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Rajan shares insights from his own life journey to help you build better habits in yours.
Work-Life Balance: Slacking Off or Sustainable Success?
For some people (especially entrepreneurs), work-life balance has become a toxic phrase -- symbolizing sloth, not taking responsibility, and doing the minimum necessary work. For others, it is a war cry against corporate slavery -- intolerable work conditions, long...
The Power of Small Actions
Every time you innocuously glance at your WhatsApp or Instagram, you are building a habit. Every gratifying action builds a habit -- no exceptions. I had already known this from psychology. But the Buddhist meditation master (Nyanaponika Thera) says: "Repeated...
Why Big Organizations Struggle While Startups Thrive
Big organizations can't compete with startups having 1% of their resources. Not because they have too few people (or resources), but because they have too many. When you have lots of people, first, you stack them up in a hierarchy. Now, each person has to manage their...
Focus Sprints with Breaks: Secret to Productivity
When I do focus sprints, I have found that the key to productivity is taking frequent and generous breaks. Here is what works for me. 1. Since I typically do 25-minute focus sprints, I generally take 3 short breaks (5 minutes each) followed by one long break (15...
Purpose Destroys Procrastination
Even the most hardcore procrastinator forgets to procrastinate when a family member falls ill. They run around like crazy to provide the best possible care. What destroys their procrastination? A sense of purpose -- because they care about their family, they discover...
Work Culture Differences
While talking to someone who moved from India to Europe, I learned that in Europe, if the work ends at 6 pm, you can't schedule a call at 7:30 pm -- people are fiercely protective of their time. But on the flip side, people take their time commitments seriously. E.g.,...
‘Focus Dens’ in Offices for Deep Work
Whenever I worked out of a client site at McKinsey, I used to look for a closed room where I could close the door and work with complete focus. I may sound like a misanthrope but I promise you -- but it was worth it. 😃 I once took over a project that a two-member...
We don’t need long hours to be productive
Conventional wisdom states that, as an entrepreneur, I should be slogging 12-16 hours a day. Yet, on any given day, I never exceed 4-5 hours of real work. Of course, I work beyond that as well – e.g., on administrative work, emails, etc. But I don’t do long hours or...
Beat Decision Fatigue by Building Habits
Imagine this: Every morning, when you get up, you have to take these decisions: 1. Should I brush my teeth? 2. Should I take a shower? 3. Should I meditate or do some yoga? 4. Should I do some walking or running? Or maybe gymming? 5. Should I write a journal? Read a...
Leadership Is Not About Staying Busy
To get into and succeed in senior leadership roles, you can't just solve the problems in front of you -- you have to anticipate and solve problems even before they arise. But you can't do that if you are: 1. Perpetually busy replying to emails and messages 2. Spending...
Fake action is not progress
A lot of people have gone to their graves with a ton of untapped potential. So what comes in the way of realizing that potential? It is the wisdom fountain called the 'Internet.' And our tendency to confuse consuming that wisdom with real action. We love debating,...
Shape Your Environment to Shape Your Life
When I was last traveling, I downloaded the LinkedIn app since I did not want to open my laptop. And just with that one small action, my frequency of checking LinkedIn went up. On my laptop, I log out of LinkedIn when I don't want to use it but on the mobile app, I...
Why Short-Format Videos Hijack Your Brain
During one of my travels, sitting next to me was a college youngster who furiously swiped through hundreds of short format videos in a very short time -- I am surprised his thumb did not break! Of course, there is nothing wrong with some entertainment. But there is a...
Why Zombie Work Destroys Productivity
During my consulting days, I once worked 16-18 hours for two weeks straight, estimating the losses that US banks would suffer in the 2008 financial crisis. This was a big project for the company since a lot of clients wanted to know this. Finally, the presentation was...
Unconscious Competence
A few years ago, I was interviewing an expert physics teacher for my previous startup. And to any question I would ask, he would rattle off formulas like a machine gun. But I was not getting a sense that he really understood things. So I asked him, "Can you explain...
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Rajan shares insights from his own life journey to help you build better habits in yours.