Morning!
Started writing this on the 7th. Did some work on the 8th. And finishing it on the morning of the 9th (Monday). I woke up late and I have lost the control of the day already. Must do whatever to preserve my mornings.
So, week 6 of 2026 has come to an end. I dont know if its age but this year is flying. While there is little progress on a day to day basis, life is moving with a breakneck speed. From work to personal life to world around us, each thing is changing.
Now change may not be a bad thing. In fact, in the wise words of Steve, its a great thing. I love that things change. Many reasons. Primarily because the new is ushered in when change happens. And I have been a beneficiary of this newness and I know more folks will be beneficiaries.
Look at the SAASpocalypse brought about by AI. See this Reddit conversation. If you are able to go beyond the bloodbath on the stock market, you will start seeing the second and third order effects. I am excited about the opportunity and I believe that folks like me (not particularly talented) must accelerate the efforts to build a personal brand, get into Atoms business (compared to Bits) and learn how to apply these tools fast. I have started to build a thesis. And like I said at the beginning of the year, identify one thing and focus on that.
Ok, lets go ahead and get going with the review of the week.
Oh, the track of the week is Dil Se and this version by Berklee folks.
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💭 Highlights, reflections, updates, notes and thoughts from Week 6, 2026
Note: These are not in any order.
1/ The Zomato Lust
A lot of young people I meet, they want to “intern” at Zomato. Specifically in the marketing space. And I am aghast at their choice.
I have a simple question for these folks. What would you learn at a company like that? Isnt internships about experimenting, learning, doing?
You will become a paper pusher. You will fetch coffee for your boss. You would do data entry. You will become better at corporate politics. You will be a real-life Dilbert. You would be a humble cog in a giant machinery. And I dont know what would you learn there.
I mean I get why people want to be at a Zomato. But as a young person, why would you shoot for safe havens of large companies that are designed in a tightly controlled confines?
I really hope and pray and wish that someday this instagram-chasing generation starts to see life from a long-term lens.
Sigh. I will record a podcast on this.
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2/ Wadhwa, The Address
While going thru my Google Photos, I stumbled onto this photo from Vivek’s house. At a point in time, I was using this house as my primary residence.
This is THE most luxurious place I’ve lived at since I moved to Mumbai. And I think I miss it. The house is no longer accessible and even if it were, I wouldn’t be able to afford it. Its my life goal to have access to such places.
Let’s see when.
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3/ The weekly habit tracker
Apart from my digital, Google Sheets tracker, I have started to use a pen and paper one. Here’s a screenshot from 02 Feb to 08 Feb.
You see a lot of empty spaces because I started tracking a few things from different dates and times. I am hoping this will be more full in the next week. Plus I will add more rows (of things that I actually track).
No, I am not that disciplined that I dont need a tool. Plus I like the idea of quantified life. And to be honest, I like this better. But when I am not at home, this becomes a task to fill in. So maybe I will carry it around? But then I dont want to lift the burden. So maybe digital. Lol!
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4/ The portfolio
This is how my laptop looks like.
For the longest time, I was the kinds to not put any stickers on my laptop. But then I put Pooja Ki Chappal on the laptop. And then I put CynLr’s. And then once I had two, I let the floodgates open. And today I have all these.
Oh, yesterday, I put one more. Can you spot which one is the latest?
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5/ Poker
Over the last week, three different people talked to me about poker. All three are from MDI. Two threads emerge from this.
a, I need to expand beyond MDI to get more friends and all. I am unable to make small talk with people at cafes; I dont have a personal brand that excites people and makes them want to speak with me; I have nothing spectacular to offer; I am not rich. In fact, at the event yesterday (on the 8th), I could see that I was unable to get people excited to talk to me.
So I need to fix these.
b, I must get back to poker. I am a believer in signs and if three different conversations are leading me to it, why not? And no, I am not good at it but I do enjoy being on the table.
So that.
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6/ Screentime
I had mentioned last week that I will bring down my mobile screentime. I wrote,
As of today, my average screentime on the mobile is 6 hours and 50 minutes (and that too is 18% down from last week). I want to work to get my mobile screen time to 30 minutes.
Here’s how it is for this week.
Down 39%. Yay!
It’s at 4 hours, 40 minutes.
Last week it was 6 hours, 50 minutes. So I’ve shaved about 2 hours. I insist that I want to get it to under 30 minutes. Looks tough but we shall try.
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7/ Misc things.
In no order…
- I dont like to travel within the city. This week I had to travel to meet people and it was not good.
- I’ve made some progress on the mental health / influencer thing. Am still not ready to talk about it but I like that I am spending some time on it each day.
- Been reading a lot of pieces from Om Malik. God bless Pradeep for his curation.
- Saw this quote, “In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man (with half-baked knowledge) is king, but the two-eyed man (who is a visionary genius) is in for a hell of a ride (suffers a backlash and is called a fool.)”. Loved it.
- A person quit working with C4E cos they didnt like the culture here. This is a new. I’ve had people leave us for a lot of reasons (money primarily) but never for culture. I thought the culture was a differentiator.
- Met someone who’s gone to NS. I remain on the edge about me being there. But if you are young, you must try, if you can afford.
- Took some photos yesterday and edited those on Snapseed. Loved it. Must do more. Here’s one…
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🈺 Photos from Week 6
Here are some.
Over the next weeks, I will retire this. Takes a lot of time and gives no ROI. Plus I now include pics in the commentary section. Lets see.
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🈺 Trackers from Week 6
At some point in time, I will have detailed trackers to show. But for the time being the small numbers that I have tracked are…
- Average Steps -7046. Last week it was 5186. I want this to be 15K over the next 20 days or so.
- Pickle Sessions – 2. Want to get to 3. I will see if I can go.
- YT Live Sessions – 5. See here.
What is missing?
Well a lot. Sleep, workout, yoga sessions, food, emotions, habits, money and more. To be honest, I have not filled in my in2026 tracker this past month. I will get on to it from today.
What did I do new?
I tried to use a pen and paper based tracking system. See above.
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🈺 Action on LARGE objectives for the year
In this section, I will capture my progress on large objectives for the year. In 2026, I plan to do the following three things…
- Book2
- Human Flag Pole
- Save a million dollars
I have started to work on the book. At this time, I am reading and writing some. I am relying heavily on AI.
On the flag pole, no action so far. Apart from better food and some movement. I am using Harada method for it. Here’s what I am told…
Ofc, this is the starting point. I need to do a lot more deep dive into things to be able to. The point is, if you follow a system, things are doable. And I want to do that.
☑️ So, what did I get done last week? And what will I do next week?
This is a one-line report on progress I made on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.
This year, I want to track the following…
- Health. I will work on sleep, food and movement.
- C4E / Work. I want to shortlist some idea that I want to work on.
- Brand SG / Distribution
- People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
- Book2. I want to start with this.
- Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)
Like the large objective bit, there is no update on this as well. I will get to this at some point.
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🏃🏻♂️➡️ Health
I added Health as a key section last year. I read somewhere that you need 4 things to live long – sleep, exercise, diet and community. I will track all four. And then some more variables that I feel are important to me. Let’s see what comes out.
Like the last few weeks, no action.
I restarted my daily health updates WA Channel. Thanks to ladies from Sher.
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🧠 Reminders from last week
This section captures things that I want to not forget. I add those to SG’s Office. I will copy paste these week on week and track updates.
A few things.
- Start a podcast with C and AK
- Update C4E’s Culture Book
These few come to mind as I speak. I have a suspicion that this will grow and will become unmanageable in a few weeks. I will find a solution when I get to it.
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🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?
Easy.
I didn’t do anything in a hurry. My sense of urgency took a back seat. Took it easy, met friends, ate, chilled.
The other words for this year have been: Journey, Downtime.
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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. Previous editions:
PPS: Please do point typos.
PPPS: I dont like this update. I will try harder next week.
PPPPS: In case you see me being inconsistent in anything – work, writing, reviews etc, PLEASE do point out.
PPPPPS: This is the first “update” of the year and thus a lot of this is incomplete. Allow me one or two weeks to get settled. And, on this one, do lemme know what you think of the new format.