Latest / Alignment With Jenn / (40) 8 HABITS TO BECOME A TOP 1% WOMAN ✨ FOCUS & CREATIVITY

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(40) 8 HABITS TO BECOME A TOP 1% WOMAN ✨ FOCUS & CREATIVITY · Alignment With Jenn

0:00
Welcome to this episode of the Alignment with Jen podcast.
0:03
I am your host, Jen. It's easy.
0:05
And today we are going to be talking about focus and
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productivity and how to be more focused and more productive even
0:12
if you have ADHD. So I have been diagnosed with
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ADHD. I don't even really notice
0:18
because I've just been that way my whole life.
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And so I want to share with you some of the tools and the
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strategies and the tactics to help you focus, whether you have
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ADHD or not. Just to be a more productive
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human. Because it feels really good to
0:32
feel accomplished, to feel like you can sit down and focus and
0:35
create the things that you want to create and create your
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mission and your vision within the world.
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So I am so excited to do this episode with you.
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I'm going to start off and I really want to talk about
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something that I personally find really interesting, which is the
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difference between the way the male brain and the female brain
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works. And how most of the stuff that
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you will hear on like Huberman Labs podcast about focus and all
0:58
those other podcasts are information that is really for a
1:02
man. It can be very helpful for a
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woman. But there are some distinct
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differences about how a woman's brain works that I think can
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often create shame of why can't I focus like this?
1:12
Why can I not be productive like this person?
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It's because our brains are designed to work differently,
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differently. And I consider that difference
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beautiful and awesome. And there's no right or wrong
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way. It's just different.
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And so when you can understand that you can not feel like
1:26
there's something wrong with you, you can learn to work with
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it. And you can learn to make it an
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asset that allows you to create and manifest the things that you
1:35
want in your life far more easily.
1:38
O we're going to go into that background and then we'll go
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into 8 mini habits that you can start today to radically
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increase your focus, your roductivity, your ability to
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create and build and do all the fun stuff that is required for a
1:54
business or a career. So I hope that you really enjoy
1:58
this. The first thing that I want to
1:59
mention is that focusing is not necessarily about trying harder.
2:04
Yes, part of it is actually focusing your attention, but a
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big part of it is actually giving your brain the conditions
2:09
that it needs in order to focus well.
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So that's really what we want to get out of this episode.
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So first, the first thing is how men and women focus differently.
2:21
So men have more single point focus versus women have what is
2:24
called diffuse awareness. And that is the result of the
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different hormones and the balances of the hormones in the
2:30
brain. So male brains typically have
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more testosterone. Female brains typically have
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more estrogen, especially, you know, you can look at the
2:38
different hormonal cycles, but we'll say by and large, women
2:41
have more estrogen and that creates more of a diffuse
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awareness. And if you think about
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evolution, it's actually really fascinating because think about
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a woman. A woman was a gatherer and a
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male with a hunter. A male would go out and he would
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be singly focused on hunting, right?
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Shooting the bow to get the deer to bring it back.
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It was quiet and he was focused on a single task, right?
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That's how the male brain developed.
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The female brain developed very differently in gathering, right?
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Taking care of the kids, gathering and picking berries,
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being in community with women, right?
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Having conversations with other women while she's picking
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berries, right? So women have a very different
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way of focusing and we are able to focus on many things at one
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time, right? I always think about my sister.
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So my sister has 2 little kids and she can be in the kitchen
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having a conversation with me cooking something on the stove
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and still be fully well aware of where both of her kids are,
3:35
right? Versus the male brain is going
3:37
to be very different and is able to focus in a very different
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way. And so that's the first thing I
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want you to understand is that yes, the female brain can focus
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in that same way where we can sit down and focus on a task,
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but it can feel more difficult. And it can also be more
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difficult if we try to do it for a very long period of time
3:57
simply because we don't have those higher levels of
3:59
testosterone. And I'm not saying that you
4:01
can't do that, but I'm saying there's ways we can make it more
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effective and efficient to work with how our brains work.
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Other important thing to know is that the female brain is much,
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much more interconnected between the logic and the intuition
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portions of the brain because the brain itself is actually
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much more interconnected. And so the female brain can be
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really, really good at integrating information.
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And, and This is why we think about female intuition, right?
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It's like you can just walk in and you just know something
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about someone or you just have a knowing about something in a way
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that not all men do as naturally.
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And the reason for that is partly because of the way that
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our brains are structured versus the male brain can be more
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compartmentalized. There's less of that
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interconnectivity between the two hemispheres of the brain.
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And so as a result, that male brain is more able to focus on
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that single task. OK, so how do we work with this?
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As I think 90% of my audience is female.
5:00
Welcome to the brave males listening.
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How do we work with that? Right?
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How do we work with the fact that our brains function a
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little bit differently? Well, I consider it to be a
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gift. I consider everything about
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being a woman to be a gift and for men, everything about being
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a man to be a gift as well because we're both beautiful and
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different in our own ways. How women can focus differently.
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So I'm going to give you 3 tips for this and then we'll get into
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more of my personal tips of how I personally like to focus and
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things that have helped me more experientially.
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So the first thing for women is 1 is to do more focused sprints.
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So if you've ever used Pomodoros, so Pomodoro, you can,
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there's like a, an app on your phone if you just search
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Pomodoro and it breaks it up into these 25 minute chunks of
5:44
focus and then a 5 minute break. That works really well for the
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female brain. Because what I personally will
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notice is when I'm sitting down to work, I'll think of like, oh,
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I need to do this, I need to do this, I need to do this right?
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And so I'll sometimes go and do those things versus what you can
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do is do the pomodoro, do 25 minutes, and if an idea comes up
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of something else, just jot it down.
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I will always have a notebook next to me where I can put those
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thoughts that are just coming in.
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And I find that works incredibly, incredibly well for
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me personally. So I can focus because I do have
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a hard time focusing for long periods of time.
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What you can do in those breaks that will make it even more
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beneficial is not to like take a break from working and then pick
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up your phone and scroll. That's going to not be as
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effective at recharging your brain and allowing you to focus
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as moving your body. So if you get up and you stretch
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for 5 minutes or you walk around the house and maybe you put some
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things away or you go on a 5 minute walk.
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But breaking up your focus is going to help you feel like
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you're not working against yourself and that you're really
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able to actually focus and sit there and do the things that you
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want to accomplish. And you will accomplish them
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much faster than if you're like, OK, I'm going to focus on this
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for an hour. That can feel very difficult.
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Another thing that you can do is shift your environment.
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And I'll get into this a little bit more in a moment.
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But when you shift your environment, it helps to let go
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and sit down the things that have been on your mind.
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So something that Allison Armstrong talks about is she
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talks about putzing. And for the female, what it is,
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is it's basically where you kind of walk around and you've
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probably felt yourself do this and you're just kind of doing
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little tasks, right? Like I'll straighten the books
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on my bookshelf. I might put some, you know,
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toilet paper in the downstairs bathroom.
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I might go pet my dog. I might go send a text message.
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And that actually can feel really good for the female brain
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because it's allowing you to focus on these different things.
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And so giving yourself the that ability to do that, but then
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also shifting your environment, let's say, going to work at a
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cafe or going to work at the library or going somewhere where
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you don't have all of these environmental cues speaking to
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you. Something else in Armstrong also
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talks about is she's like basically a female.
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If her environment is out of order because of her diffuse
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awareness, she's noticing it. So we'll notice the sock on the
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floor, we'll notice that the corner of the bedspread is
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turned up right and we'll need to fix those things.
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Do you ever feel like you just need to fix things and clean
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things up but before you can sit down and focus?
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That's because on some level your mind is noticing them and
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is aware of them. Versus the male brain doesn't
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work like that. The male brain, if he walks by a
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sock on the ground and it's not something he's focusing on, he
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actually just may not notice it. Which when I first learned that
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I was like, that blows my mind. How could you not notice it,
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right? And females can get very
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frustrated about this, but our brains work differently.
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So changing your environment can help because it let's go of
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those signals, right? If you're in your office, right,
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and you're thinking you need to organize your office, going to a
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cafe or going somewhere where all that you're going to be
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doing is focusing on what you're doing can be really helpful for
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calming down our diffuse awareness.
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OK, so let's get into these little recommendations that I
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have for you. So the first one is actually
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changing your environment. So I find that I work best when
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I go to a cafe and I put on noise cancelling headphones,
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sometimes with music, sometimes without.
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But I feel like that puts me in the zone more than anything else
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because there's nothing. I'm going to go, I'm not going
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to go organize the cafe, right? I'm going to just sit there and
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focus on what's on my computer. I'll put it on Do not disturb.
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I'll put my phone away. So I'm not wanting to pick it up
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and that can be really, really helpful.
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I have a friend and she's like, I can't work at cafes, I have to
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be home alone. I have to have headphones on
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that are noise cancelling and just focus on what I'm doing.
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But the more that you can make your environment not something
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that will distract you and that's going to be a little
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different for each of us, the better.
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I also find that I work really well when it's dark outside, so
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like early in the morning or late at night, because then
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again, those environmental cues are not speaking to me, right?
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My refrigerator doesn't need to be reorganized and all of these
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things, right? It's like creates this almost
10:07
tunnel that's available. So think about for you what,
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what might that be right? Another thing that I recommend
10:14
is I recommend using matcha because there's a little bit of
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caffeine in it, but it also has L theanine, which also promotes
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focus. I personally find that that
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works a lot better than coffee. If you're a coffee girly, no
10:26
shade do your thing, but matcha can be really, really helpful
10:29
because of that L theanine and because of the way that the
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caffeine is released. Is it slower versus coffee tends
10:35
to have a stronger spike, which can cause anxiety, it can cause
10:39
stress, it can cause a stronger your cortisol response in the
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body. So that's something that I would
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really, really think about is making that switch even just for
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those days when you are focused and you're wanting to work on
10:51
something. Probably my biggest thing for
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being able to focus is sleep and really, really optimizing my
11:00
sleep. I actually just created a really
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good sleep stack, which I'll share with you in a moment.
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But when you are able to sleep, your brain is cleansing itself,
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right? That's why when you don't sleep,
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you feel kind of groggy in the morning.
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So when your brain is able to clean itself and you wake up and
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you're like, wow, like bright eyed and bushy tailed, you're
11:19
able to focus better. So prioritizing your sleep,
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going to bed at the same time, waking up at the same time,
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allowing yourself to actually sleep well, not scrolling before
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you go to bed, getting blue light blockers.
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I'll put it in the show notes. I have a link to my Amazon store
11:34
and I have blue light blocker recommendation, some different
11:37
things that help and promote sleep.
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If you're interested in me doing just an episode on sleep, you
11:42
can comment and I'll share a lot of the recommendations because
11:45
I've done extensive research on how to sleep well because I I
11:48
feel it's the most important foundation for the rest of our
11:52
physical life. What I like to do to sleep well
11:54
is number 1. I don't do screens an hour to
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two hours before bed. I wear blue light blockers.
12:00
Sometimes I will take a hot shower, especially if I work out
12:03
in the evening, I'll take a hot shower and that can help.
12:05
I also will take two different supplements, so I take
12:09
magnesium, I take magnesium glycinate and I also take L
12:12
theanine. That will help me sleep.
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So those are the main things that I do to promote sleep.
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And that has a cascade effect on the rest of your life.
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I've talked about this in other episodes, but the cascade effect
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is essentially that every single thing that you do has a ripple
12:27
effect into the rest of your life, right?
12:29
Going to bed and scrolling before you go to bed is not just
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15 minutes of scrolling before you go to bed.
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It's lower quality sleep, right? It might be programming your
12:39
subconscious mind for something you don't want because we know
12:42
that's when our subconscious mind is more open when we're
12:44
falling asleep. And so if you're scrolling Doom
12:48
TikTok or like conspiracy theory TikTok, and that's what's going
12:52
into your brain before you go to sleep, I'm sorry, but that is
12:55
not good for your subconscious mind.
12:57
That is instilling fear, that is instilling scarcity, that's
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instilling all sorts of programming you don't want to be
13:02
instilling, right? So that is the cascade effect
13:05
I'm talking about. And that's the cascade effect
13:06
that sleep has on your ability to focus.
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It directly impacts it. So if you're struggling to
13:12
focus, don't just look at that. Look at your sleep as well.
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The other thing that I have found this has been an absolute
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game changer for me is containing my tasks.
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So I film content every week, right?
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And my goal is always to produce 14 reels.
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Do I always produce 14 reels? No.
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But what I always do is I always will film a certain amount of
13:34
time each week and I will always write reels a certain amount of
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time each week. What that allows me to do is I
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say OK on Mondays for an hour and a half, I'm writing reels.
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I know I only have an hour and a half and my goal is to write 7
13:48
reels. So if I don't get it done, that
13:50
means I don't hit my goal of 14 reels produced a week.
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So if that's the case, I'm going to be a lot more focused because
13:57
I'm very clear on what do I what do I want to accomplish in that
14:00
time? And I'm very clear on I only
14:04
have this certain amount of time, right?
14:05
I can't lollygag because I have a bunch of other stuff going on
14:08
that day. So when we feel like we have
14:11
endless time to do something, it's going to take up that time,
14:15
right? They say that the task will take
14:17
up the time that is allotted. It's like if you had A to report
14:21
due in school, a lot of us would wait until the very last minute
14:25
to do it because we had two weeks to do it.
14:27
So giving yourself, even artificially, especially if
14:31
you're in a business, I've learned because I've worked from
14:34
home and worked for myself for a really long time now, that I
14:37
have to give myself that containment or else it won't
14:42
happen or it'll take way longer than it needs to take.
14:45
So that can be exceptionally helpful.
14:48
Another thing that is really exceptionally helpful,
14:51
especially for the female brain, is walks, mini walks throughout
14:55
the day. So I probably go on three mini
14:57
walks throughout the day. They can be 10 minutes, they can
14:59
be 30 minutes, it doesn't matter.
15:01
It could be even 5 minutes. And that is going to reset your
15:05
brain. It is going to open up your
15:07
creativity. It's going to allow you to go
15:09
and sit back down feeling happier, feeling more elevated.
15:13
Honestly, I feel like one of the greatest manifestation secrets
15:16
is just walking. As funny and as simple as that
15:19
sounds, another thing to do for the focus is to delegate things.
15:26
And this is something I struggled with for a long time.
15:29
And that is things that you don't need to be doing.
15:32
And I will qualify this by if something is below a certain a
15:36
dollar amount and I can pay somebody this certain dollar
15:39
amount to do it, I will delegate it and I will have my assistant
15:42
do it or I will hire someone to do it because I want to be
15:46
focusing on the things that have the biggest return on investment
15:49
for me. And I know that I probably have
15:53
four or five hours of exceptional focus, honestly,
15:55
probably 4, maybe 3 some days of exceptional focus a day.
15:59
So I need that to be focused on my biggest, most important
16:03
things, right? Like writing podcasts, writing
16:05
content, doing, doing courses and creating courses for my
16:09
clients. Things that are going to have
16:11
the biggest bang and that I can't pay someone else to do
16:14
that is going to be exceptionally helpful for you.
16:17
So think about what is something and if you're like, well, I
16:20
can't afford to delegate it. Maybe you can trade with
16:22
someone. Maybe you can get creative.
16:24
Maybe you cannot buy as many lattes each week or spend as
16:28
much money on X so you can delegate those things.
16:31
That's going to free up energetic energy.
16:34
I posted about this on my story The Energetic ROYI love this
16:37
concept. I learned it from one of my
16:39
coaches and it's the idea that every single thing you buy
16:42
doesn't just have an ROI or a lack of an ROI, but there's also
16:47
this energetic ROI, meaning that you can gain positive energy
16:51
from it. And energy is the most important
16:54
thing, right? It's everything.
16:55
So I'll give an example. So I just bought a new car and
16:58
it's a self driving car and I was really excited to manifest
17:02
it. And then as soon as I got it, I
17:04
was like, Dang, did I make a bad decision?
17:05
Did I need to kind of those old stories coming up?
17:08
Did I need to get a new car right?
17:11
Programming. Then I realized I've had this
17:14
car for only two days now. I was like, wow, I feel so much
17:18
more relaxed when I drive. I love being in this car.
17:22
I love how good it feels to drive to Del Mar or drive here
17:27
or drive to these different places where I live because I'm
17:30
just chilling, right? And I get to experience this
17:33
really cool technology that is an energetic ROI, my relaxation,
17:38
the calming of my nervous system.
17:39
I texted my mom and I was like, this is healing my nervous
17:41
system because you there's not a ton of energy going into
17:46
driving, but there is a, a portion of your energy, right?
17:50
So you want to think of where can I get an energetic ROI by
17:54
delegating certain things that I hate doing or I really dislike
17:59
doing, right? If you really dislike doing your
18:01
taxes, hiring an accountant, right, doing the seeing, where
18:06
can I give myself back more energy?
18:09
Because that is going to have a compound effect in your life and
18:12
in your bank account. And then the next one for focus.
18:15
This one is juicy. I love this one is rewiring your
18:18
subconscious patterns and limitations.
18:21
So something I very, very often see is people will come to me
18:25
and they'll be like, I want to start a business.
18:28
OK, we'll use a coaching business, for example, they'll
18:30
say, but I really struggle to, I'll sit down to write content
18:33
and I'll just feel blank in the brain or I feel like I can't
18:36
focus or, all right, I'll sit down to have a conversation with
18:40
someone and I feel like I'm just distracted.
18:42
That to me is a very clear signal, like a, a red light
18:46
flashing that there are some subconscious blocks around what
18:51
you are trying to accomplish. Because when we feel like we
18:54
just can't focus, when we feel like we're procrastinating, when
18:57
we feel like we're making excuses to do something, it is
19:00
because on some level our subconscious mind fears that
19:04
that action will produce something that's unsafe.
19:07
So for the coaching business example, right, the fear could
19:10
be that if I build this coaching business up, then I'm going to
19:14
be so stressed out that I'm going to neglect my health.
19:19
And I don't want to neglect my health.
19:20
I did that in the past, right? That was one of mine personal
19:23
story. Another one could be that if I
19:26
make a lot of money, then my family is going to judge me and
19:29
they're not going to want to be around me because they always
19:32
talked about how rich people are greedy, so I don't want to make
19:34
a lot of money. That leads to procrastination
19:37
and not being able to focus and creating content.
19:40
That's how clever your mind is. Another one could be that you
19:44
want to create content for your business but you are terrified
19:48
of the judgement and the negative comments that can
19:50
happen if your content starts to do well and go viral.
19:53
So you will feel blank in the brain.
19:55
Or maybe you'll be less creative or you'll not have any ideas
19:59
around creating it. It's amazing to me how if our
20:02
subconscious mind doesn't want something, it's like shutting it
20:05
down, right? That door is closed, locked and
20:07
the key has been thrown away. That's why another reason I'm so
20:11
big on rewiring your subconscious mind.
20:14
And again, if you want help with that, that's what I do inside of
20:17
my programs. It is what I have spent my life
20:20
studying and becoming an expert at.
20:21
So if you're interested, send me either an e-mail at hello at
20:26
genditzy.com. I will put that e-mail in the
20:30
show notes below this episode that says the Word Podcast or
20:34
send me a message on Instagram at alignment with Jen with the
20:38
Word Podcast and I'll send you a video on that program and the
20:42
process that I use. The next thing, this is the last
20:45
habit I have for you and I have a couple of little mini habits
20:48
is dopamine stacking. I did a whole episode on
20:52
dopamine. Go listen to that episode.
20:54
It's called the dopamine trap. So I'm not going to go into it
20:57
here, but if you are using cheap sources of dopamine like
21:00
scrolling, a bunch of texting, things like that, what is
21:03
happening is that you're depleting your dopamine for
21:07
being able to focus as much. I highly recommend a focus is
21:10
big for you. Listen to that episode.
21:11
So what you can do is you can design your day in order to
21:15
promote the positive forms of dopamine, right?
21:18
So staying off your phone for the first certain chunk of the
21:21
day, first hour, 1st 30 minutes, whatever it might be, right?
21:25
Designing your workspace so there's less distractions, using
21:29
music and headphones things. All these things are going to
21:33
allow you to promote and create positive dopamine that will
21:37
allow you not only to want to do the task 'cause it will feel
21:40
good, but also to allow you to stay focused during that time.
21:44
Something to know as well is when we are starting a task that
21:48
isn't super, super dopamine rewarding isn't like super
21:52
enticing like eating a delicious cookie.
21:54
Say we're sitting down to write a podcast episode, for example.
21:58
Yes, that's rewarding, but sometimes there can feel, you
22:01
can feel that resistance, even if it's something you want to
22:03
do, you need to get past the 10 minute mark because at the 10
22:07
minute mark we get a hit of dopamine and then we get even
22:10
more dopamine throughout and then at the end.
22:13
So if you can get past that little part, you're going to
22:15
feel better. And then if you do the Pomodoros
22:18
and you do 25 minutes, you're going to get a hit of dopamine
22:21
for getting to check off that. You did that one Pomodoro,
22:24
right? That one focus block.
22:27
So that can be exceptionally, exceptionally beneficial for
22:29
you. OK, this is the last one.
22:31
I'll say using meditation as a break.
22:33
So what I will often times do is at like 2:00 or 3:00 PM when my
22:37
brain feels kind of foggy, I will meditate to kind of clean
22:41
out my brain and that can help me to refocus as well.
22:45
So I hope that you try some of these habits and I hope they're
22:48
exceptionally helpful for you. Please leave a comment and tell
22:51
me which ones you found the most valuable and I will see you in
22:54
the next episode. Bye.