One thing that can set creatives apart is their ability to focus. The developer or designer who can focus with full energy on one task at a time will be able to get through difficult problems faster and more effectively than their unfocused colleagues. On this episode, we talk about how to find focus and avoid distractions to help you get things done.
Questions? Email us
Tweet us @lovelettersco or @mistertrost
For more episodes + show notes, visit
Resources:
Pomodoro method https://francescocirillo.com/pages/pomodoro-technique
Gretchen Rubin "Power hour" https://gretchenrubin.com/
Cold Turkey https://getcoldturkey.com/
Forest app https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/forest-stay-focused/id866450515?mt=8
Insight timerhttps://twitter.com/InsightTimer
River with leaves https://www.google.com/search?q=river+with+leaves
One thing that can set creatives apart is their ability to focus. The developer or designer who can focus with full energy on one task at a time will be able to get through difficult problems faster and more effectively than their unfocused colleagues. On this episode, we talk about how to find focus and avoid distractions to help you get things done.
Questions? Email us
Tweet us @lovelettersco or @mistertrost
For more episodes + show notes, visit
Resources:
Pomodoro method https://francescocirillo.com/pages/pomodoro-technique
Gretchen Rubin "Power hour" https://gretchenrubin.com/
Cold Turkey https://getcoldturkey.com/
Forest app https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/forest-stay-focused/id866450515?mt=8
Insight timerhttps://twitter.com/InsightTimer
River with leaves https://www.google.com/search?q=river+with+leaves
The overlap is a show about the intersection of design and front end development. I'm Alex, I'm a front end developer or designer on the show. We share our experience with each other about designing coding. We don't know everything, but we share what we do know and laugh about what we don't today on the pod. So today we're going to talk about focus. Yeah. So today we really want to dive into, let's try that again. Okay. All right. So today we're going to talk about focus. Yeah. Okay. All right. All right. All right. So today on the podcast we're going to be talking about focus. Yeah. We're going to talk about how hard it is sometimes to minimize distractions, um, to deal with distractions the right way and to carve time out in your day to really get, get things done and do a lot of, uh, thinking. Honestly, focus can be one of the toughest things to do. Um, you've got all kinds of notifications. You've got your smart phone blowing up, you've got a coworkers, you just want to, you know, Kinda chat and talk. And even if they mean well and they're bringing you, um, important things for the company or whatever, it's still taking your attention away. So we kind of work and live in a very non focused as a culture, but it's more important than ever to be able to, uh, learn how to focus and can keep your focus on one task for an extended period of time. Multitasking is a myth. I've never believed in multitasking. Anyone who told me that they're good at multitasking, I've called a liar to their face. It's just not a thing. If you're, if you're, you have a limited amount of attention, you have a limited amount of brain power, and when you're applying that limited amount of brainpower to many things, each thing is only getting a little bit of attention. But when you take all of your brain power and put it on one thing, it means you're doing that one thing really, really well, presumably. Yeah, no. And, and studies certainly backed that up, like multitasking for, um, you know, anything that needs a decent amount of thought is total nonsense. You can't do, um, like, like even listening to music, like, like the more involved the music as I worked with lyrics and this and that. Um, and trying to do something like coding or reading or doing anything that like requires, um, you know, mental exertion, it's, you're going to be worse at it even if you think that you're better for some reason. So one of the things that I do when I need to focus as I listened to music that I can tune out, like no, totally. Like it's familiar. It doesn't stand out to me. I have a really good playlist called dentists rock. It's really just like in offensive nice music. Oh, because it's like something that's played at the dentist. Yeah, that's exactly
Speaker 2:right. Yeah. Because I don't think of like dentists as calming, but okay, you keep going, but they play the music that is calming like that. You just sort of tune out, you know, like you're never thinking like, oh, I love this song. Or like I know all the words to this. It's just like nice background music that you just tune out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess there's not like a lot of like jumbo lumbar or anything like that at the dentist. So it's all like Michael Bolton and like, you know, so you're listening to that while working. See what would I do? I either get um, some like really like kind of like almost hypnotic kind of um, repetition based music. Like uh, the calm app hasn't music that's just like, it's just like Dun, Dun, Dun Dun Duh Duh Dun Dun and just, it's like, it's like hi, hi beats per minute and she was like designed to help you focus and it just like super repetitious so it doesn't like take your, your attention away from what you're doing. Interesting. And it's good for drowning out. Like anything that's around you. I either do that or I have like a select few songs that I just put on single song and repeat. So I'll listen to like a James Blake retrograde on repeat like a hundred times while I'm working on something and it just completely tune it out. I can say like song changing, like all listen to one song and just bury that song. And it, it helps for some reason, but, um,
Speaker 2:yeah, it's really hard to find these places a focus. Our culture is very much at, there's lots of things grabbing at your attention. There's your phone ringing, there's people, there's, you know, it's very easy to get lost and not realize that you're not paying attention to what you really need to be focusing on.
Speaker 1:Right. Yeah. No, it's, um, and it's, it's completely accepted too. Like we aren't bored anymore. Like we are never ever bored. If you have to wait for anything, what do you do? There's something to do. Yeah. You pull your phone out, right? Like you just instantly go and you check something. You right now have something to check. It can be Twitter, it can be Instagram, it could be Facebook, it could be whatever your social media is. You have something to check or scroll through or read up on.
Speaker 2:Take a look at Linkedin, see what's, see what's happening in your professional now.
Speaker 1:Now that you have 80 new recruiters trying to get you to do something. I don't know, but there's, yeah, like, like if you get so bored as you're going to Linkedin, you know, you've like scraped the bottom of the barrel of your social media. Unless you're looking for a job, then that might be one of your first ones. Um, no seriously a lake. Like when I was other hunting for a job, that would be one of my top ones, but now that I'm employed it's like, oh yeah, that's a thing. Um, he's just for recruiters and people who want jobs. Yeah. Anyway, we are losing focus. Ironically, we are not, no, we're talking about how hard it is to find focus on things. That's true. I was just diving, I, I think we took a link linkedin tangent there and started to criticize the platform Linkedin, the number one place to find top quality employees. Yeah. And this is a podcast about why LinkedIn's overrated.
Speaker 2:Stop it. I, that's how I got my job to be honest with you.
Speaker 1:I got my job through angel.co Angel Angel List. It's like a startup. But anyway. Yeah, it worked pretty good. Linkedin was fine. Anyway, we are, we are, we are truly not focused right now.
Speaker 2:I was just about to say to pivot us back and to show content. The thing that I find is getting back into something once you've been distracted. I find that's where I see like that's where I hit waste to the most amount of time. So I was working on a small coding project at work and whenever I had to answer an email or answer the phone or like quickly get a task out of the way, like upload a pdf to our project management software, getting back into that code took 10 to 15 minutes just to be like, okay, where did I leave off? Yeah, no that's context switching. It's hard. That's the hardest thing. So I find that if I can carve out dedicated time to something that where that's what I'm doing. I'm not answering emails during that time. I'm not answering the telephone. I'm not checking my project management software. Right. Well I don't slack at work. No.
Speaker 1:My work has a slack and I also have like other slight groups for like tech things. Um, and yeah, they can be just as bad as Twitter and, and all the rest for me,
Speaker 2:much for me to keep up on. Like I just get so lost in it unless I have a specific question. Like when I'm working through a specific problem and I'm talking to the Philly design slack, I'm like, I have this problem that I'm having. Right. What do you guys think? Great. Then yes, then it's great. But like otherwise I don't, I can't, I can't go back and forth between slack and working. Like I would never get anything done if I had slack. Yeah. Open
Speaker 1:all day. No, and that's exactly right. Like, um, what I do lately, uh, to keep myself focused is um, I really like the, the Ios do not do not disturb features that they have heavy into that. Yeah. So like I liked the way it works now in, um, Ios 12 I think it is. And you use it on the computer. Just like, like I go and check when I'm not doing a thing or like in, in between tasks or when it's time to go see if someone needs me for something, but I'm not accessible at all times at all minutes of the day. If I'm like working on a task, I'm, I am not the, I don't even know when the email comes into. I don't know when the slap comes in until I go in and look at it. And that works so much better because like you said, context switching it, it totally destroys your momentum on a task. You, it's kind of like multitasking and that it done well actually it's kind of the opposite of multitasking. Oh No, no, it, it, it is multitasking pretty much when you're switching between contexts. Um, it feels like you can do it, but, um, I've had, I've heard it described as kind of like a train that's chugging along and then it needs to come to a complete halt and then change tracks and then rev up again. And each time you switch contexts, it's like that same sort of thing. If you go from uh, like working on a coding project or working on a design project or whatever to answering an email, your momentum on that project and all the context that you have and all of the thoughts you have about what the solution to the problem might be, they just kind of stop and then it's, it's not just a as easy as tabbing over in your brain.
Speaker 2:Right, right. I find that on particularly bad days, I know I've had a particularly bad day when I have a lot of windows open on my machine. I try very hard to at work if I'm working on something that's the only app I have open, I've, other than email, like I, I never closed my email because that's the expectation at my workplace. But um, yeah, when I'm working on something, if I'm an InDesign, I'm in InDesign, right? If, if I'm in a visual studio code, I'm in visual studio code. That's what I'm doing. And I find that there are days when it gets to be four 50. And I'm looking at my screen and I'm like, oh my God, literally every application on my computer is open right now. What, what, what, what was I doing with this? Right. I
Speaker 1:think that's a great tip. Um, like I, I try to make it so that I'm like, if I'm working on a website, um, I could be doing, you know, something in Photoshop or uh, or an illustrator or in Adobe XD or sketch. Um, I could be working with the Javascript, I could be working with html, it could be working with CSS. Um, and I find that focusing on one aspect of it that at a time makes it, um, it just goes so much better. Like if, if I'm building out of sight, I try to do the html structure first and I try really hard not to worry about what that looks like. And I try to be very accepting of the default, like chrome buttons and just leave it for now. And yet it's times new Roman, but just leave it cause you're going to style it later. Right. And then, and then once I have like the structure than I, I, I like to go to javascript. Like, like once I have the structure, not as I'm going, but like the first task for me is generally html and then I try to go over and build out some functionality and I'm just working in javascript and I'm just like, like my brain is just there. And making this fun course. You think that that helps
Speaker 2:you, like without the styling. Does, do you think that makes you help you, makes you focus more on the structure and the experience of it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it, it, um, like I, I've just seen myself get caught up in the styles as a project that is like developing and, and I ended up changing everything with the CSS, like at, at the end anyway, and doing it like, like putting this CSS off until the project is like up in and working and it's, and it's, you know, it's got all the parts that it needs and then worrying about the styling, I feel like it goes so much faster rather than toggling between the three. Um, and yeah, if I start with html and then I started styling it immediately and then add some Java script and then I go, oh, that should have an animation when it's clicked. And then I, it's too much back and forth. I like focusing on one thing at a time, not caring about how it looks for awhile and that's tough for me. Um, but then eventually going into it and then making it, it styling it once it's built out. Cause if, if I style it as I go, I have to just go back and fix it because it's changed, the structure change, the implementation has changed. Um, the, the functionality is different. Interesting. So you would put function over form? Yeah, yeah. I mean to, to, uh, as, as far as the order of things as I'm building an out, that's, that's definitely the, the way that I have found it. Um, being a bit easier and, and being a faster like initial development. I mean, I guess, I mean like, even if I'm, I'm handed a design trying to get that general structure first. And especially if it's like a single page app where like it needs to have a lot of functionality. Yeah. I tried to go javascript before CSS. Interesting. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I guess that's the same way that I would structure a print project. Like I wouldn't style everything, right. First I would sort of build out the framework pace. Yeah. The framework or the pace of it and know that I need certain styles. Like I need a hat heading one, I need a subtitle, I need a quote style. Right. Knowing that I need those things, but making it all fit into the page first before deciding what it's like the aesthetics of it.
Speaker 1:Right. And that's pretty much what like html is and, and, and has, right. Like it's, it's got, um, well, I mean, except for the layout, like, like where things go. Um, that's definitely CSS, you know, like you can't really just do that with just html. Um, but just using the default h one and then those sorts of things. Just worrying about the buttons and just keeping it as like a straight down to start and then, and then working off your thumbnail or your design that you're handed, um, with CSS later. Has It, it's, I, I've been faster that way. I'm, I'm not saying that's the best way to do it, but I've been faster in creating apps doing it in that order. Gotcha. Okay. That makes sense to me. It's almost like a, like a dummy. You're making an html and Java script, like paper dummy. Right. And just making sure it works. Before I put pretty styles on nothing that I can't get to work. It, it, it's kind of a waste of time if it's like, oh, it turns out like I can't make this app, you know, it kind of, I don't have that skill set or it's just not feasible. Um, it looks really nice and I spent a full day styling it, but this thing doesn't run. So what's the point? Right. Or like the user flow is weird or something. Right. Yeah. That's interesting. So put it like planning out a project and like knowing which things to do in order and focusing on different parts at different times is a skill in and of itself. Yeah, no and I think, um, like we've talked about before how you, you, you might have a big task, right? Like, like build the APP is a little too huge. Um, and breaking that down into individual actionable tasks and um, planning those and scheduling those in your day helps you to focus when, when your thing is just build the app, you kind of just hop all over the place and you might work on the logo and then you might go and work on the way that the button clicks and the way, you know, like the animations and you just kind of toggle back and forth. But if you have steps for the APP and you understand like, all right, today I just want to work on the logo and then you spend the next half hour just working on the logo, not going on the animation and not doing anything else, but just focusing on that logo to get that done. You, you'll make a lot more headway on the logo, then you would have done on all the five or 10 different things that you, you would have hopped back and forth between during that half hour. Right. That makes a lot of sense. It's tough to it. The, it makes it easier to know where to start. Right? Because that's, that's the toughest thing. Like build this APP. Right. Okay. But it's, it's also like a motivation thing, right? Um, like if, if you've worked on the logo and finish, you know, finish the logo for the APP, it can still feel really daunting and oh go God. I said like I have as a logo, I don't have an APP. But if you, if you knew that there was 20 steps to this app and you've finished one, that that feels pretty good. And it's like motivating to see that bit by bit progress when you have like mini tasks within the giant project. Yeah, I totally agree. And, and that, that helps you plan your focus. And like I know who everyone knows or I apologize if don't know, but there's a very, very, very popular and very like w a y the preached about a way of working called the pomodoro technique. Okay. I know this one. Yeah. Um, and basically if you don't know, bless Ya, cause I didn't mean to spit in your face before, but uh, basically it's you, you work for um, set increments and then take short breaks and um, usually it's like 30 minutes on, five minutes off, and then after a few rounds of that you take a longer break and you kind of track your day in Pomodoros. So like that's the, that's the 30 minute like sprint, right? It's, it's, you call that one pomodoro and so you kind of, it's, it's, it's great because it's not just about working for 30 minutes, but it's kind of a, a unit of time or a unit of effort that you can then use to assess things. And can you give yourself feedback? So you might say like, right, you making this logo that's going to take me I guess like two pomodoros it's just a, you know, it's a, it's a simple one. I'm, I'm uh, assuming, no, I'm, I'm, I'm predicting there we go. That this is going to be about two pomodoros let's see. Oh, actually that took me three. Pomodoros cool. So now I kind of know for next time logos take me three pomodoros right. Um, and then, so you're, you're, you're able to give people genuine, uh, timetables for when things might get done and you kinda like know yourself a little bit better rather than just having this in a morphous blob of time where I was like, I don't know, might take me a couple of days or whenever you have a much more like solid unit and you, um, you're able to kind of see your day and your tasks with that unit. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, the thing that I like about this is it batches your distractions too. So you are scheduling time to work and like all you're doing is working during that time you're focused on one thing and then your five minute break, that's when you check your email. That's when you check your text messages. So there's less temptation to look at your phone when check out Linkedin, uh, during your work time because you know, at the end of this period, at the end of this Pomodoro, I know that I can check it at that time. So I'm going to, I'm going to schedule that and focus on what on the task at hand. That's what I, that's what I really liked about it. Like batching your distractions as well. And that sort of goes back to like batching your tasks. So you're treating your distractions the same way you treat your ear tasks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And, and, and I think it's important because, um, breaks are necessary. Like we can't just work constantly, right? Like, like the, uh, the goal of eight hours of solid work. It's completely ridiculous, right? You don't actually work an eight hour a day with the, with constant hundred percent focus. You, you know, might work a couple hours in there where you're like purely focused and to feel like you can't take a break at any time during those eight hours. It's not real. It's completely unrealistic. Totally. And, and you, you, you're going to perform better if you gave yourself a little bit of a break. Um, just, just those little like brain breaks, they absolutely help and to help get you refresh
Speaker 2:to think about it. Um, so you can run the whole day at 70% or you can run most of the day at 100%. I really do believe that you're going to get a lot more done. You're going to have better quality work if you operate most of the day at 100% instead of a very long day at 70%. Does that make sense? Like taking those breaks, like taking, taking a break, uh, working with outbreaks really diminishes your brain capacity to do things. So when you recharge and you recover and go back to focus, I think you're more likely to get quality work done.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Yeah. And, and high feel guilty when I'm taking a non-planned break, right? Like, if, if, if I'm not planning my, my work time and my break time, then I don't have break time and it's just all work time. And then if I'm looking at anything that isn't work, I am not doing the right thing and it feels a little bit guilty. And so I, I really like this kind of trade off of, you know, I work for 25 or 30 minutes and then I get the five minutes break and then after about four sessions. So if you do like four Pomodoros, then you get a 15 minute break. So it's a nice long break that by that time after working for two hours, um, with intense focus a, you definitely need it. You, uh, it's if, if, if you haven't done something like this before, you're gonna think that you can just kind of go in and do like six hours worth of Pomodoros in a day. And I promise you, you can, your, your, your focus muscles are probably not that developed. Um, and, and even once you've done this for awhile, uh, doing like 12 pomodoros a day is tough. It's, it's this really hard. Um, yeah, it's mentally draining. Yeah, no, like, like it's, it's, it's like sprinting exactly. Like, like the metaphor you put, it's, it's doing a sprint and getting a lot done in a short amount of time. Um, but like, like one thing with the Pomodoro is, is really focusing on that one task and not jumping back and forth between seven tasks. Like if you've got a bunch of little tasks, like sending an email and scheduling a thing or doing this and do it like those small, like two minute, five minute, those aren't good commodore oh tasks. It's much better for like a big project that you're working on or you have to style out a flyer or do you have to code up a certain page or whatever, something that's going to take you around a half hour or more. Those are good tasks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would, I would argue that your administrative things, if you know, you need to send three emails scheduled two things and uh, make a telephone call and look at Facebook, you can batch those into one pomodoro. Like this is my 20 minutes of doing administrative things. I can see that I do it all together. Gather, it's not, it's not the original intention of Pomodoro, but um, if you like if you like if you use one pomodoro as like a way to tackle tiny tasks like the, the power hour, I think that Gretchen Ruben talks about like, okay, you have this list of 10 little things to do, take an hour and just get it done. Okay. Now I I yeah, I haven't really heard too much about the power hour but it's, but it's the same idea, just batching batching tasks, you know, so that way you're not scheduling an email and then jumping back into code. Like cause writing an email or scheduling a meeting that doesn't take a whole lot of attention. You know, you can just, that's like a three minute thing
Speaker 1:and that's like a low mental thing that you can actually probably multitask with. Like, like, like to double back on multitask. Like there are things you can multitask. Like I can listen to a podcast at the gym and do both pretty well. Um, just because they're kind of like both in a different domain, right? Like, like physical, mental, like, and one doesn't need as much like mental, um, focus as the other. Um,
Speaker 2:there are places where you can multitask because the tasks are disconnected mentally and physically
Speaker 1:and I, and, and because like it's a, um, it's a low mental task just to reply to an email that might be pretty basic, just like, yeah, five o'clock sounds great. Yeah. I like that sort of thing. Doesn't need your undivided attention. Yeah. Um, one thing though that is, it's definitely tough to do pomodoro after a while, especially if the task is really kind of grueling and after like your third Pomodoro, you might be just kind of reaching for anything to get you away from that task at hand. Um, or like any kind of ding or any kind of coworker comes to you, you kind of, we'll see yourself wanting to respond to that and, and, and break the focus because it's tiring. Um, distractions can be tough. Uh, we talked about the do not disturb stuff. I really like this APP. I don't know if it's for windows also. It might be also for windows. Um, but it's a Mac app called cold Turkey cold Turkey. And basically what it does is it you, you put in sites that you like to go to Reddit, Facebook, whatever, and it will block your, you know, all this stuff that you shouldn't be working on right now and it's just kind of holds you accountable and you don't know how many times when I'm working on something, uh, you know, just stressful for the sake of it being tough. Or I'm currently challenged by a certain problem and I'd just rather be anywhere else. Um, how many times my fingers have just opened a new tab and started to type in Facebook or type in Reddit or Twitter without me even thinking about it. Just cause it's like my body trying to get me out of this stressful situation and gave me like a stress reducing thing. Um, and it's beautiful because cold Turkey just pops up and says, I'm like a motivational quote, like a Wayne Gretzky quote or something like that. And uh, and it just, I've, I've locked my computer down during work hours so that reddit and Facebook and all those sites that I go to that it just like endless scrolling time wasters, um, do not, I can't get to them and I would have to like go through a lot of crazy means just to get rid of cold Turkey during a block. So it's, it's been fantastic. Oh, and out for windows. So if you're on windows, there you go. Uh, but cold Turkey, really great. Um, that's really interesting. You can block apps, you can block all kinds of stuff. It's no, I wish some with the phone. I try. Yeah, I try to. Well, because Ios is very like locked down and they don't want one app like stopping function. You don't use safari. Right. Um, so with the phone, I just like, I turned it upside down. I put it in the corner of my desk, I turn the do not disturb on and I, you know, like I tried to shut that thing down as much as possible. There is an app that's kind of similar to cold Turkey, but it's, but it's not as like hardcore in the sense that you actually can close it. Um, it's, it's something about seeds or plants. Um, do you know what I'm talking about? Oh, I think it's called forest. Yeah. Forest Garden or whatever when you're not young. Your phone. Exactly. So it says, uh, stopped phubbing, which is apparently like a term for looking at your phone. Just went whenever like, you know, he'd just check your phone and check your phone, check your phone and then that's called phubbing. And forest is like, just trying to help you stop doing that. So, um, every 30 minutes they, that you don't touch your phone and you have like forest activated, um, you grow a tree and if you touch your phone or close out of forest within those 32nd, or is it, sorry, 30 minutes, um, the tree just dies. So you're kind of life. Yeah. So the trees growing, you know, it's like 28 minutes left. And if you talk a little way, you just have like this dead tree in your garden, um, on the, on the thing. And it's, it's, it's a clever way of, you know, locking yourself into kind of a pomodoro type thing where for those 30 minutes you can't touch your phone. That's interesting. But, but it's, it's, it's, it's more of the guilt system where it cold Turkey just like, nope, you cannot do
Speaker 2:sorry buddy. Yeah. Past you, a future, you would try to do this, right. Yeah. And um,
Speaker 1:and the cool thing, the cool thing about cold Turkey is also works for, um, like APP. So if, I don't know if you like play games or if you want to allow block slack or whatever app, um, that, that might get your attention. You can also put that in there. So it does like websites and apps. Oh, cool. Yeah. But, um, so yeah, I use cold Turkey. Um, I do the do not disturb. I have really nice headphones too. Um, because I work in like an open office environment and those can be tough with trained to focus toto and also having people around you just having fun talking, shooting, you know,
Speaker 2:not like convincing what I mean, even if they're just talking about work, it can be distracting. Oh yeah, absolutely. You, yeah, we have, um, in our office, it's like this unspoken rule that you don't use a ear buds see you use over the ear headphones and it's a signal to others. It's like an unspoken cultural thing at our company that when someone has headphones on, they're, they're focusing on something. We tried to institute a little table tents that say, focus mode, please don't disturb. That's cool. And, uh, I think that there was some pushback for that because it seemed rude, but I kind of like that, like if someone had that at their desk and they didn't want me to bother them, like it would make the interaction better if I approached them at a time when they weren't in focus. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Yeah. I worry that I'm disruptive. Yeah. Yeah. I talked to my coworker, I worry that I'm like, oh, they probably just disrupted them and yeah, I would rather know like, hey, now's not a good time. Um, so we, we get that focuses great. Um, there's some tips for like how to stay focused during work, but you can also improve your focus. I'm kind of all the time, like it's a sort of a focus as kind of like a muscle and you can kind of work it out, um, in, in a lot of different ways. Like one big way is just kind of a not reaching for your phone every time you have a minute of downtime. I'm just building up the, uh, the, the sense of you not needing to escape from a little bit of boredom or a little bit of discomfort, um, is going to go a long way. When you're focusing on a tough task and it's not comfortable to be struggling with something and you want to run away to your favorite social media site. Um, if, if you're more comfortable with that discomfort, you're going to do a little bit better, uh, focusing on that task and getting it done quicker. Um, so just trying not to like, you know, it's gonna sound like parenting advice but maybe not have phones at the table so that when you're eating you're not also looking at, um, Facebook or when you're watching a show, you're not also playing video games or not also on social media lately, doing a few things at a time. Uh, make sure brain kind of better at handling a lots of stimulation and then you kind of need it like, like, like if, if you're bored to the point that you need to also look at social media while watching a show, like if, if that's your threshold, that should be kind of a signal to you that you need to lower your, your tolerance for entertainment and friend for like mental stimulation to just like one thing at a time
Speaker 2:or you need to watch different shows. But yeah, obviously not that into this show. They are half stretching. Yeah, kind of a, it's kind of a half. Yeah,
Speaker 1:it's not a fully engaging show. It's really a great,
Speaker 2:um, and then you're just wasting time. Like, then why are you even watching this program? Like having the wherewithal to pause and say like, Oh, I'm really only half watching this episode of Vampire Diaries. Right. Yeah. So as an example, three samples, someone does watch that program. I had the Aden someone might not be. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So in another great way to kind of practice your year focus and kind of like hone that focus muscle is uh, actually meditation. Um, it's kind of a big thing right now. Like a lot of people are promoting meditation and I guess the Pomodoro technique like this are two kind of hot things right now. Um, but you might kind of be weary about meditation or kind of thing, I guess. Not really for me. Um, and I totally get that. Um, I am not at all like a spiritual person or a new age kind of like, you know, chakras healing kind of person at all. And for awhile I thought that's what meditation was and I kind of avoided it just because I didn't really buy into that stuff. And um, well there is that element to some meditation. Like, like some does get into that. Um, generally meditation is kind of best there. It's better termed as just mindfulness. And that's just being aware of yourself. Like, like are you in control of your mind? And if you're not, that's okay. Just kind of, it's, it's, it's training metacognition. Like what are you thinking about right now? And, Huh, that's interesting. I'm thinking about, you know, watching that TV show or I'm thinking, uh, I'm, I'm planning for the rest of my day or I'm doing whatever, let's get back, let's come back and focus here. Like, just catching yourself as you think about other things or as your mind drifts away and recognizing again. Yeah, exactly. And that's just what meditation is. It's, it's, it's just practice trying to focus on one thing. Like in my meditation practice, it's just like, it's 10 minutes every morning and I just try to on my breath
Speaker 2:and it's hard. Um, and it's as hard, 10 minutes sounds like nothing but 10 minutes alone with your own brain. Yeah. It feels like an eternity. Yeah, it really does.
Speaker 1:Um, so let like start with one minute, like you're likely don't, um, you know, like the importance is just a to do it and to be consistent with it because there's just, it's just training. Like it's just like exercise better to go for a walk around the block than it is to do nothing, you know, like, like short. It's not as good at as going for a 10 K, but it's better than nothing and it's a start. I should start that momentum of being mindful and trying to train yourself a little bit turned to, to get, can get your brain not to just be jumping all around the place all the time.
Speaker 2:Other things that I read was, um, I listened to a lot of guided meditations. I use an APP called insight timer. Rice. Yeah. Is that the one with the bowl for the icon? Yeah, I've used that. I love that one. I really love it. Um, for it, there's some guided meditations. There's a lot of metta meditations on there that I've, I've, I've really, really, I love, what do you mean by metta meditation? Uh, Metta is, it's a kind of meditation where you, um, you like wish for good things for you and then you extend your compassion and loving kindness outward. Yeah, I've done stuff like that. Yeah, I really liked that one. It really helps me feel better and I like to listen to it in the car because it makes me focus on driving. Oh, interesting. Um, it's Elec obviously I'm not closing my eyes already in Philadelphia. Uh, just be aware local woman meditates in car kill 10 or whatever. So no, I believe that it was a peaceful murder. Oh, I was in a shit. Um, but it does help me not feel anxious in the car because then I'm just, I'm just focused on driving. Nice. Um, so I am a very anxious driver too, generally. But, um, so I listened to, um, insight timer and it's, it's hard. And one of the things that, uh, I learned on there is to imagine your thoughts are like leaves on a, on a river right at you. If you have a thought, it comes and it, it can leave just as quickly as I came. Right. And you're just, you're just watching it like leaves floating down a river. And that, that imagery I think is really helpful for me. I don't know if if people have access to rivers or leaves, but sure. Come on out. Cut up on the Google Bot and, got it. You got to simplify this for the audience here. Uh, but it's just, it's a very relaxing thing for me. Um, I, my husband and I go on a lot of hikes and to just sit quietly by a creek or a river, watch
Speaker 1:the water flow by, when you think about your thoughts in that way, I think that's a really, so it separates you like you are not your thoughts, but you just sitting, watching them come and go. I think that's, that's one of the things that makes meditation a little bit easier. Like that disconnect. Yeah. Yeah. I've, I've heard that same sort of thing and described by headspace, that APP as just watching clouds passing by. And so it's that same sort of thing of just like, you don't need to grab on to anything like, um, and you don't need to push anything away either. You let them come and you let them go. Yeah. You're just observing and just bringing yourself back and going, Oh yeah, I'm, I'm still here. I'm still sitting on this couch. I'm still just here in this moment. Rather than getting caught and going into the stream and going down stream with that leaf, I'm examining this. Yeah. I'm examining this cloud from every angle. Right? Yeah. So just kind of observing and then coming back, it's, it's that repetition of coming back. It's just like seeing that thought, okay, that was a thought I'm having. I'm, I'm planning or I'm doubting or I'm nervous, or okay, whatever it is, I can got to label it and I come back to what I'm doing and I'm just focusing on the breath. And it's the same thing because, um, it trains you for like when you're working on that logo, you're working on the logo, you're working on the logo. Oh No, I have that, that, that meeting later. And I'm nervous about that and I'm nervous about that. That's cool. I will work on that later. Right now I'm working on the logo. Like I'm, I'm, I'm coming back to the thing that I'm doing right now. I'm not getting pulled away by everything that's going to pop up. Do you find that the meditation practice in the morning helps you in your day to day work? Um, I, yeah, I mean like, like I can't see like, oh, you know, that was the thing that I did meditation this morning, but it's just that, um, it's that practice of catching myself and yeah, I will catch myself like wanting to lean over and say a dumb joke to my coworker. Um, or wanting to slack my coworker a dumb joke or wanting to text my wife a dumb dumb jokes in my life. Yeah. I'm sorry about that. I'm just watching it go by. That's just pretty much my life. Um, yeah, so I, I, you know, it, it's just practice. Um, and the, the, the more you do it, the more you'll find that you can focus on something. Um, I didn't meditate for a bunch of months, uh, this past year and I just, I felt so different, like in my day to day, I just could not stay focused on anything and picking it up again. Like I, I do find that my focus is a lot stronger. And I was honestly a frustrated in my lack of focus and just my, my, my inability to like, I would try and then I would just, anything came up, I would just jump to that other thing. So meditation is Great. If you haven't tried it, just, just sit for two minutes, just focusing on your breath, just the in and out and premium comes up. I'm just kind of notice it and then try to come back to the breath and don't get upset with yourself. Your mind will move and think about other things. That's the nature of it. It's just about noticing that and coming back that's going to help you the next time you're working on a project. Um, and another way is just to kind of, um, don't try to overpower your focus, like thinking that, you know, um, I'm just gonna not look at Facebook and I'm not going to pick, pick up my phone. I'm trying to like, like will myself through. It is going to fail. Like if you're, if you're over confident, like I can just stop. Um, you're gonna kind of set yourself up for failure. Um, that's why that's something like cold Turkey is really great because it like, it cuts it off entirely and you can't lose. Um, and they put your phone out of sight, out of mind. But like, if, if, if your phone is the big thing that kind of gets you throughout the day, put it in your bag, uh, while you're doing your pomodoro. Um, like, just try to set yourself up for success. Don't try to rely on sheer willpower. It's, it's not gonna turn out as great to succeed by like giving yourself the environment that you need to focus physically. Yeah, yeah. Right. And then during those breaks and then, and check your phone during those breaks. So like, like you, you, you've earned it. Take that break and use it. Like, my time to check social media is during my lunch break and I do that[inaudible] without guilt, without any shame. That's my time I've earned it. I'm that I don't do it in until then. So it's, it's great. It's nice. Yeah. So those are some ways that I've, um, been able to get myself more focus in the past couple of months. Um, so working pretty well. If you have any kind of ideas or any tips or any feedback about any of these things that you've tried or any, uh, any new things that we might want to know about, please hit us up on Twitter. I am at Mr Troast and I am at love letters cow and we would love to hear like what you thought or, um, just, you know, we, we want to get better at focus too, so hopefully by sharing we get better ourselves. So thank you so much for listening. And for more episodes and show notes, please check out our website overlap podcast.com a big thanks. A also on free music archive for the music in our intro, outro, all that good stuff. We'll have the song subscribe where you get your podcasts. Maybe it's Spotify, maybe it's apple, maybe it's or, I don't know. Just smash that subscribe button and just smash it. Smash it, smash that. The trade button.