Changes are good in life, and I’m also changing with time. Things which used to be top most priorities for me till last year, now they are not even in my list anymore, and many new things are added in my priority list. The way I used to see and perceive things, that’s also changing or should I say evolving.

I’m going to be 27 this year, and probably in next 2 year my life will take the next big-leap. When I think of my immediate plans and goals, I know how much I’m working on to move out of my comfort zone and face the real challenge. I have been living in my comfort zone for almost 2 years, and the kind of life I live, it’s a dream life for many. The hard part is breaking the good cozy web which I have created around me, and take the challenge. This challenge to start a company is not to show others, now to please the society, but to please my inner self. To tell myself that Impossible is I-M-possible.

Few things I learned being 26:

Life teaches us lessons at every stage, and with time we get better judgement of what’s right or what’s wrong. I never waste my time thinking what happened or what I did was wrong, if I did something which is wrong, I focus on undoing the wrong thing and turning it into right. I’m 26 now and going to be 27, and here are few things which I would like to read about me 10 years down the line:

Make your time count:

Time is money and time is everything. Live every moment you got and by living I don’t meant waste your time watching TV or not doing anything. Use it on things which makes you happy. Sit down and think what kind of things you like to do when you are not working. Here is a list of things that I like to do when I’m with myself:

• Read something (Usually a novel or a magazine like Entrepreneur). Anything which motivates me.
• Go for a drive : I like putting my music on and go for a long-drive. I have yet to master the art of travelling outside the city all alone, but for now I could live with the in-city drive.
• Photograph: I occasionally pick my oldie Nikon D5000 DSLR and go to random places. Click random pictures, and try to capture those moments.
• Talk talk talk: Though I’m an introvert up to an extent, but I can talk on topics that I like, endlessly. When I just want to take a break, I call my friends and talk to them for long. Usually our conversations are about anything and everything.
• I plan: I’m a strong believer of “your dreams will be your reality“. I make plans for my next holiday destination and make a list of places I will be seeing, make a budget and document it. Tripadvisor and many travel blogs helps me making the plan.

Do remember, it’s easy to live a life that you have been told how to live. Real pleasure of life is when you see things which you never imagined or visualized.

Invest wisely:

I’m an impulsive buyer or atleast I would say I used to be. I had this habit of buying anything I like without waiting. Sometime, I end up buying lots of stuff which I don’t even need or something which I will never use. Not only such things added extra hole in my pocket, such things added a lot into my junk. Lately I started making list of things which I need, instead of deciding things when I’m shopping. This not only helped me to get things which I need but also helped me to save money. After all A Penny saved is penny earned.

Let go of things:

I have seen up’s and down’s. I had grudges against so many, So many people let me down, and I have let down so many people at times, but one thing which remained consistent is “Time”. It never stopped and life moved on. Up’s and down’s are part of life and it will come at every stage. Even the richest person on the earth is worried about making more money or safety of his money. So let go of worries. If you have problem in your life, start taking action to overcome the problem. Do remember, moment you solve one problem, other will be ready to knock your door. So, instead of letting yourself worry about such things, think about how to make your life happy.

Saying this, I also meant: Let go of people. At times it’s good to have people in your memories than your real-life. Hard part is just those few days when you have to accept the person is gone from your life. Similarly, let go of stuff from your house which you don’t need. Stuff which you bought years back and you not using it anymore, give it to someone who needs it. Take out your old cloths, put it in your car and give it to a poor on the road. Give stuff to a NGO, so that it could be distributed. Check your electronic goods and one which you don’t need, send it to re-cycle company. Once you learn the art of letting go, you will be more happy and less worried.

Fight your fear:

I’m an introvert and when I have to try new things, I hesitate till an extent. This is one thing which I have been working on, and fighting my own fear of change. Pushing myself to do things which I thought was impossible. I’m making myself accountable for things which I’m responsible for, instead of looking for an external motivation.

Everything you learned is not true:

Honestly there is nothing call life little book. Things which are right for me, might not be right for you. I’m from a small town and living in capital city of India all by myself from last 8 years, and I have learned things hard way by being a part of it, by making mistakes, and by learning from it. I was not born with silver spoon, neither I had a mentor to tell me about what’s right and what’s wrong in life. Though I learned few things which shape my life:

• Respect everyone around you.
• Don’t discriminate people based on anything.
• Choose people wisely, because people around you will shape your future. (Law of attraction)
• Help others but first help yourself.
• Listen to your inner self. Spend time meditating.
• People who are too friendly from day one, be careful with them.
• If your friend changes in front of others, you are hanging out with wrong people.
• Live for present but don’t ignore the future.
• Nothing in life is going to be consistent or the same, it will keep changing. So be ready for the change.
• Never bad mouth about anyone behind his back, if you don’t like anything say it on the face.
• Stay away from people who say bad thing about others to you, because they will be talking the same about you in front of others.
• Live a day without complaining about anything in your life, and you will find yourself happy by the end.
• Have a goal in your life, without goal your life is like sailing in sea endlessly.
• Always be happy and smile : Because it’s contagious. Try giving a smile to a random person or to a friend, and see how fast it will be reciprocated.
• Don’t watch same movies, and don’t listen to same song all the time. There are many new movies and songs which are yet to be seen. If no idea where to start, watch all cult movies series. Pick a genre and use soundcloud or similar service to listen to new songs in genre you like.
• Health is most important thing, never ignore it.
• We Love, we hate, we fight : but no matter what your family is one thing which will be with you when even your shadow will love you alone.
• Earn money to live life and not live life to earn money.
• Never celebrate your victory too early.
• Always say the right thing, few people will agree but those people are the people you should have in your life.

Last but not the least, don’t be too serious about everything. Be serious when you are working, but moment like then when you are learning something, thinking something, this is your moment, so live it for yourself. “Life is what you make of it”.

One thing which I hate about being stressful is, it decreases your efficiency, it makes you un-productive, and it has a bad effect in your over-all performance. I get stressed too, for various reasons. Sometime it’s work, some time it’s personal issues and some time it could be because of a disturbing news. No matter what, one thing which I know, stress is the outcome of my own mind, and I have to deal with it myself. There is no other way, I could just wait and this stress to go of it’s own, because if I don’t take action now, the stress will eventually hamper my work.

Before I used to deal with my stress issues, I usually spend time playing games on my phone, watch some movie, or spend the whole day staying in my bed. The worse of it is, when I’m on bed, and constantly thinking about the problem which gives me more stress. It not only adds more to my stress, but it also hampers me in long-run. It hampers my decision-making, and over all it kills the day. So here are few things which I usually do, that helps me to tackle with stress issues.

Few solution for dealing with stress:

These tips work for me, and it may or may not work for you. So, you need to find things which helps you to take care of your stress.

Make a to-do list and work on it:

Most of the time I’m burned out or stress out due to work. If I’m working constantly for few weeks, without taking a break, it makes me feel like an alien, and also I feel lonely. Yah! one of the issues with working from home. When it’s because of too much work load, I make an actionable to-do list. I already use Wunderlist app to manage my day-to-day task, but in this case I divide paper into small pieces, write work which needs to be done in urgent basis, and trash the paper which is finished.  As soon as number of papers going down, it not only give me more encouragement, it makes me think I can finish rest of it.

The worse thing which we do when we are stressed by not taking any action, a good idea is to work on it instantly. You will be amazed to know how much time you are saving, by not getting into zone of stressful mind.

Meet a friend:

Go out and meet a friends, who appreciate you for what you are. It will help you to motivate, and you will start thinking from the other person perspective. Usually when we are stressed, we tend to get into risk-analysis mode (What if and what not), so a good idea is to meet a friend/person who trust you and believe in you. When you get that push, and trust yourself again, you will be able to resume work with a positive note.

Change work place:

If you working from home, such burn-out are common. Reason, you have no one to talk to physically, and you end up fighting with your own thoughts. More over, you will be browsing Facebook, other social sites, where seeing people putting pictures of their travels, places will make you feel more miserable. It’s time to go out, find a nice place to site, and work from there. Being in Delhi, I like the cafes at Hauz khas village, they have free wi-fi, and crowd is awesome. Seeing enthusiasm in people will help you a lot. If you are based in South delhi, I highly recommend to try any of the cafe there.

Forget work, and focus on leisure activities:

Even if you are workaholic, there are many other things that you like doing. Go ahead, and do the other thing. Be it a sport, be it a movie or anything, change is requisite. Make sure, what ever extra activity you are doing, it should not be too long, as if it’s work relates stress, you need to start working on your work again. So take a nice break of 2-3 hours, and get back in your work suit. For a change, you can follow my above suggestion, and work from a new place.

Analyze your past stress:

Think how you dealt with bigger stress in the past, what made you come out of it. It’s time to flashback, and re-do the same thing, that helped you to beat past stress.

There are people who get demotivated when they are stress, and there are people like you, who read about it to fight the stress. Since you fall in second category, such stress will help you to come out to be more stronger. That reminds me of a quote “Pain take weakness away from you”, similarly once you know how to battle with personal stress, you will come out as a stronger person.

Do share your secret reciepe of fighting stress? How you deal with it, and what tips you have for me and others?

Last one year has been very monotonous for me. When I look back @last 1 year, I realized I missed doing many things. Many things which I have planned are still in pending Zone and I missed one thing and that is push. One simple reason for the same is, I have not set any deadline for me. For none of my small goals, I have set a deadline or a way to treat myself.

More over, working from home is making me lazy and now it’s high-time for me to get a real office and a real team. Office at home doesn’t motivate me much and walking from one room to another, doesn’t add much into my motivation. So, I decided why not push myself to the basic level where I live a life based on time-table. I know it sounds dramatic but this is just to build a system and maintain a systematic schedule in my life.

The kind of life I’m living right now, there is nothing wrong with it but when it comes to real world productivity, which includes getting work done from team, I need to have a physical appearance and be present in time. Being alone, taking care of everything planning, editing, branding, communicating and what not is not easy. Being a Solopreneur is good but being an Entrepreneur is the best thing that can happen to me.

So, starting 1st october 2012, I will be working on a daily time-table and lets see how it transform my life.  I will also be implementing some of the productivity tips which I have been reading about and lets see how it works.

So, here goes my time-table and I will be sticking to it for first 14 days (Believe me weekends are the one, which always scares me the most).

• 7-8- Morning/Yoga
• 8-9- Writing work
• 9-10: Freshen up/Breakfast
• 10-1- Work
• 1-3- Lunch break
• 3-5 – Learning (Programming/Video editing)
• 5-7: GYM + Break
• 7-9 : Work
• 9 -10: Dinner
• 10-11: Reading And zzzzzz…..

I will also be following 25 minute rule, where I will be taking 5-10 minutes break after every 25 minute work. Also, I will be doing few things to make most out of my work time:

• No Social networking
• No phone
• No Email tab open (Check Email periodically)
• Avoid un-necessary distraction

It’s just a rough idea and I hope to stick to it.. Err…Hope…? I will Of yes, you are most welcome to join me in this and lets see how you and me together can change our life for betterment. I will also try to update this Blog weekly and keep you updated with how this experiment is performing.

One fine morning you woke up and you realize the world is falling apart, everything around is a mess and you can’t even shout for help. There is no one to to rescue you and you are of your own. I’m sure once in a while you have been into this situation and this is nothing new, everyone face this kind of problem. The question is how to get yourself out of this mess, how to fix it and how to get back to your normal self.

Everyone hate problems, I also do, but problems are part of life. You might be doing everything right, but it will eventually come to you without knocking your door. It could be work related issues, health related problem, relationship issues, family problems or could be worse. Here are some of the workable solutions which will help you get out of it.

I’m my own Boss and I will fix things myself:

When you are in situation where you feel the world is falling apart, you find yourself lonely, low self -esteem and find it hard to tackle your own issues. You look out for support, expect people to understand your problems but believe it, it doesn’t work that ways. No one can help you, if you are not helping yourself.

How many times you helped your friend when they are in need? Once, twice but were you all the time? Will you be around a person, who is constantly getting into problems or depression and putting you into same situation. A smart answer would be ‘No’. So, simply take responsibility of your action, all the problems which are in, came because of your decisions in the past or present, and now you have to be your own boss to fix all the issues.

Take a  deep breath:

Seriously, sit calmly and take a deep breath. Do it for 1-2 minute and compose yourself. let the worries go away, because when you are worried your efficiency decreases. You can’t think straight or worse, your decision-making is influenced by your worries. If you know meditation, do it for 5-10 minutes and relax yourself.

Make a List of Problems:

So, now lets work on making the list which is creating issues in your life. Be it anything, instead of thinking about the solution now, start making the list. So, here goes my one example list:

• Projects pending
• Visit Doctor
• Pay house Bills
• Take care of your falling relation
• Meeting 2 important clients
• Reply to important unreplied Emails
• Make Payment

Make a Plan:

Now you have a list of problems which let your world fall apart. Some of these problems are workable and some of them are not. Now, you can always relate 2-3 problems together and have a solution to them at one go. For example, if I complete pending projects, I will get paid instantly and I can make all due payments and afford doctor bills.

But here, you also need to set priority and work accordingly. If you know, going to doctor is more critical than anything else, do that. Drop an Email to all clients about the delay and give them your genuine reason. In most of the cases, they will understand and you can get few of your worries out of head.

Talk to a friend:

Talk to a friend who is not related to your problems, talk about everything else apart from your worries. This will clear your mind and you can think straight. You will realize what you have been missing and you will get the motivation to truly get yourself back.

Work on Pending work before you start new:

If you are like someone who like to try something new and leaving pending things aside, you will find yourself into more issues. Instead of starting something new, finish what is unfinished. If you just got a kick ass idea, note it down and execute it later, when you can not only start but take it to finishing point.

Solution which can’t be solved:

There will be many problems, which have no solution instantly. For example, you trying to quite smoking and drinking but you can’t do it instantly. It takes time and you need to give it time. Find a support group on your area, and see how others are coping up with it. Read about how other people are handling this issues.

Always remember, you are not alone with problems. There are more people, who are in worse than your situation. It’s easier to blame on anything about your problem, but by the end it’s you who have to take a solution. Instead of leaving a worried life, take action now and live a life you dreamed of.

Failure is never bad, it’s a sign that you tried. What’s bad is giving up after trying. 

For me, these solutions works and I often end up writing my problems, which gives me better judgement and a chance to understand my problems in better way. So, go ahead and claim your life back.

Last time when I wrote about Problem with working from home, I mentioned some of the issues which we will face in long run when you work from home for a long time. It’s been almost 4 years that I have a home office (Not something that I’m proud of, time to get a real office)… and I realize my productivity level goes up and down with time.

Today, I looked back and trying to figure out what all could be possible reasons for bad productivity at times.

Learn from my Mistakes and Improve your Productivity

No Home-office:

Right now, I’m in a 3 bedroom flat, where one is my personal room and another room is set as my office.  When ever I work from home-office which is just a simple set up with table, chair, Printer, whiteboard and tripod,  my productivity level goes up. I can work without much distraction and feeling lazy but at times when I get up with lazy mood and start working from my room, believe it or not, my productivity level falls. I don’t enjoy doing hard work (Technical stuff, new work), when I’m working from my bed but it’s the other ways when working from home based office.

Lesson learned: If you are one of Work from home kinda guy, set up a small office in your office. Treat it like a proper office and keep it distraction free and noise proof.

Stop Multi-tasking:

Multi-tasking sounds good when you talk about laptop, iPad or any technical device. But when it comes to human, we have one mind (One powerful processor) and it works best when we are dedicated to one thing at time. Usually it takes 2 hours for me to write a detailed tutorial but when I’m multi-tasking, time increases by 2X-3X for the same article. What a Waste of time!

Usually I get distracted by Facebook or Emails. Lately, I cut down my Facebook browsing habit and specially habit of keeping my Email tab open all the time. And when I’m doing writing or video shooting work, I put my phone on offline mode and it helped a lot to get the work done faster than earlier. Try it something and let me know how it worked for you.

Health is Wealth: And I mean it

Lately, I started getting little bit of health issues, which is usually back pain and feeling tired. It’s again a cost I’m paying for my untimely schedule of eating and gluing my eyes to laptop screen for long hours.

Solution: This is something I still have to work on. Have to start believing on “Health is wealth“. I made two failed attempt of going to Gym and work being my first priority I failed. I tried working out by getting up early morning, but my love to work at the silent hour of day (I.e Night), put my away from it. Hopefully I can remove this road-block in August and get back in time and shape

Work Priorities: 24 Hrs a day is never enough…

Earlier I had this habit of replying to all Emails, Fb messages, twitter Dms and it was indeed a good habit. But with time, the number of such Emails, messages increased and it’s increasing every day and due to this habit, I always missed out on priority work. From last 2-3 months, I cut down on this habit and starting putting more energy on work which needs more attention and priority.

Now, I start my day by writing an article, working on client projects, start filtering Emails and replying to important Emails first, Social media updates and spending time with other Blogger friends on Phone or Skype. Not replying to all the messages made me look like a mean blogger at times, but honestly I can’t do much about it. I would really like to help everyone but for that I need time and by the end of the day, I always get exhausted and my bad with all unreplied Facebook messages, but there is no excuse apart from “I was busy working on things which were more important to me”. Though, I often try to get back to all messages once in a while, but believe it or not, Facebook messages are one of the worse way to make first point of contact or to ask for help.

Here is a nice read from Nytimes regarding, what does people truly means when they say I’m busy. For common Emails like Guest posting, advertising enquiries, I started using Email template feature and it also helped me to save lots of time.

One Project at a time:

I’m enthusiastic about learning and doing new things and it’s always a good idea. This let me create almost 9 blogs in one year but it was a bad decision. After success of SML, I started creating many niche blog but now with time, I feel it’s better to have 3-4 blogs only and where I can write regularly and keep them updated. Right now, I’m trying to push only 3 blogs in my network and working on few niche blogs which doesn’t need more than 6-8 hrs of work in a month.  For other blogs, I’m taking help of post scheduling and adding not more than 2-3 articles a month.

Tip: If you are managing more work than you can do alone, start outsourcing work. There are many awesome people who can get work done in time and at reasonable cost. Hard part is finding them, but once you have it, start outsourcing work. If not, in coming days you will find it hard to keep a balance between all the work and this will hamper your productivity.

Also maintain a to-do list, Gmail offers a Task tab or you can use any Smartphone app for To-do list, and make a list of things you need to do ASAP. Sooner you get rid of pending tasks, you will find yourself more relaxed and you can get other things done quickly. I concentrate more on getting priority things done first and then concentrate on other work.

It’s been a while I have updated this personal Blog and hope I can write more often here. Meanwhile, you should also check out my earlier article on SML, : How to transform your life today.

If you are also one of the work from home guys and you have also face problems or road block to keep up with your productivity, do let me know.

Delhi Traffic police have done a great job in recent past to stop drink and drive, road rash and many more such activities which jeopardise people life. Though recent implementation of removing permissible level of black tinted glass seems to be a dictatorship by them. That too, in 2 days they announced and starting piling off people car’s black film. (May 4th 2012)

Only One thing, Delhi traffic police is doing right is using Social media like Facebook to connect to people but they forget that Social media is about connecting and should not be only one way communication. For example, look at the recent update by Satyendra Garg, Joint CP Traffic, Delhi has updated on Facebook about the latest Delhi tinted glass issue.

So, people wondering why Delhi traffic police is going crazy about Car tinted glasses, this is just to stop crime and rape cases in delhi NCR. What’s not right about this new rule is: Company fitted Tinted glasses are allowed and most of the time vehicle which are used for crime is stolen. What difference does it make?

Instead of wasting our hard-earned and paid tax money and wasting time on piling off innocent people Tinted glass, Traffic police should work more on increasing the security and stop the car stealing cases.  One problem which they don’t see with this approach is, thief’s  and bag snatchers can easily see your mobile and dashboard now and if your window is open on a red light, it’s no brainer to imagine what will happen next. More over, are they completely out of mind by implementing this rule in the month of May when Mr. Sun will start showing off his hotness.

Anyhow, even if India government decided to impose this new rule out of no where one day, how about awareness program. Have you started advertising, taking help of print media to reach people and let them know? On election days, you have all the time to send people for announcement and wasting papers on road, but on things like this there is no awareness. Anyhow, I feel delhi traffic police should keep the earlier permissible level of Car glass tinting.

Warning: This post is written after 60 hours of sleepless night with completely frustrated mind and body. So read it with caution.!

I have been Blogging from last 2 and half years and I work from home. Here I’m going to rant about problems which I have faced while working from home. I started my full-time blogging career somewhere in April 2009, I know it’s funny month to start, but that’s the time when I decided to quit my job and get into full-time blogging career.

One of the biggest advantage people say about professional blogging is working from home. You can work at any time, even in your pajamas. Though they forget to mention that at times working from home becomes so shitty.

Anyways, this post is not going to be about how my past was but few problems which I started facing with full-time blogging. Some habits, some natural stuff which I picked leaving alone and working from home.

Problems with Working from Home

1) Work-work-work:

My nature of work requires me to sit in front of computer for atleast 14 hrs a day. Even that seems to be really low. Every month I have atleast 4-5 sleepless night where I’m busy working. This post is outcome of my another frustrated sleepless night, where I’m tired of working and feeling sleeping, but lying my bed doesn’t bring any sleep to me. What an Irony!

Now when I think about work which I’m suppose to do every day, it’s scary. Writing blog posts, editing guest posts, replying to comments, commenting on other blogs, staying active on social media sites, manage all blogs, look into SEO of my blog network, planning and strategy, Working on client sites, communicating with clients, advertisers, answers to email from other bloggers/readers, 2 hours of daily feed reading, trying out new software,apps, plugins, manage finance, manage my rented house,  and tons of stuff. To be honest, despite of my sleepless nights, I hardly achieve 60% of my total work. Because by the end of the day, my mind and body won’t let me do anything, coz they also need rest. I wish if God would have put sleeping as an option.

2) Social life screwed:

Since my most of the time goes working, my social life is screwed. I can see the difference in me when it comes to socializing. I can actually count how many people I have met last month. I may be talking to hundreds or may be thousands of people online or over phone, but when meeting in person, I don’t remember meeting more than 10 people in a month. Not sure, if I blame my work or myself for the same. I have people around me with lots of expectation: Blog readers need quality and new topic every next day. People who work with me: they need an office to work instead of working from home. My body expect rest from me. My parents expect dedicated time for them and the list will keep going for ever. When I started with my blogging career, I don’t think that time I had to fulfill any expectations or meet anyone demand, but in last 3 years lots of things has been changed. There used to be a time, when I used to work only on weekdays and weekend used to be time when I go out and socialize. Now, everything has changed. I find myself working on a Saturday night when whole world is busy enjoying their friends and loved once company.  Also, adding to it I have been leaving away from home from last 9 years. I stayed in my school hostel from 2002-2004 and later in my college from 2004-2008. Probably that’s one reason I don’t feel connected to my own family. I mean, common what kind of guy doesn’t like to stay connected with his own family??

3) Frustration-frustration and more frustration: 

Working from home comes with a combine deal with frustration. Earlier I never used to feel the same,  but in last couple of months I can see pressure building inside me. I miss meeting people and seeing them. Oh, I’m talking about real people and not my online friends. If I remember correctly, it’s been 15 days that I’m back from my Thailand trip and I went out of my flat just thrice. I have seen only 5-6 faces, attended a Shitty Jazz concert @hardrock cafe which added more into my frustration. Imagine yourself being house-locked for almost 15 days and then you go out: Don’t you feel like you in some different world or you might have become an alien. Atleast, I feel alienate all the time I go out after long break. Meeting my friends after that is like someone just gave me an antidote when I’m about to die. Don’t fall for words, but what I’m trying to say: If you live alone, work from home and your work is all online, you are screwed. By the age of 35 you might look like Grand-dad.

4) Targets and Achieving them:

I’m quite a planner and when it comes to work, I prefer doing it strategically. Though when you work from home, independently no matter how much planning you did or focused and passionate you were, with time it will be washed away. You will get into the world of boredom and might not feel the same energy after some time. It could be a year, 2 or may be 5 in your case. I still have like 10 plans which I need to execute and every month is adding another 3-4 to it, but guess what only thing which I don’t have to start and execute them is TIME. I have interview offer from some big names like Fosters and couple of magazine, and I couldn’t find time to finish the interview.

5) Feeling and Emotions:

Back in my college days, I used to be a guy who can find happiness in the river of sorrow. I mean, none of my friends ever seen me sad or so lost. I loved everyone, technically everyone around me. But, now I can feel that emotions and Feelings are going away from me. Working 24*7 infront of laptop making me robotic too. I feel so de-attached from my own family, my close friends. I wish if this is something which I can work on ASAP, else my life would be nothing but will become “A journey of a workaholic”.

Office vs Home:

I have set up small office at my place which is good enough for 4-5 people, but at the same time I have been considering moving to my own office. That’s a requirement coming from family, people who work with me and none the less society who doesn’t give a damn about you. I was talking to one of my friend “Ankit” who was doing the same stuff like me and he moved to his own office last year. So I called him to know his experience with his own office and here are some of his in his own words:

“When I moved to office, for the first few 2 months I used to reach office in time, made everything perfect, worked in time and everything was smooth. Probably I enjoyed working from office after 3 years of working from home. Though later on, my office reaching time shifted to 2 P.M from 10 A.M. And later on it turned out to be 3-4 days I go to office else I work from home.

Every year, twice I have to bribe the Police-walah, that comes as a complementary when you start your own office. I have to maintain office and make sure everything is alright, maintain the team and meeting and work. Initially you would enjoy it but later on it will add into frustration. Luckily my girlfriend is my partner and she is great manager.  More over, running cost of my office is around $1300/month. If you asking for my suggestion: Work from home and instead of investing in office, hire quality people and let them work for you. May be like “Work from home” or may be you can let 2-3 guys come to your place. ”

Takeaway: There is always a girl behind every successful man!

So technically, instead of assisting me he put me into a Dilemma of office vs Non-office. His point was quite sensible and people with personal experience can always guide you better. So, anyways he again put me into dilemma as I want to start an office but my nature of work (Blogging, Blogging and more blogging) doesn’t necessarily require to have an on-site team. Bloggers are creative people and you can’t bound them with 9-7 job. Else it would be more like I’m running some newspaper agency.

Anyways, so even now I’m not sure if I need to move to office or simply buy a plot, build a house and make an office with separate entry in the same premises. But, again this will require lots of money and to make lots of money, you need to work more and in order to work more, you need to have time and that’s one thing which I don’t have.

I can see, feel that I’m over stressing myself and I should take a step down ASAP, else probably this thing might get into me completely and which might result in negative productivity.

Anyways, I will continue this for some other time…for now Adios!! What are the others problems with working from home, you have faced?

Couple of days back Robert Neuendorf of Sloganmaker.net contacted me for an interview. Upon looking at his site, which is a strong community blog I had no reasons to disappoint him. Today my interview went live and I was quite amazed to see the work Robert has done to show the introductory image.

This is the image I’m talking about:

You can read the complete interview here. Don’t forget to drop a line or two.

Last year, when I was celebrating my birthday (22nd June), I had couple of Birthday wishlist that includes my car, LCD TV, macbook and a PS3. Though later on I dropped the plan for PS3 and iPad but I have completed my first two wishlist.

In a month I’m turning into 25 and that means I lived a quarter of my life. Though I’m sure if mercy death will become legal in India, I might retire my body in my early 60′s. I don’t wanna die with all my teeth gone and bald head. Anyways, I have been thinking what all are going to be in my wishlist for this year and for now, I can think of couple of things:

This year top Birthday Wishlist

Office:

Yah that’s the first thing in my mind. I want to set up a proper office. Now with proper office, I don’t mean it’s going to be like one conventional 9 A.M to 7 P.M office. I’m a web 2.0 guy where clocks and money rotates 24*7. There is no boundaries or limit, so I don’t want to put one for me or for others. More over people who work in my team are mostly writers and designers. If you bound such creative people, you are killing creativity. I want an office which should be a home away from home. I won’t mind converting a garage into office, where every one can work from same place, can work any time and there is no limit, boundaries. I want to start with a home-office where minimum 10 people should be working and then shifting to a bog office which should be like a web2.0 office.  If you have seen movie “The social network”, you might realize what kind of office I’m referring to. Have you ever thought of an office, where you work on a payroll but live like a boss, no hierarchy and you can work with your shorts on and holding a beer can. Well, I’m referring to an office which will be a home away from home for my team.

India Road trip:

I always dreamed of travelling India by road and all alone. Being a blogger, I have the benefit of working from anywhere. I have planned for a long India trip (North India- South India) on my car. Idea is to start from Delhi and go to southern part of India and check out all the places in between. This is going to be a long 20-25 days trip and it’s going to happen before  I will turn 26. I want to make it “A trip to remember”. I will be covering Rajasthan, Gujrat, Maharashtra and south India. Since there is not going to be any time-constraint, I will be staying at all the heritage places in India and will be clicking as much as I can. I have already done a road trip from Pune–> Delhi (1600KM) last year and now its time for knowing my country better.

Gym:

It’s a shame for me that I’m joining the league of all youngsters who eats junk food and never seen the door of a Gym. Its been 5 years that I have stopped going to Gym and now It’s time to start Gyming and swimming again.  I have been planning to join one from last 2 years, but my stupid time-table never let me do it. If time will still be a factor for me in future, I might end up building a Gym at my place.

Buying a Flat:

There is one thing which I’m proud of myself is, after my college I never took monetary help from my family. My grandfather is my ideal as he is a self-made man who started with nothing and now he is one of the most respected person in my town. Probably I can’t achieve the same like he did, but none the less I want to achieve things which I can be proud of. So one of them is building my own house or buying one of my own. Though I’m not sure, if I will be able to fulfill this dream before I turn 26th, but this is something which I’m aiming for. If not, I will be surely combining my wishlist 1 and this one to achieve both of them at the same time.

More knowledge:

A wise man said ” No matter what your age is, book and newspaper should be your best friend forever“. The point is, books and newspaper keep your knowledge bank updated and your vision will be more broader. In last 2 years, all I read was about technology, Blogging and entrepreneurship. I had 2 novel with me that includes  one from OSHO which I wanted to read because of his certain theory and one was a science-fiction novel. But in last two-year, I could not complete those two novels and now they are rotating from one friend to another. I don’t know how I’m going to find out time for this, but I want to get back to my reading habits again. I will be making a list of 5 novels which I should or every human being should be reading and will be finishing them before I will turn one more year older.

Quit smoking:

I have been a smoker since my college days. Needless to say, how people starts smoking in college days to be cool and how they become addicted to this. I have already made two failed attempt to quit smoking but this time, I’m sure I’m going to breakup with my love for smoke. It’s going to be one hell of a fight with myself to quit smoking, but after 2 failed attempt I know which path I have to take.  Though the process of quitting smoking is going to be painful, but it’s worth the pain.

Being a human, there is no limit to my wishlish and desire and I’m sure with time, this wishlit swill keep growing but creating a list of some major stuff and achieving them in time, will create more room for more Birthday wishlist. what’s your wishlist for this year?

In last 9 years I had one of the most thrilling life. In 2002, I moved away from my family and started staying in the hostel. That was my first official stay in hosted and first time I lived away from home. Probably the best decision I have ever taken. Living alone (Away from family), turns you into an individual and you have to fight for yourself to create your own identity.

Today when I look at things which I have achieved, I feel good but at the same time question comes into my mind “What’s next?” . I have already lots of things planned up and working on them which includes having my own office which is going to be one of its kind in India, my own house, taking my websites to next dimension. Though more or less, all the mentioned stuff are materialistic and no matter how much I achieve, the hunt for more will not end.

I have been thinking about how my whole career shaped after I completed my engineering. I started with zero and right now I run a business which employees more than 8 people. But when it comes to peace of mind, I was more happy when I had nothing to lose. When I could do anything which I wanted to. but in recent time, life has become more of a system. Seems like we are becoming a part of system where emotions, happiness are just an essence of life and we are becoming Slave of so-called Karma.

We keep doing things without knowing when and where we have to stop. Have you ever thought where and when do you have to stop? What is power of less and what’s the joy of living a happy life when you are living with limited resources.

For now, I have no answer to my own question but I will be finding an answer to my own questions soon. Have you ever thought when you going to stop thinking  about “Whats next” ??