The year 2020 has finally come to an end. What a year. In this blog, I want to share what I did, what I learned, what I have transformed into, and what I plan to do in 2021.

The year started well, with a bunch of well-paying clients. ANTSAND agency was taking off. By March when covid-19 started to take a hit, things started to slow down. It was during this time I focused all my attention on developing the core ANTSAND software. The goal was to make every new client website be built using the ANTSAND platform. From months March to October, I spent most of my day working on developing ANTSAND. I think overall it was a good use of my time.

In the year, I also did apply twice to Y-combinator. Once in March and the other in September. Both times I was rejected. One of the main reasons has got to do with a lack of growth. Something I will be focusing on shortly.

From April to mid-May, I started to do Tacfit 26. A home gym video-based fitness program. I did progress relatively well but abruptly stopped. Primarily the reason being the startup time to do the exercise was a bit too much. Gather all the equipment and organize all the videos for the day as every day the program asked for different workout routines. So one has to manually select the videos. There was no follow-along video. This made it easy to give up. Too much friction. Preparation time must not take too much time. Lesson learned.

In November, I once again got back to fitness. This time did a similar program but one which had a follow-along video. Since November 1st till date, I have been working out. I will want to maintain this momentum for the next year.

This year I had a couple of health scares. One I had a small cyst in my groin area. Which I thought was a tumor. Another health scare was my constipation. This occurred during the last week of November. It still seems to be there but overall I have been recovering. This too feels like something is obstructing my stool from passing smoothly. Which all results in too much bloating and burping. Making me feel very uncomfortable. I will need to consult with a gastrologist. But overall, I have been recovering fairly well.

After these two fiascos, I am focused on taking very good care of my health. Both in terms of fitness and diet. One thing I have realized, I want to make an impact before I die. Hence everything I do from now on is to make great products that people want. This is one way where I will be satisfied with my life.

Since November, I have been waking up at 5 am. This is a good habit. It allows me to get a lot of work done. Early morning my focus is very high. I also have a lot more cognitive capacity. Meaning, I can do more sophisticated work better. Such as math, or programming complex algorithms. The early morning routine will be carried forward to the new year.

One thing I need to do is optimize my time better. After having these constipation issues, I will now revolve my life around my diet and exercise. Which is to say, I will eat my breakfast, lunch, and dinner at fixed times. Do my exercise daily around the same time. Then all my other activities must revolve around those times. This is a shift I will be making in the new year. Instead of optimizing how long I need to work, I will be optimizing for how long I can focus during my work period. How much output can I get from one work session? One work session is 4 hours. By staying hydrated, eating on time, exercising regularly, I believe my body will be better suited to concentrate for long hours.

This has been a great habit of change. I am not much of a social media guy, but Youtube can take a lot of my time. You watch a video after which Youtube recommends another and another, and you end up spending a considerable amount of time on just Youtube. This is a total time waster. Not to mention, it also drains you from your cognitive capacity. As a result, you end up being less focused, more distracted, and produce less output. I have blocked Youtube on my desktop. This way I cannot go on Youtube. I can only watch videos if it is embedded on a website. This allows me to only watch that one video.

Another good habit I have started this year is daily journaling on ShivasNotes. I love it. It helps me recap my day and focus on how I can improve my next day. It does help to clear my thoughts. It is also a great way to end the day. I will be continuing more in the new year. I will also write a blog once a month or when I feel it is necessary. But daily journaling will continue.

One of the biggest highlights of this year is getting into Robotics. I have always wanted to focus and get this part of my life sorted out. The maker in me. During November I spent a considerable amount of time getting used to embedded systems and getting the drone to fly. I have got it working. In New Years', I will want to sell it to customers. This is what I will be aggressively working on. For this to work, I need to have a very structured routine, take care of my health and fitness, and get a lot out of my work sessions. All of this for me to start creating compelling robotic products.

My cooking has gotten a lot better. I will continue to cook regularly. I have cultivated a lot of good habits this year. Cooking regularly has been one of them. In the new years, I will want to make more soups, more salads, and eat more chicken and fish. I want to bulk up and look fit. Eating healthy will be important.

One way to stay disciplined with my cooking is to meal prep. Meal prep my breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This year I have not been great with my meal timing. Moving forward, I will need to eat at the same time every day. Routine is important.

One thing I have created this year is my "Do not break the chain rule" app. I have recording my Tacfit programs, running, journaling, and working on drones. It looks something like this. In the new year, I will add to it meal prep, running, and focused hours.

This year I have also started doing woodworking work as my hobby. Including gardening. It is a fun hobby that can be done at my leisure. Once every two weeks or so. You learn a lot from it. Also, it gives me ideas for my future projects/companies I will want to start.

One thing I have been lazy about is slacking. I do not want to slack in the cooking department. It is very easy to order food. My goal will be to be as diligent when it comes to cooking. Plan everything the night before, cook dinner during lunchtime or around 4. The goal is to cook as much as I can.

Towards the last week in 2020, I started to run. This is mostly due to my constipation problem. My stamina in general is not too bad. This is probably because of my conditioning from Tacfit. I will want to run a lot more in the new year. Since Covid started I have not cycled. I will want to get back to cycling too. Perhaps do the grand Fonda in 2022? I don't know. But running cycling and swimming are just good cardio exercises.

One thing I have noticed about myself is that I get easily distracted. I work on something for a few minutes and then I want to open Youtube, read some random websites, play on my phone, or play a game. This will need to stop. Distractions, if I count the number of hours wasted it would easily sum up to a month wasted. I might be exaggerating but there is a lot of truth to it. I need to stop distracting myself.

This year I have not done any meditation/ breathing work. I may want to get back to it. It allows me to be calmer, focused, and can help me be less distracted. Will need to try it.

So moving forward here is what we have:

1. I am optimizing my life for higher focus and higher energy. I want to get more output in a given period.
2. Health and fitness will take a higher priority. The healthier I am the better I feel, the more work I can get done.
3. ANTSHIV Drones will be the focus of next year. Everything I do will be optimized to make the drone sell. Everything!
4. Proper meal planning and disciplined eating time will be the focus of the day.
5. Periodic blogging, regular journaling, and optimizing ANTSAND to improve the blogging experience will be the 2nd priority
6. Will want to run 10K in less than 50mins. Hopefully by mid-June.
7. Gain weight and reach 180 pounds by mid-June.
8. Read for atleast half hour daily.

In this blog, I do not talk much about my relationships. I like to keep it private. But next year I will be getting married. So this will be an important life milestone.