How should you spice up your ROTI? Are you sleeping too little, exercising excessively, not partying enough or even meditating too much? If our Return on Time Invested depends on the input components, how could we think about organizing and using the spice rack?

No matter how you define and then measure success, you too want to have a successful life. Whether it is the journey or the desired destination that is important to you as a measure of output, you understand that a key input is your time. And, your time is not just a key input – it is the key input. Nothing happens without the passage of time. Unfortunately, you cannot control the passing of time. You can, however, control what you do in that time. Your R.O.T.I. – return on time invested – is going to be a function of all the things that you do and all the things that you do not do in the duration that you actively provide input to get a relevant return.

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Contents

MOTIVATION FOR US TO COOK
1234My Motivation
1234Not about Time Management
1234Relying on Luck
1234Portfolio Construction is Constrained Optimization
1234The School Years
1234Adult Responsibilities and Freedom of Choice
DESIGN
Spicing up the Dish
1234Sleep as the Foundation
1234Future External Wealth Generation
1234Movement makes the Mind
1234Study comes before Learning
1234Family
1234Meals
1234Exercise
1234Service to Others
1234Friends
1234Hobbies
1234Non-Sleep Rest
1234Nature Connect
1234Faith Practices
COOKING TIPS
1234Imagining the Perfect Dish
1234Identifying Spices Badly Mixed
1234The Implementation Gap
1234Ingredients NOT Covered
1234Mindfulness
1234Combining Spices
1234The Spices in Your Child’s ROTI
1234Saying NO to Opportunities
1234Weakness Bottlenecks
1234Shocks and the Dichotomy of Control
1234When on Holiday
1234Maintenance Mode
1234Tracking
FINALLY
1234Parting Message

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MOTIVATION FOR US TO COOK

My Motivation [top]

I work with many amazing people around the world. Be they housewives or CEOs, I notice a common thread that presents itself as a bottleneck for greater success, or bumps on a smoother path to that success. Invariably there is great effort – physical, mental, emotional – but often to move the wrong set of rocks.

None of us is perfect, so it makes sense to think about which rocks to move more and which less. We will never be perfect, but how much of each spice you use from the rack will determine how much flavour you can produce in your dish, called Life.

Not about Time Management [top]

Of course, we must all manage our time well. But if time management is about ensuring that you do all the things you were planning to do in a day, the critical question to ask is, “What should my day’s plan contain in the first place?” For great taste, you must first decide what spices go into the dish and then plan how much to include of each along with a plan for when you add each spice to the pot.

Relying on Luck [top]

Expecting that somehow your day will automatically have the right ingredients is unwise. You have very little control over external circumstances. Rather than being pessimistic, being an optimist and believing that good things will happen to you is likely to nudge you towards better luck. But do not rely on lady luck to somehow give you a life that you know you will be satisfied with. You will have to do the work – and, if you do the work with the right mindset, you will be satisfied, no matter what the outcome.

The work in this case is to proactively think about the right quantities of each ingredient. You need salt but too much of it and you have a disaster on your hands. Not enough cinnamon and, looking back, you will regret that you did not pay a bit more attention to the quantity required and now it is too late.

Portfolio Construction is Constrained Optimization [top]

If you understand that time is the only variable we can play with, and we always have multiple goals, then we know the problem statement is “How should we be splitting up the 24 hours of each day amongst all the parts that are key inputs to achieving all of our goals?” It is a problem of “satisficing” i.e., satisfying multiple goals rather than achieving a single most important goal (like an Olympic gold medal or a Nobel Prize). And, heaven forbid that you foolishly think that collapsing everything into “making more money” is the appropriate utility function to maximize. Not that external wealth is not important but it is definitely not more important than your internal wealth.

The School Years [top]

During your school years, structure for some kind of overall and wholesome development was provided to you, both via a school’s timetable for the week and via lifestyle patterns being followed in your home or boarding school. Physical activity, rest, prayer and study, group and individual activity, music, arts and crafts, language learning, mathematics, and dance – these were all prescribed with some logical format that did a mostly half-decent job.

Even if there was too much time given to subjects that amounted to nothing and many subjects relevant for the 21^st century not given any time in school, the broad mix of study, physical activity, prayer or contemplation, art, music, play, and relaxation was somewhat right.

Unfortunately, during those years, although we were told how much to do, we were not taught why we should do that quantity. Sadly too, even the adults who were overseeing the system they kept us neatly controlled within did not see that the timetable we were being made to follow was appropriate for them too.

Adult Responsibilities and Freedom of Choice [top]

After their teenage years, the mix of spices goes awry for most adults in urban settings. The dish called Life is out of balance with waking hours not directed in a wholesome manner like it was as children. When a young man or a young lady starts college at the age of 18, they are somehow expected to magically conduct their lives in a manner that makes them invest the right amount of time in the different spheres that provide for wholesome development. When they start full-time work in a city it gets worse.

 

DESIGN

Spicing up the Dish [top]

When planning spices for the dish, how much (time) we give each component in the overall mix is going to play the largest part in determining the eventual outcome. There exists in traditional teachings and ways of living “the rule of 1/3”. You have 8 hours of sleep, 8 hours of work and 8 hours of leisure time. Superb general guidance but we can improve on that and make it relevant to our 21^st century lives. I present the ingredients, in somewhat of a decreasing order of the size of the investment (of your time).

Sleep as the Foundation [top]

(investment: 7-9 hours, not more, not less)
Like with anything you build in life, an actual house, or a relationship, if the foundation is not right, you will be on shaky grounds. If you are a master of your sleep a lot of the work for a fabulous house is already done. On the other hand, if you are not a master of your sleep, you can expect that you will have, not just one, but potentially numerous problems. The importance of sleep is overlooked because our eyes are shut when we sleep – and you may not even be conscious that so many of your life’s problems are linked to the quantity and quality of your sleep. Do not treat the single activity that you invest the most amount of time in your life on with anything less than the seriousness it deserves.

If you add naps to your day because your lifestyle allows it – you will significantly boost your overall productivity, quality of performance and the total number of creative ideas you have in a year.

Future External Wealth Generation [top]

(investment: up to 6 hours)
This might be going to one’s daily place of employment or business office. It might also be school or college for someone who is in full-time education. It might be both for someone working while studying for professional exams or a part-time course for a degree or diploma. If you track the actual time of focused effort and examine it in detail, you will find that you might be “at the place of work/study” for many more hours than the 6 hours that you can actually be doing stuff when within the physical boundaries of the establishments. Even a busy banker will serve his client better by getting more sleep. I hope my surgeon is not sleep-deprived like most of the medical residents in her hospital are.

Movement makes the Mind [top]

(investment: 4 hours)
Being physically still has its benefits but given that we get that when we sleep or are forced to be stationary (e.g., when using a knife, a pen or a laptop) it is critical that you do not sit still (worse, lie down) when there is no specific requirement to. Thinking is enhanced by walking, so create some walking space where you need to do most of your thinking. You do not need a treadmill for your home office, just move things around and off the floor and create an easy loop that is walkable inside your home.

Study comes before Learning [top]

(investment: 2 hours)
You do not learn when you are engaged in a class – that is what I call study time i.e., time for comprehensive input. Be it mathematics, music, or Mandarin – the actual learning mostly happens when you sleep. As lifelong learning is a pillar for a joyful long life, making time for active study every single day is critical. Whether the study has financial rewards as the direct goal, or simply mastering a new piece on the piano for fun – you must make time for study daily.

Family [top]

(investment: 1 hour)
If you are fortunate to live with family members, you must make time to actively engage with them. It would be a pity to live in the same house “like flat-sharing humans” with no engagement. Instead, for example, you could design the day so that everyone sits down for a pleasant dinner together at a fixed time each evening.

If you are not fortunate enough to live with family members, making time to visit them or connect with them via phone or video calls daily is also effective. And, if that is not possible, you can always consider others in your neighbourhood to be like family and be of service to them.

Meals [top]

(investment: 1 hour)
The total time taken to eat a day’s food is about 60 minutes. Whether you do the day’s food intake in 1 sitting (extreme) or 2 (practically ideal) or 3 (sub-optimal) or even more than 3 (dangerous) you will find that it takes about 60 minutes in total. We allocate carved-out time to this in our 24 hours because it is important that when you are eating you are only focused on your meal, perhaps with only light conversation, and not staring at a screen or reading a book, magazine, or newspaper. Do not see eating as “dead time” like people incorrectly and often view sleeping. If you are nourishing your body with high-quality ingredients then processing the food well is important as you are what you absorb – not what you push down your throat.

Exercise [top]

(investment: 30 minutes upper limit)
Exercise is an activity beyond just movement (walking, climbing stairs). Making some time for this approximately 6 days a week is important. What we call exercise does not need to last longer than 30 minutes. It is a time when you are pushing yourself to the limit and doing too much will not benefit you in the longer run. Even the approximately 20 minutes I manage to stay around is enough for superior fitness for you as long as you are a Consistency Conqueror and you know what to do in those 20 minutes. I have come across many excellent endurance athletes who appeared healthy but died early or had cardiac events – they would have been better off with a reduced volume of intense training and more focus on both rest and nutrition. It is sad when the good intention and hard effort to produce a meal are not supported by the right mix of spices.

Service to Others [top]

(investment: 30 minutes)
If your day job is not already filled with service to others, or if you would like to do some more pro bono work in addition, keep it at a level that is sustainable in the long run. I do not care if you ever go to a church or temple – you are more likely to go to any heaven later if you serve others now.

Friends [top]

(investment: 30 minutes)
My day is filled with multiple interactions with friends in person or through calls. If you find that your typical work day is “without friends” then it is critical that you make time to be with those whom you consider to be your friends. You do not need more than 30 minutes of that if it is daily. Do not wait for weekends to make it happen.

Hobbies [top]

(investment: 30 minutes)
I come across so many adults with no hobbies. If you have things on your “wish list of hobbies for when I have more time and money” it is better that you do not use that description as an excuse any longer. Start from today. Start with just 5 minutes and try to get to 30 minutes daily and sustain it for life.

Non-Sleep Rest [top]

(investment: 20 minutes should you need some)
If exercise and sleep are at two ends of a spectrum, then movement and non-sleep rest are in between them. You are (somewhat) resting physically when you are sitting at your computer or study desk, so you need not make additional time for this. When you feel your brain and body both need a turbo-charged segment of rest, it is good to lie down for a short session of NSDR (non-sleep deep rest) or yoga nidra and then get on with the rest of your day.

Nature Connect [top]

(investment: 15 minutes)
If you can do it for longer, that is superb, because there is no real upper safe limit, but no matter where you live, make sure you have at least 15 minutes daily dedicated to connecting with nature. If you are incapacitated and cannot leave your home, sit at a window or balcony and stare at the garden and sky outside. Ideally, a walk through a green space with lots of bushes and trees around you would be perfect, as would a walk by a sea, river, or lake. If you live in a city built on a desert, you can walk under the open skies with sand below.

Faith Practices [top]

(investment: 15 minutes)
If you are living your life well with all the components covered above, you ought not to need additional protocols prescribed by a religious order. If you do feel the need to execute additional protocols e.g., prescribed prayer, I hope you will not need to invest more than 15 minutes in a day for it. If you do, then think about how you could change the quantities of other components of the day instead.

 

COOKING  TIPS

Imagining the Perfect Dish [top]

It shocks me that so many intelligent adults are going about their lives without really thinking about the perfect life they would like to be living. If I do not invest time in articulating my dreams or vision, who is going to do that for me? No one! If you feel life is passing you by, simply sit still and write out a few thoughts about where you would like your life to go. Do not be in a rush to finish an idea for a perfect dish in the first setting. Remember, it is a dish that will be changing for years, the important thing is to be in control of what it tastes like all along the way. If you want a vegan quesadilla, don’t end up with a beef sausage roll!

Identifying Spices Badly Mixed [top]

Having a reasonable idea of an appropriately spiced dish, it is good to become proficient at identifying where someone else’s dish has the mix of spices all wrong. Unless they ask, there is no need to point it out to them, but observing and identifying where things are going wrong in the recipe is a good exercise for yourself – to stay in the habit of keeping your own spice rack in order.

Here are some common examples:

A child glued to screens, no daily time with nature, only occasional playground time, and lots of time in extra-curricular classes.

A teenager, with excellent grades, lots of time studying school material, no daily exercise, random meal times often in their own bedroom.

A religious preacher who has all the verses memorized in his head. Obese from poor eating and sleeping habits and limited physical activity, likely to spend his last few years in physical pain in a nursing home far from his monastery. Not the accidental wisdom of pain-seekers.

A corporate executive in a flashy sports car with an increasing waistline, very little time to eat a proper lunch, is often sleep-deprived and cannot think of making time for prayer unless it is to ask for stock prices to go up.

A dedicated mother obsessed with getting the best of everything money can buy for her child, unaware that the best things in life are free. She is so busy looking after her child that she does not pay sufficient attention to her own needs.

An elderly person who thinks that old age is to be enjoyed by putting one’s feet up and watching endless TV because there are so many others at home anyway doing all the chores and running all the errands.

The Implementation Gap [top]

Once you have figured out what an ideal mix of spices for your stage of life is, you will still need to close the Implementation Gap. It is the elephant in the room that I help people with. When attempting to close the Implementation Gap between theory and practice, it is important to remember that it is not just about work-life balance but about Time Optimized Living.

Ingredients NOT Covered [top]

In the list of spices above, I have not mentioned some things that are essential for humans to flourish. If you want to have all your teeth at the age of 100, you are going to have to invest a nontrivial amount of time in dental hygiene. If you want all of you to thrive, you will ensure you get sun exposure in a pattern like that of your ancestors 200 years ago.

Mindfulness [top]

We should do everything mindfully. From our first movements when our eyes open in bed to the final thoughts as we drift into sleep at night. When you are in a state of flow, you will not notice the passage of time but otherwise, and in general, we must be mindful of how the hours of the day are passing by. We will never get an hour back that was unwisely spent. If you allocate time to meditation as your method for mindfulness, be careful that you are not over-investing. The path to being an awakened soul should be more balanced. You do not need to meditate to evolve into an awakened soul.

Combining Spices [top]

The various components can easily be overlapped with care. You can make your Service to Others to also include some Movement. You can Study with your Family. You can Exercise with Friends. Your Hobbies might involve a Connection with Nature.

The Spices in Your Child’s ROTI [top]

Most parents would be better off by proactively having a mix of spices like that of their young children, rather than living each day reacting to external forces. You might already wish that you had more time for hobbies, play, relaxation, and friends.

The best way to raise your child such that they have a good mix of spices when they are adults later is for them to see that you have that too, today. If they see you play sports with them, study your own material when they are studying theirs, enjoy the music they are making and sit down to 7 pm dinner with the rest of the family – you are all sorted!

Saying NO to Opportunities [top]

Some of us immediately react with “no” and others with “yes” when presented with an opportunity – it is best to do neither but to think of each proposition within the context of what you really want out of life and the tweaks appropriate for your spice rack. You do not have to go to every party. You do not have to invest in every hot business trend or stock tip. You do not have to accept every position of responsibility within social organizations you care about just to have additional bragging rights.

Weakness Bottlenecks [top]

In the end, even if you line up things nicely on your spice rack but have bottlenecks that provide weakness, something will snap. Smoking kills, alcohol is a group-1 carcinogen, eating tuna increases your likelihood of getting Alzheimer’s, sleeping 8 hours but while mouth-breathing is still going to increase the likelihood of erectile dysfunction and so on…

You must put in the spices carefully, but then don’t go and pee in that pot!

Shocks and the Dichotomy of Control [top]

The universe has a habit of providing shocks to your experience of life. The practical principle to bear in mind is what the Stoic masters called the Dichotomy of Control – identify and focus on what you can control. You cannot change the weather, but you can still go out for that run. You cannot make the traffic jam disappear but you can take a deep breath and switch from the negative news on the radio to some soothing music.

When on Holiday [top]

If you live your life well, the spices nicely mixed, you might notice that:

• When asked, you do not feel like you need a holiday
• When you do agree to go on holiday, you experience the confirmation that you prefer to have the same mix of spices you had when not away on holiday

On the other hand, if a holiday away is exactly what you felt you needed, it gives you an opportunity to think about how you ought to tweak the spices in your dish called Life. When back home, make those tweaks real. Perhaps your entire life can be designed to feel like one long vacation.

Maintenance Mode [top]

There are times in your life when you cannot give something the complete time investment it deserves. Rather than be binary and “drop it completely” like some often do, simply go into maintenance mode with it.

Tracking [top]

You do not have to be obsessive about the details, but if you keep an approximate track of the amount of time you invest in each of the things that interest you, or in the things you want to remove from your spice rack, you will be able to make faster progress towards an ideal path.

Recently a working mother I mentor improved her relationship with her young daughters by simply keeping a daily numerical record of how much time she dedicated solely to each of them. You too will improve only that which you change, and you will change what you do more effectively if you know what you have been doing so far.

 

FINALLY

Parting Message [top]

You cannot go back in time and repeat your life, so when you come to the end of the meal, you will want to look back at what you have consumed, your enjoyment of preparing it and eating it, and how it has left you feeling satisfied at the end of it.

They say that “successful people have time for everything.” The truth is that successful people do not manufacture time – they just use it wisely.

If everything you do is consistent with your core beliefs and desires, then a long and healthy life of joy is pretty much guaranteed to be yours. If you want to be guided in detail, you know how to reach me, and if you found this useful, please do share it with others.

Puru

Dr Purnendu Nath spends his waking hours focusing on helping individuals and organizations reach their goals, to make the world a better place. He speaks, writes and advises on topics such as finance, investment management, discipline, education, self-improvement, exercise, nutrition, health and fitness, leadership and parenting.