How to 'really' plan 2021?

Here are some great tips from around the internet.

Hello Internet People

A very Happy New Year to everyone, here’s hoping that 2021 sucks less!

This newsletter was supposed to be sent on Sunday but due to technical issues, this did not go through, fcuk shit!

I know most of us are quite excited about 2021 and I took a short break last week and I submerged myself in the world of articles and blogs trying to plan out a better more wholesome strategy for 2021. And I came across some great pieces of advice in my quest. So here I am, sharing my acquired knowledge with all of you in the hope that this helps you make a little more sense of the uncertain times we are in and the shaky grounds we face navigating!

“Having an Empty Calendar can also be a legit goal.”

I watched this video and many of his earlier beliefs resonated with my own - that Goals make us focus on the destination more than the journey and hence they restrict happiness and make us warier of the thing that we want to achieve. And it also makes us believe that our source of happiness lies in the fulfilment of the goal which is not true.

He then dives into why this approach towards Goals is a faulty one. He talks with August Bradley in this video and gives us a comprehensive understanding of how goals can help us perform better and be more content.

“What a man needs is not a tensionless state, but a striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal”

This next article reflects my conflicts and learnings from the past year.

“The community itself, and my role in it, felt more than ever. When the pandemic began, we quickly added a number of new events to the calendar and we tried to encourage more sharing and peer support in various ways.”

I have learned what it actually means to lead a community last year, to invest more towards the growth of this community and become more representative of each and every member of this community is one of my biggest aspirations for 2021.  

We often get engrossed in our routine lives, complaining and stressing about everything and anything happening in our lives. If not anything else 2020 has taught us to be grateful for the numerous privileges we have but often failed to acknowledge. While we have stepped onto a new year it’s important to cultivate a habit of gratitude and practice it actively and expressing it explicitly.

This article by the New York Times talks about developing healthier habits by building on the habits we picked up last year in times of remorse. It also provides you with a challenge that helps you embed values in your life in a very practical way.

“Fill your letter with details about how this person influenced your life and the things you appreciate them. Or keep a daily gratitude journal.”

If you are someone like me who needs to be heading several things simultaneously and whose calendar is jam-packed all the time, you would understand that it’s quite easy to be overwhelmed by the amount of work that needs to be done. But this article provided me a lot of clarity on how to optimise my work and be more at peace with it.

“They say think big, have a compelling vision. I say think small and do something super cool by the end of the day. Most people see excellence as some grand aspiration. Wrong. Dead wrong. Excellence is the next five minutes or nothing at all. It’s the quality of your next five-minute conversation. It’s the quality of your next email. Forget the long-term. Make the next five minutes rock!”

As long as we are talking about getting overwhelmed it is also important to acknowledge that often we fail to realise what is actually important and hence deserves our attention what is simply something that can be ignored or rather must be ignored. Though I have learned this last year that it is important to say no, I don’t always put that to practice. This article helped me put that into perspective again. It talks about “ De-prioritisation” and how to do it effectively.

“If prioritising is moving items to the top of your big list of things to do, then de-prioritisation is taking things off that list entirely. Yet while it’s easy to de-prioritise some tasks, our brains hate to ‘throw away’ the work we’ve put into things that felt like a priority at one point.”

This article also talks about the need to disconnect from your work in order to refuel your creative instincts and how productivity is not really an issue of time but one of energy. This too is not new learning for me, I have realised over and over again how to strike a balance between creativity and productivity.
I repeat, Productivity is not an issue of time but of energy.

“We’ve all learned to answer emails on Sundays, but none of us has learned to go to the movies on Monday afternoon.”

Last year I was fortunate enough to be able to travel to Jim Corbett National Park, and spending time refreshed me from the inside out, helped me get a clearer vision, and most importantly allowed me to embark on a journey of self-acceptance. Though this year I don’t have the luxury to travel and subside in the lap of nature but I can still be mindful about my life, to be present at the moment.

“It helps us to become more aware of our thoughts and feelings and so that, instead of being overwhelmed by them, we’re better able to manage them.”

This article tells us that though we keep hearing about the miraculous effects of yoga, meditation, and other wellness practices, I think we can truly start to appreciate them once we start doing them.

If you are looking for a Friday plan, you can Learn How To Do Epic Shit from Ankur Warikoo, it is a free virtual event and you can register from this link.