Andrew Chen’s Post

Are schedules really the enemy of freedom? 🤔 It might seem counterintuitive, but embracing a schedule can actually liberate you to do more of what you love. Remember Parkinson's Law? The time it takes to complete a task expands to fill the time allotted for it. This law extends to our leisure time as well. Without a schedule, leisure can easily consume us — think endless scrolling on TikTok, YouTube, or playing video games for hours on end. Ask yourself, are you truly free when you're constantly glued to your phone, passively consuming content, and wishing for a different life? It's time to take control of your time and reclaim your freedom by embracing a structured schedule. 🕒💪 #TimeManagement #Freedom #Productivity

The path to 10x work from Andrew Chen: "Open yourself up to serendipity by expanding your world and experiences. Reject core loops and checklists, embrace serendipity." Sounds like the path to 10x Life, Andrew Chen.

Great post by Andrew Chen on 10x work vs 1x work For me: 1x work - Doing repetitive tasks, checklist, emails and being reactive to the requests of others. 3x to 5x work - preparing decks for important reviews, communication, newsletters of the work that I do that will bring visibility over my work and promote my work with others (scaling myself). 10x work - meetings with decision makers, reaching out to people who are experts in their areas and meeting with them, going to conferences relevant to my work and get in the room with people that could change the trajectory of my career. It feels like a lot of the 10x actions are related to serendipity.

My secret dream in writing workingagreement.com is to become an advice columnist. This week I got my first question: what's different about onboarding new teammates when this is their first job out of undergrad? Read on to find out more, including my list of common new grad mistakes, and some good advice from Julia McClellan: https://lnkd.in/gHGudsfZ

My latest Musings from a Curious Mind newsletter post. "Clear draws a distinction between goals and systems. Goals are the objectives you’re aiming for, and systems are the habits that will best help you achieve them. Notice I didn’t say tasks. Systems aren’t tasks. Systems are the practices and habits you put into place that if done consistently get you to where you want to go." https://lnkd.in/gDiPe_g8

Happy New Year, everyone! #latepost I'm excited to share with you my next post on planning for the year. I know it's a bit overdue, but taking the time to put it into practice myself was crucial for a meaningful yearly plan. To keep it concise, here are the specifics: - Personal and Professional Rules (Tab 2): Based on the reflections from the past 3.5 years, formulate 10 rules for both personal and work aspects. Align each rule with lessons learned from past experiences. Be accountable for adhering to these rules. In personal rules you may write I will work out for minimum 2 days every week or read 1 book every month or eat outside for maximum of 4 days in a month or speaking to your parents once every 3 days. Examples of professional rule include: 24 hours TAT on emails, planning weekly for all weeks, reflecting every month, etc. - Areas of Focus: Copy and paste the areas of life you want to work on in the attached sheet. Prioritize them as high, medium, or low, considering your context and feasibility. -Visualization for 2024: Envision where you see yourself by the end of 2024. Create a vivid picture in the visualization column, setting specific goals for each area. This will help you stay decisive in your actions. For example, in skills you may write, I will have learnt creating impactful presentations and learnt a machine language (Java). In travel you may write, I would have travelled to 2 new cities and 1 new country. -Monthly Planning (Month 1 and Beyond): Write down your plans for the first 3 months. Avoid planning for the entire year due to the unpredictability of life. Focus on what's achievable and realistic in the short term. In the next post, I'll provide a review template and insights on how often and what aspects to review and reflect on. Wishing you all successful planning and the achievement of your goals in the coming year! 🌟 Write to me on sp.pratikdave@gmail.com for all 3 templates shared in posts. #GoalSetting #PlanningAhead #NewYearNewGoals #planning #growthmindset #growth #yearlyplans #reflection #rules #workrules #personalrules

🧠 Unlock your full potential as a tech professional or consultant by identifying and fixing 7 common value-creation mistakes. 🤯 Are you losing 2+ hours a day at work due to distractions, resulting in more errors and missed deadlines? Don't worry, you're not alone. In fact, 100+ tech and consulting professionals I interviewed or surveyed made the same mistakes. 🆘 Mistake #1: Not identifying your highest value activities. 💁 Solution: Write down the top 5 ways you create value as a knowledge worker. Examples include solving complex problems for clients, innovating new products, writing code, developing strategies, conducting research, and creating presentations. Protect 2 hours a day for focused work and customize your time blocks based on your own circadian rhythm. Want to learn more? 📖 Check out Cal Newport's book, "Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World." ➡️ Stay tuned for mistake #2 (of 7). Don't let distractions hold you back from achieving your full potential!

THE WHY? Often I get asked; “Craig, WHY are we doing this” “Craig, “WHY do I have to do this” “Craig, WHY are they doing that and we aren’t”? “Craig, WHY is this important to me/us now”? The easiest and most common response: “WHY, do you think you’re doing this”? (Don’t get me wrong, with context this is an important question too!) BUT! If YOU haven’t got a purpose or reason behind your actions, then this 3 letter word can quickly lose the attention and motivation of the individuals you’re trying to connect with. Basically, WHY am I writing this! I’m currently abroad reflection on last season on where and how I am going to improve both personally and professionally. We all have fantastic ideas but I constantly came back to this WHY question and realised without this being at the forefront of my visualisation, the idea became less powerful and the intended outcome became less impactful. So, before someone asks you that three-letter word, ask yourself it during reflecting, brainstorming and planning. Don’t just do things for the sake of it, have a purpose, have an intention and most importantly, have an answer to ‘THE WHY’ The espresso may of kicked in here,so I’ll leave it there 😂.

‘We need this article in 3 days,” said the client. Day 1: No progress yet Day 2: Managed to do some research Now it’s Day 3, the final countdown. And still, not a single  word on the document. Instead, I was decluttering my desk, pulling out all the resources, and watching videos on how to write the compelling article.  I did everything except writing. This was me a few years back. But things have changed since then. How? Let me explain it to you. Imagine a scenario: You have a choice between  refilling a water bottle & writing an article. What do you choose? Did you lean towards, refilling the bottle? If so, pause and reconsider. It's common to do the easiest tasks first. But the important project  (like writing an article)  sits idle in a corner? Sounds familiar? You are not alone.   Everyone, including me,  often choose the quick and  easy tasks, like filling a water bottle,  to avoid the more challenging  or time-consuming tasks. But to achieve goals,  we should prioritize tasks that align with our objectives. Even if you don’t want to  start the complex task in your to-do-list, do it FIRST. Throw away all easy to do  tasks and start with the  Complex one first. Sometimes, you should discard the low-hanging fruit and aim to hit darker, bigger, and sweeter fruit. Summary: "Tackle the complex job first." That’s it for today.  See you tomorrow.