Focus and Chill - productivity tactics for AuDHDers and other neurodivergent folks

JN: Welcome to the Focus and Chill podcast where we discuss productivity tactics that work for neurodiverse individuals. 

JC: Every episode we interview guests with lived experience of neurodiversity who also have a solid productivity and habit game and pass the learnings on to you, our wise and benevolent audience.

JN: We’re your hosts: Jeremy and Joey.

JC: I'm Joey, and I coach creatives to get moving on their most ambitious projects through the power of solid habits and strong focus. I’m also a perpetual student of psychology and perpetually on a quest to a one-armed chin up

JN: and I’m Jeremy:  I’m a neurodiverse software developer turned startup founder building habit and focus software for people with ADHD. My cool party trick is leaving parties early so I get to sleep on time to do my 3hr long morning routine.

Welcome to Episode #14 of the Focus and Chill Podcast. In this episode, we've decided to interview each other about information management, exercise, and something we've learned recently.

Topics:

1. Information management
   1. Zettelkasten
   2. Anki (spaced repetition)
      1. Learning quotes/poetry?
      2. Cloze card type
      3. Essay on Anki http://augmentingcognition.com/ltm.html
2. Simulated Live Webinars
   1. Don’t do it, please

Welcome to Episode #13 of the Focus and Chill podcast. We’re lucky to have Anetta Pizag as our guest today. 

Anetta is a workplace strategist, work style coach, and author. She helps create human-centric workplaces that make it easier to tackle the challenges of work while maintaining a healthy body and mind. 

She’s the author of two books: ‘Create a Thriving Workspace’, a guide for designing spaces where work communities and businesses flourish, and ‘35 Smart Choices’ which offers practical advice on how you can play to your strengths, find your flow, and improve the quality of your work and your life.

1. JC: What projects are you concentrating on during your focused hours?
   1. Recently published the book 35 Smart Choices
   2. Currently researching workplace trends
   3. Where can provide value
   4. Working in consulting
   5. Customer-facing role in the afternoon (constant attention switching)
2. JN: How about the rest of the time? What do you enjoy doing in your off time?
   1. Hiking/nature walks
      1. Gardens nearby
3. JC: What does your morning routine look like and how has it evolved over time?
   1. Organic
   2. Childhood discipline imposed on her 
   3. Creating conditions rather than relying on discipline
   4. Morning activities depend on what she needs:
      1. Journaling
      2. Walking
      3. Writing
   5. Emphasis on managing emotions and headspace
      1. Avoid 
         1. Social media
         2. News
         3. Incoming
            1. Mobile phone ringer off
         4. Confrontational conversations
   6. Deep work
4. JN: What do you do to optimize productivity during your working hours?
   1. Get clear on what productivity means: performance a better word
      1. Listening + empathy + creativity important
      2. Need to feel comfortable and relaxed for creativity
   2. Capture inspiration:
      1. Shower - waterproof notebook. No talking for 30 minutes
      2. While cooking - notebook
      3. Walking
   3. Playing to chronotype
      1. 9:00 am to 1:00 pm and then 5:00 - 7:00 pm
   4. Manage environment:
      1. External view:
         1. Expansive view: see the sky + trees for creativity
         2. Cave view (basement) can sometimes help with focused work
      2. Handling noise: certain activities are ok when noisy
      3. Temperature:
         1. Cold is good for analytical work
         2. Warm is good for relationship building
   5. Be intentional with breaks:
      1. Avoid dopamine-stimulating activities (news/videos/emails) during breaks
      2. Instead: make tea, go for walk, listen to music
   6. Switching workspaces
      1. Working in different rooms
      2. Garden
      3. Beach
   7. Batching tasks: easier to get into flow if don’t switch context
      1. Emails 
      2. Research
      3. Back-to-back meetings
5. JC: How do you switch off at night?
   1. Spending time in nature
   2. Clean eating
   3. Integrators vs Segmentors:
      1. Integrators who surf through the day and don’t mind blending
      2. Segmentors: separate workspaces, clear time delineations
   4. Reference: https://hbr.org/2020/07/building-work-life-boundaries-inthe-wfh-era
6. Empty the battery, be tired, and both
   1. Physically
      1. Walks + pilates
   2. mentally
7. JN: What habits do you want to remove from your life? 
   1. Not asking for personal time - trying to soldier on
   2. Task switching
   3. Opening emails during focused hours or when not ready to deal with them
   4. Procrastination, and multitasking rooted in self-doubt and imposter syndrome
      1. Coaching
      2. Reading
      3. Podcasts
8. JC: What resources (books, philosophies, apps) do you find most helpful for productivity and habit formation?
   1. Prefers long-form content (not TikTok/YouTube short videos):
      1. Huberman Lab podcast
      2. Stolen Focus by Yohann Harii 
      3. Place Advantage by Sally Augustin + Research Design Connections newsletter
   2. Apps:
      1. Print Friendly PDF - removes ads etc.
9. JC: Where can people connect with you or find your work?
   1. Pizag.com.au
   2. LinkedIn
10. JC: Do you have any final words or asks for our audience?
    1. No single solution works for everyone. Experiment with how you work.
    2. Our needs differ – apart from the need for oxygen

Welcome to Episode #12 of the Focus and Chill podcast. We’re lucky to have Sandy Xu as our guest today. Sandy is passionate about the transition to net zero carbon emissions. She is a renewable energy analyst, convenor of the Sustainability Book club, and obsessed with finding low-carbon running shoes. She’s also Jeremy’s wife.

1. JN: What projects are you concentrating on during your focused hours?
   1. Modelling in Python, not clay
   2. Forecasting prices of electricity to make sure that 
   3. Studying Masters of Data Science
      1. EV battery longevity
2. How about the rest of the time? What do you enjoy doing in your off time?
   1. Sustainability book club (quarterly):
      1. Books:
         1. “Together we can”
         2. “The big switch”
         3. “Dark Emu”
3. What does your morning routine look like and how has it evolved over time?
   1. Muse: meditation headset
      1. Is it neurofeedback?
   2. Journaling:
      1. Free writing
      2. Structured:
         1. What am I grateful 
         2. What am I excited about
   3. Anki
      1. Data science flashcards, e.g. what is cross entropy?
   4. Habit Stacking
      1. Meditation / Journaling / HIIT (5 mins) / Anki (5 mins) / DataCamp (10 mins)
4. JC: What do you do to optimize productivity during your working hours?
   1. Energy management > time management
      1. Peak performance in the morning: tackle difficult coding tasks first thing
      2. Energy slump after lunch
      3. Naps help
      4. Another peak in the early evening: study
   2. Time blocking: book meetings with herself so that other people can’t interrupt her during deep work 
   3. Body doubling
   4. Distraction blocking using Focus Bear
   5. Pomodoro technique
   6. Changing locations (go to the library)
5. JN: How do you switch off at night?
   1. Reading books
   2. Evening journaling
      1. How the day went
      2. Plan for the next day
   3. How do you stop studying from eating into switch off time?
      1. Prioritize setting tomorrow’s tasks
      2. Shutting down computers/devices
      3. Hot shower/foot spa in the evening
6. JC: What habits do you want to remove from your life? 
   1. Inconsistent morning routine
   2. Overcoming fear of starting
   3. Excuses to not do things in the morning / kick them to the evening
   4. To don’t list:
      1. Facebook
      2. WeChat
      3. YouTube
7. JN: What resources (books, philosophies, apps) do you find most helpful for productivity and habit formation?
   1. Books:
      1. Atomic habits, Clear
         1. Habit Stacking
      2. Tiny Habits, Fogg
      3. When, Pink
      4. Collection of Chinese aphorisms
   2. Apps:
      1. Forest: can’t use the phone while focusing though doesn’t work on the computer that well
      2. Focus Bear
8. JC: Where can people connect with you or find your work?
   1. Meetup page for Sustainability Book club
   2. LinkedIn
9. JC: Do you have any final words or asks for our audience?
   1. A long journey starts with a single step

JN: Welcome to the Focus and Chill podcast where we discuss sustainable productivity and habit formation while avoiding the allure of hustle culture.

JC: Every episode we interview guests who have a solid productivity and habit game and pass the learnings on to you, our wise and benevolent audience.

JN: We’re your hosts: Jeremy and Joey.

JC: I'm Joey, a habits and focus coach, perpetual student of psychology and perpetually on a quest to one armed chin up.

JN: And I’m Jeremy:  I’m a neurodiverse software developer turned startup founder building habit and focus software for people with ADHD. My cool party trick is leaving parties early so I get to sleep on time to do my 3hr long morning routine.

Happy new year! It’s 2023 and we’re back with a special episode on goal setting.

Hey Joey

• Discussion points:
  • New year’s resolutions: how we approach them
    • Joey
      • Offset goals
      • Importance of goals
        • A time to reset
      • OKRs
        • Habit course: Habit course is profitable
          • KR: 10 Testimonials
          • KR: $25k
        • Brain food: ingestion + regurgitation
          • KR: listening/reading backlog not too long
          • KR: engagement on blog posts/podcasts
        • Movement
          • KR: seeing people face to face, wrestling, dancing
          • KR: advanced calisthenics
          • KR: mindfulness (quality of meditation)
          • KR: art (guitar, painting)
    • Jeremy
      • Systems vs goals?
      • OKRs/12 week year
        • For personal achievement
        • For relationships?
  • Joey Course + new season of Fulcrum

Joey’s links

Fulcrum

Goal Execution

https://soundcloud.com/thefulcrumpodcast/bonus-hyperbolic-hidden-failure-visualisation-goal-execution

Goal Evaluation https://soundcloud.com/thefulcrumpodcast/bonus-goal-evaluation-sphere-straddle

Goal Setting https://soundcloud.com/thefulcrumpodcast/bonus-episode-goal-setting

Habit building

Build a Habitling course sign up

https://thefulcrumpodcast.eo.page/buildahabitling

I also have a newsletter where I share 4-5 ideas I have come across in the last few weeks 

ThePluckyMessenger newsletter

https://thefulcrumpodcast.eo.page/thepluckymessenger

Jeremy’s links

Radical Focus (book on OKRs)

1. What projects are you concentrating on during your focused hours?
   1. Baby takes away focus hours
   2. Wake up early 5am before baby wakes up
   3. 2hrs of power
      1. Journaling
      2. Read book
      3. Ice bath/exercise/breath work
      4. Business
   4. Life and business is his project
   5. Business
      1. Wellbeing 
      2. WHM (Wim Hoff Method)
      3. Corporate consulting: employee experience
      4. Listening coaching
2. How about the rest of the time? What do you enjoy doing in your off time?
   1. Good boundaries, 
      1. non negotiable around the sleep window
      2. Essential for recovery
   2. Tape mouth, minimise mouth breathing
   3. Old hobbies prior to being a father
      1. Used to DJ (old school)
      2. Used to play field hockey
   4. Reading (more recently)
   5. 
      
3. What does your morning routine look like and how has it evolved over time?
   1. Cat wakes him up at 5am
   2. What do we start with? Personal vs business
      1. Shower
      2. Cats
      3. Vitamins:
         1. Vitamin C
         2. Fish oil
      4. Reading: few pages
         1. Daily stoic, Holiday
         2. Daily Laws: Robert Green
      5. Business: marketing
      6. Baby wakes up
      7. Coffee for wife
   3. Great there is 1 priority: sleep
      1. Has it always been the case that 1 priority has been clear?
4. What do you do to optimise productivity during your working hours?
   1. Avoid Burn out:
      1. Historically burnt candle on both ends (chartered accountant study, full time job, training at gym)
      2. Developed heart condition
   2. Don’t “Think outside the box”
   3. Be contrarian, push back against defaults
   4. Shitstorming
   5. Looking at a sunset or anything panoramic
   6. Keeping elbows near rib cage and breathing through nose only
5. How do you switch off at night? 
   1. Mouth taping improved oura readiness score?
      1. Better HRV
      2. Less peeing during the night
      3. Getting started
         1. Put a small piece over your mouth
            1. While you’re awake
   2. Nice dinner
      1. Home cooked meals
      2. Eat early
         1. >= 2hrs before falling asleep (latest at 7pm)
      3. Rest and digest
         1. Dim lights: himalayan salt lights
         2. Eat with baby + wife
         3. Don’t eat at your desk/standing up
   3. Sleep hygiene
      1. Reduce light
      2. Reading
      3. Hot bath
6. What habits do you want to remove from your life? 
   1. netflix/TV forcibly removed by fatherhood
   2. Friend time
7. What resources (books, philosophies, apps) do you find most helpful for productivity and habit formation?

Number one recommendation: Allan Watts. “Allan Watts: if money was no object”

1. Jocko Willick Discipline = Freedom
2. Matthew Walker: “Why we sleep”
3.  “Tools of Titans”
4. David Allen: “Getting Things Done”
5. James Nestor: “Breath”
6. Ian McGilchrist: “The master and his emissary”
7. Youtube/podcasts
   1. Huberman Lab podcast
   2. Kelly Starret: Mobility WOD
   3. 
      
8. Randolph Ness, Good reasons for bad feelings
9. Where can people connect with you or find your work?
   1. Breathspacewiththomas.com.au
   2. IG: breathspace_with_thomas
10. Do you have any final words or asks for our audience?
    1. “You’ve got more power and control than you realise”
    2. With the help of breathwork and other advisors, you can get yourself back on solid

JC: What projects are you concentrating on during your focused hours?

1. 1. Podcast
      1. Diverse guests
         1. Motorcycle racer
   2. 9-5 job: product developer for cyber security
      1. Cyber security LinkedIn posts to help with sales
   3. Projects
      1. eBook
         1. What’s it about?
            1. Rapport, deep communication
               1. Deepening weak ties
               2. Super interesting, would be great to go deeper if we had more time. Maybe an encore in the near future?

                  
                  

2. JN: How about the rest of the time? What do you enjoy doing in your off time?
   1. Musician - fun
      1. Brother is a professional musician
   2. Reading
      1. “Build” Tony Fidell - head of iPhone dev at Apple
   3. Motorcycle riding

      
      

3. JC: What does your morning routine look like and how has it evolved over time?
   1. Has cut back his morning routine 
      1. 5/10 mins
      2. 10 mins journal
      3. Hour of writing book
      4. Gym workout
   2. Previously
      1. Longer workout
   3. Waking up
      1. Alarm at 6am
   4. Mindset: 
      1. Discipline = freedom
      2. Remove decision making from mundane matters
4. JN: What do you do to optimise productivity during your working hours?
   1. Public accountability
      1. Having a team where another person gets the consequences of you not following through
   2. Activating hyperfocus
   3. Pomodoro timer
   4. Binaural focused beats
   5. Extrinsic motivation
      1. How to keep the intrinsic so that the extrinsic doesn’t take over?
5. JC: How do you switch off at night?
   1. Avoiding screens 1hr before bed
   2. Reading (physical books)
   3. Talking to family
      1. Playing music with bro
         1. Jam/Improv
         2. Trust musical instincts instead of following tabs
            1. Play along to random songs - try to 
   4. Planning tomorrow’s todos
   5. Gratitude
   6. Reflecting on what can be done better
6. JN: What resources (books, philosophies, apps) do you find most helpful for productivity and habit formation?
   1. Ship 30 for 30: digital writing - LinkedIn post -> Twitter thread -> Blog -> Book
   2. “Build” Tony Fidell - head of iPhone dev at Apple
   3. Atomic Habits
   4. Miracle Morning:
      1. Silence (meditation)
      2. Affirmations
      3. Visualisation
      4. Exercise
      5. Reading
      6. Script (writing)
   5. Play hard podcast
7. JC: It’s been a pleasure having you on, where can people stay in touch with you and find your work?
   1. LinkedIn
   2. Insta: @armand_uno

   3. 
      Email: [email protected]

1. What projects are you concentrating on during your focused hours?
   - health and accountability coaching
2. How about the rest of the time? What do you enjoy doing in your off time?
   1. Intermittent breaks: 
      1. 5 minute Pomodoro breaks (dancing/yoga/stretching/cleaning house). 
      2. ESR (breathwork, stretching, meditation, body scan, 5 senses)
   2. Bigger breaks
      1. run
      2. reading: YA books. "Loveless". "Clara and the sun" AI best friend
      3. watercolour books
      4. journaling
      5. calling friends
3. What does your morning routine look like and how has it evolved over time?
   1. Changing routine useful to avoid stagnation
   2. General routine
      1. 7am +/- wakeup 
      2. Curtains/window/changed (active wear)
      3. Wash face
      4. Skip outside in the sun (inspired by Andrew Huberman)
      5. Meditate (consistency over intensity. Minimum 5 minutes. Loving kindness/metta meditation)
      6. Coffee (black) + journaling (gratitude)
   3. Dealing with curveballs
      1. Be flexible
      2. Come back to the habit - one day off is ok
4. What do you do to optimise productivity during your working hours?
   1. Pomodoro method: physical pig timer
   2. Optimise phone:
      1. Firefox Focus: one tab only
      2. ESR apps
   3. Change contexts in physical environment if frustrated/unproductive: go to cafe/library to mix things
   4. Intermittent fasting: eating window 12-8 - more productive in morning prior to first meal
   5. Vegan diet (9 years):
      1. Initial Motivation: sports performance inspired by brothers
      2. Making it stick: address value conflicts
         1. Social environment - if friends/colleagues look down on diet, hard to stick to it
         2. Animal welfare - bigger purpose
      3. Overall advice for dietary change:
         1. Adopt a Long term perspective 
         2. Monitor your current diet without making changes: take photos (and send it to health coach)
5. How do you switch off at night?
   1. Sleep: influences ability to eat well and recover from exercise
   2. Not too rigid about evening routine - plenty of time from 8pm:
      1. set the scene: dim lights, candle, PJs, no music/instrumental music
      2. tidy up
      3. get clothes
      4. journalling: including schedule + to do list (but avoid rumination)
      5. friend convos (voice messages)
   3. 10:30pm in bed
6. What resources (books, philosophies, apps) do you find most helpful for productivity and habit formation?
   1. Books:
      1. "Power of Habit" by Charles Du Higg
      2. "Atomic Habits" James Clear (prefer blog posts)
   2. Podcasts:
      1. Huberman Lab
      2. The Growth Equation - executive coach -> habit formation
      3. ClearerThinking.org (free tools for decision making/habit formation)
   3. Apps:
      1. Habit tracking spreadsheet (off the shelf apps don't have an ideal UI)
      2. ESR (Emotion Noticing: "How We Feel")
      3. Foundations for relaxation techniques (but unfortunately they no longer offer access to the general public). 
      4. Insight Timer: meditation guided/timer 
      5. Sleep Score: Sleep tracking

7. Stay in touch with Rickey:

LinkedIn 

Website
Email: [email protected]

1. What projects are you concentrating on during your focused hours?
   1. Multi-passionate
   2. Marketing operations
   3. Side projects:
      1. Productivity and confidence coaching
      2. Next iteration of buying software - software finds
2. How about the rest of the time? What do you enjoy doing in your off time?
   1. Acro yoga
   2. Snorkeling
   3. Hiking
   4. Soap bubbles
   5. Side projects
   6. Web comics
      1. Dogmatic Vegan
      2. 
         
   7. TV series:
      1. Severance
   8. Cooking
      1. Vegetarian
      2. French/Italian/Mexican/Thai
      3. Invite friends over
         1. Food poisoning 
3. What does your morning routine look like and how has it evolved over time?
   1. Pushups: one day more than the day before 80%
   2. Tracking happiness every day: tripled happiness
      1. built in breaks
      2. moved to Hawaii in 2020
4. What do you do to optimise productivity during your working hours?
   1. Energy management: measure peaks in energy and do most challenging work when brain is sharpest. Do easy work after lunch when tired.
   2. Combine different disciplines:
      1. Apply psychology to marketing/training
      2. Checklists (Checklist manifesto)
   3. Technique library
      1. People who think like you would benefit most from X technique
5. How do you switch off at night?
   1. Sleeping
      1. Vibrating Bracelet to shift state
      2. Ice cold sleep mask
   2. Winding down
      1. Reducing screentime
6. What resources (books, philosophies, apps) do you find most helpful for productivity and habit formation?
   1. "Learning how to learn" by Barbara Oakley free MOOC
      1. Different modes of thinking: more creative when slightly tired and just after waking up
   2. "5 second rule" (but not always relevant)
   3. "The happiness advantage"
   4. Pomodoro technique
7. Do you have any final words or asks for our audience?

In this episode we recap the last five interviews and discuss these topics:

- strategies for breaking bad habits
- isn't doing the same thing every day really boring?
- are habits a luxury for elites?
- how do you decide which activities to keep as habits and which to ditch?
- how long does it take to form a habit?
- aren't tiny habits useless?
- what is the optimal length of a pomodoro block?
- how do you decide what is urgent vs important?

Monique Lindner aka The Time Alchemist, is a Holistic High Performance & Lifestyle Design Specialist, Author, TEDx speaker, Coach & Consultant, Change-Maker, and location-independent entrepreneur. 

She is the creator of The T.I.M.E. Method® and published her book under the same name in the first lockdown of 2020 – putting her own signature framework to the test. 

Over the last 20+ years, she has worked with different sized businesses from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies like Apple and their teams, helping them to optimize their performance, leadership, and work culture.

1. What projects are you concentrating on during your focused hours?
   1. 3 days per week coaching + writing
2. How about the rest of the time? What do you enjoy doing in your off time?
   1. Wednesday = Wellness day:
      1. Osteopathy
      2. Herbal spa
      3. Whatever body needs
   2. Looking after dog
   3. Limited ASD friendly socialising
   4. Listening to audio books
   5. Nature bathing
3. What does your morning routine look like and how has it evolved over time?
   1. 5:30-6 wake up
   2. Tea/lemon water
   3. Journal: intentions for the day
   4. Workout: 15-30 minutes (stretching/abs)
   5. Prepare work desk
4. What do you do to optimise productivity during your working hours? 
   1. ASD specific tactics
   2. Chronotypes: tailor work to energy peaks (deep work) and troughs (admin work)
   3. Nutrition and hydration: 
      1. Avoid caffeine/alcohol/sugar/gluten 
5. How do you switch off at night?
   1. Switch off devices 2hrs before
   2. Circadian lighting
   3. Listen to audio books
   4. Hang out with dog
   5. Journalling
   6. Meditations
   7. Do nothing
6. What resources (books, philosophies, apps) do you find most helpful for productivity and habit formation?
   1. The T.I.M.E. method
   2. thetimealchemist.co chrono energy type
   3. The Way of Integrity by Martha ....
   4. The Courage of being Disliked by Ichiri Kushimi
7. Final words

You can find Monique on thetimealchemist.co where she publishes No BS knowledge & advice for entrepreneurs seeking to transform the way they work & design their lives.