When I launched my first startup, on the way to my rented office in Mumbai's Bandra, I would see a house where two retired-looking men would be sitting, listening to vintage Goanese and English songs. Their faces had no joy, no expression. All they had to look forward...

The most effective tool for learning is also the most overlooked -- taking notes. We often assume that we should take notes so we can refer to them later. That is NOT the best reason, especially in today's age when ChatGPT can summarize things and digital resources...

During my MBA program, I became a student consultant for local businesses in Pennsylvania, as part of a University-run initiative. And like most of my fellow student consultants, I was pretty useless. Here is why. The program implicitly assumed that if you throw a...

My last project at McKinsey was a very high-profile one -- the client was a vertical CXO at a large global bank. The goal was to flesh out their overall corporate strategy. So naturally, many bigwigs were involved and because of our collective anxiety, a daily call...

Every day, you have 8 to 10 hours to play with. If you spend all your time on emails, ad-hoc meetings, and distracted work, you create value X. If you cut down some distractions, say no to a few random meetings, and do some focused work, the value creation may easily...

Five years ago, I cut down my stress by 50% in one move: I banned WhatsApp for official work. Before that, we were using WhatsApp at our startup, and over the years, I had created dozens of WhatsApp groups. Soon, I was mindlessly checking and responding to messages...

A few years ago, when I used to go running in the University Stadium in Trivandrum, I would often see a former Chief Minister doing his daily walk. And he was in his early nineties. I have seen many Kerala politicians extremely active in their 80s. So much so that...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.,...

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...

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...