Do you work with intention or are you running around constantly putting out fires?
Anthony Ongaro shares how to live and work more intentionally and less reactively.
He is a talented freelancer filmmaker and videographer. He also recently published his first book, Break the Twitch, a Practical Guide to Minimalism and Intentional Living.
Lot of great lessons in our chat including:
- Shares his process for identifying his values.
- How he broke a 20-year bad habit and he shares a step-by-step process for how you can break your own twitches.
- How working for himself enables him to integrate all of his different skills and interests as a multipotentialite.
Life Skills That Matter In This Episode
- Self-directed learning.
- Self-awareness.
- Work with intention.
How Anthony Works and Thinks
- Wake up time: 8:30-9:00am
- Core work activities + habits: 1) Writing, six days a week. 2) Getting enough sleep. 3) His “batting cages,” or his basic, core habits like tidiness, laundry, eating well, etc.
- Ideal work environment: In a coffee shop, drinking a large latte, with his laptop, and big over-ear headphones with either low-key background music or silence.
- Book recommendation: The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and Hooked by Nir Eyal.
- 90-day goal: Launch the book, take time completely off for a while, and then focus on creating more videos and blog posts.
Inspirational Quotes
“I value creating things with other people, being in community with people, and just kind of existing in a very analog space, and being there and showing up. Those are things that really matter to me.”
“This idea of The Twitch is all about small, continuous actions that build up to become a life, right? How we spend our days is how we spend our lives.”
“To experience that true sense of being encapsulated, just totally engrossed in the work you’re doing, you gotta be able to really focus on it without interruption for just a little while.”
“For students and for young people, it’s incredibly damaging to tell them that the school system and success within that system is indicative of success in career and life because it’s so different.”
“Even in failure, you see what you learn, what can change, and that becomes a part of the sort of, collective intuition bank.”
Coaching Advice
To start paying better attention and noticing things, Anthony made
1) Ask fundamental questions such as, “why am I doing this right now?”
2) Do it throughout a full day to examine everything you’re doing and you may start noticing patterns and tendencies.
3) Understand that it’s a process.
Resources + Bonus Materials
Related Episodes
Achieving Total Life Integration With Joel Zaslofsky