Tag: writing

40 Minutes Changed His Life

Rohit sat at his home desk, grinning. He placed his cup of black coffee carefully on his right, aligned the coaster to sit flush with his brown desk mat.

That’s a little bit OCD, he said in his own breath but that’s how he liked having his coffee, plain black with his coaster aligned to the tee with his desk. He looked at the clock and said, “Hmm, I’ve got a good 40 minutes. Let’s get this going.”

This was standard practice for Rohit. Every single day. Or at least, for the last few years this had been.

He had been taking out time to learn a little bit extra. Whatever he felt he needed at work or in life. He had been consistently investing about 30 to 40 minutes, roughly the time it took him to finish his morning cup of coffee, to learn something new.

Sometimes it was something he needed for work. Like understanding a bit of UX design so he can prepare better collateral or brushing up on his copywriting skills because he had to work on a new ad copy that week.

Sometimes it was just him practicing art, because he loved drawing. He’d always wanted to draw for as long as he could remember. He had loved it as a child too but of course, he couldn’t continue it back then because, engineering.

“Huh! I did that degree but minus the logical thinking I’ve never technically used whatever I learnt in B.Tech”, he would think to himself.

But these days he was mostly happy about all of this. These last few years were the only time he could remember where he’d done art consistently, almost every week.

About 3 years ago he’d heard a couple of people mention it on YouTube, a few entrepreneurs here and there.

Initially, he thought, “Yeah, great. Easy for them to say. They’ve got all the money. They’ve got people to help out. They don’t need to do house chores. They don’t need to prepare breakfast or get the kids ready for school early mornings.”

“They can say all of this. They can lecture all they want. But they don’t really get it, do they?” he had said back then.

But this idea stuck with him. This advice that you should be able to afford 30 minutes a day for your your own growth kept poking at him.

Eventually, he gave up. He started investing in himself.

And over the last few years, he had observed something. His career had taken a totally different trajectory. Not only was he able to connect new things better, he was also able to gain skills consistently. Even though they took much longer than he’d like.

Because of course, he wanted everything today. Actually, he wanted everything yesterday. And he wanted it all with minimal effort.

But then again, that’s not how life works. Does it?

“Anyways, let’s get started,” Rohit said.

Today was special. He was running his first ad campaign for a product he had come up with. He had set up a Shopify store, ad accounts, all the graphics and ad copies.

“Hmm. Let’s go with Instagram and Facebook. Maybe just feed and story ads for now,” he thought.

“And let’s rename this ad campaign.”

Click. Click. Type. Click.

“Hmm,” said Rohit.

Click. Click. Type. Click.

That was him setting up the campaign for himself. Something he had now done hundreds of times. But always for employers. Never for himself.

And precisely because of that he had never felt as excited as he did today.

This one was his.

It wasn’t for a company he barely cared about. Or for a boss he somewhat liked, but not enough to do extra work on a weekend morning before office hours.

And damn, it felt good.

Even though it was just the start.

He knew a lot of ad campaigns don’t go anywhere. They’re trial and error.

And he was okay with it.

“Ad campaigns are trial and error. It’s not a sure shot thing anyway. I’m sure I’ll be able to pick this up. I’m sure if something goes wrong, I’ll be able to make quick changes. Maybe tweak the ad copy. And I’ll get things going.”

So, that’s what he did.

He set up the campaign. For himself.

Click. Click. Type. Click.

Read. Reflect. Repeat: The Career Edge of a Thoughtful Mind

There’s a quiet weapon in the careers of people who seem to always be two steps ahead. It doesn’t post about itself on LinkedIn thrice a week. It doesn’t show up in KPIs. But it’s there, tucked between the margins of books and the pages of old notebooks: a personal system for reading and reflection.

Warren Buffett reads six hours a day. Bill Gates famously takes reading vacations. Barack Obama kept a journal as a young man, filling it with reflections, frustrations, fragments of poetry, and political questions. These are a part of a disciplined way of thinking.

Look, we are drowning in noise. Slack pings. Industry updates. A thousand browser tabs. In that environment, reading deeply is simply an act of rebellion. More than that, it’s a long-term career advantage.

Because what do careers really run on? Pattern recognition. Judgment. Strategic imagination.

And those things don’t come from hustle alone. They’re cultivated in silence. They come from sitting with Montaigne’s essays or Joan Didion’s clarity. From rereading a paragraph three times because it struck something. From seeing your own half-formed thoughts turn into full sentences in a journal and thinking — so that’s what I really believe.

Robert Caro, the biographer behind The Power Broker, keeps a notebook titled “Reading Notes.” He copies down passages longhand, forcing himself to slow down and absorb. “You have to see the writing,” he says. Not just the facts. The shape of thought behind them.

Even Leonardo da Vinci kept detailed notebooks with sketches, inventions, shopping lists, philosophical musings and everything in between. Centuries later, we still study them. Why? Because they show the scaffolding of genius. The half-steps. The messy drafts. The questions.

We are systematizing insight. Building a palace where ideas accumulate. A system where connections spark. A rhythm that makes reflection a habit rather than a luxury.

One practical approach? A daily ritual. Ten minutes in the morning with a book that challenges you. Jot down what stood out. Once a week, scan your notes. What patterns are emerging? What’s shifting in your thinking?

A year of this and you’re not just better read. You’re sharper in meetings, clearer in writing, more persuasive in your proposals. You start seeing what others miss.

Most people skim. Most people forget. But the person who reads and reflects with intention builds an inner archive.

So read. Reflect. Repeat. Not because it’s trendy. But because it sharpens the one thing your job will always demand. Your mind.