I Wish I Had Started Writing Earlier

Things I Wish I Knew Earlier

As a teacher, that's what I constantly think about. If I learned something after college, I want my students to learn it during college. If I developed a habit after making enough mistakes, I want them to build it before they even enter their careers.

Reading was one of those habits. Writing was another.

I started reading during college, mostly fiction like Dan Brown and Harry Potter. Non-fiction came much later. Writing came later too. Looking back, I genuinely wish I had started both earlier because these are habits whose returns compound over time. The earlier you begin, the greater the advantage.

I Was Writing, Just Not the Right Way

I've always been someone who likes planning. Whether it was exams or work, I usually had a roadmap and reviewed what I learned, what went wrong and what I needed to improve.

Even today, whenever I meet someone senior from the industry, I carry a notebook. Good conversations often contain one idea that can change the way you think.

The problem wasn't that I wasn't writing. My thoughts were simply scattered—across notebooks, loose sheets and random Word files. I had ideas, reflections and plans, but no structure to connect them.

Over time, I realised that scattered thoughts eventually lead to scattered decisions.

The File I Forgot Became My Biggest Teacher

During the COVID lockdown in 2020, I opened a Word document and emptied my mind onto the screen: my goals, ideas, learnings and plans for the years ahead.

Then I forgot about it.

Nearly two years later, while cleaning my desktop, I opened the file again. Around 40–50% of my one-year goals had never been achieved. What surprised me was that I had missed those goals without even realising it.

That file taught me a lesson I still carry with me today.

Writing creates awareness. Reviewing creates accountability.

The same principle applies to investing. If someone recommends ten stocks and two become multibaggers, those are the only two they'll remember. The other eight quietly disappear. Social media works the same way. People celebrate the predictions that came true and quietly forget the ones that didn't.

That's why I believe investors should write down every recommendation they make. When you review them after a year, you're no longer relying on memory. You're relying on evidence.

The same principle applies to life.

Sometimes You Don't Need to Work Harder. You Need to Zoom Out.

In 2022, I realised my discipline had slipped. Constant travel had disrupted my routine, reduced my deep work and affected my output.

I noticed it only because I had paused to reflect.

Most of us are so busy finishing today's checklist that we rarely ask:

Are my daily actions taking me towards the life I want?

Writing gives you that pause.

One Place For All Your Thoughts

Once you've started writing your goals, build one more habit: have one place where every thought goes.

Every day, hundreds of ideas, plans, learnings and reflections pass through our minds. Instead of trying to remember them all, write them down. For the first few days, don't worry about organising them perfectly. Simply empty your mind onto paper. You'll be surprised how much lighter and calmer you feel when your mind no longer has to carry everything at once.

Then give those thoughts a structure.

You can categorise them into short-term, 5-year and 10-year goals. Create separate sections for your life, health, career and skill goals. Keep another section for your learning, whether it's a new skill, a degree, a course or something you've recently understood. Reserve one more section for introspection: your habits, your timetable, the people around you and the patterns you notice in your own behaviour.

Think of it as a simple mind map or flowchart of your thinking. When every thought has a place, your mind spends less time remembering and more time connecting ideas. It becomes calmer, less stressed and, over time, starts thinking with greater clarity.

That's the idea behind the Invest in Yourself Journal.