Siri’s Life Review — H1 2024
Background
I maintain a list of life rules. They are simple quotes from various sources — movies, books, religious scriptures and some of my own creation from my own life experiences. Four of them are the following:
21. Compounding is the eighth wonder of the world.
59. Life is a project.
60. Life is an A/B test.
82. Small things done over long periods yield big.
Knowing this, I went all guns blazing fixing my life this year. I made conscious efforts to understand myself, my habits, feelings, issues and made little efforts in fixing them, trying new things, re-evaluating certain things and more. And today, its the end of another month, another quarter, the first half of 2024. And here is a half yearly review of my life as it stands.
Relationships
1. Find a Partner
I made some attempts, but hasn’t been fruitful yet.
2. Build back relationships with old friends
I made some attempts. Need to take it to completion, actually meet them in real once in a while.
3. Make new friends
I need to put more effort into getting closer to people. I met a lot of people in the year, but didn’t really make new friends. My personality is coming in the way. Having said that, I am making an effort in meeting up some of my old friends once in a while. I am glad I have that circle. In London, where everybody come and go because its hard to settle here, its hard to do this.
4. Build back relationships with relatives
Didn't make much of an effort with this. I hope to do it later in the year when I visit home.
5. Engage with the community
No progress. In fact, this got a bit worse as I was focusing more on other stuff.
6. Take active interest in my colleagues’ wellbeing
I am doing this to an extent being careful not to intrude into their personal space.
7. Spend time with family
I make an effort to spend the months of June and December in India and Dubai. But this time, I wanted to just stay in London and fix certain things in life. But I am going to visit in December like I did last year.
Health
8. Fix sleep
I am making the effort. I created a sleeping routine for myself to sleep from 12–7 during which time all of my devices are off. I have been using my Apple watch to measure my sleep. I realised that I sleep only 6 hours and on some days I sleep even less. So this needs more work.
9. Hit the Gym
This probably is one of the few things I haven’t compromised on. I have been hitting the gym very regularly this year. This time last year, I was in bad shape. I have fixed that.
10. Run more
I have always been a fan of running. A bad injury in 2018 forced me to not run for a few years. I saw a physio last year and quit Cricket. I set myself a goal of being able to run 3 km in 20 minutes. I recently achieved that feat in 17.2 minutes. The goal now is to be able to run that distance in 15 minutes by the end of the year.
12. Improve Cardio Fitness
My Cardio fitness level had been at its lowest in the beginning of the year thanks to a decade of smoking and drinking coupled with stress. I quit smoking and drinking a year ago and I was able to improve my cardio health over the past 6 months. It still is below average, but it has moved into the above average (43–52) section.
13. Learn Yoga
I used my company Gym membership perk for this. And this has been an absolute lifesaver. The body of a Software Engineer who sits in front of a computer is, for the lack of a better word, bad. I go to my Yoga classes almost every other day these days.
14. Cycle more
I wanted to pick up cycling in London. Even though I am very much used to driving in Indian conditions, I have been reluctant to hit the roads in London. I am fixing that and I have made great strides. I plan to buy a bike soon.
15. Meditate
I have been increasingly becoming aware of my anxiety issues. One thing I wanted to do to fix that is to meditate more amongst other things. I do it every once in a while every time I go to the Greenwich Park, but need to make it a daily practice.
16. Try Boxing
No progress whatsoever.
17. Fix injuries
I am seeing a Physio and I am being very careful with my movements. I have stopped playing sports such as Cricket and Football which are played on uneven surfaces which have been the reason for many of my injury woes.
18. Groom myself better
I take my appearance very seriously. I have been taking steps to look and feel better. But there are more things I still want to do and haven’t gotten into the habit.
20. Fix my diet
I have been taking steps in being more regular with my eating habits, reducing ultra processed foods, reducing sugar, salt and spice. I have been cooking more often and have reduced ordering take aways considerably. The water quality in London has been of concern to me. This needs more study but for now, I am using bottled water to drink.
20. Seek therapy
As someone who has introspected deep and has already identified his deep rooted issues, I found therapy sessions only reinforcing what I already knew.
21. Nurture Positivity
An open discussion with my colleague about my thought process revealed a certain negativity in me. This was an eye opener for me. That I realised is because of tendency to always think of the worst case scenarios of everything and it reflects in everything I do. I do not remember being like this a few years ago. Life was blissful when I was ignorant and with less responsibilities. So I am focusing on being positive more. A few things I am doing in this regard is to cut down news, curate social media, focus on positive things, being close to nature (Greenwich Park), and activities like gardening and painting.
Career
22. Learn more technical stuff
I wanted to get better in many things — Algorithms, Frontend, Backend, Native and DevOps. I am not entirely happy with the efforts I am putting. I think I can do more here.
23. Get to the next stage in Career
Well, surviving a layoff scare was a win of its own. But I have higher goals. Layoffs even if they happen are just bumps on my road. My eyes are on going up the career ladder. I haven’t yet achieved the goal yet but I have made a good case for it to happen soon.
24. Take the product to the next stage
I believe I have done this. Last year saw some of the major changes in the product which culminated in the rebranding of Badoo and Bumble apps and I am glad I have been able to take them to completion. 2 feathers on my cap.
25. Take teaching to the next stage
My students are starting to see a real change in them. Some have found better jobs, some have inculcated discipline and integrity into their lives. I am glad they have bettered themselves from a technical and non technical perspective. It is moving in the right direction. I am also building an online community in Discord which is getting bigger by the day. I am constantly thinking of things I can do to provide more value to the people in that community.
26. Create 1 (or more) job
I think this is still on the cards for later this year.
27. Pursue more hobbies
I paused taking flying lessons. I have a few hours of flying under my belt but I had to pause it for the time being. The level of time commitment required to do it are high.
But, I am taking my Chess ELO scores to the next level and they are progressing well.
28. Finish the book I am writing
This has been hard. I am taking baby steps but its not anywhere close to completion.
29. Read more books
I had been an avid reader as a child but somewhere down the line, I stopped reading. I want to pick this one up more. I am reading things online. But I want to read more proper books. I am building a small library of sorts in my home, but I am not using it much. This could do better.
30. Listen to more podcasts and audiobooks
I have been doing this consistently. Every time I go for a walk or take the train, it has become a habit to listen to my favourite podcasts and audiobooks.
31. Improve Public Speaking skills
I enrolled myself to Toastmasters International. Got my “Speechcrafter” certificate yesterday. It was a great stepping stone. Now, I need to keep at it.
32. Attend and Speak in more Public Tech events
The rigorous routine I have meant that this took a hit. I intend to do this more in H2 2024.
Finance
33. Budget to the last penny
I finally created and stuck to my budget this month. I made a plan to the last penny about how I spent and invested my money.
34. Find newer ways of Investing
I had been exploring property investment in Dubai and some other modes of investments like Crypto, Angel Investments, Mutual Funds etc. I have been cautious about Investing in Off Plan properties in Dubai, but I am keeping all options open. I took my Angel Investment portfolio to 20 businesses in the UK and EU and started with Crypto just a bit (I am very vary of this). I am also steadily increasing my equity in UK Property. This is a long and risky game and I am building in me an appetite for risks.
35. Automate all my spendings and Investments
Something I did as a way to prevent unnecessary spendings is to automate all the mandatory spendings right at the beginning of the month (things like mortgage, investments, bills, subscriptions etc) leaving me with just the right amount enough for day to day things like Grocery, Travel, Eating out, Shopping and Entertainment. This has worked for me beautifully.
Home
36. Make it a great space to live
I have been putting a lot of effort in buying the right things for my home and arranging and rearranging them to make it as cozy as possible.
37. Find ways to keep it clean at less effort
Even though I find cleaning therapeutic, I find myself cleaning my home all the time. My home is a big investment and maybe thats forcing me to keep it as good as new. These days, I don’t put off cleaning for later. I keep it clean absolutely all the time. I am also thinking buying one of those little robot cleaners.
38. Automate it fully
I have automated all the lights, TV and music and made them all voice activated. I think thats good enough for now.
Travel
39. Travel more
I wanted to travel more of UK, Europe, Dubai, India, Africa and USA. I put it off to fix my other stuff in my life. Also, I did an extensive amount of travelling last year. So I was fine with deprioritising this. Having said that, I was invited to attend a conference in New York this month which I unfortunately couldn’t visit due to not having the visa. So that was a chance that went begging.
Entertainment
40. Gain more entertainment
See the occasional movie, theatre show, musical, comedy gig etc. This is something I need to do more of. But life itself has been entertaining enough for me, so I am not very fussed about this.
Conclusion
If was to rate myself in the 7 categories of my life, it would be like this:
- Relationships — 4/10
- Health — 7/10
- Career — 7/10
- Finance — 8/10
- Home — 8/10
- Travel — 6/10
- Entertainment — 6/10
Note: A rating of 8 means I am very happy with where it is now. On average, I have scored 46/70. My goal is to score 56 by the end of the year. I have been able to achieve some targets, but some still need work. I have made great strides in almost all the categories of my life taking them as close to their ideal states as possible. I think I am truly living a data driven life. Very Happy!
