Atomic Habits

by Chaitanya Leave a comment

My favorite habits author James Clear’s book Atomic Habits is releasing today.

I  benefited from his work over the last many years. The concept of Identity-Based Habits which I first learned from his blog has helped me in many ways especially with building and keeping my exercising habit.

I like his style of writing and explaining ideas. So I bought the book as I know I not only enjoy reading it but learn a ton. If you are a regular reader of his blog like me, you may find some ideas repetitive, but I think that’s a good thing. None of us need more new ideas. Just simple basics repeated over time will create wonderful results. Having known all this, I still fail at a lot of my habits and that’s one more reason why I am looking forward to read the book and reinforce my learning and habits.

Here is how yo can help yourself as well as James:

It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work. Indeed.

by Chaitanya 2 Comments

I am so glad I bought and read Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson’s latest book It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work. The book is a collection of succinct and insightful essays on how to work calmly and effectively. Alongside those, it teaches great lessons on leadership which ties into how Jason and DHH run their company, Basecamp. I feel lucky to have found and read book at this stage in my career. I loved the book so much that and I am keeping it as my go-to leadership handbook.

The essays are quick and easy to read. I think their ideas are nonconformist. Yet they don’t sound weird and make perfect sense.

I also enjoy reading their blog Signal v. Noise where they share great posts that overlap with some of the book’s content. I specifically recommend Jason’s articles on iterating and flip-flopping which are close to my beliefs.

I also recently listened to Jason’s Hurry Slowly episode and loved it. I am yet to get to his Tim Ferriss Show episode but I know it is going to be a great masterclass which I am saving up for later.

I highly recommend this book because you will learn loads of ideas on how to run a calm team and have a calm career; which seems daunting in this  fast-paced and hustle-loving world. This book may shatter all the notions you have about what it means to have a great career.

Three foundational skills everyone needs to get ahead in life

by Chaitanya 3 Comments

Over the past few years, the following foundational skills have helped me shape my career. I am not going to perfect them anytime soon but I think I don’t have to. I believe these skills takes life-long practice and I really don’t want to get done with them. I think it would be silly of me to think that someday I will master them all. I probably won’t. But by simply being aware and practicing them, I feel like I can adopt growth mindset and get better in my life and career.

Focus

Regardless of what I do, being indistracable and being able to focus on the task at hand for longer periods of time is a great skill. It is hard; if it isn’t everyone would do it. Being able to focus gives me a great competitive advantage, so I think it is very well worth learning how to be focussed. I learned that even a few focus blocks each week makes me  highly productive and effective. Having said this, it is really hard. I fail more often than I would like to believe. But that’s the challenge I signed up for.

Feedback

Willingness to ask and accept feedback without getting defensive is another essential skill to develop. It sounds simple. But being told on the face that you have a lot of room for improvement —which is generally true in most cases— is inconvenient and deeply cuts through my most precious possession called ego. But however harsh it may sound,  feedback on how I can improve is exactly what I need to get ahead. So I consider feedback as a gift. To get ahead in life, I need tough love, not being told how awesome I am. That’s why I am always open for feedback.

Flip-flop and iterate

It takes a lot of courage to be comfortable with changing my mind and ideas often. Everything around me is changing constantly. So should my ideas and opinions, I think. I am not obliged to stick with anything just because I felt certain way at certain point in time. Rather than being dogged about my ideas, I found that being open, adapting to feedback and iterating has helped me do cool things.

Can you think of any other skills that are useful regardless of what we do?

Next time I will share what I believe are foundational habits and how I learned about them.

Also, this is my first attempt with a cheesy clickbait title 😉

(Video) Indistractable, Nir Eyal — The Sensible Leader

by Chaitanya Leave a comment

Just watched this useful video.

Being indistractable is a super power. Nir Eyal started out his Mind the Product SF 2018 presentation by sharing that in the five years since his book Hooked came out he’s kept up with everything, gathered feedback, and learned even more about the neuroscience and behavior that drives our motivations and attention. My main takeaway […]

via (Video) Indistractable, Nir Eyal — The Sensible Leader