How to Feel Great (Every Day)

Jane: Hi, how are you?
me: I feel really great! You?
Jane: I'm good, thanks :-)
me: Only good? Come on, what's wrong with you!? :->
Jane: haha, alright, I feel GREAT!
...

Jane is a cashier that I met a couple of days ago in Toronto. She probably expected me to be yet another anonymous client whose reply for her question would be 'Good. You?'. That didn't happen. That day I was full energy and extremely enthusiastic. As a side effect she absorbed some of the positive energy and started a short and enjoyable conversation. I noticed that feeling great has positive effects not only on me but also on people around me. The purpose of this post is to help you feel genuinely great instead of just good :-)

If you google for the phrase "how to feel great", the two interesting links pop up: How To Feel Better And Be Happier and How to Feel Great. They mix instant solutions with long term commitments. I recommend reading both of them. Try to experiment and see what works best for you. The interesting thing is that my observations about feeling great are very similar to the pieces of advice from both pages.

Good feelings are a state of mind. I believe, however, that one can tune them up by performing various physical activities. Simply: "a healthy mind in a healthy body" at work. Even though physical activities are fun to do, they are especially beneficial in the long run. The biggest reward is the constant state of being positive and insensivity to minor issues. Feel free to reuse some of the ideas: 

• Exercises. Working out in the morning and in the evening keeps the body in shape. After an exhausting training I feel like I can bench press the world :-)
• Smile. If you are happy, you smile. But did you know that it works in the other direction as well? When you smile, you feel happy!
• Jogging. Running in the morning wakes me up. It is a fantastic way of getting fresh air to activate the brain.
• Cold shower. This is something I discovered a couple of days ago. Jogging + cold shower = a lot of energy for the whole day (don't try to transform this equation :-) ).
• Good breakfast. There are plenty of ideas for lightweight and healthy breakfast. Among other things, I enjoy squeezing grapefruits to get fresh and delicious juice. 
• Working on something interesting. Research is what makes my day. Working from different locations (e.g. coffee shops) makes me more open-minded and allows for meeting exciting people.
• Listening to music. This one is similar to smile: music shapes and expresses your mood. For example, listening to disco makes you feel like having fun, death metal makes you feel like a superhuman, downtempo calms you down, and rock simply makes you feel great!
• Creating music. I started playing the guitar a couple of years ago. Although just for fun, there is no doubt that at some point I'll be a rockstar (yes, my fanclub is on Facebook). Playing loud and powerful music can make you feel like a rockstar right now!
• Dancing. A couple of months ago I signed up for salsa classes. Sure, I'll be a perfect dancer, but the biggest joy is to meet new people and go out of the comfort zone. Why does it make me feel great? Because I can find myself in a completely new environment and see how my dancing skills develop over time.
• Socializing. It is good to have several social circles to spend free time with someone you like, or find amusing, or interesting.
• Yoga. Nothing tames me more than yoga after working out. At fist I breath deeply, think about nothing, just relax. Later, there is time to stop for a while and think over things that happened during the day. The amazing fact about thinking about yourself is that you will never ever feel bored. My experiments showed that yoga works best just before going to sleep. Falling asleep occurs within minutes.
• Sleep. This one is crucial. It's hard to feel great every day while being sleepy :-)

I try to practice most of things every day or in the worst case once a week. It is virtually impossible to go wrong with such a list of activities. Physical activities can make wonders, but they are super-effective only when combined with good attitude, positive thinking, and open-mindedness. What do you do to feel great?

...
Jane: Have a GREAT day!
me:  Have a great day as well!

Feeling Great

"Feeling great is great!"

How to Make People Socialize?

I'm back in Canada after 3 great weeks in Poland and Germany. This morning I was traveling by bus to the university. Just before 9 am I happily entered the bus, said loudly 'hello!', and looked around. Many people looked at me but didn't smile back. Besides two girls, the passengers quickly started looking into the air. Unusual? Not really. My first thought was: why is it so hard to socialize in buses or public places? How to help people socialize? I think the cure is to provide some incentives or just make them socialize...

Last week I attended a Dagstuhl seminar on "Feature-Oriented Software Development". It took place in Schloss Dagstuhl which is a small but very nice castle located in a remote place. In my opinion the venue was scientifically brilliant. Here, however, I'd like to focus on the social side of Dagstuhl.

One of the goals of the seminar was to build and integrate the research community around a very promising way of developing software. Of course, one can organize a conference, invite people, and hope that it will do the job. Would that work? Maybe, but I doubt it would be as efficient as Dagstuhl. Dagstuhl not only encouraged people to socialize and collaborate, but literally made them do so!

1. The location of the castle is not accidental. Its remoteness encourages people to get to know each other. There were basically no other people than the participants. The bus also offers a closed environment, but itself offers no common topics to discuss.
2. All participants were encouraged to present their early work, or perform tool demonstrations. It is great to show the world your hard work and get some feedback. It is also hard to find a person in the bus who smiles back at you.
3. There were breakout sessions where people discussed topics of their interest. If you find one group boring, you can easily switch to another one and illuminate them with your awesome ideas. Well, OK, in the bus you cannot really change social circles.
4. This one is a biggie. Dagstuhl offered very tasty German food. When you are in the restaurant, you can choose your seat. That was not the case in the castle. The seat was always pre-arranged by the staff and at every meal I seated with different people. It naturally made me come out of my comfort zone and socialize. I admit that it is not so easy to talk to experts who know so much more than you, but I was doing good progress :-)
5. For the social event we went for wine tasting. They should serve wine in buses; nothing more to add :-)

Dagstuhl was a great experience. I had many insightful discussions and learned something about social interactions. Comparing to the bus is not fair, but that's not the point. The point is collect the best ideas from where they work and apply them in a new context. Make the world a more pleasant place!

Experiments with Location Independence

This is my last week in Poland. I've met old friends, got to know a lot of new people and visited quite a few places. One of my goals was to evaluate different working locations:

1. apartments (my brother's and my parents'),
2. Biurco (a coworking place),
3. my friend's office,
4. Starbucks,
5. trains,
6. a member-only club.

I considered the following criteria: work efficiency, distraction, fun, and sociability. Each feature was rated on scale 0-5, where 0 means the worst note, and 5 the best. The following chart summarizes my findings:

Ratings of different working locations

Working in apartments, trains, and offices is nothing new, so let's focus on Biurco and Starbucks for a moment. Biurco is a place in the middle of Warsaw. People can rent office spaces or work at any available desk. It is an ideal place for coworking. They provide you with a comfortable chair, high-speed connection to the Internet, water, and coffee. The place itself is rather modest and minimalistic, which makes it easy to focus. Although I was new and most people already knew each other, they seemed nice and happily introduced themselves. Among others, I got to know a director from National Geographic and a woman whose job is to organize parties for kids.

Later I went for a lunch with my brother and friends. It turned out that one of the friends is a member of Skylight Club and proposed to take us for a tour. The club is very cozy and is located in the heart of Warsaw at the top of the Skylight tower. We could see the whole cityscape from there (sorry, I forgot to take my camera). Right after entering the club, I realized that it is a closed business place. The club offers very comfortable seats, books, newspapers, bar with a dance floor, and you can even arrange a meeting with hairstylist or tailor. A number of rooms and facilities allows to quickly switch environment, from busy bar to isolated room. Unfortunately, I didn't work there, since we were short of time. Hopefully I will get the chance to work in such a club next time.

On Wednesday I worked from Starbucks. The cafe is fairly comfortable and attracts all kinds of students. I was seating at a table with a sociology student and high-school girls who were studying for their final exams. Obviously, it was busier than the other places. I didn't mind working in the noisy environment, but it can be inconvenient during online conference calls. It is also advisable to order a drink from time to time :-)

All of the visited places feature different groups of people: independent professionals in Biurco, business people in Skylight, and students in Starbucks. As with everything, there are pros and cons. My general impression of working in different locations is very positive. The point is to learn how to work in a chaotic environment. Coworking is a cure for loneliness for independent professionals, meeting in a closed club is great for networking, and working in a cafe is good for making friends.

The Longest Journey Begins with a Single Step

Original Photo by Marcel Bak

Lao-tzu was an ancient Chinese philosopher. He noticed that even the biggest undertaking begins with something small, manageable, and understood. His saying perfectly reflects the current state of my mind which is a mixture of independence, excitement, and a grain of curiosity. I am about to join the community of digital nomads who leverage the technology to work remotely and live anywhere. The idea of location independence is so stimulating and inspiring that I would like to try the new lifestyle. I love traveling as much as I am interested in learning about other cultures. Digital nomadism allows one to enjoy everything so much more. That's the big plan, or "The Longest Journey" if you will.

Let's move onto "a Single Step". I recently changed my desktop wallpaper to something that resembles a paradise. Simply a place where I would like to live and work. My personal paradise includes a sunny beach, palm trees, and crystal-clear blue water. Whenever I look at the new wallpaper, it always keeps me motivated to do everything to pursue the goal. To make the whole landscape more realistic there are in fact 6 wallpapers that change automatically at 7am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm, 9pm, and 11pm. They show beautiful beaches with palm trees at different times of the day. Briefly, my 0th step towards digital nomadism is a collection of 6 pictures and a script that automatically switches them.

How far can I get from here? Will I ever be able to live wherever I feel like it? Where is the beach? Is it in Costa Rica? Dominican Republic? Thailand? Or maybe French Polynesia? I'm going to document the whole process of transformation from a young PhD student to a full-time digital nomad. I wanna realize my dreams and I am determined. Keep your fingers crossed and stay tuned!

I'm Back!

After years of inactivity I'm going to reactivate the blog. I removed some of the old posts and edited others. The blog changes focus and will hopefully get much more momentum. My head is full of fresh ideas, interesting stories, and tons of insightful observations. See you in a bit!