Week 46: Update, blending work and life, what I watched and read
Update on what I am doing.
Hey there!
I hope you are doing fine. As you might have noticed, I took a break from writing my weekly newsletter. There were and are many things going on in my life, and I needed to focus on getting everything on the right path:
The twins finished school, traveled during the summer, and started university.
We are fundraising for our next fund, and many (majorly good) things are happening at APX.
There was quite a lot to do in my non-APX roles because of changes, developments, and opportunities.
I did not read and watch as much as usual that is shareable.
On top of all this, I am touched by the ongoing war in Ukraine and the crisis around me and all of us. Today is not the day I am writing about them.
Let me get you up to speed on what I did over the past four months:
I spent some weekends in Zurich with one of my sons and supported him in finding a shared flat and then moving. And we all met in Zurich for a family weekend. It feels good to have a connection to Zurich now; so far, the city is good for my son. And I like Switzerland.
His twin brother started university in Berlin and is figuring out whether he wants to move to another place over the coming months.
We have just invested in the 170th company with APX, and our early-stage portfolio companies can raise financing rounds and work on their product market fit. Our team is developing, and some of my colleagues live the remote first life, and I look forward to doing this myself once everything is sorted.
My last vacation was relatively short, and Dina and I spent a week in South Tyrol hiking and relaxing. The region is beautiful, and we had a very relaxing time, and I did some hikes and drove some lovely mountain roads.
How I am blending work and life right now:
I am focussing on being as productive as possible without burning out. This is how I organize my time right now:
I start on Monday with a 30-minute long “approving” session where I approve everything that needs to be approved by me (vacation days, payment authorizations, contract signatures)
Then I have a 45-minute coaching session with my sharpist coach at 8:30, where we reflect on learnings and challenges
Then the week continues differently depending on if it is a synchronous or asynchronous week. I have video meetings with investors, founders, and colleagues in a synchronous week until 12. Then I have lunch with whoever is with me. Usually, I work from home on Mondays.
At 1 pm, we have our Monday meeting, where we go through everything we are doing at APX with everyone working at APX. It is a very transactional/content-oriented meeting, and we do not have too many discussions but rather update each other on what we are working on in a structured way. The meeting is planned for 2 hours, and most of the time, we are done after less than an hour. We have optional deep dives that anyone can put on the agenda, and they get an extra 15 minutes.
On days I am in the office, I plan my work so that I do not have to do deep work involving prolonged and uninterrupted workflows. And I also try not to have too many video meetings while in the office. When I am there, I want to be able to talk to my colleagues, meet with them for 1on1s and also be able to “grab a coffee or water.” This is also where serendipity happens most of the time.
When I am at home, I work in 45-60 minute bursts on tasks I want to get done. It’s a variation of the Pomodoro system, and I still use Centered to organize my flow. When I am in the office, I also work in bursts, but I usually do emails or shorter tasks where it is not an issue if people interrupt me.
I am in the office three to four days per week, and so far, I think I am most productive when I have 2 home office days and three days in the office.
Next to my digital to-do list, I have a notebook or sheet of paper daily to track my most crucial to-do of the day and a “might-do list.” Thank you for the inspiration, Ali Abdal.
My tech stack has only slightly changed: I am still using superhuman for my emails, asana for to-dos, and roamresearch for my notes, and the only tool I have changed is my calendaring. I am using vimcal as my calendar client right now as I like the keyboard shortcuts and the convenient features to organize meetings and offer timeslots to people I want to meet with.
I switched to a larger Phone again, and I love the dictation features of the new iOS. I am also deeply in love with my new Airpod Pro 2s as the noise canceling is very good, but the transparency mode is even better.
Fundraising for our new fund
We have been fundraising for our new fund over the past months, and soon I will share the name, strategy (very similar to APX), and setup with you. Reach out if you are interested in becoming an LP :-)
What I read and watched
While doing all this, I read and watched content like always. But quite a lot of it was behind paywalls, which is an issue regarding sharing. Please let me know through comments or the chat if you are interested in deep links to content behind paywalls. And if you are interested in my reading list: here is a link to it.
Books I am reading right now:
Speculative Futures by Johanna Hoffmann. So far, an optimistic view of what our future environments might look like.
The Photographers Playbook: 307 Assignments and Ideas
Framers: Human Advantage in an Age of Technology and Turmoil
How to make the best Coffee at Home by James Hoffmann. James Hoffmann is one of my go-to YouTubers when it comes to coffee. And his book on making coffee at home is a handy resource when trying out new recipes and preparation methods.
Two books by Paul Stamets: Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World: An Identification Guide and Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World because I needed a topic to dive into.
I read many newsletters behind paywalls. This is good as it empowers the authors to make a living but makes sharing with you a bit more complex.
I watched tons of youtube videos to prepare for my travels, select a new car for and with my wife and figure out how my new car works. Dina has a hybrid vehicle now, and I ordered and got a Tesla (from Grünheide: “buy local and support your local Gigafactory!”)
After making several Zurich trips with a rented Model Y and my own, I can say that I greatly like traveling with it. It’s fast, has much room, and works well with full self-driving. Switzerland is a bit better than Germany as the traffic sign recognition is not yet working reliably. But I am not that annoyed with it. The self-driving beta is the only thing that is not working well compared to the Volkswagens I have had in recent years.
I did not listen to as many podcasts as usual because I spent most of my commutes on phone calls these days.
As I noticed I was missing writing my newsletter to distill and reflect on what is going on, I wrote this newsletter over the last hour. As my life is developing fast these days, I am confident I will have a lot of content to share with you in the future.
Thank you for reading, have a great weekend, and best
Joerg