Hi! I’m Kashyap Thimmaraju
I believe that we should all have the time and energy for the things that matter most to us. For me that’s eating healthy and exercising regularly to feel strong and confident, reading books that capture my imagination, being outdoors amidst pine-scented trails and swimming in cool waters, playing the fool with my kids, drawing out the future and immersing myself in new cultural experiences.
But you know what, there was a time when I wasn’t doing all of that. I felt like I had to work a lot and struggled to balance my life. I turned that around by dissecting academic publications, perusing dozens of books and breaking down podcast episodes to extract the tools, techniques and habits to transform my productivity and well-being.
I view it as my duty to share the best of what I’ve researched, learned and experimented with to help you optimize your productivity and well-being. I want you to step up your game in a fraction of the time and energy it took me. You don’t have to make the mistakes I made.
What I believe
Life is a balancing act. There are phases in life where things seem to be in balance but then something unexpected occurs and throws it off. Having the right mindset, systems, tools and habits are what we need to balance ourselves.
Life is not only about work. Friends, family, health and personal interests are just as important. So being productive and having a sense of well-being means taking care of those life aspects too.
Science & research. Proofs, evidence, experimentation, repeatability and objectivity lend themselves to being effective. That’s why most of my content is grounded in science and research.
The choices we make define who we are. To be consistently productive and be satisfied with life requires us to have good habits and break bad ones. One of the most powerful ways to do this is to forge our identity into the person we wish to be come.
Being productive is even more important when you have a family. Raising kids or taking care of a loved one is supportive and (very) demanding. It takes away a lot of time and energy. That’s why we need to have effective systems and good habits to get things done with limited resources.
Self-discipline. Without the inner voice telling me to hold back or take the higher ground, I am bound to fail in the long term. It’s a habit that can be cultivated.
Being in the now. If I’m in a conversation with someone, I’m listening. When I work on something, I’m paying attention to the task at hand. It’s hard and I do get distracted. But I’m always trying to be present in the moment.
Short Bio
- I was born in San Jose, California, USA in 1986.
- In 1992 my family packed up and moved back to Bangalore, India which is where I mostly grew up.
- As a kid I played a lot of sports: basketball, TT and cricket were my favourite. I was fascinated by science and tinkered a lot with computers.
- I got my bachelors in IT in 2008 and started my first R&D job right after graduating.
- I moved to the Silicon Valley in 2010 to work another R&D job till 2012.
- I met the love of my life in 2012 in Berlin while travelling through Germany, Poland, Netherlands and Czech Republic.
- I moved back to Bangalore, India in 2012 to practice a historical photographic process called “Wet Plate Collodion photography”. Using the process we produced a documentary: Lapses in Time.
- In 2013, I moved to Davis, California to get my Masters in Computer Science and graduated in 2015.
- I moved to Berlin, Germany in 2015 to be with my partner and start my PhD at TU Berlin.
- In 2019, I became a father.
- I got my PhD at TU Berlin in 2020 and continued as a postdoctoral researcher at HU Berlin till 2021.
- I founded my online business in 2022.
- In 2022, I became a father again.
- Since 2023, I’m a certified High Flow Coach by the Flow Research Collective (FRC).