How to Focus Better Using the "AMRAP" Mentality

Tucked within the training programs

of many in athletic discipline

is a particularly challenging type of workout called

the AMRAP workout.

Standing for as many reps as possible,

these types of workouts challenge athletes

to do a specific move as many times as they possibly can

within a set amount of time.

These types of workouts are intense

and they can be a great way to track the progress

of your fitness over time.

In fact, the climbing gym that I go to

actually uses the AMRAP format

to test our fitness in their general exercise classes.

But aside from its benefits in the gym,

the idea behind the AMRAP workout

can also help you become more productive as well.

This is an idea that I learned about from Jason Khalipa.

An athlete and successful entrepreneur

who competed in the Crossfit Games eight times

and actually won it in 2008.

Among other feats, Jason has backsquatted 450 pounds,

deadlifted 550 pounds and done

a single set of 64 pull ups,

which makes the 13 that I did for this video's opening shot

look pretty pathetic by comparison.

In addition to being an elite athlete though,

Jason is also the owner of a successful gym business

with six different locations.

And his ability to manage that business

along with his athletics and his family

stems from a concept that he calls the AMRAP Mentality.

I first learned about this concept

when I listened to Jason's interview on The Tim Ferriss Show

which is one of my favorite podcasts.

And ever since, it has been a very helpful

mental tool for me which is why

I wanna share it with you today.

To start, I wanna pose to you a question

that Jason brought up in that interview.

Are we more productive today than we were 20 years ago?

It's tempting to jump to an immediate yes

since we now have access to vastly better technology,

information, and automation than we had

back when A Bug's Life came out.

But is that actually a good thing?

Sure, I can now tell a robot to put things on my calendar

which is admittedly pretty cool

but all this technology also makes it

so much easier for us to constantly

pull our attention away from the present.

And this becomes habitual.

How many times have you been out to dinner with friends

and had the urge to check your phone for text messages

even though you're literally sitting

across the table from people you can talk to in person?

And how often do you feel your attention

being pulled away from your work

because you just have to know

what the best selling Godzilla movie is?

It's become easier than ever

for us to spend almost all of our time

in a distracted, unfocused state.

However, in these modern times,

there is still one situation where you almost

never find your mind wondering from the present.

As Jason points out in that interview,

when you're in the middle of an AMRAP workout,

when you're trying as hard as you can

to raise your chin to that bar just one more time,

that's when your mind is completely focused

on the task at hand.

The level of sheer intensity involved in an AMRAP round

makes it impossible to focus on your weekend plans

or that video game you played last night.

And this leads to the core idea

behind Jason's AMRAP Mentality.

Channeling that intense focus,

that present mindedness that you experience

during an intense workout and applying it

to the rest of your life, whether it be your homework

or the time you spend with friends and family.

Jason breaks the process of using this mentality

into four steps.

First, you need to work to identify your areas of focus.

Ideally, you should only have a few of these

and each of them should have what's called

a strong internal why, a compelling reason

for why you're focusing on them instead of something else.

And this part of the process might also involve

abandoning certain areas of focus

or at least putting them on the back burner

if you have too many.

Remember, you can only spin so many plates at once.

Actually I can't spin any plates.

Anyway, the areas of focus that I've chosen for myself

include one, creating videos with a specific focus

on the writing process and filming process

now that I have an editor.

Number two, my athletics, specifically training

in rock climbing and figure skating.

Three, spending time with my girlfriend Anna

and four, working on a talk for a conference

that's coming up in a couple of weeks.

Now before we move on to the second step in the process,

I wanna mention that you should be doing this

on a more micro level as well.

These are all macro goals that I just outlined

but everyday I also try to write down

a list of the things that I want to accomplish

by the end of the day.

And for each item on the list,

I ask myself, does that item have a strong internal why?

Alright, so after you've chosen all of those areas of focus,

the next step is simple.

Choose one area, focus on it with all of your attention,

and work hard at it.

Or in other words, AMRAP it.

In one of his talks about the AMRAP Mentality,

Jason gave this concept weight

by using the image of a bicycle.

When you're riding a bike,

your only focus is on where you're going,

it is not you're probably going to crash.

And if you wanna get where you're going

with any amount of speed, you're gonna have

to crank those pedals hard.

And this metaphor was especially fitting for me

just a couple of days ago because over the weekend,

I decided that I was gonna ride my bike

from my place in Denver over

to a friend's place in Boulder and then back.

The total distance of that ride is 70 miles

which is actually the longest

that I've ever ridden a bicycle.

Now I made pretty good time and I ended up

arriving in Boulder around 2:30 p.m. in the afternoon.

But since I stayed and hung out

at my friend's place for a while,

I didn't start heading back until around six p.m.

And before I even hit the halfway mark

on the ride back, it started getting dark

which meant that I had to spend about 20 miles

riding with my bike's headlamp.

It was a perfect example of the AMRAP Mentality in action.

The dark forced me to concentrate intensely

on where I was going and my surroundings

and the fact that it was getting darker and darker

motivated me to pedal quickly even though

the previous 50 miles had already worn me out.

I was, in a word, AMRAPing the entire way home.

Putting in focused, intense effort

until the job was done and I was ready

to switch to something else.

Which as it happens is the third step

in the AMRAP Mentality.

Switch gears and do it deliberately.

And of course when this happens,

you then go right back to step two,

right back to focusing intensely

in working hard at that next thing.

The idea here is that mentally,

switching from your math homework

to say hanging out with a friend

should be exactly like going from an AMRAP set of pull ups

to another AMRAP set of push ups.

Your focus calmness switches to a new thing

and then all of your attention becomes fixated upon it.

Lastly, the AMRAP Mentality requires

frequent periods of reevaluation.

You need to sit down quite often

and ask yourself, do my areas of focus still make sense?

Ask yourself if there's still

a strong internal why for each one

and whether or not there's still room

in your life for all of them.

And Jason gives a great example of this

in his interview on The Tim Ferriss Show.

After competing in the Crossfit Games for eight years,

Jason sat down and realized that his business

was growing, his family was growing,

and the competition in the games

was getting tougher and tougher each year.

So after reevaluating his priorities,

he decided to stop competing

so he could be a better father

and husband and business owner.

He realized that if he wanted to excel at these things,

there wasn't enough room in his life

to also be a serious competitor.

And this act of reevaluating is something

that you need to do as well.

Especially during periods of change in your life.

Even though the AMRAP Mentality will enable you

to be more productive, you always need to keep in mind

that your time, attention, and energy

are all limited resources.

So to recap, the AMRAP Mentality involves

one, identifying your areas of focus

and defining a strong internal why for each one.

Two, choosing a single area of focus,

working to remain mentally present the entire time

you're doing it and going at it hard.

Three, switch gears deliberately

and have a good reason for doing so.

Don't just jump back and forth between focuses.

And four, take time to reevaluate your areas of focus often

especially when you go through a life change

or you decide you wanna start spinning another plate.

Now the steps outlined in this process

might seem similar to other concepts

that I've shared in the past but there's a reason

that I wanted to share it with you now.

Namely that it's been a very useful visual metaphor for me.

As an athlete, I often do AMRAP workouts

as well as other high intensity forms of training.

I'm well acquainted with the all encompassing focus

that comes with trying to do as many pull ups as I can

or trying to do a difficult bouldering problem,

or trying to climb a big hill on my bike.

And when I remind myself of what it's like

to be in those situations, I find it easier

to slip into the flow state with my work as well.

In fact, I've actually started writing AMRAP

at the top of my daily to do lists.

I am a huge believe in the idea that visual metaphors

can be strong motivators.

When I'm out on a long bike ride,

I often picture the pistons in a car engine moving

which helps me regard my own legs as similar machines

that won't be influenced by whatever complaints

my brain wants to throw up about them.

This type of visualization is powerful

and many elite athletes actually use it before competing.

So even if you already known

that you should be focusing intensely

or switching gears deliberately, ask yourself, are you?

If you're not currently doing as well as you'd like,

well maybe give the AMRAP Mentality a try

because you might find it just as helpful as I did.

Now there is one last thing we need to talk about here.

A lot of you have readily admitted to the fact

that you watch my videos as a way

to procrastinate on your work.

And while I'm flattered, and while it's definitely

a better way to procrastinate than watching

baby otter videos, which I did yesterday,

you need to get back to work.

Now I know what some of you are going to say here.

But Tom, I'm completely stuck on my homework.

I've got a bunch of problems,

I worked as hard as I can but I can't solve them

and my professor doesn't have office hours until next April.

Well, if that is you, then one app

that you might wanna consider adding

to your phone's home screen is the Chegg Study app.

This app along with their website for you desktop users,

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Chegg Study subscription is super affordable

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When I was in college, I used to use Chegg's Marketplace

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With that being said, I wanna give a big thanks

to Chegg for sponsoring this video

and being a supporter of this channel

and as always guys, thank you so much for watching.

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