Hello everyone!
This week I have been reconsidering how I work as well as how I organize things around me so that I can work effectively.
Why am I doing this only now even though most of us have been working from home for almost 10 months now?
Well, I have been doing this slowly over time but only strictly allocated time to review and take concrete actions this week.
So the next question is: Why do it at all? Why change the way I work and organize things?
While we all hope this situation doesn't last long, I will be working from home even after the world returns to normalcy since my current job is fully remote. And I suspect many people who work from home will end up continuing to work from home partially even after we get back to normalcy. To maintain a healthy relationship with work as well as with other things we do every day, it is important to consider how we work AND how we live when we work from home.
Now the question is: What have I been doing for this?
My main inspiration for how I have been changing the way I do things is from this video by CGP Grey.
The core idea is to have separate places allocated for the four main aspects of our daily life, all of which are necessary to be happy:
Once you create separate places for this, you make sure you don't do more than one thing at a time and you only do each of these things in its designated place.
Another key is to make sure you:
Exercise: At least a minimum amount of time every day (try to keep increasing this)
Sleep: A consistent amount of time every day
Recreation: A maximum limit of time every day (try to keep reducing but enjoy the time you do spend without any guilt)
On top of this core concept, I'm trying to add few more things. I will write an essay by next month on this one.
I did some cleanup of digital assets. I also spent some time polishing SimplerThreads app which I built last year. I'm planning to spend some more time making this into something people are willing to pay for. Apart from this, I have also been brainstorming ideas for a new app that I plan to start working on from Jan 15.
This is a look how the Gumroad team works. Few years back, we had startups like Buffer that made remote and open work popular. I think Gumroad's way of working that Sahil explains in this post will start becoming more popular this decade.
The joys of being an absolute beginner – for life
The author, Tom Vanderbilt, starts to learn Chess along with his daughter and in the process experiences what it feels to be an absolute beginner and describes how we rarely tend to put ourselves through it as we grow older (but that we should).
Robin Rendle writes about newsletters and blogs, why more writers are moving to newsletters, & how and why we should create a medium that allows writers to start something easily, reach readers without having to request for their email address and also get paid.
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Have a great week!
Karthik