Rajan Singh

Founder

HabitStrong

In this age of unending busyness, distractions, and social media addictions, we help you build a life of calm productivity and focus, so you can succeed without burnout, late night, and long hours. 

We don't have any shortcuts or magical remedies. Instead, in our online programs, we give you a methodical, step-by-step approach to solve the problems of productivity, digital addictions, lack of focus, anxiety, etc.

ConceptOwl

We offer science and math learning programs for small-town students. 

We later transitioned to HabitStrong, to offer habit-building programs.

CourseBrew

An innovative online learning platform providing interactive video based learning.

Founder and CEO

New Silk Route Private Equity

Investment professional at New Silk Route, a USD 1.4 billion private equity fund focused on growth stage companies in Asia. 

Focused on healthcare and infrastructure, and was a key member of the team dedicated to building a large medical device company focused on emerging markets. 

Working as an investment professional, realized that lemmings are unfairly accused of behaving like investors.

Vice President

McKinsey & Company

Advised insurance, pharma, biotech, and banking companies. Areas of work include screening of  acquisition targets, launch of new businesses, cost rationalization, private equity due diligence, valuation, and corporate finance.

Ended up as a slave to PowerPoint, without hope of liberation in this lifetime

Consultant

Indian Police Service (IPS)

Commissioner of Police, Trivandrum City, and other senior positions in Kerala Police. Led 3,500 strong police force in Trivandrum (Kerala's Capital).  Extensive experience in managing and motivating large workforce, handling civil disturbances and conflicts, traffic management, crime control, and police modernization.

Inevitably I started taking life too seriously (what with all the parades, pompous ceremony, and frantic phone calls). So decided to bring some sanity back into life and go do an MBA

Police Commissioner

In summary, I am tempted to say something profound such as: "Visionary leader with XX years experience of saving humanity". But I will spare you the agony... 

The truth is that after many detours and experiments in life, I find myself an entrepreneur! 

Email: rajan.singh@habitstrong.in

We conduct online bootcamps to build life-changing habits that help inculcate discipline, focus, mindfulness, and a no-compromise mindset.

Currently, our programs cover digital deaddiction, building a mindful morning routine, deep work, flow, and focused learning. 

There is a lot of theory out there in videos and books, but often, it makes no impact. We make actual behavior change happen through a scientific, no-nonsense approach, mostly based on my personal life experiences.

You could think of us as a gym for habit-building.

I am wasting a lot of my time these days. But it all started quite innocently, with the best of intentions. 😊 

A few months ago, I fell in love with technology and coding. And I rationalized that I will build a tech company; I still do. 

But a few weeks ago, my friend Vinod Thomas recommended Anil Ananthaswamy's book "Why Machines Learn." And when I started reading it, old memories of my electrical engineering and math courses at IIT came flooding. 

In college, I barely tolerated math. But now, I started feeling a love and nostalgia I have never felt for anything. 

So I started MIT's Gilbert Strang's linear algebra course on MIT Open Course Ware (it is beyond amazing). Then I remembered my 2nd year course on signals and systems. And so I started a course on Fourier transforms. 

Learning these ideas from math and electrical engineering is so much fun that I decided to dabble in robotics, and even ordered a new computer just for that (awaiting Amazon delivery 😇 ). 

I know that most of this will probably deliver zero benefit for my career. But what the heck! If I can indulge myself a little and push my old brain to think again, I am ok wasting some time. 

After all, if the goal of life is to experience the journey, isn't the journey itself the goal? 

***
I run HabitStrong, which offers programs for calm productivity, digital de-addiction, and building focus: www.habitstrong.com

Our colleges in India, including IITs, do an amazing job of killing any curiosity or excitement the student may have. 

When I joined my electrical engineering BTech, I was really excited. There was so much to learn: from communications and signal processing, to semiconductors and computers! 

But when our electrical engineering courses started, the first thing they did was to remove any connection with the real world. 

In the very first course on communication, the instructor started by saying, "A signal is nothing but a function." And the rest of the course was pure mathematics. The same thing was repeated course after course, be it control systems, radars, or whatever. 

However, even that wasn't the biggest problem; it was the way the teachers taught. 

70-80% of the professors would just fill the blackboard with equations, while talking in a deathly monotone. Where was the curiosity? Where was the energy? 

In fact, I did not even realize what we were missing until I saw videos of good teachers on the internet. I saw how even simple matrix multiplication can be a joy to learn, when the professor treats it like an adventure. 

I am not writing this to pin all the blame on the teachers. If I did not learn well, 99% of it is on me. But the teachers were supposed to help. And 70-80% did not. Some teachers were excellent, but they were a small minority.   

However, there is a silver lining now, especially for working professionals like us. 

In the age of internet, cheap books, and LLMs, we can learn almost anything on our own. Finally, we don't have to wait for others to get better. 

If we don't learn now, it is 100% on us. Now I can't even blame my college professors. 😊 

***
I run HabitStrong, which offers programs for calm productivity, digital de-addiction, and building focus: www.habitstrong.com

When I was starting my post-MBA job search, I had two options: start at the bottom of the corporate pyramid, or look for CXO roles in India. 

Logically, the latter made more sense. And many IPS and IAS had quit to take up CEO/CXO roles in infrastructure companies, where execution skills are highly valued. 

But I was too reluctant and lazy to go looking for jobs. So I joined McKinsey through campus placement. And I paid for it dearly, every single day. 

After having headed a 3,000-people organisation, I was now making PowerPoint slides and executive summaries. And initially, when I sent my slides to my manager, they would come back butchered in red-ink, with feedback and edits. 

I used to think of myself as a reasonably competent person. But was I? I couldn't even make decent PowerPoint slides despite so much life experience! 

But like all my colleagues, I gradually got better. And in retrospect, what I learned in those very difficult days, I could not have learned any other way -- certainly not without that brutal feedback, repeated practice, and refinement. 

I now realize that I wasn't completely stupid; it is just that policing was a different skill from consulting. Different games, different rules. 

Today, life has come full circle: as I advise companies transform their productivity, I am playing the consultant role again. And all my past experiences with policing, investing, and startups come very handy. 

When you are going through a difficult phase in life, it may feel like a total waste. But I can assure you, it will teach you what can't be learned any other way. 

Because the hardest lessons in life are also sometimes the most valuable. 

***
I run HabitStrong, which offers programs for calm productivity, digital de-addiction, and building focus: www.habitstrong.com

The day before, I was sitting with a friend visiting Trivandrum, whose kids have both graduated from MIT and are now figuring out their next career move. 

And while I was still marvelling at how well his kids have done, he said, "The elder one is now having panic attacks." 

And given how rife anxiety is among the kids of my friends, friend-of-friends, and family, it can't be all just a coincidence. In that case, what's going on? It certainly wasn't like this when we graduated from college. 

Today's generation is WAY more connected, better informed, and up to speed than we ever were. Then why are they not able to cope better? Or maybe, could that hyper-connectivity itself be the problem? 

My guess is that once upon a time, you felt like you were falling behind if your classmate built a $100 million startup. And of course, that was stupid. But now, anybody in the world doing that makes you feel 'left behind,' which is hyper-stupid. 

Mentally, we are living in this fast lane where everybody is outcompeting each other, time is running out, and no achievement is ever enough. Because someone will always achieve more than you. 

The answer isn't to step on the gas, but to slow down. Step out of that fake fast lane that is only in our minds. Reconnect with reality. Meet real people. Go out and play in mud and grass. And stop trying to 'win, win, win.' Sometimes, just be. 

The point of listening to music is not to reach the end of the song as fast as possible, but to experience it. 

Life is like that music. Sometimes, it is good to just listen. 

***
I run HabitStrong, which offers programs for calm productivity and digital de-addiction: www.habitstrong.com

When I recently decided to learn from scratch and build a tech company, a colleague said: "Won't we be behind those who have been doing tech for 30 years?"

It is as if life is some kind of a race, with whole of humanity desperately running in a single lane. And those ahead will always have a headstart, while those behind will keep trailing.

This mental model is completely nonsensical, and yet, it holds back countless people with talent and ability. 

I bet that lots of folks wake up every morning hating their career or life choices, but they do nothing about it. Why? "Because how will we compete with those already ahead of us?"

I can't speak for everyone but here is how I think about this. 

Life is not a race, and MOST certainly, not a linear one. 

In highly non-linear systems, past doesn't foretell the future. You have 20-year olds Nobel laureates who do nothing spectacular rest of their lives. And many people flourish in their 60s or 70s. 

The reality is that opportunities are all around us, and we discover them randomly. No superpower is sitting above us, handing out these opportunities in the order of some All India Rank, IQ points, or any rank order. 

And as far as headstart goes, if you have focus and intensity, you can learn more in 2 years than many do in 20 years. But even more importantly, life isn't about getting anywhere; it is about experiencing things. 

I am not saying, be reckless or throw away your jobs. However, if the only thing holding you back is 'somebody has a headstart', you are probably worried that they will get to the finish line before you. 

But what if life is not a race but a trek; a chance to smell the flowers, climb some hills, maybe suffer some bruises? What if there was never any finish line? 

***
I run HabitStrong, which offers programs for calm productivity, digital de-addiction, and building focus: www.habitstrong.com

During my undergrad courses, whenever I first saw the dense math and equations, it felt pretty intimidating. But a month later, the same equations often became straightforward. 

Similarly, before I got into policing, criminal laws and procedures felt totally alien. But with just a few months of exposure, it all felt logical; even mundane. 

And I repeatedly had the same epiphany in my startup journey: everything feels hard, until it doesn't. 

We often shy away from pursuing our goals because we find the path scary. And we assume that doing those things is hard; maybe, even too hard. 

But most of the time, things are not hard; they are just unfamiliar. And all it takes is a few weeks or months of exposure. 

The next time something scares you, remember this saying from a calculus book: what one fool can do, another can. 

***
I run HabitStrong, which offers programs for calm productivity, digital de-addiction, and building focus: www.habitstrong.com

Reading 'one book a day' or extreme reading goals like that are dumb. 

Because when you convert the act of reading into a race against time, it becomes another useless metric. 

The true value of reading does not come from the number of pages or books you finish, but how it changes your mental models, beliefs, or understanding of the world. 

And whenever I am learning something, my best learning happens not when I am cruising, but when I get stuck. That is when some dots in my mind are failing to connect. 

And often, the thing that helps the most is pausing, pondering, and giving myself the time to connect those dots. If it is a quant subject, you might even put your pen to paper and do some problem-solving. 

That is when the dots connect, and your mental models update. And there is no learning experience better than that. But sadly, when chasing a speed-reading metric, you deny yourself the opportunity to connect the dots. 

Just to be clear, I am not suggesting that we need to stop at everything we don't fully understand. But it should not be because we are rushing to meet some stupid goal like 'read X books a week.' 

We are already chasing too many useless metrics. Let us not convert learning, the most delightful experience available to the human mind, into another bullshit numbers game. 

***
I run HabitStrong, which offers programs for calm productivity, digital de-addiction, and building focus: www.habitstrong.com

The older I get, the more I feel like I am in college. Outside of work, most of my time now goes for learning all kinds of things; some useful, and some a total waste (but fun). 

However, the idea of 'learning' has a branding problem. We make it sound like an antibiotic, a bitter pill you have to swallow because it is 'good for you.' Who wakes up thinking, "I wish I could take some Amoxicillin tablets today?"

Who wants to hear another sermon asking you to learn X because it is 'good for you?' 

I am saying, forget all that for a moment. Forget that learning is useful, or a necessity in a fast-changing world. Stop looking at it like an antibiotic. 

Instead, ask yourself: what is the most fun way to spend your free time? What can give you the best kick and joy? 

And I challenge you: once you find things to learn that bend your mind and excite your imagination, Netflix and Instagram will stand no chance. 

Don't start by trying to learn stuff you hate, even if it is useful. instead, just pick things to learn for the dopamine hit; to hear that click in your head when something connects. 

There is no better way to live life than marinating in that joy of learning. And once you discover the joy, you will never graduate from college. 

But isn't that what we all secretly want? 

***
I run HabitStrong, which offers programs for calm productivity and digital de-addiction: www.habitstrong.com

Tomorrow, we do not have to be the same person as we were yesterday. 

We can make different choices. We can put down the mental baggage of the past. We can stop waiting for the perfect time, and start acting.

And for that, New Year's is a good day. But so is every other day. Whatever works for you, use it. 

The seed of any change is always the same: you, not your calendar. You just have to start watering that seed. 

And if New Year reminds you to start that watering, that's good too. But don't stop. That is what really counts, not the start date. 

Because it takes time. Everything takes time. That's what makes life worthwhile. 

***
I run HabitStrong, which offers programs for calm productivity, digital de-addiction, and building focus: www.habitstrong.com

"2026 will be all about agentic AI." Yeah sure. Just as automotive technology will be all about screwdrivers. 

But seriously, it is not that agentic AI isn't incredibly powerful. It is. However, we want to stick agentic AI onto EVERYTHING, and hope that the problem gets solved. And that is a trap. 

In any situation, the best tool is rarely the biggest one, but the one that gets the job done most effectively, with least fuss and cost. That is why armies don't just have artillery guns; most of the time, a simple rifle is all that is needed. 

So when people declare agentic AI to be THE answer for all problems, they are falling for the 'tool-first' trap. 

And unless we go from this 'tool-first' mindset to a 'problem-first' one, 2026 will be a year of AI disappointments, collective chest-beating, and bemoaning about how much 'agentic AI is overhyped.' 

Which will be a pity because these AI tools, including agentic tools, ARE incredibly powerful. 

What we need in the mix is the same-old problem-solving skills and critical thinking. In some sense, nothing has really changed. 

It is just that our toolbox now has one more screwdriver, albeit a very big and shiny one. 

***
I run HabitStrong, which offers programs for calm productivity, digital de-addiction, and building focus: www.habitstrong.com

Rama Ramakrishnan Thank you! Would love to go through it.

Professor of the Practice at MIT Sloan School of Management

Happy to share that the Spring 2024 version of my "Hands-On Deep Learning" class is now up on MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW). All the course materials - videos, lecture decks etc. - are freely downloadable.

The course was designed to be "light on math, heavy on intuition". If you have been curious about Deep Learning, please check it out.

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