I always wanted to write about this topic, but stopped myself since they might not fit into the subjects I deal with. But, today, I wanted to come out of the shell and wanted to write how technology inspires me to get more things done.
Devices
I am a tech geek. Love exploring new tech and how can it better my life each day. My go to phone is my Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max . Would love to upgrade to the latest one, but since this device is as good as new, I don’t complain.
I have two phones. One for personal use and one for official use. I used to have Galaxy Fold 3, but exchanged it for S23 ultra in an irresistible deal. Even though I use it very less, it helps me to have both the world of Apple eco-system and Android ecosystem.
For computing, I use a MacBook Air and iPad Pro first generation (five years old now).
Tasks
The one thing I rely on are my reminders. Even though, I am not bad at remembering things, I always like to have a reminder just in case I get lost during the day.
My go to task manager is Apple To-Do for the sheer convenience of dictating my reminders instead of typing. Professionally, Todoist does the job well.
Hand Writing
Even though there is a lot of tech surrounding us, I am someone who loves to write down my notes and thoughts. I use a simple notebook and my very first Mont Blanc fountain pen which I got 17 years ago.
However, recently I got the RocketBook Fusion Smart re-usable book. It’s more than $100 in India, but I asked a friend to carry it for me when he was coming. So, costed me $24.
This book is just amazing. Plan your weekly schedule, write all your notes, scan with the app and upload to Evernote. Once done, use the cloth which comes with it, sprinkle some water and erase all the notes. Now, your notes are digitised and also the book is reusable. Absolutely phenomenal.
Online Writing
Predominantly I use Notion. For my book writing, I use LivingWriter, a decent book writing product. What I like about LivingWriter is its SaaS offering. No need to install (they do have a Mac and Windows App) and all your writing is in sync. However, one challenge is that if i don’t check, then the Mac app goes offline and if you are travelling, you need to wait for signal to start using the app again.
Headphones
One thing we need is to focus and for that, if you are like me, you might listen to music. Even though its not absolute noise cancelling, I use Focal Bathys headphones which are a treat to the ears. The best part is that these are the only headphones which come with DAC option in-built and you need not use any other converter.
Music for focus
There are many tracks in Apple Music, Spotify and also YouTube. But I use https://www.brain.fm. try using their focus and creativity modes for the best outcome.
What accessories do you use for enhancing your productivity?
This is a task management method, how did I customise this into an ideation tool?
I work on 2 things – HAPLO, our startup and Studio NAVAKA, my writings & consulting LLP. I distribute my time based on the weeks plan.
To write down and follow up on my ideas, I use TickTick and customised the template to suit my needs.
This is just for my ideas. I keep writing them down in this template. I created another matrix where i use that on weekly basis. On Saturday, I sit down to look at the upcoming week and put all the things I need to get done and select an idea or two to brain storm with myself.
To organise my ideas, I use Evernote and Notion. Evernote has all the links and articles which I reference and Notion has all blog writings. For articles and the book am working on, I am using LivingWriter, a cloud based book writing app. There are a lot of bugs, but its working for me.
So, in the recent past, there has been a lot of commotion, at least in India, where Mr. Narayana Murthy, the co-founder and ex-CEO of Infosys talked about 70 hours a week effort to ensure that we become economically stronger. Here is the interview if you have missed.
Look at the points he makes:
India’s work productivity is one of the lowest in the world.
Unless we improve our work productivity, unless we reduce corruption in the Government, unless we reduce decision making times in the Government, we will not be able to compete with those countries.
BTW, all these are true.
However, individuals like you and me (who are reading this) cannot fight the politicians and their atrocities, lets accept that. But there are two ways to give back to the country, contribute more so that the economy grows and help the right people win elections so that things can better up.
In this video by Ms. Palki Sharma (who I personally respect a lot), said that according to WHO, long work hours leads to health problems. (Amongst others, this caught my attention)
See the comments in either of the videos. One says “Billionaires exploit and they should donate wealth” and another one says “in the west people just work 8 hours and any additional work is compensated with money.”
Let me break these two comments down before I share my thoughts.
Billionaires should donate their wealth – Not necessarily. Why should they? They worked very hard to be where they are today and have made money with their work. Can you question your politician with the wealth they amass and don’t even give a single rupee in charity? No. Why? Because they will ensure you are out of the map if your comments come to hurt them. But these self-made men should distribute their wealth and up the economic status. If you ask me, more than Billionaires, Governments should stop giving free and meaningless schemes to everyone.
The person who commented said that he/she worked overseas in IT field and people are compensated when they put in long hours. I really don’t know which country or which company, but let me honestly give you my personal experiences.
In US, people are at their desk by 8AM (or even earlier). They have breakfast at their desk and also I have personally seen many having even their lunch at their desk. They focus without distractions and complete their work by 5 PM and leave. What is wrong with that?
Let’s come to India. First, we don’t come to work on time, giving lame excuse of traffic (In general). So, you are lazy to plan your day and you blame others for your delay. This is exactly the problem. We don’t take ownership of our mistakes but happily live by blaming others. Now, after coming to work, first switch on laptop, check mails and then will be a coffee or chai break catching up on last nights game of cricket.Then get to work and in short time, planning where to eat lunch. Get back to work and in a little while, chai break again. When is serious work getting done?
(I apologise if i am coming across strong, but this is the reality and this is my view and it is generic, does not and will not apply to everyone)
So, you see the trend? We do not actually put in extra hours, we only stay at office for late hours and then blame the company for that.
I am very sure that I will get very nasty comments. But, before you comment, just see for yourself and around you and tell me if i am wrong. This is 60% of the cases.
Yes, genuinely I have seen companies pushing their employees to over work and underpay. That happens every where in the world. Not only in India. Thats a very different problem to have.
All people who have a problem with 70 hours work, please listen to what he says. How Germany and Japan pushed their country men to work hard and today, you see the result. If you cannot see the result, then you are reacting and not understanding what he is saying.
As Ms. Palki was saying, today, China’s workforce has a problem with 9-9-6-6, but what is the result? We know where China is. There are pro’s and con’s to every thing and they might be wrong in a number of ways, but we know how China is the Manufacturing capital of the world. It didn’t come easily. How they are treating their workforce is a different conversation again.
Do US, Germany, Japan, China take aid’s from any country or institution? No. Fortunately, India too has stopped taking aid in the recent times.
Why should self made people donate their money to charity? They need not, and those who give, give with their personal interest.
Next time, if anyone is saying the rich should donate, just ensure politicians also give. Else, its meaningless. Public servants don’t make so much money, but they amass large assets, while hard working people should pay taxes and also donate to charity, which is not fair.
Don’t put 70 hours, just put in 40 hours, but very truthfully work for those 40 hours and see the results for yourself.
I am not in support of any arguments, but these are my views.
How did I arrive at these views, the day I heard, read and then memorised what a great person said in the European Parliament..
Where there is righteousness in the heart There is beauty in the character.
When there is beauty in the character, There is harmony in the home.
When there is harmony in the home, There is order in the nation.
When there is order in the nation, There is peace in the world.
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.
Don’t think what the country has done for you, rather ask yourself what you have done for the country.
To close, what Mr. Murthy said is nothing wrong. Listen to him completely and then think and then debate. Lets put 40 meaningful hours at work so that it impacts our productivity score.
We all want freedom. Freedom from rules and regulations, freedom from family, freedom from teachers, freedom from friends, freedom from everything. But what is freedom? Is it only attributed to what and how we want?
Freedom is an attribute of mind. The mind needs to have its control over all what is happening around us and that is what the freedom each of us aspires.
Freedom, when not controlled, is the most dangerous enemy we will have, and that is why Freedom needs discipline. When thoughts are built with discipline, that is when you experience the complete freedom.
The mind and brain even though are interlinked, many times the brain does not follow the instructions of the mind. The mind does not allow you to think objectively, it only sends out emotional thoughts. The brain wants you to get up and run, but your mind refuses to get up (an emotional thought of sleeping for a little more while). It gets caught up in the vicious cycle. It is tempted to do what it is doing (resting, watching TV, reading or writing). How do you overcome this?
About a year ago, I started my journey as an Entrepreneur. Suddenly, I had the feeling of emptiness. There were no more late night calls, no scheduled meetings or travels, no escalations and last but not the least, no being artificial self. Suddenly, I felt I had all the time in my day and my brain was not being occupied. Now, I see the morning sunrise, do not rush to have breakfast and don’t look forward to my coffee break, no lunch meetings, no gossips, no rush hour traffic and finally, not going to bed with all the energy lost, just dreading to wake up in the morning to start the cycle again.
Days and weeks went by, I rested and let my body accept the new changes. Life was good. I now have all day to myself to do what I want to do and what I was wanting to do. For a long time (even now at times) I kept pushing out things in my checklist – I can do it later, I can do it tomorrow etc. As days passed by, I realized that I am being lesser productive than I was earlier. On 1 Jan 2016, I made a resolution that I am going to write a blog post a day for 100 days and voila, I did it. I used to plan my writings, write during the weekends and set the timer to publish automatically each day at a set time. I was using each minute I got productively by focusing on what energizes me to push myself during the office hours. Off late, I realized that now, because my day is not packed, my mind and body were getting off guard. The commitment to get things done has slowed down (I have all the time, right?).
It took a while for me to get back to schedule. Now, I get up in the morning, make a list of things which need to be done for the day and the day goes on by checking off the list. Initially, I used to make a list of things which I need to get done – like respond to the email, complete the presentation, meeting with someone etc. This helped, but the lethargy still exists. Now, I have a list of things which I need to do and I started using an app called Strides on iOS. This is a fantastic app which allows you to make a checklist of your activities which you need to get done each day repetitively. Now, my checklist goes like this – Wake up at 5 AM, Read/Writing time, Meditation time, the list of things which need to be done during the day, Read/Write or Google time. Notice the Google time. I realized that unknowingly I keep spending time on Google searching for something or the other. Now, I avoid going on unnecessary searches, rather I write down what I want to search in a paper and do it during the specific time in the day.
When we have all the time in our hand, we forget how valuable and brutal it is to not be productive, especially when you need to earn your living as an Entrepreneur.
This is the reason I renamed my blog to The Discipline of Freedom because freedom without discipline is like living without breathing.
In his book Free, Chris Anderson begins saying that he is using a web book (costing at least 60% cheaper than a traditional laptop), storing his writings on Google servers (which is free), sitting in a Starbucks using their free wi-fi and not to undermine the air conditioning and luxurious sofa, where his only expense is the coffee. But, the book still costs us $20. Why?
When we have so many new ways of working smart, how many do we actually use? There are million publications on the best apps and software to use and there are user ratings which are public and help you decide what to use.
This is an account of my personal exploration of using technology to work smart.
Notes
Try Evernote, a simple yet powerful tool where you can store almost everything and related to your notes, including Hand written notes, attachments and files.
Why? Because you never know when you get the best idea or a plan to work on. Keeping your thoughts synchronised plays a vital role in us becoming smarter.
Presentations
Presentations are the reflections of our creativity. We try to get creative with the available tools. What if there is something which will help us be more creative? Prezi is the answer. If you have seen a Prezi presentation earlier, you have got it. It is such an amazing and simple tool which can help us get more creative. Conveying our idea on a illustration would reach people 80% faster (my estimate and experience) than bulleted points.
Prezi is for Presentation, what Xerox is for Photo Copy.
Documents
Ever wondered what makes the 9 wonders of the world really a wonder? Because they are a treat to the eyes. When you see a Taj Mahal, your mind is thinking of what would have the architect been thinking when he designed it.
The same applies to your writing. When you hand over a document to someone, the writing should immediately take the reader into a different world (let it be a sales projection or Balance Sheet).
Your creativity in writing is 80%, but the tools you use will add the remaining 20%. Even though Keynote quite does not do as much as Word, the simplicity by which you can create your documents is what keeps me with Keynote. The font typeface’s make huge difference and help you engrave beauty into your writing.
Disclaimer: I do not get paid from anyone for this article. After exploring quite a few tools, I have stuck to the above list.
