Focuesd #230: Journaling & Intention, with Joe Moyer
I recently had the great pleasure of talking with David Sparks and Mike Schmitz on one of my favorite podcasts, Focused.
From the episode description:
Journaling Guide Joe Moyer joins us to talk getting started with journaling, navigating major life transitions, and the power of a regular reflection practice.
This was a big deal for me. I’ve been listening to Focused since it began and enjoyed the show it was born out of, featuring David and Jason Snell (Free Agents, anyone else remember?). David and Mike were wonderful hosts who helped me share my story, and I am grateful for their time.
If you’re here because you listened to the episode, thanks for stopping by! You can follow the RSS feed, try the 10-day Journaling Challenge, and hit the features tab in the navigation to see what this is all about. I’ve been writing for nearly four years, so there’s plenty to explore.
If you haven’t yet, be sure to listen and subscribe to the podcast. We covered a lot of territory and chatted for well over an hour. Finally, if you aren’t regularly listening to Focused, you should be!
Finding Focus: Why Reading Matters - Five Reflections from a Daily Habit
According to a 2021 Pew Research Center Poll, approximately a quarter of Americans reported not reading a book in the last year. While this number could be much higher, it’s still concerning to me, especially given how important reading is to our creative input and our problem-solving and critical thinking skills. The adage garbage in, garbage out is as popular as it is because there’s some truth there. What you consume informs who you become, and reading is an almost universal source of good input.
As I read the study, I thought about what I might say to one of the people who aren’t regularly reading in support of my experience that reading, particularly a daily habit, has made me a better and more well-rounded human. With that perspective in mind, here are five reasons why there’s so much value in reading regularly.
Reading offers a reflection on the past
Many of the books I choose to read are written in a way that promotes self-reflection, often through a historical lens. After a hard day, reading what someone living two thousand years ago thought about the same problems we face today offers a sense of perspective. None of what we deal with is particularly new, although the delivery mechanisms are more varied. Still, the fundamental challenges we face today were faced by those in the past.
Stoicism and philosophy aside, many of the books being written today are inspired, whether explicitly or not, by the creative works of our history and the shared experiences we and our ancestors lived through. So much great art and literature is built upon the shoulders of what came before. How many beautiful literary references find their origins in truly ancient texts? Even in fiction, there are again, references both explicit and implicit, to what our species collectively has learned.
Books are engaging, not exhausting or enraging
Although I struggle to stay focused doing a lot of things, I do not multitask while I’m reading. If I’m reading on the Kindle app on my iPad, I have my reading Focus Mode on to keep all notifications and distractions at bay. Even the Home Screen changes to display only the Kindle widget and a few tools that complement my reading habit.
I read for enlightenment, entertainment, and a feeling of joy and excitement when learning something new that I never get tired of. I read to understand the past and figure out the road ahead, even if it’s just a page or two a day. I read because it makes me happy and because it makes me a better version of myself. It takes the noise and sets it aside for just a few minutes.
Books are a collective experience that we experience individually
Knowledge is important. It propels us forward. There’s a certain decorum, an expectation of style, in how a book is written and the message therein delivered. It requires attention, and a well-written book allows us to let our guard down and learn something new. Even the loudest voice is modulated on the page, the biggest thought distilled into digestible forms, all combining to allow the message to be heard by a variety of people and in a variety of ways.
Books are essential to the growing brain, especially little ones
I want my kids to see me reading, and I face a dilemma when using the Kindle App. They see me on my iPad but don’t realize that I’m often journaling, writing, and reading a book. This is why I intentionally keep and read some “old fashioned” print books around the house, including some of my favorites that I hope my kids might pick up and take an interest in. I realize they’re not at an age where Meditations or Kitchen Confidential will grab their attention, but someday it may.
I still remember the books my parents read when I was a child, and it’s because they were present, part of the scenery. The headboard of their bed had a built-in bookshelf containing volumes of Reader’s Digest Condensed Books. My father had the Time Life series on home improvement. We often had the local newspaper, especially when I was delivering it in middle school, and always the more substantial Sunday edition.
Dad, who preferred audiobooks over printed material, read a lot of spiritual, personal wellness, and self-help texts from the likes of Ram Dass and Dr. Andrew Weil. At the same time, my mother enjoyed fiction from popular authors like Mary Higgins Clark and Danielle Steele. That they read and kept these books around had an invisible and enduring impact on me. As kids, my sister and I also had many books, and some of my earliest memories are of going to our town’s library, a place of absolute magic where so much knowledge was held.
My formative years were before the Internet was widely available, and I was in my twenties before we had reliable, high-speed Internet in our pockets. There was a patience to that, an understanding that while information was vast, it wasn’t fast. Now, and as I get older, I think more about this, and it sometimes feels like that balance is tipping.
Books Spark Conversations and Relationships
When you meet someone new and strike up a shared kinship about a book, author, or genre, you create a powerful bond, a feeling that you already know something important about the other person. They’re in on it. They KNOW how good that author is, how insightful that book is, and how life-changing that series can be.
These connections fuel living, sparking conversations and relationships that can transcend the moment and turn acquaintances into longtime friends. Books have magic; make sure you take the time to soak some of it up, even if it’s just a page or two every day.
Finding Focus: Five Ideas to Help You Build a Better Reading Habit
Reading is an anecdote to so much of what afflicts us. It can reduce stress, improve sleep, and build better brain health. It’s also a fun way to learn about new ideas, develop existing concepts, and further our understanding of anything. Like journaling, reading is a practice, and here are five ideas that I think about to maintain a healthy reading habit:
Schedule Reading Time
What gets scheduled gets done - Michael Hyatt.
I rarely miss a meeting at work and know I have to pick my kids up from school at a particular time. Why? Because there is a defined time when these actions need to be taken. I’ve put them on the calendar, set reminders, and, over time, built habits. I need to do the same for anything you want to succeed. I can’t just say I want to read before bed or during my lunch break. I have to plan for it.
Remove the Progress Bar from the Kindle App
I read on my iPad Mini most of the time, and I found having more than just the book's text on the screen while reading in the Kindle app distracting, so I turned it all off. I wrote about how I removed the clock and reading progress here. It’s easy, and I found it made a difference in my ability to concentrate.
Don’t Finish a Book That Doesn’t Work
Life is short, and while there’s something to be said for gritty determination, some books just don’t work for some people. If I’m reading a book that isn’t working for you, it’s okay not to finish it. If the topic is of genuine interest, I might try the audiobook or look at what other authors have written on the same subject. I’ll also give the author another chance if they’ve got other work that seems interesting to me.
Keep a List of Books You Want to Read
I’ve got a list of books I want to read, and I have a few ready. I’ve read Ryan Holiday say that he will always buy a book that interests him, but that won’t work for everyone. Find what works for you, but a good rule of thumb is always to have a book accessible, whether it's a paperback in your work bag or a reading app on your device.
Use Focus Modes on Digital Devices
I enjoy technology and the Internet, but I know it’s a distraction machine that pulls our focus from important and meaningful things to the entertaining and shallow. The reading focus mode I set up a few years ago locks everything down. The Home Screen on my iPad mini, iPad Air, and iPhone changes to remove all apps that might entice me to wander onto the World Wide Web, and the only text messages that come through are from my immediate family.
Reading is not a race for me. When I was a stay-at-home dad, I had more time. Now I’m back to work, so I read less. Life is a balance, filled with subtle or cataclysmic shifts. Reading is a constant through any chaos for me, and I hope it can also be for you as well.
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Finding Focus: Building a New Sleep Mode to Improve Discipline, Support Better Habits, and Save Me from Myself
For many, sleep is a complicated matter. It is vital to our health and well-being, yet many struggle to get adequate rest. According to the CDC, 36 percent of adults in the United States, approximately 120 million people, sleep less than seven hours each night.
Over a quarter of the US population needs to sleep more. Regretfully, since becoming a parent, I've become part of this unfortunate statistic.
Like most parents, The struggle became greater after having children. As if inconsistencies of sleep that are beyond my control aren't enough, I've recently started doing something that is certainly not in my best interest: staying up well after the kids are asleep and things are cleaned up. I don't do this every night, but I cycle through a couple times a week where the desire to just stay awake and enjoy some quiet time to decompress wins out over the better angels of sleep. My wife, who deals with the same sleepless nights but is far wiser than me, prioritizes what little sleep she gets over anything that doesn't involve her family. She's an intelligent woman, and as I often tell her, when I'm learning from her, I'm taking notes.
Some nights things works out. I go to bed later than I should, and everyone sleeps through the night. Other nights, I only get a few hours of sleep before the waking up begins. After a particularly tough week of this cycle, I made a conscious decision to take action and make a change.
The Goal
I started this project by making a short list of my goals. Here's what I came up with:
Aim for seven hours of sleep every night
Access to apps that promote relaxation and sleep
Limit access to apps that inhibit sleep
Turn on automatically 30 minutes before ideal bedtime
Use context shifting to reinforce sleep time
With these goals in mind, I set out to reduce distractions during the time that I want to be sleeping and also improve my sleep discipline. After some planning, I started building a revamped sleep Focus mode.
Letting the Right Apps In
Okay, I have an admission to make. I use my devices in bed before going to sleep. Most often, I'm on an iPad Air or iPad Mini, writing a journal entry and reading on the Kindle app. Sometimes, I do this on my iPhone if I'm traveling or don't have an iPad near me.
I know that using technology before bed can contribute to sleep problems. More specifically, I know the apps that can distract me and present problems. I keep the few social media apps I use, streaming apps, email, and the open web, off limits.
So, what's allowed? Honestly, not much.
The Home Screen
I Have one widget and four apps that are a part of my Sleep Focus Mode. Phone and Messages are also accessible, but let’s be honest, they are easily ignored.
The Kindle Widget
I read when I wake up and before I go to sleep. I read several short passages from "daily" books in the morning, while I usually read one or two full-length books at night. The content of these vary, but it's typically nonfiction. Lately, I've been rereading Kitchen Confidential and The Diary of Anne Frank. The first is an old favorite that I'm rereading for the first time since It was released nearly 24 years ago, and the second is part of my research into journaling. The Kindle Widget is ideal here because it's bigger than any other app icon and will get me right into reading a book.
Ulysses
I do all of my writing in Ulysses. I like accessing what I'm working on quickly, especially if I'm in bed early. While that's rare, it's often because I want to do a little writing before I call it a night.
MindNode
I'm a nerd. Nerds mind map. I'm working on several active mind maps for various parts of my life, including management and team-building ideas, journaling, event or trip planning, and general content for this site.
Dark Noise
I often use Dark Noise while I sleep. I've always been a fan of white noise, and having two kids who like white noise machines has just reinforced my preference for it. I set up this simple shortcut to turn on brown noise, which I prefer over the more traditional white noise option in this app.
Gratitude
As part of my journaling practice, I use this shortcut to create a new daily gratitude entry in Day One. That's table stakes for my journaling practice. Some days, I write in other journals or do multiple entries, but at a minimum, I post a photo and a sentence or two that share something I'm thankful for.
Moving Safari
I've always kept Safari on my dock on all my mobile devices. It's one of my most frequently used apps, yet it's one of the apps I don't want easy access to in Sleep Mode. Right now, Apple doesn't let you have different docks for different focus modes, so now Safari lives on the Home Screen of my iPad and iPhone.
The Apple Watch
Most days, I wear my watch until I go to bed, so I have an automation set to change the face from California to the Breathe face an hour before my ideal bedtime. This furthers the shift from where the day-to-day noise of calendar, fitness, weather, etc., can become overwhelming to where the focus is much more on winding down.
The Honor System
I am at my best when I follow this simple rule: if I wake up in the middle of the night and can't sleep, I can pick up my iPad or my iPhone, and I can do anything I want as long as it's reading a book or choosing an option on my Home Screen.
Having used this Focus mode for more than a month since beginning the first draft of this post, I can report that it works well. The context shift does make a difference. It reminds me that my interests are best served by not accessing social media, news apps, or any noisy inputs the broader net offers. Anytime I ignore this reminder and abandon my responsibilities around getting the best sleep possible, I am worse for it.
Finally, I know Focus modes can only do so much. It’s as much about making the right decisions and advocating for myself. Still, using the tools at hand to make it a little easier to make the right decisions is worth doing.
Jim Eagar Talks Repotting & Retirement on the Focused Podcast
My good friend Jim Eagar appeared on the Focused podcast last week to discuss the four phases of retirement and how to find our meaning and purpose in life.
I’m not even close to retirement, yet I found so much value and insight that applies to my experience. Regardless of where you are in your life, give this episode a listen. We all hope to grow old, and there are some thoughtful ideas here on how to do that with intentionality instead of by accident.
Weekly Quote: Taking a Strategic Pause with the Daily Creative
This week’s quote comes from Todd Henry’s fantastic book Daily Creative, which along with The Daily Stoic, are books I try to read every morning as part of my startup routine.
This technique is best done using analog tools, so grab your favorite pen and some paper and settle in. If you use a connected device, put it into focus mode so you aren’t disturbed. This isn’t meditation; you can still sip your coffee and take a note here and there, but avoiding external distractions is important. You are doing this to let your mind wander, not answer emails.
Give the strategic pause a try. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do; you have things you’re working on, and taking this to think will be helpful.
Finding Focus: Saving My 3 AM Self With Wind Down and Sleep
Our second child, now three months old, is different from our firstborn toddler, who became a steady sleeper pretty early on (I hear that chorus of duh's, parents of the Internet!). He prefers feedings every few hours (as so many babies do), so none of us sleeps particularly well.
After a 3 am feeding that often begins with some pretty intense wailing from our hungry little guy, I sometimes find myself wound up and can't immediately find my way back to sleep, despite how much I desire it.
Being awake, I sometimes feel pulled to unlock my iPhone and meander around various forums, Instagram, NYTimes, or other social media that generally do not help me relax. I know it's not great for me, and it's something I've been trying to change. Thankfully, the tool that has been the most helpful for me is a feature that came out in iOS 14 as part of the Wind Down and Sleep features Apple implemented. And, it's only gotten better with iOS 15's new Focus mode.
Adding Shortcuts to my Wind Down and Sleep Focus screens, I've created a few choices that give me the chance to make a better decision, causing me to pause for a moment before doom scrolling the night away. I've limited these to a few input and output options, including Kindle for slowing my brain down by reading a book and the opportunity to create a new document in Drafts or a new entry in Day One.
I'll write more about how I'm managing this on my iPad soon. Right now, my iPad is my go-to for Kindle, and while the Sleep and Wind Down features aren't as robust there, I'll share how I manage distractions on there as well.
These options are perfect and save me from my own bad choices. Decision fatigue is legit, and it hits hard at the end of a long day. As a tired dad, my instincts should be to give my brain a peaceful place to unwind after putting my kiddo back to bed, and I need all the tools I can get to help set me in the right direction and remind me that the dopamine hit of social media posts or the latest news can wait.
I suspect many people have discovered this feature as part of the powerful new Focus tools in iOS, iPadOS 15, and Monterey. Is that you? How are you using Focus, and how has it helped you? Drop me a note; I'd love to hear more about it.