This Week:
- Flying to Porto, Portugal and re-finding my routine.
- How long I spent on my first (new) YouTube video.
- What I’ve been eating in Porto.
January 2025
Happy New Year!
| Su | M | T | W | Th | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 | 30 | 31 | 1/1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 2/1 |
Where In The World Was I?
- 🇺🇸 Miami, Florida
- ✈️ Miami to Frankfurt to Porto
- 🇵🇹 Porto, Portugal
Metrics From The Week
I didn’t sleep at all on my 9hr overnight flight (except trying for 15 minutes) 😅 oof. And after 3.5 weeks I finally worked out again 😄
✈️ Off To Porto, Portugal
I flew to Porto because I had seen the digital nomad scene was pretty good and it was relatively cheap for European standards.
I got in on the 31st, slept for almost the entire second half of the day, then woke up at 10:30pm to go out for New Year’s Eve celebration.
BUT first I had to get lunch at Honest Greens when I arrived. I love this place.
I discovered it when I was in Porto in August 2023 (Why You Should Go On The Pub Crawl Twice Instead Of Once, August 20th, 2023) and I literally ate there every day I was in Porto. Great healthy meals, great quality food, great taste, great vibes. Great all around. It’s fairly reasonably priced, I just wish you got a little bit more ‘oomph’ without needing to add extras (which can add up), but that’s a nitpick. It’s pretty good for what you get.
Porto Snaps
Re-Finding The Routine
It’s taken me a bit to get back into a routine. I had forgotten how much time it can take to research and get everything in place for a good routine:
- Finding a cheap-ish hostel but that has tables/outlets to work from and is somewhat centrally located
- Finding coffee shops to get an espresso in the morning and/or work from
- Finding good quality healthy restaurants to eat from, and more than one (looking at you Honest Greens 👀)
- Finding a gym that’s reasonably priced and close
- Potentially finding a co-working space to use
I was having trouble finding a good rotation of places to work from and my first hostel wasn’t the best, so I did a bunch of research on co-working hostels and other options. I haven’t signed up for a co-working space yet, but I’ve been considering it.
Also, I met a guy from Denmark in my first hostel that booked an Airbnb for a month and just needed one night to stay before checking in. He was showing me that Airbnbs are a pretty good deal here, 25-35€/night when booked for a month. Hostels here are around 17-25€/night. That’s been something else I’ve been considering.
So many things to consider…
I’m at that point that I would pay for something that gathered all of this for me, because it would actually save me hours. I try using ChatGPT which can help sometimes but honestly it too often gives false positives (coffee shops that no longer exist, restaurants that aren’t what I’m looking for, etc.) that it takes longer to use and double check everything
And although I haven’t really searched for a solution to this, I’m just assuming that nothing exists because my criteria are so specific.
There’s only one solution: build it myself 😄
Maybe one day.
Anyways, I ended up finding another good hostel, started to get a nice collection of restaurants, and found a gym to workout that’s not too far. Getting back into it 💪
Business Update
I got back into things the second half of this week after settling in.
Almost all my time was spent editing my first rebranded YouTube video. But I did finish it and upload it (though it’s not live yet)!
For those (and my future self) curious, this was my time breakdown for this video:
- Planning time: 2 hr 18 min
- Shooting time: ~2 hr 30 min
- Thumbnail: 50 min
- Editing: 9 hr 40 min
- Sound: 2 hr 5 min
Video will be live this upcoming week 👀
Thumbnail sneak peek:
How’s It Going?
I have NO idea what’s typical or standard in terms of how much time spent per video. It seemed to take “a while” though and definitely not sustainable for each video. But, I’ll say 2 things:
1. some percentage of this is a onetime “startup cost,” or the friction of learning or re-learning all the details of process (how to split clips well, how long your b-roll clips should be, how to add music and sound, etc.). In theory this is a one time price you pay now that you won’t need to spend on future videos because you already know what to do (or roughly).
2. this particular video is a more broad “hero” type of video that won’t be frequent but should ideally attract a broader audience. I figure if I’m to spend time on any type of videos it’d probably be these ones.
The third thing here is some percentage of “perfectionism” cost. That, will be an ongoing battle. Though I will say if I could re-make this video there are some fundamental things I would change (i.e. recognizing it’s not perfect), but it’s damn near good enough to start.
Looking Forward
On my flight here I threw out some goals for 2025 and broke them down into goals for my first 12-Week Year (inspired from The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran).
I’m starting to think that achieving what I set out is going to require more time and effort than what I’ve been putting in, particularly with now social media/personal branding on top of building and running a business (on top of life and traveling). Though, I suppose you could call the former “marketing” for the latter.
Though my mindset right now is that this may be one of those situations where you rise to the occasion. Editing videos and posting videos is a type of work that I’ve learned I can do even when my brain is fried from the morning. It’s a different type of focus than cognitive problem solving/thinking.
I’m sure I’ll figure some balance out, but ya gotta start somewhere.
I will say, given how utterly directionless I was 2 years ago (Self-Doubt About Making Money, September 2nd, 2022 but posted a year after), it feels good to actually be able to set clear goals.
Redefining Myself
I’ve gotten back into reading Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz, the book I started in Budapest, Hungary in November. Each morning I head to a coffee shop, order an espresso and read a chapter, take notes, and write down any thoughts/ideas that come to mind.
There aren’t a whole lot of coffee shops that have the same laptop-culture in the U.S., though there are some that do, just many open later in the morning. So, I’ve been using this as an opportunity to get back into the habit of reading, something I’ve struggled with in 2024, rather than immediately working.
This isn’t really a “new year new me” type of deal, just taking advantage of the opportunity based on the location circumstances. I’ve also found it generally easier to read when I’m living my backpacking life abroad than in the van.
But anyways, this book has been really fantastic and just what I needed right now in my life. It’s helped to surface a lot more about myself and given me a lot of ideas on what to focus on and how to go about it.
However, just reading the book is the easy part. Actually implementing the changes is the real part… TBD on that.
Clarity and Gratitude
I was journaling this morning.
202501050854 What's holding me back
#personal #problems
As I've been reading [[202411110819 Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz]], building VideoHawk, getting back on Instagram, and becoming more social, I've started to notice what obstacles have come up.
It has come down to:
- Overthinking and negative thinking, preparing for the bad/worst case scenario instead of optimistic positive thinking
- Think, getting back on Instagram
- Fear of rejection, of embarrassment, awkwardness
- Think, approaching people, starting small conversations, sending DMs, selling
But as I've also started to notice, it's really only these... My biggest problems right now are financial (sustaining my lifestyle with a business) and social (meeting new people, finding new friends).
Unlocking or wiping out these two things would make a huge difference in my life. Not that "I'll finally be happy when ..." But that life will be much better.
That's what gives me hope. I feel pretty good about everything else. Life is good.The more that I’ve just done things, and tried to do things, the more I’ve learned about how I operate, what comes natural, and what makes me procrastinate and feel friction.
Maybe it’s just a product of where I’m at in my life right now, maybe I have blinders on, maybe I’m in the “uninformed optimism” stage, but I’m starting to gain more and more clarity on what exactly I feel is holding me back the most. And that’s felt good.
I don’t expect to have everything “fixed” and live a perfect life assuming I make progress on these, I’m sure there will be new problems and things that hold me back in the future, but it has felt good to gain this clarity.
I feel like I’m no longer fighting an unknown demon while blindfolded.
The new challenge becomes picking up the sword and stepping into the ring.
Food From The Week
- NATA Lisboa – espresso and pastel de nata (famous pastry in Portugal)
- Honest Greens – honey ginger goat cheese something something bowl with extra salmon and sourdough bread
- Kind Kitchen – vegan (seitan) burrito
- Esquires Coffee – omlette and acai bowl
- Nood Port – pad thai (I added extra shrimp+chicken but this portion was absolutely massive for I think 15€ total; that is great value)
- Poke House – salmon poke bowl
- Callejero – shrimp burrito
- Oakberry Acai – acai bowl/cup
- Turmeric – chicken tikka masala, veggie samosa, garlic naan (incredible garlic naan)
What’s Next?
Lock in and get back to work 💪😎👨💻