‘Defeating The Demons Of Distraction’ An Interview With Dr Geri Markel
The Destiny Awakening Interviews is a podcast with Andrew Wayfinder and his guests.
Every week (sometimes more) we have a short focused interview with an expert, author, speaker designed to bring you powerful insights, inspiration and ways to break free, live life by your vision and values, and make a difference in our changing and challenging world.
Listen to the podcast at: [Destiny Awakening 0010]
Andrew Hryniewicz
So hello, everyone and a very warm welcome to another edition of the “Destiny Awakening Interviews”. I’m Andrew Wayfinder Hryniewicz and I’m in interviewing today Dr. Geri Markel, educational psychologist, speaker, academic author, consultant and expert coach on the topic of distraction, focus and productivity in life and work.
So, a very warm welcome to you, Geri. And where are you hanging out today?
Dr. Geri Markel
First of all, it’s great to be here. And today. I’m in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Okay, and how many feet of snow?
Dr. Geri Markel
We’ve got about two feet of snow and it’s zero degrees.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Oh, Lord. Okay. Well, it’s not quite that bad here in London, although we’ve had a couple of couple of dicey days but nothing like that.
So Dr. Geri Markel is an educational psychologist and creator of managing your mind coaching and seminars at managingyourmind.com. And she’s an executive coach for those challenged by distraction and stress.
The reason I was interested in having Geri talk today is that not only is she an expert in productivity, as a professor at the University of Michigan, consulting, training and speaking at companies like Ford, Merrill Lynch, Disney, Time Warner, to name a few.
But she also offers many different tools and strategies to help you if you’re feeling distracted, disorganized, or stressed, in work and life. So thank you, Geri, for your time today.
Dr. Geri Markel
It’s great to be here.
Andrew Hryniewicz
And our title is “Defeating The Demons Of Distraction And Increasing Your Productivity.” So Geri is going to unpack that, while answering six questions. So the time starts now.
The first question Geri is: Who is your ideal client and what’s the transformation your work helps them achieve?
Dr. Geri Markel
My ideal client and my common client is a person who is very distracted, frustrated, has a lot of stress, perhaps is fearful of losing their job, and is always disappointing people. And so they may exhibit a lot of the behaviors that A.D.H.D. people exhibit, but they’re just really bright.
And I’ve come up with a… I coined a phrase, “gifted with a glitch”.
So many of the people are extraordinarily smart. But at the same time, they have these vulnerabilities that prevent them from being productive.
So there’s a VP who misses his budget, forgets appointments, is terribly disorganized. And, you know, with strategies, they can transform their lives in the long term step by step. And that’s why I call it managing your mind coaching.
Andrew Hryniewicz
That reminds me, a friend of mine showed me this really funny thing on on Instagram a while ago, which said, “I don’t have ducks. They’re not in a row. I have squirrels, and they’re at a rave.”
And I can relate to this, you know, the mind, it’s just going everywhere.
Okay, So question number two: What’s the biggest challenge they’re facing?
Dr. Geri Markel
I think the biggest challenge that people face who have, who confront distraction and disorganization, is understanding that they’re not lazy, crazy or dumb. Which most people feel because they don’t understand what’s going on.
So, to understand that there is a duality: that you can be smart and competent in one area, but really be dysfunctional in another.
And that’s the biggest challenge. Once people accept that, then they open their mind to working step by step.
And so the coaching helps them trigger motivation, and persistence, and face the ups and downs that come.
So it’s very important that they accept the fact that they are smart, but in spite of their brains, they get into trouble all the time. It’s persistent, and they disappoint themselves and others.
Andrew Hryniewicz
And I would think this idea of creating systems and processes is very important.
Dr. Geri Markel
Yes, it’s 60 years of research in all kinds of fields that gives us information about goal setting, and feedback, and self monitoring.
And it’s putting those things into practice… you can have an engineer or system designer who never uses that stuff in their life.
Andrew Hryniewicz
It’s the cobbler with the barefoot kids!
Great. So question number three: What’s the number one insight you would share with the audience to help them right now with with distraction?
Dr. Geri Markel
The number one insight is, you may have some internal drives to be distracted and disorganized. But today, the world is terribly disorganized and uncertain, which really raises stress.
And as soon as you have high stress and you’re exhausted, high fatigue, your attention, your memory, and your endurance really go down.
So we have to understand that many times during the day, we’re going to be driven to distraction…
And that’s why I identified these demons that may be technology, other people, fatigue, you may be ill, or your mind may be racing all the time.
So knowing that these are constant, you then prepare and understand the strategies to defeat these demons and their persistence. So it’s a constant battle, especially for people working in a remote situation, or having parenting or kids at home.
Andrew Hryniewicz
All the things that pull you… that was another thing going around. “If it takes a village to raise a child. It takes a distillery to homeschool one!”
Dr. Geri Markel
That’s good.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Of course, that was a very English approach to… a very English comment.
Dr. Geri Markel
That’s good to an American.
Andrew Hryniewicz
So question number four: What concept, book, program or talk has been most impactful? In your experience?
Dr. Geri Markel
You know, one of the things that has happened, maybe in the last 10 years or so, is the idea of executive function. So we’re thinking of a part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, where it’s like a conductor of an orchestra.
And helps you focus your attention, shift your attention, manage time, prioritize. Which is a more global way of looking at self regulation. And A.D.D. and other situations were looked at very specifically, sort of as inattention, and distractibility, and disorganization, maybe impulsivity.
But this ties it all together, because those people with A.D.D or A.D.H.D. are vastly different from one another. And so you can have the same intellectual potential, but function in a totally different way.
And then the other thing is, over the last 40–50 years, we’ve got terrific research on behavior change, and how people can get greater control over whatever it is the challenges and barriers they’re facing.
Once they understand that, it gives a person more control and more optimism and hope.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Yeah, I think the research on plasticity is fascinating in that regard.
Dr. Geri Markel
Right.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Okay. So question number five: What free resource would you like to share with the audience to help them?
Dr. Geri Markel
Well, I’m pretty gregarious. So if people go to my website www.managingyourmind.com, they can sign up for a complimentary 20 minute coaching session.
So, just to chat and see what is bothering you.Because sometimes just a quick chat will give you just a different perspective.
And then the other thing is, I offer a newsletter and a blog, and you can sign up for that. And when you get that, you get a little booklet that I did on “111 Ways to Defeat the Demons of Distraction.”
So I’m very practical. I like strategies. It’s my job as an educational psychologist is to help you learn strategy and then apply them to your unique situation.
Andrew Hryniewicz
That’s great. And also there’s, I would just want to add, when you go to Geri’s site, you also get references to her books. And she’s also developed some apps for those of you who like to use technology to offset the impacts of technology.
So the last question, question number six: Geri, what should I have asked you that I didn’t?
Dr. Geri Markel
You know, one question people constantly ask is, how did you come up with this “Demons of Distraction”. And so the history of that is I was a consultant at the University of Michigan School of Business, their education center and a trainer.
And through that did a lot of consulting in New York and financial institutions and banks and MTV and so on.
And as I was in the halls and in the seminars, rooms, I’m seeing people function as if they have ADHD.
They’re racing minds, and they’re losing things. And they’re disorganized. And they’re dropping things, and so on and so forth. And I realized that the research I had done on attention and learning was directly applicable.
And so knowing that people are not interested in ADHD or anything research based, I came up with what would be catchy and interesting.
And so “The Demons of Distraction” are the common demons that people confront, at home, at work, parenting, at school.
And was able to use all the strategies, like visualization and self talk, for each of these demons so that people really have something practical that they can hang on to.
Andrew Hryniewicz
Well, that’s perfect. Geri, what a great ending. So thank you so much for your time.
Dr. Geri Markel
It’s a pleasure.
