EPISODE 056 - Interview: Interview Samir Makwana

00:00:11: Welcome to the podcast, Samir Makwana, your cloud solution architect.

00:00:19: So can you introduce a little bit about yourself?

00:00:22: What is a cloud solution architect?

00:00:24: What is your daily business?

00:00:26: And where you're from?

00:00:27: So you're from Canada.

00:00:29: So just a few sentences about yourself, yeah, of introduction.

00:00:33: Yeah, so first of all, thank you for bringing me on this podcast.

00:00:39: So I'm Samir.

00:00:41: That's my first name.

00:00:43: I'm from India basically, but I moved to Canada like ten years ago.

00:00:47: I used to work with Microsoft and Capgemini and many multinational companies.

00:00:53: By education, I'm a Bachelor of Computer Science, four years in university.

00:01:00: Then in the last year of my college, I realized there is a wall of not only software development, but also infrastructure, where the emails and other technologies evolve.

00:01:15: And that's where it lead me to use my software skills in infrastructure side.

00:01:21: And that's how I joined Messaging Solution as an engineer or pre-sales engineer with one of the Microsoft Partner.

00:01:30: That's where my journey started.

00:01:32: and it has evolved to the solution architect eventually.

00:01:36: So my day-to-day look like now, I go on a call with the client, I understand their requirements.

00:01:42: I look it on like a ten thousand or thirty thousand point of view to see how that requirements touching other part of the business end-to-end and it's not only delivering the solution but sustaining it, like how it's going to operationally, who's going to support it.

00:02:01: Right?

00:02:02: Are they true or not?

00:02:03: Right?

00:02:04: So looking at end-to-end side-up piece, that's what I do.

00:02:08: Okay.

00:02:08: Yeah.

00:02:09: So you mentioned you're from India.

00:02:09: Where in India have you been located?

00:02:12: So

00:02:12: I'm a west, west of India.

00:02:15: Okay.

00:02:16: What is the nearest biggest city?

00:02:18: You can say my city is big in my region.

00:02:22: Yeah, but the biggest or closest one is called Mumbai.

00:02:26: Okay, Mumbai.

00:02:27: Okay, I understand.

00:02:28: So every day we face new new tasks, new to-dos, new requests, what needs our attention.

00:02:34: So it comes in hourly by minute or whatever.

00:02:37: What is your way to deal with all those new things, new work to-dos, new family to-dos?

00:02:43: So everyone wants something from you or you need your attention.

00:02:48: So what is your way to go to deal with all those things?

00:02:53: So I always keep two things in mind.

00:02:58: Where my priorities are, Okay.

00:03:00: Right?

00:03:01: But most importantly, whatever I choose as a choice, let's say whatever decision I'm making today, how it's impacting me personally and my family.

00:03:11: So it doesn't matter if it's a work or non-work related.

00:03:15: But everything I do, I always think about how it's going to impact my personal life and my family life.

00:03:22: So let's say, for example, I have a client in very east coast of Canada, right?

00:03:29: For them, I need to wake up every day around five o'clock in the morning and prep for the first call, which is six o'clock in the morning, my time in Eastern time.

00:03:38: But I also need to make sure my daughter and my wife get proper support.

00:03:44: So it's more kind of a work-life balance, but I try to adjust and see where can I fit both of them.

00:03:51: Okay, so email or instant messaging, like teams, Slack, whatever, everything is coming through that system.

00:03:59: Yes.

00:04:01: How do you organize all those things?

00:04:03: Because a lot of emails, a lot of unread emails in your inbox, maybe a lot of teams, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, whatever, everything, how to control, how to manage all those things.

00:04:16: So there are lots of noise, I'm telling you.

00:04:19: every day, the communications channels we have are many.

00:04:23: And nowadays you're like, we're getting email right after email.

00:04:29: We're getting message about the same email.

00:04:31: Like, did you start that email?

00:04:33: Right.

00:04:33: So it's too much.

00:04:35: So the way I do is, uh, I have a bucket for everything.

00:04:40: So let's say what is, uh, it creating impact like priority impact and what is due when.

00:04:49: So I categorize them according to those quadrant and I put in a different folder and I pick them up as I work on.

00:04:57: So some of them might be not urgent, but having high impact on coming work.

00:05:06: So I categorize them and every start of my day, I work on the task which I'm going to finish and going to make sure it's going to helpful for the coming tasks in a week or two.

00:05:19: and End of day I summarize them just to make sure how I did and I can prepare for the next day.

00:05:26: So it's like start of the day.

00:05:27: end of the day is very important for me

00:05:29: and how.

00:05:31: So that's what you said is a role model and how you should deal with all those information.

00:05:36: Yes, how good.

00:05:38: how often are you struggling with that system?

00:05:41: so

00:05:42: It's not perfect, right?

00:05:43: That's how we are.

00:05:45: We are trying for that accurate or I would say idle scenario, but it's not always like that.

00:05:53: There's always a boomer.

00:05:55: You plan for something, some emergency came up and you are derailed from your task.

00:06:00: But I would say, eighty to eighty five percent.

00:06:05: That's what I do.

00:06:07: I don't target like I'm going to finish ten tasks in a day.

00:06:11: I target like three to five max and I target them and I finish it.

00:06:16: That's what I do.

00:06:17: How do you categorize or maybe estimate your tasks and how often does it work?

00:06:23: So for example, you estimate the task for two hours.

00:06:26: Yeah.

00:06:26: And how often do you meet this timeline and how often are you above this timeline?

00:06:31: Yeah.

00:06:32: So the how I estimate estimation is based on the experience I gained throughout the years.

00:06:40: So I try to judge if I need to do it manually or without any, let's say I'm doing some work, which I can do through GUI versus PowerShell.

00:06:51: Now, over a period of time, I will set up scripts and automation for myself, which I can leverage to do those things, which is much quicker versus if I do it manually.

00:07:02: So depends on the task, I decide the specific timeline.

00:07:06: It might not be a hundred percent accurate, but still it's okay.

00:07:09: But at least, It's not important that I achieve the task in, let's say two hours.

00:07:16: That's not the goal.

00:07:17: Goal is at least the task gets started and it has something done on that time period.

00:07:24: It might not be a hundred percent, but at least that task got traction and I got an idea maybe for the next time if I got the similar task so that I can improve.

00:07:34: So maybe it might be like, I would say seventy to seventy five percent or eighty percent.

00:07:39: Okay.

00:07:40: I feed in the time and it works for me.

00:07:44: But I learn a lot from what I do and I improve on that.

00:07:50: So let's say if it is repetitive task, I learn and next time I say, okay, I need extra buffer.

00:07:56: So for example, there was a topic I need to present to the client and I thought maybe three hours of research will be good.

00:08:04: But during that research, I got some more ideas thinking, okay, If I put some more visuals like a flow chart describing how the product works in the flow, it will be more beneficial.

00:08:15: So technically, I completed a task, but out of the task, I got one more task to do, which I put it in my list, which I did it next day to finish it.

00:08:26: What is your list?

00:08:27: So what is it physically or digitally?

00:08:30: Is it your email inbox or what is your list?

00:08:33: So

00:08:33: I use Planner and to do a lot.

00:08:35: Okay.

00:08:36: But I don't carry my phone or digital every time.

00:08:40: So what I do, I take a piece of paper, I write it down and keep it handy with me.

00:08:44: When I get a chance, I put the data into digital.

00:08:47: But

00:08:47: your single source of everything is planner and to-do.

00:08:50: Yes.

00:08:51: Okay, that's good.

00:08:55: How you're describing all those stuff shows me that you're really focused on those things for a very long time.

00:09:03: I think you're improving your... to do, how do you handle to do?

00:09:08: Was there any special moment where you figured out that you need to change anything on how you try to be more productive or anything?

00:09:19: So in my example, it was once I switched to different employee, employer, I saw I need to change something.

00:09:29: It is a lot of to do, but it seems to be handled to solve it, but I'm not sure how.

00:09:35: So then I decided to learn a bit and getting things done and everything.

00:09:40: Was there any special moment for you where you started to maybe handle all your to-dos in a different way or in a more successful way?

00:09:48: So it happens because first of all I thought I'll categorize them in different categories, let's say personal work, business, and so on, right?

00:10:00: Then I realized the more categories I do, the more work I need to do to categorize them.

00:10:06: So earlier I used to have different buckets, but I was started using to do and all the things.

00:10:12: But eventually I realized it's my day, so I just dump it.

00:10:18: And based on the same quadrant that I was explaining earlier, I categorized them and I moved them around.

00:10:24: Okay.

00:10:25: Yeah.

00:10:25: Okay.

00:10:26: So that's what works for me.

00:10:27: I don't know if that works for everyone, but yeah, that's that's what I felt.

00:10:31: I think there are a lot of ways out there to handle all those things.

00:10:34: I think everyone needs to find his way, what fits best and everything.

00:10:38: So there is no one way to go.

00:10:40: Yeah.

00:10:40: So everyone needs to to find a way maybe adopted a little bit and so on.

00:10:45: Yeah.

00:10:46: What is your special productivity hack?

00:10:48: But maybe no one knows or maybe, yeah, what is your special, special hack?

00:10:54: So, I started my day early.

00:10:56: So, one thing I learned being in Canada, okay?

00:11:00: That everyone start their day like a construction guy.

00:11:03: They go and they start their work like six o'clock in the morning.

00:11:06: They're done by two or three o'clock.

00:11:09: So, I find my like zone that my best productivity zone is six and two.

00:11:19: That's where I'm more productive and more focused.

00:11:21: So I found that time zone, and now I'm fit to that time.

00:11:25: So that most productive task, or most important task, I take it in first because it's required more brain than the research or whatever the work you need to do.

00:11:36: So let's say if I'm building a project plan or design for some solution, I do it first thing in the morning because my mind is fresh and I can do it.

00:11:46: That's what I do.

00:11:46: Maybe the more complex start with the more complex.

00:11:49: Yes.

00:11:49: Yeah.

00:11:50: Okay.

00:11:50: That's

00:11:50: what fits me.

00:11:51: That's what I do.

00:11:52: Also, one thing I wish I'm doing since twenty, I would say, two thousand and ten or twelve.

00:12:00: I'm doing and I still have it every day.

00:12:03: Whatever I do, doesn't matter which client I work with.

00:12:07: Yeah.

00:12:07: Right.

00:12:08: Not the name of the clients, but the detail of what I did.

00:12:12: what I have learned, what I can reuse.

00:12:15: I write it down in one note every single day.

00:12:17: Like a

00:12:18: journal.

00:12:19: Like one note every day, single day, every page.

00:12:22: It's like a book.

00:12:23: Yeah.

00:12:23: Right.

00:12:24: So I have like every day note from two thousand and twelve, everything I worked on.

00:12:30: So if I need to search, it's like internal KB.

00:12:32: Yeah.

00:12:33: If I need to search for something which I've done in let's say exchange two thousand seven.

00:12:38: which is like a legacy of legacy.

00:12:40: Yeah, I can still know what I did on that day and I can look for

00:12:45: it.

00:12:45: So

00:12:46: that helps me to build something on top of it.

00:12:50: So rather than getting stuck and redoing the same research again and again, that's what I do.

00:12:57: And now having a co-pilot in one node, helps me more.

00:13:01: So that's again a one more productive hack I do.

00:13:05: I use that knowledge in my co-pod in OneNote to bring out those things for

00:13:10: me.

00:13:11: So it might not be more technical, maybe some lesson learned kind of thing.

00:13:16: Like working on a project where I did something which I could have done better.

00:13:22: I made a note of it and lesson learned kind of thing.

00:13:25: I use it at then.

00:13:27: Is it also to reflect the day a little bit to see what you have achieved today?

00:13:32: Because in my opinion there are some days outside you work the whole day and then the end of the day you don't know what you have done.

00:13:41: So nothing completely, nothing solved.

00:13:44: Just work hassle and everything but nothing completed.

00:13:48: And if I sit down then for just five minutes and think okay I did this but it wasn't finished but I did this and this.

00:13:54: It helps me a little bit to be more Happy at the end of the day at least.

00:13:59: I started this and this and yeah,

00:14:01: yeah, a hundred percent.

00:14:03: I agree.

00:14:03: Okay.

00:14:04: Yeah, that's what is important.

00:14:05: So we have a quick round to enter the episode.

00:14:09: Yes, no, just a quick answer.

00:14:11: Sure.

00:14:11: If possible.

00:14:12: So what is your favorite productivity tool?

00:14:15: I would say to do.

00:14:17: To do.

00:14:17: Yeah.

00:14:18: Do you prefer paper or digital tools?

00:14:20: I use both.

00:14:21: Both.

00:14:21: Yeah.

00:14:22: Coffee or tea?

00:14:23: Coffee.

00:14:25: An

00:14:25: early bird or night owl?

00:14:27: I think we know it.

00:14:28: So

00:14:28: early bird for sure.

00:14:29: Yeah.

00:14:30: But I work a night shift, like night hours.

00:14:33: Yeah.

00:14:34: When I was in India, I work every day for five years.

00:14:37: Okay.

00:14:37: So I know what my body went through and what I learned.

00:14:43: And when I moved here, I realized I'm not a night person.

00:14:48: I'm more kind of early bird.

00:14:49: Early bird.

00:14:50: Okay.

00:14:51: So what is your go-to productivity boost when you need to get things done.

00:14:55: So when everything comes at once, what is, is there any special trick, any special, I don't know, way to get rid or at least to have a plan of all the things that coming at once?

00:15:09: So I think sitting alone, that's what I like in the morning.

00:15:14: If I'm having too many tasks to do in one day.

00:15:18: Sitting in the morning thinking about it which one gonna bring more value to me and to the client?

00:15:24: That's the best thing I can.

00:15:25: it helps me decide and prioritize and let it get done.

00:15:29: Okay,

00:15:29: okay, but

00:15:29: yeah, I think I feel like Everything start here.

00:15:34: Yeah before it goes on the computer on the paper.

00:15:37: So putting that thought, even ten minutes, it's really helpful to plan the whole day.

00:15:43: Yeah,

00:15:43: we helped when I'm not sure where to start, just write down everything, just a simple note, and to see, okay, this needs to be done, this, this maybe not, so I can remove, and then it's completely monthly, and this takes five minutes, not even more.

00:15:56: And people saying, I have no time to do, I need to do things, I have no time to plan, that's a complete... bullshit.

00:16:04: sit down five minutes ten minutes write down and then it's completely clear what to do exactly.

00:16:09: so I had a professor when I was an engineering student mm-hmm.

00:16:13: my professor was teaching us computer processing.

00:16:16: CPU yeah how the processor works yeah right how the decode of the language and everything back and compiler works.

00:16:23: how the compiling works yeah the every line of code yeah.

00:16:26: and they were saying our mind It's a compiler.

00:16:31: It's not a memory unit where you just store everything.

00:16:35: So it's a processor.

00:16:36: So rather than remembering everything, write it down or put it somewhere, bring it out when you need to process it, put it back again, and that will help you a space to think.

00:16:48: And that's what I do.

00:16:49: Completely agree.

00:16:50: So one last question to wrap it up.

00:16:53: I saw in your description investor.

00:16:57: Yes.

00:16:58: So what was your last invest?

00:17:00: and was it at least what you can say?

00:17:02: What was your last invest and was it?

00:17:04: Can you already tell us was it successful or maybe not?

00:17:07: Yeah, tell us a little bit.

00:17:09: So

00:17:10: so the reason the word I use investor because along with it I do invest in it and other businesses to okay and Me and my family we have built four restaurants apart from it business In Canada.

00:17:27: In Canada.

00:17:27: Okay.

00:17:28: And they are like big restaurants.

00:17:32: We're like seven to three again, because I'm early bird.

00:17:35: So I like seven to three kind of a business.

00:17:37: Yeah.

00:17:37: So those restaurants are breakfast restaurants, seven to three.

00:17:40: Yeah.

00:17:41: They all are successful going well.

00:17:45: Yeah.

00:17:46: So that's another thing.

00:17:47: Another thing I'm investing in right now is how can I transition and use this?

00:17:53: agents and all, like automation and agents in different industries.

00:17:57: So let's say for example, a restaurant, hospitality, right?

00:18:02: It's a big business and market in North America.

00:18:06: If you look only in Canada, service industry, like a restaurant industry is very big.

00:18:11: But every ID person you talk about, they're mainly focusing on, I think, bank insurance and others.

00:18:18: But so what I'm doing, being the businessman, I'm trying to diversify and focus my IT side of the knowledge into each of the industry and building specific focus automation agents for each of those industries.

00:18:34: Okay, sounds interesting.

00:18:36: So thank you very much, Sameer, for having time here in New York.

00:18:40: So right now we're in Express Life New York having sessions.

00:18:43: Thank you for your time.

00:18:44: and hope to see you at one of the next conferences.

00:18:47: Thank

00:18:47: you

00:18:47: so much.

00:18:48: I appreciate

00:18:50: it.

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