Life XP

David Allen says that a task which takes less than 2 minutes must not get onto a a list.

I decided to put the rule to use. On a day I was not feeling any great motivation to do work, I decided to do all the small stuff.

I responded to pending emails. Many of them required me to check one or two things and reply.
Delegated responsibilities after the little effort in thinking through the tasks involved.
Made the few calls that were pending for a while now.

With a small load off my shoulders I feel lighter. I may have known what David Allen said for many months now. I may have implemented with out good follow up. I’ve been told many times that piling up my work is no good habit. But today as I got work going I realized that it’s better to face some lethargy and get momentum that wait for the best mood to work. The tasks were not 2 minutes. Many took more than 10, but the results and progress is amazing.

So the mantra now is: Keep the simple work moving

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David Allen, Getting things done, procrastination

What do you do when one member in your team under performs, cannot improve and every attempt to institute a process to improve the scenario has failed? Can organizations aiming for high performance and super quality afford to have taken that is consistently under productive? Is the a threshold limit to productivity, failing which stern action must be taken?

There were many conventional answers. Many styles of “dealing” with this often occurring HR issue. Yet at Deep Red Ink, we chose to run an experiment. We asked ourselves, what in our being is this teammate reflecting. And we arrived at the answer that actually none of us are perfect. It’s not that any of us have never been irresponsible, have been late on a deliverable, forgot some meeting, not felt like going to work. We realize that the ways in which we “slip up” are not that life-threatening and we think we take note more often then not, but it doesn’t rule out the fact that each of our productivity also suffers, and for this one among us it is a little more than usual.

So as an experiment, we did a collective process in the team. We did Byron Katie’s “the work” on the statement “I should never slip up on my work”.

As we did the turnaround we noticed our own relationship with productivity. We saw how guilty we felt every time we didn’t meet a deadline or slipped up on a task. We observed how each time we are beating ourself up for every ‘failure’ while what has happened is always the highest. And gradually we were able to loosen this rigid rule we hold for ourself, noticing that we ought let life operate through us rather than enforcing a belief.

Only 2 days had passed since we did this exercise and this teammate secured his visa on an appeal (considered very rare) to pursue a dream course abroad. And joy erupted in our hearts for this person could now do what he has been dreaming for and preparing towards for more than an year. We organized a farewell in super quick time and said byes with warm hugs.

The intention of the experiment was to learn what we were refusing to learn from the challenge. And when we were talking of the experiment, our intention was to respect the challenge and not wish it away. And in retrospect I feel extremely thankful to this teammate. As I connect the dots backward I’m filled with gratitude for this opportunity to learn.

In fact I’ve really learnt much about discipline, quality, productivity and excellence through this experience. I couldn’t have learnt the same lessons in any other way. And this reassures to me the fact that the only purpose of our existence is to learn. It’s up to us whether we want to learn, but life will continue to try and create opportunity for learning.

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Byron Katie, learning, the work

Enchanted

Anatomy of Entrepreneurship

More later..

Thanks Shashank for giving me the opportuinity to share my ideas on this plateform.Will come up with more inspiring and thought provoking articles in time to come.

Bye for now…

keep looking at this space…

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Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the “present.” – Oogway, Kung-fu Panda

Oogway, the wise tortoise, is my favorite character of the movie which I must have easily watched a dozen times. Not just Oogway, but all my teachers guiding me to be a better person have advised me the same thing. Each says it in their own way but all of them mean the same thing: “live in the present”

As I began to explore this, I realized how much time is spent either thinking about the past or worrying about the future. I was surprised how little time I actually spent in the ‘now’. But then thinking about the ‘now’ didnt help me get to the ‘now’.

As this question stayed unanswered, I came across this beautiful tool presented by Patanjali. He states that there are 9 obstacles that we face to take action which result in road blocks as grief, bad thoughts, physical discomfort, shallow breath and agitated mind. He goes on to present several tools to cross these road blocks of which he recommends that any one be chosen and practiced for a length of time.

The tool I chose was to simply extend my exhale. When I notice myself either disturbed or agitated I began to pay attention to consciously extending my exhale. While I had heard of attention to breath as the way to return to the present, I found that it was paying attention to the exhale that really helped. My exhale has been my companion whenever I can remember it is always with me!

I remembered this again when I watched this video. One moment is all it takes to calm your mind. All you need is some attention to something all of us always have, the breath.

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The objective of yoga is a calm and clear mind that allows us to see who we truly are. As I understand, the eight parts of yoga, or astanga yoga, are tools that take us closer to the goal of having a calm and clear mind.

I began the experiment with what I thought was the easier of two. Satyam (Truth). I felt that it was easier for me to speak the truth than understand violence. Within one day, it became clear of how many times in the day I actually speak untruth, without my awareness. It could be small things like telling my dad I woke up at 8 when I actually woke up at 8.30 just to reduce the impact of me waking up late. To bigger things like telling a client that their work was underway, when I had actually not even begun thinking about it.

The mere awareness of the amount of untruth in my daily life hit me real hard. Every time I became aware of my deed, I felt agitated and restless. When I looked back, whenever such instances happened, I became restless and agitated even without my awareness of the cause. So I chose to experiment by taking the courage to speak the truth. It the moment I’m prompted to even slightly distort the truth to suit my position, I consciously spoke as accurately as I could. The result was relief, as if I had let gone of something from my system. The truth was usually about claiming responsibility for what I thought or did and as I consciously spoke the truth it began to seem easier.

While I never thought I would begin any experiment with ahimsa (non-violence), violence is so part of my life that I couldn’t but observe it. I always thought of myself as fairly non-violent for I do not like to hurt anyone physically. But the definition of deviating from that yamas (first of the eight part of yoga, a suggested personal code of behaviour in a social context) as presented in II.34 landed rather strongly. If being directly involved in the act or being the cause of an act or approve of an act, is considered as himsa (violence) or asatyam (untruth) or any other then I’ve definitely indulged a lot in it.

During the experiment I caught myself several times wanting to hurt someone. Very often in traffic when the erratic driving someone on the road gets to me I quietly wish to myself that I hadn’t braked but banged into the guy ahead to cause injury. This awareness has quite deeply shaken me. I could clearly see the agitation in my mind with these thoughts of anger and violence. It reminded me of the Upeksa (equanimity) experiment and I chose to not be disturbed by the actions of others that I did not approve of. And this shift in approach again proved to be calming.

Another clear observation was, the day I did a good asana practice it was easier to observe my actions and keep a check. The other days my insights were more in reflection than in the moment of action.

The conclusions of this short experiment for me

• Yamas are not easy to follow, though they appear to be so
• Short experiments are not sufficient, practicing is a life-long exercise
• Not following the yamas is an obstacle to progress to self discovery
• The tools presented in Chapter I of maitri (friendliness), karuna (compassion), mudita (appreciation), upeksa, and the 6 that follow are good ways to follow the yamas
• Asana (posture) practice actually helps in following the yamas

Even with all the awareness and courage it has been tough to be a 100% true and 100% non-violent. I realize how accustomed I am to guard my position and it doesn’t allow me to speak the whole truth. I also realised how good I had become in getting away with distorting the truth to make headway.

It helped that I remembered to not take my observations to heart but do it like an experiment. The playfulness of trying helped in me in not judging myself. This is the account thus far.

(This was written as part a course I’m undergoing to be a certified yoga teacher with Yogavahini)

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Few months ago I watched this video of a program conducted in a corporate by a teacher I had learnt from. Part of the 22 day program was 21 tasks, one each day, that the participants had to perform. One task that stayed with me was “Clearing the Clutter”. All one had to do was clear their desk before they began their work and keep the work place clean.Simple, but hardly practised.

This reminded me of Ten Commandments while I was working at Milagrow. One of the ten must do’s for each day was Clean your workstation. I never paid attention to it. It was the same advice my father gave me again and again till he finally gave up. I discarded it as one of the many ‘good things to do’ which hardly mean anything.

Few days ago I thought to myself that I must try this and actually see for myself. I cleared my desk at home. Before I got onto my bed to pick up my laptop or practically do anything I tried to tidy the place. At office, I spent the few minutes to make the place I’m in tidy.

The result for me is that it allows for a much calm state of mind. When I merely clear the clutter around me, it helps in clearing the clutter of the mind. The benefits of clutter free mind are well elucidated by all, but I truly found that it helps in doing the work I set out to do much better.

Perhaps this is what Patanjali means when he presents sauca as the first niyama in the second chapter of the yoga sutras. Its an easy experiment for us to try and see for ourselves! Keep it clean!

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I began blogging in 2008, the year I passed out of college, at sashanktalks.wordpress.com

The motivation for blogging was to build a ‘personal brand’. I realized that the only way I could do that is through sharing what I was already learning, something I was quite proud of. As a young management consultant, an entrepreneur aspiring to be part of a bigger league and a privileged friend/student of some amazing people I learnt almost as if I was grabbing every bit I could hold on to. The blog was a platform to share many such important insights. But my motivation to write on the blog had been consistently declining.

In the midst of communication professionals and managing a web presence firm, blogging is always a relevant idea. In that context I read a 31 day guide to blogging and one of the first questions asked in the guide was about purpose. I realized I had totally disconnected with the purpose of the blog which was called ‘Sashank’s Learning’. My needs in life have changed from when I started the blog, and this became starkly clear to me.

As I inquired into where my life was headed and what I wanted to achieve from a blog, it lead me to the question: What am I totally passionate about when I interact with the world? The answer was fairly resounding. I deeply enjoy “making the world a better place by enabling latent potential to unleash”

This lead me to asking myself the “How” question. The one thing I believe that’s a sure shot way to discovering the potential within is to experiment with life. And when I looked back, that’s the only consistent activity I’ve done. Experiment in small and big ways with people and process. So I decided to take this message out to the world. Inspire people to experiment with life, even if its just a little.

This new blog is therefore called Life XP. XP stands for experiment and also the experience of the experiment which teaches us to the more intelligent way to continue our journey called life. I will write about the small and big experiments I’m doing in life. Those wanting to share about the experiments they are doing with their life are welcome to do so. The hope is that many will be inspired to do some small experiments in their own world through sharing of authentic stories.

May the highest purpose to be channeled through this effort be served.

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Steve Jobs has been famous for a long time, but how does that matter? I heard about him as a child, it didnt matter. When I got my first PC, apple was an expensive useless alternate. Steve Jobs was too popular to be important to me. He was just another american entrepreneur who made a lot of money whom many people followed. The iPod was a glorified MP3 player, packaged well and sold to dumb people. When the iPhone was released I was reading blogs making fun saying “it missed a ‘tactile response’ technology called ‘buttons’”

He was obviously even more popular in the Entrepreneurship circles. One of my friend from these circles persuaded me real hard to read a Steve Jobs article. I succumbed. It was the text of the famous Stanford Commencement Address. after reading that piece, I couldnt stop myself from watching the video (which I since watched more than a dozen times). Those words could not have been spoken by a mere mortal. The penny had dropped and Steve Jobs became superstar.

I’ve followed Steve Jobs, since, like an admirer. I tried to deconstruct this personality and what makes him who he is. Read blogs, articles, watched interviews, movies etc. Everyone has a theory of what he is made up of and why he is one of the most admired people in the world. None fit my understanding of this man.

Ancient Indian philosophy with origin in the Vedas and explained in several schools of thought such as Advaita, Samkhya etc propound that the world a man perceives has 2 purposes. One to experience ii and the other to understand ones own self through it. I understood Steve Jobs as doing just that.

Living life was about discovering yourself. Building Apple was about discovering your own self. I truly believe that when he says “have the courage to follow your heart and intuition” it actually means “discover who you really are”. And indeed, discovering who you really are is a very courageous exercise.

I’ve quoted Jobs so many times. I used the commencement speech in a workshop i recently conducted. I own an iPad. I’m partners with 3 hardcore apple addicts. I’m researching the iStore to wrap a business model around it. But my connection with Steve Jobs is more spiritual than that.

As I understood the man through the lens of my own life experience, it has been a sense of affirmation. The connection is of sharing a belief system. A belief system of confidence in self, a belief in possibility of greatness, a belief in creation, a belief in challenging status quo. In a world where these beliefs are akin to insane, Steve Jobs words instill faith.

I think Steve Jobs is a great entrepreneur not only because the company he built is soon to be the most valuable in USA. He is so because he relentlessly followed his heart (or so I believe). I think following your heart is the only path to greatness and Steve Jobs lived that and showed the world rather publicly.

As a tribute to the man who passed away today below are some of my favorite quotes from Steve Jobs”

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

“My job is to not be easy on people. My job is to make them better.”

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

“Recruiting is hard. It’s just finding the needles in the haystack. You can’t know enough in a one-hour interview.
So, in the end, it’s ultimately based on your gut. How do I feel about this person? What are they like when they’re challenged? I ask everybody that: ‘Why are you here?’ The answers themselves are not what you’re looking for. It’s the meta-data.”

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.”

“We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life.

“In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.”

“I’m the only person I know that’s lost a quarter of a billion dollars in one year…. It’s very character-building.”

(quotes courtesy Macstories)

If death is truly a beginning, may this be the opportunity for the world to wake up, Stay Hungry & Stay Foolish!

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apple, entrepreneurship, new entrepreneurs, quotes, rip steve jobs, Start up, Steve Jobs

I had made this presentation in May 2011 for a group of young people aspiring to become Transformational Leaders. It was part of a workshop on “Creative Entrepreneurship” where we helped each participant discover the Entrepreneur within!

Thanks to Bhumi, Kadambini & Sravanthi for the support and opportunity!

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Best Practise, entrepreneur problems, entrepreneurship, leadership, Start up