On the surface, there isn’t much to the popular plastic-tomato-kitchen-timer-based productivity system. Take a deeper look behind it’s simple facade, and you’ll find something quite profound. And perhaps most importantly, it’s something that is easy to miss when trying the system out for yourself.

What is the pomodoro technique?

The Pomodoro Technique uses a timer for tracking work sessions, and subsequent break sessions. Francesco Cirillo, the technique’s inventor, accomplished this by using his kitchen timer that looked like a tomato*, which led to the quirky name: tomato, or pomodoro in Italian.

How does pomodoro work?

The process has two stages, a work block and a break block—here’s a look at one simple round.

• Set timer for 25 minutes
• Work for 25 minutes
• Set timer for 5 minutes
• Take a 5-minute break

Beyond that, the times are entirely customizable. You can do any work/break split that helps your brain the most — and it requires a bit of experimentation.

I’m studying a relatively complex subject to prepare for a certificate program this fall, and have experimented with using around 200 of these work/break blocks (so far).

For efforts that require multiple elements of working memory held in place, longer work blocks are most effective for me. My favorite splits have been both 60/30 and 90/30.

The truth is, when it comes to how long your work and break times are, there is no “right” or “wrong” way to do it. Just like most things, it’s all about trial and error. Try experimenting with what might work best for you — the type of work you’re doing will influence the results, too.

What’s important to note is that there is a way to do the pomodoro technique that largely defeats its beneficial outcomes. Interestingly enough it’s more related to the fun part of the technique — the break or reward. Speaking from experience, this is the most common reason the system doesn’t work for many people who try it.

Fortunately, there is a better way — and if it hasn’t worked well for you in the past, it’s worth another look.

The problem with pomodoro

Realistically, the biggest flaw of this system is the one I hear most commonly, and one I was guilty of myself. When the work timer ends, we don’t want to stop, and I can understand why. Especially for the attentionally-diverse brains* out there, deep focus is a golden gift — one that comes at no small cost. The last thing anyone would want to do after achieving that state is leave it, right?

*You know, the ones that decide to use words like attentionally.

If the point of the pomodoro technique is to achieve superhuman levels of focus and productivity, why should you stop once you get there? Why take a break and have to go through the effort of getting in the zone all over again… isn’t that missing the point?

No, it’s not missing the point — and to understand why that is, we have to go deeper… into emotions.

The kid doesn’t trust you… yet

Imagine that you have a child. If you have a child above the age of five, imagine… your child. You’re spending the day together, going to the park, reading some books, and playing with Legos. After a fun day, it is time to clean up.

The problem is, no one likes cleaning up Legos—especially six-year-olds. So as the adult, you cut a deal.

Alright kid, if you spend 25 minutes cleaning up these Legos, we’ll go get an ice cream cone to celebrate.

You, the very much adult

The kid considers the deal, and shakes on it — who can turn down ice cream? You set a timer for 25 minutes, and the clean-up process begins. It takes a while to pull out the bins and find a groove, but the little one completes the task as agreed. Sure, there are still other things to clean up, but after 25 minutes a ton of progress is made.

Excited for ice cream, the kid feels a sense of satisfaction for completing the task, and is ready for the reward.

Oof, you know what—we’re on such a roll, let’s just keep cleaning. I don’t think we have time for ice cream today, anyway.

You, still the adult

Not only does this more or less ensure a meltdown, but it’s setting the expectation for future arrangements. In short, the kid can’t trust you — and trust takes a long time to rebuild. Adding to this predicament, kids don’t really know how to communicate that lack of trust. So when it comes time for the next clean-up, they procrastinate, complain, and drag their feet.

We’ve all seen it (and experienced it) before.

These seemingly insignificant violations of trust, when repeated over and over, build a pattern which starts to look a lot like avoidance. Procrastination. The things that, as adults, we beat ourselves up* about thus continuing the pattern.

*why am I the way that I am??

So about this kid…

Here’s the kicker, which may by now be obvious. That kid we were just talking about isn’t your kid or (anyone else’s kid for that matter). That kid, is you — your inner child — or as I like to refer to it, your emotional self. It’s that feeling in your gut, the tightness in your chest, along with the full range of wonderful and horrible emotions that we experience as humans.

In my experience, one of the most impactful perspectives to take is this: all those human feelings we feel are just the inner child trying to communicate its current status.

In the same way that a kid doesn’t really know how to effectively communicate what they need at a young age, your inner child doesn’t either. It can’t say words, so it communicates through a complex language of emotions — which are a major piece of how (and why) we do* anything at all.

*or don’t do…

Just think, when you’re excited about something, how quickly do you jump up to take action? How hard do you work at it? When you’re dreading something, how about then? Both cases are just driven by emotions.

What about the adult?

In the ice cream story above, the adult is your big-old human brain. The “if-we-don’t-get-this-done-we’re-a-failure” adult brain trying to keep the chaotic train of modern life on the tracks. And hopefully going vaguely in the right direction.

The managing expectations, calculating future consequences, if this happens I’ll die alone, adult brain. Luckily, the brain is the negotiator and deal-maker in the relationship. Constantly navigating the messages that the child is sending up through emotional messages passed through the nervous system.

Interpreting those messages isn’t as obvious as it seems* — it’s like speaking any language, it must be learned and practiced. But whether you think they are or not, they’re there — and they’re motivating a lot of the action (or inaction) in your life whether you like it or not.

*This is where things like yoga, meditation, and breathwork come into play. Slowing down enough to actually bring awareness to your body and the feelings it’s sending you.

As an adult in this world, if you have the awareness to see it (therapy can help uncover this), you are constantly navigating these two parts of what you most often refer to as ‘I’ (or, ‘you’ depending on how the voice in your head is reading this right now).

When the emotional self is ignored, dismissed, told to suck it up, and lied to, that pattern continues over years and years, getting deeper and deeper. All of a sudden, these things look more like a character flaw than a long-built habit. Eventually, the negative thought cycles as an adult reinforce the pattern more deeply. “Ugh, why am I so bad at focusing? Why can’t I just sit down and do this?”

One might literally feel incapable of doing certain things based on this feedback loop.

Thus, a new paradigm is needed. A self-compassionate practice with exposure therapy, taking small but consistent steps to rebuild the trust that was lost. It is but one small piece of the puzzle, but perhaps you see where I’m going with this.

The secret pomodoro sauce

Set a timer for 25 minutes, settle in, work on something until the timer goes off, then stop.

Get up, stretch, eat a snack, or heck, go get ice cream. Celebrate.

Most importantly, let go of the expectation that this is supposed to “work” immediately. It’s going to be uncomfortable because it’s a departure from what you’re used to — but that’s the entire point.

Start small, and work your way up to longer sessions over time if that’s what works best for you. If a work session runs over by a minute or two, that’s fine. If every now and then you’re on such a hot streak that it doesn’t make sense to stop right now, that’s fine, too*.

You’re allowed to be gentle with yourself! Really!

The point of pomodoro isn’t to trick yourself into focusing on a task you didn’t want to do. It’s not about achieving a state of deep focus and then staying there for as long as possible.

It is about creating a trusting relationship with your child self over the long term. When done with this approach, it creates a new dynamic entirely. It is about managing negative emotions in a healthier way as an adult, listening to our bodies and our emotions while repairing a long-strained partnership.

In effect, it’s about working a system that allows you to heal your relationship with focus and work. It’s about reducing the effort required to start, focus, and get into that zone over the long-term. It’s not a quick fix, it’s healing self-work. That means you can use this system for all kinds of things — creative work, reading, etc. If it’s always a grind when you set the timer, that adds negative reinforcement to the system so mix it up!

“Healing work with a tomato timer? Come on, Anthony.” I can hear you thinking it. But it is just one of the many small ways we can begin to approach our lives and work with compassion and understanding. Without giving it to ourselves, there’s no way to truly understand how to give it to others. It has to start with you.

The ironic part about all of this, is that this method eventually becomes so much more wildly productive than any other approach. Not in the sense of “look at how much more I can get done now that…”, but in the way of, “look at how productive I am when I allow myself space throughout the day while listening to (and meeting) my emotional needs!”

Maybe it falls under the slow is smooth, smooth is fast principle, or something similar.

What I do know for sure is that strong negative emotions take a lot of energy to overcome. They’re incredibly draining, and can often throw multiple days askew. There is a dang good reason that parents of young children adhere to strict schedules of bedtime routines and naps for their kids. When those emotions are high to the point of fight-or-flight levels, mental recall declines, working memory suffers, and it takes even more energy to accomplish the tasks required.

Thus, the cycle continues and burnout is always around the corner.

Two steps back

There is an inherent “two steps back, one step forward” aspect to all of this. If you’re used to using adrenaline as focus motivation, it’s going to be hard to unwind. It’s, yes, going to actually slow you down at first. It’s going to take a lot of patience and effort to break the patterns of dependency on that style of work. But there is a better way — and one worth exploring.

While there are many ways to approach rebuilding self-trust, using a little plastic tomato timer is absolutely one worth exploring.

The post The Pomodoro Technique: A Deeper Look At The Simple Productivity System first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post The Pomodoro Technique: A Deeper Look At The Simple Productivity System appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Wall Street Journal Best-selling Author, Joshua Becker, joins me to discuss the ideas behind his new book Things That Matter, and catch up after a two-year Break the Twitch podcast hiatus. Pre-order his new book, coming out April 19th anywhere books are sold. Or right here.

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Do you want to live a meaningful life—with very few regrets—and make a positive difference in the world? But is culture distracting you from doing so? Perhaps moments, days, and years go by without you stopping to ask yourself, Am I living out my true purpose? Even if that question whispers to you, are you brushing it aside because you don’t know what to change in life’s busyness?

Things That Matter is a book about living well. It’s about overcoming the chatter of a world focused on all the wrong things. It’s about rethinking the common assumptions of today to find satisfaction and fulfillment tomorrow.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books A Million | Target | Walmart |  iBooks 

Mentioned:

Becoming Minimalist
Charlie Gilkey
The Hope Effect

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Every review we get helps boost the Break the Twitch podcast so we can reach more people.

Watch the BTT 035 conversation:

The Break the Twitch podcast is an interview-based podcast hosted by Anthony Ongaro featuring guests from all walks of life on living better and doing more of what matters. See previous seasons, episodes, and the latest news on the Podcast page.

The post Things That Matter with Joshua Becker first appeared on Break the Twitch.

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Emotions comprise a huge part of how we experience the world, so if they’re ignored, we’re missing a major piece of the puzzle—especially when it comes to understanding ourselves. It starts with awareness, simply feeling and identifying what emotion is currently being experienced. From there, we can understand what that particular emotion is asking for, and find a healthy way to meet its attachment (in other words, what that emotion is asking for).

It might be helpful to think of emotions like an inner child—one who is simply expressing what they need in the only way they know how. Understanding how to interpret and meet these needs for the inner child means fewer “tantrums” that lead to twitches. Understanding the emotion being felt, what that emotion is asking for, and a healthy way to meet that need, makes day to day intentionality much easier.

Four Basic Emotions (And What They’re Asking For)

ANGER: Outrage, Hostility, Agitation, Annoyance, Irritation

Anger can be triggered by many things, but some examples of prompting events are:

• Believing you’ve been treated unfairly
• You or someone you care about being attacked or threatened
• Losing power, status, or respect
• Not having things turn out as expected
• Physical or emotional pain

ANGER NEEDS:

Most often, anger is the result of a hurt that needs to be expressed, heard, or validated. When anger is repressed, it might not even be felt fully—which makes it even harder to know when to act on meeting the need it’s asking for.

There’s a reason that anger often turns to sadness, grief, and tears when it does get intense—hurt causes a complex array of emotions and sadness is a part of it.

FEAR: Anxiety, Nervousness, Shock, Worry

Fear is a completely natural response to perceived (and real) dangers. There are many things that can trigger fear—even if nothing happens in the actual environment we’re in.

• Being threatened
• Being in a similar situation where you’ve been hurt in the past
• Being alone, or simply in an unfamiliar situation
• Having to perform in front of others
• Flashbacks, etc

FEAR NEEDS:

Comfort, reassurance, and validation. It’s often helpful for fear to be expressed, externalized (get it out of your head) and comforted. Sometimes we simply need reassurance that things will be okay. Other times, we need to have our fears validated and heard by others, so we don’t feel so alone with them. That can be enough to comfort the anxiety about a situation. Journaling is a way to externalize fear without requiring another person.

Remember that these emotions are your inner child expressing what they need in the only way they know how. Pushing them away, dismissing, or entirely ignoring these feelings will not solve the problem. It will only build up over time—and if you have kids you’ll know, it becomes a tantrum.

Explore ways to comfort and ground yourself in mind and body. Yoga, meditation, weighted blankets, breathing, strong pleasant scents, etc.

SADNESS: Grief, Despair, Defeat, Depression, Dejection

When dealing with loss, things going worse than you expected, or not getting something that you worked for, it’s natural to feel sadness. Every emotion fulfills a purpose, one we need to fully process the difficult events in our lives—so it’s there for a reason.

• Losing something or someone irretrievably
• Not getting what you have worked for or believe you need in life
• Being rejected, disapproved of, or excluded
• Being with someone else who is sad or in pain
• Feeling alone or isolated

SADNESS NEEDS:

Support, acknowledgement, and expression. Much of the time, sadness needs to be expressed to feel better. Expressing it to another person in an emotionally safe relationship can help provide the support we need to process and feel the sadness.

SHAME: Embarrassment, Humiliation, Self-Conscious, Shyness

Shame is one of those emotions that can be incredibly difficult to allow ourselves to feel and process. It feels awful, and can manifest in different ways, but generally is one of the few emotions that doesn’t serve much positive purpose to feel. It’s an incredibly powerful emotion, and understanding it really helps process where it’s coming from.

• Being rejected by people you care about
• Having others find out that you have done something wrong
• Being laughed at/made fun of
• Being reminded of something wrong or shameful you did in the past

SHAME NEEDS:

Empathy, understanding, and compassion (most often, self-compassion). Mistakes are bound to happen. No one is perfect, yet the feeling of shame can be a crippling one. It’s in the moments when we think that we deserve it the least, that we need compassion and understanding the most. Few positive things come from shame without understanding, compassion, and empathy. Without them, we learn to avoid and hide from situations that have caused us shame (and have potential to cause it again).

The post What Your Emotions Are Asking For (And How To Answer The Call) first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post What Your Emotions Are Asking For (And How To Answer The Call) appeared first on Break the Twitch.

I registered my first email account, and it was a beautiful thing. Every email I received was from a friend, family member, or somewhere fun. Dialing up the internet on my 14.4k modem was always something to look forward to. Those days are long since gone, and in the always-on instantly connected world, my love of email dwindled.

Substantially.

Instead of looking forward to seeing what might be there, I often feel like I’m opening a credit card statement to see how much I owe this month. Will I be able to pay off this email debt today? Am I overdue on any of these accounts? When we start talking about multiple email accounts, it all gets worse.

When we start talking about doing the debt reduction snowball strategy but for an email inbox, you know things have gone far beyond okay. About two months ago, I connected with the team over at Superhuman—and after giving their approach to managing email a shot, I do believe the game has finally changed.

A Universal Problem With Wonky Brain Challenges

Is it a to-do list, an electronic mailbox, or a unique identity used to access most parts of the internet? Perhaps it’s all three—and none? What I can tell you, is that whatever it is, it doesn’t work well for my brain. My brain seems to be running on overdrive—in this way, having ADHD can be both a blessing and a curse.

On one hand, I’m constantly curious, wondering about things, and considering answers. The thoughts running through my head are either working through problems, smashing ideas together, or creating solutions to things I’m thinking about.

On the other hand, it’s incredibly difficult to turn this “feature” off. Everyone has challenges with this at different levels, so perhaps it’s a familiar struggle. You might find that the only way to relax is to distract yourself or zone out with the twitch—it’s a way to check out without actually slowing down and letting your brain rest.

If anything, this is made even more difficult when there is a plaguing feeling of having forgotten something. Few things produce more anxiety for me than worrying about something I might be forgetting or a message I’ve forgotten to respond to.

For most people, whether you have ADHD or not, focusing on a single task is nearly impossible if you’re worried about a million other things.

There are a bunch of ways to remove distractions, like turning off notifications and deleting addictive apps, but there are limitations. If your job or work requires you to be on social media, it creates quite the conundrum.

In that way, it would be nearly impossible to not have (and manage) an email address in our modern world. Because of that, I’ve found that Superhuman is a great tool to help manage what might come across as a necessary evil. It works so well, that I decided to partner with them. No joke, I hit inbox zero, meaning, I had no emails in my inboxes at all, for the first time that I can remember. It has been years, and that’s why I’m writing about it here.

Things I’ve Found Helpful With Superhuman

• Superhuman is optimized to use hot keys, so you never have to touch your computer mouse.
• You can create artificial intelligence-driven rules to automatically split your inbox into different categories, so you always see the most important emails. (I use this to split out all calendar invitations)
• Remind me is one of my favorite features. I used to leave emails sitting as “unread” in my inbox if I didn’t know what to do about them yet. But if I accidentally clicked on the email and forgot to “mark as unread” it would disappear and likely be gone forever. With reminders, I can pick a specific date and time, typed in natural language, and it will come back and remind me then.
• I schedule loads of Zoom calls through email. Whenever I start typing a date, Superhuman automatically pulls up my calendar on the side and offers to create an event (with an automatic Zoom meeting link built right in) and takes care of everything.
• Finally, everyone that signs up for Superhuman gets a one-hour onboarding session to quickly learn all the hot keys and functionality. It’s a premium product, and this onboarding session helped me overcome the “false first step”—where you sign up for something, but then get overwhelmed and don’t use it. It was a huge benefit for me in getting started quickly.

There is one thing that might prevent some from trying it—it’s definitely on the high end of software when it comes to cost. Right now, it’s $30/month for the software, which is definitely pricey. For how efficient it is, I find that saves me more time and anxiety than any other solution I’ve found. There’s no perfect solution for everyone, so you’ll have to decide if the cost is worth the benefit for you personally.

Productivity At Large

Productivity doesn’t always mean working—to be more productive it means being focused on work, fully present in play, and truly relaxed during rest. To achieve that, you have to set up your life in a way that allows you to slow down, be where you are, and focus on doing whatever it is you need in a given moment.

Superhuman has helped me a lot—I can’t see myself using anything else from here.

If you’re interested in giving it a try, I have a unique referral link: superhuman.com/anthony — use it to sign up, and you’ll get to skip the waitlist and get started with superhuman right away. It is a premium email client with a premium price, but I’ve found it to be well worth the cost.

The post My Thoughts on Superhuman — A Super Fast, Premium Email Client first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post My Thoughts on Superhuman — A Super Fast, Premium Email Client appeared first on Break the Twitch.

We had the honor of hosting Cait Flanders for an open discussion on slow living, boundaries, and embracing stillness. Cait is the Wall Street Journal Best-selling author of The Year of Less, and Adventures in Opting-Out. This is a recording of the low-key discussion we had with fellow Attention Collective members—and some great considerations and contributions at that.

This is a great conversation to listen to if you’re wanting to step into a slower pace with more space in life. Enjoy!

The post An Open Discussion with Cait Flanders on Slow Living [Member Content] first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post An Open Discussion with Cait Flanders on Slow Living [Member Content] appeared first on Break the Twitch.

If you’ve heard about minimalism, you probably know a big part of it is about living life with less stuff. Since embracing a more minimalist lifestyle starting in 2014, I’ve never looked back. Getting started with minimalism involves honestly assessing all the items in your life. What started as an intimidating process has now helped me become more confident, not just in a social context, but also in making decisions.

Minimalism has helped me in more ways than one. The minimalist lifestyle has also opened me to new and diverse experiences. Besides, becoming a minimalist has made my life a whole lot easier! 

Let me tell you not just one, but fifteen ways minimalism makes my life better. While some of them are in good fun, hopefully they inspire you to get started on living a more minimalist lifestyle.

15 Benefits Of A Minimalist Lifestyle

1 / Tidy Fridge, Less Spoiled Food

Look at your refrigerator. I mean, look inside it. Is it easy to see everything you have in there? If you haven’t been living a minimalist lifestyle, chances are, your fridge is filled with slowly rotting vegetables or leftovers from weeks ago. This is a sign that your refrigerator needs decluttering. Having an uncluttered fridge also means easier meal prep. It’s easier to see what you have and make plans for meals, so you have less spoiled food. 

2 / Less Misplaced Things

Okay, so maybe you’ll still misplace a thing or two. However, it won’t be such a chore to look for your sunglasses or car keys with minimalism. By assigning a space where you can place these small items, you know you can quickly locate them throughout your house. While you may still misplace things, at least you’ll have an easier time finding them in an uncluttered environment.

3 / Closet With Clothes You Actually Wear

“I might wear this someday.” This is the most commonly used line when people try to declutter their closets. If you can relate, perhaps you have clothes in your closet you’ve never worn or, maybe, you’ve only worn them once. Some clothes in the closet might not even fit you anymore. In comparison, a minimalist’s closet is filled with clothes that actually fit, in addition to clothes that you actually like wearing. 

4 / Getting Ready Takes Less Time

Another plus of having fewer clothes and belongings with a minimalist lifestyle is getting ready takes less time! With the non-essential items decluttered, and the essential items more organized, it’s much easier to get dressed and out the door. 

5 / No More Kitchen Cupboard Jenga

Let’s move to the kitchen. If you’re stacking up your kitchenware like you’re playing Jenga, you can see how that version of the game is less fun and more dangerous. By decluttering and organizing your kitchen cupboard, you create more ease and space.

6 / Clearer Workspace For Greater Focus

Keeping a clear workspace saves time and allows you to focus better on the task at hand. It’s a little bit like magic. It’s not just about clearing your workspace, but really more on the fact that by decluttering, you are allowing yourself to focus on your current priorities. This is one way that minimalism makes my work life so much easier to manage.

7 / Less Stuff, More Money

If you buy less stuff, you save more money. While this is pretty obvious, it’s not just about saving money. A minimalist lifestyle helps you realize your buying habits. It helps you question whether or not you actually need something. There are also instances where minimalism can help you make some money back. When you declutter, you can also sell certain items rather than donating or giving them away. Cha-ching!

8 / No More Storage Fees

With less stuff, there’s no need to pay for storage costs. About 1 in 10 American households use storage units, with the average rental length being 15.8 months according to Extra Space Storage (AARP Magazine, April/May 2021 issue). The cost to rent a storage unit averages $103.59 per month in New York City. With minimalism, you can say goodbye to those storage fees! 

9 / Garage Space For Your Car

If you’re not paying for a storage unit, perhaps you’re parking your car in the driveway because your garage is full of stuff you don’t really use. By keeping less stuff, you can finally park your car in the garage! 

10 / Lighter Laundry Days

As a minimalist, laundry days are easier. Before, I had this habit of prolonging laundry day by wearing clothes I didn’t like when I ran out of the clothes that I liked wearing. The resulting piles of laundry used to take me hours! Nowadays, laundry only takes about one to two loads every one or two weeks, and I’m done.

11 / Unexpected Guests, No Problem

Have you ever been stressed when your friends or family unexpectedly drop by to visit you? Here’s another secret. With minimalism, seeing unexpected guests is a lot less stressful! With an uncluttered living space, there is minimal to no clean-up needed when guests come by. 

12 / Cheaper, Lighter Travel

Traveling light means you can carry on your luggage and save money on checked luggage fees. By taking only what you need, there’s less weight to carry, and there isn’t a struggle to fit everything inside your bag. Go minimalist with your luggage, and you’ll have more bang for your buck when you travel. 

13 / All Your Pens Work

Isn’t it the worst when you pull a pen out, and it doesn’t work? A minimalist would have gotten rid of those dead pens a long time ago. By practicing minimalism, you can be sure that all the items you find in your home are ones you can actually use.

14 / Goodbye Overstuffed Drawers

Say hello to the standard household drawer. In most homes, it’s probably overstuffed with items like chargers, cables, papers, and pens that probably don’t work. With minimalism, there are no more overstuffed drawers! Drawers are tidy and organized with the things you use and need. 

15 / Less Of A Visual To-do List

Finally, when you’re a minimalist, there’s less of a visual to-do list everywhere you look. Instead of seeing projects and random things that need to be done, you can actually relax or concentrate on the task at hand. 

Minimalism will look different for everyone. But the small day-to-day actions and habits really do add up. As you declutter your life, you’ll find that with a more minimalist lifestyle, it becomes easier to do more of what matters every day.

The post 15 Ways A Minimalist Lifestyle Makes Your Life Better first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post 15 Ways A Minimalist Lifestyle Makes Your Life Better appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Amy and I decided to make this month’s Attention Collective theme slow living and stillness, and that choice might seem a bit odd at first. “Anthony,” I hear you say. “Haven’t we just gone through the longest involuntary slow down in recent history?” You’d be making a valid point.

The last year has been vastly different for everyone, but it undoubtedly has impacted us all. For many; it brought a lot of isolation and boredom. Parents with school-aged kids I’ve spoken with actually got busier too, managing homeschooling, daycare, and more on top of everything else.

For me and Amy, the year has been one of intense introspection and personal therapy work. It’s been the first time I’ve done therapy since a stint during my initial ADHD diagnosis at eleven years old. While it was a choice to dive into that, it made for a pretty rough year. Toss in the isolation of the pandemic and that we had just moved to a new state toward the end of 2019, and more often than not, I felt like a mess trying to keep it all together.

Here’s the thing, the only reason we’ve been able to dive into this incredibly life-changing-but-painful work is because we slowed down. After deciding to take a break from video production work early in 2020 and then the pandemic sealing the deal, it was inevitable. Between that work and speaking gigs, we’d been on 17 round-trip flights that year, and it wasn’t going well.  Even then, I knew we were running ourselves into the ground and something had to change.

If anyone can understand having resistance to slowing things down, I can assure you, it’s me. My brain works at 300 miles per hour, and sometimes goes that fast in seven different directions simultaneously.

When you add a constant (yet unconscious) feeling of needing to prove myself, do things the hard way, and a healthy dose of crippling perfectionism, things get… not slow.

So if you’re skeptical, I understand. I hope you’ll consider the following lessons and observations from my own journey into slowing down. Doing so is difficult work in itself, taking small changes over time, but the benefits do begin to outweigh the challenges as you go.

Slowing down increases awareness

The deeper I look, the more I find that the seemingly spontaneous actions in my life have an underlying motivator. Our attention speaks to us. A river of emotion carries us through life, and slowing down allows us to feel where we’re headed. Sitting with difficult emotions in the moment gives us the bandwidth to navigate them in mindful ways.

The faster I move, the less attention I pay to the nuances of what I’m feeling in a given moment. Without that awareness, my needs go unseen and tend to escalate, often with results that look a lot like the Twitch.

Slow living doesn’t necessarily mean doing less

An essential part of the ongoing effort to break my own twitches is to be more present in any given moment. The less present I am, the more frequently I get to a place where I need to cope with those built-up, ignored emotions. The Twitch provides a quick numbing and temporary escape from those feelings when it becomes an emergency.

It’s a desperate act from my attention to get the relief it needs once I’ve passed the “manage this in a healthy way” threshold.

For me, presence simply means feeling what I’m feeling, checking in with myself, and addressing what I need in a given moment without dismissing it. As you might imagine, the slower I move, the easier it is to do.

This presents a challenge, as there are only 24 hours in a given day. When our obligations demand more time and attention than we have available to fulfill them, going slow really isn’t an option.

I visualize this predicament as juggling balls being thrown into the air. With just one, you can toss it up and catch it consistently. You can even hold the ball for a while and take a break between throws. Add another, and the difficulty increases, but it’s still doable. At three, we’ve reached the reasonable, “most people can learn to do this” level where it still feels pretty natural. After that, things get tricky.

The more balls you add into the mix, the higher and harder you need to throw each ball to give yourself time to catch the others. The higher the throw, the higher the propensity for a small error to become a big one, making the ball harder to catch on its way back down. This follows the concept of Essentialism and its philosophy of creating margin in your life.

Slowing down doesn’t always require doing less, but it’s hard to imagine that doing so wouldn’t naturally lead to it. If slowing down allows fewer mistakes and more time to adjust to them when they do happen, why wouldn’t that be the most appealing option? Especially after trying the alternative for 20-some years, it really starts making sense.

Stillness isn’t all-or-nothing

We humans have a knack for taking things to extremes, don’t we? With our 30-day detoxes and meditation challenges, we live win or lose, pass or fail lives. Much of it is brought on by cultural norms of success, but we participate in it, too. I’m guilty of these types of initiatives myself; they’re not necessarily a bad thing.

I deeply understand the appeal; these types of lifestyle experiments can help guide us towards more intentional lives. They give us a chance to try out new things and see what works by making a commitment to sticking with it for a while. The problem arrives when this all-or-nothing mentality gets in the way of implementing important changes long term.

Stillness doesn’t need to happen on a meditation cushion, on a beach, or in a hammock. It doesn’t need weeks of planning nor a plane ticket, either. A moment of stillness can be a deep breath in and out while sitting in your car after pulling into your driveway. It can be a hug held ever-so-slightly longer than usual. Stillness can last for a single moment if it means waiting just one second longer before acting on an impulse you feel.

If you allow yourself to let go of the expectation of what slow living and stillness needs to be, you give yourself freedom to practice it in creative and helpful ways.

Moving quickly can be a way to avoid discomfort

If it has been difficult to let yourself rest, I understand. Much of my own drive to do, do, do has derived from a feeling of never being enough unless I was doing something. Even if that something wasn’t productive at all, I’d do anything to distract myself from bathing in the scalding waters of my own perceived shortcomings.

In this way, making efforts to slow down must be paired with self-compassion; it is essential to foster a non-judgmental attitude to cope with the discomfort that comes along with it. This isn’t personal development as much as it’s healing emotional trauma. It’s a long road with lots of bumps along the way, but small acts of self-compassion make these feelings more manageable as you go.

Stillness is never completely still

Another note for the “impossible expectations” category: there is no perfect level of stillness. We’re always breathing, ebbing, and flowing along with the currents of life. Our cells are constantly dying while new ones are created, with our bodies and minds in perpetual chaos at the atomic level. We are in constant motion.

Stillness can simply be something that looks like mindfulness. Focus on our breath while walking, doing chores, or choosing to do an activity in a way that decreases the pace of our lives. Stillness can be a simple decision to leave space in between meetings and activities when scheduling our day.  Give your future-self some compassion and room to breathe.

Make slow living your own

No matter what, there’s no one “right” way to slow down and practice stillness in your life. Everyone is different, and how I do it might look a lot different from you. Do what you can to ask yourself, “Is this working for me?” And “How would I do this if I could work in a way that is best for me?” When life presents an option A and option B, look for your own option C.

In an upcoming article, I’ll share more ideas on how I’ve been practicing this and include some thoughts for implementing them in your own life if you’d like to explore this further. Make sure to sign up for email updates below if you haven’t already.

The post 5 Reasons To Embrace Slow Living & Stillness In Your Life first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post 5 Reasons To Embrace Slow Living & Stillness In Your Life appeared first on Break the Twitch.

The idea of self-compassion is a pretty tough sell for most people, including me. It took me about seven years of writing here (and about a year of therapy to dig even deeper) to begin understanding its role. Even now, understanding is one thing, but actively practicing it is something else all together. It’s a skill that requires building to be effective.

The post Break the Twitch Building Blocks of Self-Compassion [Member Content] first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Break the Twitch Building Blocks of Self-Compassion [Member Content] appeared first on Break the Twitch.

As you walk out the front door, you do a mental check to make sure you’re not forgetting anything. “Keys, wallet, phone. Check.”

The classic three-tap check hasn’t failed you. The smell of fresh pinewood brushes your nose as you step down the stairs of your wooden porch. On the second step, it happens — again.

Your foot breaks through the wooden stair, sending you tumbling. It’s not like you stomped on it with all your strength; you expected more from the high-quality lumber you installed recently. It was more like stepping through a soggy saltine cracker, the board crumbling to pieces.

“What the hell!” You proclaim, frustrated. “I just replaced that step a few weeks ago. How can this be happening again?”

On your way back from work that day, you swing by the hardware store to pick up yet another board, this time even stronger wood than the last one. After dusting away the splinters, the new board and a couple of nails secure the step back in place. At least you’re getting better at replacing steps now, you figure. Good as new — but you’re frustrated. You’re tired of bruising your shin, twisting your ankle, and taking a spill every time this stupid thing breaks.

It’s not just the physical injuries, either.

There are all kinds of consequences when this happens. You end up late to wherever you were headed, you feel flustered and disheveled. You assume that your poor craftsmanship is to blame for why the step keeps breaking. Not only that, but you must be a pretty terrible carpenter for something so simple to break this many times. This shouldn’t be that hard.

Enough Is Enough

Frustrated, you reach a breaking point. “GAH! I can’t keep living like this.” You devise a 30-day, no-step-breaking detox. For the next month, you’ll use the back door instead of the front. It’s inconvenient, and it’ll cause some discomfort, but hey, there’s no way your foot is going through that front step this way.

The perfect plan.

Over the course of the month, you trip over a tree root or two, but it’s not a big deal because that front step remains unbroken. Success.

A week or two in, you discover a new issue where you keep stubbing your toe on the kitchen table leg because the light switch is on the other side of the room from where you have to exit in the morning. Basically, just bumping around in the dark. So there are still issues, but just… different ones.

One month later, you did it. The step remains unbroken and while you may have gotten a little roughed up along the way, there were no major injuries. Success. Happy with your progress, you begin using the front door again, but now you try to avoid that second step as much as possible.

Two weeks later, you’re running late, carrying a few too many bags for one trip and making your way out the front door, when CRACK. The step breaks, and you take a tumble that looks like the spring fling love-child of a somersault and a cartwheel. It’s not pretty.

“How can anyone be so bad at this?”
“You’d think I’d be better at this by now.”
“Why can’t I avoid this fate? What’s wrong with me?”

Looking For Answers

While I could continue this lovely little lumber analogy, I think that gets us where we need to be.

The deeper I go into understanding the Twitch, the more it seems a lot like the above story. In an attempt to solve what seemed like the problem, I’ve focused far too long on the symptoms and largely ignored what I now know to be the underlying causes.

The Twitch is an impulsive, unproductive response to discomfort — a distraction from what we don’t want to feel in a given moment. It comes in many forms, but it can manifest as everything from online purchases to social media scrolling, and beyond. It can look like avoidance of a task, a person, or procrastination that sabotages us from reaching our real potential in work and life.

In many of those Twitch’y moments, it feels uncontrollable. We wonder why we can’t seem to get our act together or figure out how to live more intentionally. Rationally, we know it’s not good for us to be on screens for multiple hours per day, or spend money that would be beneficial for us to save, yet for some reason it still happens.

Well, the Twitch (and the mechanism that drives it) isn’t operating from a place of rationality.

It isn’t an act of the conscious mind; it’s a subconscious behavior, desperately trying to protect us from something we fear (even if it’s ourselves). It distracts us from feeling what we’re not ready to feel and gives us something stimulating to avoid it.

Distractions Can Be Helpful

Sometimes, we need to rely on distractions to get us through a time of distress when we don’t have space or emotional capacity to deal with the actual issue in the moment. This is an actual strategy from Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, or DBT for short. Distractions let us cope with difficult situations and help get us through — nothing to be ashamed about. We rely on these tools to help us cope until we can dive deeper into figuring out the underlying issues.

But that’s exactly the thing — these Twitches themselves aren’t the problem that needs addressing. It’s not that working on being more intentional will ever be a bad thing. It’s just that, as you’ll see below, there’s more to the picture when viewed holistically. To live more intentionally from a place of maintaining our lives in a healthier way long term instead of depending on these Twitch-like coping strategies, we need to dig deeper.

We have to look under the deck where it’s dark, musty, and can be pretty scary.

The Analogy Breakdown

Jumping back to the story we began with, let’s look at how this all comes together.

The wooden step breaking is the symptom of the underlying problem. Sure, a broken step is a problem, but it’s not the problem. You might assume it’s your incompetence, the quality of the wood you’re able to get, or anything else on the surface. Without the broader awareness and acceptance that allows you to see things for what they are, you’ll continue focusing on this step as being the problem.

Buying a new board for the step is using a distraction to cope with the pain of the problem you see. Sure, they keep breaking, but you can solve the problem for the time being by installing a new board. It resolves the issue of no longer having a step there, definitely. But it does not address what’s causing it to break so often in the first place.

Anxiety is always thinking this might be the time that your foot goes through the board. Never knowing when it’s going to snap, always wondering if you’ll make it down without injury. It’s the fear you feel and the desire to avoid the pain if it were to happen.

Procrastination and avoidance is the unconscious habit built over time as your subconscious works to avoid painful experiences. As the fear builds, you begin taking longer to get ready to leave, and you drag your feet when it comes time to go. You might even avoid dealing with the issue entirely and just try skipping that step entirely. Over time, you begin forming beliefs about who you are as a person based on these unconscious habits.

“Oh, I’m just late all the time, that’s just me.”
“I’m really not a social person, I hate leaving the house.”
“I’m just a bad planner, that’s why I’m always scrambling when it comes time to go anywhere.”

The 30-day challenge is like banning yourself from buying anything for a month, deleting social media, going on a super restrictive diet, or whatever else we do to address the Twitch (the symptom).

You won’t break any steps when you don’t walk on them (I assume), but instead other coping strategies and Twitches tend to pop up. If you’re detoxing social media you might then cope with food, like I often have. If it’s not this, it might be that. We all have a variety of ways we deal with painful emotions and discomfort.

An important note here is that these challenges do provide growth opportunities, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with them. I’ve been pushing myself to grow through these lifestyle changes and habit efforts for the last eight years.

I’d be willing to bet that every time you install a step, you’ll be incrementally better at doing it. You’ll learn about carpentry, types of nails, stair-building techniques, and maybe better types of wood along the way that are all helpful!

Every improvement helps you cope with the challenges below the surface. You’re making meaningful improvements in life along the way, too.

But as good as anyone can get at all the above, the problem isn’t the step — or your ability to re-install it.

It’s the termites. (Boom, plot twist right at the end of the movie!)

Looking Beneath The Porch

The termite mound underneath your front porch, unmentioned in the story, is the discomfort causing the Twitch symptoms to occur.

This, is the problem.

There are a myriad of things this hoard of tiny wood-eaters could represent, but to generalize: these are ignored emotions, general emotional dysregulation, unmet needs, not being able to trust ourselves or others around us, and more.

These are the traumas that lead us to prioritize other’s needs over our own, operate in boundary-less ways, emotionally enmesh ourselves with others (our worth is correlated to how someone else feels about us in a given moment), and generally be pretty mean to ourselves.

Without a healthy way to cope with all the above (and so much more), guess what happens? We Twitch. Our attention starts to tell us how freaked out it is by trying to bounce away from whatever we’re experiencing at the moment. It’s why Twitter suddenly becomes so appealing the second we open a new blank document to start writing.

Our attention is speaking to us, telling us what we’re afraid of and what we need right now. In many ways, it’s trying to tell us what our emotions can’t seem to get through. The ones we either ignore willfully or don’t feel at all because we’re not in a position to handle them. Instead, they get compartmentalized and pushed away.

Self-compassion is the process of being kind to ourselves while we figure this out and beyond. Sure, our attention is speaking to us! But if it’s too painful to hear what it has to say, we’re not going to hear it at all. This is a big part of where self-compassion begins to play a healing role, changing the way we speak to ourselves rationally and emotionally.

The analogy falls apart a bit here because I’m not convinced that love and compassion would have much effect on a population of insects, but who knows.

The exterminator is… therapy. With a substantial self-compassion practice and all kinds of work, you could probably find those “termites” and deal with them. But it might take a long time to get there without a good therapist. It’s taken me seven years of writing here and then fourteen months of weekly therapy to get to where I’m now able to see the termites and actually start removing them.

Sure, I was pretty certain there was something under there, but it was far too painful and far too scary to start poking around in the dark beneath the porch. Without self-compassion, seeing what felt like fundamental flaws in my foundation was terrifying. Through a lifetime of coping, the narratives I built about myself, my worth, and my capabilities became so deeply engrained that it simply became who I thought I was.

After spending 25 years replacing steps, railings, and whatever other wooden household metaphors there are, I just got to a place where I assumed that’s how these things worked.

No matter what productivity system I used (what type of wood I used), no matter what tiny habit I implemented (stair-installing seminars), and no matter how much better I got at doing it, the termites kept eating my weekly planner. I think I mixed my analogies there, but hopefully you get the idea.

When steps break every month or two, you just start to believe that’s how steps are supposed to work. You haven’t seen them last much longer than that, so how else would you know they’re supposed to last decades? Maybe you visit other people’s homes, and they don’t seem to have similar carpentry issues, so you compare and feel incredibly inferior. Bleh.

Here’s the thing, while you may have let the termite population grow on your watch, you didn’t put them there in the first place. They were already there when you inherited the house. When you have enough self-compassion, you can start taking accountability for your part in it and start to work on improving the situation.

The Next Steps

Pun… absolutely intended.

As much as I’d love to beat myself up about why it took me so long to see my lack of self-compassion, doing so would be comedic at best, and cruel-if-not-ironic at worst.

The truth is, I wasn’t ready for it. I was too focused on all the symptoms and the surrounding narrative. If anything, spending seven years writing a blog called Break the Twitch should be a good indication of the perspective (fix the symptom) approach I’ve held. It took the time it took because that’s what I needed to go through to get to where I am now. The same applies to you — you might not be ready for it either, and that’s okay.

You may need to focus on decluttering to create some space in your home, on your calendar, or in your mind. You might be ready to implement some tiny habits, practice showing up for yourself, and stepping into discomfort. Perhaps some strategies around overcoming creative resistance and procrastination, and doing work that scares you will hit home right now.

Underneath it all, when you’re ready, you begin practicing self-compassion and listening to what your attention has to say. It’s not easy, but when you do, it’ll be safer to poke your head under the front porch and see what might actually be going on under there.

The more self-compassion you can deploy, the more clearly you’ll see what’s going on around you — and it might be painful. Eh, it’ll most likely be painful. But the kinder you are, the better you’ll get through it without coping in destructive ways.

Two Ways To Practice Self-Compassion

It’s going to take a long while to get those termites out of there. They’re well entrenched and will be quite resistant to leaving their long-time home. Here are some small ways to practice self-compassion — and remember that it’s a practice just like any other habit.

It won’t be perfect, and even struggling with self-compassion deserves… you guessed it: compassion.

1 / Ask yourself this question

“What’s the kindest thing I can do for myself right now?” This is recommended by Dr. Kristen Neff, who literally wrote the book on self-compassion. Ask this question as often as possible, and allow yourself to answer as honestly as possible.

If you’re being honest, the resulting answers will be less selfish than you think, more productive than you think, likely more generous than you think. At least, that seems to be the case for me. Just remember, this is hard. You will screw it up. And that’s okay.

2 / Speak what you’re feeling out loud

When emotions and thoughts are spinning around in our brains and bodies, they’re speaking a different language. We might not be aware of what it is we’re feeling at all. Doing our best to start putting these things into words can be helpful when feeling avoidant but not feeling in control of it.

“I’m feeling frustrated that I can’t figure this out yet. I should be able to do this by now. I’m angry that I didn’t start earlier, and annoyed that I’m still procrastinating now. I’m afraid of what people will think if I don’t do this presentation well. Etc. Etc.”

Whether you say it out loud to yourself or write it in a journal, putting names and words to your experience will help you see things for what they are. Instead of a thunderstorm of thoughts and underlying emotions that just build into a flash flood. Or a better analogy. I’m 2,134 words into this article (and so are you) and my analogy tank is empty.

If you’re like me, you’re not going to feel good at this. You’re going to feel like it’s difficult, like you don’t deserve it, and you just need to be a better stair-replacer. Trust me, I get it.

Take your time, do what you can to trust the process, and whenever you can — ask, “What’s the kindest thing I can do for myself right now?” Oh yeah, and give therapy a shot if you’re willing. It helps.

The post Seeing The Problem Beneath The Problems first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Seeing The Problem Beneath The Problems appeared first on Break the Twitch.

This is a recording of the live workshop on May 10, 2021, at 1 PM EST, featuring Amy Ongaro, on a more compassionate and customized approach to productivity.

We’ve all heard of different productivity hacks and methods—and perhaps you’ve tried a lot of them with lackluster results. In this workshop, we’ll walk through creating a personal productivity plan with a mindful, compassionate approach.

The post Creating A Compassionate Personal Productivity Plan first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Creating A Compassionate Personal Productivity Plan appeared first on Break the Twitch.

We’ve all done it. We start off with the best of intentions to work out regularly or to write daily. The first couple of weeks go great. At some inevitable point, we have a busy day or something comes up—and we fall off. Keeping up a new habit can be hard, but we can significantly improve our chances when we set ourselves up the best we can with intentional readiness.

With intentional readiness, we can reduce the friction and increase the ease in which we do the thing we’ve set out to do. That way, it’s easier to do the thing as planned—even when the unexpected happens or when we’re grumpy or tired. This concept is the opposite of intentional friction—what Anthony has shared—a Break the Twitch concept of adding more difficulty around an action you want to do less of.

A Tool For Change

Back in 2014, I was working full-time in a career that wasn’t right for me. In general, things were fine. I got along with my manager and team members in the office and across the world. I had set boundaries and implemented a work-life balance that was working okay. Even though I told myself that I had a lot to be grateful for, I felt hopelessly stuck and exhausted. Knowing that I was on the wrong career track took a heavy emotional toll on me. I had listlessly looked for other jobs in different fields, but nothing really stood out to me. In the absence of knowing what to do next, I didn’t want to keep on doing the same thing.

To help with the stagnancy I felt, I decided to meditate for an hour every day for three months. Ambitious, I know—not quite what I’d recommend for building a new habit. But I thought meditating for a long period each day would help with the stress; I also hoped some additional clarity would come out of it. I was determined to take on the challenge.

So, I cleared out a spot in the spare bedroom and laid out a yoga mat. I decided that since I was new to meditation, I’d allow myself different variations—listening to guided tracks, meditating with music and without music, going through book exercises, simply breathing, staring at the wall, and even journaling. I had everything for these variations readily accessible for whenever I sat down on the mat. Every night, I sat down on the mat, and the practice began. As long as I did one of the options on the mat for 60 minutes, it counted.

Sticky Status Quo

Unsurprisingly, it was quite difficult to meditate for an hour every day. It would’ve been much easier to turn on the TV or browse the internet like I was accustomed to doing most evenings.

I ended up meditating for an hour a day successfully for a little over two months before I decided to stop. While I didn’t do the full three months, the length of time I did was still an accomplishment. Meditating regularly was easier with a clear intention, with everything ready to go, and with a specific time slot to do it. Even better, doing this helped me gain more clarity. Through all those hours of reflection, I gathered the courage to make a plan to leave my job in the next six months.

The reality is, it’s often the easiest to stick to what we’re accustomed to doing. Meaning that without greater intention and preparation, it’s much harder to build and sustain new habits—especially with life’s distractions and curveballs.

Both Anthony and I have used intentional readiness and intentional friction to significantly change our lives over the years. We use readiness to make it easier to do the things we want to prioritize. Alternatively, we use friction to make it harder to do the things we want to deprioritize.

Intentional Readiness, Defined

Intentional readiness is the practice of preparing and setting up for the action you want to do more of, so it’s easier to do the action when the time comes.

There are three components to intentional readiness—setting your intention, planning and preparing, and scheduling.

1 / Set your intention

It starts with setting the intention. When setting your intention, the more specific you make it, the better. As an example, this could be wanting to eat more vegetables during the week. Even better would be eating one serving of vegetables Monday through Friday.

2 / Plan and prepare

The preparation part is gathering and preparing all the things you need for eating more healthy vegetables. This would include making a list of the vegetables you want to eat, shopping for the vegetables at the grocery store, and then washing, cutting, and storing them in ready-to-go containers in the fridge.

This is the most time-consuming part that many of us skip altogether or scramble to do when we think about taking action. Not having certain things prepared and set out beforehand only adds to the resistance of starting on the task or in this case, eating healthy vegetables. It increases the chances you’ll abandon the effort or postpone it until later.

3 / Schedule it

The final part is scheduling a specific time on the days of the week when you will plan on eating the vegetables. Let’s say you determine the best time would be lunchtime. That means at the designated time when you are about to eat lunch, you have the healthy vegetables ready to go.

Let’s take another example. You start with a general desire of wanting to be more active and exercise regularly. After some thought, you set your intention to go for a 20-minute walk every day. The preparation part would be setting your exercise shoes right by the door and laying out your workout clothes in advance. The scheduling part is deciding when you will go for the walk, ensuring that anyone who needs to know is aware you’ll be busy during that time, and putting it on the calendar.

Intentional readiness combines aspects of preparation and design so that when the moment comes, there is less work and less resistance around whatever your intended action is.

Why Intentional Readiness Is Important

With all the distractions enabled by technology and by our devices, it’s easy for us to be pulled away from what it is we want to do more of—especially if the required steps or components are not set up in advance.

Instant gratification is available at the press of the button across many devices and appliances in our lives. While this is beneficial, this also means that we are getting more accustomed to results and outcomes coming automatically and easily. With the click of a button, we are able to order whatever food or product to our doorstep. We can even have another human complete a task that you don’t want to do—like doing your laundry or running an errand through an app service like TaskRabbit.

This instant gratification doesn’t translate well when it comes to the things that no one else nor a device can do for you. This is why intentional readiness is important. When we practice intentional readiness, we are setting ourselves up with the greatest chance of success. With intentional readiness, even when something unexpected inevitably happens, we’re better prepared to still do that thing.

Focusing On What You Can Control

While it makes sense to just focus on what you can control, this can be easier said than done. Sometimes, because life can be so unpredictable at times, we try to control as much as we can to mitigate the unknown.

We may inadvertently end up trying to control things that we can’t possibly prevent. Things such as emergency situations, traffic, mix-ups, or technical difficulties, to name a few. We try to prevent these by worrying, catastrophizing, or putting off the decision or action. Even within ourselves, there are often seemingly mysterious forces at work (oh, well hello, Twitch). So we blame ourselves for not being able to do better or control ourselves better.

Yet, there is a fair amount we actually can control that we overlook. I smile now when I think back on ways I overly worried about things I couldn’t control, and at the same time, completely missed the things I could control. We can reduce a great deal of suffering for ourselves if we minimize the over-thinking and lessen the under-acting in our lives.

Intentional Readiness and Intentional Friction Combined

You can combine intentional readiness and intentional friction to help with what you’d like to do more of and discourage what you’d like to do less of. Through forethought and customized design when it comes to your goals, you’re focusing on what you can control. While you may have days when you don’t do the thing even with intentional readiness, you’ll have a better track record when you’ve put in the work of setting your intention, preparing, and scheduling.

Do you have things you want to do more of that could benefit from intentional readiness in your life? Give it a try, and remember, what’s more important than good habits is to restart and keep on going.

The post Keep Good Habits Going With Intentional Readiness first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Keep Good Habits Going With Intentional Readiness appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Writing things down on a to-do list is what many of us do, myself included. Not only do lists help me remember what tasks or projects I need to tackle, but they also keep me accountable. Having a way to keep track of things helps me to prioritize and stay organized and productive. But you know that one thing on your list that sits for days without getting done? It’s the one thing that moves from one day’s list to the next day’s and the next day… If you experience this too, you’re not alone. A couple of years back, Anthony came up with a procrastination hack called the Habit Rule of Half. This simple rule has helped us to overcome procrastination and get those hanging tasks done.

Why We Can’t Finish Our To-Do Lists

Some tasks are straightforward and easy. We simply complete the task and move on.

Others aren’t like that. Resistance is what we feel when we encounter certain tasks on the to-do list. Perhaps we’re not entirely sure how to go about the task, and the lack of clarity adds to the resistance. Maybe it’s the fear of failure, of judgment, or of making a mistake. We end up procrastinating and avoiding those things we can’t bring ourselves to get started on.

If there’s any aspirational clutter in the mix, the combination makes it even worse. We feel torn between all the things we want to do and all the things that we need to get done. When we feel the resulting internal tension, there’s an impact on our ability to focus and get started.

It’s common to experience angst when the tasks remain uncompleted and no progress is made—which increases the pressure we feel. The greater the pressure, the greater resistance we often feel. This increased resistance leaves us feeling worse, and gets in the way of completing the task, finishing the project, or reaching the goal.

Applying the Habit Rule of Half

Anthony was determined to find a solution, a procrastination hack, that could help. At the time, we were working hard to build new habits and make progress on the things that were important to us.

He created a simple rule called the Habit Rule of Half, that’s worked well for us over the years.

Here’s how it works. If a task is left uncompleted at the end of the day, cut it in half and add it to the next day’s list. If it doesn’t get done by the end of that day, cut it in half again and add it to the next day’s list. Keep doing this until the task becomes small enough to tackle.

You can apply the Habit Rule of Half to whatever it is you keep on postponing or pushing off. Household projects, work assignments, taxes, budgeting, or researching something. Writing a blog post or making a YouTube video. Even things like walking, exercising, jogging, or bicycling.

For example, you have a goal to jog four miles, but you haven’t managed to break out your sneakers. In this case, you’d cut this in half and write, “jog two miles” on the next day’s to-do list. If you still don’t do it, write down “jog one mile” for the following day. Keep cutting the distance (or the time or the amount) until you make it out the door. Keep on cutting it in half until it gets to a small, bite-sized chunk that seems easy to do.

A More Compassionate Approach

While the Habit Rule of Half is a simple concept, it’s often much harder in practice. The concept goes against what our inner critic usually thinks would be the best way forward. We think, “Well, I’m now behind, so I need to do more to make it up.” So we put more pressure on or add more to the task in an effort to catch up. This may work for some people—but from my experience, this leads to less motivation and greater stress and resistance over time.

Adding more pressure was how I “motivated” myself for two decades—and it worked at best, okay—until it no longer did. Eventually, I burned out. We can also end up getting more overwhelmed or find ways to avoid or make excuses for the things we need to do altogether.

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There are usually reasons why we don’t do the things we want or need to do. As humans, our natural state is to want to do things, to make progress, and to contribute. So if we’re struggling with something, it’s not that we’re lazy or that we’re not good enough. There are usually underlying reasons of fear, insecurity, or self-sabotage happening under the surface. At least that’s what Anthony and I have found.

The Habit Rule of Half can be a more compassionate approach to making progress on the things we feel resistant towards. If a to-do item isn’t getting done day after day, it doesn’t matter how many times you put it on the list. Any small amount of progress is better than the to-do item dragging on unaddressed. In a way, you’re practicing compassion for your tomorrow self by cutting the to-do item in half and seeing how it goes the next day.

The Hardest Part

It can be tempting to think you’re simply lazy if you’re not getting something done—that if you go easier on yourself, you will just continue putting it off. Therefore, as the distance, time, or amount of your task halves, it might not seem like this will help you make any progress at all. And so you continue to put the pressure on. However, this becomes a catch-22, a sort of convoluted avoidance tactic our brains use to keep us “safe” from dealing with what’s under the resistance.

The hardest part is often getting started. Once you are out there walking, you are more likely to actually tackle the original distance or time you wanted to do. This is why the Habit Rule of Half is effective. If we cut what might feel like an overwhelming task in half, starting then seems more manageable. While it’s no magic bullet, it can help in reducing the resistance and making progress. And once we get the ball rolling, it’s much easier to continue the momentum and get into the flow.

So the next time you notice a task moving from one day to the next, try a more compassionate approach with the Habit Rule of Half and see what happens.

The post Overcoming Procrastination With The Habit Rule Of Half first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Overcoming Procrastination With The Habit Rule Of Half appeared first on Break the Twitch.

There are a million different productivity gadgets out there, and unfortunately, none of them do the work for us. One day, I’m sure our artificially intelligent overlords will figure it all out. For now, no gadget out there will magically improve your productivity or reduce your anxiety overnight. I’m willing to be wrong though; if you know of one, I’d sure love to know about it.

At the same time, there are things that can be very helpful in the pursuit of a focused life. Cultivating a focus practice will always take effort, but there’s an opportunity to meet ourselves halfway by adapting our environment, too. Over the years, I’ve found helpful tools for a focused workspace that create an inviting and peaceful environment to get my best work done.

If you notice a pattern of buying productivity solutions that don’t end up getting used much, it’s worth noting. But as long as you’re not just relying on picking up the latest gimmick or gadget, you’re fine! You’re the best judge of what you need and what’s right for you, so explore away. With that in mind, I want to share the things that I’ve enjoyed and found helpful in my own work.

Note: Some links are marked with ‘[aff]’ which means I have an established affiliate relationship with the company mentioned. On those items, I may receive financial compensation (typically between $5-$15 USD) if you make a purchase using one of my links. These proceeds go towards our work here at Break the Twitch and allow us to continue on. We appreciate your support!

Timeular Time Tracker

When I first saw this device a few years ago, I knew I had to try it out. The Timeular Tracker [aff] is a physical way to track time on various tasks without breaking away from the task at hand. Just flip the tracker so that the current activity is facing upwards, and it starts the timer on that specific task.

The tracking device is completely customizable and connects to your computer wirelessly using standard Bluetooth technology. The battery lasts a very long time (I’ve only replaced it twice so far), and everything integrates into their software right on your desktop. While it’s not completely automated, it’s still easy to see where your time is going.

If you need to track billable hours for client work, that’s an option as well. In general, having to stay conscious of task-switching by changing it manually really helps. When you’re paying attention to what you’re doing, it’s easier to avoid distractions.

Comfortable Office Chair

I’m currently using the Soutien Ergonomic Office Chair from FlexiSpot, the same company that makes the standing desk I have. FlexiSpot was kind enough to send over the chair for me to try out and share my thoughts on it.

While standing is great, it’s not super convenient for editing big video projects or using my typical computer setup. Between all the cables, and heavier speakers and equipment on my desk, it’s just better to have it stay still. I’ve been much more comfortable at my desk for longer work sessions in this chair, and I enjoy using it quite a bit.

FlexiSpot Soutien Office Chair (Get $15 OFF) – https://bit.ly/3fuChGH [aff]

I’m somewhat tall at 6′ 2″, so I’d prefer if the arms came up just a bit higher. Other than that, the chair works well and is adjustable to fit most people. It’s definitely a good option if you’re looking for a fully adjustable chair for your office.

A Solid Pair Of Headphones

Music has always been a big part of my life, and I’ve really prioritized my listening experience. The professional sound/audiophile rabbit hole is an endless one, so be warned. A few hundred bucks can get you 95% of the way to a system that costs 10x more. I’ve found a mid-range setup that works quite well for me.

I constantly listen to music because it helps me focus on writing and other work. As such, a good pair of earphones is one of my most important tools for a focused workspace. I have a few different headphones, but I often choose the Sennheiser x Massdrop HD 6XX. It’s an exact copy of the Sennheiser HD 650—a headphone that costs more than twice as much. Sennheiser actually manufactures both headphones in the same factory, with the exact same parts. Massdrop does bulk orders for this hybrid version, which is why they’re able to offer them at half the price. If new to Drop.com, get $10 off your first order here—and I’ll get $10 for referring you.

Most experts recommend using a headphone amplifier with these, but it’s not completely necessary. As a final note, these are “open-back” headphones, so you can hear through them. If no music is playing when I have them on, I can easily hear Amy speaking to me. If you need more isolation from a noisy environment, look for something with a “closed-back”. That will seal off outside noise a lot better and isolate your listening experience.

Bird Sounds

Yes, that’s right. Bird sounds. There is some scientific evidence that nature sounds help ease anxiety and make you feel better, and I generally agree. Some days I’ll have this Spotify playlist playing on a small Bluetooth speaker in the corner of my office.

Throughout the day I feel myself sporadically experiencing that endorphin rush of being outside next to running water on a beautiful day with happy birds chirping. It’s funny feeling that, then remembering where the sounds are coming from. Catches me off guard a bit, but isn’t a let-down at all, it actually works quite well.

Soft Lighting

Most people don’t take issue with lighting until they’ve seen the light. The soft light, that is. Direct or “hard” light creates harsh shadows and reflections, and typically is rather unflattering on faces and spaces.

When taking pictures outside in direct sunlight, you will see the harsh shadows on people’s faces in your pictures. Soft light is just the opposite—flattering to features and doesn’t create harsh shadows in its wake. You can create your own soft light by diffusing light sources with paper, lamp shades, or anything that “filters” the light. I have a temporary setup that works well using lamp cords [aff] and cheap paper lantern balls [aff].

It’s actually surprising how much bad lighting can affect your mood, energy levels, and even give you headaches. You’d think more office buildings would realize that those flickering tube lights are actually causing a decrease in productivity. Oh well.

Silent Timer

I’ve been using a standard kitchen timer to practice pomodoro for a long time. This method uses alternating set times of work and rest periods, typically 25 minutes on and 5 minutes off. One problem is that most timers either flash, click, tick, or move in a way is incredibly distracting.

Enter: Time Timer [aff]. This came recommended by one of our lovely Attention Collective members. It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with this silent timer. I chose the two-hour model, which gives you a full 120 minutes of count down. A colorful wheel silently depletes as your time exits the quantum plane.

You can turn the beeping sound louder or silent it completely if you’d like. This timer is probably among my top three tools for a focused workspace. It’s a fantastic analog way to track work sessions, meditation sessions, and anything else requiring silence.

Acoustic Panels

I’ve found that this is one of the least considered tools for a focused workspace. Acoustic panels really change the energy in a room. A lot of the base-level noise in a room tends to go unnoticed, but subconsciously, we still process it. Rumbling air conditioning, traffic noise from outside, every click of the keyboard, all of these things generate audible commotion. It doesn’t stop there, though. If your room has mostly hard surfaces, each sound bounces on your walls and multiplies in effect. It’s like your room is repeating each sound back to you multiple times.

This is where acoustic panels, rugs, soft furniture, and blankets can really help break up that chaos. The first time I walked into my office after building and installing these panels the silence was actually shocking. In the following weeks, I felt so much more peace when spending long periods of time in that room.

If you’re consistently more irritable in certain areas of your home, this could be something to experiment with. It’s particularly bad in rooms with mostly hard surfaces and nothing soft to absorb the sound reflections.

Here’s a quick test you can try to see if this might help out your space. Point your hands toward one of the ceiling corners of your room, and clap hard over and over. If you hear a “flutter” response (multiple quick clap echos) you’re getting a lot of audible reflections in the room.

Living Plants

It took me too long to figure this out, but adding some foliage to your working space is a wonderful thing. Surrounding yourself with leafy green plants is pretty magical and really changes how it feels to be in a room. I like to imagine myself in a symbiotic relationship exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide with them. A little weird? Sure. We help each other breathe and that’s kinda fun to think about.

I don’t have any specific recommendations here because I’m still figuring out how to keep these things alive. I’m yet to have any idea whether I’m doing it right. In short, consider adding living plants to the list of tools for a focused workspace.

The Office Dog

Now, I’m not saying go out and get a dog if you don’t have one. But, there is something great about the energy that a pup brings to an office. When Rocky was a few months old, trying to work with him around was an absolute nightmare. Every 5-10 minutes he’d hop over to me and chomp down on my toes with his razor-sharp puppy teeth. I struggled to do very much focused work during that period of time, but it didn’t last very long.

Now, Rocky serves as a faithful office couch companion and friendly reminder that I’ve been at the computer long enough. Wouldn’t a walk be so much more fun? Instead of biting my toes, he’ll just tap me on the leg with his paw, which is a nice change.

As I mentioned, there’s really no way to buy our way to productivity. Nothing I’ve found has magically fixed my anxiety or instantly improved my focus. I’ve always had to work hard at it, no matter what environment I’m in. That doesn’t mean it’s not worth experimenting, trying things, and following your intuition on what might help.

If something catches your eye, I’d appreciate it if any of these listed tools for a focused workspace are bought through my links. There’s no shame in trying things, even if it doesn’t work as you might have expected. Just make sure you’re giving yourself the space to put in small consistent efforts along with it, and you’ll be in a good spot. Good luck out there.

The post Helpful Tools For A Focused Workspace first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Helpful Tools For A Focused Workspace appeared first on Break the Twitch.

As mentioned in the article on aspirational clutter, getting rid of the things you do want is a different game—one that may be more difficult than decluttering what you don’t want. While decluttering may seem challenging at first, after some practice, many of us get the hang of it. For those who could use a refresher or if you’re new to decluttering, give the Declutter audio series a listen. You may also find different decluttering methods helpful.

At some point though, you’ll start getting into the aspirational clutter territory. And that’s where many people, myself included, have encountered difficulties in decluttering further.

The post How To Identify and Deal With Aspirational Clutter [Member Content] first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post How To Identify and Deal With Aspirational Clutter [Member Content] appeared first on Break the Twitch.

When Anthony and I first began our minimalism journey, we had no idea what to expect. It felt challenging at first to declutter our things but it got easier as time went on. Over time, we realized that clutter goes far beyond physical things. Clutter exists in digital, emotional, mental realms, and the list goes on. And whether it’s physical or not, one of the most difficult categories to declutter is what I call aspirational clutter.

The Easier Stuff, What You Don’t Want

When we initially started decluttering, our efforts focused on physical things. The idea of going through all the items was overwhelming at the beginning. Also, the decluttering process definitely made the home situation worse before it got better.

It was difficult back then to get rid of things that would be easy now. One item at a time through playing minsgame, I steadily got more comfortable. I went from counting old business cards as items at the start to donating barely-worn clothing and basically-new appliances towards the end. We both did multiple rounds of minsgame that first year, and soon, we began decluttering organically and periodically as we saw fit. I got used to decluttering the things that were no longer adding value to my life, whether utilitarian or sentimental. It got to the point where I didn’t feel like I had many more things to declutter.

So I began focusing on the other areas. Cleaning up, organizing, and deleting old digital files that were no longer useful. Diving into emotions from the past I was holding onto so I could release them. Working to let go of unproductive mindsets and beliefs that kept me from trusting myself and building more confidence.

Aspirational Clutter, What You Do Want

Along the way, I realized there was a whole other category to declutter. One that was vastly different from the things I didn’t want anymore in my life. And that was aspirational clutter. It’s one thing to declutter items that you don’t want anymore. It’s a whole different game to declutter the things that you do want (or think you want).

Aspirational clutter is the excess of what we hold onto for our potential selves instead of who we are and what we’re able to do in the present.

Aspirational clutter can take shape in different forms. It can be the yoga mat you buy (the false first step) after envisioning yourself balancing on one foot under a tree on a beautiful spring day—even though you’ve never tried yoga before. It’s an idea in your head of who you could be if only you had this or that. Maybe it’s a belief that feeling happy all the time is the gold standard and anything less isn’t good enough. It could be a vision of what success looks like to someone else, not your personal definition of success.

Underlying Feeling and Weight

The underlying feeling of not-enoughness that results in holding onto the item or idea is what aspirational clutter causes. Aspirational clutter stems from a (sometimes unconscious) belief you are not good enough. Another form is the belief that you’re not doing enough as you are. So you cling to the physical item, idea, or to-do list item, even though it’s not adding anything beneficial to your life. You may feel a sense of failure, guilt, or shame whenever you see anything that reminds you of what you’re not doing.

There’s also an emotional and mental weight to the aspirational clutter, whether you realize it or not. It’s similar to when your coffee table is cluttered with many different items. You may not notice the stress that the physical clutter is adding because you’re gotten used to it. But once you’ve cleared the table is when you realize how much lighter and more focused you feel. Similarly, aspirational clutter adds additional stress so we’re not as able to focus on what’s going on now.

When we hold onto aspirational clutter, we think about other things when we are doing another thing. We expend energy feeling not-enough and feeling like we should be doing more. Ironically, we can mistakenly think that these are good things. We may think the clutter is good since they are often in the name of personal growth, an increase in social status, or some improvement.

Examples of Aspirational Clutter

Things that used to be aspirational clutter for me were old notebooks filled with my notes from past courses that I thought were important. There were also books that I held onto for later reference, but realistically, were more for who I wanted to appear as than an actual need.

Beyond physical things, I had hundreds of unread emails that I meant to read—of the latest news or research in a field. It wasn’t feasible to read all of them, but I held onto them because what if there was some piece of information in there that could really benefit me?

Aspirational clutter also included definitions of success based on others who were completely different than me. Additionally, I held myself to standards in the past that weren’t for me because I didn’t know who I really was.

Merging the physical, digital, mental, and emotional, was my aspirational list of what I wanted to get done for the day. I’d start each day with so much aspirational clutter that it probably would’ve taken me weeks to do all of the things. Therefore, I’d get two or three things done out of a list of ten things at the end of the day. It’s no wonder I constantly felt like I was behind and that I never had enough time. Even if I didn’t put the thing on my to-do list for the day, I still was thinking about it. I would be reminded of certain things and think about them while working on something else. I didn’t fully realize at the time just how much aspirational clutter was weighing me down.

An Ongoing Process

I’ve since gotten rid of old notebooks and many books. I’ve also unsubscribed from and deleted thousands of emails over the years. Examining my beliefs and ideas is something I’ve spent a great part of the last year doing. Nowadays, I’m much more realistic about what I’m able to take on each day and month. However, it’s an ongoing battle.

Managing aspirational clutter is an ongoing process because there will always be new interests and more things that I want. It’s part of the natural evolution of what it means to be human. As social beings, it’s difficult not to be influenced by others and by what we see. It’s easy to compare and feel like you’re not enough, especially with social media and advertising.

What’s Not Aspirational Clutter

Aspirational clutter doesn’t include the long-term goals you’re working towards or your vision of where you’re going. It’s also not something that you have a use for in your life. It can be tricky at times to tell what is what, but one distinction is whether it’s fully aligned with what you actually want—not what you wish you could be. The other distinction is if you have space in your life right now or an intentional plan for later.

If you have space for and make time in your life to do yoga, even if it is only periodically, a yoga mat is not aspirational clutter. When you have an intentional plan around creating space for a new hobby, it’s not aspirational clutter. I’ve compiled a list of questions I ask myself to help me identify what’s aspirational clutter and what’s not.

Intention is Key

Perhaps, after some reflection, you realize you do have space to take action on the thing. Or maybe you really don’t have the time right now. It’s okay to have ideas and physical items on the back burner for when you do have space. Whatever you end up deciding, setting your intention is key to releasing the aspirational clutter.

When you have a clear intention to postpone, the thing no longer has any weight or feeling of obligation. It can be beneficial to avoid the false first step until you have space in your life. That way, you won’t have un-used items sitting around for months or years reminding you what you aren’t doing.

One other thing to keep in mind is, not all ideas are meant to be yours. Just because you have an idea or a physical item that you want, doesn’t mean you need to keep it or do something with it. Even if something seems cool or interesting, it may not be a true fit for you.

Release the aspirational clutter so you can better focus on what’s going on now. However, pay attention to the ideas or things that come to mind again and again. There may be a reason they keep on coming back to you. It’s worth thinking about making an intentional plan of how and when you’d have space to act on these recurring items.

Another Way Forward

So how do you know what’s aspirational clutter and what’s not? And what are the steps you can take to deal with the aspirational clutter that’s weighing you down?

As mentioned earlier, identifying aspirational clutter can be difficult. Doing so requires a level of awareness and being honest with yourself. I know firsthand, easier said than done.

I’ve come up with questions I ask myself that help me identify the aspirational clutter. Additionally, I go through a step-by-step process to release this type of clutter. Given the nature of aspirational clutter, the process is different from decluttering the things you don’t want anymore.

Life without all the aspirational clutter is a lot less stressful. We all have periods of time that are busier. But if you constantly feel like there are too many things to do and not enough time, there’s likely aspirational clutter weighing you down. If you’re feeling overwhelmed on a consistent basis, it’s worth asking yourself what is the aspirational clutter in your life. Know that there is another way forward, one that I’ve found to be more beneficial and where I’m more at ease.

The post How Aspirational Clutter Holds You Back first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post How Aspirational Clutter Holds You Back appeared first on Break the Twitch.

While Amy and I have been working at home together for a few years now, we found we needed to adjust our practices when the pandemic started. Pre-pandemic, working at home with your partner already came with its challenges. In a pandemic situation, all bets were off.

For much of the world, the pandemic quickly uprooted major facets of day-to-day life. There will be lasting shifts in our cultural landscape from what’s happened in the past year. Many companies are likely to continue going fully remote. More meetings will be done virtually than face-to-face compared to before. There’s a greater need for the home to be multi-faceted in its functionality and use.

Over the years, we’ve learned about what works and what doesn’t when you’re working at home with your partner. It really has been an evolution of sorts. We started out sitting side by side in a small “office” bedroom in our old Minneapolis home, to having separate work areas in the house now in Phoenix.

We decided to talk through our experience working from home together—what we’ve learned, and what we’d recommend to others in a similar situation. If you’re still adjusting to making work-from-home work-for-you, read on (or check out the video below).

Tips For Working From Home With Your Partner

1 / Intentionally create some separation

Especially if working from home is a relatively new arrangement, you’re likely not used to spending all day, every weekday, with your partner. It can be easy to fall into the habit of not giving each other enough space—especially when it used to be there by default.

Back in 2018 when we began working from home together, it seemed like a good idea to have all the equipment and desks in the same place. However, it didn’t work out so well in other areas as we’ll discuss more below. We have separate working spaces now, which has made it easier to focus and to do our best work.

As annoying as commutes can be, driving or biking to work and back each day is actually built-in decompression time. This transition time tends to go away completely when working from home. You can find other ways to transition from “work” to “home” mode so there’s more of a separation.

2 / Allow focus blocks throughout the day

As we all know here at Break the Twitch, uninterrupted focus is worth its weight in gold. It’s nearly impossible to focus effectively if you’re asking each other questions or sharing things every few minutes.

While it’s tempting to share with your partner the second you think of something, it’s better to establish boundaries and guidelines for focus blocks during the day.

60 to 120 minutes of uninterrupted work time is my recommendation. It usually takes around 15 minutes to even get into this type of focused flow, so do your best to not interrupt when your partner is in the zone.

It can help to create some simple, visible guidelines that make it easier for your partner to see that you’re doing focused work. Indicators like “having headphones on” or having a small colored light you can turn on when you’re focusing can help. Having a Time Timer can be a wonderful visual indicator with the benefit of showing when you’re expecting to be done.

Test and establish the rules that work best so you each can do your best work. While we can’t control everything, even the smallest distractions can pull us out from a deeply focused state. So work together to create specific guidelines that work well for each of you.

3 / Same team!

There will be times when things are more frustrating, and communication wires get crossed. It’s bound to happen. When exchanges become more casual and interspersed, communication tends to be less clear and concise.

During these situations, Amy and I like to use the callout, “Same team!” It’s a lighthearted, humorous reminder when we have temporarily forgotten that we’re both working towards the same thing.

Imagine two soccer players on the same team, running after the ball and elbowing each other—each preventing the other one from getting the ball. Then imagine a coach screaming, “SAME TEAM!!” from the sidelines at the top of her lungs.

During these times, it’s good to remember you’re both working toward the same goals (hopefully—at least, that’s the assumption here). Take time to step back and make sure you’re communicating fully and effectively. Misunderstandings about issues you’re actually aligned on are a huge waste of energy better used for almost anything else.

4 / Schedule meetings like you would in an office

Schedule specific times to sit down and discuss priorities, household tasks, or whatever else needs to be done. Try to keep the meetings as light as possible and slow the pace down. It helps a lot when you do what you can to make the meetings more fun and positive.

It feels overly formal, yes—but that’s actually the point. Especially if you’re working on the same projects or business together, work-life balance becomes a thing of the past. At times, we’ll inadvertently discuss deadlines while washing the dishes, or make decisions while eating dinner. It’s almost too easy for everything to all mesh together. The stress from never being fully “off” of work can build up over time and lead to burnout or exhaustion.

5 / Learn each other’s working styles and adapt

Each one of us has a different working style and energy flow during the day. One of the fun parts about being in a relationship is that opposites tend to attract, which means that working styles may likely differ. If you’re working at home with your partner, any differences between the two of you will need to be accommodated.

Some people need more of a 25 minutes on, 5 minutes off, Pomodoro-type situation, while others work best in three-hour chunks. Psychologically, it may be difficult to work when you don’t see the other person working at the same time. Perhaps the other person is taking a mental break by playing a game or checking social media while you’re working. Do what you can to trust that the other person is doing what’s best for them.

Most importantly, understand that each person works differently, and trying to force your own working style upon someone else doesn’t really work. In the end, the other person works best if given the space to do so on his or her terms.

6 / Take it day by day.

There is a lot to consider and learn when adjusting to a new work-from-home situation, so remember to take it day by day. Do what you can to stay flexible and communicate in a kind and honest manner with the other person. It’s always best to approach any disagreements with curiosity, kindness, and creativity, rather than with annoyance or blame. No matter what happens, the situation will evolve over time, and you’ll adapt along with it!

If you know someone who could benefit from these tips on working at home with your partner, share this article!

The post Working At Home With Your Partner first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Working At Home With Your Partner appeared first on Break the Twitch.

On a crisp autumn day in the late ’80s, more than a hundred thousand people made their way towards the college football stadium about four blocks from my childhood home. Given that the town’s population practically doubled every home game, parking was a nightmare. Thousands of people always ended up walking past our house and apparently, I saw this as an opportunity.

I went out and collected fallen maple leaves from the front yard and tried to sell them to people walking by. It didn’t make a ton of sense, as there were thousands of them all over the ground—but that didn’t stop me. If I remember correctly, a very nice woman gave me five bucks for one. Which to this day is one of the reasons I always try to stop and buy something when kids are out selling lemonade or whatever. It’s never too early to encourage creative, opportunistic thinking.

Entrepreneurship really is for everyone—even if you never officially start a business or a company. It’s a great model for identifying problems and fostering optimism about creating solutions. And the value of entrepreneurship is so much greater than the pursuit of money.

Entrepreneurship… isn’t about money? Yeah, I said it.

At least for me, that has never been the most important part of it all. There’s so much joy and learning opportunity in taking a novel idea, trying to make it work, and seeing what the world had to say about it. I imagine I’ve fostered this mentality partly due to having ADHD and being a high sensitivity person. A lot of the things that were supposed to happen a certain way in school and my career didn’t really work for me, so I’ve had to find my own ways to bring it all together.

While hustling dried leaves to captive passers-by might have been my first venture, it certainly wasn’t my last. I’ve learned continuously from my entrepreneurial explorations since then, and have found a myriad of interesting ideas. One of those ideas, is an incredibly effective model in the startup world for developing new ideas that works flawlessly in developing new habits, too.

I’ve come to call it the Minimally Viable Action, a Break the Twitch concept adapted from something called Lean Startup methodology—the Minimally Viable Product.

The Minimally Viable Product, or MVP

Ideas are great, but they’re a dime a dozen; they don’t carry much value unless we do something with them. When an entrepreneur has an idea, she needs a way to see if that idea is actually viable—without immediately raising millions of dollars or investing years of life into building the idea when it, well… might not be that great.

An MVP is a simple and inexpensive version of the entrepreneur’s idea, created to test and get feedback that will be incorporated in the next prototype. The process is iterative and evolves with each version to make small improvements along the way. The team is able to change the idea more quickly, easily, and cost-effectively based on early audience feedback. It doesn’t make sense to spend months building a feature that no one ends up wanting, right? By the end of this process she, in theory, has something that works well, and that people actually want.

A few examples of this would be:
If you have a big idea for a new type of electric car, start by applying the idea to an electric skateboard. You’ll learn if your concept for propulsion is practical, and what challenges might arise at a larger scale.

Perhaps you want to start a business in the agricultural industry, creating a new hybrid fruit by combining an orange and an apple. Driven by the deep desire to finally put all the comparisons to rest, you start looking at farms to buy to create your vision. Instead, start with an inexpensive, fast-growing fruit like raspberries or strawberries in your backyard.

When you start any project like this, the biggest problem is not yet knowing what you don’t yet know. You can spend years theorizing about this, but it’s more effective to test the waters and learn by following the process.

New Habits Are Just Like Big Ideas

Habits tend to carry a lot of weight for people—they did for me at one point, too—but I’ve learned to put a lot less pressure on the word. To me, habits are just how we show up in our lives with regularity. They’re the little things we do consistently over long periods of time—and we’re doing them whether we intend to or not. As the years pass, they become the way we spend our lives.

If you do something for five minutes each day, you’ll look back on a lifetime of doing that thing; not any one day in particular, but a long streak of color in the blur of a life well-lived.

With life being how it is though, starting and maintaining any positive habit can feel like an incredible burden. There’s a lot of deep human psychology at work that causes this, and we all have different reasons. For me, a big part of the resistance I’ve felt is the perceived distance between where I am and where I want to be. If the initial resistance didn’t get me, the pressure I put on myself to consistently see improvement eventually would. To make it work, we need to think like an entrepreneur—both in the way we try and the way we fail. Here’s how to do that.

Introducing Minimally Viable Action, or MVA

While modern culture has conditioned us to expect quick results and overnight success, that would be like trying to design a car without any experience. There are so many variables at play, so we need to start smaller and figure out what challenges might arise.

A minimally viable action is the smallest and easiest-to-do action of the habit you are trying to form.

With a Minimally Viable Action, we have the ability to test out a new habit just like it’s a simple lifestyle experiment. This allows us to see what issues come up, make adjustments, and continue on.

You don’t want mile two of a marathon to be the place where you discover that your new running shoes are rubbing in all the wrong places. That sounds terrible, and I doubt anyone would be encouraged to do another one after that experience.

To effectively use the Minimally Viable Action, you really need to boil down the new habit to its essence. Make it so incredibly simple that it becomes the easiest possible thing to do while still doing the thing you set out to do. A skateboard isn’t a car, sure—but it is a four-wheeled electric propulsion system designed to transport a human from A-to-B. If I had to design a full electric car from scratch, I would probably never bother starting because the thought is entirely overwhelming. A skateboard on the other hand? Complicated, but seems manageable, right?

By creating a minimally viable action, you’re increasing your chances of actually doing it—even when unexpected things come up during the day. It’s creating a goal with such little resistance that it’s hard not to do.

How To Build Habits That Last

1 / Create A Minimally Viable Action 

The first step is to consider the new habit you want to build and break it down into a small, easy action. The most common mistake with habits is going too big, too fast and burning out or running into unforeseen problems. If the MVA you’re choosing feels silly, you’re on the right track.

For example, if your new habit is to exercise more, but you’ve been almost completely inactive lately, the MVA would be to put on your sneakers and take two steps outside. That’s it. Maybe take some breaths of fresh air while you’re out there.

If you want to eat more vegetables, the MVA would be to have a few pieces of broccoli with your lunch. The goal isn’t to do as much as you can today; it’s to have enough in the tank to still do the action tomorrow, the next day, and so on. If you stuff yourself full of veggies on day one, especially if you haven’t developed a taste for them, the last thing you’re going to want to eat the next day is vegetables.

We’re not going for results today—we’re going for paradigm shift.

2 / Test, Improve, Repeat 

After you create the minimally viable action, the next phase would be to test, improve, and repeat. Just like an entrepreneur would test an MVP, you’re going to test the MVA you’ve created.

A week or two into it, you may choose to increase (or reduce) the difficulty, change some aspect of your habit, or try something else entirely! Continue to skew on the side of keeping it simple, even if you’re scaling up. This phase is all about testing and improving the MVA as you go along, so you stay consistent with the habit.

3 / Pivot!

Let’s say it’s really not working out, and something has to change. Back in entrepreneurship land, when a minimally viable product is presented to an audience and receives poor feedback, or a better opportunity appears, the entrepreneur doesn’t give up. She can always pivot and create a different solution for the same problem or use the MVP to solve a different problem entirely.

Wrigley Gum is an incredible story of pivoting: Did you know Wrigley’s Gum started as a business selling soap?

William Wrigley Jr. offered premiums as an incentive to buy his soap, such as baking powder. Later in his career, he switched to the baking powder business, in which he began offering two packages of chewing gum for each purchase of a can of baking powder. The popular premium, chewing gum, began to seem more promising, prompting another switch in product focus.

Wikipedia

Not only will you find the challenges by trying something out, but you’ll find the opportunities that come with it too!

If you realize that walks aren’t the right exercise for you because of a heel issue, perhaps riding a bike would be a better fit. If you find out that you hate steamed broccoli, try cooking it another way. Better yet, try literally any other vegetable—there are so many of them! It might just be a green protein smoothie in the morning that does the trick. Trying out different solutions will help you find something you enjoy, so the habit stays around for the long haul. When things get boring, switch it up and find something new that serves a similar purpose.

There’s really no need to be rigid in our approach to building habits that become the way we live.

When building a habit, remember everyone is different. What works for one person may not work for someone else. Remember there is always a way to stay curious and look for creative solutions along the way. Keep it up, and you’ll find what works for you, too. Even the best products and greatest ideas have a lifespan. When you get bored, get creative and find the next thing that helps you stay engaged.

The post Minimally Viable Action: How To Build Habits By Thinking Like An Entrepreneur first appeared on Break the Twitch.

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Anthony’s Note: Thanks to Bridget Baker for this guest post! For more from Bridget, you can check out MinimalistMojo.com and her Pinterest.

Everything just feels like it’s falling into place. You’re focused, you’ve got clarity, and your relationships are working. You’re feeling it. You’re in the flow. Oh, look at you; you’ve got your mojo on! 

Then, something happens. These shiny new opportunities that are growing in your life start to turn into you being busier, having less time for creative pursuits, and feeling utterly overwhelmed. Your to-do-lists have to-do lists, and what seemed like a good idea has now become a source of stress and frustration. How’d you get here again? 

Clutter and chaos do not usually happen overnight. Piece of paper by piece of paper, your desktop papers turn into a mountain of documents. A closet of clothes that fit you and that you love becomes shoved to the gills with things you bought, thinking they’d make you feel better or that you just had to have to get that perfect work-from-home loungewear look dialed in. 

If you’re feeling like you can’t get your confidence back, it may be time for a lifestyle shift. If everything becomes important, then it’s hard to tell what really matters from what’s in the way. It ALL feels like a priority, and somewhere along the way, you lost your sense of self, your sense of joy, and your purpose. 

It may be time to embrace a minimalist lifestyle.

I bet you’re thinking: “What? How could only having 33 items of clothing or stark white walls get me feeling fabulous again?” Well, it’s not just about the “stuff.” 

Let’s start with what I mean by the term minimalism, first. While minimalism started out as a design movement in the 1920s, it became known as a lifestyle after the recession of 2008 forced many people to downsize and reevaluate their lives. Minimalism is not a religion, nor a cult, and does NOT mean you have to live like a monk with a fancy backpack and a digital nomad life. It IS a way to look at decluttering, organizing, simplifying, and living a more fulfilling life with less. This means less stress, less clutter, less overwhelm, or less of what you don’t want, so you can focus on and be available for more of what you DO want. 

You can embark on a minimalist lifestyle in several ways, but making the shift involves a letting go—from the physical to the mental—and strategies for staying conscious and aware of what you let into your life. I recommend starting with what you want first. If you’ve got lots of clutter in your way, it may be difficult to see what is important. 

When you’re feeling overwhelmed, the last thing you may want to do is to take the time to clean out your email inbox or declutter your closet. Take a breath, put it on your calendar, and make the time. Taking the time for you makes you more available to the people you care about. Living simply and being organized can increase your productivity, your well-being, and your joy. It may even make you more fun to be around!

Start small. Pick one area of your house, set a timer for an hour, and go for it. You may feel resistant at first or ashamed of how cluttered things may have gotten. Keep reminding yourself that step by step, it will get done. If you don’t have an entire weekend to devote to decluttering, don’t haul every single item of clothing out of your closets and purge all at once. It may be best for you to play a game like the mins game, or try some other popular decluttering methods, so you can take the slow and steady approach to get it done. 

What works for one person may not work for you, and there is no one set rule book for minimalism. If it’s in your way, you don’t love it, or you don’t need it, let it go. It really is that simple. It may help to crank up some music, enlist the help of a friend, and to celebrate the wins as you go, reminding yourself it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Also, you’ll want to create strategies to keep your space decluttered so that you don’t find yourself right back where you started. I left myself no out by moving into a travel trailer and selling all our furniture, rather than storing it, but that may be a little too extreme for you.

Again, find what works for YOU and stick with it.

When you move what doesn’t work, what doesn’t inspire you, or what doesn’t have room in your life out of the way, you can get your mojo back. Your confidence increases, and you can shine, free of the pile of clutter—physical, or proverbial—that’s been standing in your way. The world needs that special magic that you’ve got to offer, and when you simplify your life, you can take better care of yourself and do more of what you love. And, let’s face it, we all need each other these days more than ever.

The post Embrace Minimalism and Get Your Mojo Back first appeared on Break the Twitch.

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This is a recording of the live workshop on February 17, 2021, at 12 PM EST, featuring Productivityist founder, Mike Vardy, on strategies to improve your personal productivity in life and work.

The post 5 Tips to Improve Personal Productivity with Mike Vardy [Member Content] first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post 5 Tips to Improve Personal Productivity with Mike Vardy [Member Content] appeared first on Break the Twitch.

I think we can all agree that 2020 was quite the year of change, discomfort, and reflection (to say the least). Reflecting back, one of the more important things I learned from the past year is how our emotions impact our attention.

In March when the pandemic hit, it was accompanied by a cast of uncertainty, confusion, and worry. In a matter of weeks, millions of people went from living their normal lives to being stuck at home. Many of us had to figure out how to work from home and many lost our jobs entirely. Gyms, restaurants, and local shops closed their doors, and life as we knew it became radically different.

We all deal with uncertainty differently; but let’s just say there were a lot of coping cookies, pizzas, and other baking projects going on for Amy and me in 2020.

How Our Emotions Impact Our Attention

While all the baking helped get us through it, things overall might not have been handled completely rationally; and that is often what happens during emotional dysregulation. It looks different for each person, although emotional dysregulation can result in being in a mild or greater state of panic or anxiety. It often results in not being grounded, and therefore, being more susceptible to distractions and more impulsive choices. Sometimes, it can be not knowing what to do to improve a situation but also trying a lot of different things at the same time.

Thinking back, I made connections on why daily things that came easily before became so difficult back in March 2020. Certain productive practices in my life suddenly went off the rails. My thoughts ping-ponged all over the place. I bounced from one thing to the next instead of slowing down and doing one thing at a time. I was, as I imagine many others were, all over the place. It’s only now that I’m able to look back and grasp a deeper understanding of what exactly was going on during those early months of the pandemic.

A key part of emotional dysregulation is not being aware of what you’re feeling and going into a coping mode that can manifest in many ways. This is how emotions can impact our attention and ability to focus—regardless of whether you’re aware of it or not.

The Twitch Can Often Look Like Coping

I’ve realized the ways in which we cope with difficulty can look a lot like the Twitch. More social media time to fight the feelings of isolation. More impulsive purchases. Lots of news scrolling in an attempt to address questions left unanswered.

Checking for new information (what we call the Newsfeed Twitch) was extremely prevalent for us in March and April of last year. One of the ways many of us try to cope is by constantly checking Twitter, Reddit, or the news in our efforts to try to control the uncertainty.

When getting out of hand, these behaviors tend to be rooted in anxiety, fear, and emotional dysregulation. There is a ton of overlap between what I call the Twitch and the coping behaviors we do during emotionally difficult situations. Looking at the overlap helped me understand that the buzzing, distractible, bouncy-ball brain that I’d get during certain times actually had a lot to do with anxiety and emotional dysregulation.

And it was this realization that led to the insight that when we are feeling distracted, when we keep looking at Instagram, or when it’s hard to focus, there’s likely something that we’re afraid of in some way. Perhaps it’s a task or a project that’s personally meaningful. Maybe it’s a task or deliverable that you’re dreading because someone important will be judging it. Or we want to start writing the book we’ve always wanted to write, but we can’t get started. We conveniently get distracted or something comes up that prevents us from working on the thing that’s important to us.

It’s important to remember that not all social media checking or purchases are necessarily coping or a Twitch in general—it’s perfectly fine to do these things! For me, this is about coming to a deeper understanding of what is happening when these particular things get out of hand. More importantly, it’s about how we can address the situation moving forward. There’s no shame in distractions; they can be helpful in getting through things that we might not be ready to deal with otherwise.

Fear Is A Powerful Emotion

Those feelings of resistance and anxiety work together in this elevated state of uncertainty—and so much of it is rooted in fear. It’s not just the pandemic that causes these feelings, either.

Fear of judgment, fear of not knowing what to do, fear of failure, fear of uncertainty. Our automatic and often unconscious response to the fear keeps us distracted, looking for any type of “out” or relief. Often, we will look for anything and everything to do except for that important thing. Our brains are exceptionally clever when it comes to avoiding whatever is scary or unpleasant.

What We Can Do About It

Fortunately for us, when it comes to finding solutions to this, most of the work has already been done. Grounding techniques are a form of behavioral therapy—and we can look to these techniques to help us come back to earth when things are spinning a bit out of control.

These practices help bring us back to feeling more centered, or grounded, and get things back on track.

The purpose of grounding techniques is to disrupt the frenetic thought patterns that tend to cycle through our brains in more anxious moments. Grounding helps us to feel safer and to be more at peace, so we can better focus. This feeling of safety is often important even though there may not be any real physical danger at the moment.

While I’m not a therapist or counselor, I’d like to share some grounding techniques I’ve personally found to be helpful during moments of higher distractibility. These techniques have helped me reduce the noise in my brain over the past year. I hope you find these simple practices to be helpful in getting focused when you need it most.

What To Do When Our Emotions Impact Our Attention

1 / Cold Therapy 

Cold Therapy is an incredibly effective grounding technique that can stop a panic attack or a high anxiety state in the moment. Really, this one blew my mind.

During this practice, an intense cold sensation is used to startle the body and to bring an individual’s focus to the present moment. The coldness will immediately stop you from spiraling down further and bring everything in your mind to a still. This could look like jumping into a cold shower, squeezing a few ice cubes in your hand, or holding a super cold compress to your face.

From the perspective of someone who has experienced panic to the point of becoming physically sick, a cold shower results in immediate relief. For me, taking a cold shower is the most effective in instantly quelling a panic attack or washing off an anxious state.

2 / Meditation

Although meditation may be the last thing you want to do when you’re having trouble focusing, it’s incredibly helpful in calming the body and mind, so you can better direct your attention.

I’ve found meditation to be the second most effective technique for me. It can be hard to make the choice to meditate when you’re already anxious—unless you train yourself to do it. Starting out small and building out a pattern of knowing meditation can help with focus is the way to go. You need to be willing to sit through the initial discomfort and feel what you’re feeling so it can pass.

Sometimes, it’s best and necessary to do something more immediate, like cold therapy (mentioned above) first. However, with continued practice, meditation is a wonderful way to become more aware of your thoughts, emotions, feelings, and the Twitch. With the greater awareness, you’re then able to be more intentional with your attention, focus, and actions.

3 / Activating All Five Senses

The final grounding technique I’ve found to be helpful for me is activating all five of your senses to bring yourself into the present moment. Smell, taste, touch, sight, and hearing.

You could find something that has a strong scent (ideally a pleasant one), like coffee or essential oils. Another option to activate multiple senses is cooking and then eating something you like. Finding an object to touch that is tactile or textured such as your pet, a beaded bracelet, or rock is another great option. Zoning into observing a colorful pattern or things that visually stand out is yet another way to ground yourself. I’ve found singing or humming to work particularly well; truly hearing and feeling the resonance of my own voice helps to quiet the mind.

There are ample resources available for more grounding techniques similar to the ones mentioned above. Experimenting and discovering what works for you is key.

Whenever you’re experiencing greater distraction, a lack of focus, or feeling more susceptible to the Twitch, remember to have self-compassion. Don’t beat yourself up! Becoming aware of how our emotions impact our attention will help you to learn how to “Break the Twitch” and begin living more intentionally. 

Try a few of these or other grounding techniques and after a while, it won’t feel like work. You’ll shift into maintenance without thinking too much about it. Eventually, you’ll get better and better at staying grounded during times of turbulence so you can get back to the things that truly matter to you. 

The post Having Trouble Focusing? How Emotions Can Impact Our Attention first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Having Trouble Focusing? How Emotions Can Impact Our Attention appeared first on Break the Twitch.

This is a recording of the live workshop on January 28, 2021, at 12 PM EST, featuring empowerment coach and entrepreneur, Stephanie Domrose, on how to set better boundaries—internally and externally.

Thank you to all the members who attended, bravely shared, and asked questions that helped in understanding and bringing the concepts to life! We record these workshops so members who aren’t able to attend can still get the benefit of the presented material.

The post Better Boundaries with Stephanie Domrose [Member Content] first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Better Boundaries with Stephanie Domrose [Member Content] appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Most of us have been on social media for well over a decade (or even longer). It also seems that more and more of us are considering quitting social media—myself included, especially in recent years. I was a freshman when I signed up for Facebook on the first day it was available to my university. That puts my Facebook account age right around seventeen years old; if said social media account were a child, he would be getting ready to head off to college himself.

What started as a fun way to connect with your college classmates became an all-encompassing web of data collection and psychological manipulation. There are many reasons why life can be better with limited to no social media use, but that’s not the point of this article.

To Quit Or Not To Quit?

This article isn’t here to convince you why you should consider quitting social media. Perhaps you’ve already read Deep Work or Digital Minimalism, watched The Social Dilemma, or are simply feeling that a more fulfilling life awaits you outside the reach of social media’s grasp.

This is about several things I’d recommend doing before you decide to quit social media—that I’d recommend doing even if you don’t end up deleting social media.

I personally decided to take a break from all of my social media accounts this year, to focus on creating longer-form content here on the blog, in the newsletter, and on YouTube. I’ll reassess every three months to reflect on the results. Sign up for the newsletter if you’re interested in those observations.

Especially when so much of your life has involved events, connections, and updates that come directly from Facebook or other networks, the prospect of quitting everything can be intimidating. And by quitting social media, I mean hitting the big “delete” button and walking away indefinitely. Poof.

It’s perfectly fine if you’re not ready to do that. There are still things you can do to start unwinding the grip that social media has on your life.

4 Things to Consider Before Quitting Social Media

1 / Use Signal instead of WhatsApp

Facebook recently released new privacy terms that all WhatsApp users must agree to by February 8th, 2021 (and have since postponed it until May 15, 2021). The update, which WhatsApp clarified only impacts businesses who use WhatsApp for customer service, caused an uproar in early January. While the recent update doesn’t impact regular WhatsApp users, there’s still Facebook’s disingenuous track record on privacy for the end-user. Unless you opted out of data sharing with Facebook back in 2016, the data sharing has already been happening since then. Even with “end-to-end encryption,” it’s likely that some WhatsApp data have been shared with Facebook for ad targeting and other purposes starting several years ago.

…data set to be shared with WhatsApp’s parent company includes “battery level, signal strength, app version, browser information, mobile network, connection information (including phone number, mobile operator or ISP), language and time zone, IP address, device operations information, and identifiers (including identifiers unique to Facebook Company Products associated with the same device or account).”

Forbes.com

Your response might be, “Who cares if Facebook knows what my battery level is?” Well, Facebook is using all of that information to bolster the existing database of information they have about you. The more they know, the better they can predict and influence your future behavior.

I highly recommend switching over to Signal for your personal messaging needs. The functionally is the same as WhatsApp and available on all major platforms. Signal is free and owned by a non-profit organization (which you can donate to support if you choose). Most importantly, Signal is privacy-focused and open-sourced. That means anyone that is interested can investigate the software code to see if anything sketchy is going on (there isn’t).

I’ve already started reaching out to friends on WhatsApp and moving our conversations over to Signal. If you’d like additional help in transitioning, check out what my friend Amrit wrote in this guide!

2 / Update Sites Where You Use Facebook To Log In

This feature—called “Single Sign On”—allows you the ease of using your Facebook account details to log in to other participating websites. Early on, it seemed like a fantastic way to conveniently sign up for new services and websites. Fewer usernames and passwords to remember! But there’s a major problem with this. If you ever lose access to your Facebook account, you’re going to lose access to all of those sites, too.

Facebook can ban any account, at any time, for any reason. I’m not saying it’s likely to happen to you, but it’d be really inconvenient if it did. Even if you never get banned, you might eventually choose to delete your Facebook account on your own.

Start the process of switching over any sites that you use Facebook, Instagram, or whatever other social media platform account details as a login, to using your email address. You’ll need to go to each site individually and change your account login details to your email and new password.

If you can’t remember which sites you’ve used a Facebook login for, go to your “Settings”, and then select “Apps and Websites” to see a list of sites are authorized through your Facebook account.

I recommend using a secure password manager like LastPass. I’ve been using LastPass for more than five years at this point and highly recommend it. This will help you generate secure passwords for all new accounts and store them under one secure master password.

3 / Start Compiling A Contact List

For many of us, there are many people who you are only connected to through various social media platforms. You’re not going to have an immediate way to contact that person if you delete your account on the platform.

Start compiling names, email addresses, and phone numbers so you don’t lose touch with certain people you want to remain connected with. It doesn’t matter if you build a spreadsheet in Excel or on Google Sheets (yeah, I know… we’ll tackle Google another day, maybe). You’ll likely find you really don’t need to keep in contact with the majority of these connections on the platforms.

There are some very helpful tools like the Fabriq app. To get full features, Fabriq is a paid service, but I’d recommend paying for it if you use it. It helps remind you to stay in touch with people you care about and fills in the gaps left by the lack of updates in your timeline/newsfeed if you decide to quit social media. I know you might be resistant to paying for services like this but remember—if you’re not paying for it, you are the product. There’s no other way.

4 / Deactivate Before Quitting Social Media For Good

It’s as simple as that. Try deactivating your account for a month or so and see how it goes. You’ll inevitably run into any issues you may have if you were to delete your account entirely. That way, you can go back in, adjust, or fix any issues before deleting your account entirely.

Expect the first two to five days to be more frustrating or uncomfortable, just like any other kind of detox. But doing so will help give you a sense of the freedom you’ll likely find by quitting social media altogether.

There is a greater intersection between the things we do and social media and tech companies than we realize. There is tracking happening of our every move across the web—from our search queries to even what our grocery shopping habits are. While there are conveniences and features these companies provide, it’s up to us to determine if those benefits outweigh the cons: the massive data pile they’re collecting on us that will eventually allow them to predict nearly anything we do, think, or need.

The appropriate balance will likely differ for each person. But for now, taking a few steps to give yourself a little space from their data collection matrix is probably a good idea.

The post Thinking of Quitting Social Media? 4 Things To Consider First first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Thinking of Quitting Social Media? 4 Things To Consider First appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Welp, here we are again. Another pass around the sun, another year here on planet Earth—and what a year it was. While I’m not here to dwell on the past, I can’t help but think how absurd the idea of planning out an entire year is, given what happened in 2020 (and what happened in just the first week of 2021).

There is a wide spectrum of how 2020 affected everyone across the world. Wherever you personally fall on the spectrum, I sincerely hope 2021 is a better year for you and the people you care about. As I thought about the new year, I decided to take a slightly different approach this time around with some mindset goals.

While it can be hard to see while you’re going through it, it really is the uncomfortable things that lead to the most growth in our lives. Especially if we face those discomforts along the way. This work is incredibly taxing, which is why it’s often easier to distract ourselves (The Twitch gets super intense during these times) so we don’t have to deal with the discomfort. Sometimes, we just need a distraction to get through it though, and that’s okay.

Facing My Own Discomfort

One of the bigger things I did last year on the topic of uncomfortable growth is I finally started sharing that I have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Not the hyperactive variety, but Type-2, which is what used to be called just “ADD.”

I was diagnosed formally when I was eleven years old, when I literally failed all of my classes in 6th grade and my life dove into a tailspin. When I received the diagnosis, I thought something was horribly wrong with me. I thought I was broken, that my brain was bad, and that I wouldn’t be able to operate in the same way my friends did at school and elsewhere. And so, I effectively left that part out. It’s really the only way that I’ve lied to almost everyone in my life, including you. I simply omitted it.

The years passed, and now at 35, here we are. I wish I’d been ready earlier, as I’m sure it would have been helpful to many—but better now than never.

It was long overdue, but after a lot of personal work through 2020 (aka therapy) I decided it was important to start sharing this. It’s a big piece of what makes me, well, me—both good and bad. Omitting that (along with the clearly very personal reason of why the topic of “attention” is so incredibly important to me) would do us all a disservice. The encouragement from some good friends also helped immeasurably.

2020 brought a level of self-awareness that I never imagined, and did not expect. The pandemic and seemingly constant disasters forced me to turn inward and better understand the connection between what was going on in my mind and what unconscious actions I was taking (hello, Twitch). This internal work is central to what Break the Twitch is all about, so I’m grateful to be in a position to share more of that here.

After all this time of exploring minimalism, habits, and creative flow here on Break the Twitch, it’s wild to me how it was really about attention all along. While the three topics are effective tools for the process of owning your attention, I didn’t fully realize the underlying connection until now.

Our Collective Attention Is At Stake

In a lot of ways, I’m uniquely qualified for the work I’m doing here at Break the Twitch. With my neuro-atypicality, I’m not actually all that out of place in the world at this point. Everything’s getting faster, more distracting, and more demanding of our attention. Our collective attention is more scattered than ever, and is being threatened in the environment we’re in now (thanks to Bridget, one of our awesome Attention Collective members, for bringing the linked article to our attention!).

Economist and psychologist Herbert A. Simon, spoke to how “a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” The real kicker is that he was talking about this, and the attention economy in 1971—nearly fifty years ago. Imagine how much has changed for better and worse since then. We’ve never had access to more information than we do now. Maybe we weren’t built to know everything in the world all at once.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. Just kidding. What a year it was, huh. Now that we have that context out of the way, here are the three mindset goals I’m focusing on for the new year.

3 Mindset Goals For The New Year

1 / One Thing At A Time Reduces Stress and Anxiety

This was a big realization after I heard Naval talk about how stress happens when something wants to be in two places at one time. 

I thought it was a great analogy of what happens when our attention is split between multiple things and how that resulting stress can increase our feelings of anxiety. When we’re thinking about something else while working on a task, it only contributes to the painful feeling that we have too much to do. That we must do more than one thing at a time because there’s so much to do. This is an example of our brain and our body wanting to be in different places at one time. And multi-tasking, as we know, isn’t really effective.

So, first of the mindset goals for the new year is: one thing at a time—no matter what. 

2 / When You Accept First, Change Comes Later

This next one was partly inspired by Kyle Cease, who I’ve been following on and off for a while, on something he shared on acceptance. 

It struck me that to get where we want to go, we must accept where we are now. It’s embracing self-compassion for who we are and where we are in this moment. Learning to accept where you are doesn’t mean that you love where you are. It also doesn’t mean that you want to be where you are forever. It’s more about accepting where you are now and knowing you can grow from there.

When we accept where we are now, there’s an energy shift that’s more abundant and open. It enables you to see opportunities and have more energy to change things up. When we feel like we’re not okay, it contributes to the feeling that we’re not enough. Instead, we feel the need to be somewhere else rather than where we actually are. Operating from that place of lack and the feeling of “I’m not enough as I am” creates fear, anxiety, and low energy. It ironically also makes it harder to get the change we’re wanting.

So wildly butter on that self-compassion in moments of difficulty. Don’t tell me that self-compassion is for other people who actually deserve it (I’ve been there). Everyone needs and deserves self-compassion, yourself included. From my experience, embracing self-compassion in tough moments doesn’t let you off the hook, but rather, gets you back up and running again faster.

3 / Planning For A World We Do Not Yet Know

The final inspiration for my mindset goals came up when I was doing some morning journaling recently. If 2020 has taught us anything, we are making plans and creating for a world that we don’t yet know.

A lot of people have strong opinions about Elon Musk, who just became the richest man in the world. Ten years ago when he said he was going to Mars, many people thought he was crazy. The world as it existed back then didn’t have the capability to do that. He was starting on a goal that was not yet possible and wasn’t thought to be possible. As of today, he’s still working towards that goal, but the collective thinking around the possibility has shifted.

This illustrates that you can create and work towards goals beyond what your brain is telling you is possible. Because the goal isn’t for today as things stand now; the goal is for a year from now or sometime in the future. The best way to get to a big goal is to have very small, consistent actions that get to the goal over time.

So when it comes to setting goals, allow yourself to dream in a way that doesn’t reflect the limitations that may be currently in your brain. Be flexible in your planning—especially in the path of how and the timing of when the goal is realized. As we learned with the events of 2020, even the best-laid plans can be disrupted. All we can do is focus on what we can do today with what we have and continually adjust in the process of working on our goals.

I hope you find that these three mindset goals help you make 2021 a more peaceful year for you and your family.

The post Facing My Discomfort & 3 Mindset Goals for the New Year first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Facing My Discomfort & 3 Mindset Goals for the New Year appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Well, this year has certainly started off with a great deal of excitement, hasn’t it? It’s hard to expect differently after the year of ridiculous twists and turns dished out by 2020, but somehow things seem to get crazier and more unbelievable by the day.

This is a time when the Twitch is going to be stronger than ever—during times of uncertainty, unprecedented events, and widespread fear. In this particular moment, I want to offer some perspective that will be helpful in getting through it.

Television news cycle is designed to keep us watching. They’re using every psychological trick in the book to trigger emotional responses that keep us hooked. Remember, capitalism is driven by revenue, and revenue is driven by watch time. The more we watch, the more ads we see, the more they get paid—plain and simple.

With the advent of digital smart TVs that feed viewership analytics back to the cable networks, they know exactly what you’re watching, for how long, and what causes you to drop off. Using that feedback loop, they optimize programming to keep you hooked.

Consuming more will not put our minds at ease. Now and then, we’ll have a relieving piece of information that comes into our social media feeds, but it never lasts long. Just like TV, social media is designed to optimize for time spent on the platform to increase revenue. This is done through malicious, highly suspect psychological tactics that trigger emotional responses in our brains.

Look, we need distractions to get us through difficult things—it’s an effective form of coping, and nothing to be ashamed about. And simultaneously, they’re not going to actually help us function normally in this insane environment. We can solve being hungry by eating marshmallows, too. I’ve tried it. It’s great for the first like, 12 marshmallows or so, and then things go downhill real quick.

It’s hard to pull away, but you’re going to feel better when you do.

Our brains weren’t designed to have this much information. Imagine the fire hose of information currently flying into our sponge domes. Not much has changed about the human brain in the last 100,000 years. Just 330 years ago, the only way you’d know something absolutely crazy was happening in a distant city was if someone got on a horse and pounded 12.5 miles of pavement to come tell you in person that, “The British are coming!”

I’m sure it wasn’t pavement, but it rolls off the tongue much better than “trails”.

It’s weird imagining Paul Revere with four million Twitter followers, isn’t it? Sure would have made his work a lot easier, huh.

It’s okay to turn it off. You can come back later.

You don’t have to escape to a remote cabin in the woods and swear off technology forever. Thoreau’s lake was barely a mile outside of town. Put your phone in the other room, make something to eat, punch a pillow for a while, scream silently from your lockdown window, play a video game, or call a good friend.

Just give yourself time to step away, breathe, and let your brain process through the backlog of information it has. It’s not easy, but it will help us get through this.

It’s okay to not be okay right now—and you deserve space and self-compassion more than ever right now. Set some time limits on getting updates, then turn it off.

A friend just said to me “Are we supposed to be working during the coup?” and honestly it was the most American thing I’ve ever heard.

— Dani/Tober: Actually a Witch (@thequeengeek) January 6, 2021

The post It’s Okay To Turn It Off first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post It’s Okay To Turn It Off appeared first on Break the Twitch.

This is a recording of the live workshop on December 14, 2020, at 11 AM EST, with Amy and Anthony Ongaro on 2020 reflections and 2021 planning.

Where do you want your attention to go for 2021? Before we break for the holidays, let’s sit down together and walk through some 2020 reflections and 2021 planning. 

The post Guided 2020 Reflection + Planning for 2021 [Member Content] first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Guided 2020 Reflection + Planning for 2021 [Member Content] appeared first on Break the Twitch.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been super into personal development, habits, and other intentional living topics. Even when I was 12 or 13 years old, you could find me in the self-help section of the Borders bookstore in Ann Arbor, Michigan (may it rest in peace).

This is to say that I’ve spent decades thinking about this beyond the six years that I’ve spent making content and exploring this stuff here at Break the Twitch. And throughout this time, I’ve found that there are only two effective ways to change your life—at least, change your life sustainably.

So what are they?

Slow and Steady

Well, one of the ways to change your life is slowly and steadily. If you’ve been with me here at Break the Twitch for even a small amount of time, you’ve most certainly heard me talk about the power of small consistent changes. I mention this quote from Annie Dillard a lot: “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”

It’s the little things we do each day that become who we are. We’re no longer just a person who runs. We are a runner. Not a person who lifts, but a weight lifter. We become the things that we do.

This slow and steady option is incredibly effective. Because any time we make a change in our lives, we are breaking out of the status quo. We’re breaking out of our comfort zones, what we’re used to, and often, we can only do that at little bits at a time.

Imagine if I told you to learn to speak Spanish in a day, that would be an overwhelming task. In fact, you might not even know where to get started, but if I asked you to learn just how to say hello in Spanish, could you do that?

Yes, you absolutely could do that.

Hola. It’s just one word, but it’s learning a new word consistently that creates a vocabulary in Spanish. And eventually, you’re not just a person who is learning a few words of Spanish; you are a language learner and then eventually, a Spanish speaker.

Burning the Bridge

But there is a second option to create sustainable change in your life, whether it’s learning Spanish or something else.

And that is burning the bridge. Here’s how that works.

Burning the bridge would be changing something drastically in a way that makes it incredibly difficult to go back to what you were doing before. Because if you make a big change that is really uncomfortable, it can be really hard to sustain it unless you have some friction between you and your comfort zone.

The example I gave earlier, learning Spanish in a short period of time, is a completely overwhelming proposition. But what if you were on a plane to a Spanish-speaking country, where you didn’t know anyone at all?

And you stayed there for three months. What do you think would happen? I’d be willing to bet that in that environment you would learn Spanish a heck of a lot faster because it would literally come down to your survival. Asking for food, asking for things that you need, communicating and making friends.

All of your existence during that time would be in a Spanish-speaking country and so you’d need to speak Spanish more than you would back at home. Without having a quick way to escape the discomfort and go back to where your native language is spoken—that’s an example of burning the bridge.

An example of burning the bridge for me and Amy was selling our house in Minnesota and making our way down to Phoenix about a year and a half ago. We needed a change and while part of us didn’t want to move, we knew that taking that big step would push us out of our comfort zones.

There are many ways you can burn bridges in your life to support a change for the better. While the term may have some negative connotations, when it comes to changing something difficult, I think it can be a really positive thing. You can help yourself stick with a big change by burning the bridge behind you. That way, you won’t be able to easily revert back to what’s comfortable when you feel the discomfort or resistance to that big change you’re creating.

What you’ll find in these situations is that as humans, we’re incredibly adaptable. We will do our best to make it work. The circumstances in 2020 are a perfect example of that. So if you’re going big and fast, burn the bridge to help you keep the change going.

Choosing One of the Ways to Change

It’s important to be intentional in the approach we take in changing our lives. When you change something in your life, which one of the ways to change do you choose?

You can either take the slow, steady, methodical route. Or you can go big and fast and burn the bridge behind you. But you have to choose one. There is no middle path here if you want the change to be sustainable.

Those week-long detox diets you see on the cover of magazines at the grocery store checkout aisle don’t do much. Any benefit you see from these quick solutions will disappear once you stop doing the work. Lasting benefits will be from the long-term actions you take—from the consistent work that’s not very sexy. So if the change you want is big and fast, then you better do some bridge-burning behind you to make it stick.

In my experience, these two ways to change are what end up creating the most sustainable lasting impact. What’s been your experience? I’d love to hear about it and what you’ve learned. As always, I appreciate your attention, and I’ll see you next time.

The post Choose One Of These Two Ways To Change first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Choose One Of These Two Ways To Change appeared first on Break the Twitch.

This is a recording of the live community workshop on December 4, 2020, at 12 PM EST, featuring Whitney Hansen, financial coach and the host of The Money Nerds Podcast.

In this workshop, Whitney shares five intentional money habits and a whole bunch of additional resources below. With practical tips on mindset, budgeting, money rules, paying down debt, and more—Whitney knows her stuff. She’s a good friend and I was actually a guest on her podcast a while back! You can check out the episode here.

The post Intentional Money Habits with Whitney Hansen [Member Content] first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Intentional Money Habits with Whitney Hansen [Member Content] appeared first on Break the Twitch.

For something a little different here at Break the Twitch, I thought this would be a fun project to share. This was one of our pandemic projects that has brought little bits of joy throughout the year and I thought the BTT family might be interested in doing something similar. Enjoy!

My wife Amy and I really love bubbly water. We used to buy several bottles on our grocery trips, but it started getting impractical. In addition, there’s still an environmental impact; even though the glass bottles can be recycled, it still takes energy and resources to go through the process.

Not to mention, these bottles didn’t last very long around our house. At around a liter each, they’d barely last a day. After some research, I decided to make a DIY water carbonation system that’s more sustainable, cost-effective, and versatile. Yes, you read it right—a sustainable and simple alternative that’s actually pretty fun to put together.

Now I know you might say that there are a bunch of solutions like SodaStream that can do that. This alternative is much cheaper, more environmentally friendly, and will basically pay for itself in just a few months.

The really cool thing about this system is that it can carbonate more than just water—more details on that below.

What you need to make your own DIY Water Carbonation System:

• Regulator
• Hose & Valve
• Bottle Cap (there are other options, but this steel one will last longer)
• 5 lb CO2 Tank: Get this from a local brew or hardware store. We got ours from a local brew store for $80 upfront with a $20 refill exchange.
• 2 Liter (or any size) standard plastic soda bottles: We don’t drink soda, but we bought 3 of these large bottles for this purpose and plan on switching them out every six months or so. The plastic bottles allow for the expansion when carbon dioxide enters the bottle.
• Cold water: Fill the bottle with water until the level is about 80% from the top and chill in the refrigerator for at least a couple of hours before carbonating. The empty space is so the CO2 has space to come in. The cold water helps with enhancing the fizziness. I’m not a scientist, but I read it on the internet, so it must be true.
• Flavorings: Optional. There are tons of flavorings available based on your preferences! We prefer our bubbly plain most of the time but also enjoy flavorings from the source (i.e. squeezing some fresh lemon or lime) or making our own mineral water with baking soda and food grade magnesium sulfate and potassium bicarbonate.

Instructions for DIY Water Carbonation System and Making Bubbly Water

1 / Get the regulator for the CO2 tank and connect it to the hose.

2 / Once the regulator is connected to the hose, ensure that your output is turned off. Please double-check that your output is turned off before connecting it to the CO2 tank. You can clean out any dust in the hose by simply opening it slightly to let some air out before quickly closing it again.

3 / After cleaning out the hose for any dust, connect the regulator to it. Use a wrench to tighten, and for safety purposes, double-check that it’s secured well.

4 / When the hose, regulator, and CO2 tank are all hooked up, connect the valve at the end of the hose and use a wrench to tighten.

5 / Now that you have your system set up, you’re almost ready to charge up your water! Cold water works best, so if you don’t already have a bottle of water chilled for at least a couple of hours, fill up a bottle with water and put it in the fridge. Then come back to the next step when the water is chilled. If making mineral water, you can put in 1/4 teaspoon each of baking soda, magnesium sulfate, and potassium bicarbonate right into the bottle and mix well before putting it in the fridge.

6 / Next, remove all the air from the space you have left in the bottle by squeezing it as much as you can without spilling any water out. This makes room for the CO2 to come into the bottle. With the air squeezed out, put on the carbonation bottle cap securely.

7 / Next, attach your hose to the bottle cap and open up the valve, starting with 20 psi. Once the valve is open, the bottle will inflate back out with the incoming CO2. If you want a more aggressive fizz (think Topo Chico), you can try up to 45 psi.

8 / Now, shake the bottle. An easier and what I think superior shaking technique is holding the bottle around the top and swirling it for about a minute.

9 / After this, close the valve of the CO2 tank. You can also completely close the CO2 tank at the top, but you don’t need to do that unless you want to.

10 / Detach the bottle cap from the hose, being careful not to twist off the cap too quickly unless you want a missile launching off somewhere in the house (I learned this the hard way). I like to twist it off partially and let the pressure seep out before fully loosening the cap.

11 / Pour yourself a glass of bubbly water and enjoy! Or you can add in your flavorings as desired at this point.

So there you have it! You now have your very own DIY water carbonation system that’s zero waste and much more cost-effective.

You can store your CO2 tank system in a safe place, and I’d suggest securing it to the wall for ultimate safety.

Additional Note

One more reason that this DIY water carbonation system is so amazing is that it can carbonate more than just water. You can create a sparkling wine, sparkling apple juice, bubbly bourbon, or even re-carbonate your soda.

As long as it’s a clear liquid (and chilled in advance), you can carbonate it. We prefer to use smaller bottles for this purpose: about 300 ml for about a glass and a half of sparkling wine, or 500 ml for two glasses worth.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about this fun project. Cheers!

The post How I Drink More Water: DIY Water Carbonation System first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post How I Drink More Water: DIY Water Carbonation System appeared first on Break the Twitch.

As it turns out, we are still in the middle of a pandemic and winter is coming or already here. Amy and I have spent much of the summer months primarily inside the house, and now is when we’re finally able to enjoy the outdoors in Arizona. But for many of you, it’s time to trade.

Freezing temperatures, mounds of snow, and iced-over roads mean that more people will be staying indoors, working from home, and generally moving around even less. Minus the weather inverse, the summer months we recently experienced will be the winter experience for many. It was quite a challenging time being cooped up inside for so long. What was helpful in getting through the months of being primarily indoors was to add more movement during the day.

Regular exercise is great for mental and cardiovascular health and muscle development, but that’s not what I’m talking about. What I’m talking about is what’s often missed—the general movement during the day. The movement of being out and about. Walking from one place to another like from a parking lot to a building or around the block. It’s the patterns and daily routines that are more conducive in milder weather.

During those scorching summer months, I found myself waking up and walking a few steps over to the bathroom. Then a few more steps into the kitchen, and a couple of steps into my office. And that was pretty much it. I’d end up sitting there for hours at a time. The additional factor of being cooped up in the house during the pandemic was really tough for me. The lack of movement during the day was psychologically detrimental, especially over an extended period of time.

Since many of us are going into an indoor season with a worsening pandemic situation, I wanted to share a few ideas on how to add more movement on a daily basis.

5 Effective Ways to Add More Movement Every Day

1 / Doorway Action Trigger

This idea is choosing a movement to do whenever you pass through a doorway inside your house. You can put a post-it at the top of the doorway reminding you to do the action of your choosing.

Whatever your chosen movement, every time you walk through the doorway, you do the action. The movement could be bending over to touch your toes, lifting a weight by the door, or reaching up to touch the top of the door frame. It could be a push-up, a squat, or a jumping jack. This is a fun way to incorporate different movements, as you can easily change it up on a regular basis.

2 / Reason to Get Up

Give yourself a compelling reason to get up from where you are and move around during the day. Especially if you’re spending a lot of time working at your desk, designing or finding opportunities to get up and move will be helpful.

A great example of this is to put your phone in another room. That way, if you want to check your phone, you’ll need to get up in order to do that. You’ll likely find that not having your phone nearby while you’re working will be beneficial for your focus as well.

Whether it’s a phone, a book, or a favorite snack—whatever is a compelling and motivating source for you—consider putting it upstairs or somewhere where you have a little ways to go to add more movement during the day.

3 / Adjustable Standing Desk

Another effective way to add more movement is to get an adjustable standing desk. The keyword here is adjustable so that you’re not standing all day. If you’re used to sitting most of the time, transitioning to a permanent standing desk is not fun, comfortable, or good for your knees (speaking from experience here).

Working full-time from home on content for Break the Twitch means that I am in front of a computer for most of the day. And so I’ve been wanting a standing desk for a while and was interested when I was contacted by Flexispot, who offered to send me one that matched my existing office furniture. I decided to try them out after I did some research online and saw that they were one of the most affordable options with a lot of positive five-star reviews.

The desk was easy to put together. It’s motorized, meaning it goes up and down with an easy push of a button on the electronic panel. You can also set up and save custom positions. I used to have a standing desk that wasn’t motorized back when we lived in Minneapolis; that one took a bit of effort to lift to standing height when I needed it. What I like about the Flexispot electric desk is that it’s easy to use, sturdy, and supports up to 150 pounds. Plus they have different color options to choose from. If you’d like to level up (get it?) your office with a standing desk from Flexispot, not only will you save $15 off your purchase by using this link, you’ll also be supporting my work here—which I greatly appreciate.

4 / Recurring Timer Or Blocks

The next idea to add more movement during the day is to use a recurring timer or use timed blocks to remind yourself to move. I’ve heard studies and advice on how it’s good to stand up and move around after every 20 minutes. That feels like a lot, especially if you’re doing really focused work (but hey, if it works for you, go for it!).

5 / Stand On One Foot

This idea may sound peculiar but it’s a great way to work those core stabilizing muscles. While doing routine tasks around the house, stand on one foot until you’re done with the task. The next time you do that task, alternate with standing on the other foot.

You can do this while you’re brushing your teeth, washing the dishes, or even when checking your phone. As long as the task doesn’t require sitting or moving your feet, you can incorporate this in multiple ways.

Of course, getting in a dedicated workout during the day is a solid way to add more movement when we have the time. However, getting daily movement doesn’t need to be big like that. The small everyday actions matter too, and these ideas will help to add more movement during these next few months.

The post 5 Effective Ways to Add More Movement to Your Day first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post 5 Effective Ways to Add More Movement to Your Day appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Minimalism is both an effective tool and one of the best places to start if you know something in your life needs to change.

I get the disconnect though. It’s a bit of a leap to believe that simply donating a few pieces of clothing translates to more space and your life magically getting better. The math doesn’t quite add up—but it’s the space that is slowly built over time, even the seemingly inconsequential things that have allowed me to be more consistent than ever.

Consistency is where the magic happens. Small, steady improvements change the entire game. And minimalism creates space for consistency. That’s where it all comes together.

Consistency is impossible without margin.

Anthony Ongaro

The Importance of Margin

Life is unpredictable and inconsistent. I mean, look at the year we’ve just been through. 2020 really put a lot of us through the wringer. When we sat down at the end of 2019 to dream up what the next year would look like, I don’t think any of us would have painted this picture. And just in case any time travelers happen to be reading this, buy stock in Zoom and Peloton at the end of March 2020. You’ll thank me later.

Even outside the wildly unexpected global pandemic, things happen. Unexpected delays, events, or tasks can result in not enough time, energy, or resources to do what you set out to do.

So when you’re running late, feeling overwhelmed, and you can’t do that thing you’ve committed to doing—it’s not because you’re not good enough or need to work harder or faster. If you have too many things in a box, and life suddenly hands you another thing to put in it, it’s not because you’re not a capable put-stuff-in-a-boxer. However hard you push, it’s not going to fit in the box. You’re not going to have space for an extra thing if the box is already full. That’s just how it works.

Minimalism is what helps you create the space to be consistent across different areas of your life. If your schedule is slammed full, the odds of you being able to consistently have time and energy get to the gym to work out will be lowered.

Minimalism and Attention

The minimalism effect even goes beyond the calendar and physical space. Minimalism also impacts attention space. I’m talking about the energy bucket that’s drained from us when we’re super focused on creative, analytical, or detailed work. If we’re not careful about protecting our attention space and what we spend that on, we can end up with less energy to spend on the things that are personally important to us.

With decluttering clothing in particular, it’s easy to see how it translates to less time choosing what to wear since you will have fewer options to choose from. Removing an item from your life means that you’re not organizing or cleaning it. You’re not even thinking about items that are no longer in your life. This also applies to attention space. The fewer things you do, the better you can do those things.

But this is where it can get kind of tricky. Because sometimes our subconscious can over leverage our attention as a defensive measure. It’s one of the ways we can self-sabotage and prevent ourselves from giving our full selves to the few most important things.

There are many reasons why it may be scary to give our full selves to something. What if we do that and it’s not good enough? What if it ends up not working out? That can be a scary proposition, and so it’s sometimes easier to be incredibly busy and distracted with lots of things going on. The clutter helps to hide those underlying insecurities and feelings of not-enoughness.

If it were easy to simply commit to just doing one or two things over and over again until we got to mastery, then we’d all choose that path. But instead, many of us feel societal pressure to do more and more. Many of us deal with limiting beliefs that get in our way. Minimalism helps reduce the noise, increase our awareness, and save more energy for what’s truly important.

Minimalism as a Practice

The final way in how minimalism builds consistency is that it’s meant to be a consistent practice that ebbs and flows as your life changes. Minimalism isn’t mean to be an end goal. There’s no pressure to reach an end goal where you’re finally a minimalist and now you’re done. Your life is going to be change; your needs and interests are going to shift.

The decluttering process is a series of decisions and choices on what you want in your life and what you don’t. When you first start decluttering, the items you declutter may be smaller and it may go more slowly. As you go on though, you’re actually building your decision muscle and confidence. It will get easier and easier to decide. Minimalism as a practice is about paying attention and actively deciding what to declutter and what to keep as your life evolves.

At the core of it, I don’t see why anyone wouldn’t want to be a minimalist. You will have more time and energy to go after what’s important to you. You will have greater awareness and confidence to face the small discomforts and the unpredictability of life. This work is ultimately what Break the Twitch is about—identifying and stepping into small discomforts, slowly building the muscle that allows us to do it better and better over time. That’s personal growth, and it’s what I’ve been doing steadily since embarking on this journey six years ago.

The post How Minimalism Builds Consistency for Personal Growth first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post How Minimalism Builds Consistency for Personal Growth appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Happy Break the Twitch Day, everyone. For those of you who don’t know what that even is, I’ll explain. It all started six years ago.

The Back Story

On November 14th, 2014, I decided to do something that unbeknownst to me, would change my life in drastic ways. It wasn’t anything particularly distinctive. I had registered dozens of domain names over the years. But this domain (the one you’re reading right now) ended up being quite different.

Two months before, a friend invited me to come to SimpleRev, an event he hosted that invited people from all walks of life to gather around the principles of simple living, minimalism, and sustainability.

It’s the event where I met many of the friends I have today, and after getting up to share my experience during ‘participant storytime’, I heard, “Hey! You should write about this.” (Never underestimate the power of encouragement in your life and the effect it has on others).

The Twitch

At that point in our lives, Amy and I had been married for about two years and we were both working in fairly demanding jobs. I was working as the Marketing Director of a nonprofit, and Amy in corporate finance. We had bought our first home together about a year earlier and were still in the process of figuring out what all of that was supposed to look like for a couple in their late 20’s.

Looking back, it’s easier for me to understand what was going on—but at the time, I was struggling. I knew I was not being mindful of my spending, but it felt like an impossible habit to break. In trying to juggle so many different projects in my work, hobbies, and home life, it was inevitably impossible to manage it all effectively.

I realized that the frequent one-click purchase pattern I had recognized months earlier was not an isolated spending problem, but an intention and attention problem. I began to see that many of the small daily actions I was doing were more impulsive Twitches than intentional actions.

Small Steps, Big Changes

Over the last six years, we’ve done (and tried) a lot—but here are some of the highlights of what has happened since then.

We became a one-car family. We quit our jobs (at different times) and became self-employed. I wrote a book and gave a TEDx talk. We produced a 30+ episode video podcast with 250k downloads, and built a YouTube channel with 4.5 million views (and counting)! We got rid of 80% of our belongings, starting from things as small as old business cards to barely-worn clothing, to most of our furniture in our big move across the country a year and a half ago. We’ve helped bring an intentional community of kind, wonderful people from all over the world together. We also prioritized our health, began exercising regularly, and cook the majority of our food at home. Don’t worry though, I still eat and enjoy ice cream.

But, these things didn’t happen all at once. They came through small changes and considerations, consistently showing up (some days better than others). It took taking one small step after another for six years—even when the next step wasn’t perfectly clear.

The big changes all came from the topics we talk about here on the site—minimalism, habits, and pursuing creative endeavors. All tools that allow us to love our attention and continue working towards using it well.

While the tagline has changed a few times since that day in 2014, there has always been a thread running through our work at Break the Twitch, and that is intentional attention. Exactly how that shows up varies, but whether it’s minimalism (removing distractions), habits (directing attention and action), or creative flow (the result of minimalism and habits), it all boils down to loving your attention and using it well.

Coming Together on Break the Twitch Day

This year, we decided to celebrate this milestone publicly, and invite you to join us in some intentional reflection. It doesn’t have to be anything at all, but you can spend it doing something analog, journaling, meditating, or just existing screen-free for an hour. We laid out some helpful guidelines over on the Break the Twitch Day page where you can find out more.

We’re grateful for your readership, for being a part of this intentional community, and for venturing forward with us for the next six years and beyond. Cheers.

The post Break the Twitch Day on Nov 14th, Origin Story first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Break the Twitch Day on Nov 14th, Origin Story appeared first on Break the Twitch.

This is a recording of the live community workshop on October 9, 2020, at 1 PM EST, featuring productivity expert and entrepreneur, Shawn Blanc, on his productivity tips, tool recommendations, and advice on entrepreneurship.

In this workshop, we got to ask questions we wanted to ask about productivity to my friend Shawn Blanc, who’s been blogging about it since 2007.

The post Q&A Workshop with Productivity Expert Shawn Blanc [Member Content] first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Q&A Workshop with Productivity Expert Shawn Blanc [Member Content] appeared first on Break the Twitch.

I’ve explored about three million different systems for tasks and productivity tracking and find that most of them get way too complex, way too fast. It’s always exciting to find or start some new solution with big promises of time savings. What usually happens is it gets too complex too fast and it all explodes—which just leads to giving up on it completely.

The most important part of any system is for it to not get too overwhelming so you actually, well, use it. After some experimentation, I’ve landed on a more simple and minimalist productivity system for improving your attention span by distributing different types of tasks throughout the day.

What “productive” even means

First, what does “productive” even mean? When I say “productivity,” I don’t mean just work and how efficiently you can do it—I mean it in a holistic, life sense.

I view productivity more like “single tasking” — meaning how focused on any one task are we? It could be rest, maintaining the household, getting exercise, playing a game, or working! Rest or play can be just as productive if it’s needed because they recharge us so that we can have more productive work times.

I’ve tried productivity systems by some other guys in the productivity YouTube space, like Just Joe Lee, Thomas Frankly, and Matt D’Avella, and most go into much more detail than I need. So here’s what I ended up doing that seems to work very well without taking up more time than doing the actual work.

A more minimalist productivity system

Per the image above, there are four different categories—Connect, Maintain, Rest, and Work.

Connect is what it sounds like, time reserved for connecting with colleagues, family and friends.

Maintain is all the household or maintenance activities that are simply a part of life—such as cleaning the house, cooking, running errands, etc.

Rest includes play, self-care, meditation, naps, and any kind of reflection.

Work is what we normally think of when it comes to productivity—focused, dedicated work time.

Typically my workday starts with making coffee in a more mindful way. I consider it as a ‘rest’ activity since it’s a peaceful and meditative routine for me.

I often will then take a short break to play a chess game after the focused work session to recharge a bit. Especially with the pandemic, I always try to make sure I have enough ‘connect’ sprinkled throughout my week, like a call I had recently with my friend Cait Flanders about her newest book.

However, I also make sure there aren’t too many Connect activities during the day since all that talking doesn’t usually get much done. I then have another Work block like writing a newsletter next on the calendar, followed by Maintain activities such as making food or exercising.

Note that the blocks on the calendar don’t need to be perfect. The idea is that you’ll generally have an idea of how your day and week are balanced between the different categories of Connect, Maintain, Rest, and Work. The categories might overlap a bit for you, and that’s okay! You can even change them up.

The why behind the minimalist productivity system

Why is this even important? The reason why I do this minimalist productivity system is because of what I call the Fire Bucket theory.

Imagine there’s a fire burning and so you fill a bucket and start dumping the water on it—that’s doing the Work in this example. But unfortunately, you’re going to run out and have to go get more water eventually. In this situation, many of us keep trying to put out the fire with an empty bucket.

In some cases, it can get to the point where some of us may try to put out the fire with a bucket itself. It never really works (unless there’s a super small fire remaining), and now you have a damaged bucket that won’t even hold water anymore.

What we need to do instead is break up the process. Take a step back from the Work, get more water, and then return back to the fire. It’s going to be so much more effective than chopping trees with a dull axe if you prefer the “Sharpen the Axe” analogy instead—it’s the same kind of idea.

Keeping the system flexible and sustainable

Splitting up your day in the four categories of Connect, Maintain, Rest, and Work, helps you to keep that balance for yourself. It helps you to continue to prioritize the activities that often get de-prioritized when life gets busier. We will have more focus and energy to give to our work when we split our days and weeks up.

This minimalist productivity system is meant to be flexible. Every day is different for me; I don’t have a perfect 5-day work system. What this system allows me to do is build out an entire workweek. That way, I can schedule out work and other categories and then write in my notebook what I’m actually working on.

Because let’s face it, the work is never ever done. For our emotional and mental health, it’s more sustainable to have the work scheduled throughout the week along with rest, connection, and other activities.

The post A Minimalist Productivity System For Improving Your Attention Span first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post A Minimalist Productivity System For Improving Your Attention Span appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Whenever I hear someone say something that creates a profound impact on my life, I do my best to let them know. Amusingly, it’s often something that the person doesn’t even remember saying. Meanwhile, I’d been thinking about that moment pretty regularly for ten-plus years.

There is wisdom anywhere we choose to see it, sometimes we just have to change the context up a bit.

In this particular context, I was a 7th-grader in a science class taught by Mr. Bradley. The class had just started doing various experiments, testing hypotheses, and recording the results. On a particular day where we combined different variations of chemicals together, Mr. Bradley noted, “… make sure to write down when something happens.”

I couldn’t help but raise my hand to ask, “Well, what if nothing happens?” He spun towards me and said, “Well, nothing is something.“

Well, nothing IS something!

Mr. Bradley, Anthony’s 7th-Grade Science Teacher

I was 12 at the time, and at 35, I can honestly say I’ve reflected on that moment two or more times per year for the last 23.

It’s easy to forget, isn’t it? That as much as we expect a result from an action we take—weight loss from exercise, improvement from effort, peace from meditation—there might not be any result at all.

Meditation specifically is one of those things that doesn’t really have an on-off switch and might not have much of an immediate result. In fact, it might actually make things feel worse initially. I’ve struggled with it at times, as the results of doing it tend to vary wildly.

You can sit down, start a timer, and breathe for a while but it’s never perfectly clear when all these well-documented positive effects are supposed to start happening.

It might not feel like the meditation is working at all—especially if you’re placing a heavy expectation on what is supposed to happen.

My meditation practice has never been perfect—but over time, it has become one of the best ways for me to check in with myself and feel what I’m actually feeling.

With the help of our worldly and digital distractions, the brain is very good at preventing us from experiencing the realities of our, well, reality. It happens in dubiously unexpected ways, too.

Whenever I sit down to write, I always seem to come up with funny things that my brain wants me to tweet right that instant—that’s why I created this focus launch list to deal with it.

I’ve found that the most helpful approach to building new habits, whether it’s meditation or anything else, is working to release the expectation of results. While early results do affirm efforts—like seeing the weight loss in the first week of working out—negative results have the opposite effect.

We all know how discouraging it is to not see “progress” quickly.

With any new habit you’re building, the point is to stick with it, right? So let go of the result and instead, allow your attention to focus on showing up for the action.

That’s the thing: it’s okay if nothing happens right away. If there aren’t any wild swings in the results of your actions, that just means you’re taking a more sustainable approach to it in the first place.

Remember that nothing is something, and just focus on what you can control. Seriously, don’t be so hard on yourself—this is the kind of thing where just doing it at all is doing it “right”.

If you find that the resistance to sitting down and meditating is getting lighter and lighter, then meditation is working. If you’re able to tap into greater stillness during other stressful times in your life, meditation is working. Even if it’s not entirely clear if meditation is working for you, taking a moment to be with (and do something for) yourself is never going to be a bad thing—even if it’s only for a few minutes.

How you approach meditation is up to you. But remember to embrace whatever happens and keep in mind that nothing is something, too.

The post How To Know If Meditation Is Working first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post How To Know If Meditation Is Working appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Below is a condensed video recording of the live community workshop in August 2020 about the latest stuff I’ve been exploring around building an attention practice.

This is the heart of the Break the Twitch journey: helping you to love and own your attention. Enjoy!

The post Building an Attention Practice with Anthony Ongaro [Member Content] first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Building an Attention Practice with Anthony Ongaro [Member Content] appeared first on Break the Twitch.

When it comes to living a life of contentment, minimalism is a common contender for the heavyweight title. The movement to surround ourselves with things that spark joy has furthered this perception—that simply getting rid of enough clutter and only having the things we loved would be the key to success.

While there is some truth to that, there’s an even more profound opportunity hidden in minimalism itself.

Two Reasons Why Minimalism Is Not The Answer

An answer would mean it’s a proposed solution to a question.

When used effectively, minimalism is not a solution. In fact, there are very few solutions at all when it comes to changing your life in meaningful ways.

We’ve all tried time and time again to set goal posts for when we’ll allow ourselves to feel like we’ve “made it.” Time and time again, those goal posts just keep moving further down the field as we set higher or different standards for what it’ll take to find contentment.

Over the last six years of exploring this, I’ve found minimalism to be the same. There’s no magical point where your house starts to look like the magazine covers we covet. There’s no number of items one should own that contains the keys to eternal bliss.

Minimalism is not the answer because it’s not an answer at all.

Minimalism is a question. In a life so easily filled with overwhelm, clutter, chaos, and exhaustion—one where digital devices and marketing messages use every possible strategy to capture moments of our precious attention—we must ask ourselves a question.

We must ask a question of which there is no singular “good” answer. Looking at minimalism as a process, one that helps us remove the clutter that keeps us from a meaningful life, we can ask that question. With regularity.

The most beneficial aspect of spending six-plus years asking this question is not a bare household with two cereal bowls and two spoons with which to eat every meal. It’s not owning less than 100 items, either. Both of these scenarios are not even remotely true for Amy and me.

The most beneficial aspect of asking this question with regularity is that it reinforces and affirms one essential fact: That our attention has immense value.

We have less attention than we do time, and our time is limited—so to embrace minimalism in a way that forces us to ask, “What do I want to pay attention to?” is to live the question of minimalism.

Six years in, I’m still discovering and uncovering things about myself about ways I have allowed clutter to hide for decades. I’ve increasingly gained a greater understanding that my false first steps were not just careless purchases but rather attempts to personally feel like enough.

It’s painful, yes. There’s a reason we bury ourselves in this clutter—coping with the overwhelm of the world at large. But, so far, it’s worth it—and I encourage you to explore what answers might come from asking: minimalism?

You can read more about the Break the Twitch approach to minimalism in these other posts:

• The 70/30 Principle (How Minimalism Works)
• 10 Minimalism Guidelines
• What Is Minimalism?

The post Minimalism Is Not The Answer first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Minimalism Is Not The Answer appeared first on Break the Twitch.

This is a recording of the live community workshop on July 15, 2020, at 3 PM EST featuring my friend Gary Ware, a creative and strategic play consultant, on fostering creativity and play in your life.

Gary talks about the importance of play and how it’s something we do naturally as children but struggle to do more of as adults. He delves into creativity, laughter, and how they all connect together with play. Gary walks us through thought-provoking exercises, the different Play Personalities, and ways to engage in more play in your life.

The post Fostering Creativity and Play (and Why It’s Important) [Member Content] first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Fostering Creativity and Play (and Why It’s Important) [Member Content] appeared first on Break the Twitch.

When most of the tasks we have to do are more involved, yet we haven’t established focus momentum, we jump from thing to thing without actually completing much.

This tends to be accompanied by a bit of anxious energy or overwhelm around having a lot of options for what to do. But often we’re lacking some clarity on what is most important. Sometimes it all feels important or it all is important.

Especially with more complex priorities, a secondary challenge comes when you aren’t sure how to get started with that individual task.

The irony of this situation is that we have so much to do that we feel like we don’t have time to stop, assess, and set things up so we can get zoned in.

Here are some simple steps to recenter and move forward. This focus launch list should take about 20-30 minutes but will save hours of wasted time and effort.

The Focus Launch List

1 / Breathe

Pause everything (and I mean everything) and take a bunch of deep, slow breaths. Silence your phone and put it far away, close your eyes and push the CO2 that has been chilling in the bottom of your lungs for the last two hours and let your house plants have it.

2 / Grab a Notebook & Pen

Turn to a new page and leave it open next to you, pen uncapped, ready to roll.

3 / Clear Work Space

Take five minutes and remove everything from your desk that might be a visual distraction. Papers, post-it notes, memory cards, books, empty coffee cups, etc.

As you go, make a note in your notebook for anything you don’t want to forget if you find a post-it note with grocery items on it. Don’t list the specific grocery items, just write something like:

Grocery Shopping, list on post-it note in desk drawer

You don’t have to throw things away, just note them and store them away

4 / Clear Digital Space

Close everything on your computer. Save any unfinished work, bookmark browser tabs that you don’t want to lose and close them. Even if you’re going to open something right back up in a bit, close it for now. By the end, you should be able to restart your computer safely without losing any work.

Similarly, if there was something you’re in the middle of that you need to come back to, note what it is and where to find it in your notebook.

Respond to Janelle, main email inbox

5 / Clear Brain Space

You likely have some things listed already, but take everything else bouncing around in your brain and write it down in the notebook now. Don’t think too hard about it, just jot down any concerns you have on what’s going on right now.

I haven’t shaved in three days
Did the dog go out yet?
Library book needs to be returned

This doesn’t have to be exhaustive, just let any concerns you have flow on to the page. Your computer has to use its processing power to keep all those extra applications running at the same time—closing them frees up more juice for the task at hand. Your brain needs the same thing.

6 / Sort Notes

Sure, you haven’t shaved in three days but unless you’re showing up to a photoshoot later, another day might not be a big deal. This page is your beehive—it’s busy, chaotic, and relatively disorganized, but it’s all there.

Identify two things: a quick win and an urgent/important today task.

Quick win: walk the dog
Important: write investor update letter

7 / Momentum Play

Go do the quick win right now and if it’s something that doesn’t require a lot of mental processing, use the time to think through how you’re going to approach the important thing. What’s the first sentence of the letter? What information needs to be included? Visualize yourself crafting this letter.

8 / Affirm Success

Cross out the quick win task that you just completed and yell, “BOOM!” or maybe do a stupid quiet dance or something to not scare your dog or neighbors. Yes, actually do this. You made progress, celebrate it. Next!

9 / Set The Stage

Flip to a clean page in your notebook and write the one task at the top. Jot a few quick notes underneath reflecting on any considerations you had while doing whatever your quick win was.

If on the computer, open the one or two things you need to complete the task and if it’s something like writing take those notes from your notebook and dump them into the page so you have some guidelines to start with.

Go to the bathroom. Get a glass of water. Airplane mode your phone. Tell any co-habitating humans that you’re going to be zoning in for the next 90 minutes. Turn on BlockSite or whatever distraction-killer you use. Start a kitchen timer for however long you’re going to work for. If your work period aligns with one of our focus group times in the community—all the better.

10 / Do The Thing

Build off of whatever guidelines you created to start with and expand on them. Don’t sit with a blank page/spreadsheet/whatever, just add something. Copy and paste this paragraph into it if you need to.

Start now. Don’t make it perfect; put clay on the table so you have something to sculpt.

11 / Dump Distractions

You’re going to think of things. You’re going to think of the funniest tweet you’ve ever twote, and you’re going to want to tweet it right now. You may not.

Write said tweet in the notebook which should still be open on your desk and get right back to it. Dump it from your brain and move on.

You’re going to remember a grocery item you forgot to put on your list. Dump it in your notebook and go back. Don’t hang on it, just release it.

12 / Repeat The Process

At a certain point, you won’t be writing in your notebook anymore and you’ll overcome the discomfort required to enter a flow state.

Sure, this focus launch list might have eaten 30 minutes of your day but you just got 90 minutes of focused work done, likely in a flow state that multiplies output by 2-5x. If there’s more to do on the task, throw your hands in the air like you’re the 2x world champ, take a short break, and set up again for round two.

If the progress you’ve made is enough for the day, play ‘Celebration’ by Kool & The Gang on Spotify and take a break. Or you can always go back to your list for another task and continue with the momentum you’ve built. After two or three of these 90-minute blocks, you’re done!

The End

While the explanation may be lengthy, each of these items on the focus launch list usually only takes a minute or two. This is how you can save your day, calm the bouncy-ball brain, and make forward progress on important work. Respect the process by giving it the space it needs, and you will reap its rewards.

You know, it’s the whole “If you don’t have time to meditate for one hour, you should meditate for two” wisdom.

Good luck, and have fun with it!

The post The Focus Launch List first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post The Focus Launch List appeared first on Break the Twitch.

In this member-only video interview, I chat with Marta Zaraska, science journalist and author of Growing Young: How Friendship, Optimism, and Kindness Can Help You Live to 100, about what’s involved in living a long and healthy life—beyond the typical advice of diet and exercise.

We delve into how connection and community impact everything from our longevity, immune system, to feelings of anxiety, and more. This fascinating conversation also touches on the current pandemic, the commonly pursued American dream, and our increasing reliance on technology. Additionally, Marta shares insights on gut microbes and what actually makes the biggest difference in reducing your mortality rate.

The post Growing Young with Marta Zaraska [Member Content] first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Growing Young with Marta Zaraska [Member Content] appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Earlier in June I made this video sharing some thoughts on taking action with imperfect allyship, listening, and staying accountable to creating systemic change beyond this moment. We chose to not monetize the video, and to make personal donations directly to support the recovery of our former neighborhoods back in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Black Lives Matter, and we have a lot of work to do from here.

In the video—which I hope you’ll take a moment to watch—I talk about going beyond the current news cycle and embracing anti-racist action and systemic change as a long-term habit. In general, most habits that are good for us tend to be challenging and take a good amount of repetition to stick. Eventually, what felt uncomfortable becomes a practice, then a habit, and over time that practice becomes an identity: something we do because it is who we are. 

That’s when things really gain momentum and real change starts to take shape. 

So how do we get there? Speaking broadly, what does it actually take to create lasting change in our lives and in the world at large?

Again, broadly speaking, there are two ways: small, slow, and consistent, OR big, fast, and burn.

We see examples of big and fast just about everywhere—magazine covers, sales copy in online ads, instagram influencers hustling detox teas that guarantee big results quickly. “Lose 14 pounds in 14 days”—you know what I’m talking about. They sell magazines depicting what looks like success and happiness, and claim that you could get there too if you only had this or did this thing.

But there’s no burn—most often, just an impulse purchase.

On the other hand, small, slow, and consistent is substantially less sexy. It’s hard to sell, isn’t it? Imagine bringing your purchases to the check-out aisle at a grocery store and seeing a magazine cover that says, “Gain 14 pounds of muscle in one year by using this lifting program for one hour, four days a week!”

How many people would buy that magazine? Not many.

It’s been shown time and time again that consistent incremental improvement is what creates the biggest changes over time. So why is it so challenging? Because, I mean, we’re human. We go too big, too fast and end up burning out. Even if we start small enough for it to be manageable, it’s often quite a while before we see any visible progress. Without that feedback, we’re left to simply trust the process—and that, too, is hard—especially in a culture that prioritizes serving up fast, cheap, and convenient. Hello, Twitch, am I right?

When we take action to create change from the norm, there is an invisible and opposing force that we fight against. Some might call it the status quo, or for those in positions of privilege, it might be called simply “what’s comfortable.”

In Break the Twitch language, this is Newton’s 3rd Law of Habits—every action has an equal and opposite reaction that we must overcome to stay consistent. When we do something small consistently, we get a little stronger each time, and over time, we can take on more and more.

Which is why the only other way to create lasting change is big, fast, and burn. As in, burn the bridge behind you.

My wife Amy and I loved our home and love our people in Minnesota—and that made it incredibly hard to willingly leave. But we needed a change from the midwest where I’ve lived my entire life, so we put our house on the market and sold it. I’m not sure what legal process would need to occur in order to un-sell a house once the sale closed, but I can’t imagine it would be easy or worthwhile. We weren’t sure exactly what would happen one year ago when we did that, but one thing was sure: we needed a change and we got it, and couldn’t easily go back without figuring out a new place to live.

Another example of burning the bridge is pushing the bare clippers over a big chunk of hair so you have no choice but to shave it all off for the first time and embrace your thinning hair. At least, burning the bridge and committing to trying it.

While these are personal examples, there are important societal examples too: when people need something to change and despite consistent efforts can’t seem to make it happen because perhaps, peaceful protest goes unheard or is misconstrued, some bridges might literally get burned.

In many ways, it was the small, slow, and consistent actions of individuals and community organizations pushing for social justice that provided the support and framework for the change that is starting to happen—work that must continue. It will be those consistent actions that carry the progress from the big and fast action that was made this month. More people than ever are becoming aware of the injustices that many people of color have known their entire lives, and conversations are happening now that are long overdue.

And if there’s anything I’ve learned about keeping that change going, it is the consistent, small personal efforts that will do it.

While I understand this may incite different feelings and reactions with Break the Twitch’s global audience, I hope you agree it’s important that we all pay attention and continue the discussion, continue listening, and continue pursuing a more just world together. I also hope that you can take from this what may help you in your own journey toward the change you want to see.

Where our attention goes, our actions flow—and imperfect action beats perfect inaction any day of the week. So let’s keep at it.

The post The Only Two Ways To Change first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post The Only Two Ways To Change appeared first on Break the Twitch.

There’s something magical that happens when working in a café or quiet library surrounded by other focused people. Away from your day to day environment, there’s an element of public accountability to stay on task. It turns out, there’s some science behind this effect. It’s a phenomenon many of us have experienced before, perhaps without even realizing it.

It’s been shown that simply having another person around can help you become more productive while working on certain tasks. This effect is reflected in a concept used in ADHD treatment called the body double.

Especially because I tend to get my best writing done in cafés and in shared work spaces, the pandemic has been particularly restrictive in that way. It’s been a tough adjustment along with the many others—but we’ve made a great alternative with Zoom video calls in our community.

Even if the person isn’t assisting with what you’re working on, body doubling can help you stay focused

If you’ve ever studied in a busy library or with a group of friends at a coffee shop, you’ve likely experienced it yourself. You’re more likely to be productive and focused when you’re around other people being productive and focusing, too. This is especially true when you feel a sense of accountability to the people you’re with.

That feeling of focus and productivity is exactly why we started doing focus group sessions with our community members all over the world. In these scheduled sessions, we come together online to co-work on silent video call meetings for 90 minutes. We start each session by sharing what we’re working on and then update each other on our progress at the end of the session—along with a short chat to catch up, of course.

Many community members use the focus group sessions to work on the things that need an extra push that body doubling can provide. You may be wondering exactly what kind of things people are using the focus group sessions for.

It can be hard initially to think of ways to use the productivity effect experienced from these focus group sessions. But there are certain tasks and projects that pair especially well—particularly ones that are dull, big, or more taxing.

7 Ways To Use Focus Group Sessions To Improve Productivity

1 / Writing projects

Let’s face it, starting from a blank page or delving back into a sprawl of thoughts that don’t yet make sense is one of those things we often want to put off. We see people working on novels, articles, newsletters, or blog posts all the time. Using the focus group sessions to tackle those writing projects, big and small, is a common occurrence.

2 / Studying or research

Similar to when we’d head to the college library to study with friends, focus group sessions are great for studying for exams or doing that research you need to do. Whether you’re at the undergraduate, graduate, or PhD level, you’ll have more accountability and motivation to get that work done.

3 / Email and other administrative tasks

If you’re someone who hate going through email, this one’s for you. Using the focus group sessions to get through those pesky emails in your inbox is a frequent thing we see. Whether it’s email or those many small, but important tasks that often are pushed to the bottom of the list, you’ll have a solid chunk of time to work through them.

4 / Learning a new skill

A lot of the time, we have the best of intentions to learn a new language, learn how to code, read a book, or practice an instrument and never actually do it. The task might feel overwhelming and too big to even start on. With the focus group sessions, you will have set times to work on it bit by bit with the dedicated time.

5 / Big scary projects

We all have those big projects you’re overwhelmed by or a passion project you never seem to make time for. Perhaps you’re thinking of finally digitizing and organizing those family photos. Or working on a business idea you’ve always wanted to start on. The focus group sessions provide solid chunks of protected time for you to make a little bit of progress on those big projects.

6 / Ideation, planning, or brainstorming

Sometimes we just need time to think, plan, and reflect on what we have going on. Use the focus group sessions to lay out a meal plan for the week or to brainstorm ideas. Additionally, you could set up your bullet journal, do a brain dump, make a to-do list, or simply get organized.

7 / Anything you’ve been avoiding or putting off

Whether it’s taxes, invoicing, or troubleshooting an issue—whatever it is you’ve been procrastinating on is an excellent activity to bring to a focus group session. Oftentimes, the tasks we feel the most resistance to are less intimidating when we name it and work on it in the presence of others.

So there you have it. I hope you found these ideas to increase productivity with body doubling or with our scheduled focus group sessions helpful! I also hope to see you at a focus group session in the near future.

The post 7 Ways to Use Focus Group Sessions to Increase Productivity first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post 7 Ways to Use Focus Group Sessions to Increase Productivity appeared first on Break the Twitch.

In this video, I share some thoughts about happened recently in my long-time home of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the following protests and riots around the world. Along with some personal thoughts, I ask a few questions and give considerations about what it means to be a stronger (yet imperfect) ally.

While there is incredible momentum in demanding change right now, we need to look at what we can continue to do.

Here are some video highlights:

• Our experiences in life largely come down to what we pay attention to. We cannot pay attention to what we’re not aware of, what we don’t see, or what we willingly ignore.
• George Floyd’s unjust death has led to more attention on the structural racism that has existed for hundreds of years, and with that attention comes needed change.
• Let’s hold space for potentially uncomfortable conversations so we can be more aware of what’s going on and adapt. Just because we haven’t seen it, doesn’t mean it’s not happening.
• As a white ally, it’s not about feeling guilty for the color of my skin, but reflecting on ways it has benefited me in life while understanding that there might be many I’m completely unaware of.
• As we move forward, we can focus on the small but consistent ways we can continue to learn and direct our attention beyond the defaults so that we grow to be stronger allies.
• How can we work to create a diverse environment where everyone can speak up about issues and feel safe while doing so?
• Despite having always considered myself an ally, I still have a lot of work to do when it comes to understanding my implicit bias, anti-racism, and what I do to grow my practice.
• Black Lives Matter, and if they don’t—all lives cannot matter.

The post Thoughts on Attention, Dialogue, and Taking Action In Anti-Racism first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Thoughts on Attention, Dialogue, and Taking Action In Anti-Racism appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Improving my focus has always been, well, a focus point for me. My ability to stay zoned-in on a task wasn’t great even when textbooks and taking notes with a pencil were the cool thing to do. But, add mobile screens, infinite accessible information, and constant connection to the mix? Good luck.

I’ve always had to—and will always need to—work actively on my ability to focus on difficult tasks. As a teenager, I thought these magical focus abilities would just “happen,” much like facial hair and going from tenor to bass in my high school choir.

Newsflash: it did not.

It has taken decades(!?) of intentional practice to sharpen my skills and understand the environment that works best for me.

It turns out, building the ability to focus is exactly like building any other habit.

Go figure, right? And if I can do it, so can you.

For starters, the same foundational principles of habits apply when it comes to improving your focus.

1. Start smaller
2. Repeat as often as possible
3. The goal is the action itself, not the outcome
4. Environment affects discipline
5. External accountability helps

When it comes to focusing, here’s how these principles apply.

1 / Start smaller

We’re increasingly less accustomed to sustained focus these days. Most television shows change scenes every three seconds or less. We scroll past multiple posts and pictures on our feed within seconds. While it might feel crazy, starting small may mean setting a timer for 5 – 10 minutes and working on something for that period of time without changing tasks.

2 / Repeat as often as possible

Repeat your desired task over and over again to build up a pattern of successful focusing. The repetition builds trust in yourself and respect for the timer.

3 / The goal is the action itself

The goal is to sit and focus on a single task for the duration, not “get a ton of stuff done” in the duration. You could stare at a wall or meditate for the same length of time and have similar results over time.

4 / Environment affects discipline

You most often eat what you can see, and what’s easily available. A candy dish is a disaster for me, so we don’t have one. It’s the same with focus. Change the environment as much as possible by turning off notifications, wedging your smartphone underneath a couch cushion, and changing the locks on your study so family members can’t get to you. Kidding, but you get the idea. Another way of putting it is to design your environment with intentional friction and non-friction for improved focus.

5 / External accountability helps improve focus

In the initial focus-building phase, you need to subconsciously prove to yourself that the timer is gospel and you have what it takes to go from start to finish. While my focus ability has improved massively since the time I was first blessed with facial hair, having accountability has absolutely skyrocketed my focus over the last six months.

Despite finding Pomodoro timers (45m on, 15m off), time trackers, and other tools helpful, I never found they worked as well as they should. Especially when working from home, since I was the one in charge of the timer! I could just stop it and go look in the fridge. There was little intrinsic motivation to actually heed its power—until November of 2019, at least.

That’s when we started running group focus sessions for Break the Twitch community members. We all mute our microphones and hop on scheduled video calls to work together for 90-minute sessions. I provide a video stream of my desk timer that shows up on the call and after a brief conversation over chat, we’re off to work.

When the sessions became more popular with community members, I found myself participating in two or three 90-minute focus group sessions every day. Knowing others were working along with me made it incredibly easy to focus on my chosen task for the duration. It’s similar to working in a library or coffee shop quietly; you see other people working so you just work, too.

With the consistency and repetition of the focus group sessions, I started to notice something incredible: the same accountability I felt to the 90-minute session transferred over to my desk timer when working alone. Even when I wasn’t in a session, I felt the same accountability to focus for whatever duration the timer was set for (typically 90 minutes).

All the principles come together to improve focus

Choosing something and working on it for a chosen length of time or until it was done. Magic.

To be fair, I didn’t expect this to be a result. Most people are happy with the accountability brought on by the scheduled focus sessions themselves, as I’ve been. But it’s nice to see an unexpected positive result from those sessions as well.

You can apply the same principles and likely get similar results.

Even after six years of writing and exploring this stuff, I’m still consistently surprised by how much of life is tied into the foundational elements of intentional living. We are indeed creatures of habit, aren’t we?

The post How Group Focus Sessions Improved My Focus (Even When I’m Not In Them) first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post How Group Focus Sessions Improved My Focus (Even When I’m Not In Them) appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Let me break down my personal journey from around mid-March to mid-April of this year.

Before the pandemic, I was going to the gym five to six times per week for an hour, walking a 5K outside daily, and tracking my food to ensure I got about 200 grams of protein and 2,500 calories per day. I went from that to working out at home at best two times per week for a while. Nowadays, I’m working out at home regularly again, but the transition took time. However, I’ve stopped tracking my food and I finished a 4.5-pound bag of chocolate chips in a month’s time frame.

Yeah.

You could say things are skewed off the rails a bit.

So I’m not here to tell you to get on a meal plan, to track your calories, or to ditch the unhealthy foods. That is not what I’m here to do. You don’t need to have a complicated food diet or anything like that. In the video above, I share an easy and guilt-free way to eat better that’s been really helpful for me when it comes to food during this transitional time.

And that is focusing on one healthy food or meal that I can eat each day, while allowing myself to bake chocolate chip cookies late at night when that feels appropriate.

Fitting in at least one healthy meal a day is a simple way to eat better and help you feel better about your health.

Lessening The Pressure To Eat Better

Whenever people talk about “eating better,” they almost always associate it with intense dieting, meal planning, and calorie counting. I’m not in the business of telling you how you should live your life or how you should eat. In fact, I’d like to lessen the pressure to eat better.

Dieticians have found that separating food into black and white categories can be detrimental as it can result in feeling bad about ourselves when we don’t adhere to those standards. No single food by itself is terrible for you. It’s when there is an excess of certain food choices that are repeated frequently that it can become worse. Eating nothing but pizza every day can be just as detrimental as eating nothing but kale salads. In my view, as long as you’re balancing what you eat in moderate amounts throughout the day and week, then you can eat pretty much whatever you want.

Another thing to keep in mind is that there is really no such thing as “bad food” or “good food.” Sure, some foods are less nutritious than others, but aside from food allergies or known toxins, they aren’t good or bad.

A Few Suggestions To Consider

Here are some suggestions that could help to lessen the pressure to eat better, while still making positive progress.

One simple way would be to switch to using smaller plates. By eating on a smaller plate, there looks to be more food visually. This is a way to manage portions by default without thinking too much about it.

Another way to eat better would be to try out a new healthy recipe every week or so. It’s a fun way to learn and try out some recipes that maybe you wouldn’t have otherwise. There are plenty of healthy and delicious recipes out there that incorporate veggies and protein.

By lessening the pressure to eat better and keeping it simple, we can take small steps towards more healthful eating.

This is the last post in the series, This Can Help, about the little things we can do during times of greater uncertainty.

The post This Can Help – Simple Way to Eat Better first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post This Can Help – Simple Way to Eat Better appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Did you know there are 600 hours of content uploaded onto YouTube every single minute?

Back when I first started my YouTube channel, that number was 50 to 100 hours of content per minute, maybe. The amount of YouTube content out there is more than you could consume in your lifetime, 100 times over. And that’s just YouTube.

In part six of This Can Help, a short series about the small habits we can do during times of greater uncertainty, I talk about the importance of a low information diet.

While I fully understand the irony of sharing this, it’s important because what we need now is less.

In the video below, I share the reasons to have a low information diet and practical ways to limit our consumption each day.

Myriad Of Content

Back in 2001, the internet wasn’t the publishing myriad of options we have at our fingertips now. The news and information we received back then were far more centralized. We didn’t have Twitter, YouTube, Medium, and other platforms where literally anybody could put his or her opinion out there.

Personally, I find myself seeking out more information, hoping to find concrete answers about the coronavirus and the latest updates. From news articles, scientific reports, TV news, YouTube to social media—there are many sources of conflicting information out there.

We need to give ourselves some space away from the constant barrage of information.

Especially during times of greater stress and uncertainty, we need to be careful about the source and credibility of what we’re consuming. We also need to consider if what’s being presented has been manipulated to appeal to our confirmation bias. A low information diet can help us create more space, awareness, and intentionality around our information consumption.

Impact From Information Overload

While it may feel tempting to pull out your smartphone to check email, get the latest news, or browse social media during those in-between moments, the barrage of information comes at a cost. You’re filling your mind with an infinite and never-ending stream of happenings across the world—most of which has little to nothing to do with your life at the moment. This pulls your mind and attention away from the present moment.

Researchers have found a correlation between a person’s mental well-being and the amount of time spent on social media. By limiting your social media consumption in a day, you can reduce the information overload and impact.

The temporary discomfort experienced from the Newsfeed Twitch will pass in moments if you simply allow the impulse to pass. If you get past the initial discomfort, you’ll likely find yourself feeling much better. After all, news networks and social media algorithms deliberately try to get as much attention as possible through negative, shocking or contentious content. While that may be good for platform use and viewership, it has a detrimental impact on our attention and mental health.

In the information-rich economy we live in today, there are major consequences for our attention. As economist and psychologist Herbert Alexander Simon said perceptively back in the 1970s, before the onset of all the media platforms that exist today, “A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”

Benefits of a Low Information Diet

There is greater peace and less anxiety in having a low information diet. There can also be more creative inspiration and ideas that come to you in the space that a low information diet provides.

A related benefit of having a low information diet is that it puts us in touch with our mental and emotional wellbeing. In trying times, scrolling through social media or constantly watching the news will often make you more stressed and worried about the world around you. Creating a habit of a lower information diet can help you better understand your emotional state and your true needs so you can start to better balance what’s going on internally with the outside world.

Another benefit of incorporating a low information diet is it can result in greater creativity, problem-solving, and learning. You can use the time you’d normally spend consuming information on a new hobby, reflecting upon something, or simply being present. When you allow yourself space to be bored and unoccupied, you may be surprised at the creativity and problem-solving that you suddenly may find yourself doing. Having a low information diet creates more space for boredom and the benefits that can provide.

Another Way Forward

Luckily there are lots of ways we can introduce more of a low information diet in our lives. Through turning off notifications, deleting apps, and other forms of intentional friction, we can create more space and reduce distractions in our lives. Instead of the time you’d spend consuming more information, you can intentionally choose to break the Newsfeed Twitch.

There are other options you could do instead of pulling out your phone and scrolling. You could take a walk, meditate, nap, journal, draw, make something, or connect with family or friends. Embracing a low information diet is about taking time for yourself without the infinite distractions and stimulation that digital devices provide. There’s no pressure to it; you can do it whenever you start to feel overwhelmed, fatigued, or overstimulated.

Strategies For A Low Information Diet

Select an idea below to experiment with, so you can begin to find a balance that works best for you.

• Identify moments during the day when you’re most susceptible to the Newsfeed Twitch. Consider ways to increase intentional friction, so you’re less likely to browse.
• Try out these specific strategies to manage the Newsfeed Twitch to see which ones may be helpful.  
• Create a no-phone rule during a specific timeframe such as dinnertime or in the hour before bedtime.
• Have Saturday or Sunday be a no-screens day to spend time outdoors or with family and friends.
• Subscribe to a few (not too many) news summary emails from trustworthy, reputable sources instead of getting your news across social media platforms, networks, and websites.
• Unsubscribe from unnecessary marketing or news emails that are no longer relevant or adding value to your life.
• Put your phone away out of sight during the workday.
• Acknowledge that sometimes you need a break, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
• Take up a hobby and put your phone away if you don’t need it during the timeframe.
• Keep your notifications off when spending time with family, friends, or any other social setting.

It’s good to be informed, but there’s a point when more information just isn’t helpful.

The next and final one in the This Can Help series is One Healthy Food.

The post This Can Help – Low Information Diet first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post This Can Help – Low Information Diet appeared first on Break the Twitch.

In part five of This Can Help, a short series about the small habits we can do during times of greater uncertainty, it’s all about the benefits of music.

Music is an international language that we can use to change how we feel.

It can be as simple as listening to any uplifting music you enjoy, to specifically choosing music from good times in your life. There are ways you can use music to shift your mood, improve focus and motivation, and immerse yourself into creative flow.

In this video, I share a fun clip I created with friends a couple of years ago. I also share ideas on how to take advantage of the benefits of music for yourself when you need it.

The Many Benefits of Music

One of the most significant benefits of music is that it can change how you feel. There is research that suggests that listening to music can improve our physical and mental health.

Improves Our Mental Health

The benefits of music can have an astounding effect on your mental health. One of the benefits of listening to music is that it can positively impact your memory.

Scientists have found that the parts of your brain that process music and language share the same systems as the part that controls memory. In a study conducted by the University of Kansas Medical Center, 70 different adults, all aged between 60-83, were split into three groups based on their musical ability. These three groups were then asked to conduct a series of cognitive tests. The researchers found that those with the most musical experience performed way better than those with little to no musical experience.

Yet another one of the benefits of music is it can reduce stress and anxiety. Researchers have found that just like meditation, listening to music can have a calming effect on the mind. When you listen to music, there is often a change in brain function and a reduction of stress. The benefits of music aren’t just limited to the act of listening, however. The act of making or performing music can also release tension and stress in the body. This happens because the act of playing a musical instrument can short circuit your body’s stress response system and stop it from consistently building up.

Positively Impacts Our Physical Health

The benefits of music aren’t just mental; they can also help you improve your physical health. Listening to music can enhance your workout routines by releasing more endorphins in your brain. Your body naturally tries to keep pace with the tempo of the music you’re listening to—which can enhance your workout; this in turn, can have a positive impact on your health.

Some other physical benefits of music include improving the quality of your sleep and boosting your body’s natural healing process. Music is commonly used in therapy for brain-related injuries. With the use of brain-imaging techniques, scientists have found the parts of your brain that process music and control motor function share vital circuits. So by listening to music, people with motor-control issues can work to improve their movement abilities.

Incorporating more music in your life can include listening to uplifting music you enjoy or learning to play or practicing a musical instrument. The benefits of music are many—from shifting your mood, improving focus and motivation, to enhancing your physical health.

Ideas For How to Enjoy the Benefits of Music

Here are some simple ways to better enjoy the benefits of music.

1 / Experiment with listening to different types of music

By listening to varying styles of music, you can widen your horizons and perhaps find that certain kinds of music can affect you in different ways.

2 / Learn an instrument

If you want to expand beyond listening to music, you can play an instrument. Practicing or learning to play an instrument can be a great way to improve your memory and creative skills.

3 / Pick a song or playlist that best fits your situation or purpose

It’s pretty common to have a favorite song or playlist you listen to no matter the occasion. Still, you may find that certain kinds of music can provide different benefits depending on the situation. For example, rock music can pump you up while working out, while lo-fi music can help you sleep.

4 / Try to understand the meaning behind the lyrics of any song you listen to

By taking the time to listen deeper into a song instead of just surface listening, you may find yourself more easily moved by not just the sound of the music but the meaning behind it.

5 / Listen to music based on how you’re feeling that creates an emotional experience

Music can have a beautiful effect on your emotional state, moving you to feel a certain kind and depth of emotion. By listening to a song that best fits what you’re feeling, you create a sort of echo chamber around the emotion—helping you get in touch with your feelings.

Next in the This Can Help series is an ironic but important one, Low Information Diet.

The post This Can Help – Benefits of Music first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post This Can Help – Benefits of Music appeared first on Break the Twitch.

During this time while you’re at home more than anything else. Now’s the perfect moment to go through your entire house, get rid of all the things you don’t need, and finally become a minimalist.

I’m kidding.

That is definitely not the Break the Twitch way, or our philosophy when it comes to decluttering and minimalism. But particularly when what’s outside of our control is beyond typical, it feels great to do something we can control.

If decluttering seems overwhelming, doing a daily declutter of one space can be a great way to get started.

Choosing Your Space To Declutter

We can choose one small space to declutter and keep tidy each day. It can be the dining room table, the kitchen counter, your workspace, the bedroom, or the bathroom. For the biggest impact, whatever space you choose would ideally be an area you use frequently.

The benefit of a daily declutter is as you declutter your space, you gain a sense of control over your environment. Taking action on something you can control can be helpful when it feels like we don’t really have any control over the world around us.

Clutter in your home can be distracting and make it harder to focus. Living amongst the clutter contributes to stress and feeling like you’re in a rut. Through a daily declutter, you can get into the practice of clearing distractions regularly to improve your mood, productivity, and sense of peace.

Choose a space that feels manageable, that you can keep decluttered with just a few minutes each day. You can always slowly expand the area later on as you feel up to it. As you keep going with your daily declutter, feel free to expand or change the space you’ve chosen.

Daily Declutter Ideas

There are many spaces in your home you could choose for a daily declutter. Some spaces are ones that you probably would need to clean up anyway. For example, a common everyday space that could benefit from a daily declutter would be clearing out the kitchen sink. This would include washing all dirty items and putting them away every day. You could do a daily declutter of the kitchen table, clearing off all the things that have been used that day.

Another example would be to clean up your workspace—be it your desk, home office, or a workshop. Taking the time to take a look at the space and declutter anything that either doesn’t belong there or is no longer necessary helps with having a more distraction-free workspace.

Yet another example of a space that’s great for a daily declutter would be making your bed or tidying your bedroom in the morning. Doing this regularly helps in maintaining a peaceful environment within your bedroom. It’s a small thing you have complete control over and a way to reflect the serenity you want in your environment.

This is part four of This Can Help, a short series on the small habits we can do during times of greater uncertainty. Next in the series is Benefits of Music.

The post This Can Help – Daily Declutter first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post This Can Help – Daily Declutter appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Up until a month and a half ago, Amy and I had a really solid gym habit that had been going on for more than two years.

We were going to the gym consistently about five to six times a week. I was tracking my food and following a fitness program—when it all came to a halt. With no more gym to go to, things pretty much went downhill.

The good news is we’ve transitioned reasonably to working out at home—although it’s nowhere near to what I was doing when we were going to the gym. The bad news is, well, the shift wasn’t the easiest.

One important thing to do during stressful times is to move.

I don’t mean packing up your stuff and moving to a different location. What I mean is physically moving your body in any way that you can. Finding ways to move more at home.

A defining characteristic of any habit is the transition point, which for our gym habit was driving to the gym and walking into a dedicated space for working out. I’ve said before that my workout habit for the past couple of years hinged on simply showing up at a gym. But since that clearly wasn’t going to work with non-essential businesses closing down, now I had to find a way to move more without being at the gym.

It’s really hard to create a similar transition point when you’re at home almost all the time. This was exactly what we experienced when we began working out at home with the stay-at-home orders. We had to find ways to move more, to generally add more movement to our everyday lives.

In the video above, I talk more about the transition and finding ways to play and move more, reducing anxiety, and being more in sync with how our bodies are designed to be.

For more ideas on how to move more, check out these 5 effective ways to add more movement during the day.

This is part three of a series called This Can Help, about the little things we can do during times of greater uncertainty. Next in the series is Daily Declutter.

The post This Can Help – Move More first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post This Can Help – Move More appeared first on Break the Twitch.

I sat at my kitchen table for about eight hours moving beans and seeds around to make the title sequences for this series—This Can Help—about the little things we can do during times of uncertainty.

Considering that I could’ve made simple text titles, was that a pointless thing to do? Instead of spending about an hour for each title sequence, I could’ve spent just three seconds.

However, there’s actually a rationale for doing things for no purpose.

There can be peace and joy that comes from the process and more creativity as well. I explain more in the video about how doing things for seemingly no purpose doesn’t mean it’s pointless. I share how doing so can add great benefit to your life.

Many of us were raised with the message that having a purpose in life and behind what you do is important. There are many benefits in having purpose behind the things you do; benefits such as greater clarity, sense of meaning, and fulfillment in life. However, that doesn’t mean everything you do needs to have a purpose.

There can be an equal amount of positive benefits when you do things for no purpose.

The Why Behind Doing Things For No Purpose

It might be confusing to understand why you would do things for no purpose. Some people might see it as a waste of time. After all, why would you do something that has no purpose when you could be doing something with more direct benefit?

Others might think doing things for no purpose is simply just doing something for fun. But sometimes, you’re not sure if something will be fun. Perhaps you’ve never tried it before. Or maybe you’re not sure if what you’re doing will even work out the way you think it will.

What some of us don’t know is doing things for no purpose—because you want to or as a form of exploration—is vitally important to your mental and physical wellbeing. Doing something in a more playful, exploratory manner can help your brain produce a cocktail of hormones that contribute positively to your day.

We all feel some sort of stress in our lives. While too much stress can cause physical harm to our bodies, did you know there’s a kind of stress that’s good for you?

Increases The Good Kind of Stress

That kind of stress is known as eustress, which contributes to feelings of excitement and motivation. Whenever you finish a project, embark on an interesting challenge, or do an activity you enjoy without needing any purpose or reason, your body releases eustress. In essence, eustress being released into your body feels like pure excitement about being alive. Low levels of eustress can result in feelings of boredom, malcontent, or depression. Without a healthy amount of eustress, you may find yourself not striving to achieve your goals or feeling like you don’t have a reason to wake up in the morning.

Encourages Curiosity and Play

Another benefit of doing things for no purpose is it can help boost your imagination and creativity. For many of us as children, play was a more common activity than it is now as adults. This is because playing is how we develop social and creativity skills as children.

However, contrary to the path most of us take, the importance of play doesn’t diminish as we become adults. While we have more serious responsibilities as adults, that doesn’t mean that the time for play is over. Play is often considered trivial or frivolous by the time we become adults, and that is to our detriment.

The act of play can promote a more creative mindset. Doing things for no purpose increases our ability to explore, experiment, and to take risks in other parts of our lives. It’s a benefit that can add more creative problem-solving ability to your other skills.

Overly Focusing On Purpose

The opposite of doing things with no purpose is to do things on purpose. This is what many of us have been conditioned to do by our parents, teachers, and society. As such, focusing on purpose usually comes naturally to us as adults.

But purpose can be over-emphasized in our day-to-day lives. In fact, we can be overly focused on purpose to the point we need to have a purpose behind almost everything we’re doing.

In this case, we’re not talking about having a greater purpose—in the form of meaning, a calling, or a career that you’re passionate about. What we’re talking about is justifying everything you do—even when it comes to the more casual things you might choose to do during your downtime.

Contributes To Less Fun

One issue with focusing on doing everything for a purpose is that you’ll likely find yourself having less fun. You may find yourself prioritizing practical activities, resulting in having less time for exploratory activities. Eventually, you may start developing a more limited perspective—viewing life as a never-ending stream of work, to-do items, and problems. This lack of enjoyment in life can harm your health, causing issues like burnout, stress, and depression. You’ll also lack the production of eustress, the good kind of stress mentioned above that boosts feelings of motivation and zest for life.

Focusing too much on purpose can also happen inadvertently with activities you enjoy. When you turn a hobby into a potential business, you’re assigning a purpose to the hobby that wasn’t there before. That hobby now has the purpose of making you money; and if you’re not careful, the activity may stop being as fulfilling as it used to be. By assigning a purpose to everything you do, you risk losing enjoyment in those things. Sometimes, a hobby is best left as something purely for exploration, fun, or enjoyment.

Increased Likelihood Of Burnout

While burnout is typically associated with being overworked in your professional life, what’s considered “work” could extend beyond that. It could also include personal and family life— trying to manage a household, paying bills, taking care of others, and fixing things around the house. Symptoms of burnout include exhaustion, interpersonal problems both at home and at work, and a dip in productivity. The best way to combat burnout is to take a step back from your work and do something just for yourself.

Through balancing purposeful activities with doing things for no purpose other than because we want to, we are able to have the best of both worlds. Perhaps we can even find a way to combine the two—introducing more of an exploratory, playful approach to the things we do for a purpose.

Next in the This Can Help series is Move More.

The post This Can Help – Doing Things For No Purpose first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post This Can Help – Doing Things For No Purpose appeared first on Break the Twitch.

How long is 10 seconds, really?

If I talk to you while showing clips of my dog Rocky playing, 10 seconds can go by pretty fast. On the other hand, a blank stare can seem like an eternity.

So the real answer is, it depends. But when it comes to intentionality, 10 seconds makes a world of difference.

A Habit Series from Break the Twitch: This Can Help

An Easy Mindfulness Exercise

When things get stressful and uncertain, many of us rush through things and try to do all the things at once. During this time, we’re much more susceptible to the Twitch, those little impulses that ping us back and forth between things all day. It may feel like we’re doing things, but it also seems like nothing is really getting done.

We can combat this bouncy ball situation by slowing down the pace of our thoughts and actions. While we can’t keep thinking faster to compensate, we can give ourselves a little more space to process before taking action. That’s why I recommend an easy mindfulness exercise that will only take 10 seconds to do.

When you feel the urge to check social media, give yourself 10 seconds before doing so. If you’re trying to focus on something, take 10 seconds before picking up your phone if a notification goes off. If you still want to pick up the phone, then do so—but waiting 10 seconds may be enough for you to decide not to do that. Try building a 10-second delay between the impulse and the action, and see how it feels for you. While these are digital examples, this can be applied to anything you think of before the action. This an easy mindfulness exercise that you can do at any time and can work in almost any situation.

Awareness Without Judgment

Building this practice will be helpful even if you still do the thing after waiting 10 seconds.

It’s not about changing the behavior immediately or feeling shameful about it; it’s about intentionally choosing the action that follows, even if it might be considered a distraction. The 10-second pause isn’t for us to “should” our way into not doing or doing something. It’s simply there to help us practice awareness without judgment and understanding our actions better. Through greater understanding, we can then begin the work of addressing the underlying reasons behind our actions.

I can imagine you thinking how insignificant 10 seconds might seem. How could it possibly make a difference? If that’s the case, perfect! This exercise is an easy one so that you’ll be more likely to follow through with it—and that’s exactly how a mindfulness habit is built.

What are some ways that you can make use of this easy mindfulness exercise? You got this!

Next in the This Can Help series is Doing Things For No Purpose.

The post This Can Help – 10 Second Easy Mindfulness Exercise first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post This Can Help – 10 Second Easy Mindfulness Exercise appeared first on Break the Twitch.

This is a recording of our first live community workshop led by one of our own, Caroline Rae, on April 8, 2020, at 1 PM EST about Resilience for COVID-19.

We’ve seen incredible demonstrations of resilience across the globe: from quarantine karaoke in Wuhan, the emergency workers like store employees and delivery personnel keeping things going, to the healthcare workers battling the frontlines of COVID-19.

The post Resilience for COVID-19 and Beyond [Member Content] first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Resilience for COVID-19 and Beyond [Member Content] appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Before I get into this video and the upcoming video series, I wanted to pause and say thank you. Amy and I are staying home, doing our best with social distancing—and if you’re doing the same, thank you.

If you’re working in the world to continue providing groceries, medical care, transportation, cleaning, and other essential services that keep our lives running—thank you for risking your own well-being to do so. Thank you.

Right now, we’re facing an unprecedented time all over the world.

We’re having to make changes to our lives that we didn’t expect and that we didn’t plan for, and there’s a lot of uncertainty that comes along with that. There can be a lot of anxiety that can come along with that uncertainty. Especially when you rely on habits and certain aspects of your life to keep things together; the things that maintain some sense of normalcy and productivity or quiet a part of the anxiety that we may feel right now.

This is definitely a time when I find myself “twitching” more—constantly looking for new information.

It’s a part of the human condition, one of the ways we deal with uncertainty. For better and worse, there’s unlimited information out there, and a whole lot of misinformation. At a certain point, new information is no longer beneficial and just contributes to the overwhelm.

If you’ve been struggling with recent changes and with maintaining certain habits, know that it’s completely normal. We tend to associate the identity we have with the habits and things we do. The small things we do every single day become a part of who we are. Losing some things we do each day—our identities—is scary, and there’s still so much we’re not sure of.

From my standpoint, there are two different ways on how to move forward.

On one hand, you can double down on your habits to keep sane. Doing so provides a sense of normalcy during this challenging period of time. This can be really helpful for some people.

On the other hand, you can take it a lot easier. Because this is different from anything we’ve ever experienced in our lifetimes. Many of us are suddenly working from home, homeschooling kids, and managing a household all at the same time. Many people are being furloughed and losing their jobs—with no certainty of what will happen next.

So this is also a time to be kind to ourselves. To be forgiving. To not beat ourselves for slipping on habits or not being on top of everything.

At the same time, the balance between the two approaches is where I’ve been trying to live.

What we’re all going through right now is a new transition, a forced one, unfortunately, but a transition nonetheless. We need to lower the bar of what we expect from ourselves—much like when you move to a different city, start a new job, or experience some other life-changing event. These things always take time to adjust to.

But integrating some small habits that help keep us on the rails can also be beneficial. These things may not look the same or be as consistent as they were before, but you can push yourself a little to do the best you can. Exercising, simply sitting and breathing, setting aside some analog time—whatever small practices bring us and our minds back into the present.

There’s not going to be one right solution, but balancing the two approaches is what’s worked best for me in adjusting and slowly reaching a new normal.

Over the next several days, I’ll be sharing a series called, This Can Help.

Each post and video will feature one small action we can do during this time to keep ourselves more grounded, positive, and build up to a new normal. The name of the series is inspired by my friend, Patrick Rhone, who wrote a book called This Could Help.

For each one, I’ll provide a short explanation of the tiny habit, the why behind it, and how I’ve been using it. I hope these habit ideas help to balance the two approaches I mentioned earlier—to be forgiving of ourselves but also to step into the small ways we can cope and grow during this time of uncertainty.

I truly believe if we can dig into the empathy we have for one another, we can do our part to raise the tide for all boats. That we can become stronger as people through this and become more caring towards each other. I look forward to bringing you this series and thank you for doing your part in building a new normal for us all.

All the posts within the series will be linked below in this article as they’re published.

A Habit Series from Break the Twitch: This Can Help

1. 10 Second Easy Mindfulness Exercise
2. Doing Things For No Purpose
3. Move More
4. Daily Declutter
5. Benefits of Music
6. Low Information Diet
7. Simple Way to Eat Better

The post This Can Help – A Short Habit Series first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post This Can Help – A Short Habit Series appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Hey Twitch Breakers (is that a thing yet?)! I’m thrilled to bring you this month’s exclusive member content with this video, featuring my friend Matt Ragland. Matt is a productivity and bullet journaling YouTuber and the Director of Creator Success over at a company called Podia.

In this video, we discuss the ins and outs of bullet journaling, the benefits of going analog, and how to take small steps toward making it work for you. This was the conversation that inspired me to try bullet journaling again, which resulted in this video.

The post Going Analog: Bullet Journaling, Planning, & Creating with Matt Ragland [Member Content] first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Going Analog: Bullet Journaling, Planning, & Creating with Matt Ragland [Member Content] appeared first on Break the Twitch.

At this point, it has been a few weeks and I’m still having trouble fully processing everything that is going on right now. There’s a lot of uncertainty about what will happen in the next few months around the world, and for most of us, our lives have been disrupted in a way that we haven’t really experienced before.

Despite being an optimist, I don’t find it productive to attempt forced feelings of positivity during a crisis. While I might have tried to do that in the past, I’m now focusing more on trying to just feel what I’m experiencing at this moment and not push those feelings away too quickly.

That, and ice cream helps. Let’s just say my friends Ben and Jerry are the only two other people outside of my household that I haven’t been following social distancing protocol with during this time.

I am the furthest thing from a medical professional one could possibly imagine, so I will be leaving those particular thoughts to the more qualified. With that being said, there are things I’ve been working through, things that might help us see some light during this darker-than-expected timeline. When it comes to owning our attention and being human, I have some pretty decent credentials—so let’s start there.

Here are some thoughts I’d like to share, in no particular order. Shared with the hope they will help us all navigate this time together.

During times of uncertainty, we’ll always want more information.

We’ve long ago reached peak information—the point where the information that exists in the world is far beyond our ability to consume it all. It is now an endless, exponentially growing supply of words, videos, posts, and pictures.

Heck, pick a single website and you’d be hardpressed to get through all the content at this point.

It is human to seek answers, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But it is inhuman to consume information 100% of the time. It is essential to limit our information intake in a thoughtful way during times like these—ranging from either taking an hour completely off to limiting it to an hour in its entirety.

We need space to process our thoughts, feelings, and the information we collect along the way.

The Twitch gets much stronger during these times.

I’ve found myself picking up my phone and checking things more now than I have in a long time. Texts, Instagram, the stock market, emails, literally anything. Maybe it’s a fear of missing something—some critical information that I’d not have otherwise. Maybe it’s the belief that the more I know the safer I’ll be.

The problem is that it very clearly makes me feel worse, yet it’s so hard to avoid. The things that have helped are analog activities such as music, walking, short meditations, and just about anything not on a screen. Start breaking away in small ways and see how you can adapt.

A disrupted life is a powerful time for personal change.

It is really, really hard to be “creative” during a time of deep stress and uncertainty. My thoughts go down a few levels toward the necessities—food, water, the health of my loved ones, money, and trying to figure out what will happen with all of this.

Once I had time to feel the anxiety of those thoughts for a while, some other things set in. I started thinking about all the things I couldn’t do now and regretted not doing those things more. Hanging out with new friends here in Arizona, going to events and gatherings, freely walking about the grocery store without wondering if I’d be able to buy toilet paper…

In a way, this forced-simpler-life is making me take a hard look at the priorities I’ve set up to this point and question the things I deemed necessary.

For the last two years, I’ve relied heavily on a gym membership to maintain my healthy habits. It was the transitional act of going to the gym each day that helped me maintain the actual workout habit. Suddenly, I’m learning that I’m capable of actually doing workouts at home relatively consistently.

Sure, there was a dip when we chose to stop going to the gym—however, I’ve been able to work back up to it. It may be a small distinction, but it’s still worth noting.

It is when the status quo has been immeasurably disrupted that we see most clearly what we’re capable of and what actually matters most to us. That is a powerful perspective to have—and one we should not take for granted.

Seeking new ways to obtain the familiar helps.

When I got more into healthier eating and began tracking daily calories, I started learning more about making the foods that I loved, but in healthier ways. Either by reducing the overall calories in the meal or substituting healthier ingredient options.

If you didn’t know already, I have a big sweet tooth—which is a nice way of saying “sugar addict”. I especially love cookies—and I’ve found an easy way to make healthier protein cookies that, enjoyment wise, are 90% of the way there.

While it may not be quite as good as the real thing, it’s helpful to do the same thing with other areas of life right now. I’ve been getting on Zoom video calls with family, working and meditating several times per day on video calls with Break the Twitch community members, and even doing virtual video workouts with a couple of friends across the country.

It’s definitely not all of what I need as an extrovert during this time of social isolation, but it helps ease the pain of feeling incredibly disconnected. Looking for small ways to do this in your life, to feel a sense of normalcy and familiarity will be helpful as we navigate this time.

There is always opportunity in uncertainty.

I don’t mean the opportunity to “take advantage” of the situation in a sleazy way. That’s gross. I mean simply seeing things for what they are and looking for the gift in the storm. It might be an opportunity to call someone you haven’t talked to in a long time. An opportunity to offer a skill or talent you have that would help someone else substantially. An opportunity to reprioritize just about any aspect of life.

As bad as things seem, we can feel the “bad” authentically, see opportunities, all while reassessing the situation and growing as a result.

We don’t need to pretend like the uncertainty we face is some magical happy time—it’s okay to feel that as it is. The cult of constant positivity is not one I care to join. But we can look for ways to find familiar, turn inward during this time of isolation, and come out stronger through a difficult situation.

Thank you for doing what you can to help keep the threads of daily life together in both small and large ways each day. We’ll get through this together.

The post Owning Our Attention During Uncertainty first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Owning Our Attention During Uncertainty appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Many of us are working from home for the first time, which can definitely be a challenging adjustment on top of everything else happening right now. As someone who’s been working from home for the past several years, I figured I could share some strategies for working from home that have been helpful for me.

When I first started out, it was an unexpectedly disruptive transition. It took me almost a full year to get accustomed to my new work-from-home routine. I realized there were distractions at home that I didn’t have when I had a separate work office to go to on weekdays.

A lot of the time, the idea of working from home is pretty well glorified. While there are perks such as saving time on the “commute” from your bedroom to your desk, there are also distractions and unglamorous aspects that can happen throughout the day.

There are physical, social, and mental benefits that come from using separate spaces for different purposes—which is, I believe, why we’re typically going into an office for our jobs. When you get out of the house to go to a separate workplace, it helps you task change, get work done, and connect with other people. Having a change in your environment is a positive thing, but it doesn’t happen by default when you’re working from home.

To help make the transition easier, here are some strategies for working from home I’ve found helpful.

1 / Get dressed for work

While the idea of working from home in your pajamas sounds nice, the novelty wears off pretty quickly. Following your normal boot-up sequence and routine before work will help you get into the focus zone and be more productive during the day.

Do whatever you’re comfortable with and what makes the most sense for your work. But the more you’re able to keep to a normal morning routine—getting ready and officially sitting down at your desk—the more beneficial it will be.

2 / Set your priorities the night before

This is the first step of my morning routine that actually starts the night before. It’s been helpful for my productivity and I’d encourage you to do it as well. I write down the things I need to prioritize for the next day and choose which one I start on first, second, third and so on.

Many people do this as part of their bullet journaling practice, which I’ve recently started and am enjoying doing.

3 / Schedule a work session in the morning

Another helpful thing to do is scheduling a meeting or work session at a specific time in the morning where you need to be.

4 / Have a dedicated workspace

What’s also helpful is having a dedicated workspace—whether it’s a desk, room or area where your brain knows it’s time to focus and get to work. This is what’s happening when you leave your house and go to your office or coworking space.

There is an exception to this if you’re feeling stuck or need a change of space to shake things up. You can take your laptop into the kitchen, or into the living room and continue working. Sometimes, moving around to different areas of the house can help to get you back in the zone. While we’re relatively restricted from coffee shops at the moment—that’s a great option when the time comes.

5 / Create work times and boundaries

Creating work times and boundaries is one of the most important strategies for working from home. It helps to maintain a sense of schedule for yourself but it’s essential if you have a partner and family members around the house as well. Setting those times and boundaries will help everyone have the focus and peace when they need to have it.

It’s helpful to establish some sort of signaling system you can use to tell people in your home that you’re in a focused work session or meeting. That way, the other people in your home know not to interrupt you unless it’s an urgent matter.

6 / Leverage a more flexible schedule

It might be obvious to some, but one of the benefits of working from home is the flexibility to schedule things at more beneficial times for you. It’s amazing how patterned we can get when we’re used to doing something a certain way for a long time (the daily rush-hour commute, exercising after work, etc.).

This can be as simple as exercising in the morning or in the afternoon if you’re able to do so during the workday. It could also look like running errands or calling businesses at off-peak times. There are ways you can save both time and money by rescheduling certain parts of your day.

7 / Block out times of your day

Prior to working from home, you likely had more set times for lunch, dinner, family time, and exercise. Do what you can to maintain that regularity. With a more expansive schedule, it can be easy to get into a task and forget to eat lunch or push it back until later.

Similarly, when it comes to family, personal or exercise time, continue to block out times for that. I’ve found that with increased flexibility, it’s beneficial to maintain a schedule so everything doesn’t get tossed in the air.

8 / Create movement throughout your day

Out of all the strategies for working from home, this one has the biggest impact on your health. It’s too easy to barely move at all when you’re working from home.

Instead of walking from your car to the office or to meetings within the building or biking to work, you may barely take 100 steps in a day at home. From your bedroom to the bathroom, to the kitchen, to your office, back to the kitchen and so on.

Find ways to move around during the day. Whether it’s getting up from your desk to stretch, going for a walk, doing some quick movements in between tasks—finding ways to keep your body moving will be beneficial both physically and mentally.

9 / Maintain social connections

Another tip for working from home is to maintain social connections outside of the home—even if it’s over video chats or phone calls. When I first started working from home, I didn’t realize how much I depended on the social connections I was getting from being with other people at the office.

Sure, there were more distractions with people talking around the office or interrupting my work. But as an extrovert, I realized I really depended on those different interactions. If you’re new to working from home, you may be experiencing lower energy and not feeling well because you’re not around enough people.

Right now especially it’s important to get on more video calls, virtual hangouts and phone calls with friends and family. Just because we’re all social distancing and keeping at home doesn’t mean we need to disconnect from the world.

10 / Respect space and boundaries

The last bonus tip I have for working from home is respecting space and boundaries when it comes to your partner or the members in your household. It can be a tough transition when you’re not used to being at home 24/7 with others.

Everyone needs time for themselves and everyone needs their own space. When you and your partner are both operating within the same square footage, it’s easy to interrupt each other or not give each other enough space to maintain a positive and healthy relationship.

I hope these strategies for working from home are helpful for many of you during this time. What are some strategies that help you stay focused and productive when working from home or anywhere that’s a non-traditional work setting?

The post Simple and Helpful Strategies for Working From Home first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Simple and Helpful Strategies for Working From Home appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Sure, I’ve tried it before and failed. It’s not pens or notebooks that are the issue. I’ve always loved those things. There’s something about the experience of putting pen to paper that really does it for me. But the plan your whole life and make it pretty part? Never really clicked—until recently.

Here’s what I cover in the introductory bullet journaling video above.

• What is Bullet Journaling?
• Who is it for?
• What do you need to get started?
• How should you start?
• Overcoming complexity.

I’ve finally managed to get into bullet journaling consistently for the last 60+ days and deepened my understanding of it. It’s improved my productivity and made it easier to keep track of different projects and habits. If you haven’t tried it before, I’d definitely recommend it!

There are also analog benefits to bullet journaling as well. I chat more about the benefits of analog planning and creating in a member-only video interview with my buddy, Matt Ragland—a bullet journaling and productivity guy.

For those curious about my favorite tools:

• Really awesome notebook (The Confidant)
• Great non-slip set of rulers (Available Here)
• Absolute favorite pens (Brush tip!)

The post Bullet Journaling Basics: Should You Try It? first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Bullet Journaling Basics: Should You Try It? appeared first on Break the Twitch.

I like to start my morning routine around 4:00 a.m. when the house is quiet. I tend to go out for a run while my wife Amy is still asleep.

Just kidding. As you may have gathered from the title of this post, I’m a night owl. Both Amy and I are, and it can be challenging to have a focused morning when we tend to go to bed later. The flexibility with working from home (while nice) can also result in the mornings getting away from us before we know it.

As a night owl, I’ve found that the night before is the most important part of a productive morning routine.

I’ve noticed this trend in the neighborhood we live in. There are some people who tend to park on the left side of the street, facing the wrong direction. I assume they’re doing this to get back in the house quicker after a long workday. For my friends in the U.K., I can imagine you reading this and going, “Anthony, that IS the correct side of the street. What are you talking about?”

But this is strange for those of us in the U.S. for two reasons. One, they’re parking on the wrong side of the street, facing in the opposite direction. Two, they’re trading a few moments now, for a guaranteed delay to get out of the cul-de-sac the next time they drive. They still have to turn around the next morning.

To me, this illustrates the importance of preparing the night before for the next day. By not doing that, we cut corners in the near term at the expense of tomorrow. Unless you’re running late for something, taking the extra time to pull around and orient your life in the right direction (or in this case, your car) is helpful.

It’s actually around 9 p.m. the night before when I start preparing for the next morning. Typically by then, we’re back from the gym and are cleaning up the kitchen from dinner.

There are 6 steps to my morning routine

The whole thing is comprised of three “downs” the night before, and three “ups” the morning of.

1 / Write Down

Write down the things you need to prioritize for the next morning and choose which one you’ll start on first, second, third, and so on. No questions the next morning. I’ve found this to be one of the most helpful things in my morning routine.

2 / Close Down

Save working files, close apps, programs, windows on your computer. Starting fresh the next morning without all the things you were working on the night before will help you focus on what you actually intend to work on in the morning. This includes things like clearing your desk, resetting the kitchen, and so on.

3 / Wind Down

At least an hour before bed, turn off screens and start winding down for the evening. Spend the time getting ready, reading, meditating, whatever you need to do to relax and get a good night’s sleep.

4 / Wake Up

I use a wake-up light with a one-hour sunrise simulation that helps me get up in the morning. If you tend to be groggy when waking up, using a light that syncs with a smart hub can be helpful. Playing uplifting music as a part of your morning routine works wonders.

5 / Lay-Up

Similar to the lay-up in basketball—an easy one-handed shot bouncing off the backboard into the basket—these are the easy wins you can do to start your day. Things like making your bed, brushing your teeth, or making your morning beverage of choice.

I like to make my morning shake with this pure creatine and protein powder. Most mornings, I do some affirmations or play the handpan as a form of meditation before I sit down at my desk.

6 / Show Up

Schedule something for the start of your workday to look forward to. We often schedule virtual co-working times in the mornings with other Break the Twitch Community members, where we’ll hop on a video call at scheduled times and work together.

These scheduled work sessions have been super helpful in keeping me focused in the mornings. Seeing other people working at the same time (even if they are all around the world) is motivating and keeps me on track.

Otherwise, you can create some form of accountability in your beginning working hours to knock out that number one priority item.

These steps in my morning routine have really helped in getting more focused at the start of each day.

Particularly for a night owl and as someone who works from home, the three downs and three ups have been life-changing. Give these steps a try this evening, and let me know what you think!

The post 6 Steps To A Focused Morning Routine For Night Owls (Who Work From Home) first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post 6 Steps To A Focused Morning Routine For Night Owls (Who Work From Home) appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Welcome! This is member-only content on strategies to manage the 4 most common Twitches talked about in the previous post. If you’re reading this, thank you for being an Attention Collective member.

If you haven’t watched the main 4 Twitches video yet, we recommend watching it first before watching the member video below. We’ve also included the strategies covered for your reference below.

The post Strategies to Manage the 4 Most Common Twitches [Member Content] first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Strategies to Manage the 4 Most Common Twitches [Member Content] appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Back in 2014, I started noticing something strange. Every day, there were small things I’d do that I often didn’t even realize were happening. And although small, I couldn’t help but notice the compounding effect those small things were making in my life. It was the result of the four most common Twitches adding up to create a massive impact.

These tiny unintentional actions I was taking would temporarily solve the discomfort I was feeling. I’d wish I were more physically fit, and ‘Click’ I’d order some running shoes. Procrastinating on a writing project? ‘Tap’ on the Instagram app. The more I started paying attention, the more I saw these Twitches literally everywhere.

A one-click workout tracker purchase that would surely start my workout habit this time. (It didn’t).

A quick Instagram check mere seconds after just closing the app. (Still nothing to see there).

Pulling out my phone one millisecond after my lunch date got up from the table to go to the bathroom. (As if I could hardly wait for them to leave so I could check on the rest of the world).

Taking out my iPhone and, without thinking, opening the Facebook app while looking at Facebook on the laptop in front of me. (Double yikes).

The immediate, enthusiastic, “Yes!” to commitments I didn’t have the time or space for because at some deep level, not being liked is uncomfortable. (People-pleasers unite!)

A new super exciting project idea that conveniently comes up when an existing project starts getting difficult. I can’t help but leap over and start the exciting learning curve part all over again. (While leaving yet another thing unfinished).

While all of these scenarios are different, they’re all in the category of what I call, “The Twitch.”

These common Twitches pacify our tiny discomforts during the day with impulsive, unproductive solutions.

This is problematic because these non-life-threatening discomforts are our biggest growth opportunities as human beings. When we succumb to them instead of facing the discomfort, we lease out our attention for the benefit (and profit) of others—mostly, billion and trillion-dollar corporations.

And what do we get back for this attention we freely give away? Some temporary comfort from momentary discomfort.

Since that fateful office interruption in 2014 that changed my life, I’ve been working to understand why these distractions are so darn appealing, and what we can do to Break the Twitch and truly own our attention again.

The Four Most Common Twitches

While all of them are different, there are overlapping elements across the four most common Twitches.

The Newsfeed Twitch

An addiction to anything and everything new. An article in the New York Times. A new front page on Reddit. A reshuffled feed on Instagram. An alert. A text message. The latest email in your inbox.

We crave the quick hit of dopamine from something new being available for us. And there always will be something new; always. It’s the internet, not a newspaper.

The New Twitch is exacerbated by notifications and the constant access we allow through the smartphones that almost leave our side. If you struggle to sit and watch the world go by while you wait for a friend to arrive at your meeting place, it’s probably because of this Twitch.

The False First Step Twitch

The one-click purchase that feels like a step toward something we want to accomplish, but it ends up gathering dust in the closet. The yoga mat. The personal development book. The athleisure-wear. The guitar.

The False First Step can also take the form of talking about your intentions or sharing what you’re going to do with a friend. Sometimes saying it feels good enough that you don’t actually end up doing it—unless they help you stay accountable. If this is a consistent pattern that exists in your life, it’s the False First Step Twitch.

Habits are the foundation of what we do and who we are, but habits are, well, hard. Talking about it or buying stuff, on the other hand, is easy. Especially when it comes to buying stuff online. With one click of the mouse or a tap of the finger, we trick our brains into feeling like we took a step toward our goals. We get to be excited again when it arrives in the mail.

But nothing changes, except maybe our credit card balances (ouch).

The False First Step Twitch is exacerbated by instant access to just about anything we could possibly want, delivered within two to forty-eight hours. The effort required is so little, that it’s practically effortless.

The Yes Twitch

The Yes Twitch is when we say, “Yes” to requests or commitments that we don’t actually have time for or want to do. This is because the confrontation of saying, “No” is a form of discomfort we aim to avoid. That, and well, we want people to like us. Or it might be an exciting shiny new object (see below).

It’s human nature to not want to disappoint the people we love and seek approval from. Without proper boundaries in place, we over-commit ourselves in ways that aren’t beneficial. This doesn’t mean you don’t help out a friend or do things for other people. Nor does it mean not saying “Yes” to great opportunities. It’s more about the things that in our gut, we know aren’t good uses of our time but we say, “Yes” anyway.

It’s much easier to say “Yes” now, and deal with it later than it is to create an uncomfortable situation by saying “No” right away. There might be social pressure, such as the Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) that pressures us into this circumstance as well.

The Shiny New Object Twitch

When things get boring or difficult, this Twitch steals our attention away for another, new, and more exciting pursuit. This is like a 30-acre property full of unlivable, half-constructed houses. It’s a plethora of new ventures and projects, many dropped balls and little follow-through.

It’s great to try new things and experiment, but only if we have the space needed to give it our full attention. Starting something new periodically isn’t necessarily a Twitch. Nor is trying something new and learning it’s not for you. The Shiny New Object Twitch is if there’s a pattern of starting many things, not finishing, then jumping to something different once the initial exciting newness simmers down.

Take a look back on commitments you’ve made over past months and years. Consider how often you take on new things and how often you’re able to fully follow through with them and see if you notice any patterns.

I’m uncomfortable right now, and that’s okay.

The Twitch is tough—especially in today’s environment—but unfortunately, it’s only going to get harder from here. As technology advances, there will be even more ways our attention is taken away from us.

It all starts with awareness of the discomfort. Our biggest opportunity for growth as humans is in the face of discomfort and adversity. Much like how lifting heavy things break our muscles and rebuild them stronger, we can reclaim the attention being stolen from us and use it to better our lives—and the lives of the people we care about.

You’re not alone in facing these common Twitches.

By facing discomforts we’re not used to sitting with for very long, we can start breaking the Twitch that helps us temporarily escape it. And we don’t have to do it alone.

Being in a community of others working towards breaking the Twitch and owning our attention helps. We know that the difficulty really comes in doing the work and staying consistent. There are also ways to hack these common Twitches that I share in a more in-depth video and post.

There’s a better life out there where we can exist in the moment, have a deep awareness of how our attention is being used, and direct it in the most meaningful ways imaginable.

And it all starts here. Are you ready? Let’s go.

The post 4 Common Twitches That Steal (And Profit From) Your Attention first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post 4 Common Twitches That Steal (And Profit From) Your Attention appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Welcome! This is the member-only full video interview about The Portfolio Life with Jeff Goins, as mentioned in the Portfolio Life main article and video. If you’re reading this, thank you for being an Attention Collective member.

Many of us are specialists and many are generalists—but what would a life that combines the two potentially look like? Famed Italian sculptor and painter, Michaelangelo—that’s who—and possibly, you?

The post The Portfolio Life with Jeff Goins [Member Content] first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post The Portfolio Life with Jeff Goins [Member Content] appeared first on Break the Twitch.

We’ve all done it—walk into a room with the intention of doing something, go through the doorway, and forget why you were there in the first place. It’s a pretty common thing, and don’t worry—it doesn’t mean you’re losing your mind.

Psychologists believe that passing through a doorway and entering a different room creates a mental block in the brain—it’s kind of like your brain turning the page to log new information, and it’s called the doorway effect.

The doorway effect can be amplified when you get distracted in the process of walking into that room, too. If your phone happens to ring while entering the room, and you check it quickly, this tends to increase the chances of the doorway effect happening.

You could compare our screens and devices to a doorway of sorts.

When we pick up our phones, we’re entering another dimension with apps, information, and notifications. It’s like we’re going into a different space completely as we peer into the pixels. It’s practically a digital doorway we walk through hundreds of times per day.

This is a major problem, especially with our increasing dependence on devices. Not only do these distractions waste time, it means our actions aren’t aligning fully with our intentions. We intend to give our attention to one thing, and it gets stolen away and used for something else.

If we don’t fully own our attention, that means we aren’t directing it in the ways that are most meaningful to us. And if we can’t do that, then we’re not as aware of and able to create the type of change in our lives we desire.

There’s a quirky mindfulness practice that will instantly improve your attention, already being used in the Japanese rail industry, called ‘pointing and calling’.

The practice of pointing and calling (called shisa kanko in Japanese) is where a conductor will point to a sign, an object, or a situation while calling out the name. It’s used by the Japanese rail industry to improve accuracy and reduce mistakes due to inattention.

Pointing and calling has been shown to substantially reduce accidents and improve safety conditions. A study by the Railway Technical Research Institute showed that pointing and calling reduced mistakes by almost 85 percent when doing a simple task.^[1]

So how can you apply this mindfulness practice to your own life?

Instead of just seeing or thinking about something and then doing it, you would point, call out what you’re seeing, and then take action.

For example, while getting something from another room, you can state it out loud and point on your way to go get the item. If you’re at a red light and the light turns green, you’d point to the light and say, “green light.”

If you’re looking for a specific email, point to the email app and say, “I’m going to check that email from Jeff,” so you’re less likely to be distracted by something new sitting in your inbox. Before you sit down at the computer, audibly call out what you plan to do on it. It may be a little hard to point at a digital task, but adding a physical gesture can improve your effectiveness.

Now, you don’t have to take this literally. You may get some odd looks if you point to a pint of ice cream at a grocery store and loudly proclaim, “I’m going to buy that ice cream.”

But there’s something magical that happens when you point and call.

The reason this mindfulness practice works so well is due to something called co-action and co-reaction. You’re aligning the thoughts in your mind with your eyes, hands, mouth, and ears.

The practice of pointing and calling reinforces multiple senses with your intended action.

You’re saying what you’re thinking, hearing what you’re saying, pointing to what you’re looking at, and you’re looking at what you’re pointing to.

It’s harder to get distracted when you’re aligning all your senses around your thoughts.

Pointing and calling isn’t just about not forgetting little tasks. As a busy entrepreneur, I often feel like I can never have a satisfying feeling of having “done enough” at the end of each day. There’s always more to do, and it can be a struggle to deal with this feeling on a regular basis. So now, I use pointing and calling to help with this.

At the end of the day, I hold my bullet journal and say “I’m proud of the work I got done today.” It feels very different from when I just try to “think” that thought. It feels much less real.

But when I say it out loud, touch my journal, and announce out loud that I’m proud—it sits better. It’s no longer just words bouncing around in my head, but out there in the open world being affirmed by my different senses.

When it comes to food, whether healthy or indulgent, you can make intentional choices by pointing and calling it out. If you want to eat ice cream, you can point and say, “I’m choosing to eat this ice cream right now.” When you’re making a clear choice, you can more fully enjoy it without feeling any shame or guilt.

When you make active choices more consistently, you own your attention more fully.

Instead of “twitching” from discomfort or going on autopilot, you’re making intentional choices—even if you make a choice that might not be seen as “beneficial” (like the ice cream). It’s better to choose actively and still do it, versus choose passively and regret it.

Who would’ve thought the hottest new mindfulness practice would come from the Japanese rail industry?

I sure didn’t. But I’ve been trying pointing and calling for the past couple months and it makes a difference.

Taking advantage of the co-action and co-reaction effect can help align your intention with your attention. So go ahead and try this mindfulness practice for yourself. Remember, you don’t have to go full throttle when you’re out in public. But if you do, it’ll probably be a good laugh for you and your friends—which doesn’t hurt either.

The post A Quirky Mindfulness Practice Inspired By Japanese Train Conductors first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post A Quirky Mindfulness Practice Inspired By Japanese Train Conductors appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Really excited to share this short and fun video with everyone. And if this hits too close to home, perhaps you need a digital detox. Please share this with someone who needs to see it!

Massive thanks to Kylee and Christian Creative for producing, filming and editing this fun project!

The post So… You Wanna Get That? first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post So… You Wanna Get That? appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Have you ever picked up your phone and the next thing you know, 30 minutes have passed? Or perhaps, purchased something you didn’t really need with just one click through your favorite shopping app? Maybe you’ve sat down at the computer to work—only to spend the first 20 minutes on Facebook.

If these situations sound familiar, you’re not alone. If you’re like most Break the Twitch readers, you’ve recognized these tiny distractions and are working to change them. There’s a simple concept I’ve used over the last five years that’s helped with these distractions.

I call it intentional friction, and it’s a total game-changer if you’re trying to improve your focus and get less distracted day-to-day.

Five years ago, I was at my desk writing a blog post as the Marketing Director of a nonprofit. A coworker came by my office, interrupted me, and what happened next literally changed my life forever.

I looked over, mid-keystroke. When I looked back, I had written the word facebook right in the middle of my sentence. Subconsciously, I had tried to go to Facebook.com and failed… because I typed it into a Word document.

This incident opened my eyes to just how deeply these types of distractions were rooted in my brain. I began working to recognize and explore solutions for the areas in my life where I tended to “Twitch.”

In practice, intentional friction is a very simple concept.

Intentional friction is adding more difficulty around an easy action you want to do less of, so you have more space to make a conscious choice.

As our devices become more integrated into our lives, it has become increasingly easier to do the unintentional things that steal our attention. These conveniences are designed, using research from behavioral scientists that allow attention thieves to capture as much attention as possible.

When our time is being stolen in these spare moments, we don’t fully own our attention. And when we don’t fully own our attention, we’re not directing it towards the things that truly matter to us.

And that’s a problem.

It’s not that all technology and devices are bad for us; it’s only a problem because most of these consumer devices are not designed to be used in a balanced way. For most companies, attention is money, and if they don’t have your attention, they’re not making money.

It can be difficult or near impossible to completely remove all distractions from your life. This is especially true if your work relies on social media or relative connectivity. But even so, there are very effective ways to reduce the impact of these distractions.

Intentional friction has helped me better own my attention and spend my time more intentionally.

Designing our environment with intentional friction is a great way to better manage our attention—especially with smartphones and other frequently used devices.

I’ve used intentional friction to reduce the time I spend on my phone, exercise more, eat healthier, and maintain my minimalism habit. If you’re struggling with building habits, it’s likely not a motivation problem—it’s a friction problem.

Here are some ideas for creating intentional friction in your life.

If there’s an app you find yourself spending too much time on, relocate the icon away from the main screen. Take it a step further and bury it in a folder so you don’t even see the icon at all.

You could also log yourself out and set up a long password you would need to enter in whenever you wanted to use the app. Another option is to delete an app off your phone entirely (as I’ve done before with Facebook and the default browser).

Adding a few extra steps prevents you from quickly “twitching,” and using the app mindlessly in those in-between moments. The intentional friction provides you a little more time so you can consider if you really want to use a certain app.

Years ago, I set a screen-time limit on my iPhone and had a friend set up a passcode that he only knew. Extreme? Perhaps—but it worked.

To minimize phone use before bed, I’ve charged my phone outside the bedroom. You can literally design whatever intentional friction you need, so it’s important to experiment and see what creates the best results for you.

Another example I’ve mentioned before is if you want to use fewer paper towels, you can put a rubber band around it. In this case, your automatic instinct to grab a paper towel is interrupted—giving you a moment to pause, consider, and then make a more conscious choice.

Similarly, you can use the concept in reverse—reducing unintentional friction.

Reducing unintentional friction and increasing intentional readiness can help encourage the actions you want to do more of by making them easier to choose.

Reduce unintentional friction around exercising more by having your gym clothes and shoes prepared and accessible the night before.

Another example is having healthy food and snacks in the house, so that’s the only option when you’re at home. If you want to read more, you can put a book right by your bedside table (and charge your phone outside of the bedroom).

There are many ways you can create intentional friction (or reduce unintentional friction) to make small but impactful changes in your life. I’ve personally found great success in implementing this in my own life, and I’d encourage you to give it a try.

The post Why Intentional Friction Is A Game-Changer first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Why Intentional Friction Is A Game-Changer appeared first on Break the Twitch.

In January of 2019, I made a video about what I’d learned after one year of consistent workouts. Now another year later, I’ve lost an additional 20 pounds, and I have some updates to my workout habits video from one year ago.

In this video update, I look back on, react to, and update the advice I gave in last year’s workout habits video.

I also share some words of inspiration for your own healthy habits journey below.

If you want to change your habits, it all comes down to owning your attention.

Real change may come slow, but the slower it comes, the more likely it is to stay. I’ll take consistency over intensity any day of the week. Let’s do this!

If you liked this workout habits video, you may be interested in how to start and keep healthy habits or additional videos on the healthy habit series.

The post Updates To My Workout Habits Video From One Year Ago first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Updates To My Workout Habits Video From One Year Ago appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Six years ago, when my wife Amy and I started decluttering for the very first time, I remember wondering, “Am I a minimalist yet?”

At what point in the process would I be able to call myself a minimalist?

Over the years, I’ve come across people who identify as minimalists who have more things than we do. I also know people who identify as minimalists who have significantly fewer physical things than we do.

There seems to be a broad spectrum of what it means to be a minimalist. And that’s a beautiful thing.

But what that also means is there’s no board certification of minimalism. Throughout your decluttering journey, there’s no point in the process where you officially qualify as a minimalist. And as you can imagine, that is both incredibly confusing, and very liberating as well.

Now that I’m well into six years of practicing minimalism, I’ve found a definition that has been the most helpful.

Minimalism is perhaps not something to be, but a practice of removing distractions in your life.

The distractions can be physical items or even digital things—that Twitch you get when you check your smartphone, put it away, and then want to check it right away again.

The Twitch is what often leads us to acquire more and more things we don’t need because we have some discomfort we are trying to fill. We try to solve the Twitch through checking our phones or online purchases that may feel good at the moment but doesn’t solve the underlying discomfort we’re feeling.

With viewing minimalism as more of a habit or practice of continually removing distractions, it means you can’t declutter your house really quickly in a day or two or delete all the apps off your phone immediately and expect everything to always be better.

Being a minimalist is the active practice of removing distractions and requires consistent daily effort.

With that in mind, here are some tips for keeping minimalism as a practice and maintaining the progress you’ve made.

1 / Create Intentional Friction

The first tip is to create intentional friction to help you manage certain distractions in your environment. This is great for the distractions that are more difficult to completely remove from your environment, so they need to be managed.

An example of this would be if you were trying to change your habit of using as many paper towels. You can put a rubber band around your paper towel roll, which introduces purposeful, intentional friction in the process of grabbing a paper towel. So if you’re washing your hands and would normally grab a paper towel on autopilot, you’d have to work harder to get a paper towel than you did before, thus giving you a moment to pause, consider, and then make a more conscious choice.

Another example of this would be relocating your favorite social media app off of the main screen and burying it in a folder somewhere else on your phone. You can add a few extra steps to access the app so you can’t quickly “twitch” and open the app in those in-between moments. Creating some intentional friction provides you a little more time so you can make a more conscious decision. Even if you still decide to open the app, that’s perfectly fine.

Creating intentional friction in your environment is how you can change your habits and live more intentionally.

2 / Reduce Unintentional Friction

This is the exact opposite of creating intentional friction—by reducing unintentional friction for the things you want to do more of your life.

If you want to run more, putting your running shoes right by the door creates less friction between you and the decision to put on your shoes and go running. If you have a certain app that’s beneficial for you to use more of, you can put it in the most accessible place on the main screen of your phone so every time you look at your phone, it’s the first thing you see.

It’s a powerful thing when we constantly look at our environment and find ways to optimize it so that we can more fully own our attention and time.

3 / Observe the Twitch

The final idea is to simply observe and acknowledge the Twitch. When you start feeling that discomfort to buy something even though you just spent a bunch of time decluttering, or if you want to reinstall and open an app you’ve recently deleted off your phone, take a moment to simply acknowledge the discomfort.

The most important thing is to be aware of the Twitch and to acknowledge it.

It’s even more helpful to say what you’re feeling out loud. You can say, “I’m really feeling the Twitch to check my phone right now.” That way you’re creating a connection between what you’re feeling, thinking, seeing, saying, and hearing. Even if you end up buying something or opening a social media app on your phone, it’s okay. At least you’re owning your attention and making a conscious choice.

Everyone should be a minimalist if it’s simply an active practice of removing distractions from our lives.

Minimalism is an incredibly powerful tool that we can use to design a life that’s easier to do the things that matter and harder to do the things that get in the way. But it’s even more beneficial to think about minimalism as a habit or practice, rather than something we become once we hit a certain milestone or as a certain aesthetic.

There’s no right or wrong way. Being a minimalist is simply removing distractions in the way that works best for you.

The post Am I A Minimalist Yet? first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Am I A Minimalist Yet? appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Default to action, leave space for the edits.

When it comes to getting more done, most people think adding more things to an already busy schedule is the answer to the problem.

Those people are wrong. Here’s why.

“It’s all about the rewrite” is an expression often heard in writing circles.

How it works is you start writing without worrying too much about what you’re writing so you can get out your ideas. Later, you go back to make edits to what you wrote and work to shape it into what you had originally intended, or perhaps into something even better.

The rewrite is a beautiful practice and one that applies to just about all the spaces in our lives—spaces that can be physical, mental or how we use our time.

Most of us tend to treat our lives and spaces like a blank piece of paper waiting to be filled from corner to corner. An opportunity to fit in as much as we can, with little space in the margins.

It’s a natural human desire to efficiently use the spaces we have. But if you fill every inch of the paper, you won’t have space to make any notes for edits, to try different things, or to rearrange what’s there. This is one of the main reasons why in school, teachers often have you turn in papers double-spaced with margins—so there’s space included for any notes or adjustments.

The 70-30 Principle is about defaulting to action but leaving 30 percent for space to optimize the things you do.

This is actually a lesson that hit me really hard a few months ago. Despite being aware of the positive impact of decluttering physical and other things in my life, it still found a way to sneak up on me.

Amy and I had to step back and take a break from all the work we had overwhelmed ourselves with. The reality was, we had taken on way too much and were trying to work faster and harder in an attempt to, “get ahead.”

Because of this, we weren’t doing any of it as well or as efficiently as we could have. When we finally took a step back to create the space, we made so many realizations about what Break the Twitch is actually about and what work we’re here to do. It was wildly clarifying to have some space where we could rearrange, make some decisions, and zone in on the essential.

Minimalism is what allows us to get that 30 percent margin.

Removing distractions from our lives removes the clutter and creates more space, not just in the physical world, but mentally, emotionally, and how we spend our time as well. The space we create is the margin that enables us to notice, rearrange, and make things better.

It’s important to still do the work.

On the other hand, spending all our time just thinking about how to make things better isn’t going to do us any good if there’s no doing involved. As I mentioned, still default to action 70 percent of the time. But make sure you’re not taking on too much or consider scaling back what you have going on so you have room to do things better.

If the 70-30 Principle sounds like something you can benefit from, I’ve been working hard to build a community of like-minded people who understand the biggest changes come from the small actions repeated daily over time. People who are willing to do the work to get the changes they actually want in life.

I invite you to join us and be a part of the amazing group of 100+ people creating change in their own lives. There are exclusive monthly in-depth videos, audio courses, and a ridiculous number of valuable things that come with it, too.

You can apply the 70-30 Principle to just about everything.

Look in different areas of your life—how you’re spending your time or in your physical spaces. For example, see if you can leave 30 percent of space on your bookshelf, in your closet or in different areas of your home.

The 70-30 Principle also translates to time-space as well. Building in that 30 percent margin before obligations, appointments or projects that we have going on allows us to be on time even with delays or surprises. It enables us to properly prepare and show up fully, instead of rushing around, going from one thing to the next.

For the biggest impact, apply the 70-30 Principle to an area of your life that you care about, ideally one you interact with regularly and frequently. Remember to start small, and go on from there to other areas.

We simply do not need to use every little bit of space—whether it’s mental, time and physical—to its full capacity anymore.

In fact, it’s detrimental to do so.

Working towards the 70-30 Principle over time has helped me focus better and truly own my attention. I’ve gained more awareness of how I’m spending my time and benefited from looking at the things I’m doing to see how I can consistently do them better.

So perhaps, living our best lives with the 70-30 Principle is much like the practice of writing. Just like writing, the most important thing is to default to action—doing the best we can at the moment with what we have. And then comes leaving room for the rewrite, so we can try again, improve, and make changes that will affect the outcome as we do better and better, a little bit each time.

The post The 70-30 Principle: How Minimalism Actually Improves Your Life first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post The 70-30 Principle: How Minimalism Actually Improves Your Life appeared first on Break the Twitch.

He was a jack of all trades and a master of none, but sometimes better than a master of one.

If I’d been around when that saying was coined, I’m pretty sure it would’ve been talking about me. Especially early in my career, I’d spend six months doing one thing, a year doing another thing.

Having more experience and a greater understanding of myself has helped me understand that some of those more frequent changes might have been a bit of a Twitch.

I’d get bored with one thing, see a shiny new object somewhere else, and go for it. I’d feel discomfort with the boredom and monotony and feel the need for something new to pursue.

If this sounds at all familiar to you, you’ve probably heard the same things I’ve heard throughout my life. Things like, “you should probably find something you can stick with,” or “find one area to focus on that you can do really well.”

In a lot of ways, that’s not bad advice. Specialization works well for a lot of people and has its merits, too.

While I’ve always had many interests, when it comes to career, there have been just a few recurring themes over the last five years or so.

Right around when I started noticing these themes, I heard my friend Jeff Goins speak about what he calls the Portfolio Life.

I gave him a call to learn more about it and ended up visiting him in Nashville for a more in-depth discussion. We took a deep dive into the idea of living a Portfolio Life, and what it could look like across the board.

The video above highlights my conversation with Jeff, and we’re releasing the full 55-minute interview (with additional examples and context) for Break the Twitch members.

Now, let’s get into some of the questions I asked Jeff.

What are the basics of living a Portfolio Life?

Living a Portfolio Life means you have multiple interests and can apply them in a variety of fields and contexts. We’re all Portfolio people, whether we realize it or not. After all, your life is made up of a portfolio of activities, all of which make you who you are.

Being a Portfolio person is also increasingly becoming more common and more of a necessity. When Charles Handy first coined the phrase “portfolio worker” in 1989, he predicted we’d have careers that would be made up of multiple jobs every 5 to 10 years in the future. In fact, Forbes has predicted by 2030, over half of the American workforce will be freelance. More and more jobs are also being taken over by computers. If you take two or three seemingly disparate skillsets and combine them into a new thing, it’ll be much harder for a computer to replace what you offer.

How do I figure out what’s in my portfolio?

It’s important not to start out thinking you know exactly what’s in your portfolio. Part of figuring out the portfolio is you don’t know how it’s going to turn out.

Clarity comes with action. You’re either going to start really narrow and expand over time or you’re going to start really broad and figure out how to rein it in. If you keep investing in the right interests, something is going to emerge called your body of work. You won’t fully understand what the mosaic looks like until you get to the end of a season or the end of life when you see how all the pieces fit together.

How do you know whether to keep working on something or to let go of it?

The best thing we can do is continue to be curious and to pay attention to the things we like. One of the most dangerous things for us to do is to settle too quickly on the thing you think it is. We may need to let go of something we’ve gotten a lot of attention for because there’s something else that’s a better fit.

At the same time, we also need to be careful to not abandon something too quickly. The way we tap into our genius is to dance with it—balancing between knowing what it is and also knowing that you don’t know what it is.

What else is helpful when it comes to building a Portfolio Life?

Part of being a Portfolio person is being in a community of other people who are also living a Portfolio life. Sharing and learning from others in a like-minded group can elevate us. It’s important to have those different relationships in your life to help you make those hard decisions on when to add something, let something go, or stick with something.

Remember that clarity comes with action, so don’t wait to find out what your Portfolio Life looks like. Also be careful not to fall in love with any one piece of the process, because it’s all part of the process. The only way we get to create our body of work is by continuing to work, create new things, and chase curiosity our whole lives—never assuming that we have it figured out. And at the end, you’ll step back and look upon the mosaic of your life, which is your portfolio.

After talking to Jeff, it was abundantly clear there’s a benefit to being a master of some.

The key is finding a few core themes to focus on and become your body of work. If you’re interested in building a Portfolio Life, Jeff shares more examples and how he’s applied the Portfolio Life for himself in the full interview video.

I’m super grateful to Jeff Goins for sharing his experience and wisdom on building a Portfolio Life. He does amazing work as a bestselling author, keynote speaker, business coach and more.

Make sure to check out his work over at Goinswriter.com.

The post Why We Should All Live The Portfolio Life first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Why We Should All Live The Portfolio Life appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.

Miles Davis

This time feels different. Or is it just me? My eyes start to blur over when I read 2020 and can’t help but wonder whether we’re actually here or if my astigmatism has just gotten worse.

Where I might usually start my annual reflection around this time, looking back at what went well and what didn’t, this year is, in fact, a bit different. Amy and I started that process about two months ago when things were just, well, not going well.

Transitions are always difficult, simply because they take you out of what you know and are able to rely on and shake it all up. Even if the change is for the better, there’s almost always a step or two in the wrong direction to actually realize the benefit.

A lot of it comes down to space.

As humans, we have a tendency to fill the spaces we have—be it our calendars, homes, or minds. It’s a basic instinct to utilize our resources fully, but unfortunately, those instincts are not as effective as they might have been when humans were hunting and gathering their food.

This is largely what we experienced with our move across the country, delivering two in-person weekly video podcast seasons, packing our lives up once or twice per month (dog and all) to produce video projects for our wonderful clients, and trying to sustainably and consistently produce blog posts, YouTube videos, and social media content here for Break the Twitch.

We had already filled the spaces we had by throwing a major transition into the mix, a new community, and living environment. It all combined to be where we didn’t feel like we were doing anything nearly as well as we could.

I’m certainly not looking for pity here; all of the things we’ve done this year are choices we have directly made for ourselves. I’m sharing to be transparent so that we can all, as always, learn and grow together.

Over the last two months, there have been a lot of conversations with friends, family, and what feels like millions of post-it notes across every wall of our dining room.

At one point, I went into the bathroom and shaved all the hair off my head. That was something I’d never done before. I realized that I felt trapped and was living in fear of what would happen if I lost all of my thinning hair, so I just decided to own it. I cut it all off and found out what would happen. It wasn’t that bad. More on that in another blog post, though.

Through all of this, we’ve had some relatively clear takeaways that I’ll share with you now.

Margin is essential.

This should be obvious after five years of writing here at Break the Twitch, but it’s incredible how quickly we fill up space in our lives. We need margin in everything we do so that we can do it to the best of our abilities. Margin allows you to correct for mistakes and unexpected setbacks, and say yes to unexpected opportunities that arise.

Decisions are multi-dimensional.

Always. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of making a decision because of one seemingly obvious data point, and that is a big no-no. Test ideas before you go all-in on them and find ways to explore how sustainable the outcomes will be. While there might be something that seems obvious, dig deeper into the why.

Starting something new is usually the last step.

When looking at most of the prosperous businesses run by the people I admire, I notice that they do not often start new things until the things they’re already doing have either reached stability or maximized its potential. For example, if you sell one product, the inclination is to add new product lines as quickly as possible to expand.

Instead, focus on making the product as good and efficient as possible while fine-tuning your business model. It’s better to copy an optimized model than a mediocre one to whatever new thing is started.

Find ways to do what you already do, better. Then explore new opportunities. Every new thing will come with a new learning curve and spin-up period that will add to the mediocrity of it all. This is how, as Amy and I have been saying, one can, “screw up their space (or margin).”

Don’t screw up your space, and remember that margin is essential. Exploring and trying new things for fun is a different phase though. Unless you’re in a discovery mode or kicking around for fun, keep it simple.

2020 Vision

So that leaves us here, where we’ll be headed with Break the Twitch. I’m going to keep it simple because at this point I’d rather you see the outcomes of these things rather than my talking about them in excess.

1 / Own your attention, build better habits.

One day at a time. That’s what Break the Twitch is all about. As simple as it is, it took over a month to get there. While I used to talk about minimalism, habits, and creativity, we’ll be zoning in on the first two. Removing distractions and showing up one day at a time, so that we can Break the Twitch. Voilà. In reality, it’s a return to the original focus of living with intention. Did you know there are at least four different Twitches? Yeah.

2 / More YouTube videos

We’ll be producing more regular YouTube videos in the typical 5-10 minute format you’re used to on the Break the Twitch YouTube channel. Periodically, we’ll also share longer-format, podcast-like content there as well.

3 / Membership content

Break the Twitch members will get one additional in-depth video based on a public video topic from that month. There are a ton of benefits, but this works like a private Patreon where you join and get access to everything. It’s a great way to bring your intention into focus this year and help us keep BTT running.

4 / Select sponsors

To support our efforts while membership grows, we’ll begin taking select sponsors for BTT YouTube content. I’ve avoided this for the last five years, but to continue forward we’ll need to consider this option. This will be done responsibly and transparently, as I hope you would expect from me.

5 / Podcast shift

The podcast dominated our Break the Twitch efforts over the last year and a half, and seriously hindered our ability to output in other areas that reached more people and grew more quickly.

We’re still going to put out episodes, solo shows, and interviews. They just won’t be on a weekly seasonal production schedule and will vary more in format. I had high aspirations for a three-camera in-person podcast and what it would take to produce it, and it just simply wasn’t sustainable. The podcast might come back in that format in the future, but for now, interviews will be one-off and content more varied. I’m really sorry to those we may disappoint with this announcement, but we just can’t see another way right now.

6 / Play like myself

This year I’m only making one personal goal to focus on. As Miles Davis says, learning how to play like myself.

It’s amazing how easy it is to let outside influences create the perception of how to do things “right” in our minds. Minimalists don’t need to wear gray t-shirts, have white blank walls, or have a certain aesthetic look. You can be accepting of how things are and still push yourself while wanting to be better. There are unwritten and written rules that we’ve acquired from parents, peers, movies and random Instagram celebrities who seem to control our perception of the world around us.

Where do you get your influences on what success means or what certain things are supposed to be in your life? If you haven’t thought about it in a while, it’s worth acknowledging that some of those influences and perceptions might not be serving you well.

I hope you’re willing to come along with me here at Break the Twitch and continue on this journey. From everything I’ve learned, it’s a worthwhile one.

The post Learning To Play Like Yourself In 2020 first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Learning To Play Like Yourself In 2020 appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Freelance writer, New York Times contributor, and talented journalist, Kristin Wong, delves into why we do the things we do.

Apple // YouTube // Stitcher // Spotify // TuneIn

Since Kristin Wong was six years old, she’s been writing—to be understood, to tell a story, or sometimes to figure things out on her own. Kristin shares how she moved to L.A. to pursue a career in screenwriting, but ultimately left to pursue a path that was truer to herself. Her chosen path has led to opportunities she never imagined, such as getting a book deal and publishing her book Get Money: Live the Life You Want, Not Just the Life You Can Afford.

We talk about the pros and cons of being well-prepared versus being more willing to try things out. We also get vulnerable about dealing with imposter syndrome and share a pretty hilarious moment about each of our perspectives on each other’s polished-ness.

Kristin’s journalism chops definitely added a fun element to the conversation because she did a great job of asking me about as many questions as I asked her. This episode is one that will provide some interesting reflection and inspiration for better enjoying this process we call life.

Ready to take action with secret member-only content and community resources? Join Attention Collective, our online community of like-minded humans from around the world, and get full access immediately. See you inside!

Mentioned:

Kristin Wong
Everything Conference
Rituals As Strategy To Bounce Back From Failure
Sean Wes
Marie Kondo
The Artist’s Way
Kristin Neff and Inner Critic
Come Write With Us course

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Every review we get helps boost the Break the Twitch podcast so we can reach more people.

Watch the BTT 034 conversation:

The Break the Twitch podcast is an interview-based podcast hosted by Anthony Ongaro featuring guests from all walks of life on living better and doing more of what matters. See previous seasons, episodes, and the latest news on the Podcast page.

The post Why We Do Things with Kristin Wong first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Why We Do Things with Kristin Wong appeared first on Break the Twitch.

John Poelstra, CPA turned Change Agent and Certified Professional Co-active Coach shares how to be, do, and live with more clarity.

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This episode is particularly vulnerable for me because John Poelstra was my personal coach for over a year and a half. We open up about a lot of the things we worked on during the time, and John shares the path that led him from his technical accounting and engineering background to becoming a certified coach. John and I discuss the difference between courage, and commitment, the power of writing your personal narrative, and asking yourself better questions. We also talk about the difference between being and doing, and how both can help you better find clarity and take action in your life.

If you’ve ever had the thought, “There has to be more than this,” this episode will be a helpful resource on finding a path that’s fitting for you. Additionally, as a special offer for Break the Twitch listeners, John is willing to have a conversation with anyone—and he means anyone.

Ready to take action with secret member-only content and community resources? Join Attention Collective, our online community of like-minded humans from around the world, and get full access immediately. See you inside!

Mentioned:

John Poelstra Coaching
Co-Active Coaching Institute
5 Minute Journal
Tony Robbins
Insight Timer app

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Every review we get helps boost the Break the Twitch podcast so we can reach more people.

Watch the BTT 033 conversation:

The Break the Twitch podcast is an interview-based podcast hosted by Anthony Ongaro featuring guests from all walks of life on living better and doing more of what matters. See previous seasons, episodes, and the latest news on the Podcast page.

The post Own Your Clarity with John Poelstra first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Own Your Clarity with John Poelstra appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Laura Peña, a motion graphics designer and storyteller, shares how following creative trust has led her to create a docuseries featuring empowering stories of girls from all around the world.

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After living in New York for 13 years, Laura recounts how she made the decisions to quit her agency job. She shares how she decided to work for herself and move across the country. Laura also talks about the role of trust in creative endeavors and shares the synergies she’s experienced from being open to the possibilities.

Over the past couple of years, she’s traveled to 21 cities in 10 countries capturing the stories of girls between ages 13 to 19 for her project, She is the Universe. Through sharing short videos featuring the voices of teenage girls around the world of all colors, languages and socio-economic backgrounds, the global project helps build the confidence of young women worldwide to pursue their dreams.

Whether you’re needing to make space for creativity or embarking on something new, this episode with Laura Peña is sure to spark creative action in your life.

Ready to take action with secret member-only content and community resources? Join Attention Collective, our online community of like-minded humans from around the world, and get full access immediately. See you inside!

Mentioned:

She is the Universe
The Alchemist
Morning Pages in The Artist’s Way
Charlie Gilkey BTT 027
Social media stress and addiction study
Insight Timer app
The Moment of Lift

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Every review we get helps boost the Break the Twitch podcast so we can reach more people.

Watch the BTT 032 conversation:

The Break the Twitch podcast is an interview-based podcast hosted by Anthony Ongaro featuring guests from all walks of life on living better and doing more of what matters. See previous seasons, episodes, and the latest news on the Podcast page.

The post She is the Universe with Laura Peña first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post She is the Universe with Laura Peña appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Mike Pacchione, a professional keynote speaker and storytelling consultant, shares his secrets on how to give the best speech of your life.

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Mike shares how he went from graduate school to flying around the world for seven years giving presentations on how to give presentations. We talk about ways to minimize the twitch so we can actually get important things done and the intersection between our digital devices and the prevalence of busy culture. Using examples from great movies and impactful historical figures, Mike shares the key elements of powerful storytelling. Additionally, he tells his secrets for how to give a killer presentation that will get everyone feeling inspired and ready to take action. Whether you want to get better at giving presentations or convincing your partner to get a dog—this episode is an essential listen. Make sure you grab your copy of the 7 Stealth Speaking Tips They Don’t Teach You in Business School at Mike Talks!

Ready to take action with secret member-only content and community resources? Join Attention Collective, our online community of like-minded humans from around the world, and get full access immediately. See you inside!

Mentioned:

Mike’s Website (Get his stealth speaking tips there).
When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing
Busy Boycott by Courtney Carver
Freedom Website Blocker
Atomic Habits
Charlie Gilkey

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts—each one we get helps boost the Break the Twitch podcast so we can reach more people. Every review counts!

Watch the BTT 031 conversation:

The Break the Twitch podcast is an interview-based podcast hosted by Anthony Ongaro featuring guests from all walks of life on living better and doing more of what matters. See previous seasons, episodes, and the latest news on the Podcast page.

The post Powerful Storytelling with Mike Pacchione first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Powerful Storytelling with Mike Pacchione appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Do you ever start things without finishing them? If so, I know how it feels. If you’ve ever wondered how you can start finishing more things you start, read on.

Over the years, I’ve started many things that never got finished. I’d start out on something exciting—a new project or hobby—only to move on to something even more exciting. Or I’d have too much on my plate, get overwhelmed and inevitably drop some balls.

What always felt the worst though, was when no particular decision was made. Not finishing, and also not making a conscious choice to let it go. Just letting it gradually fade into the darkness, soon to be forgotten.

The good news is, there is hope.

Over the last five years, I’ve managed to get a lot better at finishing the things I start. I’ve written a book, built companies, launched a podcast, and more.

If you struggle with finishing things, you’re not broken. You just need to make a few small changes in the way you approach the things you start.

Here are the main reasons why things don’t get finished, and how to start finishing.

1 / It’s not on your schedule

While the most important things get time slots on our calendars, the small things often do not.

But everything we do takes time. And I mean everything from taking out the trash to brushing your teeth. 

We often forget about the small things we need to do, and the transitions between tasks that make everything else possible. It’s likely you have much more going on than you think you do.

When you start something, map out the time that it will take to finish it on your calendar. Whether it’s practicing the guitar you bought or writing the book you’ve been thinking of, lay out the time and space for it to actually get done.

2 / You started too big, too fast

Like building an effective habit, getting bigger things done mostly requires consistent, sustainable progress. What often happens is we go in too deep, too fast, and then get stuck or overwhelmed. Once we hit that point, the chances of returning to the thing diminishes greatly.

Start smaller, test the waters, and learn as you go.

The less overwhelming it is, the more likely you are to finish each step along the way and keep coming back to it until it’s done.

3 / You’re starting too many things

This was my biggest issue. The fact is, it’s really easy to get excited about a new idea. I’d immediately want to pursue new ideas even though I barely had time to complete what I already had going on. This doesn’t mean you have to do only one thing at a time, but it does mean you need to realistically balance what’s too many and what’s too few.

Before you start something new, make a list of all your current projects, activities, and goals for a birds-eye view. If you need to wait until you finish some existing projects, that’s fine. Alternatively, you can decide what you’ll let go of to make space for the new project. Limiting the amount of projects you’re doing at one time will greatly help you to start finishing.

Remember, everything is a project.

4 / You don’t believe you’re a finisher

If you’ve had a pattern of jumping around from thing to thing, you might have developed a belief that you’re simply not a finisher. Your fate is sealed.

Not only is that mentality not helping you, it’s also not true. You’re actually finishing things all the time; they just might not be the things you’re counting.

Even if it’s hard, start with the belief that you are a finisher. Begin recognizing all the things you’re finishing day to day, small and large. Changing your mentality will help change your actions.

Say it with me now.

I am a Finisher.

Inspiration for this article and video came from my friend Charlie Gilkey, who is the author of Start Finishing: How To Go From Idea to Done, and who offers even more great advice in our BTT 027 podcast episode together. Check them out for more on how to start finishing the things you start!

For more intentional content, subscribe to the main YouTube channel and check out the Break the Twitch podcast.

The post Why Things Don’t Get Finished and How To Start Finishing first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Why Things Don’t Get Finished and How To Start Finishing appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Pamela Slim, business coach and author of Escape from Cubicle Nation and Body of Work, shares how to be more intentionally connected with your community, yourself and your work.

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Pamela talks about her work helping diverse entrepreneurs bring their ideas to life and building a local and truly inclusive community at K’é Main Street Learning Lab in downtown Mesa, Arizona.

We talk about the importance of allowing the time and space for the messiness of the creative process. From handling feedback to knowing when to further hone an idea and when to let go of perfectionism, Pamela shares her wisdom from over 20 years of coaching. We also discuss how to be more intentionally connected to your community, yourself and your body of work. This episode is full of wisdom on ways to more intentionally connect and better enjoy your life while living it.

Ready to take action with secret member-only content and community resources? Join Attention Collective, our online community of like-minded humans from around the world, and get full access immediately. See you inside!

Mentioned:

UnSelling: The New Customer Experience
UnMarketing: Everything Has Changed and Nothing Is Different
The Art of the Start
Open Letter to CEOs
Good to Great
The 5 Second Rule
Bird by Bird
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
The Four Tendencies

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Every review we get helps boost the Break the Twitch podcast so we can reach more people.

Watch the BTT 030 conversation:

The Break the Twitch podcast is an interview-based podcast hosted by Anthony Ongaro featuring guests from all walks of life on living better and doing more of what matters. See previous seasons, episodes, and the latest news on the Podcast page.

The post Intentionally Connecting with Pamela Slim first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Intentionally Connecting with Pamela Slim appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Cory Huff, founder of The Abundant Artist, shares some essential wisdom around the business of art and the creative process.

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In BTT 028, I sit down with Cory Huff, who is also a fantasy fiction novelist, performing actor, and marketing professional. Cory shares how he went from his day job to starting the Blogspot website that would become The Abundant Artist, teaching creative people how to make money online.

We talk about the creative process, whether it’s writing novels, making videos or performing on stage. Cory and I also discuss the survivorship bias of the entrepreneurial landscape—how we don’t talk enough about the things that didn’t work and learn more from the failures. Additionally, Cory provides some rules and tips on how to sell your art and make it into a business. If you’ve ever wondered about how to turn a creative endeavor into a business, this episode is for you.

Ready to take action with secret member-only content and community resources? Join Attention Collective, our online community of like-minded humans from around the world, and get full access immediately. See you inside!

Mentioned:

Everything Conference
How To Sell Your Art Online
Charlie Gilkey
Story Genius
The Ogham Chronicles Book 1 & 2
Pamela Slim
Ender’s Game

If you enjoyed this episode, we’d greatly appreciate it if you leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

Watch the BTT 029 conversation:

The Break the Twitch podcast is an interview-based podcast hosted by Anthony Ongaro featuring guests from all walks of life. See all the episodes and the latest news on the Podcast page.

The post The Business of Art with Cory Huff first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post The Business of Art with Cory Huff appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Marli Williams, a facilitator trainer and speaker, invites us all to embrace imperfect action and say yes to more play and epic experiences.

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Marli Williams is an official wilderness guide, joy instigator and creator of epic experiences. Marli shares how at nineteen, she knew her mission was to help others realize their potential. Since then, much of her work has involved helping people disconnect from distractions and better connect with other humans and nature as a mentor, coach and facilitator in different capacities.

We discuss how play can be integrated into our daily lives and how imperfect action wins over perfect inaction—any day of the week. In today’s fast-paced, digital landscape where the work is never done, we need to be more intentional with creating time and space for what truly matters. This episode is sure to inspire you to say yes to more play and epic experiences.

Ready to take action with secret member-only content and community resources? Join Attention Collective, our online community of like-minded humans from around the world, and get full access immediately. See you inside!

Mentioned:

Camp Yes
How To Create Epic Experiences
StokeQuotes
The Connect Deck

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review through on Apple Podcasts!

Watch the BTT 028 conversation:

The Break the Twitch podcast is an interview-based podcast hosted by Anthony Ongaro featuring guests from all walks of life. See all the episodes and the latest news on the Podcast page.

The post Epic Experiences with Marli Williams first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Epic Experiences with Marli Williams appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Remembering to slow down, even when things are crazy is, unfortunately, one of those lessons I have to continually relearn. It’s for that sake I share what happened this past week with you.

One week ago, we kicked off Season 3 of our podcast and to be honest, it’s been challenging.

Two days before the first episode went live, I got sick. Sick in a way that anchored me to the futon of our Portland AirBnB, while I threw up into a trash can for the next twelve hours and felt unwell enough to not eat for over 36 hours.

It was awful. My wife, Amy, had to finish pushing out the episode by herself, managing the details and taking care of things that were usually on my plate. The episode went out, and she’s basically superwoman for making it happen.

We were in Portland because I was doing the photography and leading a workshop for an event that weekend. It’s not often we’re in Portland, so we figured it was the perfect opportunity to record the majority of the new podcast season with locals and some other folks that were there for the event as well. In the six total days we were there, we scheduled eight podcast recordings with some incredible guests.

From the moment I got sick to when I was able to get going again, we had to cancel and reschedule four of them. We filled every spare moment from that point before the event started Thursday evening until we left Monday afternoon. After all was said and done, we managed to still get seven of the originally planned eight podcast interviews. Nothing short of a small miracle.

Back in Phoenix, I got working on the next podcast episode with Charlie Gilkey.

We had recorded Charlie’s episode in Portland the week before and agreed to turn around quickly for the launch of his new book, Start Finishing: How To Go From Idea To Done. Each episode usually takes about 20 or so hours to produce, edit, and publish. This episode was out in about 72 hours, so I started working hard and fast—but this was the first episode I’d fully worked on since Season 2 of the podcast, months ago. Not to mention that it was recorded in a totally new space, using a different setup than I’m used to, and hadn’t edited before.

In a rush to get going, I didn’t spend much time on the initial audio editing; just a few general tweaks here and there before pulling it into the video editor. I lined up the two audio tracks with the three video angles and got to work. Each episode is around 60-80 minutes cut down from a 90-120 minute conversation, so it’s a lengthy process any way you go about it. We’re cutting out gaps, changing between camera angles depending on who is speaking and keeping the conversation tight.

As I went through the edit, I started to notice some issues with the audio. There was some signal interference from a smartphone—not notifications or sounds—but the actual signal could be heard in the recording. There were also some issues with volume levels and a few other small things further into the recording, that likely could have been fixed upfront.

At this point, it was too late.

I had already chopped up the audio for the majority of the episode. Unless I went back and individually fixed each clip, I’d have to completely undo all my work. I pushed through, editing as I went and doing my best to clean everything up.

Things… just kept going wrong. It was issue after issue. We easily put 30-35 hours into getting this episode out, but somehow still managed to finish on time.

Looking back, it is likely that slowing down to spend a single extra hour on upfront audio processing would have saved 10+ hours of struggle.

All the issues caused even more exasperation, which led to other small, yet, easily avoidable mistakes—further compounding our frustration.

The greatest irony is that this podcast episode features amazing wisdom about taking on less, finishing what you start, and focusing on the process. I’m reminded of the quote, “If you don’t have time to meditate for an hour each day, you should meditate for two hours.”

It is when we feel the most rushed, the most panicked, that we actually need to slow down the most.

It is in those moments and on those days that slowing down holds the greatest benefit overall. Our adrenaline-fueled reactions likely helped us in the days of early humanity, and the instant reaction has been programmed deep within our brains.

Predator? Panic! Climb tree, problem solved. Simple.

Today, the processes needed to solve our modern day-to-day problems are not similarly built in. No amount of adrenaline or panic is going to help me figure out the best way to remove background noise from a 90-minute audio file. Similarly, whether it’s working at an office job, driving a truck, or teaching preschool—the majority of the work we do each day will not benefit from trying to do several things at once or rushing through in hopes of an earlier completion.

Here are three reasons why in 95% of situations, remembering to slow down is the right answer.

1 / The faster we go, the more mistakes we make.

It’s inevitable. We make more mistakes when we rush. Each mistake means going back and fixing something you already worked on, doubling the effort required. For video and audio, it means going back to fix the issue and exporting the file again, costing more time and energy. There is always an opportunity to speed up and optimize a process once it is systematized or well-practiced. But even then, balance is still helpful.

2 / When we rush, we multitask.

This is the ultimate productivity myth. Every job posting asking for a candidate who can “multitask efficiently” is not only doing a huge disservice to the company’s bottom line but also spreading a bare-faced lie. When we don’t give our full attention to a single task, we miss details and screw things up. Everything we’re trying to multitask on takes longer than it would otherwise.

It only feels faster because it feels like we’re doing a lot all at once. But realistically, multitasking only prevents us from getting into a powerful flow state on any one task.

3 / Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

I remember hearing this for the first time as I clutched the oh shit handlebar in my friend’s autocross race car. He quickly navigated a parking lot full of construction cones while whipping me back and forth around the passenger seat. He looked over and said, “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.”

If you rush through things, you’ll overshoot the corners and constantly have to correct for errors. If it feels slow, you’re going smoothly, and if you’re going smoothly, you’re going faster than you think.

At a micro level, there are opportunities to slow down and get started every single day. Even if you’re feeling overwhelmed and overscheduled, don’t wait for something massive you can change. Just start with the small things, today. The things you might often do in passing, take a moment to do them fully. Even if it’s just for a single minute— because slowing down, means showing up.

If you’re looking to slow down and get more done, my conversation with Charlie Gilkey gets more into how to break down ideas into projects and much more.

The post Three Important Reasons To Slow Down (Even If You’re Overloaded) first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Three Important Reasons To Slow Down (Even If You’re Overloaded) appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Charlie Gilkey, best-selling author and business coach, provides invaluable straight talk on why people don’t finish things and how to start finishing.

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In BTT 027, I sit down with Charlie Gilkey, founder of Productive Flourishing and author of the forthcoming book, Start Finishing: How To Go From Idea to Done—available for pre-order now and officially on shelves Tuesday, September 24!

Charlie shares how his experience as a Joint Logistics Coordinator in the Army National Guard while pursuing a Philosophy Ph.D. positioned him to do his best work. Since 2007, he has helped thousands of creatives and changemakers take meaningful action on work that matters.

We talk about why ideas need to be turned into projects and what actually counts as a project. From identifying head trash, how many projects we can take on at a time, and tips on removing distractions—this episode is full of wisdom and tips around how to finish what you start.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review through on Apple Podcasts!

Ready to take action with secret member-only content and community resources? Join Attention Collective, our online community of like-minded humans from around the world, and get full access immediately. See you inside! 

Mentioned:

The Dip
Copyblogger
The 4-Hour Work Week
Starting A Blog
Keep Going
Finish
Big Magic
Neo Word Processor
Ulysses App

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Every review we get helps boost the Break the Twitch podcast so we can reach more people.

Watch the BTT 027 conversation:

The Break the Twitch podcast is an interview-based podcast hosted by Anthony Ongaro featuring guests from all walks of life. See all the episodes and the latest news on the Podcast page.

The post Start Finishing with Charlie Gilkey first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Start Finishing with Charlie Gilkey appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Randi Kay shares simple self care practices from her personal and professional experience as a bodywork practitioner and holistic healer.

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In BTT 026, I chat with Randi Kay, a wellness practitioner and the podcaster behind The Simple Self Care Podcast. This is a unique episode where Randi and I answer the same questions, and an exciting start to Season 3 of the BTT Podcast!

The conversation kicks off with our origin stories. Randi shares how her healing journey began when she was diagnosed with depression. She delves into her journey of learning about how the body, diet, self care and everything is all connected.

I share my own journey of identifying the “Twitch” and my data-driven proof of how small, unproductive actions add up. We discuss the practices that keep us grounded, seasonality when it comes to self care and Newton’s Third Law when it comes to making changes. This episode is sure to inspire you to look at self care and intentional living in a new and fun light.

Ready to take action with secret member-only content and community resources? Join Attention Collective, our online community of like-minded humans from around the world, and get full access immediately. See you inside!

Mentioned:

The Twitch
Break the Twitch eBook
Just Checks by Shawn Blanc
Joshua Becker
False First Step
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
Personal Guidepost Dashboard
Newton’s Third Law

Did you enjoy this episode? I’d be grateful if you leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

Watch the BTT 026 conversation:

The Break the Twitch podcast is an interview-based podcast hosted by Anthony Ongaro featuring guests from all walks of life. See all the episodes and the latest news on the Podcast page.

The post Simple Self Care with Randi Kay first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Simple Self Care with Randi Kay appeared first on Break the Twitch.

A few months ago, Amy and I sold our Minneapolis home of six years and made our way across the country to Phoenix, Arizona. The temperature here averages around 110 degrees Fahrenheit on most days. Although it’s a dry heat, it makes extended outdoor time difficult. It’s been a hot, busy summer and the time seems to be flying by.

It’s been quite different from what we were used to after more than a decade in the midwest.

Over Labor Day weekend, we were back in Minneapolis for a good friend’s wedding. The weather was a crisp 70 degrees or so, with beautiful sun and clouds throughout. It’s that temperature where you can walk around comfortably indefinitely without needing to take cover from the sun.

So that’s exactly what we did one morning. We drove from the hotel over to our old neighborhood in southeast Minneapolis and split a breakfast burrito at one of our favorite little café spots. We parked the car and started walking towards our old home, about six long blocks down the avenue.

This house was special to us. It’s the home where I started this website, where we lived for the earliest years of our marriage, where we brought home our dog, Rocky, for the first time. Over the years, it housed family and friends, provided space for a multitude of projects, and was a roof over our heads.

It was a big decision to sell this house at the time we did.

It was comfortable, affordable, and we knew it thoroughly inside and out. I knew that I was going to miss it and the different quirks about it. On that final day, when we drove away in a moving truck with all of our worldly possessions, it felt surreal. It was an uncomfortable feeling to know that we probably wouldn’t ever go back inside that house again.

But now, the feeling has mostly settled, and it certainly felt real—especially as our walk took us directly in front of our old house.

It looked about the same as we left it, and I couldn’t help but feel a sense of nostalgia standing there. Rocky tugged on his leash towards the front lawn, probably wanting to dash into the backyard for a good run.

After a moment’s pause, we made our way down to the neighborhood park and sat on a shaded bench to, well… take everything in.

A little while later, Amy asked, “What do you miss about the house?”

Sitting there in the pinnacle of Minneapolis weather perfection, I had a hard time answering the question. Sure, there were things I missed: having a lush, green backyard for Rocky to freely run around in, being within walking distance to restaurants we liked, and the lovely neighbors we had.

But the actual house, I struggled to come up with precisely what it was that I missed. There were so many great memories in the house, many which we have pictures from as well.

After a long pause, I realized what it was that I missed.

What I missed was the idea of “having” the thing. When it came to the actual house, it was the idea of not owning or having access to it anymore that struck a chord.

Why? Well, because I had access to it previously. I associated the house itself with a lot of the positive memories and chapters of life that happened there.

As long as we can hold those memories in our photos, stories, and minds, we’ll still have them. We still have the marriage, the now three-year-old little dog that came home with us at 10 pm on a freezing January night, the things we created, the friendships we built, and the memories we shared.

But maybe the reason letting go can be so frightening is because we’ve been conditioned to believe certain things that aren’t true. That when we let go, we’ve lost both the thing and the experiences it helped us create. Perhaps it’s because we’ve been cultured to overvalue simply owning things. We’ve been taught to put much of our self-worth into the brands we buy, the home we have, the car we drive, and so on.

We can benefit from learning to view the ownership of things differently.

Instead of viewing things as a fortress we build upon throughout our lives, we can see them as vines we swing from as we make our way through.

Not unlike Tarzan swinging through the jungle.

As we make our way through the jungle of our lives (stick with me here), each vine carries us through a phase, a particular journey, or challenge. We can appreciate that vine for all it gave us. But at specific points, we may need to let go of that vine to extend and reach out for the next one—the one that might carry us further along our way. Without letting go of the vine we’re on, it would be nearly impossible to move to the next.

Additionally, we could be trying to hold on to too many vines.

If we never let go of anything, our efforts are rendered useless by multiple anchor points. It doesn’t matter how much we swing our legs to build momentum if we’re holding on to too many vines. When you let go, it not only allows you to move forward but often offers more.

It might even allow another human to benefit from it and forge their path through the jungle as well. Especially in the case of the little house we sold in southeast Minneapolis.

Not everything we need to let go of is quite so romantic in practice.

There will be some things that are easier to let go of than others, but we can change our perspective on the matter as we move throughout life. Don’t feel pressured to let go of something that serves you now, and serves the life you want to live going forward—especially something as big as a home.

However, as we move through different phases and transitions to pursue whatever a life well lived means to us, a subtle shift in mindset can make all the difference.

Here are some helpful questions when considering if it’s time to let go:

1 / Does it suit your needs now?

2 / What about it will you miss the most? Can you still have different but similar experiences without it?

3 / Will having it help you get where you want to go next? What about not having it?

4 / What possibilities might open in the space it currently occupies?

While we’re unsure what selling our Minneapolis house will bring, we know that growth opportunities will come from it. When it came to what we valued the most, it wasn’t the house. What we really valued were the memories we had in it with each other, family, and friends. And those things, we’ll be taking along with us.

The post What We Really Miss About The Things We Let Go first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post What We Really Miss About The Things We Let Go appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Anthony’s Note: This is a guest post by Taylor, the creator of the CeMental Break movement. Enjoy the read, and let’s help grow this excellent initiative.

CeMental Break (Cement + Mental Break) is a movement to encourage mindful moments using sidewalk chalk. A CeMental Break creates a space for a passerby to pause, then guides them through a mini-meditation. These meditations can focus on being in the moment, feeling gratitude, or showing some self-love.

The idea for CeMental Break came to me all at once while reading an angsty young adult novel, with a cat in my lap, while spring sprung in Minnesota (which means it snowed in April). I’ve never had an experience like it. The only thing I can compare it to is walking on the sidewalk in the winter and having a neighbor accidentally shovel a heap of snow into your face (which also happened that day).

Like, “BAM! Here’s an idea for you! You can furiously brush it off, or you can make a snowman. Your choice.” I’m trying to make a snowman.

I’ve been meditating regularly for about three years, and I’m currently in graduate school for Holistic Health with a focus on mindfulness and meditation. I’ve had conversations with dozens of friends, family, and strangers about how awesome meditation is. The responses tend to sound like, “Yes, I should do that, but I don’t have the time.” Or, “I’m no good at meditating.” Or, “I can’t sit still for that long.”

What I’m learning is, formal meditation is not the only way to become more mindful throughout your day and your life. It is one great way, but there are many others.

CeMental Break is mindfulness for everyone.

The mission: To promote mindfulness joyfully, colorfully, and publicly. To eliminate barriers to more mindful living by making it fun and accessible. To create judgment-free opportunities for self-care in public space.

I hope, one day, taking to the sidewalks to create mindful moments for our communities is a normal thing. I can’t chalk-up all the sidewalks of Minneapolis alone, and I definitely can’t spread the movement further without the help of others. I would love to see the CeMental Breaks that you create; here is how you make one:

1 / Draw an open circle on some pavement that is open to the sky.

• The open circle is meant to represent our awesome imperfection; it also feels welcoming, like an open door.
• People tend to stop noticing signs (and chalk) after a while. Create your moment in a place where the rain will wash it away so you can create something new.

2 / Write out your mini-mindful-moment instructions.

• Do your best to keep it positive. For example, instead of, “stop looking at your phone,” you might write, “take two deep breaths, find your favorite tree.”
• Need more ideas for mindful moments? Visit the CeMental Break Instagram or website!

3 / Decorate outside the circle however you’d like.

• Leave the middle empty for the CeMental Breaker’s feet or wheels.
• This part is your meditation moment! Get creative and spend some quality time with your chalk. No rules, just colors and shapes, and joy.

4 / Participate in your CeMental Break.

• Stand in the open circle and participate in the moment you just created.
• Feel proud of the mindful moment you created for your community.

I can’t wait to see what you create, make sure to tag @CeMentalBreak if you post photos to Facebook or Instagram. If you would like to send pictures to me directly, I would love to see them! You can email me at CeMentalBreak@gmail.com

I’ll leave you with a favorite quote that always inspires me to go out and create CeMental Breaks: “Color is the place where our brain and the universe meet.” – Paul Klee

The post Create Mindful Moments In The World With A CeMental Break first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Create Mindful Moments In The World With A CeMental Break appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Spoiler alert: it probably is.

Ironically, this isn’t going to be a minimal post about minimalism. It’s a more comprehensive one—so get comfortable, and enjoy the learning process.

For my wife Amy and me, it all started in early 2014 when we learned about the idea of minimalism. While we both had explored concepts around mindfulness and intentional living, we hadn’t yet come across the concept of minimalism outside of modern art.

We had no idea minimalism would have as big an impact as it did. Looking back, it has been one of the most important changes we’ve implemented in our lives.

Minimalism is how I reduce distractions in my life so I can do more of what matters.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed with the idea of doing more of the things that matter most to you, your calendar is overscheduled, or your physical space is filled with items that don’t serve you and your family, minimalism will help you make more space in your life. Space to take bigger risks, try something new or simply spend more time with the people you care about. Over time, minimalism can potentially help in making a radical lifestyle change like moving to a new city, changing careers or exploring entrepreneurship.

Minimalism, An Overview

What is Minimalism?

Minimalism is defined as a design or style in which the simplest and fewest elements are used to create the maximum effect. Minimalism had its origins in the arts—with the artwork featuring simple lines, only a few colors, and careful placement of those lines and colors.

More recently, it has become representative of a lifestyle that aims to remove clutter from all facets of life. 

Here at Break the Twitch, we define minimalism as a lifestyle practice focused on minimizing distractions that keep you from doing what matters to you.

Minimalism is all about owning only what adds value and meaning to your life (as well as the lives of the people you care about) and removing the rest. It’s about removing the clutter and using your time and energy for the things that remain. We only have a certain amount of energy, time, and space in our lives. In order to make the most of it, we must be intentional about how we’re living each day.

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.

– Annie Dillard

There are many different approaches to minimalism, but it’s really just a tool to help you prioritize what’s important in your life.

Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist offers this definition: “Minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things that bring you joy and the removal of those that do not.” It might be called simple living, tiny living, intentional living, and a myriad of other things—but there is at least one common thread: the idea of curating the things we own to best reflect our priorities and vision for our lives.

If the idea of minimalism sounds intimidating to you or if you’ve seen some images and thought, “that’s a nice idea, but I’d never want to live like that,” don’t worry. You can benefit from applying minimalism in your life whether you live in a tiny home, suburban house, or a mansion. You can use minimalism as a guiding philosophy and customize based on what works best for you.

Here are some minimalism guidelines that have worked best for Amy and me over the past several years of intentional living.

Common Misconceptions of Minimalism

Contrary to what some people think, there aren’t any actual rules to minimalism. There’s no official board of minimalism to determine whether or not you’re doing minimalism right. Minimalism truly looks different for everyone.

You don’t have to own below a certain number of items. You can still have nice things, and no, you don’t need to get rid of your favorite collection—whether it’s books, shoes, or music. Minimalism doesn’t have to look like white-walled, modern and sparse homes you’ve probably seen in magazines and videos, a common minimalism mistake.

Minimalism is also not a one and done project. Amy and I have used minimalism as a continual practice to ensure everything in our lives is working for us in our vision, not against us. We’ve used it over the years to make substantial changes in our careers, home, lifestyle, buying behaviors, and more recently, our big move across the country.

Everyone can benefit from applying the principles of minimalism to their lives. It’s a process of removing distractions and things that no longer add value to our lives.

Realistically, everyone should be a minimalist.

It would be silly not to be, right? Who doesn’t want to be surrounded by everything that’s important and nothing that weighs us down? It makes a ton of sense when you start to think about it. Here are some additional thoughts on what it means to be a minimalist.

There are no credentials needed to call yourself a minimalist and no official governing entity on whether you’re doing minimalism right. But you don’t have to call yourself a minimalist either. The way I see it, minimalism isn’t my identity or some goal to achieve; it’s a tool Amy and I use as part of the framework of doing more of what matters.

Why Minimalism Is An Effective Tool For Living An Intentional Life

In the end, minimalism is less about owning fewer items and more about actively making choices on what kind of things truly matter to you.

We exist in a society that creates false value on owning more stuff and having no time to use them much. The constant pursuit of bigger and better is an endless cycle. There will always be a nicer car to buy, a bigger boat, a larger home, and or a faster private jet. Did you know that there’s a website for billionaires to shop? Yeah. It never ends.

It may seem like an overwhelming challenge at first, but as you untangle the life you built around owning more things, you’ll find the stress disappearing and the world starting to slow down. Those choices you make will begin to build a muscle that will fundamentally change the way you live your life.

How to Get Started With Minimalism

Find one thing, remove it from your home.

There’s a lot of reading you can do and plenty of videos to watch on minimalism (such as on the BTT YouTube channel). You can research yourself into oblivion, but the best way to get started is to just find one thing you don’t need anymore and let it go. You’ll get to experience what it’s like to start creating space in your home and get over that initial hump of not knowing where to start. Starting small is the best way to get started on something that feels like a big change. Check out these minimalism tips for the beginner for more inspiration on getting started.

Stop the influx of new things.

The next immediate step is to stop the influx of new things that you don’t actually need. Whether that means logging out from Amazon or not going to the mall anymore, take steps to prevent yourself from purchasing new things that will continue to clutter your home. Create some guiding questions about what types of things add value to your life and which types of things don’t add value. Beware of the False First Step—buying something for the aspirational version of yourself instead of taking a minimally viable action using what you have already.

Find a decluttering method to try.

The best way to get started is to find a decluttering method that works for you and simply get started on building that decision-making muscle! Here are 6 of the most popular decluttering methods.

It’s important to remember that major changes don’t tend to happen overnight. Bit by bit, you’ll start to see the space in your home open up around you. Surfaces will begin to clear and closets will lose their overstuffed status. You’ll eventually have more time and energy to do more of what matters. When the going gets tough, you can find inspiration in these decluttering tips to motivate you to keep going.

Ready to take action with secret member-only content and community resources? Join Attention Collective, our online community of like-minded humans from around the world, and get full access immediately. See you inside!

Benefits of Minimalism

Less stress

Imagine you’re driving home from work and hear your phone ring. You pick up (on the speakerphone of course) and an acquaintance lets you know she’s in the neighborhood and asks if she can pick up the jacket she left at your place. She lives an hour away, so it would be great if she could get it right when you get home.

Are you panicking yet? Usually, it takes you a half hour to tidy up the house before company comes over, but now you have only five minutes. Maybe less.

But, what if a quick clean up only took you a couple of minutes or so? Just picking up a few things here and there? Or maybe there’s no clean up involved at all? It sounds a lot less stressful, doesn’t it? While it might sound far off, it’s entirely possible—and it’s possible thanks to a lifestyle philosophy called minimalism.

Having clutter around your home and in your life also contributes to stress. When you’ve cleared off surfaces in your home and simplified other areas in your life, you’ll feel a sense of peace and marvel at the difference.

More time

Time is arguably our most valuable resource. Once it is spent, it is gone forever. We never get more than 24 hours in a day and we never know when our time will run out. With less stuff to worry about, less clutter to organize and maintain, we regain time in our days. This provides the opportunity to begin implementing daily habits that will guide your life in the direction you want.

It is time with our spouses, children, friends, and family members that we look back upon fondly. I’ve never heard of anyone regretting spending quality time with a family member before they passed away. Similarly, a eulogy never seems to mention how big of a house the person had, how many sports cars owned, or how rich they were. Mentioned most often are the times that were shared and the memories created together.

More possibilities

A unused item cluttering your home or your mind is a finite object. In a very practical yet philosophical way, the item can only be what it is. The space created by the item’s removal, on the other hand, is infinite. The possibilities of how the cleared space might be used are completely at your disposal. When you continue to create more space, you become more flexible with your time, energy, and productivity.

By removing the clutter, the resources taken by that object are returned to you and more.

The principles can be applied to nearly every facet of life in the physical, digital and other realms. Instead of thinking of minimalism as a lifestyle, consider it to be a decision filter that you use to make important decisions in your life. Those decisions start small and might not carry much weight in the beginning, but the value you gain from it certainly grows over time. With each decision, you increase your ability to shift your life in any way of your choosing.

While the benefits may not come overnight, if you stick with it, you’ll see the benefits beginning to multiply. Check out three benefits we saw at the beginning of our minimalism journey, the exponential benefits of minimalism, as well as the fun video above on 15 ways life is easier for minimalists.

Minimalism Philosophy IRL (in real life)

Minimalism can be applied to many areas of life. Below are some real-life examples.

Home

Walking into an uncluttered, peaceful home environment is an amazing feeling. A space where surfaces are clear for use, seating areas empty for relaxing, and no visual to-do lists competing for your attention the minute you walk into the door. Whether the space in your home is your living room, bedroom, closet, refrigerator or garage—you can benefit from applying minimalism in the area. Physical clutter in and around the home is the most common focus of minimalism. Here are some fun ideas on ways to reduce household clutter.

Schedule

Having your schedule jam-packed with meetings, errands, and activities can result in overwhelm, anxiety and exhaustion. By creating more space in your day and letting go of the nonessentials, you’ll have more time in your day to focus on what truly matters. Spending time with family, loved ones and friends. Reading a book while drinking a cup of tea. Heading to bed earlier and getting a good night’s rest. Working on a project you’re excited about. The opportunities open up when you have more space and time in your schedule.

Money

The way you manage your money can also benefit from minimalism. When you spend more intentionally and buy fewer things, you have more money to use towards what matters most to you. Whether it’s fun experiences with family and friends, a new project, travelling the world or taking a leap into a new career or entrepreneurship— minimalism will help you better prioritize where your money is going. You may find this video on minimalist money management tips to be helpful.

Relationships

When it comes to relationships, quality over quantity matters. Minimalism can be particularly beneficial in this area. Relationships with people who are chronically negative, unsupportive or abusive aren’t healthy for us in the long run. They use up our energy and resources that frankly, are better directed elsewhere. Toxic relationships distract us, put us down, and often prevent us from reaching our potential. If you have people who aren’t supportive, positive influences in your life, it’s in your best interest to either remove or reduce the time spent with them. It is often said that we become the average of the five closest people around us, and I find it to be true.

Digital

With everything becoming more digital and mobile these days, the digital realm can be a huge mess if we aren’t intentional. These alarming statistics show just how addictive our devices are. From email, apps, files, photos, to multiple devices, there is an overload of digital information coming at us. In order to maintain our sanity, it’s best to declutter and maintain our digital environment.

Energy

Ever become so exhausted that all you can do is scroll on your phone? We only have so much willpower and self-discipline each day. This mental energy is the decision-making muscle. Read more about decision fatigue and why minimalism is important to better managing your energy for loved ones, yourself, and your creative flow.

There’s also emotional energy. Let go of the old stories you’re telling yourself. Let go of the anger, resentment, and grudges—even if you’ve been wronged in the past. All of that is weight you’re carrying around at your own detriment. You’ve paid enough already; there’s no need to keep on suffering in the present.

Embracing minimalism in all aspects of life has helped us in more intentional use of energy. From the decisions we make to not engaging in past stories that don’t serve us in a positive way.

Challenges of Minimalism

Things often get worse before they get better.

Whether it’s the contents of a closet exploding all over the room or random things everywhere, things often get messier and more difficult before it gets easier. There will likely be challenging moments during your decluttering process. Work on the easy stuff first and then work up to the harder stuff. Know that it gets easier as you build your decision-making muscles and practice letting go of items.

Once you’ve decluttered, it can be difficult to know what to do with your decluttered things. Instead of automatically donating, consider selling, giving to friends or neighbors or other options in this intentional decluttering guide.

People in your life may not understand.

People who were in your life before minimalism may not understand. They may have questions or pass judgment on the changes you’re making. Their reaction may not be helpful, but remember, mainstream society is centered on earning more income to accumulate more. Explain to them what you’re doing, that you understand if it doesn’t resonate with them, but it’s what you need right now. Be living proof of what’s possible and lead by example. It may take time, but once people start seeing how much better you feel, look and live—they’ll begin to come around and ask questions.

There’s regular maintenance involved.

As much as I’d like to say that once you’ve applied minimalism to your life, you’re done—that’s not the case. We’re all evolving beings, and as our needs and lives change, so does everything else. Just like the weeds in your yard, embracing minimalism in your life requires regular maintenance. Minimalism is not a once and done thing, although it does get easier as you go along.

Eventually you realize minimalism is not the magic answer.

While there are definite benefits of minimalism that we’ve (and many others) have experienced, at some point you will reach a plateau on the benefits. At some point, you’ll realize that minimalism isn’t the answer to living a well-lived and intentional life. Breaking the “Twitch” is only the start.

Minimalism helps you to create the space—physically, mentally, emotionally, and with your resources and time—but it’s not the end goal. What comes next is building the habits to form the foundation you need in order to do more of what matters to you. And with the space cleared and foundation of habits built, to create things, find your creative flow and make a positive impact in the world.

More Inspiration on Minimalism

While many resources can be found online or at your local library, there is a special place in my heart for books. Perhaps that’s the case for you as well and I’ve listed my favorite books on minimalism if you’re interested in exploring more.

There are also many different voices and ways to approach minimalism. Here are some other recommended websites and blogs on the topic.

Becoming Minimalist with Joshua Becker
Be More With Less with Courtney Carver
Slow Your Home with Brooke McAlary
The Minimalists with Joshua Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus
Miss Minimalist with Francine Jay

Have any more questions on minimalism? Let me know at anthony@breakthetwitch.com.

The post What Is Minimalism? A Practical Guide to a Minimalist Lifestyle first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post What Is Minimalism? A Practical Guide to a Minimalist Lifestyle appeared first on Break the Twitch.

When I first started Break the Twitch, I was very focused on the idea of aligning vision with values.

What that involved was taking a hard look at what a typical day in your current life looks like and then dreaming up a vision for what your ideal day would be. When you overlay the two, you’d then see what matched up and what didn’t.

Fundamentally, this approach works well because as Annie Dillard says, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”

If the small ways we show up each day align with the vision of the life we want, we’re much more likely to look back on a life encompassing our vision over the years.

While researching core values, I came up with a new approach that provides a fresh perspective and greater clarity on where things stand. More importantly, this method will help you understand what kinds of things don’t align well with your actual values.

The exercise is simple and has a few steps, but the actual work is in the mental processing of thinking through it—in perhaps a 30 minute timeframe if done thoroughly. I promise the results will be worth the time you spend.

Here’s how to walk through this intentional living values exercise.

1 / Identify your most important core values

For this exercise especially, I’d recommend choosing five core values from this curated personal values list. As you look through the list, make sure to pick the five that you feel most reflects your current values. It’s easy to want to choose aspirational values but focus on selecting the ones that most reflect where you are right now.

2 / Create your intentional living values worksheet

Turn your paper landscape-wise, so it’s wider than it is tall. List each value horizontally across the top of a piece of paper, and make one final column at the very end for “N/A” which should leave you with six headings across the paper. The top of your sheet might look something like this:

Learning – Health – Kindness – Influence – Integrity – N/A

Feel free to use this downloadable PDF template to print use for this exercise.

3 / Fill out your day to day activities

Think through a typical week and every single activity that you do on a somewhat regular basis. This part might take some more mental bandwidth, so give it some time. You can close your eyes and walk through your day and list different items as you go. Put each item that you come up within your matrix underneath the particular value that it reflects.

For me, I might put things like, “Making YouTube Videos” under Influence. “Daily Reading” would likely go under my value of Learning. So on, and so forth.

“Picking Up Kids From School” could go under your Stability category, or perhaps Generosity, depending on the day (hah). There are many cases where something you do would fall under multiple values, and that’s wonderful! Put the activity under each value that applies, and make sure to circle or highlight any that show up multiple times.

4 / Fill in the N/A category as applicable

Here’s the kicker: there are likely going to be activities that don’t fall under any particular core value, which is why the N/A category exists. For me, these are things that usually fall into Twitch territory—phone checks, extended social media scrolling, news reading, etc.

More important things may land in that category, as well. While you might not categorize your entire job into any particular value, try to break down the different things you do at work into values that might fit. It’s essential to see both the macro and micro aspects of each activity in your life. If you can put aspects of “Work” into a single or multiple value categories, then you’re well on your way in living a life aligned with your values.

5 / Make small changes towards your intentional living values

Once you’ve taken a good look at your worksheet, find one of the smallest things in your N/A list and commit to making a change. Perhaps it’s setting a time limit for phone use each day, deleting a social media app, or cooking at home one additional day per week.

Don’t try to tackle anything massive at first. If something like “my entire job” falls into the N/A category, perhaps you can start exploring a career change. But maybe don’t walk into your job and quit tomorrow (that is, unless you’ve had a massive revelation and it’s time for a major change). Remember, the most reliable and sustainable lifestyle change is smaller, for longer. Every wall is built one brick at a time, and intentional living based on your values works in the same way.

Leave a comment if you work through this exercise and learn something new about yourself! Often, taking a broad top-down look at our lives in this way can create some pretty exciting epiphanies.

The post Designing Your Life Based On Intentional Living Values first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Designing Your Life Based On Intentional Living Values appeared first on Break the Twitch.

With the rising popularity of minimalism, many of us are decluttering our possessions at an increased rate. It’s to the point where donation centers are running out of space and paying for additional storage or disposal costs.

The truth is, most donated items still end up in the landfill. 

Really, the biggest impact you can make is to be more intentional with the items you let into your life. Being a conscious consumer starts with the sourcing and production of the item. It continues with buying less, taking care of your things so they last longer and disposing of them responsibly when the time comes.

But how can we thoughtfully declutter the items we already have?

If you’re wanting to thoughtfully declutter, here’s an intentional decluttering guide:

1 / Selling items worthwhile to sell

There are many reasons to stop donating and sell your items first. The obvious one is to make some money back, but it also leads to a more intentional mindset and sustainable product cycle.

It comes with some extra work. Work such as taking pictures and measurements, listing the item, to negotiating and coordinating with potential buyers. It could also be visiting consignment and resale shops to see what they’re willing to take and what they’re willing to pay.

We see the extra work as a good thing though. If you bear the pain of dealing with each item, you are more likely to evolve throughout the decluttering process. Selling off your items one by one is a conscious act and reminder to be more intentional with future items you bring into your life.

Selling isn’t always worth your time for certain items—depending on your schedule and what a worthwhile dollar amount is for you. But selling whatever items you’re able to gives you money back, reinforces a more intentional lifestyle and is better for the environment.

It can take awhile to sell certain things like furniture or a specialty item, so give yourself at least a couple weeks to a few months. The best situation is to be in no hurry to sell. That way, you have the ability to wait around for a good offer from someone or for the right person to come across your listing. Coming soon, we’ll share a post on selling tips and the best places to sell certain items.

2 / Swapping with or giving to friends and neighbors

Another excellent decluttering option is to check with your friends and neighbors. As Anthony and I were figuring out what to declutter and what to keep before the big move, we had in mind people who we thought could use certain items. Organizing a stuff swap can also be a great excuse to hang out with friends while minimizing—as long as you don’t come back with new-to-you items (but hey, it happens).

You can also post free items on sites like Nextdoor (a social network for your neighborhood), Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist. There are also organizations like The Freecycle Network in many cities around the world centered on giving and getting stuff for free. Leaving items by the driveway or on the front lawn with a sign marked “Free” may also result in a magical disappearing act. But if that doesn’t work, go on to the next decluttering option in this intentional decluttering guide.

Ready to take action with secret member-only content and community resources? Join Attention Collective, our online community of like-minded humans from around the world, and get full access immediately. See you inside!

3 / Donating useful items

One thing to consider before donating an item is whether or not it will actually be useful to the donation center or organization. If you can’t sell it or give it away to someone who wants it, what are the chances the donation center can?

Less than 20% of all donated clothing actually gets worn by someone else. Most organizations don’t have enough manpower to sort through all donations—much less fix up dirty, damaged or broken clothing, furniture or appliances. Unuseful donations end up costing the organizations money and contributing to landfills across the world.

Depending on the local organizations near you, donating thoughtfully is a great way to declutter things you no longer need or want. Many organizations—donation centers, thrift stores, homeless shelters, schools, educational or arts programs, nursing homes, to animal shelters—have a list of items they actually want and need.

For example, animal shelters are usually in need of used towels, blankets, cleaning supplies, among other household things. Homeless or transition shelters will often take food pantry items, toiletries, clothing and many other household items. Depending on where you live, there may be nonprofits that specialize in recycling electronics, creative materials reuse or distributing used art supplies and books. Many cities have a donation, recycling and disposal resource list on their website. Checking online or calling to ask what donations will be helpful is a win-win for you, those organizations and the earth.

4 / Responsibly disposing of everything else

Before tossing an item away, consider if the item can be reused for another purpose. For example, worn cloth materials (that can’t be recycled) can be used for cleaning rags or an old shower liner can be used as a tarp. If you’re not able to sell, give, donate or reuse, the last option is to responsibly dispose of the item.

Composting is the best option for disposal.

Expired food, most food scraps, pizza boxes, cardboard egg cartons, used paper napkins, coffee grounds, tea bags or cotton swabs—these items can usually be composted if your city has a municipal composting program. If you maintain a backyard compost, you’ll mainly be composting veggie and fruit food scraps and perhaps these other items.

If you can recycle the item, that’s the next best option.

There are many items that often end up in the city recycling, but really shouldn’t be there. Pizza boxes (grease from the pizza is a no-no), used coffee cups (there’s an inside layer of wax), plastic bags (needs a specialized facility) and paper towels (too fragile and often mixed with food particles) are common culprits. Checking with your city’s recycling guidelines will help you recycle more responsibly.

Things like old shoes and socks, carpets and rugs, broken appliances, computers, eyeglasses, and CDs can usually be recycled. You can recycle worn clothing and other materials at municipal or textile recycling centers. Big companies like Best Buy will take broken electronics and household appliances like vacuums, hair dryers and fans. Many nationwide grocery stores like Trader Joe’s will recycle plastic bags. When we lived in our home in Minneapolis, we had neighbors who would take items to sell as scrap metal.

The last decluttering guide option is the trash.

Many items end up in the trash that shouldn’t be there. Things like batteries, light bulbs, paint cans, and cleaning supplies are hazardous for the environment when simply thrown in the trash. Most places have waste centers for these hazardous materials, so check on the waste guidelines for where you live.

So there you have it, decluttering options ordered from most preferable to least in this intentional decluttering guide. If you have additional ideas on how to intentionally declutter, I’d love to hear them.

The biggest positive impact you can make is to consume, buy and accumulate intentionally going forward.

Consuming less, buying ethically and sustainably, and making things last longer. These are all ways we can lessen the clutter and the need to declutter in the first place.

As part of our intentional living journey, Anthony and I are learning more about zero waste practices. Zero waste can take some getting used to, and we’re not perfect in our efforts. But we’re trying our best and figuring out what works for us.

And that’s the message we’d like to leave you with. Hopefully this decluttering guide has given you more ideas on how to intentionally declutter. But know also that you’re not going to be perfect and that’s okay. We aren’t either. There’s no such thing as perfect. What we need is more people trying their best to be better stewards of the full product lifecycle.

The post An Intentional Decluttering Guide first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post An Intentional Decluttering Guide appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Thanks to the minimalism movement sweeping the globe, many of us are getting rid of tons of stuff. In fact, donation centers are receiving more clothing and goods right now than ever before—and while that might seem like a good thing, it’s actually a problem. It’s a big enough problem that what we need is for people to stop donating.

It’s great to thoughtfully donate items in good condition based on what organizations can actually resell or use. But many centers are so overrun with stuff that realistically no one wants. They simply don’t have the human-power to process through everything, and many items end up in the landfill.

Here are the reasons why you should stop donating as the default.

1 / Regain Monetary Value

There’s an obvious reason you should seriously consider selling things instead of donating or giving them away. Money, of course. It’s very likely that you spent money on the things you own, so why not recapture some of that value in the process of letting go? This can be especially helpful if you went through a heavy consumerist phase or are trying to pay down debt.

While it can be a lot of work selling off each item, getting some money back is positive and there are even more benefits to selling, as you’ll see down below.

2 / Sustainable Lifestyle Change Takes Effort Over Time

Truly shifting your lifestyle from a consumer-based to a more creator-based approach takes time and effort. It’s not something that happens overnight. If you bear the pain of going through and dealing with each item, you are more likely to change as a person and evolve through the decluttering process. Selling off your items one by one is a conscious act and reminder to be more intentional with future items you bring into your life.

Dropping a bunch of things off at the donation center really just makes your clutter someone else’s problem. Julie Kearns, season two podcast guest, and advocate for conscious consumption, shares the importance of being a responsible owner of the full product lifecycle—from beginning to end.

Over the past several years, and especially the two months before our big move, Amy and I sold a lot of our furniture and items. Individually dealing with the items worth selling definitely helped reinforce more intentional buying behavior going forward.

3 / If You Can’t Sell It, Neither Can Someone Else

Another benefit of selling instead of donating an item is it’s an indication of whether it’s really something that ought to be donated. If no one wants to buy it from you, what are the chances that someone else will be able to sell it, including the donation center?

There are certain exceptions though, depending on where you live and local organizations around you. This is where doing some research and thoughtfully donating can be very beneficial. Animal shelters will often gladly take clean, used towels and blankets, among other household things. Homeless or transition shelters will often take toiletries, makeup, towels, books, and many other household items. Checking with local organizations is a great way to intentionally donate items you no longer need or want.

4 / Paying Increases Perceived Value + Product Lifecycle

When someone is specifically looking for your item and is willing to pay for it, they’ll appreciate the item more. The person also has a higher likelihood of using the item. This extends the product lifecycle of the item. It also results in a lower carbon footprint since the person didn’t buy a new item.

It’s also a great feeling knowing your unwanted or unused item is going to a motivated buyer. As we were selling off our things, it was reassuring to know that people had a need for those items.

5 / More Likely To Buy Used (Save Money, Reduce Consumption)

Another reason to stop donating is you’re more aware of how much value is lost once an item is no longer new. You start realizing the value of buying used. The most sustainable item is the one that already exists. Not only is it much more environmentally friendly, but many used items are also just as good, if not better than new. Older items sometimes are composed of better materials and thus, last longer.

Before leaving Minneapolis, I bought this awesome electric guitar from my friend Adam. I researched amps to play the guitar through and discovered they were $600 new. Searching on Craigslist, I found the exact amp for $300 instead. It was actually better than buying new since older, mechanical amps have a soulful sound that the new ones just don’t have.

It can be a wonderful thing to donate items in good condition, that are usable, needed, or easily resellable. But it’s time for us to take more ownership of the full product life cycle.

Simply collecting items and donating them just transfers the problem from your home to another location. For the record, I think donating usable, practical things, or giving things to people that need them is wonderful. Still donate things. Just don’t default to it.

Selling items gives you money back, reinforces a more intentional mentality, and is better for the environment. If you can’t sell it, there are other ways to thoughtfully declutter things from your life. For more ideas on what to do with your decluttered things, check out this intentional decluttering guide.

The post Why You Should Stop Donating Your Stuff (and Do This First) first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Why You Should Stop Donating Your Stuff (and Do This First) appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Over the last month and a half, we sold off most of our furniture, many of our things, our house and our car, packed up the rest and drove across the country to Phoenix, Arizona.

Before we ramp up the next phase of Break the Twitch, I’d like to share the moving process and some things we learned along the way.

Even though we’ve decluttered so much stuff over the years, the whole packing and moving process was pretty stressful. It’s hard to imagine how much worse it would have been if we hadn’t started minimizing years earlier.

Everything that was left in our three bedroom, 2 bath home fit into a 12-foot moving truck (meant for a studio or one bedroom apartment). I was particularly glad we had a much smaller moving truck during one of the things that went wrong during the move.

See what went wrong with the moving process in this video, as well as what we learned along the way.

Minimalism reduces the impact of major disruptions

Minimalism can be seen as a way to live more of a dream life. While it can be, that’s not always the case. As I was moving our stuff from one truck to another, I realized minimalism definitely helped with reducing the impact of major disruptions. When it comes to those moments that can be stressful, difficult or painful, minimalism makes the situation less bad. Owning less stuff made our move so much easier than it would’ve been otherwise.

The intentional process of selling, donating and disposing of items takes time

If you think you might move in the next several months, just start selling and decluttering stuff now. When you begin a few months in advance, you’re not as much in a rush to sell things. Not only will you make more money, but you’ll have more time to intentionally decide how things will leave your home. Some things will be worth selling, others can be thoughtfully donated or responsibly discarded.

The in-between moments are what you will savor and remember

During major life changes like moving, it’s tempting to want to get through it as soon as possible. While it may feel like chaos in the moment, try to focus on the in-between moments and appreciate the process. With enough time, you’ll forget about the stressful moments. But you’ll definitely remember the little moments. Moments like sitting in backyard on a cool spring day, grilling out with friends or enjoying a meal at a favorite restaurant.

While the moving process may be a pain, minimalism definitely makes it less painful. Looking back, we’re so glad we began decluttering our lives back in 2014. Minimalism truly has opened up more possibilities for us that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise, and there are many more adventures to come.

The post Lessons Learned From Moving Across the Country first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Lessons Learned From Moving Across the Country appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Stephanie Domrose, a beauty entrepreneur and life coach, shares different ways to intentionally choose your own story in all areas of life.

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Stephanie Domrose is the founder of Embeau, a business helping to empower women to feel beautiful inside and out.

Stephanie shares how she envisioned and intentionally designed her business model over the years. We discuss how building a bridge may be better than taking a leap when it comes to starting something new. Additionally, we talk about decluttering and how possessions aren’t bad, they are simply tools for expression. From daily routines, fitness, creativity to mindset—this episode is sure to get you envisioning ways to choose your own story.

Ready to take action with secret member-only content and community resources? Join Attention Collective, our online community of like-minded humans from around the world, and get full access immediately. See you inside!

Mentioned:

Choose Your Story e-course
Jeff Goins
Marie Kondo’s Book
False First Step
Intentional Friction
Walk With Me Documentary about Plum Village
Toastmasters
Kyle Cease
The Alchemist
Nora McInerny

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Every review we get helps boost the Break the Twitch podcast so we can reach more people.

Watch the BTT 025 conversation:

The Break the Twitch podcast is an interview-based podcast hosted by Anthony Ongaro featuring guests from all walks of life. See all the episodes and the latest news on the Podcast page.

The post Choose Your Story with Stephanie Domrose first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Choose Your Story with Stephanie Domrose appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Nora McInerny, best-selling author of latest memoir No Happy Endings, talks about managing grief, finding your own path and opting out of the “shoulds” in life.

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I’m thrilled to share this conversation with Nora McInerny, a humorist, the host of the podcast, Terrible, Thanks For Asking, and the best-selling author of It’s Okay to Laugh, Crying is Cool Too.

We discuss everything from managing grief and rebuilding your life when you’ve lost someone dear to you, to finding your purpose and career path. Additionally, we talk about what it’s like to feel lost in your twenties, and opting out of the “shoulds” and “expectations” of success highlighted on social media and in our society. You’re going to love this episode and get a ton of value from it. Make sure to check out Still Kickin, Nora’s nonprofit, where you can help a human out, too!

Ready to take action with secret member-only content and community resources? Join Attention Collective, our online community of like-minded humans from around the world, and get full access immediately. See you inside!

Mentioned:

Digital Wellbeing for Android
Mindfulness Features on iPhone
Mobile Device Statistics & Digital Detox
You Need A Budget
The Hot Young Widows Club
Cotton Bureau

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Every review we get helps boost the Break the Twitch podcast so we can reach more people.

Watch the BTT 024 conversation:

The Break the Twitch podcast is an interview-based podcast hosted by Anthony Ongaro featuring guests from all walks of life. See all the episodes and the latest news on the Podcast page.

The post No Happy Endings with Nora McInerny first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post No Happy Endings with Nora McInerny appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Julie Kearns, founder of social enterprise Junket: Tossed & Found, shares useful tips on conscious consumption and ways to reduce our carbon footprint in the world.

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Julie shares how Junket got started, and the recent transition from vintage shop into an online platform modeling eco-friendly, carbon-informed practices. As an advocate for environmentally ethical commerce and conscious consumption, Julie Kearns explains why buying secondhand is not only thriftier but better for the planet.

We talk about narcissism as it relates to our stuff, what we don’t see when it comes to donating items, and how small things like paper clips really do add up. Julie shares tips on creative problem-solving and being a more responsible consumer on the front-end and back-end. This enlightening conversation will inspire you to explore sustainability and become a better steward of the environment and the things in your life.

Ready to take action with secret member-only content and community resources? Join Attention Collective, our online community of like-minded humans from around the world, and get full access immediately. See you inside!

Mentioned:

Airbnb
Minnehaha Mile – Vintage, Resale & Sustainability-Oriented Shopping District
How To Reduce Impulse Spending
The Greater Good with Thompson Aderinkomi
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
Marie Kondo’s Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
List of Organizations for Used Goods Donations in Minneapolis-St. Paul
Namaste (mother——)

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Every review we get helps boost the Break the Twitch podcast so we can reach more people.

Watch the BTT 023 conversation:

The Break the Twitch podcast is an interview-based podcast hosted by Anthony Ongaro featuring guests from all walks of life. See all the episodes and the latest news on the Podcast page.

The post Conscious Consumption with Julie Kearns first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Conscious Consumption with Julie Kearns appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Don Ball, writer and Chief Creative Officer at Fueled Collective, shares a more balanced approach to the creative process and entrepreneurship path.

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Don describes how he manages his creative energy and process on a typical day. He also advocates for following your curiosity, even if it seems inefficient, impractical or unpopular.

Additionally, Don and I discuss a wide range of topics around entrepreneurship, modern definitions of success and what he calls “Hustle Porn”—the messaging that if you’re not working 16 hours a day, you’re falling behind. This candid conversation with Don Ball will inspire you to fuel your creativity, define your own success and forge your own path.

Ready to take action with secret member-only content and community resources? Join Attention Collective, our online community of like-minded humans from around the world, and get full access immediately. See you inside!

Mentioned:

Social Media Breakfast
Atlas Obscura
Strengthsfinder
Nora McInerny

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Every review we get helps boost the Break the Twitch podcast so we can reach more people.

Watch the BTT 022 conversation:

The Break the Twitch podcast is an interview-based podcast hosted by Anthony Ongaro featuring guests from all walks of life. See all the episodes and the latest news on the Podcast page.

The post Fueling Creativity with Don Ball first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Fueling Creativity with Don Ball appeared first on Break the Twitch.

If you have a bunch of ideas for side hustles or businesses that you dream of starting, I’m hoping that by the end of this article I can convince you not to start them.

Of course, there are all the typical reasons why you shouldn’t start a business:

1 / At least 50% of businesses fail in the first five years
2 / If your business fails, it’s very personal and very public
3 / It’s a ton of work and can take several to ten years to find any kind of success

But there is an even better reason why you shouldn’t start a business. It’s a huge waste of time (and money).

Now, before you get all up in arms (if you haven’t already) and call me a hypocrite, allow me to explain exactly what I mean.

Over the weekend I spoke about practicing mindful habits at Still Kickin’ IRL, a wonderful retreat put on by Nora McInerny and team in six-foot-high-snow-piles Finland, Minnesota. It was at a nature lodge with a taxidermied wolf, and it didn’t stop snowing the whole time we were there.

Check out this picture I took about 100 yards off the shore of Lake Superior on my way home. The waves on the lake caused the ice to fracture on its way into shore and the pieces piled up making it look like a strange, alien world. Pretty cool, huh?

Anyway, this week, I ended up grabbing coffee with a quite lovely person I met at the conference and he asked me this question:

My girlfriend and I have a ton of great ideas for businesses to start, but we’re struggling to figure out what kind of business structure it should have. What’s better? An LLC, a non-profit, or what? We want to help people, but we’re getting stuck figuring all this out.

When I answered this question, I realized that I had never shared this advice with anyone before (which is why you’re reading it here, now).

Here was my answer: It absolutely does not matter what type of business you start. In fact you should not start an actual business at all—nonprofit or otherwise. Here’s what you should do instead.

Just start doing the thing that you want the business to do.

Go out into the world, test and validate the ideas you have before ever creating a logo, opening a bank account, registering an LLC, or anything else.

Sure, there will likely be some amount of financial investment to bring something big together—but not on any of the above.

So yes, I did lie a little bit. I really do think you should start a business, try a side hustle, or pursue a creative endeavor. But I also think you should wait as long as possible to turn it into something official.

I hope you can learn from my pain.

I have spent, probably, hundreds of hours of my life in my twenties registering business structures, creating logos, designing websites, buying domain names, and opening business bank accounts—only to never run a single dollar through those bank accounts. Except for the monthly fees they charged me, of course.

All of these steps, especially when taken very early on, are what I call a false first step. A false first step feels like you’re making progress on building something, but you’re really just spending money and burning time.

If you want to start a business, go out and do the thing. Likely it will shift and change as you test, experiment and learn new things. Figure out the business structure later.

Open a bank account in the name of the business when you have a check from a client that you can’t cash otherwise.

Still Kickin’, the (now) nonprofit that hosted the event where I spoke last weekend is perfect example of this.

Nora went through the horrible, difficult, terrible experience of losing her husband to a brain tumor. Out of that experience, she wanted to help other people going through difficult times in their lives. So, she took the Still Kickin’ t-shirt design that her husband Aaron recreated and put it up for sale on a site that only required 12 sales total to have the shirt put into production.

Well, over 400 of the t-shirts sold in the first round and they gave the proceeds directly to what they now call their monthly Hero, someone going through something difficult and in need of a little help.

There was no business structure, no LLC, or nonprofit—just an idea, executed. Once it started to take off, a formalized structure had to be created for it to make sense. It turns out, when you give away profits (whether personal or business), you still have to pay taxes on those profits.

I can even use myself as an example.

My wife Amy and I have been running our video production company and this blog, podcast, and YouTube channel full-time for over 16 months now. I started this blog itself more than five years ago. But we just registered an LLC, business bank account, and credit card for it just two months ago. I didn’t have my current branding/logo for at least the first year of writing.

The reality is that the business setup is simply a distraction from doing the thing you dream of doing. And I want you to do that thing.

All of this is simply to say:

Yes. Start the thing, try the idea, gather the people, create the movement.

But don’t bother starting a business, worrying about the business structure, or measuring how profitable it will be in the meantime. Create an event, sell tickets, make a t-shirt, raise awareness for something you believe in, and when people start asking when the next one is—run with it.

It might not work right away, but that’s okay. You’ll learn from it, pivot, or move on to something else that may work better. In the meantime, at least you didn’t waste a bunch of time and money creating a business, logo, website, or opening a bank account. By skipping the fluff, you have more time and resources to try and try again, or try something else entirely. And that’s something you won’t regret.

The post Why You Shouldn’t Start A Business first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Why You Shouldn’t Start A Business appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Andy George of the popular How to Make Everything YouTube channel shares the making process that’s behind many of the things we take for granted.

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In BTT 021, I chat with Andy George, the maker and mastermind behind the Simply Complex Podcast and the popular How to Make Everything YouTube channel with over one million subscribers.

Andy shares how the YouTube channel got started from his desire to make a sandwich from scratch. From growing and harvesting his own wheat to milking a cow, the whole process took 6 months and $1,500 to make. We discuss the greater understanding that comes from sourcing materials and learning to make things we take for granted like the food we eat, a formal suit or clear glass. Additionally, we talk about creativity, building a sustainable business and the one thing Andy still prefers to make from scratch. Listening to this episode will inspire greater appreciation and curiosity for the everyday objects in your life.

Ready to take action with secret member-only content and community resources? Join Attention Collective, our online community of like-minded humans from around the world, and get full access immediately. See you inside!

Mentioned:

What the Flux is Glass
Social Blade
Couch to 5K
StrongLifts

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Every review we get helps boost the Break the Twitch podcast so we can reach more people.

Watch the BTT 021 conversation:

The Break the Twitch podcast is an interview-based podcast hosted by Anthony Ongaro featuring guests from all walks of life. See all the episodes and the latest news on the Podcast page.

The post How to Make Everything with Andy George first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post How to Make Everything with Andy George appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Anthony’s Note: This is a guest post from Karl Staib, author of Bring Gratitude.

Last summer I was at lunch with a friend. I fell back into an old habit.

My friend went to the bathroom and I did what I always do. I pulled out my phone.

I already had Amazon open and I was flipping through some of the books I was interested in buying. Then I saw the book I wanted was $2 cheaper than last week. Tap and it was on its way. I got my little dopamine rush just before my friend came back to the table.

He sat down and I put my phone down. Just like that, I was $12.76 lighter and a proud owner of a new book. It was a book I wanted, but I have a queue of 6 books waiting for me: 2 on my phone and 4 on my nightstand.

Have you done this before?

It’s so easy to buy something now. We don’t take the time to really make sure we truly want it. I’m guilty of doing this way too often. I realized that I wasn’t enjoying what I had in my life. I had been distracting myself instead of appreciating the things I did have.

I decided to make some changes.

Gratitude

The key to eliminating this bad habit for me was learning to appreciate what I did have instead of wanting more. The ability to tap into gratitude when you notice yourself going to your phone for a pick-me-up is so important. You are making time to pause and not be reactive.

When you pause and feel grateful before you act, you will create positive emotions that will help you make smarter choices.

Internal Stories

How you manage your feelings directly affects how successful you are at dealing with your life. You can start by understanding the stories that are going on in your head. Do you say to yourself, “I need to hop on my phone real quick to check my email?”

You don’t need to hop on your phone. You “want” to hop on your phone. You have options.

Instead of hopping on my phone while my friend went to the bathroom, I could have enjoyed the moment around me. The nice interaction between the man who ordered a sandwich and the woman who complimented him on his choice and the dark brown jacket he was wearing. I think she was flirting with him. I was only halfway paying attention. I took multiple sips of my drink and I couldn’t really remember a single one.

Each choice we make in a situation helps us build habits. Good and bad. It’s up to us to build habits that support our health and happiness.

Small Bites

We can start by doing little things to help us improve our habits.

It’s OK to pick up your phone and play a game or jot down a note, but absent-mindedly making these choices will not help you in the long run. In my case, it led to the purchase of a book that I didn’t have time to read. We need to be aware of our personal goals and values and build habits that help support our growth.

That’s why I lean on my gratitude journal. I am far from perfect, but my gratitude journal always brings me back to center. This routine has helped me reduce the need to purchase things that I don’t want.

When I work with a client, I suggest that they keep a gratitude journal to help build a more resilient and happier mindset. Go ahead – start your own gratitude journal and see how it can help you.

Just write what you are grateful for and why you are grateful for it every day for 30 days. I suggest something like this:

• I’m grateful for my bed because I slept well last night.
• I’m grateful for a delicious burger because it truly hit the spot and made me feel satisfied.
• I’m grateful that my dog encourages me to take a walk each night because it helps me process my day.

The “why” is important because it helps deepen the gratitude journal experience. Within a few days, you will begin to see improvement in your outlook.

If you are interested, join our free 30-Day Bring Gratitude Challenge running March 1st thru 30th. It’ll help strengthen your mindset. Come join us and you’ll get email updates and a private Facebook group. If you have any questions, I’ll be available 7 days a week during this time. My goal is to get the smartest and most caring people together to create an amazing community, so we can help each other learn from our mistakes and build a life that we love.

Karl Staib is the author of Bring Gratitude and the Creator of the 30-Day Bring Gratitude Challenge.

The post Bring Gratitude – A 30 Day Challenge first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Bring Gratitude – A 30 Day Challenge appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Joshua Becker, a bestselling author on the topic of minimalism, shares deep insights around decluttering your home and life.

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In BTT 020, I chat with Joshua Becker, the founder of Becoming Minimalist and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Minimalist Home and The More of Less.

Joshua and I delve into why it can be so easy to accumulate things and hard to let them go. We discuss how minimalism can help us clarify what’s important, better align with our values and be more creative. Whether you’re interested in learning more about a practical, step-by-step approach to decluttering your home or the power of asking how you can help others, you’ll find this conversation to be a great listen on living more intentionally.

Ready to take action with secret member-only content and community resources? Join Attention Collective, our online community of like-minded humans from around the world, and get full access immediately. See you inside!

Mentioned:

The Tyranny of the Urgent
Hope Writers
Zen Habits
David Bruno’s 100 Things Challenge

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Every review we get helps boost the Break the Twitch podcast so we can reach more people.

Watch the BTT 020 conversation:

The Break the Twitch podcast is an interview-based podcast hosted by Anthony Ongaro featuring guests from all walks of life. See all the episodes and the latest news on the Podcast page.

The post Becoming Minimalist with Joshua Becker first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Becoming Minimalist with Joshua Becker appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Going from passion to profitable business is possible. Pin queen and entrepreneur, Gigi Berry, shares how she got started and what keeps her going.

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In BTT 019, I chat with Gigi Berry, designer, culture curator, pin queen and maker of custom pins through her two companies, Cherry Moon Press and The Minnesota Pins.

Gigi talks about how she turned her passion for pin collecting into a profitable business. She shares the creative process behind her many designs and her dedication to philanthropy. We talk about what keeps her motivated in dealing with the positives and negatives of entrepreneurship and health challenges. This conversation will inspire you to act on your unique ideas and share what only you can share with the world.

Ready to take action with secret member-only content and community resources? Join Attention Collective, our online community of like-minded humans from around the world, and get full access immediately. See you inside!

Mentioned:

Big Magic
Flip Phone Events
OutFront Minnesota

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Every review we get helps boost the Break the Twitch podcast so we can reach more people.

Watch the BTT 019 conversation:

The Break the Twitch podcast is an interview-based podcast hosted by Anthony Ongaro featuring guests from all walks of life. See all the episodes and the latest news on the Podcast page.

The post From Passion to Business with Gigi Berry first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post From Passion to Business with Gigi Berry appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Patrick Stephenson shares how a simple tweet led to a global 30 Days of Biking movement and how to get started on the creative work that really matters.

Apple // YouTube // Stitcher // Spotify // TuneIn

In BTT 018, I chat with my good friend, Patrick Stephenson, a copywriter, Minneapolis biking icon and the founder of the global biking movement 30 Days of Biking that happens every year in April.

Patrick shares how a simple tweet led to thousands of people pledging to bike for 30 days. He advocates for inclusivity and using social media not as a highlight reel but more of a realistic depiction of what’s going on. With topics ranging from managing anxiety and overwhelm to making space for creative work, this conversation will inspire you to focus on what’s in front of you and just get started.

Mentioned:

Break the Twitch book
Break the Twitch audio series
False First Step
Minimal Viable Action
How to Start a Blog
The Daily 202 Podcast

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Every review we get helps boost the Break the Twitch podcast so we can reach more people.

Watch the BTT 018 conversation:

The Break the Twitch podcast is an interview-based podcast hosted by Anthony Ongaro featuring guests from all walks of life. See all the episodes and the latest news on the Podcast page.

The post 30 Days of Biking with Patrick Stephenson first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post 30 Days of Biking with Patrick Stephenson appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Alex Pagliere, a designer and creator, shares what’s really behind good design and the importance of intentionally designing your life.

Apple // YouTube // Stitcher // Spotify // TuneIn

In BTT 017, I chat with my good friend, Alex Pagliere, a designer, entrepreneur, and the creator behind the CR Brand wallet notebook and These Men Are Professionals.

Alex explains why he switched his undergraduate degree from computer science to architecture and design. Additionally, he shares his entrepreneurial journey, his transition back to full-time work and the benefits of self-employment vs. working full-time. We talk about what’s really behind good design and the importance of designing our environment and life. This candid, insightful conversation will inspire you to view and design your life more intentionally.

Ready to take action with secret member-only content and community resources? Join Attention Collective, our online community of like-minded humans from around the world, and get full access immediately. See you inside!

Mentioned:

How Engineers See
Hooked
Time Well Spent Movement
Shop Class as Soulcraft
Everything is Illuminated

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Every review we get helps boost the Break the Twitch podcast so we can reach more people.

Watch the BTT 017 conversation:

The Break the Twitch podcast is an interview-based podcast hosted by Anthony Ongaro featuring guests from all walks of life. See all the episodes and the latest news on the Podcast page.

The post Solving Problems with Alex Pagliere first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Solving Problems with Alex Pagliere appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Last year was a milestone for me in eating healthier and keeping up a fitness habit (averaging 3.5 times per week). I’m feeling and looking better than I ever have and would like to share what I’ve learned over the past year in a three-part Healthy Habit series.

We’ll kick off the series with how to start and keep healthy habits, followed by some fitness tips, and what I’ve learned about food and supplements (as someone who gains weight seemingly from just looking at carbs).

I’d like to caveat that everything I share is purely based on anecdotal experience. I’m not a doctor, nutritionist or medical professional. Before starting any diet, supplement or exercise program, consult your doctor or an appropriate professional.

With that, here’s what I’ve learned about how to start and keep healthy habits.

1 / Start smaller and easier than you think

Building a habit is more about repetition—being able to show up and do the work over and over again—than it is about getting results as quickly as possible. There are tons of products and companies out there promising big results in a short amount of time. But with health and fitness especially, it’s about continuously doing the small actions or else the results simply don’t stay.

If it’s fast, it’s probably not going to last. When you start small, it reduces the resistance you feel towards doing it consistently, which leads to a higher likelihood of lasting change.

2 / Change your mentality and language

One thing I’ve found to be helpful is simply changing how I view and talk about working out or eating better. Instead of saying, “Ugh, I have to go to the gym today,” realize it’s not true. It’s a choice you’re making—and one that not all people get to make. So try saying, “I get to go to the gym today,” or “I’m making a choice to go to the gym today.”

I found that after a couple months of working out regularly and talking more positively about it, I started to crave going to the gym. Working out became something I looked forward to every single time.

3 / No complaining allowed

One rule my wife Amy and I made really helped in building a fitness habit. If one person was more motivated to go to the gym, the other person wasn’t allowed to complain or drag the motivated person down. That way, it’d be the more motivated person that day that got the less motivated person up and going.

Because more than likely, once you’re there at the gym, you’re going to do something that’s beneficial for you. And you’ll also feel better and happy that you went.

Ready to take action with secret member-only content and community resources? Join Attention Collective, our online community of like-minded humans from around the world, and get full access immediately. See you inside!

4 / Work on your goal setting

What I found worked best for me was setting a goal to hit a certain number of days at the gym each week. It can be one, two, or three—whatever feels small and easy (as mentioned earlier) based on your situation. So just set the goal to show up and once you’re there, you’ve already won.

If you miss one or more days, it’s not a big deal. After all, it’s the long run that truly matters. Just get back to it as soon as you’re able. As long as you’re starting small enough, it should be easy to start back and keep the habit going.

5 / Be kind to yourself

This one is simple, but one of the most important and harder things to do. It’s easy to get into a shame spiral when you’re not kind to yourself during times when you don’t eat well for a couple days or when you get injured.

When you beat yourself up, you’re more likely to give up or say things like, “Why bother anyway?”, and you’re less likely get back on track. Being kind to yourself during challenging times will help you move forward and remain more consistent. Loving yourself as you are is the best way to start in all instances.

6 / Connect with others

Finding small ways to connect with others while I’m out is something I like to do. When I go to the gym and see someone I’ve seen before, I’ll smile, wave, then go about my business. Over time, there will be some kind of connection and there may be opportunities to strike up a conversation. It doesn’t need to be a friendship or anything more than just a friendly hello. Some people also don’t like being bothered if they’re intensely working out.

But if the situation is right, connecting with others working on similar goals can further enhance your healthy habits.

So in summary, these are 6 things that I found really helpful in starting and keeping healthy habits. While I still have a long way to go, I’m feeling and looking better than I ever have before. Best of all, these healthy habits have become part of my lifestyle. Stay tuned for next two posts in the Healthy Habits series—tips on fitness and exercises, as well as the food and supplements I’ve found to be helpful.

For more on building habits, you may be interested in these 10 habit guidelines and a helpful guide on lifestyle experiments.

The post How To Start and Keep Healthy Habits first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post How To Start and Keep Healthy Habits appeared first on Break the Twitch.

If you’ve ever wondered how to combine multiple passions and build a community around it, Joel Zaslofsky is your guy.

Apple // YouTube // Stitcher // Spotify // TuneIn

I chat with Joel Zaslofsky, the podcaster behind Smart and Simple Matters, a multipotentialite, and head of operations behind The Putty Tribe. In this episode, we talk about everything from quantum biology, building community, personal renaissances and more. Joel shares how he intentionally changed his habits to better align his actions with his values. In addition, we discuss what it’s like to work alone as an extrovert and how to bring more community into your own life.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Every review we get helps boost the Break the Twitch podcast so we can reach more people.

Mentioned:

Leo Babuta
Joshua Becker
Courtney Carver
Sleep Smarter
Evan Brand Podcast
This Epic Life
Feedly
Live Your Legend

Ready to take action with secret member-only content and community resources? Join Attention Collective, our online community of like-minded humans from around the world, and get full access immediately. See you inside!

Watch the BTT 016 conversation:

The Break the Twitch podcast is an interview-based podcast hosted by Anthony Ongaro featuring guests from all walks of life. See all the episodes and the latest news on the Podcast page.

The post Building Community with Joel Zaslofsky first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post Building Community with Joel Zaslofsky appeared first on Break the Twitch.

Thompson Aderinkomi, an innovative healthcare entrepreneur and the founder of Nice Healthcare, shares his path and quest to disrupt the healthcare industry for the greater good.

Apple // YouTube // Stitcher // Spotify // TuneIn

In BTT 015, I chat with Thompson Aderinkomi, who is the founder of two startups, Nice Healthcare and Relate.

Thompson shares how his desire for freedom, changing the world and revenge motivated him to take on the $3.5 trillion dollar healthcare industry. In addition, we discuss how small, intentional choices can add up to big results over time—in lifestyle, exercise and diet. We also talk about managing risks you can control, life with kids, to the most efficient workout. This conversation will definitely inspire you to make more intentional choices in your own life.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Every review we get helps boost the Break the Twitch podcast so we can reach more people.

Mentioned:

Choose Yourself by James Altucher
The 4 Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss

Ready to take action with secret member-only content and community resources? Join Attention Collective, our online community of like-minded humans from around the world, and get full access immediately. See you inside!

Watch the BTT 015 conversation:

The Break the Twitch podcast is an interview-based podcast hosted by Anthony Ongaro featuring guests from all walks of life. See all the episodes and the latest news on the Podcast page.

The post The Greater Good with Thompson Aderinkomi first appeared on Break the Twitch.

The post The Greater Good with Thompson Aderinkomi appeared first on Break the Twitch.