Reorganizing My Life's Focuses

I've previously shared a quote from Śrīla Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja here about how Ekādaśī is a day for us assess ourselves and make necessary adjustments. It's been a while since I've done that, so in this post, I want to take the opportunity to evaluate what's going well and what needs improvement in various aspects of my life. This post may come across as a bit self-indulgent, but my hope is that it might give you some ideas if you'd like to try something similar for yourself.

I've divided the main areas of my life into four categories: ① 📿 Sādhana (spiritual practice), ② 💪 Health, ③ 👨‍💻 Sevā, and ④ 👥 Interactions with others.

1. 📿 Sādhana

Typically, it's not recommended to discuss one's spiritual practice publicly, but since mine is rather basic, I see no harm in sharing here.

Most of my daily devotional practice is done in my morning online programs, which runs from 5:15 AM to around 8:40 AM, totaling about three hours. This program includes 45 minutes of japa and meditation on the verses from Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Gosvāmī Mahārāja's Śrī Prapanna-jīvanāmṛta, followed by 45 minutes of singing a set of stotrams, and then 1 1/2 hours of Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavat reading and discussion. Additionally, three days a week, I attend Śrīpāda Padmanabha Mahārāja's class.

As you may have heard me mention before, I struggle with self-motivation in maintaining any kind of sādhana on my own, so participating in a spiritual program with other devotees is crucial for me.

Other than the online programs, there is obviously my harināma and āhnik. For now, I won't be adding anything new to my daily practice, as I seriously need to concentrate on improving these two. What I really need to work on is not multitasking while I chant and not going into auto-pilot mode during my ahnik. I'll start by making a point to not glance at my phone or computer while I chant, and I'll try to become more focused and intentional before my āhnik by reintroducing the very basic practice of performing acamāna and reciting a verse, something I'm ashamed to admit I've not done in quite some time.

2. 💪 Health (physical & mental)

In terms of my physical health, my routine is basically just following a 7–8 minute exercise program (which changes daily) from this workout app. As for my mental health, I've been making an effort to journal for a few minutes both in the morning and evening and read articles or books instead of looking at YouTube.

One of the biggest challenges to my physical health has been insufficient sleep or irregular sleep patterns, which have had a negative impact on virtually every other aspect of my life. To address this, I've devised a plan to set three reminder alarms:
① 2 PM to read and rest
② 9 PM to wrap things up on my devices
③ 10 PM to shut down my computer, stow away my phone, and begin my evening ritual, which consists of journaling, chanting remaining rounds, and reading myself to sleep.

3. 👨‍💻 Sevā

Here are my ongoing sevā projects, listed in order of priority:

① Gauḍīya Gīti-guccha –preparing a new edition
② Gaudiya Kirtan app – organizing the development of a web-app and updated mobile app
③ Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā – doing a fidelity check on Śrīvāsa's translation
④ Other misc GVP services – proofreading reprints, helping make a fundraiser to renovate the GVP storage room, and Rays of The Harmonist postings
⑤ Vine of Devotion – planning the daily online programs, writing these blog posts, making kirtan recordings for paid subscribers.

I have not been working on these project in the above order. Instead, I've been mainly giving attention to whatever feels most urgent at the moment, which has been leading to frustration due to my inability to give time to the most important ones. To overcome this, tomorrow onwards I plan to designate specific days of the week to each project:

Sun & Mon – Gaudiya Kirtan app
Tue & Wed – Gauḍīya Gīti-guccha
Thu – Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā
Fri – Vine of Devotion
Sat – Fundraiser, reprints and planning

4. 👥 Interactions with others

This area includes both in-person interactions and digital communication.

Digital communication

As I've become more visible in the public eye, I've noticed an increase in messages and inquiries. I now spend way too much time on WhatsApp. This has been hindering my ability to concentrate deeply on any given task.

To address this, I've decided to allocate a dedicated hour each day, perhaps from 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM, for handling messages. During the remaining hours, I'll only respond to the messages that are genuinely urgent. Sorry in advance if this results in slower response times, as any messages I don't get to within that designated hour will have to wait till the following day.

In-person interactions

I've set aside two days a week to meet up with friends in Mayapur for Sanskrit and Caitanya-bhāgavata study sessions, and I have a regular Zoom call with another friend on Sundays. Also, I'm fortunate to be living with Gurudeva's former pujārī Subala-sakhā Brahmacārī, which has fulfilled my need for in-person human interaction. All this has lead to significant improvement from previous months when it seemed like I was practically living inside my computer, turning into a robot. In fact, my screen usage statistics revealed an astonishing average of 12–16 hours a day! 🤯

This is where I should put some kind of concluding sentence but I can't think of anything and my 10PM shut-down-the-computer-alarm went off 15-min ago, so, uhm, that's all for now! Thanks for reading!

I gotta say, writing this was very satisfying. I feel I've gained some much-needed clarity after putting all of this into words. If you're interested in giving something like this a go and want to share it with me to help keep each other on track, feel free to hit me up in the comments section below!