Scholar-Journalist of the Week: Strategies for productivity

‘Habits Maketh the Man’ – the popular saying is the mantra for Rajat Mishra from Apeejay School, Noida. Few months ago, he came across the book ‘Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones’ by James Clear. From there, he learnt about how inculcating positive habits can be more effective than setting up goals. In an interview, Rajat highlights, ‘Good habits can swing around your life to a 360 degree and can help you succeed.’ Read on:  

What kinds of books do you read?

I like to engage with books about life, productivity and business strategies.  

What are some of your good habits?

The foremost being reading books and doing so every day. The other would be to try and learn new things. I am currently learning Coding and Javascript from YouTube videos. From the past few months, I have inculcated a habit to wake up early in the morning around 6 or 7, so that is another habit I am working towards.    

For those wanting to boost their daily productivity, your tips?

My first tip would be to take a sticky note and write down your day’s schedule. In that, you must time yourself and also mention when you want to do that activity. After that, you must put up that sticky note in a common area of your house – where you keep coming and going. This would work on a mental level for you because you would know and remember your goal throughout the day.

My other tip would be – to create an environment. For example, if you wish to start working out from tomorrow on, you can begin placing yoga mats or gym equipment in and around your place. This would allow you the motivation to work towards it. I want to cite a case study which I recently read. In a canteen, their working team wanted to boost the sales of their packaged drinking water bottles. So, they decided to place a bottle at every table as well as the common areas of the canteen. The more people came in, the more sales went up for their water bottles. We see these examples every in our lives and this is nothing but a strategy to sell and engage with what meets the eye. It works for individuals as well because one’s environment shapes their thinking.

This is very insightful! What would your next write-up be about?

Well, I am thinking to put down one on – ‘How to make more friends?’ The broad idea would be how you can put your ‘self’ aside and try to be part of others’ lives to understand them better.

What is your career aspiration?

I am finding myself very interested in Coding these days, which is why I want to become a software engineer.

Your advice for students who want to begin writing?

I would say that they should just start writing about what they feel interested in!