It's been a year and a half since I was compelled to move out of my last assignment under less than favorable circumstances.  In hindsight, it was perhaps one of the best things that has ever happened to me.

A few weeks of hand wringing on what to do later, the answers made itself obvious. Twenty one years of working without a break later, I'd earned the right to take a break. That done, I had to keep myself gainfully employed as well. As things stand, I am working on my first start up. Technically though, this is my third start up.

The first was when I set up the Indian edition of CHIP. The second was setting up the Indian edition of Forbes magazine. The difference between both of these assignments and what I'm doing now is that in the past I had air cover that comes with being part of a large entity. Both of these ventures went through their fair share of teething troubles. But to be fair to the promoters, they backed me with all the resources I needed.

This time around though, things are different. There is no godfather. Everything is being built ground up. I've had to tighten my belt and have gone through my fair share of hiccups. A few weeks from now, the venture will make its debut. I'll talk what it is all a few days from now on these pages.

In building this out though, I've discovered some simple joys. For instance, when my first daughter was born, I was part of the senior team at the Times of India. Running operations at a daily newspaper isn't easy. You're on call all the time. Unlike most people, public holidays and weekends aren't meant for you. Because of that, I missed out on something incredibly precious. Watching my first born grow. It was left to my wife to tend to her because I'd be working late nights. And after after having put in all those hours, would need a couple of stiff drinks. I have no idea how time passed. But she's grown up into a fine nine year old. 

This time around though, thanks to the divorce from Forbes, I had the pleasure of watching my second born grow. She's a little over two now and I now know how to handle babies. I had no freakin' idea of bloody tough it can be. I had no freakin' idea either of how much joy it brings.

The gentle cooing when you hold her close, the happiness that accompanies the first words that tumble out of her mouth, having her hug you tight. Then there's the bonding that was missing with my older daughter, it is now in place, the stories she tells me of her days at school and friends, her exhortations on how I ought to be, the little fights we have..... I could go on and on on the joys of fatherhood. But it's well worth not having a formal office space to go to.

There are other pragmatic joys that come in as well. You work at a time and pace of  your choosing. You choose the people you work with and the assignments you want to work on. You work because you "want" to work, not because you "have" to work. Then there is the daily commute time that is cut to zero. Time spent negotiating traffic now becomes "me-time" and leaves a little for an occasional nap when you need it. You discover facetime with people isn't always necessary. Between telephone calls for one-on-one interactions and assistance for technology using tools like Google Hangout and Facetime for conference calls, it's as good as being in the same room. All of this translates into both time and money saved.   

But this calls for a certain amount of discipline as well. It is tempting to sack out at home and do nothing. My friend Achyut pointed me to a neat little trick he uses. For many years now, he has worked out of home for an MNC. He's clear in his mind that he'll work eight hours, no more, no less. He works by hour and for every hour he clocks in, he rewards himself $2. End of the day if his account doesn't add up to $16, he knows he has been rather incompetent.

Another way to look at it is, what if you've got 86,400 seconds each day and how should you use them?  Some simple things.

“Say no”: Don’t be afraid to use the word. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person if you turn down an invitation that will pull your focus away from a task at hand—it just means you are prioritizing and that is a necessary element of getting things done.

“Kill notifications”: Emberton writes, “Modern technology has evolved to exploit our urgency addiction: email, Facebook, Twitter, Quora and more will fight to distract you constantly.” The answer? Turn of your notifications. And if you can’t do that, then mute your phone—turn it off if you have to. “Choose to check these things when you have time to be distracted,” says Emberton.

“Less volume, more time”: Your to-do list may tempt you into thinking that you can kill two birds with one stone, or three or four. In other words, multi-task. But Emberton suggests a different approach: choose 1-3 items on your list and no more. “Focusing your all on one task at a time is infinitely more efficient than multi-tasking and gives you time to excel at your work.”

“Schedule your priorities”: If your goal is to get a certain amount done in one day—or even to introduce work/life balance into your day—then you must carve out time for the items you’ve committed to tackling. Writes Emberton: “Treat your highest priorities like flights you have to catch: give them a set time in advance and say no to anything that would stop you making your flight.”