Igor the operating manual

• l22
• Stretching/Free Gym
• Coffee Shop
• Weekly Journal
• Family Blog Post

Morning Routine

At my best, I roll out of bed either when my eyes open or at 5am, whatever comes first. Then I sit in front of my mood lamp and drink my cold brew nitro coffee

Ah when the kids where younger - I also love getting my morning hug from my kids, but now that Zach’s older (9), I’m down to just getting the hugs from Amelia - who is 5.

Weekend morning routine

On the weekends, the gym opens at 8, so it’s essential I drink my coffee in my home office chair so I work on whatever is most important to me, often reading or writing. At 7:30 it’s time to drag my butt to the gym.

Post gym I’ll either hit the coffee shop to do some more writing, or head home to spend the day with my family.

Weekday morning routine

At my best, I roll out of bed either when my eyes open or at 5am, whatever comes first.

The gym opens at 5:30, and I try to be there by 6.

2022* After my workout, I go to work so I’m done at 4pm.

Pre - 2021: After my workout, I often chillax with my next priority being walking the kids to school. Walking the kids to school has surprisingly been a major quality of life improvement for a very small impact to my day.

Morning Kryptonite

I have two common failure modes to my morning routine.

• Starting my day by sitting in my easy chair drinking my coffee. This mindless activity has me skipping those things that are important to me.
• Hitting snooze when my alarm goes off. The worst of all worlds, not sleeping, and not being up and doing stuff.
• Lying in bed awake when I wake up before 5. Sometimes I wake up and can’t fall back asleep @ 3 or 4 (which isn’t crazy cuz sometimes I go to bed @ 7 or 8). Similar to hitting snooze, I’m not sleeping, and I’m not accomplishing anything.

After Work Routine

My discipline is strong in the morning, but by the time I get home from work, I’m usually energy and willpower depleted.

Post work routine

• I can fight my lack of willpower with a schedule.
• Current schedule, 1 day Zach date, 1 day Amelia date, 1 day friend date
• Get a healthy snack - popcorn or vegetables (not a huge container of fruit)

Post work Kryptonite

• Sitting in my easy chair, mindlessly on my phone
• Eating continuously

My super powers

Activator - People who are especially talented in the Activator theme can make things happen by turning thoughts into action. They are often impatient.

Communication - People who are especially talented in the Communication theme generally find it easy to put their thoughts into words. They are good conversationalists and presenters.

Restorative - People who are especially talented in the Restorative theme are adept at dealing with problems. They are good at figuring out what is wrong and resolving it.

Relationships

• Investing time in relationships always pays out. It can feel expensive, but it’s always worth it.

Technical Depth and Breadth

Technical Best Practice

Ability to sanity test all tech stuff

My kryptonite

Bean counting

Committing and describing relative to ideal, not relative to reality

Under estimating technical complexity

Health and habits

Health - physical, emotional, cognitive and spiritual, is easy to understand but hard to maintain. My strategy to maintain health is habits, but thanks to the immutable laws of hard things, habits degrade without constant vigilance.

I spend lots of time thinking about how I should be working my habits, but often end up not doing them. In this case, the key is to stop moaning and restart ‘em.

Physical

Emotional

Cognitive

Identity

Hobbies

I’ve already got enough hobbies - biking, magic, juggling. I get my biking fix no problem.

Biking

Magic

Juggling

List of things I enjoy

Family

Husband

Father

Cognitive Reframe Upgrades

The words you use influence how you think.

• I’m under water –> I’m fully booked this week
• I’m not doing a good job –> When I’m at my best I do
• I manage the XYZ team -> I support the XYZ team
• This is crap –> Help me understand (/compassion)

Bad Influences

Don’t give a guy trying to lose weight an ice cream maker. An ice cream maker sounds great, but if it facilitates things that you don’t want it’s double bad.

Luxury Car

I’ve been dying to get a Tesla, full self driving and some luxury. But what’s most important to my identity is biking, and not driving a car. To quote my friend Ammon - Igor you getting a tesla is like getting an ice cream maker. You need to decide your priority and go from there.

Turns out, I love this now. Check out

Sports cars

On my trip to FISM, the cheapest car to rent ended up being a fancy sports car. It accelerated like butter, braked on a dime, and had gear shifting paddles in full sports mode. I soon realized I could weave through traffic going 60 miles an hour easily playing peek-a-boo with regular cars.

I realized 1/ no value to me in this 2/ chance of getting into or causing an accident 3/ chance of me focusing on anger that someone else is playing peek-a-boo with me and winning.

Triggers and Mental Quick Sand

Like most folks I have triggers and mental quick sand which I can get trapped in. Here’s some of mine, and things I need to remember. This also reminds me of the:

Stress and Anxiety

Corona Virus

My gosh this is sucking up lots of brain power. I don’t think I get value thinking about this. I have two choices, stop thinking about this,OR write a post on all my thoughts on this.

Raising kids

Physical Health

Not spending enough time with them

When it comes to family, like all things, it’s easy to confuse hours for quality. Being at home playing on his tablet, while the kids played on theirs wasn’t family time. Instead Igor realized the key is having dates, a time he gave the gift of his complete attention to Amelia, Zach and Tori. Date nights were sacred and could be whatever the kid wanted. Here’s a nice date night

Diet and Weight

Financial Security

The point of money

Money isn’t just to make piles, it’s to enable you to do stuff. Stuff does not equal stuff you don’t use, stuff is actually often experiences. And most of the best stuff you can’t buy. Yup, it’s doing and it’s with whom you are doing it.

What would I do for less money

If you wouldn’t take a job for a pay cut, you probably shouldn’t take the job.

Making more vs spending more

See Parkinson’s law, applies to both time and Money.

Career

Joining Facebook

In mid 2020, I joined Facebook and it has been an absolute pleasure. Facebook is very aligned with my desired culture: Top shelf people, top notch management, a genuine caring about people, and a move fast and iterate culture.

Joining Amazon

At the end of 2016, I joined Amazon to learn the business of software, to learn to write and to live by the leadership principles. It was my first job outside of Microsoft where I’d worked for 15 years and it was a tough transition.

Dream Job

Being a Great Manager

I spent a lot of time learning to be a manager, and am writing a book, or really notes to myself.