Category: Personal Thoughts

Disconnecting

Category : Personal Thoughts
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We are all extremely plugged in people.  Pretty much all of us carry a cell phone and  many have smart phones, which means the internet is at our fingertips 24/7/365.  Many of us feel out our element without a computer, smartphone and tv.

Thinkers as far back as the Romans mused that humans need periods of solitude to recharge and get away from the distractions of society.  Romans were talking about the importance of disconnecting in a time when the biggest annoyance was someone coming over and knocking on your door.  People communicated via letters and the spoken word.

Our brains haven’t evolved fast enough to be connected as much as we are now.  It’s extremely important to take breaks from our fast paced, tech driven society when you are simply with your friends, alone, unreachable or with your own thoughts.  You may say you can’t take a break from your life for a variety of reasons, but in reality, all of your rationalizations are excuses.  If you want, you can take a few days off from our tech society to be alone with your thoughts.

I just got back from seven days in San Pedro de Atacama and the Bolivian altiplano.  For the first three days, I checked email twice per day and only responded to messages that absolutely had to be answered.  When I went to Bolivia, I didn’t bring anything except my cell phone, which I kept turned off the entire trip.  Jesse was also on vacation, so our business was pretty much unreachable for about three days.

When I got back, I had 691 unread emails, 291 of which Google thought were important.  In reality, only 2 were extremely important.  I missed an interview request from a big tech blog and one deal slowed down a little.  When I got back, I immediately called the reporter and got the interview taken care of and pushed through the deal that had slowed down.  In reality, nothing bad happened.

Now that I’m back, I’m fully recharged and ready to attack my work and my life at full speed.  I had time to reevaluate my life, my business and my space in the world.  It was great to not have to think about business, city life, politics, buses, metros, emails, phones or meetups.  My body feels better, my mind is clear and I’m recharged.

When’s the last time you disconnected?  If it was a long time ago, take the leap on your next vacation and leave your internet behind.  Disconnect and see how much better you feel.

How to Replicate Airplane Productivity: Or Why I Don’t Buy Wireless on Flights

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I am incredibly productive on airplanes.  I read faster, write more and am more creative.  Some of the best ideas for Entrustet have come while I’ve been at 30,000 feet.  In early January, I took a flight from San Francisco to Atlanta on my way back to Chile.  During that 3.5 hour flight, I wrote my last five blog posts, read all of The Economist’s dense year end review and the last half of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  (I don’t get that book at all, but that’s another blog post)

That’s 3,754 words written, 50+ Economist articles and about 250 pages of fiction.  It felt great and quality didn’t suffer.  Three of my last four blog posts are now in my five most trafficked posts of all time.  So first, how did it happen?

I’ve experienced similar spurts of productivity when on airplanes.  I’ve been able to attribute it to a few things:

1. You have nowhere to go and nothing to do.

There are no distractions.  No trash tv, no twitter, no facebook messages and emails to check.  There’s no phone calls and you can’t leave (unless you have a parachute).  It’s just you and your thoughts for the duration of the flight.

2. Traveling causes you to think

Getting out of your normal routine changes your perspective, even if you don’t notice it.  When you get on that flight, you’re out of your routine.  You see things differently.  Couple this new perspective with no distractions and you’ll be more productive.

3. You have an uninterrupted, known block of time to work with

You (hopefully) will have a defined block of time during your flight.  When you have a definite stop and end time, you’re more likely to get things done, than if you’re just sitting at your desk or in your kitchen trying to get things done.

Once I got back to Santiago, I looked at all of the things I’d done during my 3.5 our flight and was astounded.  I’d been meaning to write most of those blog posts, but I would get distracted by tv, sports, friends, email, phone calls, whatever.  I could always push it until later.  I don’t buy wireless because my productivity is so good without it.  I decided I wanted to try to replicate my time on an airplane.

Here’s what I’ve been doing so far:

1. Exercise at a strange time

Go on a walk, take a bike ride, go for a swim.  Do something to take your mind off of whatever you’ve been thinking about.  I guessed that exercise would replicate travel and getting out of my routine.  Even 15 minutes will do.

2. Set a defined block of time and pick a location

After exercising, pick a defined amount of time for your “plane time.”  I’ve started with 1 hour.  I’ve been going up to our rooftop, but you can go to a coffee shop, a park or anywhere where you you’ll have at least one hour of uninterrupted work time.

3. Turn off your cell phone

Do it.  It’s not the end of the world.  Better yet, leave it at home.

4. Bring diverse materials

Bring a book, magazine, notebook/pen and your computer.  For me, I want to work on whatever I feel like, not something I need to get done.  It helps me avoid writers block or decision paralysis.  I’ve done this two times now and the first time, I just read for an hour.  The second time, I worked almost exclusively on Entrustet.

So far, it seems to be working.  In our society, we’re always plugged in and multitasking.  It’s been worth it to me to take a step back and just let my mind wander to whatever task it wants to do.  Getting out of a routine has been helpful to me to duplicate the productivty gains I’ve experienced on flights.

I’m planning on experimenting to see if I can get closer to my airplane level of productivity and will update as I find out more.  Are you more productive on airplanes?  Do you try to get out of your routine to work better?  Interested in giving my ideas a test flight?  Got any tips?

My (Late) Year End Review

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In January 2010, I had just closed out a decade, but was still living in college housing in my home state.  Entrustet was in an alpha version and our informational site was live. By the end of the year, I had moved out of college housing (with a rabies shot issue) and then the country entirely and Entrustet is recognized as the market leader in our industry.  I now live in Santiago, Chile.

New Friends in Chile

2010 was my first full year out of college and I think I made the most of it.   We launched Entrustet in beta in March and Jesse announced our launch by giving a talk at South by Southwest.  Since then, we’ve been featured in over 100 media outlets and blogs, including the New York Times, Mashable, TechCrunch, BBC, Financial Times and many others.  We’ve seen our niche change from a strange curiosity into a real industry.

Press Photo for Entrustet

On a personal level, I continued to travel, knocking two continents off my bucket list.  In June and July, I traveled to South Africa for the World Cup with two of my best friends Andy and Katie.  I’ll never forget Landon Donovan’s last second goal against Algeria to put the US through to the knockout stages.  I even got on tv in the bedlam following the game.  Katie got to ride a police horse to a bar.  I’ll also never forget our safari.  Seeing African animals in the wild is an unbelievable experience.  I know I’ll be back to Africa sometime this decade.

In November, I moved to Santiago, Chile with Jesse as part of the Start-Up Chile program.  I’d always wanted to live in a Spanish speaking country, but wasn’t able to study abroad because of ExchangeHut.  So far, Chile has been great and I’m excited to travel to other South American countries in 2011.  My Spanish is getting better, but it’s still not very good.  I can’t wait to continue practicing in 2011.

When I got back from the World Cup, I got to serve as best man in one of my best friends’ wedding.  I’ll never forget seeing them walk down the aisle and out of the Church as a married couple and then giving their toast at their reception later that night.

In Madison, Capital Entrepreneurs had an amazing year.  Member companies have done some awesome things.  I helped cofound the Forward Technology Conference and will never forget the keynote speech by Fred Foster. CE and Forward have already surpassed my expectations and I’m hoping to see CE continue to lead the Madison Startup Scene.  We were even featured in TechCrunch and ReadWriteWeb as an up and coming startup hub.

It was a great badger football season, culminating in the Rose Bowl.  Although we lost, it was still amazing to see the sun set over the snowcapped San Gabriels on New Years Day.

I’ve continued to write my blog and somehow it’s actually starting to gain some traction.  I’ve been lucky enough to write for other website in 2010 and hope it continues in 2011.  I grudgingly started using Twitter and created a Tumblog, but locked down my Facebook account.  I still was able to read, but not as much as I’d like.  I even switched to a Kindle and I can’t imagine buying a paper book again, although it sucks to have to turn off my Kindle during takeoff and landing on airplanes.

I’ve been extremely fortunate to continue to stay in touch with my college friends and luckily we’ve been able to continue our yearly “friendsgiving” Thanksgiving feasts and I got to see my friend Beata who’s been living in London, Thailand and Australia since graduation.  I’ve gotten to meet amazing friends in the Madison startup scene, along with new friends in South America.

I’m thankful for my health and that of my family and friends.  I’m thankful for the perspective that working in the digital death industry has given me.  2010 was an amazing year and a year of change.  If the first week of 2011 is a precursor to the rest of 2011, I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen!

My Favorite Posts of 2010

How to Live Before You Die: What I’ve Learned From Entrustet

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At the end of the segment on NPR’s Forum yesterday, the host asked me if my life or worldview has changed at all since starting a death-focused company.  I deal with death on a regular basis.  It’s forced me to confront many issues of mortality and the unpleasantness that goes along with thinking about my own demise.  I’m thankful that I’ve had the opportunity to think about issues that most people only think about in their 50s or even potentially on their death beds.

So how has working in the “digital death” industry changed me and my worldview?

I no longer take anything for granted.  I’ve read so many stories of people dying unexpectedly that I’ve realized how special life truly is.  Jesse will say from time to time “Isn’t it ridiculous that we’re alive?  Think about all of the things that had to go right for us to be here today. It’s amazing.”  It really is true.

If the average life expectancy is 80 these days, it means we only have 29,200 days on this Earth.  Before Entrustet, sometimes I thought days were boring, or were simply impediments in time before I got to do something I really wanted to do.  Now that I’ve been working on Entrustet for almost two years, I never take a single day for granted.  It’s one of my 29,200, and only if I’m lucky.

Dealing with death has caused me to care even less about what other people think.  You only live once, so do what makes you happy.  In the whole scheme of things, rejection isn’t that big of a deal.  Seize your opportunities and take your chances with alacrity.  You never know when you won’t have the ability to take them in the future.

I’ve become even less materialistic.  You can’t take your possessions or your money with you when you die, so I’ve come to realize that I don’t need things or to make $1b (unless we get hyper inflation!).  When I read about people on their deathbeds, they all say they regret not spending more time with friends and family or taking a trip to a foreign country or taking the opportunity to work on the things they loved.  They never say they wished they had bought a bigger TV or a nicer car.  I’ve realized that it truly doesn’t take much (money) for me to be happy.  I know I can live well on a small amount of money.

It’s strange that I’m dealing with these issues as a 25 year old, but I think I’m lucky.  Most people push the idea of death down the road and many people don’t end up following their dreams.  I’m glad I’m realizing these truths now, not when I’m 50, 90 or not at all.  Sometimes it takes a near death experience, but for me, all it’s taken is being near death.

Please watch Steve Jobs’ speech to Stanford’s graduation class.  Jobs was diagnosed with an extremely deadly type of cancer and miraculously survived.  He’s an authority on how to live before you die and his speech is where I got the title for my post.  Do yourself a favor and take the time to watch.  You only live once, make the most of it!