How to Stay Calm, Clear, and Focused While Using AI

Just because AI can "do" more than ever doesn't mean you need to be doing more.

When ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Codex, or Claude Code starts working, the instinct is often to open another tab, check email, start another task, or stare impatiently at the screen. Justin has been experimenting with a very different response by using the waiting time to become calmer and clearer.

In this episode, Justin shares the simple 4-6 breathing practice he has fallen in love with and why it fits surprisingly well with AI-assisted work. He explains what slow breathing may be doing physiologically, why a calm state does not mean a passive state, and how giving your mind some open space may help you return to the work with better judgment.

Key Ideas / Takeaways

• How 4-6 breathing works (and my favorite timer for it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G89S77iJm8
• Why slower breathing can influence heart-rate variability and help create a state of calm, alert readiness
• Why the human using AI still has to decide what matters, evaluate the output, and choose what happens next
• How stress can interfere with the attention, working memory, and flexibility needed to work well with AI
• Why leaving some mental space while AI works may help your own mind continue processing problems in the background
• Three practical ways to use 4-6 breathing during short, medium, and long AI tasks

Why Listen

This is especially useful if you spend a lot of time with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Codex, Claude Code, or other AI tools and regularly find yourself bouncing between tasks while they work. It is also for anyone who wants a very simple way to create more calm and space during the natural pauses already built into the day.

The idea is not to make AI faster.

It is to make better use of the human while the AI is working.

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Transcript

Justin Wenck: 0:05

Welcome to the show. Today we're doing something a little different. I'm working on getting my the YouTube version of this show, if you will, to find its audience, to have some more impact, to reach some more people. So right now, this is just for you and me and the other podcast listeners. Those that are just listening to the audio version of this, because I've been doing this podcast, you know, since since 2020. It was actually late 2019, a long time, over you know, six years now, and initially just started audio only, and part of what I have always loved about podcasts and radio in general is how intimate it can be. Where there's the time and the space, you know, for for us to you know get together, pretend, well, not pretend. We really are. We're having a conversation. I'll say something like, "How are you doing? and you're gonna think, you know great or awful or fuck yeah, Justin, I'm so happy to be listening to this. Whatever it is, I don't necessarily hear it, but there's ways for you to you know let me know. So we are having a we're having a conversation, and we have some more time. Whereas video format's always been a little bit like you got to be clear, you got to be, you know, to the point. There's, there's not too much time for too much looseness. So, with that end, we're going to try putting the the YouTube portion in the middle of the podcast, and that's going to be very targeted towards a group that I think really needs to hear what I'm going to talk about. But you might have noticed pretty much anything and everything I talk about, it's great just for people. People that want to improve their life, people that want things to be better and want to create better in the world. And this this podcast, the YouTube video that's going to be part of it, is no exception. I'm talking to people that use AI, you know, people that use Claude Code or Codex or ChatGPT or Google Gemini. Yet, if you don't use that, if that's not you, I'm still talking about something that's really going to be beneficial because I'm just talking about an amazing breathing technique that I've I've fallen in love with over the last few months, and that's four six breathing. So we're going to talk about it coming up. Yet, just want you to know that this is going to help you no matter what you do. This could be like you know you're you're raising your kids and you you know you finally have they're they're doing something for a few seconds or a few minutes, or you're writing a novel and you just completed a section and maybe you need to switch gears, or maybe it's something like you know you're you're exercising and or you're working out, and between workouts it's like well what do you do with that what do you do with that time so whatever it is that you do this breathing technique is so simple so powerful so easy to fit in that I I'm really curious what you think, and curious what you think of sort of the the new format of the show. So if you if you like it, if you love it, please give it a good good rating. If you don't, please send me a note, direct message. Let me know, and you know we're trying stuff out. We're letting the show evolve because again, to me, it's about you know me having fun, impacting as many people as possible. And so, if you know I'm not I'm not reaching people, if you're not feeling like you're impacted in a beneficial way, then you know let me let me know. I'd like to hear what you think. Because do you want this to be a show that serves you in a way that that I enjoy and have fun with? And that's kind of what I want for anyone in my world is to be able to serve in a way that lights them up, that provides brings joy and happiness. So with that, let's get going into the show. Are you ready to live a life with enough time, money, and energy? Have relationships and connections that delight you. Are you ready for the extraordinary life you know you've been missing? If so, then this is the place for you. I'm a best-selling author, coach, consultant, and speaker who's worked in technology for over two decades. I'm a leader at transforming people and organizations from operating in fear, obligation, and guilt to running off joy, ease, and love, it's time for engineering emotions and energy with me, Justin Wenck, Ph.D. The next time ChatGPT starts thinking, don't open another tab. Don't grab your phone, and whatever you do, absolutely do not just sit there cursing it and begging it to go faster. Instead, try this: breathe in for four seconds, and breathe out for six seconds. Hopefully you can count better than I can. In just 10 seconds, you turned AI waiting time into your own personal recovery time, which will make you a way more effective and efficient coder or creator. And by the end of this video, you'll know why this ridiculously simple rhythm can help you return to your work calmer, clearer, and more ready to make a good decision. I'll also show you three ways you can use it, from a single ChatGPT response to a much longer codex task without adding one more thing to your schedule. I fall in love with this four-six breathing practice. I sometimes do it for up to 20 minutes, and even up to three times a day. And recently, about one minute of it helped me stop fighting with Google's Gemini and recognize what was actually good enough, and to just get the project finished, because the computer is never really the bottleneck. The coding takes as long as it takes. The AI generating takes as long as it takes. But the quality of the result still depends on the you, the human who tells the AI what matters, who reviews it, who creates it, decides what should happen next. It's not coding just to code. It's not creating just to create. The point is to create something useful, worthwhile, or beautiful, something you actually want to bring into this world. Let's say somebody asked me to paint a house a very particular shade of millennial gray. Does it matter if I can spray red paint three times faster than anybody else. No, I'm doing the wrong thing exceptionally efficiently. AI can accelerate production, but only the human in the loop can define what has value and guide the work towards that value. And when the human is present, alert, and available, the whole process can actually move much much faster. That's where the breathing comes in. I've talked before about training the algorithm, you know, in your Facebook, YouTube, wherever it is, to serve you, and I've talked about that in other videos. So you might not be surprised that my YouTube algorithm offers me up plenty of videos on meditation, breath work, and ways of living a better life in general. In addition to the videos of the latest mega builds around the world, man, do I love that B1M channel. Anyway, one evening I was looking for a breathwork practice to help me relax before bed, and tried this four-six breathing method from a video from Neil Tranter. We'll make sure to have a link to one of his videos in the description. It was almost too simple: breathe in for four seconds and breathe out for six. I started with a short introductory practice, about five minutes, and I was amazed at how I felt. So the next day, I tried his full 20-minute breathing timer, and in this 20-minute practice, it was really quite incredible because there were times where it was relaxing, but then times where I could actually notice the tension and the stress in my breathing and in my body. Yet by the time I got closer to the end, I felt a lot more calm and relaxed, and there was more and more space between my thoughts, and I had command over my attention. Now, not control in the sense that I could force my mind to be blank. That's actually never the point of any mindfulness exercise. Thoughts still arise, sensations still show up, but I could notice them and rise above them and return to the breathing. I often get great insights and ideas while I'm doing this. That's one reason I sometimes practice it three times a day. The only practice I do almost as often as this is my own leap practice. Now the technique itself is simple, like most things in life, but simple can be very powerful. Though here it is again. It's inhale gently for four seconds, 1234, and then exhale comfortably for six seconds, 123456, But actually, do you know the six seconds? I'm going a little fast here. Four seconds in, six seconds out. That gives you one complete breath every 10 seconds, or six breaths per minute. The key is to be focusing and going towards slow, light, comfortable breathing. You don't need to take the biggest breath your lungs can possibly hold, although in the beginning you might want to, and that's okay. If breathing through your nose is comfortable. That's also great. If not, do what's comfortable. A little comfortable air hunger can sometimes happen, especially when you're learning to breathe more lightly. That is different from forcing the exercise. If you become dizzy, feel lightheaded, significant tingling, or have uncomfortable breathlessness. Or there's palpitations, or just you're not feeling well. Return to the normal breathing. If you stick with it, though, you'll notice further and further relaxation, and that your breathing can become very, very subtle. And if you're like me, and you're like you're curious, and you want more, and you would want me to make a separate video where I guide you through a much longer four-six breathing session. Breathing session. Make sure to let me know down in the comments below. I'd love to know whether that would be useful for you. So, why can something this simple make such a noticeable difference? Well, here's what's happening. Your heart does not beat at perfectly even intervals like a metronome. The time between beats changes slightly. That variation is called heart rate variability or HRV. When you inhale, your heart rate tends to speed up a little. When you exhale, it tends to slow down a little. When you breathe slowly, around six breaths per minute for many people, those changes can become more pronounced and more coordinated. Research on voluntary slow breathing has found increases in measures of heart rate variability or HRV during the practice, immediately afterward, and after repeated practice over time. In plain English, HRV reflects some of your nervous system's ability to adjust instead of being stuck in one gear, it's not magical where higher is always better. But in the right context, more variability is associated with greater flexibility and recovery. More plainly, your breathing and your heart are always having a conversation. Slower breathing helps them to find a steadier rhythm together, and the practical benefit is that you become more calm, but calm does not mean passive. This is a steady state of calm, alert, readiness. Think of an elite athlete immediately before the snap of a football. That's American handbag for my global viewers out there, or the runner just before the starter pistol fires in a race, they're not asleep, they're not collapsed, and ideally, they're not super stressed out and frantic. They're composed, attentive, ready to respond. There's a concept in performance psychology called optimal arousal. Yeah, if you're barely engaged, performance can suffer. If you're overwhelmed and stressed out, your mind goes like it's overwhelmed, and performance can also suffer. The useful level depends on what you're doing, but there's going to be an energy, a zone where you have energy without chaos. That is a state I want when I'm doing just about anything, but I especially want this when I'm working with AI because the AI may do a huge amount of the generating, but the human still has three essential responsibilities: first, clearly express what you want; second, accurately evaluate what the AI produces; and third, choose the next best step. All three of these important steps require attention, working memory, and the ability to change direction when something isn't working. And this is not just philosophical. Research has found that acute stress can impair working memory and cognitive flexibility-the exact kinds of abilities you use when you're holding requirements in mind, reviewing a result, and deciding to redirect the work, I had a very practical experience with this while I was using Gemini to help me document some of my business procedures. I was wanting it to, you know, help document from some recordings I was making on what to do, and it was pretty good, but there were some things with the output where I was like,"Oh, I'd like it a little bit like this or a little bit like that. And as I kept trying to make it better, it just ended up being worse. And I noticed I was starting to get frustrated, and that's when I was like, "Wait, let me take a step back. And while Gemini was doing its next thing, I did a few of those four six breaths, and then I realized, wait, it's good enough. Now that minute of breathing didn't make Gemini generate results faster or better, but it helped me stop turning a good enough result into an endless struggle. I recognized what was truly important. That's finishing the project so that I can get better results and do what I wanted to do, and then move on to something I'd rather be doing. Remember, the coding takes as long as it takes. The AI generating takes as long as it takes, but you can become a better you while that's happening, and you are the most important part of any AI workflow. And there may be another benefit to leaving open space while the AI works. Your own mind gets a chance to keep working on whatever problems might. Around in your life. Back when I was studying electrical engineering at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, San Luis Obispo. This was around the year 2000. The year 2000. I had a professor named Michael Syravick, and Professor Sirovic had been teaching electrical engineering at Cal Poly for decades, even then, and he gave some of the hardest tests I had ever taken. I remember one of the first tests I took with him. It was some advanced circuits test, and when I got the results back, I just about had a heart attack because I got like a 42 out of 100, and someone who was always really good at getting great, amazing scores, which is one of the reasons I, you know, went into electrical engineering, went to top schools, then went on to get a PhD. So getting a score that low was a shock to my system until I saw the curve, and the curve was basically I got the highest score out of anybody. 42 out of 100 was the the highest. It was something like that. So he could be a very difficult, hard ass, but he also taught us how to work with our minds. So he taught us test taking strategies, and one of it, one of them was to read the entire test first. And I was actually using this methodology on the test. And part of it is you read the whole test and you start with the easier problems. And you might think like, well, wouldn't you want to start with the hard problems so you have time to work on them? And the thing is, is that if you're starting with the easy problems, but you've already read the hard problems, even though you're consciously working on the problems you know how to solve, another part of your mind can continue working in the background on the harder ones. And there's a name for this. It's the incubation effect. Sometimes stepping away from a difficult problem, especially to do something that doesn't load your mind with even more information, which is why you don't want to just be doing multiple ChatGPT or Codex or Cloud Code projects at the same time always. It helps you return with a fresh perspective or insights that lead to a solution you couldn't have seen while you were there in the problem. So when ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Codex, or Claude Code is generating, what do most of us do? We're checking email. We open social media. We start another task. We feed our minds three more problems, and then wonder why we feel scattered and unsatisfied when the answer that we first put in finally arrives. What if instead you let the AI do its artificial processing, while you do the biological processing? Let the AI generate. Let your mind and body reintegrate. Let your own mind have enough space to make connections. Now, here are three simple ways to do just that. First, for a short AI response, simply take three to six rounds of that four-six breathing. That's just going to be about 30 to 60 seconds. You don't have to finish before the answer appears. The point is to interrupt the reflex to go hunting for another distraction. For a longer task, take about five minutes to do some four-six breathing, or do another short practice like my life energy activation process that only takes four minutes. That works with your mind and your body. And for a genuinely lengthy task, you could do a 15 or 20-minute breathing session, or better yet, stand up and go for a walk and get some sunshine. Give your body some movement, your mind some space. Instead of filling every available second with more input, the habit is simple. When AI starts thinking, you start breathing, and you can even ask the AI to help you remember at the beginning of a substantial task. Tell it before you begin, give me a rough estimate of how long this will take. Then remind me whether I have time for a three to six rounds of four to six breathing, my five minute leap practice, or a 15 to 20 minute walk. That is exactly what I tell my AI agents to do now. AI is here to serve, but it is up to us to decide how we want to be served as humans, because this is not just about producing more. It is about producing what you actually want to create in the world, and most of us do not want to create a world that is faster, louder, more frantic, and filled with increasingly more efficient ways to paint a red house or a house red that should be millennial gray. We want to create a world with more calm, clarity, creativity, and enjoyment. So those are the qualities we need to bring to the work itself. The outcome matters, and the experience of creating it matters too. So here's my challenge for you: the next time you give ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini. Codex, Claude Code, something meaningful to work on. Take at least three rounds of that four-six breathing while it generates. Four seconds in, six seconds out. Then notice whether you approach the result differently. Are you clearer about what matters? Are you less reactive to what isn't perfect? Can you recognize what is good enough, or see the next instruction that you need to provide more clearly? Try it, and let me know in the comments. While AI is thinking, what do you normally do, and what happened when you took some time to breathe instead? If this helped you, please remember to like the video, subscribe, and hit that notification bell so you don't miss what's next. AI can accelerate what you create, but only you can decide what is worth creating and who you want to become while you create it. Thanks for tuning in to Engineering Emotions and Energy with Justin Wenck, PhD. Today's episode resonated with you. Please subscribe and leave a five-star review. Your feedback not only supports the show but also helps others find us and start their journey of emotional and energetic mastery. You can also help by sharing this podcast with someone you think will love it just as much as you do. Together, we're engineering more amazing lives.