No title

It's a happy happy birthday to me. So to all the readers thank you, thank you for your kind wishes. Thank you for reading the blog and thank you for being a part of the journey. Today I realised an important thing. It was tough to recognise this but I realised that overworking is harmful. In fact, it was less about overworking but being online while working. I had some back and forth messages with folks and that caused quite a lot of trouble. So what we really want to be doing is that we should not have too many back and forth messages but we need to continue doing the work quickly and smoothly. There can be multiple errors during the time but go ahead quietly and keep on working during those times. I have also had an issue when I overworked.

## Overworking takes away structure

When I work, I tend to sit in one place for one hour. That's it, that's the success metric. I also tend to review PRs effectively during the time. So when I tend to over work, I forget that the one hour is over and still keep going. This gives my mind a message that I can context switch while I work. That is bad. So if we work for four hours without context switch, I believe you can build a lot on top of that. When we are overworked, we also tend to lose a lot of groundedness. We feel like we can work at anytime, but that's not right in the long term. You will feel exhausted and tired and due to that exhaustion you will tend to go into instagram to relieve some stress. But that's not how you should be living your life.

## Reading

I also think that when I overwork, I am unable to read or do things outside of the work domain. I feel reading adds to my work and does not really subtract from my work. For example, reading the book slow productivity and ultra learning helped me more in my work. I also read some other books that helped me more in my personal life. After all, when you read, you can learn more about the world than you know. I'm currently reading a book about Tesla. I'm curious to find some other books at this point in time.

## Pause

When you are a leader, you need to pause and see where the ship is heading towards. That pause gives clarity. That pause gives understanding of what is right and what is wrong. That pause makes you grounded. That pause is clarity. The pause is the big picture. The pause can help us contribute in other people's lives a lot more. The pause tells you what to do at what point in time. If you keep moving in the waves and you're un-directional life will be un-directional. We need direction in our lives.

## Gym

I've realised that going to the gym is quite an important part of our lives. When we go to the gym, we are able to find more confidence in ourselves. In the way we live our lives. It produces the identity that I can do hard and difficult things even when they're difficult in the moment. So one has to go to the gym irrespective and build an identity of someone who likes going to the gym. It's all about structuring your time in a way that helps you go to the gym

## Patience

With everything in life, this is also a game of patience. For example, going to the gym is a game of patience. You can be super busy, you can do a lot of things, however, what's important is that you focus on the things that bring in most value. I have recognised that everyone in the world has a life that's beyond work. So be patient with yourself, and patient with everyone else around you. That's the only way to live a good life. 

## Non-reactive

In order for us to really think deep. We need to be non-reactive in the face of difficulties. That is when you are working on a difficult problem, stick with it. No need to over react and make too much noise about it. That way we will be able to complete the problems more effectively. When you're non-reactive you're able to solve the problems more effectively. For an example, I know that it's hard to sit at one place for an hour, but when I sit for one place for an hour, the likelihood of me finding a solution is a lot higher.

## Slow everything down and read slow productivity

I want to go back to Cal's book about slow productivity. For us to produce something valuable, and something more effective we have to be slow enough. Slow in everything. That's where we will be able to produce our best results. Not when we are fast but when we are slow. We need to slow down. The truth is everyone says we slow down, but the question is how can we slow everything down. The best way I know is to expand the time scale from one day to 3 months and more. I know according to today's day, we are not doing that. Because of AI. We understand that shipping faster is important. However, what we need to consider is that we need to be going out more often. We need to slow down and think of the next 6 months and plan according to the next 6 months. 

## It's not hardwork, it's respect

So when you think of this idea. It's not about hardwork, it's about being respectful while working hard. For an example, it's quite easy to work hard and be there late at nights. However, look at Shawn does he speak a lot. He listens a lot. Moreover, for the product to be good, let product managers do their job. It's important that they do the job well enough for us to win together. It's also important that managers do their job well for us to win together. When it comes to office, just make sure you speak less. Don't speak too much. However, speak as much as required. When you don't get into other people's problem, it's easier to live your life. Saying this again, not hardwork, but respect is important. Hardwork is also important but do the thing when you've got time. 

## We started with overworking

- Limit work for one hour, be comfortable with silence

- 4-7-8 Meditation for pause

- Patience

- Think next 3 months

- Respect

## Deep breathing and deep thinking are related

When I talk about deep thinking, I also talk about deep breathing. I believe that there are correlations when it comes to deep breathing and deep thinking. The more deep you can breathe, the more deep you can think. For example, we spoke about patience. But did not speak much about cultivating patience. The idea is that you start cultivating through breathe first. Moreover, your breathe can cultivate how you act in the moment. If you're able to cultivate a deep breathe, you're able to cultivate a deep thought associated to it. 

## Practical Tips:

1. Become grounded and non-reactive: The truth is that the world will push you to the limits. They will try and trigger you. They will try to put you down, however, you need to be non-reactive all the time. That is to say that you are grounded during the time and keep doing your work. Being non-reactive is tricky because there can be a time and place where they can get to your head especially when you respond with urgency.

2. Think next 3 months or 90 days: When you are working, don't think about today. Think about the next 90 days. That's the only way to have a long lasting impact on the team. Do activities that won't give you any benefits today. 

3. Go back to atomic habits: Have a habit stack. Add your habit where you wish to add. Make 1% improvement daily rather than trying to do everything all at once. Don't overwhelm yourself by being too much or doing too much. Habit stack is when you have an existing habit like brushing, taking a bath, wearing your clothes, now you can add one more on top which is going to the gym or reading. That way you will become one percent better than what you were yesterday. You will meditate as well.

4. Tell yourself we've got 3 months: You got to tell yourself that you've got 3 months all the time. Don't tell yourself there's not enough time. Always, I repeat, always tell we've got enough time. This will build the mental muscle that nothing in the world is urgent. There are things that are urgent but not like anything like that. We want to be great long term. So with slow productivity the argument is the same that, there are things where you produce really quickly. With time on your side you can keep building stuff better.

5. Breathe deep. That's it that's the tip.

6. Gym. Gym. Gym. Yoga. Yoga. Yoga. Do things that benefits you in the long run.

7. Do not break the 60 minute rule