Mastering Focus and Productivity as a Digital Nomad with Coach Timo Clasen

Hey Nomads, welcome to Digital Nomad Stories, the podcast. My name is Anne Claessen and, together with my co-host, Kendra Hasse, we interview digital nomads. Why? Because we want to share stories of how they did it. We talk about remote work, online business, location independency, freelancing, travel and, of course, about the digital nomad lifestyle. Do you want to know more about us and access all previous episodes? Visit digitalnomadstories. co. Alright over to Kendra for today's interview.

Welcome to Digital Nomad Stories, the podcast. My name is Kendra and I'm your host today. Today, I'm joined by Timo Clasen and he's building his business as a focus coach for digital nomads. I'm super excited to have him here today and let's talk a little bit about focus headspace productivity. What came out, what comes out of our conversation. Welcome to be here today, Timo. How are you?

I'm fine, thanks, great to be here Looking forward to you.

Maybe we just start by the way and you're presenting yourself a little bit. What is it exactly what you're doing as a focus coach? And a little bit just, are we behind doing it for digital nomads?

Yeah, I'm glad to do so. Actually, when I start with my journey, how I became a focus coach, it mostly started doing my normal career. So I started with apprenticeship, I did my bachelor's and all this kind of stuff that many people can relate to, I guess, even if they're not digital nomads, and during that time I started to commute more and my third step in my big self-organization process was to be able to cope with the commuting and not being forced to carry all my papers and all my notes around with me all the time but instead have it on a digital place so that I only have to take my laptop. I always was kind of an analytical and very logical person, so it made sense to me to implement some systems that helped me get stuff out of my head, have everything in one place so that I don't have to think about it all the time if I have everything with me, if it's okay to leave now but if I still have to think it all over kind of an overthinker by myself as well. But from that, starting to commute from a little town where I was born and being able to adapt my systems and my self-organization and my self-management to my current lifestyle and to the new lifestyles that evolved from that. That was kind of the beginning for myself. I managed myself a bit of how to self-organize and from that due to my logistics background and my supply chain management masters now I learned a lot about processes and systems. I learned a lot about how to implement those theories for myself as well, and I was involved in the companies that I worked in, no matter if it was consulting or in the automotive industry. But it kind of enabled me to think about how to adapt these theories and these mechanisms and models so that an individual person can benefit from it as well. And over the years all these skills that I kind of researched out of self-interest became like a skill set that I now want to give to other people as a focus coach and help them to improve themselves.

That sounds like super interesting and I feel like so many listeners feel or really need more self-organization and some tips, and you were talking about so many things. I have already so many questions. The first thing you were talking about is digital organization. We don't have this paperwork anymore and that's so much needed as a digital nomad, because I always feel like I have too many journals still in my backpack and it covers so many spaces. Do you have some tips, recommendations there? How do you do your digital organization Maybe any tools you can recommend, or do you just have an Excel sheet or how do you do it?

When it comes to tools, it's written very individualistic topic in my opinion. So what I'm doing with my coaches is I'm taking a look at their current dynamics and systems and structures that they have right now and, instead of focusing on one tool that I want to implement with them, I focus on what they really need. So, for example, if you need a tool or something that you can access all over the world or wherever you are, it's probably helpful that you have a digital tool for that. But if you need a task list just for your works at your home or in your kitchen, like a grocery list that is only accessed for you in your kitchen, it's probably not that helpful to buy an iPad for that, so you can just download an app and just have it in your kitchen. So my focus always lies on the process and the needs itself from the coachee, and once we figured out what these needs are or what could benefit him or her, we can take a look at the tools. So there's plenty of tools for all the sections of self-management, whether it's ask management, north management or wiki messaging apps we all know how many apps there are. There's an app for everything nowadays, but I'm always cautious with recommendations for tools. I can talk about what I use by myself.

Yeah, that would maybe be interesting, and just to have an inspiration.

It's always a bit different for everybody, but for me it was always important to, like I mentioned already, access my lists and my notes and my knowledge from anywhere where I am right now, without needing a big computer or workspace or office, a dedicated office for it. So for me it was really important to keep everything in apps or in digital to places that are accessible for my laptop and my smartphone and that I don't need anything else for it. So I started with the big Microsoft Office Clouds or Office Workspace. Right now I'm diversifying a bit. I'm using a MacBook, which leads to a bit more flexibility for other programs as well. I'm using Notion for my note management. I'm still using Microsoft to do for my task management, but I might switch that up to Apple Reminders. So I'm also always testing a bit which app suits my current lifestyle the best? It's ever changing. So you always have to be thinking about whether or not the app still suits your needs.

Yeah, and I think that already drives in a little bit into the topic of self-organization, right? So some of these tools will help you for organizing yourself. What is exactly self-organization for you? What would it mean?

For me, one of the main topics when it comes to self-organization is being in charge. So it's not about having a nice little to-do list. Then you can draw flowers around or have a nice task and be proud of your goals or anything, but it's always like outcome focus and the outcome for me would be that you're in charge of what you want to do in life, whether it's a small task or your goals. So it's always like all these systems that I'm developing for my co-cheese and wisdom are always like heading somewhere, and that somewhere normally is them being able to decide what they want to work on in every specific moment and not being limited by not knowing what they have to work on or not knowing when the deadlines are, not knowing where some knowledge is that they wrote down earlier in their lives in the past few weeks, but they can't find it. So all these limitations that can arise when you don't have your notes structured or your tasks in mind or you have some brain fog because you're not able to transparently see what to work on, kind of the goal of the self-organization or self-organization itself means that you're able to get a hold of it and be in charge of all these thoughts and notes and tasks to execute on them if and when you want to.

Yeah, I really like it because I feel exactly this is what sometimes happens. It's like you really want to manage something or get something done, but you don't know, okay, but where to start, what is my next focus or what is my next goal. And this, I feel happens a lot also in the digital normat world, because you need so many inspiring people every day and everyone is building their own business or working for another remote company, so at least I get every day new ideas what I could do, and then I'm sometimes losing this focus of really being in charge.

Yeah, when I talk to my clients, one of the most common problem points are that they are not able to focus on the task at hand. That they kind of set, maybe a goal that they set themselves for the months but are not able to act on it because there's so many distractions, like the next best waterfall hike or some cool people that you met in the pub last night or in the cafe and that you want to connect with again. So it's pretty difficult without any deadlines. If you don't have any external deadlines by clients or by a boss, because you're your own boss, it's always hard to set priorities and to follow through on them.

And do you have like any recommendations for us, Like how could we really be like more accountable for our work and maybe set our own priorities deadlines?

Actually that's one of the most invalidistic things I know, I guess. So it's really important to get to know yourself better. So my best recommendation, if you want to be more accountable to yourself, is reflect on yourself. What motivates you? Is it other people? Is it external deadlines? Is it maybe a dream coming true, like visualizing a dream? So for everybody there's different aspects that motivate themselves. For me, born and raised as a people pleaser, it's rather like having external motivation to do something for other people, which is obviously in the long term. I should get over that, but for now I can use, at least in small doses, to motivate myself to do something. Same use for the goals. If you are really motivated by thinking about your goals, you should incorporate visualization strategies in your morning routine or in your evening rituals, which can really benefit the sticking to your goals. There's a really interesting concept called time inconsistency, which kind of describes the procrastination problem that I guess we all have, which means you make plans and goals and you are super happy and super excited about it because you're planning from the viewpoint of your future self, from your higher self. But, then, when the time comes to execute on those goals, like a few days later, a few weeks later, your brain and your mind is in the actual world, like in your present self. And your present self has to be with all these distractions, physical, like in the coffee shop, there's some nice matcha natto that you haven't tasted yet, or there's another super nice activity that you can do. But also, like in your mind, like there's so many thoughts and like your ego wants something and everything can be a bit messy. So this timing consistency causes a lot of problems because the brain, if it's in this present self, doesn't want to follow through on the goals that the future self set before.

That's like super interesting. And then what do we do when we are like, okay, we made this plan for more future self. For me, for example, this is an amazing retreat. And then I'm in this present moment as me sitting there, I want to order this matcha latte, you said, and I really need to focus and find all the distraction. What can we do then?

It's difficult, first of all because our bodies and brains now designed evolution-wise to strive for the next food or something to eat or some love. So it's always like the first step always is awareness, like attention, like self-affection. Okay, why do I want this coffee? Is it soothing me? Or is it just my ego baby that wants it? Or you don't just want the attention of another person, which can be totally fine. But once you have the, the root of the urge, you can kind of counteract it. So if it's yeah, if you act on something out of place or lack, because you want something that you don't have or you think you don't have by yourself, you can be more specific on the measurement you take against it. For example, you mentioned your retreat. So your future self relights, the vision of doing retreats for people, doing good for the world and benefiting people by bringing new insights to them. And while you're writing down these goals, maybe with a nice cacao or coffee in your living room or wherever you are in a cozy place, it all feels like it all fell into place, like it's super nice. And then next time you're not in your living room or like you didn't take time to write down goals, but you are in a hectic coffee shop or, like at a train station, you have an hour to work on something but you're either distracted by because you're a bit tired, maybe so distracted by a nice smelling coffee shop and being aware of, okay, I want the coffee shop. Well, I think I want the coffee shop now because I'm a bit tired and it's also like the easier way to get around the hard work. Being aware of that can help you to maybe come back to your visualization or to some other motivation tactic that we talked about before. Does it make sense?

Yeah, yeah it's like really being, like knowing yourself right. It's like really also yeah, the core of it that we understand ourselves better, that we are conscious and that we are going out of this outer pilot, this unconsciousness of maybe following then the ego, but that we then stop and realize what's really happening, what do I really need right now, and then keep going. So yeah, you already were talking a little bit about being at the train station where I saw some of us as digital nomads. We're, like, always changing places. Right, we don't have this one office, and you also said that you also started a little bit with commuting. Do you have that? Like any personal learnings? Experience is what really could help us to stay focused when we are always changing the environment when we are working in and when we always need to get used to being focused, concentrated at new places and not being distracted so much. Yeah, sure.

It's a super demanding task to not be distracted in new places because you bring and you know you own, take in all these new insights that are super interesting sometimes and I like to let loose sometimes as well. Just take it all in or soak it all in If you want to be focused. First of all, it is nice to understand, or it's helpful to understand, that the task is not just the task itself. You always have to plan it. You have to be aware of the certain steps that you have to do to execute the task and to mark it off or to check it off. So, for example, buying a coffee is never just buying coffee. You have to get out your wallet, you have to think about which coffee you want. Is it a matcha, is it a cappuccino, is it a flat white? Even in this simple example of buying a coffee, there's not just the physical act of buying it or saying that you want the coffee to the shop assistant. It's a lot of planning involved in even the simplest tasks and especially when you're in places like a train station or a coffee shop that are loud and you feel distracted, it's really important that you are able to determine which part of the task might be really demanding right now which tasks you could do easily. Let me rephrase it so it's like these planning tasks, like thinking about which coffee do you want, or which brainstorming should you do next, or which ideas should you execute on that can be really demanding, like creativity coming into flow, especially in loud places, can be difficult. So it's helpful to maybe think about okay, I'm going to be in a train station this afternoon, so maybe I'm doing the brainstorming tasks in the morning and since I'm in the train station, I do something easy that I don't have to think about a lot, like writing some emails, answering emails or calling a friend, chatting with people, all these kind of stuff. So if you try to determine which parts of the tasks you can do in some places and which parts are rather requiring some quietness or even maybe loudness or some creative places, so it's other way around as well, that helps not to plan a bit which task you can do in which environment.

Yeah, I get it. I think it's really important that we plan also like our to-dos, our tasks, based on the circumstances, because we already know tomorrow I will do xy, that, so maybe today I do this. I think that is also, but I feel sometimes we forget it. So I think it's a really cool learning or like a new inspiration also for us. This is nice and what I see and hearing you, it's also all about being compassionate, right with ourselves, so not being like too strict and feeling, okay, I need to be focused every day, 100%, because then we are like more stressed and there's like more the risk of not being focused. We're just having this old soul. I also wanted to ask you about your skill set, because you said, like when you started, like you built your own skill set. What really helps you. You built some. You know you now have your pool of skills you recommend to your clients. Maybe you can share with us like one of your favorite skills set that really helps you, that you discovered in your personal journey that really helped you to be focused and self-organized, or do you are, yeah, something you can give us like an example?

I think one of the most valuable skills that are developed, especially due to my studies, is the process mindset. So nearly everything in life can be seen as process or system, whether it's making coffee in your kitchen, like there's certain steps you have to execute and do to get a hot, nice black coffee that kicks your ass in the morning, or if it's just changing your wardrobe, like there's certain steps you could break it down to. And this process mindset is helped me a lot in all different circumstances in life, because it helped me to kind of break down anything that's in front of me and helped me to figure out what to do on it, like how to act on it. The process in general, like on a really high middle level, can always be described as an input. You do something with it like you add value, and then you have an output Like these. Basic structure is to be found in every process and if you think about, okay, what is my input which can be your situation or the materials that are available to you, and what's the desired outcome, that helps tremendously to think about how you get to the next level from where you are now. So this process mindset is probably the base layout of all the tools that I use, all the methods. It's always about this analytical thinking okay, where I am now and where do I want to go, same yields for goals and processes and task lists and note management. So the foundational layer, I guess, is kind of this seeing it as a process and focusing on what you can control and how to move forward.

Like this forward thinking. I think this thought, like everyone can apply this idea and we think a little bit and observe a little bit now like their daily work routine.

I would just like to point out it's always about control. I think many people are kind of scared a bit to let in too much systems of so-called structures into the lives because they think they limit them, but then it's not the right system or the right dynamic for you. So it's always about letting something into, like implementing something that helps you instead of limits you. It should suit you, it should help you be more creative or have more free time or spend more time with your family. So it's never about being amazing at plans, but rather like being able to react on anything that comes across, like being able to change your plans, being able to listen to yourselves and if you're really tired one day, even though you planned a whole lot of work, being in control and being able to say okay, today I'm not in a good mood to work, let's just rest a bit and be more productive tomorrow.

Yeah, I really feel that also makes sense and it's a nice reminder for everyone. I also remember, like in our personal conversation when we met in Colombia and then again in Germany, we were talking a little bit about making, like this, huge projects. We have break them down into small working steps. That was, for examples from you like an recommendation for me that really helped me since then. And I feel, because then it always was always like okay, now I need to do this huge project, but then when I think but then I never started because I didn't know how to start or where to start but then waking it down to the little steps, that really helped me and that works was what you just said. So if one day I cannot work like the five hours I wanted to work because something is happening or I'm tired and I need to take a break, but then at least I have this list of those little steps and then I just do like one little step instead of not doing anything. Yeah, that was also like a really nice tool, let me say you still said you want to share.

That's great to hear. Your clarity is one of the most important things when you want to formulate your tasks. Yeah, for sure.

And now we were talking a little bit about the challenges as a digital norm. We were talking about being in a coffee shop at train station, but I'm also now thinking there are also opportunities and really benefits of being a digital normat for our focused work, for our productivity, for our creativity. What do you have in mind? What really adds value to our work of being a digital normat?

I guess the freedom of being your own boss is one of the biggest ones, because you're able to set your own deadlines, work when you want to and if you feel like it. Obviously it's not just sitting in a coffee shop zipping on a cocktail at the beach, but rather like this yeah, again the control aspect. I guess. Like you're in charge, you can decide if you want to go on a waterfall hike or if you want to meet cool new people, but you can also decide to stay at home and work because you feel like it today. So I think the biggest opportunity you have is to design your life according to your needs and your wishes and desires. Nobody's stopping you from working 24 seven, but nobody's stopping you if you don't work for a week. Obviously, always keep in mind that there are clients with deadlines and stuff, but it's super flexible. You can reflect on yourself and adjust your tasks. You work on your projects to your biological schedule during the day, so you work in the morning and in the evening, and during the day you play volleyball at the beach or the other way around. Maybe you're not the morning person, so you stay up late, but you also wake up late, which is totally fine, but it's like this freedom to play with all these kinds of aspects of productivity and energy management. That is probably one of the biggest opportunities that digital know-hows have.

Yeah, I fully agree and I also feel one beauty behind it is also this daily or the steady new inspirations we might not have when we are all the time at the same environment because we meet also like new people, we get new insights. And here I feel sometimes it's like this little balance between getting overwhelmed of new ideas, of new to-dos to really make more out of this. But I really feel this is like a nice benefit we also can get from. But this is what you also just said. I feel it's a lot also about your own time management. That's probably like self-organization-wise. But do you maybe have like another learning or something you heard from clients or still there, because I sometimes hear from such to know it, one of the main challenges is balancing their day between logistics. They have to think about new meeting, new people, go to some plans but on the same time really take time to work productively. Anything like as a last recommendation you have there.

Something like don't stress yourself too much, because you will never have a balance. In other words, the balance will always be different. There will be weeks there will be a lot of client calls, a lot of work to do hopefully, because obviously you also need to get business and then there will be weeks where you don't feel that energized, feel the cleat of the bits, and that's also fun and it's, I think, one of the most important learnings I had so far and also, like the feedback of my clients showed so far, is there's ability to the ever-changing circumstances of life, like being able to react or also proactively act to design your life is the biggest skill you can have or the biggest gift you can have. And it's not about achieving a 50-50 word management and so on, a 60, 40 or whatever, but it's more about enjoying the process and give yourself the room to make mistakes and not be too keen to arrive at a certain situation.

Yeah, I love it again, this reminder of just being like compassionate with ourselves. Why, then, not feeling we need to fulfill some expectations we need to do, but really allow ourselves to be authentically? Anything you would like to add, anything, I didn't ask before we finish anything on your mind.

We could go on for hours, because that's the nice thing about task management and node management and focus and headspace. Self-organization is such a diverse topic and there's so many aspects playing into it, not just like the apps itself, which is, I guess, the first thing that many people think of when they hear task management. But it's such an individualistic topic like it's about self-inspection, and it's hard to do sometimes. I'm not a fan of giving my clients these 10 steps to bring you to the self-fulfilling system that frees all your time, because I don't think it works. So for me, task management is about gaining control. But gaining control about your time and your life is a hard process, so I don't want to spoil anybody or make wrong expectations. Build up expectations. It's a hard process but it's pretty much worth it.

And I really love your approach of being conscious with your needs, being conscious of who you are and how you can best work, and what is your personal energy management. Are you more like a morning person? Are you a better night person, afternoon person? What is it what you really need, or what really makes you yourself accountable? I really like this that everything starts with listening to us and understanding ourselves better than just putting there some tools and I don't know worksheets, but really start with your soul, Great. So if someone feels they still have, after this interview, a question to you, or if they want to contact you, what would be the best way to do so?

The best way is probably my Instagram page. It's @coaching witht imo. You will find a nice little picture with a black background of me and, as a matter of fact, actually in July and August, I'm launching a new coaching program, so I'm excited about it. Which will be? It will be super focused on the individual person. As you might have noticed, I'm super. It's super important to me to really dive into the person itself and not just give any basic recommendations for any tools or any methods that may work or may not work. So it's super focused on one-on-one coaching sessions, like probably like really deep dive into personalities, into personal issues. That most of the time, is holding us back from being more productive or more successful, more organized. Yeah, I'm super excited about it.

That's super amazing. I didn't know it. Congrats. So thanks a lot for this interview. I feel it was full of some ideas and inspirations for our listeners to rethink their daily work routine and, yeah, we're saying, to feel more fulfilled and focused when I work. Thanks a lot, timo, for your time and for all your great input.

Thank you, it was a pleasure.

And that's it for today. Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate it very, very much. I would appreciate it even more if you could leave a review on Apple Podcasts for me. That way, more people can find this podcast, more people can hear the inspiring stories that we're sharing, and the more people we can impact for the better. So, thank you so much if you are going to leave a review. I really appreciate you and I will see you in the next episode.