Episode 1517: Interview with Sho Ishikura About Finding Productivity Amongst the Digital Noise

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining us on episode 1, 517 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:06] Sho Ishikura: I'm Showa Shakura. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence, and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to take your attention and presence seriously is key, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this.

[00:00:28] The Inspired Stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Mader,

[00:00:41] the importance of protecting their own minds. There's this huge current, if we just are passive and float downstream where we will end. It is shorter and shorter term thinking, less and less intentionality, programming ourselves essentially [00:01:00] to focus on the shallow.

[00:01:02] Scott Maderer: Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:01:07] If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself. Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:35] In this podcast episode, I interview Sho Ishikura. I asked Sho about how he came to focus on digital distractions and productivity. I also asked Sho about how it's not just about the tools you use, but your focus and intention. And I also asked Sho to share with you some ways to begin to avoid digital distractions.

[00:01:55] I have a great book that's been out for a while now called Inspired Living. [00:02:00] Assemble the puzzle of your calling by mastering your time, your talent, and your treasures. You can find out more about that book over at inspiredlivingbook. com. It'll take you to a page where there's information and you can sign up to get some mailings about it as well as purchase a copy there.

[00:02:18] I'd love to see you get a copy and share with me how it impacted your world. Show Ishikura is a productivity expert dedicated to helping people win back their attention. With a solid background in neuroscience and mental health, Show has a proven track record of helping individuals achieve remarkable productivity and fulfillment.

[00:02:39] By leveraging insights on digital burnout, technological hygiene, and effective workplace practices, Show offers a unique blend of cutting edge research and practical strategies.

[00:02:49] Welcome to the show show. And I think that's the first time I've said those. It's that way. Hey, Scott, excited to be here. Oh, thank you for [00:03:00] coming on. So I really, I shared a little bit in the intro about some of what you're working on, your background in mental health. And now you're focusing on helping people eliminate those distractions, those other things that pull us away from being productive.

[00:03:15] I love that idea. But talk a little bit about your journey. Take us back and what brought you to the point where this is what you're focusing on helping people with today.

[00:03:26] Sho Ishikura: Yeah, I think it's interesting. It's a little bit of a circuitous journey. I actually started out As a musician and I'll always be a musician and an artist.

[00:03:35] It's something that I was doing right before I hopped on this call with you. But at a certain point I realized that I also, yeah, I'd been thinking about being a therapist for about a decade and finally decided to go and do that simultaneously. And while I was in grad school doing that, it was during the [00:04:00] pandemic.

[00:04:00] And I hit this point where I was noticing that the ability that I had to focus had, it was severely diminishing to the point where I was unable to sit down and write music anymore, which raised serious red flags for me. Not only because it was like. Just something that I hadn't really experienced before, like not being able to do this thing that I've been, that I'm extremely passionate about and that I love.

[00:04:32] But also because I, I was always wanting to write and record and produce an album and release it and that had not happened yet. And I was like, It was pandemic. I had all this time, but I just didn't have the focus to get it done. So it was like, man, I really need to figure this out. And that was like the point at which I started realizing that there was a connection between the way that I was using [00:05:00] technology and my ability to focus and pay attention.

[00:05:03] What really cemented that for me was, That as part of my training to become a therapist in my grad program, we had to do something for a substance abuse class, learning how to help people that are dealing with addiction. We had to do something called an abstinence. Reduction exercise. This is really interesting, Scott.

[00:05:26] Basically what we had to do was choose a specific behavior or a substance abstain from it or reduce it I chose my smartphone because I was waking up every morning and like many of us, just reach for my phone instantly, start scrolling looking at news looking at social media stuff like that, and before bed too I would be on my phone, so I decided no phone First hour when I wake up and before I go to sleep and we have to do that for six weeks and journal about it every [00:06:00] single week and what I found was that I was using my smartphone as a pacification device and When I remove that there's all this anxiety there So I would wake up not reach from my phone and be like, oh my god.

[00:06:17] I'm so anxious And and by the

[00:06:20] Scott Maderer: way, folks, while you're listening, if you keep hearing him say phone and every time he does, you're either tempted to pick up your phone or you've actually picked up your phone and started looking at it right now, you might want to keep listening to what he's talking about because it's triggering some anxiety for some people, right?

[00:06:36] As you talk. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:06:38] Sho Ishikura: Yeah. Yeah. It's Oh, did I get that email? It's Oh, yep. What? What if my dad called me or, it's

[00:06:43] Scott Maderer: and I caught myself. I caught myself thinking as you're talking about your phone, I'm like my phone's right there. I can check it, I'm not going to, I need to

[00:06:49] Sho Ishikura: be present.

[00:06:51] Absolutely. Absolutely. So what happened for me was I was just noticing, wow, there's all this anxiety there and [00:07:00] essentially was getting worse for three or four weeks. Cause I didn't know how to deal with it really. But. Eventually, I started trying to replace the habit of checking my phone with meditation.

[00:07:14] And as I started sitting there and trying to really be with the anxiety, bear witness to like the physical experience of anxiety. It's not, it's an emotion, but it's also like a physical experience that you can notice. So I was paying attention to that and I felt this, I really had this kind of transformative experience where At one point, I was sitting with it, it felt like it was almost going to be overwhelming and simultaneously while I was having this visualization that just came to me of a hand closing around my neck, because that's how severe that anxiety was, I was telling myself, I'm just sitting in my room and I'm absolutely fine and that anxiety [00:08:00] crested over and on the other side of it, I felt this Recognition almost at a cellular level that I can handle anxiety and I realized that essentially I was using my smartphone and a lot of technology as a way to push anxiety away.

[00:08:20] But I was also teaching myself that I can't handle anxiety. So once I taught myself on that somatic cellular kind of physical level, I can handle that stuff. I noticed that things turned around for me very quickly in terms of my ability to sit through the uncomfortable parts of focus, like working on a long term project ambiguity of what decision do I make next?

[00:08:45] And then as I kept. Working as a therapist, working with professionals that are dealing with the same problem, helping them out, being curious about that problem, I was like, oh man, I really, there's something here and I really need [00:09:00] to I need to help people with this because everybody's struggling with this in some kind of capacity, even if they don't really realize it.

[00:09:06] Scott Maderer: When you talk about that that learning to quiet your mind to be present or at least to be present with that feeling and learn to recognize that, Hey, wait, I, like you said, wait, I'm feeling like I'm threatened, but in reality I'm perfectly safe. I think a lot of times we have that feeling, even in situations that aren't really.

[00:09:30] Threatening. How do you think that idea of anxiety and feeling those stressors is connected to the, that deeper ability that we have to do the uncomfortable things to whether that's, getting the project done, but that could also just be asking someone out. That could be, it's not just quote getting the project done, it's all those. What do you see as the connection, physiologically, [00:10:00] psychologically, how do those two things, why are they wired together like that, I guess is what

[00:10:05] Sho Ishikura: I'm asking you. First of all, I love that you brought that. It's just not about getting the project done because that's how I see it too.

[00:10:11] It's it's literally about our ability to be present and experience the gifts that this life has to offer. And how we relate to others being able to untangle the knots of a difficult emotional conversation all of that stuff being able to take a walk in nature and relax.

[00:10:33] It's, it has everything to do with all aspects and facets of our life and how it's connected, how anxiety is connected with that is because when we're doing certain things, it's like it, it brings up those feelings in us, right? It's such a simple, here's a really simple example that I use all the time, but like within a work setting, right?

[00:10:58] You have certain [00:11:00] things that are more shallow. Tasks like things like responding to emails where you can check off a box and be like, okay, that's done and I can answer the next email and that's done and it gives you this kind of immediate gratification, the sense of accomplishment versus a more ambiguous long term project, which doesn't really have clearly defined like outcomes, maybe, but it's that's the thing that might really move the needle where innovation and ingenuity is required and If you're working on that, sometimes you feel overwhelmed because you're if I do this maybe that's not going to work out.

[00:11:37] If I make this move, I don't know what the next step is to take. And there's no like box I can check off in my mind that says this is done. So what people do is they face that, they feel that anxiety and they, this all happens on a subconscious level, but there's this message that's Ooh, I want to get away from this.

[00:11:56] All right. I can't handle this. Let me open up Gmail real quick, [00:12:00] fire off some emails. Boom. Okay. I'm getting stuff done. I'm being productive, right? And that happens day after day. And that big project never gets done. So the ability to be present and be like, okay, I'm feeling a little anxious, I'm overwhelmed because I don't know what the next steps are.

[00:12:19] Don't open up Gmail. I feel the urge, but. What can I do strategically? Maybe I should talk to some of my coworkers and have a little brainstorming session about what the best way to tackle. This is right. And that all boils down to the ability to notice anxiety and to be present with it. And make higher consciousness decisions about how to proceed.

[00:12:43] There's also a

[00:12:44] Scott Maderer: weird push pull that we have an example you used as a great 1. To highlight this that I want to get your take on. So there's, I'm from the South and we have a great expression in the South that's called fix into. I'm [00:13:00] fixing to do, I'm gonna, I'm going to do it, but I'm fixing to, and I think we do that in our life a lot too, where it's I need to get more prepared.

[00:13:07] I need to get another, I need to go watch another video on this, or I need to go study this a little bit more. I need to go. do something so that I can get ready to do the thing that I actually need to do, versus at the other extreme is, the people that, and I've seen folks do this too, where it's just nope, I'm going to jump into everything.

[00:13:28] No preparation, no knowledge and just flounder around. And, oh, and then they end up a lot of times. Failing or, there's pain associated with that too. So there's two extremes. And I think a lot of times the sweet spot is somewhere in between those two. Yeah. So how do you help people navigate that difference between it's almost like we could use.

[00:13:48] Being productive, getting ready as a way of delaying actually being productive. Absolutely,

[00:13:55] Sho Ishikura: yeah. It's so funny because as you're like talking about those [00:14:00] two extremes and giving examples, I'm like, oh wow, I'm guilty of both of those things. Oh yeah, me too. I can do both. Sometimes on the same day and often even on the same day.

[00:14:09] I know. I feel that, yeah. For me, It all boils down to intentionality, right? Either one of those things could be a reflexive decision that you're making based off of some kind of worry or anxiety. So that, that can be Ooh, I feel unprepared. I don't know what the next step is to take.

[00:14:32] I don't feel, I'm not feeling up to the task of making that leap. So I'm just going to prepare and prepare. That's not. It's what I would call like not a higher consciousness decision. It's just based off of the fear that you have. And then on the other extreme, it's Oh, sometimes I just take so long and I'm like, I know that about myself.

[00:14:49] And I just don't, if I just keep putting this off forever I'm just going to make the move and just go ahead and dive into it without any preparation. And that's also a reflexive kind of decision that you're [00:15:00] making. Whereas. Somebody that's that's being present and is willing to sit with their anxiety will sit with that a little bit and think about notice all of those things coming on, all those different thoughts that are happening in their head, sometimes conflicting thoughts, and be able to synthesize some kind of thought out decision from there.

[00:15:22] Not in a reactive way, but really like in an intentional curious thought out in an intentional way, that's the way I it's the difference between, this is so much of what I'm talking about. Like with how we're using technology, the key differentiator is intentionality. It's I'm not saying technology is bad and that it doesn't help us.

[00:15:45] Clearly it does. It's just that. Am I choosing to use it or am I mindlessly reaching for my phone and then 40 minutes of looking at YouTube goes by and I'm like, wait, this is not what I was supposed to be doing at all. There's a huge difference.

[00:15:58] Scott Maderer: [00:16:00] And

[00:16:00] Sho Ishikura: intentionality is the key word there.

[00:16:02] Scott Maderer: And that, that idea of.

[00:16:05] Doing things in a way that helps bring us peace, but not in that temporary dopamine hit, kind of way of, Oh, I checked off seven emails. So I've, I got a lot done today but rather in the actual deeper. For me, spiritual is the word I'm going to use a different use of the word, but that kind of deeper sense of connection and belonging, how have your how has your feelings around it in terms of meditation and these other disciplines, being part of, and again, I'm going to use the word spiritual, but that spiritual connection to things, how has that ebbed and flowed for you as you've moved through this journey?

[00:16:45] Sho Ishikura: I loved that you used the word spiritual because this is absolutely a spiritual thing to me. Think about the spiritual component of this, it's to me, what [00:17:00] are our lives? Our lives are essentially how our presence like what we're paying attention to, like moment to moment like that is literally our lives.

[00:17:13] So to deprive, to be deprived of that presence by engaging

[00:17:23] with like with tech in a way that's not intentional to mindlessly be scrolling and then, spend a day doing that and then spend weeks doing that and then years doing that and decades doing that and it's like you look back and you're like wow i spent when you at tally it up i spent years looking at 15 second reels and like to me that's you're being deprived of your presence while you're here on earth and that to me is like a spiritual affront so You know, I, when I'm talking [00:18:00] about this, it's, I'm talking about, tech and digital energy and like productivity and stuff like that.

[00:18:07] But behind all of that, like at its root to me, there's like a spiritual mission. And that's really the thing that's driving me for, to do all this stuff.

[00:18:20] Scott Maderer: One of the things too, that I've seen happen for folks. And so I work with a lot of folks that are coaches that, that are working in the industry like I am.

[00:18:31] And, I've seen folks that, they're doing now they're doing coaching as a retirement career. They're. They made their, they've done their career job. They've done all of this. Now they're coaching on the side and they really don't want to grow it into a full time business.

[00:18:43] It's just a side thing. And I'm going to use a specific example of one of the coaches I was working with, who she, her daughter would bring over the grandkids and then she would go watch the grandkids, and play with the grandkids. And she kept feeling guilty because it's like I'm not working on my coaching business.

[00:18:58] And it's but wait, which [00:19:00] is actually your priority. The grandkids are working on the coaching business.

[00:19:03] Sho Ishikura: Yeah,

[00:19:04] Scott Maderer: but she would feel guilty. She's working on the coaching business. She felt guilty that she wasn't spending time with the grands. And if she's spending time with the grand, she's feeling guilty that she's not working on the coaching business, and how do you help people, negotiate that feeling.

[00:19:16] I think that we get a lot of times between, because we have priorities in different areas of our life, but then how do we balance those competing places that we want to be present in?

[00:19:26] Sho Ishikura: That's that's actually something that I used to struggle with so much being a musician and then just like being a human, throughout, throughout my twenties.

[00:19:35] I'm doing studying for counseling. Yeah, no, yeah, totally. And It was when I was younger, I would always be like, Oh my God, like music is so competitive and it would just be like, if I'm not like practicing and getting better, there's so many prodigies out there just like getting better every day.

[00:19:55] And it felt like that kind of competition all the time. But really what solved that for [00:20:00] me, it comes back again to intentionality. Like when I'm deciding ahead of time being like this week, this is how much time I want to spend on this on my coaching business. This is how many, this is how many hours a week I'm going to spend with my grandkids.

[00:20:18] This is. And I'm leaving wiggle room. This is how flexible I'm willing to be. I'm deciding all of that ahead of time. I don't have to feel guilty when like things come up and change, it's I decided that, and the other thing is like every single week, I'm looking back on what actually happened.

[00:20:38] And I'm looking at how do I feel about what actually happened? Does that feel like in alignment? With what I want to be doing. Do I want to make adjustments to how much time I'm putting into this over that and What's stopping me from following through on what I set out to do so again, this is all comes back to intentionality, but implementing that is like [00:21:00] difficult and that's where kind of people need accountability and support a lot of the time.

[00:21:03] Scott Maderer: Yeah, absolutely. It's the difference between simple and easy. It's really simple to say what you just said. It's actually easy to, it's not easy to implement it. It's hard. It's not something that can be simple. I can explain it to you. Everyone understands it because yep. Got it.

[00:21:17] Yeah, no, you don't.

[00:21:19] Sho Ishikura: Absolutely. Yeah. For me, it took the one thing that, if you're listening to this podcast that even if you're not deciding to go work with somebody that's going to provide that kind of support and accountability and implementing that stuff, the one thing that I'll say is that for me.

[00:21:35] The most important thing I stuck to was doing like a weekly check in with myself and being like what worked, what didn't work, what do I need to try next week. That stacked up 52 times because it's 52 weeks in a year. So I have 52 times a year for Five years now and my [00:22:00] level of organization, presence, productivity, like time management, all of that is just like on a completely different plane than it was,

[00:22:08] Scott Maderer: yeah. Yeah. I talk about the cycle I talk about and share with folks as plan, execute. Review, review, meaning what happened, reflect, that's the, how did it feel? What do I want to do different? That kind of thing. And then repeat, just you keep doing that over and over again.

[00:22:26] And it's like Russian nesting dolls. You can do it at a daily level. You can do it at an hourly level. You can do it at a yearly level. You could do it at a monthly level. Doesn't matter what scale, you have to keep doing that over and over again. And again, simple. Easy, no simple.

[00:22:41] If you've done

[00:22:42] Sho Ishikura: it and not done it, you'll realize how important doing it is.

[00:22:46] Scott Maderer: But even then it's almost like sometimes it becomes like everything else. It becomes. A habit and routine, but then there's also part of you that's Oh I can skip it this week or, it's still, [00:23:00] you still have to have the constant distraction urge to go do something else.

[00:23:05] Or at least I yeah, me too.

[00:23:06] Sho Ishikura: Yeah, I quickly noticed if I like hop off the routine for a week, I'll be like, Oh, wow, I feel like really weird. And not tethered to reality. I'll be like, Oh, wait. Yeah, let me get back on that, but

[00:23:22] Scott Maderer: so for somebody that's listening that realizes that this is an area that they're struggling with, I, like you, I think there's a lot of value and engaging with other people and accountability and those sorts of things.

[00:23:33] But, let's give them some actions or some things that they could take. What are some things that they could look at when they're looking at this area of digital hygiene? Or thinking about what they're doing and being intentional. Where are some places that you've seen people have success, getting started.

[00:23:49] Sho Ishikura: One of the biggest things, especially for working professionals. Is that the modern way of working requires that [00:24:00] where it requires a lot of us to be like on call a lot, especially if we're working remotely. So what I found working with clients is that some people feel that they need to be always by their laptop or always have their notifications on and always be responding and something that's really important.

[00:24:23] To understand is that there's a major productivity cost that you're paying every single time you're context switching So if you're working on a project you get a ding and slack you switch screens fire off an answer real quick Go back to what you're working on there's actually Studies that show that you might be losing up to it takes 20 minutes for your neurons to re assimilate to the original task at hand.

[00:24:52] That's what one study shows. Another study shows that there's actually not that lack, but that study that shows that there's not that [00:25:00] time to re assimilate actually shows that when you do that over and over again, it causes raises your stress and anxiety levels. So either way, the outcome is it's bad to do that.

[00:25:10] Context switching, for sure not. Good for productivity and your overall well being. Of the first things I would do is be like working with a client is just see how much do you actually have to be on call for, and you sometimes have to really advocate for yourself in terms of like carving out a little bit of time to have completely uninterrupted work.

[00:25:39] But even. Like 30 minutes of just no interruptions, like completely dialing into something, ideally 90 minutes to a couple hours. Day after day is like, is game changing because that same two hours that you spend context switching back and forth is you're probably [00:26:00] getting depending on what you're working on you're probably getting like half as much done.

[00:26:04] That's something to think about. And yeah, trying to put up those like barricades around that time that you need to really deeply focus on something's important.

[00:26:14] Scott Maderer: Yeah. Sometimes just as simple as just close down the email application that's running in the background while you're working on something can help a lot.

[00:26:22] Sho Ishikura: Yeah. And the notifications too. It's it's. Yeah, absolutely wild to me how many people leave their notifications on for everything. I'm like, how do you do anything in this life? I have everything turned off,

[00:26:36] Scott Maderer: And get rid of those little red numbers, whether it's on your phone or other apps, how you open up your phone and Facebook and it's got the little red circle.

[00:26:44] And so 32 unread notifications, your email inboxes, 142 unread email, whatever it is, get rid of those little. Hide those because, . And you can turn 'em off in pretty much every app because the, every time that, you're immediately, your anxiety goes up. Yeah. Because it's, [00:27:00] oh yeah, I've got this stuff I've gotta catch up on.

[00:27:02] Yeah, no you don't. Yeah. Chill out .

[00:27:03] Sho Ishikura: Yeah. This, another thing I like to say is we all were living before all this stuff, it's like, what? Absolutely And my mom my mom's you haven't texted me back for two hours. I'm like, we used to not have phones like you would not have cared in like 1981 if I didn't text you back for two hours, we'll live what we will live, I've

[00:27:25] Scott Maderer: yeah, I've had the same conversation with folks.

[00:27:27] It's are you a brain surgeon? Are you a neurosurgeon? Are something. Okay. Maybe now you need some notifications that come through no matter what but short of that, you could probably turn, is someone literally going to die if you don't get this notification?

[00:27:42] Absolutely. Yeah. The answer is yes. We'll talk other than that. You could probably turn it off.

[00:27:47] Sho Ishikura: It's related to what we talked about earlier, right? It's like with the anxieties am I physically safe? And others are physically

[00:27:54] Scott Maderer: safe again, if you're, you're a doctor on emergency room call, right?

[00:27:57] You need notifications. [00:28:00] I don't want my doctor sleeping through, I want them to answer when they're paged or they're called. But other than that, you could probably. You can probably turn off some of them. Yeah I tell people like my phone is set up where if I'm on a client call or doing an interview, like I'm now there are five people on the planet that phone will give me a notification.

[00:28:23] Everyone else. It's and I, cause I have determined those are the five people that they're important enough that they can interrupt this stuff as people like my wife, my son, it's those people that's who it is. Other than that, I'll call you back. It's

[00:28:36] Sho Ishikura: okay.

[00:28:36] Yeah. The developers implemented all those functions for a reason, just like people were like, Hey, we need. Those things, but the default is to like, have every notification on, but it's it's really astounding how many people like, don't look into Oh, like I could simply turn it off.

[00:28:53] I could, yeah, I could do something about this stuff. So anybody listening, think about it,

[00:28:59] Scott Maderer: well, and the [00:29:00] reason the apps are set out that way is again, what are they really, their currency is your attention. That's, because if I can get you to pay attention to me, you're going to see ads, you're going to interact, you're going to do those things.

[00:29:11] That, that's what I'm, that's what I want. And they're not evil. That's what they want. They tell you that in the beginning, you signed up for it, right? But like you said, you

[00:29:20] Sho Ishikura: take control of it. Yeah. Yeah. It's just like the logical conclusion of the incentives that we've laid out,

[00:29:28] Scott Maderer: we've created the system.

[00:29:29] So I've got a few questions that I like to ask all of my guests, but before I go there, is there anything else about this work that you've been doing, focusing on digital hygiene, helping people pay attention and be more productive, be intentional that you think is important to share.

[00:29:46] Sho Ishikura: Yeah, the thing that I think is important is that I,

[00:29:53] I feel like a lot of people are not fully aware of how much this stuff is impacting them. Until maybe [00:30:00] they'll, it'll hit them years down the line because all of us have certain things that we want for ourselves. Or most of us do like certain dreams like I want to write a book for instance, right and it's like you can just be Like that 30 minutes that you spend scrolling tik tok every day and like Kind of answering useless notifications like that 30 minutes stacked up day after day 365 days a year think of how much time that is.

[00:30:36] I don't know that's 180 hours, right? That's Maybe you could have written like half of your book or your whole book in that amount of time and It's something that you don't really notice. It's to use that kind of example of a project that you want to do.

[00:30:52] Earlier I was talking about how like I never, I always wanted to release an album and I was like in grad school and couldn't focus. [00:31:00] When I fixed Some of these focus and organization issues. I managed to write, record and produce my own album, release it on a reputable Indie label while I was going to grad school and working a free internship and working a normal job.

[00:31:17] I was like, I made time for it and I made it happen. And, it did require me being super intentional with all every minute of my day but, yeah that's the message that I have, it's it's that kind of dull pain that's not acute enough that you don't notice it as each day is passing by, but you will feel that.

[00:31:40] Later on, if you're not feeling it already, and I just urge everybody to take stock of how much time they're losing to unintentionally just getting lost in these apps.

[00:31:58] Scott Maderer: Absolutely. Yeah, I [00:32:00] think for 1 thing, I think it's, you said it just now in a way, it's almost invisible time.

[00:32:06] Yes. We don't, we're not even aware of the hours that we spend, I've had people do an activity I'm sure you have to, where they have an alarm that goes off like every 30 minutes, a silent alarm, like vibrating watch or whatever and just jot down, what you've been doing the last 30 minutes, what you've been doing the last 30 minutes and do that for a couple of days and then go back and look at it.

[00:32:27] And people are amazed with. How long they spend, you'll ask them how many hours do you watch TV a week? Oh, maybe an hour. And then they capture it. And it's six hours, eight hours. It's wow, I didn't realize I was spending so much. Yeah.

[00:32:41] Cause we did. It is, it's invisible in a way it's almost invisible to us.

[00:32:45] Sho Ishikura: Yeah.

[00:32:45] Scott Maderer: I love that invisible time.

[00:32:47] Sho Ishikura: I might have to steal that

[00:32:48] Scott Maderer: you're welcome to and everyone will hear so that everyone will know I gave it away. So my brand is inspired stewardship, but I use that lens of [00:33:00] stewardship when I'm talking about productivity.

[00:33:01] I'm talking about money and I'm talking about these other things, but I've learned that word means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. So when you hear the word stewardship, what does that word mean to you?

[00:33:12] Sho Ishikura: I love that word. Because traditionally when we think of stewardship, we think of.

[00:33:18] Taking care of land so that it can be, so that it can continue to be like cultivated and cared for future generations, right? I feel like, correct me if I'm wrong, but that kind of brings about like the traditional definition. That's one of the meanings, yeah, absolutely. One thing that I think about is In our world, we've whoever is the owner of land wants to be a steward of it for themselves so that they can continue to enjoy the benefits that the land has to offer and for future generations as [00:34:00] well. And I feel like with the work that I'm doing, that stewardship can apply to our own minds as well.

[00:34:12] Because, we have all these. Big tech companies vying for our attention essentially to colonize our attention the same way that a lot of land has been colonized across the world and we have, we can choose how we want to be stewards of that kind of mental control.

[00:34:37] that mental space. And that affects to me when I'm a good steward of my mental, my mental space, then I'm being present with other people. I'm being good to other people. I'm giving back to other people. I'm passing that goodness down on [00:35:00] to future generations. So yeah I like to think of the mind as like a sanctuary that needs to be taken care of and treated with respect.

[00:35:13] So yeah, that would be my answer to

[00:35:16] Scott Maderer: that. I like that.

[00:35:17] Sho Ishikura: I like that.

[00:35:17] Scott Maderer: Yeah. So this is my favorite question that I love to ask everybody. Imagine for a moment that I was able to invent this magical machine and with this machine, I was able to pull you from where you are today and transport you into the future, maybe 150, maybe 250 years.

[00:35:34] But through the power of this machine, you were able to look back and see your entire life, see all of the connections, all of the ripples, all of the impacts you've left behind. What impact do you hope you've left in the world?

[00:35:44] Sho Ishikura: I hope that I've helped people recognize the importance of protecting their own minds there's this kind of, there's this [00:36:00] huge current that's just, if we just are passive and float downstream, where we will end up is Shorter and shorter term thinking, less and less intentionality programming ourselves essentially to focus on the shallow and to not be able to be present and handle anxiety in that way.

[00:36:26] And I hope that my legacy is that I helped people recognize that the current exists and that I helped people fight back against that and protect. The sanctuary of their minds, if you will, and be stewards of their minds.

[00:36:45] Scott Maderer: So what's coming next? What's on the roadmap for you as you continue on this journey?

[00:36:50] Sho Ishikura: A lot of different things for me. I'm, I just want to continue helping one person at a time with this stuff. I'd like to scale [00:37:00] this up and keep spreading this message. I'm going to continue writing music and releasing music and continue. working as a therapist. So yeah I'm going to continue cultivating friendships.

[00:37:15] I have an awesome little community here in New Jersey that I'm a part of. And yeah, just being a human and reading and listening to music and all that good stuff.

[00:37:26] Scott Maderer: So you can find out more about Sho over on his site. It's at focused. ltd or focus limited. Of course, I'll have a link to that over in the show notes as well.

[00:37:37] Sho, is there anything else you'd like to share with the listeners?

[00:37:40] Sho Ishikura: Yeah. For people that are listening to this podcast, I'm offering something really Exciting in 2025 called the tiny challenge and essentially what that is I'm giving people the opportunity to work with me for five days to see how much I could transform their [00:38:00] relationship to distraction and productivity.

[00:38:02] It would basically be 5 days of 30 minute meetings where I'd be looking at where they're at. Giving them certain quests to try out throughout their day to think about distraction, implementing some of these new protocols that I have to help people and It's been really exciting to just work with people one on one and see how I can help them in that way.

[00:38:28] If that's something that's interesting to you, it's totally free of charge. All I'm asking for is just testimonials and referrals. And if that's interesting to you, just reach out to me.

[00:38:41] Scott Maderer: And they can find you over there at the website. Of course, I'll put a link to that in the show notes. So if you're driving right now, go back to the show notes for this episode, you'll be able to find that link over there so you can get in touch with them.

[00:38:52] That's an awesome offer. I think people would be surprised at how much five days of concentrated accountability can really make a [00:39:00] big difference. So thank you for that offer.

[00:39:02] Sho Ishikura: Yeah, of course. Thanks for having me here.

[00:39:05] Scott Maderer: Thank you.

[00:39:11] Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode please do us a favor, go over to inspired stewardship.

[00:39:34] com slash. iTunes rate, all one word, iTunes rate. It'll take you through how to leave a rating and review, and how to make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so that you can get every episode as it comes out in your feed. Until next time, invest your time, your talent, and your treasures, develop your influence, [00:40:00] and impact the world.

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