how to be an overachiever (a simple guide)
So,
You want be an overachiever ? Here is your simple guide to it. But first
Who am I ? Am I even qualified to tell you that ?
First these are all my views and things that have worked for me in the past. So who am I ? My name is Animish A. Sharma, I am 2nd year undergraduate researcher at IIIT - Hyderabad. What makes me unique ? Well the answer is simple, I do not know but I have always been labeled as an overachiever by almost everyone close to me, if you want to talk about my achievements here are they:-
I am a researcher at Center for Security, Theory and Algorithms (CSTAR) and writing a paper about solving the 3-SAT CNF (a million dollar problem) and another paper on end to end speech to speech offline translation making it affordable for all. I am the winner of CBSE National Computer Science Exhibition 2023. I am RMO and INOI selected as well. As for my non - academic achievements, I am nationals in cricket, also Ranji Selected Wk-Bat. I am SGFI in basketball and on the side I also guitar for a band. Without any coaching or extra studies, I had around 17k rank in JEE mains and 4.5k in JEE Advance in the same year as my CBSE Comp. Sci. and Basketball SGFI You can find more about me here
Enough of that, so here is the guide;
So I am more of an algorithms guy so I will explain in steps
1. Avoiding doom scrolling
Please realise you have 24 hours in your hands and the doom scrolling won't take you anywhere. It is hard to implement but some things that I do to prevent doom scrolling is that I used to put app timers but nowadays whenever I feel like I am doom scrolling, I just start writing this blog. What can you do here ? you can put app timers if that helps, whenever you feel like doom scrolling pick up a hobby and start doing it like for me it was guitar.
2. Filling the void.
So now that your main time eating task is not there you will have a big void, now how to fill that ? Well it is simple as that, do what you love. Whatever you feel like, it can be studying reading a book, pick up a new hobby, journal etc. etc.
3. Make a day routine.
Now I am not saying to make a time table because you are definitely not going to follow that. Instead make a day routine. Now what is a day routine ? So pick up a few tasks like for me it is I need to study 2 hours, I need to go to the basketball practice (2 hours), I need to learn guitar at least 1 hour a day, I need to work on my project / research for 2 hours. I need to work on my startup for 1 hour. Do not decide the time but you need to do it in the day, whenever you want to, whenever you can, whenever you feel like it. If I add it all up with my classes, so I have approx. 4 hours of classes daily, 2 + 2 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 4 = 12 hours and you still have 12 hours left, in which you can sleep probably 8 hours a day and 4 hours for whatever you want to do. Do you see how much time you have ?!
4. Change your mentality.
Now, before I explain this I want to tell you about basketball playoffs format. So whichever team clutches to playoffs, they usually compete for a 7-game series. For a team to win, they need to win the 4 games, it can be any 4, does not matter.
Gentleman Sweep:- When a team wins 4 games while only losing 1 game. know more here
Now I want you to imagine your week as a 7-day playoff series in which you have to win only 4 games. So usually, Mon and Tue are loss and Sat and Sun is a win. Now you have to win 2 games in 3 days, whether it be Wed, Thr or Thr, Fri or anything I dont care. But as the time progresses I want you to have at least 30 gentleman sweep in a year.
5. Most difficult part.
If this is so easy then why cant people do it ? Simple as that, They lack one thing, one very basic thing called consistency. Now here is the funny part about consistency, it is easy to promise and hardest thing to perform. Consistency is built upon discipline which to be very honest is not much left in this world. How to build consistency ? Simple, do what you love and you will find yourself like a workaholic not being tired a single minute. And as most as consistency, do need to do what you love or else it all will feel like hell to you.
So here is the algorithm, I will give you a test run of this.
Wake up (10 AM) -> Classes (2 PM) -> Study (4 PM) -> Sleep (6:30PM) -> Basketball Practice (8:30PM) -> Shower and Rest -> Research (11:30PM) -> Startup (12:30AM) -> Chill -> Guitar (2:30AM) -> Spend time with people and read a book -> Sleep (4:30AM) -> Repeat
What I have shown you is my schedule of the day and yes it can be a little disrupted here and there but usually it stays the same. You can do it for yourself, just add in your things and you are good to go.
Here was your simple guide to overachievement, if you have any questions do let me know, you can mail me at this or animish.sharma@students.iiit.ac.in.
Best Regards,
AS