My Day in Three for today:

1. I went to the gym early this morning to work on my core stability. This is a follow-up to the physiotherapy sessions I have been doing since mid-December. For the next 8 weeks, I will train on a Sensopro to improve my running posture and strengthen my core. While it is all for the better, I don’t yet know if I’ll enjoy this type of exercise much. Let’s see.
2. A large part of my morning at work is spent on finishing my annual ethics and compliance training. In the afternoon, I’ve been thinking about how I would design and build an HCM system from the ground up if I were to start today.
3. I watched another episode of Sergio over de Grens (Dutch) tonight. This episode features Herman Brusselmans. I liks Brusselmans’ sense of humor. He is a great writer too. I’ve read two or three of his books.

My Day in Three for today:

1. I again brought my daughter to school this morning. We’re having strong winds and lots of rain, which made riding a bicycle a bit too much for her. My son, of course, didn’t complain and cycled to school.
2. I worked from the office today because I like being there on Fridays. It’s nice and quiet, and it’s easier to focus on what needs to be done. I watched the sprint qualifying of the Formula One race in China from the office with colleagues who enjoy F1 racing just as much as I do.
3. We had friends over tonight for a drink and dinner. What a great way to start the weekend.

My Day in Three for today:

1. I started today by watching F1 qualifying for the China Grand Prix, which is tomorrow. As a long-time Formula 1 fan and watcher, I’m still struggling to get used to these new cars. I sincerely hope the teams can innovate fast against current constraints and regulations.
2. We went to Utrecht in the afternoon to buy my son his first suit. He needs it for his upcoming graduation. Seeing him wear a suit made me proud. I’m amazed how fast these 18 years have gone by.
3. I went to the gym for the third time this week to work on my core strength. Tomorrow I’ll complete this week’s exercise plan with a run. I’m looking forward to it. I enjoy running a lot more than working out in a gym.

Similar to last Sunday, I completed another 7K run today. I ran the same route as last week, just in the opposite direction, in 40:56. I maintained an average pace of 5:51 per kilometer, which is slow for me. I find it hard not to focus on pace at all.

My Day in Three for today:

1. I did another 7K run this morning. I ran the same route as last week in the opposite direction in exactly the same time. On to next week.
2. I installed another self-hosted application on my Synology NAS this afternoon. Navidrome is a personal music streaming service I will be testing with the TestFlight version of Arpeggi as a music client. I listened to Ben Liebrand’s Grandmix 1995 to check my setup. I bought this album recently because it brings back many good memories. I was almost 18 when this mix played on the Dutch national radio.
3. I helped my son a bit this evening with his maths test he has tomorrow. It’s his final test before his exams in May and he’s stressed about it.

My Day in Three for today:

1. Mastodon turned 10 today: I think I joined the Fediverse only 2-3 years ago. I like it there. It’s a place with friendly people and a timeline I control. The Fediverse and Mastodon allow me to use the internet the way I want to. I consider RSS and Mastodon my proxies to the internet, and I like it like that.
2. I had a good laugh this morning with my team over coffee in the office. We caught up on last weekend’s Formula 1 race and enjoyed all the memes out there. “Vibrando Alonso” is amongst my favorites.
3. I went to the gym tonight to do my workout. I did 2 sets of 10 minutes on the treadmill, 15 minutes on a bicycle, and 15 minutes on the Sensopro. Next up: relaxing on the couch with my book.

Ik las gisterenavond het vierde boek in de Rönning & Stilton-reeks: Wiegelied.

Ik heb nog vijf boeken te lezen in deze crime-serie. Koudvuur, deel 5 staat al klaar op mijn e-reader.

1. Springvloed –
2. De derde stem –
3. Zwarte dageraad –
4. Wiegelied –
5. Koudvuur
6. Bevroren goud
7. De samaritaan
8. Het oog van de nacht
9. Schaduwspel

My Day in Three for today:

1. I met up with my team members from England and France today, as they are working from our Dutch office this week. We had a good conversation about what it takes for Product Managers to increase the pace at which we do our work to keep up with the higher velocity of our engineers who use AI to develop our products.
2. I prepared for my visit and the opening of our new office in Germany tomorrow. I’ll be traveling there with a fellow executive tomorrow morning for the official opening. This new office in Bremen will host 400+ of our German Product and Technology staff.
3. I called my youngest brother in the evening. He’s flying to Rwanda tomorrow for (charity)work, and I wanted to wish him good luck, lots of fun, and wisdom.

My Day in Three for today:

1. Amsterdam – Bremen – Amsterdam . I worked from Germany today and had to go there by plane as going back-and-forth by train or car on one day to Bremen isn’t an option. I was in Germany to open our new office which was beautiful and very well designed.
2. I saw my brother from a distance at Amsterdam Airport, we were both there at the same time this morning. It was nice to say goodbye to him while seeing his anxiety for his trip to Rwanda.
3. I used Apple’s live translation function for the first time while listening to the German speeches for the office opening. It worked very well and I can see myself using this functionality way more often.

My Day in Three for today:

1. I had an intense and lengthy day filled with work today. I started at 7AM, connecting with the team in Australia, who are 10 hours ahead of me. I handled people-related topics at midday and then focused on my team’s offsite agenda early in the evening.
2. Spring arrived today with clear blue skies and comfortable temperatures when sitting in the sun. I took advantage of the nice weather by working for a little over an hour from our backyard porch. It worked out very well thanks to the outdoor wifi antenna I installed in the garden last fall.
3. My wife and I took a long walk in the evening around our neighborhood to catch up on family life and get some exercise.

My Day in Three for today:

1. Early start of the day at the dentist today. I had two appointments, one at 7:30 AM and one over lunch, for needed dental maintenance. I combined the dentist appointments with a second GP visit for our second series of jabs for Costa Rica.
2. Chuck Norris passed away (in Dutch). Or as the BBC writes: ‘Whether you know him for memes, movies or martial arts, Chuck Norris’ fame spanned several genres and generations.’
3. I’m considering the impact and necessary actions at work to manage the increased output of our engineering department, driven by the code assistants the engineers use. The ‘downstream’ business impact is substantial. It’s if we in technology are expanding a highway from 2 to 10 lanes but then neglecting to replace a 2-lane bridge 10 kilometers away road. Anyway, food for thought for the weekend, I’m calling it a day now.

My Day in Three for today:

1. I started my day at the gym, doing 2×10 minutes of cycling, 15 minutes on the treadmill, and 10 minutes of core training on the Sensopro.
2. I had lunch outside in the sun with a longtime friend in Rotterdam. The spring vibes put me in a good mood, so I listened to some cool SoundCloud DJ mixes on the way home. I love that spring is starting to kick in.
3. I visited my parents tonight with my daughter. I hadn’t seen them in a few weeks. We made sure to be home in time for “Wie is de Mol? (Dutch)“

My Day in Three for today:

1. My wife and I drove to Amsterdam this morning for a brunch with a friend. She lives on an ark just outside the city for 5 months a year, and the other 7 months she lives in Italy. We enjoyed the spring sun from her boat; it was great.
2. From Amsterdam, we went to the field hockey field to see my son play this afternoon. His team won 5-1. Hoorah!
3. I listened to some old-school Grandmixes from Ben Liebrand. I found the files on my NAS two weeks ago while cleaning up my photo storage. Now that I have Navidrome running as a self-hosted music server, it’s quite easy to stream them to my phone.

My Day in Three for today:

1. I began my week at the gym this morning to maintain my fitness routine, with 20 minutes of indoor cycling, 10 minutes on the Sensopro, 10 minutes of physiotherapy exercises, and a 10-minute run on the treadmill.
2. As the quarter is ending, my agenda for today and tomorrow is all about financial forecast meetings of my business unit. As all these meetings are virtual, I decided to work from home today.
3. Tonight, we celebrated Charlotte’s 18th birthday, our son’s longest-lasting friend. It was a memorable evening, marking nearly 18 years of their friendship.

The questions fall into three categories: (1) career vision & personal purpose, (2) personal strengths and traits, and (3) growth choices. Think about them deeply, discuss with others close to you, and take your time writing down your answers.

1. If anything were possible, what would your ideal career look like in the next decade? Don’t limit yourself to your current employer when answering this question.
2. What unique strengths or qualities do you want to be known for in your professional life? How much are you already using these strengths today?
3. The year is January 2029. What would make you proud of the choices you’ve made starting today?

My Day in Three for today:

1. 101 days in a row of posting on my blog as of today! Let’s see where this journey takes me.
2. People at work often ask me for career advice. I always respond because I believe it’s part of my responsibility as a senior executive to help others advance in their careers. It’s important for both them and me to be honest about what they should or shouldn’t pursue based on the talents I and others see. To start these conversations, I usually send three questions for them to consider. These are the same questions I often think about myself. Today, I thought, why not share them here for others too?
3. Gym time again tonight. Working on my core strength for the second time this week.

My Day in Three for today:

1. Following up on my 101st post from yesterday I wanted to share this post from Robert Birming. I follow Robert’s blog via RSS; it’s fun and encouraging to read his daily posts about keeping blogging momentum. If you are already into blogging or thinking about starting, it’s worth following Robert for inspiration.
2. I had a good day in the office. I was there early and didn’t leave too late to make sure I could join my family for dinner tonight.
3. ‘Adults lose skills to AI. Children never build them’ is an article I read this evening out of professional and personal interest. AI cognitive atrophy is something I think about a lot as we continue to introduce more AI into both our professional and personal lives. There is a difference in how people in my age group use AI versus, for instance, my children. I mainly use AI to offload tasks I already know how to perform. While I see my children offload tasks (math homework), they never learned to perform. If I had to perform the same task again without AI, I would still be able to do it (less quick), because I acquired the skills through education and/or practice. In the case of my children, they probably couldn’t, as you can’t atrophy a muscle that was never built. What applies to math homework applies in my professional context when working with engineers, too.

My Day in Three for today:

1. I exercised at the gym this morning before going to work. The treadmill was already occupied, so unfortunately, no running for me today. I’m starting to get into a new rhythm with this whole gym routine, but I don’t think I’ll ever really like it.
2. I had a forward-looking career discussion with a team member today. We went outside for a walk, which always helps shift the conversation into a different mindset.
3. I received a voucher for another year of full access to the New York Times through my Dutch newspaper subscription. Awesome! Supporting journalism is important to me; we’ve had a newspaper in our household for as long as we’ve been able to afford one.

My Day in Three for today:

1. I enjoyed reading this article by Reuters on the identity of British street artist Banksy. Banksy’s identity has been debated and closely guarded for decades. A quest to solve the riddle took Reuters from a bombed-out Ukrainian village to London and downtown Manhattan, and uncovered much more than a name.
2. I spent some time today organizing my work for April. I have some busy weeks ahead of me.
3. The kids are out tonight to meet up with their friends. This is a new thing for us: my wife and I are together on Friday night, and we only hear what they’ve been up to halfway through Saturday morning. It’s great to see them become young adults, and I can definitely get used to this phase in life.

My Day in Three for today:

1. I completed a more intense training in the gym this morning. My body, especially my injured leg, seems to hold well, which is good. If the weather is good tomorrow morning, I will go for a slow, longer run outside.
2. My son will be turning 18 in a little over two weeks from today. As both kids, my wife and I went out this afternoon to buy (and hide) his birthday gift.
3. We had some sunshine late afternoon in the garden. I went outside to work a little in the garden and to put up the lights around our terrace before the trees start growing again.