- You might not wanna believe this,
but the place that you're sitting right now
is filled with things
that are quietly destroying your productivity.
This is especially true if you're currently sitting here,
but also true even if you're sitting here.
Today, we are going over four ways in which your workspace,
your environment, is probably harming your ability
to stay focused on your work.
These are issues that can be so distracting
that some people will go to extreme lengths to escape them
and one of those people is Peter Shankman,
an author who has publicly talked about
his struggles with ADHD.
A few years ago, Peter bought a $5,000 round trip ticket
from his hometown in New Jersey to Tokyo, Japan.
And after spending 14 hours flying to Tokyo,
he got right back on the exact same plane
and flew all the way back home.
He didn't even stop to see the life-size Gundam,
which is a missed opportunity if I've ever seen one.
So why would someone spend $5,000 and 26 hours of their life
just to fly halfway across the world and right back home?
Well, as Peter tells it, he was working on a book
and he was coming dangerously close
to his publisher's deadline.
He couldn't get himself to focus at home,
so he decided to put himself in the one place
where he would have no access to his phone,
to the internet, or to any distractions whatsoever,
a tiny cramped airplane cabin and it worked.
He wrote chapters one through five on the way to Tokyo
and six through 10 on his way back,
landing with a finished first draft
and this, even though it is completely ridiculous,
is my favorite example of what a good environment
can do for your focus and on the flip side,
what a bad environment can do to rob you of your potential.
So let's meet our four workplace productivity destroyers
or the four horsemen of the productivity-ocalypse
and see what we can do to fix them.
Preferably without buying a $5,000 plane ticket.
And we'll start with the one
that I personally have the most trouble with,
paths of lesser resistance.
See, most work worth doing is difficult,
which means you're almost always going to encounter
resistance when you try to do it,
your brain doesn't want to go through the
difficulty involved, so it looks for an escape route,
and it's easy to identify the usual suspects here, right?
TikTok, Twitter, that game on your phone,
all offer up these bite-sized hits of dopamine
that are available at a moment's notice.
But I think there's an even more
insidious form of distraction
that's even harder to deal with, other work.
The 50 unanswered emails in your inbox,
that unpaid toll bill that you got to pay at some point,
these all have to get done as well.
So it's easy to justify switching over to them
when you feel a little bit stuck on your main task.
But here's the problem,
every time you switch from one task to another,
you deal with something called attention residue.
Part of your attention remains the unfinished task
that you switched away from making it harder
to fully concentrate on your current task.
As Cal Newport points out in this book, "Deep Work",
this residue gets especially thick if your work on task A
was unbounded and of low intensity before you switched.
And these are perfect descriptors for those little tasks,
like checking your emails.
So it's no wonder that it's so difficult
to get back into the flow state
when you switch back to your main task.
And this is why Peter Shankman's flight to Tokyo
was so useful, sitting up in that cramped airplane cabin
with no internet, he had little to do, but write his book.
Now you don't have to go blow your life savings
on a transpacific plane ticket to get the same benefit.
And honestly, I think part of his reason for doing it
was to get a good story out of it.
And hey, here I am telling it to you.
But all you need to do is follow a simple rule,
clear everything out of your workspace
that doesn't have to do with the task at hand.
The closer all these other things are,
the easier it's gonna be for your brain
to want to switch to them.
Start by clearing off your desk,
putting any loose papers in an inbox,
get any visual clutter out of the way
and consider a small set of drawers.
So you can keep things out of sight out of mind
until you actually need them.
I've got this nice little one from IKEA
that also doubles as a charging station
for my camera batteries.
Once that's done,
it's time to look at something even more important,
which is your computer.
As Chris Bailey points out in his book, "Hyperfocus",
on average, we work for only 40 seconds
when working on a computer before either being interrupted
or distracted.
A huge reason for this is that we love to leave tabs
and windows open that are completely unrelated
to the work that we're trying to do.
So one way that I combat this
is during that five minute prep
I talked about in the last video,
I take the time to close anything that is completely
unrelated to my task.
And if I don't want to lose something,
I'll paste research links into Notion.
Now, if that's not enough for you,
you can also opt for the nuclear option,
distraction blockers, apps like Cold Turkey and Freedom.
These let you define a list of apps and websites
that are gonna be blocked during your work sessions
and then either during specific hours
or when you tell it that you're starting a work session,
you're not gonna be able to access those at all.
And that is actually helpful for our second horsemen
of the productivity-ocalpyse, which are active distractions.
Now, these typically break down
into two different categories,
notifications on your devices
and distractions in your immediate physical environment.
So let's first start with notifications
and I'll just tell you what I do here.
I disabled pretty much every notification
that could possibly reach me, except for
messages on my phone, SMS text messages
and certain people DM-ing me in Slack.
And when I really need to focus, I double down on this
by enabling do not disturb mode on my phone,
that way nothing can break through.
So I can really concentrate,
especially when I'm doing research or writing video scripts.
Another idea that your brain is
probably gonna throw up some resistance to is,
"Hey, maybe turn off your phone or put it in another room."
And if you are feeling resistance to this,
simply ask yourself, when you need to work,
"Do I need my phone for the next 45 minutes?"
The answer is probably no.
The other sorts of active distractions
are in your immediate physical environment.
Can include things like people interrupting you
or cats interrupting you,
loud noises and the arrival of Galactus and the end times.
- Surpise mother-
- Whatever it is, try to predict
what those distractions could be
and then see what you can do to get rid of them
or keep them from happening in the first place.
For example, telling your friends and your family
that you need an hour of uninterrupted time
is a great way to prevent interruptions
and for loud noises, a good pair of headphones
is really, really nice,
especially if they are noise canceling.
Now, for the arrival of Galactus
breaking your concentration,
I haven't quite figured out a solution,
but I do think I'm close to cracking the code.
While I'm finishing that up,
let's talk about our third horseman
of the productivity-ocalpyse,
which is ergonomics or rather poor ergonomics.
Now ergonomics is the study and science
of fitting the workplace to the individual,
making you more comfortable while you work.
And it is here that I will assert Peter Shankman's
airplane workspace wasn't so good.
I fly for work a few times a month
and I find airplane seats to be horrendously uncomfortable.
Now, maybe this is due to the fact that
I'm over six feet tall,
but I think most people would agree with me here.
Now, there are definitely some things that you can do
to tailor your workspace for better ergonomics,
which will make you more comfortable
and also help you to avoid some chronic injuries over time,
which can definitely destroy your productivity.
But we have to talk about the most important aspect
of ergonomics first, which is movement and exercise.
I can't tell you about any fancy desks or chairs
before we talk about this,
because I have literally seen people who I know,
go out and buy super fancy, expensive,
thousand dollar ergonomic office chairs,
and then be lulled into a false sense of security,
thinking the chair is all they need to prevent injuries.
That is not the case.
The chair might help, but alone, it is inadequate.
And I have experience with this, a few years ago,
I did a whole bunch of research
and I went out and I bought a fancy ergonomic chair
for my studio workstation.
And a few years ago, I also went through a period
of constant chronic back pain sitting in that fancy chair.
So the chair did not fix it.
In fact, no single tweak to my workspace,
fixed my chronic back pain.
What fixed it, was exercise and flexibility training.
Specifically, some yoga moves that helps you
increase the flexibility and mobility in my hamstrings
and leg muscles, but even more importantly,
squats and deadlifts.
Weight training that strengthened both my core
and my back muscles so they could actually support
my spinal column.
Take this seriously
and prevent your future self chronic pain
if you don't have it already.
Get up at least once an hour, move around, go for a walk
and ideally go to the gym sometimes,
or have some kind of resistance training program.
So you're strengthening your body
and not living in atrophy
in a thousand dollar computer chair.
And speaking to those chairs, how important is it
to get a super fancy ergonomic chair in the first place?
Well, if you asked the marketing departments
in the companies that make them,
they will say it's very important indeed,
but personally, I'm a bit more skeptical.
I think movement is the number one factor and beyond that,
I'm not convinced about all the science and fancy research
that's gone into every aspect of these chairs
and how they contour to your body.
But what I do think is important
is to get a chair that can adjust its height.
And if you could do the same with your desk,
that's useful as well.
I've got a sit stand desk
that lets me make minor adjustments to the height.
But even if you can't afford that, there are cheaper desks,
like at IKEA, that have adjustable height legs.
So you can make your desk the right height for you.
And what is that right height?
Well, actually, if I switch back over to this camera,
I can physically demonstrate.
So first, chair height should be set
so that your feet are flat on the ground
or barring that, on a footstool.
Don't have them dangling.
Second, set your desk height, or adjust the chair height
so that your elbows are at about a 90 degree angle.
You don't want to be reaching up with your fingers.
And lastly, with your monitor,
you want it about eye level.
The top of the monitor should be right with your eyes
and laptops actually present a problem there
because you put them on the table
and now you're staring down the laptop, craning your neck,
which can cause pain after a while.
So ideally if you're going to work on a laptop,
you want to get a laptop stand
that you can put the laptop on
and then get an external keyboard and mouse.
So you're not reaching up to that stand.
So now we have perfected your ergonomics.
We have turned off notifications
and we've dealt with those paths of lesser resistance,
but still at this point,
your workspace might be missing something.
It might be uninspiring.
I think this is important to talk about
because the environment you put yourself in
has a huge effect on your mindset.
When I'm in an area that makes me feel muted, bored,
uncreative, I can't do my best work.
And I think you would agree here.
So let's talk about some changes we can make
to our workplaces and our environments
to make them just a bit more inspiring.
Now, this is absolutely something that varies
from person to person.
So what I want to do here is simply share some things
that I've done with my own workspace that make me feel
a lot better about doing my work.
First and foremost, I love bright open spaces,
ideally with sunlight.
And also I like having a workspace with plants.
This is a fake plant,
it would die down here in the studio if it was real,
but real plants are a great addition to your workspace,
I think and there's actually some research to show that
nature exposure and I think bringing some nature
into your workspace has some cognitive benefits.
So maybe go out and add a plant to your workspace
and see what that does.
I also love working with tools that let me work as close
to the speed of my thoughts as possible.
Now this varies based on the task.
If I'm writing a script, really all I need is my laptop,
but if I'm editing a video
or designing a new template in Notion,
I love having my dual monitor workstations so I can see
everything all at once.
And I also swear by gaming mice because the high DPI sensors
make them much easier and more comfortable to use
even when I'm doing regular work tasks.
So those are just some suggestions that work for me,
but they might work for you as well.
And overall ask yourself, "Is my workspace inspiring to me?
Is it a place where I actually want to get my work done?"
And if it's not, "What can I do to change that?"
So now that we've tackled your workspace and fixed that,
let's talk about something much bigger
that needs fixing as well.
So this is where I would normally tell you
about my video sponsor Curiosity Stream,
but they have been kind enough
to actually donate this sponsor spot
to let me tell you about Team Seas.
Remember last year when Mr. Beast
and a ton of other content creators got together
to raise $20 million and plant 20 million trees?
But this year we were doing something very similar,
but we were also raising the stakes.
Team Seas is a global campaign to raise $30 million
and remove 30 million pounds of trash
from our planet's oceans, rivers and beaches.
For every dollar that's raised,
one full pound of trash will be removed.
And we partnered with two different organizations
to accomplish this.
The Ocean Conservancy will be tackling
the oceans and the beaches.
And The Ocean Cleanup will be cleaning up the rivers
with their interceptor units,
preventing trash from ever reaching the oceans
in the first place.
Personally, I was incredibly impressed
with Team Trees last year,
especially since they actually reached their goal.
And this year I love the precedent that Team Seas
is now setting, the pattern it's setting.
That every year, content creators like myself and my friends
can come together with our audiences, with you guys,
to band together and do something truly big
and truly good for the environment.
So personally, I'll be making a donation.
And if you would like to help the cause as well,
there's going to be a link in the description down below
or in the pinned comment.
Beyond that,
now that you're finished watching this video,
check out this one right here on a three-step process,
you can easily follow
to more reliably get yourself into the flow state.
Or if you're curious about
how I'm currently doing my task management,
I've got a video right here on my second channel
on my Notion task management system,
which is actually a free template as well.
So check that out,
follow me on Twitter for bite-sized content
if you haven't already, make sure you're subscribed
and thanks for watching.
Hit the like button for the algorithm
and I'll see you in the next one.