Cooking that would insult my ancestors

Episode Summary

In this chaotic and experimental "Cook With Me" episode, the host attempts to prepare a full meal while simultaneously breaking down the neuroscience of the creative flow state. It is a lesson in irony: while discussing the necessity of single-tasking, minimizing distractions, and priming your environment, the host is actively multitasking, burning peppers, and battling a cluttered kitchen.

Despite the culinary disasters, the episode delivers a structured deep dive into the three phases of creativity: Priming (preparation), Maintenance (staying in the zone), and Recovery (the comedown). It’s an honest, humorous look at why we get addicted to "cheap dopamine," why your phone is the arch-enemy of productivity, and how to actually structure a creative ritual that lasts.

Guest Bio

In this solo episode, our host turns his kitchen into a recording studio to test the limits of his own advice. As a creative who struggles with the "shiny object syndrome" of modern technology, he uses this episode to explore research-backed methods for triggering flow states.

Whether he is burning garlic or explaining hypofrontality, his approach is grounded in the messy reality of trying to be an artist in a world designed to distract you.

Suggested links: Website: Thrifty50.co, Instagram: @trippfusco

Show Notes

[00:02:10] The "Gum Theory": Using sensory triggers like taste and smell to recall information.
[00:07:38] Introduction to the three phases of flow: Priming, Maintenance, and Recovery.
[00:09:33] Defining Flow State vs. Hyperfocus and the concept of "Hypofrontality."
[00:16:02] The neurochemistry of reward: How cheap dopamine (Instagram/social media) hijacks your motivation for hard work.
[00:18:06] Time optimization and the "Eat the Frog" method for prioritizing creative tasks.
[00:25:15] Environmental control: Why your phone is the "arch-enemy of productivity."
[00:31:22] The "Coffee Shop Effect": Why 70dB of ambient noise can actually boost creativity.
[00:38:07] The Goldilocks Rule: Staying within 10% outside your comfort zone to avoid anxiety or boredom.
[00:41:43] Psychological traps: The "Action Initiation Barrier" and "Analysis Paralysis."
[00:47:37] The vital importance of the "Comedown": Why you need a recovery phase to avoid a dopamine crash.
Hashtags

#ImitatesLifePodcast #CreativeFlow #FlowState #Neuroscience #DopamineDetox #CreativeProcess #ProductivityHacks #DeepWork #EatTheFrog #Multitasking #CreatorBurnout #CookingAndCreating

Transcript

0:00

The beauty of this episode is it's everything you shouldn't do when trying to do something creative. Just wanted it to be a conversation. And there's just it here. The show. Accept that there's people that are going to be better than you at that, and that the specific things I know there's there's going to be some that's better at editing. And if you could sit around and say, well, I haven't started on the manuscript because I'm waiting for the inspired, right. When you show up and you sit down and you go to your spot, the inspiration does come. If I don't put my skin in the game, shed a bit of blood. How can I expect for the return? I'm hoping for it to be as severe as the sacrifice. A lot of people would be like, I could never do I. You know, I have no idea how to do. And I didn't either. For the most part, it's just sitting down and taking the time to learn at once. And then when you do, it's like, oh my gosh. Can we just start by acknowledging how wonderful this weather has been? I live in Arizona and the weather's been beautiful recently. I've been windows down even when it's like 93. And I think there's people who are like 93 windows down. You're insane. I don't know if you know what 93 feels like when you've experienced nothing but like 110 for months. It's amazing. It's all about perception, right? Going into, so this episode about preparing for creative flow state, just getting into that mindset. In this episode I had, I tasked Gemini, with doing a deep research into how better to get into creative flow state and how to best like, yeah, prepare to be in that mindset and and how you can, like, maybe trigger it. This came from the idea that I once and I talked about it on a previous episode, but I once thought, you know, well, going all the way back to college, I had this idea, this great idea when I saw a bunch of gum at the store, and there's, like, ten different flavors of just mint, right? There's, like, spearmint. Cool. Mint, peppermint. Wintergreen. All that. Right. With all that, I had the idea because I was in one of the harder classes. It was like the class with the biggest, dropout rate at NYU or second biggest. Organic chemistry is always the first, biggest. But this was number two, and, I was like, I'm going to pass this glass down and pass it the way I pass classes, which is not giving a craft and just kind of showing up and not doing homework or, you know, in excess of what I deem necessary, which is a terrible choice. Don't do that. If you want the tips for how good Michigan. I. Olive oil, salt, pepper, generally garlic powder. I don't have garlic powder, so I put some chicken seasoning on it. Chicken, chicken, chicken seasoning from, Montreal or something like that. And then, put it on parchment paper, put it in the oven for 25 minutes at 425. Comes out perfect every time. Back to the story. So I was, doing this class, and I was worried about, you know. I was worried about not getting it done. Or not passing. Right. I was worried that these terrible habits that I created in undergrad or in high school and the continued in the previous year, we're going to continue onward and, I was going to be in the same place as I always am where I've been. I have to retake this class or, you know, like, really get it together in the last minute and ultimately it did end up happening again. But, what was nice was that, or sorry, I've been all over the place because obviously I'm doing a couple things. So when I saw this gum, I was like, oh, maybe this will help, you know, trigger the memory, because memory can be triggered by smells and tastes. I knew this because it's kind of common knowledge, but if you didn't know, that's true. And so I was like, well, if there's so many different flavors, if I buy all these different flavors and I only choose specific ones in each class when I take the test, if I can chew the same gum, theoretically I'll be able to trigger the memories and have, kind of like a recall for that specific, discussion. And so that was my idea. And I started doing it as chewing gum all day long. And every class I'd switch the flavor. And it's pretty subtle difference between like a, like a peppermint and a cool mints or a wintergreen and, spearmint. So not the best choice. You know, maybe like, more dramatic changes like bubble gum and stuff like that. But then also you, like, run out of flavors pretty quickly. And so you can only do that like semester to semester. So it would make sense more to just pair like your major with your major and your minor with your minor. But, that's what I, I found out that all gum, most gum, all the gum I was chewing had soy in it. And I'm allergic to soy. And that's how I found out that, I was going to be able to continue this. But ever since then, I had this idea of, like, how can I create, like, triggers and shortcuts to, like, tap into this mindset shift that I need for different like, states of like, mid consciousness, but mainly like productivity, right. Like, and everyone understands the idea of, like, you should probably not have your phone around you if you're trying to be productive, like not having distractions and stuff like that. Those are more obvious ones. We'll get into that a little bit later. But, I was kind of standing by this in a previous episode. I talked about how, I thought about doing it, where every time I had, photoshoot or a creative endeavor, I would do the same stretches I would do before my workout to engage, like my circulatory system, because my body was already, programed to when I did these stretches. Oh. Start circulating better is going to be there's gonna be high activity in a second. You know, you're you're going to be working out. So if I, I actually did this before I did creativity, I would be getting more like blood flow and maybe more cognitive ability because, working out leads to, better cognitive function and stuff like that. And so it was like, oh, cool idea. I did it once, and then I never did it. Yeah. And then I wore my program changed and I'm not going to phone world before doing a photo shoot. That's just kind of weird. And so. Red Pepper. So the plan kind of went out the window on that one. But after talking about it last week, I was like, what are some ways that we can kind of trigger, flow state and kind of just really get more prepared. And just be in the right mindset to start a creative project. Since this is a creative project, podcast and, you know, like, I want to do this. And so it's very interesting because a lot of stuff I was really doing right is stuff that I found in this research that Gemini performed for me, that sliced. Baby pepper inside the other pepper. Life's amazing. So, with that being said, like, I'm going to get into today's discussion of how to get into flow state, sustain flow state, and what you do after flow state. That was a long winded way of me saying, you know, let's get into it. And here's what the structure of this shows you to me. So it starts with phase one, the precession priming. And what that one is talking about is if I pop on up here, well, I guess if we're gonna get into it, we should start at the top. This is such a good thing for me because I'm so bad at planning things like this. So, like, this is where I, like, helps a lot. And I'm not scared of AI, but it also is like, I know it's very much like, so, antithetical to what I do already. I get into it and then I'm like, oh, let's go back to the structure. And so I'm gonna be bouncing around like crazy. You're gonna think I'm a lunatic and you're probably not gonna stay around. But thanks for joining anyway. Make sure to like and subscribe and never come back. So, it wants us to define, flow state at the beginning. That makes sense. In the creative mandate, neurochemistry of peak state. Yeah, yeah, this is going to be great. So as this research, found, the pursuit of peak creative output demands a structured approach centered on achieving the mental state known as flow, coined by psychologist. I'm not going to read that name. Flow is defined as a state of complete absorption in an activity characterized by energized, focused fulfillment. Full involvement and intrinsic enjoyment. The physical, physiological, the fit. No, the psychological phenomenon represents the melting together of action and consciousness, leading to a profound transformation in one's sense of time. So basically, that's what they, you know, we've established already in other episodes. But the idea of flow State is that when you get so involved in a creative process that you lose track of time and space and you're just fully involved and immersed in this process, which is why I think maybe for the first time in deciding to do this, because I just randomly decided to do this. Maybe not cooking while doing a podcast is a good idea, but, you know, we're already here, and I'm really cooking and I'm trying not to slice my little fingers off. I want to keep all ten digits. Right. So that is what flow State is. And the creative mandate, basically is that like, I'm not gonna get a creative mandate because I can't see that and I'm not going to read and cut at the same time. But we've established the flow state is right. And so once we know that we can get into why we want to get there, right? So if you're doing creative pursuits, if you want to be a creative person, and I think everyone is a creative person, you just don't find you haven't found your outlet yet. So, keep looking and also make sure that it doesn't harm anyone. That's a big part of it. So, and like, there's inadvertent harm, so don't like, be like, oh, I can't do this because the I can't. So because the fabric made it in a sweatshop. Like you don't know that. Like, don't do that much research. Like, I mean, you can and I think that's an awesome thing to do and focus on that. And like, that's how we're ultimately going to be like evil systems that are in place in this world. But like, don't let the fact that like, you already purchased some fabric and it was created in sweatshop prevent you from selling. So continuing on, once you've established what your creative act is and then you want to do it, you have these hurdles that come up, right? And so taking a step back, there's a difference between flow and hyper focus. So hyper focus you can achieve with a lot of different things. Right. So like, if you're like me, for instance, and you like to multitask, like I'm currently doing, you can quickly get super into things and, like, really fixated on and just like, go into it and like, all you want to do is just, that thing and then you get burnt out and you stop, and then you go on to the next thing, and then next thing you know, your apartment's full of piles of different activities that you started with never stops. So, like, if I had started a jigsaw puzzle this weekend, it most certainly would not be done. And it most certainly would be taking up table space in my apartment. This is not a real example. I know in the past I've said this isn't a real example. I'm just making this up. This is actually one that I'm making up. But, my apartment is always a mess because of things like this. Now, that's what hyperfocus is. It's, So, yeah. So the difference between hyper focus and flow is hyper focus is a part of flow, right? So that you get hyper focused, you get into these ideas, you're fully invested in this act and you're turning off. It's called hypo for mentality. I think I talked about it, I did that one, talked about it in the last one. I don't know if I've made an episode since then, but essentially I missed represented that term and that idea in the previous, in a previous episode. So forgive me, but I'm going to properly talk about it now. Hypo frontal ality is when your, executive function of the brain kind of gets shut off and put into autopilot. So then you don't hear your inner critic and definitely don't hear, like, some of those things that are just going to keep holding you back and you start making these decisions just on the fly in your very present. Right? So that's the hyper aspect of it. But being hyper focused, right, is just an element of it. Right? So like, something that happens to me a lot. And I used to subscribe to master class and then one of the master classes, this guy said, the one of the biggest things he ever heard was, focus on the 2%. And I was like, oh, that's cute. That's cute. When it was that mean? You know, like, what's the 2% milk? Great. Well, so I just, minced the garlic. I have a garlic plate, so I have a bunch of minced garlic. Here, look at that. Oh, look at that. Beautiful. So garlicky. Why 2%? And what is it? You know, focus on the 2%. So the top 2% is what the overall goal is. Right. And that's so like most people say 8020, you know, like 80% of your work goes to 20% of the outcome or whatever, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right. So the 2% is focusing on the overall goal, the macro view, looking at the cream of the crop, just the main high level points. Right. And then this is supposed to help keep you from getting stuck in the weeds. I often get stuck in the weeds. So if I'm doing a video project and I'm like, oh, this would be so much cooler. If I rotoscope this, I will then spend five hours rotoscoping something that is just one transition and overall video that doesn't necessarily need anything to be rotoscope. So, for projects that are just like, fun and like just doing it half haphazardly and just kind of like going about it and trying new things like rotoscoping, that makes total sense. That's perfect. Right? But when you are trying to actively get things done and you're doing a creative project for a purpose, you cannot get that hyper focus going in different directions and getting stuck in the weeds. So that's the difference between hyperfocus and flow. So how flow works is there is the neuro neurochemical reward system in your brain. Right. So dopamine and serotonin and you you've probably heard some idea of how this works. So dopamine is the motivation right. So it basically like motivates you to do work right. So it's the reward. It's the it's the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Right. So you're working towards getting that dopamine release. That's why we have things like Instagram addictions and drug addictions and stuff like that. It's because it's an easy, it's a cheap. I like people calling them cheap dopamine rewards. So you don't have to do a lot in order to get that same dopamine that you would have to do a lot for in the past. So a lot of those things like hijack your system. Right. And so like you're like, well, I'll just stay here because I'm getting everything I need right from this, swiping from whatever it is. But when you are trying to do something of greater value or hard work, right, you need a lot of dopamine to get you through there. So if you like, if you basically like straight, like mainline Instagram, you're going to have a hard time doing some creative practices. And I'm speaking from experience at this point because I will just, like, just fall headfirst down a rabbit hole on, Instagram and not come back. And I'll just be like, oh, it's just like a little like it's just a little bit. I'm not gonna be on there for too long. Right? And then like two days later, I'm like, hey, I seriously haven't done anything I've wanted to do in, like, a long time, so this is a problem. So now we're getting into the problem now that we we've very quickly and recklessly gone through a very important topic that I have no ability to discuss in length. I'm not a neuroscientist or play one on TV. If you want to learn more about the reward system, Andrew Huberman talks about it a lot. There's some other, podcasters out there. It's not going to be hard to find stuff on it, especially today. There's just so much information about there that I just don't need to be topic talking about that, especially since there's better information out there for you going into the next part, right into the actual creative process. Setting up, maintaining. And then you know, what you do after going into creative flow state, which is what today's episode is going to be. We're going to look at priming the first phase, getting ready for flow state in this sense would be if I'm cooking right, what I'm doing right now, it's matching. The first thing is time optimization, right? So that's picking the best time of day to do that action. Right. Forbes and the episode with Forbes, he talks about how the first thing he does every day is he just sits down, he primes himself by, doing a quick meditation, and then he sits or a walk, and then he sits down and he starts writing. And the first two hours of his day, he has a do not disturb function on his phone, and he he works on his writing. That's his creative practice. That is his, you know, work. So that's a great example of time optimization. When I wake up, I do this. Hunter said the same thing. He said, when I wake up and when I go to bed, right in those bookends, or when I do my writing, because that's really the only time I have time to do it. And, you know, it works for me. And so that is what time optimization is, is matching the energy to the task. Right? So one of the things I'm trying to do in my day to day job is matching, starting with creating and then doing the busy work admin at the end of the day, because you should have to get that done. But if you use the creative flow first, right? It's a lot harder to motivate because you don't have that dopamine anymore. At the end of the day, and we're going to get into that later. But that that's essentially, you know, like if you, and I read a book about it's called Eat the Frog, a lot of people recommend it in the the self-help world or whatever. It just talks about if you had to eat a frog every day. I think if this example comes from someone. But it's a really good analogy. Right? So if you had to eat a frog every day, you're never gonna get used to eating a frog. It's just not going to happen. If you are going to eat a frog every day, what you do is eventually come to terms that, well, my day is going to go a lot easier if the first thing I do is just eat that frog, right? I don't have to wait, procrastinate, put it off, and then right before bed, I'm like, ooh, I just brush my teeth and I have to eat a frog. Gross. Or like, yeah. You know, like whatever. It's a weird concept, but it makes sense because I think I give. Eating a frog is so good. Then it talks about, you know, necessity of recovery. We'll get into that in the recovery stage. And then creative rituals. So, a lot of creative individuals throughout time have done, pre-created rituals. Like I was just saying for Forbes, going back to that example, he meditates where he goes for a walk, right. And this talks about, here. Who is it? Joan Miro would engage in rigorous exercise at 6 a.m. daily, and this would boost serotonin levels to manage depression. And then she could they could start their work. I do not know their pronouns, so forgive me there, but it says the same thing for, Pablo Picasso would start, late. And Georgia O'Keeffe would start early. And those would be the ways that they would trigger that. So, like, it's kind of like, Ryan Holiday talks about going for walks, just going for walks and how important walks are that just like, let your mind on an envelop, right? Or unfold. Right, because it's just getting like knotted up with all these thoughts and these layers of thoughts. Right. And so when you do these processes and you like engage this stuff. And so that was the idea when I was like, oh, I'll just stretch beforehand, it'll trigger that same thing and I'll be ready to go. The first idea is, is priming yourself. You've picked a time of day that works best for that creative activity, right? Or whatever that is. Then you physically priming yourself, right? Sometimes it's cleaning the space. I wish I had done that before I started cooking, but, sometimes it's, you know, making sure that area is organized. Sometimes it's throwing your phone off a bridge, sometimes it's going for a walk, doing something physical. What I like to do to start my day is go to the gym, workout and then shower and then eat breakfast and then get into my day. It doesn't always happen. Sometimes I wake up and I'm like, it's, I'm going to work out tonight. There's no shot. I'm getting this thing before the day. But on those days I try to walk, days I don't do either. The first three hours are a lot harder than the last three hours, you know? Like, now, the whole day just gets so much harder, right? So it's it's it's about priming yourself for what you're about to get in, to set up the area for success. Right. You're creating that foundation for creativity to be built on. Then there's the doing right. And so maintenance is part of it. But like also getting prepared, like in getting prepared, I have three minutes left on this chicken and I am not even close with everything else. So it's going to be a fun time in a second. All right. That looks good. This was the most expensive olive oil I've ever had in my life. It's delicious, but super expensive. And it's gonna get Smokey in here because I'm not trying the best on because I'd rather have, clean audio and not. So we're gonna take this minced garlic. And then I would have a different way of doing this. But this is it. We're going to brush it into the pan and saute. Okay. And then. We're going to swirl it around just like infuses with like olive oil. And it's already brown because it was so hot. It's stainless steel so I don't really care much. And I'm going to use this to kind of like the sauce that I, the tomato I put in later is going to pick up this, they call it roux or something like that. So take the bell pepper. Add that this might also even help. Just like the, the water in the bell pepper might help pick it up. And I learned all this from this, like, bullshit. Like, at no point have I taken any formal training in cooking, and my food tastes like it, but it tastes good. You know, it's just simple food. I think that's the easiest way. I also over salt, that's that's a huge indicator of success is having over salt. Just put salt on absolutely everything. Okay. So. That's going. Okay. So when you start right the idea is when you're doing a creative task. Right. We talked about I talked about the the thing earlier about Instagram is cheap dopamine. It's such a simple system that you're you basically get like into this idea of just like, okay, all I have to do is swipe to eat like, like to feel like desirable or laugh or see something that makes me feel good, or see something that makes me feel bad. And then I can go through this, you know, all these emotional ranges just by swiping right. So now anything that isn't that easy becomes a Herculean task. Your system is rolling that boulder up that hill. So you have to find ways. To get yourself into that smells really good. You have to find ways to get yourself into that area. So one of the first things it talks about is controlling your environment, throwing away your phone. Just saying. You know what? You. I don't need that right now. And then, you know, other devices, silencing don't have the TV on in the sense that, like, oh, I'll just put on my favorite show and I won't watch right. That was one of my favorite trends on Instagram, talking about my Instagram addiction. Was that it would be like, oh, I'll just turn on a movie while I clean, and then it's like the person's cleaning, and then it's like Star Wars, and then they're just cleaning, and then there's just them like this and nothing's gotten cleaned and there's that sitting down and it's like, then and then them eating while sitting down while watching this movie instead of cleaning. Essentially. You know, that's what it's talking about, right? It's the phones have been described as the arch enemy of productivity, right? They're they're very distracting. They're literally meant just hijack your like, your brain. They constantly keep getting more and more addictive. It's something to be wary of. What I'm gonna do is put this off to the side so can rest this chicken looks really good. It's cooked all the way through. So I'm going to take this. All right. I have a fish cutting walk over here, but you're like, oh, and, you know, if you happen to, I'm going to take it over to there, okay? And just let it rest, because now we have to cook the rest of the chicken. Right. But you know what? Like I'm just doing my best, right? Like, I live here, as you can see. Actually, the perfect example is right now that timer went off. And then all productivity toward this podcast went out the door. Right. Because I had to focus on the chicken. I'm still. Sorting my garlic and peppers, which smell good but are getting a little burnt. And then like a billion different things came on. So like, imagine. Imagine for a second, if you will, that. Your phone was specifically designed to hijack your reward system. And then every time this is not the nice olive oil, by the way. This is cheap olive oil. This is what I primarily used because that was so expensive, but tastes so good. So, back to the story. So let's just imagine that. The phones we have are meant to keep us engaged and, addicted to them. And then. And that's what's supposed to do anything else that gives us a reward that's cheap, easy or free? No. We're supposed to be just like mainlining Instagram. Right? And then imagine that you decide one day that you want to do anything else. Right? But. It you can't because your phone's in the room. And every time your phone dings, you know, the ding and it's like, oh, Tinder. Oh email, oh Google chat. Oh, my mom wants to know what time dinner is, you know. Oh, my dad wants to send me a meme of some cats. Hug it right. It's going to be impossible to get anything done, much like what's happening here where I'm trying to do too much at once. Oh. And because of it, my peppers are now burnt and the garlic is just going, oh, they're absolutely torched. I'm going to save it. But, I want to leave that there for now. Pull that off. All right, onto the next batch. Chicken. I think you're trying to write a book. You've decided you want to write a book where you just want to draw, you want to learn how to draw, and you decide you're going to do this at 2 p.m. every day. And, you you're at work and, you got your phone next to you or whatever, and then you start trying to draw, and then all this starts happening literally. Watch what's happening here. If you're listening to this podcast, I'm sure you can imagine from the fact that I'll just be talking, talking and talking, and then I'll just stop talking and you'll hear some begging, that I'm very distracted right now. And this is not the right time to be doing this, but I don't care because. I don't know, it's a fun idea. For those of you who don't know, I'm now salting and peppering my chicken to go back in the oven. And now the chicken. Chicken? Weber. Not Montreal. Weber. Seasoning. And then it's the season. It like you want a heart attack. This can be really good. I'm really excited at this. That chicken smells really good. That smells good. A little burnt, obviously, but smells good. All right. I'm grabbing the pan with my, bare hands going into the oven for another, you guessed it, 25 minutes. So now this is where it's going to get really exciting, because I'm now going to try and cook the rest of my meal while this timer is going all that chicken's cooking. And finish up the podcast and you'll really see how hard it is to get things done while you're distracted. You get the premise, though. You get the idea that, like, literally, what's happening to me right now is what you're trying to avoid when you're creating things. So one of the things that's interesting is there's also. The idea of, well, I do better if I'm just in a completely like noise free environment. I can't hear anything. Right. That's not true. That's not true. Humans actually do better, and get into their when they are at like 70dB of noise. So that's like one of the things I like to do is I like to go to coffee shops and be around people that buzz, that hum, that just like keeps me focused, energized and going. And so the, it says here that the the auditory environment plays a complex nonlinear role in cognitive performance. Excessive background noise is detrimental. Obviously, if you're trying to like focus on like just writing a paper and you're in the middle of an auto body shop, that's not going to work. However, the optimal acoustic environment in test development research demonstrates that while excessive noise 85dB plus impairs creativity and moderate levels of ambient noise around 70dB, comparably to the sound of a coffee lounge during break, whatever actually enhances creative performance, not necessarily turning into something else like the idea that you're going to like, oh, I'll put on like a movie. Sure, that's inherently a good idea to have something in the background that's kind of engaging but not too engaging. It's not tomato paste. Yes. It's definitely not tomato based, but it's not. It's so like there's a level to it. Right? And that one of the things that really came out in this research was that, like, the most important thing for all of this is that you have like moderation. Again, I think this example is perfect because like, like, who am I to think that I could never have once held a cooking show in my life? And like, thinks that they're like Mr. multitask, right? Like, who the hell am I to think that I could cook a bunch of food for myself and then talk about something I've barely read over, and then do it all, you know, while teaching people that right, like cook up an entire chicken and then create, pasta sauce and then boil the pasta and put it all together in an hour while recording myself talk about the intricacies of creative flow. But I don't think I'm doing the worst job. So right now I'm filling up water to boil in order to get the pasta ready. Because you know what? Cold pasta is fine. I prefer, positive, but this chicken's gonna be done in 20 minutes, and that means that the pasta needs to be boiling, relatively soon. Here. So we're gonna turn that on high, get clear the space a little bit more. And so now you know that 70, decibels, acoustic sound, you know, like lo fi beats to study, slash, relax, do whatever, things like that can actually help, increase creative performance. And so they recommend white noise in this. But, I just think go into a coffee shop if you're going to be a writer is going to hell. Being around people is normally my answer to a lot of things. And the salt, the pasta, water. Okay. Drink a beer. Okay. This room is not getting picked up, but, you're going to be free of distraction. You are going to be in a neutral sound environment. You are going to have your tasks in front of you, right? You're ready to complete the task at hand. What's next? Well, what's next is engaging. That don't mean theoretically, right? That doesn't mean system. And why it gets hijacked by technology is because you start to get a certain amount of reward. You're once you. So once you do something and you get rewarded, your brain goes, okay, so every time I eat a cookie, I feel ten times happier, right? But then what happens is your brain gets used to it, right? So then the next time you have that cookie, you only get seven times happier, right? And then six, three. And then you're like negative two, right? So you start predicting, right that it's going to make me feel great. And then it only starts making you feel good. And then you're like, well let me do more. Right. So the idea is to, get into that arousal state, get into that, like, oh, I'm going to be starting. Right. And then it's about I turn this down a good amount. So then it's about oh, oh. Right. Figuring out what's going on. Right. Because when you first start it's difficult and you're being challenged. So you're being forced to focus more. Right? But then as you get better at it and it becomes less rewarding, it becomes boring. So like for instance, let's just say that I poured gasoline twice and I was like, oh, this is not a good example, but I forecasted twice and I was like, oh, I'm good at this, right? This is easy. And then I was like, I don't want to do another one. It's like, oh, well, let me do one while I'm cooking. That'll make it. Well, I like cooking. I like, you know, doing a creative act while on top. Like doing this will help, you know, and then I get here and it's too much. So where I'm going with this is the next part of this, right? Is figuring out where can capabilities live and then figuring out, you know, what level domain is needed. Not level domain, but like so like. I am full on rambling. I'm going to take it back to the beginning of this part. So what actually I'm going to recap this whole set part. So what happens is. Your brain understands the reward and it starts to predict that that's going to happen. Right. So it's like oh I'm going to get this reward from this object. Right. If I swipe on Instagram for two minutes, I'm gonna be happy again. Right? If I'm going to do this project, if I'm to start cooking, I'm going to enjoy it. If I eat this cookie, I'm gonna be ten times happy. And then it starts to reduce because it gets easier, right? So part of that is maintaining the challenge aspect of it is a big part of flow, right? Because if you're just so good at it and you can just run on autopilot, almost like you're not like it's too easy for you, it's going to become boring. But on the flip end, if it's too challenging, you're going to be overwhelmed and your anxiety is going to get did get kicked in. So that is when it starts to become task management. And so that's what this next part is about in maintaining, right? So it talks about how people do best when they're at a maximum 10% outside their comfort zone. So that's saying like not just like maybe instead of doing a full cooking like cooking an entire like weeks worth of chicken and like creating lunch while podcasting, maybe I could have just decided to, like, do a little doodle. Well, you know, write out my recipe while doing pasta instead of, like, doing all this at once, or maybe live streaming it. Right? So there's something that's like more in the vein, a little bit more to make it more captivating for me in the flow state. And so it goes through this process. It starts talking about this process of like measuring the difficulty and calibrating. Right. So like you're trying to assess yourself, okay, I don't want these too much. Like I said this is expensive olive oil I'm using. But so you want to start calibrating, right? The level of effort you're putting into things. So you stay intrigued, but you also don't want to overdo it to where you get, you know, get your wits that you get ahead of yourself, and you're like, I'm anxious. I'm not gonna get this done. I'm not doing well. And then you start getting imposter syndrome, right? So that's like why you start your academic career in one on one classes. Not for a few classes, right? You work your way up with something small and manageable. And so that is the procedure it has to go through in maintaining that process. So when you get into the process of creating, you start small. You start with writing the title, writing an outline. Maybe you're, you know, developing your first character. And then as that progresses and that gets easier, you add or you sprinkle a little bit more flavor on it, and then you start adding a little, gas to the fire and start increasing that fire. And so instead of just being like, like as, as get this, this cooking is such a good metaphor because like, at first I was just baking the chicken and then I was doing a little prep work, and then I started getting into like, okay, now I gotta start making the sauce. And then when I was making the sauce, I realized the chicken was coming out. And so then it starts, you know, increasing. And then there's a point there where it got so overwhelming that I couldn't focus on anything but this, and I had to let the podcast go for a second. So that was a real time calibration for this, right. So you're seeing that happen. Or hearing that happen in real time right now. But what you need to be doing when you're trying to maintain creative flow is balance, but it's a balancing walk. You're right. You're going in between the two. Something that helps with the structural part of this is time blocking. Like I was saying earlier, at the beginning of the day, I do creative stuff. At the end of the day, I do administrative tasks. That's going to help you even continue to trigger those things that you're trying to do. Man, this is really fun because it's like freaking chaotic. And I love chaos. But I also want to make sure this is important for y'all because I would like this to be good. I'm adding a little bit of balsamic glaze to the sauce. I don't know why. Oh, yeah, this was going to. But some of the things that this is in more, academic terms and better terms, right? These are psychological traps that come up in the creative flow process. Right. So you have, what's called the action initiation barrier, right? So that's what I'm talking about is like, if your task is outside of your threshold by over 10%, you're less likely to do it. The further you get away from that, like 10%, 1%, you're going to be less likely to do it. And again, that's why you know, Instagram is such an issue because it's so easy, right? You just hop in, swipe right swipe. You're getting dopamine. Right. So that idea, that action initiation barrier is tiny. But if you're trying to write a book and you think about the entire encompassing, like I, you think about how hard it is to read a book and then you're like, no, I'm telling this whole story and I'm creating the story for my mind, that is going to be an impossible task, a Herculean task in your mind. So what it talks about as a countermeasure is obviously batching that down. Right? So like instead of it being like, oh my God, I need to write. I need to write a book that's this many pages. You know, you're saying like, oh, I need to make an outline. And then that becomes easier. Right? That is the first countermeasure of doing that, because what happens is you'll start procrastinating when you just look at like, oh, this is like a huge task that I need to get done. And you know, how am I going to get this done? It, you know, x amount of time or whatever. I really burnt the shit out of it. It just tastes like tomato paste. It's like a little bit of red pepper. You start to procrastinate when you think of like how tough a task is going to be. If I have to write a whole book, I'm just gonna keep putting it off because it's going to be like, oh, I don't have the time for it. I'm not in the right headspace. I'm not the right person to do this, yada yada yada. But, if it's just like, oh, I can outline a book, I can outline any book, but this is a book I read once, or this is kind of like what I want this book to be like, right? That comes a lot easier. I'm start crying. This is an onion. Oh, God. Get to so much. I hate cutting onions. And then we're gonna put that onion. It's a half an onion going into the sauce. I should have started with the onion. You're not supposed to. Onion and garlic at the same time. I don't care. This whole thing is a trainwreck, so I'm just doing everything at once. The other trap, right, is analysis sprouts. Right? And that comes on, when you get into perfectionism and that kind of mirrors that. What we were talking about earlier, you know, if you don't focus on the top 2%, you're going to get bogged down in the weeds. Well, the more we get bogged down weeds just do all of it. All the while. So as you get bogged down in the weeds, right, you start to like really focus in on things and hyper fixate and focus. And you go into this perfectionist analysis paralysis mode. I'm not ready to take that next step. I'm not ready to go to this next thing, because this isn't just like, this isn't just perfect enough, right? And then you get into this like micro adjustment thing and you're just going back and forth. It's just constantly just going uphill against yourself. So that's the second trap. Right. And so the countermeasure for that is again using that dopamine to accomplish small tasks. So instead of it being like oh I gotta get this thing rotoscoped in like I have to get this transition just right. It's like, okay, I gotta get this transition workable and then go on workable and then move on. Right. And that is how you're going to overcome that analysis. Paralysis is just like finding small checkpoints and then going from there to the next part. And just keep doing that until until you're done, you know, like, sometimes, you know, they say, great is the enemy of good. And like, it's very true that that is something you run into a lot where it's like, I would have. Right. So, march for this corner for this. But other people have said it. I would have wrote something shorter, but I didn't have enough time. Right. You can condense, you can condense, you can stream, like, do all that. But just getting it done in the amount of time you have is also an important thing. Strategy is for just overcoming creative resistance in general, identifying the pinpoint the exact fear or uncertainty that is causing this hesitation. Like is it too much? Is it too little? Is, you know what are you scared of success. You know, whatever the case is and then determine, you know, exploring that, like looking through all of the veins of that, you know, like, or all the different like channels that that goes through. And then overcoming that by proactively creating systems and maintaining your, your momentum and going forward. Right. And so like in this again, in this case, what I've done for this cooking project is every time I get like a little overwhelmed with talking to you, I just shut that off. I just focus on this thing and I say, you know what? Like, hey, you know, it's going to be the magic of editing. It's great. But this is important to get done, right? And like I watched this source, it is going to be good because it's going to be fine. But halfway through I realized that I wanted to make, like, a cacio e Pepe sauce. Not this. And like a catch, yo Pepe would have been so much easier because it's like once this is all done, I do it. It's not actively while it's going. So making a gravy was definitely not the right idea. I love the idea of like, measure what matters if you know what the problem is, if you can label it, you can explore the ideas around it, you can overcome it, right? You strategize against it. And that's what this part is talking about. What's very important is the last step, which is, you know, once you're done, you need to figure out. Now I'm adding a little stock of the, starchy pasta water to the sauce to hopefully like, thin it out, but it's also got like a lot of salt in it. It's got a lot of starch. And you'll find it a little bit. Right now it's just tomato paste, half and onion. Splash of balsamic vinegar and four cloves of garlic and one, red bell peppers. Again, it's bosh. But we're getting there. Once you get out of this. Right, once you get out of this creative flow state, what's going to happen is your body is going to be like, super high on a lot of dopamine because you just did it this like, crazy task, and you're going to need time to come down, like you're going to need time to like, get back to regular level levels. And the main thing to do when you do this is avoid continue avoiding your phone, continue avoiding technology. And this is where I have a really hard time because I'm a big, I'm really into what's called dopamine stacking, which is what I'm doing now. It's it's this makes me feel good and this makes me feel good. If I put them together, I'll feel great. And you just keep doing that. Right. And that's how we get to the point where we have our iPad in our lap, our phone in our hand, and the TV's going and it's all happening at once. And it's this overstimulation like monstrosity. And I'm such a big fan of it now. It's such a bad habit, but I do it all the time. What you have to do after you get through this creative thing, maybe, just maybe, continue that physical priming, like get ready for the next thing by taking a walk, right? Leave your phone or put your phone on music and don't check text while you walk. But just go walk for 20 30 minutes like I did this the other day. I was telling my buddy and he was like, that sounds miserable. But like I was just so burnt out on work. I had been working for like six hours straight and then like had lunch and then continued working. And I was just like getting like to that wall. And I just said, you know what? Like, put my phone down, put my laptop off of the side. And I just sat and I just like, just sat and I thought, I thought through work problems. And I thought about, you know, how beautiful it is outside. And I just, like, let my mind wander, right. And just gave it the space. And I felt so much better at the end of that 30 minutes that I was able to get back to work and actually get like some more stuff done, which normally I would have tried to push through and just have harder and harder time, really, just like fighting uphill against that, instead of just like letting the current take me for a little bit and then swimming again. And so it's like it's a swimming against the current. Let the current take you, and then maybe it takes you back where you're trying to go, you know? And so, it's very important that after. Right, you cool down. Maybe, maybe you take a shower, like after the gym, you take a shower, like I said earlier, like, I like to start my day by going to the gym, working out, weightlifting. And then I come home and I shower and I cook, and then I start my day. That would be like the why not period, right? The where like before bed. Like you brush your teeth and maybe you wash your face, or maybe you like. There was some water on the stove top, so that's badass. But yeah, maybe you to wash your face. Then you have a nighttime routine. You have a morning routine, right? That's the idea is you're going to want to have a pre creative process routine where you come down from the high of what you've just accomplished. Right. And it really helps you just kind of navigate like the idea is that like dopamine isn't like just like a thermometer that can go up. It's something that goes in like waves. And again, Andrew Huberman is a great person to explain. This, he explains, is like a way of but basically what happens is you keep adding input and stimulus into this wave form, right. The waves get higher, but so do the like troughs and the cutoffs. So the more you go up, the more you have to come down. And it's all regulation. So like again if you're coming out of a creative space and you don't take that time, it's going to be so much harder to come back. So that's the importance of doing all three steps. I did not make it before this timer went off. I'm gonna leave the chicken in for a little bit because it has bones in it, so I wanted to make sure it cooks all the way through, but 25 minutes is still a good metric for it. But I also want to cheat a little bit, like, I want to, I'm going to turn it off though, so it's still in there. It's still the same temperature, but it's not adding heat. It's just kind of like resting in the oven. So this pasta is going to be done in a minute. And. I just put my strainer over that raw chicken bowl. So we're not going to do that. I have my second strainer. Tiny one. So in conclusion right. Because I have actually roughly made it through this whole thing. Right. The the the initial part you are doing right is you've decided that you want to do creative act, right. You want to let me come up with a different example is writing a book is just so generic. You want to you want to start quilting, right? And. You're not. You're just starting to quilt and you've had fun doing it. But you're like, not an experienced quilt seamstress, right? But you know how to do it. And you want to get started, right? So you find you see this video on Instagram and you're like, oh, that seems cool and fun. And I'd like to try that. And you're like, but that's just like way out of my like level, like my my depth. Right. But then you see that like it has these other aspects and that you're watching the video of how to do it and then you're like, oh, if you need more about this, specific pattern or whatever it is that you're, you know, try to create, go to this video and I'll show you how to do this specific practice. So now you've realized that this is the practice you want to like. This is the stitch you want to practice before you start this bigger project. Right? Okay. Cool. So you get into the space, which is a good, good place to start because it gets into that. You know what your capability is, right? So you decide, okay, I want to quilt today. It's Sunday. Let's quilt right. And you, you go out last I lost a group. Just one. Because that gravy is such a disaster. I'm just going to make some catch it up in here. That's what's going to happen next. Although I don't have garlic, so. Yeah. All right, I'm gonna continue this. It's gonna be fun because we get. Let's try it. We. It smells a little better. I need something, I need something sweet. Needs a little sugar. I don't have any sugar within reach. That's a shame, you guys. In the way? So you're quilting. It's Sunday, so you decide. Okay, I gotta get everything out to start quilting. I'll get my, I need sugar as much as it needs. Stop cooking. No shame anymore. All right? I will be sleep. Sleep slinging basket to get some sugar. Now I'm adding tomato sauce to the to the mixture to hopefully thin out a little bit. First and foremost, it's pretty esthetic, but second of all, it's just burnt. I burnt the living crap out of the red peppers, my garlic. And so, yeah, it's just. It's not a good start. So you've got your setup set up, you've got your accouterment out, your, your your fabrics, your fillers, your I don't know what goes into quilting, right? You have it out and you have the overall goal of doing this new pattern or this new thing that someone showed you on Instagram, but you understand that you don't have your full capability. So what you do is you start with something small and you say, okay, I'm going to learn how to do this stitch pattern before I get into the bigger task of doing this whole project. Right. So then you start doing that and then you start getting better at it, and it starts getting boring. So then you start adding the next caveat, the next step, and then you go on and go on and go on until you finish the project. And then once you get to a stopping point, let's say because you're a beginner, you don't get all the way down with this in the first day, and you're not going to get done with it in the first month. It's going to take 3 to 6 months to get through this whole project, because you are just learning how to start right? So you go through that process and you come out knowing, okay, you get to the end of your first session. You've done more than you thought you would do. It's been 2 or 3 hours of you quilting and you feel amazing and you're like, well, I don't know. Hop on my phone to see if what else this girl has because I just nailed every single part of this. Like quilting. I made this quilting pattern my bitch right? Don't do that. You wind down, you take a step back, you say, this was great. Let me pack everything up. Let me break this down. Let me do something. That's not a great task. That's kind of like so that my dopamine can come back up. Right? Because I was just at a dopamine high, and now I'm just dropping, dropping, dropping, dropping, dropping, dropping. And my mind is going to want to try and get back up to that top, but I gotta let it come crashing back down. So it's about right riding that wave, going with the current. And so when you go into the process of packing up all your stuff, even though leaving out it would be so much better, and then you come back and you say, okay, now that I've cleaned everything up right, I put it away. Then it's like, oh shoot, now what? I want to start next time I have to do all this. Now, you don't just have to pull out the first thing and start that process over again. And that's going to help you start to like go after these more aggressive things. One of the things that also talked about was going over like when you're experiencing this, the, the endorphins at the end, right? And you're going through this like wind down phase. You're supposed to think about all the things you did that made you feel that way. Right? So like instead of your brain having to guess at what made you like release that dopamine, what made you feel good? You start giving it inputs, right? So you start saying like, oh, when I was cooking or when I was quilting and that pattern was getting a little bit easier, I started adding, you know, bevel that. I don't know anything about quilting, so forgive me. Forgive my arrogance. So you tell yourself, like, oh, what was really cool about that was when it was like this, I felt like this. Right? Little spoonful of sugar, not so smooth, just like I have some, we'll see if it needs more it. You start saying, like, when I was doing this stitch, it was really exciting, engaging, and that was really cool. And like, I can't wait to do that again. Or, you know, when I was doing this, it felt like that was a little trying. So that's when you can do that analysis of what worked, what didn't and do that task management easier next time because like, it's going to be a lot easier to do a specific stitch if you felt like you were good at it and you were learning a lot about it and like it was fun and engaging, right? But it's gonna be a lot harder to do, like motivate to do a stitch if it was difficult. So like that's part of the why nowadays while you're packing up. And it's important to do that and like that's going to really suck after this because I think if I have to clear up all this garbage and I hate cleaning up after cooking, but I always force myself to do it right away. And it sucks, because sometimes I eat all the food and I don't do it every time. My kitchen is often a mess. I'd rather have clean dishes when I'm done eating, and I'm fat and I'm happy than the other way around. So I guess it's a good point, but okay, we're gonna try a little bit of sauce. Surprisingly better. Let's see. I mean, it's missing maybe a little bit more sugar. It's on the acidic side for sure, but like, I added another like quarter teaspoon of sugar. It's just it's a process. Like anything. It's a process. Like you're gonna have your ups and downs, the ebbs and flows obviously. And like it's going to be hard. It's going to be like, my friend and I were talking about this, my friend just got his, license or just want it successfully. Got his board exam passed. And before he knew we were talking about the test and how he he was like, yeah, it's kind of crazy. Like for a project like that, like for a test like that, because it's like you get five hours to take the test. There's five parts. The sauce is good. I think the sauce is good. It actually tastes like tomato sauce. I'm going to add a little bit more about glaze to kind of like cut it a little bit. This a little bit on this side, this side. And then I also like balsamic glaze. Or just balsamic. This is balsamic. The person who showed it to me and said, it's like it's kind of a glaze because they reduce it so much. That's good. That's good. Somehow saved it. Okay. And I'm just gonna add it to the pasta. That's easier than, like, doing the dish. Yeah. Separately. So we're talking about how when you take a test like that, that's five hours long. It's so long. You have to, like, condition your body in your mind to be able to be, like, focused on a task for that long. And he was like, I took 4 or 5 practice exams and like, really, like locked in my mental fortitude to the point where it's like for the idea that, like, I'm going to be there for five, six, 7 hours or 5 hours, right? Or like 6 or 7, if you like, get there early. So yeah, we talked about how important it is to like, get your body accustom to that kind of situation. Right. So this is the same thing, right. So like you're getting your body ready to do this creative feat. You're going to have to condition your body. You're going to start by like doing it for 30 minutes and then 40 minutes and then 80 minutes. And then you're just going to keep going up. That's that. That's the idea is that it's not just going to happen once and you're too good. You're not going to just drop in and write a book. No, it's it's about starting where where you're at and then figuring out where you need to be, and then continually just changing that process until you get a pretty solid, creative process. And I think I like to think of it as like a creative ritual. I'm not good at this, right? I'm not good at creating a creative ritual or like a, a process in which I need to get engaged. And so that's why I looked at this information and kind of created this episode. So this is what I'm going to start doing. It's figuring out like how I can create space physically, mentally, emotionally, whatever to create, then analyze what I need to do to start and just start creating, like create that ritual of just like, this is what I need to do to start. This is what I do when I need to maintain, and then this is how I recover from such a wonderful situation. That being said, I have my pasta all together and then I'm going to cut up some chicken, throw that in here and then I'll be good to go. Unfortunately, my camera battery light just came on, so that means that this is about to die. So I'm gonna send this out from here. Thank you for watching. Listening. This has been a chaotic, hectic episode. The beauty of this episode is it's everything you shouldn't do when trying to do something creative. That's essentially what this was. You know, someone once told me, you know, life's full of people who show you what to do. People you should model your life after, and people you should model your life in spite of, you know, like you should do the opposite of what they do. That's what the scenario is. Don't do this when you're trying to be creative. But again, follow the rules. This is something that I'm trying to do in my own life where I'm trying to create a ritual, create the space, then start the process small and then work my way up engaging that dopamine reward system. And then at the end come down. That's the big that's the one of the biggest things for me is coming back, right? Instead of just like stacking, stacking, stacking the things that feel good hormones, we want to just. Let's do a debrief. What did I just do? What was I good at? What was I good at? What needs work? What needs less work. You know, stuff like that. And then get it all cleaned up and together and then go forward. So as I told you, I'm going to start cleaning this kitchen, and I just destroyed, and I also get to, you know, pack up this camera because I want this that, you know, that is also a creative process. And camera gear just lays around in my apartment all the time. So it's Sunday Funday clean up reset day, and I decided to add six different elements to it. So, I'll be here cleaning up. Thank you for watching. Make sure to like and subscribe. I will see you for the next one. Where I talk about something that just spur of the moment comes to me at an unknowing day because I'm still having a time, you know, I'm still figuring it out. I'm just going off what I need. So thank you for joining and hope you come back. If you find any value in this all, please just let me know, because I don't know how valuable this is for anyone. I'm literally just cooking and it's a disaster. So.