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Resolution Roundtable
14 Plays1 year ago
In our first 2024 episode, Liam is joined by James, Syl and Pam as they chat everything Resolutions, Ins/Outs, and intentions for 2024... including a bigger question — do new year's resolutions even matter in the first place?
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Transcript
Introduction to 'The Commute' Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
What's up, LD? Welcome to the commute, our, what, biweekly podcast or something? This cool content experiment we're running to bring us all together. My name's Liam. I lead the user experience practice here. My pronouns are he and him.
Experimenting with Podcast Formats
00:00:15
Speaker
I'm excited. We're trying something new today. Bit of an experiment. This is all an experiment, but we've got more folks in the room, new friends, new topics, new year. And, uh, I'm thrilled to be joined by some of your incredible colleagues at LD. Let's, uh, let's hear who they are.
Meet the Hosts
00:00:31
Speaker
Pam. Hi, I'm Pam, product lead for Joe Fresh. My pronouns are she, her. I am Phil, web developer on PCO. My pronouns are she, her, and I am jabbed for 2024. Yeah, you are. And I'm James, staff, product designer, and I work on Helios.
New Year's Resolutions Theme
00:00:54
Speaker
Look at that cross functional hang we have here. This is the magic right now. I love this. Let's just build some features. Screw the podcast. Just joking. Let's let's get into it, friends. As you may tell from the quality of the recording, we are off a laptop. This is kind of like a remote meeting. We're very hybrid friendly around here. So we've got still on the line and folks in the room.
Intentions vs Resolutions
00:01:18
Speaker
Hopefully that sounds OK because we're going to talk about resolutions today.
00:01:23
Speaker
ends, outs, commitments, promises, things that we hope to achieve in 2024, or if you believe in any of that, you know, this sort of arbitrary point in time that we choose to like set all these goals for ourselves sometimes feels well, just that a little arbitrary. So I got feelings on the topic, but I'd rather learn from my friends. I know, I know silly about some opinions on this one, but what do you think about it this time of year?
00:01:53
Speaker
I mean, I feel like we always ask everybody, like, what's your resolution for the new year?
The 'Ins and Outs' Concept
00:01:59
Speaker
And I think this year we're seeing, I mean, personally, I'm seeing it, uh, we're kind of like maybe not resolution, maybe intentions, maybe more like setting the tone for our year. Uh, and I think if I can allow myself to say this, like the youths are picking up on it too with their like ins and outs, right?
Setting Personal Goals
00:02:21
Speaker
Um, and it's like,
00:02:22
Speaker
It's less of like, oh, I want to, this year I will, I don't know, people always want to like lose weight or eat healthier. And I think we're kind of just shifting a bit more towards like, yeah, I want to be more intentional with my time. I want to spend more time with my family. I want to make sure that my relationships are healthy. Like it's more of a holistic approach, I think. Um,
00:02:51
Speaker
Maybe back to basics either? I like that. I feel like our hang is in the office. You're often recommending to me.
00:03:01
Speaker
the coolest things to do that I've never done before. And that shows an intention to spend your time doing exciting shit that I didn't know about. Is that one of the behaviors that you're cultivating here?
Social Pressures and Resolutions
00:03:17
Speaker
Actually, yeah. One of my ends this year is to go to the theatre. I got a subscription to Crow Theatre, which is on the East End of Toronto.
00:03:26
Speaker
Um, and yeah, like culture, like I want to make phone calls this year. Like I want to stop texting people for days. I just want to call my friend and know what's up. Um, I want to have like craft date, right? So yeah, really just like using my time effectively. Um, you know, repairing things instead of replacing, you know, using a phone for a long time. Um, but yeah, so yeah, it's really, for me,
Winter for Personal Growth
00:03:52
Speaker
it's really about like time.
00:03:54
Speaker
and being intentional with that time, with myself, how I love my life. And I feel like I've seen that trend amongst my friends as well. So I'm curious to know if like anybody else feels that way.
00:04:09
Speaker
Sure. I mean, I love that kind of mindful approach. My bit of a hot take. I have a January birthday. It was yesterday. A word. Happy birthday, Pam. Okay. Celebrating it by recording a podcast. Yeah, you are. But as a result, I struggle with, as you mentioned, an arbitrary point in the calendar of like, you must reset and be a better you. It's like, well, but also I still want to celebrate. I want to drag out the holiday vibes for
00:04:35
Speaker
weeks on end. So I think I try to subscribe more to like spring as that renewal mindset and like the weather helps with starting a new habit or like doing something that you've never done before versus winter tends to at least for those of us in the northern hemisphere be more of like I'm gonna hibernate and I'm gonna
00:04:53
Speaker
chill for a
Habits and Work-Life Balance
00:04:54
Speaker
little bit. But I love Sylvie's approach of like crafting or arts like stuff that isn't a big daunting task versus something to enjoy. I actually think the winter is the best time to do some of these like things that you might not otherwise you can't like stop
00:05:09
Speaker
going out during patio season or something like that right here specifically in this country the weather is awful it's dark it's like you like these are the times to just do those kind of boring things that might improve you or form you know form those habits like that that for me is like i'm not going to do that in summer um
00:05:30
Speaker
Apparently not. The resolution is over by summer for you. It's like how much can you actually get done before it all goes off the rails? That's typically. Nice. What are you trying to get done then? For me, I guess it's like these small things that are intentional. It's like habits. How do I form better habits?
Task Prioritization and Family Time
00:05:52
Speaker
For me, it's big about health and part of that is work-life balance for sure. But part of it is like, yeah, I know if I want to
00:06:00
Speaker
If you just say like, I don't want to order Uber Eats so much or something like that, like, OK, well, what when does that fall off the rails? Once you get home, it's tired, it's slushy, it's gross outside like today. But if I have. A quick meal in my freezer, then I have a get a jail free card for that. That's what's going to get me over that. So it's like.
00:06:22
Speaker
It's not about how I achieve those things at the best times and how do I keep doing them at the worst time. Right. So that's that for me is like how do I connect those habits into the into how do I develop those things which are going to keep going. Nice thing. Yeah. I like that. James posts some pretty delicious meals on Instagram.
00:06:43
Speaker
So now I'm going to be clocking like how many days a week you post there's meals. All right. That's just the highlight reel. It's a lot. Don't I know it. Those are great takes. I I struggle with this one as as you watch my midlife crisis unfold. I you know, two kids mid 40s. I'm like, OK.
00:07:08
Speaker
Time is so, so valuable and is like the only finite resource.
Balancing Social and Professional Pressures
00:07:12
Speaker
Still, you kind of nailed it with the intentionality. And, and one of the reflections I had earlier last year was the, uh, was the expectation to like do things that I should do, you know, like, uh, at work or at home, it's like, I should do that.
00:07:29
Speaker
So I was trying to unpack that last year and I read this book and listen to a bunch of podcasts on this and there's a sort of framework that's fairly common and forgive me for the thought leadership speak here. I swear I won't go off. There's like sort of the should do, want to do, want to do and have to do trifecta, right? And there's a ton of stuff here that I really want to do. I want to preserve that. That stuff like this that we're doing right now, that stuff like these above and beyond projects or like culture and community pieces for LD that
00:07:58
Speaker
I really want to do. I love doing them. Then there's a bunch of stuff in the middle that I should do. And I often do do because I think that, you know, it's important that I should show up, but there's stuff in my job and in my life that I have to do. So this year I'm trying to sort of get rid of that should do bucket.
00:08:15
Speaker
That's like a mindset I'm trying to trying to hold in 24. The way that's coming to life at home is, you know, our evenings with the kids, I got four and six at home and my lovely wife, Melissa, who's going to pick me up in about 20 minutes. So, you know, let's get this one done. After dinner every night, we're kicking it with the kids and it's easy to sort of fall in the trap of like TV, phone time, putzing around, whatever.
00:08:41
Speaker
And last week, this week, I was really like, I get to grab those moments, again, time, the intentional sill about how I spend that time with my kids, my family. And like after dinner, it's like, screw the dishes, screw the cleanup. What are we doing right now? And like, here's a game, here's an activity. Let's go to the basement. Let's go upstairs. Let's build a fort, whatever. And really harnessing and controlling that that time being intentional about how we spend it. And that's like,
00:09:07
Speaker
even the handful of times that have just been smarter about it this year has just like really filled me up. I think you're right about, you know, if you spend your time doing the have to do's and the should do's, you can fill all your time. You'll never get to the want to do's. Some people like, you know, you may
00:09:23
Speaker
turn around and be like, what about all the want to do? Right. And so it's worth questioning what you have to do, what you should do. And if those things are things who actually have to do or should do, I feel like a lot of people get stuck in those things.
Staying Informed Professionally
00:09:38
Speaker
I personally have no responsibilities, which is how I plan my life, which is great because it means I have very little that I have to do and, you know, less that I should do.
00:09:49
Speaker
So it means that I could focus on what to do, but I could easily fill my time. I could like, you know, dust and re-dust my whole apartment instead of doing something that I want. There's always going to be something to do. It's actually about trying to make time for those things. And that's super important and maybe something that we all should do more of. That's another should do.
00:10:12
Speaker
I was going to add, there's like social pressure of should dos. Like a few of us were chatting at lunch today. Like, you know, when someone asks you, what are you reading right now? I'm always like, Oh God, nothing. Yeah. And it feels like a very stigmatizing thing to say, like, I haven't held a
00:10:29
Speaker
paperback in my hands or a Kindle or a Cobo or whatever the hot take of that is. But that one feels a bit tricky to navigate. And I don't feel shame and just glad I'm saying like, I haven't read in a while, but it has a vibe like, oh, that says a lot about you. I guess.
Professional Development vs Personal Interests
00:10:44
Speaker
But that's OK. It's a trade off I've chosen to make.
00:10:48
Speaker
Still, you strike me as someone pretty singular, pretty independent, even eccentric, some might say. And do you feel, in your lane, do you feel that social pressure when you're doing these unique things? What guides you there, or how do you navigate your social environment? I mean, I used to. I used to feel a lot of pressure to keep up and, I guess, have things to talk to with people about.
00:11:18
Speaker
Um, and I mean, until I decided, which was like a resolution maybe five years ago, uh, which was like, don't worry about it. Right. And now I essentially just do what I want. And I'm like extremely bizarre by people's standards. You know, I'll go to bed at like 9 PM.
00:11:38
Speaker
and I'll wake up at 5am and go swimming in the morning and have like an extremely rigid routine. Like my entire morning is like timed to the minute. But that works for me. But I do like I find that it's a bit more difficult in terms of social pressure when you like
00:12:01
Speaker
you decide that maybe you don't wanna go out as much, right? Like maybe you wanna not buy lunch anymore and you wanna like bring your lunch so you're not going out and eating with your colleague. Or maybe you wanna cook more at home so you're not going out for dinner. Or maybe you're trying to like reduce your consumption of alcohol so you're not going for drinks. I find like that's a little bit harder when it comes to social pressures. And that's a big one in January. A lot of people are doing dry January and all that stuff.
00:12:31
Speaker
Um, but I think the social ones are a bit harder for me. Um, and I struggle, like I will bring a lunch to work. And if someone's like, uh, I'm going to go buy a sandwich downstairs. And I'm like, that sounds amazing. I also want a sandwich. Um, so that, you know, that's what I struggle with. I just want to be a part of something, you know? Um, so yeah, you know, it's tough social.
00:13:01
Speaker
Pressure. Do you all find that you have, you feel like there's that pressure to keep up with your like field, your career stuff? Like the, you have to read the latest leader guide.
00:13:13
Speaker
um like I know like code is always changing with designs like oh I don't read the tweets I'm not uh I didn't listen to this podcast uh so I'm like totally out of the loop I don't know what cool fonts are anymore it's papyrus yeah but just like personal development on like the career side right is also like a big one when we talk about like that stuff it's like oh you know what are you going to be doing this year to
00:13:41
Speaker
You know, we're setting our goals for the upcoming year, right? Like, but yeah, that's also a big one. Like, I don't know what I'm going to learn this year. I hear that a lot from people being like, Oh, this is the year I'm going to, you know, learn this thing for professional development or this or that. You know, I wonder how much of that, like, is people feeling bad because they're not doing stuff all the time. And it's like, maybe you should, you
Importance of Setting Boundaries
00:14:06
Speaker
know.
00:14:06
Speaker
have maybe like, what if we just resolve to do, you know, more, like, easier fun things for ourselves rather than like, so we could, you know, be, again, these shoulds, right? Yeah, you know, I'm gonna read a book a week about, you know, my job and personally, like professionally developed, like, that's a lot of stress. And that's like, are you doing that? Because you just feel the need to keep up? Are you doing that? Because you
00:14:31
Speaker
actually want to and you think it's going to bring me some fulfillment. I feel like you're highlighting an extreme should-do that I've never actually faced. I'm constantly listening to work-related podcasts and listening to workbooks, audio books about our craft and our profession and the market and all that stuff.
00:14:54
Speaker
you know, I think I'm more informed. I think I'm, you know, a better leader for those things. But that's also just like a vanity metric, you know, like, how many facts do I know about the industry that I could like, rhyme off in some group setting. And that's a pretty should do, like, superficial thing, maybe, especially when it's infinite. It is infinite. You'll never get them all. You'll never get them all and you talk about the books. It was like, well, you read this, it's like,
00:15:21
Speaker
No, OK, back to feeling like I'm out of the loop again. Totally. And the books are often, while informative, while entertaining, while whatever, they're a certain perspective from a certain context and a certain point in time on a topic that, yeah, absolutely fills me up and informs me about a perspective, but they never map directly one to one to what I'm doing at work or I'm doing at home. And of course, that's our job, to interpret what we learn and take action in our lives.
00:15:49
Speaker
I often find my head is full of all of this information. I'm like, when am I going to use that fact? I'll work it in some arbitrary way just to be that guy. But that's a good one. I feel like a light bulb just went off. Thank you.
00:16:07
Speaker
I read books about the stuff I do and the things I'm interested in, but I don't think I'll ever, I'm trying to have a policy, like I'm never gonna read a book about how to be like a better work guy. I'm like, you're the work guy. How's that yourself? How to be more productive. Getting things done, never got around to reading it. That kind of stuff, it just, that doesn't strike me as, that strikes me as the shoulds and not the wants. I'm gonna,
00:16:36
Speaker
develop, I want it to be towards the things that I want to be. I don't want to be that. I hear you. I totally agree with that. Any productivity hacks or how to maximize my look, that sounds exhausting and so not who I am. Why I'm so unproductive. You joined recently, Pam, you're newer to the team. Do you find that pressure of professional acumen or professional development is different being new to a team?
00:17:03
Speaker
Good question. I think the fact that we are now coming in a lot more does mean more like learning by osmosis, like Helios says, DUI session. I could have read the blog post or I attended a session and I was able to be like, ah, yes, insightful.
00:17:17
Speaker
So I can read the blog post, but I think I really enjoy contextual learning. So I have a hard time when someone's just like, read this isolated context versus this relates to your role in a current context because of XYZ. Then I'm like, all right, for me and coach. Nice. I like that take.
00:17:39
Speaker
I wonder, are there any specific work behaviors that are coming up for anybody? What do you bring into LD in a crisp, new ins and out 24 cents? James, you got it.
00:17:53
Speaker
This is your performance reveal. Much like my general intentions toward healthy habits, I think it's like healthy habits for like I run the design system. So it's like, how do we create system health so we can do more, it could be more performant.
00:18:10
Speaker
Part of that is really looking hard at our processes and what's getting in the way. Why can't we do things faster? Why aren't things better? Why aren't things more flexible? Some of that, much like maintaining good health and habits, takes work. It takes people doing stuff. Resources are always at a premium here, but that's really the thing to try and do and make the case for it.
00:18:38
Speaker
more healthy than I can do more. Yeah. And that's exactly the same way I look at Helios and I look at the design system and the SD UI library. System health. Nice one. So you got some like work hacks, some like perspective on on jobby stuff. Um, I mean, yeah, last year was actually a really big year for our platform tech debt. Like we just took tech debt, tech debt to a whole new level. And that was made more.
00:19:08
Speaker
We just created so much now. We got rid of a ton and we kind of like put into place some habits to kind of eliminate the accumulation of that much tech debt. And it has allowed me to kind of look at every ticket and every task with those eyes to be like, okay, how can we do it?
00:19:34
Speaker
Like now fast, how can I take a little bit more time so that I save work for myself in the future?
Spontaneous Social Interactions
00:19:42
Speaker
And the other, the big thing for me this year, and just like since we've been back from the holidays, I just need to put the people pleaser inside of me aside and stop attending meetings just for vibes.
00:20:02
Speaker
Like if I don't need to be in that meeting and I don't have an opinion and like I'm not directly concerned, I need to not attend that meeting. Um, and just like get the Coles notes after, you know? Um, and I think like that's true for a lot of people. I think we go to a lot of meetings that we don't have to. Um, and like in return, if there's conversations I need to have that are not happening, I need to just like have them.
00:20:29
Speaker
make a phone call and have those conversations. So yeah. Nice one. I think there's a lot of meetings and that should do bucket. You're right. And we ended the year on sort of this tone of like reset, look at your calendar, rethink how you're approaching your job and reduce some of that overhead so that you can do the great work that we hired you to do. And I love to hear that. It's always a struggle because you sort of clean the calendar and then it slowly builds and slowly builds. But one of the habits that I've
00:20:59
Speaker
always been okay at, but I'm making more attention with this year is just leaving, you know, now that we're in the office often, leaving like an hour a day where it's just like wandering time. It's just time to go around and glad hand the team and like say hi and catch up and shoot the breeze, you know.
00:21:15
Speaker
And with a busy job and a busy life at home with two kids, my social dynamics are fairly limited
Reflecting on 2023 and Moving Forward
00:21:23
Speaker
right now. And so I get that from my colleagues and wicked folks like you who I love to chill with. And having that sort of like drop by chat at the desk, it's nice when that's serendipitous. It's nice when it's like spontaneous.
00:21:39
Speaker
but it's impossible when your calendar is jammed. And so now I'm putting holes in my calendar that's just like hang time. And like, you know, don't tell my boss, this is productive hang time, I swear, these relationships. Yeah, these lubricate the value of our work. I know they do, but it also just makes me really happy to do that while I'm here. And it's just like, yeah, it fills me up, you know? Also, going outside at least once during the day,
00:22:09
Speaker
whether I am working from home or from the office, and not outside downstairs to the garage, up the elevator to Loblaws, like outside, in the out of doors, once a day.
00:22:23
Speaker
Happy New Year, LD. This is a big one. We've done a lot. I've been here for five years, and I think turning the page on 24 with all the change you went through last year, this is going to be a really significant year of growth for all of us. And I love what all of you said today about the intentionality and how to harness the time that you have to spend, be a personal or professional.
Building Habits with Support
00:22:47
Speaker
And I feel like sort of my parting thought here is, you know, there's all kinds of habit theory, you know, you read the power of habit, atomic habits, everybody's reading those books right now, right? This is the time to read those books. You know, not James, James doesn't, he's not the work guy. Not trying to be a better worker drone. But all the adages of like, make it small, make it easy, you know, that those are the ways to build good habits. But I find that like, with all that,
00:23:15
Speaker
our personal connections and social dynamics sometimes suffer. I would encourage all of us to have buddies in this and to share these things. We wanted to talk about this because it's important to all of us and we hope it has been for you.
00:23:32
Speaker
because keeping each other in check and suggesting things, you notice a friend is in a rut or is frustrated about something like, here's what I'm doing right now to alleviate that stress, or here's when I'm going to close my laptop today and solve that problem tomorrow, or whatever the boundary might be, I think is really important, especially in these busy months of growth and acceleration and building incredible experiences for our customers. It's important to take care of ourselves.
Closing Remarks and Farewell
00:24:00
Speaker
Thank you. This has been a great chat. Y'all rule. Thanks for having us. Any parting words? You might drop for me. So what do you got? Can I shout out? I told Krishna that I wanted to drink more water. Yeah. In the office that are too much coffee and not enough water. Yeah. Now every time he sees me, he's like, you got water. So thank you. So thank you, Krishna. There you go. Accountability. There you go. Habit buddies. I like it. I love it. I love to see it.
00:24:27
Speaker
Yeah, me too. Thank you, Keanu. Thank you, Jacob, for forever supporting this experiment. This has been an episode of The Commute. Thanks for joining. Happy New Year. Happy 24. Have a great Commute wherever you're headed to where we're from, and we'll catch you next time.