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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
In hindsight, travel drama seems to announce the beginning of many of our vacations. Once, during an Andaman trip, I forgot to collect the keys of our luggage at airport security, resulting in a late-night hunt for a key maker in Chennai. This trip had its own opening act. [...]
We all want to learn something new — yoga, singing, strength training, coding, public speaking, tennis, anything. And every time, the same question quietly appears: Should I hire a coach or can I learn this myself? In today’s world, options multiply faster than clarity. We have YouTube tutorials, recorded [...]
A few years ago, a little online puzzle called Wordle unexpectedly became a global ritual. Even if you never played it, you probably saw those green-and-yellow grids everyone kept sharing. The puzzle itself was simple — guess a five‑letter word — but what really hooked people was something even [...]
Planning is where every successful project begins — and the Gantt chart remains one of the most powerful ways to bring order to complexity. It helps teams see the big picture and keep projects on track. But what happens after the plan is made? That’s where many projects lose [...]
You have to send an important email tomorrow — maybe it’s a proposal, an update, or a follow-up. So you tell yourself, “I’ll do it tomorrow.” And technically, you’re right. The sending has to happen tomorrow — which really just means you’ll be pressing the send button then. The [...]
In today’s global work environment, email and instant messages are the lifeblood of collaboration. On any given day, you might check them from your laptop, tablet, or mobile device — between meetings, during a commute, or while making coffee. You might glance at a message, instantly understand what’s being [...]