Month: February 2017

Sunday Reflections

Every Sunday evening I ask myself the following questions:

  1. What went well this week?
  2. What didn’t go so well this week, and what got in the way?
  3. What can I change to make things better next week?
  4. What will I focus on next week?

The retrospective questions identify areas I can improve. The latter helps me work with implementing the changes. It is important for me to write it down in a journal, as it gets easier for me to track my progress.

  1. What went well this week? I like to start out with the positive things that happened. It makes me very grateful for life. It also ensures that I continue to focus on those things to keep them happening. This made me realize that being surrounded by the right people is key to me. Sure, there were lots of other things that went well, and I do also write my accomplishments and smaller successes in my journal, but in the end of the day, social interactions and people win most of the space.
  2. What didn’t go so weel this week, and what got in the way? Here, I find my pain points (and a lot of guilt). Yes, I want to wake up at 6 AM every morning, and no, it did not happen this week. I try to identify the things that were not ideal, and the reason behind. It is not always easy to find the exact reason, but the thought processes help me reflect.
  3. What can I change to make things better next week? The list can be long and exhaustive. I am my own worst critic, and the quote “Stilstand er tilbagegang (= Stagnation means decline)” hovers in my room above my desk. I have a growth mindset, and I continuously try to find areas I can improve. The most common word on my list that I want to change is multitasking. (Since when did something I am really good at become a bad thing?) The individual tasks I performed suffered from too much switching. I found out that multitasking made me very inefficient as I changed my focus too often. This is still an area I try to improve every day.
  4. What will I focus on next week? Here, I have to find one activity I want to improve. I know that I cannot enforce five new habits in one week, but when I implement one activity at the time, it is much more likely for me to succeed! Last week’s focus was to read one hour a day. 339 pages later, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, was devoured. 

When was the last time you looked into your past to improve your future? 

Double up on bootcamps

This week I received an email from Danske Idéer that I got selected to participate in their innovation camp. I readily accepted the spot as I see this as a fantastic opportunity to learn more about entrepreneurship, pressure test one of my startup ideas, and meet brilliant people within entrepreneurship and academic research.

It is a five-day competition (and education) for young researchers, students, and entrepreneurs within design and technology in Denmark. There is an emphasis on innovative ideas that can positively impact millions of lives within the next 3-5 years. My vision is to have a global impact, and I do believe my startup idea with social inclusion of the elderly would fit the program perfectly.

The workshop takes place mid-March, one week before my departure to the MIT bootcamp. The next couple of weeks I am going all in on entrepreneurship, and I could not wish for a better start than with Singularity University, The Danish Industry Foundation (Dansk Industri Fond), and MIT on board.

When and where to buy your airline tickets?

I am slowly beginning to prepare myself for the upcoming MIT Entrepreneurship Bootcamp. Today, I bought a flight ticket from Copenhagen to the Gold Coast for just $350 USD. “How is that even possible?” you may ask.

My trip is booked via two different vendors. First, I found a ticket from Copenhagen to Bangkok for $156 USD, and thereafter I found flights from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur and then the Gold Coast for $206 USD. By using my approach, I managed to save $170 USD. In this blog post I want to share some of my travel advice on airline tickets, and how you can save some $$$.

There are various sources that claim that you should buy your ticket on Mondays or Tuesday. Let’s just dispel that myth right away. There are no days that are better than others. However, a good rule of thumb is to buy your tickets between 30-90 days prior to departure. On the other hand, the cheapest days to fly out are Tuesdays and Wednesdays, whereas the most expensive days are Fridays and Sundays.

There are several great search engines, and it all comes down to how flexible you are with your dates and where you travel to.

  • If you are flexible, Skyscanner is your best shot. This is my preferred search engine, and you can choose the “Flexible” option which allows you to search for all destinations in the world. Furthermore, you can also compare prices for all dates of the year. Pretty awesome.
  • If you are going for 6+ hours destinations, I would recommend you to have a look at TripCombi. Hands down, this is the best flight search engine I have come across. It compares up to 700+ sites, and it is easy to use. Last year I booked a flight from Nepal to London for $140 USD one week before departure!

Where are you going next? 

MIT bootcamp

Today, I have reached $2,475 USD through my crowdfunding campaign for the upcoming MIT Entrepreneurship bootcamp with help from 28 amazing individuals! I am blown away by all the love and support I have received over the last couple of days. Social media turned out to be an incredible way to share my story. Alone on LinkedIn, the campaign got more than 38,000 visits and 250+ likes. I am literally mind blown! The numbers grow day by day.

I want to take the opportunity to say thank you to all of you who hit the like button, shared and donated. You are in my pink book as heroes in my everyday life. I am humbled to receive so much positive feedback and encouraging comments.

The next couple of weeks, I will plan my trip, brainstorm different ideas and develop business concepts. This blog will keep you updated on the process. If you have any questions, you are more than welcome to contribute to the blog in the comments section.

Happy reading!

At være (on)line

I vores samfund i dag er de fleste konstant online og tilgængelige. Vi har alle vores mobiltelefoner med os i lommen (hvor de hører hjemme), og hvis man har glemt den, udløser det et ramaskrig eller følelsen af, at man mangler en del af sig selv. Ifølge PEW Research Center’s, er unge i aldersgruppen mellem 18-29 dem der er allermest online, hvoraf 36% af disse også indikerer, at de er på internettet konstant. Herudover viser studier også, at 27% af de voksne sms’er imens de kører, og 75% skriver fra toilettet.

Takket være 4G kan vi nu dele og tage del i hverdagens småglæder hos venner og bekendte 24/7. Oven i dette modtager vi også en lind strøm af beskeder og notifikationer over mobilen: Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Workplace, og mails. Hver gang jeg får en notifikation føles det som om, at appen nærmest råber “Hey, look at me, look at me!”, og det stopper ikke før, at jeg har fået gennemset alle mine apps. Det er skruen uden ende, og inden man ser sig om, så gik der lige en halv time. Det resulterede i, at jeg valgte at slette alle mine sociale medie apps for at slippe for alle notifikationerne. Det føltes rart, altså lige indtil det ikke gjorde. Så gik jeg og tænkte, at jeg måtte gå glip af et eller andet (fear of missing out, også kaldet fomo). En uge senere var mine apps tilbage på telefonen. Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp… hele baduljen.

Der skulle derfor en ny strategi til for at komme notifikationerne til livs. Jeg slog derfor ALLE notifikationer fra, og mine mails skulle jeg selv aktivt ind at hente. HA HA. I WIN! Det var netop lige dét, der skulle til. Nu blev jeg i hvert fald ikke forstyrret midt i min morgenkaffe. Jeg tog mig dog stadigvæk i at tjekke de forskellige apps. Denne gang lidt mere kontrolleret og ikke nær så sporadisk som før. Min skærmtid blev dog ikke væsentlig forbedret. Jeg satte derfor min telefon til sort/hvid mode. Det hjalp. Min telefon er hermed erklæret fuldstændig uinteressant af min hjerne.

Hvorfor er det, at man bliver så afhængig af ens telefon? Ifølge Psychology Today kan vi skyde skylden på dopamin. Der bliver udløst små skud af signatstoffet dopamin, når vi får en notifikation på telefonen. Din telefon påvirker dig, da der sker en kemisk reaktion i hjernen, og den gør dig afhængig. Gør dig selv og din hjerne en tjeneste, slå dine notifikationer fra.

Spørgsmål til at slutte af på:

Hvor tit tjekker du din telefon? Ifølge Ericssson tjekker de mest mobilaktive deres telefon mellem 100-150 gange om dagen (altså ca. hvert 7. minut)