Just Breathe! Staying Mindful While Working

Show Notes:
Links:
Horrorstör
Tiny MBA
Great Nuts
AntiRSI
MotivAider
Pomodoro Technique

Full Transcript:
Starr:
So, I've got to say, this is kind of a brag. It's completely off topic but I've got to tell somebody. I'm very proud of myself. You know how in any... I don't know. Whenever you watch movies or TV about prison, or weird situations, there's always somebody who's a genius at making booze, right?

Josh:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Oh, yeah. Like the trash bag or whatever?

Starr:
Yeah. You take whatever's in your environment and you somehow make booze out of it. Well, I think I'm kind of like that with ice cream. I think I'm the same with ice cream.

Josh:
Some garbage bag ice cream?

Starr:
No, not garbage bag ice cream. But I was just like... Yesterday, I was like-

Josh:
Some bathtub ice cream?

Starr:
Yesterday I was like, "I really want ice cream but I don't have any cream."

Josh:
Gotcha. Okay.

Starr:
Yeah.

Josh:
Yeah.

Starr:
Yeah. So, I was like, "Okay. I need my fat source. I need my source of milk solids. I need a sugar source."

Josh:
Yeah, you're going all chemist on it.

Starr:
Oh yeah, yeah, totally. It does harken back into the chemistry stuff. But actually, it turns out, if you take a can of sweetened condensed milk, and a package of Philadelphia cream cheese, and you add a little bit of milk to dilute them, and then blend them in a blender, and then put them in an ice cream maker, it makes pretty serviceable ice cream. It's a little bit sweet for my taste but it worked out.

Josh:
It's good to know.

Josh:
Sounds like some sort of new form of gelatto or something.

Starr:
Yeah. Something like that.

Josh:
I don't know. You got to come up with a name for that.

Starr:
Yeah.

Josh:
Like your own name.

Starr:
I don't know.

Josh:
Yeah. We don't have to do it on the air. I'm not... Not to put you on the spot.

Starr:
No. No. I'm not going to give that way to... I'm not going to give that away. You got to pay for that.

Starr:
Yeah. So, on Monday, we had our all hands meeting and... Except Ben wasn't here because he was taking some sort of time of which is just amazing. It's unprecedented.

Josh:
Yeah. Can we say why, Ben?

Ben:
I suppose.

Josh:
It's because Monday was Ben's birthday. Happy birthday, Ben.

Starr:
Oh, happy birthday.

Ben:
Thank you. Thank you.

Josh:
I'm pretty sure he hates this. So, I'm sorry, this is not your birthday present.

Starr:
I'm sorry. We won't sing. We won't sing.

Ben:
There was no ice cream involved but there was cream cheese. My birthday dessert was cream cheese sopapilla. So tasty.

Starr:
Oh.

Josh:
Nice.

Ben:
Yes. Yes.

Starr:
Oh, nice.

Josh:
Sounds good.

Starr:
I'm really curious what that's like. But anyway, the thing that you missed, you missed our all hands meeting. It was lonely without you but we made do. And we had an interesting conversation I thought about the way that which we work, right? We're all working on computers all day. We all feel rushed. We're doing this stuff. It leads to surmounting pressure and tension. And I really enjoyed having a conversation with everybody about that. I learned that some people are into yoga in our office. I'm a little bit into yoga. I'm a baby yoga person. A baby yogee. We talked about balance boards, and how Josh is like... I don't know. It just seems like Back To The Future to me, you're on the hoverboard all day, just sitting there typing.

Josh:
It does kind of feel like a hoverboard, yeah.

Starr:
Yeah?

Josh:
I'm not on it right now.

Starr:
Well, unfortunately.

Josh:
Just because I... I don't know.

Starr:
You should do that more-

Josh:
I know If I always used it during the podcast, I know that at some point I'll probably wipe out.

Starr:
That's why I was saying you should do it. We should capture that.

Starr:
Yeah. Yeah. I discussed a little bit about how I found that just trying to do things quickly is kind of stressful. And so, things that are... Email checking that doesn't require a bunch of... It's not too thoughtful and I tend to just be like, "Delete. Delete. Delete." Just go through as quick as possible. I've been trying to purposely slow that down just a little bit. And we're talking about it adds an extra five minutes. So, not really that much longer, and that's helpful. I'm not saying I want to do the whole podcast about this, I just wanted to mention that because I just really enjoyed talking with everybody about that stuff. I think that's a good... It makes me happy that we're doing these bi-weekly check ins.

Josh:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, it was a good chat.

Starr:
Yeah.

Josh:
Yeah. That reminded me, I had to turn off my bell of mindfulness because I realized it was probably going to chime.

Starr:
Oh, you did? So, you go one?

Josh:
Well, I downloaded the app to check it out, and turn the thing on. So, every 15 minutes or whatever it dings.

Starr:
Oh yeah. I forgot I told y'all about that. So, that is-

Josh:
Yeah. I kind of like it actually. It's... Yeah, you have to say what it is but yeah, it's cool. It does bring you out of the moment and then lets you refocus.

Starr:
Yeah. So, it's just a really simple app. It's the plum village app which is... It's released by this monastery in France, it's a Buddhist monastery and as part of it... I mean, it's all free and stuff but as part of it, they have this basically that will... It's this meditation bell, this really long, and really... You have an option of a couple of them.

Josh:
Yeah.

Starr:
And it just rings every 15 minute so you just remember to be like, "Oh yeah, I exist in the world. I'm not just eyes looking and fingers typing."

Josh:
Yeah. It came about in this discussion on Monday I think because we got talking about when you're in deep focus at work, especially on a computer, I think Starr you mentioned you've experienced this and I have too to some extent, you can get really absorbed to the point where you're almost in some kind of... I don't know. It can be a little stressful after a while because... At least for me, I find myself, my breathing tends to get more shallow, and I stop blinking. So, having something to break you out of that and remind you, "Oh, you shouldn't work for... You shouldn't spend two hours in that state." And pomodoro technique for instance is something people created to create some sort of more focused schedule where you still remember to take breaks and let your mind wander and stuff.

Josh:
So, to me, this seems a little bit... It fulfills a little bit of that. It's not as structured but it's just a thing that reminds you, prompts you basically to stop and think for a minute before continuing in your work or whatever.

Starr:
Yeah. It's really cute because my little daughter is... She's obviously noticed there's a bell going off. And so, I told her what it was, "It's like, you take your breath." And so, she'll hear it, and she'll just be like, "Hmm-Ha." And then, just go back to whatever she was doing. But it's cute because it's so... It's kind of just like... I mean, it's "I'm just going to take this breath then I'm going to...