Taking a full week off work and socials for (literally) the first time in my adult life - Ep 116

Right, I'm potentially burnt as fuck on day 1. I'm in the Maldives, first time ever. Flew at 4 AM last night slash this morning from Dubai with about half an hour's sleep, so probably be close to 48 hours, basically no proper sleep by the time we go to bed. This is my attempt at the first week off work fully, basically fucking ever. It's probably already going to be quite hard for me. And I'm also going to try a social media detox to some degree. There is science behind this, plenty of people recommended it many, many times. I've always been one to go on holiday, or rather a trip, never even call it holiday, because I basically just work wherever I am. And then I just found recently, as I said in previous videos and so on, that my brain doesn't feel as creative as it used to and just feels a bit flat and like I don't have the same motivation or level of focus, which It's probably other things as well, but more than ever I've noticed that. So basically trying to do a work detox and indirectly, maybe at the same time, like a dopamine detox to some degree, i.e., getting off socials. To me that feels like torture, 'cause I'm almost by default like, oh shit, something must be going wrong. Like almost fight or flight panic mode if I'm actually on holiday, even though it's a very normal thing to do. But I've never actually had a holiday, and I quite mean this literally, there's not been a day where I've not looked at my numbers in business or emails or something else for literally 7, 8 years now. That's not even an exaggeration. I mean, Christmas Day, New Year's Day, New Year's Eve, birthday, anything, all included, always be working to some degree and have it in the back of my mind. That's probably normal and good in some ways, but yeah, it's not felt healthy up to now, so I need to try getting off the screen at least for a week. And I don't know, getting back to reading books, writing in notebooks, etc. Because it just hasn't felt sustainable and I felt my mind be less sharp as a result. So yeah, I'm trying that. Never been in Maldives before, it's fucking very aesthetic and beautiful here, almost like if Bali had a glow up and was like more gentrified and more Western, maybe not the right word, but less Southeast Asian. Just like cleaner and more sophisticated. Funnily, there's actually a bunch of my mates here that came like semi-coincidentally at like the same time. We all just found the place that looked the best. 4-hour flight from Dubai, here now with another YouTuber beside me who's not going to be in this video clip. Do need to top up the tan because the tan has been very slow in Dubai because of like the UV is good and consistent but like the fucking sand particles in the air or whatever, just basically you don't really get the UV, whereas here it's been like UV 11, so I felt in the first hour of sunbathing I was getting cooked. I went snorkeling as well for the first time in like literally about 10 years, saw some mental fish and shit. It's nice to get off a screen and actually do things, remember that there is a world off a screen, which feels even like harder and harder these days. But yeah, gonna attempt a week, which I already feel guilty about, even though any member of my team has fucking 2 months off. Well, I guess you factor in weekends, it's like 100 days off per year, isn't it, or something more. Whereas I've never had even a full day off really, other than a Sunday, but even then looking at numbers and so on. So yeah, a week is a big deal. Might try and do a second week where I don't work in the business, I only work like on new stuff on the business, just get out of Slack and so on. I think it's a good idea, good opportunity to stress test systems and team and so on as well, which we do have. I often think a lot of my having to be in the weeds or in the details is self-inflicted and not necessarily required. So yeah, I will document parts of this and we'll see how we go. Bosh! So we're playing tennis in the Maldives with a girl that's never played tennis before. And a guy that doesn't know how to use his camera who's also not played tennis in a very long time. So we're going to see how this goes. Try and keep it down. The first few minutes have not gone very well. I'll report back shortly. So 75 hours into Maldives. One week off work fully. Very fucking burnt. I'm sat inside most of today reading about random stuff and trying to get better at AI, debating whether we go back to Dubai, which in some ways is logical, or go to Bali for a few weeks. Got a lot of people there I know. Great place to lock in for a change of scene anyway, given I've been in Dubai for like 5 months pretty much without leaving, apart from the odd London trip for work stuff. Since I moved there. Well, more than that, in fact. I took November, December, January, February, March— nearly 6 months. So yeah, Dubai— sorry, Bali is tempting instead of Dubai. It's an ideal place to lock in, but arguably Dubai in the house is better. I don't know, it just feels like if you're gonna go away, we're already halfway to Bali anyway. I know it very well, I know people there, I know the best gyms, change of scene, I can lock in very good there, I like the time zone. Get a sick Airbnb, get everything delivered in like a day when we first get there. So that's looking 70% likely right now. I've been reviewing flights. I feel like I go to Bali every year and every year I say I'm never going to go back, but given I won't be going in summer because I'll probably be going to Europe in summer because of Dubai heat, then maybe it makes sense to go now to get it done because Bali always calls me back. Back to Bali, the classic. So yeah, that's what I'm thinking today, basically inside. I'm gonna go snorkeling soon with the t-shirt on because I've got backburnt from the UV 12. Um, yeah, I'm really trying to force myself not to do anything. I've got a social media ban, a Slack ban, a work ban, a Gmail ban. I feel bored, but that's kind of the intention. I'm literally trying to do like a dopamine detox. I probably shouldn't even be recording, probably shouldn't even be on my laptop, but but I'm defaulting to like reading about AI and general other things. Went down a rabbit hole of reading about stingrays and Maldives and water depth and all this shit. Probably a very autistic tendency of mine, like many. But yeah, it's nice to switch off. Then definitely couldn't do this for multiple weeks. When I go to Bali, be locking into work again. But yeah, just trying to figure out flights because they're pretty limited at the minute. Probably go through either Singapore Well, they're actually not that limited out here, but from Malé in the Maldives, they're pretty limited. So either through Singapore, then Bali, or Kuala Lumpur, KL, then Bali. So yeah, I'll keep you updated, in the loop. Eating lots, sunbathing lots, but less today. I'll be back out soon. Like, it's really nice being on an island like this, but we're on day 3. Third full day out of 7. You do start to go a little bit crazy. Definitely couldn't sit on a beach my entire life. I'm on day 3 and I'm like kind of craving going to like an office and locking in. Maybe not quite yet, but we'll see how the next few days go. We're gonna go see some dolphins tomorrow, have another massive fleshy dinner tonight. I haven't drank anything all week. I'm kind of craving a massive Aperol bender, but I'm not allowed because she says no. So this is a little morning route through the island. There's 3 different islands. We're very fucking sunburnt today, I must say. It's funny, I've gone from having a massive camera when I was younger, like 8 years ago, to iPhone, to DJI, a little pocket thing, to back to having a massive camera. This place is very aesthetic. Whole thing looks fucking AI, to be fair. Oh look, there's a girl. Instagram girlfriend, always the way, right? This is first time I've ever been to the Maldives. It aligned perfectly with Well, girlfriend's birthday was the main excuse. A few of my friends weirdly, coincidentally here at the same time, even though we didn't arrange it together. UV is probably the most strong I've ever experienced. I think it's UV 12 all the time because there's no fucking sand particles in the sky. I actually get very burnt, so I'm pretty red raw today, which isn't ideal, but the tan is coming on nicely. And like I said, I'm doing a week Well, I actually don't look at work, which is for me a massive thing. Um, feels kind of weird. I've been reading a lot about other stuff, generally AI, trying to become very well-versed, not just in chatbot shit, but like actually, you know, Manus is a big one, Higgsfield, ClaudeBot. I haven't gone deep enough on yet, but I am setting up a lot of that stuff to try and get good. Use the time to work on other stuff and also just for the first time in a long time be bored. Because when you're bored is when you figure out what you're actually interested in and your brain resets. So, well, at least that's what— hey, how's it going? At least that's what they say. Super aesthetic around here. Especially this bit here. Goes up this mental bridge. The water here is crazy. Doesn't really do it justice, but it's like the bluest stuff you've ever seen. It's very AI, very perfect. What is it? What is it? Hiya! Right, so we're going for a big-ass buffet, which is what you do every day in these places, which is the slight downside to the physique. But just focus on protein. I've been training every day still, to be fair, but I needed a week off, so just eat a shitload of healthy stuff, playing some tennis. Directly after breakfast. It's probably the wrong way around, to be fair, today, because I got up late because I was mega sunburnt. But yeah, it's a nice little treat, morning run in the Maldives, day 4. I just feel like I'm becoming a fat fuck while out here, but that's kind of the point. Switch off, eat, recover. Been training so hard recent months and my back was getting sore, my leg was getting real sore. I'm just running out here basically. There's like a 5K loop on the island, doing that every morning. Nothing major, it's a massive deload week. Yeah, I'm in pretty good shape at the minute, I've just gained a lot of muscle and probably a little bit of fat as well, been kind of bulking, but I'm also surprisingly cardiovascularly fit, whatever the fuck the word is. But yeah, weighing in at like 93, 94 depending on the day at the minute, but could still definitely run like an 18:35K. Definitely not in sub-3 marathon shape right now, but I don't know, if I had to guess, I'd probably say like 320, 315, which for my weight, given I'm not really running that much, is probably decent. Still off social media entirely this week. Still off work. Fuck me, it's bright. Yeah, my intention was literally to fucking unplug my mind this week, and I've actually been managing to do that. I'm getting pretty bored, in fairness, but Given I've never successfully done that before, I'd say it's a pretty good win. I'm on the pier of some restaurant area out in the back that doesn't seem to be getting used. Very aesthetic out here. The water's fucking beautiful. I've been swimming a fair amount. A lot of fish and shit. But yeah, I'm gonna run this back in, go get a massive buffet breakfast again. Oh, we're actually spending time together for once in our lives. We never spent time together. You've never met Matthew before, have you? Not really, because he always looks fucking skinny. It's your birthday. Happy birthday. I say, it's like a 200-meter fucking pier. Bye!