Category

LinkedIn Posts

Hardships: Not the End

In 2017, one day at around midnight, my colleague Nisha called me in panic. Virtually in tears, she said that our e-learning app had stopped working. At that time, I was running my previous startup, ConceptOwl. When I asked what happened, she said, “It is all gone....

read more

The pain of discipline

The problem with Netflix binge is not that it is ‘wrong’ – it is about how you feel AFTER the binge. If someone feels great even after a 6-hour binge, maybe, they should do more of it. I may not agree with their choice, but it is not for me to judge. However, very...

read more

Efficiency Triumphs

A few months after I was posted as Trivandrum Police Commissioner, one senior DIG (Deputy Inspector General of Police) pulled me aside and said, “You are too quiet. Not much is heard about you.” “Look at these other police chiefs who are always making news. You should...

read more

The Price of Dreams

During my BTech days, when my classmates aiming for a Master’s or PhD in the US were slogging hard, the aimless folks like me were taking it easy. I remember often pitying those people, and occasionally, even making fun of them. But very soon, the tables were turned....

read more

Articulation

At McKinsey, the skill I needed the most was not maths. In fact, the most advanced maths I ever used was multiple regression. Surprisingly, even more than ‘problem-solving’, the skill I used the most was 'articulation' - writing, explaining, and crafting persuasive...

read more

The time to live is now

When I was in school, I believed that the ‘real life’ would start in college – school was just a prep for it. But during college, I felt that real life will start once I begin working. When I took up my first job in the Indian Police Service (IPS), I got so busy that...

read more

Note-taking technique

I discovered the effectiveness of this note-taking technique during my Civil Services exam preparation. At that time, I barely had 1.5 months for the preliminary exam. So this is what I did – I would read the questions from the question bank one by one, evaluate the...

read more

Life changing habit

Here is a simple life-changing habit -- sleep an hour before you normally do, and then see what happens. Not convinced? For a few days, log what you do between 7 pm and the time you go to sleep. Chances are, a lot of that evening time just goes waste on doomscrolling,...

read more

Less is More

During my IPS training, we were attached to a CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) unit that was fighting militancy in Tripura. In this remote CRPF camp, we were staying in mud huts with thatched roofs. Inside the hut, there was a fan and a clean bed. Nothing else. And...

read more

Leadership

During a training program at McKinsey, we were split into groups of 4-5 people and given a task – we had to build paper planes using a kit given to us. To win, you had to build the most number of planes in the given time. Naturally, all the groups started in haste....

read more

Life is short

As a fresh consultant at McKinsey, for the first time in my life, I had to go around seeking time for meetings with clients or senior leaders at the Firm. Prior to that, while serving as the Police Commissioner, if I wanted to speak with someone, I had to just pick up...

read more

Prioritizing Thoughtful Work

When I was serving as the Trivandrum Police Commissioner, I once skipped a useless meeting called by a senior government official. The next week, when my assistant shared my weekly timesheet, she showed an internal meeting that I had never conducted. When I asked her...

read more

Subscribe to the HabitStrong newsletter

Rajan shares insights from his own life journey to help you build better habits in yours.