How to wake up at 5AM everyday

After my last post on super productivity, a few people were curious about waking up at 5 in the morning. The common question was, “How to wake up early?”

Well, there aren’t any tricks per se, but a few things from my own experience/reading might help you fine-tune your biological clock, get you motivated & achieve super productivity.

1. Go to bed early

A good deep sleep of around 4-5 hours is sufficient for an adult. So, if you’re planning to get up at 5, retire early. 10:30 to 11:00 is the ideal period.

2. Track your deep sleep

Use a cheap (or costly) wrist-band activity tracker to track your sleep. I bought the cheapest Mi Band at Rs. 999. It does a decent job at counting your steps and tracking your sleep patterns. Although the mobile app is not that great, it gives you a fair picture of your sleep. Else, you can use apps like Sleep as Android and keep your phone near your pillow while going to bed. (but there’s a catch, read point #3)

My experiments on how to be super productive

Lately, I've realized that I have read a lot of material on two topics viz.

a. How to stop procrastinating
b. How to be productive

And I was wondering if it would make sense to share my progress with the world so that I get more inputs & suggestions from people who're trying something similar. So here's the plan: I will keep sharing life hacks, tricks, tools, utilities, apps, habits, daily regimes, factoids, scientific findings and everything in between on how to be more productive in life.

So here are the things I follow at present:

1. 5:00 AM to 6:00 AM - The holy hour

The one thing that's common between successful people around the world is that all of them are early risers. It gives you enough time to headstart & plan the day instead of simply rushing to your office.It also gives you a moral edge of being at 'work' (working on yourself) while the rest of the world is still asleep.

Dear Sahil Baghla (founder @Bluegape), Please Don't Poach My Teammates. I'm Afraid.

Here's the summary of this article

1. Bluegape blatantly copies content word-by-word from Storypick & other publishers/competitors.

2.  Bluegape then makes random calls to Storypick team members to poach them. Offered random jobs and salaries on unsolicited calls.

3. Bluegape founder, Sahil Baghla whines when being called out.

4. So here's a fact/evidence based article to call out Bluegape publicly. 

Startup Chronicles - Test of an Idea

There is no formula for success, but the formula for failure can be avoided, hence the comic. Enjoy.

What can Lord Ganesh teach us?

Image courtesy: Vinay Bavdekar on Flickr

Staying in Pune, Maharashtra, I don’t need a Hindu calendar to know the date for Ganesh Chaturthi. The drum rolls and the festive mood tell me that today is the day. 

I was born on Ganesh Chaturthi. (Now my birthday rarely coincides)

Although, I’m an atheist, I find deep gratification in questioning, discovering and understanding the reasons behind mythology/religious doctrines. The stories revolving Lord Ganesh are no exception. I would like to share two moral lessons that are neatly woven into Ganpati folklore.