Beware of the barrenness of busy life!

Very soon my corporate ID will be deleted and junked from the annals of  corporate history. With that I will lose one of the most meaningful voice which inspired me to be ME in last few months. Mukesh Bansal who joined as President Tata Digital when Cult.fit was acquired by Tata used to send us TOM (Notes) every week / fortnight / month. Below is the last one I received and probably the most profound. 

TOM #15: Beware of the barrenness of busy life!

I came across the above line a few years ago and it immediately hit me like a ton of bricks because it rang so true. It has become all too easy for all of us to become extremely busy, always pressed for time, running from pillar to post but never stopping to think if all that busyness amounts to anything much. You can do an exercise and go back to your calendar six months ago and scan all the meetings that you did in Jan'22 or the emails you sent in that month and see how many of those resulted in something that is still valid and useful. Unless you are an exception, chances are that most of it was noise that doesn't matter anymore. It is certainly true for me most of the time!

 "Without great solitude, no serious work is possible” - Pablo Picasso

I am a huge fan of Cal Newport's books, especially "Deep Work". The main claim of this book is that the only way to do any meaningful work is to focus on this intensely over extended period of time. Imagine an author going away to a cabin in the woods and coming back after months with a manuscript in hand. That's an example of deep work. Or taking a problem and dedicating a day or two to think deeply about it and generating unique insights and a new angle of attack. 

 I have also come to realise that meetings are the most superficial way of problem solving. Meetings are useful for basic updates and communication but everyone saying something to fill the hour rarely adds up to high quality outcome. It has been a lifelong struggle for me to reduce my meeting hours and instead do more focussed work. Not very successful so far but still working on it!

"To the mind that is still the whole universe surrenders" - Lao Izu

We now live in a world where we are continuously bombarded with new information and stimulus. From continuous email streams to whatsapp messages to open workstations at office, most people don't even get one hour of focussed time to work on anything. This results in continuous fragmentation of attention and superficial attention to most things. Can you imagine an athlete training this way, an artist painting this way or a scientist solving a problem this way? Absolutely not! Yet somehow, we all tend to approach our work this way and it is not surprising when you take stock of your work at the end of the quarter or year, it may often not add up to much..in other words..barrenness of busy life!

In another one of Newport's books "Digital Minimalism", he very strongly argues for cultivating stillness in your life by minimising distractions, seriously working on your phone addiction (Yes, you are addicted to your phone, my friend!), and creating stillness to let your mind deeply engage in problems and bring the full power of your mind to solve the problems you are dealing with. This will result in deep work that can stand the test of time.

"In a world deluged by irrelevant information, clarity is power" - YUVAL NOAH HARARI

One of the key cultural tenets of Amazon is the now famous "Six Pagers". Jeff Bezos instituted this very early in the company's journey to insist that the meeting owner write a six page document to clearly frame the problem, outline all the facts and decision or choice being recommended. First 15 minutes of the meeting are spent in silence as everyone goes through the document and then the discussion can start without any PPTs being projected on the screen. When was the last time you sat down and wrote a clear and crisp document outline your thought process and suggestions. It may take 3-4 hour to write a good document but will result in doing the meeting once and lead to a clear decision.

"All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking." - Friedrich Nietzsche

"Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted" - Bertrand Russell

Almost all intellectuals in all fields across time have been fond of walking aimlessly! What they are doing in that time is letting the subconscious mind be free and make associations that they will not make otherwise. We are consuming so much information and stimulus on a daily basis and never letting our minds process the information. It is no coincidence that Archemides great insight happened in a public bath ( fortunately no smartphones back then!) and the myth of key insights in the shower persists to this day. For most people that may be the only time when they are not consuming external information! If anything in this TOM resonates with you, I will strongly urge you to do an exercise where you go to a quiet place for an hour with Pen and Paper and just sit still. Whatever comes to your mind, write it down. You will be surprised at what all will bubble up which otherwise never have the opportunity to do so.

I will end this TOM with the below quote from Kafka that you can ponder about!

"You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.” - Franz Kafka