Jorg's Brain Log

For the last couple of months I’ve blogged very detailed about everything I did and what I was going to do. It was very freeing to do this kind of thing in such a ways that my 250 a day visitors could read what I was going to do and especially end of the week could see if I kept myself to my schedule or failed myself.

Self discipline has really grown by this exercise. It has helped me to know that people know if you keep your word and stick to what you have promised. But now the real test will begin. The next 4 weeks I will not blog about my plans and what I’ve accomplished during the week anymore. I’ll put it back into my spreadsheet where I normally logged  these kind of details.

It will be interesting to see if I can keep productivity as high in the coming weeks as I’ve done in the last months. It will be a good test! Back to work…

In the last 10 years or so I did a lot of soul searching and making sure that I was not working, but having fun doing what I was doing and getting paid for it. The four passions that I’ve been working in have been:

1. People
2. Businesses
3. Technology
4. Sports

And all this time I was doing different kind of things in these areas. Sometimes more fun then others. But there was a trend coming. It all started with sports and my ever-lasting hunger for knowledge. People started to notice that what I was doing was working and started to ask questions and there you have it; sport-coach Jorg was born.

Next came technology were after some years at my first job I became a senior technical consultant and the lesser experienced people started to ask questions and I helped them understand and find their way. tech-coach Jorg was born.

After my technology period I started with my management work for some companies. As direct responsible for teams and people I wanted to make sure that ‘my people’ had everything they needed and performed as optimal as possible and had fun doing so. Not only was I helping them to improve in their professional live, but also in their private life as this is an integral part of a high performing worker. Personal coach Jorg was born.

Furthermore, as my work as a business consultant I helped optimize businesses and their processes. Finding their values, bringing them back to their core business. Or in short improve themselves. Business coach Jorg was born.

It’s a wonderful thing to know your goal in life at age 33; Helping people and businesses improve has become a livelong obsession. It’s a truly humbling experience when someone asks you to help them improve and put trust in you. Thank you to all the people and businesses who let me help them!

Interesting week again! Printing my weekly schedule in the beginning of the week works big time. The other experiment of writing down what I did every 30 minutes was also a success, because now I know this doesn’t work!

I managed to fill in my time-sheets from Monday to Friday. And it was interesting. But! I don’t need to fill it in afterwards, but plan it beforehand! I’m still not planning the day itself, instead I’m flowing through it! So from Tuesday on I will also going to make a specific daily plan, next to the weekly I already have. After planning, I will fill in if I managed to do it like I planned it.

General

• Sleep – No more polyphasic for now. Maybe in the new year a Dymaxion cycle. Now I know I can do it, it’s already satisfying enough. I’m going to try to get back into my normal 4 hour night with a nap in the afternoon. Optimal: 1 to 5, but happy with anything that shifts up to 4 to 8.
• Eating – Eat 4 times per day. Minimum of 3 paleo meals. No snacks!
• Business Habit – Going into details this week! I need to specify more to make this work. Expect a seperate posts.
• Music – Make some music everyday

Writing

Small change this week. First of all I’ll put down my normal publishing schedule. Even if I write all the posts today, they will be published in the following schedule.

• Monday: iJorg, Shark Freediving, Brain, Skills
• Tuesday: iJorg, Shark Freediving, CIO
• Wednesday: iJorg, Shark Freediving, Brain, Appetite
• Thursday: iJorg, Shark Freediving, Skills, Sharkbait
• Friday: iJorg, Shark Freediving, CIO
• Saturday: iJorg, Shark Freediving, Appetite
• Sunday: iJorg, Shark Freediving, Brain

That’s 24 posts in a normal schedule. It’s around 2-3 hours per day to write all these posts. 14-21 hours a week. Then there is the book that I write when I feel like it.

• Book

And lastly, with no urgency, but only if I have the above finished, the stuff I missed last week:

• iJorg x2
• CIO x2
• Skills
• Appetite x2

Sports

Focus on three things from now on. Running, Freediving and Fitness. Yes, Fitness is back into the schedule. I’m so happy, I’m so happy!

• Monday: Fitness
• Tuesday: Fitness
• Wednesday: run 35min/5-6k
• Thursday: Fitness, Pool Freediving
• Friday: Fitness
• Saturday: run 35min/5-k
• Sunday: run 60min/8-9k

Lesson learned this week: Catching up doesn’t work! If you’re behind, you already failed.

General

• Sleep – I stopped with the polyphasic sleep cycle. It was fun, but the 3 naps during day time aren’t always really convienent. I think I go back to a 4 hour sleep and a nap in the afternoon. Lets sleep on it.
• Eating – It was my last week of normal eating 4 times a day. Next week on I plan to slowly go back to the paleo diet.
• Business Habit – good productive week, but still missing something. Working on it.
• Music – In the first half of the week I did a lot of guitar playing, so that’s a good thing. Was fun and felt good..

Writing

Because I had some catching up to do from the week before, it was too much writing in the beginning of the week, which gave me a little bit of a burnout in the end.

• Monday: 2x iJorg, 3x Shark Freediving, 2x Brain, Skills, Appetite
• Tuesday: iJorg, 2x Shark Freediving
• Wednesday:
• Thursday: Shark Freediving
• Friday: 3x iJorg, Shark Freediving, Brain, Sharkbait
• Saturday: Shark Freediving
• Sunday: Shark Freediving

21 posts this week. Because I had a lot of catching up to I actually had to write around 28 posts. That was too much. So if I had done the scheduled 22 it would be perfect! So no more catching up from now in the daily cycle! Didn’t write? Too bad!

Sports

More catching up to do! Because of sickness last week I had two extra runs to do. This doesn’t work like this. Missed something? Do it next time, but don’t put it extra in the schedule.

• Monday: run 5k/29:10 min
• Tuesday: run 40 min
• Wednesday: snowboarding
• Thursday: Pool Freediving
• Friday: -
• Saturday: -
• Sunday: -

Last Wednesday I had a little gap in my calendar and thought it would be fun to surprise my son with a nice trip to Landgraaf. Why Landgraaf? Because there is a 550 meter long indoor 5 lane wide field with snow, called Snowworld! My favorite indoor spot to do some snowboarding!

As my son is at les 3 of his 6 lessons course in snowboarding, I thought it was time to give him some extra practice. So together we drove to Landgraaf and after an hour of driving Rody, my son, was jumping with energy to get started.

It’s fun to see his face when he saw the big hill. For the first time in a stoeltjeslift was pretty exciting for him, but I’m proud to say that after the third ride up he managed to do it all by himself without falling. It took me much longer the first times I tried snowboarding!

It’s good to be young and not be afraid that you will hurt yourself! It’s clear after 3 hours of snowboarding that my son still lacks some control while going down, especially in the steering department. Wow, I wouldn’t dare to go that fast down and let yourself fall on your back because you don’t know any other way to brake.

But after a few takes more and more control came  to him. It’s clear that he hasn’t got the stamina yet to go on for 3 hours or longer! After almost two hours we took a break and eat and drink something. Afterwards we came back and within the hour it was over. He had no more energy and cold hands (time for some new bigger and longer gloves).

All in all it was fun to do something like this with my son and it made me proud to see him busy on the hill all alone while I was waiting at the bottom. I can’t wait until the course of him is over half way December so we can go again together  and he can show me how I can grind and jump!

It’s clear by now that printing out my schedule each week in advance works pretty great. I’m going to stick by it for the coming months, to keep track and see where I can make improvements.

Yesterday’s experiment of not doing any work on Sunday worked out pretty well. I think I will plan this as well for the coming time.

Furthermore, this week I’m doing another small experiment. I’m writing down what I’m doing every 30 minutes. Lets see what that brings me.

On Monday I have to do some catching up with the blogs, so there will be a big  list. Also for sports it was shit last week, and I want to make up as well.

General

• Sleep – my polyphasic sleep experiment..
• Eating – Focus on eating once between every sleep cycle, that’s 4 times each day
• Business Habit – Execute every work day! Maybe 1 hour of work, but oh so  valuable. More about this later.
• Music – Make some music everyday

Writing

• Monday: 2x iJorg, 3x Shark Freediving, 2x Brain, 2x CIO, Skills, Appetite
• Tuesday: iJorg, Shark Freediving, CIO
• Wednesday: iJorg, Shark Freediving, Brain, Appetite
• Thursday: iJorg, Shark Freediving, Skills, Sharkbait
• Friday: iJorg, Shark Freediving, CIO
• Saturday: iJorg, Shark Freediving, Appetite
• Sunday: iJorg, Shark Freediving, Brain, Book

Sports

• Monday: run 30min/5k
• Tuesday: run 40min/6k
• Wednesday: Pool Freediving
• Thursday: run 35min/5-6k, Pool Freediving
• Friday: -
• Saturday: run 35min/5-k
• Sunday: run 60min/8-9k

It has become clear that improvement needs time once again. You can’t build Rome in one day and when you think of it, it will never be finished neither.

The path of improvement is what drives me, not the end result. As soon as I reach a target I set a new one and try to reach that one.

I have a lot of plans, but I don’t plan a lot! I plan stuff that can be planned, I do stuff that needs to be done. And in the end it’s just about that feeling of accomplishment.

In that regards it was an interesting week! Some experiments made it even more interesting then usual.

General

• Sleep – was shit. Due to a small stomach virus I was so low on energy.
• Eating – this one was pretty okay. But I really have to plan to get back to my paleo food
• Business Habit – also pretty happy, but not like it should have been.
• Music – I made some music during the week, but it was mostly on my son’s keyboard, which was fun anyway.

Writing

Due to the fact that I kept my laptop out on Sunday, I have to make up for some lost writing on Monday. Plan is that have everything up again so that is 22 blog posts and some work on my book. Schedule looked like this:

• Monday: iJorg, Shark Freediving, Brain, Skills
• Tuesday: no writing
• Wednesday: 3x iJorg, 3x Shark Freediving, Brain, Appetite
• Thursday: no writing
• Friday: iJorg, Shark Freediving, Skills, Sharkbait
• Saturday: iJorg
• Sunday: no writing

As you can see I’m starting to get into pro-active writing. Working ahead of schedule. But unfortunatly I was behind schedule again end of the week. Let’s try to fix this for the coming week. Just bad planning.

Sports

Pool freediving and only one run this week. I planned to do 2 other runs in the weekend, but my stomach was not happy, so I decided to put them ahead of schedule. I have to make up for this the coming week!.

• Tuesday: -
• Wednesday: pool freediving
• Thursday: run 5k/29:15 min
• Friday: -
• Saturday: -
• Sunday: -

Let’s make a Super-week coming week!

Damn, I made a mistake! I didn’t take action when I took my last unread book out of the bookshelf (The World Is Flat). I just finished the book and remember it was my last one I had to read.

It’s now almost midnight and I feel like a junkie! I need more books! But where to get them at this hour. Ahhh, maybe some late night shopping at Bol will ease the senses… Yes, I know… I need help.

Below a picture of my collection of books. There is still room for more.

Due to last weeks big success, I’m continuing my ‘plan the week’ routine. Lets see if I can make an even more succesfull week then last week now that I’m not sick anymore.

General

• Sleep – my polyphasic sleep experiment..
• Eating – Focus on eating once between every sleep cycle, that’s 4 times each day
• Business Habit – Execute every work day! Maybe 1 hour of work, but oh so  valuable. More about this later.
• Music – Make some music everyday

Writing

• Monday: iJorg, Shark Freediving, Brain, Skills
• Tuesday: iJorg, Shark Freediving, CIO
• Wednesday: iJorg, Shark Freediving, Brain, Appetite
• Thursday: iJorg, Shark Freediving, Skills, Sharkbait
• Friday: iJorg, Shark Freediving, CIO
• Saturday: iJorg, Shark Freediving, Appetite
• Sunday: iJorg, Shark Freediving, Brain, Book

Sports

• Monday: -
• Tuesday: swim
• Wednesday: run 30min/5k
• Thursday: Pool Freediving
• Friday: -
• Saturday: run 30min/5k
• Sunday: run 40min/6k

Appointments

From this week on I also review my appointments for the whole week. This way I also exactly know what the busy and free days are. Because some of the appointments are personal and include other people, I’ll keep this list private and only put the number of appointments behind it and the total time (including travel)

• Monday: -
• Tuesday: 2 appointments / total time 2:00 hours
• Wednesday: -
• Thursday: 3 appointments / total time 10:00 hours
• Friday: 2 appointments / total time 3:30 hours
• Saturday: 2 appointments / total time 3:00 hours
• Sunday: -

Time to reflect back on the week and how everything went.

General

Because I was sick I had to cut the schedule somewhere and the best thing to do it was here. My sleep schedule has been on somewhat of a pause. Eating is still pretty okay, but when I’m hungry I eat. Business habit was shit. Because of my cold it was hard to breath and talk, but I managed to do some of it anyway. And music was also forgotten, besides a few sessions on the keyboard. Better next week!

Writing

I’m happy to report that I kept to my complete writing schedule. That is 22 blog posts and some work on my book. Schedule looked like this:

• Tuesday: iJorg, Shark Freediving, Brain, CIO, Life Skills
• Wednesday: iJorg, Shark Freediving, Appetite
• Thursday: iJorg, Shark Freediving
• Friday: iJorg, Shark Freediving, Life Skills
• Saturday: Shark Freediving, Brain
• Sunday: 2x iJorg, Shark Freediving, Brain, CIO, Sharkbait, Appetite, Book

Sports

Stretching stays a problem. I decided to first get indepth information, so that I can start with a good stretching schedule in December. For the rest it went pretty okay.

• Tuesday: -
• Wednesday: 5k / 28:30 min run
• Thursday: 1100 meter swim
• Friday: -
• Saturday: 5k / 28:57 min run
• Sunday: 8k / 52,19 min run

Conclusion

It was a good productive week, when I take in account that I was sick for some days. Writing and sports still went well. Biggest lesson learned is planning on paper really works for me. So from now on I plan my week every Sunday evening with the tasks and appointments ahead.