0:00:00Is it too late to wish you a happy new year?
0:00:02I don't think it's too late to wish you a happy Cortexmas.
0:00:05Yeah, I feel like we need to really do that before, because Cortexmas has happened.
0:00:13If we say it's going to happen now, that's not true, right? Because there will be more soon.
0:00:18But we've had... we had a lot of Cortexmases in the last year though, let's be real.
0:00:23There were a lot of them.
0:00:24Were there? I don't know. It felt like there were so few.
0:00:28Cortexmas is such a precious time.
0:00:30And I guess that ties into your 2017 theme.
0:00:34Was it? No wait, mine was the year of less, right?
0:00:38You were like year of something or other that no one could work out.
0:00:41[Ding]
0:00:42You don't remember my theme for the year? I'm disappointed.
0:00:44You don't remember my confusing, poorly articulated theme for the year?
0:00:47I didn't. No, I didn't remember it.
0:00:49It's written in front of me.
0:00:51And I still don't know what it meant.
0:00:53So we are gonna talk about our yearly themes.
0:00:57but we're gonna talk about last year's.
0:01:00We're gonna evaluate how we performed
0:01:03against our yearly themes.
0:01:05So we kind of established these in episode 44 of Cortex
0:01:10and spoke about them a little bit more in episode 45.
0:01:12If you're catching up, it's probably worth listening
0:01:14to those as well so you can hear us establish our themes.
0:01:18My theme of 2017 was the Year of Less,
0:01:22which was your 2016 theme, right?
0:01:24that was where that debuted, is the year of less.
0:01:28- Wow, we've done this for three, this is the third year.
0:01:30Wow.
0:01:31- The third time that we've done this.
0:01:32- It's becoming a real tradition.
0:01:34- Yeah, I think that the 2016 one wasn't as like
0:01:37set in stone.
0:01:38- It wasn't as set in stone?
0:01:39- But it was just like something you mentioned
0:01:41that that was what you were thinking about in that year.
0:01:44Right, but then I think it might have been in 2017
0:01:46where we started to like think about this as a thing.
0:01:49- That's when we started to lock ourselves in.
0:01:52- To get like a real tradition going, which is important.
0:01:54I guess I find traditions to be very important in podcast
0:01:58People can look forward to it and it's something that is obviously cool on because I had people even in person tell me
0:02:05When are you doing the 2018 year theme episode? So people like it. Yeah, I've got to say people people do like it
0:02:12I had a number of people
0:02:14Mentioned in person to me as well
0:02:15Like they were thinking about their own
0:02:17Themes for the year and I've seen a bunch of chatter on the quartet subreddit about what people are going to do for their own
0:02:22and themes for the year.
0:02:23So I do say, I think people like it.
0:02:27And when we started talking about this,
0:02:29I'll just again reiterate that I really much prefer
0:02:32the idea of a theme versus a goal.
0:02:35I still feel the need right now to be able to back out
0:02:38and say like, you don't necessarily need a theme every year.
0:02:40It doesn't need to be a tradition.
0:02:41We don't absolutely have to do this maybe some year
0:02:43it doesn't make sense to do.
0:02:44- Right, but that year will just be the year of no theme.
0:02:47Right, so that's how that works.
0:02:50- Right, okay, that's how that works.
0:02:51that the yearly theme stuff was so much better
0:02:54than resolutions because--
0:02:56- Yeah, resolutions are dumb.
0:02:57- What you are doing is creating a basic idea or framework
0:03:01that you can build many goals and resolutions
0:03:04in throughout the year.
0:03:05- Yeah.
0:03:06- You know, like instead of me saying,
0:03:08oh, my New Year's resolution is to hire somebody,
0:03:11it was no, I'm gonna be doing a year of less
0:03:14and then part of that might be doing this,
0:03:16but I wanna see how it goes.
0:03:18So it works way nicer because it's more open-ended.
0:03:21It's just a phrase as opposed to like a thing
0:03:24that has an actual like binary yes or no, did I achieve it?
0:03:27And I think that is a much nicer way
0:03:30to think about my working life.
0:03:32So I appreciate that introduction to that idea.
0:03:35- Yeah, it's way better for the reasons you said.
0:03:37I also like the idea that you don't feel as bound by it.
0:03:40Like if someone sets up a theme for the year
0:03:42and they realize halfway through the year,
0:03:43it doesn't make sense.
0:03:45It's not the same thing as like,
0:03:47oh, I've set the goal that this is the year
0:03:49I'm gonna be really healthy
0:03:50and now I'm just a big fat failure, right?
0:03:51It's a different thing of like,
0:03:54I want to adjust the theme midstream.
0:03:56You know, like it's a much better way
0:03:58to think about things.
0:03:59- And again, like I'll say that these are like
0:04:01my personal feelings on it.
0:04:03So for my company, we have goals and objectives
0:04:06that we want to hit, right?
0:04:08Related around hard numbers and percentage increases
0:04:11of those numbers.
0:04:12But for myself personally, I don't really like
0:04:15to set those really, really rigid goals as such.
0:04:19And I think it works better.
0:04:21Like a company is made up of a selection of people
0:04:24and I feel like that the goals,
0:04:26if you wanna look at like, oh, what will our revenue be like
0:04:29or how many listeners will we have, right?
0:04:30There are types of things.
0:04:32Setting goals and objectives for those makes sense
0:04:34because it is vital for the existence of the business
0:04:38that those things remain or grow,
0:04:40where like for me personally,
0:04:43it is not vital to my existence as to whether I,
0:04:46well, maybe I was gonna say whether I go to the gym
0:04:48three times a week or twice.
0:04:50Possibly it is, maybe that's a bad example,
0:04:52but it is not vital to my existence of like,
0:04:55oh, how many books am I gonna read this year?
0:04:58Like, I don't live or die on that metric.
0:05:02- Yeah, I was just starting to laugh
0:05:04because I was thinking, yeah,
0:05:06a theme is personal to an individual,
0:05:08which is also why it wouldn't make sense
0:05:10for a company to do it.
0:05:11Like I was thinking if Tim Cook came out one day
0:05:13and was like, we have a theme for the year for Apple, right?
0:05:16And like, what's going on with Apple this year?
0:05:18He's like, "Oh, our theme for the year is beauty."
0:05:20It'd be like, "Uh-oh, this company's in real trouble."
0:05:24Because it's also like, it would just,
0:05:26like what does that mean to people, right?
0:05:27You'd need to then have all these bullet points.
0:05:30So it's like, no, no, if you're a company,
0:05:33you need some goals, right?
0:05:34You need some metrics.
0:05:36But for your flourishing as an individual human,
0:05:38a theme is a much better framework in which to operate.
0:05:41So tell me, Myke, how did your year of less go?
0:05:45- So I actually had two yearly themes.
0:05:48One of them established itself halfway through the year.
0:05:51- Yeah, see, they're very open to change.
0:05:53- I did a, I took it and turned it, right?
0:05:56I innovated on the yearly theme idea.
0:05:58And we'll get to the second one in a minute.
0:06:00But the one that I established last year,
0:06:02the beginning of the year, was the year of less.
0:06:05Because I had spent a year talking to you
0:06:07and looking at all of the things that you were doing
0:06:10and the improvements that you were making
0:06:11on your working life.
0:06:12And throughout those conversations,
0:06:14I decided that there was things that I needed to do for mine.
0:06:18And one of the big, big things for Year of Less
0:06:21was to get help, to get some kind of assistance.
0:06:25And I did, we hired an assistant,
0:06:27and this person has been excellent for us,
0:06:31and we're giving more and more and more to them.
0:06:34And it was a lot of work to get going.
0:06:37My gosh, my gosh was it a lot of work to get going
0:06:39with the interview process, and then after all of that,
0:06:43you've got to help train someone, right?
0:06:45You can't just be like, "Oh, here you go, do your job."
0:06:47- Can you remind me, when in the year did that happen?
0:06:51When were you doing interviews?
0:06:53- At the very beginning of the year.
0:06:54I think it was maybe February or March
0:06:57or something like that.
0:06:58- Okay, so it was very early in the year.
0:06:59I just wasn't sure.
0:07:00- It was very early, yeah.
0:07:02I mean, just going through,
0:07:06I don't know if I spoke about it at the time,
0:07:07but I'm happy to say it now.
0:07:08I think we've got like 150 applications for the job.
0:07:13and we took 10 people to interview.
0:07:17Now we thought, oh 10 people's fine, that's 10 hours
0:07:19and we did it in one week.
0:07:21It was like, it was a lot of work
0:07:25to go through all of that information
0:07:26and 150 is a lot when, it kind of gets a little mind numbing
0:07:31because so many people write the same stuff, right?
0:07:33Like I mean that's, the way that, it's funny,
0:07:37you kind of think, and I know I've been in this position,
0:07:40you think that there is a specific way
0:07:42in which you should apply for a job, right?
0:07:44The things that you write and things that you say.
0:07:46But the problem with that is you then just blend in
0:07:49like to everybody else.
0:07:52Like going through some of these applications,
0:07:55I kind of was unable to tell where one person ended
0:07:58and the next person began by the end of it.
0:08:00- Yeah, yeah.
0:08:01- And then, but you've also got the opposite problem.
0:08:03If you try and stick out too much,
0:08:05you maybe take a bit of a risk.
0:08:07It is a tricky thing to apply for a job.
0:08:09- It's a delicate balance, yeah,
0:08:11because if you stick out too much, now you're the weirdo.
0:08:14And it's like, oh, okay.
0:08:16This is the application that sticks out way too much.
0:08:19- There are certain types of jobs where it's easier.
0:08:21Like with yours, people were able to provide you
0:08:24with a piece of work, right?
0:08:26And so there is like an entertainment quality value
0:08:30which makes somebody stick out, I guess.
0:08:32But for me, it was just like, write me a cover letter.
0:08:35Like that was what I wanted to see.
0:08:37And it's always just text.
0:08:39I mean, and so yeah, it felt like it was blending in a little bit, but I don't know.
0:08:43Maybe it's just because I don't like to read that I didn't enjoy it.
0:08:45Who knows?
0:08:46No, but it's, it is, it's going to be the case that when you,
0:08:49when you start talking about 150 people applying to a thing, uh,
0:08:54this is, this is where, again,
0:08:57like people then start falling into categories. Like you're mentally,
0:09:01you can't deal with 150 people in your brain.
0:09:04And so you start like binning people into groups and that,
0:09:07And that's where it's like, oh, the day,
0:09:09like I have a lot of sympathy for everybody
0:09:10applying to any kind of job,
0:09:13because that's part of what the trouble is,
0:09:16is like trying to indicate to the person
0:09:19who's reading the applications,
0:09:20what kind of person you are,
0:09:24and like that you can do the job,
0:09:26and like how do you signal that
0:09:28when your only tool is a resume?
0:09:31It's incredibly difficult.
0:09:33And the issue is if you as the hiring manager
0:09:38want to get this done in a timely fashion,
0:09:42there is nothing you can do
0:09:45than to just disregard some people, right?
0:09:47- Oh yeah. - Like you've re-
0:09:48And it's a shame and I wish it kind of wasn't like this
0:09:51and you could, in theory, if you had a month
0:09:55to make your decision going through the resumes,
0:09:57then you could read everyone and consider them all.
0:10:00But if you are trying to fill a position,
0:10:02which typically whenever you're trying to fill a position,
0:10:05speed is always good, right?
0:10:07- Yeah, that's right.
0:10:08- There is just an unfortunate part of it
0:10:10in that you have to disregard some applications.
0:10:13I mean, I hired when I was working at the bank,
0:10:16I used to hire as well, it was part of what I did.
0:10:19It was the same thing there as well.
0:10:20It's like some people you're just like,
0:10:22I can read this and feel like I have a good sense
0:10:25of the type of person you are
0:10:26and you're not the type of person I want for this job.
0:10:28And it's like, but have I really looked at it in detail?
0:10:31Unfortunately not, but there's kind of nothing
0:10:34you can do about it.
0:10:35So sympathies to anybody applying for jobs.
0:10:38It is horrible.
0:10:40But anyway. - It really is.
0:10:42- The interesting thing, I probably could have
0:10:44predicted this, but it's good to know that
0:10:46whilst it is great to have to do less work of my own,
0:10:50right, so I have somebody who's able to take work
0:10:53away from me and do it for me,
0:10:54that's actually not the value.
0:10:57The value is less aggravation.
0:10:59I find myself being less annoyed at work
0:11:04because there's this thing I have to do.
0:11:07I am able to move around some of the tasks
0:11:09that are less enjoyable or just things
0:11:12that I've done too many times.
0:11:14There were some weekly tasks, which I've been doing
0:11:17for three years every single week,
0:11:20and it was like a spreadsheet-based task.
0:11:21And it's like, well, I get no joy out of this anymore.
0:11:23I used to enjoy it, but I don't like it anymore.
0:11:26And I could sit down to do it on a Sunday evening
0:11:29or Monday morning, and it was like,
0:11:31"Oh, here we go again," right?
0:11:32And being able to pass that stuff away,
0:11:35I have way less tasks that I have roll my eyes at now,
0:11:39and that has been a wonderful result of my yearly theme.
0:11:44Basically, it's like a year of less,
0:11:49comma, work/annoyance, and that's been great.
0:11:53- Right, right.
0:11:54- The other thing that I did as part of my year of less
0:11:57was
0:12:17but it hasn't, again, that was what I expected would be the case, right? Like, oh, it would
0:12:23tell me the things I'm spending too much time in and then I would stop doing so many of
0:12:28those things, right? That was my initial thought. That was my hypothesis. In the same way that
0:12:32like hiring an assistant means I will do less work. But the result has actually been time
0:12:40Time tracking has helped me highlight how much work I actually do and those numbers
0:12:47make me feel psychologically better because anybody that runs their own business especially,
0:12:54but anybody that is very invested in the work that they do can get into a situation where
0:13:01it's on your mind all the time.
0:13:04So you feel like you're working 24 hours a day.
0:13:08So to be able to look at graphs and charts
0:13:11and say like, oh, on Monday,
0:13:13I actually only worked for five hours, not 23.
0:13:17There is like a psychological benefit in that for me
0:13:21where I don't feel like I'm as busy anymore
0:13:25because I actually have some stuff that I can point to.
0:13:27- Yeah, I think the phrase you used earlier in the year
0:13:32talking about this was that you can talk back to your mind.
0:13:36And I think that's a great phrase because it's,
0:13:40when your brain thinks that you've been way busier
0:13:44than you actually are, it's busy releasing all
0:13:49of the stress hormones and worries that are related to that.
0:13:52And it's a way to try to calibrate your brain to say,
0:13:56I guess we're busy, but it's not what you think it is,
0:14:01So you can chill out, we don't need to be at 11 on the anxiety meter of all the stuff that needs to get done.
0:14:07We can take it back to a much more reasonable level.
0:14:10And here's a spreadsheet that you can look at which proves this to you.
0:14:14So I think that's a really good point about the time tracking.
0:14:18The service that we both use, Toggle, they have pretty good reports.
0:14:23And when the year ticked over,
0:14:27our mutual friend Federico Fattici,
0:14:29he tweeted, he's like, he tweeted his graph, right,
0:14:32like his pie chart to show like how his work was split up.
0:14:34I was like, oh, that's a good idea.
0:14:35So I looked at mine.
0:14:36And I, again, always find interesting things.
0:14:3950% of my working time in 2017 was spent editing podcasts,
0:14:44whilst 25% was recording.
0:14:47This is not a surprise to me,
0:14:49because I, some projects don't take twice the amount
0:14:53time they take to record but some take four or five times right depending on
0:14:56what the show is and what I'm doing and when I I mean I kind of shared this
0:15:02online as well so it was very interesting and I had a few people
0:15:04reach out to me offering their editing services right and it was like it is
0:15:11interesting that that is what people take from it they see that and they're
0:15:14like oh you must want to do less of it but I don't really like that's not what
0:15:19that means. It's like, okay, I see it's 50% of my time, but I consider that time valuable.
0:15:26And there have been projects in 2017 that I have handed over to somebody else. Actually,
0:15:31I'm just about to hand over another show to be edited by somebody else, which is great
0:15:36because it's probably one that, well, I know this person can do it very well and there's
0:15:41no need for me to continue doing it anymore specifically. So it's fine, right? I can hand
0:15:46that won over, but I'm not dying to do that for any of the projects that I'm currently
0:15:51doing because we work with some very talented editors. We have a few people that we work
0:15:56with at Real AFM who we give these projects to. So I know there are people that can do
0:15:59it, but I don't feel like I need to or want to. Like, I think people look at some of,
0:16:04they look at podcast editing or they look at some task and they're like, "Oh, that's
0:16:08just like monkey work, right? You don't want to do that." But I make podcasts, that's my
0:16:14job. Like that's what I do. And part of that is the editing of them. So it's like, would someone's
0:16:20like, oh, you do 25% of your time is spent hosting a show. You should give, I should do that for you.
0:16:26Right? Like I can take some of that time away for you. And it's like, well, no. Right? It's,
0:16:31but it's the same thing to me. And I think you would agree, right? You could hand over the
0:16:35editing of all of your shows, but you choose not to. It's something you can get help along the way,
0:16:40but you still want to be involved in it.
0:16:42Yeah, and what you ideally want, having brought on the assistant,
0:16:49is to see that in the pie chart of your working life,
0:16:53that a larger percentage of it is being made of what are the core value-producing activities that you engage in.
0:17:04And the editing is an example of something that...
0:17:07It's like invisible work, right?
0:17:11When a show is well edited, people are not aware of it.
0:17:15And so people can easily think of something like that as,
0:17:19"Oh, you can just have somebody else do that?"
0:17:23But for some of the shows that you work on,
0:17:25like the voice of the show
0:17:29or the particular way that things come out
0:17:31is really dependent on exactly the edit.
0:17:36I have to say, I am a little bit surprised
0:17:38at the ratio of your editing time versus recording time.
0:17:41- I was surprised about it, I was.
0:17:43But like I see it and I'm like, okay, right?
0:17:46Like it was a surprise to me,
0:17:48but it's like, if that's what it takes,
0:17:50that's what it takes.
0:17:51I mean, okay, I'll also say like,
0:17:53podcast editing also includes all of the posting
0:17:56and all that sort of stuff.
0:17:57So we can add a little bit more time on every time, right?
0:18:00right? Like, you know, it might add like 15 minutes on every single time.
0:18:04Okay, that makes more sense though actually than that ratio.
0:18:09It includes everything that happens from the moment I open Logic to the moment that the show
0:18:15is posted, right? Like it includes all of that stuff. I had like a show posting thing for a
0:18:20while but it just seemed silly to me because it was just stop one timer, start another timer,
0:18:25because by and large I post a show immediately after it's finished editing, typically, right?
0:18:32Like I don't have many shows so that's not the case so I kind of just leave that one thing.
0:18:36I mean the ratio I actually was kind of happy with that it's like I start with preparation,
0:18:42double the amount of preparation is into recording, and then double the amount of recording
0:18:49is into editing. I was like okay like that's interesting, that's kind of how it breaks down
0:18:55for me. So yeah, I feel like it all kind of works out.
0:18:58Yeah, I was just pulling up my own report because I was curious to see. And of course,
0:19:04this is not entirely fair, but I was looking at with Cortex, like what is the ratio of
0:19:08preparation and editing versus recording time. And mine is a lot closer to 50/50, but that's
0:19:14because I'm able to farm out most of the work of producing Cortex to you, Myke. But I was
0:19:20just kind of curious to see what it is. That for me, the ratio on this show is a lot closer
0:19:24to 50/50 for how much time is recording versus how much time is involved in absolutely everything
0:19:30else.
0:19:31CB; Yeah and I guess it's worth mentioning that a vast percentage of my podcast recording
0:19:35time is Cortex.
0:19:37SH; That's right. I wasn't going to ask but I figured that this is, I know that this is
0:19:42the bulk of the work in terms of any particular show, how much time do you spend editing,
0:19:48and I know that I place a heavy editing burden on you Myke and I apologize for that.
0:19:52- There is no, I've said this many times,
0:19:54there's no apology needed.
0:19:55Like I am happy to do it because the show,
0:19:59it all works out, right?
0:20:00Like the time that I put into it,
0:20:02the compensation works great, like it's fine.
0:20:04Like I'm happy to, like if the show,
0:20:07if this show had like 500 people that listen to it,
0:20:10I wouldn't do this, right?
0:20:12But it all works out at the end of the day.
0:20:14So like, I'm fine with it, right?
0:20:16Like it all works out.
0:20:18- But it says the other thing,
0:20:19like looking back on the year for you,
0:20:22of trying time tracking. Like you said, with this show, you feel like the amount of time
0:20:28you spend on it and the reward you get from it is comparable. Do you feel like now with
0:20:32a year's worth of data that tracks well across all of your projects, do you feel that your
0:20:36projects get the amount of time that they deserve or do you feel like there's stuff
0:20:42that's over or underserved?
0:20:45I think by and large I am happy with the balance of my stuff.
0:20:53Especially because I've seen some of those things go down to some of, again so I'm going
0:20:58to put a link to this image in the show notes so people can see it.
0:21:01And I'll give a bit of color around a couple of things.
0:21:03So you can see some of these things are self-explanatory, right?
0:21:06Editing, recording, show preparation, sponsor booking.
0:21:09That is like when we have a sponsor and we're inputting all of their information and dealing
0:21:13with contracts and stuff like that and also contacting new people, it's all of that kind
0:21:17of stuff.
0:21:18Sponsor aftercare, that's just a phrase that I made up.
0:21:22That just means like answering questions and working on things that people need, right?
0:21:28So like our sponsors might need certain things.
0:21:31That decreased significantly for me as the year went on because this was a lot of stuff
0:21:36that we handed over to my assistant is the aftercare stuff.
0:21:40So like dealing with people's queries and questions and stuff like that.
0:21:43The one that I was really surprised about was how highly the MacStories project was.
0:21:48I was just looking at this. The fact that MacStories even registers as a thing for the whole year is hilarious to me.
0:21:54That was the production of the audiobook that I put together. It was a significant portion of my year.
0:22:00So that was a big surprise. It taught me some things to think about for the future, if I'm ever going to do that kind of thing again.
0:22:06because it also went higher then. So, Relay FM general is typically whenever me and Steven
0:22:11have calls about the company, I did less of that in time, in the entire year, than working
0:22:21on the audiobook. So that was fun. That was a fun thing to see. But the overall balance
0:22:26of this list, I have no immediate need to change any of it. I am happy with it. I did
0:22:35look by the way and um cortex accounts for 10% of the overall editing time which i okay so 10
0:22:4310 of that 50 yeah 10 of the of the 50 so it was about it was about 70 to 80 hours
0:22:50right now that's interesting because i mean our show is effectively
0:22:55one every three to four weeks pretty much on average no no it's way more frequent than that
0:23:01- No, it's not. - You're exaggerating now.
0:23:03- No, no, it's about three,
0:23:03'cause it used to be every two weeks,
0:23:04most of the year it's been one every month, like at 2017.
0:23:08So we're about three weeks, I would say, is fine.
0:23:11But every other show I do, by and large, is weekly.
0:23:14I have a couple of fortnightly shows.
0:23:17So 10% of that overall thing is significant, right?
0:23:20There is some significance there.
0:23:21So we're getting really into the weeds now,
0:23:24but time tracking was very good
0:23:26because now I am able to value my doing nothing time
0:23:31significantly more.
0:23:32I don't feel like when I'm doing nothing,
0:23:37when I'm playing Stardew Valley,
0:23:40I am not like, oh, I'm not working, I'm not working,
0:23:44I've not done enough today,
0:23:45I don't worry about that stuff anymore
0:23:47because I have a much greater sense
0:23:49for how long it takes me to take care of my work.
0:23:52And it turns out it's not 15 hours a day.
0:23:56It's more like six or seven, right?
0:23:59That's typically my work amount in during a day,
0:24:02but it's spread throughout the day, right?
0:24:04So it feels like the workday begins at eight
0:24:07and ends at two,
0:24:08because my work happens at chunks throughout the day.
0:24:11But once I got a better handle on how my time was spent,
0:24:15which I did this year,
0:24:16I was able to value everything more than before.
0:24:20So that has been a great goal for me,
0:24:23a great thing to achieve.
0:24:24- Yeah, I think that is,
0:24:25I mean, this sort of jumping ahead a little bit,
0:24:28This does tie into some of my own thoughts for the previous year, but yeah.
0:24:32Being able to...
0:24:34Being able to turn a bunch of that doing nothing time mentally from...
0:24:42from like a guilty pleasure into "No, I'm just doing this and it's fine"
0:24:48is a big psychological advantage.
0:24:51And it is difficult for everybody, but it is also especially difficult if you're self-employed.
0:24:56Like this is a thing that I just when I talk to people who are self-employed is a constant refrain that it can be
0:25:02that you have so much that is under your control, but it can be very difficult to
0:25:07enjoy your free time because there is this endless list of things that could in theory be done.
0:25:13So it's it's really great to hear that that the time tracking is helping you feel like you have evidence to show your brain that you've
0:25:20done stuff, you have a good estimate of how long things
0:25:24Take you and then that that makes your doing nothing or relaxing time
0:25:29More able to be valued in in the moment. So that that sounds like a really great improvement and
0:25:34Another thing that I was even surprised to discover so I have no idea
0:25:40I don't know if anybody cares enough to pay attention to this kind of thing
0:25:43Mm-hmm, but I I would say this is probably a surprise for anybody that does pay attention including myself
0:25:50For the first time in maybe my entire podcasting career
0:25:542017
0:25:56was the first time that I have not launched a new show that I have been a part of I
0:26:01Find I find this totally shocking. I couldn't believe it. I found it out by accident
0:26:06Because I was for some other purposes. I was looking at all of the shows that we've launched in 2017
0:26:14And I realized I'm not on any of them
0:26:19Yeah, when you mentioned this to me, I feel like it blew my mind. I was like, oh surely you're wrong
0:26:24Surely you're wrong, but I'm not wrong. This is the first time ever and I was like wow
0:26:30This is a big surprise to me. How do you feel about that?
0:26:33What it tells me is that I internalized
0:26:36the year theme
0:26:38Mm-hmm. I have had ideas that I've just not done
0:26:41Because that's adding more right a new show is adding more and I mean I had some projects that I've
0:26:49I'd been working on in 2017 that I killed at the last minute
0:26:53because I came to realize how much work they would have taken
0:26:57and I didn't believe that the value would be there
0:27:00ultimately either creatively or financially.
0:27:02So I decided not to go through with them.
0:27:05And this isn't a thing,
0:27:06so when we talk about my next yearly theme,
0:27:08it is building on what I learned
0:27:11and how I think to go forward from it.
0:27:13But this was a big surprise to me
0:27:14because I really do believe that this is the first time
0:27:18in seven years that I have not launched a new show
0:27:22in an entire Canada year period.
0:27:25So I think that that tells me that the Year of Less theme
0:27:30was a significant success
0:27:35because I internalized something
0:27:39and basically stopped myself from this habit
0:27:44that I have built up over the last seven years
0:27:47of every time I have an idea, I just do it.
0:27:50(laughing)
0:27:53So I was pretty proud, I was pretty happy to see that.
0:27:56It may sound like a strange thing to do,
0:27:58but I feel like I am so congratulatory towards you on that,
0:28:03because it is really hard not to just go
0:28:08with all of the new projects.
0:28:10And especially when you have the power
0:28:13to make those projects happen.
0:28:15- Nobody can stop me, right?
0:28:17- Yeah, no, exactly.
0:28:18It's like nobody can stop you,
0:28:20which is the best and the worst part of it, right?
0:28:23Like you wanna do a new project,
0:28:24like there's nobody to stop you.
0:28:25And it's always like the new project
0:28:29is always more exciting than the current project, right?
0:28:32It's always like, ooh, this new project, so exciting.
0:28:35It's turning my head.
0:28:36It's like, well, you know,
0:28:37but it takes a lot of recognition and ability
0:28:43to not pursue all of those things.
0:28:46So yeah, whenever it was, you told me a couple weeks ago
0:28:48that you hadn't done a new show in 2017
0:28:51and I just found it mind blowing.
0:28:53But I really do think it's great.
0:28:56And I would also suspect that this is partly a better ability
0:29:01on your part after having done this for many years
0:29:06to have a sense of what a potentially good payoff
0:29:10for a project is or isn't.
0:29:12Like when you're newer, it makes more sense to just like try a bunch of stuff and see what sticks on the wall.
0:29:20But, you know, now that you are an established podcast person, you have an established podcast network,
0:29:27and you now have a better sense of the value of your time, it makes less sense to go off on a whole bunch of new projects.
0:29:35Like they can be damaging in a way.
0:29:37And you also probably have a better internal mental compass about what are the valuable
0:29:43directions to go in.
0:29:45And not everything that occurs to you that seems like a great idea one week is a good
0:29:51way to go the following week.
0:29:52Yeah, like I've made a conscious effort that if I have an idea and begin on it, I don't
0:29:59launch it quickly.
0:30:01Like I spend, I have, I mean we've had shows that we even have artwork for that will never
0:30:07be used.
0:30:08Now I've seen some of that artwork.
0:30:09You've seen some of it.
0:30:10It's very nice.
0:30:11It's wonderful.
0:30:12It's actually one of my favorites ever but no one's ever going to see it.
0:30:14Don't ask, you won't see it.
0:30:16Sorry.
0:30:17Maybe I'll use it for something one day and if I ever use it then I'll tell you that
0:30:21that's what it, that it was for the secret project.
0:30:23But it was just, I kind of let it just stay a little bit and decided that no, I don't
0:30:30this is the right thing for me to do. So I've had a few things like that this year and I
0:30:36think it's been of great benefit. And as I say, it ties into my 2018 theme, which we'll
0:30:41talk about in a bit because I still have, I had a lot of things, I had a lot of stuff
0:30:44to say this time. Halfway through 2017, I started my second yearly theme, which will
0:30:52run until June of this year, which is the year of positivity/optimism. I refer to both
0:30:59things I can never remember which one it is but we'll call it the year of
0:31:02optimism. Right and it follows the Apple calendar year. It follows the Apple
0:31:06calendar year so WWDC to WWDC. So much of my life is focused around talking about
0:31:12technology with a significant focus on Apple anybody that listens to this show
0:31:17knows that and 2015 to 2016 to 2017 there was a decline in overall
0:31:25excitedness amongst people that care about Apple products. There was a lot more frustration
0:31:30than there ever had been. And this really culminated in the beginning of 2017. It was
0:31:35just a bad time. There were no new products. Everyone was happy. No matter what you liked,
0:31:40there was nothing for you.
0:31:41Yeah. I still think of this period of time in my mind as the Apple Valley of Darkness
0:31:46that we were wandering through.
0:31:47It was a dark time. If you cared about this stuff, it was a dark time because everything
0:31:51that happened was not good. And then WWDC 2017 was like the apology year and everybody
0:31:59got something. It was Tim Cook turned into Oprah and everyone got something, right? There
0:32:05was something under everybody's seat and we all got the thing that we wanted. So I decided
0:32:11to make a concerted effort, which I'm still working on, that I would try and be more positive
0:32:15and optimistic when talking about technology because that's what I enjoy. I actually don't
0:32:22like being mad about it. I like to enjoy it. That's why I talk about it. It's not fun.
0:32:28So I've been focusing on that. And of course you slip every now and then, but the overall
0:32:32feeling is that it's going to be cool and we're going to enjoy it and it's going to
0:32:35be great. So I'm happier to talk about this stuff on shows now because I'm generally more
0:32:41happy about it. So that was my theme. So my theme for 2017 and I'm very happy with them.
0:32:46Yeah, I feel like the year of positivity, at least from my subjective experience, was
0:32:53good timing and also sort of like good for your mental health because yeah, it's like
0:32:59I also listen to a bunch of these shows, like the same shows that you listen to where it's
0:33:03like everybody's wandering through this valley of darkness together and it's like yeah, it
0:33:08is terrible but at a certain point you just get tired of listening to everybody talk about
0:33:12how stuff is terrible. Even when like I too am there in the valley of darkness like talking
0:33:17about how things suck as well right like we're all here together. But this is one of these
0:33:23things where like for mental health sometimes you have to take a little bit of a like a
0:33:27reevaluation and say like yeah stuff sucks but I'm gonna try to force through a thing
0:33:34And happiness is one of those funny topics where you can make things better through playing
0:33:44tricks on yourself and in some ways deciding that you're going to have a more positive
0:33:49outlook on stuff.
0:33:51You can make that start to occur.
0:33:54And I think it also happened to be great timing and a good time to start it with the 2017
0:33:59WWDC.
0:34:00But yeah, I'm very glad that we're past that part.
0:34:03And I have to say, as a listener to your shows, I was always glad when you were doing the
0:34:10year of positivity.
0:34:11And I feel like there were a few moments where it really came through.
0:34:14They're like, "Oh, there's Myke being positive about stuff.
0:34:16I can hear him doing it."
0:34:18And as a listener, I was appreciative.
0:34:20Saying it's like a mental health thing is a really good point, because it was.
0:34:25I was just finding myself just being sad about the thing that I liked and then having to
0:34:29talk about it like three times a week every week.
0:34:32And it was just like, this isn't good for my overall feeling.
0:34:36So I decided to make a change to it and to try and see the lighter side of things.
0:34:41It's still a battle because I have a lot of opinions and sometimes my opinions aren't
0:34:46always that things are good.
0:34:48But ultimately, I've been very happy.
0:34:51I mean, this came out a couple of weeks ago when I was talking about my general content
0:34:57in technology, which you decided to be a rain cloud over, but we don't have to worry about
0:35:01things like that.
0:35:02My general feeling about technology right now is that I'm very happy with my technology
0:35:09right now, and I feel like I'm still on the righteous path of the multi-pad lifestyle,
0:35:15even though some people decided to leave it.
0:35:17So anyway, let's talk about your incredibly confusing 2017 theme.
0:35:21The year of betrayal!
0:35:23It was cool, I think.
0:35:24BRIAN: You can't let other people's happiness get in the way of your happiness, Myke.
0:35:27- Yeah, sure, that's what that is.
0:35:29Today's episode of Cortex is brought to you in part
0:35:33by our friends at Hover.
0:35:35Building your online identity has never been more important
0:35:38and Hover will help you find the domain
0:35:40that shows the world exactly what you are passionate about.
0:35:43When it comes to thinking about new projects,
0:35:46there is never a better time than the beginning of the year.
0:35:49And any new project comes with it a new website
0:35:53and that website needs a wicked cool domain name
0:35:56and that is why I have used Hover for so long for this stuff.
0:36:00Any project that pops into my head, I will go there and just get the domain for it.
0:36:05Like, what do you have to lose, even if you just stick on to it
0:36:08for one year of a yearly theme? Right?
0:36:10At least you've got it.
0:36:11If the name is there, you've got it. It's locked down.
0:36:13Hover is super, super simple.
0:36:16They allow you to keep your domain separate from your hosting
0:36:19so you never have to get stuck with a service that doesn't meet your needs.
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0:36:26They have their hover connect feature that allows you to connect your domain to any website builder with just a few simple clicks
0:36:32They do personalized email that you can match your domain. That's a super professional thing, by the way
0:36:37You know grabbing a domain name of your own and setting up an email address
0:36:40Rather than using Gmail or something that looks real good
0:36:43And and that's a great reason to get a domain that I think most people don't really think of very much
0:36:47And of course who is privacy is free
0:36:50So bad guys don't get your information
0:36:52If you want to show the world what you're passionate about and set yourself up for your year
0:36:57Hover is there to help make that first step head to hover.com/cortex right now
0:37:03And you'll get 10% of your first purchase and show your support for the show
0:37:07Our thanks to hover for their continued support of cortex and relay FM
0:37:10Looking back on my my past year
0:37:13It had a confusing start with a terrible name
0:37:17Which so I originally was calling it the year of new and then a listener to the show having having heard me try to wander through
0:37:23a bad description of what I was up to
0:37:25Redubbed it the year of
0:37:27Redirection which I like much better because you weren't actually doing anything new so the funny thing is in retro
0:37:34I was I was going through this morning getting ready for the show
0:37:36and I was going through all of my records from the year and like looking stuff over and
0:37:40It's funny to me because actually calling it the year of new slash
0:37:44is actually perfect because there were like a bazillion new things this year.
0:37:49It just so happens that this stuff isn't really public facing to people.
0:37:54But Year of New/Redirection actually ended up being just a perfect name for the year.
0:37:59But while I was going through the year, I was thinking of it as the Year of Redirection and
0:38:05what this meant for me was
0:38:11trying to think more deliberately about how I am spending my time,
0:38:17like what things maybe have too much time, where are some areas where I should spend
0:38:22more time in a different way than I currently was.
0:38:28And part of this was that going into 2017, I feel like I was dealing with a little bit of burnout,
0:38:36so I was trying to think about how can I
0:38:40arrange my working life in a different way, or how can I do a bunch of things in a different way
0:38:44in that upcoming year. There is a little bit of a funny thing talking about this year because I realized that
0:38:51this again is one of these funny moments where I feel like I'm coming up against this this
0:38:57this edge of like being a private person who makes his living in a very public way.
0:39:02And also there was just a bunch of stuff that happened business-wise that doesn't make sense really to talk about in a public way.
0:39:09So it's funny because it's like I had all of this stuff happen and I redirected a bunch of my energy and time on various projects
0:39:17But so I am gonna have to talk about this in like kind of a high-level way
0:39:21But I'm aware of that because there's a bunch of places where it's like I just I just don't either want to or it doesn't make
0:39:26Sense really to go into the details. The laser shark business is booming. Myke, don't tell people about the laser sharks.
0:39:33The volcano layer extraction company is just,
0:39:36it's working excellently.
0:39:38- You joke, but you're closer than you think.
0:39:40- Oh God.
0:39:43I'm still convinced that you are trying
0:39:45to build an office building.
0:39:46I am convinced of this.
0:39:48Absolutely 100%, I believe that you are trying
0:39:52to build an office complex, but this is the story.
0:39:54This is the thought though.
0:39:56- I'd love to do it, but I've got to finish
0:39:58my clothing assembly line first, right?
0:40:00Like there's only so much of me I can do at once.
0:40:02There's only so many industries and factories you can build upon.
0:40:05Yeah, it's totally true.
0:40:08But yeah, so there's a bunch of stuff which is not obvious to people, but like, one of the things that people who pay very close attention to the numbers would notice is like a thing that I decided to do, which you were sort of referencing earlier, is I very intentionally at the beginning of 2017 decided to crank down
0:40:31my podcast output just a little bit.
0:40:34So if someone is going through like,
0:40:36how many episodes were published each month,
0:40:38you were joking about there being more Cortexmuses,
0:40:41but there totally were.
0:40:42And that was a very intentional decision on my part.
0:40:47- And this was something that we discussed
0:40:49and we worked out a good plan for the year.
0:40:51And I think we were, but I was very happy with the output
0:40:55of the last year's shows as well.
0:40:57And yeah, it was less, but I don't,
0:40:59but I actually think it was a positive impact
0:41:02on the show overall.
0:41:04Yeah, and I have to say, you were great to work with
0:41:07during this time because it is this,
0:41:10one person is saying, "I want to pull back 15%
0:41:15over the course of the year."
0:41:17And it's like, "Well, it's a partnership.
0:41:19We work on this thing together."
0:41:20But you were great with this.
0:41:22And so that was one of the big things
0:41:24with the year of "Redirection" for me,
0:41:27was this was one area where I thought,
0:41:29The podcasts are great. They're a great way for me to spend my time.
0:41:33But I was also aware of like, man, I had this little bit of a feeling of burnout that it's like,
0:41:39every week there is a show to do,
0:41:42and I need to have a few more times in the year where it's like,
0:41:47"Okay, I have one or two weeks in a row where there's no podcasts."
0:41:51And I think this is the case of being like,
0:41:57Being an introverted person, I always do find that the podcasts are quite mentally draining in this very particular way,
0:42:06and I just needed some little bit more time to, like, recoup from that.
0:42:11That was a case where Year of Redirection was great.
0:42:14Like, just pulling back a little bit, like I said, about 15%, was fantastic,
0:42:21and it's one of these cases where it's like, "Okay, I'm taking a small hit business-wise,
0:42:27but I'm getting a massive improvement psychologically.
0:42:31I feel much better about this.
0:42:33And I also think it made the shows
0:42:35genuinely better as well to have more breaks.
0:42:38- I would say from my perspective,
0:42:41less shows meant that I could prepare better
0:42:44for all of them.
0:42:46So the things that we were talking about and themes,
0:42:50I was happier with our 2017 output than our 2016 output
0:42:54because I have more time to come up with ideas.
0:42:56And it is worth noting that this year will probably be pretty similar.
0:43:00Sometimes there's one, sometimes there's two.
0:43:01And that's kind of just how we're going to be going forward,
0:43:05because it fits into both of our schedules really nicely.
0:43:08Because in case you'd never guessed, we travel quite a lot.
0:43:12And sometimes it can be a nightmare for us to align our travel schedules.
0:43:16Like that is an example of a thing where in one way, it sounds like an easy thing to say,
0:43:23like, oh, I'm just going to pull back a little bit.
0:43:25But I did this across like all of my various business endeavors was trying to pull back like 15% across the board and everything
0:43:32I'm involved with like in everything that I do
0:43:34and that ended up being like a whole
0:43:36year-long project and it was like a very carefully managed thing and trying to like
0:43:41balance a whole bunch of inputs and outputs like that that was a really big deal
0:43:46but I feel like it was a huge success and a big win on my part and
0:43:50there were a number of times in the year where
0:43:54having that like extra 15% of time
0:43:57really did allow me to
0:44:00redirect efforts and energy into other things that came up or things that ended up being new endeavors of one kind or another.
0:44:07So it was
0:44:09it was really great for me, and I'm so glad I did it, but I remember at the beginning of
0:44:142017 like I was looking back through my initial planning notes and it's like, man,
0:44:19I was really worried that it was gonna make 2017 just a total disaster.
0:44:23that little bit of a pullback, but it didn't. It was really a great decision.
0:44:28A disaster in what way?
0:44:30Like, I've never had things on regular schedules, obviously,
0:44:36but I feel like there's got to be some kind of minimum threshold below which you go
0:44:41that it starts turning bad.
0:44:43Like, and I was worried, like, maybe I'm closer to whatever that minimum threshold is
0:44:48than I thought, and going like 15% less will bring me below that threshold.
0:44:53But it turned out that's not the case.
0:44:55So it's like everything keeps growing and like we said, the show is actually doing better than they were before.
0:45:01So I was just worried like how close am I to the edge of too infrequent?
0:45:06And maybe I'm way closer to that edge than I think.
0:45:10But so no, it worked out great.
0:45:14And like I said, for me personally, it was really great and it was really important during a couple of times in the year in particular.
0:45:19So that is like one of the most public-facing ways that people can see something is different in the year of redirection.
0:45:27But you brought up travel, Myke, and this is where I feel like the year of new is a thing.
0:45:35Because this past 2017, the amount of travel that I did exploded.
0:45:43It just exploded in this totally unexpected way and
0:45:50I feel like here's the best way I can-- because I was looking at like how much time I've spent in airports this year
0:45:56which is like phenomenal amount of time
0:45:58But the thing that really hit home, which just happened yesterday, was
0:46:05At the beginning of the year, I sort of knew that I was going to be doing a bunch more traveling
0:46:10I had a vague idea that this was a thing that was going to happen in the year and
0:46:13I was talking to a friend of mine about it and
0:46:16He convinced me to sign up for one of the airline reward programs
0:46:21I was like, I don't know if I should like who cares I can't just do one point. It's wild to me
0:46:26I can't believe you are on one. Well, I just thought it was dumb right and and friend and also like
0:46:31For most of my life the amount of traveling that I did was very little
0:46:37And it wouldn't really have mattered
0:46:40But so I signed up at the beginning of the year and you know when you sign up so I signed up with British Airways
0:46:45And it's like they send you a card and they're like welcome to the peasant class of rewards, right?
0:46:49You get nothing except this card which now says that you're in our you're at the bottom of our caste system
0:46:55And I'm like, whatever
0:46:57so
0:46:58Yesterday I literally got a golden envelope in the mail. Right? The golden envelope is a great thing to get
0:47:06from British Airways that I opened up and had like tissue paper and and this fancy thick paper and like
0:47:14They're like welcome to the golden god class of travel
0:47:18So I I have been on virgin for the last couple of years and I've gone through that. Mm-hmm that whole thing
0:47:27But I had to take a few flights with BA this year because virgin didn't serve some places. So I lost my gold status
0:47:35By like just that hair. I lost it
0:47:38So I'm now switching over to BA because I've done BA's before that their progression through their system
0:47:44Is much better like you get more for less with them
0:47:48So yeah, I I'm going through that right now and probably by the end of the year
0:47:54I might get to gold because I have a lot of travel on BA this year including like all of my honeymoon stuff
0:48:01So I think we're gonna be good
0:48:04Yeah, but it's like I have to say that when I got that golden envelope
0:48:07It was a real mixed feelings moment. It was like oh god. This is a physical manifestation of
0:48:13The subjective feeling like I feel like I've traveled a lot this year as I know here is manifest
0:48:19Proof that the amount of travel I have done has just exploded
0:48:22Like I counted up like even just just in the summer. I think in the space of six weeks
0:48:29I stepped on ten planes, like it was some crazy number. Like the whole summer of travel was was especially
0:48:35explosive and then this year was was on top of that and this feels like a really new and very
0:48:42different thing in my life and it was also the case that had I not cut back on some other work stuff
0:48:50that would - the combination of increased business travel plus
0:48:55maintaining the previous year's schedule, that really would have been a disaster.
0:48:58Because we certainly ran into enough times this year of just trying to coordinate both of our schedules that it was really hard,
0:49:04or we were really running up against some very narrow windows of time.
0:49:08We live in the same town, but I think we have seen each other more this year overseas.
0:49:14Oh, yeah. Yeah, without a doubt. That is the case.
0:49:17It's been an interesting experience.
0:49:24and I also feel like I've traveled so much I have become a very fundamentally different person with travel.
0:49:32I'm now the kind of person who doesn't have a lot of stress cutting it real close getting to an airport.
0:49:39I don't think I'm ever gonna get there.
0:49:41I never thought I would be there either, but I have become that guy.
0:49:45My thing is now, I don't think about the fact that I'm gonna be getting on a plane very much before I do it.
0:49:53Right? Like I know that like before I started traveling a bunch of times every year like
0:49:57Thinking that I'm about to get on a plane to go to America or whatever was like a big thing. That was in my mind
0:50:03For a bit, right, but now it's kind of just like I'll pack but I'm not really thinking about it
0:50:10I packed the day before and then I just wake up and go to the airport
0:50:12Like it's like going to this is such a terrible thing to say I guess but it's like going to get a train now
0:50:18Because I fly so much right and and the reason we both do this is
0:50:23Basically everybody that we work with by and large lives in America. So there's so many
0:50:27Businessy things that occur which require us to be on the other side of the ocean
0:50:33So that I do it so many times now that it's it's like any kind of former transport
0:50:39Which is a way healthier way to consider air travel
0:50:44Because you don't fret about it
0:50:46I always found myself fretting about it because there are so many things about the process
0:50:51That are meant to make you fret about it and I'm now happy that I don't need to do that. Yeah, I agree
0:50:57There's a lot of travel fretting that is gone
0:51:00Part of that is being part of a members rewards program
0:51:03which has which has advantages like for me a huge psychological advantage is being able to
0:51:08pick a seat
0:51:11further and further ahead in time.
0:51:13So it's like I know I really do not want to be
0:51:15penned in in a window seat on an airplane if I can possibly avoid it.
0:51:19And so like getting an aisle seat is extraordinarily psychologically important to me when I'm flying.
0:51:24And so being able to like book and get that way in advance makes a big difference.
0:51:28But yeah, also just like the pure familiarity with travel has has definitely decreased the amount of fretting.
0:51:36And has made some things possible,
0:51:39which would have been a huge, a huge deal, like an inconceivably large deal otherwise.
0:51:45I'll just briefly relay a story that I feel like encompasses the entirety of my travel year.
0:51:53But I had traveled so much this year that come December I had decided there's going to be no more travel.
0:51:59I cannot do any more flights. It's too much. It's all too disruptive.
0:52:03I don't want to do it.
0:52:04And it's like, that's one of the reasons why I was really interested in going to PodCon,
0:52:08but I was like, I can't get on one more plane because I've just flown too much this year.
0:52:14And it's a long one. It takes a long time to get to Seattle, turns out.
0:52:18Yeah, it takes a long time to get to Seattle, but I was thinking like,
0:52:21"Oh, but I can stay on Grey Master time, it'll all be fine."
0:52:24I was trying to scheme it out, but the rational part of my brain said like,
0:52:29"Too many flights, dude. You just can't do this.
0:52:32decide that there is a travel veto on December, no more traveling.
0:52:37And I decided it and I thought, okay, that's great.
0:52:40And then, for reasons that I can't go into the details,
0:52:45we'll just say that this is one of the many problems of being a self-employed dual citizen
0:52:50where one of those citizenships is America.
0:52:52America makes it real difficult for self-employed people living abroad.
0:52:56But it turned out, I found out on Christmas Eve
0:53:00that I needed to go to America to sign a document before the end of the year.
0:53:05And so I ended up at the very last minute between Christmas and New Year's
0:53:11buying a plane ticket to go to America for 36 hours
0:53:16to return and fly back before New Year's.
0:53:19And while that was an enormous pain in the ass,
0:53:26there was a part of me which because I had done so much travel, I was like,
0:53:29"You know what? I can just deal with this."
0:53:31Right? It's not...
0:53:32It was not something I wanted to do,
0:53:36but had I not done a ton of flying otherwise,
0:53:39that would have been an incredible psychological problem.
0:53:43But I just had this feeling of resignation of like,
0:53:47"I guess I'm going to America for 36 hours
0:53:49to sign a single piece of paper
0:53:51that before the end of the calendar year."
0:53:53Like, "Okay, here I go."
0:53:56- Yeah, that really summed up a difference in you.
0:53:58Like, and I noticed it because we were chatting
0:54:00over Christmas and I knew I was seeing you
0:54:03over the New Year's period and you told me
0:54:05that you were getting on a plane
0:54:07and I was like, that's a different man.
0:54:09(laughing)
0:54:10- Yeah, exactly.
0:54:11- He's changed, he's changed.
0:54:13- Yeah, what I loved about that though
0:54:14is even when I checked in, the gate agent
0:54:16looked at my ticket and she's like,
0:54:18you're going to America for 36 hours?
0:54:20And I'm like, yes, that's correct, man.
0:54:22- Don't judge me.
0:54:24You don't know my struggles.
0:54:25(laughing)
0:54:28It was totally nuts, but I felt like that was the perfect encapsulation.
0:54:32I decided there's no more travel, and of course at the 11th hour something else comes up,
0:54:37which is like, "This is mandatory travel, you have no option about it."
0:54:40Like, "Okay, guess it's gonna happen."
0:54:42So I feel like looking back on my past year,
0:54:46the amount of travel, the amount of new locations,
0:54:50like, that is a huge difference in what was occurring over the previous year.
0:54:55The other major thing though, which was related to my year of new and year of redirection was
0:55:01while you were doing time tracking for the first time last year, I was deciding to try to time
0:55:07track everything in my life for the previous year. And I have to say, I feel like that was also
0:55:15a really great thing to do, and I've really appreciated this...
0:55:23I don't know, I don't even know how to phrase it, but I feel like there is...
0:55:26I don't know how to say this in a way that's not going to sound to people like it's a bad thing,
0:55:31because I mean it in a very good way.
0:55:34But I feel like having done this for a long period of time,
0:55:39of trying to keep track of not just working hours,
0:55:43but also like leisure time, or socializing time, or any kind of time,
0:55:50I really have like a mental clock in my head
0:55:54that is running and
0:55:58that will sound bad to people, but what I mean by it is I feel like it's established a real kind of
0:56:06in the moment presence in a lot of the things that I do.
0:56:12So, like,
0:56:14again, so the worst way that people would think about it is like,
0:56:18Like if I'm socializing with someone, I do keep track of my socializing time, but it's
0:56:22not like I'm there on my watch and it's like, "Oh God, how much time am I spending with
0:56:26this person?"
0:56:27- Bleep, bloop, 10 personality points allocated.
0:56:31- Yeah.
0:56:34It's much more this feeling of like, I have decided to spend time with this person and
0:56:40I'm going to be as mentally here in the moment as I possibly can be.
0:56:45And I feel like this is a mental improvement that has been booted up in my brain by trying
0:56:54to always have a timer running in the background so that I'm just time tracking my entire life.
0:56:59So I feel like it has made me much more present focused than would otherwise be the case.
0:57:09So I would not recommend that everybody do this thing that I have done.
0:57:14I really think it is on the edge of crazy to try to time track an entire life, but I
0:57:19have found it really good and it has been a worthwhile thing to do after having already
0:57:27been for years familiar with the idea of doing just time tracking around more specific activities.
0:57:34Yeah, I think I have an example of this too, because I do ultimately think that what you
0:57:39do is way more than I would want to do, but once you get into time tracking as a concept
0:57:44that exists in your life, you're able to apply it to some different things. So as is always
0:57:50with human beings, I am trying to make a more concerted effort of taking care of my health.
0:57:57And right now that is meaning to exercise more. Now I'll give you a fact about Myke
0:58:02Myke Hurley hates exercise.
0:58:05I have tried so many different things.
0:58:09I have never ever enjoyed physical activity.
0:58:11I didn't enjoy PE in school.
0:58:14I just don't.
0:58:15For whatever reason, I'm not good at any of it
0:58:17and I don't like it.
0:58:18It's just how I am.
0:58:19I do not get a good feeling from going to the gym
0:58:24no matter what I do.
0:58:25I just don't.
0:58:25I know that this is something that people get
0:58:27and whatever and endorphins and blah, blah, blah.
0:58:30I never get a good feeling out of it.
0:58:33- Yeah, (beep) those people, that's my feeling.
0:58:34- Yeah, exactly.
0:58:36The only type of activity that I enjoy is swimming.
0:58:39I like to swim.
0:58:41I'm pretty decent at it, I enjoy it.
0:58:44And it's, I believe to be a pretty good workout.
0:58:48Now, the problem that I have is that
0:58:50where I live there are not a lot of places I can swim.
0:58:55So I have to travel somewhere to go to a pool
0:58:59and travel back and the problem that I was seeing was I believed that it was taking too
0:59:04much time for me to complete this activity and that it was eating into my days too significantly.
0:59:12So I decided to time track it. I was like, let's find out shall I? I've had this feeling
0:59:19a bunch before so let's find out. I was right, it was taking too much time so I have optimized
0:59:26some of the travel to and from the place that I'm going to.
0:59:30So I've tried to find ways to cut down the travel time
0:59:33and to build it into days differently,
0:59:35but I got the answer that I needed
0:59:37from actually doing some real time tracking
0:59:40to see how many hours this thing was taking.
0:59:43I was finding that it was taking me three hours
0:59:47to do 45 minutes of swimming.
0:59:48Well, that's not good, is it?
0:59:51That's not efficient, so I've found ways
0:59:54cut that down by like a third. So it's like okay so let me try and see how I can build this in.
1:00:00So yeah that's just like an example of when you get into the time tracking mindset you can use
1:00:06real data to prove theories or disprove theories and then action upon them. That's what the benefit
1:00:13for me is of seriously time tracking but I am not of the inclination to do what you do yet.
1:00:21Like I don't want to track the time that I spend playing Nintendo. Like I don't I don't need to see that right like I'm good
1:00:28I'm good. Let's just assume that all of the time that isn't work time is spent playing Nintendo and then we're good
1:00:35Yeah, but see this this is why I like doing the whole lifetime tracking because I
1:00:43Think that we when we get to what our themes for the next year are I'll talk a little bit about more
1:00:49But it does then...
1:00:51If you're trying to do the whole life tracking, there is data in like the missing data.
1:00:56And that's an interesting thing to look at is to say like, "Oh, when, you know, I'm awake 16 hours a day and
1:01:02like, but how many hours did I actually get in the day?" And then that missing piece becomes an interesting piece of data.
1:01:10Like, "Where did that time go?" Or
1:01:12"Why is it that during this week or this month I was clearly way worse at time tracking than other times?"
1:01:18So I like having that because I feel like there is this sense of information in the negative space of the time tracking
1:01:28if you're trying to be really complete in what's occurring.
1:01:32We can talk more about that later, but I guess I'll just say that the year of new and the year of redirection was sort of
1:01:39vague, much more vague than the year of less was for me, which had this really precise meaning.
1:01:45But I still feel like a lot of what I was trying to do, I did.
1:01:52I feel much better about my work-life balance.
1:01:55There were some things last year that made me think about how I spend family time and wanting to try to increase that.
1:02:03And that is definitely a thing that I accomplished.
1:02:06There were a bunch of new things that I did, new experiences, some new business ventures.
1:02:12There was a bunch of new stuff that was great because I had been able to redirect how I
1:02:20spent some of my time into those new things.
1:02:22Yeah, that's the balance.
1:02:24It wasn't that you were necessarily seeking out these new things, but by redirecting your
1:02:29time, new things could come to you.
1:02:34It's kind of like that is the way I think that it ended up balancing out because I don't
1:02:39know if you necessarily set out the year to be like, "I need some new business ventures!"
1:02:43I don't know if necessarily that was what you were thinking.
1:02:46Like when you open up space, things become available. So I feel like that was really
1:02:53good. I guess in some ways I feel like I had much more of the advantages and fewer of the
1:02:59disadvantages of being a self-employed person during the year of Redirection. Like I think
1:03:04that's that's
1:03:06Largely what happened like I did some analysis
1:03:09I did like a like an 80/20 analysis of
1:03:12Where where are the pain points in my life and where are the benefit points in my life and realized that was a little bit
1:03:18off and worked to
1:03:20Reduce the things that were causing pain and increase the number of things which were causing enjoyment
1:03:24so I feel like that that's the summation of like your of redirection ended up being the year that I was able to
1:03:32benefit more from being a self-employed person than I had in previous years.
1:03:36Yeah, because you could do whatever you wanted, right?
1:03:39There was more of that feeling of like, I can pick and choose and do the things that I want to do
1:03:44without the feeling of like, I am bound into the things that I must do.
1:03:48There was kind of a little bit more flexibility in there.
1:03:51Yeah, I mean, I always think this, that there's a...
1:03:55It's a thing I see with a lot of people and it's very natural for it to happen, but it's like...
1:04:02I don't know how to phrase it, but there's this way that being successfully self-employed
1:04:09you can end up just building yourself a golden cage.
1:04:13And I feel like in 2016 I came a little close to that edge or closer to that edge than I
1:04:20really want to be and that's a thing that I'm always very conscious of and then like
1:04:242017 was riding that ship a little better.
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1:06:06So I have two themes for 2018 starting out, which is also being coupled with my
1:06:13third theme, which is running into a June. Yeah, so you're gonna have three overlapping themes. That's what's gonna happen? Okay. Yeah
1:06:20Yeah, well, okay, so it will make sense when you hear them. So so one of the themes of my year
1:06:24Is the year of adulting I am gonna become a serious adult this year is
1:06:30It's time to get serious because this year I turn 30 years old and I'm getting married
1:06:38It's pretty serious. Yeah, I feel like these are pretty serious big adult things that will occur
1:06:45So that's I know that's just gonna be a prevailing thing in in my life this year
1:06:49year. I don't believe there are any significant actions to it, but they are just guiding a
1:06:56lot of things that are happening. So especially my wedding, it is guiding a lot of activity
1:07:02and focus this year in a way that I am going to take my foot off the gas a little bit more
1:07:10with some work stuff this year because I have a very serious, big event going on. So that's
1:07:16That's kind of a thought.
1:07:17And really, I don't think that it will...
1:07:20No one will see it, right?
1:07:21It's kind of in a way less than what you did.
1:07:24I'm not gonna pull back on a bunch of stuff, but it's just informing some things that I'm
1:07:29gonna be doing and kind of how I'm gonna be approaching some projects that are existing
1:07:34and new because I'm gonna be having this huge thing going on in my life this year, which
1:07:40I'm very excited about.
1:07:43But it's obviously gonna make an impact on me.
1:07:45Which is a great thing about being self-employed
1:07:49is that I'm able to make those decisions, right?
1:07:51And it was like when I was buying the house
1:07:56and I remember saying on the show about like,
1:07:58it's like a job of its own and I don't know how people,
1:08:03I just don't know how people do it, including me,
1:08:05I don't know how I did it.
1:08:06And it's a similar thing, like getting married,
1:08:10it's like a job of its own.
1:08:13And that's why there is an entire industry of wedding planners that exist, because it
1:08:18is like a big, huge project to manage.
1:08:21Yeah, it's a giant logistical challenge on many levels.
1:08:25Yeah, probably the biggest logistical thing that I will ever be involved with.
1:08:30So yeah, that's informing a lot.
1:08:32So that's one thing, but there's less kind of actions from that.
1:08:36And okay, so this might sound in contrast to the previous thing that I just spoke about,
1:08:43let me try and explain 2018 will also be for me the year of branching out so I
1:08:50have some things that I want to do I have some new things that I want to try
1:08:55and I want to see if it's something that I'm able to do so like one of those
1:09:02things is more live shows I love doing live shows and but they are there they're
1:09:10real bear to a range and we did more in 2017 than we've done in 2016 and I want to continue
1:09:16that. I don't have any handle on what that's going to be. I have no plan. We have no plan,
1:09:23like significant plan right now, but we want to do more of them, right? So we want to hopefully
1:09:30do one at WWDC this year, which we didn't do last year. So, you know, no plans, but
1:09:34it's just hopes. And so that is a big thing because doing, anytime you add another live
1:09:40show into the Canada like it's a it's a big logistical challenge and I am very
1:09:44lucky in that I have Steven to manage that stuff. Steven is very good at
1:09:47putting together live shows, my co-founder at Relay Event. It's something that he has
1:09:51developed in his skill set but for me if I'm if I'm involved in hosting them that
1:09:57is huge for me. So like before I do any type of live show I go into an almost
1:10:02catatonic state. I can't talk to anybody and I really get kind of like focused on it in
1:10:11a very significant way. Like for like an hour before I'm like sick. I don't even know what
1:10:19it is. I don't know if it's nerves. I don't know where it comes from. I don't know if
1:10:23it's stage fright. I don't know what it is because as soon as we start I'm great, fine.
1:10:27I can do it.
1:10:28But I feel like I always need to prepare more.
1:10:33And so I kind of get into this zone for a while.
1:10:36So there's always a lot to do,
1:10:38but it's something that I get great pleasure from
1:10:40when we do them.
1:10:41I love doing it.
1:10:43So we want to try and do more of that.
1:10:45And then trying new ideas is probably
1:10:49the bigger thing for me.
1:10:50And I've made hints to this in the past
1:10:53that there is an idea in my brain,
1:10:55which is, it is a podcast idea.
1:10:57I don't know if it's ever going to happen
1:11:01because it's so different to anything else that I have done.
1:11:05But I have been stewing on this idea for about six months
1:11:10and it won't go away.
1:11:12It keeps coming back.
1:11:13- It's a good sign.
1:11:14- Yeah, that's what, so that's that, okay,
1:11:17so that's one of the big things, right?
1:11:202016 Myke would have already launched this project.
1:11:23- Right.
1:11:24But 2017 Myke learned to wait
1:11:27So I'm still sitting on it
1:11:30but it's something that I really want to do and I
1:11:34saw Hamilton last week in London
1:11:38and it's only made it worse because
1:11:41Hamilton was created by one person and it is this
1:11:45incredible
1:11:48Incredible thing which I urge anyone to go and see if you can because it's probably the greatest single piece of media
1:11:55I've ever consumed it is a tour de force. I can't believe it. I
1:11:59Was just gonna say here like I haven't seen Hamilton
1:12:03I was aware whatever was like last year when I first came out that I started hearing everybody in the world talk about and overhype
1:12:09this thing
1:12:11And I got like sick of hearing people talk about Hamilton and I was like, ah, this is ridiculous. Whatever
1:12:17Like, this is just like a fad.
1:12:19But then I felt like my mind was changed because I, uh, last year I watched Moana and I was like,
1:12:26"Man, the music in this was just amazing. I just made this, this was so fantastic. Like,
1:12:30this music is great." And I thought like, "This is one of the best movie watching experiences
1:12:34I've had in a really long time." And I did a thing which I never do, which is like,
1:12:38"Who made this movie?" And I looked up and it's like, "Oh, turns out that the guy who made
1:12:43Hamilton did all the music for this and I was like, "Ah, okay, maybe this Hamilton thing is worth seeing."
1:12:51Great, Hamilton is in London. It's gonna be here forever. Please try and get tickets to it. And I
1:12:57advise anyone to do what I did because I think this is great. Don't listen to the music beforehand.
1:13:02Experience it. Who would do that? Who would do that? So many people. Because honestly, you can
1:13:07and it's fine and you can get it, but see it.
1:13:10So obviously I am no delusion of grandeur here.
1:13:14I don't think I can create something
1:13:16that is of the scale of Hamilton.
1:13:19- No, see that's what I'm hearing.
1:13:20Myke's gonna make, right?
1:13:21- Hamilton two.
1:13:23- Myke's working on Jefferson right now.
1:13:25- Yeah, that's what I'm doing.
1:13:26But it was just, because what I wanna do is a big project,
1:13:31is a huge project.
1:13:32It's something that I don't know
1:13:33if I have the skills or capabilities to do,
1:13:36But seeing something created by one individual is very inspiring to me because it's like,
1:13:44well, it shows that people are able to do these types of things.
1:13:48So maybe I can make something that's okay.
1:13:52So it's only basically what is happening to me is I have this idea and everything is inspiring
1:14:00me.
1:14:01Right?
1:14:02So many things that I'm seeing are like pushing me to be like, see, you can do this stuff.
1:14:07People can do this stuff. Maybe you can. So it's only feeding the flame. And yeah,
1:14:13people could probably guess what I have going on in my mind if they pay attention to the clues.
1:14:18If you guess it, you're probably right. But it's a project that I don't know if I had the
1:14:24capability to do. But 2018, I will make the decision. By the end of this year,
1:14:30I'll have either done it or I'm never gonna do it. I'm setting that for myself. It's like
1:14:35You can't keep doing this forever. If you want to try and make a go of this thing. You've got to do it this year
1:14:42So we'll see that's that's so my bigger theme this year is branching out trying some new big projects
1:14:49But also being mindful of not just trying anything and everything that comes to my mind like I learned in 2017
1:14:56Well, I look forward to seeing your enormous project at some point.
1:14:59Or not seeing it.
1:15:00Hamilton 2 coming to Broadway.
1:15:02[Laughter]
1:15:04Yeah, but I think that what you just said there is also a great point about deciding that you're going to do this thing or you're going to have to let it go.
1:15:15Because otherwise you can't just keep having it in the back of your mind for forever.
1:15:19And I think that's an interesting point to have with that.
1:15:24So yeah, I wish you all the best of luck with that, Myke.
1:15:29Thank you.
1:15:30I hope it turns out well.
1:15:32And all the live shows you're going to arrange.
1:15:34That we're going to do, right?
1:15:36How many live shows do you want to commit to? Ten?
1:15:38Zero. Zero.
1:15:40I'm committing to zero right now, Myke.
1:15:42The Cortex World Tour.
1:15:44Cortex World Tour.
1:15:46How many dates do you have? Zero.
1:15:50So what's your theme for 2018?
1:15:53Okay, so we need a little bit of a run-up to this because
1:15:58when I was recapping my year, it's mostly talking about how it was great. Like, year of redirection, very happy, things worked out well.
1:16:06But there's an alternative name that I could have given that year, looking in retrospect.
1:16:13And I think I could have called 2017, standing now at the beginning of 2018,
1:16:20the year of chaos.
1:16:23Because while I had cut back-
1:16:26That would have been a really bad name to give it proactively.
1:16:29Yeah, no, obviously.
1:16:31Proactively, that's not the name to give the thing, but retroactively.
1:16:36I think I'm going to always think of 2017 as like this year of chaos.
1:16:40Because this year was just a year where I felt like
1:16:47I never had any real consistent schedule for any significant length of time.
1:16:52I feel like things were just all over the place and
1:16:56Again, I do like to try to verify this kind of stuff
1:17:00So when I was like reviewing all the documentation I had from the previous year the data
1:17:04Totally bears this out that that last year was a year
1:17:09That was just all over the place in every metric I can think of
1:17:13and
1:17:15So like one of the things I was mentioning before about the negative space and time tracking
1:17:19I was looking over the year and I could see, like I wanted to see how well did I do with this time tracking?
1:17:24And my mental framework is that on any particular day I should have 12 hours.
1:17:31Like 12 hours is the bare minimum of competency.
1:17:3514 hours is good and like 16 hours is the theoretical maximum of how much time I would be tracking in a day.
1:17:42And the median day for the whole year was like 13 and a half hours, which I was pretty happy with.
1:17:48But if you break it down by months, some months, I'm tracking
1:17:5315 and a half hours a day, like I'm doing great. And a couple of months, particularly in the summer and in April,
1:18:00I've got like six hours a day, right? Like total disaster across the board in terms of the time tracking.
1:18:07And it's like, yeah, I remember those months. I remember I decided like, the hell with this,
1:18:11I can't possibly do it at all.
1:18:12So I just have like a string of zero days in a row because I'm like, I can't, I can't
1:18:16psychologically deal with this today. I've just got too much.
1:18:18And I looked at things like
1:18:22records of exercise and like records of health and it's like
1:18:27crazy lines all over the place of like how frequently frequent were you exercising? It's like crazy or like
1:18:34like things with like other health stuff like diet stuff. It's like, okay. It's like, okay great
1:18:40I have this stretch of time where everything is perfect. I was really focusing on and then it just goes to total disaster later
1:18:46And I think a huge portion of that was just, I am not a person who was used to the travel,
1:18:54so it's like I can see that it's like the calm pond of my life is totally destroyed with ripples and waves
1:19:02every time a rock of an airplane is thrown into it.
1:19:04And it's like this really takes things out of place.
1:19:08But even on top of that, I can just see again from the records,
1:19:13was really bad last year about things like weekly reviews and trying to stay on top of
1:19:19stuff. I think it wasn't helped by my sort of abandoning task managers for a while as
1:19:26well, which went into this theme of like a year of chaos.
1:19:29Yeah, I still honestly still can't get my head around that. Like, I don't feel like
1:19:34I was ever satisfied with the reasoning in which you were doing it. Like, it just never
1:19:39clicked for me. I feel like that that was a mistake that you made in the year.
1:19:44Well, I think I needed to pull back from some of that stuff. That was a little bit
1:19:49of like, redirection. Like I'm going to just like let this kind of go. But so what
1:19:56I feel like with last year, it had this experience where high level things
1:20:03were really great. It was a really successful year. But on like the low
1:20:07level it was totally this this like year of chaos so my theme for the upcoming
1:20:13year is the year of order that there is going to be order in 2018 oh yeah yes
1:20:22chaos to order so good yeah you've you've had a brainwave when you came up
1:20:29with that one I like it it's been itching it's been under my skin for you
1:20:34you know, maybe since mid-December I started thinking about this,
1:20:37because as we were coming up to our year themes, I was like,
1:20:39"I don't really have a year theme, like I'm just wishy-washy, like whatever."
1:20:42And as I started to think about it, I was like, "This is what it is.
1:20:46It's the year of order, it's 2018."
1:20:48Um, and I've sort of started on this in some ways,
1:20:53but there's like a sentence in my mind,
1:20:57which I feel like is this guiding sentence for the year,
1:21:01which is, like, the work isn't the work, the system is the work.
1:21:07And so I feel like I've set up a bunch of stuff already to try to help with.
1:21:12Like, okay, in the morning, like, you get up and the first thing that you do is the writing.
1:21:18And like, it doesn't matter how much you write or if it's good at all,
1:21:22because the system is the work, the work isn't the work.
1:21:25Like, one of my real focuses this year is
1:21:29I'm still expecting that there's going to be a lot of travel, like I can already see my calendar has a bunch of dates already in the future, like, oh god, here we go.
1:21:37But I think there can be a real difference when I'm going into the year expecting and acknowledging, like, there is going to be travel, there are going to be disruptions,
1:21:49but I cannot allow them to be as disruptive as they were last year.
1:21:54like last year I was really caught off guard by a lot of that kind of stuff. So for me, one of the
1:22:00things is like re-establishing a very clear schedule and sequence of habits to follow. Like that is one
1:22:10of the big things for me in the year and it's really interesting because I'm coming back to you
1:22:18off the end of a... of a...
1:22:20Gragation, off...
1:22:22in... the snowy wastelands,
1:22:25meditating on this idea of the Year of Order.
1:22:28- You're on a leadership retreat. - My wife literally has started to call these things that I do.
1:22:32She's like, "You're going on corporate retreats for one?
1:22:34- Like, that's what you're doing?" - Yeah.
1:22:36And it's like, "Yes, that is 100% the case."
1:22:39Set up a little table, name plaques, and then you move around the table,
1:22:42depending on what you need to be talking about, you know?
1:22:45Yeah, we do, I mean there's brainstorming on whiteboards of like where's the company gonna go for the next year
1:22:51How do you build the human pyramid?
1:22:53That's an excellent question
1:22:55Wouldn't you like to know?
1:22:57[laughter]
1:23:01But so, here's the thing that was interesting to do
1:23:05I had actually set up as part of the year of Redirection
1:23:10I had set up in advance this period of time at the beginning of 2018 to be like this dedicated
1:23:16Grey Incorporated company retreat and
1:23:19Because it was really useful last year and like I want to do this again next year
1:23:23But I was really aware that
1:23:25When I do these trips normally I can very quickly get into like a great schedule and I had a freaking
1:23:33brutal time this year
1:23:36forcing my brain back into this regular schedule, and it was just like, "Ah, I can see, like, I'm just not
1:23:43used to this because my year has been so chaotic
1:23:46that my brain is like, fucking the idea that we've gotta, we've gotta bust out the order again."
1:23:53And it was just, it was an interesting experience to have, like, it's taking me a lot of time to force this change, and
1:24:00it reminded me of
1:24:02back, back when I was adulting and
1:24:05And when I did my teacher training program and realized, like, this is the first thing I've ever come up against in my life
1:24:12where I can't just slack my way through, and I actually need to figure out, like, how to organize myself to be able to get things done.
1:24:20And I remember that was a really difficult mental time of, like, "Man, I'm so used to just sliding on through life,
1:24:26but suddenly I can't do that now, and I have to, like, become a different person in order to succeed in this endeavor."
1:24:31So being on my corporate retreat, I was just aware of like, man, this is real evidence that the past year has been a very chaotic year
1:24:39because this thing which is normally not a lot of effort for me to do, to like click back into a regular schedule, is actually quite hard for me to do.
1:24:47Like even things like waking up at a consistent time in the morning, like just brutal.
1:24:52But it's evidence that like, when I look at my health data, like my sleep schedule is all over the place for the past year.
1:24:57So that's a big part of it, is this idea that it is the routine, like the routine is the work,
1:25:04the work isn't the work, and I'm really going to be focusing on that a lot.
1:25:09That's one of the really big things.
1:25:11There is a little sub part of the Year of Order, which I haven't quite figured out precisely what this is yet,
1:25:21but it comes out of the time tracking which is this idea of like a war on
1:25:27unintentionally
1:25:29so
1:25:31one of the things with time tracking that I actually mentioned in those early episodes is I
1:25:35Do try to keep track of what I think of is like
1:25:39Unintentional time where I'm doing something, but it's not really like on purpose
1:25:45I'm not being intentional about the thing that I'm doing and
1:25:48so I
1:25:50I have this idea that like part of the year on order there's like a sub front
1:25:54Which is the war on unintentionality and so that that can be things like
1:25:58For example social media like spending less time on social media or the time that I spend on social media is more
1:26:06Intentional rather than unintentional
1:26:10So that's that's a thing like looking over my time tracking data is I find the amount of
1:26:17intentionality time registered in the last year. It's like, it's too much. I don't like it and
1:26:22I feel like I want a much higher percentage of the time in my life to be
1:26:27intentional versus
1:26:30unintentional. So that's that's another like part of this idea, but that part is much
1:26:35less well formed than just the idea of like
1:26:392018 is the year of order. I'm gonna bring order to the world.
1:26:43So jealous of your name.
1:26:45You really went from just like atrocious name to excellent name, right?
1:26:522017 was just bad name and 2018 is real good name.
1:26:56But it has to be because I really think I could not survive another year of redirection.
1:27:03Like I think I would just I would just lose it if I had another unstructured year.
1:27:08Like the redirection year was like just a course correction change.
1:27:11You can't do that every year forever. Like that's not how that works, right?
1:27:16Restructuring things takes some time and you do it once and then you do it again in like five years time
1:27:22Like it would be pointless to do what you did last year every year because you'd never get anything done
1:27:29Constantly changing your business but not actually producing anything. It's not really a benefit to that
1:27:35Yeah, so anyway, there we go. Year of order 2018. Oh, man
1:27:41And I just, as you said that, I just got a push notification in Todoist that just says
1:27:47to work on big project idea.
1:27:48Calling to you Myke.
1:27:51I want to thank FreshBooks for their support of this show.
1:27:54Please take it upon yourself, if you are a freelancer, to sign up for FreshBooks.
1:28:00Now is the time.
1:28:01I'm going to mention it again.
1:28:02It's New Year's time.
1:28:03It's time to make some changes.
1:28:05Make this your yearly theme to get your finances in order and one of the ways to do that in
1:28:11is to sign up for FreshBooks. We have been using them for our invoices since day one
1:28:16of Relay FM and it has drastically reduced the amount of time, aggravation and hassle
1:28:21it takes for me to get my job done. FreshBooks can save up to 192 hours for freelancers with
1:28:27their cloud accounting software because it's so easy to use. You get notifications that
1:28:32tell you what you need to be focused on. You can automate late payment email reminders
1:28:36so you don't have to spend time chasing people. You can even see when somebody's looked at
1:28:40your invoice. It's more than just invoices, you can set up projects with your clients
1:28:51and share documents. You can also have all of your expenses run through. It's a full
1:28:56system. If you're not using Freshbooks yet, now is the time to try it because they are
1:29:01offering an unrestricted 30 day free trial for Cortex listeners with no credit card required.
1:29:06Just go to freshbooks.com/cortex and when it tells you how did you hear about them,
1:29:13say that you heard about them from this very show.
1:29:16Our thanks to FreshBooks for their continued support of the Cortex Podcast and Relay FM.
1:29:21So I asked from the Cortex Twitter account @_CortexFM if you're interested in following
1:29:27the account for some Ask Cortex questions related to yearly themes.
1:29:32We have answered throughout the course of this conversation a lot of them. There were
1:29:37actually quite a few surprising amount of people that wanted to know about time tracking.
1:29:41So there you go. You've got it, right? Those of you who care about time tracking, you've
1:29:44definitely got that conversation this time. But there were a couple that I wanted to ask
1:29:49you and for us to think about. Tony asked, "How do your themes inform your use of devices
1:29:56and/or your favorite apps?" Now, I could say for me, one of the big projects
1:30:02that I'm trying to work on requires a lot more planning than usually a show that I would
1:30:07do requires. It needs more writing to it, it needs more thought, it needs more outlining.
1:30:12So I'm more heavily using notes than I would typically. I will be using Bear more for longer
1:30:19pieces of writing. And I'm thinking about using something like an app like MindNode,
1:30:25which is like a mind mapping application to try and plan out some big things, some big
1:30:31overarching ideas and to try and get my thoughts more compiled. So I think that because of
1:30:37the way that me and you work, the themes always inform the app choices because this is how
1:30:43we get our work done is with these apps. So it does change. I mean, I guess for you, year
1:30:48of order will mean finally getting your project management in check.
1:30:53Yeah, we can talk about that on another show, but yes.
1:30:55[Laughter]
1:30:57I'll say that there's, um...
1:30:59Two years ago, one of the things that I did, which I need to do again for a variety of reasons,
1:31:06is I actually-- I sat down with
1:31:08GoodNotes, my favorite handwriting app, and I was just writing out what all of the devices
1:31:14were in my life. Like, okay, which iPads and computers do I have? Like, where are they? Like, what's--
1:31:19Here's-- I have a phone. I have a watch.
1:31:22And I just sat down with that list for a long time and sort of thought very intentionally about what are each of these devices for.
1:31:31And so I think this is a thing that people don't really do, like they just sort of happen to let devices do whatever.
1:31:39But I'm a big fan of artificial restrictions around devices.
1:31:45And I'm definitely intending to again sit down and really think through
1:31:52what is the minimum viable use for the various devices in my life.
1:31:57I'm not interested in devices that can do absolutely everything all the time.
1:32:01I'm interested in being really intentional about what they can do.
1:32:05When I was doing it two years ago, part of what I was thinking about is
1:32:09what notifications can be seen where.
1:32:13and what devices do I have access to at different times in the day
1:32:17and so therefore what kinds of things do I want to be able to do on them
1:32:21and then setting up the devices as much as is possible
1:32:24so that those actions are the only things that are possible to do on those devices
1:32:30so I feel like the year theme fits into that
1:32:34because it's the idea of what do you want these devices to do for you in your life
1:32:39And with the Year of Order, I definitely have a bunch of restructuring to do with all of the devices in my life.
1:32:46And Jonathan asks, "What tools or mechanisms do you use to keep track of your yearly themes?
1:32:50Do you review your progress frequently?"
1:32:53Do you do anything like this?
1:32:55There are things, like I have a bunch of questions that I kind of work through.
1:32:58And yeah, one of the questions is, it's not exactly a question, but it's like a, it's a note at the top of the document that like this is the year of whatever.
1:33:06and that's a thing that just exists to keep it more present in my mind as the year is going along.
1:33:11But what about you?
1:33:12I don't think I have a necessary structure, because the first time I did it was last year,
1:33:16and the thing that I was doing, which was time tracking, in and of itself is a review which is constant.
1:33:22So it wasn't really like I had to sit down and... I don't do the reviews the way that you do.
1:33:27That's not a thing that I do.
1:33:28Especially as well, a lot of my work is kind of,
1:33:33it's self-structured in that way.
1:33:36- That's true, yeah.
1:33:37- I am very focused on quarter to quarter
1:33:39because that's how my business operates.
1:33:42So I don't really have to sit down
1:33:44and do a performance review of myself
1:33:47because I can see it on a spreadsheet
1:33:50how the business is doing and course correct where needed.
1:33:55I mean, maybe if I want to continue doing my year
1:33:58of branching out, it might require more reviews
1:34:01because these are things which are bigger than numbers.
1:34:05These are different things.
1:34:06Like last year, I could still really look at numbers more,
1:34:10and those numbers were in and of themselves
1:34:12just easy to see how it was going.
1:34:15But my branching out stuff, it's a lot more fluffy
1:34:18than last year's goals, right?
1:34:20So it may require some progress reviews.
1:34:23I haven't worked that out yet, but it's probably something I should think about.
1:34:27And Jeff asked, what is some advice you would give to someone looking to get their theme in place?
1:34:32Oh, number one advice. Don't try to do it quickly.
1:34:37Yeah.
1:34:37Like don't listen to this show and think, I have an idea for a theme
1:34:42and my theme for the year is going to be this.
1:34:44Like, I think what has happened in all of these cases is it's been a kind of slow build.
1:34:51this idea of like, "hmm, I think I need a theme for the year"
1:34:55or like, "what is my theme for the year going to be?"
1:34:57and
1:34:58it's useful to have that as something that's on the back burner
1:35:05and not something that you just instantly decide
1:35:08because if you feel like you go into this state where
1:35:10you're thinking about what the theme should be
1:35:13I feel like that helps you be more observant
1:35:16in your own life about what needs to happen
1:35:18like, and that's definitely what happened to me this year
1:35:20where coming out of the year of chaos I thought like, "Oh, my chaotic life doesn't need a year theme."
1:35:26But simply being aware like, "Oh, I'm going to talk to Myke about it at the end of January,"
1:35:30started booting up a little process where I noticed and thought much more about
1:35:35how my life was going and the things that I wanted to change in my life.
1:35:38So without a doubt, don't be hasty with your year themes, right?
1:35:43Like, let it simmer for a while.
1:35:45Like the idea of yearly themes came to me when you started talking about the year of less
1:35:50I didn't have a theme that year
1:35:51I have a theme the next year because we spent the entire year talking about themes
1:35:57So it like was embedding in my mind. So honestly I would say
1:36:00Try it if you think that yearly themes are good then aim to have one in 2019
1:36:06But spend this next year with that in mind and you know, maybe you could do what I did
1:36:11did maybe in June come up with a six month themes like a theme for the rest of your year
1:36:16but if something isn't jumping out to you immediately like of course that's what it
1:36:20is like it's the clouds have parted and the idea has come to your mind then just spend
1:36:25some time rolling around this idea in your brain that you want to have a yearly theme
1:36:30listen to us talking about our themes as we progress throughout the year and stuff like
1:36:33that and then work out what yours could be just through kind of like osmosis of having
1:36:37this thinking don't push it.
1:36:41Or I might suggest if you want to get started a little sooner, it might be perfectly fine
1:36:47to do like how I review my life in terms of like seasons, like thinking about things more
1:36:52intentionally every season.
1:36:54Quarterly.
1:36:55Maybe start smaller.
1:36:56As it tends to be called gray quarterly, remember.
1:36:57Like this is how everybody else in the world works.
1:36:58No, I like seasons, right?
1:36:59No, I like it.
1:37:00I know this how you like it.
1:37:01It's much better.
1:37:02It's much more romantic, Myke, to call it a season.
1:37:06Of course it is.
1:37:07But is that what we, is that how we think of our work now?
1:37:09Romance.
1:37:10I appreciate the vague boundaries of seasons.
1:37:13I don't like the precision of the quarter.
1:37:15I like the vague boundary of the season.
1:37:17So I think also maybe breaking it down
1:37:21into smaller chunks like that might be helpful
1:37:23for just starting out a little bit.
1:37:26But yeah, I think that the not starting urgently
1:37:29is the main thing.
1:37:30- Yeah, until next time.
1:37:31- Until next time, good luck with your year themes.