The Importance of Technology Mindfulness w/ Rob Krecak

In this episode of the Simplifying Entrepreneurship podcast, Peter Mohr and Rob Krecak talk about technology Mindfulness. Rob shares his strategies and thoughts around promoting a healthier relationship between humans and technology. We don't have to be anti-tech to understand that technology takes a negative toll on our mental health, productivity and relationships at times.  

Here are a few things we cover: 

• The importance of focus time and how productive it can be
• How push notifications cause distractions to your flow states during the day
• Being mindful of how technology can help you but not own you

Reference links to Rob

Website:  https://www.humansfirst.us/about

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Transcript

Rob Krecak: 0:00

To me the phrase technology, Mindfulness means we use technology in a way that serves humanity instead of us being enslaved to it, it's not just how many devices we have, but it's also how much we use them. This is actually a stat from before COVID. So you can't blame this on COVID. Right? It doesn't have anything to do with COVID. In America, the average person spends 12 hours and 21 minutes a day in front of screens in media. Let me put it to you another way, we spend three quarters of the waking hours of our lives in front of screens and media now. And so it's very clear that humans are not first in our world technology is from that statistic, we can see that. And that is, though, why I named the company humans. First. It's a reminder to everyone, that the things that give us the most joy and happiness and meaning in our lives don't revolve around technology, they revolve around other people connecting with the hearts and souls of other people. And I'm here to help people and remind people of that, because I think we're kind of losing our way as a species. We're not keeping that in mind anymore.

Pete Mohr: 1:02

Are you making every decision in your business may be feeling a little overworked and overwhelmed? Do you ever wish you had someone to go over the big decisions and entrepreneurial choices you had to make? Well, maybe this sounds familiar. Your partner at home doesn't want to hear about business anymore. And your friends don't know what the heck you're talking about. And maybe your team at work well, even though you have an open door policy, they're not always as open as you'd like them to be? Well, there's good news. I have room for two more one on one coaching clients next quarter. And, you know, here's how it works. We'll get together on Zoom either every week, or every second week to discuss the strategies and frameworks that will clarify your thinking and advance your business and entrepreneurial life. It's all about the five P's, your promise your product, your process, your people and your profit. Once they're better aligned, you'll enjoy a better life and business. Remember, you own your business and it shouldn't own you. It's time to reduce the frustrations and increase the freedoms. So if this sounds interesting, go to simplifying entrepreneurship.com forward slash Call to book a freedom call with me and we'll see if we're right fit. Hey, it's Pete and welcome to another edition of the simplifying entrepreneurship podcast. We're here to help you cut through the chaos of running a business and transforming your frustrations into freedoms. And I think we're going to do a little bit of that today. After all, you own your business and IT shoulda known you and I had the opportunity to speak with Rob gret Jack today. And Rob has a business that surrounds this idea that we are just using too much technology. And he calls it technology, mindfulness, which I thought was really good. And I've done a lot of work in this area for my own life and being conscious of how we use technology and being conscious of how we're, you know, interrupting others and different things like this and and the anxieties that it can present. So lots of interesting conversations in a short amount of time here with Rob Gacek. So let's dig right into it on the simplifying entrepreneurship podcast. Rob, it's a pleasure to have you here on the simplifying entrepreneurship podcast with me this week. Yeah,

Rob Krecak: 3:29

thank you, Pete, really excited to be here and grateful for the opportunity. Thank you so much.

Pete Mohr: 3:33

We're chatting a little bit around your topic here today. And it's something that certainly affects a lot of not only entrepreneurs, but everybody, right?

Rob Krecak: 3:42

Yeah, I mean, the one of the motivating factors for me for starting my company humans first was that there are 4.2 billion people connected to the internet. And I really strongly and truly believe that, if all 4.2 billion of those people knew what I know about technology and how it impacts humanity's mental health, relationships and productivity at work, the entire world would be a totally different place.

Pete Mohr: 4:05

And here we are talking on technology. It enables us but it also can crush us in certain ways. Yeah,

Rob Krecak: 4:12

well, the one thing that I say to people is I'm not anti technology. I'm actually a real nerd and like I was in middle school in high school, so I'm not anti technology. I'm pro humanity.

Pete Mohr: 4:21

There you go. I like that. Not anti technology, but pro humanity. I think that's awesome. You've developed this sort of process around creating four day work weeks, and you've got lots of different things that you're doing. And tell us a little bit about where all this stemmed from.

Rob Krecak: 4:41

Yeah, I can tell you a quick story. So I had a cell phone repair store with the breakout fix franchise in Milwaukee. And I was standing at the front desk and this middle aged woman came in with her son and I would guess that he was maybe 15 years old, and they shuffle up to the front counter and the woman is literally pushing or shoving the son up to the front And, you know, I looked at the son, the mother was saying, Hey, can you tell this man what you did your phone, Tyler, please let him know. And I, my heart went out to the kid actually, because he couldn't stammer out a sentence, he couldn't look me in the eye, his, his posture was terrible. And that actually reminded me of myself when I was in high school because I had really crippling acne and really low self esteem and self worth. And so, you know, I got to this conversation with the kid, I fixed his phone, everything went fine. But then I started paying attention. And I realized that this same type of scenario kept happening over and over and over. And then I had the aha moment, I said to myself, well, maybe the reason why these kids can't hold a conversation is because they're using technology so much. And they're coming into my store, because they need to get it repaired, because they're, like addicted to it. And sure enough, that's, you know, this is my conclusion. But I truly believe that that is, really what is happening to society today is that we are becoming more and more dependent or addicted to technology. And some of the ways that we use technology are good, but there are a lot that aren't good or aren't serving us well anymore. And that's really the mission of my company is to educate and make people aware of those things so that they can make decisions on how they might want to change their technology use so that they can, you know, be a better husband or father or have better relationships or get more done at work in less time.

Pete Mohr: 6:20

Yeah, I love that. I can feel some of this stuff. And when I look at my kids, and I see, you know, my kids are all in their 20s Now, but you know, the phones, my phones, right here, my iPads right there, we're talking here. I mean, it surrounds us, the TVs, all the different stuff that's going on. And usually, it's not just one, we usually have, like we're watching TV and have our phone, we're on our computer and have our iPad, like it's all these ands not ORS or not at all. So, you know, when I look at some of this stuff, what does technology mindfulness mean? You know, that's your sort of main topic is this idea of technology, mindfulness? And how can we get through that and practice it?

Rob Krecak: 7:05

To me the phrase technology, Mindfulness means we use technology in a way that serves humanity, instead of us being enslaved to it. And I think that's really important, especially in today's world, and like you were saying we have so it's not just how many devices we have, but it's also how much we use them. This is actually a stat from before COVID. So you can't blame this on COVID. Right? It doesn't have anything to do with COVID. In America, the average person spends 12 hours and 21 minutes a day in front of screens in media, let me put it to another way, we spend three quarters of the waking hours of our lives in front of screens and media now. And so it's very clear that humans are not first in our world technology is from that statistic, we can see that. And that is though, why I named the company humans. First, it's a reminder to everyone, that the things that give us the most joy and happiness and meaning in our lives don't revolve around technology, they revolve around other people connecting with the hearts and souls of other people. And I'm here to help people and remind people of that, because I think we're kind of losing our way as a species. We're not keeping that in mind anymore.

Pete Mohr: 8:09

This hits home, I think for not only for a lot of entrepreneurs and their businesses, and it hits the hotspots of the kitchen table, the supper time after supper, you know, the different areas around your life and how we're interacting and what it could be, versus maybe what it is. And I think that's a really interesting thing, how much work? Are you doing, Rob with businesses on this sort of topic around the idea of, and I'll use it from my frameworks, you know, when I'm coaching business owners, and how I've arranged as much as I can with my team is like, we set I schedule emails, I don't send my team emails after hours. That's great example, I always very conscious, it's like, okay, she goes home at four, he goes home at five, or whatever the case is. So if it's six o'clock, and I'm still working, because I'm doing something, we schedule emails for the next morning to pop up at eight o'clock. That's just one example of what I teach my clients and things like that, along, not interrupting and giving people their time that they need to give, or they need to have in order to have their time because technology interrupts so even if they do have their phone, at least, you're not a piece of that interruption from work. And I think there's appreciation around that. And there's a certain I think there's an ethical standard that is being abused by a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners around that and I'd like your thoughts on that. This episode of the simplifying entrepreneurship podcast is brought to you by zootopia.ca. We're always helping our clients look great and feel fantastic. With the heat, you can free your feet with some of the awesome sandals from names you know and love like Birkenstock keen and Mephisto Of course, we have you covered for the casual athletic needs to guests like you are at the very heart of shoe topia stop in for a visit or drop in on shoe topia.ca. We're currently only shipping to Canadian addresses.

Rob Krecak: 10:27

Yeah. So I really admire that you do that with your team Pete and I wish more teams or bosses would do that I think our workplace would be very different. I can give you a couple of statistics and explain to you what I see happening across almost every country in the United States that are every business, excuse me, in the United States today. It is really bothersome. So let's pretend you're having an amazing day at work. Like you're just crushing it like everything's going into place, you're just getting a ton done like that state of mind is called flow and psychology. Yep. And what the research shows is that when you're in flow at work, you are up to 500% more productive than when you're not in flow. And so what that means is, if you can just get into flow for two hours a day, only two hours, you can accomplish more than in an entire regular day. Well, here's the problem. When you're in flow, what the research also shows is that when you get interrupted, it takes 23 minutes to get back into flow. I've heard that the other the other couple of statistics are we check our email in Slack once every six minutes, and we get a notification on our smartphone once every 15 minutes. So if you're doing the math here, you're saying, Well, I'm checking my email every six minutes, how am I getting into flow? And the answer is you're not, no one is getting into flow anymore, no one is doing high quality work, and no one is nearly as productive as they could be. Because of all the constant distractions and interruptions. The other thing though, which to me is even more concerning than the productivity piece is what people don't realize, and I really had to read countless books to come to this conclusion, what's happening is when we check our email, or when we get a notification on our phone, it activates our sympathetic nervous system. That's our fight or flight system that keeps us alive when there's a threat. And generally, that's a good thing for humanity. But we don't need that activated all the time. The problem is, if we check our email once every six minutes and activate that system, it takes 30 minutes to down regulate, and so that what's happening is everyone's nervous system is getting amped up the entire day, it never gets a chance to down regulate and get back to baseline. And this I truly believe is the root cause of why our society is super stressed, very anxious and burned out. It's because of all this stimulation from technology that we cannot escape.

Pete Mohr: 12:37

Rob, give us three quick tips of how we can get through this so that people have a couple of actionable items that they can take with us here.

Rob Krecak: 12:46

Yeah, so the first one, and you know, this is sometimes difficult for people to execute. But basically, we are about two times as productive on a computer as we are on a smartphone. So let's pretend you do your entire job from your phone all day, and you work eight hours where you could literally be working half the amount of time if you just did it from a computer. And I get that a phone is more convenient. There's no denying that, but people are trading. So you have to ask yourself, what do I want to trade convenience or productivity, you have to make a decision. And a lot of people are trading convenience for productivity by using their phone, but they're spending way more time working. The second thing is that I am a real big proponent of batching emails or checking them only at certain intervals of the day, I basically check my emails once or twice a day. And it's not the first thing I do. I don't hardly ever check my email before I do important stuff. And that to me really sets the tone for the day. The third thing is making sure that you block time on your calendar for what I call GSD time or get shit done time. So every day from 8am repeating forever, Monday through Friday, I have a block of time on my calendar that says GSD. And I try everything humanly possible to not schedule phone calls, not scheduled meetings, not scheduled zoom calls, not make appointments. And really focus during that three hours. If I can do that and get into flow, even if the rest of my day is unproductive. I just had an amazing day. And I only worked three hours. I love it.

Pete Mohr: 14:09

I think some great things here Rob to really contemplate and you know whether you're driving here now or listening at home or listening at work or whatever the case is. It's a never ending prom problem because we get sucked back in. We get it's like and that's the whole point. Right? Like the it's designed to suck you back. Yeah. Yeah, it's hard to not get sucked in. And I turned off all notifications on all of my devices probably about five years ago. So in a long time, I'm I don't have dings. I don't have buzzes I don't have vibrates. And when I look at my phone or my iPad or wherever the case is. That's when I get the message. So it's at my choice, not at somebody else's day. Yep. And I think that's the one that I'll share here today is just turn those notifications off and You'll enjoy a lot less of this craziness that's always binging and dinging and buzzing and taking you out of flow.

Rob Krecak: 15:07

Yeah, interesting stat. 85% of people have not adjusted the notifications on their phone at all. So it's likely that about nine out of 10 of you have not done that. And it's an total game changer. I love that suggestion for Yeah,

Pete Mohr: 15:18

yeah. Awesome. Well, thanks again, Rob for that. And I, before we leave here, what definitely want to let everybody know how they can get a hold of you and learn more about what you're doing? How do they do that? Rob?

Rob Krecak: 15:30

Yeah, thank you, Pete. So one thing that I like to offer, the listeners of your podcast is a free 30 minute consultation with me, all you need to do to redeem that is just go to my website, humans first.us. And then there's a button in the middle that says, Tell me more, just click on that and fill out the contact form and mention in the subject line that you listen to me on the simplifying entrepreneurship podcast. And then I'm happy to schedule that 30 minute consultation with you to help you out.

Pete Mohr: 15:54

And that's awesome. We'll certainly put that in the show notes to Rob, I want to thank you for being a part of the podcast here today. And I think we've got some great stuff and some great tips. And it's going to help you know, one of the things I talk about on this podcast a lot is we're trying to reduce your frustrations and create more freedoms. And I think what we've talked about today is delivering that. Absolutely,

Rob Krecak: 16:16

yeah, well, I'm really glad to hear that my mission aligns with yours. And I certainly look forward to, you know, helping any of your listeners as well.

Pete Mohr: 16:27

Well, thanks so much for spending some time with Rob and I here today and think about a few of these easy steps, turn your notifications off. Don't be emailing people after hours. And if you are emailing after hours, put it on a schedule. I mean, Gmail allows you to do that, you can just set the schedule, send it on Monday morning, don't send it on Saturday, when they're not working, stuff like that, you know, think about how those dings and beings and buzzes are interrupting you, if you see them pop up on your screen if you hear them or feel them or sense them on your phone or any of your other devices. I like Rob's chat around flow and those important things it takes you 23 minutes to get back into an area of flow. So all of these different things. What can you do today? What can you do right now after you finish listening? One simple thing that's going to make your life better with less frustration in taking down some of this technology overwhelm, so that you have less anxiety less issues around it so that you have more freedom and less frustration. So if you like the podcast today, please tell your friends and let them know how to get a hold of us at simplifying entrepreneurship podcast, you can always rate and review us on Spotify and on Apple, we really appreciate that it really helps the algorithm so I'm very appreciative if you would honor us in doing that. The best way as always is to connect with me on LinkedIn at Pete Mohr mo HR. Or you can slide over to simplifying entrepreneurship.com To learn more about my programs, or book a call with me. Until next time, make it a great day.

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