Two things I’ve been reflecting on this morning – my relationship with retaining & reflecting on meeting information and my mindfulness journey. Jotted some thoughts about both below.
According to my Google Calendar insights, I’m now usually in meetings about 27-30 hours a week between portfolio and new startup founders, existing and new investors, internal meetings, and service provider meetings. I remember when I was about a year into BGV I’d have ~ 9-15 hours of meetings a week, and when we first started out I’d have a couple 30 minute blocks in my calendar.
That handful of meetings was so exciting – I had so much time to prep and look forward to them. Now, I meet with incredible people all day long – but ask me what I did after that time and my mind draws a blank. I noticed it when I chatted with friend who were just starting companies & they excitedly explained their days. I was like – I want to do that again!!
I think one difference in this memory as well is I used to journal about my meetings instead of adding them to our customer relationship management tool. I’d doodle and reflect later in the day, and now I’m lucky to get a few paragraphs of notes in before I give them up to the CRM ether. Should I go back to my journal? It’s totally unsearchable but for some reason, I retain the information way better. I’m going to try it for a bit and see how it goes.
I also started blocking out time for morning routines and reviewing emails etc on my calendar six months ago, but I’m trying out removing those blocks. I just took them out today and already I *love* seeing a negative space on my calendar.
In parallel to this change in my work life, I’ve gone through seasons of mindfulness and meditation. I started meditating during covid, using the Waking Up app. I’d take a long morning walk along the bay in San Diego by my old apartment and listen to Sam Harris’s voice wax poetic about the stillness of the mind.
I started surfing regularly Dec 2020, which was a fantastic way to clear my mind [before I had a near-death experience in a hurricane swell in Cabo July 2022]. I joke with my friends that I consider myself a surfish now – I’ve spent enough time in the water to be comfortable but also be picky about conditions.
For other reasons, I moved further from my favorite surf break – Tourmaline – earlier this year and picked up running. I didn’t live super close to a gym any more, and running took relatively little preparation vs surfing. I read Harukami’s iconic book What I Talk about when I talk about Running and Phil Knight’s Shoe Dog around the same time, and they served a similar pump up as every surfer’s bible – Barbarian Days by William Finnegan. I’m also a huge fan of Daniel Duane’s Caught Inside. I was lucky enough to attend Daniel & his wife Liz Weil’s writers workshop in Bernal Heights earlier this year.
But I digress. Since April, I’ve consistently ran 1-3 miles 3-4 times a week. It’s become one of my favorite parts of the day – the sea breeze blowing in my hair, a good playlist on, and an empty mind. As my days have gotten busier, my run gives me time to think creatively about writing I want to do or more longer-term strategy or parties I want to plan or friends I should catch up with. I start the day feeling like I accomplished something (coincidentally – the same reason I make my bed every day in the morning).
Knock on wood, I’ve only taken one tumble – but it wasn’t pretty. I was worried about something and took my mind off the path in front of me. I fell into the sandy trail hands first, with my knee breaking my fall. I got up with blood and bits of sand streaming down my leg and began to jog the mile back home, tears leaking down my face. I dreaded the cleaning process of pouring rubbing alcohol on the cut, but afterwards I felt pretty badass with a massive cut on my leg.
From that tumble, I took a rosy pink still-healing scar and the lesson of “keep your mind on the task at hand.”
I wrote about Kevin MacPherson’s Magic Grid a couple days ago, and I think a similar principle has applied to my mindfulness journey. He says when you do a couple hundred grids, you no longer have to think of the grid explicitly all the time. I’ve found the same to be true of my mindfulness journey – my practice is less disciplined but far more ingrained throughout my day.
I’ve been really inspired watching a few of my friends train (and complete!!!!) marathons – shout out miss Gaby Goldberg especially for finishing the NYC marathon earlier this month. I’m not sure yet if I’ll train for a race but I’m really enjoying running now.
Hope you all have a great day / would love to hear about what keeps your mind clear!