I’ve learned what I like, how I want to spend my energy,and how I want to be thinking about my life. I’ve learned my roles, reasonable expectations, and healthy ways to operate given my personality, behaviors, and frequently occurring situations. This post is a summary of those learnings - an operating manual if you will, reminding me how to think about, respond to and behave, so I can operate at maximum effectiveness and efficiency. Super important: You don’t raise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems
- A note on goals, aspiration an systems.
- Calendar - 2024 H2
- Morning Routine
- After Work Routine
- My super powers
- My kryptonite
- Health and habits
- Family
- Cognitive Reframe Upgrades
- Bad Influences
- Triggers and Mental Quick Sand
- Career
- Archive
TODO: Split this post into How Igor Ticks, and igor
A note on goals, aspiration an systems.
- You don’t raise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.
- Goals without systems are just good intentions.
- Do you want Planning/High Discipline Igor making decisions, or evening Igor making the decisions (See Brian Johnson.
Calendar - 2024 H2
As a younger man I hated calendars, and structure. I still don’t love them, but I have limited decision making/discipline energy/capability per day, and when I’m out of that energy, I just vegetate. So TL;DR figure out what you want, and schedule it. Then don’t think about …
My new calendar
Day | Early AM | Evening |
---|---|---|
M | 5am Trainer | Free |
T | Off | Free |
W | 6am Trainer | Free |
Th | Self Gym | Magic w/Clive |
F | 1H Swings | Movie Night |
Sa | l31 | Free |
Su | l32 | Free |
- l31
- 2H Swings
- Coffee Shop Writing
- l32
- 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
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
See the manager book appendix
Archive
Calendar - 2023 Q3
My new calendar
Day | Early AM | Evening |
---|---|---|
M | 2H Swings | Free |
T | Trainer | Zach Date |
W | 1H Swings | Improv |
Th | 2H Swings | Magic w/Clive |
F | 1H Swings | Movie Night |
Sa | l1 | Free |
Su | l2 | Free |
- l1
- Trainer
- Coffee Shop Writing
- l2
- Stretching/Free Gym
- Coffee Shop
- Weekly Journal
- Family Blog Post
Calendar - 2022
As a younger man I hated calendars, and structure. I still don’t love them, but I have limited decision making/discipline energy/capability per day, and when I’m out of that energy, I just vegetate. So TL;DR figure out what you want, and schedule it. Then don’t think about …
My new calendar
Day | Early AM | Evening |
---|---|---|
M | Crazy Early Work | Free |
T | Trainer | Zach Date |
W | Stair Climber | Amelia Date |
Th | Self Gym | Magic w/Clive |
F | Run | Movie Night |
Sa | l21 | Free |
Su | l22 | Free |
- l21
- Trainer
- Coffee Shop Writing
- l22
- Stretching/Free Gym
- Coffee Shop
- Weekly Journal
- Family Blog Post