Intentional life

In the Intentional life category I write about: self-care, personal growth, minimalism, journaling, healthy lifestyle, self-improvement, happiness, gratitude, work-life balance, power of routines, automation.

How to spot a fake news story

Piotr Zagorowski
May 14, 2020February 24, 2022
Lifestyle

October 30 in 1938. An actor Orson Welles announced to radio listeners that Martians were invading the Earth. People believed in that news. It caused real chaos. It turned, it was the realistic dramatisation of the famous science-fiction book “The War of the Worlds”. The information was very convincing. The radio station clarified that it was a weekly broadcast of the new series created in collaboration with the Mercury Theatre. It was a fake news story. Fast forward a few decades, and we have a fresh take on the news business. With better technology, the global connection of the internet, and instant gratification urge, we look for thrilling news, constant entertainment and the satisfying rush of dopamine. Our challenge is the same – how to spot a fake news story?

How to feel less tired

Piotr Zagorowski
May 7, 2020February 21, 2022
Lifestyle

A long, long time ago my son had a fairly nasty cold. Temperature, difficulty with breathing, running nose, you name it. He almost didn’t sleep for two nights. Like every kid in that situation, he was moody, and he was literally glued to me, holding my hand and walking with me everywhere. After an exhausting day, we managed to reach the bed, but he didn’t want to sleep alone. Trying to comfort him in his illness as much as I could, I took him to my bed. And then, when I thought he was already asleep, he whispered: “I love you, daddy, very much, you know that right?” I was exhausted, but this short sentence gave me an enormous level of energy to be strong for him. It also made me think that the fatigue we feel is as much physical as mental. It prompted me to research how to feel less tired.

May the fourth be with you!

Piotr Zagorowski
May 4, 2020May 4, 2023
Lifestyle

It was a long, long time ago, when I saw it for the first time. I had never seen anything like this before. It was terrific, and it left a mark on me. It also shaped my taste and sincere interest in sci-fi movies. But it was a different world back then. There were not many toys I could play to recreate the scenes from my new favourite movie. There were not many magazines that had pictures of my favourite characters to collect them. Every coverage in any journals or paper was a treat. In the rare case of appearance, we informed one another with my friends, so everyone could buy, carefully cut and enjoy it. The Star Wars saga movies. May the fourth be with you!

We have one real deadline

We have plenty to do in our lives. Industrial revolution promised to improve the quality of life for many people. Instead, we created a system of hierarchical management, crazy working hours, shifts and later 9-5 office requirements. Digital revolution promise was even more appealing. It promised to reduce some intense labour jobs, automate everything and significantly shorten the time that we spend doing monotonous, routine work. In a way, this was what happened, but rather than enjoying the time we gained thanks to automation, we decided to try to do even more. We created projects, tasks and deadlines. But in fact, we have just one real deadline. Let’s face it.

How to improve the immune system and develop a Spartan mindset in 60 sec per day

Piotr Zagorowski
April 23, 2020April 5, 2023
Intentional life, Lifestyle

Stress is generally not good for us. When we hear about stress, we think about anxiety, increased heart bit and definitely nothing good. This is true for stress caused by our thoughts, and as a result, difficult emotions. However, there is another type of pressure that we would like to embrace moderately. It is stress that helps our bodies to grow and indirectly helps our minds to be more resistant to the bad stress. Staying fit is nothing else than putting pressure to our bodies to improve. Another type of good stress that we can easily apply is exposure to cold. It has a long list of benefits. It helps to strengthen an immune system and to develop the Spartan mindset. Let’s introduce the cold shower challenge!

Retrospective mindset – first quarter 2020

Piotr Zagorowski
April 16, 2020April 5, 2023
Intentional life

I try to live intentionally. A few years ago, I was introduced to the idea of the retrospective mindset. In professional life, it is an essential part of the agile manifesto. It is bread and butter for teams following scrum to organise their time and to make sure they deliver on their goals. I quickly adapted this mindset to the private domain of my life. It basically means to be intentional. To think about what is essential for me. Then, to set the goals that reflects where I am with my life. To work achieving these goals, and finally to reflect on what was good, what was not so good, and what I was able to achieve. The retrospective mindset is, in my option, one of the most critical characteristics of highly efficient teams. But teams are made of individuals, so I try to train myself to be more reflective and more intentional. Here is my retro on first quarter of 2020. This year is already extraordinary, and in a way, it begs to live more intentionally.

3 practices that will help to stay sane in crisis

Piotr Zagorowski
April 9, 2020April 5, 2023
Leadership, Lifestyle, Remote work

Have you noticed that working these days seems more tiring? I do pretty much what I was doing before. The “only” difference is that kids are always at home. And of course, we have constant information noise about the current situation. Even if we limit access to the television, the news comes to our minds one way or another. I compare the current situation to a long-haul flight with no noise cancellation headphones. There is a constant sound of engines and air that makes us more tired at the end of our journey. I would like to propose three practices that will help to stay sane in a crisis, but also be more positive about the surrounding world.

It is not business as usual

Piotr Zagorowski
April 2, 2020April 5, 2023
Intentional life, Relationship

I am privileged to be able to work from home. We stay home, and in fact, we were doing it even before the UK government was doing anything to encourage people to flatten the curve. We have long breakfasts with kids and try to enjoy our time together.
Working from home with two kids and a wife at home is challenging, but we do what we can. I realised, however, that many younger people had never experienced the real sense of danger.
It is definitely not business as usual – people are worried, and this is fine, we need to support each other. We all need to be leaders these days; for ourselves, for others around us, for our families.

Be like a rose in my garden – never give up!

Once upon the time we had a beautiful, old rose in the garden.
She was one of those old breeds that British folks are very proud of. She had a fantastic fragrance. Her flowers were large and beautiful, she was proudly showing them off over other flowers in our garden.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k

Piotr Zagorowski
March 12, 2020April 5, 2023
Intentional life, Relationship

We were in the middle of planned network maintenance. It was not going well. The change window was just about to end. We were fighting with some unexpected issues causing service degradation. I needed to make a tough call. Either extend the maintenance window and carry on working on Sunday evening or try to fix as much stuff as we could and regroup with the rest of my team on Monday. I called my boss, but he was abroad. Other folks from management were not picking up phones. I was on my own. I decided to instruct my engineer to roll back, stabilise the network and get some rest. We would pick up things tomorrow. I was trying to cool down after huge stress when my wife informed me, we would need to go to hospital as my newborn son was having severe allergy symptoms. Following 24 hours was a painful lesson of the subtle art of not giving a f**k to nonessential things in life.