November 6, 2025 • 24 mins
Ever blink at 4 p.m. and wonder where your day went? We’ve been there—busy all day yet weirdly light on results. This conversation lays out a distraction detox that replaces chaos with clarity using two simple moves: track the curveballs that hit you and cage the squirrels you chase. The payoff isn’t just productivity; it’s the calm that comes from finishing what matters most.
We start by exposing curveballs—emails, calls, texts, “got a minute?” visits—that shred focus. By writing each one down and reviewing at week’s end, you’ll spot repeat sources and install better systems: scheduled check-ins, shared priorities, response windows, and clearer urgency signals. Fewer drive-bys, fewer pivots, more deep work. Then we turn inward to the squirrel cage, where ideas and impulses hijack momentum. Instead of fighting creativity, we give it a home: a capture list that preserves the spark without blowing up the plan. You can explore later; right now, you execute.
We also walk through the Daily Domination Board, a simple Trello or paper setup that helps you commit to a realistic daily limit, move tasks to Done, and earn a reward: no squirrel time until the essentials are complete. That tiny rule rewires motivation and kills the “busy but not done” cycle. To seal it, we share a surprisingly effective bonus: visible do-not-disturb cues. A red headset, a desk sign, or a clear status teaches your environment to respect your focus, especially during morning deep work.
If you’re tired of scrambling, try this: track curveballs, cage squirrels, protect your best hours, and let systems carry the load. If this helped, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s drowning in distractions, and leave a quick review to tell us what you’ll implement first.
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https://calendly.com/jesse04/self-first-webinar
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Have you ever gone to work and all of a sudden you
blink your eyes and the freakingday's gone and you ain't got
nothing done?
It's not because you suck, it'sbecause you need a distraction
detox.
And I got some fire for youbecause that's exactly what
we're gonna be going over today.
We're gonna go through the playsthat I run on the regular that
(00:22):
help me do the damn thing.
Like play number one is managingmy curveballs.
And we've talked about thisbefore.
We go a little deeper into it.
So I'm not gonna go too deepinto managing the curveballs,
but I want to remind you theseare the things that steal our
time that make our the end ofour day super, super long
(00:43):
because we've been gettingdistracted by other things.
The play number two is thesquirrel cage, which this is the
stuff that I do or that you do,the decisions you make, the
little tweaks or little stepsoff of the path that you take
that end up robbing you of yourtime and put you behind on all
your things.
And then, oh my goodness,there's gonna be a bonus.
(01:05):
Uh, hopefully, I don't get toolike preaching too much so that
we can actually get to thebonus.
And if this is your first timehere, I'm Jesse.
And I share the tools,techniques, and thinking that
have taken me from being aplumber's helper way back in the
day, day, to coaching andtraining construction leaders
all over the country.
(01:26):
Um, and like for real, for real,for clarity, I didn't do all of
these things right out of thegate.
I've learnt the stuff, I tweakedit, I've adjusted it, I've
applied it in my day.
And so, what I like to bring toyou is like the distillation,
the justified method of how Imake sense to all of these
things.
And most importantly, what Ihope you take away from it is
(01:46):
that you can tweak it and adjustit to make it fit you.
The stuff that we're gonna goover, particularly today, um, on
the distraction detox, these arethings you can adjust and do it
in the way that it best suitsyou.
What I'm going to talk about ishow I do it.
I'm going to show the tool, thedaily domination board that I
use to like manage myself andget all of these things out of
(02:09):
the way.
But the main point is you cantweak them, you can adjust them.
You're not going to break it ifyou don't do it exactly the way
I talked about it.
And so, of course, if you areout there in the omniverse, uh
let me know that you're therebecause it makes me feel good.
It makes me feel like peoplecare.
Let's just get straight to it.
So, thinking about getting stuffdone, I spent a lot of time
(02:33):
thinking about oh my God, I justneed more time.
And it didn't matter how muchmore time, if the deadline was
extended, if I worked longerout, I was still under like the
same constant pressure andalways in a rush and just like,
man, what the hell's going on?
I need more time.
But the thing was, I didn't needmore time.
What I needed to do was figureout and identify, and this is
(02:56):
the key thing, because I thinkyou, just like me, we all know
that we're getting distractedand we spend time on things that
maybe aren't the most productivething or like aren't on the
to-do list to like really,really knock out the
deliverables that we owe topeople.
We don't spend all our time onthat.
And you're human, so it's okayto chill, but understanding
precisely what it is that stealsmy time, or more accurately,
(03:22):
understanding being able tovisibly see what it is that I
chase, like what are thedistractions that I invite that
I let in every day was the thingbecause once I was able to see
it, once I was able to label itand identify it, expose the
distractions, I was able to takeaction on those things and get
(03:43):
them out of the damn way.
And so when it comes to timemanagement, you gotta know there
ain't no point in managing time.
I get the most impact bymanaging myself.
And so the question thenbecomes, how do I manage myself?
Well, I am going to show you.
So let's go back to the dailydomination board, uh, which you
can get.
It's a free download.
(04:04):
Just drop double D in thecomments, and uh, I'll hook you
up with the link at the end ofthe show.
Uh, so, anyways, back to theboard.
This is the daily dominationboard.
It's a simple trem Trellotemplate.
The template doesn't do all themagic for you.
It's the thinking, right?
It's the tactics, it's the tool.
Combining and using and actuallycommitting to it is the deal.
(04:25):
So let's go back to curveballs.
So, what do I mean bycurveballs?
Curveballs, these are the thingsthat hit us throughout the day,
all day, every day.
Some examples of a curveball areemails.
Another example of a curveballis phone calls, text messages,
right?
Emergencies.
(04:46):
Somebody forgot their lunch.
You need to take the lunch tothe kids, or they forgot their
key, you need to take the key.
These are random things thatthroughout the day.
Uh, other things that count ascurveballs, and I like to call
them time bandits, are thosepeople that sneak up on you and
say, Hey, you got a minute?
Hey, can I talk to you realquick?
Hey, can you check this out?
I'm not saying that they're badpeople, I'm just saying that
(05:08):
those people are really, reallyinvested and like taking care of
themselves and like completelyclueless to the fact that I'm
busy or that you're busy, right?
That's not a root thing, it'sjust a behavior that they have.
And so all of those things thatI've just listed qualify as
curveballs.
Now, why does that matter?
(05:29):
Curveball, because here, likeI'll plan my day and I have a
lot of stuff to get done.
And when I get something done, Imove it over to the done column.
And then I got another thing.
And kind of like I said at theopening, there have been days
where, man, I've been working mybutt off.
But when I look at the stuffthat I needed to get like done
done, I didn't make anyprogress.
But damn it, I worked all daylong.
(05:50):
I know I worked, I know I wasdoing stuff.
I wasn't flopping around on myTikTok.
It's like, oh, it's because ofcurveballs.
And so tracking the curveballshelps me say, okay, yes, I did
work.
And also, here is where thecurveballs are coming from.
So when I create a curveballcard, you don't have to use a
trello board to make thishappen.
Like, for real, for real, youcan do this on your I've got
(06:12):
where is it?
Heck, I got this super fancylittle whiteboardy thing, piece
of paper, doesn't matter.
The point is start tracking,start writing it down if you're
using the daily dominationboard, even better because it
you can track a lot of data inthere, you can sort it, it has a
lot of magical functions.
Hell, there's more in it than Ieven know about.
But the point is exposing thosedistractions.
(06:34):
Where are those curveballscoming from?
And so, what I will do here,right?
And this is part of theprescription for your
distraction detox.
What I will do here, I will say,Renee.
I'm picking on you, right?
Renee, Renee, hit me up, right?
It doesn't have to be superarticulate unless you really
want to, right?
(06:54):
And then I'm gonna do anotherone.
Uh-oh, what was it?
Uh phone call from editor,right?
Let's just say it's all the sameday.
Uh-oh, then I got some textmessages from the editor again,
right?
None of these things wereplanned at all.
It was it was stuff that kind ofcame out of left field, but it
(07:14):
was urgent.
Uh, and so I I took action, Idid the thing.
Or another one is boss asked formore stuff, right?
Or in my case, a clientrequested a proposal for
services, um, which of courseI'm gonna do that, but it wasn't
on my plan.
And what that does is because ofthe urgency or the nature of the
thing, we'll I'll stop doingwhat I'm doing, and then I'll
(07:37):
handle the call from the editor,or I'll do the thing that my
boss asked me to do, which islike none of those things are
horrible, except for the factthat they invade my space and
distract me from the goal,right?
I don't I don't complete thethings that I committed to
complete.
And a lot of times the thingsthat we're committing to
(07:57):
complete are like timesensitive.
And so I gotta finish them.
So I'm not able to finish thembecause I'm doing all these
other things.
I don't think this is a thingthat you've never experienced.
And if it is one of thosethings, like if I'm just talking
over your head and it neverhappened, let me know in the
comments because maybe I'm theonly one with this sickness.
But the idea again is to trackall the things.
(09:05):
Now, tracking the curveballs,that's only part of it, right?
You're like, okay, so I knowthese fools interrupt me all the
time.
So now I'm gonna write them downand that's gonna make all the
difference.
No, that's the first step.
Because at the end of the day,or at the end of the week, for
me, it's at the end of the week.
I'm gonna be, as I go through mywork day and knock these things
out, they're gonna go in thedone column, right?
(09:25):
And then I'll reflect.
And you can see here super,super fast, two of these, three
of these are coming from theeditor.
So I got three disruptions,three distractions in the middle
of my day that came specificallyfrom one source.
That's valuable to know becausesure I had five of them.
One of them's a good one, right?
I had a client that wants aproposal for more work.
(09:47):
That's fantastic.
The other ones are not sofantastic.
It's like, come on, man, likethree times in the same day.
And then when I could see that,then I could say, oh, all of my
curveballs are coming from thesame source, they're coming from
the same person, that you know,whatever it is, which then gives
me the intel to put or design asystem to manage that, right?
(10:12):
Because they're not doing it tobe ugly, right?
They need the editor, they needsomething from me.
I need to respond so they couldfinish the thing or fulfill the
request that I made to them andso on.
But clearly, we don't have amethod of communication or a
system to like surface issuesand articulate like whether
they're time sensitive or not.
And so, what I would do in thisinstance, and what you can do
(10:33):
again, maybe you don't have aneditor, it doesn't matter.
But when the curveballs arecoming from the same place and
you track them, you will exposeyour daily distractions, and
that will set you up to takeaction on the thing.
Sometimes it could be just aphone call, right?
But what we do is we deal withthem, we feel the distraction,
we feel it, we feel it, we feelit, and then we're behind, and
(10:55):
then we're working late, andthen we're in a rush, and we're
frustrated, and all the things.
When you track them, you'll besetting yourself up to take
action and manage that thinglike out of the situation.
And so that is what we've got oncurveballs.
Main, main point that I want youto take away from this is start
(11:15):
tracking, write it down, use thedaily domination board, but
something physical that you cango back and read and review at
the end of the day, or I thinkit's better if you do it like at
the end of the week, so that youcan see where are all of those
curveballs coming from?
Where are all those timebandits?
Who are the time bandits?
So you can put something inplace one at a time.
(11:36):
The one that's hitting you themost, do something to manage
that because then they willdistract you less.
And what does that mean?
That means you will focus moreon doing the damn thing, doing
the things that matter the mostto you.
The next one, and this one, ooh,this one takes some
introspection and like extremeownership.
(11:56):
And so this one is the squirrelcage, and on the do the damn
thing template, that's alreadybuilt in for you.
So you don't need to build itup.
It's there, but the idea behindthe squirrel cage is this, and
it helps me separate, right?
Curveballs come from otherpeople, external sources.
These are distractions that jumpinto my space and rob me of my
(12:18):
focus that are outside of me,right?
They are not the human, they'renot me.
It's them, the them, thenotorious them.
That's where curveballs comefrom.
The squirrel cage is all aboutme, the squirrels that I chase,
the shiny objects, thedistractions that I have full
control over.
And so the way I came, likediscovered this, I was working,
(12:40):
it was like during the lockdown,and I was asked, like, hey man,
how productive are you now thatyou're not traveling?
And da-da-da-da.
I was like, you know, I have noidea because I'm working 16
hours a day.
I just get up, I turn on mycomputer, I have my meetings, I
do other things, but I don'tlike I'm getting a lot of stuff
done, but I haven't measured it.
And so when I started measuringit, I'm like, oh my God, like
(13:02):
this is why it takes me so longto get things done.
It's because I'm doing otherstuff that wasn't on my list,
right?
Like my task work, well, justwork related.
It was other stuff.
And so then I started like, huh,what are those things?
And because I started using thesquirrel cage, I was able to see
that the thing that internally,the squirrels, my squirrels are
(13:26):
ideas.
I would get an idea and I wouldstart, I would Google it, right?
And I would look into it and Iwould start tinkering around
with it because I had thisirrational fear that if I didn't
do anything with the the idea,it would disappear forever and I
won't change the world.
And so I said, Ah, sometimes theidea was a simple thing, right?
And I would just kind of lookinto it and buy something on
(13:47):
Amazon, whatever it is, just arandom thought that popped in my
head.
And sometimes, like I went downthe rabbit hole.
I started creating vlogs andlooking into things and watching
a YouTube video on it and likegoing all the way in.
And there's an hour gone, boom,just like that.
Two hours gone, just like that.
Or I would get a text or anemail and I would open it,
right?
Because guess what?
You don't have to open andrespond to those things the
(14:09):
second you get them.
Well, anyways, and Jesse Land,at least, you don't have to do
it immediately.
And so what I started doing wastracking the squirrels, the
things that would distract methat I would just arbitrarily
decide they weren't on the list,they weren't priority, they
weren't urgent, they were justthings I decided to do.
And again, for me, I was able toidentify that it was my ideas,
(14:33):
the ideas that popped in my headthat I would chase.
That may not be the same thingfor you.
I know some people that you knowthey have their work stuff and
then they have a personal thing.
It's like, oh, I forgot to callsomebody, oh, I forgot to call
her, I forgot to do the thing.
Oh, I need to go move the truck,like random stuff, whatever it
is, the squirrel cage is thosethings that you chase, right?
The curveballs, those are thethings that come at you.
(14:55):
The squirrel cage, those are thethings that you chase when you
should be getting other thingsdone, right?
When you have otherresponsibilities to execute and
deliver on stuff.
And so the idea here for me, Ihandle it a little bit
differently.
So if you go back to like thebig board, there's the done.
All of the um curveballs, thoseare always going to go in the
(15:16):
done column, and I will reviewand identify where the curveball
is coming from and come up withsomething to like mitigate or
manage that.
The squirrel cage stuff goesover here in the squirrel cage.
Why you ask?
Well, because I don't want tolose the idea.
It was something interesting.
It was something that, yes, Ineed to take action on that, or
(15:36):
it's a future plan or a thoughtor idea that I can take, that I
can like move on in the future.
Nobody cares if I do it or Idon't.
So I want to keep it so I keep alog of those things so that I
can make a service better, so Ican follow up with somebody, so
I can check somebody's birthday,like all of those really
thoughtful things.
I put those in the squirrel cagebecause I do want to do them,
but they have no urgency,they're not time sensitive.
(15:58):
So I keep them in the squirrelcage.
And the way it looks like inpractice is right here, squirrel
cage.
So this morning, like fullconfession, I was watching
YouTube and they were talkingabout sound bites, like the
stall type phrases about uh thatfor marketing.
And I'm like, oh, I really likethis subject.
(16:18):
So what I wanted to do was startlike, let me listen to
everything I can about soundbites and look into the book.
They have free download.
I said, ah, nope, not gonna dothat because I got the the live
stream, so I'll create asoundbite in the squirrel cage
and it's there.
I can come back to it.
Now I built in a kind of silly,not silly, it works super well
(16:40):
for me, but I built in a rewardsystem.
And so here's one of the cheatcodes, right?
This was just extra becauseyou're my favorite.
I built in uh a little rewardsystem for me.
And so what I did is when I hadmy task list, right?
Last live stream we talked aboutwhat knowing what your limits
are.
And at this time, when I waskind of tinkering around and
(17:00):
discovering all these things, mydaily limit was 15.
I brought it down to 11, andthat was like that was good
because I got a lot of work doneand I was also nicer to people.
And so the deal was I could notgo play in the squirrel cage, I
could not go chase any after anyof my ideas until I completed
all of the tasks that Icommitted to getting done that
(17:22):
day.
And so when I knocked out all 11tasks that were on my original
plan, that then opened the doorfor me to go and play in the
squirrel cage.
I could go tinker around withone of those ideas, or maybe
three or five or six.
It doesn't matter.
All of that, like, yes, doingall of that helped me get a
whole hell of a lot more done.
(17:44):
Right.
I was executing, I was knockingthings down, knocking things
out, doing the damn thing.
But here's the like theunspoken, unmeasurable part.
I felt a million times better.
I didn't have the stress or thepressure of failing to deliver
or looking at my clock andsaying, oh shit, it's four
o'clock, and I still have theseother things that I haven't even
(18:07):
started yet.
It's gonna be a long day.
I'm gonna be late to the thing,I'm gonna cancel the thing, I'm
not gonna work out it.
Like, I didn't have todeprioritize or negotiate with
myself about getting theimportant things done.
I was actually gettingeverything done and feeling
really, really good about it.
And so if you're like a feelingsperson and maybe this is too
(18:29):
technical with all the littlecards and writing all the things
down and saying, like, why thehell would I do it?
Here's why.
Because you will feel betterabout yourself.
How do I know?
Because I did, and everythingbecomes lighter, easier, and
you're able to knock things outquicker, faster.
Like it has this compoundingeffect just by the simple fact
of tracking the things andmanaging them.
(18:49):
Again, talking about thecurveballs.
What do you do with thecurveballs?
You label them, you identifywhere they're coming from.
Those are the things that comein at you so that you come up
with a system or a method tobetter manage them.
Squirrel cage, the squirrels,that's me.
That's in that those are mylittle decisions that I take
that take me off course.
And so those I want to capturethem, document them, and put
(19:11):
them in the squirrel cage.
My system for managing that wasI had a little reward system.
Once I get all of the thingsdone, the 11 things that are on
my day every single day, then Iget to play in the squirrel
cage.
If I get another random idea,there's another squirrel I want
to chase, I write a card and Iput it in the squirrel cage
because I know they're all gonnabe in the squirrel cage and I
can go play with them whenever Iget all my damn work done.
(19:34):
So I'm wondering, we got somecomments out there.
Of course, I want to shout outmy people, but I'm wondering,
does this sound like toointense?
Does this sound like way, waylike bro, you got problems?
How do you have time to do allthose things?
Or does it sound like somethingyou could pick up, like to a
little degree or the other?
And folks, the little board thatI've been flashing on that is
(19:55):
the daily domination board.
Um, and if you're like if youwant to super, super boost,
supercharge your start on thething, it's a free template.
Drop double D in the comments,and I will get you the link so
that you can download the thingand start playing around with
it.
I got an instructional video onlike how to do all the little
things.
(20:15):
It's actually it's got I'vealready pre-populated a bunch of
cards so that you just followthe card so you can start start
using it and putting it intoaction.
All right, I promised you abonus.
Bonus time.
It is bonus time, and so it'sagain super simple, super goofy
in terms of managing thecurveballs.
(20:36):
Like this isn't even man, likethey don't even become
curveballs.
It is these magical red headsetbeats.
I like beats.
I know it still has a cord, butyou know what?
It works.
I used this for years, and itwas amazing because you already
know that people you got thetime bandits, they're like
flies, mosca's always comingbuzzing around you.
(20:58):
Or if you're like on a Zoom callor a Teams call or whatever,
they just kind of hover there.
Are you busy?
Like, no, fool, I'm binkingbrownies.
So, what I started doing, andit's like it has a magic, like I
don't even have to have theconversation.
There've been a couple of peoplethat I did, which is a special
case, it's the red beats.
I put these things on, red meansstop, and so what happens is
(21:20):
people just I didn't get thoserandom distractions that really
weren't like super importantbecause I had the red beats on.
I used to, I mean, I haveearbuds, like, don't get me
wrong, I have my super fancy uhthings that I use when I'm
running and whatever, but thosedon't help people stop.
They assume that you'relistening to music or whatever.
What helped people stop for mewas these red, this red set of
(21:45):
headset.
I guess that's the way you saythat.
Now, does it have to be that Idon't know necessarily?
It's the tool that I use, sothat's the bonus.
Put some kind of visualindicator for the people around
you to understand that you arenot available that tells them
loud and clear, no, I don't havea second, no, I don't have a
(22:06):
minute, no, I am not okay withreal quick.
I know it feels a little likeless than nice and not great.
I get it.
And I'm not saying like, sodon't think you got to do it 24
hours a day, every minute thatyou're on the clock.
Just when you're really, reallyfocused and trying to get your
damn stuff done, right?
Maybe, maybe it's the morning.
(22:26):
I know for me, the morning iswhen I'm like super, super
focused.
I can get a lot of stuff done.
I don't need people bugging me.
Guess what?
I don't do in the morning.
I don't answer my phone and Idon't reply to texts.
I sure as hell don't checkemails because I'm busy and deep
work and getting things done.
And so, you know, your situationis different.
You probably have a job, like areal job, not like me.
Something like this will helphelp freaking sign on the wall
(22:47):
or on the cubicle or somethingso that people understand that
this time frame is not the timeto go and bother them.
Appreciate y'all very much.
Be kind to yourself, be cool,and we'll talk at you next time.
unknown (23:01):
Peace.
Have you ever gone to work and all of a sudden you
blink your eyes and the freakingday's gone and you ain't got
nothing done?
It's not because you suck, it'sbecause you need a distraction
detox.
And I got some fire for youbecause that's exactly what
we're gonna be going over today.
We're gonna go through the playsthat I run on the regular that
(00:22):
help me do the damn thing.
Like play number one is managingmy curveballs.
And we've talked about thisbefore.
We go a little deeper into it.
So I'm not gonna go too deepinto managing the curveballs,
but I want to remind you theseare the things that steal our
time that make our the end ofour day super, super long
(00:43):
because we've been gettingdistracted by other things.
The play number two is thesquirrel cage, which this is the
stuff that I do or that you do,the decisions you make, the
little tweaks or little stepsoff of the path that you take
that end up robbing you of yourtime and put you behind on all
your things.
And then, oh my goodness,there's gonna be a bonus.
(01:05):
Uh, hopefully, I don't get toolike preaching too much so that
we can actually get to thebonus.
And if this is your first timehere, I'm Jesse.
And I share the tools,techniques, and thinking that
have taken me from being aplumber's helper way back in the
day, day, to coaching andtraining construction leaders
all over the country.
(01:26):
Um, and like for real, for real,for clarity, I didn't do all of
these things right out of thegate.
I've learnt the stuff, I tweakedit, I've adjusted it, I've
applied it in my day.
And so, what I like to bring toyou is like the distillation,
the justified method of how Imake sense to all of these
things.
And most importantly, what Ihope you take away from it is
(01:46):
that you can tweak it and adjustit to make it fit you.
The stuff that we're gonna goover, particularly today, um, on
the distraction detox, these arethings you can adjust and do it
in the way that it best suitsyou.
What I'm going to talk about ishow I do it.
I'm going to show the tool, thedaily domination board that I
use to like manage myself andget all of these things out of
(02:09):
the way.
But the main point is you cantweak them, you can adjust them.
You're not going to break it ifyou don't do it exactly the way
I talked about it.
And so, of course, if you areout there in the omniverse, uh
let me know that you're therebecause it makes me feel good.
It makes me feel like peoplecare.
Let's just get straight to it.
So, thinking about getting stuffdone, I spent a lot of time
(02:33):
thinking about oh my God, I justneed more time.
And it didn't matter how muchmore time, if the deadline was
extended, if I worked longerout, I was still under like the
same constant pressure andalways in a rush and just like,
man, what the hell's going on?
I need more time.
But the thing was, I didn't needmore time.
What I needed to do was figureout and identify, and this is
(02:56):
the key thing, because I thinkyou, just like me, we all know
that we're getting distractedand we spend time on things that
maybe aren't the most productivething or like aren't on the
to-do list to like really,really knock out the
deliverables that we owe topeople.
We don't spend all our time onthat.
And you're human, so it's okayto chill, but understanding
precisely what it is that stealsmy time, or more accurately,
(03:22):
understanding being able tovisibly see what it is that I
chase, like what are thedistractions that I invite that
I let in every day was the thingbecause once I was able to see
it, once I was able to label itand identify it, expose the
distractions, I was able to takeaction on those things and get
(03:43):
them out of the damn way.
And so when it comes to timemanagement, you gotta know there
ain't no point in managing time.
I get the most impact bymanaging myself.
And so the question thenbecomes, how do I manage myself?
Well, I am going to show you.
So let's go back to the dailydomination board, uh, which you
can get.
It's a free download.
(04:04):
Just drop double D in thecomments, and uh, I'll hook you
up with the link at the end ofthe show.
Uh, so, anyways, back to theboard.
This is the daily dominationboard.
It's a simple trem Trellotemplate.
The template doesn't do all themagic for you.
It's the thinking, right?
It's the tactics, it's the tool.
Combining and using and actuallycommitting to it is the deal.
(04:25):
So let's go back to curveballs.
So, what do I mean bycurveballs?
Curveballs, these are the thingsthat hit us throughout the day,
all day, every day.
Some examples of a curveball areemails.
Another example of a curveballis phone calls, text messages,
right?
Emergencies.
(04:46):
Somebody forgot their lunch.
You need to take the lunch tothe kids, or they forgot their
key, you need to take the key.
These are random things thatthroughout the day.
Uh, other things that count ascurveballs, and I like to call
them time bandits, are thosepeople that sneak up on you and
say, Hey, you got a minute?
Hey, can I talk to you realquick?
Hey, can you check this out?
I'm not saying that they're badpeople, I'm just saying that
(05:08):
those people are really, reallyinvested and like taking care of
themselves and like completelyclueless to the fact that I'm
busy or that you're busy, right?
That's not a root thing, it'sjust a behavior that they have.
And so all of those things thatI've just listed qualify as
curveballs.
Now, why does that matter?
(05:29):
Curveball, because here, likeI'll plan my day and I have a
lot of stuff to get done.
And when I get something done, Imove it over to the done column.
And then I got another thing.
And kind of like I said at theopening, there have been days
where, man, I've been working mybutt off.
But when I look at the stuffthat I needed to get like done
done, I didn't make anyprogress.
But damn it, I worked all daylong.
(05:50):
I know I worked, I know I wasdoing stuff.
I wasn't flopping around on myTikTok.
It's like, oh, it's because ofcurveballs.
And so tracking the curveballshelps me say, okay, yes, I did
work.
And also, here is where thecurveballs are coming from.
So when I create a curveballcard, you don't have to use a
trello board to make thishappen.
Like, for real, for real, youcan do this on your I've got
(06:12):
where is it?
Heck, I got this super fancylittle whiteboardy thing, piece
of paper, doesn't matter.
The point is start tracking,start writing it down if you're
using the daily dominationboard, even better because it
you can track a lot of data inthere, you can sort it, it has a
lot of magical functions.
Hell, there's more in it than Ieven know about.
But the point is exposing thosedistractions.
(06:34):
Where are those curveballscoming from?
And so, what I will do here,right?
And this is part of theprescription for your
distraction detox.
What I will do here, I will say,Renee.
I'm picking on you, right?
Renee, Renee, hit me up, right?
It doesn't have to be superarticulate unless you really
want to, right?
(06:54):
And then I'm gonna do anotherone.
Uh-oh, what was it?
Uh phone call from editor,right?
Let's just say it's all the sameday.
Uh-oh, then I got some textmessages from the editor again,
right?
None of these things wereplanned at all.
It was it was stuff that kind ofcame out of left field, but it
(07:14):
was urgent.
Uh, and so I I took action, Idid the thing.
Or another one is boss asked formore stuff, right?
Or in my case, a clientrequested a proposal for
services, um, which of courseI'm gonna do that, but it wasn't
on my plan.
And what that does is because ofthe urgency or the nature of the
thing, we'll I'll stop doingwhat I'm doing, and then I'll
(07:37):
handle the call from the editor,or I'll do the thing that my
boss asked me to do, which islike none of those things are
horrible, except for the factthat they invade my space and
distract me from the goal,right?
I don't I don't complete thethings that I committed to
complete.
And a lot of times the thingsthat we're committing to
(07:57):
complete are like timesensitive.
And so I gotta finish them.
So I'm not able to finish thembecause I'm doing all these
other things.
I don't think this is a thingthat you've never experienced.
And if it is one of thosethings, like if I'm just talking
over your head and it neverhappened, let me know in the
comments because maybe I'm theonly one with this sickness.
But the idea again is to trackall the things.
(09:05):
Now, tracking the curveballs,that's only part of it, right?
You're like, okay, so I knowthese fools interrupt me all the
time.
So now I'm gonna write them downand that's gonna make all the
difference.
No, that's the first step.
Because at the end of the day,or at the end of the week, for
me, it's at the end of the week.
I'm gonna be, as I go through mywork day and knock these things
out, they're gonna go in thedone column, right?
(09:25):
And then I'll reflect.
And you can see here super,super fast, two of these, three
of these are coming from theeditor.
So I got three disruptions,three distractions in the middle
of my day that came specificallyfrom one source.
That's valuable to know becausesure I had five of them.
One of them's a good one, right?
I had a client that wants aproposal for more work.
(09:47):
That's fantastic.
The other ones are not sofantastic.
It's like, come on, man, likethree times in the same day.
And then when I could see that,then I could say, oh, all of my
curveballs are coming from thesame source, they're coming from
the same person, that you know,whatever it is, which then gives
me the intel to put or design asystem to manage that, right?
(10:12):
Because they're not doing it tobe ugly, right?
They need the editor, they needsomething from me.
I need to respond so they couldfinish the thing or fulfill the
request that I made to them andso on.
But clearly, we don't have amethod of communication or a
system to like surface issuesand articulate like whether
they're time sensitive or not.
And so, what I would do in thisinstance, and what you can do
(10:33):
again, maybe you don't have aneditor, it doesn't matter.
But when the curveballs arecoming from the same place and
you track them, you will exposeyour daily distractions, and
that will set you up to takeaction on the thing.
Sometimes it could be just aphone call, right?
But what we do is we deal withthem, we feel the distraction,
we feel it, we feel it, we feelit, and then we're behind, and
(10:55):
then we're working late, andthen we're in a rush, and we're
frustrated, and all the things.
When you track them, you'll besetting yourself up to take
action and manage that thinglike out of the situation.
And so that is what we've got oncurveballs.
Main, main point that I want youto take away from this is start
(11:15):
tracking, write it down, use thedaily domination board, but
something physical that you cango back and read and review at
the end of the day, or I thinkit's better if you do it like at
the end of the week, so that youcan see where are all of those
curveballs coming from?
Where are all those timebandits?
Who are the time bandits?
So you can put something inplace one at a time.
(11:36):
The one that's hitting you themost, do something to manage
that because then they willdistract you less.
And what does that mean?
That means you will focus moreon doing the damn thing, doing
the things that matter the mostto you.
The next one, and this one, ooh,this one takes some
introspection and like extremeownership.
(11:56):
And so this one is the squirrelcage, and on the do the damn
thing template, that's alreadybuilt in for you.
So you don't need to build itup.
It's there, but the idea behindthe squirrel cage is this, and
it helps me separate, right?
Curveballs come from otherpeople, external sources.
These are distractions that jumpinto my space and rob me of my
(12:18):
focus that are outside of me,right?
They are not the human, they'renot me.
It's them, the them, thenotorious them.
That's where curveballs comefrom.
The squirrel cage is all aboutme, the squirrels that I chase,
the shiny objects, thedistractions that I have full
control over.
And so the way I came, likediscovered this, I was working,
(12:40):
it was like during the lockdown,and I was asked, like, hey man,
how productive are you now thatyou're not traveling?
And da-da-da-da.
I was like, you know, I have noidea because I'm working 16
hours a day.
I just get up, I turn on mycomputer, I have my meetings, I
do other things, but I don'tlike I'm getting a lot of stuff
done, but I haven't measured it.
And so when I started measuringit, I'm like, oh my God, like
(13:02):
this is why it takes me so longto get things done.
It's because I'm doing otherstuff that wasn't on my list,
right?
Like my task work, well, justwork related.
It was other stuff.
And so then I started like, huh,what are those things?
And because I started using thesquirrel cage, I was able to see
that the thing that internally,the squirrels, my squirrels are
(13:26):
ideas.
I would get an idea and I wouldstart, I would Google it, right?
And I would look into it and Iwould start tinkering around
with it because I had thisirrational fear that if I didn't
do anything with the the idea,it would disappear forever and I
won't change the world.
And so I said, Ah, sometimes theidea was a simple thing, right?
And I would just kind of lookinto it and buy something on
(13:47):
Amazon, whatever it is, just arandom thought that popped in my
head.
And sometimes, like I went downthe rabbit hole.
I started creating vlogs andlooking into things and watching
a YouTube video on it and likegoing all the way in.
And there's an hour gone, boom,just like that.
Two hours gone, just like that.
Or I would get a text or anemail and I would open it,
right?
Because guess what?
You don't have to open andrespond to those things the
(14:09):
second you get them.
Well, anyways, and Jesse Land,at least, you don't have to do
it immediately.
And so what I started doing wastracking the squirrels, the
things that would distract methat I would just arbitrarily
decide they weren't on the list,they weren't priority, they
weren't urgent, they were justthings I decided to do.
And again, for me, I was able toidentify that it was my ideas,
(14:33):
the ideas that popped in my headthat I would chase.
That may not be the same thingfor you.
I know some people that you knowthey have their work stuff and
then they have a personal thing.
It's like, oh, I forgot to callsomebody, oh, I forgot to call
her, I forgot to do the thing.
Oh, I need to go move the truck,like random stuff, whatever it
is, the squirrel cage is thosethings that you chase, right?
The curveballs, those are thethings that come at you.
(14:55):
The squirrel cage, those are thethings that you chase when you
should be getting other thingsdone, right?
When you have otherresponsibilities to execute and
deliver on stuff.
And so the idea here for me, Ihandle it a little bit
differently.
So if you go back to like thebig board, there's the done.
All of the um curveballs, thoseare always going to go in the
(15:16):
done column, and I will reviewand identify where the curveball
is coming from and come up withsomething to like mitigate or
manage that.
The squirrel cage stuff goesover here in the squirrel cage.
Why you ask?
Well, because I don't want tolose the idea.
It was something interesting.
It was something that, yes, Ineed to take action on that, or
(15:36):
it's a future plan or a thoughtor idea that I can take, that I
can like move on in the future.
Nobody cares if I do it or Idon't.
So I want to keep it so I keep alog of those things so that I
can make a service better, so Ican follow up with somebody, so
I can check somebody's birthday,like all of those really
thoughtful things.
I put those in the squirrel cagebecause I do want to do them,
but they have no urgency,they're not time sensitive.
(15:58):
So I keep them in the squirrelcage.
And the way it looks like inpractice is right here, squirrel
cage.
So this morning, like fullconfession, I was watching
YouTube and they were talkingabout sound bites, like the
stall type phrases about uh thatfor marketing.
And I'm like, oh, I really likethis subject.
(16:18):
So what I wanted to do was startlike, let me listen to
everything I can about soundbites and look into the book.
They have free download.
I said, ah, nope, not gonna dothat because I got the the live
stream, so I'll create asoundbite in the squirrel cage
and it's there.
I can come back to it.
Now I built in a kind of silly,not silly, it works super well
(16:40):
for me, but I built in a rewardsystem.
And so here's one of the cheatcodes, right?
This was just extra becauseyou're my favorite.
I built in uh a little rewardsystem for me.
And so what I did is when I hadmy task list, right?
Last live stream we talked aboutwhat knowing what your limits
are.
And at this time, when I waskind of tinkering around and
(17:00):
discovering all these things, mydaily limit was 15.
I brought it down to 11, andthat was like that was good
because I got a lot of work doneand I was also nicer to people.
And so the deal was I could notgo play in the squirrel cage, I
could not go chase any after anyof my ideas until I completed
all of the tasks that Icommitted to getting done that
(17:22):
day.
And so when I knocked out all 11tasks that were on my original
plan, that then opened the doorfor me to go and play in the
squirrel cage.
I could go tinker around withone of those ideas, or maybe
three or five or six.
It doesn't matter.
All of that, like, yes, doingall of that helped me get a
whole hell of a lot more done.
(17:44):
Right.
I was executing, I was knockingthings down, knocking things
out, doing the damn thing.
But here's the like theunspoken, unmeasurable part.
I felt a million times better.
I didn't have the stress or thepressure of failing to deliver
or looking at my clock andsaying, oh shit, it's four
o'clock, and I still have theseother things that I haven't even
(18:07):
started yet.
It's gonna be a long day.
I'm gonna be late to the thing,I'm gonna cancel the thing, I'm
not gonna work out it.
Like, I didn't have todeprioritize or negotiate with
myself about getting theimportant things done.
I was actually gettingeverything done and feeling
really, really good about it.
And so if you're like a feelingsperson and maybe this is too
(18:29):
technical with all the littlecards and writing all the things
down and saying, like, why thehell would I do it?
Here's why.
Because you will feel betterabout yourself.
How do I know?
Because I did, and everythingbecomes lighter, easier, and
you're able to knock things outquicker, faster.
Like it has this compoundingeffect just by the simple fact
of tracking the things andmanaging them.
(18:49):
Again, talking about thecurveballs.
What do you do with thecurveballs?
You label them, you identifywhere they're coming from.
Those are the things that comein at you so that you come up
with a system or a method tobetter manage them.
Squirrel cage, the squirrels,that's me.
That's in that those are mylittle decisions that I take
that take me off course.
And so those I want to capturethem, document them, and put
(19:11):
them in the squirrel cage.
My system for managing that wasI had a little reward system.
Once I get all of the thingsdone, the 11 things that are on
my day every single day, then Iget to play in the squirrel
cage.
If I get another random idea,there's another squirrel I want
to chase, I write a card and Iput it in the squirrel cage
because I know they're all gonnabe in the squirrel cage and I
can go play with them whenever Iget all my damn work done.
(19:34):
So I'm wondering, we got somecomments out there.
Of course, I want to shout outmy people, but I'm wondering,
does this sound like toointense?
Does this sound like way, waylike bro, you got problems?
How do you have time to do allthose things?
Or does it sound like somethingyou could pick up, like to a
little degree or the other?
And folks, the little board thatI've been flashing on that is
(19:55):
the daily domination board.
Um, and if you're like if youwant to super, super boost,
supercharge your start on thething, it's a free template.
Drop double D in the comments,and I will get you the link so
that you can download the thingand start playing around with
it.
I got an instructional video onlike how to do all the little
things.
(20:15):
It's actually it's got I'vealready pre-populated a bunch of
cards so that you just followthe card so you can start start
using it and putting it intoaction.
All right, I promised you abonus.
Bonus time.
It is bonus time, and so it'sagain super simple, super goofy
in terms of managing thecurveballs.
(20:36):
Like this isn't even man, likethey don't even become
curveballs.
It is these magical red headsetbeats.
I like beats.
I know it still has a cord, butyou know what?
It works.
I used this for years, and itwas amazing because you already
know that people you got thetime bandits, they're like
flies, mosca's always comingbuzzing around you.
(20:58):
Or if you're like on a Zoom callor a Teams call or whatever,
they just kind of hover there.
Are you busy?
Like, no, fool, I'm binkingbrownies.
So, what I started doing, andit's like it has a magic, like I
don't even have to have theconversation.
There've been a couple of peoplethat I did, which is a special
case, it's the red beats.
I put these things on, red meansstop, and so what happens is
(21:20):
people just I didn't get thoserandom distractions that really
weren't like super importantbecause I had the red beats on.
I used to, I mean, I haveearbuds, like, don't get me
wrong, I have my super fancy uhthings that I use when I'm
running and whatever, but thosedon't help people stop.
They assume that you'relistening to music or whatever.
What helped people stop for mewas these red, this red set of
(21:45):
headset.
I guess that's the way you saythat.
Now, does it have to be that Idon't know necessarily?
It's the tool that I use, sothat's the bonus.
Put some kind of visualindicator for the people around
you to understand that you arenot available that tells them
loud and clear, no, I don't havea second, no, I don't have a
(22:06):
minute, no, I am not okay withreal quick.
I know it feels a little likeless than nice and not great.
I get it.
And I'm not saying like, sodon't think you got to do it 24
hours a day, every minute thatyou're on the clock.
Just when you're really, reallyfocused and trying to get your
damn stuff done, right?
Maybe, maybe it's the morning.
(22:26):
I know for me, the morning iswhen I'm like super, super
focused.
I can get a lot of stuff done.
I don't need people bugging me.
Guess what?
I don't do in the morning.
I don't answer my phone and Idon't reply to texts.
I sure as hell don't checkemails because I'm busy and deep
work and getting things done.
And so, you know, your situationis different.
You probably have a job, like areal job, not like me.
Something like this will helphelp freaking sign on the wall
(22:47):
or on the cubicle or somethingso that people understand that
this time frame is not the timeto go and bother them.
Appreciate y'all very much.
Be kind to yourself, be cool,and we'll talk at you next time.
unknown (23:01):
Peace.
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