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A less-known hack to perform wonderfully at work: 

Have meaningful relationships outside of work.

Hike with your college friends.
Shopping with your cousins.
Go to a park with your family.
Concert with your former colleagues.
Or even a heritage walk in nature just by yourself. 

Everything that appears leisure and time away from work actually builds you up to work more effectively when you get back to work. 

Which is why you must actively build it into your weeks.
Which is what I do and block in my calendar as well.
Which is what you must go for, this weekend.

Time wasted is not productivity wasted, if it is something that genuinely fills you up.

Everyone wakes up everyday, wanting to own their life.

And yet, the average person plays the game wrong.

Here is the framework to win the game of life: the CGI framework:

Here is how it works: 

1. Core

As humans, we all crave for predictability and stability.
I call it “home”.

In professional terms, it could be the skills you know you can always rely on – that people trust you with, that you trust yourself with. 

For me, my core was two-fold:
Analysis and time management.

So whenever in doubt, irrespective of how hard my circumstance, I could rely on my core:

– I had the tenacity to hunt for the right questions, no matter how hard the answers.
– I had the ability to manage my time, no matter how demanding the situation. 

2. Growth

Once the core is in place, you strive to grow it, in order to strengthen it. This growth is often a personal journey.

I grew my Analysis core by

– Reading
– Writing (helped my process my thoughts)
– Teaching (helped me consolidate my learnings)

I grew my time management core by

– Recording my time every hour
– Playing multiple roles
– Saying a LOT of no 

3. Initiatives

Things that scare you, that fascinate you, that excite you – and are beyond your zone of expertise. This is where most of life’s magic happens. But it cannot be what we do everyday.

For me, my initiatives were

– Dropping out of my PhD
– Joining an expensive MBA program
– Quitting consulting to startup
– Quitting Groupon to start nearbuy
– Quitting nearbuy to create content 

The Core-Growth-Initiatives framework has 3 key principles to it

1. It is always in-to-out

People make the mistake of jumping onto initiatives, because they are glamorous, exciting – without building their core. Will rarely work.

2. As you move out, the probability of success decreases.

Your core should be your highest probability of success.
But by that same measure, your returns, while consistent, might be lower.

Growth – lesser probability – higher return
Initiatives – least probability – highest returns 

3. Once an initiative works, over time it becomes part of the core.

So over time, your core becomes bigger.
While growth ensures it strengthens.
And initiatives ensure the core is always being fed back. 

Let’s pick an example of your career:

C: Your core skills that you were hired for
G: Training, Classes, Promotions
I: Starting biz on the side, internships in new domains, freelancing 

Quit your job to start a startup – isn’t always good advice! 

This CGI framework has helped me tremendously in my life and I am sure, personalization will help you too. Define your core, grow it, pick up initiatives and then feed them back into core. Repeat!

In a few years, you would have an enviable core.

More importantly, you will have a flywheel that ensures the core keeps growing and strengthens over time!

Are you someone who loses their productivity as the day goes on? 

This post is for you.

As the day goes on, many of us start losing focus, especially after lunch. However, here are some ways in which we can keep our productivity going even at this time:

1. Japan’s 80% rule: Japanese follow this rule where they stop eating after their stomach is 80% full. If you eat after this, then the food, instead of giving you energy, makes you more lethargic. Food is supposed to give us energy. The excess of it, simply takes it away.
2. Stay hydrated: I haven’t seen a single human being who drank 5 litres of water a day and was lethargic. None. 
3. Have a standing desk as well: Fitness experts are claiming that sitting is the new smoking, because it makes your bones weak, joints damp, and energy levels plummet. Why would you do that to yourself?

The key to doing productive work does not lie in doing more work, it lies in doing more of things that make you increase your productivity. Sometimes by even working less.

Everyone wakes up everyday, wanting to own their life.

And yet, the average person plays the game wrong.

Here is the framework to win the game of life: the CGI framework.

Here is how it works:

1. Core

As humans, we all crave for predictability and stability.
I call it “home”.

In professional terms, it could be the skills you know you can always rely on – that people trust you with, that you trust yourself with.

For me, my core was two-fold:
Analysis and time management.

So whenever in doubt, irrespective of how hard my circumstance, I could rely on my core:

– I had the tenacity to hunt for the right questions, no matter how hard the answers.
– I had the ability to manage my time, no matter how demanding the situation.

2. Growth

Once the core is in place, you strive to grow it, in order to strengthen it. This growth is often a personal journey.

I grew my Analysis core by

– Reading
– Writing (helped my process my thoughts)
– Teaching (helped me consolidate my learnings)

I grew my time management core by

– Recording my time every hour
– Playing multiple roles
– Saying a LOT of no

3. Initiatives

Things that scare you, that fascinate you, that excite you – and are beyond your zone of expertise. This is where most of life’s magic happens. But it cannot be what we do everyday.

For me, my initiatives were

– Dropping out of my PhD
– Joining an expensive MBA program
– Quitting consulting to startup
– Quitting Groupon to start nearbuy
– Quitting nearbuy to create content

The Core-Growth-Initiatives framework has 3 key principles to it

1. It is always in-to-out

People make the mistake of jumping onto initiatives, because they are glamorous, exciting – without building their core. Will rarely work.

2. As you move out, the probability of success decreases.

Your core should be your highest probability of success.
But by that same measure, your returns, while consistent, might be lower.

Growth – lesser probability – higher return
Initiatives – least probability – highest returns

3. Once an initiative works, over time it becomes part of the core.

So over time, your core becomes bigger.
While growth ensures it strengthens.
And initiatives ensure the core is always being fed back.

Let’s pick an example of your career:

C: Your core skills that you were hired for
G: Training, Classes, Promotions
I: Starting biz on the side, internships in new domains, freelancing

Quit your job to start a startup – isn’t always good advice!

This CGI framework has helped me tremendously in my life and I am sure, personalization will help you too. Define your core, grow it, pick up initiatives and then feed them back into core. Repeat!

In a few years, you would have an enviable core.

More importantly, you will have a flywheel that ensures the core keeps growing and strengthens over time!

You are an entrepreneur today.
You do not have to be an entrepreneur forever.

You are in a job today.
You do not have to be in that job forever!

You are still figuring out things .
You do not have to decide everything today.

Do not let the world define who you will be, by what you do today.

Staying away from home for one’s studies could take a toll on your expenses. 

Here are 3 ways I saved money staying by myself, that helped me, during my 2 years of PhD in the US:

1. I used to cook at home. Everyday. No ordering out.
Healthy. Cheap. Therapeutic.
Caveat: We used to order a pizza every Thursday.
That’s when FRIENDS used to come on TV (there was no OTT back then!)

2. Not a lot of travel.
I regret that btw, looking back.
Should have travelled a bit though.

3. Stayed in a shared accommodation.
It reduced living expenses drastically.

I worked in the University teaching student, earning me a stipend of $1,300 every month, that helped me save 50% and spend the remaining 50%

Lack of money often results in plenty of ideas. Isn’t it epic?

How to get motivated to workout daily?

Hire a trainer
Go with a friend.
Commit to a goal publicly.
Engage in the gym gossip.
Sign up for the membership.
Find a new love interest in your gym.
Get expensive shoes that you will regret not using.

Whatever works for you!

Until, it gets to a place where it becomes automatic. 

Which is when you would have cracked the motivation code.

Automaticity > Motivation to be motivated. Period.

“There are times I feel I don’t want to live.”

“My mother’s dying. And I cannot do anything to help her.”

“Every morning I get up, I feel I would never be as good as my elder brother, whom my parents completely adore.”

As the founder of nearbuy, I started an initiative called “Lunch with warikoo” where I had lunch with a new colleague everyday. 

What I had expected was plain, simple feedback.
What I got instead was something I wasn’t ready for.

During almost every lunch, I felt I was not the CEO anymore. I was instead someone who they were openly sharing with, in the hope I was listening. Without judgement. Without any mockery. Without any bias. 

Here is what I learnt from 252 such lunches over 3 years:

1. When people told me their stories about what they have been through to get to that point that they were at, it left me humbled. Because I took those points for granted.
I recognized my privilege that I was blind to, so often. 

2. Leadership should not scale.
It should get HARDER for you to lead a bigger team and not easier.
Because people are people.
Not data points on an excel sheet. 

3. The best gift you can give someone is to listen without judgement.
We all have something to share.
But we may not have someone to share it with.
Become that someone, for someone. 

It is important for people to be heard.
To be seen.
To know that they matter, without offering solutions to their problems.

Are you someone who loses their productivity as the day goes on? 

This post is for you.

As the day goes on, many of us start losing focus, especially after lunch. However, here are some ways in which we can keep our productivity going even at this time:

1. Japan’s 80% rule: Japanese follow this rule where they stop eating after their stomach is 80% full. If you eat after this, then the food, instead of giving you energy, makes you more lethargic. Food is supposed to give us energy. The excess of it, simply takes it away.
2. Stay hydrated: I haven’t seen a single human being who drank 5 litres of water a day and was lethargic. None. 
3. Have a standing desk as well: Fitness experts are claiming that sitting is the new smoking, because it makes your bones weak, joints damp, and energy levels plummet. Why would you do that to yourself?

The key to doing productive work does not lie in doing more work, it lies in doing more of things that make you increase your productivity. Sometimes by even working less.

“Once you finish studying, you will get a job.
Once you get a job, you will make money.
Once you make money, you will be happy.”

THIS was the biggest lie sold to us!

Happiness is not a candy out of a vending machine – that once it is with you, it becomes yours.

Happiness is a choice.

Choice to be happy even when things are not going as you wished them to be.
Choice to be happy when the world thinks you should be wandering and depressed by now.
Choice to not take your life situations seriously, because to you it’s no big deal (even if it is).

It turns out, if money or a good job could buy happiness, everyone with these would be happy. But they aren’t necessarily!

A good job and good money are important. I get that.
But they are not the source of your happiness, unless YOU ARE NOT HAPPY.

When you are the source of your happiness, you figure out happiness even when for the time being, you do not have the money/job you wanted. 

Could there be anything else, to be happier? :)