Blog

Are exams urgent or important?
How do you manage your time during exams? 

I’d say exams are both urgent and important.
Ideally, nothing else should take up space in your mind during those days. 

What this means is – you won’t have time to pursue your passion, create content, or do anything else on the side during that time.

And that’s okay.

What this means is, that during your exams, your exams are a priority. Both urgent, and important.
You ought to do your best at it, and not regret it at all.

Once they are over, you can get back to your rhythm effortlessly. Easily. And happily.

The ones who manage their time well don’t do everything everyday, but they know they can get back to their routine if they get off the track, if that happens.

This is the beauty of life. You can decide whatever you want to do, whenever you want to – if you have built a strong foundation of routine.

Getting the degree is not the end.

It is the start.

Clearing the interview is not the end.

It is the start.

Entering a relationship is not the end.

It is the start.

Raising funds is not the end.

It is the start.

Your goal is not the end.

It is the start!

The 2-minute rule.
The MOST UNDER-RATED productivity hack ever!

If something takes less than 2-mins to get done, get it done right away.
Postponing them only adds to the cognitive load our mind had to bear with.
Our brains will think we still have a LOT to do.
Feeling burdened and overwhelmed.

Get the small things done quickly.
It will eventually get the big things done :)

When I asked my first boss, how come there is always this unequal distribution of work even within the same team, he replied,

“Good people pay a far higher price for being good than bad people pay for being bad”

He wasn’t talking about work.

He was talking about life.

1. Once you start taking life seriously, you start losing friends.
2. Your truest friends are those who are happy for you when you succeed.
3. Who is your best friend? And why is it not you?

Friendship is epic.
If you know what friendship truly is :)

I still remember that day in July 2002.

I was to leave for the US in a month.
It had been an expensive affair – paying for the exams, visa, books.
We were completely out of money.

And I needed overcoats.
Michigan is a really cold place.

No one we knew had spare overcoats.
Heck, no one even wore them in India :)

Dad figured a place in Old Delhi that sells used overcoats.
We took the bus.
Reached Chandni Chowk market.
Found the place.
The old man was selling them for Rs.400 a piece.

We were overjoyed!
We had budgeted Rs.1000

Bought 2 overcoats.
Spent Rs.50 on kulfi faluda to celebrate :)

I still remember that day!
It taught me an important lesson of life.
The most wonderful memories in life do not cost money.

Here is an underrated productivity hack:

Put all tasks on your calendar

Build the habit of using a calendar.
And then put EVERYTHING on the calendar.

Not just meetings and work tasks.
Birthdays
Workouts
Reminders
Daily routine
Family events
Bills to be paid
Even free time

Free your mind from tasks.
It will add structure to what might look like a random day!

PS: Here are some non-calendar things I add to my calendar:

1. Shopping
2. Vacations
3. Afternoon naps
4. Writing twitter threads
5. Uzma’s class that I attend with her

Productivity is power. Calendar is the fuel to that power.

In 2002, I was to leave for the US in a month.
It had been an expensive affair – paying for the exams, visa, books.
We were completely out of money.

And I needed overcoats.
Michigan is a really cold place.

No one we knew had spare overcoats. 
Heck, no one even wore them in India :)

Dad figured a place in Old Delhi that sells used overcoats.
Took the bus.
The old man was selling them for Rs.400/pc.

We were overjoyed!
We had budgeted Rs.1000

Bought 2 overcoats.
Spent Rs.50 on Kulfi Faluda to celebrate :)

The most beautiful things in life are with our loved ones, in whatever way, whatever form.

Most of us hate school and college.
For understandable reasons.
We apparently do not learn anything that will be helpful in practical life.

However, school and college teach us an important concept of life: of HOW to learn.

That understanding of how to learn, teaches you to be a student forever, even when you are out of your college, without any teacher.

Which means, if you have to be learning forever, the best thing you can take away from school and college is to learn how to be a student. 

For life.

1. Keep a distraction note book
2. Use Pomodoro timer. 25 minutes of work and 5 minutes of break
3. Set distraction time
4. Look for the emotional issue of distraction
5. Don’t be so harsh on yourself.
6. Know that delayed gratification gives better results than instant gratification
7. Force 10 minutes of work. And you will be surprised at how distraction goes away.
8. Go for a walk. Look outdoors. Because we are so busy looking at our screens, it is inevitable to be distracted all of the time.
9. Do not use phone all of the time, each time you are bored. Allow yourself to be bored.
10. Reiterate your self talk. Instead of telling yourself “I get distracted easily,” tell yourself, “I am absolutely focused on the task I do. I am a focused person.”