehow it made sense. He talks about 5P’s that you can use to get over a bad day.

I already do one of those things (journaling – this blog is THE journal; the echoChamber is THE journal). Need to implement the other 4 things.

And the final, the 4th, came from Prof. Garg himself. I have this metric. I call this the life or the death question. If what you do can kill someone (or can bring a new life), think a million times before you act. But if what you do cant, then act first. And then wait for consequences. Apart from life and time, everything can be recreated, recycled, reproduced et al.

So, you have an idea but you need your boss’ approval? Fuck that. Do it. Show her the results. If she’s happy, you are cool. If she is not, say sorry and move on. What’s the worst that could happen? She would fire you. You can always get a new job. Even if it pays less. At least you’d have the satisfaction in your head that you tried.

You want to travel the world but parents dont agree? Leave. Send postcards. Call home. They would yell and all that. They would be sad. But time heals. They would come around and start supporting you. And if they dont, good riddance. Really.

You want to ask that girl out? Do it. Who cares if she says no. PS: If she does say no, please please accept the fact that she doesnt want you. Move on. Dont be a dick and chase her and make life miserable for her. There are many more great women out there.

And a million other examples.

So, the lesson? When you are down in the dumps, rather than feeling sad about it and all that, take it head on. If you’re staring at the bottom of a cliff, fucking jump. Either you’d grow wings and get stronger and you’d know you are anti-fragile. Or you’d crash and you’d know that you were in the wrong game. Its these adversities that shape (and reveal the true character).

I am going to take this head on. And will figure out if I soar. Or if I crash. Wish me luck.

***

So, this is it.

Oh, I am on the road the next three days. Three cheers to that. I am in Chennai. If anyone is around, please do let me know and the Filter Coffee is on me. Or the dosas.

PS: It would be a real challenge to write everyday while I am travelling. Lets see how I fare.

The Daily Grind – 2714 – 280718

I did not write yesterday. I could’ve. I just dint feel like it. No, not cool. Need to overcome these bouts of laziness if I am to get ahead. No, not being harsh at myself. But looking at myself from a few feet in the air and evaluating what am upto.

Anyhow, without further ado, here’s the post of the day.

So, Krishna read the posts that I’ve been making over the last few days and told me to get married.

When I asked him about his rationale for saying so, he couldnt give me a specific answer. He said, it just felt like saying that.

Now when someone says that, it either comes from deep experience. Or from deep insight. Or from the gut. In any of these cases, if I trust the other person, even though they say something that is counter-intuitive or something that I dont agree with, I tend to give things a thought. The other filter (apart from trust) I use is if they have skin in the game. In this case Krishna doesnt. But I know that he cares deeply about me, I am inclined to give things a thought.

So, I am thinking.

About two things.

One, That if I should get married.

Two, and if what I write prompts the outsiders to evaluate me as a lonely, miserable man, I need to fix it. Fix both – what I write. And how I feel.

And after all the jamming, I think I have answers.

One.
No, I am not getting married.
I am selfish af.
I dont have enough to love someone more than myself.
And to me, my dreams, my ambition is greater than anything else.
However if things go the way they are going and I am forced to take a full-time employment, I will revisit this piece.

Two.
I will not write about my deepest darkest fears and all that here.
I will push them on echoChamber.
The point is to not run away but to give the tribe (the set of people that read my blog – yeah there is a set now!) something that adds value (rather than give them gossip that they can anyway get from a million other sources).

The other thing that needs fixing is how I feel. Now, I am not sure how to do that. What I write on this blog is true. Nothing is manufactured. Things here are as true as my existence is. Each word posted here is as close to truth as I’ve ever known. I’ve written shit here that my closest friends dont know. If I am misunderstood and I have no one but this blog to pour the grief on. If I am elated, I celebrate by writing a post here.

I’ve had great days, superb victories, glorious falls, bouts of melancholic days on stretch and much more. And for each thing, this blog has been the place where I’ve shared it all. This is closest to a soulmate that I’ve had.

I know its funny.
That I seek company of strangers.
And for someone who wants to change the world and make money in the process and enable people with that money, I dont have enough people for company.
Its ironical but that’s how it is.
I am as alone as that lone camel in that infinite desert.
Or as an actor under the lights when he’s asked to perform.
Lol. That’s some creative writing.

Anyhow, I cant run away from what I have or who I am. The point is, I need to fix how I think and what I pour out here.

Hence forth I will.

So, the big change would be that on this blog, while I will write personal things, I will not rant. Except those one off days. Even the most serious magazines have cartoons section :D.

I’d instead write about ideas, projects, things that I am working on, things that I need help on, things that I can help with.

I will talk about big ideas and themes that I am passionate about, causes I want to contribute to. For example, I’d talk about eduction and platforms that enable people. I’d talk about health. I’d talk about pushing the human limits – mental and physical. I’d make this blog a place where I raise a storm (even if its in a mere teacup).

If I cant think of ideas, I will write about what I learnt in that day. I’ll probably write 10 ideas and work on working out the idea muscle. I’ll write about what I observed during the day. I will write about things that ought to get looked at. You know, become an activist!

Basically, I will write about things that make you wiser.
Or more informed, if you will.
Starting ~~tomorrow~~ today.

So, what did I learn today that I think world at large ought to know?

I am the most effective when I wake up early and get some work done before the world wakes up. While this is applicable to me, I sincerely think you should try this. Try getting up early. I have had friends who love nights like they love life. And when they started getting up early, magical things started to happen for them! So, there may be a merit in becoming a morning person. Try it. For a week and if it doesn’t work, big deal!
There are two kinds of people. One, who are willing to work to reach where they want to go. And second, who’d just talk about it. Which one are you? Are you the one who acts upon their desires? I am clearly the second one. And I need to become the first one. And how do I straddle from being the second to the first? Any inputs?

And what is the big idea of the day?

You need to find your “blue zone of work.” What is a blue zone of work? Inspired by blue zones where on an average people live longer, a blue zone of work is a place where you get your best work done. Where you get in the flow with rather ease. For me, the blue zone is at a Starbucks outlet (the one in Powai). I cherish my time there and I dont let anyone interrupt me while I am there. For some, its their office desk. Some people are most effective when they are at home. What is your blue zone?

And I think thats about it for the day. For tomorrow, thanks to a prompt by SN, I am writing this super long post on manufacturing luck. Watch out this space 🙂

That’s it for the day.

Over and out.

PS: Thanks to VG for prompting me to write. Need more people in the tribe to do so (push me to write when I havent written. Are you guys listening?).

PPS: I fucked up on the day count on the blogposts (count of the days remaining till to Jan 1, 2026. I got the count wrong on the last few days. Fixing it today on. As of today, its 2714 days to go. Here is the proof.

A primer on how to #beBetter.

Context: I wrote this as an email to a friend when he asked me for tips to manage his increasingly complex life (he is doing exceedingly well in life and has a toddler that keeps him on the toes) while remaining healthy.

I poured EVERYTHING I knew in this email.

And while I was editing it, I realised I could send this to more friends. And thus this post. Please note that I am no expert. Just trying to get better as an individual and these are the things that I am working on to #bebetter.

Hey XXXX,

So I wanted to write you an email and then I thought a doc is better. Easy to format and consume and share and comment and add to and all that.

Standard disclaimers apply. I am not a doctor. This is not medical advice. I am NOT responsible for the results if you do try these.

Oh, I don’t do a lot of these right now but will start doing so by the end of this year (right now, I am not even equipped to do some of these and I am working hard to get there).

Also, dont ask me for research, facts, rationale, reasoning, links, sources etc. This are things that I sincerely BELIEVE in and am willing to do myself. If you think these are right, please try. If you think these are wrong, these are wrong and refrain.

But like I said, I believe in and practise these things. There is all the skin in the game when I recommend these. So, up to you.

I divide my “discourse” in sections. Sections are:

Health
Work
Future
Tools
Misc

A. Health

This is the most important thing ever. I sincerely wish that I could turn back time and not abuse the body the way I did (coke etc). Thankfully I was never on drugs or alcohol. But if I tell something to all young ones, I say that you need to work on your health.

Anyhow, within health, key components are:

A.1 Sleep (I know that you have a baby and it’s tough to do all this but I am sure you can).

You have to find your optimal level (duration) of sleep. People say it’s between 6 and 8 hours. For me, its 5. For you, it could be 8. Use a sleep tracker (see tools below).
Find your relationship with circadian rhythm. Essentially, know if you are a morning person or a night person. And try to become a morning person if you are not. Easy way to do this is to try to sleep by 10 and up by 5. And no this is not impossible. You can do this. First few days are tough. And then it’s easy after that.
When you sleep, sleep in a room WITHOUT any screen. Tough but if I can do, you can too. If you are using a tracker, put on airplane mode.
Room temperature — 22 degrees
Lights — DARK. Or Blue. Buy lights if you have to. I bought and it got fucked after a few days and since its too expensive, couldnt buy again.
As you drift to sleep, think of things that you are grateful for, in THAT day. Not in general. On THAT day.
REM Sleep is when what you learn gets reinforced and new connections are made. So I typically try to read / think about things that are perplexing me as I drift to sleep. By the time I get up and reach the shower, I somehow get the best ideas. Remember they say that best ideas come on the pot? This is the reason why. So, use sleep as a weapon.
After you wake up, first thing? MAKE YOUR BED. Simple and SUPER EFFECTIVE. Please please do this.
Second thing? Think of three things that you need to achieve today. That you WILL achieve today. Think. No writing nothing. Think. And then you start your day. If you want more dope on what to do when you start your day, ask me and I will tell you.
Third thing? Watch some funny video. Whatever tickles your bone. I watch haryanavi humor. And prank calls by RJ Naved. You can watch Louis CK. Or even Modi Ji 🙂

A.2. Nutrition

Irrespective of your body size, shape, age etc, you HAVE to go on a lo-carb diet. Fuck what nutritionists say. Lo carb it is.
Try Keto for 2 weeks. Trust me, its THE shit.
Cut out red meat from your life. Forget that there is red meat. If you eat red meat.
Forget sugar. Eating processed sugar is a sin. You need to slap yourself hard in public if you eat sugar.
No alcohol. No smoking. EVER.
Try weed. Serious. But in moderation.
Skip Dinner. If you can’t, ensure that you don’t eat carbs after 7 PM. If you have to have to eat, proteins. Boiled eggs are the best. No milk. And it’s ok to be boring and not want different kinds of food. And it’s ok if you go to family functions and people make fun of you for not eating.

A.3. Brain

Install one of the brain training apps. I use Peak. Its immensely helpful. Its like exercise. You know walking is good. But same applies to brain. Each day, doing something that actually works on brain muscles is required.
Brain is NOT for remembering. Its for thinking and processing and creating patterns. Outsource your memory to The Brain (a tool), or simply, Evernote. Counter-intuitive. But do it. Your brain has one function and one function only — processing. This means making connections, seeing patterns, connecting the dots etc. Fuck anything else that anything says. No one cares if you can remember a deck of cards — its a simple hack, anyone can learn. What you need to be able to do is process and be creative.
Practise deep breathing. Wait. Deep breathing? Brain? Yes. Do it.
Challenge yourself in new ways. Do things that you’ve never done. For example, stand up? Or play pool? Brian is about making connections. The day you stop making connections and the synapses, you are fucked.

A.4. Mindfulness

Meditate 10 minutes everyday. Use Calm. Free version allows you 28 days. Please do that. If you want, am happy to buy you a subscription.
REMOVE all negative things from your life — friends, family — anyone that drags you down, throw that person, thing out. This could be your best friend that pulls your leg all the time. I’ve done this. Thrown people out. It hurts. Like Cancer. Its part of your body but you kill it.
ADD positive things.
There is LOT more on mindfulness. I am not sure of a lot of things myself. This is something that even I am working on.
Get authentic. Read about it. Authentic. You are like who you are. In real life, in conduct, in meetings, in your bedroom, in your heart and in your soul. If you are authentic, you spend less effort (you are not posing and hence you are using less brainpower and thus are happier). Plus people on other side also know you as authentic and good and honest and all that and thus trust you more.

A.5. Body

Massage — twice a week. At home. Not spa. There is this guy at XXXX. He charges 400 per day. Find one in XXXXX.
Walk — 45 mins EACH day. There is NO alternative to this. Invest in a GREAT walking shoe. Either Nike or Asics or nothing. You don’t have issue with money. So do it.
Work with hands. Learn something that makes you use your hands. This will help you in delaying old age. I tried guitar. I am going to pick up Khartal.
Grow muscle. Don’t become The Rock. But grow muscle. This will not happen without gym or protein. I don’t understand much of this right now but I once I reach that point, i will.
Get a standing desk. You have to. If you can’t, I can gift you one. Mine is coming. At Starbucks, I work with a standing desk.
Keep back straight. Remind yourself multiple times to keep the spine straight.
Sex. Get regular with it if you aren’t. Sorry, this is a taboo and all that in India but get regular at it. Get an extramarital if you have to. I know this sounds wrong but you need to decide for yourself if you want to live till 120 and you want to be active and all that. Fuck what has been taught to us. Draupadi had 5 husbands. Akbar had a Harlem. What other evidence do you need? There is science. And no, I don’t have an extramarital thing yet. Heck, I don’t even have a marital thing yet. But if need be, I will. I am selfish.

Here are some “hacks”

Carry Almonds with you in a small box. Everytime you are hungry, pop in a few. Not too much. A few (less than 5 at a time). Or boiled eggs. Buy an egg boiler. I bought one and it’s super easy to use and its fast and I get perfectly boiled eggs.
Buy eye mask if you can’t get lights in the room.
Use the night mode feature on your phone to get the phone to automatically go silent post 8 PM.
Tell yourself EVERYDAY that you are lucky. You know that study right? They divided a random group of people into 2 groups. One was told that they were lucky. The other was told they weren’t. And then they were asked to search for free movie ticket coupons in the same newspaper. Guess who found more coupons? Just because they were TOLD that they were lucky, they found more.
Listen to the music from the time in life when you had no worries and were carefree and you were SUPER happy. May be the same track that you used to propose to your wife! I listen to Lucky Ali, KK, Silk Route etc. I am forgetting who talks about this but this is a PROVEN technique to reduce stress and get focus back.
Assume you make 3 lakhs a month (INR). This means you make 10K a day. Means each working hour for you is worth 1000 bucks. Anything that you can outsource for cheaper, do that. For example, you can get a driver for 400 bucks an hour, do it. You can hire an EA to save you 20 hours in a month? Pay 20K and get one. More on EA later. But point is, anything that frees up time for you — even if you have to pay for it, do it.

B. Work

Get an EA to handle emails and other “dirty” tasks. Idea is that you will NOT do anything that does NOT add value to your time or life. If there is one thing that you can do from this entire document, get an EA will be THE number 1. May be sleep is but this is close.
You will only do 4 things at a point in time. Not 3, not 5. If more than 4 things demand your attention, you will find a resource to do that. You can afford to. So do it. Wish I could.
Use pomodoro. 25 mins of deep work and then break. Chunk you tasks in 25 mins. Open office for 25 mins, meetings for 25 mins, thinking for 25 mins etc. The other 5 mins on the pomodoro? Go for a walk. I am going to do 2 push-ups every 25 mins. Lets see. Idea is to cultivate that habit.
While you work and you get a distraction, do NOT jump to it. Buy empty visiting cards and write on those the thing that is causing you distraction. And then once you are done what you are doing, do things that are on the cards.
Get a personal board. I am getting one. You are on it. And there are 10 other people. Like XXXXX Sir said, from different backgrounds.
Tell each of those people about your work ambitions. Don’t hide. Trust them. Don’t talk in vague terms. They are YOUR board. There is often sensitive information. Its ok. Life’s too short. And this sensitive information is NEVER life or death. Its at max career limiting. We can get the career back. But it’s ok to trust in your people, your board. For your progress.
Switch off mobile notifications from all apps except SMS. Tell your favorite ones to call or sms for emergency. Everything else has to “fetch” for you. Your life shall not be controlled by the ding of an incoming message by a colleague or a client. Neither it will be run by a notification on Facebook about your wife uploading a pic of your daughter. It will be run by you and your goals and your ambition.
Get famous. You already have XXXX. Use that. Leverage that. The idea is that reputation takes you so so far. Go far. I suck at this. I am working on this. And its tough for me cos I havent done shit. You have. Your reputation can take your so much farther its not funny.
Write. PLEASE. Even if you think you write BS or write like crap, please write. There is NO better way to clear the head than to write. Writing this note has given me so so so so many ideas and reinforced so many beliefs. Thank you for making me write this one. Ideally you have to write at a specific time EACH day. I am trying to get into that zone of writing. But I need to first get out of the issue that my time is owed to someone else. You are lucky. You own your time.
Learn mental models. Use them. If not all models, just learn Cialdini’s. These are social proof, authority, scarcity, liking, commitment and reciprocity. Find out all the models I’ve used in this one email.
Get purposeful. Dont do things because there’s nothing else. I can talk so much about this. Not purpose as in world changing and all that. Purpose as in you do things with so much passion, so much love, so much purpose that if someone is looking at you, they get infected with your way of working. Ordinary is boring af.

C. Future

Make a vision board (sounds gyaan but trust me, it helps. And ofcourse none of these esoteric things happen unless you work towards those things)
Once a week, sit and think on your future. Mark this in your calendar. There is no way you can’t NOT do this.
Use your board. I am sure you read the point above.
Make your team. Team XXXX. I have this thing called Team SG. A set of REALLY young kids (in the age group of less than 25) that you hire today. These people HAVE to work with you for rest of YOUR life. Groom them, mentor them, help them. Make your team. Not your company’s. Your. Do you have 5 people who’d walk out with you if you have to quit? I have 1. I want 9 more in this year. Working on this.

D. Tools

Start using Asana. Or Trello. Whatever you like. Idea is to outsource your remembering function.
Google Calendar. You will NOT meet anyone if its not on your calendar. Not even standup meetings. Create office hours (time when anyone can walk in to you office to ask you anything — like yesterday, 5 people walked in while you and I were talking. Train then that they can only ask you things at 11 AM or 5 PM). In 25 min slots.
Sleep tracking — use fitbit or even some app on your phone. I use Sleep Cycle. This tells you how is your sleep and if you are sleep is fucked, you are fucked. You need to first know if the sleep is good or bad. You may think you sleep well but the app tells you that you are fucked and you need to fix it. This is the single biggest revelation that happened to me.
All tools that I use EVERYDAY are: Hubspot CRM, Feedly, Asana, Toggl, LifeTrack sheet (where I track my life — I note down what I do on most days), Google Calendar.
There is no set formula for these tools. You find your set of tools. I found these after a lot of effort and lot of time. I keep going back and forth between tools. Idea is to find your own path.

E. Misc

You OWN the day. Not your calendar or emails. You can choose to switch off emails. Once you get your EA, you can further control your time.
Use your commute. Cat nap, podcasts etc. Do whatever but do NOT waste it with SM or email. Commute is THE biggest advantage we have. I know of a guy who actually lives in Thane so that he can get 2 hours every day in train to read! Beat that!

That’s for the time being. I am sure there are more. And I am not sure if this helps you. But these have helped me immensely. I am little more peaceful and content. Though I am yet to become the big shit that I’ve always wanted to become — I am sure I will get there. I am lucky. Are you?

Any inputs anyone? I am @saurabh on twitter.

PS: First posted on Medium here.

Help me help people around me…

Among other things that I have planned to do #in2018, I am gonna work on a non-fiction. The idea is to create something that helps the world, allows me to reach more people and achieve financial independence. A win-win-win. Yes there IS a thing like that.

The starting point of all the above, is a non-fiction book. And for the same, I am looking for a research and writing assistant to help me!

What is the book about?

Cant give too many specifics for the time being (because I dont have them to be honest; all of it is WIP). But when it does come out, it will be stocked in either the self-improvement or business & management category at bookstores across the world (not just India). In fact, the first month together will be spent on shortlisting the theme, idea etc.

What I need from you? What “skills” am I looking for?

Understanding of business. If you have studied marketing, journalism, business reporting, you will be an ideal person to work with.
Understanding of behavioural sciences. All self-improvement books are essentially about behaviour, decision making and mental models.
Ability to conduct online research, do background research on people, connect dots (like investigative journalists do) and other similar things that will help us make sense of all the data that we gather.
Inquisitiveness and innate curiosity about the world around us. What makes people do things they do? Why do companies fail? What makes an underdog beat a Goliath against all odds?
Handle large quantity of data. This “data” would be things like interviews (that we conduct), research (to back up these interviews), original text (that we write), media (that we will have to consume to work on the book), scratch notes, snippets, thoughts and other things.
Great command over English language. This means that you are a grammar nazi, you know how to fix a badly written piece of text and you can spot a badly written piece of text from a mile. This is probably the most important bit as my command over language is questionable.
Some sense of humor. Please. There’s just too many serious people around and we can do with some easy going people.
You would have read a few business, non-fiction and self-improvement books. This means you understand the structure of such books. You also know what is faff and what actually adds value.
Most importantly, you REALLY want to work on a non-fiction in the self-improvement genre.

You must…

be is in your mid-twenties. I am sure of this unless you are an anomaly.
be willing to work 2-3 hours EACH day. No Sundays or weekends. I dont believe in that thing called the work-life balance. My work is my life. I live to work. I work to be able to make lives of people better, if not make a dent in the universe.
live in Mumbai. You will work from your home / college / office etc. And you will have to meet me once a week for 2-3 hours.
have access to a computer and Internet.
know Google suite really well (drive, docs, keep, calendar etc.).

And the most important of them all. What’s in it for you?

Stipend. I can pay upto Rs. 5K per month. For the duration that we work together. I estimate this to be a 6-month long engagement. If 5k a month is too less for you, I promise that I will give you all the royalty I make for the first 5 years. No conditions. Serious about this.
Credits in the book. As an assistant for sure. And in case you and I click, may be as a co-author. How cool will it be to have written and published a book in your name?
Learning. The book will help people become better (yes, you are staring at a man who wants to be yet another self-improvement and personal productivity guru). And while the ambition is to write a book that helps people, the very process of writing the book will help you as well. Plus I am a great mentor. I am. Trust me!

In short, I am looking at a Superman / Superwoman. To push me to do well. And make the world a better place. I know I cant do this alone. And I need help. Are you the one?

P.S.: Found any typos in this post?

1000WAD_082017. Post 1. Time is limited.

22 August 2017. So I have accepted yet another 1000 words a day challenge. Knowing me, its gonna be tough to keep up with it. Unless I put a theme to it.

One of the themes could be writing a piece inspired by each alphabet. And I can repeat the vowels. So, I will have 30 odd pieces in 30 days (I did this some months back). Or the other option is to write 1000 words towards #book2, where I end up with 30K words. But then I am not sure if I have it in me to be able to do this – considering that the book is still in flux (and while a forced word count has worked well for me in the past, I want to do this one different). Or the third option is, I can write about things that I want to leave behind, should I die after a month. Things that have shaped me and my thinking.

And after deliberate thinking, I have decided that I will write about the lessons, today being the first one.

So, lesson 1. Your time is limited. Everything else, including money, is unlimited.

If you lose time, you will NOT get it back.

Unlike other that is seemingly scarce, is not. What are the things that we think are limited? Money? Business opportunities? Access to loved ones? Number of chips in a bag? Battery on your phone? Parking slots?

Each of those things – EACH – is infinite (from the perspective that we are specs of dust on a blue ball in the vast infinite). You can make as much money as you want to. And if you exhaust the money you’ve made, you can earn it back. If you are lazy to put in the hardwork to earn money, you can beg, borrow, marry or steal. But you can always get it. And there is more than enough of it to fulfill every whim that you may have.

Loved ones is a probably the biggest myth propagated since the beginning of time. As I get along in life, I realise that love is probably the most overrated of things. More on this some other time. But the point is, you can always find opportunities to spend time with someone, if they matter. You need time for it. Nothing else. Time that is anyway limited.

Number of chips in a bag? Get another one. Battery on your phone? Carry a powerbank. Charge it again. Parking slot? Park a mile up the road. There is always a way out.

But the time that is gone, the seconds you’ve spent reading this (or on other frivolous things), is not coming back. And thus, you need to be VERY conscious of the way you spend your time. You need to eliminate time sinks from you life. Will talk about time sinks in a bit.

Your time is so limited that you need to spend is more wisely than you spend your money. This is counter intuitive. We are ok taking public transport because we cant afford a taxi or a cab but we “waste” probably 2 times the time in reaching the destination. While we saved 100 bucks, we had to spend that extra hour. Is that the worth of your hour?

I know not everyone has access to money, but once this thought about scarcity of time takes home, you find ways of saving time AND making money, that further allows you to save time. It becomes a feedback loop.

So, what has worked with me, when I think about the time vs money piece is putting a monetary value to each hour. Dont ask me how I came to this number but the cost of my each day is Rs. 20000. And thus, my hourly cost is about 1000 bucks (little less). Now all decisions of time become a simple maths equation.

If I need something done and its going to take me an hour to do so, I try and see if I can outsource it to someone who’d charge less than a 1000 bucks for it. If I can, I outsource. Or else I do it.

I am trying to implement this in all walks of life. And I have become so anal about my time that I have automate most things. My lunch is ordered by a colleague – she orders the same thing from same restaurant everyday at same time. I am not thinking about my lunch at all. If I have a meeting at 11 and I expect traffic on the way, I leave at 8, park myself as a coffee shop. If a certain thing at work can be given to a junior, I will. If I need to hire more people, I will. Of course I dont have infinite money either. But I am trying to do that.

Of course, there are exceptions.

My book for example. I am irrational about it. I know that I wont make money with it and the amount of time I put on it is unreal. If I were to put a value on it, say I need 2 hours everyday to work on it. Thats like 2000 bucks a day. Over the entire life of the book, I will probably put in 700 days. So, the financial value of writing a book (as of today) is Rs. 14,00,000. And no, no author makes that kind of money from the sales of the book. And my hourly “rate” of 1000 bucks will go up as I get busier in life (my time gets limited and thus attracts more premium). But then, somewhere at the back of my head I know that the book is going to have infinite returns if it does well. So the equation works out for me (see how I justify my irrationality about writing).

The other place where I make exceptions is people. I may spend 3 hours to get a 15 minute meeting with someone. I know that the opportunity cost of the meeting is about 10000 bucks. But I am looking at it terms of future returns. Can the lesson I learn from that 15 minute meeting help me make money or save time in the future? Same for business development activities. A meeting can potentially get me work that makes some money for me. Money that I can invest to make more time.

Third place, teaching. This (blog) to me is teaching. I probably took 3 hours to write this post. Am I making money from this? No. Am I getting access to people who can teach me things as I go along? Maybe. Am I getting better as an individual? Hell yes!

Fourth, some people (in my inner circle). Myra, Agony Aunt, sgMS, my folks, vvgg etc. I dont think of time when it comes to them.

I can give more examples. But you get the drift.

Thing is, time on the other hand is limited. Every second you spend, is gone. You are not getting it back. So, make it count!

Thats about it, I guess. So, may be its time to move your ass and get shit done? There’s nothing called the right time. The right time is now. And the place is here. Lets go.

P.S.: I talked about time sinks briefly above. Lemme talk about it briefly.

A time sink, by definition is a place where we waste time without realising. Classic example? Commute (unless you are the kinds to actually get things done while you are in transit). Can you eliminate commute from your life?

Here are more time sinks.

A. Societal constructs. Things like social functions, courtesy, norms and other such things. I think (no way to validate) that all the societal constructs were created when you lived in a time of unpredictability. You were not sure if you’d get hunted if you stepped out of the cave – and thus you travelled in groups. You were not sure if you’d get your dinner if you venture too far out – so you stuck to tribes. You did not know how to make inroads into a colony of strangers – you decided to use introductions and bribes. For each of our behaviour, we can trace if back to our prehistoric behaviour and learning. But, the world we live in, is little more open and smaller (thanks to the Internet) and we dont need to adhere to things that worked while we were in caves. Most times when I meet someone, rather than creating a story, I come to the point. Most people balk at it but I know I can get more things done.

B. Everyday decisions. What to wear, what to eat, where to go to hang out etc. Put them on autopilot. Become a creature of habit. Steve Jobs was famous for wearing the same thing everyday. I am trying to get there. If I have to meet someone, I by default tell them to meet me at a Starbucks. My breakfast and lunch come from the same place, at the same time, even when I am not around. So far I seek help from friends but I am hoping to start using apps like Haptik to get things done (need to get independent – more on this in one of the next posts). If I need to celebrate, I goto the same expensive restaurant (by virture of the price they charge, the dinner becomes celebratory).

All things in the chores category must happen automatically. I am trying to design my life so that it runs on autopilot. I am far from it, but I will reach there.

C. Commute. I mentioned that already.

D. Productivity porn. This is a topic for a blogpost in itself. May be I will write on this tomorrow.

I am sure there are more. This is a great list for the time being.

Thing is, I dont know if these “hacks” will lead me to live a more fulfilled life but in my head, I am calmer and less anxious about things. Rather than worry about what kind of cuisine I want to eat, I can worry about ways in which I will reach my two ultimate goals in life.

I do understand that this is not for everyone. Not everyone is as “mission-oriented” as I am. I dont even know if there is a purpose to this obsession with the mission. But in my head, I cant do the maths of living and NOT doing something that makes the world a better place.

And how do you do it? By creating great work and by leading as an example and inspiring others to do the same.

And no, I still dont have an answer to quip by the lady.

In which this dog does not mean to… belittle your existence in any way. pic.twitter.com/5RLOWPyDRV

— Koval (@kibbanoir) August 16, 2017

Thats about it. Should you take inspiration, tell me what you did to save time. What are your time sinks? What do you do to save time? Help me become even more efficient. Please.

P.P.S.: I still suck at ending these notes. Look at this one for example!

At IMS

Highlight of the day has to be the session that I took at IMS. They wanted someone to work with MBA aspirants and make them understand the nuances of things that happen during the GD phase of the selection process.

This was after a while I was doing something like that. And I came home with a few things. Here’s a list. In no order, as always…

A. Realisation that I suck at public speaking. I would want to believe that I am good at it. But I am not. I do have a speech impediment – I stutter, speak fast, gobble up words, have a nasal voice. Thankfully, all these can be worked on.

The things that are tougher to work on, confidence, presence, ability to structure thoughts – I have those. So, nothing to worry about. Need practise. Thats about it!

B. The “proud” and “popular” decision that I took to NOT read newspapers and consume just the online pieces, its backfiring.

Why? Because when I was reading newspapers, I was getting something in my head (howsoever crappy, biased, inaccurate it were). On the other hand, when I consume stuff online, I often get lost in the forest full of trees of knowledge. And the way I consume new information, I tend to look at just the highlights and not the details. I am doing what Feynman says is knowing the name of something. And honestly, I dont know how to fix this.

While reading online is great, I can choose what I want to read on. So, most of what I know tends to be from one of my favorite buckets – startups, decision making, evolution, human behaviour, business, investing, cultures etc. Now as a social animal, I need lot more than these disciplines. And thus, more.

Also, lately I have been thinking about reading. When I say reading, there is books, there’s blogs, there is newspapers and there is reading for business – industry reports, opinions etc.

Lemme talk of books first. There are three distinct ways in which I hope to read to learn from books.

First, I am becoming convinced that reading entire books (for learning) may not be the most efficient method. Like Naval said in a recent podcast, most books have one or two points to make and then they use 300 pages to drive home that one point. I can do better by reading book summaries and other such things. Bastardised form of learning but I am ok with it. So, books like Blink, Influence etc. would fall under this category. In fact thanks to platforms like TED, Youtube and podcasts, you can watch a 18-min video and you would have consumed the entire book. Or you download a 30-min podcast on your phone and as you reach your office, you would know about a new thing!
Second, when you read about lives of great people – thats something I ought to continue doing. When you read a biography, you are not just learning from the lives they lives, you are also living their lives with them, seeing what decisions they made and how they made those decisions. The best part? You have the advantage of the hindsight!
Third, there are few exceptional non-fictional books that pack more points than one. Case in point? The one that I am reading right now – Sapiens. The other such book that I immensely enjoyed is Tools of Titans. Its essentially a “listicle” 2.0 book (list of lists), it had lists of things, daily habits and other such things from some of the most successful people. Such books ought to be read cover to cover.

Keyword, read to learn. This does not include fiction. Books that I read for recreation. Like John Grisham. Or Lee Child. I am planning to pick Simenon. Let’s see how that goes.

Blogs – well, I follow some 400 odd blogs – I dont read them all. I skim (and skim fast) and I am happy with the approach. Unless while skimming, something catches my fancy. I then sort of deep dive into it. I read arguments in favour and against. I try to read more opinions. I try to think (not too deeply though) and once I am convinced, I try and take a stand. This piece about reading is one such example. Everyone says that you ought to read. I know. I agree. But then there’s so much to read and the speed at which I read, how do I ensure that I read a wide range of things? The way I have just explained!

Newspapers – I ought to start reading. The thing that I am not happy about with newspapers? What they consider news, I consider them non-events. Things like Virat Kohli buying a 100-crore apartment is not news. But since that is what sells, that is what they write. I dont blame them for this. Look at me. I am so used to the idea of free things, I would not pay any money for high-quality journalism / writing! So, for newspapers, I ought to pick and choose what I read.

Business – thankfully, my day job is not analysing businesses (which people like WEB do). As a result, I dont have to read things like annual reports where they apparently “hide” things in plain sight and you have to be very diligent to be able to sift wheat from chaff. I reckon that it would be a very time consuming process and since I do not hope to be a master of one particular discipline, I can get away with it.

I’d rather know about a lot of different things, make connections and let serendipity and happy accidents guide me home.

C. Retention. While I was taking the session today I realised that I dont retain much from what I read. I had the same realisation the last night when I was at a friends place and we were talking about impact of technology on traditional walled-gardens like banking. I have read about the subject in detail but I could not recall specifics. And its not a cool thing.

In fact I’ve spotted this trend lately. Little signs that I am growing old. It’s exactly like they said it would be. Creeping over slowly, imperceptibly as I am busy with my day to day life.

So, I need to work harder onto undo-ing these things. One way is to write. Because, I have noticed that I tend to retain things that I write. Ok, digressing. And not to forget, other things that old age inflict upon us.

D. Handwriting. My handwriting sucks so bad its not funny. While taking the session at IMS, I made notes and when I had to give feedback, I could not read what I had written! Poor students.

But then, its something that I am sure I dont want to work on. Let the handwriting go down the drain for all I care. While I love the feel of pen on paper and on whiteboards, I continue to be a fan of typing (on an Apple keyboard ofcourse), unless they come up with a new way to capture thoughts.

E. In the end, I loved spending time with students. I was in the zone.

I would love to do it lot more – with other MBA aspirants. And students in general. I am not sure if I have a lot to contribute but I do have a lot to learn. About myself. About the world. And the ideas that these young ones have.

Need to figure out a way to do so. May be pick 5 students, work with them through the year and prepare them for this? Seth Godin did something similar. He calls it the altMBA. Lemme think more. Will be back on this.

So yeah! This is it for the day. Thanks Ojas for asking me if I am free to take these sessions up!

How do I work?

In this long-ish post I talk about how I manage my increasingly complex work life. Thanks to Monica for prompting me to write this. And more importantly for all the follow-up.

So, for the context, I do ~~three~~ four things.

A, run an events agency;
B, work as a freelance marketing / brand / digital consultant;
C, actively seek start-up ideas.
D, working on my second book (buy the first one here)

On top of these, I have a million active interests.

A small list will be writing (am a published author, working on my next one), travel (if I dont hit the road at least 3 times a month, I get hibbie jibbes) and meeting new people (takes me to weird places like Race Course — where they denied me entry because I dont wear shoes — and like five-star hotels — where they ask me to furnish my credit card before I place an order — and so on and so forth).

A long list will have things like trying to run a marathon (though I am unfit and fat), learning to play a guitar, create “interesting” experiments (read businesses with whatever limited money I have).

Now, whoever I talk to, they say, I am trying to do a lot. I know I am. And yet I want more. I want to juggle as many balls as I can and yet walk on a tight rope. It’s one life. And I want to do it all. And I cant afford to drop any of these balls and I of course dont want to trip over the tight rope and plunge into the bottomless ravine that has an angry mountain river running through it.

Anyhow, I will talk about how I make sense of my day. The prerequisites for being able to read and make sense of this post are…

Familiarity with cloud computing. In one line, cloud computing refers to software and data that “resides” on the Internet (distributed servers). Everything is “on the cloud” and you can manage without a hard disk on your computer. Think of Gmail. You can login to Gmail from anywhere, any computer and your mailbox looks the same.
#hashtags. If you spend time on twitter, you will know what are hash tags. Simply put, these are textual labels that you can append to any piece of text. Since these labels are often NOT common words, you can search for these labels and identify pieces of texts marked with these labels. Helps in putting things in context. You may use same hashtags (words, not links) across various tools to help you! To me, hashtags are as powerful an idea as sliced bread is.

Then, you will have to read the following pieces

PG’s Maker / Manager Schedules. In one line, he says that you need to split your days in two kinds – one where you “make” things and other where you “manage” things. Make is where you get real work done. Manage is when you are on the call and getting others to do things. Of course if you are the CEO kinds, you could be on the manage mode all day long!
Mindmapping. Apparently ~~created~~ popularized by Tony Buzan, the technique allows you to store and retrieve information the way your brain does. This is one of the strongest techniques I know of.
On the 7th day. A day in the week, I dont work at all!

So the tools I use are

Microsoft Excel (works for me as my todo list / scratch pad)
Evernote (is an extension of my brain)
E.ggtimer.com (helps me track time while I am working)
Workflowy (my long todo list)
Google Calendar (manage time, deadlines, meetings etc)
Toggl (track time while I am working)
iTunes + Headphones (get work done)

Lemme take each in detail.

1. Excel.
So I have this excel workbook that I use as a scratch pad. Everytime I have my computer switched on, I have that sheet on. If I am on a call, I make a new sheet and put notes from the calls there. I used to do it on Evernote (especially the Evernote desktop plugin) but then my Evernote reached a point where I had way too many notes on it that I dont really need. So while I figure out the best way to do it, I use this excel sheet.

Apart from using this as scratchpad, I also have this one workbook where I list things to be done. This is not my todo list per se but this helps me get a glimpse of all the things that I am supposed to do. You may want to use Trello for similar actions. In fact I know of a startup that uses Trello for exactly this purpose.

Screencap of my excel sheet.

Please do note the heading of today, work, people, misc tasks and most importantly, improve self. And yes, do note that long list of things that I need to do today. There are three columns of work because I did not want the columns to spill over than one screen. And to schedule these tasks, I put these in workflowy. I know there is redundancy in what I do to manage my life. But this seems to work for me and like all other creatures of habit, I am used to this now.

So this is where my love with Excel ends. Oh, and the document resides on Google Drive. With the new version of office, you could sync files to Office 360 account anyway.

2. Evernote
I can not begin to tell you about the brilliance of a note-taking app. Especially Evernote. Evernote allows you to create, save and retrieve notes in a very intuitive desktop app, a very usage mobile phone app and a sucky online interface. The great part is that everything comes together without too many issues and I can use hashtags to sort things. Its like parking things in the brain and then forgetting about those. And then getting surprised as you stumble onto something totally unrelated while you are looking for something else (read serendipity). Its like outsourcing the archiving function of your brain.

I love that I can save things on evernote and forget about forgetting. So I know that I have saved a note about all active VCs that are still funding non-IIT, non-IIM students. I may not recall the names but I know I can fire evernote and retrieve it.

You know that thing about “things you know you know”, “things you know you dont know” and “things you dont know you dont know”? Evernote is your companion for “things you know you know”).

I can NOT recommend an alternative for Evernote. If you want to take away two things from this blogpost, Evernote has to be the one. The second? I will come to it in a bit. Oh, and since Evernote went mad and starting charging for great features (email to evernote, offline access etc), I have been thinking of finding an alternative. Recently started using OneNote. Not enjoying it so far. Lets see where it goes. (If you are curious, for the transition, I am using OneNote exclusively for one big big project – so I am forced to fire if often as I work)

3. E.ggtimer
Its like a countdown clock app. There are thousands of these. You may pick any. I find E.ggtimer.com to be the best and easiest to use. I have dragged the link of a 25 minutes clock (http://e.ggtimer.com/25minutes) to my shortcuts bar. One click on it, I am taken to a screen that starts counting back from 25 minutes.

Why 25 minutes? Studies after studies have shown that 25 minutes is an optimal time to reach / remain / deliver with your best concentration. And then apparently a 5-min break helps you recharge your attention and get back to more sessions of 25 minutes.

Also, I can plan my life. I plan all tasks to last in either 25 minute bunches. Or in 5 minute bunches. So if I know that I have to get into a longish phone call, I know that that 30 minute slot is gone. If I want to do pee, I force a 5-minute time frame for it. If I have to respond to email and its going to be a one line reply, I can do it in 5 minutes. Or I can club all my emails and replies in a 25-min slot. And so on and so forth. Imagine that you have just two units of time. 5 minutes and 25 minutes. Everything else is no longer valid. In fact I would love to buy a watch that has 5-min and 25-min units on it.

If 25 doesn’t work for you, EggTimer allows you to choose your time windows. But trust me, 25 is optimal. Well, you may argue. But I think this is a philosophical thing. You want to have a discussion? Lets do it over a drink 😉 Also, you may also want to read about Pomodoro. And Flow.

4. WorkFlowy
Remember I said that if you could take two things away from this piece, Evernote is one? Workflowy is the second. And come to think of it, there is a third as well. Come to that in a bit.

So, before anything, love the way they market themselves. They say, “make lists, not war.” Remember “Code is Poetry” on WordPress / Automattic? Apart from make lists, workflowy, on their home page say that Slack was started with Workflowy, Twitter’s co-founder uses Workflowy everyday and so on and so forth. As a guy who lives on the fringes of the tech industry, this is awesome. I mean how cool is that that you use the same tool as Ev?

Screencap from Workflowy.com

So, without further ado, Workflowy is an outlining tool that helps you make nested
lists of things that you want to do. Think of it as a decision tree
visualized as a list. Like trees, there are nodes and childs and you can
collapse / expand, mark them as read, unread etc. You can’t really set
deadlines per se but I use hashtags to get things done. You can use it on your phone, you can use it on your laptop.

Screencap from my Workflowy

Anyway. I can extol the virtues of Workflowy for three days. Coming back, my workflowy has 4 key sections.

Todo – things that I need done.
Life goals – things that interest me and I want to do something tangible with those.
Projects – things that give me money.
Personal – things important to me. I have cropped those out.

Each of these 4 can be expanded to show more items under that list. Once I finish things I strike them off. I can easily toggle view to see things that I have done already. Or are open.

Using Workflowy, I have outlined by next book already (which is late by a year). I have a list of things that I want to work on. I have a list of people to pitch for work. I love how everything is contextual and comes together neatly. I love how its convenient to see things in one glace. Its like I am able to see the big picture and the details. And it suits my personality perfectly.

Workflowy is brilliant. If I could also add dates in it, I could replace all my tools. But then Workflowy is expensive (I think 49 USD for a year). I got lucky to get free one-year subscription from an offer on AppSumo. And as someone who has hardly paid money for software, I am willing to renew the subscription!

Also, do read Atul Gawande’s Checklist Manifesto. Also, do read http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/workflowy-to-keep-organized to know how other people use Workflowy.

5. Google Calendar
I do not know of a better calendar app than this. There are people who talk about Sunrise and Fantastical and I dont know what else. For some reason I haven’t had the need to find an alternative. May be because I am averse to change? May be because I am comfortable operating out in the Google environment? Or may be I dont expect many frills from the app. I dont need directions, reminders and other integration. And may be I hardly use my “work” tools on phone. I need a laptop, a computer to operate.

Side point: I know of many people who have moved / migrated to mobile for work (from creating pitch decks to making excel sheets to project management to calendars), I am still old school. I need a laptop for “work.” Also, my mobile habits are very unlike most people I know of. I hardly watch video on my mobile (when I say hardly, I mean one / two videos a day), I dont use FB on my mobile. In fact the only apps I use on my phone are Google Maps, email, Firefox, WhatsApp, Twitter, Pocket, Uber, Tinder and Instagram. I dont read news on my phone, I dont check Facebook, I dont order food, I dont call a plumber, I dont book airline tickets. I am lazy. No news, no Facebook, no food ordering apps, no airline tickets. I dont know the global average but I reckon my usage of my mobile device is skewed.

Screencap from my gCal

So back to Google Calendar. I am anal with its use and I plot and plan even dates with Tinder matches on the Calendar.

Of course, for each thing (client 1, client 2, dates, Cyntax etc.) I do, I have a separate calendar. It helps me keep things color coordinated and all that. I can also share tasks and deadlines with a specific set of people if I have separate calendars.

Finally, the entries in the calendar help me reconcile the amount of work I have done for a specific client. Ideally I should be able to track costs and raise bills from within Google Calendar. But for a free software, it does a lot anyway.

So, lemme talk about a tool that I have to use to maintain timesheets (and in future, raise bills as it has a billing module).

6. Toggl.com
I use Toggl to keep track of timesheets. Since I work for multiple clients in multiple organization and my billing is time based (rather than project based), I need a system to keep track of time I spend on something. Toggl is yet another Freemium cloud-based tool that gives me access to a large part of its functionality without paying any money.

I have been toying with it over the last few months. Starting today, I will use it lot more often. Lets see how it goes.

Just that if Toggl could incorporate features of an e.ggtimer.com, they would help me save more time!

7. iTunes + Headphones
While I love working out of coffee shops and love to have activity around me, there are times when I want to focus. Music helps me do that. No, not the white noise or meditation music or something like that. Good old regular Bollywood, Indipop and a bit of international selection does the trick for me.

So that’s it! Pretty simple and yet gets shit done for me! And here is something that Steve Jobs loved to say, and I remain committed to it…

I had to ship this. Thanks to Monica for pushing me to write this. Hope this helps. Hope this was worth the wait. In the spirit of making this a comprehensive post, some other tools that the world uses are…

Slack – For communication. I tried using it but it was a
pain in ass to get more people use Slack for communication. It ended up
becoming yet another messaging tool. So I stopped it. But I know a lot
of people who cant live without Slack.
Feedly – All my news reading (of passive kind) from sources that I want to read news from happens via Feedly.
Dropbox – For files that I have to send to client. I dont use weTransfer or YouSendIt etc. Unless clients specifically ask for these.
Pocket – All the active reading (where someone recommends a link) happens over Pocket. I push links into Pocket queue and continue to read through when on the go. To me, there are two kinds of reading. Three actually. A- Pleasure – fiction, blogs of friends, twitter crushes, things like serial etc. B – Mandatory – news and other things that I have to read and see and listen to stay relevant in the world. C – Play – things that interest me and may or may not be relevant to my work. Things like which Diet regimen is better – Paleo or Keto or Lo Carb or Slow Carb or Vegan? You get the drift.
Producteev – Producteev is your todo list + calendar +
project management all rolled into one. And that is what makes it so so
powerful. You can further divide tasks into projects, add labels (read
hashtags), allocate to people and share the links. I used Producteev a lot, before Workflowy. Not anymore. For reasons mentioned above.

That’s all folks.

In the end, thanks once again to Monica for the prompt and multiple reminders. And here are few standard disclaimers…

No animals were harmed in the making of this blogpost
If something works for me, does not mean that it will work for you. Use at your own risk
If you do end up using advice that I have dispensed here, please do share this with others
If this post is brilliant, please give me work. Drop me a line at saurabh.garg@gmail.com
If this is better than sex, please do drop me a line ;P
If you want me to write for your publication on productivity, I would be happy to do so, in exchange for a review of my book

Disclaimer: Few links have my referral codes embedded into
those. Trying this for the first time. Lets see if it works. Please do
know that referral codes no NOT fuck around with your experience or
pricing. Thanks!

Soul searching 102

There is no place in the world for jack of all trades. At least not in India. Everyone wants to hire an expert. Someone who’s been there and done that. Someone who thinks in a silo. Someone who has never dared to venture out of their comfort zone. Someone who’s a conformist.

Sorry to say but the world (at least the bit around me) does not reward the ones who try things. Its like a negative spiral. You fall into once and you can never come up again!

So, you see, I can crib. Crib for like ten hours. For ever if I have to. About how tough I am finding to find a naukri. I always thought that with my (almost) fancy degree, it would be a walk in the park, in any kind of economic environment, anywhere in the world. But now I realize how wrong was I. I have never been more wrong. So wrong that I am left in the lurch. Lurch may be too harsh. But I am definitely not happy.

But like most experiences, this one has taught me a few things. Here is a list…

1. When you are falling, you fall like a hot knife through butter. You just go through everything between you and rockbottom. Its thin air and you fall fast. I went from extreme happiness and carelessness to bouts of anxiety in less than two weeks. All this when my first book is almost ready to hit the market.

2. You are alone. And like Steve says, you’re naked. There may be God but he has his funny ways. I am not fond of him anyhow. Apart from you, no one else loses sleep over what you’re going through. They may want to, but they cant. Sleep is like that monster that makes everyone a slave.

3. You are not anyone else’s priority. Everyone would want to help, commit to help but help would be half-measures. Not because they dont like you. Not because they dont want to help you. But because they have other priorities. And you’re second-fiddle at best. In fact I can put myself in others’ shoes. How often has someone asked for my help and how many times did I actually help em? not enough! You reap what you sow. So may be, going forward, will help as many people as I can.

4. Dont take things for granted. I have been a happy-go-lucky dude all my life. So much so when people around me were buying houses and cars and making millions of rupees in their cushy jobs, I would laugh it out loud. Now, for some reason, it has started to suck. The dwindling bank balance has started to bother. Not being able to pay for drinks and food when you step out, it sucks. Everyone, including friends and family, treating you like a liability is even worse. Again, its about you. You being alone. And all that.

5. The world around me is transactional. You give me something and I would give you something back. And everyone wants to emerge as a winner. On top. Nothing wrong with it. Darwin knew this long before any of us could even comprehend. Either you fight and you come on top. Or you slither away to obscurity.

6. If you are nobody, nobody wants to talk to you. Not friends, not neighbors, not strangers, not prospective dates. Not prospective employers. When I had a naukri, I would regularly get calls from everyone wanting to hire me. And since I’ve been in the job market, no one wants to hire me! Sigh!

So.. What else? I dont know. I mean I know but I am not going to talk about it here. May be on the secret blog. Or evernote.

Yeah. This is it. For the time being. Of course all these are first-world issues. Since I’ve been blesseed Lets see how many of these sessions can I do before I either succumb to pressure. Or find a way out. Either way, this will stop. In the words of Chris, this part of my life, I call it “~~internship~~ being fucked up in my head.”

Of course I chase ~~happiness~~ happyness all the time. But right now, this part, this part of being fucked up, sucks like hell. Need to find a way out. Soon.

Hope I dont forget these. Once I get a place of my own, this is something that I would pin to my board for sure.

P.S.: Here is Soul searching 101.