Getting 'Ungunked' in 2021

Between Christmas & New Years, Wave HQ slows down and allows us all to catch our collective breath, recharge & refresh. (Huge ?? to Wavers like Jamie Duncan & Jordan D'Silva who keep the lights on and allow us to do this).

With the mental clarity created through the removal of Slack notifications & constant email, I was able to unpack a few bad habits I was allowing to fester throughout much of 2020. Now, I don’t subscribe to the notion of New Year’s Resolutions, but the below are reminders to myself of what gunked me up in 2020, and what I plan to do about it in 2021.

My calendar was controlling me, I wasn't controlling my calendar. ??

I know the science.

We all need time to context shift between meetings.

It's important to get up, stretch, and go for a walk. ???♂?

Hard work (i.e. back-to-back-to-back meetings for 8-9 hours) is not necessarily smart work.

So why when I look back at 2020 do I see a calendar packed to the brim and not strategically curated with built-in thinking time?

It’s time to take back control.

The meaningful things I want to get out of 2021, both professionally & personally, will not happen if I just let others dictate how my calendar fills up.

I will book space between back-to-back meetings to properly debrief, think, & context shift.

I will book a daily mental health walk to get away from the screen, get some fresh air, and in general, keep my sanity.

As knowledge workers, our minds are our greatest resource. As Warren Buffett very accurately articulates, "I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think."

For those of you without life-saving Executive Assistants, what are your calendar hacks to keep control of your days?

I need to read. Like WAY more. ??

I’ve always loved reading. As an 8-year old I dug into The Hobbit (in retrospect, I probably had very little comprehension of what I was reading) and I loved it. Ever since, reading has always been an outlet which brings me untold joy.

Throughout university I would sit in the library with two books. An economics textbook to my right, and a piece of fiction (normally high fantasy) to the left. I’d sit for hours switching between books. A little bit of studying rewarded with a little bit of fantastical fun.

How did 2020 make a life-long love of reading just fade away?

Over the holidays I was gifted with a few hard copies of books. Coupled with the gift of time created by being in lock-down over a holiday break, I was able to dive into a couple of fantastic reads.

Cracking open Meik Wiking’s ‘The Art of Making Memories’ was equal parts enjoyable, eye opening, but most importantly, a reminder of how much joy I get from reading and chatting about a good book (p.s. I highly recommend reading ALL of his stuff).

Evenings in 2021 have seen me soaking up the knowledge of the great Georges St. Pierre in his book ‘The Way of the Fight’. The tidbits of knowledge that I’m picking up from here are already starting to permeate my learning & development plans for Wavers in the year to come.

So how am I going to ensure I keep reading throughout all of 2021?

Screen fatigue is a serious issue, and one I felt smacking me in the head over and over again throughout 2020. I believe the physical nature of these books (as opposed to e-books on my Kindle) have dramatically increased my enjoyment level of getting back into reading. Bonus points for this, I am going to be re-gifting every meaningful book I read to someone whom I think will get enjoyment out of it! Julia Siegal is next up for ‘The Art of Making Memories’ and Christian Chiari Manni, I know you’re going to love ‘The Way of the Fight’!

Beyond getting physical, I’ve got an accountability partner (my wife) who is making sure reading is something we embed into every single day. We are keeping our books in highly visible spots and ensuring we do not go to bed until at least a couple of chapters have been read!

What are some books I just MUST read in 2021?

Making the most of physical fitness time. ????♀?

For those of you who know me on a personal level, you know I operate best when I’m taking care of my body, mind, & soul in proper balance.

I’m not going to say 2020 was the BEST year for my physical self, but it certainly wasn’t the worst. In February/March I was probably in some of the best shape of my life as we ramped up for what we believed was going to be the Fight to End Cancer gala in May 2020. Clearly, COVID-19 had different plans for us, but my commitment to physical fitness thankfully didn’t completely fall of the rails.

Although we couldn’t go to the gym and condo life isn’t great for the types of workouts I typically like to do, we found ways to stay active, stay healthy, and I’m ‘generally’ content with where I ended 2020 in terms of fitness.

So, what’s the major lesson here? Yes, I plan to go much harder in 2021 and gear up for what I hope will be my first amateur boxing bout, but more importantly, I plan to better optimize the time I’m already dedicating to physical fitness.

What exactly does this mean?

Historically, workout time has meant putting on a Spotify playlist, mindlessly pushing through whatever physical torture I’m doing to myself and calling it a day. As much as I love listening to Eminem’s ‘Godzilla’ for the 10,000th time, I’m fairly certain there are more meaningful things I could be pumping into my brain while I pump iron.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been using workout time, as podcast time. What an amazing opportunity to train the body while training the mind. Now admittedly, my first foray into listening to podcast has been more entertainment based (I’m loving the current season of Binge Mode by the folks at The Ringer) the plan for 2021 is to really absorb more knowledge & perspective while also taking care of my body.

So, final question for you fabulous folks – what are some of your favourite podcasts?

Final Thought – Gratitude. ??

As we start to ramp back up at Wave again and the final reflections around the year which was (and the year which will be) start to get lost in the daily grind, I am just so incredibly grateful. Although a difficult year, I was still able to learn, grow, and really take stock of the relationships and areas of my life which are most meaningful to me.

Sayonara 2020.