I am an IAS officer. I have studied from IIT and IIM. I have struggled to achieve all this. But nothing could prepare me for the challenges of raising my 2 little daughters.

A thread penning my thoughts as a parent of daughters on this women's day My elder daughter is 8. Already the world tries to shut her tiny voice, when she differs with them. We can’t let them dim their light. Teach her to be respectful but firm. Tell her, her voice matters, even when its shaky

The last post of 2024: Breaking Free from Procrastination!

Procrastination isn’t laziness.
It’s often fear, overwhelm, or lack of clarity.

As we wrap up 2024, let’s step into 2025 with clarity, focus, and action! Step 1: Identify Your Procrastination Type
Which one are you?

The Perfectionist - Delays tasks fearing they won’t be perfect.
The Overthinker - Overanalyzes and gets stuck in planning.
The Avoider - Fears failure and avoids discomfort.
The Busy Bee - Stays “busy” but avoids the most important tasks.
Knowing your type is the first step to change.

Memorization! Most difficult aspect of student life for me. I wish the education system changes so as to require less memorization.

But till then I'll give you useful tips for that.

A thread on memorization based on scientific evidence:

PS:Research togethered with @neuracap @neuracap There are 6 techniques:

1. Revision at specific intervals
2. Association /Mnemonics
3. Loci technique
4. Chunking
5. Images/Visuals
6. Emotional response

We must cut out toxic people from our lives, if we want to live a happy life.

- Who are toxic people?
- Why is it so difficult to cut them out?
- What to do about it?

Having dealt with many, a thread on learnings 🧵 Toxic people can be classified into 5 types:

1. Judge: You always feel judged in their presence. You can never live up to their standards no matter what you do. They make you feel non-valued

2. Critic: They always poke holes in your actions and make you feel inadequate

Whats the most important relation in your life?

Think about your answer and see in pictures what you actually do with your time. We must contemplate on it.

A thread: Family/parents: Substantially declines past the age of 20.

Take-away: They gave you the roots and the wings to fly. But you fly away from them after 20. Dont let physical distance become distanced hearts. Especially in their old age, be the ground which gives them stability

10 habits and mindsets that if practiced can transform your life

A 🧵 👉 Practice gratitude
Focus on the things that you are thankful for, rather than the things that are lacking in your life. Gratitude is the highest frequency, the more you practice it, the more universe gives its abundance to you.

Why do we think, feel, and act the way we do.

A long thread from the ideas of investing great Charlie Munger! Investing has amazing parallels in life decision making!

Don't forget to bookmark/RT this! 1. Reward/Punishment Superresponse Tendency:

We are wired to strongly react to incentives and disincentives. Think about how bonuses motivate us at work or how the fear of a traffic challan slows us down. It's a basic part of human nature, guiding much of what we do.

Making the right decision at the right time is critical to success in life.

Here are 4 decision models used by 4 stalwarts - Jeff Bezos, Charlie Munger, Elon Musk and former US president Eisenhower.

A thread 🧵 1. Reversibility - Used by Jeff Bezos

Categorizes decisions based on whether they are reversible or irreversible

👉 Reversible - 2 way door: Can go back from decision with less/no cost
👉 Irreversible - 1 way door: If enter once, can't exit (Or the cost is very high)

Transform your life by developing the right mindset - this thread is for you if you tend to overthink.

Learn:
- Self-compassion mindset
- Regret minimization mindset
- Process mindset
- Carefree mindset
- Delivery mindset

A 🧵 Overthinking is extremely debilitating. It

-Causes anxiety & action paralysis
-You end up wasting hours and days obsessing
-Leads to stress and in extreme cases depression
-Makes you achieve way less than your capability
2/n

Bhagavad Gita tells us to focus on the 'Action but not the Result'.

Everyone knows the saying, but do not implement it. If implemented properly, this can be life transforming!

Tips on how to implement this sutra in practice. A 🧵 👉 Why focusing on only the result is not useful?

Everyone has the same result in mind. The differentiator between people who achieve it and those who don't, is the 'process'

Ever wondered why we choose instant gratification over long-term rewards?

Read on to understand how our decision-making is impacted! People tend to choose smaller rewards available immediately over larger rewards that come later. This is coz we "discount" the value of future rewards higher, making them less attractive.

This cognitive bias is known as hyperbolic discounting in behavioural economics!

I was a trader in London before becoming an IAS officer. More than technical or fundamental knowledge, successful trading needs bias free or error free judgement.

Some common biases leading to bad decision making and ways to overcome them.
A thread🧵 👉 Confirmation bias:

This is the tendency to seek out information that confirms our existing beliefs and opinions, and to ignore or dismiss information that contradicts them. If we feel X stock will go up, we only look at positive factors and ignore the negatives

✍️ Quotes by history's most influential figures on raising children.

I hope you find them as insightful as I did.

A must-read thread for parents🧵 "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men."
- Frederick Douglass

Many people have asked me how to prepare for UPSC Civil Services Exam along with job. Here are my tips on it:

A thread 🧵 Finding time to study

Wake up at 5 AM. This will be most fruitful. You may have studied late at night in your student days, but with job, your mind will be too tired to assimilate heavy exam stuff.

- 4-5 hours every day (5am-8am minimum)
- Atleast 12 hours on Sat & Sun

📄 Whether you're just starting out or eyeing that next big career leap, your resume is your story. Learn to tell it brilliantly!

🔍 Sharing comprehensive tips from my experience with practical & adaptable device for all. (along with my CV, chatGPT prompt etc)

A thread 🧵: What to write in the CV

4-5 relevant sections:
-Resume Summary (More on this later)
-Work-Ex
-Education
-Internships
-Achievements
-Projects
-Extra-Curriculars
-Anything else that makes you stand out

Before becoming an IAS officer, I worked in the corporate sector. From my experience, 10 things you should do, to excel and stand out at your workplace.

A thread🧵 Be sincere:

This is an obvious thing to say but cannot be overstressed. Be very sincere about your work. Don't have a lackadaisical approach towards it. Meet deadlines, be punctual & professional.

2/n

Bhagavad Gita tells us to focus on the 'Action but not the Result'.

Everyone knows the saying, but do not implement it. If implemented properly, this can be life transforming!

Tips on how to implement this sutra in practice. A 🧵 👉 Why focusing on only the result is not useful?

Everyone has the same result in mind. The differentiator between people who achieve it and those who don't, is the 'process'

10 habits and mindsets that if practiced can transform your life

A 🧵 👉 Practice gratitude
Focus on the things that you are thankful for, rather than the things that are lacking in your life. Gratitude is the highest frequency, the more you practice it, the more universe gives its abundance to you.

I am an IAS officer and a mother of 2 daughters. But apart from these 2 responsibilities, I write on twitter, have published newspaper articles, follow world economics, code for ML etc.

10 amazing productivity enhancement tools I use: 1. Print Friendly - The Chrome extension that blew my mind away.

👉 Optimizes webpages to save in pdf format
👉 Removes Junk
👉 Editable preview so you can delete what you don't need

If you don't thank me for this, I will be surprised!!

As an IAS officer, I have seen the best and the worst of society. Here are 10 things I want to tell growing up children and young adults.

A 🧵
Please retweet for wider reach Believe in yourself

Believe in yourself even when no one believes in you. Especially at that time believe in yourself. Don't let other people define what you can or cannot do

Most people find saying NO extremely difficult. As an IAS officer, I have had to learn this more than most people.

My tips on the 'Art of saying no'

A thread 🧵 Saying NO is difficult due to:

👉Fear of dissappointing others & need to be likeable
👉Fear of upsetting people & associated stress
👉Fear of conflict/avoiding confrontation
👉Obligation like in family situation
👉Lack of assertiveness: We feel it makes us look rude