Tag: Matt Mochary

3 Jul 2024 – Morning Pages

Here’s an attempt to get back to morning pages. Read, point gaps in my thinking and lemme know what I can do better.

I am back with Morning Pages. Let’s go.

I don’t know why I ordered this book. But I did. I normally don’t read a lot. But I read some pages of this book. I tend to like business books – this is anything but that and I spotted myself refusing to put the book down. 

One of the things that the book talks about is that the author’s father would be up at 530 and writing for 2 hours every day. And then he would go about his day. This is similar to the advice by Julia Cameron. And this is what Anjum Sir talks as well. Riyaz.

And I must. And I will. And why writing and why not my single largest goal? Well, because most of my work needs to move people, shift opinions, and persuade and if I am good with my words, it would become easier. Plus at this time, writing would help me get some clarity on my thoughts and open doors. Once I know what I am going to work on, I will follow Mochary’s advice on spending the first two hours of the day on key tasks.

Coming back to this habit of writing every day. There was a time when I wrote every day in the morning. After a while, I didn’t know what to write about.

Now I think I can write about work – after all that’s my biggest thing at this point. No, I will not send emails. I will not make presentations. I will write them and then shoot them out after the first 2 hours are over. I know I will get distracted when I write. And I will thus lean on the iPad to write. I am writing this on the iPad. On Google Docs. I don’t know if I will publish this. But I am writing here because I can’t open multiple tabs. I am writing here because I am not giving in to my habits of checking news, scrolling Twitter timelines, responding to emails etc. It’s 645 and I plan to do this till 730 today. I will try to wake up at 5 tomorrow and then write for 90 mins. I don’t know what I would write about, may be I will make a list and get into the habit. 

Ok, lemme talk about the habit I want to build. And the habits I want to break. 

Lemme give you a gist of my day. 

I wake up without an alarm on most days – typically between 6 and 630. I put on some music. Am listening to a rock music playlist today on my laptop (I picked the mouse to copy and paste the link – but no – no other devices shall be touched). I open my mailbox and reply to things that I think are important. On some days I open my trackers and fill those in. Some days I will open Asana. And then I would open WhatsApp – that’s where all of my work happens. I will reply to any conversations that need my attention, I would give yes or no to things and I would pick up whatever comes to my mind at that time.

Typically things that come to mind are typical tasks that need attention at work.

Here, I want to change my wake-up time to 5 AM. And then write for 90 minutes and then get some sort of yoga / workout in. Maybe I will join Cult – I will check this out today. I will also get myself a Keto meal subscription. Expensive but I will get it. 

I then putter around the house, get ready and leave for Starbucks between 745 and 815 – depending on when I had woken up.

Once at Starbucks, I’d get myself any black coffee and do more “work”. 

To be honest, I don’t work anymore. The team at C4E manages most work. I only pretend. But I want to change this too. I will start putting in the work for the following things… 

  1. SoG Network
  2. Networking 
  3. Design capability 
  4. International Expansion 
  5. Distribution 
  6. Startup idea 

While the focus is these six things, these could take the shape of emails, writing posts for LinkedIn, or connecting with folks. Let see.

May be I will edit these morning pages and put them on the blog (doing it as we speak) – after all an iPad can only do limited things. Maybe I will fill these trackers? Or maybe I will find someone else to do this and put it on WordPress and make a LinkedIn post of highlights and a thread for X – I think I will outsource this – do you know any kid who can do this for me a tiny sum? Lemme put a call out and see where this goes. 

I am trying to avoid coffee – haven’t had it for two days. Let’s see how long this lasts. Also, since I need to order something when am there, I have started to buy sparkling water. And that means I will have a lot of glass bottles around. And I will start putting flowers in those. 

Then around 12, I get bored of Starbucks and I want to go somewhere else. I either go back home (I have started to call this house home) or The Clubhouse. I order myself lunch / snack. I eat and I sleep. I really want to change this. Actually no. I will not change this. I will read if these naps are a good idea – if they are, I’ll continue. If they are not, I will quit. If naps are not good, I will stack meetings around lunch.

I put an alarm if I have important calls. In case I don’t, I leave the house and step out. I don’t have a specific destination in mind. Starbucks mostly. Some days, Infiniti Mall. Some days Blue Tokai, some days Jamjar, some days Clubhouse. Somedays random new place. I need to break this habit and find a place to go to – may be a coworking place. Maybe Clubhouse. Maybe work from home – I do have a table that I can work on. So, I don’t know. But I need to get out of this habit of whiling time. Maybe I will stack all my calls in this time. I can mould my team and most clients to accept that calls can only be done post-12. 

Post that I try and go to the beach. I want to add a habit of taking a picture each day and putting it on Instagram. Oh, I will remove Instagram from my phone and put it on the alt phone that I will not carry with me. 

And then I come back home and as a matter of habit order some kachra (I am deleting Swiggy also from my phone) and then eat it while I play chess (which I recently deleted) and watch reruns of FIR (I will quit this too). And then I while some time on Instagram and then sleep. I want to add some meditation before I sleep. My life goal is to have more meditation minutes than AK. 

Most days I sleep after 10:30. I want to sleep around (if I have to get up at 5). To be honest, I have it all that allows me to do so. Most times I can control my work. Most times I can push dinners to 730. And I must. 

I think if I can run this routine for a month, we should be ok. I don’t have any travel plans for the rest of the month. I need to be in Delhi for a meeting but that is towards the end of the month. So all is well there. If I can get a routine going for even 25 days, starting today, we would be ok. 

So that.

Lets see where this goes. 

Wish me luck. 

PS: Here are some gaps.

  1. I haven’t allocated time for thinking (deep thinking) here. 
  2. I am not sure if I will follow this routine. If I can do this from today till the Delhi trip, I think I would be ok. Let’s see. 
  3. Original note here that I have edited.

16 Lessons from Tim Ferriss and Matt Mochary

Notes and lessons from a conversation between Tim Ferriss and Matt Mochary.

Hi! Context.

I saw this podcast where Tim Ferriss spoke to Matt Mochary about coaching and all that. I thought it was brilliant and I thought that the wider world must consume these. While I heard the talk, I took notes (as always) and here they are.

Before you read, here are some disclaimers…

  1. These notes are my attempt to distil learnings into short sentences / lessons 
  2. The transmission loss (in their narrative and my understanding) must be attributed to me 
  3. The notes are coloured by my personal experiences and biases. 
  4. For the unfiltered notes, please see this thread I wrote while I heard the podcast.
  5. If you like what you read, follow me on Twitter

If you want to see the podcast, here…

Lesson 1 

Most people operate from fear and anger. And often the root of all fear / anger is your ego.

If you can eliminate fear and anger from your life, you could become more effective. Think of the last time you were not happy (or even ineffective). You can trace back the unhappiness to either fear or anger. 

Lesson 2 

The base of everything we do (love / business / one-time transactions) has to be trust. 

Nothing else.
No contracts.
No paperwork.

Plain old trust.

You will get taken for a ride but think of those instances as the tax you need to pay to build a life of more abundance and more growth. 

As you go along, try and make your reputation and word so strong that people dont even think about asking you to sign a paper. Think of how you talk to your spouse or best friend. That! 

The beauty is this behaviour compounds. Once you become someone that people can trust, you will attract more people that would want to trust you and most of them will also operate from the lens of trusting you. Collectively, like a spiral goes up (thanks to Gokul from CynLr for this concept of the spiral), everyone collectively becomes better. 

Lesson 3 

As your stature becomes bigger in the public eye, you’d attract a lot of people with a lot of ulterior motives.

Contrast this with lesson 2 and you need to find a middle ground and a filtering system that detects behaviours from the other party

Lesson 4 

Start to think a lot more in terms of likelihoods (odds / percentages etc). This doesn’t come across as natural to people even though they know about it. 

What are the odds that a certain deal will convert?
What are the odds that the next flight you take will crash?
What are the odds that your business partner of today will remain a partner tomorrow?

And then work to maximise these odds 

I still do it. But need to amp it up.

Lesson 5. Most Important.

Convert conversations into action items.

Create a bias for action.

And this means you need to write down action items.
Put deadlines.
And do. 

And the cost of not doing must be you letting yourself down in the eyes of someone that you dont want to! Your parent, spouse, best friend, team, clients etc.

This is one of those things that MOST entrepreneurs lack. They dont add an action item. At least I dont. This is one change that I will bring in.

Lesson 5A

Accountability beats elaborate planning all the time. Enough said.

Lesson 6

You get angry or you are in pain when some personal boundary gets crossed.

You need to understand those boundaries and then communicate to self first and then to others.

When you talk to yourself, try and unravel – what boundary was crossed. And then when you talk to others, tell them that they’ve crossed a personal boundary.

Will make you more effective. 

Lesson 7

Work becomes better / easier in the physical presence of others. MM pays people to just sit on a couch and read magazines while he works.

While this talk of remote and async work is great, there are people that may need an office environment. 

On a personal level, as someone whose boundaries in terms of work and personal life blur a lot, I can vouch for this. On multiple levels. 

a, I <3 offices! 
b, I <3 coffee shops to work.
c, I love seeing others around me working on their dreams as I work on mine.

In fact, this works for others as well. 

On the writing cohort that I run (#lfwc3), @adisave came up with the idea of #rozwrite where we log in with cameras on, and mics off and do our own writing. The ones that participate get a lot of writing done!

No wonder. We are after all social creatures.

Lesson 8

At any company, it’s a human you are optimising your work for! 

Think of any business. They are in the end optimising for a human being. Could be customers / investors / employees / even the head of state! Even in your personal life, you are optimising for yourself!

Once this is internalised, decision-making changes. And so does the trajectory of your work!

Lesson 9. Second most important.

Separate decisions from implementation. 

Remember how they say that you suffer more in imagination than in reality? That! 

MM talks about how you fire someone. You are dreading the decision to fire because the implementation of that (the conversation with who you are going to fire) will be tough. Similarly, when you want to get fit, the decision to get fit is an easy one to take. You delay it because you are dreading those sweaty gym sessions and abstinence from your favourite food! 

This coupled with converting conversations into actions should see you getting a lot more done!

Lesson 10

People have three pillars in life – the home they live at, their most significant relationship and their job. 

If any of these three gets impacted, it creates a big trauma.

As a leader, your job is to help your people prevent these traumas. Often you would be able to control just one of the three. But can you expand your influence in other areas as well?

Lesson 11. Important. 

Help people eliminate fear. Especially in a work setting.

Respect is great but fear is not. Your team must NOT be afraid of you. 

One way to do this is to showcase to your people by setting an example through your conduct. Each time that team could be scared, you need to show to them that they dont need to. The best way to do this is by doing. 

For example, you have to let go of someone. While one person is losing their job, others are also scared about theirs. So while you fire that one person, you tell that person that it’s not them that is the reason. And do whatever it takes to find that person a replacement. Treat that persona as a human and not as a number. 

When you fire like that, the ones that are working with you see the humane side. They see that you have been kind and you have actually gone out of your way to get the outgoing person hired, they will not operate from a place of fear. 

A good way to reflect could be by asking these questions… 

  • Last time when you had to fire someone, how did you talk to the person you had to let go?
  • Last time when an irate customer yelled at you, how did you handle them?
  • When people dont agree with you fundamentally, how do you talk to them?

Lesson 12

Antisell the role / company when you are hiring. 

This is counter-intuitive but works.

You paint the saddest scenario to the incoming talent. And if they are still willing to work with you, you know that they are aligned with the mission! And they are not in it for free catered food or whatever.  

Lesson 13. Very important. 

Do energy audits.

After each interaction, try and take note if that left you energized or drained. Over time, find patterns. And then double down on things that energize you. Stop doing things that drain you.

TF talk about how he gets drained (and angry) when he has to do legal paperwork. 

What about you? Does a chat with your team energize you? Or drains you? What do people tell you? Do you energise them? Or do you drain them?

Lesson 14. Very important. 

Good communication is a marriage of writing and talking.

It’s imperative that each person builds the muscle to write. And then talk. 

Oh, and take notes!

So when you write, you get clarity of thought.
When you speak, you can add nuance.
When the two tango, you create magic.

Most great speakers and influential business people run on this secret combination. 

Side note. I must offer coaching sessions like note-taking, writing, thinking, building teams, and speaking. To people that want to get more effective. No, I am not an expert on any of these but this is the only way I would learn and get better. Does anyone want to pay me for this?

Lesson 14A

Must give feedback in a sync mode and in person. As much as possible. Even though you could be the best writer / speaker / manager. 

It’s ok to send long emails or texts but if it’s going to be an unpleasant conversation for either of you, please do NOT escape. Ask for a time when the two of you could sit together and chat and then bring it up. Take your notes. Let the other person bring notes as well!

Lesson 15

The secret superpower to effectiveness is to get an effective EA / CoS. No, not to get your grunt work done. But to shadow you and do things that only you can do. And give that person the freedom to run operations while you just think and use your brain. 

This is similar to what Ali Abdaal calls sparring partners and what we at C4E call a chain of mentors. 

That’s about it! Hope this helps.