Plus Habits — What Ingmar Bergman Can Teach You About Minimizing Distractions

In an interview with Vogue in 2014, Linn Ullmann, a novelist and the daughter of the legendary Swedish filmmaker behind classics like Persona and The Seventh Seal, was asked this question, “How have your parents, who have inspired so many writers, filmmakers, and actors, influenced your work?”

“No matter what time you get out of bed, go for a walk and then work, [Ingmar Bergman] would say, because the demons hate it when you get out of bed, demons hate fresh air.”

It’s safe to assume that when he said this, he mostly meant it in the context of not having your hands tied by your creative demons, but rather to just get up, and go to your work. But it’s natural to associate it with distractions too.

When you give in to your distractions on a daily basis, you do actually feel bad about it but don’t say or do much to stop it because doing anything about it would acknowledge its presence, and that would feel like defeat.

So, instead, you just keep these distractions hidden, and act like it’s something that you’re only doing today, and won’t repeat tomorrow.

And that’s exactly what the demons want.

But by exposing and accepting these distractions for what they are and shining a light on them, you can dissect them, find productive alternatives, and brush them aside much easily compared to before.

Why do Distracting Thoughts Arise At All?

Imagine you’re driving down the highway and you notice a billboard with a phone number you want to call. Obviously, if you were in the passenger seat, you’d just take out your phone, dial the number, and call it. But, in this situation, you’re in the driver’s seat and you can’t do that. So, what do you do? You keep repeating the number over and over again in your mind until you memorize it, and can call when you’re in an ideal situation to do so.

This is exactly what your mind is doing when it throws distracting thoughts at you while you’re working. In the fear that you’ll forget these random things, it tries to repeat them over and over again.

Oftentimes these distracting thoughts genuinely need your attention. If you’re in the flow and doing your best work, but you suddenly remember an unpaid bill or a presentation you need to prepare for, those thoughts do actually need your attention.

But, they certainly don’t need it right now.

By creating a distractions list, you can mitigate this by reassuring your mind that you have a system in place for remembering these important thoughts. It’s one of the best habits for productivity.

Creating a Distractions List

Here’s how to do it: whenever you start working on a task, keep a writing device next to you. Whenever a distracting thought, reminder, or to-do list task pops into your mind, just jot it down, and then refocus your attention on your task. When you’re done with your task, review the list you created. Either tackle all those thoughts (whether they be ideas, reminders, or pending tasks) right then and there, bump them to the next day, or add them to your long-term to-do list.

If one particular set of distractions is a common occurrence, you can make a list of them in a journal and keep a running tally of them. Whenever you’re working and a distraction comes across your radar (one that’s on your list), you can identify it and put a tally mark for that distraction.

In time, as you generate a lot of data, you can look back and make some necessary adjustments. Case in point, if you tend to reach for your phone to play a game while working, you can try to put it out of sight — in a drawer, cupboard, or another room.

After doing this for a while, your management of distractions will improve dramatically. You won’t give into them as easily and twitch to respond in a flash. You’ll know your demons, and they won’t be able to survive for long in the light of your awareness.

This was an edited excerpt from my book Plus Habits.

Plus Habits — What David Goggins Can Teach You About Persistence

“Life is one big tug of war between mediocrity and trying to find your best self.”  — David Goggins

In 2005, David Goggins entered a 100-mile race to raise money for charity. It was his first ultra-marathon. The starter gun was fired and Goggins took off. The first few miles were fine, and he kept a steady pace.

Around mile 25, exhaustion kicked in and he started questioning his limits.

Halfway through the race, each step he took sent a shockwave of pain through his body and the idea of crossing the finish line seemed out of reach, yet he still kept on going.

Around mile 70 — with his feet filled with blisters and swollen with pain — Goggins couldn’t move anymore, and sat down to rest. During this phase, he began to recall his battle with obesity, his two Navy SEAL Hell Weeks, and other achievements in his life that others had once deemed “impossible.”

With this thought, he soon managed to stand up, and ended up completing the final 30 miles without any breaks, reaching the finish line in 19 hours and 6 minutes.

The Cookie Jar Method

Goggins has said, “The Cookie Jar is a place in my mind where I put all things bad and good that shaped me. Some people try to forget the bad in their life. I use my bad for strength when needed, great lessons learned. In that Cookie Jar, I pull out whatever I need for the task at hand.”

During any kind of challenge, your mind constantly evaluates where you stand currently compared to the goal. If you’re not making significant progress, it creates excuses and reasons for you to give up.

The Cookie Jar method helps you overpower those negative brain loops by serving as a mental reserve you can dig into to remind yourself of everything that you have been through and how resilient you are.

Goggin’s mind told him as early as 25 miles into the race to give up, but he used the Cookie Jar method to push through and reach the finish line. Often, when we’re running our own personal ultra-marathon, we tend to struggle at the 25-mile equivalent as well. And it’s not always because of exhaustion or physical injuries.

It could be because of distraction, inertia, or perfectionism. You could come across the “25-mile point” an hour into your workday, or 15 minutes into a workout session, or a few minutes into your meditation.

That’s when this method comes in handy — you can simply reach out into your Cookie Jar and pick out a Cookie related to your situation, and it can provide you the motivation to keep going!

How to Create Your Own Motivation Cookie Jar

Simply imagine that you have an empty cookie jar into which you place all of your past victories, accomplishments, and the challenges that you have overcome (referred to as “Cookies”), and can take a bite off any of these when need be.

You can remind yourself of that day last week when you were feeling distracted but still managed to annihilate your top 3 MITs. Or last month when you were feeling lazy and wanted to spend all day online but still got up and squeezed in a workout. Or when you managed to complete your meditation session even though your neighbor was blasting loud music all day.

After all, if you’ve done it before — sometimes in worse conditions compared to the present — you can probably do it again. Doing this habitually will imbibe you with the belief that most of the time when your mind is telling you to give up, you probably still have some extra fuel left in the tank to push ahead.

Whenever you face a challenge and feel like giving up, just reach out into your Cookie Jar and pick out a Cookie. You will feel more alive and energized when you do this, and if you persist with it you can overpower old habit triggers with new ones.

This was an excerpt from my book Plus Habits.

Plus Habits — What Elon Musk Can Teach You About Productivity

“I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better. I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.”

— Elon Musk

In 2016, Loic Le Meur, a French entrepreneur and Tesla owner, frustrated by supercharger stations repeatedly being misused as parking spots for already fully-charged cars, tweeted at Musk: “@elonmusk the San Mateo supercharger is always full with idiots who leave their Tesla for hours even if already charged.”

Musk replied back in 20 minutes: “You’re right, this is becoming an issue. Supercharger spots are meant for charging, not parking. Will take action.”

Six days later, Tesla released a software update on its entire fleet which gave it the ability to levy a $0.50 idle fee for every minute a fully-charged Tesla car occupied a spot at any of its Supercharger stations (with a grace period of five minutes), thus incentivizing owners to move out their cars once charging was complete, and freeing up space for other cars to come in and get recharged as well.

In the above story, you can observe a complete feedback loop taking place: Musk welcoming criticism, becoming aware of an issue from a customer, and taking quick action on it.

What Self-Driving Cars, Mario Kart, and the Immune System Have in Common

This is not only limited to businesses. You can find feedback loops pretty much everywhere: the cruise control or self-driving system in your car, in your body’s immune system, and antivirus software on your computer or phone. In fact, they permeate almost every system in your life.

Chances are, even your favorite video game uses a feedback loop — feeding your current performance stats back into its core mechanics to either increase or lower difficulty, and thus determining the likelihood of future success or failure — in a bid to increase interaction, replayability, and addictiveness.

Ever wondered what’s the purpose behind the Blue Shell in Mario Kart? Now you know.

3 Steps to Create Your Own Self-Improvement Feedback Loop

To develop this habit in a more practical way in everyday life, follow these three steps:

1. Reflect on your productivity at the end of each day: What did you get done? What did you procrastinate on? If you pushed yourself, could you have achieved more? Ask yourself these questions and try to see honestly how you performed that particular day without any bias or excuses, and with complete honesty.

2. Get constructive feedback: Ask somebody you know and trust for feedback — a friend, colleague, or mentor. Or, you can find it by yourself as well. For example, if you’re a student, think about an exam or assignment grade. If you’re a blogger, read the comments from your readers on your blog. If you’re an entrepreneur, check online reviews and forums of your product or service. Can you pick any common trends or any big issues that need to be addressed, but you’re currently unaware of?

3. Check if your current productivity is in line with your goals: Are you doing enough to reach your targets in time? Suppose you have a deadline on a project, are you working enough every day to reach it? Based on your observations, make slight course corrections in your schedule, processes, or to-do list so that you can perform better tomorrow.

At its root, maintaining a feedback loop is about knowing how you are performing currently, getting feedback from others, and making sure you do enough to reach your goals in time. And doing that every single day, habitually.

The goal with this habit is to always be in a state of improvement: just moving forward step by step. Not sitting in one place, and not taking huge strides to reach unreasonable targets either. That’s what leads to true productivity.

This was an edited excerpt from my book Plus Habits.