Decision making. Most of us make tens or hundreds of decisions everyday. We have grown fond of this type of decision making. We feel that we are in-charge when we get to decide what we are going to eat for dinner. But in the disguise of these numerous, small, irrelevant decisions,
Up and down. Balancing the different facets of life is a challenging task. It takes hard work to keep things simple. The biggest challenge is to not concede control to the last-minute mind. How does the last-minute mind take control? It creates the illusion that exceptions would yield better results than
Managing the weekend. The common notion is: We can really let loose once the office is shut. We can binge any series, order any food, do anything. The reality is that when we can do anything, we end up doing nothing. Nothing of significance, at least. Our last-minute mind redirects us to
The root cause. The root cause of all misery is letting the last-minute mind take decisions. The last-minute mind is not equipped to take decisions; it does not understand resource allocation, opportunity costs, or delayed gratification. It can only work well in constraints. Constraints designed by the deep mind, by the
40 hours a week. That’s how long the Basecamp team works. And they have created some of the most innovative and successful software products present. Rather, during the summers (May-Sep), they work only for 32 hours a week. As a creative, there is a tendency to work for every waking moment, at
Talking about deep work... …is not deep work. It’s an illusion that Resistance creates to avoid deep work. The check for deep work is single tasking for a significant time (at least around an hour).
Avoiding Panic. Panic has become our default feeling when we are working. Deadlines and last minute work. That’s what we have been trained for, for years. We study (cram) when the exams are coming, there is a rush, and then we are done with the exams. This is not productive. This
4 x 60 Four stretches of uninterrupted 60 minutes, each focussed on a single task. That’s good enough for a work day. If you can get a single stretch of 180 minutes, that’s even better. Are you getting one? HT to Jason Fried & DHH of Basecamp
Change. Change is chaos. It’s easier and much more comfortable to stay with the status quo. Do things as they have always been done. Change creates turbulence. It can be good or bad. The good change is the one done with intent. Keep asking: ‘What’s it for?’
Scrolling vs. typing The less you scroll and the more you type, the better you become. Scrolling is consumption and we have been trained to do that mindlessly. Scrolling our finger on the iPad or the trackpad leads to anxiety and dopamine expectation. That’s the training that I was referring to. Instead,
What are you putting off for 'later'? Does ‘later’ help? How? When we put things off for later, we expect them to magically resolve them on their own. The longer we put them off, the more we are surprised that they did not get themselves done. The things that we put off for later are generally ambiguous
Just keep typing. Is there anything more beautiful than a blinking cursor, looking at you with desperate eyes, waiting for you to start typing? Again and again, I keep coming back to the same conclusion: Just keep typing. Don’t overthink. Over-type. Keep typing. Let your fingers do the work. No matter
Slippery slope. You know what, I can at least get myself a cup of coffee. Is that too much to ask? Ahem! Now that I am here in the kitchen, I notice that there are the dishes. They have been pending for days now. I can’t ignore them any longer. Okay.
Repetitive? Is it becoming repetitive? Or worse ‘self-righteous’? Am I ‘should-ing’ my readers? Am I not being kind? Yes, I can decide not to write today, because of these and hundred other reasons. I can skip to ship today, thinking that tomorrow might make things better. But it won’
One exception at a time. That’s how we lose the day. That’s how we lose the week. That’s how we lose. The importance of the ‘work’ has to take priority over any exception that may present itself.
Rebound. When we push against Resistance, it pushes back. A rebound is to be expected. How we handle the rebound is what matters. Sometimes, it’s very important to be kind to yourself and build small wins over time rather than trying to be productive all the time. Taking guilt over
The General and the foot-soldier. We have to don many hats as a creative. The thing to understand here is that we can don only one hat at a time. The foot soldier has his role and the General has her role. It makes sense to identify the role we are playing and the responsibility
Misery. Your mountain. Your boulder. You. That’s all that matters. The soul had an option, not to take birth. It did not take birth to survive, it was always surviving. It took birth to accomplish something that it could not do without a body. That something is your mountain. That
Fighting back. Procrastination, self-doubt, rationalisation, fear, paralysis are all the different faces of Resistance, we know that very well. We also know that we can fight back against them by being a pro, by putting our butt in the chair, removing the clutter and focussing on a single task. But many
Does the incentive help? I think it harms. It takes the focus away from the process, the engagement, and obsesses about something that is not in our control. Doing the work for the work itself, reading a book for learning, listening to someone just to listen to them, these are holistic undivided activities which
Speaking & typing. Our brain works in different ways when we are speaking vs. when we are typing (or writing). Speaking exists only in the moment. You can’t correct what you said. You can’t take it back. Typing is more deliberate than speaking. You can read what you typed, you can
Being a better boss. Empathy is a tricky concept. Our mind makes us believe that we know what the other person would be feeling. That’s not true. It takes tremendous emotional labour to empathise with someone. The most difficult person to empathise is ourself. And the lack of this empathy makes us the
'Do the work' in public. I don’t mean a co-working space. Instead, I am talking about your work. I’d urge you to share your daily work with other people, with 5 friends. Just send them an email with all the notes for today, preferably with a timestamp on each task. This will
"I just need more time. But I don’t really know what I’ll do with it.” Seth Godin says that price is the refuge of the marketer who has run out of things to say. Similarly, time might be the refuge of the creative who can’t gather themselves to start working on the
Consistent. In cricket, the batsman who hits a six off the last ball to win the match is celebrated while the one who persistently batted for a long time is mostly ignored. In the movies, the hero has to pull off something miraculous in the climax for the movie to be
