THE ED MYLETT SHOW - Achieve More Bliss By Monotasking w/ Thatcher Wine

Episode Date: January 11, 2022

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by your to-do list?   Do you approach each day a certain amount of angst because of stress that's gnawing at you? This week’s guest is going to UNLOCK some important insights for you.  My guest, THATCHER WINE, is going to dig into many of the things I’ve been talking about and marry it to a proven strategy that will DRAMATICALLY INCREASE what you can accomplish this year. That strategy is MONOTASKING. As you can guess, it’s a complete departure from MULTITASKING which you're already well aware of. You’ll get stuff done by multitasking, but the TRUTH is… Multitasking teaches you how to be BUSY. Monotasking teaches you how to be PRODUCTIVE.  Understand the difference? Thatcher Wine is a successful entrepreneur, author, and founder/CEO of JUNIPER BOOKS that specializes in custom curated libraries and designing special edition book sets.  Since launching it 20 years ago, he’s developed a devoted Instagram following and has customers in 60 countries, including GWENETH PALTROW, who hired him to curate her book collection in 2019. Thatcher’s new book, THE TWELVE MONOTASKS, lays out a STEP-BY-STEP PLAN OF ATTACK in areas of your life where you can develop laser focus to help you get stuff done. We also get into why he has been an advocate for READING AS MONOTASK AND A FORM OF SELF-CARE, and how you can use it as a means to BUILD FOCUS in the digital age. As a cancer survivor, he reveals why that diagnosis changed his PERSPECTIVE on how he approaches living.  We’ve all faced situations like this, so you’ll readily identify with why you need a list of VALUES and PRACTICES in place now to help you get the most out of each day you’re alive. Thatcher Wine’s take on how to use MONOTASKING to better live your life WITH INTENTION and IN THE PRESENT MOMENT will open your eyes in many ways.

This is the end my let's show. Welcome back to the program everybody. First off, Sky's the coolest name in the world. In fact, I thought it was a wine label when I first started reading about him. And then as I started to read about his work, I'm like, uh-oh, I love what this guy is teaching. I love his lessons. And I cannot wait to share this man in his work with my audience. So my guest today is a founder and CEO of Juniper Books, but he wrote a book that called the 12 Monatasks that just took my breath away. And I couldn't put it down.

I read it all in one setting. So this gentleman is really going to share some unique info with you all today about how to be really more productive and be happier. So that's your wine. Thank you for being here, brother. Thanks, Ed. It's really nice to be here. Thanks for the really nice. Is it all your life that people comment on your name? That's your wine?

Come on, man. Yeah, I was going to comment on your nice introduction. Yeah, nobody believes me. That's my real name. But both parts of it are unusual and both parts of it are real. The origin just, you know, to explain that, in case anyone's curious, like there's no origin story online about it, but my parents heard Fatcher as like a partner in a law firm, Simpson Fatcher and Bartlett sounded very distinguished, so they took the Fatcher gave to me.

Yeah, and then my last name used to be a little bit longer, a few generations ago, and a shortened to wine. Yeah. It's memorable and one of the great stage-nages of all names of all time. It's not a stage name. So anyway, let's get into your work, which is the reason I had you. I didn't have you on for your name. But I had a guess.

I have to share something. I had a guess on recently. She's a neuroscientist, a Nishi jaw. And she's really into mindfulness. And she basically said that they've proved in the brain that you really can't multitask, that it's actually a fallacy. So your work has actually been validated

by neuroscientists, except you've taken approach that I think is much more easy to understand. And so where did you come up with the concept of monotasking and why did you come up with it? So a lot of it came from my own personal experience originally, as you mentioned, I'm an entrepreneur, I have a company called Juniper Books for about 20 years now.

Also a parent, I also went through some kind of next level distracting experiences a few years ago, I went through cancer, a non-Hodgkin lymphoma, all at the same time that I was trying to be a good parent and navigate my way through life and deal with the distractions that pretty much all of us are dealing with, right? We all have really long to-do lists, there's a lot we want to do in life, and we have these, you know, smartphones that, you know, tempt us to multitask all the time. So I felt like I had to look at what I was doing and figure out when I was the most successful,

the least stressed, the most creative, and because when I was dealing with those things like cancer, and I also went through a divorce right after cancer, I was like, I have to stay focused. I have to figure out how to do that for myself. And I want to look into the research about productivity, about neuroscience, and see what that says about how other people do it. And I wanted to find a method that works for me and then eventually share it with other people. And that's how I came to the conclusions about monotasking versus multitasking.

So for me, I work with a lot of high performers, I coach them. And by the way, I must tell you that that's the thing they're singularly best at, is sometimes in athletics they'll call it the zone or focus. But really what that means is the elimination of other tasks and other thoughts and you're completely present in the moment. For me that's what I'm the best dad as you said it's one I'm the best entrepreneur it's one you're the best athlete it's one you're best at anything is one you're completely present yet most people is why your work is so compelling most people really struggle with this myself included so why'd you come up with 12 of these monotests? If you don't mind, I'll share with them because I want them to get the book, but the monotasks are reading,

walking, listening, sleeping, eating, getting there, which is an interesting one, learning, teaching, playing, which I love, seeing, creating, and thinking. These are 12 monotests. Why 12? Because it was catchy. Or was there something behind the idea of these individual 12 monotasks? There's definitely something behind all of them. And the idea overall, like the book cover,

has all 12 of those illustrated. And the idea about monotasking is not to do less in life. It's to like live a very full, colorful life and do all the things you want to do. Just give your attention to one thing at a time. And if I say that, people might say, where do I start? And the simple answer is,

well, what are you doing right now? Are you multitasking? Can you strip away the multiple things you're doing and pick one of them? That can be hard for people. Like if I said, just go answer all your emails. Like it's impossible to go do that, right? You're not going to get them all done. You're going to be tempted to do other things and you're going to burn out part way through it. So this approach I decided to take is much more about training what I call our

monotasking muscles. Yes. And that can be done by doing anything with your full attention, one thing at a time. And you mentioned, you know, high performers like athletes. And there are other people like, you know, musicians who need to do one thing at a time. The more they do it, the better at it, they become. We can all do that. We don't have to be professionals. So for me, the 12 monotas journey, if you will, started with reading because I'm in the book business. I've been selling books for a long time. I've been thinking, why is it important for me to encourage people to read and to have books in their home? And I thought, hmm, you know, it's not just about like the stories you tell on the pages or you learn the information you get, the entertainment you're provided with.

It's about the fact that you can only do one thing at a time when you're reading a book. Your attention is on the page and you start daydreaming about something else or your kids ask you a question or your phone beeps, you pretty much have to go back and reread that. Yes. Yeah. And so, where's it after you're watching the movie, like you can just kind of have to pay attention, and you might get it. So I thought, like, that's a feature.

That's not a flaw of books. That's why I think people love them. That's why people like Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffett, are such avid readers and so successful. They build their attention span, their ability to do lots of things really well in the world by reading. Let's stay on that for a second. We still have that. We'll stay in there with you. So I'm prepping in the world by reading. Let's stay on that for a second. We say, I'm not. I'll stay in there with you.

So I'm prepping for the interview with you on mono tasking, reading your stuff. And I'm like, I'm already pretty good at this. And then I'm not exaggerating. I have to tell everybody this. I literally checked my phone because it was in my lap as I was doing it. And then I realized the television was on in the background. And so I literally said to myself,

this is a muscle that I have still not built. So is it as practical? Is there a practical application as simple as saying, get in a quiet space and begin to read and have no other instruments on, no other stuff distracting you, and you begin to build the muscles simply by doing that in your own presence. Is that what you're saying? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, reading, so I say do something every day that strengthens your ability to pay attention. Reading is such a clear one that for a lot of people, it's a great one to start with.

You can read for five minutes. That's better than no minutes. You read for 20 minutes, like studies have shown that that has a big impact on reducing our stress level and readers tend to live longer. So there are lots of benefits. They get more sleep than people who look at their phone before they get a bed. So yeah, I mean, start where you are. And if it's don't, don't read on a screen, like because that then you'll be tempted to look at all the other things and the links and the word definitions and all that. But if you read on paper,

can be newspaper, magazine, or a book, it's all helpful. We're going to talk about that later. The presence of other work you've done of just physical books. I want to get to that maybe towards the end, but these muscles. So I just, everyone listening or watching this right now, if you struggle with being really, really busy, but not as productive as you would like to be, this is up your alley. If you struggle with, I was just in a conversation with my kids, but I was thinking about work when I was talking with them. Or I'm at a lunch with a friend,

and I can't stop looking at my phone and my text messages. These are muscles of yours that have either atrophied or have never been developed, and it robs you of your bliss. It robs you of your productivity. I think for me, the biggest thing I'm chasing in my life is more peace, and I think it robs you of your peace. So let's just break down a couple of the other ones.

This is because I think there's sort of interesting. So you said teaching, which I think for most people, it's a random one to me like, well, most people think, well, I don't even have anything to teach or teach other people things. How can I build the muscle of being one of the monotasks to be teaching? It's a great question. So I'm not a professional teacher. Yet when I looked at my day, my week, and everything, like I teach a lot of people a lot of things,

and I think we all do. Like teach my dog, you know, how to new tricks and things like that, and I teach my kids or just by setting a good example all the time, I hope. I teach my team at the office, you know, how to do parts of my job that I used to do that now they do, or how to provide great customer service. No matter what you do, you can teach something

to other people. And it's different from just going about your life. Like if you really bring your full attention to it, you can develop a focus that, you know, you can, the teachers that we've have been influential in our lives have had. We've seen it before, right? The person standing at the front of the class,

they couldn't be day dreaming while teaching something. They couldn't have their phone out, been interrupted all the time. It was frustrating, probably if they got, you know, interruptions of various sorts from students or whatever. So if you think about great teachers and how they bring their full attention to what they're teaching,

and then apply it to everything you're doing in life that you may wanna pass on to other people. Then you can not only like do a good job teaching, but you can also maybe develop some mastery that you didn't know you had. Yeah. So yeah, I mean, my daughter said, like, oh, you're so great at guitar.

I'm like, so-so. But can you teach me those chords? Then I have to really think about, wow, what are the chords? How do I teach them? What's the right method? And you develop this focus and attention, then maybe you didn't know you had and some skills you didn't know you had. And that

helps yeah, throughout our lives. So what I love about this is it's completely counter culture. Our culture now celebrates the fallacy of multitasking, you know, it's the notion of I'm driving my kids to school, and I'm on the phone,, I'm driving my kids to school and I'm on the phone and I'm getting ready for work and I'm doing this. But you're really not, you're only, your brain has been proven, is you're only doing one of those things at once.

So you're not multitasking. You could be task switching, which is different, switching from task to task. But every study proves that you are more powerful and more influential if you can stay in the task longer and maybe even to its completion. For me, this is a really interesting thing I want to ask you about. For me, I think the way you start your day sets a structure, a syntax, and creates kind of momentum for it. This is how I look at a day. Most people wake up, right?

How would you explain this to me? They wake up and they're immediately doing, or they think they're doing five things at once. They're getting up, they're stretching, they're brushing their teeth, they're getting their hair, they're on their phone, they're checking Instagram, they're checking on their kids and friends, they're cooking breakfast. What would be something you would say to start a day so that can begin to structurally change my life to be more present from the minute my eyes wake up? Is there something that you do or a hack for that? my life to be more present from the minute my eyes wake up. Is there something that you do or a hack for that? Yeah, so that's such a great way of putting it just to I think everybody can relate to that feeling of waking up and just like boom, you know, like you got to be firing on all cylinders all at once. There's one of the monotasks in the book is about sleeping. And the sleeping monotask is not just about

like, okay, wear yourself down to the point you're exhausted, then get in bed and get as much sleep as possible. You and I know it doesn't work that way. You have to like bono task your sleep. And that includes when you wake up, and a lot of people these days, the first thing they do when they wake up, is reach for their phone. And it just immediately sets into motion, I'll bunch of multi-task to be honest. Maybe some sort of emotional ups and downs about upsetting things you see in the news or text or social media.

And I like to start my day with some peace, like you said, some quiet. So sometimes I'll stay in bed, just reach for a book or a magazine and stay there for 20 minutes and read. And it just starts my day in a much more calm place. I also, you know, take my time. I take like, I guess I have over the years made myself have luxury of a couple hours. Yeah. To start my morning with all the things that are important to me for self-care, like stretching, making cup of tea. I get up before my kids. I just really like that quiet time. Can I say something about that?

I don't wanna, we'll go back and forth on my show. I can hear the alphas going, no, I get up and I crush and I go and I want you all to know that I'm an alpha and I'm gonna tell you right now. I just started to get up a little bit earlier to give myself the gift of that time. So I'm not crushing less. I'm not, you you right now, I just started to get up a little bit earlier to give myself the gift of that time. So I'm not crushing less. I'm not, you know, on it less.

I am up a little bit earlier to give myself that structure, that pattern. I want to create a pattern early in my day that says, I can monotask. I can be in the presence of what I'm doing. And if you don't create that pattern to begin your day and you just get up and it's, go! You are going to be less productive, less happy. You're gonna look back at weeks, days, months of your life and go, what did I actually get done? And man, I didn't even have any fun doing it

because I was never present anywhere that I was. So I just want everybody to get this. We're also, and I want you to speak to this if you could, Fatcher, we've become conditioned to be overstimulated. It's a conditioning, right? It's the phone. It's the TV. It's the email. It's the text. It's the all these things. It's like it's become a conditioning about the last decade or so in our culture to the extent that we're not even aware we do it. Because everyone's listening to a podcast. Get up, pray, meditate, stretch, I've gratitude. You know, everyone hears that yet almost nobody does this stuff.

Because I don't think they know the underlying reasons why they should. So would you agree that this building of the muscles is also a conditioning we have to take control of ourselves? Otherwise external forces condition our entire life. You know, over the past few decades, like life has only gotten busier and busier. Some of this glorification that you've mentioned about looking like you're doing all these things and crushing all the time,

multiple businesses inside hustles. I can do it all and showing that off on social media. That's become the norm. Life is only going to get more distracting in the future. It's only gonna get busier. Yes. The financial pressures, societal pressures, cultural pressures like to be doing more and keep up

are just gonna get worse or harder depending on how you look at it. So I feel like we have to press pause, look at is this sustainable? Yeah? Are we able to do all the things that are honored to do this? I've got like 46, you know, posted notes over here. Yeah. Never going to get to all of them. Right. And I want to have fun. I want to have a great life, you know? I want to spend time with my kids. I want to go to siege concerts. I want to do all the hobbies.

I love and take trips. But I don't want to be like, I'm going to work so hard for 50 weeks and then take two weeks off and it's going to be amazing. And then I'm going to get back to the beginning. So I think we have to come up with a more sustainable way to live our lives. And monotasking provides that because you can drop into it anywhere you are, anytime you are with any activity. You can just decide, I'm going to live in the moment, this moment. This is where everything happens. And you could choose from among the 12 monotostes in the book and say, you know, I'm going to focus on thinking right now, or I'm going to focus on creating, or I'm going to take a break, like I am burnt out. I'm going to go for a walk for 20 minutes. You can do any of those things. And as long as you do it with your full attention, you'll reconnect with yourself. And it'll be so much more nourishing

and recharging than the way we did it before. So I was preparing to interview you. I do all this stuff like maybe like a month and a half in advance because sometimes there's things people teach. I want to actually do them and know whether I endorse doing it or not. So maybe it's even been two months with your stuff. And it was interesting for me. I just want to share with you and tell my audience that there's a power to intention just intending to be present. So I started to do that. Like this sounds really contrived, but I walk into my daughter's room now. I purposely walk in her room. I purposely tell myself before I go there, I'm going to be completely present. I don't bring my phone in her room. And I just sit at the end of her bed and we talk. And sometimes those are four minute conversations and sometimes they're an hour.

And they've enriched my soul to an extent. I can't even begin to explain. Here's what's crazy about it. Then when I leave there, there's this pattern and muscle. And then when I do go to now do my work, I'm actually completely present in that work. And I don't know if it's because I'm present or in my mind, I go, okay, I did do something with my daughter that I know is meaningful to me, but I did it. So I just want to acknowledge you for the fact that what you're saying is super true about

just the intention. So if you'd speak to that for a minute and then give us another hack, which something that you're wine, the best dude on the planet supposedly right? He wrote the book on it. So he's one of them at mono tasking or at least intentionally. What's another thing he does to bring himself to build those muscles that he does on a daily or weekly basis? And I see your face changing when I said you're the best. So so let's let's say one of the best. Yeah. As you'd say, I mean, the old books not in monotasking general.

It's not about like achieving some sort of monotasking st. ed. Right. When I say, everything is going to be always perfect and you're always able to focus on one thing. It's about awareness, you know, like, and just bringing your awareness to that, like, am I multitasking? Did I go into my daughter's room with my phone and, you know, my like, thinking about that email and paying attention to, you know, some of the other conversation, or am I right there right at that moment with the person I love and care about and what I connect with and want to set a good example for. So that kind of awareness is super important and I really appreciate you sharing that story.

What are some of the things I do? I mean, one, on a regular basis, every night I sleep in a pillow fort is one thing. A pillow fort. Yeah, I'm a grown adult. And I make a pillow fort every night. I have pillows all around me. Some people use a weighted blanket for the same thing. I like these really heavy pillows all around me that kind of wedged me in. And I noticed a few years ago, I had an injury and I had to sleep, I kind of propped up in this fort so I wouldn't roll over on my arm in the middle of the night

and wake myself up and pain. But then I started doing it more and more and I was like, I get better sleep doing this. And there's a mantra using the book, which is sleep on rails. Each chapter has a mantra. And so this idea of sleeping on rails is like, as if you're on a train and you can't choose where to get off, like the train's just going where it's going.

So sleeping in the pillow for it is kind of like that for me. And it's like, I don't roll over, you know, like I'm locked in and I get much better sleep that way. So I thought you were gonna categorize that under playing because one of the other monotask is playing. And when I value it like it's so good just draws your attention to like how much learning am I doing? How much playing am I doing? How much creating? These are the monotasked,

right? And creating I do. I do a lot of creating. I do some thinking. But playing I was like how much of my day, my week, my month that I spent playing like a child like joyful, like fun stuff. Intention I spend playing like a child, like joyful, like fun stuff intentionally. And then when I'm doing it, not doing other crap, right? And like if I ranked it, and I know I'm selling, I'm ranking stuff today, I'm like a zero out of a bazillion at playing. Other than like golf, you know, other than that, there's no other playful part of my

life that I'm intentional about. It looked like you wanted to add something on that, so I didn't want to. Well, yeah, I mean, yeah, no, I mean, I'm playing. I share in the introduction to that chapter, like I have not historically been the best at playing. I've always thought, like, I have too much work to do. And even when I go to a concert and I've been going much more live music, now that it's come back, and I love it. It helps, you know, when I can truly drop into being there and only listen to music and have a great time and dancing and being with my friends,

like, it's amazing. I do have to catch myself, though, because every now and then, I'm tempted to take a picture. Like other people at live shows these days, you see a lot of people with their phones. And my rule is, is one photo per concert. If I get a great one, awesome.

I'll share it. If I get a terrible one, hey, I was still there. I still had a great time. I like that rule. I have to remind myself like when I start thinking about, you know, work while I'm standing there listening to a show, like, yeah, just gently move myself back to being in the present moment.

It's like a meditation. It is like a meditation and everyone, let's just gently move myself back to being in the present moment. It's like a meditation. It is like a meditation and everyone, let's just step back. Okay. What's today's show about? What's the message to you? First off, it's a question to you, I think from me, which is, how good are you being present where you are? That's just the first thing. How good are you just being present where you are?

Secondly, how good are you at doing some one thing at one time without other things taking from you? Because here's the fallacy, everybody. I'm a little further down the room, a little bit older, and that's your is too. And I'm also blessed we both had some financial success in our lives. I think this is what I used to believe.

I'll get around to doing that stuff once I'm rich, you'll have to worry about stuff. Once I've got some money, oh yeah, then getting been getting up and meditating and walking around and like, yeah, having some coffee or tea, that sounds great. Right now, man, I'm trying to pay some bills. I don't think you get it, right?

I'm in the hot, you know, I'm in the grind. And what I used to think was, when the conditions of my life change, my pattern will change. Nothing could be further from the truth, everybody. Number one, I could tell you that as I accumulated more things and stuff and Successes, it got worse, not better, and that it's a pattern and you're conditioning yourself for the same level of stress, anxiety, frustration, depression, misery, angst that you're having now without a bunch of stuff or success.

without a bunch of stuff or success. I gotta ask you this, how to getting cancer change your perspective on all this stuff. That's a life changing, life altering of that and what impacted it make on you. So I had, I'd been working really hard and I had, on Juniper books and I had young kids and volunteering for the kids and, you know, volunteering

for the kids' schools and like just doing all the things all the time. I'd, you know, raced cycle crops and mountain biking for a little while. Love the Colorado mountain. So I was like doing all these things, you know, a lot. Sounds a lot like I was playing, but I was, I almost took like two hardcore of an approach to it. Sometimes it wasn't as much fun as it should have been. And then about four years ago now, it was diagnosed with non-Hochkins lymphoma at stage two,

had three tumors in my chest. And I went through like a pretty heavy duty chemo regimen. It's about 100 hours a week. Wow. Two weeks off, repeated that cycle. 600 hours a week. Yeah, so I was connected full time to a chemo pump at a portable pump that I carried around with me

and just would like make this really annoying sound all night injecting the chemo into my system. So it took a big toll on me. And, you know, a lot of people told me slow down, you know, give yourself the time to rest and recover that your body needs. And I was like, eh, you know, give yourself the time to rest and recover that your body needs. And I was like, you know, but I still have all these things to do. I still want to run my business, I want to be a good parent, I want to show that I'm brave and optimistic and all that.

And honestly, like getting through the chemo was almost just like something on the to-do list. It was like, I got through round one, round two, round three. It's pretty tough about it. I didn't know that it would take me years to recover from it. That was really what changed my life. Was trying to recover from something I didn't know was going to be so hard to recover from. And through an divorce, and my business had suffered a little bit during those times. So I was like rebuilding that. So I was like, I got to figure out, you know, with my limited time, energy and attention, I got to figure out how to navigate my way through all these things. And that's when I kind of looked back

and I thought, you know, how have I done this in the past before I was sick, maybe while I was sick too, you know, wasn't when I like tried to do it all at one time. It was when I just brought my attention to one thing at a time, whether it was creating a new product, or working with a client, or, you know, doing a piece of writing, do it well, take a break, go for a walk, go skiing, go biking, spend the afternoon with my kids, you know, then come back, refreshed, and do the next thing with my full attention. So I just kind of codified it into a philosophy about life that, you know, I thought a lot of people could relate

to and could put into place to, you know, achieve some benefits and goals. On some really deep level, do you think having cancer, or just think about the premise of everything you're talking about? You get cancer, you have to sort of unplug from things you were doing to almost be present doing that. And I'm wondering if by that unplugging and getting kind of observational about your life to some extent, even though you're fighting and you're sick, I'm assuming it makes you much more grateful for people or an opportunity or even your business, right?

And if that is true, then could it not be true that this unplugging being present in one area actually elevates your gratitude and focus level in another one because of the absence of it, just the escape from it for a while. I know that sounds really overly philosophical and pretty deep, but I actually think there's something to that that when you're disconnected from something temporarily,

your appreciation for it grows and your focus on it can ultimately grow. I'm definitely more grateful as a result of going through what I went through, but I'm also more grateful just by being in the present moment. So people don't have to go through something that's a wake- call or a health scare or, you know, the loss of something important to them to figure out like, Hey, this is a pretty amazing life. And if I can appreciate where I am, what I'm doing and who I'm with right now, like, I can be grateful for it. And then I could always come back to whatever that, you know, you're doing in that present

moment. So I'm grateful like things worked out. I had a type of cancer that was treatable, considered curable, and then I'm healthy four years later and have just, you know, in the past year or so started to get my full energy back. It took a while. And I'm grateful for like the perspective

that it gave me, you know, I was assumed like, just because of my family history, I'd have cancer in my set of days or me, you know, I was assumed like just because of my family history, I'd have cancer in my septum days or something, you know, and then, but to have it in my 40s, and to be young enough to recover and have, you know, the second half of my life, I had to be able to do something, you know, meaningful with it and share some things with the world that are important to me that I figured out that may figured out that may benefit others. I'm extremely grateful for that opportunity. What is the connection between, if any, monotasking and mindfulness? Mindfulness is coming up more and more on my radar.

I've practiced it for quite a while. But is there a connection between monotasking and mindfulness, if any? Definitely. So, I've studied mindfulness and yoga, meditation, and things like that over the years. I think what I decided with this book was to basically put things in a little bit more practical, simple, secular terms, if you will, to make it more accessible to people who might say, oh, this sounds like mindfulness. I'm not, you know, not going to step over that, or I'm not going to go to a yoga class or, you know, the sounds to Eastern form. Because I think the reality is that, you know, the lessons have always, like,

it's always been hard for human beings to pay attention. Long before the iPhone, smartphones, like there were wild animals and you know dangers in the night and you know natural disasters. And so like the history of prayer and meditation and like bringing your awareness to the present moment has always been there. It's been there for thousands of years. So however you get people to like stop thinking about the past and the future and think about the now is helpful. So I decided to come up with a different terminology and phrase the problem not as like you're not being mindful or you need to meditate more or you need to go on this retreat. It's like, no, are you multitasking

or can you monotask? Can you stop doing six things and do one? Do it with your full attention. Does it feel good to you? Great, keep doing it. We're more productive, great. Do you make fewer mistakes? Awesome. Yeah, clarity of thought is one of the things

that's brought to me. I was saying to somebody I was telling I was going to interview you and I said maybe I'm weird about this, but I said when I was a little boy, there's a very kind of chaotic home for a while, great home, but chaotic. I feel sometimes like I don't give my family credit for being as good as it was, but my dad was an alcoholic. And man, that I love when I could just shut the door in my room and be alone and unplugged from what was going on out there. And then I remember wanting a tree house when I was a little, well, I don't know if any of

you can relate to this, just a little place that was mine that I could be quiet in. And to this day, what I'm on the road traveling, there's a moment when I get in my hotel room and I don't know if anybody relates to this and I shut the door and I'm alone in there and my blood pressure drops and I'm at peace. And it's actually, I believe it's because a lot of the door and I'm alone in there and my blood pressure drops. And I'm at peace and it's actually, I believe it's because a lot of the things that I would be focused on are on the other side of that door. And I have some alone time. I like when I'm in my car and I shut the door

and I'm alone and I'm there with my thoughts and I'm present with myself. If you experience any of those things like I just described at all, I'm telling you some form of monotasking mindfulness and your descriptions perfect of your book. It's exactly what is it's a layman's version to some extent that's understandable and tangible about mindfulness. If any of that stuff feels good to you, this will feel great to you. And the other thing I wanted to ask you about because you are a book publisher,

but you said something that I just have grown to believe, which is you said, reading is a form of self-care. Would you elaborate on it? Cause I think a lot of people go, well, the reason I listen to your podcast is, I don't like to read, I like to listen. There's a difference though to actually reading something, just to elaborate on that a little bit.

So reading requires us to bring our full attention to the printed page. And in this example, I'm thinking about printed books. And like we talked about before, if your attention wanders, you miss something. But if you give your attention to a book, the studies have shown that your your stress level comes down. Your attention is locked into one place. And there's also all sorts of benefits, you know, that the neuroscience has shown just about like how we create these connections in our mind about what we're we're reading it, and then we're seeing the characters and

their relationships to each other. You know, if you read the Lord of rings, like you're imagining the distances, you you're imagining the distances and the geography of different characters in their journeys, that has all sorts of psychological benefits. So it is really a practice of self-care that's good for our mental health, dispends some time reading. And you could combine it with that alone time

like you talked about having a reading chair, having a place maybe you even do it at work for a few minutes. You just take a few minutes to yourself and read. And then it just tends to reset our minds. One in LJU's for people that are old enough to remember, like when our computers had to be defragmented, you know, and you like see a little graphic of like, oh, these are all, you know, pink and green or whatever color they were. And then they become the same color. Like, that's what happens in your brain. When you read a book, like, you're putting it back together.

So good. So, so I think it's great for us. And even if you don't consider yourself a reader, like, just pick up a book about something that interests you and read a little bit. Could be about Harley-Davidson motorcycles or baseball or travel. Like there's a book for everybody.

I'm on to something I've been writing about this topic, which is that if you're not, as soon as I say, well, just not a great reader, I think you should ask yourself, is that an indication of another underlying deficiency possibly? An inability to stay focused, an inability to be present, an inability to get quiet, as opposed to just you're not good at reading and comprehending things, is that the symptoms

are an underlying disease that may have existed all your life. If you started to read, because you begin to build those muscles that then grow another area, when everyone to think about this, you know, I always talk about, if you want to grow in your business or your finances, pick another area, you can control like your body, move your body, change your body. When you're going to change yourself physically, you can change the other parts of your life, right? Because you've created this momentum and this pattern. Reading is another one. And it's just dawned on me recently that as you, it just may be an advantage that you're not a good reader,

because this is an area where you can control and you can begin to grow. And I think there's a transference effect from becoming a better reader. Not only have more knowledge, more peace, more imagination, you're building these pathways that he's described in your brain, but it's also something you are in control of,

like your body, that is you begin to grow in that area. There's a transference effect to you financially, spiritually, emotionally, relationships, your body, and it is something within your control. The other thing you can control that you talk about, which I totally believe in that no one talks about, is being in the presence of good books. People think this is a little bit foofy or maybe somewhat, uh, you have an interest in that because you're a publisher, but I believe this being in the presence of great books around you in your physical environment has an impact on us. You got to talk about that. So I've long been an advocate for having more books in our homes and our lives,

and that the physical book, like even if you don't read these books, you know, behind you, like right now, I read them before or I might read them later, like they suggest something to you, like they're, and it's okay that they're aspirational, like that these are the books I want to read, or these are the books that represent who I am, or who I want to be. And when you see them every day, you know, you're reminded of that, like that you wish you had the time to read them.

You want to be the person who read those books. There's nothing wrong with that. I think it's a good thing, because you're basically setting a goal and intention that, you know, you want to be that person and you want to read those books. And if you have read them, all the better, and then you have something to come back and monotask with, you know, spend the 20 minutes rereading a favorite passage or part of the book. So books I think are just great for our lives, you know, and I love seeing them, you know, in hotels and restaurants and, you know, retail

stores, you know, where I go. And people, because they suggest this idea of like a certain gravitas that's counter culture to like, someone like that, you know, just everything being digital, everything being a little bit, you know, short-lived and superficial. Books are like, they of the like, you know, just everything being digital, everything being a little bit, you know, short lived and superficial. Books are like, they're heavy duty. They take a mass for hundreds of years. Yeah. And you can fund like the more than there are out there and the more you have in your home,

the more either you or your kids or your guests, like, will intersect with them. And that can only lead to good things. I agree. I think books have energy. Yeah. Let me say that again to agree. I think books have energy. We say that again to everybody. I believe books have energy. It's a very young man, one of the most prolific and most influential people in my life, the prolific authors of a gentleman named Wayne Dyer. I'm sure that you're knows who he was.

I met him and he was a great writer. And he said, Ed, when I write, I surround myself. I sit in a circle of my favorite books and the wisdom and the energy from those books feeds my wisdom and energy. And I thought, wow, that's about as Fufi and Goofy as you get. Then I started doing it. And I'm like, you know, when I do hold my scripture, when I hold thinking grow rich, when I hold these books, the richest man and Babylon, these books that have influenced me, whether I've even read them or not, as you've said, there's an energy and a wisdom. And for you to have, if that sure does this,

but I was reading what you did, Gwyneth Paltrow's bookshelves and library. And when you walk in, there's, that becomes an energy in that room. Winning and happiness is as much environmental as it is mental. And when you can create an environment, a sanctuary of great energy and positivity, well, if you listen, you say,

well, I live in an apartment, create a small space near your desk with your favorite books, surround yourself with your favorite books. Compare that to scrolling on your Instagram feed. Compare those two things, energy wise, bliss wise, peace wise. You could be a completely different person, right? There's nothing in your Instagram feed most of the time that's feeding you other than Ed Myletz posts that are really feeding you, changing your life. But a lot of times these books can feed you. They have wisdom and energy in them.

And I actually wish we covered this earlier in the show because I think it's one of the most profound things that you talk about, that I actually talk about, that we sort of share is the power of having books and becoming a better physical reader, which I was terrible at. And now I've built that muscle. I'm curious for you, if you could go back

to the little boy that's you, you've had a pretty interesting life, man. You've written a book, you've interacted with some really famous and successful people. You had a life threatening illness, you've had a divorce, you've had a family, you've written this great book. So there's something, if you could go back and counsel

the 10-year-old, the 20-year-old you, then maybe you know now back and counsel the 10 year old, the 20 year old you, then maybe you know now you didn't know that about life. What would you say to you? It would definitely be, you know, slow down and live a more balanced life. You know, it's impressive, I guess, to hear all the things that I've done. And that's great, but it wasn't always going in one direction. There were definitely a lot of downs. They were difficult to get through. And I think if I took a little bit more of a steady patient balanced approach, it would be more sustainable.

And one major example that I don't need to go back to being a little boy just a few years ago, maybe if I had slowed down and monotasked my health a little bit better while I was going through cancer treatment, like I could have recovered in one year instead of three years from chemo. I don't know. I don't lose any sleep over that, but it's possible that that's what I should have done. You know, a lot of, I go through this at the beginning of the 12 monotask too, just like how we kind of project onto our lives, like the things that we've done with our computers. So I was always like an early adopter. My family, you know, had an early Mac and a Commodore, you know, Vic 20 and Commodore 64 and all those are computers. I found the story. I printed out like on Dot Matrix paper the other day from sixth grade.

I remember that. Yeah, so I mean, I think I go through this in the book. How all this technology has basically grown up with us and it's faster and faster and does more and more things. And I think like myself and a lot of other people have just been like, well, if we're inventing all these things, shouldn't we be living these faster and faster, multitasking driven lives? And it wasn't until I kind of like cut the chord a few years ago, you know, detaching all the technology somewhat from my life. And I get to do that because I, you know, focus on a very physical product that is a book that exists in the real world, not the

digital version of it. You know. That really changed my perspective too. I wish I had come to some of those realizations earlier that you don't have to keep up with all the technology all the time. You can find what works for you and live a little more balanced life. I also think slowing down, it's got to be a better way for us to phrase that because I don't think slowing down is what everybody thinks it is. I think you're actually in some ways accelerating when you slow down, when you monitor ask. Give you an example, everybody. You take any great professional athlete, you take Tom Brady compared to a rookie quarterback. What are the differences in the two of

them? The game is too fast for the rookie quarterback. Everything's moving. It's happening too fast. He can't process the information. Everybody will tell you that when as they play longer, the game slows down for them. They see things more clearly. And so actually elite performers, things do slowdown. It's a fallacy that you're faster and quicker and more productive. That is not true. It's not true in anything. Yet, it's what most people are chasing. And it's why the best business people I know are present in their meetings. They slow down and listen, which is one of the 12 monetasks, by the way.

Great athletes, the game slows down for them. Great putters engulfed when someone misses a critical putt. They go, you got a little putt they go you got a little quick right there. You got a little quick that gets them out of their vibrational frequency. It gets them out of the rhythm of success. There is a rhythm and a pace and a cadence to success and to bliss. And by the way, it's in a hurry, but it's deliberate. There's a way to be quick and fast and not in too big a hurry. And so there's this notion that you're slowing down,

you're gonna do less isn't actually the case. I'm telling you that it's not. The other thing I wanna ask you, one of the last things I wanna ask you about is memory. I was not good at this most of my life. As a consequence, I have a really terrible memory because I think I was never where I was. So often, friends will say, remember that thing we did?

And I'm like, like, dude, you were there. And I'm like, well, and now I'm like, don't remember it. And I'm like, I was physically there, but I was probably thinking about a meeting I had on Monday, or even my wife will go, do you remember when Bella, the first, and I'm honestly embarrassed to say a lot of the time, No, she goes, you're kidding me. There's a picture of you there. And I'm like, well, my body was there, but my mind was obviously somewhere else. And it's affected my memory.

Do you think getting good at monetasking has any impact in your neurochemistry or just in any anecdotal way to memory? I do. You know, I think we need to look more into like, you know, studies about it, but I think, you know, just from my own experience, being fully present and fully paying attention to something helps you remember it more.

That's on the one hand and on the other hand, like think of all the things we've outsourced to our devices that we don't have to remember anymore. After remember people's phone numbers, how to get somewhere, you know, all those things. And so like we're asking lots of our brains, plus we're, you know, multitasking all the time. And so, you know, we might be at that, you know, our kids concert, but thinking about work

and doing something on our phone or whatever it may be. I think there's definitely a correlation between the two of those things in our ability to fully be present and fully write the memories. I think there's also, there's a lot of studies done about sleep and our ability to consolidate memories during our sleep. So if we're not getting great sleep, including deep sleep and REM sleep, we're not banking those memories. And I think that's minimized a lot.

Because people might be like, oh well, I got my sleep. I had enough energy to do the day, but you're like, there are other health, mental and physical benefits of getting the sleep we need. And truly monotasking that that leads to things, those kinds of neuro, certain neuro improvements. Yeah, I think that I'm going to ask you one last question. I just feel like everybody listen to this is that this is ironically a really dangerous time to be alive. It's a great time. It's the best time ever to be alive. Yet it's dangerous.

And it's dangerous because of all the things attempting to pull you out of the present moment, politics, so and so president to this, oh, they did that. The news literally tells you, this murder on this street matters today, but they don't report the 900 other ones. The news tells us what's important, what to believe about it, what a moral person

would think about it. Then we all argue about that. Then we get on social media, who's rich, who's poor, who's party, and who's not party, and information. It's everywhere pulling at us. And as a culture, we're in a really dangerous spot right now. And it's something like monotasking And it's something like monotasking that could really pull you, your family, and our culture back out of this really Bad spiral we're in and we're less productive every study says people are busier and the same studies I'll tell us more and more people are depressed more and more people aren't happy. There's a direct correlation To the inverse of what we're talking about here and unhappiness. And that's why today's show is so important. So just ask yourself this guys. If you get the book or not, I'd like you to get the book.

But if you didn't, reading, evaluate that part of your life. How present are you in growing and reading? Walking, how present are you in growing and you're building that muscle of walking and being present there? Listening, sleeping, eating. and when you're eating and chewing the meal, chewing slowly, savoring the food, it's not a race to so you can put the food in their stomach and get digestion issues. The fastest.

It's savoring it. It's eating for health, getting there, learning, teaching, playing, seeing, how about creating and thinking, time to think and be present with your thoughts. So that's how valuable this man's work is. So if that's your last question and thank you for today, I enjoy the shows where we go back and forth more. That's it.

Yeah. I'm curious, someone says, all right, you got me. Okay, I definitely need to go to work on this. And they run into you anywhere they go, are you that you're wine? Cool name? By the way, loved your work on the Ed Mylet show. Can you give me one thing you didn't say in the interview that I could use to get started on this plan, on this process, on this journey that I didn't hear in the interview? Is there one other tidbit or step or strategy or thought you would give us?

Well, then if they're monotasking, listening, they will have heard it at the end here. Exactly, no. I know. Yeah, I mean, one valuable thing is like, you don't, you listed out the monotask in order. And I do start with reading, and I thought probably the most about reading.

But you can drop into this anywhere that works for you. Reading doesn't work for you. Skip the reading chapter. Listen to this interview is if your life depended on it. Have a conversation with a friend is if you're recording a podcast. Like just bring your attention so much to it that it's almost uncomfortable

because people don't do that these days, right? Like we just kind of have paying attention. And then when somebody's like fully paying attention, you're like, what? You actually heard, you know, everything I said, that's amazing. So start wherever it works for you. Start with playing. Go have a great time and only do that. And then like, then go back to reading, you know, see if you can, like just by practicing

with other monotas that work really well for you. Go see if the other ones that you kind of gave up on quickly, you know, maybe if you're good at them after all. I love that. And only do that, I think, is the cooperative sense. Can you get good at only doing that when you're doing it? So I enjoyed this today. And here's what's really cool. I was present the whole time with you, brother, because I was fascinated. I was absolutely fascinated. I love your work and use a peaceful way about your communication style that puts everybody at ease that I know is pleasant. I know this just flew by for everyone. So that's your wine. Thank you for being my guest today and it was great to spend this time with you. Thank you. I loved, you know, monotasking our conversation and spending the time with you.

So I look forward to keeping the conversation going. I do as well. And everybody, I always tell you, the fastest going show in the world for a reason is because you all share it. Our community is exploded. And whether it be Stitcher Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, Serious Apple YouTube, all those platforms

are really, really growing and I just acknowledge that and thank all of you for sharing the show. Continue to win in your life, max out, God bless you. This is The End My Let's Show. you