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How I Trick My Brain To Focus Every Day

Max Mitcham · 1,653 words · 8 min read

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0:00Morning

0:04[Music]

0:13all. So, wanted to go over how I focus

0:16my brain this week. I have undiagnosed I

0:20self diagnose myself with having ADHD. I

0:24don't know if I do or not, but I find it

0:26incredibly hard to focus hard to focus

0:28on tasks. And that's really ever

0:30actually since I became a founder of a

0:32company. Back when I was just kind of

0:35more frontline sales management and

0:37leadership, it was a lot easier to

0:38focus. Now I think because I wear so

0:41many different hats, it really has my

0:43brain like just bouncing between ideas,

0:45bouncing between things. So this week I

0:48thought I would go over some of the

0:50tools, tips, and tricks that I'm doing

0:54to help me get over this.

1:02[Music]

1:05most likely guessed, but the main thing

1:07that keeps me really on track and

1:10focused is routine. Every time I'm

1:13speaking to you, I'm probably in the car

1:15on the way to do, you know, some form of

1:17fitness in the morning, which is what

1:19I'm doing now. Um, and that really just

1:22helps me, I guess, start the day well.

1:25And if I kind of I know there's the

1:27cliche if you win the morning, but

1:29really for me, if I win the morning, my

1:31focus for the rest of the day is

1:33massively improved. And I did a post

1:36last week about how I focus on like

1:39routine, but also just like working out

1:40and things like that. And that really

1:41helps me. If I don't work out and if I

1:43don't look after myself, I also find

1:45that my kind of selfdagnosed ADHD kind

1:49of flares up. So today we have a swim

1:52and then I'm actually going for a

1:53chiropractor session afterwards just to

1:56keep the body uh in check. Sitting down

1:58at the desk all day really screws with

2:01me.

2:03[Music]

2:15Okay. So what is up next? Well, when

2:17we're thinking about how to keep our

2:19mind focused, here's the other tactics

2:21that I'm deploying. I'm using Linear.

2:24And if you haven't uh or if you don't

2:25know what the tool is, Google it.

2:27Linear. And it's a tool that basically

2:29allows you to add tickets. It's

2:30typically used for a lot of like product

2:32based stuff. So, if you were to create

2:34tickets for like your product team to

2:36work on and focus on things like that.

2:38However, I'm using it as like an

2:39organization tool. So, let me show you

2:41exactly how I'm doing this. Okay. So,

2:44I'm using linear to help me organize all

2:47of my thoughts and all of my to-dos,

2:50right? I'm one of these people that

2:52bounces between ideas at a million miles

2:55an hour and I have that kind of self

2:58undiagnosed ADHD. Um, but what I find to

3:02be really really uh handy and helpful,

3:05and this is something that I've started

3:07doing recently, is creating um to-do

3:10lists. Now, historically, I've been

3:12pretty old school and I've used, you

3:14know, just your your typical kind of

3:16workbook and just listed out all my

3:17to-dos, but I've actually started to go

3:20more digital recently, which is sad cuz

3:22I do like writing things. But the reason

3:23that I've done it is I have Linear

3:27hooked up to an MCP agent. And what that

3:31then basically allows me to do is I can

3:33actually chat with this kind of camb

3:35board that we're looking at here to help

3:38me organize and focus my priorities for

3:41the day with what I should be doing and

3:43the agent can actually help block out

3:44some times. The other thing that's

3:46really cool is if we look here at my

3:49kind of agents that I've created, I have

3:51a I think it's actually in this one

3:54here. I got two versions of NAM, the

3:55cloud and the normal one. Um, I have a

3:58two personal assistant.

4:00Maybe it is in this one. Two personal

4:02assistant uh agents basically that uh

4:05can help. No, it's not that. I think it

4:07maybe it's just called PA.

4:09Let's go here. PA. There we go. What

4:13this is doing is this is like it's quite

4:15beefy here. But this is going to also

4:17look through the linear tasks that I

4:19have, but also look through like emails,

4:21Slack notifications, um calls that I

4:24have, right? So the the demos that I've

4:26done and things like that to understand

4:28does it need to add any additional to-do

4:30tasks into here. If it does, then it

4:34will go and create it. If it doesn't, it

4:36won't. But it will also send me a

4:38notification every day saying, "Hey,

4:40like here is the current to-dos that you

4:42have. This is them stack ranked in

4:44priority. These are the people that

4:45you've not replied to that you need to

4:46be replying to. And I've also blocked

4:49out some time in your diary to be able

4:50to do this." So essentially I've created

4:52an agent that uses linear as its like

4:55database that organizes me and I kind of

4:57need that organization because otherwise

5:00I flicker between idea to idea and I'm

5:04one of these people that sometimes even

5:05start a task and then I'm like ooh idea

5:07like I need to go and quickly execute on

5:09that. So a lot of the time now because I

5:11have this here so like easily accessible

5:14is when I have an idea coming into my

5:16head as I'm doing something else I'll

5:17quickly go and add it as a to-do and

5:19I'll just drop my thoughts down. I have

5:21the same for like a content calendar for

5:22my social media as well. I use notion

5:24for that. If I have an idea again,

5:26quickly just go add it and then I can

5:28come back to those thoughts at a later

5:30date. And this is really helped me kind

5:32of tune my way of thinking, so to speak,

5:36as well. So, it's a combination of using

5:38linear combined with using NA10 and

5:41using certain different agents to help

5:43organize me while using this as a kind

5:47of bedrock and focus point. Okay, so the

5:49last thing that I do to help keep me

5:50focused on everything that I need to be

5:52doing is stopping the distractions on

5:55the phone, right? And so it's pretty

5:58simple, but I am pretty particular about

6:00the different um modes that you have

6:02with the iPhone. So you've got like a

6:04work mode, a focus mode, things like

6:06that. So I do actually have those

6:08automatically applied to reduce

6:10notifications coming through. The other

6:12thing is is like I am I can like

6:14occasionally find myself doom scrolling

6:16on like LinkedIn and Instagram. So I

6:19actually have applied like I don't know

6:20if you can see it but it's like app

6:22limits and what I notic is I do like

6:24more so LinkedIn than Instagram to be

6:26honest. I'm just like I flick over it

6:28and over it the whole time and I apply

6:31like an hour limit to both those apps a

6:33day. I don't really hit the Instagram

6:35one but I do hit the LinkedIn one pretty

6:36regularly seeing as I spend a lot of

6:38time there. So, I have that which keeps

6:40me kind of disciplined. It just makes me

6:42a little bit focused. That doesn't apply

6:43to it if you're on a desktop, but I just

6:45don't open up the tab there. As well,

6:47the only other thing that I do with my

6:48phone to help kind of keep the brain

6:49just like locked in is I have like a

6:52sleep mode activated. So, from 8:00 p.m.

6:55through till 7:00 a.m. the next day,

6:57it's sleep. So, like no notifications

6:59whatsoever come through. And I used to

7:01be really, really bad. Like the first

7:03thing that I would do cuz I typically

7:05wake up about half 5 was go on and just

7:08check all my messages, check all um the

7:10notifications. And that is such a bad

7:12way to start the day. Um because it just

7:15you get like mental fatigue a lot faster

7:18that way. And so what I've done is I've

7:19really tried to stay disciplined at

7:21actually not looking or checking the

7:23phone until that sleep mode comes off,

7:25which is at 7. And then I can go in and

7:27look at things. And that just again I'm

7:29trying to bring the number of decision

7:33processes or the number of touch points

7:34that I have with some shape or form with

7:37work to a minimum and only like keep it

7:39at its like essentials. Now, that

7:40doesn't mean that I'm not thinking 24/7

7:42about trigger fire and all this, but it

7:45more means like I don't just want to be

7:47glued to the screen and when I have like

7:49my typical like I'll work typically 8

7:51till 6. Sometimes I do longer, sometimes

7:53I do like calls until 8 9:00 p.m. which

7:56is uh not always but occasionally that's

7:58fine, right? and not and I work on the

8:00weekends and sometimes I don't like it

8:03doesn't really matter like I'm not one

8:04of those ones that have a strict

8:05structure around that but I just want to

8:07make sure that I'm not like overexposing

8:08myself to just sitting and gluing on

8:10that phone and like having that constant

8:13kind of buzzing in your face you need

8:15that downtime and I think for me

8:17personally anyway I realized that the

8:20more I have that the better I actually

8:21work um going forward as well by the way

8:25side note if you enjoy these drone shots

8:27this is from the holiday that I've just

8:29had, which is um was pretty cool to get

8:32a week off. We went a place just an hour

8:35down the road from where I live. Pretty

8:36scenic, pretty cool shots. I hope you

8:39enjoy.

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