The Uneducated PT Podcast - EP 128 – The Uneducated PT Podcast | Ger & Rob on Productivity

Episode Date: November 5, 2025

In this episode of The Uneducated PT Podcast, Ger and Rob dive into the real meaning of productivity — what it is, what it’s not, and how to actually get more done without burning out. They break down the myths around hustle culture, talk about how to find focus in a noisy world, and share the habits that keep them consistent in training, business, and life. It’s raw, honest, and full of practical takeaways you can apply today. 🎙️ Topics include:Why “being busy” isn’t the same as being productiveHow to structure your day for focus and flowManaging distractions and mental fatigueBalancing ambition with rest and recoveryIf you’ve ever felt stuck between motivation and burnout, this one’s for you.

Willpower can act like a muscle. Sometimes you can use it up and you can exercise it. So the idea that self-control is like a muscle, if you use a lot of self-control, say resisting temptation, controlling your behavior, just like you were at the weekend, yeah? You might have less of it immediately available for the next thing. But also, just like you can train physical muscles, lifting weights over time,

you might be able to strengthen your self-control, muscle by doing small repeated acts of self-control which improve your general capacity. What the research shows, so the strength model of self-control, originally developed by Roy, Bamister and colleagues, uses the muscle metaphor, regular exertions of self-control, can improve willpower, strength and stamina just as exercise training constraining muscle. so if you're if you're trying to practice self-control a lot at any one time it means you might have less less control or resistance to temptation for the next thing does that make sense yeah can you think of an example in your head well you go i suppose we could just talk about fucking uh diet and stuff when people people like self-control but it's just over restrictions so like you know you won't have you'll go to a party and you won't eat this you won't eat that and then you come home later on at night and you

absolutely massacre your fucking kitchen with everything you've been trying to avoid so like that would be that would be one I suppose topic relatable to what we do yeah that's that's true and it's like if you're trying to do everything all at once it's like you've gone from like not exercising and probably eating a lot of kind of ultra-processed food to them being like, okay, now I'm going to train every day and I'm going to eat, you know, nothing but vegetables and fruit and protein and I'm not going to have. So it's like, yeah, you might be able to like train for the first two or three days and you might be able to, you know, avoid, you know, all. Sorry. It's like four to six weeks shred kind of ideas. You know, they get you to give up everything

that like you really like all the all the foods we think of the like gluttonous ones we want to have and most people survive four weeks maybe six weeks and then you have that one little incident where you kind of go off the deep end and you unleash fucking hell

like I know people that do it with with drink like they'll go on the dry and don't do a month or something like that yeah yeah this is why I don't do it I like it's just in case but like you know people go are like offered for a month and then like every weekend

for the next couple of months then they're on it and then they're like oh well I have to go back on it now so I'm like what was the point? Yeah yeah that's true what do you think Rob? A couple of points one was so with my work especially when I was working with kids in person with the tutor and you kind of

you're like very conscious of how you're communicating you get the behaviour you've got to manage that behaviour of the child and kind of just deal with it because they're in a difficult position you've got to understand it you've got a yeah your emotional resilience is tested in the day and then when you go home afterwards you're kind of like I've got no kind of kind of willpower self-control in terms of how I respond to things now because I have so true very good point and I think it just translates into everything that requires some kind of

kind of deviation from the average of what you're, you just do as a standard. With the food stuff, like you say, with the six to eight weeks, if you are doing it just kind of like all intensive, you're exhausted in those batteries. But if you then build those habits gradually up at, like, a long period of time, I think you can become a bit more resilient to those.

Well, let me, let me read you this study to back up your point, because you're absolutely right. So one study, Maverin and Bamma Steiner found that people who practice small self-control tasks like posture regulation or avoiding certain words for two weeks improved their performance on a separate self-control test. So, well, this kind of leads on to it. It embodies your point, but it also leads onto another point is that if you're trying to practice these small self-control, or disciplined tasks just, you know, a little bit and then going back and then doing a little bit more and going back, you're going to get better over time of being disciplined to that behaviour, but it also then transfers into other tasks as well of self-control.

Yeah. Yeah, it's because of natural, doesn't it? Yeah, well, I suppose I could use that example on myself as that, okay, I was never very disciplined at anything or didn't have, like, um, wasn't very good at finishing off tasks or anything like that. And I suppose I used fitness as a tool of, you know, self-control and discipline and consistency over time. And that actually then transitioned into me being more disciplined at doing.

Other like productivity tasks, even if it was to do with, you know, anything to do with education or reading or anything like that. Like I didn't read a book until I was probably 24, 25. that also probably had carry over into, I only really got into, you know, being consistent and disciplined with the pursuit of exercise around that time as well. Yeah, so if you do it with something

that you feel a bit more passionate about, you lower your wall, you lower your guard a little bit, don't you? And you kind of realise, okay, putting effort in does actually translate into something positive feedback-wise for yourself. So you're like, okay, maybe that next bit, I'll get something good back from that and it feels or safe to approach

it like that. Yeah, I think that's true. It's kind of, I know Jair hates running but it kind of, it's, I think that running has, does a lot to do with that as well because it's a, it's an endurance test. It's like, okay, now I can do a 1K run, you know, without stopping. And now I'm going to try, you know, build that up to, maybe I can go a little

bit further. Maybe I can do a 5K. Maybe I can go a little bit further. Maybe I can do, you know, a half Marathon or whatever it is. I'm meant to I'm meant to do a charity 5K run this evening and it is currently raining sideways and howling a gale and I'm like I don't really want to go do it I'm probably not going to go do it

because I don't want to have a costume like it's a fancy dress but I'm going to go run a 10K on Saturday instead just because I'm like I still want to yeah it's it's almost punishing myself because I'm not doing it but like at the same time I'm like as much as I want to do it I don't want to go out in the cold and the wet tonight and I fuck that like I've given up

I haven't given up I'm not playing sports I like indoors now it's like it's nice to stay inside when the weather's like this so I'm going to give myself that little bit of a break on it but you know what I also think right

is that like I think that it's in a funny even you know do I use to play sport when you're younger I suppose that's also kind of there's a lot of self-control and discipline has to go on there as it's like you have to go training even when it's raining out and you don't want it and um i i i would assume that that transfers over to things like you know you run on a business and doing tasks

that you don't want to do and just doing them anyway it does it doesn't it doesn't like um having that neuro spicy brain um getting tasks done that i need to do want to do and certain ones I enjoy. It's not as easy as like, let's just go do it or I have to get this done. Like there's a lot of procrastination and you get things done. There's leaving things for last minute. Sophia's event at the weekend. I think did I get back to the Airbnb at like 9 o'clock at night after eight or nine points?

And then I sat down, took out my laptop and the two girls were like, What are you doing? I was like, I need to do some notes for tomorrow. And they're like, you're doing that now. And I was like, well, I didn't do it. And I've been talking about doing it for about two weeks. And, like, there's just things that, there's things that you put off. And then there's things that you can put off.

And then that little bit of pressure makes it easier. Yeah, but, and you did do it. Oh, yeah. I didn't do it. Yeah, it's just, I could make, my life could be so much easier. Yeah. I understand that, but you still did it. And other people could be like, oh, no, I.

I can't do that because of the circumstances. Yeah. And it kind of links to the willpower thing again. Like you're managing that ADHD, whatever else going on through like week to week and your challenges getting up training, doing the work, focusing on working with your clients,

running the gym, all of this stuff that you're managing in your head, as well as the idea of that event coming up. So actually sitting down and doing the planning is a big challenge, especially if it works as you're... Even what I use... You always hear people say you don't need to buy another planner.

So you don't need another book or something to like lay out your plans. And I always said to someone like, when I do plan something out properly, whether it's a work thing or maybe there's something I want to plan over three months, the amount of time and effort that I put into planning it down to a T and then you finish it and it's so drained afterwards I'm like well that's all the work I need to do done

and I'm like I don't want to do it anymore I've planned it I've planned it out it's it's all done now that's it there's a great study on this as well about productivity but I want to I'll go back to that one I'll go back to that one on you

because I'll get your thoughts on that as well because a lot of people end up thinking that they're being productive by planning instead actually just doing the thing and then they're the play of energy. The 10K run there and was at the start of October

the week after my own event. I planned building up a 10K run from May. That's when I was going to start my running was May. I spent maybe three days planning out my actual plan how to do it. When did

your start training for the 10K run? Seven weeks before the fucking run. By the time you plan the 10K you've got to run a 10K. Exactly, yeah. I could have run a couple of 10Ks, at least crawl them. But yeah, once I'd done that and I looked at it, I was like, oh, I'm not doing that yet.

It'll be funny. So let me, so this is, I think this is important. I'll touch on this bit as well, because I think this is important if anyone's kind of trying to get things done as well. So the use up effect, aka ego depletion is real, but somewhat controversial. So the idea, after you've used a lot of self-control, for example, resisting temptation, staying focus,

suppressing thoughts you are more likely to fail at a different self-control task soon afterwards because your willpower muscle is temporarily tired this explains why sometimes you resist food all day but then at night you cave in or why after making a lot of decisions you lose focus and pick the easy option what the research shows so many research studies use the two task paradigm so first they had people do a task that required self-control, for example, suppressing emotional responses, resisting temptation, then a second task that also required control, they found worse performance on the second task in the depletion conditions. Practical takeaway from this, if you had a long day of resisting temptations, making decisions, suppressing impulses, you're less likely to be able to exert

self-control afterwards. So it's wise to reduce temptations, simplify your, environment or automate decisions in those times yeah you saw you rob saw me sat but even after the event i i was so i was kind of my brain was going 90 and uh trying to like with sophia make sure like her event was running a certain way and keep things moving like i don't think i much during the day. You were kind of like, I was her helper as well, as well as doing the MC stuff.

And we ended up going from like, we went into the city inside in Leeds. All the people got so overwhelmed. Went into this big food hall where I realized I need to eat something I haven't eaten all day. I think there was about maybe 20, 20 plus choices of places to go.

My brain shut the fuck down. Like, I think Rachel Henley said, to me she was like go up to the bathroom and sit there for a while she was like you can see my head was gone went up to the bathroom and couldn't sit there I almost went into the prayer room but I walked into the I walked into the prayer room so all these boys prayed and I was like this isn't going to help

me fucking relax at all and I came back and I was like I'm just going to get a pint I'm just going to sit here and I think and I came up to me and she was like you need to eat something she was like are you hungry I'm like I am yeah and she was like what do you want to eat and I'm like I don't know and she literally like took me like

a fucking toddler over to get food my executive function was gone by the end of the day and what would have happened was sure I would have ended up having five, six points before trying to get any food

yeah yeah I think that translates into quite a lot of people like if there's people listen to this which I'm sure there is people with like our clients like that have one diet or they have those restrictions with food like they are probably

going to work, engaging with people, they're exhausting their resilience, with people draining that battery, self-control with what they say to people, maybe controlling what they're eating, maybe they've had a battery, maybe they've got kids, whatever it is,

like all of those things contribute to draining that battery, and then as soon as you get home, you're like, I don't know what I want to eat. Bingo. So maybe I'm going to have a drink just to settle my nerves a little bit. As soon as you start having that,

you drain even more, and you're just like, you know what? I'm just like a timid, tired, a little bit, have zero energy to try and even counteract any of this. I'm just going with what's easy. It's such a good point because it's like you get so many people saying things like, I just need to have more willpower so I can, you know, eat healthy and, you know, lose weight and stuff like that.

But they don't realize that, you know, you've had a full day's work where, you know, you're probably more vulnerable to unhealthy snacks and stuff like that as well. So you might be saying no to them, has taken up more energy. Like, and like you said, you're, you're, you're dealing with people all day. You're making decisions all day. And then if you don't have them safeguard, safeguards, like pre-planted meals or, like, you know exactly what to have when you go home because it's ready in the fridge.

You're relying on too much willpower then. And again, like, it's, it's easy to just say, all right, I'm just going to order a takeaway. Yeah, like, man, my, look, I didn't have breakfast. And I needed loads of caffeine because I was off my own. med so I need, like Rob will tell you, after the amount of caffeine I had, most people would be fucking would be vibrating on the floor.

I was just level. It got rid of my jitters and didn't eat much throughout the day and I think I might have had a bit of a brownie. And when I got there, I was like, so hungry, so dehydrated. Brain was turned off from over functioning all day long.

That like, even being surrounded by so many tasty food options I couldn't think of anything couldn't like so how people think that like you'll survive a whole day of being switched on coming like you could have a full fridge and a full press and you still won't know what to eat and eventually you'll just end up

you will go for the easy thing normally the takeaway or like the sleeve of biscuits and then all of a sudden you'll be able to be like well I shouldn't have had that feel like a dick out and then you'll want some more food yeah so sorry go ahead rob then you end up judging yourself you judge yourself for what you've just eaten because you now have energy to process what's happened and you're judging yourself and then you've got negative

thoughts in your head you find it difficult to switch off before you go to sleep you maybe stay up a bit later scrolling just to doom scroll or having another drink and then you wake up tired again the day after because of all of those things kind of attracting yeah it's really about simplifying your life as much as possible I find myself when I'm going through a bad period of nutrition where I'm just, I don't feel that great. I feel a bit sluggish. I'm very reactive rather than proactive. And it's starting to like catch up on me now.

It's like I'll just try and simplify things as much as possible by like if I have a like a if I write a to do list for the next day because it kind of eases my brain. Like I'll literally write down the three meals that I'm going to have as well. So it's like I've already have a written down and it's like I know that, you know, I'm going to have. oats in the morning because I decided I've written that down so I don't need to make a decision tomorrow in terms of what I'm going to have it's there that doesn't always obviously go to plan but um you know it if you can kind of get get them decisions done and dusted early in the day uh it stops you from being so reactive yeah and so you said about simplifying as well um I think it was the talk you were at Carl it was at yours Jerry I think

Josh Hill's talking about beans on toast yeah like just not how having to overcomplicate the meal you're going to have and be like, right, now I need to prep the bullet, even just the bottom is simple. You have to prep all the veg. You have to do this at the other. If you're genuinely, really hungry and you need something that's relatively good, have some beans on toast and a little bit of...

Yeah. Absolutely. It doesn't need to be this huge takeaway that you've ordered just to be... Beans on toast is a twanging meal. Shout out to Josh, actually. Yeah, chicken toasty as well. Like, toasty and soup. and I think that someone else say

like a chicken Caesar salad and a handful of chips or something like that you know pasta tomato sauce well you know chicken

like I had I literally just had a load of breaded chicken with a a garlic Greek yogurt sauce thing I made and a bit of fruit do you know what I'm having and it sounds terrible but I like it's so good

sounds ideal do you know what I'm having right now at the moment or like lately is like I've been I've been missing out on lunch a little bit and like getting a decent amount of protein in lunch I just get a bagel and I just throw some chicken and cheese on it and I just put it in the air fryer for two minutes and boom

I'm ready to go I thought you're going to start a Tello chicken wrap I go out to the pub and I get a fucking club sandwich and there I do I do eat out too much and that's that's you've said that now before

and that's something you said you'd change Karen I said points well listen we're not we're just we're just flawed here it's okay let me let me go so willpower is a muscle you can train it a little bit so i suppose what we're really talking about here is you know the extent of of of how much you're trying to change at once uh so classic study from 1999 what they did participants were told to do a daily self-control task for two weeks for example sit up straight all the time speak without slang or curse words

use their non-dominant hand for daily activities not the activities used to get up there a control group did nothing special afterwards everyone took a self-control test squeezing a hand grip for as long as possible

what happened the practiced group improved their endurance and did better on unrelated self-control tasks doing small annoying discipline tasks like using your left hand for chores or watching or watching your posture can make it slightly easier

to resist temptation later like holding back from checking your phone or overeating. Real-life example, you decide to always put your phone in another room when you eat. It feels unnatural at first but after a couple of weeks

it's much easier and you notice your calmer and less reactive in other areas too. Yeah? So the are you saying that the grip thing they were less likely to let go

of it kind of? They had more endurance. The ones that practiced little annoying self-control tasks for two weeks, but it was just little small ones, had improved their endurance, yeah, and did better on unrelated self-control tasks, rather than the group that did nothing for the two weeks. Yeah, sweet.

I reckon that's probably linked as well a little bit to, it might not be, but if you're a bit more conscious of your actions, you become a bit more aware of what you're eating, how you're breathing, how you drink, like recovery, and things like that. So whether it kind of, as well as the willpower battery

recharging or like learning, whether you actually subconsciously improving your muscular endurance and things like that as well. So actually you can physically do better. Yeah. Very true. Like drinking green tea,

a lot of people associate that with losing body weight, but actually if you're committed enough to drinking green tea every day or you're making that a priority, you're probably also conscious of how you're eating, how you're sleeping, how you're drinking. It's not joking.

That and if you drink too much green tea, you're shit yourself. Basically, yeah. Well, I think you're absolutely right, Rob, because it's awareness, like, change is preceded by awareness. So if you're aware of what you're doing, you're probably aware of multiple things that you're doing, and it's like that awareness is going to be the thing

that makes change rather than probably the thing itself. Yeah. I end up talking to a lot of people now about um drug use and stuff like that and like different people i know and i do we can talk about this on this podcast i presume and we can talk about anything anything no censor um but i don't i'm i'm like over two years not doing any class a and people normally talk about willpower with stuff like that and i i don't have to actively think about it don't want a night out or anything like that. It's not, it's, it's, it's more like second nature now. Yeah. Like, even at the start,

even at the start when I was doing it, it wasn't a, oh, I fucking need this to I need to have it. It was more of a, it's not serving me to do it. So I don't need to be doing it. It was never like, I don't get this inkling on a night out where I'm like, oh, if I don't get this, um, I'm going to have a shit time or anything like that. Like I, even with like the drinking and stuff with that, like, yes, I've been frequenting pubs and having more pints over the last six, seven months, but the idea going out and getting absolutely pissed isn't the whole, isn't the point of the night. It's having a few drinks around different people that, like, I can probably do nights out without having drinks. But then I think, to be honest, I think I'd be less inclined to do nights out anyway, because being around drunk

people is awful. Once you get past, that's why most people who are sober on nights out, are gone at 10 o'clock after. They're gone by 10, 11 when it starts to get rowdy. When it starts to get to that point where you're like, I don't want to listen to the same conversation we've had for the last three years.

Yeah, yeah. Or the same conversation in the last 10 minutes. Yeah, but like, will power wise, like, even one of my clients this morning was like, so you're off the pints now. She's like, how long has it been? And I was like, oh, by the time we get to Sunday morning, it'll be a week. And I'm like, it's not a...

When I do it, save money. If I had loads of money, I'd go for a point this Saturday and watch the earning rugby again. No, I wouldn't even... Wouldn't even fucking blink. But drug was... Like, I was at a party two years ago, and someone handed me... Handed me a pill. And I didn't sit with it for a couple of minutes looking at it, and it wasn't a...

It wasn't a sitting with it and trying to use willpower of... Oh... I want this. I can't have it. I shouldn't have it. It was more of a... Do I fucking need it? Because I'm here awake

after a full day of a party with everyone. It's 1 o'clock in the morning. If I take this, all that's going to happen is I'm just going to be fucking awake for another five hours, but I still do the same chats.

I had more interesting conversations with people that night only having some drinks than some of the conversation. Actually a lot of... of the conversations I've had with drugs around the place. Yeah. It sounds like it's...

Go ahead, Rob. It sounds like as Lincoln, you were saying you're aware in that moment, you might not need it, rather than just having that drawer and kind of giving into it. Yeah. We're aware of, okay, I do this,

it might lead to that, might lead to this. Yeah, it's... It's just doing it because it's there. Yeah. That was the problem back then. Now you're like, well, I can still just stay up for a couple more hours, chatting and having crack with friends and go to bed.

Yeah. I was going to say the same thing as Rob, it kind of links into the, all right, well, because you've gone so many nights out with not doing it, then it gets easier

than if someone offers you a bag or a pill to be like, well, actually I don't really need this or want this now. Yeah. If you can see like a link to the future outcome, whatever it is, I think it makes it a lot easier.

Like with my psychology masters, I did a project at the end, which was based on functional imagery training. And if you, it basically worked on like sports people and students and things like that and if they could see

yes you can see the end goal of right I'm a student here and my end goal is on past my GCSEs but if you can't see the links or you're not aware of the links between where you're starting and where the end goal is it makes it very difficult to kind of manage your willpower

and self-control with things whereas if you go okay I see this step and that might lead to this one. It might also lead to this. If you can see the link between them, I think your willpower kind of increases tenfold because you're conscious that of the actual potential routes you can take, like with yourself, Joe, that if you're like, ah,

this might lead to this negative outcome, or it might lead to this positive outcome. At least you're aware of where it could go around, like this abyss in front of you and just going, ah, fuck it anyway, it'll be all right. And let me tell you about mindset, Rob, so you'll enjoy this as well. Here's another one.

So the twist mindset matters job at L 2010. So what they did, so they tested whether people believe willpower is limited or not. Those who taught willpower runs out actually performed worse after difficult tasks than those who believed willpower is energizing. They didn't show a depletion at all or they showed less depletion. Layman's takeaway, if you believe your willpower is limited, it behaves like a limited resource. If you think doing hard things gives you energy,

you actually last longer. That kind of links to what Ricky, Ricky Hill was saying in his talk with Sky about, you know, the kind of coaching philosophy trend at the moment of listen to your body. And he was like, John, listen to your body within reason. and it's the idea like

my body wants me to sit down and eat lasagna and a load of cake and do that every day and I'd happily fucking do it would be great but I probably feel fucking miserable after it's but it's the whole

the whole willpower behind that like he said you know how like people jobs they've had a shit night they won't go to the gym because they're like

oh my training's going to be bad so you just won't do the thing rather than just going and accepting it may not be great sometimes there's a bit of confirmation bias there, isn't it? It's like, automatically you don't really want to go

and then you go, do you know what? My lower back is feeling a little bit. I didn't get my 16 hours last night. A little stretch and you'd be fine. But you look at that little bit of evidence and you go, yeah. And there's a big difference between perceived performance and actual performance.

Like you could be like, oh, my body feels tired. I feel like shit. There's no point in going to the gym I'm going to have a shit workout. and then you go and do you have one of the best workouts like you're exhausted you've had a really long days work you haven't had anything to eat today there's no point in you're going and then you go and then you go and you have the best workout ever and you're like what i had that with a client last week and he felt shit coming into the workout he felt shit throughout the entire workout shit at the end

of the workout and he was like oh my performance has been terrible and i'm like but you're up on all these exercises yeah yeah you've hit a pb what do you've hit you've done you've a PV, like, you're doing better than you've ever done before. And he said, oh, but I still feel shit. I'm like, well, that's great then, you lucky prick. Yeah. You feel crap, you're still improving. Like that, yeah, it just shows, like, sometimes you just need to show up regardless

how you feel because, like, but now, if it gets to a stage where it's like, okay, all my lifts are reducing, why is that? Well, now it's because I'm not listening to my body and the evidence is telling me that I'm getting weaker. Like, maybe that's the time to be like, well, maybe I should listen to myself. Yeah. That's where the within reason part comes in. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, let me tell you a little bit more about decision fatigue. So, every choice you make during the day, even the small ones like what a shirt to wear or what to eat, uses mental energy. And then I wanted to give you, by simplifying these daily routines, I was going to give you so examples of Obama, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Albert Einstein, a preserved mental bandwidth for bigger, more important decisions.

so Steve Jobs used to have the same black turtlenecks, jeans and sneakers. Jobs famously wore a black myak turtle neck, I think it's called, new balanced sneakers every day. His reasoning, as shared in interviews, I'm trying to make as few decisions as possible about anything except how to best design a new product, affect freed mental focus for creative work at Apple instead of trivial daily choices.

Mark Zuckerberg, grey T-shirt uniform. He said in a Q&A, I really want to clear my life so that I have to make as few decisions as possible about anything except for how to best service this community. Albert Einstein, multiple copies of the same suit. Einstein owned several identical grey suits. When asked why, he replied,

I don't want to waste brainpower on choosing clothes. and then examples of like diet hackers meals simplification many fitness and nutrition experts eat the same few meals daily why it works remove remove constant why what should I eat decisions reduces impulsive eating and diet fatigue keeps calories consistent effortlessly yeah so basically what we were we were speaking there a lot of benefit to that but like sorry you go ahead go ahead go ahead there's big benefit to that. If those things genuinely aren't important to you

then fair like, yeah, if you want to eat the same things every day, you wear the same clothes every day and the priority to you is how your business progresses or how your research progresses fair. But if you then restrict that and then you

go out for a meal with someone and they say, oh, we're going to have this or oh, we're going to this place, you might want to dress a bit more casual or whatever it is or a bit smarter, then those situations surely spiral you a little bit. They send you into a bit of panic

because you're like, I'm not used to processing all this, this is now new. Not if you're a billionaire, if you're a billionaire, you can walk in and your shorts and a t-shirt. Yeah, you can wear but I do get the both, like, the food, the food and the clothes thing. Like I don't have to say, we're like, unless we're eating out every day,

we all tend to eat the same kind of meals on repeat Monday to Thursday. We've just got a big catalog of it that we do circling around. So like needing new recipes all the time is generally what fucks people because they're like if you just go

Monday and Thursday, definitely you have at least 30 things you eat that you could cycle through all the time when you feel like having them your grant. The clothes side, everyone knows I have like I love my socks. I have loads of different types of colored

socks, things that say on there are days when I open up my sock drawer and I look into it and I do not know what sock to wear because I have so much choice now and like I find it funny that like I'll wear like one of my clients that I looked homeless one time because I'll just randomly fuck different things on and it'll be grand because I'm going into my own gym I can do what I want when it comes to going to events uh like we'll say like weddings or parties or like stuff of that where you have to dress a different way I do struggle with that because it's the line

of finding something I feel comfortable in, finding something that will bring me that little bit of joy wearing it, and is it appropriate to wear to whatever you're going? Like I think I went to a wedding was it last

it was March, it was back in March and tried on a couple of different suits whatever was going on with the old Nora spicy brain that day I was like, I'm not wearing these fucking plain navy bollocks. I'm not doing this. so I ended up going like this black grandfather shirt, black pants, these black loafers and this bright pink jacket and someone like a couple days before the wedding was like, you can't wear that.

And I was like, why? And they were like, because you'll stand out. And I was like, unless I wear a white dress going to this wedding, I'm not going to stand out. Now, it was a lie, I did stand out. Do you think them choices where you're kind of overwhelmed with choice, does it impact your productivity in any way? Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Do you know, Rob, remember Noval who I introduced you to? Yeah, yeah. He just doesn't go to weddings. He's like, I get asked to go to weddings all the time. I remember listening to one of his podcasts that he said about that. Yeah, he just doesn't go to those events. Yeah. If he, I think it was him, if someone comes up to him and starts talking to him

and he feels like he doesn't want to be a part of that conversation or they've had enough of the conversation, he won't even justify it. he'll just be like I'm off yeah he's a badass but it's so it's so true that we just kind of except using so much

of our mental energy on things that we probably don't even really care about too much we just get kind of brushed it along with it yeah all stuff that doesn't actually even matter sometimes like

sometimes the explanation of why you're going yeah you shouldn't even have sometimes you shouldn't even have to have an explanation like I don't want to go to your to your wedding you know Yeah, I have a friend that does stags and won't do the wedding.

Yeah, nice. But he's, he gave a reason one night because I think one of the girls... Slags are better. One of the girls gave him shit for it. And she's like, just don't go to weddings. And he was like, right, I'm going to lay it out this way. I go to a stag because I pay to have a weekend with the lads where things aren't overpriced. Yeah.

We have some drinks. Yeah. I don't have to bring a gift. I don't have to do that. And he's like, whereas you get me to go to a wedding, I have to pay for a whole. hotel room I'm barely going to use. I might have to rent a suit, depending on what kind of events on. I have to give you a gift

to go to something you've invited me to... To a party. Essentially just to an overpriced party. An overpriced party, yeah. So that's all of this. I can understand why people wouldn't go to them. Yeah, I get it. The more the older I get them, less

I'm like, I don't give a shit. I don't have to you know, explain myself I want to go to your one. I just don't want to go. And like, it could be people that are relatively close to me as well, but I don't want to spend two grand to, you know, spend one day about three hours down the road, you know? Yeah. Watching love. Yeah.

Oh, God. Anyway, let me, let me continue all this. So athletes as well, so routines and rituals. So elite performers like Serena Williams and Michael Phelps use strict routines, same warm-up, same meals before competition. This reduces mental noise and helps them enter a flow state. riders and creators environmental defaults so Maya Angelou rented a

bare hotel room where she wrote daily with no distractions or choices Stephen King writes in the same place at the same time every day pattern make creative behavior automatic by eliminating context switches

I think that's really I think that I like that because sometimes I notice that I do my best work when I just go to the same coffee shop like multiple days than around. So I find that as well

that like I get work done with certain distractions. Yeah. So like a plane a plain nothing in it room would probably distract me more than going to a cafe. Like I've gone

I've gone down to my local pub a couple of times on a Friday with my laptop, my books. I've had a couple of points while doing work and I remember one girl was like, you've been here. for like three, four hours, but you've been working away. What are you doing?

I'm updating programs and doing admin and stuff. And she's like, how are you getting it done with everything around? And I was like, this distraction is working for me. Well, I think that's your ADHD coming into play as well. 100%. 100%. But I think the whole point of it is that like if you, if you're in regular, in a regular routine or a regular environment,

it means you're, even if it is like a busy pub or a busy cafe, If it's the same one over and overtime, it's like you're not really thinking about, it could be, you're not thinking about anything else because there's nothing novel or new to have to choose, but you don't have to choose.

You don't need to choose where to sit. You know exactly where to sit in that pub. So that's a decision, because you've sat there multiple times. That's a decision taken away from you. What if, Sam, you don't have to worry about anything

that's coming up because you're like. It goes against, it goes against then working in my office. There's talk, like, I know exactly, the layout of it, I know everything I need, and then sometimes those walls are closing in on me so much

that I'm like, I can't do anything here. That's true, I think that's a separate issue that you have. In that situation, you know that you have control of that and you could go to this in your own place, do this in your own place, there's loads of different things for you to try and control, whereas if you're in that workspace,

which is a pub or cafe or whatever, someone else is in control of that environment. You've got the interactions already. There's nowhere else to move to because you've got your space set up. So there could be something to do with that as well. Yeah. I thought about coming over here

to do work after this call and I was like, I think it's a terrible idea because the last time I did it, I fell asleep. Well, sometimes I would say about what you said there as well, Jared, as I start. Like when you are working from home, Sometimes it's just nice to get out of the house as well Because it's somewhere where you associate

It's nice to remove the home from work Do you know what I mean? Yeah All right we'll leave it We'll do one more and then We have to get up to other activities So I'm going to say Power napping

All right so short naps Short naps can give you the most Of the brain rebooting benefits Of a night's rest An abundance of scientific research supports the use of napping to increase productivity. In office work pilots, firefighters, air traffic controllers and nurses, particularly interesting findings include that the following,

napping can be more effective than caffeine use or the same amount of extra nighttime sleep. As little as six minutes of napping can improve memory retention. Do you use nap? Not regularly, but when I do, I feel a big benefit from it. mostly really 15, 20 minutes. If it's like two, three hours, I'm done in. But like, if it's a quick, like, close my eyes on the sofa, putting a 15 minute alarm on, drift off for a little bit,

wait myself up snoring, I'm grand afterwards. I don't know why I use the word grand. I'd never use that word. You're hanging around on the Irish too much. Yeah, so this suggests as well that, like, limit your naps to, you know, at least tops 20 to 30 minutes. after that you would go into a deeper sleep stages and in case it would it would just basically

you'd feel more groggy than anything else so it has to be has to be little short naps i can't say that i nap too much now myself um gives me anxiety yeah because i don't sleep well so if i get a good if i get it like by the time i'd get to sleep during the day it could take me about 20 minutes to try and take a nap so then 20 minutes then so you're talking about like the bones of an hour trying to get yourself started for that and then I worry then that I won't sleep that night. Yeah, I think

I like I like the idea of the siestas. Are they called siestas in Spain? Yeah, yeah. I know because it's because of the weather as well, it's hot in the day and you just go for a little nap on the sofa. I like, I like that. It seems like that's like, but went back

when it was more of like a slow-paced society and you know it was encouraged to do that now it's like because everything's like go go go and you always have to be productive like again it's probably probably um contributes to people for them like they don't have time the estes for me would just be an organized break i don't remember when we go on holidays abroad and there'd be assessed at time i'd just be sitting there going i don't want to be locked in this room i want to go off and do stuff yeah so like i i wouldn't be able to i wouldn't be able to relax like i do like how they do it in spain like there's always a public or a church holiday

fucking loads of them you know they only start at certain times then you do have the siesta but then like they do things later over there like our food service our food service and pubs and stuff is done at like half eight half eight nine o'clock

they might be sitting down then to like order a drink to go have a meal there's a book called in praise of slow I don't know if you've either of you've read it I think you well, especially. It's basically this guy that goes around and just makes researchers and speaks to people that are basically doing things nice and control, not like just trying to make money really quickly and things like that.

And he goes to Italy and spends some time with different families over there. And it's just about that allowing dinner to last from 5 o'clock in the evening to midnight. Yeah. It's all about the process rather than just being like, we need food and then we need to be doing this. Yeah. That's life. That's what I need and want.

It's the social connection. The social connection in a meal. I was actually talking about Italy this morning to a client and we're saying that like I used to love going to restaurants over there. And you'd be in. You'd watch a family that were there before you. You'd have fucking scarfed everything down. You're getting ready to pay the bill and leave and they're still going.

That's why also the service is very much slower in places. like Italy as well because they're not in a rush and then you get over here like where's why's my food why hasn't this waiter come over guess yeah it's true I was talking to two friends who came back from Italy and they're like oh everything was so slow the service was so so so so you're just you're just used to a fast-paced society you know yeah and anyway all right let's leave it there because we have other issues to attend to but thank you very much for anyone that was listening and we will continue to do this as a weekly occurrence all right