Latest / Inspirations for Your Life / Protect your attention, beat procrastination, and work smarter. (S5) S2:E5

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Protect your attention, beat procrastination, and work smarter. (S5) S2:E5 · Inspirations for Your Life

0:24
Well, hey guys, it is John C.
0:26
Morley here, serial entrepreneur.
0:28
It is great to be with you on
0:29
Inspirations for Your Life.
0:31
Happy New Year to everybody.
0:33
If you're just joining me for the very
0:36
first time, a big warm welcome and Happy
0:39
New Year to you.
0:40
Welcome to the show.
0:41
If you're coming back, definitely a warm welcome
0:44
back to you and thank you for joining
0:45
us.
0:46
Happy New Year again.
0:47
And we're now on the air, well, four
0:49
years and actually seven days.
0:51
So we're in our fifth year.
0:52
We're celebrating being on the air four years
0:55
and now, like I said, seven days.
0:57
So it's great to be with you guys.
0:58
If you have not already checked BelieveMeAchieved.com,
1:03
why not check that out after the show?
1:04
Not now, but after the show, you can
1:06
check that out.
1:07
I think you guys will find that it
1:08
is pretty interesting.
1:10
All right, guys.
1:11
So if you're thirsty, feel free to go
1:13
grab something.
1:14
Maybe it's hot, maybe it's cold or not.
1:16
That's up to you.
1:16
A snack, a fruit, whatever, healthy or not.
1:19
And we're all about motivation here.
1:24
And it's so great to have everybody here.
1:26
So again, a big, warm welcome back.
1:28
But before I do kick the show off,
1:30
feel free to go get something.
1:31
Like I said, get comfy, come on back,
1:33
and we'll have a great time.
1:35
Welcome back, everyone, to the ever-popular Inspirations
1:38
for Your Life show.
1:39
I am your host, John Seymour, serial entrepreneur,
1:44
engineer, marketing specialist, video producer, podcast host, coach,
1:50
graduate student, and a passionate lifelong learner.
1:54
And I'm here to help you protect your
1:57
attention, beat procrastination, and work smarter, not harder.
2:04
Today, remember that your focus is your most
2:08
underprotected asset.
2:11
So treat even a single 25-minute block
2:14
like a meeting with your future.
2:16
Remove one distraction instead of adding three apps.
2:22
And if it takes less than two minutes,
2:25
do it now.
2:26
Start your day with your own agenda, not
2:30
everyone else's notifications.
2:33
Pick one uncomfortable task first and measure your
2:37
progress by completed chunks, not busyness.
2:43
Ask yourself, what is the one thing that
2:47
will move everything else forward?
2:51
And prioritize clarity over motivation, tiny focused bursts
2:56
over scattered heroic efforts, and output over perfection
3:02
every time.
3:04
Close the emotional tabs, silence disruptive apps, work
3:10
in sprints, schedule deep work during your sharpest
3:14
hours, and leave your workspace, well, ready for
3:19
tomorrow.
3:20
Today's power move is one thing fully done,
3:24
not 10 half-finished tasks.
3:27
Your environment, your language, and your intentional pauses
3:32
all shape the way you work.
3:36
Protect your focus, finish more, and remember you're
3:41
effective not because of how busy you seem,
3:45
but because of how purposeful you are.
3:49
That's important, guys.
3:50
And I think a lot of people, you
3:53
know, they miss that point.
3:56
They miss the point because I think a
3:59
lot of people don't understand, like, what life
4:02
is really about.
4:03
And I say that in a very, how
4:06
do I say?
4:07
I say that in a very modest way,
4:10
right?
4:10
Because I think sometimes people just get, oh,
4:17
I don't know, I think they just get
4:19
knocked out of whack, right?
4:22
And by getting knocked out of whack, it's
4:24
not something you want to happen.
4:26
But let's face it, it does happen, guys.
4:29
It does put us in that spot where,
4:31
you know, we get knocked out of whack.
4:34
And when we get knocked out of whack,
4:36
it's like, well, what do we do from
4:38
here?
4:38
Like, you know, what are we supposed to
4:40
do?
4:41
And a lot of people have this question
4:43
about, like, I don't know what I'm supposed
4:45
to do.
4:46
All I know is that what I did
4:48
yesterday doesn't seem to work anymore.
4:50
And, you know, there's a reason for that.
4:52
I think the reason for that is that
4:54
people oftentimes, they get involved in things, but
4:58
then they just, oh, they get lost, right?
5:03
They lose their focus.
5:04
And I think that's a very, very big
5:08
thing that a lot of people, you know,
5:10
they don't realize.
5:13
And so we talk about protecting our assets.
5:15
It's very, very important to do that.
5:17
It is key to our success and those
5:20
around us.
5:22
And I'm hoping that as you start to
5:24
learn these nuggets that I share with you,
5:26
it'll make a difference in your life.
5:29
Not just today, tomorrow, but every day in
5:31
the future.
5:33
Protect your attention.
5:35
Beat the procrastination.
5:37
And as I said, work smarter, not harder.
5:41
Remember that your focus is your most underprotected
5:45
asset, as I said.
5:47
So why don't we kick off and actually
5:49
do something with it?
5:52
Use it in a viable way and stop
5:55
getting distracted.
5:56
Because I know that happens to so many
5:58
people.
5:59
They get distracted and they don't know what
6:00
to do.
6:01
So start your day with your own agenda.
6:04
Not everyone else's, as I said.
6:06
Especially not their notifications that are, let's say,
6:10
disrupting every moment of your life.
6:14
Yeah, I think these are interesting things to
6:17
ponder and talk about.
6:20
What's the one thing that will move everything
6:23
else forward for you?
6:24
Do you know what it is yet?
6:25
I know I asked you before.
6:26
And again, prioritize the clarity over motivation.
6:30
Tiny focus bursts.
6:32
That's the key, guys.
6:33
I think a lot of times we get
6:35
distracted by something that catches a glimpse of
6:38
us.
6:39
And then we try to get back.
6:40
It's like, what was I doing?
6:42
What am I working on?
6:45
We've all had those moments, right?
6:48
So again, protecting our attention is really key.
6:52
You know, as I said, leaving your workspace
6:54
ready for tomorrow.
6:56
Today's power move is the one thing that's
6:59
fully done.
6:59
Not 10 and a half finished tasks or
7:02
your undone things, right?
7:06
I think when we realize that we have
7:10
more power to do these things, it actually
7:14
influences us to change our life.
7:17
Now, not overnight, but it does.
7:20
And so because of how busy you seem,
7:23
but because of how purposeful you are, that's
7:28
what gets things done, guys, every single day,
7:33
day in and day out.
7:36
I think that's a very important thing.
7:39
But a lot of people don't realize that
7:43
you can get those things done every single
7:46
day.
7:49
That's right, guys.
7:49
Every single day, you can get these things
7:52
done in your life.
7:55
And I think that can be a challenge
7:59
for some people because they don't necessarily know,
8:02
like I said, they don't know where or
8:04
why they're even going anywhere, right?
8:06
Where or why are they going?
8:08
And I think the where or why causes
8:11
people to, I don't know, it causes people
8:14
to change just a little bit.
8:20
And that little bit could be the difference
8:22
between you making a big difference in your
8:25
life and you making, well, no impact at
8:30
all.
8:31
So these are really important things that we
8:35
need to understand.
8:37
So protect that block, right?
8:45
As I said, if it takes two minutes,
8:46
do it now.
8:48
Task switch less, finish more.
8:54
Ask what is the one thing that will
8:56
move it forward for me?
9:00
Make a to-do list, not a life
9:02
list, okay?
9:05
That's important.
9:09
Perfectionism is just procrastination, wearing a fancy, well,
9:16
coat and hat.
9:18
We often wait to start until the conditions
9:21
are perfect, but you know what?
9:23
Spoiler alert, conditions are never going to be
9:26
perfect.
9:27
I'm sorry, guys, they just are not.
9:30
And so that's important, okay?
9:35
Very important.
9:40
Maybe you're confused on that.
9:45
Maybe not.
9:46
Maybe you're wondering, what could I change about
9:50
myself?
9:52
What could I do, well, differently?
9:56
I think that would probably cause us to
10:01
be different in our lives.
10:05
Again, not because we have to, but because
10:08
we should want to.
10:12
And when want comes, or let's say push
10:16
comes to play with want, that really changes
10:19
who we are, guys.
10:21
It changes who we are every single day.
10:25
But sometimes we get stuck, right?
10:29
We oftentimes get stuck.
10:31
I'm like, how do I get out of
10:31
this mess?
10:33
We've all been there before.
10:36
So protecting is important.
10:38
Focusing the productivity on things that actually, well,
10:41
bring us a result.
10:43
Had a lot of people I know, and
10:45
they say, you know what?
10:45
I'm doing something.
10:46
I'm really busy.
10:48
And people equated busy with success.
10:52
Busy doesn't mean success.
10:55
Busy means using time.
10:57
But not all busy is actually gonna generate
11:01
success.
11:04
That probably gives you an eye opener there,
11:07
right?
11:09
If I told you to protect one 25
11:11
-minute block, would you do it?
11:12
Or would you be like, oh, I got
11:14
more.
11:14
There's always more 25-minute blocks.
11:16
A quick story.
11:18
So right around COVID time, we were using
11:20
like Zoom and these things.
11:21
And I was having appointments being booked, you
11:24
know, virtually.
11:26
I figured, oh, what's the big deal?
11:27
You know, I'll let my calendar be wide
11:29
open.
11:30
Let people check whatever time I had.
11:32
And oh my gosh, guys, that was the
11:34
worst thing I could have done.
11:36
Within a couple days of going to some
11:38
of these networking events, which some of them
11:39
were just, there were a lot of them
11:40
were terrible.
11:44
They connected me with people that, first of
11:48
all, didn't have a clue.
11:50
They wanted to get on my calendar.
11:52
You know why?
11:53
They wanted to try to sell me something.
11:56
And guys, that's terrible.
12:00
And they were doing it in such a
12:01
very low, slimy way.
12:04
So I realized I need to be more
12:08
decisive.
12:09
Decisive.
12:10
So I decided I was going to cut
12:12
back the number of slots I had available.
12:16
Good idea, right?
12:18
But I still realized that I was burning
12:22
a lot of time.
12:27
And so I said, what else can I
12:31
do?
12:32
Because the problem is that people are eating
12:36
up my time.
12:39
And these are not people that are going
12:42
to game change my life.
12:45
They're not going to help me get more
12:46
successful.
12:47
They're going to keep stealing my time.
12:52
I don't know about you, but there's only
12:53
so much free time you can give, right?
12:58
That's an important one.
13:00
Ask this question.
13:01
What is the one thing that would move
13:05
everything else forward?
13:08
We said it before.
13:10
Your brain is not meant to be in
13:11
12 tabs at once.
13:14
Sorry, guys.
13:14
It's not.
13:16
Even your computer doesn't like 50 million tabs
13:19
open.
13:19
What happens when you have too many open?
13:21
You don't have enough memory?
13:24
Computer just kind of crawls until it may
13:27
crash because you have too many windows open.
13:30
Make a to-do list.
13:31
Like I said, not a to-life list.
13:35
Perfectionism really hurts many people's success.
13:40
And they don't even know what's happening.
13:44
They don't know how it's robbing them of
13:47
their ultimate freedom.
13:50
Start ugly, guys.
13:52
Then refine the output first.
13:55
Polish it later.
13:57
It doesn't have to be sparkling right now.
13:59
Work in sprints and rest in minutes, not
14:03
months.
14:05
You're not unmotivated.
14:06
You're just unclear of what the next step
14:10
or step should be.
14:12
Schedule deep work during your naturally sharp hours.
14:17
Don't confuse planning with progressing.
14:23
Pick three priorities.
14:25
You can do that.
14:26
Everything else is, well, an optional bonus.
14:30
Your environment should make the right work easy
14:34
to start.
14:36
Close one tab that's been open for emotional
14:40
reasons, not logical ones.
14:43
Ask this question, am I really busy or
14:47
am I effective?
14:51
As I said, being busy doesn't mean you're
14:54
going to be successful.
14:55
Start with the frog.
14:58
One uncomfortable task early.
15:01
Let's get the frog out of the way.
15:03
Now, I don't hate frogs, but some people
15:06
don't like them.
15:07
Let's get the frog out.
15:08
Let's get the thing that's causing you to
15:13
fret out of the way first.
15:16
Because then everything else will be downhill.
15:17
Everything else will be easy for you.
15:20
Measure the day in finished chunks, not busyness.
15:24
There was a great movie and also play
15:28
out there called Rent, right?
15:30
And they said, how do you measure love?
15:35
You can measure it in so many different
15:36
things.
15:37
You don't measure it in minutes.
15:40
You measure it in the amount of connections
15:45
you get, the smiles, the walks, the talks.
15:53
And we start to realize that we don't
15:58
measure something the way everything else is measured.
16:01
You want to measure milk?
16:03
You can measure it with a measuring cup.
16:07
You want to measure temperature?
16:11
Use a thermometer, right?
16:13
Thermostat.
16:16
You want to measure, let's say, a precise
16:20
angle.
16:21
You can use a laser.
16:23
So there's lots of ways we can measure
16:25
different types of things.
16:27
You want to measure the appropriate lighting for
16:31
a video scene or a photo scene?
16:33
Use a light meter.
16:38
And so as we understand this, the same
16:42
way we measure light is not the same
16:45
way you measure milk in a, let's say,
16:49
a measuring cup.
16:51
It's different.
16:53
So I think when things get different, it
16:56
causes people to say, wait a minute.
16:58
I don't know if I'm doing this right.
17:03
And you don't have to be doing it
17:04
right.
17:05
You can actually learn from the mistake that
17:07
you made or mistakes.
17:09
Mute one chat that hijacks your focus daily.
17:12
We've all had this happen.
17:14
Your worth is not tied to how overwhelmed
17:17
you sound.
17:20
Set a timer and tell your brain, we
17:22
only have to focus until this rings.
17:27
Remember that?
17:28
Pomodoro time.
17:31
Give your future self a gift.
17:33
Leave your workspace ready for tomorrow.
17:36
We've said that before, but it's so important.
17:38
Stop mid-task on purpose so it's easier
17:42
to restart tomorrow.
17:45
Replace I'll have no time with I haven't
17:49
prioritized this yet.
17:51
Tiny focus bursts beat scattered heroic efforts.
17:56
Today's power move is one thing fully done,
18:02
not 10 things half done.
18:05
Start implementing one tip today and watch your
18:11
productivity soar, compound more than you ever imagined.
18:20
That's pretty clever.
18:24
So if we think about a perspective, perspectives
18:32
are what creates create the magic in life.
18:36
Because life shows us who we are.
18:42
Life shows us what we have by our
18:45
perspectives that we understand.
18:48
That's important.
18:50
And everyone from all different races, nationalities, genders,
19:00
they see things a little bit differently.
19:04
And it's that difference that helps make the
19:08
world go round, right?
19:11
That's a very, very powerful thing, guys.
19:17
If you could stop for a moment and
19:22
we call the time out, right?
19:25
We've all been in this mode.
19:29
Maybe you're getting ready to go away on
19:31
a vacation like I did, or you're getting
19:33
ready to plan a party.
19:36
And everything just sort of like, I don't
19:40
know, just runs into everything else.
19:43
And you're like, I need a break.
19:47
I need a breath.
19:50
I need direction.
19:55
But many of us don't take the time
20:00
to experience that.
20:06
We just don't take the time.
20:08
If time changed, we only get
20:18
60 minutes in an hour.
20:22
But time can change.
20:26
You just said, John, there's only 60 seconds
20:28
in a minute and 60 minutes in an
20:31
hour.
20:32
I did say that.
20:35
But time can go slower or quicker based
20:38
on our perception of our orientation in space
20:43
or in the world at the current moment.
20:48
That's powerful, guys.
20:53
And I know that many people out there
20:59
will do 100 things.
21:03
And then they'll do nothing.
21:12
They'll do absolutely nothing.
21:16
Because for some reason, they fall out of
21:23
alignment to who they are, to where they
21:27
are, to what they are.
21:33
And this all happens with a simple mental
21:38
shift, a little mental shift.
21:45
The shift could start out with a little
21:47
bit of gratitude.
21:50
It could start out somebody else maybe giving
21:52
you a compliment.
21:56
The shift from where I am right now
21:58
to where I could be a minute from
22:03
now, five minutes from now, 60 minutes from
22:05
now, have the power to transform our lives
22:10
every single day.
22:15
That's powerful, guys.
22:18
So I want to ask you a question.
22:21
And the question is this.
22:23
What can you do to protect your attention
22:26
and stop procrastination?
22:30
We talked about the Pomodoro time, right?
22:32
You could use Pomodoro time.
22:34
We've talked about that before.
22:36
And you only have to focus until the
22:37
bell goes off or until the alarm goes
22:40
off, right?
22:42
What else can we do to protect our
22:44
attention?
22:49
Focus on small tasks so we don't get
22:52
too overwhelmed.
22:55
So we can manage the time.
22:58
We can manage the tasks that we're on.
23:01
You know what else we could do?
23:03
We could manage the feeling that we have.
23:09
Yeah, we can manage the feeling.
23:12
You've been places before where maybe something wasn't
23:15
going the way you wanted.
23:17
And that time just sort of like lagged,
23:22
right?
23:23
It lags so much that you wanted the
23:28
moment to be over.
23:29
And there's been other times when you're like,
23:32
wow, we've been here all day, but it
23:35
only seems like we've been here for 10
23:37
minutes.
23:40
When the mind and body get engaged, time
23:43
just flies.
23:46
They say time flies when you're having fun.
23:49
But really, it's the mind that's occupied.
23:53
So it's not so concerned about time.
23:59
It's not so vested in how many minutes.
24:03
I remember this one kid came to one
24:06
of my science STEM classes and his mother
24:09
drops him off.
24:12
First thing I'm saying to myself, you know,
24:13
we're not a babysitting service.
24:14
So I'm saying this to myself.
24:18
And nice kid and all.
24:20
So he had attention deficit disorder.
24:23
So I was working with him trying to
24:25
get him excited.
24:26
He likes science.
24:27
But then after a few minutes, he's like,
24:30
when's this over?
24:35
He's only been there five minutes in an
24:39
hour and a half.
24:40
How many minutes is that?
24:41
He was so concerned about when it was
24:45
over that he wasn't enjoying the whole benefit.
24:49
I think that's because of his ADHD.
24:52
But people like that, you have to keep
24:54
them constantly engaged.
24:57
You have to get their senses a little
24:58
overwhelmed so that their mind doesn't drift.
25:07
That's powerful, guys.
25:11
And so if you were to say to
25:13
me, John, what could you do to mitigate
25:20
distractions?
25:24
I would say, I'd make sure I pick
25:28
a place where I won't be distracted.
25:32
A peaceful, tranquil place.
25:36
This could be in your home.
25:38
This could be outside, whatever it is.
25:40
But you've got to make sure that this
25:41
place is going to be conducive for whatever
25:46
you need it for.
25:46
Whether it's studying, whether it's relaxing.
25:48
And something about the sounds and
25:58
about the scenes of the environment.
26:01
Have the power to, I'm going to say,
26:04
magically teleport us somewhere else in the mind.
26:12
Any of you have done meditation before, you
26:14
know that when you get into meditation, like,
26:16
wow, that only seemed a couple minutes, but
26:19
I was there for an hour.
26:21
That's what the timer says.
26:25
That blows my mind.
26:27
So our mind loses comprehension of time when
26:33
it's preoccupied.
26:37
If we lose perception of time, does that
26:43
mean that we are not at our full
26:46
ability?
26:47
No.
26:49
Actually, quite the contrary.
26:51
When we get lost in time, our body's
26:55
like, let's be creative.
26:58
Right?
27:01
And when we start to be creative, we
27:03
start to have this free flow, we notice
27:06
that something is different.
27:09
But we can't put our finger on it
27:11
right away.
27:15
This is why a lot of companies are
27:17
putting money into creative rooms where they're ditching
27:21
the suits and things like that.
27:23
And creating, like, playrooms for adults, like ice
27:29
hockey and foosball tables and pool tables and
27:34
even things like Pac-Man and other video
27:37
games and Wii and PS3 and PS4 and
27:40
things like that.
27:43
Because these companies know that when we engage
27:46
the mind, the creativity gets set on fire
27:51
in a way that cannot even be explained.
27:54
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm John Seymour, a serial
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entrepreneur.
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Be sure to check out believemeachieve.com for
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more of my amazing, inspiring creations.
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Have a great one, everyone, and be well.