WEBVTT - Redefining productivity, with Natalie Nixon 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:09.280 Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning. 0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:15.240 This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:18.079 episode is going to be a longer one part of 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:21.560 the series where I interview fascinating people about how they 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:24.760 take their days from great to awesome and any advice 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:27.720 they have for the rest of us. So today I 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:31.760 am delighted to welcome Natalie Nixon to Before Breakfast. Natalie 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:35.040 is the CEO of Figure eight Thinking and the author 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:39.200 of the new book Move Think Rest. So Natalie, welcome 0:00:39.240 --> 0:00:39.839 to the show. 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:41.920 Thank you, Laura, It's great to be here. 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:44.479 Yeah, so glad to have you. Why don't you tell 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:46.320 our listeners a little bit about yourself. 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:50.200 I am a creativity strategist. I made up my job title. 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:54.840 What that means is I advise and help leaders, executive 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:58.520 teams and organizations to connect the dots between creativity and 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:02.400 business results. And I do that through my global keynote, speaking, 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:09.600 through my my courses and my facilitations. And I'm from Philly. 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:12.240 I live in Philly. I lived a lot of different places, 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:15.640 but realize the grass is not greener and I'm off 0:01:15.680 --> 0:01:16.280 there as well. 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:18.920 Well. I am in the greater Philly region as well. 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:21.759 So it turns out we're actually having this conversation locally. 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:27.880 We're very very rainy day. Where are you, Laura in. 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:30.760 The in the suburbs up in the Cameline area? Yeah, 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:32.360 how about how about you? 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:34.119 I'm in the city in mount Airy. 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:36.399 Oh, I love it. I love it. Well, we are 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:39.080 not that far from each other. So I'm waving, waving 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:43.679 across the river. So so, Natalie, uh, you write in 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:47.520 this book Move Think Rest about the mt R framework. 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:49.720 Those are being the first initials of those words which 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:52.200 you call the motor framework. So why don't you tell 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:55.120 us a little bit about that? What is the Motor framework? 0:01:55.760 --> 0:01:59.560 The Motor framework is a human centered operating system to 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:02.560 help all of us to flourish in a time of 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:08.200 ubiquitous technology. I'm precedent at burnout and new rules for work, 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:12.680 and the motor human centered operating system is people can 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:15.920 think of it as an on ramp to help them 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:19.240 do as I say, toggle between wonder and rigor, which 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:22.400 is related to my Wonder rigor theory. It's the way 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:26.040 that we can think in a more democratized way about creativity. 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:31.000 So the Move Think Rest operating system is a way 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:35.120 to build creativity as a capacity, to understand that creativity 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:38.560 is a strategic competency that will allow all of us 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:42.160 to innovate more consistently and sustainably. And if you want, 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:44.560 I can, I can kind of thirty thousand foot level 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:46.800 break down what each of those components are. 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:49.200 Well, sure, I'd love to hear, you know. I mean, 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:53.480 maybe people understand generally what move means, but maybe not. 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:57.480 Yeah, So when I talk about movement, I'm not actually 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:01.200 talking only about exercise. Exercises great, and it's really important. 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:05.120 What I'm referring to is movement hygiene. We have begun 0:03:05.400 --> 0:03:08.760 in our knowledge economy to think about the brain as 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:12.400 kind of disembodied, disembodied from the rest of the body, 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:15.000 and we also separate brain from mind. So when I'm 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:17.880 talking about movement, I'm talking about movement hygiene, which means 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:20.520 that we integrate movement throughout the day. We're making sure 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:23.120 we stand up, we take walks, and that's really important 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:28.160 because when we move, our ideas move, and so the 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:30.520 spinal cord, as some of us may or may not 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:33.840 be aware, is actually an extension of the brain, so 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:36.000 that when we are kind of slumped over at our 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:38.600 desk for long periods of time. Actually, anytime longer than 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:41.000 forty minutes at a time is kind of getting into 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:44.960 a danger zone. Then we actually are constricting blood flow 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:47.560 to the brain, which means we are restricting oxygen, which 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:49.960 means we're not going to actually be doing our best thinking. 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:53.400 So movement hygiene is really important. On the thought part, 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:57.960 I'm talking about the value of forecasting and back casting. 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:03.400 So backcasting is about the of memory and reflection. Forecasting 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:09.040 is about the imagination curiosity. And what's significant about both 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:13.400 backcasting and forecasting you need to slow down in order 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:17.119 to do some really effective backcasting and forecasting. The reason 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:20.080 why that sort of thought matters is that while we 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:23.520 tend to focus on, you know, real sharp cognition and 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:26.600 clear thought, you actually will not be doing your clearest 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:30.840 thinking if you don't incorporate backcasting and forecasting and then rest. 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:34.000 I'm not just saying I'm not what. I'm not recognizing 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:37.440 that every office building have a nap room. I mean, 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:40.800 if that makes sense for your company, cool, But I'm 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:45.160 talking about intermittent rest. Intermittent rest that can be scaled. 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:49.960 So rest in terms of micro breaks, I actually calendar 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:53.279 in buffers on my calendar to make sure that I'll 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:55.680 be hard hitted, and I'll sit at the deskerage way 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:57.800 too long, and I'll make sure that I stand up, 0:04:57.800 --> 0:05:00.359 step away from the desk, take a walk, I do 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:05.320 day dream breaks, but also scaling out to sabbatical. So 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:08.200 I interviewed almost sixty people for this book, and I 0:05:08.200 --> 0:05:12.279 also interview people who have taken sabbatical work at nonprofit organizations, 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:15.400 tech firms, not only you know, people work in higher education. 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:18.160 So that's I mean, I'm sure a lot of us 0:05:18.160 --> 0:05:19.880 are listening to that, Like WHOA forty minutes is the 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:22.039 danger zone and that's a problem because a lot of 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:25.200 work days are definitely set up with longer periods of 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:28.320 sitting than forty minutes. I wonder if you could talk 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:31.919 through what a work day might look like if it 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:36.840 incorporated this framework to optimize our creativity and our results. 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:39.120 Well, what it would not look like is back to 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:42.159 back zoom or team meetings. It would look like a 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:45.840 day where you are cognizant of when if you're too 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:49.080 the extent that you're able, where you're a cognizant of 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:51.920 where you get your best, sharp focused thinking of. And 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:55.560 that's different for different people. So for me, I can 0:05:55.600 --> 0:06:00.279 do really deep focused thinking work in the mornings after 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:03.320 two o'clock, that's not the best time for me to 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:06.039 do that, So I like to do more kind of 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:09.400 responding to emails and those sorts of things in the afternoons. 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:12.839 It would look like a day where if it all possible, 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:15.200 if you're able to move Because I also interview people 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:17.839 who live with physical disability, so I was really interested 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:20.120 in what movement, thought, and rest looks like when you're 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:22.960 restricted in movement, or if you live in a socioeconomic 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:26.080 environment where it's not safe to just go for a 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:29.440 walk perhaps or the space isn't even designed for that. 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:34.280 So making sure that you start your morning with some 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:40.440 sort of walk or movement. Making sure that meetings, even 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:43.719 if they are done on zoom or in person, spark 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:47.000 new types of thinking. So something like question storming is 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:51.840 a really great technique to integrate into collaborative team meetings 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:57.479 so that you're not just doing solutions oriented thinking. They're 0:06:57.520 --> 0:06:59.839 looking for the answer. We know that you can tell 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:02.760 lot more about people by the quality of the questions 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:06.560 if they're asking even more than their answers. So those 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:07.359 are just a few. 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:10.520 Examples what are your favorite kinds of breaks? I mean, 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:12.840 are those going to be like movement breaks? Often? I 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:15.200 guess you could get both the moving and the resting 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:17.880 together as well, exactly. 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:21.080 So that's a really good point. The move think rest 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:25.480 framework is not siloed. It's not first to move, then 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:28.280 you think, then you rest. So for example, when you 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:31.239 stand up for a day dream break, that's affecting thought 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:34.760 as well as rest. I love to go for short 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:37.000 walks in the woods. The other thing I've learned in 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:38.880 my research A lot of times people aren't going for 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:40.760 a short walk because they think, oh, well, I don't 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:43.480 have thirty minutes. You don't need thirty minutes. I have 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:46.000 a three minute I have a walk that I know 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:47.680 it takes three minutes. I have a walk that I 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:51.400 know takes nine minutes. Sometimes I can take a fifteen 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:53.000 minute long walk and at the end of the day, 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:55.360 if I'm fortunate, I'll be able to take there's a 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:57.160 walk I take the thirty minutes. You and I live 0:07:57.200 --> 0:08:00.400 in the Philadelphia area. Philadelphia is an incredible city where 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:03.880 nature is integrated throughout the city. So here in Mount Airy, 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:06.200 I live across the street from the woods, so I'm 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:08.320 really fortunate that I can just kind of dip into 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:12.160 the woods whenever I'm able. So my favorites are going 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:16.160 for a walk doing daydream breaks. My daydream breaks last 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:18.800 sixty to ninety seconds. That's really all it takes for 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:22.640 me to return to work revived and refresh. And I 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:24.760 didn't do it this morning, but I really try to 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:28.040 stretch my body for at least ten minutes on a 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:31.119 yoga matt every single morning before I get to work. 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:33.839 Excellent habits for sure. Well, I'm going to take a 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:35.560 quick ad break and then we'll be back with more 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:45.920 from Natalie Nixon. Well, I am back talking with Natalie Nixon, 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:48.720 who is the author of the new book Move, Think Rest. 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:51.920 We've been talking about some of your favorite breaks, and 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:54.520 I love the idea of a day dreaming break here, 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:55.920 but I think a lot of people hear that, like, 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:58.760 wait a minute, So Natalie is daydreaming for sixty to 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:01.320 ninety seconds, what are you doing in that time? 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:01.480 Like? 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:03.760 How do you get yourself to the point where you're 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:07.040 I guess how does one set that up to incorporate 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:09.880 a daydream break intentionally into your life? 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:13.880 Well, I mentioned earlier that I actually have like I 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:17.960 call it buffer zones. In my calendar, there are typically 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:20.320 thirty minutes long twenty minutes song. I'm not daydream for 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:24.080 that long. But the cool thing about daydreaming is that 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:25.880 the more you do it, the more you long for 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:30.800 the more, the better you acclimate to it. What's actually 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:33.800 happening when we daydream is that our default mode network 0:09:33.840 --> 0:09:37.520 is getting activated. So the default mode network, or the 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:41.679 regions in the brain where they're different neural synapses that 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:45.160 get activated, the default mote network. I call it the 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:49.280 washing machine of the brain. Because the default mote network 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:51.840 gets activated when we tap out of the world. So 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:55.080 for example, when we are resting or in a nice 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:57.839 deep sleep, when we take a shower, when we're reading 0:09:57.840 --> 0:10:04.800 a nice immersive book of fiction, when we are an engaging, rollicking, 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:08.360 laughing conversation with a friend. When we tap out of 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:11.040 the world, it's not that our brain stops working. It's 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:14.720 just working differently, and that's essential because that's where the 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:17.480 synchronization of all what I call the juicy bits of 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:21.680 productivity happen. That's why often if you stay rooted to 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:23.640 your chair and your desk and are trying to figure 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:26.080 out the answer to a problem, you're just stuck. It's 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:30.640 not going to come unless, counterintuitively, you step away and 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:34.080 you're actually letting the default mode network take place. You know, 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:37.720 originally I thought about calling this book invisible Work, because 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:40.439 that's really what I'm talking about. Some of our best 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:43.000 work is happening when it can't be tracked, when it 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:46.320 can't be monitored, because rest should not be treated as 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:49.640 a reward. Rest should actually be integrated into the day. 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:52.080 Movement should be integrated with about the day. The different ways 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:55.239 of thought should be integrated throughout the day so that 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:58.920 that synchronization of different neurosyn apsis can happen. And that's 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:02.160 why when you come out of a nice shower, you think, oh, 0:11:02.360 --> 0:11:04.400 that's what I was trying to think of. Oh, this 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:07.920 this new sort of of these new massive ideas kind 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:10.800 of lock into place. There's a reason for that if 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:12.960 I can gig out a bit. You know, when you 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:15.720 write a book, you learn a lot. And so one 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:18.560 of the things I learned is that there's something called 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:24.360 the hypnagogic state, and the hypna pompic state, and the 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:29.480 hypnaggic state. Think gogic, groggy, Right when you're about to 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:33.520 drift off to sleep. That's actually when science times is 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:38.280 now know the research those neurosynapses that really relate to 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:42.760 creativity are really superactive. So, for example, Thomas Edison noticed 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:44.760 that when he started to doze off to sleep, he 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:47.200 had the first time it happened, he had an orb 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:49.920 that's what the literature says, in his hand and it 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:52.040 kind of fell fell to the ground. He woke up, 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:54.200 and all of a sudden he was able to connect 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:57.640 the doct between a problem. So that's so. So what 0:11:57.679 --> 0:11:59.560 you can do is plant the seat of a question 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:02.880 of what you're wondering about before a very short nap 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:05.760 or even a deep sleep. The hypn a pompic state 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:10.320 is that state of waking up. So when you've had 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:12.680 a good rest and you're just starting to wake up 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:15.080 to the dawn and the stillness of the room, and 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:17.120 then all of a sudden, for me at least a 0:12:17.160 --> 0:12:19.360 lot and I for a lot of other people, ideas 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:23.079 begin to synchronize. That's the hitpen a pompic state. Again. 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:25.760 You can see a question or query in your mind 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:28.680 before you rest, and a lot of the time the 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:32.160 answer does reveal itself. It's just incredible how the brain 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:34.920 works and how we can attune our body in different 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:38.400 habits to optimize our productivity and our creativity. 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:42.360 Absolutely, it's fascinating stuff. I mean, where are these ideas 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:44.200 come from? It sounds like, yeah, sitting at our desks 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:46.840 are probably about the least creative places we're going to be. 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:49.839 But you mentioned one of the things with I mean, 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:54.480 sometimes thinking is done with others. Yes, and you had 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:57.640 an interesting thing. You know, the AI is the hot topic, 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:01.880 but you talked about using as a thinking partner. 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:02.840 Yes. 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:06.920 Are there particular ways that we could use AI to 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:09.080 sort of help us as we're coming up with Yes, 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:10.120 lots of ideas. 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:13.760 Yes. So a lot of people say, you know, AI 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:16.120 is your copilot, it's your co creator, and it is. 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:19.800 And I have been pronouncing and a lot of my 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:22.160 keynotes that we are actually in the middle of a 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:27.520 human revolution. We're not in the middle of a technological revolution. 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:31.200 We have this tech crush, this infatuation with the technology, 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:35.680 but in reality, the technology, if we play our cards right, 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:40.680 is there to leverage and optimize what makes us uniquely human. 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:44.360 Because let's face it, the AI is not going anywhere. 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:48.000 It is taking over basic tasks, It is eliminating hundreds 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:51.199 of thousands, not millions of jobs. And what will be 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:55.880 your strategic advantage advantage is your capacity for the imagination, 0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:58.800 the way you frame and reframe questions, the way you 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:02.360 think critically, the way you were able to take that 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:05.560 quick result that you get from a prompt and chat 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:09.560 GPTEE and acknowledge that now you have spaciousness, right, you 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:12.600 have spaciousness to think more critically, to collaborate more, to 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:15.439 have eyeball to eyeball conversations. So, for example, I love 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:20.200 the otter app because it's actually helped me and it's 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:22.200 given me a freedom in the way that I write. 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:26.720 I'm very oral and oral, and so I will in 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:29.480 advance just write up like five question prompts around a 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:32.240 chapter or a section I'm working on, and I'll just 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:34.600 take a walk. I actually did this during a writing 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:38.280 sabbatical that I gifted myself last year writing move Think Rest. 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:43.560 I did it in Miami. A friend gifted me her 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:46.800 Miami beachside condo at a really nice rate, and I 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:49.760 would just take a walk along the beach and do 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:53.000 a brain dump verbally of my thoughts and my ideas 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:54.920 into the otter app, which you know is a wonderful 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:57.880 transcription app and then I got back to the room 0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:01.640 and I would sort and stept and make sense of 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:03.800 those ideas. But it gave me the freedom to just 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:08.960 do free association and just talk. And what it removed 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:12.120 was what I call her negative Nancy, who often sits 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:15.520 on my shoulder and criticizes, Oh, that's not important, No 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:18.080 one's going to read that. Who cares about that? That's stupid, 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:21.120 you know, So that went away. So otters are really 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:23.400 great app way. I like to use Quaud and chat 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:27.680 GPT are two. One of my favorite questions is to 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:30.600 ask is to put in something that I have drafted 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:33.720 and ask what am I missing? What have I not 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:37.400 thought about? Oftentimes it will it will remind me to 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:41.120 think about things differently from a geographical perspective, from a 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:45.000 historical perspective, from a cultural perspective. I miss what does 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:48.120 this mean? In healthcare? So it helps me also to 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:50.680 see the holes and the gaps. And that's what we 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:55.120 get when we have real in person collaboration with people 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:58.160 who have different training than we do, different levels of 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:02.720 seniority or junior You just think, look at the same issue, 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:06.560 but see it slightly differently. And that's essential for innovation. 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:09.120 Wow, Well, we're all going to have a great brain 0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:10.560 trust that we can bounce things off. 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:11.000 That's right. 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:13.440 In the future, it's going to be amazing. Well, we're 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:15.040 going to take one more quick ad break and then 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:24.240 I will be back with more from Natalie Nixon. Well, 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:27.320 I am back talking with Natalie Nixon. She is the 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:30.440 CEO of Figure eight Thinking. She is also the author 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:34.240 of the brand new book Move Think Rest. So, Natalie, 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:36.560 this show is called Before Breakfast. So we have a 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:39.440 lot of people who are really into morning routines. I 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:42.000 wonder if you happen to have any sort of morning routine. 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:44.160 I know you said you do your best thinking in 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:45.600 the morning, so maybe can tell us a little bit 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:46.920 about what your mornings look like. 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:51.360 So I try to start buffer my day in the 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:54.119 mornings with c pushing it with silence and more stillness. 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:58.280 I pray, I do a shirt meditation. I typically do 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:02.280 my meditations while I'm stretching our reference. I'd like to stretch. 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:03.920 I have them in our home. I has something I 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:07.240 call the She's Sweet and it has like a Netflix 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:09.919 TV zone. It has a stretching zone, has a reading 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:14.639 fiction zone. So in that stretching zone, I burn incense, 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:17.560 I light a candle I put on I have a 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:21.080 whole playlist called Mellow Chill, and I play that sort 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:25.120 of music. I tend to be a kinesthetic meditator. I'd 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:27.359 never thought I was good at meditation until I learned 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:29.480 that through the research for Move Big Rest. But there's 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:33.000 something called kinesthetic meditation. So I'm a swimmer and I 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:36.040 and so as when you some lapse, for example, you 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:38.919 get into this kind of meditative state of just repetition 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:43.199 and you get out of your head into your body. Similarly, 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:45.320 stretching helps me to do that, where I just start 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:47.760 to focus on my breathing. I get more tuned to 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:51.480 my balance and where I'm at in my body. So 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:53.760 that's a big part of how I try to start 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:56.480 most mornings. They'll always succeed, but it always makes me 0:17:56.520 --> 0:18:01.840 feel incredibly better. But definitely a prayer meditation stretch. I 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:06.720 also have started tricking my brain into calling water brain juice. 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:09.240 I had a facial like a month ago, and I 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:12.760 have naturally oil a skin and the woman who did 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:14.800 the face and say, oh, your skin's dry, it's absorbing 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:16.520 whatever this stuff was. She's put on my face quick 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:18.040 and I thought I think I need to be drinking 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:20.840 more water, so I have a whole picture of water. 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:22.920 I make sure that I start to drink that because 0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:24.400 when you think about if you get a good seven 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:27.679 or eight hours of sleep, you haven't been hydrating at all. 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:29.760 So that's one of the first things up in your body. 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:32.320 It helps with the organ tissue. Your brain is a 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:35.919 really important organ that needs a lot of water for 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:41.120 lectrolytes and that sort of thing. And then I get 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:44.439 into the work. I typically have mapped out what I 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:48.119 want to get achieve even get done between nine and twelve. 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:50.760 The other thing I've started doing and I interviewed the 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:54.959 co founder for moveth think Rest. I interviewed the copter 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:59.000 flown from moveth think Rests are wonderful kind of quirky 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:02.919 company called I was really really suspicious about it or 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:05.000 skeptical about it when I first learned of it. But 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:09.320 I've also started using it as a room to enter 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:12.080 when I need to do deep thinking work. Flown as 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:18.679 UK base. It is basically a synchronous synchronicity. You drop 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:20.919 into a room that looks like a zoom room, and 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:22.840 it feel a little weird at first because everyone is 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:25.480 just like thinking. Everyone we all have like the same 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:29.080 expressions when we think and they're working, no one talks. 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:33.040 You can put into the chat era your intention like 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:36.119 I want to send five emails or I need to 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:39.200 write a rough draft outline or whatever or finish shape 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:42.719 or proposal, and people will be thumbs up in your intention. 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:45.560 You can have a set a time limit. So it's 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:48.080 really like just as the principles a moth think rest, 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:51.680 it's really adheres to unique breaks throughout the day. When 0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:55.639 you do a break with floone, you can opt into 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:58.760 a screen looking at nature, or you can do a puzzle. 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:02.400 So play is a big part. So Flown has been 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:06.879 a really cool work accessory and I highly recommend it 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:10.440 to your listeners, especially given the topic of your podcast. 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:14.040 Yeah, well, it's just it provides accountability and you mirror 0:20:14.119 --> 0:20:16.640 other people who are working, and it hopefully brings out 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:17.920 the best in you as well. 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:21.960 It feels like you're walking into a hushed library. Yeah, 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:26.000 this is where we're going to work. We're all serious now, yes, yes, 0:20:26.640 --> 0:20:28.560 so not Onalie. I asked all my guests a question. 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:30.800 It's kind of the tagline of the show, but what 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:33.440 is something you have done recently to take a day 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:35.120 from great to awesome. 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:40.000 Mmm. Something I've done recently to take a day from 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:52.400 great to awesome. Well, I've started keeping a wins journal. 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:58.080 I learned that from a great book called I think 0:20:58.080 --> 0:20:59.960 it's from their book called The Gap in the Game, 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:04.399 which is by Benjamin Hardy and Forgetting the co author. 0:21:06.119 --> 0:21:11.960 But it helps me to identify even in days that 0:21:11.960 --> 0:21:16.560 I think are just myth or ordinary small wins that 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:21.560 I've had. Right, I sent out five emails, I received 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:25.840 an inquiry for a new proposal. I drank an entire 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:28.320 picture of water. However, you want to define the scrip 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:31.520 of your winds. And that really has helped me take 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:33.359 a day. I forget if you say good to awesome 0:21:33.440 --> 0:21:35.800 or great to awesome, but that really helps him because 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:40.840 it elevates my perception of my work. It helps me 0:21:40.960 --> 0:21:45.600 account accountable to being as a former boss of mine 0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:48.360 in the garment in the fashion streets to say, keep 0:21:48.359 --> 0:21:50.879 your eye with the donut, not the hole. Don't focus 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:53.560 on what it should it could have been, but what is. 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:58.320 So when I do that, winsdow and I keep it 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:00.480