Day in the life: Indian entrepreneur finds his chakra in Dubai

Serial entrepreneur Prajit Arora starts his hectic day with 15 minutes or meditation using the Headspace app.

For Prajit Arora, the managing director of Sentinel, balance, happiness and family are prime to living a good life. Lee Hoagland / The National

Prajit Arora is a serial entrepreneur and managing director of the Sentinel Group, which includes its business centres arm, storage, security and general trading. The Indian, 42, who grew up in Dubai, graduated with a degree in economics and philosophy in the United States before setting up Sentinel Business Centre in 2003. Mr Arora lives in Jumeirah with his 12-year-old son and an eight-year-old daughter.

6am

I am most definitely a morning person. I’m a light sleeper and wake up at dawn. I make the most of the peace and quiet before the world joins me. Balance, happiness and family are my key focus to living a good life. Although a relatively new habit, I do like to take 10-15 minutes out of each day to meditate. I use the Headspace app to guide me through this. Then it’s breakfast with the kids and the school run, which I really enjoy as I get to discuss their day ahead.

7:30am

I don’t go straight to the office. I like to return home, exercise and eat a healthy breakfast and twice a week a yoga instructor is waiting for me. And I never head out of the house without completing the quick crossword in the newspaper.

10:30am

I am usually at my desk by now, although I don’t have a fixed time to go to the office. I am often required to be at the Notary Public to sign documents with clients, so I gen­erally keep the mornings free for meetings.

11am

I start my internal meetings. I like to meet key members of my team daily. I’m a serial entrepreneur who also has responsibility for running the businesses. In an ideal world I would like to focus on bringing concepts to fruition and then pass on the day-to-day operations. But for now I am focusing on running my businesses with diligence and honesty. I hold ethics and honesty in business in the highest regard and once a person crosses a certain line with me, then the relationship cannot be repaired.

12pm

It’s still not lunchtime. And notice that I don’t have coffee breaks. It’s water, water, water – although I have recently taken a liking to iced decaf espressos. For the next few hours I focus on our clients’ needs. Sentinel Business Centre helps other businesses set up trade licences and offices. It’s a one-stop shop for any business wanting to set up in Dubai. I like to get all of my meetings done in the morning so that our clients can get a response the same day. Diligence is another of my key focuses.

2pm

Lunchtime, and I definitely like to vary lunch. It could be a salad, sandwich or hot meal sent from home. I like food to be simple, with a focus on high-quality ingredients. The restaurants in DIFC are my first choice for eating out, especially Japanese and French cuisine.

3pm

Back in the office, the afternoon is reserved for getting things done. This could be anything from responding to clients, getting proposals out, reviewing new projects or running over finances. It’s basically the time when things get crossed off the to-do list.

5:30pm

I leave the office and exercise is next on my agenda. I love to ­cycle and I’ve done the Dubai 92 – a 92-kilometre race around Dubai. So this could be a bike ride, a run or a session at the gym. My true passion though is to be out on the water sailing, something that I save for the weekends as there is just no time during the week.

7pm

Early evenings are reserved for helping the kids with their homework and catching up on the days events with the family. Evenings are a social affair, ­either with the family or out with friends. Relaxing is a relatively new concept for me. I used to unwind with a run or some form of exercise, how­ever I realised that as you get older you really do need time out. This could be reading a book, watching TV, meditating or even enjoying a nice beverage with friends.

10:30pm

I am in bed by 10.30pm and fall asleep around midnight having either watched a TV show – my favourites being Suits, An Idiot Abroad, Narcos and Peaky Blinders. Or I'll read a novel – my fav­ourite book is On the Road by Jack Kerouac.

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