If not thought about deliberately, it’s very easy to just go along for the ride every day for hours, days and months without realising that life is happening to us and not the other way around.
Especially in the current age, where distractions are rampant having a focus on conscious living becomes very important. Otherwise your surroundings, the media you consume and the people you follow will end up dictating how you live & where you’ll spend time on.
Curation is hence very important. Everything in our life should fight for its existence, since the very foundation of life, time. Is finite. If something exists in our life and does not make us happy or is unused for an extended period of time. Maybe we should deeply evaluate why we cling to it. Every principle, habit, every thing should be curated for utility and/or happiness.
Here is how & what I’m curating for my life
Clothes and other wear
Keep this in check, they seem to add up quickly. Clothes don’t seem to add happiness for me. I’ve given it a honest shot and am still of the same opinion.
- Around 7 pairs of comfortable and plain shirts and pants for day wear.
- 10 pairs of night and home wear.
- Around 10 pairs of party wear.
- Around 5 pairs of ethnic wear.
- Running shoes
- Sunglasses
- Travel towel and a 2 normal towels
Routine
- Breakfast and filter coffee in the morning
- 7 hours of sleep
Travel
- At least once week of conscious travel every quarter
- One international trip every year, life is too short for limiting ourselves. We are fortunate to be blessed with some health and finances to be able to afford this
- At least one trip inside India for around 3 to 5 days
- At least one quiet trip where the target is to wind down, not run around
Physical Health
- Strength training three times a week
- Cardio atleast once a week
- Yearly full body health checkup to ensure that there is no obvious issues
- Have body fat percentage targets and achieve them in 3 to 5 months
Curiosity
- Pickup unusual things and go for it, all in
- Formalize Experimentation budget
Passions
- Trekking: atleast one trek per year?
- Photography
- Home labbing
- Writing
- Watches
- Self quantification
- Wood working
- Minimalism, one bag and BIFL (Buy it for life)
- Reading
Mental health
- Therapy
Media & Consumption
- Podcasts
- Movies and series
Creation
- Write every week atleast once
- Passion projects: need to be focused and deliberate. Do maybe 3 per quarter but only let the ones survive which people use after 3 months of marketing. If it does not take off after 3 months, kill it.
Wealth Management
Keep it simple
- Invest when salary hits your account. Equities heavy portfolio for now, and a good allocation into index funds
- Get portfolio & plan for FIRE reviewed by CA. Figure out diversification & be smart about the plan
Work
- Focus on growth, be selfless. Make everyone around you grow as much as possible. A raising tide lifts all boats.
- Upskill engineering wise, attend the next system design cohort. Go to a couple of engineering retreats. Go to engineering meetups to network. Focus on growing your moat.
Electronics
It’s funny how fast these things grow in size if left unchecked. Throw away everything apart from
- Phone
- Laptop
- CPU
- 65W charger
- Type C to Type C wire
- Type A to Type C wire
- Type C to lighting wire (for airpods)
- Lauv mic
- Condenser mic
- Soundcard
- Monitor
- Wireless earbuds
- Headphones
- Watch: a automatic & a smart watch
- Kindle
- Powerbank
- Wireless / bluetooth mouse
- Wired mouse
- Bluetooth speaker
- Two gaming controllers
- HDMI to HDMI cable
- HDMI to Type C cable
- Ethernet cable
Principles
Principles are decisions taken at bulk preemptively. The more principles you have, the lesser you’ll have to think for small things day on day.
A lot of people don’t think about principles this way, but eventually arrive here in terms of output. Everyone has principles, some think about it explicitly. It’s just a matter of preference.
- Be kind, to everyone & everything
- Take & evaluate feedback, who gives the feedback is irrelevant
- Teach at every opportunity. I’m here because of some great teachers online & offline. Its time to give back.
- Invest every month as long as there is excess after routine monthly spends
- If it can be afforded, prioritize saving time. Mental peace & convenience over saving money
- Donate to open source & other good initiatives