Gathering thoughts…
A world of little thoughts.
Tagged Productivity × Clear
I don't know what else to call it. And jump-working sounds fun. I'm trying to describe my preferred way of working, where I basically do... whatever the fuck I like. Schedules and plans don't work for me. Themed days can go die. The absolute scatter-brain that I am, I grew frustrated with my inability to focus on…
Today was a day when i was having starting trouble The only thing that really got me kicked up and ready to go was when i got a call from an external entity. What do i learn from this? 1. I do not like moving when I do not know have any plan in place about how to achieve what I want to achieve 2. I am almost always…
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi says flow is the secret to happiness. I agree. Not just because we were born in the same city (but not in the same country — Europe is fun like that sometimes). I feel great when I achieve a state of flow. There’s no self-doubt or bad ideas. Creative juices are flowing, and I lose my sense of…
I'm no more on a streak. Couldn't write yesterday. Nevertheless, the 30-essay series still continues. Today I am writing about productivity - a topic that is beaten to death a million times, every day, day after day. Well, this one is a different. I'm not selling a "I-know-it-all-shoving-it-down-your-throat"…
This is not an essay. Rather, a letter to self. I have been journaling for almost 3 months now. It's irregular at best. Yet, it has been the best clarity building exercise for me. During the writing process, I discovered - patterns in my thought process. Such as - I start, seldom finish. I am an instant-dopamine…
One of the biggest productivity “hacks” that doesn’t get the attention it deserves is time blocking. Cal Newport has been detailing the benefits of time blocking for years. He even built a planner around it. If you are not currently managing your busy life with a calendar (any calendar!) then I cannot understand how…
Day-3 of my 30 day atomic essay streak. In essay-2, I wrote about the concept of mindful repetition. Quick recap: It's a repetition of a simple actions that moves a system towards stability and makes it sophisticated with time. This sits very well with personal habit formation a.k.a building daily life systems (DLS).…
Sometimes everything feels a bit off. The motivation isn’t quite there and nothing flows like you want it to. The most frustrating thing is that the main problem I have these days is that I can’t seem to type properly. Normally I’m pretty good at not misspelling things but when I have those days I’m always messing up…
This is day-2 of my 30 day atomic essay streak. Ironically, this simple act of keeping a count ties back to something more fundamental. I call it 'mindful repetition'. If you google it, high chances you'll land some esoteric definition of 'mindful repetition' - closer to meditation & learning. However, that's a very…
I'm a big fan of Steven Strogatz's writings. He's an applied mathematician with Cornell & has a flair for making you love mathematics. A concept from one of his books - 'Infinite Powers' stuck with me for a while. "You can reach potential infinity but not completed infinity. Unless there's calculus." It's a beautiful…
Day-4 of my 30 day atomic essay streak. This one's about how I used mindful repetition to teach myself meditation. For my essays so far, the concept of 'Mindful Repetition' has been the only anchor. If you're unfamiliar with it, then please read 'Essay 2: Mindful Repetition, Compounds.' I have been wanting to practice…
I am a sucker for new (mostly productivity) apps. Tell me about your latest notes revolution, or calendar, or browser/whiteboard, and I just have to try it. I’m seeking that elusive optimal productivity, while ironically wasting time farting around with the tools rather than actually creating. I’ve noticed this…
Today has been one of the most exhausting days i have had in a while. If i take a look at what i did today in terms of work: 1. Call with Harsh: 30 mins 2. Call with Shriya: 15 mins 3. Bliss club Interview: 1 hour 4. Call with NGO: 30 mins 5. Sleep: 2 hours 6. Freak out about salary: 40 mins 7. Warehousing call: 30…
I am trying to listen to my body. I continued to be exhausted today, so I fell asleep, I took breaks, and I said no to things that I could. I also limited time spent on WhatsApp. I think that was really helpful. Additionally, I had tried to limit my interaction with other apps, etc while I work on some stuff. I still…
I'm here to kickstart my digital writing habit. Here's my grand idea: write 30 atomic essays in 30 days. (Of course, the idea is stolen from @dickiebush) But it is not about the idea. It is about building a system. A system is a collection of parts that work together to produce an output when fed with an input. This…
My room is not so tidy. I don’t have a place for the shoes, there are some sheets of paper on the floor, but it’s okay. I look at it and I’m scared. It looks temporary. Now it’s tidy, tomorrow will be a mess. And the more I try to keep it tidy, the more my fear grows. Just like for my mind, I’m afraid of the following…
I was other day randomly thinking about the way we spend our time on weekends. We have around 52 weeks in a year and for most of us it is 2 days off so effectively we have 104 days for ourselves. If we take out effectively 2 hours for our productivity schedule in a day on a weekend, then we have around 208 hours to…
