High Energy Levels Deconstructed

TL;DR: Fight distractions, set goals, get help.

“She is Energetic”

If you ask people around me what my most dominant trait is, they would probably say: "Luda, super energetic." I've heard that so many times over the years, I have finally decided to deconstruct my energy sources in writing.

I’ll categorize them into 3 categories: Fighting distractions, setting goals, and getting professional help.

Fighting distractions

TV: The first pivotal point in managing my energy was giving up a TV in my teen room. The endless flow of somewhat funny sitcoms was draining my time and distracting me from doing homework. I enjoyed Friends and Seinfeld as much as the next guy, but after watching a few of those, I realized they didn’t add much to my life and most of them are pretty much the same. Even if I do watch a sitcom, I will most likely not watch more than 1 season. 

Movies: There are incredible movies made over the years. And when you watch a masterpiece you need to digest it a couple of days. So I would opt for 1 great movie a week or maybe even a month. 12 - 52 cinematic masterpieces a year are really enough to fill you up with food for thought. Binging on the 7th sequel of whatever does not add new content - it just subtracts your free time.

Social media: There is endless material written on the detriments of social media. "Social Dilemma" really drove the point home for me. It just opened my eyes to so many negative aspects of it that it will be hard to look back. Looking forward is not easy as well - It took me months to consider and wean out each platform—Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp groups, and it is still an ongoing process. At the moment I am on the fence about LinkedIn. The biggest challenge for me is to explain to my surroundings why we are “not connecting”. For all of you out there: I am connecting personally, so if you want to be my friend or share ideas, ping me on my email down below and we’ll take it from there. After the heavy lifting is done, you can enjoy lightness of mind and so much more free time.

News: Have you ever heard good news? Not that often, ha? Bad news sells, keeping you stressed and glued to the screen. I dropped it, saving about an hour daily watching and then discussing. If the news is truly important, someone will tell you about it.

Video Games: Yes, they’re beautiful, but they consume a lot of time. A triple-A game can consume hundreds of hours. Mobile gaming seems casual, but the genius minds behind them aim to make you hooked. I know, my spouse is a Mobile Games expert. 

New distractions always come up. Those days I keep a daily habit* of reflecting on my distractions and become a bit less distracted every day. One day, I might become a laser-focused superwoman. I'm still not there, but I believe I’m getting better as time goes by.

*Habit Tracker app is my second most used app daily, after Todoist.

Set Goals

So you’ve cleared all this time. What do you do with it?

Goals

Each person and organization has its own set of values from which you can extract goals. For me, the most helpful resource in forming my goals was and still is the book "Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs" by John Doerr. Currently, I focus on iOS development, parenting and well-being. This may change in a quarter or half a year, but for now, these are my priorities.

I have tons of other interests—literature, history, art, carpentry, drawing, photography, cooking, sewing, hiking, mountain biking, gardening, and more. But I can't delve deeply into all of them at once. So, I intentionally set them aside or minimize and focus on what matters most now, keeping an open mind for future changes in priorities.

Get Things Done

To bring your goals to life, I highly recommend "Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity" by David Allen. This book is pure gold, like firing up an engine and going to space with productivity.

Get Professional Help

I focus on a limited number of things, but life still needs to function. A significant portion of my earnings goes to professional help so I can better focus on what most important to me at the moment:

• Cleaning: I have a cleaner who makes the flat sparkle once a week, saving about 3 hours. 

• Food: I frequently purchase ready-made home food, saving around the same amount of time. We still engage in family bonding activities like weekend meal preparation and picking up toys before bedtime, fostering responsibility in my children. However, the heavy lifting of thorough cleaning and regular meal preparation is outsourced.

• For trip planning, I get in touch with a local tour guide.

• Therapy: When I come across hard personal or interpersonal issues, I find it more effective to talk to a professional than overthink it or talk it over with friends. Professionals are educated to solve difficult issues in their domain. I prefer to utilize this knowledge, rather than reinvent the wheel. When I have something I am personally not comfortable with, I take a few personal sessions. With my spouse, we go to couple therapy here and there, and when I need help with parenting, I call the super nanny.

One day, I might opt for a more frugal life and achieve these things with time and effort instead of money. Either way, some resources must be invested. At the moment, I prefer to invest money over time whenever possible.

Domain Related Help

Two additional sources of professional help I am currently benefiting from, which can't be measured with money.

• iOS at Scale: Right now, I'm diving deep into the complexities of building applications at scale. I'm fortunate to have frequent meetings with Aleksa Simic, who mentors me on this subject. His guidance has vastly expanded my understanding. If you're an intermediate iOS developer aiming to level up, I can't recommend him highly enough. He's incredibly knowledgeable, passionate, kind, flexible, and encouraging, making learning a joy.

• Writing: Half a year ago, Dave Verwer the superstar wrote in his iOS Dev Weekly newsletter that he was open for a few mentoring sessions. I applied and was extremely fortunate to be selected 🎉. The beginning of our first meetings were filled with me squealing with excitement 🤩, but now that I have settled, I can confidently say that these sessions have transformed my life. I have started writing this blog, which helps me verbalise, structure and crystallize my thoughts. It's a super strong tool. I am forever grateful for this gift.

I feel incredibly fortunate to have met those people. It is rare to encounter someone so experienced and willing to share their knowledge with others.

Tremendous Support from My Spoused

I owe much of my energy and motivation to the incredible support I receive from my spouse. He plays an active role in raising our children and taking care of our home. His encouragement in my professional endeavors gives me so much motivation to keep going. Having a partner who believes in me and supports my dreams is a huge boost of energy, and I thank him for that.

Mom

Last, but not least: My Mom. Thank you for all the energy and love invested in me.

I hope these strategies can inspire someone else.

Have a lovely year and a happy life ❤️