working with your distracted brain

270. if you're anything like me, your brain may be a bit distracted lately (or always), but that's no reason to give up on ourselves or call ourselves broken. we just have to find a way to work with our brains. 

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Transcript

Beach Setup And Trip Context

Library Pivot And Work Routine

Rethinking Distraction As Identity

Practical Focus Tools That Work

Compassion, Options, And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey friend, I'm recording this on my last evening at the beach on my solo work trip. It is not raining, which is crazy, for here in Portland at the ocean. Um, it is getting near sunset, so there's a nice pink tinge to the sky, lots of mist. Oh, it is so beautiful. The tide is way out. Um, it's so beautiful. So I just wanted to talk about something that I think is really, really important. And um so if you remember from a previous episode, I talked about how I did not have very good Wi-Fi at all. If you can even call it Wi-Fi, it seems to be more like non-existent in the house that I'm renting. So my workaround was to go to the beautiful library in Manzanita. It is just this beautiful community hub, so much activity going on, so much joy and connection and learning and curiosity. And it just was the perfect place for me to be over the past couple days. And so I spent uh six hours, um, basically from when they open till when they close. Um, they have a break in between for lunch. Um, but I spent, you know, whatever it was, six or seven hours the past couple days doing work there. And while I was working, my brain would get distracted very, very frequently, especially at the beginning, especially the first 30 or 40 minutes of my work time. And the the thing that I want to talk about that's so important, I think, is so many clients that come to me, so many people that I talk with in just everyday life, they really hone in on their brain falling for the distractions, right? They're like, oh, I always fall for distractions, I always get distracted, I'm not good at staying focused, I can't just sit down and do work, I can't get myself to do things. They really latch on to this sort of identity that they are a person who gets distracted and can't focus and can't settle down and can't get themselves to do the dang thing. And I have a different perspective. My perspective is yes, that may be your default. That may be where your brain wants to go. And to me, it's not a problem per se. It is just something that you have to find workarounds to handle, right? So if your default is that you get distracted, it's important to find ways to, okay, I know my brain gets distracted, but how can I work with my brain to bring it into some kind of focus instead of just basically like giving up, wiping your hands a bit and being like, nope, I'm not able to do that. I can't sit down for a focused six-hour work session because my brain gets distracted and just sort of like throwing in the towel. And I just appeal to you to, if you notice that that's sort of what you do, when you just kind of like throw your hands up and you're like, nope, my brain isn't able to do that. I appeal to you to consider that there are other options and that you just haven't found the right tools yet to help your brain come into focus or to help your brain get it done. Um, and maybe you just need to find somebody that can teach you those tools. Um, selfish plug, not even selfish plug, not even a shameless plug. That's what I help people do, right? But it doesn't have to be me. You can look online for tools, you can work with other coaches. But my main point is to just, you know, for instance, the first 30 minutes of my work time was, you know, pretty distracted, pretty unfocused, kind of scattered. And I know how to get my brain back into order. And it has to do with making lists, setting a timer, focusing for that short amount of time on the only just on one thing on that list, just this task. So today I was doing some copywriting for my website because I'm rebranding and I'm doing a new website, and so I just took it literally one section of the page at a time. So I spent whatever it was, 11 minutes on the hero image copy on my home page. And then I did the next section. So one tiny section of a whole of one page of a whole website at a time. And so for me, instead of beating myself up, oh, I'm just so distracted, I can't buckle down, I can't stay focused, I'm just gonna give up and go home, or I'm just gonna beat myself up about it and think that I'm broken and I'm a problem. Instead of doing those things, I am going to figure out what works for my brain and I'm going to do those. And I just absolutely refuse to beat myself up about it. I absolutely refuse to make it a problem that my brain works the way it does. I'm not saying that we can't do some research and maybe find some help to have our brain not default to that. But while our brain is still defaulting to distraction or not motivated or not focused, while that is still our default, we can find ways to work around it. While maybe also in the background, we are also finding ways to have that not be the default. For some people, that is taking ADHD meds. Um, you know, there are there can be some other options. So I'm not saying that we don't need to try to fix the problem, um, if you want to call it a problem. Um, but what I am saying is to just find solutions uh right now instead of beating yourself up, instead of telling yourself that you're broken and that you're unable to do it. I just don't, I just don't agree with that. You're not broken. There's nothing wrong with you. You're beautiful, badass, whole human being. And I love you so much, and that's all I have for today. Love you, friend.