Hi Reader,

The true joy of life is just living.

Being able to do anything for it’s own sake.

Not for money, not for success, not for anything else.

Just being. Just doing. In the flow.

Wether it’s working on a project, working out in the gym..

Or walking, eating, reading.

Being absorbed in whatever we do, such that we start losing the sense of time.

But not losing time itself.

Coming out of the activity feeling like a new life..

Not feeling tired.

How do we find such activities in the first place?

Most simple day to day activities can be done mindfully.

Of course, on one spectrum, there is mindless activities too.

It’s easy to identify those..

They make us tired rather than refreshed.

For me these are:

• Browsing social media
• Watching short videos
• Texting in multiple screens
• Online shopping
• Shallow meetings
• Reading news

So I tend to stay away from these.

On the other hand, the following give me back energy:

• Walking in nature
• Deep work on projects
• Going to the beach
• Reading a book
• Deep breathing
• Yoga and stretching
• Cooking

So I tend to do more of these.

This is a simple energy audit.

You can go deeper and audit everything you do.

Audit your work day too.

1. Which meetings consume energy, and don’t really move the project in the right direction?
2. And which ones are productive and lead to new learning and solving problems?

Do less of the first, and more of the latter.

Even without meetings, what type of work do you do?

It’s easy to say do deep work and less shallow work.

But often, there’s a lot of shallow work that seems ‘mandatory’.

A better way is to identify:

What work is really work, and what work is actually just ‘moving information around’?

They say 60% of work tasks involve moving information around.

That’s quite a high % of time.

And many choose to do this via meetings.

There are way more efficient ways to do this:

1. Feed in the information you want to pass on to the team to ChatGPT and let it write emails on your behalf to be sent out to the team
2. Use voice notes instead of calls if it’s mostly going to be you talking
3. Send a loom video if you want to take people through something instead of live screen share

These 3 ways can eliminate 80% of meetings in my experience.

This frees up time for real work.

Real work = progress toward the project goal.

It could be any goal.

This is why goal setting is so important.

People can only engage in deep work once they know what their goal is.

This is a simple deep work audit:

1. Are you working on something that gets you closer to the project’s goal or main KPI (or North star)?
2. Are you working on your core skill while doing so or just moving information around?
3. Are you adding value in terms of moving the needle forward with every work session?

If the answer to these 3 are YES, then you’re engaging in Deep Work.

This is my own framework for a deep work audit.

A lot of people learn about deep work, and end up doing shallow work using pomodoro timers, without distractions, without their phones.

It’s still better than distracted work, but that’s still shallow work!

So really understanding the difference is important.

This is why I call this ‘REAL WORK’.

The magic happens when you combine REAL WORK + DEEP WORK.

Then you’re mindfully moving forward.

Not just being mindful.

And not just moving forward.

I believe you can work 3-4 hours a day and achieve great results (aka a 6-figure annual income from any revenue stream) if you do the following:

1. Pick a specialised skill
2. Keep improving and learning everything about your skill and industry
3. Engage in REAL + DEEP work to move the needle on projects every day
4. Document your case studies
5. Share them as content on social media

The 5th one is what will get you new opportunities to again repeat 1 through 4.

You can share your work in any format you prefer.

I like writing posts on LinkedIn, and making loom videos on YouTube.

Some people prefer posting on X, some people are more visual and share photo posts on IG.

Whatever channels you pick, eventually take people to your email list.

This is your OWN channel.

You will have direct access to people once you have them in your email list.

You bypass the control of other companies like Meta and Google.

Your email list is then your revenue stream.

You can recommend products, you can create courses, you can promote content.

You can even just share free value and help people.

Like what I do.

I don’t monetize my email list as much, because my main focus is my client projects.

I add value there, and in exchange I generate income.

Always remember the equation of money,

Money = Value.

And Value comes from Skill and Experience.

When you create value, you will make money.

Any other way to make money is either not scalable or not satisfactory.

Real joy of money will come if you’ve made it by creating value in the world.

And the joy is way more important IMO than the money itself.

How you made it matters more than where you’ve reached.

I hope this serves you.

If yes, reply with a YES so I know :)

All the best,

Rish