The core theme is about reclaiming focus and productivity by intentionally reducing digital distractions and embracing moments of stillness, illustrated through a week-long experiment with "wall staring" and other mindfulness techniques.
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This is me staring at a wall.
And believe it or not, this helped me
have one of the most productive weeks of
my life. But the trick doesn't actually
have much to do with the wall. It's the
fact that I'm not doing something else.
I'm not scrolling on my phone or
checking my email. Instead, I'm just
sitting here either working on the task
at hand or doing nothing. This is the
first rule in a super simple [music]
protocol that by the end of this week
would teach me a totally new way of
thinking about focus. That that piece of
paper took me a week to figure out. So,
I'm going to take you [music] through 5
days of my wall staring progression and
the key moments where I'd be picking up
the pieces to this puzzle.
Walking into work for the first time
since holiday break. A little early, but
I don't got nothing else going on. So,
typically I'd be working on videos
before work, but this week I'm not
editing. I'm not going on Spotify or
even using the calculator app because in
this challenge less is more. And the
second rule is no non-essential screens
during or outside of work. This sucks.
This kind of sucks. I don't know if my
brain is broken or what, but I had
gotten used to letting myself get
distracted at work. There's a point in
my day where I kind of slow down, turn
on a video or listen start listening to
a podcast. Can't do none of that. This
is kind of a dumb challenge, dude. But
I'm doing this for a reason. There are
moments in life where we have to get
serious. In my work right now, I'm
working on an extremely difficult
important project that's supposed to
solve one of the biggest problems in my
whole company. A lot of important people
are depending on me to pull through on
this. This project has been going on for
months and before the end of the year,
stuff got kind of crazy. It got really
messy and right now the sentiment is not
good. People are nervous. So, if I'm
going to make this happen, I have to
lock in right now. And whenever I think
about focus, I remember this guy, Riend
Doris. He [music] talks about how focus
works in the brain and how you can
harness the same dopamineergic system
that [music] makes you addicted to your
phone to actually work in your favor and
make you more productive. He also looks
like he's in the Matrix, so I trust him.
He has three principles to follow. One,
take boring breaks. [music] This is
where I directly got the wall staring from.
from.
>> A favorite of mine is wall staring.
Stare at a wall for 20 minutes and I'll salivate.
salivate.
>> Your brain needs to rest and recover if
you want it to focus [music] and it
can't do that if you're just ingesting
content all the time. Do nothing on your
breaks to actively rest and get back to
work. Two, inhabit the in between. Don't
pull out your phone every time you have
30 seconds. Just wait for them to come
back from the [music] bathroom. Stand in
line. Drive home without music on. Just
sit and exist in these in between
moments. And three, do one thing at a
time. [music] Stop trying to multitask
or have a video plan in the background
all the time. Don't schedule an
appointment while you're working.
[music] If you're having a conversation
with somebody, just talk to them. Stop
splitting your focus. And if you do all
these things, they have an extremely
powerful effect on the brain,
apparently. [music] And if you haven't
noticed, I'm basically applying all of
these in a roundabout way.
And in the middle of this stressful
workday, it's the perfect time to try
out this wall staring thing for the
first time. I'm going to set a timer for
10 minutes and I have to look at this
wall until it's up. Somehow, this is
going to make me ready to work again. I
wish I could tell you this had as strong
of an effect as it would later in the week,
week,
but today we're just barely scratching
the surface. It's two-dimensional, just
you and a wall. [music] It's kind of
hard to know what to do when you're just
staring at the wall. Like, how intently
do I look at it? [music] For now, just
stick it out. Don't look away. and
you'll open the door to something much
deeper next time. [music] The second
level. That's all today is about. Oh,
and the actively resting thing.
I think I'm supposed to be ready to get
back to work now. And I kind of just
want to keep staring at the wall. Well,
okay. I'll tell you what, it did not
help that much. I kind of just survived
the rest of my really stressful day at
work. Made it.
Day one with work finally done. This is
about where I was compared to a normal
week. So, we got a ways to go, but we're
done. And it's something I've been
itching to do today, but I haven't been
able to do it until now. To my surprise,
it was after work that I noticed the
first real [music] effect of this routine.
routine.
>> Can't listen to music on this, but that
After a day of nothing to occupy myself
besides work, I was just itching to get
over and play the drums, which is cool
because I haven't even played much in
months. I think this is just the first
time I felt like I had the space for it.
And the same goes later when I went on a
walk with Kate.
>> Go ahead, boy. Go quick.
>> Quick, go. I want to get a shot of you.
>> I had nothing else to be preparing for
or any problems to be working on. I was
just there with her and had the space to
just enjoy myself on this walk. And
suddenly I realized how long it's been
since I felt like this. It's really nice
to have a single work to do and then
enjoy your life outside [music] of that.
Just have space. And I kind of missed it.
it.
But the more I thought about it, the
more I realized I don't think [music] I
can have this right now. Having a
full-time job and trying to grow this
YouTube channel just takes a lot. So I
should just enjoy this week while I have
it, I guess.
Tuesday, I woke up almost nervous to go
back to work. I frankly did not get as
much done as I wanted to yesterday. I
was just getting pulled all over the
place. And I'm really hoping today I can
actually get work done on this project.
So, here we go. We got our work cut out
for us. And I was still fighting the
temptation of distractions. This thing
is calling my name right now. I'm so
tempted to do anything but work. Oh, I
should just play drums for a minute. Oh,
I should write something down. Oh, I got
my walking pad. You can't see it. It's
too hard to take the camera off the
stupid tripod. Today it's just this and
I got to get used to that. But then
something amazing happened. I learned
that I just had to trust the process.
You sit down and it does not feel like
you're going to focus at all. But all of
a sudden, what's up? It's been like
hours and I'm now completely locked in.
Turns out you just focus on work and all
of a sudden it's the most interesting
thing ever. [music]
You recording yourself carrot?
carrot?
>> This carrot's really gross.
>> I can smell it.
>> I'm feeling quite a bit better today. [music]
Today. I don't have many other thoughts.
I kind [music] of just thinking about
work, which I guess is kind of the goal.
And I can't help but be a little bit
excited for something in particular.
[music] I have a new friend that I think
I'm going to meet again. After lunch is
a real energy lull, so I'm taking a
quick break.
Last time we did a short 10 minutes.
Let's do 12 today. My second time wall
steering hit me like a ton of bricks or
plaster. [music]
For some reason, my head started feeling
really weird. It was like throbbing and
it was hard to keep it upright. But
eventually, I totally relaxed and I
focused on the light on the wall. And I
could see it creeping across the wall
ever [music] so slowly. And the longer I
looked at it, the more it warped, like
the strip of light was flexing and
[music] breathing. It was like the wall
was pulling me in. And it got intense
>> I don't know what you're supposed to be
thinking about when you do that, but I'm
not sure if I'm doing it right. Either
way, something worked.
I just absolutely locked in for a couple
hours now. I'm already past time I'm
supposed to clock out. Did some really
good work, though. Making a really cool
thing. I got a baseline of something
that could solve one of the biggest
issues on this project. All you got to
know is this is real progress type
stuff. [laughter]
So, feeling good about that.
Yet again, after work, something
happened that changed my perspective on
this whole challenge. You see, Sunday, I
went to the gym and decided not to
listen to music. I drove home in
silence, and it was beautiful. It was
really nice. Just hearing the natural
sounds and enjoying being present in the
world reminded me of the peace I felt
working at camp and [music] going to the
gym tonight. I was looking forward to
having a similar moment again. But when
I [music] drove there and when I got
there and I'm working out, there was no
bliss [music] to be felt. It It was kind
of dull. And I realized I guess I
expected things [music] to be different.
Cutting out the screens and making
things simpler, but it was just becoming
a new baseline. It's just a [music]
quieter baseline. The moments might be
cool or they might be boring, and you're
just [music] more susceptible to feeling
that. and you're more available to
notice the smaller things. [music]
That's kind of an interesting piece of
On Wednesday, I started hitting my
groove. I'm kind of excited to work
today. I got some ideas, so I might
clock in just a little early here. I
definitely feel like I'm starting to get
used to this. It's feeling less like
work. And the work I did this morning
set me up perfectly for a meeting I was
going into. Basically, a bunch of
important leadership people were talking
about this big issue that we're having
and how we have to figure out what we're
going to do. And it just so happened to
be the exact thing I had been working on
since yesterday. So, I showed them this
form I made working and everybody loved it.
it.
So, work is going really well, which is
great, but something else really
interesting is happening simultaneously. [music]
[music]
Just last night, I'm having a
conversation with Kate.
>> Yeah. and I immediately had a much more
opinionated response than I normally do.
And she noticed this as well, but I felt
like I had mental clarity and was just
able to process things live in a much
better way. So, I feel like I have more
just mental bandwidth from not plugging
up my brain maximum capacity with all
this stuff all the time, all these
inputs from email and YouTube metrics
and podcasts. And right now, I don't
even desire to use anything digital at
all. Even if I could open up my laptop,
like I don't really want to. I'm kind of
good where I'm at right now. Man,
Man,
And you know what? So, I'm going to do
20 minutes. You can't see it. [clears throat]
[clears throat]
The neural reset happens much quicker
the third time. As the wall pulls you
in, you become more relaxed. [music] But
you kind of come in and out because your
consciousness wants to fight back. But
the longer you go, the less you resist
until you're in a half conscious, half
unconscious state, almost perfectly
[music] fused with the wall. Thoughts
dulled almost to the point of being
dreams. And it feels like if you keep
I still don't know how to describe how
it feels afterwards, but I proceeded to
go into absolute lock in flow state mode
for hours. All right, it worked again.
The wall steering is like a magic trick.
I thought it would be more of a gimmick.
I' I'm like 20 minutes over when I
probably should have clocked out.
cooking up some good stuff. I'm quickly
coming up with solutions to all of the
rest of the problems with this project.
And what I just did now and what I did
yesterday would both be big
accomplishments for any week. Typically,
it's only Wednesday, so that feels good.
I was starting [music] to feel pretty
confident about this whole thing. The
super focused routine was starting to
feel easy. But he who is not prepared
[music] for battle is doomed to fail. I
just made that up. But those
overconfident thoughts would screw me
over. Before we get to what happens
next, here's some vital wisdom about
this routine that I learned tomorrow,
but I want you to see now. So, I think
what I'm finding is there are peaceful
times. There are very boring times.
There's fun times, exciting times, good
times, bad times. It just changes how
available you are to experience them.
So, I kind of made this little chart.
You have more mental bandwidth overall
because you're not filling up your brain
with random stuff which makes you more
available to experience whatever's going
on. Notice all the little things which
makes you more present when those
moments arise. And I think that just
makes your experiences richer, right? So
remember this as we go into tomorrow.
And before things got crazy, I was
having a nice little morning. I wanted
to say thank you very much for all the
support. I've gotten some of the nicest
comments I've ever gotten recently. And
um I'm not stopping.
>> I'M NOT LEAVING.
>> If you're enjoying this one, the best
way to help other people see it is to
push the like button.
>> So do that if you want. But I love
creating this stuff wherever it goes.
Thank you for being a part of it. But
[music] Thursday, woke up with some
ideas what I want to do. So let's do them.
them.
I just spilled coffee on my pants.
Come here. >> [sighs and gasps]
>> [sighs and gasps]
>> Like I said, I was getting a little too
comfortable cuz I was about to severely
mess up this challenge for the first
time. Okay, I got to be honest. I just
maybe stumbled for real for the first
time. After my first phase of work was
going well, I was like, "Oh, I got to
order something for the thumbnail." So,
I went online and while I was doing
that, I ended up checking [music]
my email. I ended up checking my YouTube
stats, saw a bunch of comments, and in
my email, I had a pretty interesting
message from a brand who wants to use
some of my footage. So, immediately I'm
jumping on that, trying to email them
back, do some business, but all of a
sudden, it's been like 20 minutes in the
middle of a work day.
So, I don't know. I kind of messed up a
little bit. A lot of bit. I had no idea
how severely this would impact my brain.
Now I just got to see if I can set all
that aside, go back [music] to work, cuz
now I'm thinking about that business
deal. I've just introduced so many more
thoughts. So, [snorts] probably a mistake.
mistake.
I've now had to fight the urge to check
my email again and follow up. Haven't
quite got done as much work as I want
to. So, I'm gonna delay lunch right now
and try to just focus for a while to
balance it out. It was a real struggle
trying not to keep thinking about this
stuff that I had just seen. But going
through this actually led to one of the
most important breakthroughs in
understanding focus from this whole
routine. So, it's kind of like you got a
little brain.
That what a brain looks like?
Brain/mind. And when you focus on
something, it takes up some of the
space. And what I'm finding is the more
of this extra space you have, the more
available and present you can be. But
also, when you introduce other things
like [music] business email, YouTube
studio, you think, ah, I'll just let
these in for a second. But guess what?
They don't go away. They stay there.
Even if you stop focusing on them,
they're in the back of your mind all
day. This is now your mind for the day.
So now these are competing with the
work, your main task, and your mental
bandwidth. uh gets smaller. That's how
it feels anyway. Once you open a door,
it's open. You can't close it again. So,
be careful what you focus on because you
welcome whatever you focus on. I had all
the pieces and I was starting to put
them together. I was also starting to
push it, I think, too far with the wall
staring. Okay, I have no choice but to
[music] stare at the wall. Dude, we
could probably do 25 minutes, right?
Right. But hey, what's the worst that
>> As you get used to wall staring, you go
through the reset process quicker.
[music] But today, the throbbing came
back with a vengeance. My head was
almost in pain. [music] You can see me
trying to communicate what parts of my
head were hurting at different times,
[music] and the process just felt more
aggressive. As I looked at the wall, I
stopped seeing details on it and I
realized I was almost looking [music]
through it. I wasn't looking at a 2D
surface. It was just a pain that I was
already on the other side of. But then
all of a sudden, I was back in my chair.
With 9 minutes left, I was totally out
of it. It was over. And I was just
sitting there.
I can't imagine doing it much longer
than that. [laughter]
I'm legitimately excited to go back to
work this [music] time. Please let me do something.
something.
I don't know why it feels like my head
is full of sand after I do this. All
right, but I once again entered a flow
state for hours. All right, winding up a
little late again, but I finished a full
mockup of this thing I'm working on and
showed it to my manager who was pumped
about it. He said, "This is gas." That's
As the week went on, the nights got less interesting.
interesting.
Not in a bad way, they're just a little
simpler. Less to show.
Man, those pancakes are going to be good.
good.
I will say at this point in the week, my
brain was getting pretty fried. So much
intense focus. I tried to do an ad read
and uh did not go well. And you want
money. You want to manage your money good.
good. Yikes.
Yikes. [music]
This morning I woke up cooking. All the
pieces were falling into place in my
head after what we were talking about
yesterday with the mental bandwidth and
the brain. I think this is sauce. This
is really important stuff cuz let me
allow me to draw you some more pictures.
So this is that mental bandwidth again.
Here's what I kind of thought it looked
like before this routine. >> [laughter]
>> [laughter]
>> Dang it. So, I used to tell Kate that I
would work on YouTube stuff. I would get
up at 5:00 a.m. and I'd work on YouTube
stuff. Then I would clock into work,
work all day, and then I might come back
and do more YouTube stuff after work.
But seems like a pretty even split.
Still got plenty of space for whatever
else I want to do. Maybe some like
household chores, going to the gym. But
that feels pretty close to what I
wanted. There's a split between YouTube
and work. my two kind of major things
I'm working on. However, this is what it
probably actually was. Hey, it's
slightly better. So, like I said, what I
would call working on YouTube stuff I
thought was just working on the channel
was actually checking email, checking
YouTube studio, which is just where you
see all your channel analytics and
comments and everything. Working on
editing, researching, maybe even
Photoshop, working on a thumbnail. And
then I would clock into work. And at
that point, my brain's already
fragmented thinking about so many
things, not just YouTube. No wonder it's
hard to get work done. Plus, I'm
introducing more things like YouTube
videos, podcasts. That's what that's
supposed to be. And basically, when I
thought my bandwidth was this, it was
Barely enough to do anything meaningful
with Kate, think proactively about
anything. By default, I was just loading
my mind up with all this stuff. So, no
wonder work was suffering a little bit
and I was kind of spread thin all over
the place. I was taking up my mental
real estate. Had almost no bandwidth
left. I think this might be where we
focus our solution to how we implement
this going forward.
You don't I don't need you anymore.
We'll figure that out later cuz I got to
work. Like I said, at this point in the
week, my [music] brain was a little
tired. So, I focus more on just
communicating and sharing more what I've
been working on. I sent a video of what
I made yesterday to the team and
everybody loves it. The CPO, chief
product officer, sent this GIF GIF and
said, "So cool. I am very excited about this.
this.
Just lots of positive feedback." And you
don't normally get really great
responses on any random stuff that you
post. It's just cool to be seeing some
results of this work already. And I was
noticing positive effects in another
really important area of my life.
Something interesting I didn't know
would happen is I feel like I've been
enjoying my time with [music] Kate more
this week. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Like I knew there would be more time
together probably just cuz I'm less
busy, but I'm more entered in and it
feels like we just have [music] a little
bit more fun together. Um, which is
cool. It's why we got married. So, how
have you experienced me doing [music]
this this challenge this time?
>> It feels like a little bit nicer. Like
the vibe in the house feels like more
relaxed. It's like I would recommend it
for other people. It's [music] inspiring
me a little bit more to be on my phone
less. I've had like a couple days where
I'm like, "Okay, I don't need to like
immediately hop on my phone."
>> Oh, yeah.
>> So, it's like that's kind of nice cuz
it's more quiet even in like my own
head. I feel like I can like better
adapt to other like stressors [music] or
things going on.
>> I know. It's been a good one. Very good vibes.
vibes.
>> Yeah. Cool. [music]
[music]
>> I'm
[snorts] less excited about this today,
but we've come this far and 30 minutes
is the longest break I can probably
possibly take at work. This is pushing
At this point I could look at the wall
and instantly dial in to the deepest
level. I had no thoughts and my body was
completely numb. It felt like I had
fully realized what wall staring can be. However,
really dulls [music] the brain. 30
minutes probably overkill. I had once
again come to with like [music] 10
minutes left. Just sitting there waiting
for it to be over. Somehow it takes a
lot out of you. It's like [music]
I can firmly say you don't need to do it
that long
and after another chill but productive
afternoon. Okay, [music]
work is done for the week.
And I'll tell you [music] what, at the
beginning of this week, people were
nervous, uncertainty, people didn't
[music] know what was going to happen,
how this was going to go. And after all
the work I did this week and sharing it
with everybody, [music] everyone is
excited. The sentiment has totally
changed. People are like, "When can we
get this thing out?" And I [music] think
that is a huge win is that people feel
good about the project and I feel
confident that it's going to be really
good. [music]
But I think this really was an important
moment and I showed up for it. So, I'm
happy about that. And this experiment
has been [clears throat] much bigger
than just this week of work, too. So,
we'll talk about that. But for tonight,
it's date night, so I'll talk to you later.
So it is the end of the week. What's
this model for [music] focus? It all
comes back to the concept of mental
bandwidth. Your total capacity to focus
on anything. And every time you devote
your focus to something, it takes some
of that up and then you have less
bandwidth left. And things you focus on
can take the form of inputs and outputs.
Think of inputs as like reading and
outputs as writing. Things where you're
receiving information and things where
you're expressing and creating
information. We'll come back to that
later, but for now, you've got this
mental bandwidth and it kind of resets
every day, more or less. And the trick
is the more mental bandwidth you still
have left, the better your focus is cuz
there's less other things competing for
that focus. And the other thing that
happens if you preserve more mental
bandwidth is you're more present. Having
more mental bandwidth left makes you
more available for any other little
stuff that comes up and a lot of little
stuff comes up in life turns out and
being there to experience it is
presence. It's richness of life. So the
key is preserve your mental bandwidth as
much as you can cuz it's going to
positively affect your productivity and
just your quality of life in general.
It's all kind of tied together in my head.
So, with that in mind, and after
everything I've learned this week,
here's four things I would recommend to
pretty much anybody. One, don't work on
anything before your most important
work. The first thing you devote your
focus to gets absolute prime real estate
in your brain. There's no competition.
So, give that to the top thing that you
want to focus on that day. I'm still
going to get up at 5:00 a.m. and I'm
going to work on videos first thing in
the morning. But I'm going to choose a
single focus and that's all I'm going to
work on that day. If I'm editing, I'm
just in the editing software. One focus.
That's my first suggestion. And my
second one is if you don't feel like
working, stare at a wall for 10 minutes.
I actually would recommend doing that.
Probably cap it off at 15 minutes.
Definitely diminishing returns after
[music] that. But this is kind of like a
hack to reset your mental bandwidth.
It's the closest thing to starting the
day over. This and power naps are both
kind of like little brain resets. And
you'll be surprised how easy it is to
work afterwards.
It works. What could I say? Third
suggestion, use pen and paper whenever
possible to preserve mental bandwidth.
So going back to the inputs outputs
idea, screens tend to have a lot of
inputs. notifications, nicel lookinging
colors and icons. Screens are pretty
much the hub for most of the inputs that
we get. Email, video, podcast, social
media, news, these inputs all just grab
and leech away at your mental bandwidth
versus pen and paper. No inputs at all.
So, if you're doing something that you
could use a screen or pen and paper for,
using pen and paper is a good way to
preserve your mental clarity. These mini
composition books are a dollar at
Walgreens. highly recommend just to have
instant thoughts. No rules on what you
put in your brain here. And that kind of
leads into my fourth suggestion, which
is delay non-essential inputs for as
long as you can. The longer you can go
without letting all this extra stuff in,
taking pieces of your bandwidth, the
more present you can be for everything
before that. However, I will probably
still watch that stuff at lunch. Just
being real, I don't really want to sit
silently at lunch every day. That's a
concession I think I can make. And one
[clears throat] bonus, all of Ryan
Doris's suggestions, rules are great. I
followed all of those this week and I
don't disagree with any of them.
Inhabiting the in between is like my
favorite thing. I enjoy thinking and I
come up with interesting ideas. It makes
a shockingly big difference. And filling
that space up with just checking your
socials actually feels like a pretty big
loss. That's special time. I believe
that. So, let me know if you try any of
this stuff or if you do it already,
leave a comment. But I'm about ready to
watch some garbage again.
>> The tiredness.
>> Dang, you made it all the way to the
end. If you're here, consider
subscribing. You can check out that one,
which is another similar video. There
are many more to come. You're early.
>> Out. The thing is is that you either die
or you adapt. That's it. [music] And if
you don't get injured and you don't die,
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