My hobbies and my profession sit in adjacent domains (even me playing football teaches me a lot about how to operate effectively within a team). When I read, write, talk about business, I am not truly “off”, but I am sharpening the tools I use on any given Monday morning.

1) WRITING=TRAINING I don't treat writing as a side activity. Writing forces structure, kills fuzzy logic, exposes weak arguments. I'm a better consultant bc I write/read. Seneca said: It's not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste much of it. Time compounds if

2) EDGE HOURS 40mins on a train can be dead time or edge time. I treat it like a small studio: a paragraph drafted, an idea framed, a note captured, a problem decomposed. Games or Netflix are not my thing. I prefer convex hobbies, those that pay twice: joy now, leverage later.

3) ONE LIFE, BLURRED LINES I do not run work and life as two competing calendars. In knowledge work, the boundaries are naturally porous. I notice patterns while reading a book, at dinner, on a walk with my daughter around the wharf (pictured), and I ask: what general principle

4) CHOICE, NOT LUCK Most people call it luck but, as usual, most people are wrong. It is really selection. I selected hobbies that rhyme with my goals, and I learned to like more of my job by finding the parts that create compounding loops. Reading that feeds writing,

5) NEVER-ENDING OUTPUT If you want more output, do not beg your calendar for mercy, instead change the “unit of leisure”. Pick pursuits that make you dangerous at your craft. Make your “off” hours carry weight. Time will not suddenly appear, of course. But when your play

GIVE IT A SHOT If you are still on the fence, all I can say is: give it a shot for some time. Forget your videogames, or your social feed doomscrolling, or your binge-Netflix, or your weekend drinking sessions, or your shopping centre visits… Become more purposeful. Turn

@themgmtconsult Excellent take and post 🫡

@alt_w_v_g Thank you sir 🏅