The five buckets of life, time management and discipline
Hey friends! It's Yash! Welcome back.
Last year, I stopped sending my newsletter. I disappeared.
I had started working, and I was so consumed by it. I felt like there were so many new things happening in my life, and I couldn't find the time to upkeep any of my side projects, my website—anything and everything drifted away.
And honestly, I missed it a lot.
Recently, I was talking to a friend, and we were discussing how we felt we aren't doing our best, despite everything we were doing that indicates otherwise. We felt like we are not in the 'Zone' we used to be. Even though both of us are doing super great at our work, we had this feeling that we are not as ambitious as we used to be personally.
I realized the reason I was feeling that is because I almost stopped learning for my own development. I stopped reading books as much, consuming content that made me think—because all of my time went into work. While I was making strides with the company I was working with, personally, I wasn't growing as a person. Fast forward one year later, this became a big issue. I started feeling unmotivated to do anything apart from work and had this deep feeling of unfulfillment.
But I'm getting out of it.
And thanks to the reflection I did with my friend, things started seeming a tad bit clearer.
To upkeep the momentum, I'm continuing with my newsletter!
Every week, I'm going to share a Digest where I chat about what's been on my mind lately. I'll be sharing some cool reflections and things I've learned along the way. Additionally, I will also drop my favorite articles, videos, and podcasts I came across that week.
Besides that, sometimes I will drop my notes on the books I've read or long-form writing about things like finance, productivity, and other awesome stuff.
Okay, so let's get on with today's newsletter!
Five Buckets Of Life
Recently, I have been reading "The Diary of a CEO" by Steven Bartlett. I came to know Steven through Ali Abdaal. Steven is an entrepreneur and the host of the famous podcast, "Diary of a CEO," where he interviews experts from different fields. In his book, he mentions the idea of the Five Buckets of Life. These Five Buckets are five areas of your life that need to be taken care of. The fullness of these buckets plays a huge role in determining your professional potential. Steven mentions that the five buckets are:
- What you know (your knowledge)
- What you can do (your skill)
- Who you know (your network)
- What you have (your resources)
- What the world thinks of you (your reputation)
This might sound very normal, but these five areas of our lives are the ones that rule the rest of our professional trajectory. Let me explain how they are all interconnected.
We usually start our professional life by acquiring knowledge through school, university, etc. When this knowledge is applied, we call it a skill. A skill is knowledge put into action. When you have knowledge and skills, you become professionally valuable to others, and your network grows. Consequently, when you have knowledge, skills, and a network, your access to resources expands. And once you have knowledge, skills, a valuable network, and resources, you will undoubtedly earn a reputation.
These five buckets are interconnected—filling one helps to fill another—and they are generally filled in order from the first to last. It's clear that an investment in the first bucket (knowledge) is the highest-yielding investment you can make because when that knowledge is applied (skill), it inevitably cascades to fill your remaining buckets.
But many people fail to understand this. The mistake we often make, consciously or unconsciously, is that we chase the later buckets without filling the former ones. We try to acquire a job title, resources, network, status, or reputation without putting the work into building our knowledge and skills, which are undoubtedly the most important. This temptation leads to building our career on weaker foundations, which will ultimately catch up to you.
If you truly understand this, you'll understand that a job that pays you slightly more cash (resources) but gives you far less knowledge and fewer skills is a lower-paying job.
When deciding which path to take in life, which job to accept, or where to invest your spare time, remember that knowledge, when applied (skill), is power. Prioritize filling those first two buckets, and your foundations will have the long-term sustainability you need to prevail, regardless of how life's tectonic plates move and shake beneath you. You won't lose your skills.
Time Management & Discipline
For a long time, I have been a huge fan of all the tips and tricks in the world to boost productivity (and to no surprise, I still am). But despite all of that, I found myself in a helpless situation where I was still not getting things done, and no matter how many videos I watched and articles I read, none of them made a difference. But recently, I realized why they didn't: it's because I lacked discipline.
There are unlimited numbers of productivity hacks and loads of tips and tricks, yet people still struggle with getting things done. The truth is, any of them should work if we are disciplined enough.
It's important for us to realize that we could choose to do everything in a world where time was infinite, but that is not the world we live in. We have a finite amount of time, and it's scarce. When we look at each day, we only have sixteen hours after spending eight of them asleep. So if we don't want to have a life where we end up thinking it wasn't fun and fulfilling at all, we need to be disciplined. No amount of hacks and escapism can make up for that.
Favourite things last week
Book - The Dairy Of a CEO
I have been reading "Diary of a CEO," and it has been such an amazing read so far. The book shares timeless principles and laws that would not only help in business but also make a difference in one's entire life. Some of the principles Steven shares seem so obvious but are overlooked by most people. Once I finish reading, I will share my notes from the book with you all. It's definitely a great read.
Podcast - WTF if the Next Generation Thinking?
This is one of the most unique podcast shows you would find on the internet. It is hosted by Nikhil Kamath, who is one of the youngest billionaires in India. He is the Co-Founder of Zerodha, a digital stock broking platform which has been one of India's biggest fintech products. This podcast stands apart because it's not one of those interview podcasts, but a documentary of smart people getting together and discussing cool topics. In this particular episode, Nikhil brought together smart minds from vastly different industries who have made it big at a young age of under 30. They discuss Gen-Z, their spending habits, their behaviors, priorities, and overall, what they are thinking. I am an absolute fan of Nikhil, his work, and his contributions to society with his ventures.
Until next week,
Yash xx
