I’m changing the name of my live, online course on mindful planning from Mind Like Water to More Time Everyday.
The Story Behind The Change
I turned 25 on July 30th, 2021.
On that day, the best gift came in the form of a message from my mentor, Rajesh Setty — who I consider family at this point. The message read, “David Allen has agreed to do a one-hour Q&A for your course. Happy birthday!!!”
I was eating lunch with two of my good friends in San Francisco when I saw this message.
I couldn’t believe it.
David Allen’s book Getting Things Done inspired me to build a planning workflow two years ago. Since then, I have experimented and iterated on my workflow in Notion numerous times, which eventually led to me creating a course on this topic.
Getting a chance to interview David was nothing short of a dream come true for me.
Video: My full one-hour interview with David Allen
After a brief back and forth via email, David and I decided that he would join me and my students for my course’s graduation ceremony on September 3rd, 2021. Everything was set for the big day.
Fast forward to August 31st, 2021.
I was preparing for module 7 of my course when I had a thought, “I wonder if I can trademark the title Mind Like Water.”
So I jumped onto USPTO website’s trademark search database and typed in: MIND LIKE WATER.
The result took me by surprise: Mind Like Water was already trademarked by someone, and that someone was none other than David Allen and his company. I couldn’t believe my odds.
Nevertheless, I emailed David asking if I can still use the name for my course. I didn’t want him to be taken aback by the name when he came for the Q&A on graduation. His team discussed my request internally, but ultimately mentioned that I needed to change the name. I fully respect that decision.
I will be honest: I was dearly attached to the title Mind Like Water and it took me a while to learn to let go of it. But once I accepted the decision and let go of it, the daunting task ahead was to choose another name that captured the essence of the course (which also didn’t have a trademark or a parked domain!)
Enter More Time Everyday.
It was not easy coming up with a new name.
Thankfully, I had guidance from a few people who helped orient me into thinking in the right direction: A huge thank you to Prithvi Raj, Vishal Bhatia, and Rajesh Setty. (Side note: Prithvi and Vishal were part of cohort 1 of my course!)
Prithvi gave me honest feedback on another name I had chosen which I eventually decided to not go ahead with: Life Garden Club. He emphasized the importance of choosing a name that was hard to forget (and also helped me structure my second cohort).
Vishal brainstormed with me to come up with a list of names based on keywords that resonate with the course: we eventually ended up writing down 15 ideas. I wanted to choose Clarity From Chaos but the domain was not available. Getting a domain was harder than I thought.
It was on the call I had with Rajesh that the title More Time Everyday came up. It came up because of a simple question he asked me: “What is the real benefit a student gets when they take your course?” I thought for a while and told him,
“Well, my goal is that the student walks away with a robust planning workspace in Notion that will help them take control of their time, leading to them spending more time everyday on the projects they truly care about.”
His response: “So why not go with the title more time everyday? It’s simple, clear, and catches the essence of your course.”
I didn’t see what Rajesh saw in it in the beginning. But now, I do.
Figure: A list of all the names we came up with.
More Time Everyday
Of course, nobody objectively has more time everyday than the rest. We all get 24 hours.
However, with the same time at our disposal, some of us manage to do a lot more productive work than the others. By productive, I don’t just mean work that requires a computer or work that is facing outwards. I also refer to work such as meditation, meeting a friend for lunch, and spending time on your hobby.
Productivity is the art of producing the desired outcome; whatever that may be.
With my course, I don’t give people more time everyday.
Rather, I aim to give people more time to do what they love everyday.
My strong hypothesis is that this will happen when you offload your goals from your brain, build a system in Notion (or equivalent software) that helps you plan, and reflect on the way you spend your time every week.
The more you get better at doing this, the more you will spend time on things that bring you pure joy, and the more time you have to do what you love everyday.
At least, this is what happened in my case.
Today, I can say with certainty that everything I spend time on everyday brings me joy and meaning.
If you’re interested in joining the second cohort of my course, 👉 please click here 👈 I hope we get to work together!
Finally, if there is one lesson I want you to walk away with from this article, it’s this.
Always look for registered trademarks before you finalize a name.
You will save yourself a lot of downstream trouble. 🙂
