“If you want results, give the new, hard task to the busiest person on the team.” This is an intriguing thought that has stuck with me for a very long time, especially since it sounds so counterintuitive.

If you need to get something important done, why would you give it to somebody who is already very busy? Wouldn’t it be better to instead give it to a person who has a lot less on their plate?

Interestingly, over time, I’ve often seen this play out in action. I think this is so because some of the “busiest” people actually have…

I have been using Google Photos for the last five years mainly because of the free storage and AI search capabilities. It is a tool I have relied on to store my family’s most precious memories and share important moments with friends, so when I received an email from Google on November 11, 2020, announcing that the free run will end on June 1, 2021, I was sorely disappointed.

Photos had become the home for what I wanted to remember and preserve. …

On Raising Teenagers

Raising children is complicated. There are no universal principles like Newton’s laws of motion that work for action and reaction in relationships. One child may respond positively to something while another may not.

I am not a great parent (as my children will happily and readily confirm), and here are a few thoughts that over the years have helped me “damage” my kids. Better late than never!

#1 Drown your Message in Self-Created Noise

Keep reminding your child of what you have already said to them N number of times. Let your meaningful message get lost in your self-created noise. Drown them in, “I…

The four pillars of a happy attitude.

Happiness is an attitude. It is up to you to either nurture your happy thought process and make it dominant or let the unhappy part of you take over your life.

It is easy to train our thought process to follow four pillars that create and sustain joy.

Gratefulness

For me, the most important difference between being happy and unhappy depends on the extent to which I think about and am grateful for what I already have. Once the base state of mind is positive it is much easier to deal with worries…

The art of intentional thinking

Our world is in our minds.

And, we have the power to make it either a beautiful place or a miserable place.

When we are having a rough day, it’s important to remember that, some things are going to make us sad or upset, but how long we dwell on them and how much we let them get to us depends, many times, on us.

Whatever we talk to ourselves about, becomes our narrative.

The thoughts that bring us down grow like snowballs. The longer we roll them in misery the bigger they get. Eventually…

While working with parents of middle school children I realized that most parents wanted their children to be self-driven and goal-oriented. However, their parenting styles commonly fell into two extremes: some went into an overdrive of authority, while others were laissez-faire. Parents often found it hard to straddle the fine line between instilling structure and inculcating independence.

Many times we perpetuate what we learned from our parents. My parents were very function-oriented. …

Check for intent and attitude

My problem is that I talk a lot and I love connecting and reconnecting with people. I am also guilty of indulging myself in long, meandering phone conversations. So much so that I have considered creating an auto cut phone app like a pre-set timer to keep me in check.

Realizing, that I get easily drawn into conversations at home, one day I went to a local coffee shop to get some work done. I wanted to avoid distractions by being amid strangers.

At the coffee shop, I needed the wifi password and I figured the quickest way would be…

When remote schooling first began, I was upbeat.

As an Assistant Principal in a New York City middle school, I thought my only challenge would be to become an expert in new technologies and workflows.

I just had to search for the latest tools available for internet instruction and offer teachers proper learning opportunities. “I can do that!” I figured.

So, whenever I heard of a new EdTech tool, I jumped to learn it myself and introduce it to others. As teachers started getting used to the intricacies of our main platform, Google Classroom, I rushed ahead to show them…