On Delegating Mindfulness

It's hard work - make someone else do it for you

Feb 23, 2024

I ❤️ My 🧠

I’ve noticed a pattern in my life and I’m not sure where it came from or how I came to develop it, but I’ve genuinely benefitted from it tremendously. It’s not some checklist I go through - half the time I’m not even sure I’m conscious that I’m doing it! I think it’s just how my brain works:

I shift my perspective to be a conscious observer of my life
This makes me curious and I ask lots of questions
1. “I completely reverted my previously positive tone about this project when sharing it with this specific person. How come?”
2. “Weird, I kept pulling on my hair during that meeting. It was like I couldn’t stop. A nervous tick, maybe? What’s that about?”
3. “Why did I get so frustrated that my child wanted three kisses for bedtime?”
As I think through the answers to those questions I begin to piece together new “draft” mental models to help
1. “I respect that person and want them to respect me, but I’m an imposter so I have to be someone else in order to get that from them”
2. “When I build up emotional energy, whether it’s ‘positive’ (excitement) or ‘negative’ (stress), I need a physical outlet or it can turn to depression”
3. “Bedtime routines are boring and I’m in a hurry to get back to the ‘meaningful’ tasks of my life - any ‘interruptions’ could make me ‘unproductive’ and therefore ‘worthless’”
I do a cursory review of any memories I can think of from similar past scenarios, running them through the context of the new mental model to see if it “fits”
If it does fit, I make a note in my head and keep an eye out for future opportunities to test the theory
As I test, the theory evolves and I begin little experiments to tweak things
1. Experiment: Add More Vulnerability
  “Hey, I really think this is a good idea and I’m excited about it, but I feel like maybe you won't - can we talk about this?”
2. Experiment: Treat This Behavior Like a Phone Reminder
  “Ahh, I’m pulling on my hair - time to stand up and take some whiteboard notes!”

Journaling Suuuuuuucks

I’m looking over the list above and I’m smiling - its so organized. So linear. But I have to admit - this isn’t always real and the biggest hangup I have is with bullet #1. Being mindful on a consistent basis feels nearly impossible…unless I’m journaling regularly.

But journaling is hard, too!!!

My thoughts move fast and slow writing (or typing) speeds create a ton of friction that kills my flow state
I grok things better when I can “think out loud” - connecting different ideas as the words come out of my head
I can read way faster than I can talk, so I don’t want to have to listen to audio recordings to review past journal entries

One Simple Trick to Fix My Whole Life and Solve All My Problems

So instead of beating myself up for not being able to think and process and journal like that guy on YouTube that makes it sound so easy, I decided to do the hard thing: I made someone else do it for me 😜

Check out the video below to learn about the script I built for my iPhone that let’s me:

Record my thoughts verbally
Consume my thoughts visually, and
Use AI to bridge the gap so I don’t have to

Wanna try it???

Click the button below to download my shortcut and you’ll be guided through the setup process automatically.

Here’s how I use it:

Record a stream of consciousness journal entry in the Voice Memos app
Use the share sheet to send that memo to the journal shortcut
The shortcut does its thing and then shows me the parsed journal entry in the iOS Journal app to confirm before saving
Periodically skim the Journal app to remind myself of the positive takeaways and introspective questions

Download the Shortcut