Why Time Blocking Fails Leaders (And What Actually Works)
You plan your day perfectly at 9 AM. By 11:30, it’s already irrelevant.
A call runs over. An urgent issue pops up. A “quick” task takes two hours. And just like that, your carefully time-blocked schedule collapses.
If this sounds familiar, the problem isn’t your discipline. It’s how our world works.
The Promise of Time Blocking
Time blocking is a simple idea: you pre-assign your day into fixed time slots on your calendar (e.g., 9–10 AM: emails, 10–12: deep work), and then try to follow that script. It looks like the ultimate productivity solution—neat, planned, and controlled. Simple. Structured. Logical.
It’s been used for centuries—famously by Benjamin Franklin—and today it’s even easier with digital calendars. The modern poster boy of time blocking is Cal Newport, the popular author and computer science professor. I have immense respect for Dr. Newport—but he is almost an exception. He openly operates in a highly controlled environment, rarely responds to emails, and focuses on teaching and writing. Most of us don’t have that luxury—or the discipline to completely avoid the constant pull of emails and social media.
On paper, it offers everything you want: structure, focus, reduced procrastination, and the comforting feeling that nothing important will slip through the cracks.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: Time blocking works beautifully—if you’re a hermit or a student.
Where It Breaks
Time blocking is a neat idea. No doubt about it. The problem isn’t the idea—it’s the environment it’s expected to survive in. Modern work, especially for leaders, is unpredictable by nature.
You don’t deal with repetitive, clearly defined tasks. You deal with ambiguity. Decisions. Interruptions. Shifting priorities.
You estimate a task will take 30 minutes—it takes two hours. Or the opposite. One delay throws off everything that follows. And even if your tasks behaved perfectly, the world around you doesn’t.
Priorities change mid-day. Stakeholders demand attention. New problems emerge without warning. The plan you made in the morning can become obsolete before lunch.
Then there’s the most overlooked variable of all: you.
Your energy fluctuates. Your focus rises and falls. Some hours you’re sharp; others, you’re not. Yet time blocking expects you to perform like a machine—doing deep work at 2 PM just because your calendar says so.
It’s no surprise that many people end up constantly rewriting their schedules. Which raises a valid question: If your system needs continuous fixing, is it really working?
The Real Shift: From Control to Adaptation
At its core, time blocking is about control—trying to force reality into a predefined plan. But leadership doesn’t reward control. It rewards adaptability.
Instead of asking, “How do I stick to my plan?”, a better question is:
How do I make better decisions throughout the day, no matter what happens?
That’s where a more flexible system comes in.
What Works Better (A More Resilient Approach)
A more practical alternative is a flexible, real-world system—one designed not for perfect days, but for the messy reality of how work actually unfolds.
It starts with a simple shift:
Don’t schedule everything. Build a system that helps you choose what to do next.
Your calendar becomes lighter—reserved only for things that truly must happen at a specific time: meetings, calls, deadlines.
Everything else goes into a single, trusted list. Not scattered across sticky notes, emails, and mental reminders—but one place that captures your entire responsibility landscape.
Yes, the list can get long. That’s not a flaw—it’s clarity.
But the real strength of this system comes from three simple disciplines:
- Capture everything (don’t trust memory).
You write things down so your brain can think—not remember. You’re no longer reacting to whatever pops up or what the environment nudges you toward. You stay proactive. - Triage at multiple levels.
You don’t stare at a giant list every day. You step back weekly to decide what matters, and each day you work from a much smaller, intentional subset. The overwhelm drops immediately. - Respect time-sensitive work.
Deadlines and commitments don’t get lost—they get prime real estate on your calendar. You’re not ignoring time; you’re giving it the importance it deserves.
From there, you introduce rhythm instead of rigidity.
Once a week, you step back and decide what matters most. Each day, you narrow that down further. And during the day, you work dynamically.
Instead of forcing yourself into a pre-decided slot, you ask:
- How much time do I have right now?
- What’s my current energy level?
- What task fits this moment best?
A two-hour stretch might go to deep work. A 15-minute gap becomes a quick win.
You’re no longer trying to follow a script.
You’re making smart decisions in real time.
Why This Feels Different
This approach works because it aligns with reality instead of fighting it.
Interruptions don’t break your system—they’re absorbed into it. Changing priorities don’t derail you—you recalibrate. Low-energy moments aren’t wasted—you match them with lighter tasks.
Most importantly, it removes a hidden source of stress:
the constant feeling that you’re “failing your plan.”
Instead, you gain something far more powerful—trust in your system and in yourself.
Final Thought
Time blocking isn’t wrong. It’s just incomplete. It works in controlled environments. But leadership—and modern work in general—is anything but controlled.
The goal isn’t to control your time. It’s to navigate it intelligently. And that requires something far more valuable than a perfect schedule: a system that works with reality, not against it.
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(Originally published in Times of India on March 26, 2026)
The Two Women Who Taught Me How Work Actually Gets Done
I often think about the two women who have shaped my approach to work more than anyone else—my Mom and my Wife. They are very different from each other. In fact, they are almost opposites. But in my life, those opposites shaped me.
My Mom and my Wife are two such opposites when it comes to their attitude toward work. If you imagine the English letters M and W, they look like perfect mirror images—distinct yet connected. That’s how I see these two incredible women in my life.
My Mom is a powerhouse of swift and efficient service. Her priority is to squeeze every moment for productivity—do things fast, finish tasks quickly, and only then circle back to clean up the mess—if at all. In some cases, she even redefines what counts as a ‘mess.’ The environment she grew up in shaped that style—a sense of urgency and making the most of every minute. She’s the kind who would rather keep the engine running even if the windshield’s a little smeared—cleaning can wait till the destination is reached. A bit of stickiness or a small spill doesn’t warrant a pit stop in her book.
My wife, on the other hand, is deliberate, composed, and careful. Her focus is on doing things slowly and with intention, ensuring there’s minimal mess to begin with. She takes pride in working mindfully, valuing long-term harmony over short-term speed. If her hands are sticky, she insists on washing them before touching anything else. If water spills, she addresses it right away to avoid further work later. For her, such care prevents cascading tasks and keeps the environment naturally tidy.
Over the years, I realized their philosophies show up in the smallest moments of life.
Let me ask you a question. Suppose you have a bowl of cereal filled with milk right to the brim. You sit down on the couch to eat and suddenly realize the fan is off. Would you first place the bowl safely on the center table and then switch on the fan? Or would you rush with the bowl in your hand to save those few seconds?
That tiny decision captures the difference between M and W.
It’s not that careful people never spill things. It’s that they try their best to avoid it—and if something spills, they feel slightly defeated, as if the system broke down somewhere. My wife belongs to that school of thought.
My mom belongs to another.
Whenever I used to ask her, “Is this vessel clean?” or “Was that one rinsed properly?” her standard response—often with a hint of annoyance—was: “शंका से घटे समाधान.” In her world, too much doubt only slows things down.
Her discomfort with stillness goes even further. When I was young, she worked as a teacher in a neighboring satellite town. I used to drop her to school on our little moped. Occasionally, the vehicle would break down in the middle of nowhere. While I would start fiddling with the spark plug or kick-starting the engine, most pillion riders would simply wait.
Not my mom. She would immediately start walking toward the school. She knew I would probably get the moped running in a few minutes. And many times I did—just in time to ride ahead, catch up with her on the road, and pick her up again for the remaining distance. Waiting felt like wasted motion to her.
Even cooking reflected this philosophy. My wife uses a pressure cooker selectively. My mom, on the other hand, almost treated it like a strategic ally—constantly thinking about what all could be done inside it so she wouldn’t have to attend to the stove repeatedly. Slow simmering dishes that required standing nearby were never her favorite.
Recently I bought a honey dispenser with a spiral-slotted ball inside. It releases honey slowly and neatly—but requires patience. A spoon would be much faster, though slightly riskier for spills. As I was using the dispenser one day, I caught myself wondering how much anguish my mom would express if she saw me operating this slow contraption.
Growing up, I often felt I was watching the old rabbit and tortoise story unfold at home. My mom was the rabbit—sprinting through tasks, covering distance quickly, and then taking a full rest. My wife is the tortoise—moving slowly, steadily, and mindfully, but almost never creating the need to backtrack.
Their attitudes toward change are also different. My mom is always on a quest for more efficiency. Her favorite phrase: “जरासा change!”—as if every small tweak might unlock a faster way of doing things. My wife’s changes are slower, but once a routine forms, it becomes remarkably consistent.
I must confess that in my early years I inherited mostly my mom’s speed—but also her side effects. I was quite clumsy. The undue hurry often resulted in spilling, breaking, and dropping things. My mom did the same (and quietly, she still does).
After marriage, something interesting happened. Living with my wife slowly taught me the art of slowing down—especially where slowing down actually prevents more work later.
Today I feel fortunate that I didn’t have to choose between the two philosophies.
From my mom, I learned efficiency—the ability to get more done in less time. From my wife, I absorbed effectiveness—doing things right the first time so they don’t need to be done again.
Somehow, life allowed me to combine the two. So this is really a gratitude post—for M and W. I carry a bit of both of you in everything I do: fast where possible, slow where necessary.
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(Originally published in Times of India on March 14, 2026)
Don’t Run With the First Task You Come Across
One of the most subtle productivity errors does not look like an error at all. It looks like initiative. It feels like momentum. It even feels disciplined.
It is this: starting the day with the first task that grabs your attention.
I call this behavior:
running with the first task you come across.
And if I am honest, even after years of structured work habits, I still catch myself slipping into it.
The Quiet Pull of the First Task
You open your inbox. Something stands out –
A message that has been sitting in your mind.
A decision you have been postponing.
A document that seems urgent.
Without fully orienting yourself to the day, you begin.
Why?
Because unresolved things create tension.
Because beginning reduces that tension.
Because action produces the comforting illusion of control.
We are not being careless. We are seeking relief. But relief and effectiveness are not the same.
The Hidden Cost of Impulsive Sequencing
For someone lightly scheduled, this may not matter. But for those operating across multiple roles — managing people, commitments, decisions, and constrained calendar space — sequencing becomes strategic. When we run with the first visible task:
- We may consume the best cognitive slot of the day on something secondary.
- We may miss the narrow window to delegate.
- We may fragment a deep-work block that cannot easily be reconstructed.
- We may discover, an hour later, that the day’s real priority now has less room to breathe.
Nothing dramatic happened. And yet, the architecture of the day weakened. The problem is rarely effort. It is almost always just sequencing your actions.
There is a psychological mechanism underneath this habit. Unfinished decisions generate background noise in the mind. Starting them feels like clearing space. We also underestimate duration. We tell ourselves, “This will only take a few minutes.”
In many cases, this is reinforced by a well-known productivity principle Two-minute rule:
If an action will take less than two minutes, it should be done at the moment it’s DEFINED.
The rule is sound. It prevents small items from clogging a system. But the mind quietly stretches the definition of “two minutes.” We begin with the belief that the action is small — just a quick reply, a quick check, a quick look. Then complexity reveals itself as we engage – Research expands. Context multiplies. Questions branch.
What qualified as a two-minute action turns into an open-ended exploration. What began as a small action quietly becomes a cognitive rabbit hole. The drift is gradual. The cost is cumulative.
There is another subtle driver: we simply do not think of our to-do list in that moment. The system exists, but it is not top of mind. Acting feels easier than recording. Yet the more disciplined response is to pause and capture the task in a trusted list — preserving it without surrendering the day’s sequence.
Orientation Before Action
A day deserves to be understood before it is executed. Before starting your day — and certainly before committing to the first task that emotionally pulls at you — pause for orientation: This is what I call a Morning Routine — a methodical way to plan the day. It should be done deliberately, every single day.
- Look at the calendar. What is immovable?
- Ensure your task system reflects reality — email, notes, delegated items, pending commitments.
- Review at two levels: this week versus later, today versus the rest of the week.
- Sequence your tasks deliberately. Begin with what is already fixed — your meeting slots and immovable commitments — because they define the boundaries of the day. Then plan your tasks from the to-do list around those anchor points.
Consider energy, time block size, and strategic weight. Ask yourself: What requires deep thinking? What requires coordination with others while they are available? What can be done in fragmented slots between meetings? What deserves your freshest mental state? Place high-cognitive work into uninterrupted blocks. Align collaborative work with availability windows created by meetings. Use smaller administrative items to fill natural gaps.
The order in which you act should be intentional, not accidental. Very often, after proper orientation, the task that felt urgent reveals itself as poorly timed. Clarity dissolves impulse. The sequence is deliberate, but never rigid; it evolves as new information and constraints emerge.
The Discipline of Restraint
As responsibilities increase, the margin for impulsive task selection disappears. Higher-level work demands not just doing the right things — but doing them in the right order. The maturity of productivity lies less in speed and more in restraint.
So when you notice a task that tempts you to run with it, pause. If it truly takes less than two minutes, by all means, do it. But if it does not, capture it in your to-do list and return to your planned sequence.
The ability to resist the psychological comfort of starting something immediately. The willingness to step back and sequence deliberately.
Even now, I sometimes begin before I orient. The pull of relief is human. But each time I pause, review, and choose consciously, the day unfolds with greater coherence. And coherence, more than intensity, is what sustains meaningful work over time.
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(Originally published in Times of India on Febryary 24, 2026)
Divide and Rule: The Only Way to Stay Organized (Without Waiting for a “Free Day”)
We all love the idea of being organized. But we hate the idea of cleaning up. And that’s the paradox. One of the hardest parts of staying organized is not arranging things beautifully — it’s keeping clutter from creeping back in.
The Myth of the “Perfect Free Day”
Most of us secretly believe this:
“One day, when I get a full free day, I’ll clean everything.”
That day rarely arrives. Because a completely free day is a luxury. And even when it does come, you don’t want to spend it cleaning your wardrobe or sorting old files. So what happens?
- You postpone.
- Clutter builds.
- Discomfort increases.
- Eventually, something breaks.
Divide and Rule: The Practical Way
“Divide and rule” isn’t just a political strategy. It’s an organizational superpower. Instead of planning a massive cleanup session, break it into tiny, doable actions:
- One shelf at a time.
- One drawer at a time.
- One category at a time.
- Ten minutes at a time.
Take your wardrobe. Being organized doesn’t just mean owning clothes for every occasion. It also means:
- Removing what you no longer wear.
- Deciding what to donate.
- Recycling what’s unusable.
- Letting go of “maybe someday.”
The same applies to your bookshelf, freezer, storage cabinet, etc. Organization is not a one-time event. It is a repeated decision.
The Digital Parallel
The same principle applies — even more powerfully — to your digital world.
- Files.
- Downloads.
- photos
- videos
- Screenshots.
- Unused Apps.
- Thousands of emails.
Most people wait for a “system reset day.” It never comes. Instead, what comes is this: Disk Full Error. Right when you’re trying to save something important, or right before a deadline, or right in the middle of a flow. And now it’s an emergency! What could have been prevented by a tiny weekly habit becomes a high-stress crisis.
Time Insurance
Think of small organizing actions as time insurance. Every small investment today:
- Avoids a bigger cleanup tomorrow.
- Prevents emergency interruptions.
- Preserves your mental clarity.
- Protects your flow.
Tiny, consistent organizing steps save you from massive cleanup marathons later. You rarely get the big slot. So stop waiting for it.
- Delete unnecessary emails every day.
- Clear the Gallery App on your smartphone every day
- Delete accumulated SMS every day
- Unsubscribe from emails the moment you realize you don’t need it anymore
- Clear one folder at a time on your cloud storage
- Clear accumulated unwanted emails at frequent intervals
That’s how order sustains itself.
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(Originally published in Times of India on Feb, 2026)
Karmyogi – The Time Alchemists: Dr. Avinash Kulkarni, Chairman, Litex Electricals (P) Ltd & Arklite Speciality Lamps (P) Ltd
Dr. Avinash Kulkarni (ADK) is an IIT alumnus and a PhD-trained engineer who has spent almost five decades building deep-technology businesses in India. After completing his doctoral work in the United States and earning multiple patents, he returned to India in the late 1970s to set up manufacturing in advanced light sources.
He is the Chairman of Litex Electricals (P) Ltd & Arklite Speciality Lamps (P) Ltd, with work spanning halogen, infrared, ultraviolet, and laser-based applications across industrial heating, aerospace, air and water treatment, and defense systems. His career reflects repeated cycles of building, disruption, and reinvention — driven by engineering depth, disciplined execution, and long-term thinking. He is the recipient of the 1st National Award for Outstanding Entrepreneurship from the President of India, in March 1985 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. He also received the Distinguished Alumnus Citation of IIT Bombay from the hands of Dr Raja Ramanna, in the presence of President Zail Singh, the convocation held in September 1983.
Interview with Dr. Kulkarni
RK: I want to begin with your journey. Your career feels like a series of long climbs — with ups, downs, and reinventions. Could you walk us through how it all began?
ADK: After graduating from IIT in 1963, a director of Dastur Company — who happened to be an external examiner — offered me a position. I accepted without much hesitation and went to Calcutta for the job. I spent about two years with the steel consultants there. Even in the 1960s, IIT graduates were highly motivated to go to America. I applied to Berkeley, the University of Pennsylvania — which is an Ivy League institution — and McMaster University in Canada. I got admission along with a research fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania in the fall of 1965.
About a year later, they gave me an option: I could do a Master’s degree first, or I could skip the Master’s and proceed directly toward a PhD. I chose to skip the Master’s and continue directly with the PhD. I joined in fall 1965 and completed my PhD by December 1968.
My first position ended unexpectedly when a downturn in commodity prices led to the closure of the laboratory. I later joined Westinghouse as an extractive metallurgist, working on tungsten extraction. The main project was to develop a process for the extraction of tungsten from ore. While working there, I started looking around at other problems and opportunities. I became interested in lamps. I developed a very simple and elegant way of manufacturing halogen lamps. That work turned out to be very successful. I filed several patents.
At that time, lamp production was dominated by large multinational companies. And the process I developed was something that could be done in India through small-scale industry. It was technically sound, economically viable, and could be scaled. By around 1974, the idea was already well established. However, I spent the next five years thinking very deeply about how to execute it properly.
In November–December 1979, I returned to India to set up the industry. At that time, as a PhD graduate from a good US university, I was among the top 5–10% of scientists in terms of experience and compensation. I was very well paid. But I felt strongly that if I didn’t try building something in India, I would never forgive myself. The journey was very rough. Customs procedures were horrible. Regulatory systems were extremely difficult to deal with. But when we started making lamp, there was no other company apart from Philips making similar products. Customers lined up. There was no need for marketing. We never really learned marketing because the quality spoke for itself.
Later, we expanded into infrared lamps. We also started manufacturing photocopier lamps — something nobody was doing outside Japan. All photocopier companies operating in India at that time sourced from Japan. By 1995, photocopier lamps were our highest-selling product. But by 2005, the market completely collapsed due to digital copiers. This was a classic rise-and-fall cycle — from around 1985 to 2005. The market went to zero. Similarly, halogen lamps became commoditised. These lamps started selling in retail for very low prices — sometimes 50 cents — which made it impossible to manufacture them profitably. By around 2010, we had to move on.
One notable product that we developed was high-energy flash lamps for the Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology in Indore. These lamps discharge about 1000 joules in a microsecond. Technically, this was a major success. Commercially, it wasn’t very attractive because volumes were small — maybe 50 to 100 lamps a year — and each lamp cost about ₹40,000. Maintaining a full manufacturing setup for such low volumes was difficult. But the technical success gave us tremendous confidence. It showed that we could do anything.
That capability led us to missile guidance lamps. These are intense infrared sources mounted on missiles to help determine position and guide them during day and night operations. We supplied tens of thousands of these lamps. In 1987, we promoted a second company called LITEL IR Systems (P) Ltd, focused entirely on infrared heating. Infrared heating is fundamentally different from conduction and convection. Radiant heating was not common in India at that time. For example, if you need to cure a coating at 200°C using a furnace, it might take hours. But with a bank of infrared lamps — say a 30-foot-long array — you can cure it in one minute. This is the power of infrared radiation. This technology is essential for aerospace applications, including simulating re-entry heating conditions, where conduction and convection simply cannot replicate the physical environment.
Later, in 1996, we promoted a third company called Arklite Speciality lamps (P) Ltd. Over time, however, the entire traditional lamp industry went through massive disruption. Metal halide lamps, sodium lamps, mercury lamps — everything was replaced by LEDs. At one point, we were manufacturing 50,000 metal halide lamps per month. By around 2010, that market had completely disappeared.
Fortunately, we had already started developing ultraviolet lamps made of quartz. Quartz softens at around 1900°C, while ordinary glass softens at about 700°C. Quartz allows you to build lamps that can withstand extreme thermal and radiation conditions. This technology is much more complex and cannot be replicated with soft glass. It is premium technology, required for industrial and commercial applications where reliability and performance are critical.
That led us into air and water disinfection. In air-conditioning systems, most buildings recirculate 90% of the air. Moisture condenses on cooling coils, leading to mould and mildew growth. If you install UV lamps to illuminate the cooling coils, UV radiation destroys all biological growth. The coils remain clean, heat transfer efficiency improves, energy consumption reduces, and pathogens are eliminated from the air. This saves significant energy — sometimes up to 15% — in large air-conditioned buildings.
During COVID, this became a boom sector. Demand for air disinfection rose dramatically. Our largest installations include 43 underground metro stations in Delhi (Phase 3). And by now we have done UV installations in more than 90 underground metro stations. In many cases, American consultants insisted on UV-based air quality systems. Recently, we completed a wastewater treatment plant in Qatar with a capacity of 40 million litres per day.
Going forward, water treatment is becoming our largest focus area. Air treatment continues, and lamp manufacturing remains a core competence.
RK: That’s an extraordinary journey. Let’s now move to the second part of our conversation. I’d like to seek your guidance — drawing from your life and work — on the people, practices, and principles that have helped you stay strong and continue this long journey. This includes your role models, the way you approach productivity and time, how you take care of your health, the hobbies or routines that keep you grounded, and the values that have sustained you through change. How do you look at all of this, in retrospect?”
ADK: When I look back, I realise that a lot of what sustained me came very early in life, from my parents. My mother was an extraordinarily hardworking, intelligent 
and determined person. Nothing seemed to disturb her. When our parents got married, my mother was a high school graduate, and as my elder sister started going to college, my mother started reading her books. Both studied together and passed the MA exams in 1958. All this she did as a middle-class housewife with 8 children! Later, she started teaching in a high school. She managed the family with immense patience and discipline.
My father was an orphan and spent several years in an orphanage in Pune and left for Gwalior after SSC and eventually became Director of Education in Madhya Pradesh. That kind of journey does not happen often, especially in those days. These two were my real role models.
From them came a deep sense of optimism — the belief that if you keep working sincerely, things will eventually work out. That optimism stayed with me through every phase of my career.
During my IIT days, finances were extremely tight. We were eight siblings. One scholarship was not enough to survive, so I had to maintain multiple scholarships. To retain them, I had to stay within the top ten percent in IIT Bombay consistently. If I slipped, I would lose support. That taught me discipline, responsibility, and self-reliance very early. There was no safety net.
Later in life, when I had a comfortable career in the US and multiple patents to my name, people could not understand why I chose to return to India. But I felt strongly that I owed something to my country. Patriotism, creativity, and the desire to build something meaningful mattered to me. I always told myself: even if I failed, I could come back — but if I didn’t try, I would never forgive myself.
Even if I failed, I could come back — but if I didn’t try, I would never forgive myself.
As far as productivity is concerned, I don’t think I ever struggled with procrastination. If a task came up — whether it was a bill, paperwork, or a decision — I preferred to finish it immediately. I’ve noticed that people often procrastinate when they dislike a task or find it complex. My approach has been simple: if I don’t enjoy a particular kind of work and someone else is better suited for it, I delegate. Delegation is essential if you want to stay focused on what truly matters.
I’ve also been fortunate to work largely on things that interested me. When your work aligns with your curiosity, burnout doesn’t really arise. I never experienced burnout in the way people often describe it. I enjoyed the work too much.
Health and routine have played a very important role. Walking has been a constant — even today, I walk around 8000 steps daily. Yoga, pranayama, and meditation gradually became part of my life. Heartfulness meditation, in particular, has been deeply grounding. These practices help maintain balance, clarity, and energy over long periods.
At this stage of life, I am Chairman of the companies and not involved in day-to-day operations. That gives me the freedom to focus on what I enjoy — thinking, mentoring, exploring ideas, and contributing where I can add the most value. Strong family support has also been crucial throughout this journey.
Looking back, a few things stand out clearly: optimism, discipline, delegation, attention to health, and a sense of responsibility beyond oneself. These are not things I consciously planned — they simply evolved over time. But together, they made it possible to keep going, adapt, and continue the journey without losing direction.
🛠️ A SIMPLE LESSON IN MENTAL ECONOMY
Author’s note:
When I asked Dr. Kulkarni when I could visit him for the interview, he didn’t reply with a casual “anytime” or leave it open-ended. Instead, he sent me a message that demonstrates how a clockwork-precision routine he has.
On Mondays and Fridays, I go to work. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I play bridge at the Deccan Gymkhana Club in the afternoon. On the remaining days, just call me and come anytime between 2 and 6 pm.
What stayed with me was not just the discipline, but the economy behind it. By deciding once—and deciding clearly—he had eliminated a whole category of small, recurring decisions.
Over the course of our conversations, I noticed this pattern everywhere. He visited relatives for lunch at familiar places on familiar days. His music teacher had been coming regularly for decades. Even the people who helped run his household had been with him for thirty years or more. Nothing in his life seemed to require daily negotiation. By preserving continuity in the ordinary, he conserves attention for the essential.
Why Your Best Ideas Never Show Up When You Sit Down to Work
Last night, I received a WhatsApp message from my daughter. Short. Direct. Sounding urgent.
“teach me GTD tomorrow morning i think i might need it im forgetting things”
She’s deeply into art—paintings, sketches, mixed media (and the last I heard, she was experimenting with linoleum). She makes calendars, decorates hoodies by assembling multiple canvas pieces with paintings on them, and regularly shares her work on her Instagram art account. Ideas come to her all the time. One artwork leads to another, one concept sparks three more.
When we spoke the next morning, I asked her what was really going on. It turned out she wasn’t asking for a full productivity system. She was simply worried about forgetting ideas, at least for now. And no wonder—managing ideas is something most creative and knowledge workers struggle with quietly.
If you do any kind of creative or knowledge work—writing, teaching, design, art, research—you already know this truth:
Great ideas rarely arrive when you’re sitting at your desk, ready to work.
They show up while, walking or commuting, taking a shower, scrolling aimlessly, doing something completely unrelated, or just before falling asleep. The real challenge isn’t getting ideas, it’s remembering them when it’s finally time to create. That’s where a simple but deliberate idea-management system makes all the difference.
Step 1: Have a “Catch-Anywhere” Tool
Your first job is not organizing ideas. Your first job is not losing them. For that, you need a tool that is instant, frictionless and always available. My go-to recommendation is Google Keep. It’s a simple listing app that works on, Android, iOS and also on your computer.
Just one rule:
The moment an idea shows up, capture it. A sentence. A phrase. A half-baked thought. Dump it into a single list and move on. At this stage, speed matters far more than elegance.
Step 2: One Master List That Follows You Everywhere
Capturing ideas is necessary—but not sufficient. At some point, when you’re back at your desk, ideas need a single, trusted home. That’s where one master spreadsheet works beautifully – Not many spreadsheets, not versions, just one.
A spreadsheet allows you to keep ideas in rows, add light structure if you want (theme, notes, status). That spreadsheet must live in the cloud as you know that it is omnipresent. You can access the same list at home, at work, or when you’re in the mood to create, sitting at a corner café table with a sketchbook, that list is still right there.
No copying files. No “latest version” confusion. Just one single source of truth, always reachable.
Not every idea in your list is meant to become a single, finished artifact. Some ideas are incomplete, too small on their own, waiting for a counterpoint. Very often, two ordinary ideas—when combined—create something extraordinary. A half-formed observation from last month may suddenly connect with a fresh thought you captured yesterday. Together, they become a strong article, a compelling argument, or a striking piece of art.
This is where your master list stops being just a backlog. It becomes your commonplace book – A personal reservoir of thoughts, fragments, questions, and sparks—quietly waiting to collide in interesting ways. When you revisit the list, you’re not just picking an idea. You’re connecting dots, spotting patterns and letting ideas talk to each other. That’s where real creative leverage appears.
One Pro Tip!
When it comes to writing an idea in the master spreadsheet, write more than you think you need to. Ideas feel obvious when they’re fresh. They are almost never later. If you just write: “Interesting point about creativity” You may come back weeks later and wonder what on earth you were thinking.
So add context – mention names, links, purpose. Future-you will thank present-you. This elaborating could continue as you keep revisiting the list so don’t miss any opportunity to refine the description when you find it necessary.
Creative work isn’t about forcing brilliance on demand. It’s about respecting ideas when they show up—and giving them a safe place to wait.
That’s the simple system I shared with my daughter. And it’s the same system I’ve been quietly using for years.
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(Originally published in Times of India on January , 2025)