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EDIT 2: Please read this article (link- Zomato Battles Revenue Crunch Blames It All On Sales Team; Might Fall Short Of Its Promises To Investors).. and wonder why the productivity of Zomato's work force is declining ?EDIT 1: Some people here believe that I judged him too quickly and unfairly. I am going to post some other grotesque responses by him that will tell you the reason why I used the word "embarrassed".Question:Regular Zomato user - its a pain to read long reviews on mobile - any new design/tech upcoming to solve this ?Deepinder Goyal's Answer:Yeah, we will give you a button which will auto scroll the long reviews.Question:Hi DP, How does Zomato decide which country it will next move to? Till about 3 years back, it was just in India and now it's in so many. What is the thinking that went behind the aggressive expansion strategy?Deepinder Goyal's Answer:Dart boards.Response to DG:No offence but your replies make you look like a 10 year old kid. I thought you be giving serious well thought answers, looks like I was wrong.QuestionHow much money (investment+ money required for day to day activities ) you had when you started the company?Deepinder Goyal's Answer:Don't remember. That's stone age.QuestionWhen it comes to hiring, what makes a candidate stand out and a perfect fit for your company? Also, how is your appraisal system? Is it a derivative/shadow of the ones in large companies?Deepinder Goyal's Answer:Attitude, not aptitude.We don't have an appraisal "system". Value shines and is appreciated.QuestionHi Deepinder, your department as well as hostel junior from IIT-Delhi :)My Question-Lot of ex as well as present employees have raised questions about working culture at Zomato? How do you feel about it?Deepinder Goyal's Answer:There is always the right place for every person. Zomato doesn't force people to work here. People have the flexibility to leave if they don't like the culture. It isn't everybody's but we have enough people here who like this culture. Also, people often confuse perks with culture. We don't have a lot of material perks at Zomato (like sleep ;-)), but we are proud of what we have built.QuestionWhy aren't you on Quora? You should be. Great PR too.Deepinder Goyal's Answer:Stopped giving a shit to Quora a long time ago. Don't like the anonymous losers.----------- ORIGINAL ANSWER ----------Honestly, I was just embarrassed to read the AMA. I thought to myself - Really? This is the image we are projecting to the world of an Indian CEO ?I don't want to get into all the answers by him, but only discuss my opinion about the one answer that has stuck with me ever since I read it. It revealed so many dark shades of the "Indian mentality" that I am very scared to step into the tech industry back in my country - something I have always wanted to do, eventually.Look at this question, it is a fair, legitimate question by an employee who probably works for Zomato:Tech Team related. Why do you guys have to enforce 8.30am to 8pm sort of timing? Do you really expect a good developer to be able to be in the zone for 12 hours straight? I know there's no strict stay till 8pm rule, maybe even there is. But it is clearly frowned upon if a guy regularly leaves early.Why do you guys not use team communication tools? People in tech team do not know what all is being worked on inside zomato itself. Agreed, one guy would have his own task to deal with but awareness of what all is going on at least in the tech team helps in increasing the feeling of being connected with the team.The culture in tech team is toxic. Contributing to open source isn't even considered. In office hackathons, people are expected to work on zomato related things only. How do you expect great developers to want to work in such environment? Great developers almost always tend to have great side projects. With the kind of timings and environment that is being provided, this is simply not possible while being in Zomato tech team.And see what Deepinder Goyal replies:http://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/2yo614/hi_im_deepinder_goyal_founder_and_ceo_of_zomato/cpbck2aHe says,"Actually, we don't enforce an 8:30am timing. But what I expect is that if I request for a team meeting at 8:30am, you would show up at 8:30am."Awesome, so you don't officially enforce 8.30 am timing but merely keep meetings at that time so that you don't actually have to pay your employees for over-time. Bravo!He goes on to say,"Why would we contribute to open source if we are barely able to ship what we need to ship to keep our users happy."If despite making people work for you for long hours, you are "barely" able to ship your code, you probably need to re-think a few things. Is productivity really directly proportional to work hours?Source: Rules of Productivity PresentationHe finally ends it with a bang,"If you are part of the tech team at Zomato, you are clearly at the wrong place. You should either try to get answers to these questions by talking to me and believe in what we are doing, or leave. We don't force people to work here if they don't want to."I don't usually want to be rude, but here he clearly sounds like a jerk. You don't care about the happiness of your employees, or their comfort and yet expect them to be motivated all the time ? You know, actually THIS is an unrealistic expectation from software engineers. Work-life balance is important for the mental health and therefore the efficiency of your engineers.This is a nightmare reply for me. Maybe I have been spoiled by the work culture in the Bay Area - the culture where a developer is considered more than a code spitting robot with no social life - but what do you think makes a great software engineer? The ability to work for 12+ hours tirelessly? If that is the idea of "passionate engineers" in my country - I am sorry to say but we have a long way to go.When I talk to my friends back in the country working for such "tech startups", their work life sounds like a scene straight from the novel 1984 ! So this happened - one fine Sunday evening I called my friend back in Bangalore to chitchat before she left for work (it was Monday morning there) and she told me she was on the way ... to her home! Yes! She had stayed working in the office overnight on the Sunday night!And no, it was not a code push deadline that she was trying to meet - it was like every other weekend for her. She told me that working late and reaching home by 10 pm was the norm in their office - and if she tried to leave any time earlier than 6 pm - her boss and co-workers would taunt and make her feel guilty. And I was like - WOW! She basically had zero social life and even stopped reading/going to the gym because she practically had no time outside work!Is this the definition of hard work in India? Is this the path to success ... the "India Shining" we dreamt of ?I have another example. One of my roommates here belongs to a family with a history of freedom fighters. Her grandfather was one - and this has made her immensely patriotic. She was passionate to stay back in India after she graduated from the reputed IIT, but after one year of working there she was convinced she couldn't continue. She applies for higher studies and came here. She says that she liked the work but hated the work culture and the politics in her office.It just saddens me that I feel scared when I think about going back to my country and working for one of these companies. I don't have that fear here.We cannot begin to solve these issues before we actually stop being in denial that we have a problem. Maybe not all companies in my country have this sucky culture - but enough companies do to scare me. This is what I am used to:1. Report the deadline of the proposed project to your manager. After that they don't care about micro-managing you. You may work from home, or show up at noon or leave at 4 pm. Or even wake up at 2 am in the morning to complete your deadline. No-one cares how you do it as long as you complete your deadline.2.If you are sick, you can drop an email that you will wfh. No one will give you attitude for doing that. Most people won't even notice.3. Taking vacations is a necessary part of the culture and everyone takes it once in 6 months or so.We never miss deadlines and have a very productive team - and a very happy one too.On the other hand my country is in complete denial. This news snippet just appalls me: Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal's Reddit AMA Was Hilarious. And Then This HappenedYou think all this is sarcasm and therefore "hilarious" ? Well, IMHO, only one response on this page cracked me up :"Zomato's logo is a sperm. Their CEO is a dick."Link: http://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/2yo614/hi_im_deepinder_goyal_founder_and_ceo_of_zomato/cpcd09y(Also read: How can you inspire programmers to work longer work weeks voluntarily? )

I researched many available methods to solve procrastination. There’s really no way to make what needs to be done suck less. You just have to buckle down and get it over and done with…Getting to that point is the hard part so here are the 12 techniques that help me get there faster, especially when I genuinely can’t be bothered.1. Break down the task into chunksA big part of procrastination involves how we view the task. If you have to write an essay, you’re probably thinking it’s going to take like 3 hours of research, hours of writing, and perhaps days or weeks to complete. Take a sandwich for example, you think of 2 slices of bread with some items in the middle. If I mention Bread, you just might think of those same slices of bread. Point is, in life we tend to look at certain areas on whatever we tend to be focusing on. The problem is we don’t view tasks the same way. So stop seeing that project as a loaf of bread, and think in terms of slices. If you have a big project due, just commit to 20 or 30 minutes of work. This will decrease the workload, while at the same time tricking your brain into doing the task since it’s much smaller to start with.2. Reward YourselfDoing unrewarding tasks is never any fun, sometimes we end up dragging our feet throughout the whole process because we know we simply need to get it done. Creating a physical reward for yourself can help motivate you to complete the task at hand. Something as simple as telling yourself you’ll be able to enjoy some candy, or watch some tv. The self-indulgence motivator will help change your brain to accommodate more distasteful activities with dopamine releasing fun rewards.3. Blackmail YourselfEvery week, I set a weekly goal of a big project or task I would like to complete. Without having anybody monitoring or telling me what to do, I have to constantly think of new things to do, and then get myself to do them. What if there was a way to blackmail yourself into completing tasks? There are several programs out there, like the BetterMe Iphone app. You must commit to a certain activity and it will basically humiliate you on Facebook if you don’t get it done. There’s also web app called Aherk! This web application requires you to upload am embarrassing photo of yourself. If you don’t complete the goal by the deadline, then your social network will see that horrible photo of yourself with grandma. Sure, there are ways defeat the tasks, like deleting the photo on your wall. However, the very act of creating this as a cue to get going will more than likely pressure you enough to complete the task before the deadline.4. Cue your environmentWhen we try our best at certain tasks, we can’t always rely on our willpower alone. Our mind tries to establish as many barriers between us and what we want to accomplish. One way to stop this is by minimizing the number of actions we have to perform in order to complete the task. If you’re trying to go to the gym, this could mean dedicating your top clothes drawer to your gym clothes. Or maybe even sleeping in your gym clothes with your shoes right next to your bed. Maybe you’re trying to cook more for yourself. After you finish cooking, cleanup immediately so that next time you’re more inclined to cook since there is no pre-cleaning required. Take some time to analyze your most important tasks and figure out how you can setup your environment and action cues to obtain your goal.5. Analyze why you’re procrastinatingSometimes we don’t even realize we are procrastinating. We know that we need to have that report finished but we have a boatload of emails to get through or articles to read. Take a moment to ask yourself just how you are procrastinating, and then figure out how to eliminate those items. Commit to doing the report before doing anything else. If the report is too tedious then just do the research first, take a break and then start writing on it later.6. Eliminate DistractionsIf you’re using a Mac, check our applications like Freedom or Concentrate. If you’re on windows you can look at TimeDoctor to help you manage your tasks better. These configure your computer to block distracting programs and websites depending on the activity you are performing. Heck, even create a recurring reminder for yourself in applications like the Due mac app or Lift.do daily habit tracker. These can remind you to setup your Skype or other messaging client as “Do Not Disturb” or “invisible”. It takes on average 25 minutes to return back to the original task after an interruption. So the less interruptions you can have, the more focused you will be at getting the task completed.7. Just get StartedSometimes it doesn’t matter how much you do, as long as you start it. The task may not always be easy or fun, but just getting started can do a great deal. There is something called the Zeigarnik Effect. In one study, they gave a group of participants a puzzle to solve but not enough time to complete it. When the time ran up, a surprising 90% of participants went on to complete the puzzle. The applies to almost anything, whether we’re watching a TV Show, or waiting to see the end of a movie. Point being, once you’ve started something, you’re brain naturally gravitates to completing the task.8. Create Mini GoalsIt’s better to start something, even if you don’t want to do the whole task. Analyze the task and break it down into chunks. Then only commit yourself to doing that small habit. It could be as simple as writing just 50 words a day, quite often you might write more but you won’t feel guilty if you only complete the minimum amount of effort to inch further to completing the goal.9. Time TravelImagine the good feelings you will experience by completing the task. Imagine the end result, the happiness, and the good things that will come as a result. Imagining how we will feel after a task is completed is quite often much more motivating than thinking how long the task will take to complete.10. Ignore your motivationsUnderstand that your motivations will never fall in line with finding the right time. You may never feel like you want to complete the task, or are in “optimal state” to get it done. The truth is though that we never get anything done in an optimal state. If we continue to wait for that right moment, it may never come. In some ways, procrastination is an emotional feeling. We think to ourselves that we will feel like doing it tomorrow. When tomorrow never comes, we get stuck in an infinite loop.11. Stop AssumingStop assuming how long the task is going to take. Often I find myself procrastinating over the smallest tasks because I feel like they are going to require much more time and effort than it really ends up taking. A safe I have for example, I swore it was broke because the handle wouldn’t turn when I entered the key code (electronic safe). I basically resorted to simply using the backup key to open it whenever I needed to for many weeks. Anyway, I finally got around to going to get the warranty information. About 30 seconds into the task, I realized the batteries simply needed to be replaced.12. Forgive and forgetDon’t keep beating yourself up over the failed goals of the past. Life is a learning experience and we all have our fair share of experiences. To continue feeling remorse over your non-accomplishments only adds to the problem. In a study led by Michael Wohl, an associate professor of psychology at Carleton University, Freshman who forgave themselves for procrastinating on studying for their first exam experienced less trouble with procrastination on future exams.As someone who thrives under a productive environment, I’ve written about the psychology of procrastination, how the Eisenhower Matrix can fix procrastination, as well as the simple daily routines that have transformed by productivity by 200% — ONE of these will definitely help you sustain the moment of my 12 techniques.Good luck!

I am from one of the smallest villages in Maharashtra and pursuing my MBA from one of the old IIMs. I did my engineering from a government engineering college of Maharashtra at nearly free of cost and then I got admitted to IIM as a fresher. I did my full schooling in vernacular medium. As my village did not have any high school, I had to move to Nagpur to pursue my 11th & 12th (Again in vernacular medium). None of my family members knows anything about IIMs. I was the first engineering graduate in my family.My undergraduate college did not have a good placement record. So I started preparing for the government exams such as RBI B Grade and SSC CGL. But later, I thought I should go for an MBA or I should at least give it a try. So I started preparing for CAT, XAT, and IIFT too along with those exams. During my preparation, I got in touch with lots of Top B School Grads and I got influenced by their personality traits and a strong display of their confidence. My initial goal was to get into the Institute of Rural Management (IRMA) as I had a rural background. I had the benefit of OBC reservation also while appearing for the CAT as my father passed away when I was 12 and our family was part of non-creamy-layer.But as time went by, I did extremely well in Mocks. I started reading newspapers and novels and my reading comprehension skills became extremely well. Although, I was still lagging in terms of communication skills. I appeared for CAT 2016 and cracked it with 99.xx percentile. I received calls from all the IIMs despite not having a very impressive academic record (10–80s, 12–80s, B.Tech. - 7.xx) because of my reservation.Unexpectedly, I secured admission to one of the old IIMs and I decided to join it. I took an academic loan of 18 Lakh INR from SBI and started my MBA. Now, comes the real part of the answer. I thought people who got selected or at least half of my future batchmates would be just like me coming from a not-so-popular college in India to get out from the lower middle class. But I was wrong, even people who get into IIMs through reservations are super-rich. Especially SC/ST people, since they do not have even creamy layer rules.When I joined the college, summer placements were close and there I was a guy who did not even appear for a single corporate interview in my life. There were students from IITs, NITs, DU, BITS, and many other prestigious colleges and they were speaking extremely fluent English. I had a bit of an accent, and that is why I had a callous time being part of their social circle. Most of them were super rich and coming from well-to-do families belong to either tier 1 or metro cities. While on the contrary, I was a sober guy who did not even know how to dress formally and crack jokes in English. There was so much gap between our mindsets and upbringing that I could not fake anything further. I stopped talking to people and they were not interested anyway to talk to a guy like me. I was simply the odd one out in the batch.Then summer placements got started. All the guys and girls who got placed in consulting and investment banking/private equity or corporate finance roles were hotshots and everyone wanted to befriend them. I got selected in one of the not-so-known domestic banks with the lower stipend and that is why I was a loser for most of my batch. At IIMs, you will be judged based on the company where you get placed, not based on your inherent nature or character.No one will make you partner in corporate competitions and group projects if you are not good at elocuting your ideas (and why would they?). They talk about “Peer to Peer Learning” and “Diversity” in the corporate brochures of IIMs. Now, here I am probably one of the most diverse candidates of my batch who has survived through the real-life rural issues but where are those peers who want to learn from me about it? How will I learn from my peers about the urban lifestyle if they do not want to accept me as their friend? I have been so humble and respectful to everyone but still, my batchmates will not accept me because of my background.No one helps anyone here during the course as everyone is competing with each other for placements and grading is also relative. Here I am completely fighting on my own. My life at engineering college was completely different. I had true friends who will do anything for me. I was very convivial by nature back then but now I am a socially depressed lonely introvert here at IIM. I always feel insecure about my final placements as I am one of the most average and the simple guy of my batch who does not know how to throw jargons in extremely fluent English. I am still working on my accent and communication skills but I don't see myself anywhere close to my classmates during class participation.Today, I believe I was never a good cultural fit for this program from the very start. I realized this at a very early stage and tried very hard to change the reality. But somehow I failed. Undoubtedly IIMs as institutions are the best b schools in India, but they are not friendly places for an average Indian Joe who has made his way out through financial struggles. Now, I do not desperately try to be part of any group and I am simply hoping to finish off my PGP as soon as I can. I want to get out of this place and again want to be friends with the common people of my native hometown with whom I can laugh freely without caring about what others will think of me. Now, I feel that it was a wrong step to take such a high burden of academic fees. I will have to work my ass off for 3–4 important years of my life to pay up the loan. Sometimes I think, I should have gotten into one of the stable government jobs. At least I would have gotten the much-needed respect that I deserve from society. Some of you might have heard about suicides in IIT/IIMs because of academic pressure but trust me, it is not academic pressure, it is basically peer pressure which is the main reason behind all such incidents. It is the fear of being left out that leads to such ruinous steps.My only advice to all the management aspirants is that if you are coming from a rural and financially poor background, then think twice before joining an old IIM. All the people who have studied in the expensive private English medium schools in metro cities will not be ready to accept your existence in the vicinity of IIMs. They will treat you as a burden to the college because according to them you will be the one who will drag down the average salary of the institution.If you think, at least reserved category people would be having a similar background like yours, then again you are wrong. The Indian reservation system is a joke as there is no real background check on the candidates who apply under the reserved quota. How can a guy who has spent his whole life in Delhi and studied at DPS RK Puram plus St. Stephens college be counted as a part of the scheduled tribe category? This is just one example. There are many such examples in my batch. But the bitter truth is our most deserving OBC/SC/ST brothers and sisters are living happily somewhere in far small villages of India and they are mostly clueless about the benefits which are given to them in the Indian constitution. It will take years to uplift them out of poverty because they are still not part of this system yet.Thank you for reading.Edit: All those people who are commenting after reading my answer that “it doesn't seem like I am poor in communication skills” need to understand the difference between written and oral communication. In Quora, we draft our opinions carefully in written form and there are very fewer chances of misunderstanding. Before transmitting my opinion, I can revise or rewrite it in an organized way. I have enough time here to think it through and make changes. But the Presentations, Class Participation, Group Discussions, and Personal Interviews of IIMs is an altogether different ball game where you face questions and arguments of some of the smartest people of this country. Everything happens very fast. Obviously, the words once uttered there cannot be reversed.Edit 2 (Feb 2021, after close to 2.5 years):Thanks a lot for all the love in the comments. I have read all of them. Some people have generously put a big effort to guide and motivate me. It has been very emotional to see that there are so many people who have left very positive notes for me. Some also have raised suspicions on the credibility of this answer or criticized it. But, I love you all irrespective of your judgment and want to express my gratitude for taking out time and reading the whole thing line by line and putting your honest views in the comments.Coming back to the present, I graduated in 2019. During the final placements, I received an offer from one of the top global beverage MNCs. I have been working in this company for almost 2 years. I was also entrusted with the responsibility of “Rural Marketing and Branding” for my organization due to my background. The company has been super generous in terms of paying hefty annual bonuses and sending me to international destinations such as Europe for short training stints during the Management Training period.I consider myself now an expert user of English, both in Verbal as well as Written communication. I am a fairly confident individual now, far from being a lonely introvert like I was in past. Meanwhile, I have also paid a significant chunk of my education loan already and will be foreclosing my loan account in the next 4–5 months.In short, life could not have been better. My mom is very proud of me. I have grown a lot wiser with the time, maybe a little smarter. I have learned how to roll my R’s and use concrete fancy words during regular conversations at parties. I have inherited all the corporate business etiquette and manners. People respect me for my position and listen to my thoughts. Last year, in fact, A Delhi-based reputed B School invited me for student interaction over a Zoom session during the lockdown.Today, when I read my answer once again after close to 2.5 years, only to be surprised that how things can change drastically in a very short time span.A word of wisdom to the candidates of IIMs:Please never underestimate yourself because you are not good at a thing or two. Everyone is unique and we all have got different strengths. Always remember to be confident and resilient during tough times. While bad times may seem to last forever, they always give way to good times. If you've been feeling like the bad time you're stuck in just won't end, then I can tell you my experience that they are just a few bad days or months and not a bad life. Also, please be kind to your fellow batchmates. I know the grading is relative and there are super high expectations to get placed at Day 0 or Day 1. But those short-term rat races will not yield you anything in long term. However, being a better and kind person will definitely make you a good leader at some point of time in the future.Communication Skills Dilemma:Many of the students have shared the dilemma in the comments about survival in IIMs with average communication skills and how to improve them. I believe one can survive in IIMs with average communication skills if they are ready to put in enough hard work to improve them over time. I struggled during the 1st year, however, participating in corporate competitions and case studies helped me a lot. I used to have an accent/stutter sometimes during the class participation/presentations, however, that did not deter my confidence. Today, I hardly face that problem. Because I have improved a lot by constantly participating in-class discussions with confidence without really thinking about what others have to say about my speech delivery.If you live in a place where most people speak the language you are learning, you may use the language for several hours each day. So, it may become part of your “inner speech.” In other words, you start thinking in that language. Your mind stops trying to translate things from your native language into a second language. The same thing has happened to me in the last 3–4 years.But, the majority of us are living in either tier 2/non metro or rural area where English is very unheard of on day to day basis. So, you may not have many chances to practice English. But, you can be self-taught in today’s time. When you speak, your speech might be slower than you would like. This is because your mind is still translating from your first language, which can also sound unnatural. And let me tell you, that is totally okay. That is how I used to speak until the end of my 1st year at IIM. But, the good news is that thinking in English can bring you a huge step closer to fluency! It is not very difficult, but what it does take is a conscious effort and constant practice at your end. I can not reveal my identity here for obvious reasons, but should you have any queries, then please mention your email ID in the comments, and I shall get in touch with you to help you out. Mind you, I read every comment added in this answer carefully.