Latest / Do You F*cking Mind? / 2025 Rebrand & Glow Up Day 7: Effectively directing your focus

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2025 Rebrand & Glow Up Day 7: Effectively directing your focus · Do You F*cking Mind?

0:15
Speaker 1: Hello, beautiful beans, and welcome to day seven of our
0:21
Speaker 1: stunnin cute ten day life race at So let's get
0:26
Speaker 1: straight into it, short and sweet. This episode is how
0:30
Speaker 1: to Be More is about how to be more selective
0:34
Speaker 1: with your attention. Okay, because I hear a lot of
0:38
Speaker 1: different things about attention, whether you have great attention spans,
0:43
Speaker 1: whether you have attention deficit disorders, attention in general. What
0:47
Speaker 1: you want to look like is we all have attention.
0:51
Speaker 1: It is where you direct your attention that makes the difference. Okay.
0:56
Speaker 1: I heard someone recently say about ADHD. Oh, we don't
0:59
Speaker 1: have a lack of attention, it's we pay attention to
1:02
Speaker 1: too many things. So I guess what we're trying to
1:05
Speaker 1: then change is our focus, not our attention, if that's
1:09
Speaker 1: what we're talking about, because I you know, everyone's going
1:13
Speaker 1: to have different attention spans. People are going to have
1:16
Speaker 1: their attention pulled in certain you know, in all different ways.
1:19
Speaker 1: So what we want to be focusing on is how
1:21
Speaker 1: to direct our attention in order to focus and stay
1:27
Speaker 1: focused on something. Okay, because I don't think any of
1:30
Speaker 1: us are actually lacking in attention. Whether you have ADHD
1:34
Speaker 1: or not, we have it. Abundance of attention. It's just
1:38
Speaker 1: not going where we want it to go. Okay, So
1:41
Speaker 1: the first thing, these are things I've spoken about on
1:43
Speaker 1: the podcast I will that will be my disclaimer, but
1:45
Speaker 1: across it many different episodes, we're bringing it into this
1:48
Speaker 1: one episode. The first thing that I want you to
1:50
Speaker 1: do is get rid of the concept of multiple tasks
1:54
Speaker 1: at one time and not yet like multitasking, but even
1:59
Speaker 1: stricter than not multitasking, because I think when you hear
2:02
Speaker 1: the term multitasking, you think, oh, yeah, I'm trying to
2:05
Speaker 1: do these two very different tasks at the same time,
2:10
Speaker 1: Like I'm trying to you know, I don't know, write something,
2:15
Speaker 1: work on like a UNI thing, but I'm also doing
2:18
Speaker 1: house jobs in between and in between and this and that,
2:21
Speaker 1: and switching multitasking is just switching focus. The only time
2:27
Speaker 1: you can actually multitask is if you are doing one
2:31
Speaker 1: task that requires focus and another task that does not.
2:36
Speaker 1: So for example, driving while talking. Driving once you know
2:41
Speaker 1: how to drive, does not require intense focus. It requires awareness,
2:45
Speaker 1: but it doesn't require like don't talk to me. And
2:48
Speaker 1: you know when you first start driving, when you get
2:49
Speaker 1: your license and you're like you kind of people talking
2:52
Speaker 1: in the car, you're like, oh my god, I'm like,
2:54
Speaker 1: you're on high alert. But then eventually it becomes autopilot.
2:58
Speaker 1: You become so good at it, you become so used
3:01
Speaker 1: to it that it doesn't require high levels of focus.
3:03
Speaker 1: So then you're able to have conversations, You're able to
3:06
Speaker 1: have debates, you're able to there's a lot of crazy
3:10
Speaker 1: level of higher order thinking that can occur when you're
3:14
Speaker 1: also driving. But I'm talking about doing two tasks that
3:17
Speaker 1: require focus and switching between them rapidly. This is what
3:20
Speaker 1: we're going to cut out because that is a shore
3:22
Speaker 1: fire way to reduce your ability to focus and stay focused.
3:28
Speaker 1: Because in order to be focused and stay focused, it
3:30
Speaker 1: requires a minimum threshold of time, and that minimum threshold
3:34
Speaker 1: of time varies from person to person, but it's at
3:38
Speaker 1: least a couple of minutes. And this is the whole
3:40
Speaker 1: idea of getting in the zone. Getting in the zone
3:44
Speaker 1: is when you are focused on a task with no
3:47
Speaker 1: distractions for long enough that you then notice yourself drop
3:51
Speaker 1: into this state. It's a calmer state. It's a state
3:55
Speaker 1: where you can be like, I don't feel time, I
3:58
Speaker 1: don't feel and you're not aware of it because you're
4:01
Speaker 1: so in that state. But it's this you're not really
4:04
Speaker 1: aware of the passage of time. And that's that's the
4:06
Speaker 1: sweet spot, because you are so focused on something right now.
4:12
Speaker 1: To drop into that in the zone, that zone, that
4:16
Speaker 1: focused state, that flows state, as some people call it.
4:20
Speaker 1: I really like the name too. You it requires time.
4:25
Speaker 1: You cannot just drop into a flow state at any point.
4:28
Speaker 1: And the big problem for most of us, or I
4:31
Speaker 1: don't know about notice, but a bunch of us, is
4:33
Speaker 1: that we try to be focused, but we're not doing
4:36
Speaker 1: it properly because we keep switching our focus from task
4:38
Speaker 1: to task. And then we say, I'm not creative, I'm
4:42
Speaker 1: not academic, I'm really bad at focusing, I'm not this,
4:46
Speaker 1: I'm not that, I'm not not no, no, Before you
4:48
Speaker 1: make a statement like that, you've got to exhaust all
4:51
Speaker 1: options before you can say that you are not creative.
4:53
Speaker 1: You've got to exhaust all options before you can say
4:56
Speaker 1: you are not book smart or academic. How are you
5:00
Speaker 1: applying yourself is the question? Okay, how do you allow
5:05
Speaker 1: yourself to drop into a focused state? How often do
5:10
Speaker 1: you allow yourself to drop into a focused state? How
5:12
Speaker 1: much time do you give yourself before you're like, fuck
5:15
Speaker 1: this on board on whatever. And for a lot of people,
5:18
Speaker 1: there's not much time. They give you a couple of minutes,
5:20
Speaker 1: I can't do this shit, or it's there and their
5:22
Speaker 1: phone is on the side or is there and they're like, oh,
5:24
Speaker 1: I'll quickly reply to this email, and they get back
5:26
Speaker 1: to the time replied to this email and get back
5:27
Speaker 1: to the tip that's at no point, at no point
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Speaker 1: have you dropped into a zone or a focused state.
5:36
Speaker 1: And the quality of output that you get when you're
5:40
Speaker 1: in a focus state versus a non focused, not in
5:43
Speaker 1: the zone, multiitasking state is crazy. When I was writing
5:50
Speaker 1: all three of my books, I remember every time, because
5:54
Speaker 1: none of us are perfect. I'm aware of this about
5:57
Speaker 1: getting in the zone and whatever, and I dearly would
6:00
Speaker 1: set up my writing times to do that. But there
6:03
Speaker 1: were times where I'd be a bit flustered, bit like
6:05
Speaker 1: all over the place, and I'd be doing, you know,
6:07
Speaker 1: multiple things, and I'd sit down to write, but I'd
6:09
Speaker 1: be responding to this, responding to that, my phone would
6:12
Speaker 1: be open, and then the following day so I'd have
6:16
Speaker 1: a really scattered kind of writing session and then the
6:19
Speaker 1: following day and not feel good about it be like, oh,
6:22
Speaker 1: I don't know how good that. I'd look back on
6:25
Speaker 1: what I had done and be like that was trash
6:28
Speaker 1: and I can do better. So then I'd allow myself
6:31
Speaker 1: to actually get in the zone. I would cut off
6:33
Speaker 1: distractions which I'm going to go into in a second
6:35
Speaker 1: time block, and I would sit there and really drop
6:40
Speaker 1: into the zone. No one's fucking with my time, no
6:42
Speaker 1: one is interrupting me. My phone is not only on silent,
6:45
Speaker 1: but it's a way okay, and I've got a good
6:49
Speaker 1: forty minutes to drop into this zone. Well it takes
6:52
Speaker 1: me just way less than that. And I start writing
6:54
Speaker 1: I'm not loving it, not loving it, and then boom,
6:56
Speaker 1: something hits. Then I'm like, oh, I can dive deep
6:59
Speaker 1: into this. It's triggered another day. Now my hands can't
7:01
Speaker 1: keep up. I can't fucking keep up. And I've got
7:03
Speaker 1: this idea. I want to talk about this. I want
7:05
Speaker 1: to I've probably written like four times more than what
7:08
Speaker 1: I wrote the day before. And I like what I
7:12
Speaker 1: wrote because I allowed myself to get into the state
7:14
Speaker 1: where my brain is loose and it's flowing with ideas
7:17
Speaker 1: and it can't keep up with the ideas that are
7:19
Speaker 1: coming in and it's just like yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,
7:22
Speaker 1: and not all of it is great, but there's so
7:24
Speaker 1: much more there that I can pick up a lot
7:27
Speaker 1: of things that I'm very happy with. So when I
7:30
Speaker 1: reflect back on the day prior, I'd be like, oh,
7:33
Speaker 1: that was forced. It doesn't flow. It's just me trying
7:35
Speaker 1: to get shit at. And when I look at it
7:37
Speaker 1: that day, when I'm allowing myself to drop into a
7:39
Speaker 1: good flow state, I'm like, seventy percent of this is
7:42
Speaker 1: good that I'm happy with that, I'm happy putting that
7:45
Speaker 1: work out there, that I'm happy submitting this to my publisher.
7:48
Speaker 1: I like this. It needs to be tied it up.
7:51
Speaker 1: It's not perfect, but I'm happy with this stuff because
7:54
Speaker 1: I got into that flow state. When you don't allow
7:57
Speaker 1: for creativity, you will not be creative. And the same
8:01
Speaker 1: thing goes for you know, the fact that we never
8:02
Speaker 1: allow ourselves to get bored, where constantly I need to
8:05
Speaker 1: be entertained at all fucking times. I can't get bored
8:07
Speaker 1: because I'm a fucking three year old. You are allowed
8:11
Speaker 1: to be bored, and it's very good for your brain
8:13
Speaker 1: to be bored. It's good. And if you're a parent,
8:16
Speaker 1: fucking teach a children to be bored. Obviously, boredom for
8:18
Speaker 1: a child is a lot less time than boredom for
8:20
Speaker 1: an adult. I'm not gonna go into that, but boredom
8:24
Speaker 1: is healthy because it allows our brains to become creative forces,
8:27
Speaker 1: creativity sense sense. The next thing you're gonna do, which
8:36
Speaker 1: I brushed on, is time block. Time blocking is one
8:40
Speaker 1: of the best ways to enhance focused attention. So it's
8:45
Speaker 1: exactly what I was talking about before. You've got to
8:47
Speaker 1: give yourself minimum time. But you've got to be clear
8:49
Speaker 1: on what time blocking means. Time blocking is not well,
8:52
Speaker 1: I mean my version of time blocking. It's not setting
8:55
Speaker 1: a forty minute timer. There's the time. I'm gonna work
8:59
Speaker 1: for forty minute and then I'm going to rest for
9:02
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes, and in these forty minutes are going to
9:04
Speaker 1: be on my emails, and then I'm going to be
9:06
Speaker 1: doing a bit of work and then I'm going to
9:07
Speaker 1: be here, And I've got to be clear on what
9:09
Speaker 1: is my task for the next forty minutes. If it
9:12
Speaker 1: is replying to emails, it's going to be like I'm
9:13
Speaker 1: going to reply to all these emails and I'm going
9:15
Speaker 1: to get back to these text messages, and the whole
9:17
Speaker 1: forty minutes is on replying to things. Okay, fine, but
9:20
Speaker 1: then the next task is I'm working on this essay,
9:23
Speaker 1: and when I'm working on this essay, i am not
9:27
Speaker 1: having my phone go off. Everything's on do not disturb.
9:30
Speaker 1: I'm not checking my emails. I'm not. When you time block,
9:32
Speaker 1: it's going to be one task at a time. We're
9:36
Speaker 1: talking high focus tasks. If you're time blocking to clean
9:39
Speaker 1: the house, you're just doing whatever you can do, because
9:40
Speaker 1: it's not a high focus task. When we're talking about creativity,
9:43
Speaker 1: when we're talking about doing your uni work, when we're
9:45
Speaker 1: talking about studying all of that, working on projects, we
9:49
Speaker 1: are talking about one task and it is focused. If
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Speaker 1: you time block forty minutes, but you're flipping between tasks,
9:55
Speaker 1: you've defeated the purpose off the time block. The time
9:59
Speaker 1: block is a block of time untouched. It is sacred
10:04
Speaker 1: where you are dropping into that zone that's the flow state.
10:08
Speaker 1: And the more you do it, the quicker you get
10:09
Speaker 1: into that flow state. And there are going to be
10:11
Speaker 1: days where you just can't get into the flow state.
10:13
Speaker 1: But it's about more often than not, is what we're
10:16
Speaker 1: aiming for. Okay, you want to have if you do
10:19
Speaker 1: something consistently enough, then you can allow for twenty percent
10:22
Speaker 1: shit days, thirty percent shit days, because at the moment
10:25
Speaker 1: we're doing ninety percent shit days. Okay, so you're you're
10:28
Speaker 1: going for more often than not. So it's a numbers game.
10:31
Speaker 1: There's going to be some days where maybe something's happened
10:33
Speaker 1: to me today, maybe I'm heartbroken at the moment, maybe
10:36
Speaker 1: my mind is absolutely preoccupied and I'm just not able
10:39
Speaker 1: to drop into that flow state. That's fine. But if
10:42
Speaker 1: I were to dedicate forty minutes to this one task
10:45
Speaker 1: twice a day, every day, it's a numbers game. I'm
10:48
Speaker 1: getting used to it. I'm training myself how to drop
10:50
Speaker 1: into a flow state, and I get really fucking good
10:52
Speaker 1: at doing that. Okay, so time block properly. It is
10:54
Speaker 1: one task, one high focused task at a time. Then
10:57
Speaker 1: when that timer goes off, you can then take that
10:59
Speaker 1: ten to fifteen minute break. You can return to that
11:02
Speaker 1: same task, or you can think, well, I'm done for
11:05
Speaker 1: the day with that task. I really don't. I was
11:07
Speaker 1: able to dive in deep. Now I'm going to change
11:10
Speaker 1: that task and do something completely different, one thing at
11:13
Speaker 1: a time, and you get it done so much better,
11:15
Speaker 1: so much faster. The quality of the output is incredible. Okay,
11:21
Speaker 1: the next thing that I want you to do is
11:23
Speaker 1: change up your location. So you got more like so
11:25
Speaker 1: a bit more heightened. You're more primed to be like
11:28
Speaker 1: if you're too relaxed, if you're too sloppy, lying in bed,
11:34
Speaker 1: fire and you're trying to do a high focused task,
11:36
Speaker 1: that they're not conducive to high focus. Okay, if you're
11:39
Speaker 1: just browsing on real estate dot com, fine, be in bed,
11:43
Speaker 1: that's fine. But if we're talking high focus, you need
11:46
Speaker 1: to prime yourself to be in a high focus state.
11:48
Speaker 1: That is why changing your locations and studying out if
11:51
Speaker 1: a library or cafe and changing it really goes a
11:54
Speaker 1: long way to increasing your focus because you're in a
11:56
Speaker 1: new environment. It's just slightly more primed to be like,
11:59
Speaker 1: oh little bit more aware and you are like thing
12:02
Speaker 1: like just more oh and you just focus better. So
12:06
Speaker 1: change your environment if possible. Prep prime yourself beforehand. Get
12:10
Speaker 1: into a good physical state. Like I spoke about yesterday,
12:13
Speaker 1: we're talking, we're doing deep breaths, we're opening up our posture,
12:17
Speaker 1: we're stretching. If we need to all these things help
12:19
Speaker 1: us before we start with that time block to drop
12:22
Speaker 1: into the zone. Okay, and then the last thing that
12:25
Speaker 1: I want you to do is create a priority list,
12:29
Speaker 1: because what we are all so fucking good at and
12:31
Speaker 1: this is a killer for our focus and our attention
12:35
Speaker 1: is we will write a list of things to do,
12:38
Speaker 1: and we either do the short, quick things first because
12:40
Speaker 1: so we can tick them all off, or we'll do
12:42
Speaker 1: the urgent things first. But too many things in that
12:45
Speaker 1: urgent category that they're not urgent urgent like, yeah, it
12:49
Speaker 1: needs to get done, but we say to ourselves, oh
12:53
Speaker 1: my god, this email is so urgent, it's going to
12:55
Speaker 1: be at the top of the list whatever. And then
12:57
Speaker 1: by urgent, we could have gotten to it in the
12:59
Speaker 1: afternoon or at midday, but we leave all the important
13:03
Speaker 1: things to the very end because we're like, oh, that's
13:06
Speaker 1: a bigger project that's going to take more time. So
13:08
Speaker 1: because of that, you never get to the important things.
13:10
Speaker 1: I want you to flip that around. Firstly, what is
13:13
Speaker 1: really urgent as in what has to be done in
13:15
Speaker 1: the next hour, And you're going to find that not
13:17
Speaker 1: much is going to fall into that category. Maybe something's
13:19
Speaker 1: but not much Apart from that you're going to dedicate time.
13:24
Speaker 1: You dedicate the time. I can't tell you how much time.
13:26
Speaker 1: Everyone's got their own, you know, bandwidth. But then you're
13:29
Speaker 1: going to the most important things. What is a priority
13:32
Speaker 1: for me, What has to happen in order for me
13:36
Speaker 1: to look back at the end of the year or
13:38
Speaker 1: the end of the week or the end of the
13:39
Speaker 1: month and be like, I finally started working on that thing.
13:43
Speaker 1: Because if you don't turn it to priorities at the start,
13:47
Speaker 1: and other things that are smaller and easier that don't
13:49
Speaker 1: require high focus can go after. If you don't do that,
13:53
Speaker 1: then you're going to be sitting in the exact same
13:55
Speaker 1: position in a year's time, two years, five years, being like,
13:58
Speaker 1: I really want to start this business, want to start writing,
14:00
Speaker 1: I really want to start it. I really want, I
14:03
Speaker 1: really want, I really want. Okay, the reason you're not
14:07
Speaker 1: is because you're actually all these quote unquote urgent things first,
14:11
Speaker 1: or the easy, shorter jobs first. You get all that
14:14
Speaker 1: shit done, and by the time you do have time
14:17
Speaker 1: to dedicate yourself, you are mentally drained. You're at your capacity.
14:21
Speaker 1: You're like, I'm over it now, I want a doom scroll. Okay,
14:26
Speaker 1: So we need to turn our priorities around and like
14:30
Speaker 1: the real priorities need to be higher up in the day,
14:33
Speaker 1: when you've got bandwidth, when you've got focus, when you
14:37
Speaker 1: have that energy in your brain to actually pay attention. Okay,
14:41
Speaker 1: So to summarize one thing at a time, no multitasking,
14:45
Speaker 1: and no multitasking means no multitasking. Okay, time block, but
14:50
Speaker 1: do it properly. With the no multitasking, remove yourself from
14:54
Speaker 1: the location, get into the right physical state whenever possible,
14:58
Speaker 1: remove yourself from the location, and then create a legitimate
15:00
Speaker 1: priority list and get really strict on what urgent actually means,
15:05
Speaker 1: what can be done later in the day, what actually
15:08
Speaker 1: has to be done now, And that list you're going
15:12
Speaker 1: to get a lot smaller. And then you're gonna do
15:14
Speaker 1: what's a priority for me, for my future self, for
15:17
Speaker 1: my fulfillment, to feel like I'm working on my purpose,
15:20
Speaker 1: on my why whatever. Where can I bring that higher
15:23
Speaker 1: up in the day and dedicate time to that. Give
15:25
Speaker 1: it a go. Write all that shit down, write all
15:28
Speaker 1: that shit down, keep it at the top of your mind,
15:30
Speaker 1: the top of your awareness. That is all for today.
15:33
Speaker 1: Love you guys so much. I will see you here.
15:36
Speaker 1: I will see you when I'm looking at you tomorrow.
15:39
Speaker 1: Good times, and as always remember be kind to yourself,
15:42
Speaker 1: be kind to your brain, don't take shit from anyone,
15:44
Speaker 1: and especially don't take shit from yourself. Dugger