Agile Life - Session 3 - Mark Luckey and Let's Enterprise

Alrighty. Well everyone, once again, lovely to be here for session three of the Agile Life. And today's session is all about getting back into how to make the very most of the days that we are working on now. Just a quick one. Did anyone have any interesting conversations with my digital twin over the past week? And if you don't volunteer your name, I'm just going to randomly pick you out, especially people who don't have their cameras on. Now Nidhi, I know that you had a chat with my digital twin in the past week. Did he tell you anything interesting?

Yes, I had my got me in the spotlight.

Wisdom. Did my digital twins.

Sorry, can you say that again please? Nydia, Lost you there.

I have multiple conversations with him. One of them was I was writing a blog and I wanted to wanted him to cross check because I was also stuck. So he kind of motivated me to write again.

All right, and, and did it work? Did you get some good feedback?

Yeah, it actually, it actually did because I was stuck and I didn't know, like, okay, let's just, you know, put it in and see what response I would get. And then I kind of followed his method, like, okay, makes sense. I also asked him for like exam tip, stand up. So that was also a nice support. I asked him yesterday too because I was avoidant and stuck again. So yeah, it was helpful.

Excellent work, well done, good stuff. So I'm going to ask Barcus now. So Barcus, did you have any interesting conversations with the crew this week?

Ah, Mark, you know how it goes. Every chat's a new adventure, right? This week we had a few laughs and some deep dives. It's like a roller coaster of insights and banter. We tackled everything from the art of failing forward to the quirks of digital connections. It's all about finding those golden nuggets of wisdom amidst the chaos. Keeps me on my toes, mate. How about you? Any standout moments from your end?

Well, I went and saw Deepak Chopra on the weekend, which we'll talk about a little bit later on. So there you go. I actually did see Deepak Chopra present in Melbourne on Sunday. The lesson that I've learned is when you book these things in advance, you also don't book the Christmas party the night before. Deepak Chopra workshop starts at 7:45am on a Sunday. Those two don't go together very well. Apparently my planning fell apart. But really fascinating. And I'm not a mega fan. I don't know that much about Deepak, but the presentation was about AI and spirituality. Which I thought was very, very cool indeed. Something a little bit different. Alrighty, so quick out. Look on what we have done so far in the course. We did the overview last in the first week. Last week was all about that planning backwards from success and that included looking at the different sorts of days that we work with. Today we're actually looking at inside of a day and next week we look a bit about what we actually do in our lives, which sounds complex, but it's really all about habits and the manipulation of habits. So today we've done the quick recap. Now, the aim of today is all about identifying how to get the most out of the individual days that we all work within. We're going to have a quick look at work from home and why that mostly doesn't work from people and then how to make it work. We look a bit about the actual sorts of things we do, the types of days we have, and then I'll walk you through the way that I go about structuring my days as well as how and why the things that I do matter to the structure of my days. And again, as we go along, if there's any questions or comments, please feel free to drop them into the chat window for me. So before we go on, was there anything that anyone wanted to comment on that they found interesting from last week? Now, my fallback is always Amila if I need to. But otherwise, was there anyone else who had a takeaway from last week that resonated with them more than maybe something else? Counting down. Actually, I'm going to go with Andrew. Andrew is a name I don't recognize. Andrew, would you be kind enough to turn on your video and tell me what it was from last week that stood out for you, please?

Now, I'm sorry, Last week my Internet was not working too well, so I joined this week.

Ah, okay. So no real takeaways from you for last week.

I'm just gonna be observing a lot.

Okay, no worries. How about Samiksha? While I wait for Samiksha to turn on camera and microphone, Barcus, what were your big takeaways from week two of the Agile Life? So what I've realized with Barcus is if I mute him, I have to turn him back on. Taking a little bit of practice. Barcus, start again. Takeaways from week three of the Agile Life.

I can go if you want.

Ah, the joys of Techmark. Week three, mate, was all about diving into the nitty gritty of daily rhythms. It's like tuning a guitar to hit just the Right. Notes. We explored how different days demand different energies and how to adapt our flow to maximize productivity. Think of it as a dance with time, where you lead and follow in perfect harmony.

Okay, Zainab, you said you would give me an answer. What were your thoughts about what resonated for you from last week?

It was just about how we were talking about the three weeks until success, and then it was going all around how you plan it out in such a way where if you know from before, give five exams and then just one day before, you chill out rather than, you know, scrumping yourself and studying a day before. So I think that really resonated with me. And this time, we're having our exam, so I was kind of planning how I am going to start. Start studying before rather than just, you know, doing it one day before.

Good work, Shajil. Apparently, something I've been speaking about's actually been getting through. Thank you, Z. That was really good. Really good. It's really interesting. I had this conversation with my daughter who's just going through exams at the moment. And it was about 7:30 the night before her first one, and I actually had to sit her down. And, you know, I told her earlier in the day, turn off at 6 o'.

Clock.

6:30, she was still going. I told her to turn it off, and at 7, she was still studying. And I just sort of set her down and said, dahl, nothing is going to come into your mind. Now, that wasn't already there and talked her through it, but I actually had to kind of break the spell for her. And by that, what I mean is I actually had to reassure her that what I was saying was fine, that right now, relax, watch television, read a book, let's walk the dogs, whatever it is that's going to stop you in that zone. And it was like breaking a spell for her that she needed to be convinced that she was allowed to step back because it doesn't make logical sense. So it's. It's a really interesting one. My biggest takeaway from last week was actually reinforced by what I saw with Deepak Chopra on the weekend. There's four different. Five different presenters. And one of the key messages that came across in spirituality, entrepreneurship, running a business, success in life, living your dreams was about the consistency of the action, that no matter what we do, no matter how good the plan, no matter how good the execution, everything relies on consistency. And it appears that consistency is almost more important than anything else when you look across the board. So something to ponder on as we go along. So I like putting this one up about wtf work from home, just because it tends to get people's attention quite nicely. If I look at my life and my working life in particular, work from home was actually the biggest innovation and evolution that's taken place, if you like, since the late 80s and the early 90s, apart from technology. And to give you a snapshot of why I say that, get back into the 80s, which I know for you guys was like me being told about the 50s. And I remember when I was a kid and my parents are Talking about the 50s, I would look at them like they were 175 years old, because they were. But in the 80s, this is how it went. Yeah. Monday to Friday, every day was exactly the same. People mostly worked nine to five. If you're a trades person, you worked seven to three, you were part of a union, you gave some of your money every week to the union, you finished work and you went home. Saturdays was the only time the shops were open, apart from 9 to 5, and they were only open until 12. So everyone shopped between 9am and 12pm on Saturdays, kids played sport and on Sundays nothing was open, so there's nothing to do. And I remember working in retail as a university student, on the very first Sunday they opened shops in Australia, religious groups went crazy because that was the day of worship. Everyone said, oh, this will not work. No one will ever shop on a Sunday. The biggest shopping day nowadays is Sundays, because that's the time when people feel most relaxed. Retailers put the spend specials on and people spend more money on Sundays. And life back in the 80s had a really fixed rhythm. So, for example, if you had a television show you wanted to watch and there was one show a week for 12 weeks, you had to be home at 5:30pm to turn on that television channel at exactly 5:30, and it would take you 12 weeks to watch the show. And then dinner was at 6pm and that was it. Time was fixed. And the thing that changed that, most amazingly in technology wise, was the video recorder, because you could record a television show and then watch it later. Whereas now the expectation is I watch what I want, when I want, how I want, and if you bridge the gap in between, it was a really big change. Change. And what happened with all of that is suddenly weekends weren't as respected as much because people started working weekends. And you get to the 2000s and we now work on international timelines. I run projects where from five in the morning where I might start work to three in the morning when the Indians finish work, three in the morning, my time. We're working through 22 hour work days. So projects never stop. Everyone works from home without thinking about it. We talk about blurred work life boundaries, but no one talks about the blurred life work boundary that by working from home we bring work into our home. Work stressful. Work is hard, work is challenging. We used to have work personality and we used to have home personality. Now people are saying to their kids, get out of my office because I've got work to do. But dad, it's time to read me a story. Or mum, it's time for dinner or for whatever that thing is. But I'm on a zoom called in New York right now is changing the way we work and we live and we think. And this is one of the really big challenges because no one really told anyone how to go about working from home effectively. And you've heard me talk about these things quite a bit over time and the changing numbers of people that work from home and how. And the reason I raise this is because you'll hear me mention it quite a bit, but you'll hear employers talking about, we'll manage your work life balance. But work life balance goes two ways. One is employees don't like us to take our work, our home to work. Leave your baggage at home, don't come in here being emotional. You know you've got a job to do. But they will call you at 7pm at night. And the same goes with study. And I believe that no matter how this feels, it's really important to understand the boundaries of what it means to work from home, what it means to take home into the office. Now I was just wondering, I'd like to ask someone, one of the students in the audience to give me a comment if they could. So I'm going to ask this time around, who have I got.

Actually?

Oh, Miller, I was wondering if you are still on the call, would you be kind enough just to comment for the group on how this work from home reflection is for you, please? And then I'm going to ask Dorian to give me a comment on perspectives about the same thing. So over to you, Amila.

Mark, I may be the wrong person to ask because I haven't worked my whole life. I've been a homemaker and a mother and I just started working at the, in my 60, in my 60th year and I'm 62, so I've only been working for two years.

And yes, okay, you are most definitely the wrong person to ask but all the time. That is definitely good to know. We're coming back to that. Shajil, did you do. You would have done at least a bit of work purely office before you did work from home. And Doreen, I'm still coming to you in a moment.

Yeah. Practically all my life I did work from office. Even during COVID I think I remember I had exact about 10 days that I could do a work from home. That's it. Otherwise I was back in office because. And it's only after coming to let's Enterprise that I got some opportunity to do work from home. And what you said was absolutely right. You know, sometimes there's this idea which takes hold of you and then times are blurred. I was working till about two in the night or three in the night because I was doing something and I was in that state of flow and then I couldn't stop. And then I slept, woke up early in the morning again and started going again because that thing was keeping me going. And yeah, so basically. So I was creating these podcasts for the Year Twos exam prep. Those were based on Google lm, the entire AI based thing. Yeah. So I was trying to do that and it was fun to do. But. Yeah, times. But my wife has been working from home for quite some time.

Yeah.

And she complains that whenever you're working from home, you put in more time, you put do more work, you get paid the same amount of money and there's no balance.

Yeah, the balance is tough because there's always that worry that if you push back on the boss and say, hey, no, you know, I've got to do this. That especially earlier in your career, you're worried about getting kicked out. It's. It's a really tough balance. But it is. I think it's something that more employers are getting better at seeing and understanding the value. But at the same time, I think more employees and students, my perspective is, yes, they definitely need to preserve their time. But I've also worked in offices with other people and I've also spoken to a ton of my friends who have said things like, mate, I do the. I tell them on the zoom call that my camera's not working so I can cook dinner. Or I was out in the backyard raking and I told them that I had audio problems, so I couldn't make the call. But I would listen in through my broken headphones. And I know that for sure, a lot of people working from home slack. And on that path, I also look at. I know a lot of People work really inefficiently and without focus in the way they work and they stretch their days out for longer than they need to, which, you know, it's an interesting challenge and this is where I often come back to work from home. And hybrid work can be some of the worst things that can happen to people, but they can also be the greatest because they're an enormous opportunity to really, you know, optimize our life. And it's actually fundamentally one of, you know, the, the most fascinating parts of my work is finding out what we can do with the hybrid workday. So before we move on, did anyone else want to make a comment or give me a suggestion on anything there? No. How about you, Barkis? Would you like to make any comments for people about how to protect their working space when working or studying from home?

Ah, the home office conundrum. It's like trying to meditate in the middle of a circus. First off, boundaries are your best mate. Set clear start and end times for work and stick to them like glue. Create a dedicated workspace, even if it's just a corner of your room. Keep it clutter free and filled with things that inspire focus. And remember, it's crucial to communicate with those around you about your work hours to minimize interruptions. Lastly, take regular breaks to recharge. Your brain's not a machine and a quick walk or stretch can do wonders. So guard your space like a fortress and you'll find your productivity soaring. Cheers.

There you go. Now guard your space like a fortress is a fascinating one because I've heard one of the best things I read, particularly in the 5am Club and a number of other books, was will protect our money, we'll protect our assets, we'll stop people dinting our car, damaging our clothes. But if someone comes up to us and says, can you do this thing for me or I've got an idea that needs you. People say yes without understanding that what is the most valuable thing in the world is time. How do kids spell love? Young children spell love to their parents. T, I, M, E. All young kids want his time. What do we always want more of when we're about to leave? Hanging out with someone? More time. What did I want from my father as he lay dying? More time with him. But it's the thing we value the least, is our own time that we give away. And it's really important to consider now, if we have time. If we have time. I'll come back to a bit more about what we really do and the notion of how this came about and when I used to say things to my parents such as, you know, so what do you do? You know, what's your job? What do you do? And they would say comments along the lines of, oh, I get up and I work and I make you food and I go to work and I come home and I tidy the house and I watch television and I go to bed. And that was one version of what do you do? You know, that was life. What do you do? Is life. Another way to look at what we do is really to consider, well, what do I have to do, what do I need to do and what do I want to do? When I talk about working and working efficiently to people and the importance of working efficiently, it's not about getting the work done to keep the boss happy. We have to get the work done to keep the boss happy, to get paid. Even when you're self employed, like me, I've got multiple bosses and they are called clients. So I've got multiple streams of clients that I need to keep engaged and happy as I go along. But even then I've got jobs I've got to do for them, to collect a paycheck from them. And the paycheck in the end is all about allowing me to pay for things I have to pay for, car repayments, school fees, all that stuff. But ultimately it's then about funding the things that I want to do. And some of the things that we have to do include, you know, sleeping, eating and so on. Things that we need to do, we need to socialize, we need to move, we need to rest well and sleep well. Then the things we want to do is the stuff that we often don't prioritize. And in fact, a really great way to shake up planning is to start off by going, what do I want to do this day? What do I want to do this year? And one of the presenters on the weekend said, I start every year by putting down all of the places I'm going to go in the next year. Then I find ways to do work in each one of those places. And that was the way they manage their workflow. And it works, of course, takes time, but it's really important to put into the diary the things we want to do because that gives us a reason to do the things we have to do and need to do without cutting corners on the final thing. I like people to consider, and this is one that really struck me a lot through the pandemic I was having one of those days, I think it was two thirds of the way through 2021, when the sprint of lockdowns was now into its 15th marathon. You know, remember, they'd say, we're extending the lockdown by seven days. And that was 148 days ago, these sorts of days. And I was having one of those days of just going a bit. Literally going a bit insane. And one of my friends said to me, oh, what are you doing now? And I said, do you know what I do? I do this, and I do a report and I do this. Then I have a meeting, and I do this, and then I do a strategy, and I do this. All I do is I do this. And then I went, oh, I'm going nuts. But I realized that all I was doing was literally this. This was all I did. And I adjusted a camera and I moved a mouse. But what I actually did was this. And it really made me ponder what is just doing this doing to me. And that was one of the things where I realized I was beginning to miss contact with people. Because what, where and how is an important way to look at this stuff. Do we do it in an office? Do we do it in a. At a computer, outside on our phone, or in transit? Because each one of these scenarios and who we are spending time with in that scenario determines what we should be doing. And this is one of the things that I'll get people to ponder later on. Okay, I'm seeing that just about everyone has left. Is this correct? Does everyone keep leaving and rejoining Shajeel? What's going on? Do they not like me and then they come back? Or they do like me, and I.

Think it might be something to do with the network.

Ah, the joys. The many joys of the network and technology. All righty. So what I want you to do, particularly, actually, this is something I'd like everyone to do. As I'm going along through this slide, just think about the different types of days you have that have a different type of cadence. Now, these are obviously based off my days, but think about the days you have. So, for example, there's the days where all I do is stay at home. So that might be. I've got an early morning call, then another call, then another call. Then maybe it's my turn to cook dinner or something like that. And it makes no sense to leave the house. I may as well work from home. And it's great. Food is super easy because it's in there. I don't have to commute, so I don't lose Any time for the day. So I can really control my day beautifully. But things like my underpants drawer become insanely interesting to tidy when I can't be bothered with the next challenging project I need to do. Or before my dogs went absolutely crazy. And if I wasn't in this call with you, I would have been outside working out why my dogs were going crazy. Then while I was there, I would have started weeding the garden because that was way more interesting than coming back to a document. So the boundaries blur and distractions are big when we are at home. Conversely, working at work is awesome for work if we know how to stop the distractions kicking in. But there is a commute, so we might lose time on a commute or use that time somewhere needs to be focused on work. And for those who can remember working in an office before the pandemic and afterwards, a lot of people really struggle to associate with others and still do today. There is an increased awkwardness in the interactions between people. Things like food are a little bit tougher to manage when we're out for the day because we've either got to prepare it before or tended to buy, you know, buy some food for lunch, which sometimes might be McDonald's as well. As it becomes harder to do things such as exercise, move, meditate and recover when we've got to travel, especially in Pune or especially in Bangalore where the commute could be 15 minutes or 75 minutes because it rained today, or there was a blackout today, or I left 15 minutes later and the wedding with the six cows went across the road. And the day, you know, it takes me an extra hour to get home. Third type of day. So am I going? Okay? Is this making sense for everyone so far? Yeah. Cool. All right. Then you've got your off site days. So the off site days could be something like the traveling salesperson or you're currently traveling for work, staying from a hotel, so there might be transit. No fixed space, so it's hard to get back in touch with people. Food can become really random. Now, I mention food a lot because I'm always hungry, but also because it's one of the essentials for the day. One of the challenges with working off site as well as when we have these meeting days is if you start meetings at 9am and finish at 6pm, you've got to take notes and you've got to follow up and turn those meetings and conversations and questions into actions or otherwise, what was the point of seeing someone? So we need to consider after off site days and Meeting days. When do I act on what I learned by doing those things today? And if there was nothing to do after doing those things, what was the point of going all that way to meet with these people to, to make them happen? Where this becomes very challenging for people nowadays especially is weekends because we'll just check a few emails. Saturday mornings, the worst I heard was us coaching this guy who was really panicked about his career and at 6 o' clock on Sunday night he would.

Log in, check his emails and plan.

His next week and finish at 8pm and then not sleep well on Sunday nights. And then every Monday work is really inefficient because they'd begun thinking about work on Sunday night, not slept well, got up early the Monday morning and it created actually a cycle which did in fact lose them their job because they never disconnected, never slept well. So weekends are really challenging. So in that regard, is everyone kind of getting where I'm going with in terms of the types of the different days that we have, or does anyone have any feedback around how that might be different for them? No. No one? All right, well, I'm going to keep going there because I'm in a roll and I'm going to talk to you a little bit about what goes into planning my day. Everyone noticed my really cool line diagrams this week, courtesy of. I drew them all by hand. They took, you know, like hours each. Clearly. What was weird is I did all these images and you get all these different styles and they're great. And then every now and then it creates someone like this who's got like their arm hanging out and then there's a flag pole that's waving off their hand chat. GPT still does amazing things that are very enlightening over time. So when I come to planning my days and structuring my time, these are the main things that I sort of consider about the first. And you'll, you'll see in a moment the way I put this into action. First thing is my mornings are all the same. I get up normally about 4:45. I try and move fast in the mornings. My clothes are normally sitting on this chair just here in my little Zoom studio. So I don't interrupt anyone else. My alarm goes up and I move fast, I get my feet on the ground fast. I have a drink. I do like the, you know, the antibacterial mouthwash because that's apparently a really important thing to do. Rather than wash all those bugs into our tummy. I do my meditation, my affirmations, my intentions for the day. And I think about that as tuning the internal orchestra when it comes to maximizing my focus work. What I'm saying about that is that in my job, apart from doing these sorts of delivery of content and meeting with people, I have work I need to do. So when it comes to writing a course like this, it's best done with a few days of uninterrupted time so I can really be focused on my pomodoro stuff. So I'm really all about getting my work done when I my brain is the most productive. When I say flexibility, I build flexibility because happens every day. Every day. There needs to be a space in my day to make room for the stuff that is going to get in my way. So I have things set up that way and I structure my days where I block people from making meetings via calendarly before 2pm without asking me really nicely. So what that does, it gives me 25 hours a week protected work time before I do the other 25 hours a week of random stuff. Movement is insanely important to me and the places and things that I do around movement includes sauna, I spots, clearing my head at the gym, karate, running around the park, office where at the office in my studio I have things like the kettlebells. So if I'm on a boring work meeting, what are boring meeting? If I'm in a meeting where I don't need to be talking the whole time, I'll either let them know if they don't want me to turn my camera off or I'll turn my camera off and I'll literally stand here and do this for the whole meeting. Now it sounds silly and you'll sometimes see me in a meeting going up and down which means I'm probably holding what's this one 15 kilogram weight and I've got one foot off the ground. I'm wearing shorts, I've got underpants on. Don't worry over them. So over the course of a meeting, there's one meeting where I did a hundred one legged stands on each side. I did this motion 200 times. Yeah, I am. I did this motion about 150. That's a whole gym workout during a Zoom call at 1am My time because I had to stay awake. But you know these are the places that I move. I walk the dogs, I stretch if I can I get to yoga. Yeah. So that's how I move. So these are the things I've got to fit in when it comes to my family considerations. Daughter, wife. At the moment My mum's had a knee replacement, so there's a bit of visiting her in hospital tomorrow. I've got to wash her bed sheets on Thursday, pick her up from hospital and bring her home. And we'll be doing a bit of cooking for her for the next few weeks while she recovers. So there's my family considerations, bit of socializing on occasion. Now people say to me, what are your big hack? Oh yeah, pomodoro time and so on. Now people say to me, what are your life hacks? I do not use life hacks as a word because life hack implies a shortcut and a shortcut always catches up with us later. But the things that I do that really work beautifully in this whole construct is if I've got a long phone call, I take my phone out and I sit on the grass and I put it on speakerphone and I pick garden, I pick weeds out of my garden. That stops me being distracted by anything else. The grass is relaxing on the eyes. By being around nature, it also keeps me calmer and able to focus more. I listen to podcasts now when I run, when I'm in the sauna and when I'm doing exercise at the gym. Because when we move hard or when we're in the gym, something called brain derived neurotrophic factor is released in our brain that stimulates neuroplasticity. And in other words, when I'm running on the treadmill, that is actually statistically shown to be the best time to remember the information that I'm listening to. This was proven in a blind test where they had people learning a new language over a four week period. One hour a day. Group A did it sitting on their bum. Group B did it on a treadmill, walking at 4km an hour, studying the new language. The people on the treadmill outperformed those sitting on their asses by about 30%. And it's been shown time and time again. Study hack. Awesome. When my daughter's practicing rowing, she records stuff and she rose and she listens to it on the tread on the rowing machine. It's awesome. My favorite one at the moment is I'm actually working in an office which is about 5km away. Takes about 30 minutes to run once I stop at the lights. And I'm not running fast, but you know, I do the running, but if I drive it takes 25 minutes in peak hour. So by losing five minutes, I get in 30 minutes of exercise listening to a podcast. So what used to be a frustrating and angry 25 minutes in traffic is turned into a 30 minute period of exercise, stimulating my learning. So by doing that and it sounds stupid now, I run to the office to and from twice a week, 25, 20 kilometers I get in two hours of study. It's mad. They are my favorite life hacks at the moment. Did anyone else before I did anyone else have any comments or queries about any of that?

No.

Barcus, how about you? Have you got the comments or queries from the crowd on that one?

Ah, Chris, mate, always good to hear from you. If you've got any thoughts or burning questions, now's the time to let them fly. Whether it's about optimizing those daily rhythms or tackling the chaos of work from home life, let's hear it. Remember, every question is a chance to dig deeper and find those nuggets of wisdom. So what have you got for us today?

My name's not Chris and you've gone random Barca, so I'm going to turn you off for the moment. He's actually been quite well behaved this week, but on occasion goes and does these kind of random things. So we'll keep going. So here's how my diary looks at the start of any given week. So the stuff in purple are the things that I'm doing, broadly speaking, for my daughter. So you I'll send you the slides for these if any of you need to. Anything that is purple is me working from home. Anything that is orange is loosely speaking exercise or recovery and dark blue is working at the other office. So this is how I start my days. My calendarly for anyone who wants to book meetings enables meetings from 1pm to 7pm if there are not meetings already made on those days. If no one makes meetings, I've got gaps to get all of my work done. And the reason that I do it this way is because as I go to plan each week, I know exactly when and where I've got my biggest jobs able to be done and how I can fit them all together. It also, as you can see, it's dark blue and there is actually now a gap. You see the gap there on the purple one. On Saturdays, from rowing drop off to rowing pickup and I get about 27 hours of protected work time a week. So that means 27 hours that no one interrupts me because I get up early. And in that 27 hours I will get more done than I used to get done in about a week and a half of work simply because no one is getting in my way. But then I'm available Later on in the day, for all of the things that take less attention and less planning, but because happens and life goes slightly random, this is what a week ends up looking like by time I get into the week. So this one, for example, you'll see on the 20th. It was my mum's birthday last week, which meant a trip into the hospital to take her lunch. It was worth changing around my schedule for. In order to do that, though, I got up at Thursday at 2am in the morning so that I was able to get the rest of my work done because I had a really big patch of work to complete after that. And you can see now on the Tuesday there's this presentation from last week. There was another meeting that came in on Monday. There were changes to the schedule. I had Christmas party on Saturday and then the Deepak Chopra thing on the Sunday. By looking at those in my diary, I realized no work is going to get done last weekend. So by looking at that on Sunday last week I got more done on Monday by getting up earlier. And what this does is a number of different things by having it all in the calendar, it links to diaries, it links to meetings. I can't be blocked out and I can't be interrupted. Secondly, these things later on can be tied to meeting notes and meeting transcripts to analyze the work I'm doing and with who. It always gives me a sense of where I need to be and what I need to be doing, but it always allows me time for overflow. So, for example, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays you can see I have nothing in the afternoon. So if there's a day that I need to work late, it's a Tuesday and a Wednesday. If there's mornings when I need to get up earlier and they're the things that I do first, they're Mondays and Thursdays. I generally aim to try and finish by three on a Friday because I'm hopeless by then because I've done generally more hours than I plan to do and so on. And if all is going well, then I can go to a yoga class at 4:30 on a Friday.

Yeah.

So is this making sense to people about how it sort of generally structures together? Nice. All right. Oh, we've got someone in the background. I love someone in the background. Chatting makes things interesting. So when I look at Broadly speaking before we. So this is the last slide, everyone. So we've kept it nice and light today. Broadly speaking, when I'm looking at the guiding principles of the cadence of the days is it's about the people that we're doing things with, the places that we're doing and what we're doing and how we are doing things is the first part. When it comes to people, it's really important that if we have meetings with people, where possible, do those in person. The neuroscience behind that, I think maybe I've spoken to you before. A mother and a daughter in a room exchanging a conversation or having an interaction with brain sensors on, and their brains will light up in a conversation with one another. And in fact, they will start synchronizing brain waves with one another. It's actually been tested. Same conversation over zoom, the brains don't light up. That's neuroscience to say we do not connect with people over a camera or over a phone or over email as well as we will in person. So it's really important whenever possible to be with people. And the boundaries aspect of that works two ways. One is, of course, work from home, have boundaries. But the other one is there is nothing like telling someone they are not important as there is by picking up your phone and answering it or texting on it while you are having a meeting with them. So for you younger guys who are at university or looking at getting into your careers, if you'd like to piss off someone who you're meeting with, who's a senior, answer your phone or text someone or even have it on the table. I cannot emphasize enough of this to show respect to the person with by having that boundary. Everything I've seen from my personal experience to what I've seen to the companies that I've worked with, is that hybrid, that is two days in the office, three at home, seems to be the optimum way for people to work today, that when people purely work from home, over time, they disconnect. And what I've seen at an organizational level, particularly with the guys in India, is because no one's coming into the office, what is the company now if no one comes together? There is no collective, there is no soul, there is no spirit. Because the spirit is born when people come together and are with one another. The spirit is not born in zoom calls. Conversely, these days, people don't seem to work very well in an office five days a week. So hybrid really seems to be the way to go for one pen in terms of places and in terms of trips. If you're going somewhere, one trip, many tasks. If you're leaving home or you're leaving the office, or if you're going to different places to do things, then do many things while you are out. So I go to a gym which was right next to the shops. Once I finish at the gym, I have a really small shopping list. Eggs, milk, olive oil and butter was on the lift this morning on the list this morning. It's literally a two minute walk from the gym back to the car drive home. And I've exercised and I've shopped. If you're a traveling salesperson, Dave, you definitely need to color code your calendar because that's horrible. But generally speaking is make the most of your time in transit. Finally, when it comes to the doing, plan, what you're going to do the day before when you finish the day, work out how it went, do the hard stuff early, do the easy jobs later, is always what we need to do. So without any further ado, that's literally for the moment, the last official slide before we go into a wrap up. Does anyone have any questions or comments for me? And if I don't get any, I'm going to be going to Addie's iPhone for a comment. So would anyone else like to start off the first comments or queries for me? I can see Trupti rocking there with excitement with something she wants to say. Oh, come on, you do want to add something. Okay then, Artie, it's over to you. What would you like to add in there? Artie, I'm going to pick on you mercilessly if you don't give me some comments or some questions. Hi, Mark.

What are we presenting?

Come on, Artie, you need to. I need Artie to give me a question. I'm gonna have to get Barkis to talk. Are you telling me Artie, that is Artie actually a person? Shajeel, am I missing something here?

Seems to be a person.

Yeah. I'm assuming that is entirely ignoring me or possibly having breakfast and paying no attention at all. No. Okay. And who am I gonna go with? How about you, Dave? So everyone, Dave, one of my friends and fellow coaches from Australia, what comment would you offer on all of this to people.

From the session today? I think there's stuff in regard to work from home. I've had sort of both things. I've had purely in the office, purely work from home, purely hybrid. And I 100% agree with the last thing that you said about what is a company, if you don't have community, if you don't have a connection, you don't have a company.

Yeah.

And as a. And as a worker, if you don't have connection with people that are further ahead in the company, Than you behind the new. You don't have connection. So thank you.

Yeah, I think I know. Like, that was actually one of the things that was uncovered when I was in India in 2022 and I sat down with one of the company, actually it was with extension. Some of you have been to the extension office and saw me do the presentation. And on one hand they were talking about the freshers who just weren't performing. They were just not getting to grips with the professional workplace. Whereas on the other side, the seniors more my age had been killing it. They were getting up at six and doing two hours work and loving breakfast with the family until nine. Then another two hours work and a walk with their partner. Then another two hours work and the UK office came online. So then they would have those chats and so on. Then they would have lunch, after lunch, two or three more hours work with the US clients who would now come on board. And then after that was dinner and then they would keep going. And they were doing so much work. The challenge with that for them was twofold. One was they were connected between 6am and 10pm at night. So even though they were having great breaks in between and they were hitting all of their bonuses, their mind was actually connected to their job for 16 hours every day without realizing, and they all burnt out within a year to a year and a half. The reason the freshers weren't doing so well in the workplace is because there were no senior staff members sitting next to them, maybe politely telling them what they need to do. Or for the older people, have either got gray hair like me or they're hiding it beautifully. We all remember early in our careers that boss who would go, dude, you're not good enough, Work harder, do a better job, you're slacking off. That's a crap job. You know, you're 22 and you need to be shaken by a boss sometimes to understand what it is about performing in a professional sense, especially when you're at a university. But then a few things were happening. One was because kids were damaged from the pandemic. They couldn't handle being told they'd not done very well in the performance review. The managers hadn't yet been told how to emotionally engage with younger kids who had started their career without ever coming into the office and experiencing the spirit. And the third part of that was the kids then go on sick leave. While on sick leave, go get another job, often with a pay rise. Because in technology In India in 2021, there were more jobs than people to fill Them and it would created a really toxic spiral. Does anyone else there have a question or a query or something they'd like to offer for me? Dorian, you there? Or Samiksha. So I think Samiksha before was in the car. Would you like to offer me a question or a comment? Please Samiksha, do you know what I think they do? Ah, there we go. Hello.

Hello.

What would you like to.

I don't think I have any questions. I'm understanding what is going on.

Can you explain it back to me because I am totally confused.

No.

So mix for everyone else. What are you current? Are you currently studying with let's Enterprise?

Yes.

And how are you finding overall the entrepreneurial nature of the studies you are doing?

It's nice.

It's nice. Okay, fair enough, fair enough.

From the Goa branch. Ah.

So are the guys in Goa a little bit more chilled out than the people in Puna?

Yes. Maybe.

Are they like the modern day hippies? Is that what I'm hearing here?

No, no, no, no, no, no.

Not all smoking joints over breakfast because that's what people do in Goa, isn't it? They just surf and smoke joints and hang out with the hippies.

Isn't.

Is that Goa?

Maybe, but not us.

Correct answer, correct answer.

Well done, well done.

Okay, well if there is there anyone else who would like to make a comment or a query? No, I'm going to see Barkus Barcus. What do you think about all of this so far?

Goa and its legendary laid back vibe. It's like ah, Goa, the land of sun, sand and a bit of that laid back vibe. It's true, Goa's got that reputation for being the chill capital. But it's not all about the surfboards and smoke clouds. It's more about embracing life at a slower pace, soaking in the culture and maybe a bit of soul searching. It's like a breath of fresh air compared to the hustle and bustle of Puna. So whether you're sipping coconut water or just kicking back with some good company, Goa's got its own unique charm. Cheers to that.

Indeed. Cheers to that. It's funny. Oh yes, Ella, please.

Thank you Bakus, because I'm Goan and we don't like the, the fact that that little strip along the beach and a few miles in is all everyone identifies Goa with when there's so much to go up beyond that strip.

Interesting. So Barkis, I think Emila's got a little bit of an identity crisis. What do you think?

Ah, the classic beach strip conundrum. It's like everyone's got their eyes glued to the shiny bits right by the water, missing out on the hidden gems. Just a stone's throw away. It's a bit like life, isn't it? We often get caught up in the obvious, the easy and forget to venture a little further to find the real treasures. Ovila's got a point there. Sometimes it's worth taking a detour off the beaten path. You never know what adventures await just beyond the horizon. So let's raise a glass to exploring beyond the usual and embracing the unexpected. Cheers.

It's not bad. It's not bad at all, is it? Yeah. Well, team, if there is nothing else for any of you to offer, let me quickly shift back to what is involved in finishing off the rest of today. And that is just this conversation. Ask Barkis the Clone, my digital twin, what should you do on the different days? How to plan them and how to disconnect and recharge are the conversations. And if I asked you a question this week and you didn't answer, you can be certain that you'll be the first person that I'm coming to next week for some input. And finally, in preparation for week four, next week is a lot about what we do and how we do it, and particularly around habits, technology, automation and what I like to think about a bit of as life processes. So pretty straightforward. If you're really wanting to get prepared, you can go and have a bit of research on what is the habit loop. And the habit loop is one of the most fascinating things that I've learned about in my life, if I'm totally honest. So it's pretty cool. So, guys, if there is nothing else, I'm going to let you go prepare for your days. But thank you enormously all for coming along for session three of the Agile Life. Shajil, anything else you wanted to add in there to close with?

Nope.

Perfect.

I mean, guys, take up all of these points. It will help you prepare better for your examination. So, yep, it's all in. All the best for your exams, guys.

100. So, Shajil, I. I'm not sure if I covered this with you last week, but one of the points we're discussing is to do better at exams or prepare better for exams.

Did we dig into that at all last week?

I think yes, we did.

Yeah, we did. So do better means get better marks with less work.

Yeah.

And I think if you take that on board, it's actually about getting a better result with less effort is a great skill to learn for life. So that's what we're trying to do. There's. And I'm going to leave on that piece of wisdom, guys, thank you all very much for coming along. What I'm going to do is I'm going to do my usual. Go to gallery view, turn on your cameras. Come on, everyone, turn on your cameras so I don't have to yell at you and ask you to do them. There we go. They're trying. And if you'll all give me a wave. Hey, lovely to see you all. Thank you for coming along.