Entrepreneur, Author, Content Creator with 15M+ followers across platforms. I share this newsletter every Friday around personal growth, books, quotes, pictures - it is the most personal version of me online.
Is this task urgent? Or important?
Every week, I answer 3 questions that you have asked me. I receive 100s of questions so I am sorry in advance if your question wasn't answered.
To ask your question simply reply to this email and I will pick 3 questions every week.
Question from Ketaki
How do you determine if a task is urgent or important?
You may have come across the Eisenhower Decision Matrix - to help you manage your time.
This is the matrix I use in my Time Management course as well - while not fully agreeing with it (so I propose a twist to this matrix in the course).
The fundamental remains the same though - every task can be classified as either urgent or important.
Eisenhower then recommends an approach based on where the task lies.
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An important question then arises - what is an urgent task and what is an important task?
The guideline is simple - urgent tasks have a short-term deadline attached to them. Important tasks mostly don't.
Helping your friend in distress - urgent.
Exercising - important.
Finishing the presentation - urgent.
Spending time with family - important.
Getting your license renewed - urgent.
Being physically active every day - important.
As you might observe, most urgent things are assigned to us by others. Most important things are things we should do for ourselves.
Another way to think about it is:
Urgent things are things we HAVE to do.
Important things are things we SHOULD do.
Of course, something can be both urgent and important.
Helping your friend in distress is both urgent and important.
Renewing your license is both.
Sending money back home every month is both.
A key thing to note here is that the definition of important is very personal.
It is not objective.
What may be important for you may not be important for someone else.
Question from Amol
If you are new to a field, how would you go about learning it?
3-step process:
- Pick up online courses related to the field.
The Internet allows everyone to be a student and learn from the best teachers available. Do that. - Join an online community around the field.
Facebook groups, Reddit forums, WhatsApp groups, Discord servers - get yourself immersed in the topic and hang around people who live and love the field. - Pick up projects/internships.
Do it for free, if needed. Just learn. Get challenged. Seek feedback.
There is no better way to learn.
These 3 things, even if over a 1-month timeline (close to 20-30hrs), will make you go from zero to the top 10% of people in the field.
From here on - the curve will, of course, be steeper. But you got yourself a good start.
Question from Nafisa
How do you ensure that your current career isn't disrupted by technology?
(She is a teacher and is worried about ChatGPT)
EVERY field will get disrupted by technology - as it has been in the past as well.
The question is - are you going to witness it or participate in it?
Technology is beautiful because it doesn't judge.
WhatsApp doesn't perform better when used by you, as against your parents.
ChatGPT doesn't give better answers to rich people, as against those who do not have an income.
An iPhone or Android that the smartest and richest men and women use is exactly the same as you and I do.
Those who understand this part about technology go on to use it better.
Embrace technology. Use the 3-steps above. Make it your friend.
It is everyone's friend.
📕 How To LinkedIn
Applications are now open for the only LinkedIn course you will hopefully ever need: How to LinkedIn.
A 6-week LIVE course starting August '23, where my team and I share all the skills and strategies you need to build a compelling personal brand on LinkedIn and unlock opportunities.
Based on a tried-and-tested process that has taken us to 2M+ followers and amongst one of India’s top LinkedIn profiles.
Best part?
We will hand-pick 30 creators as part of the founding batch, who will be enrolled in the course with a 100% SCHOLARSHIP.
The last date to apply is 17 July 2023.
Apply here
📕 Book I'm reading this week
Took a break from reading, because of the travel.
Here is a list of all the books I have shared in this email, so far (alphabetically sorted)
Results of last week's survey
If your partner watches pornography, do you think that is equal to cheating?
- I am a male; I think it's cheating
- I am a male; I don't think it's cheating
- I am a female; I think it's cheating
- I am a female; I don't think it's cheating
Here are the results:
- Both men and women DO NOT think that watching porn amounts to cheating, across ages. Impressive!
- It is interesting that this comfort increases with age, for both men and women. Very interesting.
- I am also really happy with the share of women responses - feels this email is balanced in the men:women ratio. Yay! :))
My response:
I do not think that watching porn amounts to cheating. Never did. Hopefully never will.
Quotes to share
Detachment doesn't mean that you do not own things. Detachment means that things do not own you.
- from the Bhagavad Gita
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Do not mistake starting slow as starting small.
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You will never move ahead in life if you blame others for where you are in life.
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📸 My week, in pictures
In this section, I share my week in pictures, for those who do not like to read as much as I write :))
I do so not to show how cool a life I live, but instead to show you what are the highlights of every day. As you will see over time, my days are mostly in repeat mode - the same things, but different experiences from them.
Last Thursday, we climbed up to a dormant volcano called Mount Longonot - near Lake Naivasha (in Kenya). It was a steep 2 hour climb and unfortunately cloudy. Didn't get the perfect view, but stayed up for an hour having breakfast and playing Ludo :))
Friday we went for a day-long bike, hike, and picnic to Hell's Gate National Park. It has to be one of the most stunning national parks we have been to. Green, gorgeous, stunning weather and we biked for 12+ kms together.
Post the bike ride, we went to a geothermal spa (naturally heated sulphur water) and just relaxed! 15 degrees outside and 40+ degrees hot water - WHAT a combination :))
Saturday we reached Diani, which is in East Kenya and the beach side of it (facing the Indian Ocean). Pristine white sand beaches. Absolutely stunning.
We went to another beach town, Tiwi, for 2 days and went to a small island called The Starfish Island. You see tens of starfish of varying colours, merely walking around the island. My first time. Super special :))
Tuesday we went to an island called Wasini, which is famous for its corals. We snorkelled, saw dolphins, ate some gorgeous Kenyan food, and spent the entire day basking in the ocean sun!
Woke up to this Goldman Sachs report. How cool if this actually happens. I will be 95 if I am alive and it will be a special moment to see India as the 2nd largest economy in the world!
That's it for the week in pictures. Have a lovely weekend and week ahead, all of you lovelies :)))
Question of the week
If eligible, do you plan to vote in the 2024 Indian Lok Sabha Elections?
- Yes; for a party/candidate
- Yes; but for no party/candidate
- I do not intend to vote
- I am not eligible
| Answer here |
(and see the results of others, too)
🎙️ Podcast I shared last week
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🚀 Content I shared this week
📹 YouTube:
📱 Instagram:
Your mind controls your reality
🐥 Twitter:
10 mistakes I made in my 20s that you can learn from
You can, of course, always write to me by simply replying to this newsletter.
I love reading all your emails, even though I may not be able to reply to them all.
Yes! I READ ALL MY EMAILS. ALL OF THEM.
(Zindagi mein bas family ke saath travel karne ke armaan ki kasam)
You can view all previous newsletters here.
warikoo Wanderings
Entrepreneur, Author, Content Creator with 15M+ followers across platforms. I share this newsletter every Friday around personal growth, books, quotes, pictures - it is the most personal version of me online.
There are 2 types of holidays We travel for 2 reasons. One reason is to escape from your current life. This is for those people who often say, "Thank God it's the weekend."Because that means no more work, no more office/college, no more manager/teacher, no more of the boring routine. You can sleep more, wake up late, watch TV, mindlessly scroll. No worry in the world. So when they go for a holiday, they do everything that they usually can't do in their normal life. They try and visit all...
There is only one form of true love Someone asked me about kids: Warikoo, what’s the good part about having kids? Like you don’t sleep for first 4 years. You clean after them for 7-8 years. You get zero time to yourself. What makes any of this fun or worth it? Like I’m having a phase I guess having to decide about a family. My exact response was: Having a child has two sides to it. First - it is hard. And undeniably harder for the mother than the father, because she is the main caregiver and...
Ideas are worth nothing In 2003, when I realized I’d be dropping out of my PhD and returning to India, I was unsure about my career. I had no idea what to do with my life. I was convinced no one would hire me, no one would ever give me a job, and no company would ever recruit a PhD dropout — that too Physics! So, I listed down potential business ideas. That was my way of controlling my own fate, haha. Turns out, I did nothing about these ideas!But someone else did. Some are now unicorns :))...