MONTHLY MULLING💡
Recommendations & Reflections 2021
Happy Sunday y’all!
🎄 Firstly, I wanted to wish Happy Holidays to you and your loved ones! I hope you’ve stopped working, studying, or whatever else you do to start spending time with your friends and family.
✅ This will be the last newsletter for the year and so, I wanted to share my recommendations for 2021 alongside some lessons that were reinforced this year.
But before we start,
🗄 Repository: I have updated my repository with my favourite articles, podcasts, YouTube channels, and a lot more with recommendations from 2021. The repository is my curated list of everything favourite from the internet. The way I would approach it is by topics and finding things/people you haven’t seen before.
📖 Reading List: I also updated my reading list with book recommendations from 2021. So check it out, if you’re planning to set a reading goal in 2021!
📚BOOKS
As per GoodReads, I read about 11,500 pages this year (🤯). I did fall short of my reading goal and ended up reading 35 books (I might finish a couple more over the break) out of my target of 48 books. This is okay as the end goal has always been to read more and not chase metrics.
⭐ Favourite Reads in 2021:
How To Live by Derek Sivers
Richer, Wiser, Happier by William Green
Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon
By Genre:
🗝 History: Genghis Khan by Jack Weatherford, India After Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha
💼 Business: Rework by Jason Fried and David Hansson
📈 Investing: Rule #1 by Phil Town, Dhandho Investor by Mohnish Pabrai, Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
🙌🏽 Memoir/Biographies: Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins, When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
💪🏽 Self-Help/Development: How To Take Smart Notes by Sonke Ahrens
💭 Fiction: The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin (It’s the only fiction book I read this year)
NOTE:
💡 I think the biggest difference in improving my reading habit and speed came when I switched to Kindle in August👌🏽. I had read 10 books until July and the remainder of the progress was made in the second half of the year. I would highly recommend switching to Kindle (I have explained the pros and cons in this post).
💡 If you’re just getting started with developing a reading habit, set your goals in pages rather than minutes. 30 pages per day will lead to more progress and better tracking than 30 minutes per day. I read 11,500 pages this year which averages 31 pages per day!
💡 If you can’t find the right book to read, reflect on the genres you watch on TV and movies instead of asking friends for recommendations. If you like watching that genre, high probability that you will like reading it too
💡 Start small. If you’ve fallen out of a reading habit or just getting started, set a small goal like 1 book per month or 10 pages per day. If the goal feels overwhelming (4 books per month), you will never get to it.
💡 If you’ve been stuck on a book for over 2 weeks and finding yourself not able to pick it up or procrastinating, just skip it. Move to a new book that you find exciting.
And with books out of the way (which was the majority of the article), here are other recommendations.
📺 TV Shows: Attack On Titan, Squid Games, Stanley Tucci: Searching For Italy
🎬 Movies: Spider-Man: No Way Home, Capital In The Twenty-First Century
👓 YouTube: ContraPoints, New Money, Random Chikibum (KVizzing With The Comedians)
📰 Newsletters: The Curiosity Chronicle, Safal Niveshak, More To That
🎙 Podcasts: Hardcore History by Dan Carlin (Kings of Kings), Chris Dixon and Naval Ravikant on Tim Ferriss Show Discussing Web3, Tanmay Bhat on Chalchitra Talks
🤔 Decisions with the most impact:
Creating my second-brain in Notion using the ZettelKasten method
Switching to Kindle
Switching jobs after realising my mental health was taking a toll
And that’s about it for the recommendations.
💡 I will leave you with 5 lessons that I have learned this year or have been reinforced.
Ideas are plentiful, action is important
The best way to become wealthy is to disconnect time from income
Impatience with actions, patience with results
Consistency trumps motivation
Happiness can be found in even the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light.
Happy Holidays everyone!
Best,
Tapan
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