Weeks #23-25: Time away from laptop staring & keyboard typing :eyes: :keyboard:

18 Jun, 2026 #no-keyboards-detox, #tennis-bootcamp, #career-break, #snippets

Weeks 23 through 25

After reflecting on my first 3 months of a career break, I decided to stop the usual “laptop-staring and keyboard-typing” rituals (most people call this “work”, but since I’m not working, it’s literally just that).

I looked at my physical activity over the years (Garmin and Apple happily collected almost a decade of data for me there). Two things stood out:

  1. My activity peaked before the Covid year. I was doing swimming/biking/gym + a few marathons and 20k+ runs a month. Most of it stopped during the year of Covid and never recovered(!)

  2. Having a child, obviously, reduced my sleep quality by a lot, which contributed to an even more static lifestyle.

My goal is to get to the pre-Covid level of activity.

Tennis bootcamp :tennis:

My partner organized a tennis bootcamp for us. We decided to dive in and commit to 3 sessions per week for at least a month. It is so fun. Playing tennis is nothing like watching it. It is also insightful to learn a completely new skill. We did around a dozen training sessions and a couple of games. It’s interesting to observe the human learning process. When we suck at training, it is frustrating. Usually, we play better next time around.

Engaging with startup world :bulb:

A surprisingly vibrant startup place is Porto. A lot of university-sponsored activities are open to the public. To continue my interest in public speaking, I decided to practice (thanks to my partner Masha for finding the event!). I attended a very productive workshop on pitching your ideas by David Beckett.

Insight: Speaking is not writing. A “thinking-typing” loop usually results in a terrible pitch/presentation when spoken.

An excellent exercise and uncomfortable too—introduce yourself to a stranger in the audience, you have 30 seconds.

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