How are you Jun-te on
August 2023
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Happy 1 year anniversary to MealCraft Limited!
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My company is now 1 year old 👀
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I've decided to write up what I've learned for the one year I've been running my company 'full-time' in the hope that someone can apply my lessons quicker and faster than I.
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Jun-te aged 14: "Hey Dad, why do I have to be conscribed to the Korean army??"
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Dad: "Because you need to become a do-ing man"
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Dad: "In school, you learn how to become a knowledge-man. In the army, you learn how to become a do-ing man. No thinking involved."
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Jun-te: "Why do I need to become a doing man?"
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Dad: "Sounds like you're thinking"
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Dad: "Business is 50% doing and 50% thinking. Right now you are thinking too much and not doing."
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If I've learned anything this year. I've learned how to move.
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The book "7 Habits of Effective People" has a beautiful framework to illustrate my dilemma before I quit my job:
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Essentially your life can be broken down into four quadrants. A mix of urgent and important tasks and not urgent and not important tasks. Mine looked like this:
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Urgent and Important (Quadrant 1) things are done even by the laziest of human beings. This quadrant 1 is known as the 'procrastinator'. Everyone does urgent and important tasks especially if it's in their belief system.
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The key to this quadrant 1 is to ensure not all your time is in quadrant 1 otherwise you are always in crisis mode.
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Most of my life was a mix of Quadrant 1, Quadrant 3, and Quadrant 4. Other people's crisis became my responsibility and if there wasn't any, I'll focus on quadrant 4 and quadrant 1 only in work time. ( Just a slacker in disguise 👀)
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So what about quadrant 2?
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My sleep routine only became disciplined due to a mental health crisis.
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It suddenly became important and urgent to manage my mental health because my brain was literally being seduced to insanity.
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So how does one start prioritizing quadrant 2 before madness happens?
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"If only I had more time... then I can do quadrant 2"
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"If only I was more disciplined... then I could do quadrant 2"
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"If only I wasn't so tired... then I could do quadrant 2"
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Quadrant 2 by definition is things that are important but not urgent. How does one do the things that are important to one's life?
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"If only I had more time..."
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If I learned anything from 'Rich Dad Poor Dad' was that I had to keep my living expense low. Lifestyle creeps happen to the best of us and I've seen it with my co-workers especially as I get older.
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Provided you're not in debt, I'm pretty sure your yearly average spending will just be your salary. That is the same with someone making 10k and someone making 100k a year.
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Here's me in August 2022, thinking I just needed more time to get MealCraft launched. How naive I was.
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This is one of those things that you have to experience yourself but giving yourself more time doesn't mean the deadline will be completed on time. Ask any uni student that has asked for an extension. You have everything you need to become more proactive now.
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Even with time, I wasn't motivated or had the energy to work.
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Time has a compounding effect but only if it is being steered in the right direction.
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What habits are you doing now? What are those habits causing you to look like in 10 years' time? 40 years' time?
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I couldn't see myself getting any physically healthy from my job that involved sitting every day. I couldn't find the motivation or energy to exercise. Thus, I quit my job not to start my business, as I thought, but to figure out a health system to ensure my longevity.
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Starting a business is a challenging endeavor, and seeing the compounded effects of your efforts can take years, sometimes up to five according to some studies.
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In contrast, the benefits of consistent exercise can manifest in less than a year, and it's something you can pursue alongside a regular job. With a steady income, you even have the means to invest in your physical well-being.
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I would argue the compounding benefits of exercise (HealthTrinity) are a pre-requisite for any young entrepreneur.
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HealthTrinity = Sleep + Exercise + Diet
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Unlocking your HealthTrinity will give you access to a third resource you have. Energy. Energy will then allow you to make time to do the work you love. If you are awake after work. What can you get done? Go for a run first before you do the work. You'll be surprised how much time appears after investing time to work out.
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I never regretted a workout but my god, did I have a drive not to exercise before it.
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I say to myself a lot nowadays, "I never regret a workout but always regret when I miss a workout." This has helped me a lot to do the exercise which in turn allowed me to do more quality work.
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"If I knew the world would end tomorrow, I would plant a tree today." - Martin Luther King Jr.
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The tree can be you. Plant it and nurture it. Watch it bear fruit.
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"If I knew the world would end tomorrow, I would still do a workout" - Jun-te Kim 🤣
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"If only I was more disciplined..."
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"If only I wasn't so tired..."
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Disciplined is an interesting word. It involves energy (motivation) for you to move/act. For people who have seen my calendar and my systems. You guys will think I'm a disciplined individual.
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I had a belief I was a lazy individual due to my lack of going to the gym.
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Tom. H: "Jun-te, you are definitely one of the most disciplined people I know"
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Jun-te: "Why do you think this?"
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Tom.H: "I know how much you are making, It's hard to save 20k a year for your ISA and you've done it for 3 years.
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Jun-te: "But that's easy for me"
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Tom.H: "And that's why I think you are disciplined"
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I had a belief I wasn't disciplined because I was comparing myself with things I couldn't do. What about the things I do without thinking?
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In this case, Tom. H was referring to the fact that my budget and money-saving automation is something most people find hard but I do easily.
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This made me realize the key to discipline isn't finding the energy to do the hard thing but figuring out how to make it easy for me and thus requires very little energy.
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Why was budgeting so easy for me?:
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- I bought a piece of software so they can think about it for me and I leverage their software which has an app and website.
- I have a place to refer back to in case I make mistakes and make dynamic adjustments
In this case, I made software (source of truth) that allowed me to gain feedback myself and improve for the next time.
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How do I make exercise easier?
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Problem 1) How often should I work out?
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Problem 2) What exercise should I do?
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That involved a lot of thinking to work out. Here due to the fact that I had the luxury of time. I was able to investigate and figure out workouts I enjoyed in the past. (If you don't have time, buy a program from your favorite YouTuber for 50 pounds and do that.)
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Here are some of the notes and thought processes I had in the past year to figure this out:
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What workout/exercise do I enjoy:
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- Going to the gym with my brother
- Going bouldering with friends
- Swimming with other people
- Canyoning with friends
In fact, I liked exercising whenever it involved doing an activity with other people. So provided I had other people I would exercise!
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This shows why I was very inconsistent with the gym after my brother moved away, as it was a lonely endeavor. I gained some insight but it doesn't solve my problem!
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Okay. what exercise have I done on my own without anyone?
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- Swimming
- Push-ups
- Walking
- Jump rope
- Have dreams of surfing one day...
- Update on 01/09/2023:
- Happy to report I went surfing with my twin brother in Cornwall at the end of August ❤️
- Have dreams of being able to do pull-ups
None of this exercise actually involved needing a gym!
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I then realized I just needed to move more than before.
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I had a morning routine where I added a few chores from my beloved such as "open the blinds" from this list. I added "do one pull-up" and "skipping routine".
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The skipping routine started with 30 seconds of skip and 30 seconds of rest. Do that 5 times (because that is all I can do). In the future, I just need to increase the number of cycles; the length I skip for; or decrease the rest time. Easy.
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So after I did the blinds to make my fiancee happy, I did one pull-up and did my jump routine. My to-do list made me move. ( See the February 2023 newsletter on how I Shower -> Skip -> Shower to make 'going outside to skip' easier and also stopped wearing shoes to make it even easier)
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If anyone sees my morning routine now, you might think it is too much and detailed 🤭:
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Disclaimer: I have moved my exercise now as I do that as a separate exercise as it takes a little longer than 5 minutes now.
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I started with a list of everything I do in the morning. You guys have a mental list I bet (or even worse habits). The problem with the mental list is that it doesn't scale. I just add one item at a time whenever I learn anything from a podcast or book.
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A mental list requires thinking. Which requires energy.
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Worse of all, to explain to anyone your source of truth you have to explain via speech which requires more time. If anyone wants to see my finances I show them my software and anyone that understands that software understands. (Your Google Sheets/Spreadsheet is software that is always broken and needs to be taught every time. Sounds like a bad place to have a source of truth)
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For example, To show anyone how I use my time I don't make a Zoom call and tell them about it. They have access to my calendar and view it in their own time.
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Mental lists are expensive and mental energy that isn't used for creative and passionate projects.
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In my opinion, the more you use mental lists. The more you can't collaborate effectively, the more you stress yourself out and the less time you have. Sounds exhausting. Use a list, add to that list, and change that list. Hell make my morning routine better by viewing the list yourself!
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I now have a source of truth for my progress in "exercise" with my coach. Exercise isn't a thing I want to think about. He has optimized my workout to hit the exercise goal I would like by December so that I can focus more on other things... maybe MealCraft? 👀
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I try to improve any of these 11 things if I notice my energy levels are low. I do this by adding action items to my calendar or routine list which then makes me move.
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Improve discipline by making things easy so it requires less energy. Improve energy by doing the 11 things above and you'll do more in a day. Use systems such as a calendar to stop remembering what you need to do.
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Once you move, it'll take energy for you to stop. Let's not make it stop if it's going in the direction you want. Good luck.
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So if you reach this point, your energy level is high. It's high because you care about your inputs to do good exercise, sleep, and diet.
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Your time management is super and obviously, my budgeting consultations have sorted your money problems.
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Suddenly the things that are important to me but not urgent are getting put into my calendar.
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All this is to say if it's on my calendar. It gets executed.
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Urgent and important things are always on the calendar.
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Important but not urgent things are added to my calendar with either a weekly plan manually OR recently I found a tool called Reclaim AI that plans my habits and adds them to the calendar
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Do you see the events with emojis? Reclaim AI added that for me. It is smart so that it is flexible enough that other people can book time with me (show it as free) but block out time to do the important things in my life.
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For example 'Eat Steak'. No more lunches will be missed because of this tool! Thus, meetings will only be bookable provided I have enough time to do all my important but not urgent things.
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The tool goes further to help me balance urgent but not important tasks by integrating it with my google tasks list.
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Here is a list of things that are urgent but not important:
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Podcasts I want to listen to, a form my friend asked me to fill out, and a reminder to watch a video sent by a friend.
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Not only does it have all the benefits of Google Tasks but it adds it to my calendar when it finds time before the deadline. Amazing.
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What is being negated here?
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Not urgent and not important things. Some of my best memories are in these blocks however these are moments I would like to share.
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So in the case of gaming. I have asked my friends to book time with me using my calendar system (Play game w/ Jun-te). This way I only play games with friends. Waste time together 👿😂.
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- haircut scheduled for every 6 weeks
- My favourite manga (comic book) One Piece weekly reminder to read the latest one
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"Begin with the end in mind"
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Source: Habit 2 from the 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People
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"Help everyone manage their emotional and logical needs through software"
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Business efficiency can be used to optimize your personal life. In the same way, a business can be improved by adding a personal touch.
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As you can see, by learning business systems I was able to optimize my life as well. I am Continuously Improving and Continuously Developing my health. CI/CD my health if you will.
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I would argue that it is easy to sort my life out in terms of health. The systems I have created have allowed me to do the important but not urgent tasks. Not an easy task a year ago. As I have mentioned it is not because I am disciplined, I have just found ways to add tasks to a calendar and follow the calendar as the source of truth.
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This took me a year to learn and implement. Learn it faster than I. I believe it's a useful tool to help craft the life you want.
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Health -> Relationships -> Mission, in that order - Naval Ravikant
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Relationships are an interesting one that I have talked a lot about within this newsletter. Whether my volunteering opportunities, my experience with church, or my forever job hunt for processes. Mcdonalds never got back to me 😢😢 I blame their processes 👀.
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Relationships aren't something that can happen fast and in fact, the more systems you have in place the more resistance there is. It's like people know when you are following a script.
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Interestingly in relationships slow is fast.
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Trust me when I say, I'm working on it slowly.
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Health: CI/CD -> continuously improving, continuously developing
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Relationship: CI/CD -> continuously improving, continuously developing
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Mission: CI/CD... -> continuous integration and continuous deployment...
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Ah, for the none techie of you, I might have stolen the word "CI/CD" 🤣. CI/CD, if googled, is actually a tech definition to talk about website lifecycle. How one codes a website and how it goes to the public. Public being the World Wide Web. You might know it as "www".google.com
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What have I been doing for the one year in my business?
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I have made systems to code(work) and automatically test that it works and safely goes to the public (www).
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Jun-te does some 'code' and pushes the code to somewhere like 'Google Drive' (git).
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A computer picks up changes from 'Google Drive' and automatically builds, tests, releases, and deploys it to Junte's second laptop.
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The computer automatically continues to monitor and operate it to 'keep it alive' to ensure the website doesn't go down.
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Continuously integrate and continuously deploy your code. If you will.
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Technically, from now on I should be able to iterate my website fast.
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The CI/CD was actually my full-time job for 4 years however I never built an organization from the ground up. There is a lot of process in a business to make software engineer life a whole lot easier.
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I have built the foundation for something... Hopefully for MealCraft even better if it's a tool to help everyone manage their emotional and logical needs through software.
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From September 1st, I will have mealcraft.com 'live' with 'nothing' on it. Nothing is a good thing. A blank slate to show 'something'.
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If the website is down, please let me know. However, it should 'stay up' automatically. Provided I don't have a power cut 🤭🤭
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I have plans to add a small questionnaire and a place to see the actual development of mealcraft.com. Luckily due to my automation, I can do that after I finish this newsletter 😉
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Thank you for taking the time to read my newsletter.
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Apologies for the delay in the newsletter as normally I send it at the end of the month. I wanted to make sure mealcraft.com was reachable before sending the letter.
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