Tag: Productivity

Wk 23-25 – Weekly Notes

Weekly update from weeks 22 and 23. This has Saurabh Garg’s notes, thoughts, reflections and everything else.

Hi!

I am back after a break of a week. I couldnt write. I was on the road. No, I am not beating myself over it (unlike past times). But I am acknowledging that I am not being consistent. I will try harder.

Now with that motivational self, pep-talk, lets get back to business.

The update for the last two weeks.

From the top of my head, a large part of update would be about Bangalore trip, health, personal brand and village. Lets see what else do I write.

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past two weeks

A/ Anurag Sir
I want to start from here. You know, how heroes fall? That! I love the guy. I love his films. I love his storytelling. A large part of my life has been dictated trying to be what he and Vikram Sir have been.

But, the guy’s falling. Hard. I can say a lot but I dont want to. I just want to catalog that I am sad about him falling 🙁

PS: In case I forget in the future, note to self, read about what he said about Netflix launching in India with things apart from Sacred Games.

Staying on films, saw Khosla Ka Ghosla, at an event organised by Balram. Each time I see the film, I am amazed that the film captures Delhi nuances so well that I am inspired to do similar things!

And staying further on films, I really want to be in the films business. I know AI and all is gonna disrupt how this business works (we are already making short films using all the AI tools) but there’s something about visual storytelling that still moves people. I need to be a player in this space. Come on, universe…

B/ Bangalore
Many notes from this one. Lemme write in bullets.

  1. Played poker. Enjoyed it. Must play more. Met some really incredible people on the poker table. Must do more to be around Poker
  2. Realised that my personal brand needs a lot of work. I orgniased a meetup and I was unable to meet a lot of good folks. I HAVE to work on this
  3. Spent time with Sonam and each time I meet her, I want to be able to afford person like her to work with me (either at C4E or at Meru)
  4. Met a couple of really interesting folks (you know, the VC, startup kinds). I realised I enjoy meeting these people. I had this VERY strong urge to move to Bangalore, just for these connections. But I realised that I am chasing vanity and I would do well staying away, keeping my head down and building.
  5. Saw collective-thinking in action at a couple of places. A new fancy coffee shop has opening in Bangalore. I try to not go to these fancy places. And while I was not keen on going, I was taken there. By folks who apparantly “boycott” these places. Plus everyone famous at Bangalore seems to be there as well. It’s like how socialites want to flock the fancy places? No, I will not rant about it. Merely saying.

Ok this is it?
I thought I would have a lot to say about this trip to Bangalore. I clearly do not.

C/ Counter Strike
Recorded a video where I talked about how I am inspired by Counter Strike and how each thing their echos how I have structed C4E. In case you want to see, it’s here.

D/ Life Manual for the your 30s
On someone’s request, I wrote this manual where I talked about what . You may read this here.

The Life Manual for your 30s

On this note, please give me prompts that you want me to write on. I work the best when triggered!

E/ Build a new format to track what I am working on.
Each few days I have something new that I track. This time I have copied this from what I saw on screens of my new team at Meru. I’ve been at it for a few days now. Let’s see how long this lasts.

F/ FOXO
Got myself a FOXO subscription. This is the most expensive thing EVER that I’ve got for myself. Prior to this, the most expenisve thing was sgElectra.

So far the only tangible thing I know is that I can hold a plank for a minute and I am a diabetic. Oh, thrown in a gym, I can do 10 pushups. Plus my balance seems to be good and calcium in my bones seem to be ok as well. So, apart from my diabetes, most things are ok. I need to figure why and how do I have bad skin and less stamina. I need to work on my lower back and improve my posture. Let’s see what more I discover.

The other related thing is that I read this thread about Ray Kurzweil and one of the thing he says is that we will probably live forever. He says that “death will be optional” and there are three things he talks about – a, science seems to have learnt the secret of aging, companies like Neuralink seem to have found success in Brain Computer Interfaces and then the digital twins are already around (thanks to FOXO).

So, if we can live for the next few decades, we can be immortal. This is the frontier that no one knows (except Ashwatthama or may be Trivedi :D). Let’s see.

PS: I am an investor in FOXO. And C4E does some work for FOXO.

G/ Getting the AI FOMO
On a day to day basis, I have this HUGE AI FOMO. I have written about this in the past. And its all over my twitter. I think the only way to go about this is by actually doing this. I think the only way to do this is to carve time (now that I have agreed that I wont find anyone to work with me and support me). And I need to probably cut down on a lot of other things.

H/ Broke “H” on my laptop’s keyboard.
I tried to fix C’s laptop’s keyboard. I had fun. I was bored. On a whim, pried open the H on my keyboard and now I can’t fix it!

Grrr…

I/ Recorded an episode of The Optimist’s Manifesto Podcast with Subendhu (of FOXO).
He’s had a stellar life and has such a wide range of experiences that I want to be him! Spoke to him for two hours. I need to build a life where I have similar richness of stories!

J/ Jayant Mundhra
One of the conversations in the last two weeks was with Jayant. He’s an incredible writer and over the last 2 years, has built a community of about 100K folks that read general purpose advice from him. While I dont about each person I meet, Jayant is special. He’s doing EXACTLY what I want to. And he’s doing a GREAT job at it. And he’s consistent with it. If I could be a shade consistent of him, I would be elsewhere in life!

He also told me about Zero1 network, again something I want to be able to build. But unlike the Kamaths I dont have a lot of FCF. Maybe I will build a corpus as I go along? Let’s see.

K/ KP got hitched!
This means Pooja ka bachcha is growing up.
Poo saas ban gayi ;P

L/ High-Performance Org
One of the latest lessons from Hareesh Sir has been that I need to be a little more strict with my people. The idea is to build a high-performance organization that delivers on the promise to the stakeholders.

This is similar to the riff about idea people and people people from the last update. In fact this is something that I lack in my life.

I am way too kind when I work with people and I need to learn balance. I dont want to create weak people. May be that’s what I had done with other businesses? That in my unwavering support, did I create weak orgs there?

Lot to think!

M/ Mountain Goat
Thanks to J, discovered a new retaurant in Lokhandwala. Mountain Goat. They serve Wai Wai Sadeko. I think I will go there a lot (went there on May 28th and havent gone back, lol) if my sugar doesnt spike.

So this is it from the last 2 weeks. Lemme know what is interesting and what is not. And what would you like to see more.

📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos from week 22 and 23. A lot to be honest.

The one that I would like to plaster on my blog is…

🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by?

Book 2
I didnt get time to even think about thinking. The person I was working with seems to have a lot on her plate and thus I am unable to move. No, I am not leaning onto her and blaming her for my inaction but I didnt move on this at all.

PS: Dropped 2025 Plan a few weeks ago.

☑️ What did I get done last two weeks?

This is a one-line report on things I got done on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.

At this point, the following things are important to me (I know too many but…) and these are IN ORDER.

  1. Health
  2. Meru
  3. C4E
  4. Brand SG
  5. People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
  6. Book2
  7. Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)

Health. Got FOXO membership. Now I have a CGM (for a few days) that tells me how I recat to food and all. I am more aware. No action. No done. So a 0.

Meru. Was an ok week. Moved the needle. But still far from where I’d like to be. Thus, a 0.

C4E. No action. 0.

Brand SG. No action. The trip to Bangalore told me that I remain an insignificant person in the large scheme of things. I need to get more active. I want to give a -1 but one a day to day basis, in my world, I get by ok. So, a 0.

People. No action on this. I’d say 0.

Book 2. Lol! -1

Shauk. No large things. Bangalore trip, FOXO, Poker. So, a 0.

So the overall score is -1 for this week.

Trends from the previous weeks: 3, 0, -4, 0, -4, -5, -5, -3, -2, -1
The max I can get is 7 in a week. Let’s see when I get to it.

📊 The tracker from the last week

This is the tracker for the last 2 weeks.

 

I really need to pull my socks on this. I cant be missing.

PS: I have noticed that each time I am on the road, I miss updating this. And once I am back to ground, I take a few days to get back to speed. And that causes the chaos. May be I need to find a way to do this better.

📖 Interesting Reads from the last week

Some links that I want to share…

  1. Rahul on Obvious – here
  2. Mary Meeker’s report on AI – here. Do not miss this.
  3. Derek O Brian was in a flight that got damaged in the hail. In this video, he talks about his near death experience.
  4. On “choice”, from David Ogilvy. Here. Thanks to Pradx for sharing this.
  5. From the top person at Snapchat – how to build companies – here.
  6. V told me about Navagunjara (no I did not know about this even though I claim to be a fan of Mahabharata)
  7. This is a great list of superpowerful maxims about life. From founders. The ones I love are as follows…
    • 1. Money comes naturally as a result of service.
    • 4. Be a professional opportunist.
    • 7. You don’t need to be a genius; you just need to collect more information.
    • 12. Mute the world, build your own.
    • 17. Make yourself easy to interface with.
    • 18. Relationships run the world.
    • 20. Quality of your life is the direct result of the quality of your decisions.
    • 23. Problems are opportunities in work clothes.
    • 31. Actions express priorities.
    • 32. The public praises people for what they practice in private.
    • 36. Business is problems; the best companies are problem-solving machines.
    • 40. Always more audacious.
    • 44. Making mistakes is the privilege of the active.
    • 46. Incentives rule everything around you.
    • 50. Intensity is the price of excellence.
    • 51. You can’t save souls in an empty church.
    • 61. Imitation precedes creation.
    • 63. Optimism is a moral duty.
    • 69. Repeat, repeat, repeat; volume and consistency win.
    • 72. The hard way is the right way.
    • 73. Be intolerant of slowness.
    • 74. Hire a professional critic.
    • 79. “Action solves everything.”
    • 88. Avoid boring people.
    • 90. All good things in life come from compounding.
    • 93. Have pride in creation, not consumption

PS: Are these useful? Do these help in any way? I read a LOT more than what I share here but these are what I think people I know must read. Skewed towards startups, hard work, deliberate living etc etc.

🧠 Reminders from last week

This section captures things that I want to not forget. I will copy paste these week on week and track updates. I will also add these to SG’s Office.

Here are things from the past few weeks that I want to remember. And no, this may not be a comprehensive list. In categories.

  1. Long term
    • Professional pool / snooker / poker. I played poker in bangalore and it was fun. I dint win a lot but I was able to read some players. So that’s cool. Other thing (pool) saw no action.
  2. Health
    • Kitchen setup (incomplete)
    • Gym membership (incomplete)
  3. C4E things (I will stop tracking these things and have C do these)
    • C4E Base
    • Design
    • Borderless agency
    • Adding films
  4. Shauk / Personal
    • Use of money to buy time – doing this already.
    • Better dressed – lol
    • Find love – lol!
    • Demand more from life
    • Speak better!

In case you know me, lemme know if I have missed something.

🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Grind.
That’s the world I would use for the last two weeks.

Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… Busy for Nothing, Regular, Getting back to action, Slack, Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.

—
Phew!
Lemme know what you think.
See you around.

Oh, and this too shall pass!

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes. The previous editions are here: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09 (missed), 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (missed), 16, 17 (missed), 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 (missed)

PPS: Please do point typos. Grammarly is not working well and I don’t have energy to cut paste edit this in some other spell check thing.

PPPS: In case you see me being inconsistent in anything – work, writing, reviews etc, PLEASE do point out.

061121 – Morning Pages

A new format of doing these morning pages. Start with journal, add some commentary. And then end with the trackers. What do you think?

7:13. Slept at 4 something. Blame it on all the coffee I had. The good part is that I ate very little and I did not have Diet Coke even though it was a stressful day. So, pat on the back for that.

In terms of the update, I want to experiment with doing just the journal and see what I write. And once I am done with it, if there are things that I want to add onto, will add. And then I will add the trackers. Lemme know what you think of this new format. If these are still interesting for you to read? I mean I am a random guy on the internet. Would you want to read the musings in such an open manner? Is living in public cool?

Anyhow. Here’s the journal!

  1. Emoticon: :|. I was not happy per se. But I wasn’t sad either. So that.
  2. Mindful Index (on a scale of 10): 2. I think I did ok yesterday. I focused on one task at a time and I did serial multitasking. If I can amp it up, I will be ok. So +1, Mr. Garg.
  3. Things that I am grateful for
    1. I can find a comfortable bed most times I want to. This is a big big blessing. Grateful for that.
    2. I am grateful that I have access to enough water, at a time I want, in a shape I want. And I love sipping onto it. As I am writing this, I am sipping on to warm water.
    3. I can choose how I want to spend my time. More or less. I mean right now, I would like to be with my parents but work demands that I spend time away from them. But within that, I can choose my time and all that. So that.
  4. Things that would make my today great
    1. I have a lot of important things open. If I can work on and close those, it would be awesome. These things affect my work, my present and my future. All at the same time. It would be great if I could get those things done.
    2. If I can make do with OMAD, nothing like it. And if not that, I need to eat less. And eat well. You know, good things – no sugar, no carbs, no oil etc.
    3. If I could avoid giving into temptations (of any kind, that appeal to any of our senses), it would be awesome.
  5. A daily affirmation.
    I can consistently create amazing opportunities for myself and my loved ones.
  6. Amazing things that happened yesterday? 
    1. I could avoid eating kachra. Even though I had the opportunity. And access. And on top. whatever I ate was healthy. I mean I am assuming it was healthy. And I avoided Diet Coke. I did have couple of coffees but that’s ok. I will reduce that also as we get along.
    2. I tried to and successfully avoided context switching. It felt great to actually see things happen. With context switching, I open a lot of threads but I have a tough time closing em. If I can make this a recurring habit, I think I would be happier. So, more of it today.
    3. The cab ride from home to Gurgaon was fabulous. Even though it was dangerous, I loved the speed, the control of the cabbie and the wind in my (non-existent) hair. I just wish I was the one driving. I miss driving. Must get a car soon. #note2self. No, not before I take care of the debt.
  7. What could have made yesterday better?
    1. If I could have avoided coffee, it would have been fab. Today as well, I may not able to avoid. I have a meeting that I need to be at where I will be forced to have coffee.
    2. I was up till 3ish. If I could sleep on time, it would have better. I know sleep is important for functioning but I was unable to. Guess I will have to avoid coffee.
    3. If I could end the day with a dinner with someone, anyone, it would have been better. I like the idea of meeting people face to face and I feel off their energy. I ended the day on the bed staring at my phone. Rather I should have been sitting across a table and chatting about plans to take over the world 😀
  8. Quote for the day
    “Leave people better than you found them.” – Anon

What do I want to add beyond the journal?

I would have liked to talk more about context switching. But that’s a subject for another post altogether. Which knowing me, would never happen ;P

Also, the sections in the journal are overlapping. I need to find a better way of doing it. May be I will talk to SM from whom I literally copied this (see this thread) and I will ask him for his thoughts on the overlap. Let’ see.

So, as I end this, here’s the streaks…

  • OMAD – 0
  • #book2 – 0
  • NOFAP – 0
  • #noCoke – 3
  • #noCoffee – 0
  • #aPicADay – o
  • Daily Journal – 30
  • Money spent – 3654
  • Killer Boogie – 0
  • 10K steps a day – 0
  • Surya Namaskar – 0
  • Daily Mail to #teamSG – 30
  • 10 mins of meditation – 0.
  • Minimaslism Counter – -3 +1.
  • Morning Pages / Meditations – 30

080621 – The Curious Case of a Missing Keyboard

A write about a keyboard that has gone missing from the matchbox that I live in. Help me find it?

7:53 AM. I woke up about 10 minutes ago. Like the last few days, I woke up groggy and all that. Even my back hurts for some reason. I need to really figure this out. Or may not. I mean it’s probably the age. So it’s cool. However the soreness is almost gone, so that’s a good thing. I must say this vaccine shot has made me realize where I stand with my health. I did not have any adverse side effects (except drowsiness that made it impossible for me to stay awake). I need to do a lot if I want to climb Everest and live till 120! Anyhow.

So the thing on top of my head is a Bluetooth Keyboard that I recently bought to help me work better. It’s a Targus keyboard that is small enough that I can carry it in a backpack and big enough to be comfortable. Plus it’s wireless, BT, and doesn’t need a USB connection. With the MacBook Air I use the number of posts is a challenge (just 2, and only USB C type) and thus I needed a BT keyboard. And I got. I even touted it as the best 1200 odd bucks I spent in a long long time.

However, the keyboard is gone missing.

In the 200 sq ft space I live in, all I have is a writing table, some unopened cartons of books, a book shelf and a kitchen. And yet I can’t find the keyboard. Plus I am not the one to lose things often and yet I can’t seem to find it. I have looked at every inch of the place. While I am pissed at my carelessness, the larger emotion at play is amazement – where could this keyboard even go?

As a kid, I really wanted to be a detective. I was very very inspired by Byomkesh, Crystal Maze, Super Commando Dhruv, and all the other early things that I consumed as a child. At that age, I knew that I would go on to become a detective. I think that’s how I probably developed a questioning mind. Maybe that’s the hidden reason why I write crime-fiction. You know, commit a crime and then solve it 😀

I really want to solve this one. The keyboard has to be within this room – it can’t step out by itself. The only person that has access to its space is the domestic help – she comes like twice a week. Of course, she’s beyond suspicion. I have unequivocal trust in her.

No, I dont think there are any trained monkeys that could climb up to the 8th floor and take the keyboard away.

There is no incentive for anyone else. It’s a simple Bluetooth keyboard that is of no use to anyone. It’s just irksome that it has gone missing. It’s a thing now. I really have to find it. Throw me scenarios? ideas? Where could it be?

Moving on…

While I was working late last night, I realized something interesting. Something negative and yet awesome. I can’t work without task switching. In the sense that I was working on a client project and I had to write a memo. While I was doing that, I kept switching to Whatsapp to Twitter to News to Youtube to I dont know what else. This is such a bad way to get things done. With all this context switching, there’s no way I’d be able to get into deep work and deliver better output. In a world where we are known by our output if I cant deliver great work, what’s the point?

I have tried meditation – I used to be a regular (2-3 times a week) till early last month but I haven’t been doing it lately. Maybe I need to get back to it. Let’s see. As I type this post, I am trying to not switch to any other window. Except tinkering with the music playing in the background (which is allowed). I think I must get more conscious and more mindful about being in the moment. I must catch myself every time I spot myself switching tasks.

Oh, I just saw, I’ve put a sticky note on the wall in front of me where I’ve written: “DO NOT SWITCH”! Lol!

So that. Something that needs working on.

Finally, last but not the least, I plan to work from a Starbucks till about 3 today. I dont have any important calls planned today. This means that I am ok with the background noise on whatever other calls I will get. So that’s cool. I was honestly in two minds because going to a Starbucks means spending 400 bucks on coffee that I am anyway trying to abstain from. But then I think the caffeine and the money are the tax I will have to pay to get more things done. You know, anything for higher productivity.

So, let’s see how the day goes. Wish me luck!

Here’s streaks…

  • Morning Pages / Meditations – 177
  • #aPicADay – 0
  • 10K steps a day – 0
  • OMAD – 0
  • #noCoffee – 2. I plan to work from a Starbucks. And that means I will have a coffee!
  • #noCoke – 89
  • 10 mins of meditation – 0
  • #book2 – 0
  • Killer Boogie – 0
  • Surya Namaskar – 0

Day 6 – I don’t know what to write about…

A journal of sorts of how I spent my day on the 4th of Nov 2020.

But I will.

After all, I am on this trip where I am hoping to write every day for 30 days for 30 minutes. Today’s the 6th day. On the trot. Yay!

As the entire world awaits the outcome of the US elections with bated breath, here I am, in a corner of Mumbai, thinking about what to write about. While I do have a million things on my mind and I could write about those, there’s no one thing that’s popping in my head as a clear leader.

So, in absence of anything specific to write about, I will just do a recap of sorts for the day.

9 AM

I started my day with a meeting that got canceled. I was up all night, last night preparing for this meeting!

The spare time I had, I used that to speak to one of the people I talked about in yesterday’s post. I sort of “coached” him on productivity and gave him simple tips about how to do things better. The biggest tip I gave him was Paul Graham’s Maker Day and Manager Day. In case you don’t know about it, go read it. It’s worth its weight in gold!

10 AM

The other big thing that happened today is that a friend connected me with one of his friends and wants me to give gyaan on effective notes. Notes is another thing that happened to me just because I wrote a post about it. The post went to a lot of people and some of those implored me to “teach” them the methods. And when I did talk to them about the methods, they seemed to enjoy it!

So, a clear case of how the work you do in public has unintended consequences! The lesson for you? Do more public work!

1 PM

Next, I met a friend for a coffee (and I had green tea) and he gave me dope about, well, me!

He told me things about me that I could not see and yet everyone around me could! You know, things that you don’t know that you don’t know?

If I talk from the lens of Johari Window, he showed me my Blind Area.

It was quite a revelation. He actually pointed out things that I was clearly unaware of. And these things are deterrents, to say the least. And I need to clearly work on those. I also need to clearly work on not using the same word in three consecutive sentences.

10 PM

Lastly, I just finished a meeting with my writing group. We met via Twitter and we try to help each other with writing.

In fact, this series of posts is actually an outcome of an idea that someone threw at me in the group. No, my notes don’t have that person’s name. Good that I don’t. The kind of writing that am creating, I am so embarrassed!

1137 PM

So yeah, I think this is it for the day.

Again, this is not one of the best posts I’ve written. But I wanted to get the words out of my system. And I wanted to write for 30 minutes. I think with this summary, I’ve done both. And that means, its an over and out from me.

Take care!

This is part of the ’30 posts in 30 days’ project. This was Day 6. Other posts are at 3010, 3110, 0111, 0211, 0311