The 4 most important hours of your day

For work and outside of work

Raw and Real Conversation

Okay let’s get straight to the point.

The four hours that make a difference of worlds and a world of difference in your day are: 4-6.

4-6 am and 4-6 pm.

Here’s why 4-6 am matters:

• The vibes in the environment are quiet.

• You have uninterrupted time to think.

• As a matter of fact, you don’t need to “think”, life happens for you automatically during those hours.

• The amritvela, or the time that is the most pious to meditate and connect with God, is from 4-5 am.

• It is the best time to plan your day.

• Get your workout done and be done for the day.

• Whatever you study (Not just formal education but books too. I usually read spiritual wisdom during this time. It percolates into your subconscious.)

• You set your day in motion that it is impossible to be deluded by the tiny ifs and buts that the rest of the day might bring.

Here’s why 4-6 pm matters:

• How you handle your tasks at the end of work day determines your dinner time.

• Your dinner time determines your fitness levels, and how obese you will not become if you have dinner on time.

• This cycle then determines your night schedule (going for a walk, staring at the moon (I hope you do that), lounging on your couch with feet on an ottoman reading a book, all the things that seem unproductive but are necessary for our souls to thrive).

• Your night schedule determines your sleeping time, which in turn affects your waking up time.

• What you eat during this time (as pre-dinner snack) affects your health more than anything else. (Read 12-Week Fitness Project by Rujuta Diwekar or definitely watch this video to understand why)

• When you walk around a bit during this time, eat a banana or a sandwich or leftover roti and ghee from lunch (as Rujuta suggests), you all of a sudden gain energy for the rest of the day.

• You close open loops (which ideally you should do before 3 pm imo).

• You decide what is to be done tomorrow.

• You mentally prepare yourself to be detached from action and go back in reflection and chilling around mode (by that I mean walks and reading, I don’t have TV, brother).

• You are allowing your mind to wander, which is where practically all possibilities exist.

The question then, is:

How to make the best use of these 4 hours of the day?

What if you are doing something else during these 4 hours of the day?

Here’s how I would answer them:

• Ever since Robin Sharma has written the book the 5 AM Club, the world has understood the meaning of rising early. And they do so, too. However, the real magic happens at 4 am. It is like once you start driving a Mercedes every day, you won’t be able to enjoy Kia much. Similarly, the only way to experience the magic of 4 am is to try to wake up and experience it.

• I have done so during my most critical jobs, travels, hotels, etc. To know that you do not have “unlimited hours to extend your work till anytime late at night” is how you get things done.

• A lot of the people think “what in the whole wide world should I do once I wake up at 4 am?” Bro, you meditate. You sit and talk to God. Like you would talk to a friend. Or maybe you write him a letter. You workout. You make time to read (James Clear and Robin Sharma YouTube videos or Audible audiobooks are my absolute favourite thing in the mornings.) Basically, you prepare like a warrior before you go out into the warfield of life that spares no one walking on it.

• What you do need to have is the wisdom, to plan your days so that you sleep early, so you wake up early, so that you plan your day early, so that you retire from work on time, and then you go to bad. Most people would rather jump off the cliff than plan their days. What I have observed is, that when I plan (and execute) is when I am truly free.

• I also know a lot of us are in circumstances or jobs that do not allow us to do that. But I have been in jobs too that made me travel a lot. For the first 5 years, it was fine. Then I made a thought-through attempt to have a job that made me stay at home. It did pay me a little less salary for the first year or so, but who cares if it takes care of the rest of your life in exponential ways? But during those travels too, I never gave up on my early meditation and reading. If you don’t like your circumstances, change them. If you can’t change them, change what you do with them. Positivity is the mother of possibility. But positivity has to begin in your own mind before you can see the possibility in front of your eyes.

I know most of people reading this are not going to do all I suggested. That’s fine too. But for the very few that go on to change their lives, will finally realise the power of 4-6.

The Pareto principle says 20% of your actions impact 80% of your results.

Might I add, these 4 hours (16.67% hours) impact the rest 20 hours (83.33% hours) of your day.

You can choose to dance with these, or dance to the tune of ambiguous life and decide you have to role to play here.

We always have a choice, I believe. Even when we think we don’t have any.

Also, I never write through ChatGPT but I gave today’s essay to ChatGPT and asked it to create a picture for me. Here is what it gave me, and it seems pretty slick:

2 Raw One Liners from me:

• When in doubt, the answer is a nap.

• Good writers create good fame. Good fame creates less focus. Less focus creates more failures. More failures create good writers.

3 (for) Real Great lines that I read, and you should too:

1. No is a decision. Yes is a responsibility. (James Clear in Ryan Holiday podcast)

2. Every problem of focus can be solved 1 of 2 ways:

   a. Uninterrupted work for 2 hours

   b. Managing your environment

   Most people do neither.
   (The Corporate Life Handbook Ebook, by Nishtha Gehija)

3. What are you excessively curious about — curious to a degree that would bore most other people? That's what you're looking for. (Paul Graham, how to do great work)

That is it, my friend.

I hope you found it valuable.

(Btw, today was the 99th edition of the newsletter, just in case :))

Anyway, I’ll see you next week, with the 100th edition.

Stay raw, stay real, and never stop reading

Nishtha Gehija

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Instant access ebooks for your reading, and spend some raw and real time with yourself (you deserve that, don’t you?):

The Corporate Life Handbook: The book everyone working a corporate job needs :)
The Career Changing Guide: My bestseller so far :)
How to Deal with Heartbreak: Because, life happens :(
Every Writer Needs to Read this: I wish I had this one, when I was starting out as a writer

This is What You are Looking for (Paperback): Small Life Lessons for a Happier Life