How to be More Pirate with Alex Barker

Chief Pirate and co-author of the book “How to Be More Pirate”, Alex Barker, discusses the fine points of how adapting to the “Pirate” code gave her true freedom, saved her from burnout and how the Be More Pirate movement continues to inspire and motivate a community of “pirates” all over the world.

Alex and Graham start out by discussing how Alex came to be the Chief Pirate and co-author of the book “How to Be More Pirate” with Sam Conniff Allende.

Alex mentions how being burnt out at work made her think about what she really wants to do with her life, and how using her background working in the RSA became a crucial part of building a community.

'I spent a bit of time really thinking about what I wanted to do, why I had ended up where I ended up, and what did I wasn’t really looking for out of my life and I basically just create some I just wrote some words. One of them was adventure. I then I broke it down a bit more and said like, I want a lack of routine. I want something more exciting. I want to connect with lots of different people, and I don’t know, a bit of serendipity, I think, and just be learning all the time.'

Alex tells us how pirates came to be and what a true pirate does is challenge how everyone else is thinking or acting a certain way.

'This is something I’ve learned through our community, that practicing challenge in the right way is really important. So you’re prepared, you’re confident, you’re not backing down, but you're understanding where the resistance is likely to be and take on board other people’s views.'

Graham invites Alex to share the Four Rules of Breaking the Tyranny of Emails.

'Break the tyranny of emails by thinking before an email: Can I have a conversation instead? Taking protected time away from email and spending it on focusing on the stuff that will make the biggest difference. Checking my tone, and my structuring my email in a way I’d be pleased to receive and if it’s bad news, I won’t deliver it by email. Four rules created to make e-mails better and quite simple.'

Alex sheds a bit more light on why the Pirate Code helps one think more creatively and how not being constrained by “rules” can be one of the best ways to face a challenging situation.

'That’s why I like people taking the ideas, and just making them their own and adapting and going “well this bit doesn’t work”. And for us, we need to do it this way. That’s why I say with the Pirate Code, like, there is no one way to do this. There’s no magic formula of principles that will make you right. It’s your culture, decide what works here based on the dynamics.'

Graham then asks Alex about “switching off”, how to create a healthy work-life balance and avoid burnout.

'It’s not just about the fact that I was productive at work. It’s about how I show up in every respect, and I need to protect that by limiting the stuff at work that drains me. So I think this is like a kind of reorientation; how we think about work.'

You may read all about the How to Be More Pirate movement here.

Listen to Sam Conniff Allende's Beyond Busy podcast interview here

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Riz Paredes and is hosted on Podiant.

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