Calm Achiever - Blog
Actionable Advice to Help You Get Things Done®
GTD is Not About Doing Everything On Your List
Productivity gurus will always tell you that ticking off all the items on your checklist is the ultimate win. So you walk out of the arena proudly like the heavyweight champion of the WWE who took on all the tasks. I’ll admit, in theory that’s an encouraging...
Book Summary: Brave New Work – Are You Ready to Reinvent Your Organization?
Do you ever find yourself living in the matrix? You're doing the same thing everyday, but not questioning why? It's the same in our organizations. There are a set of assumptions under which we operate at work without questioning why we need them. Ever stopped to...
GTD® is Not About Achieving Goals in The Future
Do you love making goals? I think most of us do. We all enjoy foreseeing our ideal future. Like the house we want to live in, the money we want to have in our bank, the relationships we want in our lives. We are all pro goal makers. But being a pro goal maker doesn’t...
How I Used GTD to Build a Yoga Habit During Lock-down
The lockdown due to the ongoing pandemic has seen my routines go for a toss No social meetingsNo travelingNo chit-chat with gym buddies! Do you have a similar story to tell? Like most of us, I too am working from home. Though, at the moment, life does not...
A Formula to Guarantee Focus & Completion
I had unwavering focus. Nothing could distract me. What normally would take me weeks, I can get done in an hour. My attention was so acute, I felt like I had the attentive power of Buddha himself. This is how I am studying on the last day just before an important...
Stop Carrying the Weight Of the World. Capture Instead.
This is a common sight at Indian Railway stations. That's how porters carry luggage from one's car to their carriage. A participant at my last workshop shared a lovely analogy: "Imagine you're travelling by train, you notice a passenger seated across the aisle.There's...
How Holacracy Gamifies the Workplace to Boost Team Engagement
Allow me to paint you a picture of 2 companies: Company A is a place where people come to work because they have to. They come in as late as they can and leave 10 minutes early. In between, they make themselves look busy, but in reality, they're doing the bare minimum...
6 Parallels between Holacracy and Nonviolent Communication
I discovered Nonviolent Communication (NVC) in 2015, and then Holacracy in 2016. At the time I didn’t see the similarities between the two. But after some deeper practice, I realized how complementary they are. If these practices are new to you, here are some quick...
Create a Private Podcast to Make the Best Use of Your Travel Time
Imagine you're in an amusement park with the most fantastic rides. Each ride offers you a thrilling experience. And you want to experience them all. But... you just have 30 mins. That's time to enjoy only one. You're not sure when you're going to visit the park next....
How to Be a Power Delegator to Unleash Your Team’s Talent
I used to think that the key to success was just hard work. Meaning the more time and effort I’d put in, the greater the output. I wasn’t completely wrong, but I realized over time while working hard is important, it only gives incremental benefits. Have you heard of...
My Top Productivity Apps in 2020
In almost every GTD workshop I've facilitated, I get asked "Ali, what tools do you use?" I hesitate to answer because I don't want people to think its the tools that makes one productive. It's how you use the tools. Remember, Leonardo Da Vinci just had paper and...
Create a Feel-Good Checklist to Overcome Anxiety
Have you had thoughts like: "Why does this always happen to me?" "How dare he or she speak to me in this way!" "This is not fair." "It's not my fault, this should not be happening to me." There are times I feel completely stressed out. I can't think...
Make 2020 Your Best Year Ever
It's that time of the year where we make plans for the coming year. While most people make resolutions. I and Arif have a ritual to do an annual review. It's a series of questions to reflect on how the year went by. What we learned from it. Reflect on our guiding...
How to Get WhatsApp to Inbox Zero
I hate Whatsapp! For a long time, I never had it installed. I knew that once I did I’d be obligated to respond to messages on this noisy medium. But I couldn’t avoid it forever. There were times that I needed folks to get in touch with me and they...
6 GTD® Mental Models To Automate Your Productivity
Search for "how to increase productivity" on Google, and you'll get a laundry list of different ways to be more productive What you need is not new tips and tricks, but new ways of thinking about work. Once you change the way you look at the world, you'll...
10 Things GTD is Not
Almost a year back I did a post 20 things GTD is Not (and what it really is). After doing Level 3 and attending the GTD Summit, I got some more insights on what GTD is not (and what it really is) Here are 10 things GTD is not, and what it really is: GTD is not about...
Highlights & Key Takeaways from GTD Summit 2019
We just returned from the GTD Summit in Amsterdam. A heart-warming event that celebrated everything GTD and what Mind Like Water can accomplish. Practicing GTD for a decade and a half the Summit brought closure on several open loops on GTD. Arif's top highlights from...
Sharing Holacracy at Isha Foundation – Human Is Not a Resource 2019
Ever since I began my journey with Holacracy in 2016, its lead me to meet amazing people & speak at awesome events. This month (June 2019) my journey with Holacracy took me to Isha Foundation to speak at Human is Not a Resource conference. What is Isha Foundation?...