My last long-running weekly newsletter was named The Friday Newsletter (TFN). On February 7th, 2025 I sunset it to focus on growing my firm.

You can check out the full newsletter archive at the bottom of this page.

And what about writing?

I shifted to publishing Sisyphus Notes. Unlike The Friday Newsletter, these notes do not follow any weekly or monthly goals.



TFN Archive

The full archive of all letters sent under The Friday Newsletter.

đŸȘœ(Part-2/2) Increasing the surface area of luck

I love science. I’m sure you’d have noticed that. So, whether you love science, you have to listen to this incredible thing. Our digestive organ–small intestine is 3-5 meters long, with a diameter of a mere 2-3 cm. That’s like a normal PVC water pipe in our home. That’s not...

TFN#80: đŸȘœ(Part-1/2) Why focusing on upskilling may be dangerous to your career?

Reader, don’t get me wrong. I’m a believer and practitioner of life-long learning. In this two-part letter, I’m talking about “upskilling”—it is far from “learning”. It’s a deceptive term. So, I hope I don’t confuse you by mixing the two. Now that’s out of our way, we can focus on...

TFN#79: đŸȘœBetter Zoom meetings, heart-to-heart

I used to detest the “keep your video on” dictum often thrown during Zoom meets four years back. It left a bad taste. You may feel my anguish and contempt for mass Zoom meetings in WFH: How much worth from home? article that I penned down two weeks into covid...

TFN#78: đŸȘœRules to work by: Manual first, automatic later

Most things in our lives are now automatic: We don’t go fetch water, it automatically reaches us. We don’t need to generate electricity, it reaches us. We don’t need to assemble blocks to print on paper, the laser printer just prints it. And oh, manual printing reminds me of these...

TFN#77: đŸȘœ(Part-2/2) Deep clean your PC: Bleaching

Hi Reader, How’s your Diwali week progressing? I hope you had a good one. Wishing you a happy Diwali week. Today, I won’t take long. Because I’ve got to be somewhere and you’ve got to relax. I hope you began cleaning your PC as per last week’s conversation. It is...

TFN#76: đŸȘœ(Part-1/2) Deep clean your PC: Find out heavy files and folders

Since my childhood, the Diwali season has been the season of cleaning. It’s like the Spring season. Every corner of the home should look new, dusted, and organized. “Rejuvenated”, that’s the word I was looking for. Although the necessity of cleaning has decreased over the years, I can still feel...

TFN#75: đŸȘœNonviolent communication in work and relationships

Some time back, I came across the practice of Nonviolent Communication. Since then, I have constantly thought about it when I hear myself and others communicate violently. Since the practice has stayed with me for a sufficiently long time, I feel comfortable and authentic in sharing with you now. Before...

TFN#74: đŸȘœThe problem with averages and dashboards

Tell me something, would you step into a river that is on average 4 feet deep? Take a pause. If your mind shouted NO right away, you don’t need to look at this illustration: See? Averages are tricky. Most of the time, they play with our intuition and lead us...

TFN#73: đŸȘœMouse testing 1..2..3..Mouse testing 1..2..3..

That’s what I do almost every year. As a regular user of PC, I use mouse and keyboard a lott. And that’s why I have to replace my mouse often. (No, not the keyboard, I go gentle on the keyboard.) Multiverse model effect 😀 If you know me, you’d know...

TFN#72: đŸȘœBacking up work regularly

Reader, You might have experienced the loss of data or a few important edits in a document at least a few times in your work. Everyone experiences that. I don’t know why we tend to forget to either save our work or back up regularly. The gruelling part is the...

TFN#71: đŸȘœCreate your personal intellectual assistant

Who doesn’t like a little help in their work? Traditionally, people hire personal assistants. And we know it is so difficult to hire one: it costs money, they’re inefficient and they don’t get it our style from day one. In short, hiring personal assistants is as tough for us as...

TFN#69: đŸȘœ My go-to site for symbols

Do you remember the late 2000s when mobile phone adoption was on the rise and people had just begun using texting? Forwarding and communicating over sms all the time. Some of my friends used to be pro at texting different smileys. For example, 😀 for laughter, 😉 for winking. Look...

TFN#68: đŸȘœPrinciple of Least Privilege

I should have named last week’s letter “Staff or Admin (Part 1/2)”. Because today’s is kind of Part 2/2. Yes, kind of. I could have shared this independently, but sequencing helps us connect the dots better. And this one is directly related to most people’s work. So
 So, we talked...

TFN#67: đŸȘœStaff or Admin?

Reader, I don’t know what it is. But in the past few months, I have been thinking more about online safety and privacy than before. Maybe it is the news I read or the general state of the world. You would have also noticed it, right? For example, a few...

TFN#66: đŸȘœFraming effectively

Dear Reader, The months of August and September are full of long weekends and holidays in India. I hope you enjoy them and make the most out of them–and I guess you won’t be opening your mailbox this weekend. But if you do, don’t forget to watch this heartwarming book-reading​...

TFN#62: đŸȘœThere’s something about Markdown

Have you tried ChatGPT? One of the things that I love about it is the way it organizes its responses. The cleanliness it shows. Take this ChatGPT response for example, ignore the content, and look at the info organization: As you can see ChatGPT uses headings, ordered/unordered lists, highlight commands...

TFN#60: đŸȘœConvert loong links into tiny, personalized ones

A few days back, I received this Experiential Education conference Google Form link in an email: ​https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScRkN-dnFrE_uIpPyKV410P2Oz5SFYMu3DYG_iAyhMyJMqu7g/viewform​ It’s a Google Form, like this: Imagine, if I wanted to provide this Google Form link in posters or audio marketing to spread the word, it would be useless. Because, as the charactercounter.com...

TFN#59: đŸȘœHighlight your mouse pointer during presentations and video calls

All of us have been there. Standing in front of the audience in a conference hall, moving our mouse vigorously, asking everyone “See this? Here?” “



ummm..” “Now?” “See the mouse pointer?” It breaks the flow of our conversation and our connection with the audience. The solution is so simple: having...

TFN#57: đŸȘœThe key skill in Getting Things Done (GTD)

Reader, sometimes you look at your work and wonder why it isn’t moving at a fast pace. Your team and you might be giving your best and still, you can’t get things done.​ These things could be anything: Data analysis reports Software development Teacher training Student assessments Data collection Project...

TFN#56: đŸȘœBlock annoying ads on the web and YouTube

Imagine, you wake up in a 9 square meter room. There are screens all around you. You go to some physical labour work in the morning and come back to your room, which is also your home and spend the rest of the day playing video games and watching TV...

TFN#54: đŸȘœInstant use-and-throw email ID using 10minutemail

Reader, have you felt the uneasiness when you’re shopping and the checkout counter guy asks for your contact number? For some elusive membership benefits? Now, my uneasiness turns into a permanent frown when I’m in a checkout queue. Because I know my contact number is going to change 100s of...

TFN#52: đŸȘœWhat’s your power distance?

And..this is the 52nd letter! ​1 letter/week52 weeks = 1 year! Can you believe we have been conversing for a year now? Incredible! ​No matter when you joined this circle, I’m grateful for your support.​ Thank you so much for reading, replying and sometimes just skimming through the letters. 😇###...

TFN#51: đŸȘœRename 100 files for 100 team members under a second

I should have shared this letter last week, immediately after Do you right-click to rename? Seriously!?. But no problem, better late than never. In that letter, we talked about using the F2 function key on your keyboard to rename files in day-to-day work. But sometimes, you might need to carry...

TFN#50: đŸȘœApplying DRY principle in your work

I have always been fascinated by programming languages. There are so many of them: python, C, C++, Java, SQL, VBA, etc. Don’t worry, I’m not going to bore you to death talking about programming. But what I want to talk about is the DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) principle used in...

TFN#49: đŸȘœDo you right-click to rename? Seriously!?

No, I’m not judging. But I’m curious. When you rename a file in your PC (assuming it’s a Windows machine), do you point at the file icon using the mouse, then right-click (or double-click) to “rename” the file or folder? Isn’t that, too much effort? I mean think about it....

TFN#48: đŸȘœ5 mistakes I avoid while designing my dashboards

Reader, If you tell me you haven’t seen a dashboard in your career so far, I won’t believe you. You wouldn’t believe yourself. The ease with which data visualization tools are available, it is impossible to believe that you would be spared from a dashboard. Mostly, this is how the...

TFN#47: đŸȘœ Adventure Wave: Facilitate unforgettable workshops

“Let’s begin with an icebreaker activity!” If you’ve been to work-related “team building” meetings, you’d have heard this a zillion times. I’m that guy who makes the gloomiest face possible upon hearing those words. (OR I used to be. Now, I run away at the first indication of such activity.)...

TFN#46: đŸȘœ Six-monthly reading roundup | 13 out of 47

So, I got the idea of sharing a reading roundup in August when I was traveling and trying to write a letter. And couldn’t write anything. That’s when I came up with My Swades movie moment and reading roundup​ So, it has been approximately 6 months, and here we go...

TFN#45: đŸȘœOne Ring to rule them all, One Tab to manage them all

Reader, I want to ask you something. Does your browser window look like this: If it does, don’t worry, mine used to look the same until a few years ago. We are all addicted to a secret disease called “tabbed browsing“. Mozilla introduced this feature of “tabbed browsing” somewhere around...

TFN#43: đŸȘœHow to use Eustress to delight people at work

Recently, I published my idea of facilitation on LinkedIn: We are all facilitators. Many readers and friends found it relatable. That got me thinking. What is a running theme of the people I enjoyed working with? What exactly is it that I cherish about some of the people I worked...

TFN#41: đŸȘœ The easiest way to explain visually: Murder Maps

If you’re a fan of suspense thriller movies like me, you’d have seen one of these murder maps in some scenes. (I didn’t know it is called that until now) What I love about those boards is, how easy it is for a viewer to understand what is going on....

TFN#37: đŸȘœInstantly search your whole PC using Everything Search

Okay, so today’s letter is specifically for Windows users. Because anyone using a Mac, has been blessed with an in-built instant search. So, if you want to be as blessed as an average Mac user, read on. The day I stopped using the Windows Search box I don’t remember that...

TFN#36: đŸȘœ Five styles of responding to conflicts | Which one is yours?

If you tell me you never had any conflict with anyone in your work, I won’t believe you. It is just impossible. By conflict, I don’t mean punching people in the face. Street-fighter style. Not that. But conflict means subtle disagreement in the team or a fiery debate on what...

TFN#35: đŸȘœ I missed sharing this with you last week: The Paper Calendar

Reader, Tell me something. Have you ever sent a WhatsApp message and
felt an instant regret? In our case, I felt this regret a few days after sharing last week’s letter: Finally! A free, clean, online PDF editor + password-lock. Nothing was wrong with it. But I realized it would have...

TFN#33: đŸȘœ The absurd reason why I stopped making New Year resolutions

Before I dive into explanations, wishing you a blockbuster New Year! I hope you get to fulfill your promises and resolutions by the end of 2024. And that allows me to share my reason ― which you will find absurd. My reason behind ditching the whole New Year resolution thing....

TFN#32: đŸȘœ The triangle of conflict and how to break it

If you remember, in my letter From Conditioning to Consciousness: Why People Do What They Do, we discussed the circle of conditioning. Few of the readers expressed the usefulness of that discussion. So, thanks for the feedback. In that letter, this was the key image for our understanding of why...

TFN#31: đŸȘœ A Tiny Extension to Supercharge Copy-Paste Command

Tell me Reader, do you know anyone who doesn’t use the Copy-Paste command? I can’t think of anyone who uses a computer and doesn’t use it. Copy-Paste command is: Ctrl+C, followed by Ctrl+V In case of Mac OS, it is Cmd+C, Cmd+V So, it is quite ubiquitous as we know....

TFN#30: đŸȘœ How to create a user persona? [Template Inside]

The other day, my friend told me about the latest online scam tactic. In this tactic, the scammer poses as a police/CBI/Narcotics official and grills their victim for hours. Eventually, their victim pays some heavy amount of money and gets scammed. But this one never gets old: That’s one of...

TFN#29: đŸȘœ Simple 3-2-1 data backup strategy

Have you watched the 2012 superhit movie OMG — Oh My God? If you have, you’ll certainly remember this scene: Kanji is flaunting his Godrej Locker key in the aftermath of the earthquake. Because the locker had his insurance papers in it. There wouldn’t be any movie if he hadn’t...

TFN#28: đŸȘœWhy I’m convinced we can change our brain tissues

So Reader, this really happened to me. And I’m not making it up. In 2016, I purchased a book named The Prophet. Mostly because I had heard a lot about the author Kahlil Gibran. In fact, during my schooling, we had a Gujarati-translated prose from this book. So, I thought...

TFN#26: đŸȘœ Your Diwali Homework!

Reader, I don’t know about you, but I used to hate Diwali homework during my school life. Whoever invented it, must have a natural talent to suck joy out of leisure. My Diwali homework assignments used to carry things like “write the answers to the selected questions twice” or/and “prepare...

TFN#25: đŸȘœ From Conditioning to Conduct: Why people do what they do?

Interesting question, isn’t it? Especially in the workplace, we ask this a lottt. “Why is he like that?” “What does she think of herself?” “Why does he chicken out at the last minute!!” Mostly, the answers are generic: “entitled” “power hungry” “rude” blah blah
 A better answer lies in this...

TFN#24: đŸȘœ How I use wireframe.cc for quick ideation

Reader, Have you been in a situation where you want to quickly draw a couple of things on the computer and share them with your colleague or team? To give some idea of what the output should look like? Output such as: where to place elements in a poster, how...

TFN#23: đŸȘœMastering “Form Follows Function”

Reader, if it was a matter of life and death to win a Formula-1 race, which car would you choose? Okay, what about choosing a gift for King Charles III if you were to pay him a visit? Both of us know each other’s choices. And the choices are the...

TFN#21: đŸȘœGetting insights: What? So What? Now What?

Reader, did you know that you can derive pretty good insights from any data using just three questions: What? So what? Now what? Data can be anything. A fact. A conversation. An incident. A story Or A database! Data doesn’t have to always look something like this: Data means information....

TFN#19 đŸȘœHow to beautify your work using Golden Ratio?

Tell me something Reader, Do you believe that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder? I believe sometimes it is true, sometimes not. There are some natural laws that apply to everyone, across the globe. Since the beginning of the time. Laws of what we find beautiful and what...

TFN#17: đŸȘœ Watch and learn fast: Easily change video speed

Did you know YouTube releases a Culture and Trends report every year? I didn’t know. I recently read its 2023 report. Fascinating! Almost everyone who has an internet connection consumes some or the other type of video content. I learned that there are four major formats of videos: Long-form, short-form,...

TFN#16: đŸȘœ Negative space, white space
what is it?

Hi dear reader, In my last letter, we saw the comparison of different online writing platforms. The internet is full of so many options that it is easy to get lost while deciding where to begin. I hope it has been useful. If you remember, two months back, we had...

TFN#14: 📚 My Swades movie moment and reading roundup

I won’t lie, dear reader. 5 days back, I had thought I will write this week’s newsletter on the go. While traveling. I tried typing the first draft in a crowded local bus on my way to a project I recently undertook. After a very long time, I traveled in...

TFN#11: Highlight and take notes from any website, like a pro⚡

Dear reader, for years, I have struggled to organize whatever I read online. There is no single app/software that can solve all of my reading material in one place. Now that I read a variety of things on a regular basis — especially on a PC — I needed a...

TFN#9: Do you look at the keyboard while typing?

Do you remember — the speed of your nod would reveal your age 😀— when there used to be courses on ‘typing’? Type classes, as they were known. Then we saw the personal computer revolution, so fast that ‘typing classes’ became a distant memory. In fact, film director Basu Chatterji...

TFN#7: The Power of Outline + Early access to my mini handbook!

Finally dear reader, I finished working on a handbook that’s ~50 pages long. And now it is ready for download! So, I thought to cover the main technique of outline in today’s letter. This technique helps me complete all the projects that I take on hand. Also, as a token...

TFN #6: The surprising power of touch-point Maps + My fav retreat Video

So dear reader, I received voting from most of the readers on the Reads of the Week last week. Thank you so much for voting to keep the long-read suggestions on. I will keep sharing the long articles in that section. Thank you so much for voicing your opinion. Last...

TFN #4: Reading on social media is full of pain-InoReader

Reader, do you also feel that social media — whether it is LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter — is hard to follow? I used to feel that. As I increased my engagement with social media. It is so difficult to keep up with a few of the gems that I like...

TFN #3: Using questions as tools

“Nooo..no..no..first, you answer me this!!” If you were there Reader , you’d have laughed your guts out. During a quarterly council meeting of the society, one of the uncles — you know the type who wears a tight T-shirt, heavy metal wrist-watch and a pair of sports shoes — was...

TFN #2: Nobody likes to eat ugly food OR ugly Fonts

So, Reader, in the last edition of The Friday Newsletter, we talked about how to use Hemingway App to write better. In this edition, I want to stress on the impact of right Font Type on your audience. Just like most people, I used to think “What’s there in a...

TFN #1: A knowledge worker’s secret weapon: Hemingway App

Earlier this week, I published a Powerful lean-mean writing system for anyone. Based on my readers’ overwhelming response, expanding more on the free Hemingway Tool I had covered under step-3 of the guide. We’re all writers. Whether you write text messages, emails, presentations or business reports. You’re a writer. Writing...