Stephen Collar

speaker

310 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jan 2025 last heard Jan 2025

Stephen Collar’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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The Home Service Expert Podcast · Achieving 500% Productivity Through Flow States · 10 Jan 2025 podcast

I think everybody's different. I think you've got to figure out, one, what is going to work for you. What's the optimal time to get... There is no optimal time because... Optimal time, what I always tell people is you want to work in accordance with your circadian rhythms. It's really hard to fight your natural biorhythms. So I'm married to a night owl, right? I'm an extreme lark.

I get up really early. You want the best of my brain? Talk to me at like 6, 7 o'clock, 8 o'clock in the morning. You're going to get my best brain power. If you want my wife, you better talk to her at like four or five or six in the evening. Most people are like Bezos. Most people, this is why work starts at nine and things like that. Most people start to hit their prime around nine or 10.

that's like normal body clocks right right i'm an extreme lark so my problem is i'll get up earlier and earlier and if i'm not careful i'm waking up at like 1 30 in the morning and now i have to go to bed at like you know six o'clock to be able to do that so like my problem is my body will keep waking up earlier and earlier because i really like it's just naturally that way so that's how i set my day i think you should start with your hardest task first and the reason is

If I do nothing else in my day, but I wake up and I've done my writing and then I have to take my dog out no matter what. And I, 90% of the time I hike with a weight vest and I do it for a bunch of different reasons. But one of which is it gives me, I mean, I'm going to go to the gym later in the afternoon, but in case my schedule gets crazier, it comes up.

It means that I've always gotten my exercise in. I've gotten a workout in because I'm going to do 45 minutes up a mountain with like 20 or 30 pounds on my back, my dog. And I've gotten my hardest test. So I've sort of won my day by 9 a.m. Most people, they're starting their day. I've already won most of my day by 9 a.m. And then and I go from there, you know, I'll work six or seven every night.

You know, I'm like the rest of us. I'm a workaholic. But it's that morning stretch that really matters to me.

Yeah, by the way, I got to say, you're right. Because this is the first thing we find out. When people come to train with us, that's the first question we ask is, how much are you sleeping? Because you're not sleeping seven to eight hours a night. Sure, you can get into flow, but not reliably and repeatedly because it's a high energy state.

So if you don't have the right nutrition, you don't have the right hydration, you don't have the right sleep. And I'm not saying there's one diet for flow, but you want to have energy. So you got to eat healthy food that gives you energy. And you need good hydration. So you're getting out of energy and you need seven, eight hours of sleep. And you know, there's no argument with that.

So, all right, we can talk about clear goals, which are a flow trigger. And this is about a properly daily to do this. But the second thing is flow is a high energy state. And okay, let me tell you one flow trigger. We talk about one other flow trigger besides complete concentration. That'll be really helpful. The most important flow trigger is known as the challenge skills balance.

Challenge skills balance. Every listening is going to know exactly what I'm talking about when I explain it. So the idea here is flow follows focus. We pay the most attention to the task at hand when the challenge slightly exceeds our skill set. You want to stretch, but not snap. So if I were to describe it emotionally, right, there's something known as the flow channel.

It sits between boredom and anxiety. Boredom is, hey, there's not enough stimulation here. I don't give a fuck. I can't pay attention. Anxiety, whoa, way too much. I'm paying too much attention. In between is this sweet spot. It's known as the flow channel. If you're a physiologist, this is the Erg-Stopson curve. And we've known about this since, like, 1906. So say the spell of that?

Y-E-R-K-E-S hyphen D-O-B-S-O-N. And it basically says no matter what the stimulants is, there's a music. Certain level, it sounds too low. You can't hear it. You can't hear it. You can't hear it. And then there's a sweet spot in the middle where we like it. And then it gets too loud. That's everything, including flow. Same thing. So there's a sweet spot, the flow channel.

anxiety, if there's too much anxiety, you're going to block flow. A little bit focuses attention. This is you using fear as a motivator. This is me using fear as a motivator. You're not using abject terror as a motivator because that'll blow you out, right? Then all you can think about is the thing you're scared of. There's no maneuverability.

So that said, flow requires you to manage your nervous system and manage your energy levels on a regular basis. So at the end of my day to answer your question, Joe, and I'm not sure how it really does this. I will work to wherever I work, work to, I need roughly two and a half hours afterwards. I am going to go. The first thing you want to do is have an active recovery protocol.

Passive recovery is TV and a beer, and both are terrible for performance. alcohol will fuck up REM sleep. So you can have one to maybe two drinks, right? But now once you go over two drinks and if you weigh like I do, which is like 160, it's one drink. With you, it's two drinks. But for me, it's like one drink. Anything beyond that blocks REM sleep. So I've just messed up my sleep, right?

It's a big one. No alcohol. No alcohol. You know what? I will say I did a thing. It was really funny. Richard Branson and I did a thing. We're both, I think, marijuana advocates. You know, have been marijuana advocates for decades. Various reasons. We did a thing about marijuana together. Somebody asked me in the Q&A question, do you have any business advice? What's your one thing? Smuggle a bowl.

No, he said quit drinking. Quit drinking. Quit drinking. He said quit drinking. It's the most important.

So alcohol is a flow blocker. Alcohol is a recovery blocker. TV is a recovery blocker. And most people don't know this, so they don't realize this is about YouTube or TV. And social media, yeah. Social media. Well, social media we know, right? But we don't realize that like TV does it because it's really subtle. So here's the problem.

If you want to recover, right, all the active recovery protocols, whether it's a sauna or an Epsom salt bath or breath work, or mindfulness, or a long walk in nature, all these things, what they're doing is they're putting your brain into alpha. Alpha is like a basic, it's the recovery brainwave, it's relaxed, it's daydreaming mode, it's creative.

And when we watch TV, the brain, that's that couch pit, if you're just watching it. But what you don't realize is every time there's a quick cut on television, at an unconscious level, your brain goes from alpha up to high beta. High beta is essentially at the edge of fight or flight. And the reason is we evolved in an environment where when anything moves quickly, it could be a threat.

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