Jorg's Brain Log

After upgrading some Word press software on my own domain, I saw it was already 4 months ago that I posted here for the last time. I broke my old habit of regularly writing on my own brain log for no apparent reason. At that same time I started a productivity and logging experiment and after two months of successfully using it, I stopped it on purpose to measure the effect for another two months.

In short the experiment consisted of logging every day and what the major thing was I did in each time frame of 30 minutes. That way I would make sure that I would do something worthwhile at least every 30 minutes of the day. The first two weeks were pretty hard to do, but afterwards it became a habit. After one month I could write down what I did every 30 minutes of that day out of my head in the evening in one sitting. After two months of using it, it was such a productive method, that I wondered if I could stop writing it down and just use it in my head.

Now two months after stopping logging, it’s clear that writing stuff down is golden. Besides the fact I FELT less productive, I also really WAS less productive. I also have no way of measuring my life anymore, which as a real numbers-person is somewhat creepy for me.

Today I’ve started logging again and already I feel the productivity flow back. The power it gives to yourself is so great!

Let’s activate some old habits again. Like blogging on a regular basis as well…

Somehow I was always attracted to classical music. I even inspired my parents to listen more carefully to it when I was a kid and in the end made them love the music as much as I did. I guess the haunted house in attraction park ‘De Efteling‘ has made such an impact, that the music they played during the show has sparked my interests in it, when I was a little boy. Dance Macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns is a composition with a lot of emotion that’s even easy for the beginner to follow. Full with energy, tension, some dark moments. Listen below to understand why this is such a great composition.

One other composition I just love is the Bolero by Ravel. Around the age of 10 I saw an orchestra playing this version on TV and the conductor made such an impact with me, I could never forget his face and body language. And now thanks to the Internet I found the exact same version as I saw 23 years ago. It appeared it was the version played by the national Danish Symphony Orchestra and orchestrated by the famous Sergiu Celibidache. During the almost 20 minute video you only see Sergiu doing his thing, but you won’t get bored at all! What an expression! Amazing. This composition is probably the most erotic and energized classical piece I’ve ever heard.

So why this post today about classical music? Well, thanks to my sister who gave us the entry cards, we got to visit the Brabants Orchestra in the Frits Philips music hall, which is a piece of art by itself. The orchestra had organized a family concert where they would play the percussion concerto Veni Veni Emmanuel from the Scottish composer James MacMillan, which made a big impact on my son Rody. The second piece was the day and nightingale by Theo Loevendie where a story teller was telling the whole story to the children while being accompanied by the orchestra with the sounds. Amazing and very good musical translation of the fairy tale. Below a Dutch video about how Theo Loevendie created the music that goes with the story.

Doing fun things with the family is a top priority! Sometimes it’s just a walk in the forest or visiting some family. Today was once again time for a big family visit to the tropic swimming pool ‘De Tongelreep’. Indy and Rody both brought their masks, fins and snorkels and while it was the first time for Indy to try it on in the water, it seems that she liked it a lot, because she didn’t want to put the snorkeling equipment away anymore. One day she also will become a fine freediver…

Anyway, I can’t say that I really got rested from this little afternoon out; While we had a table and some chairs reserved for our stuff and to sit and rest, I got a total of 3 minutes in the chair (in 3 series that is…). When you’re a dad, you have to play! Kids are a good excuse to behave like a child yourself. If I would be alone in the swimming pool enjoying all the slides, swimming underwater and enjoying the streaming river, I would for sure get some strange faces. But now… nobody cares when you’re with kids! So it was playtime for Jorg as well… Whoo hoo! Can’t wait until we visit the beach again, so that I can start digging some sand castles again.

• My Children
• Girlfriend
• Sports
• People
• Entrepreneurship
• Technology
• Meeting new people
• Snowboarding
• Freediving
• Fitness
• Running
• Swimming
• Good Restaurants
• Sushi
• Watching a movie
• Reading
• Silence
• Events
• Competitions
• Making Music
• Listening to Music
• Water
• Travel
• Experiences
• Diving
• Our Cats
• Being Free
• Writing
• Finishing a project
• Having Fun
• Laughing

Time is up…

My Focus post of a few days back really made me look at what I’m doing these days. My passion for people, technology, sports and entrepreneurship came floating atop once again.

Thinking about why some projects failed in the last months and why some where successful. Understanding about what IT is that drives me. It didn’t take long to come to a conclusion: Some things aren’t just for me.

I finally came to terms with some stuff. Sometimes it’s hard to quit something, but the energy burst that comes free with throwing stuff away is amazing. I was juggling with to many balls. Working with backup plans and other stuff. Now it’s time to go all out. No backup plans. Failure is not an option!

Only a week to go before we (Sanne, Marieke and I) leave for our snowboarding trip to Mayrhoven, Austria. In the last weeks I’ve become a real addict, snowboard addict that is! It reminds me so much about my days on skates and skateboard. The fear before trying a new trick and the joy when it works out. Oh yeah and the pain when it goes wrong.

Sanne has made a new Snowboard only blog about his trainings and stuff. Real cool stuff to read and amazing progress by Sanne with his tricks.

I remember only 3 months ago, when I told Sanne I would never be a park-boy and just enjoy the POW and the off piste riding. But after hitting a few small jumps on the slope at Montana, I wanted more.

Now I’m at a point where I’m getting in the comfort zone with riding switch, doing 180′s in all it’s 16 different ways on the ground and small kickers. Riding boxes 50/50 and 180′s both side of the box is getting easier every training. And last training I finally did the big kicker. What a rush!

The Wednesday sessions are great stuff! Some real adrenaline (and sweat) streaming and the rush when a trick works is great. Doing something that scares you at first is great mental training. Wondering what I’ll be doing on my board in 3 months time.

It makes me want to step back on to my skateboard and in my skates… Good times!

It’s easy to loose focus! I tested out a few variables since the beginning of this year and it struck to me how fast this happens. Weekly schedules, daily schedules, task lists, project management overviews, goals, etc. All these tools are here to help me, but somehow they also distract me from my original focus.

It’s time again to focus on what has to be done from a day to day, week to week, year to year period. I will dedicated the rest of today to this to make sure I don’t loose it again.

Excellent weekend! Just how I like them. Filled with interesting, fun and productive hours. Meeting people, enjoying conversations, writing some stuff, do some sports. Nice!

Friday was my mothers birthday and she took the family to a Mongolian restaurant. It was an all inclusive price, so unlimited meat, fish and drinks. I’m still full. It was fun to see my son Rody prepare his own meat on the grill and eat like there was no tomorrow. The 2,5 hour eating window was too much for my daughter Indy, so after around 45 minutes at the table she had enough and went exploring. The owner brought a big bag of toys, paper and pencils to play with and even emptied a restaurant table for her to sit at. Great restaurant, great service!

Saturday morning it was skateboarding time. My son, who is now completely hooked on snowboarding, is just not satisfied with 1 or 2 weekly visits to the slope. He wants to be on a board everyday of the week. While it is impossible for me to drive him to the snow everyday, it is possible to step on the next best thing: a skateboard. We have a great skate-park 100 meters from our house and an very big indoor skate-park called Area 51, a mere 5k away, where they also teach skateboarding in a very chilled manner. So he had his first lesson and is stoked and already wants to go again.

Saturday afternoon and evening was spend with my girlfriend and we had some tapas in a restaurant and watched the movie ‘Chloe’, which I give a 6,5. It was a nice evening out. These days I leave my celllphone at home at such occasions, and it gives a lot more rest. No checking emails or news, just enjoying the moment! Good times.

Sunday morning was snowboarding time. My son is busy with his final (gold) course, so I could do some snowboarding by myself with some friends. After Rody his course we stayed an hour longer and had some fun on the slopes. The completely redid the slope, jumps and boxes last week, so we enjoyed ourselves a lot.

As Helle, my girlfriend, was away this day and the kids with their mothers for till Monday I had a few hours of private time in the afternoon. Did some much needed reading, because I’ve read just a few books this year. Read ‘the monk and the riddle‘ in one sitting. Great book on setting priorities in life and going for it. Recommend it!

Helle returned at the beginning of the evening and it was time for food. I prepared my first mussel meal for this year and it was great food. I really enjoy a good meal that takes a long time to eat. In the evening we relaxed some more by some writing and reading. The end of a very good weekend!

This week really has been a cleaning-up-week! First I took care of the biggest mess in the garden behind our house where there was still the foundation of our own ice skating ring we had made this winter.

Second there was my office that had become a real mess after not looking at it for the last few weeks. It’s pretty obvious what kind of negative impact this had on my way of working! It’s been far from optimal in the last two weeks.

And last, I digitized all the papers that were still on my desk, so that I don’t have anything lying around anymore that can distract me. A new habit has been born: as soon as I’ve received mail (the paper version), I digitize it and store it in my dropbox folder.

It’s funny to notice that the more you clean the more clear you become in your head! In the last few days I had more clear ideas and visions than in 2010 as a whole. Only don’t let my girlfriend know this, because she will use this cleaning thing against me…

The fist two weeks of the second month started pretty good, but the second half was really crap, thanks to the stupid fall.

Besides the little weightlifting problem I also had trouble with running. Not due to injury or something else, but due to all the snow and ice on the road. It was just to dangerous to do some outside running.

March will be filled mostly getting back in running and preparing for my competition run beginning of April. And of course the snowboarding vacation will give me some good sports moment!

April will be start of the second 12 weeks of training, where some things will for sure be different.