17 questions for... Maciej Filipkowski, entrepreneur and author of the "Design Your Life" program

For me, work life balance is... a concept I don't believe in. Balance means a certain balance, and in life we ​​have different moments - sometimes we focus more on health, sometimes on family, and sometimes on work and business. I think that work life effectiveness is a much better phrase in my case, because it talks about how to be the most effective in what we do. The president of Coca-Cola once said that in life we ​​juggle many balls, most of them are made of rubber, e.g. the one defining work or career. However, 4 of them are glass and define: family, health, friends and soul. When glass falls to the ground, it will break or be severely damaged. The rubber ones will bounce and come back to you. Following this thought, you can always change your job or career, but you should take special care of these 4 valuable values. It is worth realizing what is important in life. Hence my efforts to be very effective at it.

My 3 most important daily health habits are…

• A dream I care about very much. I have a band that measures my daily effort and sleep and compares these two values. I try to go to bed early because I wake up very early.
• Morning exercise. Every morning I do a few exercises to stretch my spine.
• I care about what I put into myself - I don't drink alcohol, I choose products that are as minimally processed as possible and I try not to abuse sugar, which I must admit is difficult.

The sport I practice regularly is... CrossFit. I also love cycling, but I have been taking a break for 3 years and I can't wait to get back to it.

I spend a week on physical activity... 90 minutes a day, 6 days a week.

My motivation for sports... is the desire to be fit again. 2 years ago I fell off my scooter and it was a serious accident. I have already had shoulder surgery, knee surgery, and 8 weeks ago ankle surgery.

I don't meditate... because I can't find enough peace within myself to sit down and just stop thinking. I manage to do this when I am engaged in some physical activity - I meditate best when I am approaching 20 km on a bike or swimming 40 times in a swimming pool.

My diet is… a flexitarian diet. I try to eat very few animal products, but above all, I try to know where the products I eat come from.

I end the day by… listening to a book.

I spend… not enough time on sleep, from 5 to 8 hours. I always wake up around 5:11 - 5:15 and can only regulate my sleep by the time I go to bed.

The thing I do only for myself is... a few times a week I manage to find 30 to 60 minutes for myself to sit down and conduct a dialogue with myself .

My little sins are... chocolate - a combination of sugar and fat in any form that does not occur in nature. Shhh.

Happiness for me is... the smile of people close to me.

Luxury for me is... free time.

My small daily steps in taking care of the planet are... I don't think I take small steps every day - 7 years ago I changed my life very significantly and I am still doing it.

• My office is 800 meters away, so I've never had to drive there (apart from the time after the accident).
• I limited my flights. I used to fly twice a week, now twice a year.
• I try to buy as few things as possible because they don't make me happy. I want to have the peace of mind that I haven't created an unnecessary carbon footprint by buying another thing.
• I try to buy products locally - the closer, the better.

The advice I would give my 20-year-old self again is... you will only regret the things you didn't do.

The book and podcast that I recommend are... the "Design Your Life" program , from which you can learn a lot and meet fascinating people, and the book "Atomic Habits".