Every so often we come across certain things that change our lives for the better.  Whether it’s a new concept or a new way of looking at something, we know that we’ve just taken a major step in the right direction.

I recently came across one of those and I wanted to share it with you so that you might be able to use it as well because it’s made an enormously positive impact for me.

First a little background because I feel that so many others can relate to this and you’ve probably experienced the feeling as well.  Whenever I’m working on a task or project my mind wanders.  I’m sure it is normal for this to happen at least a little bit and we all do it to some extent, but sometimes it completely derails my entire process. 

That was until I discovered Thomas Frank’s “robot mode.”  If you aren’t familiar with him, Thomas Frank makes a lot of great content to help people be productive and to learn effectively and he currently has nearly 2.5 million subscribers to his YouTube channel.

Even though he doesn’t have a specific video about robot mode he has mentioned it many times throughout his videos.  The basic concept is that we can be more effective when we separate our activities into planning and robot modes.  Planning mode is exactly as it sounds as we decide what to do and then we actually do what we have planned after switching to robot mode.

It’s almost like writing the code for a robot and then running the code to get the job done, the difference is that we’re the robot in this scenario.

I’ve personally taken a two-step approach to implementing robot mode.  Whenever my planning mode is over and I’m engaged in the actual work, the first step I use when my mind wanders is self-talk gently reminding myself that I’m in robot mode.  Often that works but we all know that sometimes it’s not as easy as simply doing it.

If my focus still wavers after the first reminder then I take a little bit of a weird turn.  The split second I notice another drift in my attention. I start repeating “robot mode, robot mode, you’re in robot mode” silently in my head.  It sounds completely silly but I can’t argue with the effectiveness because it totally works for me!

It’s similar to a U-turn sign on a road that’s warning me before I go speeding off an attention cliff.  So far it has not failed to get me back on track and that’s why I love taking this approach so much.

Every so often an idea or thought will make its way up from my subconscious while I’m in robot mode.  Whereas before I would likely stop what I was doing and either research it or think about that idea, now I write it down in a notebook to use when I’m out of robot mode.

I just wanted to share this idea from Thomas Frank and how I have personally implemented it so that it might help you as well.  Also be sure to check out his channel because he has so many other extremely helpful videos.

Robot mode is a wonderful addition to a skill set and I hope it works for you as well.