This month’s interviewee is Ryan Impey. Ryan gets a lot out of life: beach-side living, a fulfilling job, outdoor physical movement of many kinds, and lifelong learning. (You guys, I didn’t *mean* for this interview series to be dominated by people who read. It just happened, OK?)
Ryan has his digital organisation tools sorted – look out for some great apps you may want to try!
Oh, and did I mention that his first baby is on the way?
-Christina
What part of the world do you live in? What do you like about it?
My wife and I currently live in Chelsea, just outside of Melbourne – we love that we are close enough to the city for an easy commute to work, but far enough to be out of the every day hustle and bustle.
Chelsea is a small beach-side suburb of Port Phillip Bay. It has an absolutely picturesque beach, with a great low-key, family vibe – and, most importantly, plenty of fantastic cafés for a caffeine fix.
It also has great access to a network of running trails, open water swim groups, and has one of the most iconic roads in Melbourne for cycling.
How do you spend your days?
I am the Design Director for VTWO, a digital marketing agency based in the Melbourne CBD. I absolutely love my work – it can vary from designing and implementing social media campaigns, through to much more traditional design such as books, magazines, branding and collateral. We have an excellent team with a great working environment (heaps of office banter!).
For fun, I enjoy spending time with my wife (we have our first child due very soon), playing with our rescue dog Sundae, running, riding, swimming, and surfing.
What makes (your) life good? What do you enjoy?
Life is good. I feel that I am incredibly lucky to have the quality of life that we currently live – to be honest, I’m not sure what I would ever want to change.
Other than spending time outside and staying active, I love nothing more than sitting down with a coffee and a good book.
Some recent favourites and recommendations would be:
- Neil deGrasse Tyson – Astrophysics for people in a hurry
- Jocko Willink & Leif Babin – Extreme ownership: How U.S Navy SEALS lead and win
- Robert Solomon – The art of client service
- Roland Perry – Monash: The outsider who won a war
What are some personal goals or projects that you have at the moment?
I am currently flirting with the idea of running another marathon – but I’ll wait until the bambino arrives, and we settle into a routine before finalising any goals. There are also a few open water swim races that I have pencilled in.
Another personal goal is to never lose the drive to be continually learning. As well as reading, I love listening to podcasts, and I feel that we are in an age where there is a wealth of information, knowledge, and wisdom that we can tap into.
I’m trying to spend less time looking at a screen outside of work as well – as much as I enjoy social media. Ha!
What tools or techniques do you use to stay organised or productive?
Work wise, we use a mix of Harvest (a time tracking app), Monday (a project management app), Slack (an internal communication tool) and Google calendar. We have a daily morning meeting where we all talk about our tasks for the day, and anything project related that needs further discussion before it can move forward.
I find Trello incredibly productive through being able to set a task list for the day, and then as I work through it, checking off each item. I find this process of goal setting, and organising daily lists works incredibly well for me.
When I am in a training for a race (whether that is a swim, a run, or triathlon), I have a coach that sets training blocks, sessions, monitors results, and helps me become as fit as I can leading into a key event – we use an app called TrainingPeaks to keep things structured.
Find Ryan on instagram at @ryanimpey.
