- Let's start. (laughs)
- Like that? - Right there!
- That was the start? - This is the start!
- Hi! I'm Sage!
- (laughs) This is the Addictive Wellness channel,
and I'm AnnaBlanca, and this is going to be
the second part of the working relationship tool kit
that we came up with because we just wanted
to share with you guys all these amazing tools
and little hacks and systems we came up with
to be able to very efficiently and smoothly work together.
Because we live in a small apartment,
we spend all the time together, and we own a business!
- And so there's lots of, you know,
challenging points that can come up potentially,
and we've worked out all the systems,
so we're happy to share them with you guys,
and hope you'll enjoy this.
So, the one we're talking about today
is called red card, blue card, and this is when
one person is hard at work, and for us,
we spent the first four years of our business
actually working side-by-side at a four foot wide desk.
So, not a lot of solo space.
- Elbow to elbow! - Yeah, yeah.
You couldn't just throw your elbows out like this,
'cause it was like, in close quarters.
- Four years, imagine.
That was just some amazing communication that had to happen.
- And so, what happens, and this doesn't only happen
when you're at a desk together.
It could happen when you're in separate offices,
you could be working on different sides of the country,
different sides of the world, and this could happen.
Here's what it is:
If you are very focused on a task, and somebody,
whether it's a partner or a coworker,
comes or calls you on the phone, or texts you, whatever,
and is super excited to ask you about something,
share something with you, open up a conversation with you.
- And then sometimes they really inject a seemly urgency,
I mean, a sense of urgency into this whole thing,
so he feels compelled to break his focus and concentration.
- Well, maybe. (AnnaBlanca laughs)
So the person who's focused is either gonna say,
"Leave me the heck alone, I can't right now",
and just stay focused, but maybe hurt some feelings,
and cause some friction and pain in the relationship.
Or, completely break focus, say,
"Look, I'm really sorry, you're important to me,
"I care about you deeply,
"and I know what you have to say is important,
"but I have this task that I'm working on right now
"that's time-sensitive and it requires all of my focus.
"Can we please talk in 15 to 30 minutes?"
- By the time he finishes this really
lovely and empathic answer, focus is already gone.
- Then you've lost focus.
Anybody who has studied or read about optimizing
focus and productivity knows that the cost, mentally,
of switching from one point of focus to another, is one of
the greatest obstacles to productivity, you might say.
So here's what we do about this:
When I, or when she, when one of us is very busy,
needs to stay focused, we put up the red card on the desk,
and that means I cannot be interrupted right now.
Unless, you know when we were kids,
when my mom was on the phone,
she would always train us to say,
"You do not interrupt me while I'm on the phone,
"except for blood or fire.
"Anything else, you do not want to interrupt me."
(AnnaBlanca laughs)
And so, red card is like that.
Blood or fire, that merits an interruption,
but nothing else. That's it.
- I never had to interrupt you because of that yet,
so (sighs of relief).
- (laughs) Well, there was the time that there was
a fire a couple floors down, and we had to evacuate.
- Oh that's true!
But we weren't working at the time.
But if I really, really want to let him know,
or he wants to let me know,
because I have the red card up all the time.
I love focusing.
I put up the blue card, and the blue card means
the minute you're with what you're doing,
and it's important, I understand it is important,
this is the blue card, and it means come and let me know,
'cause I will need your attention,
I have something I need to talk to you about.
- So, keep in mind, there's caveat.
You can't abuse the red card.
You can't have it up as a permanent
installation at your desk. - Damn right!
- Because a key to any relationship, or any business,
or any working activity is communication,
so you don't wanna shut out communication entirely.
That would defeat the purpose of what we're doing here.
And then, so if I've got the red card up, she will probably
come and at some point put the blue card up to say,
let me know as soon as that red card goes down, come find me
because there is a conversation that needs to be had.
And I don't want to just have to keep coming back
and checking, is your red card up, is it down, is it up?
- Because now, I moved my office into another room,
so we still use this.
Sometimes actually using the actual card,
or send a little emoji to each other, like,
the blue heart means I really need to talk to you,
or the red stop sign means do not burst into the office
with some big news because you're excited,
because I might be on the phone
or writing something important.
- I might be having a very serious phone call,
when she comes in with who knows what kind of news.
(both laugh)
Or maybe I'm on a video chat with somebody
about a topic very serious and important.
But anyhow, so that's our system for sorting it out,
and this has saved us so much
emotional strife over the years,
and allowed us to really optimize our efficiency,
and feel good about it with each other.
- Yes, you need to show kindness, and respect, and empathy
to somebody that you're working with,
or somebody you're living with,
or having any kinds of relationship.
You have to be able to share space and...
just to be there for each other.
- So if you guys have encountered this similar challenge,
but have developed a different solution to it,
we'd be fascinated to hear about it!
Leave us a little story about it in the comments.
Or, if you are up for trying this in your relationship
or in your business relationship, whatever,
we want to hear how it goes!
So, again, let us know in the comments.
We always love to hear what's going on with you guys.
- Very very much so.
So let us know!
- All right, have a great day!
We'll see you all next time.
- Bye!