Imagine if you could master the ability to focus on what you want when you want and how

you want.
We live in a world where billionaires around the globe are coming at us every second of the day through
one of these.
A cell phone.
They want our focus on their content their ads their products.
That helps them.
But how does it help you accomplish your life goals your mission.
How does that advance your profession.
How does it actually make you happier or more fulfilled.
Hi I'm T.J. Walker I'm a personal development trainer and I help people just like you master their ability
to focus on one thing at a time so they can get the most out of their career their profession their
life.
If you want to learn how to take back control of your attention your focus then I urge you to sign up
for this class.
Now you'll learn some groundbreaking techniques on how you can grab your attention your own attention
every second of the day.
The first really important principle when it comes to focus mastery is this.
There is no such thing as multitasking.
So when ask you right now if you're watching this on a desktop or an iPad please put your cell phone
away.
Turn it off.
Put it in another room human beings can focus well on one thing at a time.
I don't care how smart you are educated you are.
It has been proven again and again with numerous research studies.
You can google it if you don't believe me.
Human beings are inherently awful at multitasking.
If you doubt me look at the highway deaths statistics with teenagers and others are texting and driving.
What typically happens.
Now everybody thinks they're a great multitasker and the people who text and drive always think they're
great at it until they crash and die but you're only fooling yourself if you think you can send an e-mail
B on a phone call.
Surf the Internet look at news and respond to Facebook post all at the same time.
And yet so many of us do that.
What happens is there's a switching cost every single time you glance it's up even for a second.
It takes your brain away from what you were doing.
It takes a while to adjust to the new thing that takes a while to adjust to the thing back.
So it is a false savings of time and you're not saving anytime.
Well T.J. you don't live in the real world.
The life is complicated.
I do live in the real world and I can tell you you're not saving time.
Of course there are exceptions.
I can take a shower and brush my teeth at the same time because I don't really have to focus on the
showers as I get the soap off my body and hair.
It doesn't matter if I am not focusing for a second as long as I get most of my teeth.
It doesn't really matter if it's less than perfect so of course there are times when you can multitask.
You could walk down the street and drink a cup of coffee so long as you don't fall in the street or
spill coffee all over yourself you're doing OK.
But for important tasks where your brain is playing a role when you are creating a new concept writing
something important speaking to someone consultant creating something meaningful.
Brain has to focus on one thing at a time so critically important less.
I know you've heard it.
You've read it but it is true.
So I'm going to ask you to start right now.
If you're focusing on this class put away other distractions.
You're trying to listen to music and do this class turn the music off if you're still trying to text
and other than put your cell phones and other digital gadgets away.
Focus on one thing at a time you'll actually finish more accomplished more with fewer errors than the
old way of trying to do three things at once.
We all lie to ourselves and tell ourselves we can multitask but we can't I can't.
Neither can you.
We live in the best of times and we live in the worst of times for most of human history the last hundred
thousand years or so it was relatively easy to focus on one thing at a time.
You could focus just on the fire or just looking that that one picture on your cable.
Most people throughout human history didn't have libraries media books cell phones videos and until
just a hundred or so years ago most people didn't even have one book.
Then people had one book and a whole lot of time on their hands to read that one book.
Think contemplate.
You could be Thoreau go out into the woods and walk around stay in a little hut.
Nothing to do but think contemplate right.
Sounds good.
The problem was for most of human history if you had an idea if you were creative there was no way of
distributing your ideas.
There was no way of making money.
You had to spend your time just scratching out a subsistence living farming.
Making money just to feed yourself.
So I don't really want to go back to those days.
Nowadays it's never been easier to make money off of your ideas your brain power your creativity whether
you're creating and writing a book an online course a software program a new digital business.
There's so many ways of creating things.
Once you focus and use your creative powers but here's the problem.
There's never been more distractions to take away our focus especially in the last half dozen dozen
15 years through this thing.
The smartphone.
This is a computer that connects nine tenths of the world with every idea ever known to mankind and
humankind every thought joke nonsense.
It's all connected to us right here.
So we live in a time of super abundance over abundance most of human history.
It was about scarcity No content no books no intellectual enrichment for most of human history frankly
not a lot of food for most people.
Starvation was the norm rather than the exception and not a lot of stuff.
You ordered a new pair of pants you had to sew it make it from scratch you wanted a house you had a
builder from scratch.
So we've gone from a time of lack of abundance now to super abundance.
We just have so much information.
Every movie ever made is available every book every blog every Web site everything is bombarding our
eyes so we have this over abundance of stuff demanding our attention.
Next we have an overabundance of advertisements every kind of food Coca-Cola McDonald's.
You go into a gas station you've got twenty thousand types of food products staring at you saying Hey
grab me and eat me now and the final bit of over abundance is just stuff with Amazon one click or whatever
your preferred online storage you get almost anything made anywhere in the world delivered to your doorstep
quickly often cheaply.
So we are inundated with either our staff taking care of our staff are looking at ads and discounts
for more stuff because of that.
You put these three factors together it's harder for us to really focus on our own life.
What is important.
What's important to you and that's what this course is about is helping you figure out how to contain
and control this super abundance because I'm not asking you to throw away your phone and go live on
Walden Pond.
That's not realistic.
I am asking you to control what goes in your eyeballs what goes in your mouth what goes into your home
and office in terms of stuff so that you have mastery over what you focus on.
That's what we're trying to do right here.
or whatever
your doorstep
I HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE FOR YEARS AND YEARS AND YEARS I'VE NEVER REALLY LIKED meditation.
I've tried yoga many times didn't like yoga at all.
But here's the thing.
Virtually every single wildly successful person I know of everyone in business the arts you name the
field they all say the same thing they do either one of these or both of these things meditation or
yoga or both and a couple of years ago I went back and tried meditation again and I finally found a
system that worked for me.
Now there are a gazillion types of meditation but the one thing they all have in common generally is
when you were meditating you are not reading internet news you're not responding to Facebook posts you're
not responding to text you're not buying something new on Amazon you are with yourself.
This allows you to focus.
That's why I am a huge proponent of starting off each day with meditation I only do it for 10 minutes
a day.
Some people might do it for as little as five minutes a day if you tell yourself Oh I'd love to there's
no time you are fooling yourself.
You gain so much more by taking control over your focus and meditation is one of the best ways of doing
it.
So I urge you give some real thought I'll give you more tips further on in the course but give some
real thought to how and when you want to do meditation on a daily basis.
You don't have to sit with your legs crossed and go on.
You can just sit anywhere you can sit on a bus.
Close your eyes and no one will even know you.
k posts you're
People who have mastered their ability to focus on the stuff they want to focus on plan their day in
advance.
Now some people like to have a yearly plan.
Some people plan monthly.
Some people's men sometimes Sunday night planning their whole week.
Some people spend some time in the evening planning the next day.
Others just spend five minutes.
First thing in the morning planning their day.
There's no one perfect way of doing it.
There is a perfect way.
Messing this up and losing all focus in your life and that way is to not have a plan to simply get up
or roll into the office and let's check e-mail.
Oh this happened oh there's a fire here old someone's angry.
And you spend the whole day doing activity and putting out fires and it's the end of the day.
What did you accomplish.
Probably not much.
You were just bouncing or were playing whack a mole.
That kid's toy where you hit with a mallet the mold that pops up are you're like one of these old timey
pinball machines just bouncing around.
That's not going to work.
So I urge you spend some time each day planning your day whether it's you planning tomorrow or you're
planning to that and put it on a calendar you can use paper you can use electronic.
I use Google Calendar.
I'm not promoting Google but you need to have it written down.
You need to carve out what's most important for you to focus on today.
I have on my calendar a nice four hour block of time record videos for focus Mastery course that's on
my calendar.
So I knew that a couple of days ago I looked this morning there it was I didn't have to think about
it.
Now if a client or someone's calling me do I let that interrupt me.
No I've turned my phone off because this is important when you tell yourself that you can't possibly
turn off your phone or go more than five minutes without looking at e-mail which you're really saying
is whatever your project is whatever it is you're trying to create whether you are doing a new business
plan creating new software plan whether it is doing your own online course writing a novel what you're
really saying is your creation isn't as important for you to focus on then what other people want you
to focus on your attention isn't as important as that spammer from the 800 number calling you telling
you you have qualified for another loan that you don't need.
So that's why it's critically important figure out a time when you are going to plan out your day and
you got to write down on your calendar the times when you're going to focus on the things that are most
important to you.
And I'm not suggesting you plan out 24 hours a day in five minute increments.
There are very few people who can do that not go crazy.
I would go crazy if I did that.
But you do have to figure out what's the most important thing for you to focus on today.
That is something I do like to do if I can focus on this one thing and accomplish that then all the
other calls e-mails other stuff paperwork that can happen too but it's not taking my focus away from
what's most important.
We live in an era of specialization.
You may know a handy man or handy person in your neighborhood or your community.
They can be good at a whole lot of things and they can maybe fix a roof and a wall and a fence.
But if they're good at everything they're not specialists.
This person may make more than minimum wage but they make almost nothing compared to a brain surgeon
or a great trial attorney or the number one python programmer in your community because the handy man
the generalist the handy woman isn't really focused and in this modern era when anyone can pick up their
phone and try to find the very best.
The highest reviewed in their community in their city their state their country their kind and the whole
world.
It pays to really focus on being the best at one thing.
Go deep.
That's what focus can do especially if it is sustained.
So I want you to give some real thought to what is it that you enjoy doing that you're good at that
other people appreciate and are willing to pay for ideally.
What is it you want to focus on.
Because by doing that you're gonna make yourself more successful.
You will probably enjoy life and I'm not asking you to focus on just the simplest thing to make money.
It's got to be something that you find rewarding enriching and then go deep.
I'll tell you why more in a moment.
brain surgeon
handy man
Couple of decades ago I was starting my business for real.
Now I had done media training public speaking training on the side for many years.
I had worked on political campaigns.
I had worked for members of United States Congress in Washington.
I'd worked in state government I'd done a lot of thanks Internet start ups and frankly I'd fail at a
lot of these things and most of these things hosting talk radio shows TV shows.
I had a lot of interests and passions but I didn't have that clear cut focus.
Finally I decided it was time to get serious about making a living and really creating something of
substance.
So I started my own consulting firm and in the very first year the first month I started off with about
a dozen things that I could do on my web page I could do public speaking training media training I had
great Internet videos.
This was before the days of YouTube.
I can create Internet audio press releases I can help you raise money from venture cash.
I had about a dozen different things.
I was all over the place.
I had something called the Public Relations TV network.
I had something called the Public Relations radio network right.
Interviewed PR people.
This was before the days of podcasting but it was essentially a podcast and I had all these interesting
things going on but I was spinning my wheels because I didn't have focus.
I started my business in a recession and I had virtually no money and I was making no money.
I don't say this to brand.
So we should sound like a brag but my entire first year of business I made ten thousand dollars.
And in New York City even back then that was below the poverty line.
So it was a tough tough existence.
But here's what I did though every single month I removed one thing off of my web site that I said I
did.
So I started off with a dozen things.
Each month I would take one thing all the end of the year.
I got down to one thing presentation skills training now that included media training but it didn't
include making audios and videos and podcasting and video press releases and advice on.
I didn't include all those things that included one thing I hope people speak more effectively what
I could sum it up in one short sentence one phrase that allowed me to focus because I was focused on
one thing.
Now I didn't have to read books on 25 different subject matters to be good at what I was doing.
I could just focus on books that related to spoken communication.
Now I didn't have to do twenty five newsletters or a dozen newsletters on a dozen different topics.
I could write a newsletter just on spoken communication tips.
When I started making videos and audios back then DVD and C.D. I didn't have to do it on all these different
topics.
I could just make videos and audios on this subject when I started blogging.
This was really really early in the blogging game.
I focused on just spoken communication tips and I did it every single day seven days a week for many
years so I really nailed that subject in my own mind.
I was the number one in the world.
Others could disagree with that but I certainly established a lot of credentials in the field of public
speaking training and media training because of focus.
It's not that I was innately a better speaker than anyone else or than a lot of great speaking experts
it's not that I'd study this stuff in school I majored in philosophy at school.
It's because I focused it's what I read every day.
It's what I watched.
It's what I thought about.
It's what I wrote.
It's what I created.
Focus focus focus.
And that allowed me to establish a major international brand and pretty soon I was being hired to conduct
public speaking training workshops in India and Central Europe and South America all over the world.
So I'm not saying it's always that easy and it wasn't exactly easy for me but it was so much easier
because I focused my attention on one thing.
Now this can help you in business it can help you in your private life your personal.
It can help you in every aspect of life.
If you focus.
That's why I want you to really give thought to mastering your ability to focus on one thing at a time
because when you do this all sorts of good things can happen to you.
LIFE IS THE SUM OF YOUR DAILY HABITS

What life do you want to create for yourself on a daily basis.

Before you can create great works of art great music great new business theory use great new online
products you've got to create your own life and life often consists of daily mundane habits.
Do you want to get up late and eat donuts and be half asleep rolling into work being late for that too.
That's a habit and a lot of people get into that habit.
You've got to decide what habits you want.
So in this section of the course we're going to really try to isolate the exact habits you're looking
to build.
Now everybody has some bad habit I still have some bad habits but let me talk to my wife.
I still have some bad habits but that doesn't mean you can't try to improve them on a daily basis.
So a part of what create accuracy is all about.
And this selfie speak programming is the first act of creation.
The primary thing that we all have the ability to create is our own life and our life consists of what
we do or don't do all day long.
If you just go with the flow.
If you just do what the rest of society tells you it can be a boring mundane and meaningless on fulfilling
life.
So I need you to start reflecting on what's a perfect day for you.
I don't mean perfect and if I win the lottery or the three most beautiful people come up to me and tell
me they've fallen in love.
I mean a normal day.
What would be the high deal day.
What time to get up.
What do you do.
What do you eat.
What do you read.
What do you think about.
Do you meditate or not.
You've got to think about this because here's the thing I can't be your guru.
I would love to be your guru.
A lot of gurus out there would love to be your guru.
But if you really want to be creative you have to be your own Guru.
You had to create the Guru inside of you.
You have to be directed from an internal perspective not external forces.
If you are completely controlled by external forces even if it's a good source you're not going to be
creative or certainly has created as you could be.
So you've got to really put your own guru hat on and think about if you were up on stage in front of
a thousand you's.
What would you be telling yourself you need to be doing on a daily basis.
What do you want to do when you first get up.
What do you want to do.
The last thing before you go to sleep.
Do you want to mindlessly watch some sitcom as you doze off fully dressed on the couch with a half open
bag of chips.
That is the reality for a lot of people it doesn't have to be your reality.
You get to decide your reality not deciding is deciding because it's just too easy to fall asleep in
front of Netflix or a computer screen or a cell phone.
I'm sure at this point that hasn't happened to you it's happened to someone in your family.
Person is asleep and they're holding their cell phone.
It's kind of funny but it's kind of sad too.
I don't think that's anyone's ideal way of ending the day.
So right now really think about what is it you want your day to look like in terms of daily habits.
If you care about your weight for example let's say you're one of many billions of people in the world
overweight you can just decide a daily habit is you're going to walk 10000 steps every day.
If you wanted to you could decide you're only going to have a snack of fresh fruit when you're hungry
during the day.
These are your decisions.
Start deciding now.

it’s the mundane things that matter

whether you are an ambani or a salaried person.
Of course big events can be life changers going to that big motivational workshop with 5000 other people
walking across coal that might be exciting.
Maybe it changes something.
Maybe it's the trip to Europe or to Asia you've dreamed of.
That really brought clarity but if you talk to the best riders in the world the best artist in the world
the best app creators in the world and say Where do your creations come from.
They never say Well T.J. I was just sitting around flicking around all the news channels and doing nothing
reading the newspaper online.
And I got this great idea and a month later I'm rich and famous that's not how it works.
They become successful because of daily habits.
Michael Phelps didn't win all those Olympic gold medals just because he had a vision of himself of being
a fast swimmer.
He didn't win all those medals because he visualize success and meditated about it.
He won all those medals in part an interesting physique uniquely built for swimming but also because
he swam for a 10 hours a day for decades daily habits.
In the pool when it's cold at 6:00 a.m..
That's what you need to do if you want to be an Olympic caliber swimmer.
Now you could swim 10 hours a day and not get to the Olympics but if you want to be successful in something
you have to look at it in terms of the daily habits so much of success in any aspect of life it all
comes down to your daily habits being thin and in shape is not about oh I didn't have a big dinner at
Christmas or I didn't have birthday cake on my birthday because you can have a big meal on a major religious
holiday.
You can have cake on your birthday and still be your ideal weight.
What matters is what do you eat on a daily basis.
You can have a day where you sit back and just lounge around the pool and don't lift a finger and don't
move at all and be healthy but if you want to be healthy on a daily basis you need to figure out how
to walk 10000 or 12000 steps if you really want to be ambitious or get some form of aerobics or you
need to do it on a daily basis if you want to create.
You've got to carve out some time each day to create you could be on a subway you can be on a bus rather
than scrolling internet news tell yourself I'm going to make one short poem a day one haiku a day.
I can do it in 60 seconds or one drawing a day.
Figure out what you want your daily habits to be.
It's very easy to go to a big motivational workshop and come up with all these pie in the sky ideas
of six years from now.
I'll have my own talk show and be famous in ten years from now.
I'll be so wealthy I'll be a philanthropist and maybe.
And it's good to plan long term but the easiest way to get to long term is to create daily habits that
position you to get to that point that position you for success that position you for making a teeny
tiny small element of improvement every single day we often overestimate how much can really be done
in the short term.
And so we try it and we get flustered Oh you know I went to a book writing conference for a weekend
I didn't become a millionaire in 30 days I think they advertise so you know writing a book is to tie
we overestimate
that it's going to be easy.
Now on the other hand we often don't look into how much we can accomplish long term.
You chip away at it every day for six months a year a year and a half you can accomplish a tremendous
amount.
Doesn't matter if it's writing a novel writing new software.
Coming up with a business plan changing your body changing your weight changing your sleep patterns.
So that's what I want you to do right now.
Now every great motivational speaker workshop seminar they typically ask you to do this the first day.
Write down all your specific goals in life.
Where do you want to be five years from now 10 years from now.
I want you to think about those things.
I want you to do is to write down all of the things that you think someone needs to do on a daily basis.
In order to reach those goals.
So start writing now.
l in something

ajor religious
Selfie Speak Audio

What is a selfie speak programming.

Audio.
This is a central part of treed accuracy.
It's a central part of my programming to help people like you and it's a simple concept.
The idea is your brain is kind of like a computer.
Now it's a little bit different but in some ways it is like a computer it has to be programmed all day
long.
We're programmed by advertising billboards pop up ads images we see on social media and Instagram our
likes dislikes are shaped by what we're constantly hearing radio ads billions of dollars are still spent
on that and more on podcast ads are spent to program us to influence us so the whole idea of selfie
speak programming is you're going to take back that power and program yourself it doesn't require a
big fancy TV budget doesn't require graphic arts skills you're not designing signs that have to look
pretty to get your attention as you walk by your mere it's just audio.
So the reason I love audio is it's the easiest fastest cheapest way of creating a piece of content influence
you unless you don't have the ability to speak or to even generate it with a computer.
It's pretty easy to make an audio all you do is grab your cell phone go to the audio memo recording
section hit record and talk little background sound doesn't matter.
CAR HONKING does it matter.
Dog Barking it doesn't really matter.
Just talk and tell yourself what it is you want you to do.
That's the self part.
It's you speaking and it's yourself.
So it's not a selfie photo.
It's a selfie.
Audio you're capturing your own audio.
It's only for you to listen to.
Here's the magic if you just record it once and say Well T.J. I want you to be a handsome millionaire
and be worth one hundred million dollars within three years.
Go do it.
That's kind of worthless.
That's so vague and general and non-specific.
Plus if I just say it once and record it it's worthless.
You've got to be highly specific and you've kind of listened to it.
Ideally every single day you listen to ads every day from every major corporation.
You get some type of an ad from Facebook every day.
If you go on to Facebook.
So why not have some ads just for you.
Why not program your brain exactly the way you want.
It's so simple.
It seems almost stupid.
It's so simple it seems almost cheesy.
Well I'm going to talk to myself
until a few years ago the idea of taking tons of pictures of yourself would seem ridiculous and now
virtually everyone in the world is comfortable with it and does it.
Now I'm not suggesting you walk around town in front of people recording yourself.
No go to a room alone do it alone and make it just for your years.
That is the essence of selfie speak programming.
In the next video you will hear an example a daily selfie speak programming audio.
I urge you don't use mine.
Create your own.
If you haven't gotten around to it it's just not happening.
Then you could use mine and it's going to be available in an audio download music.
But it right on your phone so I will give that to you in just a moment.
But start thinking about how to create your own selfie speak programming and listen to the next one
to give you a template.
Now it's always personal.
You may have something you don't want anyone to hear.
I'm not going to tell you everything in my own.
But I will share with you one where I do have a lot of components in mind and also has generic things
that I think everyone would aspire to have as a daily habit.
You are a productive person.
You are highly creative and you get the most out of every minute of life.
Even when you're focusing on relaxing and enjoying.
When you do that you're in the moment and enjoying.
You're a person who takes care of details.
You're well organized and you don't procrastinate.
You stay in control.
That's what allows you to keep fit and be healthy.
You see problems as opportunities and you're never ever afraid of success.
You learn everything you can about your job and your career.
You always strive for the law.
You are about action having goals taking action and not giving up.
You believe in yourself.
You keep your priorities straight because of that.
You're a positive thinker.
You chart your own course in life.
This allows you to be aggressive and assertive which removes a lot of stress.
You control your stress.
You do this in part by thinking big.
You let your creative juices flow.
You don't let others control your destiny.
You control your own destiny.
You do this in part by visualizing your goals and the outcome of your goals because you're focused on
what you want.
You attract what you desire.
You do this in part by practicing mindfulness.
You meditate daily you exercise daily.
You create your own future.
You take responsibility for yourself.
You get your priorities exactly right the way you want them to be because you believe in yourself.
Your goals are not just general.
They are specific and you review them.
You spend some time every single day improving your mind.
You review your results and you change accordingly you improve things get along well with people.
You a tolerant person.
You don't hate.
You show courage and all that you do.
You do everything with love and positivity.
You are an honest person.
You work hard and you are happy to be rewarded.
Money is good.
And it will come to you.
You are a person who keeps commitments.
If you agree to something you show up and you show up on time you are always punctual.
You do things and you do them with joy.
You do them with love.
And that's why you're not afraid to show affection.
You're a strong person but in an affectionate and loving person you manage your time well you're well
organized You're put together nicely you dress well and that's why you can sell yourself to others.
Sell yourself because you're selling your ideals and what you stand for.
You are a great communicator.
You're a great presenter.
You can talk well about yourself and your accomplishments whether you're talking to one person a hundred
or a thousand.
You work hard but you also play.
You take time off.
You deserve vacations and you take vacations.
You are healthy.
You eat mostly vegetables and fruit.
You avoid processed foods you avoid sugar.
You avoid soft drinks you avoid foods that come in packages you eat mostly fresh vegetables and fruit
and you mostly drink water.
You are a sympathetic empathetic person.
Help others with their goals.
You can't assistance to others.
You are an optimistic person who first looks for the best in others.
You trust others to be trustworthy.
Until proven otherwise and you act in a trustworthy way you are a kind thoughtful person who sees the
big picture.
You are successful have a great day.
This whole section is going to go into detail excruciating detail at some point on how you can control
what's going into your brain.
The news you watch the videos you consume the entertainment because you cannot truly have mastery over
your focus.
If you're just letting unfiltered garbage nonsense noise gossip entertainment news in your head all
day long and unfortunately it's just easy for that to happen.
So please pay special attention to this section because without mastering this it's going to be very
hard to really gain control over your own focus.
mastery over
Would you want to eat lettuce or rice or tomatoes that were grown in the middle of a toxic waste dump.
Sounds like a stupid question.
Obviously no.
Why not.
You don't want something that was created in an environment that is disgusting it could poison you.
Well we know that when it comes to food.
And yet somehow we expect our brains to be able to create fantastic innovations wonderful things with
books software business plans and yet our brains are often toxic waste dumps.
Why is that.
Because all the toxins from this are coming right here.
This is one of the world's great super computers also known as a cell phone.
Like anyone else has it is more powerful than the most powerful computer that existed just two and a
half decades ago.
It connects with everything.
The problem with that is it connects with every single silly bit of nonsense.
Every bit of hatred every bit of bile every silly videogame every nonsense everyone you ever went to
high school with.
It's all right here.
Now I'm not anti self I'm not asking you to throw it away.
I would get upset if someone threw away myself.
But notice what you see right now I'm pushing the UN snot on.
I took the time to turn off my cell phone.
One of the most important things you can ever do if you want to unleash your creativity if you want
to enable yourself to be innovative to think to be able to do something substantial in life in this
world.
You've got to learn how to turn off your cell phone.
Sometimes I'm sure you've seen people you may have family members who if they had a choice between cutting
off their arm and not having a cell phone for a day they would say sure get me the axe.
It's glued in their hands and the problem is it's destroying their brain it's frying their brain.
Now I'm not a social scientific researcher.
I'm not going to give you all the evidence about how cell phones are destroying you.
They're everywhere it's in the news every day and you could in fact fry your brain just reading stories
about how the Internet through the cell phone is frying our brain.
You have to take control over the inputs in your eyes and your brain in your ears.
And if you're on your cell phone all day long and you're on Facebook looking at some important stuff
from family members but a lot of nonsense.
If you're on multiple news sites and you're not in the news business.
If you follow entertainment news and celebrity divorces and you're not an entertainment reporter guess
what.
All of that is just toxic waste.
Certainly if you're on Reddit and other Web sites where people are flaming each other and just screaming
and cursing and saying atrocities about anyone who disagrees with them that's a toxin and you may think
you're immune to it you're not.
None of us is.
That's why it's critically important to take control over what goes in to your brain.
What are your eyes consuming.
So we're going to spend some time on that specifically how to make this thing something that helps you.
How do we make this thing something that enables your creativity rather than destroying your creativity.
Because if you can't think because every second of the day is filled with text and emails and instant
messages and tweets.
Your brain is going to fry and there is going to be nothing left to create or think or reflect upon.
So this is the worst thing that was ever created.
When it comes to destroying people's minds and productivity it's also the best thing ever created because
hundreds of millions of articles news sources millions of books basically all known information the
world is available for free if we use this to the right way but we have to actively seek that out.
If we just sit back Amazon Facebook Google Ads friends nonsense spam will be reaching us aggressively
to try to control our brain.
between cutting
You may say to yourself Well T.J. I don't spend more than 10 minutes on Facebook.
I don't tweet.
I don't play video games.
I'm pretty good.
But I do wake up and I go to the New York Times and The London Times Web site and on my hour commute
to work.
I look at the BBC and Sky TV and on my way home I read Slate magazine online Vox.
Maybe the Drudge Report before you know it.
It all up.
You may have spent three hours a day reading online news.
I'm here to tell you that's too much unless you are a news reporter 3 hours an online news use just
too much so much of it is repetitive.
A lot of it is breaking news.
Here's the thing you don't need to know.
Breaking news.
It's very rare that you need to know breaking news.
If there is a hurricane coming someone will probably tell you I was in New York City in an office in
Midtown on September 11th 2001.
I didn't have the radio on I didn't have a TV on and this was before there was social media.
I wasn't looking at a news site.
Guess what.
The News found me.
People came into my office people were talking about it someone and the whole office had a radio on
or a TV on and we could see what was happening on 9/11.
So if it's really big news the news will find you.
You don't have to be on all the time.
Now this is an issue that I've had to struggle with because my whole life I've been what I consider
to be a news junkie I like news I like getting up reading a newspaper.
Here's the thing though.
Traditionally and as a kid and as a young man being a news junkie meant you spent thirty thirty five
minutes reading one newspaper and a 30 minute local newscast and maybe a 30 minute national news cast
that was about all you could consume.
So it just didn't take that much time.
It's not like that anymore.
You can fool yourself into watching about the latest airplane that's disappeared that oh this is important
I needed it.
You don't need to know unless you have a family member on that plane or you're on that plane otherwise
read a three sentence summary of it tomorrow or the next day.
It's about proportion.
I'm not telling you you should just become a hermit not care about anyone but yourself.
There are personal development experts who say you just never ever ever read news.
I think that's going too far.
You're going to be curious about the world which I think you have to be to be create.
You do have to consume some news.
Yes you may consider yourself a citizen of the world but you're also a citizen of a particular country
and a city maybe a state maybe a municipality and you're going to be a horrible citizen you're going
to be a freeloader if you never know what's going on with public policy in your area.
So I'm not asking you to tune out completely but I am asking you to closely monitor it because it's
so easy to check one more story.
Oh that story's recommending this story.
And before you know it you can finish dinner at six thirty be playing around with an iPad look at the
clock it's nine forty five what have you done.
Did you create anything now.
Did you watch any world class movie or entertainment even.
No.
Did you have an interesting meaningful conversation with a family member.
No.
You just caught up on the day's news.
Will you remember any of it a day later no it's emptiness.
So if you want to be creative if you want to really reach your full potential as a human being as a
creator as someone who's doing interesting fulfilling things in life you're going to have to really
monitor how you use your cell phone specifically how you monitor news and entertainment your problem
might not be news but it might be watching cat videos.
It could be anything.
If it's grabbing your attention then it's someone else's creativity going in your brain it's not your
creativity going anyplace else.
And if it's too much even if it's a good thing that's too much of a good thing it becomes a bad thing.
I want you to have a rule for this.
Your iPad your computer.
I don't want it to be my role.
I'll share with you my rule.
But I want you to have some rule so that you hold yourself accountable.
The rule I have is no more than one hour per day consuming news online and social media.
Now I don't count the time that I'm doing social media for my business where I respond to students from
my courses on my student Facebook page and other platforms.
That's a part of my professional work.
But as far as wanting to see what friends family are up to.
Friends from college.
Their Facebook posts.
What's going on in my favorite news outlets and of course I have a number of favorite news outlets.
I check out every single day.
I limit all of that to one hour a day.
The other limit.
That I have is one hour of video entertainment a day now.
On the one hand that may seem like a lot that's still three hundred sixty five hours.
I mean you can watch more than a hundred movies a year.
Great movies a year and a whole bunch of sitcoms for that.
But what you can't do is just come home from work six thirty.
Pour yourself a beer a martini in a glass of wine and just watch sitcom after a sitcom and movie until
midnight.
Because that's not an hour a day almost nothing that's five and a half hours a day.
That really adds a mass and maybe you don't watch that much but add up every little snippet throughout
the day.
It adds up.
You've got 10 minutes at the doctor's office to wait.
Are you going to watch that entertainment clip that setup or you can read a book about some new passion
you have or something that really excites you where you're learning.
It is a conscious choice.
I've got a..
Video obviously I make my life my livelihood making video selling video teaching people how to speak
and so I'm not a..
Video but too much of a good thing is not good.
The problem is it's just a lot easier to passively sit back veg out have a movie or sit come on not
even be paying attention that much.
You can't zone out reading a book that way you're reading it or you're not.
You're much more actively using your brain when you are reading.
So here's the way this works as a practical matter.
If it's after eight o'clock I've read stories to my daughter.
Put her to bed and I want to relax.
Well if I've already done a lot of creation of the day made a lot of videos been spending four hours
or plus in deep work if I've done all the other things I want to do in life I've already read a book
I've already done all the exercise I want to do I've done everything that I really wanted to do and
I'm tired I just don't want to think but I don't want to go to sleep yet and it's eight thirty.
Sure I will watch an hour entertainment sitcom and maybe if I didn't watch anything yesterday now I
banked an hour.
I've got two hours that's more than enough time to watch a full movie.
Now I still try to read before going to bed.
I try to have no electronics an hour before bed which we'll talk about later in the health section of
this course.
But you can watch video but if you're not careful it can just take over your life.
I'm sure you know many people in your life smart educated maybe they went to some of the best universities
in the world.
You ask them Do you read books.
Now I read online articles and I watch TV and Netflix.
These are some of the smartest most educated people in the world.
They don't really read books anymore.
I hope you're not like that.
And if you are I hope you can change.
You can change if you decide you're going to be in control.
If you just kind of go with the flow you're not going to be able to compete because Netflix is going
to be great.
It's sending you an e-mail all we think you're gonna like this show and you look at it it looks fascinating.
Your favorite author who maybe died 20 years ago isn't going to be sending in new e-mails every day
to read their book.
A scientist who is exploring areas that you really care about isn't going to be sending you an email
every day saying please read my scientific scholarly paper you're going to have to actively seek data
if it's something you want not saying you have to read scientific literature every night but you've
got to be aware of what you're consuming I mean imagine if you go to a doctor who specializes in obesity
in your way 800 pounds.
The doctor's going to want to know what are you eating in a typical day.
If you just said I don't really know and think about it.
The first thing that doctor is going to do is get you to actually write down what you're eating.
Figure out what's going into your body.
I want you to figure out what's going in to your mind.
If we don't control that doesn't matter what else you do you're not going to be able to create because
you're not going to be able to think because you're not going to control your brain because your brain
is going to be controlled by these other creators and you're going to be controlled by Google and Amazon
and Netflix and Facebook and I like all of them.
I want you to be in control.
st universities
One of the biggest productivity traps in the world these days one of the biggest destroyers of your
creativity of your ability to think is email.
Now we have to use e-mail.
I understand that I'm not asking you to never use email but I do want you to follow some of these tips.
Number one Never give out your real email address to anyone unless you can't do that thing you want
without them having it do not just give out your email address willy nilly because you'll be hearing
from people for ever number to create a special email address that is just for things that are not of
high importance.
So that if you only checked it once every two months it just wouldn't matter.
There are certain Web sites that you have to access certain materials they just won't give it to you
unless you give them an email address.
I understand that create a separate email account that you may check right away to confirm something
if it's sent to you.
But if you don't look at it for two months it just doesn't matter.
Next big tip.
Any single newsletter promotional you get look at it and ask yourself what's the worst that can happen
in your life.
If you did not receive this the answer is not much.
Don't hit delete and don't even hit spam hit unsubscribe.
It still comes to you then hits spam and unsubscribe as well.
The problem with just putting things in your spam folder is occasionally really important stuff is going
to get caught up in your spam folder and you're going to have to check your spam folder from time to
time.
And if you have 10 trillion junk e-mails in there it's going to make that process much much harder and
more time consuming so just ask yourself Do I really need to sign up for this newsletter or can I just
actively go to that Web site myself every three months if it's not urgent.
Don't sign up in the newsletter.
Don't give people your main email address and be ruthless with unsubscribe.
That's how you can protect from just having a mountain of e-mail because let's face it if you're feeling
a little bit lazy unmotivated but you feel like you have to work you can kind of slowly just go through
your e-mail all day long and kid yourself pretend that you're working but what have you accomplished.
In most cases absolutely nothing.
Time for some basic cell phone hygiene tips.
Big tip number one delete every single social media app you have on your phone.
Facebook Snapchat take them all off you can still go to those sites but do it on a desktop a laptop
an eye patch or if you want ease your cell phone force yourself to have to type in F.A. CB OK.
Dot com because here's the thing.
You'll go there a lot less.
The problem with having the apps on the phone is it just becomes the quick default.
Let me eliminate my boredom and before you know it those minutes have added up to hours a day.
Trust me you're not gonna lose anything in your life by not having your social media apps on your phone.
Again caveat.
If you make your living as an Instagram influencer and you get paid millions of dollars a year for putting
new pictures up every 10 seconds.
OK that's different.
That's your job.
I don't think that's you.
So that's step number one.
Just delete all social media apps on your site.
The next step.
Do not let anyone send you automatic notifications.
Now I like Netflix.
I do watch movies from time to time but I don't want notifications every single day on some great movie
or TV show that Netflix thinks I might want.
You go into your settings for notifications and you disable it so that no one can send you notifications.
You need to actively seek it out again.
The problem is if everyone else in the world is notifying you.
Here's the latest movie here's the latest this here's the latest coupon.
You don't have time to think your own thoughts.
You don't have time to read important books that are going to educate you to help you become a better
creator and you don't have time for solitude.
Next big thing you need to do is learn the on off button.
Right now I'm making a video for you.
It is 9:00 a.m. on a Friday morning people could be texting me.
People could be calling me but I don't want to talk to them.
I want to talk to you.
Just turn the phone off.
It is the absolute best to.
The other thing you can do is put on Do Not Disturb certainly an hour before you want to go to sleep.
Put it on Do Not Disturb.
And so that it cannot come on no calls no text and tell an hour or so after you wake up.
So I put my phone I do not disturb from 9:00 p.m. to 7:00 a. m. someone can still leave a voicemail.
They can send me a text.
I'll get it the next day.
This eliminates the need.
Oh you're just about to go to bed.
Let me just check.
Oh my God look at this text that came in at eleven fifty three.
Ruin the night's sleep that way.
So program it.
That is a setting you can put on automatically every day.
I don't have to set my phone every night to go to the Do Not Disturb zone.
You can also use it throughout the day when you want to think when you're doing deep work when you need
to concentrate or if you have a real conversation with a friend a colleague a family member a client
or customer.
That is basic basic phone etiquette.
Also just go through every single app.
Get rid of the clutter.
You haven't used something and the last few months just get rid of it the less clutter you have on your
phone is like less clutter in your office your home.
It just clears the brain.
hen you need
How else can you gain control over inputs into your brain especially from the world's most powerful
supercomputer.
Your cell phone.
There are some very specific tactics you can use.
One of them is to simply turn your phone off you're having dinner with a good friend.
Nothing ruder than that.
It's not that urgent it really isn't another way you can use your phone is put on Do Not Disturb.
Now I didn't use that for years but it's an extraordinarily useful function to simply put your phone
on a do not disturb mode.
It's in your settings if you haven't used it before it's easy to find and there are some things you
can schedule.
I have my phone on Do Not Disturb from 9 pm to 7 a.m. I don't need extra calls coming in past 9.
It's that urgent someone really needs me they can find me on my home phone so that's the next big key
block out certain times where it's on Do Not Disturb.
Now the next thing I really really recommend.
I'm very excited about site blockers.
These are apps programs you put on your computer and you can establish what sites you have access to.
Now I'm going to mention one I'm not advocating this one I'm not a spokesperson for this one I'm about
to mention I don't get affiliates but I use an app called Freedom dot to get it freedom to and what
this app does as I put it on my main computer.
I then install the app on my cell phone on my iPad on other computers office and home and then I make
it so that it blocks every Web site and my email.
Why would I do that.
It's because when I'm in a creation mode I need to be creative.
So if I'm making videos for you or writing outlines I need to focus.
So if I make a video if my computer isn't blocked once I finished one it's very tempting to on just
canned chicken meal per second both massive massive switching costs your brain goes over here it is
many minutes before you can really get back to where you are you're kidding yourself I'm kidding myself
if I think I can switch back and forth tremendous amount of research I don't take my word for it do
a google search.
It's a tremendous amount of research on the lost time from these switching tasks from so-called multitasking.
If you want to get something done to really think to be creative you can't do one quick peek at Facebook.
It just doesn't work that way on your brain.
Yes you can look at Facebook but if you're looking every 10 minutes all day you're destroying your productivity
your frying your brain yes we all have to check email and you have clients customers bosses family members
they expect you to get back.
But guess what.
You don't have to check one hundred and twenty seven times a day.
You don't have to check the second you get up.
In most cases you certainly don't have to check while you're having a conversation with a friend or
family member.
Or a colleague wait.
Very few bad things happen to people who look at their email.
Let's say three times a day versus one hundred and thirty seven times a day which is a lot more the
norm than the three times a day.
So you got to get control over that and get I'm not a big fan of willpower.
That's why I want to use a site blocker you can program it so that you can't take it off.
That's one technique.
The other technique is you can remove the site blocker but then you have to admit to yourself.
I couldn't even go an hour without checking Facebook or my email.
I'm kind of a big loser.
I don't know about you.
I don't like to admit that to myself.
So that's why these blockers help me because I put it on even though I could remove it.
It's a couple of extra steps I've got to go down.
I've got to tell the program I'm officially signing out and it's a little bit of a pain and it's an
admission that I failed.
That's why it works it allows me to focus more get my work done.
And if I don't check my email from a 30 in the morning to 12 30 in the morning or twelve thirty in the
afternoon it's not gonna hurt me.
Nothing bad has ever happened.
You may be different you may be an emergency room doctor and you've got to get the exact prescription
for someone or they're going to die.
There are exceptions.
But ask yourself in the last year how much business would you have lost how much money would you have
lost how many relationships would have been destroyed if you had only looked at your e-mail at say 11:00
in the morning and 4:00 in the afternoon.
Really think about that.
My guess is if you're totally honest with yourself the answer would be wouldn't have lost a thing.
I can tell you what you would gain if you only looked at your e-mail a couple of times a day.
You would gain massive amounts of time and you would gain much more focus because your brain wouldn't
be switching back and forth and distracted.
Whatever you're doing you'd actually be able to do in a more focused productive and effective manner.
multitasking.

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