37 - The Intention-Attention Loop
Welcome to our new subscribers this week!
Photo of the Week
This certainly isn’t the highest quality photo I’ve ever taken but I’m not sure which one of us was happier to be back together after my travel was over this week. Kona and I have enjoyed lots of cuddles today (Sunday) as we both acclimated to being back home and back together again. I just have two more travel slots left this year as of now and both are relatively short. As always, we’re grateful to my dad and sister (Grandpa and Aunt Susie) for all the dog sitting.
The Intention-Attention Loop
I’ve been thinking a lot about keeping my attention focused lately. I was one of those people who, for years, would tell you that I got more done because I “multi-tasked”. Even after the neuroscience came out that said human brains don’t work like that - for a while I kept saying, “Well mine does.”
But, too many dropped balls in the middle of a session of “multi-tasking” led me to realize that all of that attention switching was doing me far, far more harm than good.
At some point this week, I wrote, “Give your intention your attention” in big bold letters in my ever present notebook. I don’t even recall what I was doing at the time but it was clearly important enough to interrupt the stream of little notes I was making to myself in the middle of writing, publishing, and working on projects.
So, how do you do that? How do you give your attention to your intention?
First, get clear on what your intention is. What is it you are going to begin working on? Not - what are all the things I have to do right now. Instead - what am I going to commit to working on. Start small. Commit to focusing on the same thing for even as short a time span as two minutes. Set a timer on your phone for 2 minutes, log what you’re going to work on (or open up that document on your computer - and ONLY that document) - and then work on ONLY that thing for 2 minutes.
When the timer goes off, try it again for another 2 minutes.
If you’re successful, try for 5 minutes on the third try.
Keep building up from there until you can do 25 - 30 minutes on a single task.
You may have heard of a Pomodoro. A pomodoro is actually an italian kitchen timer that is shaped like a tomato. That’s where the inventor of the Pomodoro method took the name from - his mom’s kitchen timer.
I consider this the reverse of a Pomodoro. In a pomodoro you commit to working on one thing for 25 minutes - you set a timer and you go. I’ve met so many people though who lose focus in the first 5 minutes and they need something to help them work up to 25 minutes. So, if that’s you, try this method.
Let me know if it helps you put your attention on your intention.
Where’s Kara?
A quick summary of where I’m going to be hanging out online and IRL over the next few weeks. Join me, and if I’m visiting near you, hit reply and let’s meet up!
In Real Life (IRL)
In early November, I'm in Northern Minnesota for a few days.
In late November, I'm in Baltimore, Maryland for a couple of days.
Around the Virtual World
Creative Work Hour - Every single day of the week, at 10 a.m. eastern, a group gathers online in Zoom to do a quick check in, a brief meditation, work for about 50 minutes on whatever they want to do, and then check out with one another for 5 minutes. Creative Work Hour is one of my favorite places to hang out online and I’ve been there every single day that I could be there since about March of 2022. Come as often or as little as you need to get projects done. To register for the sessions (they are free but you have to sign up to get the zoom link) and to learn more, visit https://lu.ma/CreativeWork.
Join My Course and Community - You will often find me hanging out in the course and community for my course “Facts of Life Book”. Do you need to organize your most important stuff for life’s most important moments? If so, then the Facts of Life Book course is just for you. With loads of templates, tools, and guides I’ll help you get your most important information organized. Newsletter readers - get in now for the low cost of only $25 for life!
Quarterly Retreat - I’ll be announcing plans for my annual/Q1-2023 Retreat shortly. Be sure to share my newsletter with friends if you think they might want to join in on that planning and preparation for an amazing 2023.
AP Productivity - I’m once again joining my friend R.J. Nestor as a mentor in his exceptional course AP Productivity. We started a Cohort in October, but you can join in on the next offering by visiting his AP Productivity page and watching this space. I’ll always let you know when a new offering is about to begin.
Tools, Tips, & Tricks
iPhone Back Tap
We carry these expensive little computer/camera/phone things around with us all day. I think there is benefit in learning all we can about how to get the most out of that investment. Here is a tip for my iPhone carrying friends.
You can configure an iPhone to respond to being tapped on its back (this will not work if you have a super thick case on your phone). This video is an easy walk through of how to set this up and start using the functionality.
Strength Exercises by Muscle Area Chart
I had lunch with a friend last week (hi E!) and we were lamenting that in order to lose weight you have to build muscle.
While working out is still not my favorite thing to do and probably never will be, I was happy to stumble across this chart of exercises by muscle group this week. I get bored doing the same exercises every time I do a work out. I think I’m going to print a copy of this and put it on the bulletin board in my little home gym area of the guest room so that the next time I need a good “leg day” exercise I can look at this for inspiration.
What I Published This Week
I was back in pretty full swing this week - here is the wrap up of what I published this week. And, bonus, Gayle has been pushing out more of our trip report from our Disney Cruise if you want to read all of those here.
Monday - The next article in my Obsidian Vault Rebuild Series - The folder structure and Excalidraw plugin - https://iwannabemewhenigrowup.medium.com/the-obsidian-vault-rebuild-geeking-out-on-folder-structures-and-the-first-plugin-excalidraw-babdb1cfed00
Tuesday - When I was in Nashville I had the opportunity to visit The Listening Room Cafe. This article and video are all about my experience.
Wednesday - I was in Denver this past week and the weather was PERFECTION! I did a lot of walking and you can see a tour of some of it here: https://ecency.com/hive-155530/@iwannabeme/a-wednesday-walk-in-downtown
Thursday - I’ve had “Create a Values Workbook” on my to do list almost since the day I left my previous employer. I’m very passionate about people knowing and living their values and I want to be a conduit for that work. I finally took a big step forward this week and published one of the first exercises that will be in that workbook. I would LOVE your feedback on this article. So that the Medium paywall isn’t an issue for anyone, I’ve published it on both Medium and my personal blog.
Sunday - I would ordinarily have pushed this out on Friday and taken the weekend off. Unfortunately, this video and article really frustrated me because I just couldn’t get them “right”. Glad to have finally gotten this next installment of the vault rebuild series out - Setting up your readwise feed into Obsidian in both article and video form.
Facts of Life Book Series
As I build towards the official launch of the Facts of Life Book Course and Community on January 1, I’m continuing to publish articles about some of the many different things you might include in a Facts of Life Book. While I’m continuing to publish them on on Medium and Hive you can now see all of them on the Facts of Life Book website.
My Digital “Garden”
As a part of the Obsidian Vault Rebuild Series that I wrote on Medium and YouTube, I began using Obsidian Publish. This add on tool for Obsidian allows you to easily publish your “in progress” notes to the web. If you want to see what I’m thinking about, this is a great place to see inside my head. It’s always available at https://publish.obsidian.md/iwannabeme
This Week’s Featured Book Note
Each week, I’m usually feature one book note. Exploring and traveling got the better of my book reading time this week so we’ll be back for a new book note next week.
Diversion
On Saturday night, American Figure Skater Ilia Milinan became this first man to land a Quadruple Axel in Figure Skating Grand Prix history. While he had a fall on the final jump combination in this long program, this one move “jumped” him all the way from 4th to 1st in the Skate America finals.
Even if you’re not a figure skating or sports fan, I think it’s easy to appreciate the grace and athleticism required to execute this move.
Ways You Can Support Me
Join the Facts of Life Book Course and Community
I officially launch the course - The Facts of Life Book - on January 1, 2023. Join now for just $25 and get the lowest price ever and some fun bonuses along the way as we get ready to get all of our most important information organized in 2023.
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I publish much of my writing on Medium. To read all of the content there, you need to have a subscription which gives you access to the entire library of Medium content. It’s a great place where I start nearly every day. If you want to subscribe, consider doing so through my referral link: https://iwannabemewhenigrowup.medium.com/membership
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Readwise is an incredible service that takes all of the highlights you take on Kindle, on various web sites, and in so many other places and stores and organizes them for you. It generates a daily (or more often/less often as you prefer) set of highlights for you to review so that you can better remember what you read. Readwise also syncs with all kinds of apps including Evernote, Notion, Obsidian, Roam Research, Log Seq and more. If you’d like an extended 60 day trial, use my link https://readwise.io/kara
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