Luxury once sampled becomes a necessity

Though I have a traditional hand mortar-and-pestle (ammikal in Tamil), I hardly make use of it. For the morning rush hours of cooking, I automatically turn to my trusted mixer-grinder for making any spice pastes or chutneys.

No doubt, the taste and flavor of traditional grinding far exceeds that of a machine-ground chutney. And yes, traditional hand grinding is a good exercise for the arms and shoulders. But the time-saving and convenience of the mixer-grinder outweighs these benefits.

Luxury once sampled becomes a necessity.

Last night, I was narrating the experience of how TV evolved in the 80s and 90s - from black&white to colour, Doordarshan days, changing channels by pressing buttons on the TV, no way to skip intro/skip ad, no way to rewind or forward, no way to rewatch an episode, no way to pick and choose a movie to watch and much more. She was taken aback by all the "privileges" the 80s and 90s kids didn't have from a TV point of view.

Will we choose to go back to a single channel with fixed timings for programmes and movies like it used to be earlier? Very few might even consider that option.

Luxury once sampled becomes a necessity.

WFH (Work-from-home) was one such luxury and benefit we claimed from our employers in the 2000s when we were not so unwell, when we had guests at home or when we expected a furniture delivery in the middle of the day. Then came the lockdown and pandemic. WFH became the norm, work got done amidst the uncertain environment.

We realized how much time was saved by avoiding commute.

We also experienced more focus and attention when we were in the comfort of our home office/desk/ergonomic chair, rather than working in an open-office setup, next to colleagues taking Zoom calls with clients/team-mates from other countries/cities.

We felt relaxed to take a short break and make ourselves a cup of homemade milk chai or coffee.

We brought to the forefront our capacity to multitask and manage the mental load and responsibilities of various roles (employee, daughter, mother, father, son, etc).

We also noticed how the moment we stepped out of our work desk at home, we can be available to listen to the little chitchats of our kids rather than battle traffic and potholes to reach our homes late into the night.

Luxury once sampled has now become a necessity, especially for knowledge workers who have realized how a laptop and a stable Internet connection is all that matters to get work done.

It is an irony that the same tech founders and leaders who wish to improve quality of lives through technology are forcing employees to get back to office location.

"We deliver chips and aerated drinks in 7 minutes, but we want you to write the code/manage the product that provides this convenience by battling traffic woes for 2 hours everyday and be in our office location so we can be sure that you are working".

Productivity improves with Trust (& vice-versa).

Why I don't create Vision Boards

 Have you ever prepared a vision board - the one where we paste colorful pictures, motivational quotes, and stickers that represent your wishes, desires, and goals for the future?

I have made a couple of them in the past but not with conviction. I don't believe in the idea of creating vision boards.  When I researched the origins of vision boards, I learned that they became popular around the time the book "The Secret" was released in 2006.

I see 3 problems with vision boards.

1. As we prepare a vision board, the focus is exclusively on the material desires and goals. There is no thought (or a placeholder on the vision board) being given to the principles, ethics, and values that we would uphold as we pursue these goals.

2. Creating the board indicates a target towards the end goal but what about the journey to get to the goal? How do we enjoy the journey? How do we overcome the obstacles on the way? None of that is being documented on the board. A few motivational quotes and stickers added aren't going to make much of a difference.

3. When you add a self-improvement goal to the vision board, say if your goal is weight loss, you would most likely end up adding a picture of a healthy and fit person on your vision board. The intention is that this picture would motivate you to work out, eat mindfully, etc but there is a flip side. Every time, you look at the picture of this fit person, there is a lack of self-acceptance and guilt. There is a lack of acceptance of the Now - the present moment with a certain functioning body. This lack of acceptance creates a sense of guilt and shame. It is like a mirror someone holds in front of you, that always shows the gap between who you are and where you ought to be.

Instead of end goals, I prefer to focus on my daily habits and schedules and I keep tweaking and modifying them in a way such that they help me to make the best out of every day.

What are your experiences or perspectives on vision boards? How have they helped you? Do share in the comments.

Priorities

 The last few weeks were a little overwhelming as I had back-to-back offline and online classes. Lots of new information to digest, absorb, and assimilate.

Though I was convincing myself that I didn't need to take any pressure, there were times when my mind was racing with too much to do and process with the overload of information coming my way.

Even if we try and calm ourselves down, we somehow end up absorbing the pressure of a group without our awareness. During the times before WhatsApp, we don't get to see/feel/experience the thoughts of a large group, especially if everyone has different expectations towards a course/degree.

When we add something new - a new project, a new pursuit, a new initiative, etc, it is required that we reassess all the existing priorities and analyze how to fit in the new. This might require deprioritizing certain efforts, reallocating resources, or dropping certain pursuits.

In today's times when there are so many new opportunities and ideas to pursue OR if you are someone who dabbles with multiple interests, saying NO or deprioritizing certain initiatives is quite a challenging task. We somehow feel that we can keep adding more and more to our never-ending long to-do lists, even when we feel overwhelmed.

On 31st Jan, I sat down and jotted down all the ideas/initiatives/projects that have occupied my mind in a spreadsheet. I then added a Priority column and as a typical Product Manager would do, I prioritized them into P1/P2/P3/P4. Once the prioritization is done, clarity emerged. I felt a sigh of relief and decided to focus ONLY on P1 and P2 items in Feb.

For eg, in the whole of Jan, I had completed reading only one book "Stolen Focus" and am halfway through another book. I'm fulfilling my need for learning new information in the form of classes and study material and I don't need to overwhelm myself with reading other new books.

We don't need to sign up for every new workshop that seems useful, every new class that intrigues us, and every new opportunity that comes our way. Doing a few things really well is more effective than doing 100 things haphazardly.

The clash between Do what you love AND Love what you do

 I stumbled upon this quote credited to Steve Jobs - 

"If you are working on something that you really care about, you don't have to be pushed. The vision pulls you".

As I thought about this quote, memories of certain times flashed.

The late morning hours when I would rush to the supermarket to take pictures of nutrition labels and rush back to research the ingredients and write blog posts

The times when I used to take orders and cook weekend breakfast and lunch menus as a home chef

The late nights when I would write SQL queries to crunch data and analyze the nutrition intake of app users in my role as a product manager for a health startup

When you do what you love, external motivation or micro-management isn't required. You experience a state of "flow" and are fully immersed in the process. But such moments are rare and precious.

Many times, you end up trying to "love what you do".

You try to rationalize the reasons and convince your intellect. In some cases, such efforts could eventually lead to figuring out "what you love" after you have developed certain competencies over time. I found my interest in Cooking through this process.

When you force yourselves to love what you do, if you aren't inspired, it takes a lot of internal effort to stay motivated. It can drain the life energy out of you when you constantly try to push yourself through logic. You might give rational excuses like "The pay is good", "I'm doing this for my family", "society values this", etc. But if your heart feels lost or out of place, it is a strenuous effort to stay on the course. As years go by, you will find it hard to sustain. The mental conflicts are stronger IF you know what you love but unable to pursue it for various reasons.

If you can find a balance by allocating time to pursue what you love amidst other things you need to do, your heart calms down, having been "listened" to. 

Allocate a portion of your time to "do what you love" every week. It then makes "loving what you do" a lot easier.

This can be challenging, though, if there are various other responsibilities and high workplace demands.

Dominance of Rajasic Qualities

 I used to crave a cup of hot coffee or chai by around 11-11:30 AM whenever I used to work for an employer. The key reason behind this craving was that there would invariably be a few meetings lined up between 11:30-1:30 PM. Such meetings not only require focus but also a few other qualities like taking initiative, planning, negotiation, constructive feedback - both giving and receiving, deciding the next course of action, gathering perspectives from others, etc. Some meetings would also involve facing an egoistic attitude from others - unexpected backlashes, interruptions while you try to convey your views, blame games/passing the buck to different teams, etc.

As I thought about this need for the extra cup of tea/coffee, it wasn't because I was feeling sleepy, lethargic, or tired - to conquer the tamasic qualities. This craving was my system's indication to increase the percentage of the Rajasic component. Action, passion, aggression, impatience, power-mongering, ego, achievement, ambition, and workaholism are all expressions of Rajasic tendency.

All of us operate with a certain ratio of Sattva:Rajas:Tamas tendencies.

Today's work environment requires very strong Rajasic qualities as listed above, which skews this ratio more towards Rajas.

The higher you go up the corporate ladder, the stronger the requirements of Rajasic qualities to get work done. Expectations from self as well as from others have gone up tremendously.

The percentage of Rajas in most of us is quite high these days, leading to multiple physical (high blood pressure, heart disease) and psychological (anxiety, burnout) ailments.

With a higher Rajas already in place, we further increase it through dynamic, fast-paced exercise routines (running, HIIT), extra cups of tea/black coffee, spicy and oily foods, lack of sleep, and too many thoughts and tasks on our mind.

Slowing down, prioritizing rest and recovery, identifying our core priorities, and adopting the qualities of Sattva - honesty, compassion, service, joy, humility, and sharing are all ways to control Rajas and bring balance to our lives.

On Daily Routines

 There were a few questions related to my daily routine in the Q&A session on Insta. 

On Youtube and Insta reels, there are quite a many daily routines, morning routines, evening routines, and night routine vlogs. I have watched a few of them and they motivate us to plan our days better. But at the same time, it could also lead to a sense of comparison and guilt, if we are unable to do the 1001 things that people portray from their lives.

Very few portray the real days when we feel lazy and uninspired, or when we rush to get things done in the mornings. Most routines are carefully curated and presented in such a manner that it gives the viewer a "wow! I wish I was like him/her!" feeling.

Our routine is dependent on multiple factors:

• What time do you prefer to wake up? What time do you prefer to go to bed?
• What time do your kids go to school? What time do they come back?
• What time do you need to leave for work IF you are working from the office?
• What time do you need to connect to your work IF you are working from home?
• What time do you wind up your work?
• What about the schedule of others? Spouse? Family elders? Househelp?
• What's the traffic situation in your city/locality?
• Are you a man or a woman? (Morning routine is completely different depending on your gender!)
• Do you prefer home-cooked food or comfortable ordering through Swiggy?
• What are your absolute priorities and non-negotiables for the day?
• What are your hobbies and other interests you like to plan in a given day/week?

Based on these factors, my routine from Jan-Mar was different from Apr-Jun. My routine from Aug is going to be different. Earlier, I used to plan my day through timeboxing technique. But I realized it became too rigid to accommodate varied energy levels and inspirations.

Instead of a fixed routine, I have prioritized a few non-negotiable habits for the day. These habits are stacked with repeating activities for the day.

For eg, D leaves for school around 7:45 AM. As soon as she leaves for school, I start my Yoga+Pranayama practice which would be for around 45 minutes.

My reading timeslots are tied to my 20-min chai routine in the mornings and evenings. I also read for 20 min before going to bed.

I help D with her HW from 5-5:45 PM. As soon as she wraps up her HW, I go for my evening walk for around 30 min. And after I come back, I do my evening prayers, followed by cooking dinner.

I don't have a fixed time slot for writing/blogging. As and when inspiration strikes, I jot down quickly and then elaborate/edit/publish articles when there is focused time.

Our schedule is unique and dependent on our life's responsibilities, commitments, and priorities. Though we can seek inspiration from others, it is ONLY up to us to design our schedule that fits our lives.

Labour laws and family structure

 

A pic of my home and a glimpse of my childhood in the late 80s.

Mom would leave for work around 8:30 AM and return home by 5:30 PM. She was working as a teacher.

Dad would leave for work around 8:45 AM and return home by 9:30 PM. He was working in the private sector.

My paternal grandma took over the complete responsibility of the house - cooking, cleaning, taking care of us and disciplining us.

My maternal grandparents' house was next door and we would spend most of our time there. Grandpa would have a strict eye on us and catch us red-handed when we were up to some mischief.

My aunt (mom's sister) helped us with school homework.

My aunt and maternal grandma would take turns, plaiting my long hair in the morning rush hours before school.

All of them took turns in dropping and picking us up from school when we were very young.

My paternal grandma would make evening snacks for us when we return from school.

The old saying goes - It takes a village to raise a child.

Having grown up with extended family members, I have observed how everyone took charge of various responsibilities. Since the workload was shared, this gave my parents ample time, bandwidth and most importantly, mental space toward their work commitments.

Many of us born in the 70s/80s would have gone through a similar upbringing.

Fast forward, 40 years.......The village is no longer available, due to shifts in societal norms - moving to different cities/countries, nuclear families, health issues of extended family members and a general lack of willingness to participate in sharing the workload.

As a result, it is now completely up to the parents to manage ALL responsibilities at home between the two of them. Help can be sought externally, but is it possible to outsource the majority of responsibilities? Not practical. Not financially viable either.

There are still exceptions, but most people I talk to are in a similar situation.

The trigger for this post is the latest news regarding the 12-hour work shift that is being implemented in manufacturing units in TN and the comments/posts circulating on how this would impact the workers.

Irrespective of the nature of the job, work demands have gone up over the past couple of decades, speaking from my experience in the IT industry.

The changes in family structure and increased responsibilities play a major role in whether such high work demands can be met reasonably well (without disrupting our well-being and sanity). 

The needs of children keep evolving at every stage of their growth. They look up to their parents at all stages for their cognitive, social, mental, emotional and nutritional needs.

These factors need to be considered when reframing labor laws or defining corporate policies and employee benefits, irrespective of the industry.

A recent report indicates that Indian women are facing a higher burnout rate as compared to their global peers. In my opinion, the spouse sharing home responsibilities isn't sufficient enough to solve this issue.

It requires holistic evaluation of the challenges at multiple levels -

rethinking work demands and job design from the ground up,

measuring work outcomes instead of work hours clocked in the office,

extending maternity benefits beyond 6 months through flexibility, remote work, hybrid work, and project-based outcomes.

The pandemic forced organizations to rethink the working models, but it now seems that prioritizing "what is easy" over "what is right" has taken precedence yet again.

How long can you stay focused?

 A few days back, I installed the Instagram app on my phone to post Stories.

I publish my Instagram posts through Instagram web. I install (and uninstall) the app only when I want to share posts of others through Stories, typically 2-3 times a month.

Coming to the app experience, I habitually clicked on the 4th tab in the main nav bar to check for likes/comments. Habits once set are hardwired, even though you might have stopped them. It turns out that the 4th tab now leads to Reels section. And the likes/comments feed is now moved to the top right corner. Reels feed is fuelled by an infinite scroll (also called doomscroll) of short videos and it is not restricted to people whom you chose to follow.

I might be outdated on when these interaction changes were rolled out, but it is evident that such platforms want users to stay hooked onto short video format for a longer duration of time.

Such short videos (Reels/Shorts) switch our attention so rapidly. They also build up our anticipation of what's gonna come up next, wreaking havoc on the expected nature of neurotransmitters like dopamine.

Scientific research on the large-scale impact of these short videos will still take years to conclude whether these indeed have a detrimental effect on our attention and focus.

Instead of waiting for science-backed evidence to take corrective action, let's do a quick self-assessment to check your focus.

Pick up a non-fiction book on the subject of your choice. Set a timer and start reading. Observe whether you can concentrate fully. Observe when you are getting distracted or feeling fidgety. Note down the time when you reach for your phone.

If reading a book feels boring, try out a video lecture, preferably more than 30 minutes. Note down the time when you pause and move on to other distracting apps.

Try out any other activity - cooking, painting, mandala art, coloring, writing a short story, coding, etc. Apply the same principle to measure your focus time.

Focus and attention will become the new mandatory screening for job interviews, going forward. The ability to focus is critical to pursue any form of productive, creative, and meaningful work. Let's prioritize it now before it becomes too late.

Planning vs Spontaneity

 As you grow up and take on more responsibilities, every decision becomes a matter of opportunity cost.

It is extremely challenging to accomplish everything you want to do in a given day. At the end of the day, it comes down to our choices and how we weigh them.

Planning helps us to make the right choices, but at the same time, there should also be room for spontaneity and surprise in our daily routines.

Let me elaborate with an example:

K goes for a walk in the morning to a nearby lake. It takes about a hour, covering a distance of around 4.5 km. He would ask me to join him, but most often, I would say, "Not today, I need to do Yoga and then cook breakfast".

Yesterday, I decided to join him for the walk. Breakfast wasn't ready, but I decided to think about it later.

It was a beautiful track to walk, with plants and trees all around, fresh air, and recently laid roads en route to the lake. It felt so refreshing and rejuvenating within 15 minutes of the walk. I even suggested that I want to buy a bicycle and cycle on these beautiful roads. K laughed, "First you come for a walk regularly, then you think about cycling"🙂

Toward the end of the walk, I felt quite tired, my pace dipped and I dragged myself to our home. It's been a long time since I walked for an hour at a stretch.

We returned home, ordered breakfast from A2B, and started our work routine for the day.

Sticking to our plans is super helpful to accomplish what we want to achieve during the day, but at the same time, giving in to spontaneous, unplanned activities can bring us joy and show us new perspectives.

Embrace routines, but also allow for spontaneity.

Book Review: Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman

 "If you don't implement or take action immediately, then the act of reading books is a productive waste of time" - I completely disagree with this statement that I heard in a workshop a couple of years ago.

I don't believe that you will have to implement all the ideas that you learn from every book as soon as you finish reading it. Not all books are action-oriented in the first place unless you are only reading productivity or self-help books.

There are so many brilliant books out there, that can help change your perspectives and question your long-held beliefs. The actions you might (or might not) take after reading such books are dependent on multiple factors, but such books are influential in rewiring your thinking at a fundamental level.

Grateful to have stumbled upon some of those books in recent years - "Courage to be disliked", "Subtle art of not giving a f*ck", and "Finding awareness" to name a few.

I wrapped up reading Oliver Burkeman's "Four Thousand Weeks" this morning, which belongs to this category of "perspective-shifting" books.

Since childhood, I've been told, "Don't waste time. Use your time wisely. Be productive.". These messages are internalized so deeply that I had been obsessed with time management in my 20s - read many productivity books and tried out multiple systems (from planning, to-do lists, GTD to time-blocking). I used to get irritated when my time gets wasted on things that were beyond my control - getting stuck in traffic, wait times, delays, meetings that don't start on time, when people don't stick to their time commitments, etc.

Better sense dawned on me in my 30s as I started to realize that there will ALWAYS be things beyond our control and there's no point in getting triggered about them. But this basic belief that time is a "precious" resource and I need to make the best use of it - is so ingrained in me.

"Four Thousand Weeks" felt like a much-needed torch, focusing intense light on this specific belief within me. An absolutely brilliant and provocative book that talks about our philosophy of engaging with this concept called Time and how it impacts our life of finitude (4000 weeks is all we have!).

It took me a while to get used to the author's style of writing - a lot of depth that requires more attention as compared to the books I usually read. So I devoured it slowly, chapter by chapter over the past 2 weeks.

The author starts with a convincing argument on how a limit-embracing attitude towards time will help us accept uncertainties and constraints. He then elaborates on how chasing efficiency and pushing ourselves to get more done is a "trap" we fall for. How we perceive time impacts multiple decisions concerning work, relationships, interests, distractions, passion, and purpose.

The chapter on Attention and distraction was just mind-blowing and my highlighter was put to full use. So many nuggets of brilliant and relatable insights.

"My newborn son would do something adorable, and I'd catch myself speculating about how I might describe it in a tweet, as if what mattered wasn't the experience but my(unpaid!) role as a provider of content for Twitter."

"The only faculty you can use to see what's happening to your attention is your attention, the very thing that's already been commandeered."

The explanation on why time shouldn't be considered a "resource" -  something we "possess", "control" or "have" - is exactly what I needed to hear. In our quest towards mastering time, we end up treating the present solely as a path to some superior future state. We have started treating leisure only in terms of its usefulness. We also justify rest as a means of recuperation for better work. "Idleness aversion" - a concept that is so prevalent in our generation.

It was a revelation when the author gradually highlights the fact - 

You don't have time. You are time - your life with all its moments.

The added quotes from philosophers from different timelines add more perspective on how time was interpreted in our past.

The subsequent chapters are a mirror to

- how our approach to time impacts our ability to wait for things to happen (loss of patience) and

- how our lifestyle lacks the shared rhythms required to nurture community/relationships

There are just too many valuable insights in this book that I would go on and on🙂

An impactful read of 2022. I highly recommend this book to everyone in today's modern society.

Types of Tasks

 Last Sunday, D and I had this conversation while sitting on the terrace after dinner.

She said, "I'm gonna rewrite the song - Velai velai from Avvai Shanmugi. Aambalaikkum velai pombalaikkum velai 10 year old-kum velai"
When probed further, she said, "I have to attend school, go for Hindi tuitions, do my school HW. I have to watch TV, I have to eat my dinner. My evenings are so busy"
She doesn't go for any extra-curricular activities after school. She has Hindi tuition twice a week. Though I heard her concerns, I felt she does get a lot of free, unscheduled time, which she wasn't recognizing 🙂
"Why do you say, you HAVE to watch TV? No one is forcing you. It is a choice you make, isn't it?", she listened with a lot of interest to the following gyaan from me😉

There are three categories of tasks we do every day.
"NEED TO DO" - bath, eat food, sleep
"HAVE TO DO" - commute, go to school, do HW
"WANT TO DO" - watch TV, dance, sing, play with friends, read books

If HAVE TO DO tasks take up all of our time, then we feel overwhelmed. We need to make time for WANT TO DO tasks every single day.

She then asked me, "Is going for a job a HAVE TO DO or a WANT TO DO task?"
I replied, "When we enjoy our work, it is a WANT TO DO, but sometimes when we don't but we continue due to various reasons, then it becomes a HAVE TO DO. In the second scenario, we can balance our day by allocating time for our WANT TO DO tasks. We can also change our perspective by finding meaning and purpose, so our HAVE TO DO gets converted to a WANT TO DO."
She didn't quite understand what I meant by a change in perspective. I gave her this example.
"In my 20s, cooking felt like a HAVE TO DO, but now it has become a WANT TO DO because I see how home-cooked food helps in keeping our family healthy"

P.S. On WANT TO DO, one of my favorites, as you might have guessed, is soaking in ARR music🙂 It's just been a downpour of beautiful songs from him in the past few months. I'm hooked to VTK album and love its simplicity and crystal clear melodies. Uyir Urugudhey in repeat mode. And of course, am in the process of getting addicted to PS1 songs!

Thought Dump

I love to jot down thoughts and ideas. Earlier, I used to write them down in a digital note-taking product (Evernote to be precise). I then switched to a paper-based planner/journal sometime in June 2019.

In this post, I want to share a particular journaling technique that I love. The inspiration for this technique came from two sources

• the amazing productivity bible - David Allen's Getting Things Done book - that I read sometime in 2006, but still relevant in today's digital times
• from Harry Potter series, Dumbledore's thought bowl - Pensieve

This technique helps if you are someone who feels overwhelmed and being dragged by multiple responsibilities, inspired by new projects, initiatives and ideas, and whose thoughts jump across various spectrums/genres.

Process:

I prefer to follow this technique on most mornings (not every day though). Here's what I do:

I sit with my journal and a pen. And I just jot down all thoughts that come one by one in a bullet format - no judgments, no analysis, no going deeper into each thought. The intention is to become aware of each thought and collect all of them into what I call a "thought dump". Meditating with a pen and a paper, if I may call so.

For example, here's a snippet of my "thought dump" from a few days back:

• Brian Greene books
• Resilience and research work on this topic in psychology
• call P and check for opportunities
• finish making breakfast and lunch before 10 AM
• Taichi
• Why am I uncomfortable with uncertainty?
• What is marketing's responsibility?
• Vagus nerve - read more about it
• Filling your cup before you pour to others - what are my needs?

How does this help?

As thoughts get transferred from our minds to a notebook, our minds become free and relaxed.

If we don't address a particular thought/idea, it keeps repeating itself in a loop.

Our minds are not meant for storage.

Thought awareness becomes a conscious practice.

Taking action on those thoughts is the obvious next step. Before we get to that stage, this simple step of collecting our thoughts gives the much-needed freeing up of our minds, especially on days when we feel overwhelmed.

How to increase attention span?

In my previous post, we discussed the need to measure our attention span instead of relying on averages concluded by popular media. Do try out the proposed exercise in that post for a week and gather your observations.

In this post, let me share with you 5 strategies by which you can increase your attention span. Tried and tested by yours truly🙂

(1) Avoid multitasking - yes. Stop doing more than one task at once. Going for a walk? Enjoy the walk. Don't try to optimize that time by listening to an audiobook/podcast. When we stop multitasking, we are focused on that single task we are engaged in. This increases our ability to stay mindful for a longer duration.

(2) Avoid frequent context switching - this is an extension to the first strategy, but deserves a separate point, given the amount of information we consume across multiple sources. Reduce the number of people whom you follow on social media. Identify 2-3 topics you are interested in and follow people who share content on these categories. For eg, I have fixed the max number of people whom I follow on Instagram to be 60. The topics I focus on are food/nutrition, Ayurveda and lifestyle that inspires me.

(3) Invest time in activities that put you in a state of FLOW - a state where you are so engaged in an activity that you don't feel the need to reach for distractions. For me, reading, writing, cooking, and public speaking are activities that give me the experience of being in FLOW. I make sure that I invest enough time every week in these activities.

(4) Consciously engage in activities that require more time and focus. A few examples 

• Read long-form articles - Do you easily get put off when an article is lengthy? Do you bookmark it for later reference but don't come back to it? If yes, then I'd highly recommend you invest time every week in reading articles that require at least 10 minutes of dedicated time.
• Watch videos at normal speed - This might be a counter-intuitive idea, but hear me out. Many of us like to watch videos at 1.5x speed to grab more information in less time. Some even watch at 2X speed where one could hardly hear the words being spoken, let alone understand the content. Our attention becomes jittery to the point where we might even experience anxiety. By watching at normal speed, we end up seeing fewer videos. We also signal to our mind that the information is important and it requires focus.
• Practice active listening - When someone is having a conversation with you, give your complete attention and listen without interrupting or fidgeting with your phone. I had written a detailed article a few years back on the benefits of listening. 

(5) Incorporate "Do Nothing" moments - Our attention gets fragmented when we are busy throughout the day. Consciously taking the time to do nothing, even if it is just for a few minutes in a day is so helpful to realign and focus on fewer priorities. A few minutes of stillness can give us momentum for the rest of the day.

A bonus strategy from the point of distractions - remove apps from your phone that give variable rewards. I had written about this earlier. This strategy converts distraction-inducing smartphones to just another tool we use to get things done. 

I hope you found these pointers helpful. As I had mentioned earlier, attention is our MOST VALUABLE asset. Let's protect it with utmost care.