David Nyeste

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility Meetings have become more ubiquitous during the pandemic. I am engaged in a constant competition to manage my own time and schedule against various interests. Therefore I regularly spend a reasonable amount of time in order to contemplate on the best ways to invest my own and sometimes also my colleagues' time. The best thing I could come up with so far are a few principles that serve as checks and balances against wasting time. But before elaborating on those principles, let me give you a visceral truth about the use of your own and other people's times in a business context: "If you are conducting a one-hour meeting at your company, you have effectively stolen one hour from every person in the room. If there are twenty people in the room, your presentation is now the equivalent of a twenty-hour investment. It is therefore your responsibility to ensure that you do not waste the hour..." [Matthew Dicks, Storyworthy] The Dem...

Why is it that plans can, sometimes even need to change over time? At the same time: Should guiding principles be designed to live long term and to be resistant to short term change? To both questions my answer is a firm yes. Here's why: The principle of the benefit of long lasting habits is one that fascinated me early on. The imagination that any person can improve to levels beyond their own imagination by merely sticking to a habit over a long period still strikes me. One of my oldest habits is sports. I started swimming as a member of a club -and later also as one of a competitive team- as a young teenager and have stuck to some kind of sports habit ever since. When I started first I went to training sessions twice a week. At my peak I did six to eight training sessions a week and most of my school holidays were spent either on training camps or competitions. So my first serious habit was established during those early years. After school I was not always able to swim due to re...