Episode 536: Is Social Media Ruining Your Productivity? How to Prioritize Deep Work and Minimize Distractions with Mike Cleavenger

EBT536 – Mike Cleavenger

Intro 00:00

Food bloggers. Hi, how are you today? Thank you so much for tuning in to the Eat Blog Talk podcast. This is the place for food bloggers to get information and inspiration to accelerate your blog’s growth, and ultimately help you to achieve your freedom. Whether that’s financial, personal, or professional. I’m Megan Porta. I have been a food blogger for 13 years, so I understand how isolating food blogging can be. I’m on a mission to motivate, inspire, and most importantly, let each and every food blogger, including you, know that you are heard and supported. 

Megan Porta  00:38

I loved my chat with Mike Cleavenger from The Frizzled Leak. I loved the name of his blog. First of all, it’s the coolest blog name ever. But our conversation was centered around the topic of prioritizing and knowing the importance of deep work. Deep Work is an amazing entrepreneurial book written by Cal Newport. When Mike read this book, he was really intrigued and inspired to really dig into being more productive, getting off of social media so that he could spend more time with his children sitting down to do work and actually focusing on the work so that he could put his computer down at a certain time and live life and be a healthy human being. Everything we talked about is right up my alley. So this was a really fun and valuable conversation. I think you’ll be really inspired by this and Mike brings so much value to the table. It is episode number 536 sponsored by Rank IQ.

Sponsor  01:37

Eat Blog Talk is thrilled to unveil the Eat Blog Talk Accountability group. An exclusive community made for food bloggers who crave accountability, focus and connection. We understand that not everyone is ready to dive into the Mini Minds Group or the Masterminds program. That is why we’ve crafted this special offering for bloggers like you who want that extra push toward their aspirations, but aren’t yet able to make the financial or time commitment. Here’s what the e Blog Talk Accountability Group has in store for you for this low introductory price of $34 a month. This ongoing membership has its own private Slack channel. You will gain access to a dedicated channel facilitated by the community manager at Eat Blog Talk, Taryn Soli for questions, insights, and collaboration. You will get weekly accountability check-ins so you can stay focused and motivated with those weekly check-ins in Slack to track and achieve your goals competently. You’ll have access to productivity focus sessions. Join these optional live Zoom sessions twice a week to boost your productivity by working alongside your peers and tapping into that collective energy. And you will get monthly group Zoom calls replacing the former clubhouse chats. Join these calls to connect, discuss current topics, share experiences, and celebrate achievements. Those calls will be hosted by me, Megan Porta, and I can’t wait to see some of you there. If this sounds intriguing, head over to eatblogtalk.com/focus to sign up today. Eatblogtalk.com/focus.

Megan Porta  03:08

Mike Cleavenger of the Frizzled Leek started his career after culinary school working in professional kitchens in the San Diego area. He got laid off during the Covid-19 pandemic and as a result decided to embark on a journey as a food blogger. The goal of The Frizzled Leek is to show people that cooking shouldn’t be intimidating but fun! They specialize in Sous Vide and Air Fryer recipes. Hello, Mike, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing today?

Mike Cleavenger  03:34

I’m doing great, Megan, I’m so happy to be here. I’ve been a fan of this podcast for some time now. 

Megan Porta  03:40

Yay, I’m so glad you’re here. It’s happening. You’re on the podcast. And we’re going to talk about the importance of doing deep work today. And we’ll get into what that means. First, do you have a fun practice share with us?

Mike Cleavenger  03:52

I do is kind of a silly fun fact. But when I was working at a restaurant, they gave me a nickname called mashed potato Mike. 

Megan Porta  04:01

So we had to explain why. 

Mike Cleavenger  04:04

Okay, so I’m from Ohio, the land of mashed potatoes and steaks. And I was working at a country club and they would have me make the mashed potatoes because I always made them really good. And there’s one day that it was a Sunday brunch, maybe Mother’s Day and I was walking out to drop some mashed potatoes in the chafing dishes. And this lady said to the head chef, “Sir who makes the mashed potatoes here it’s so delicious”. And so they named me Mashed Potato Mike.

Megan Porta  04:42

That is the best ever. So do you have a secret? Why are your mashed potatoes so amazing?

Mike Cleavenger  04:47

I do so I use Yukon gold potatoes because they make the like the creamiest potatoes. And another trick is when you’re you’re going to add hot milk or cream, and then cold butter. So those are my tricks. 

Megan Porta  05:04

Oh, okay. Well, you just shared all your secrets. So now we’ll I’ll be mashed potato, Megan. 

Mike Cleavenger  05:10

Okay.

Megan Porta  05:10

That’s a great story. Love it. We’re going to talk about the importance of deep work. I love this topic. It is so near and dear to my heart. And very important to discuss. But I think it would be really great to first to get a little just background on your blog, and kind of how you started anything you feel is relevant, by the way your blog name is the best ever. I love it so much. So give us a little background. 

Megan Porta  05:37

Yeah, so I started my blog, The Frizzled Leak. And by the way, leek is spelled L-E-E-K as in the vegetable, not as an a leaky faucet, and 2021 like during the whole COVID Where everybody became a food blogger. So I worked in restaurants my whole life. And then I was just waiting to go back to work. And so I was stumbling upon, you know, the infamous Pinch of Yum income report. And I was like, I could do this. I create recipes all the time. So that’s kind of how my journey started. And I was kind of looking for inspiration and what to name my blog. And I was flipping through. I think it was America’s Test Kitchen magazine. And just looking for like keywords that piqued my interest. And I saw frizzled I think it was frizzled shallots. And I thought, hmm, I used to put frizzled leeks on many different things as a garnish. I wonder if that’s available. And after a Google search it was so that’s how the Frizzle Leek came about. 

Mike Cleavenger  06:48

Love it. Such a unique name, too. It’s not like, you know, The Best Kitchen or whatever. It’s so it just really stood out to me. I love it so much. And I love leeks. I feel like it’s such an underrated vegetable, right?

Mike Cleavenger  07:02

Yes, yes.

Megan Porta  07:04

More. Okay, so you’ve been blogging since about 2021. So that’s what three ish years now?

Mike Cleavenger  07:12

Just coming up on my three year anniversary. Yeah.

Megan Porta  07:14

So how is blogging going so far? Yeah. How are you feeling about the progress you’ve made? 

Mike Cleavenger  07:19

I feel good about my progress. You know, it’s a very saturated market. And I think especially after COVID, everybody became a food blogger. So just finding your your niche is important. And, you know, we’ll talk about a little bit later, I got to audit from Casey Markee. And that really helped out a lot. So I definitely recommend, you know, bloggers getting an audit early on when they hit that, like 75 to 80 blog post mark. 

Megan Porta  07:50

And so this concept of deep work? How did you get to the point where you realized it was really important to move your blog forward? Yeah.

Mike Cleavenger  07:59

So first off, Deep Work is a book by Cal Newport, amazing, it’ll change your life. And so I read this book, I’ve never been much of a reader, but entrepreneur books, you know, interest me, so and I couldn’t put it down. So I definitely noticed, like when I would work, it was mostly like, because I’m a parent too, my two younger girls. And I would be cooking in the kitchen at night and checking my analytics on my phone, like constantly or social media. And I was like, this isn’t good. You know, I’m just constantly on social media, I need to be more of a present parents, you know. And so that’s interested me in deep work. And so deep work basically is doing hard things to increase your, your speed or your quality, without distraction and having like this intense focus, and I said, Well, I could use a little bit of that. And so that’s how my journey started with deep work.

Megan Porta  08:58

That book is so good. I haven’t read it in a few years. But I remember it being really powerful for me as well. And I love that you pulled out right away that it was tied to the time that maybe like your work in social media and other things were taking away from your children. Right? Because that’s a big, especially when they’re young. It’s such a big thing. And when you start blogging, it can be so all encompassing, that it can really take up your life if you allow it to. 

Mike Cleavenger  09:28

Absolutely. 

Megan Porta  09:29

Okay, so you started with that, just like maybe drawing some boundaries, or how did you start with it?

Mike Cleavenger  09:35

Yeah, with deep work. As I was reading through it, I was like, oh, like I can just start doing some of these principles right now. And one of the things that I did that was huge is putting my cell phone in the hallway, and if I’m working on my computer, writing a blog post is not having that distraction with notifications in my office and to really focus on writing my blog post. And I realized when I did that I cut the time in half, it took me to write a blog post. And because I would work for maybe, like 20 minutes and like, Oh, let me scroll social media a little bit. Is there something on Amazon I need to order? Let me research, How to water my garden. Yeah, I just have such a curious mind. And so when I really just focus on right now, I’m here, and I’m doing my blog post, and you get into that deep state of focus, you really can get a lot more accomplished. And that’s great for us, because then we don’t have to work 24/7, right. Like if we can get into the states of deep work as food bloggers, we can schedule our time wisely. 

Megan Porta  09:36

Yeah, this is huge for most of us, because the social media aspect alone, okay, so phone alone is big. There’s so much on your phone that can distract you. And then add social media to that. And it’s like, oh, my gosh, I could constantly be looking at information on Oh, a bird just showed up in my window. I wonder what kind of bird that is, like, go down a rabbit hole that you mentioned your garden bed, like there are so many things I think about through the day. So how do you rein it in? Because it is such a huge part of our lives. Everyone walks around with their phones in their hands all the time? How do you even start with it?

Mike Cleavenger  11:32

Yeah, so one of the things that the the author of the book says is we don’t need to do a social media detox, he calls it more of a declutter, because as bloggers, we need social media, it’s not bad. It’s just we need to learn how to control it, and not let it control us. So for me, what I have found is I use so I use Instagram, mostly. So I use Instagram for stories, or reel or a post. And then I also like, like it for a little bit of inspiration. So I only follow like 10 food bloggers, that really gives me a lot of value. So that my feed is not like overloaded. So I do that. And then I scheduled 30 minutes out of the week, and I time block it called Social Media inspiration. And then I just flip through my feed and see is it Do I have any ideas for recipes or whatever. So instead of like spending hours every day, I only spend 30 minutes a week on it. And that way, I get so much time back for other things.

Megan Porta  12:50

Yeah. And this does require structure, right. And it requires forethought, and planning and intentionality. And maybe even this is something I do when I’m having a week where I’m just struggling with this, I set timers for myself. And I have to force myself to adhere to those timers. Because it’s easy to be like, Oh, I can just do a few more minutes. So it really does require all of those things. And it’s all about boundaries as well. 

Mike Cleavenger  13:17

Absolutely. 

Megan Porta  13:17

Can be really hard because we have so much going on. Yeah, I love your thing about having just a few accounts that you follow and being really intentional, intentional about it and time blocking that on your schedule. Is there anything else you have to time block?

Mike Cleavenger  13:31

I time block every minute of my work day. So this is a concept that I recently just learned that originally, you know, you think if I time block my whole work day there, I’m not leaving any white space for for other things like you know, but what I found is if you time block every minute of your work day, and if you don’t get something done, that’s okay. Because I find that I get more done if I time block every minute of my work day than if I just kind of leave it open. So it’s normal for me to like, as my day goes on, like, Oh, I didn’t really get to this task. I can schedule that a half an hour from now or I can hit that tomorrow. So yeah.

Megan Porta  14:19

Do you think about your weeks before they begin? How do you plan? Like, let’s say you have you know, writing and video editing, like all different things to fit in, in a week. Do you how do you plan all of that?

Mike Cleavenger  14:33

That’s a great question. So on Sunday, I will time block my whole week. I’ll look I have this master list I called my brain dump. And so anytime that there’s anything in my brain, and it could be work, it could be family, it could be dentist appointment, anything just goes right on this brain dump. And then on Sunday well I’m trying to create like a to do list. I just scheduled everything into my calendar. And then to go back to your question about doing the time blocks for, for the blog posts, is I like to kind of dissect it and think, Okay, what’s everything I need to do to write blog posts, I need to do keyword research, I need to do photography to edit to do write my blog posts, you know, all of that. And so I like to batch my things. So like one day is one task, one day is another task. And that way, I can do like five blog posts at once. And I’ve found that I can be a lot more effective that way.

Megan Porta  15:43

It sounds like you and I work very much the same. It’s funny, you said you do a brain dump, I have this every week where I sit down, and I just dump everything on like, personal, I have appointments that I need to make, I have different categories that my business and I just put absolutely everything like every call, everything I want to write, everything I want to talk to my assistant about. And I have it all here. So I can just kind of start ticking away at things like I just I highlight and then cross off as I go. And it sounds like you do something very similar. 

Mike Cleavenger  16:14

Yeah. And it’s so great just to get it out of your your brain. 

Megan Porta  16:17

Because when it’s in your brain, you can forget about it. And then, you know, a few days go by and you’re like, oh, no, I didn’t get that done. So then I feel like it just disrupts anything that you have for the rest of the week. So just having it there to look at is so valuable. I wanted to ask you or touched on this a little bit more, because you mentioned the kids factor. And how that is what kind of made you aware like, Oh, I’m really detracting from time with my kids is that the thing that pulled you into doing this?

Mike Cleavenger  16:48

Yeah, so my wife works full time, in part, stay at home dad and part food blogger, and a part personal chef. So I have a lot going on. And one of the things that I noticed with just my daily routine is that, you know, when my kids were coming home from school, that’s, you know, they, they were acting out a little bit, and they just needed, they needed some time with me. And it’s so easy just to be addicted to your phone. And so, I really, I read another book called Raising Good Humans, which is amazing for a parenting book. And it really teaches you how to be present. And that was one of my big goals is like, at 3:30, 4 o’clock and shut everything down. And then my kids and my wife, they have all my attention. I don’t look at my phone, until I look at my phone, like after the girls go down to bed. But from you know, four o’clock to eight o’clock, I’m off my phone.

Megan Porta  17:58

That’s very inspiring. And something I feel like a lot of parents need to hear I see this everywhere. And I’m sure you do too, out in public, like parents with their kids everywhere stores, parks, you name it, and they’re on their phones, not to mention to their kids, and I’ve done it before too. I’m not saying that I’m exempt from this at all. But it’s just hard to see that it’s like, what are you doing? What are you even looking at? And I’ve had to ask myself that at times too. But it’s an issue for us humans.

Mike Cleavenger  18:30

And honestly, since I’ve, you know, realized this and I’ve been implementing, like just trying to control the social media, like it’s so free. And like I’ve noticed, I’m a happier person. And my kids are happier. It’s just a win win for everybody. 

Megan Porta  18:49

It is freeing. So I was talking about this on a different podcast episode very recently. Okay, this has been a process for me, Mike, I have had to spend years, literally years working through this because I’m on the same wavelength as you were, I don’t want to be addicted to my phone, I don’t want to be reliant on it. And I don’t want my kids who are teenagers to see me reliant on my phone. So I am finally at this point after probably two to three years, it’s taken that long, where I don’t need my phone anymore. I do the same thing as you I put it in a different room when I want to spend time with them. I feel like I don’t even need social media anymore. I used to love it. I used to scroll all the time. But I’ve taken things off my phone bit by bit just kind of like a weaning process almost. And I don’t need it anymore and it feels so good. It’s like the most freeing feeling in the world. It was like I was being tied down by social media and my smartphone. 

Sponsor  19:56

Hello there food bloggers let’s take a quick break from the episode. I want to talk about my favorite keyword research tool Rank IQ. It’s been my favorite tool for a couple of years now because it has increased my traffic year over year. And it continues to do so even despite the changes going on in our industry. Without RankIQ, my blog traffic would be probably in trouble right now. I was doing some perusing through my analytics recently, and I noticed that a ton of my roundup posts are currently in the spotlight. Roundup posts are something I started focusing on when I began to use Rank IQ a few years ago. At the time, I wasn’t sure how they would perform long term. Today, I’m really glad that I pursued them and gave them a chance. They have produced a lot of blog traffic from my blog over the years, go to rankiq.com. and type what to surf with in the search section of the keyword library. Sort from lowest to highest competition, and browse through the keywords that populate pulling out the ones that align with your niche and content, compile and write at least one roundup per month for the remainder of the year. And watch these posts rise to the top of your analytics. Users are always searching for ideas about what to serve alongside certain dishes and certain foods, this will not go away, head to rankiq.com to get started with your own powerful list of roundup posts today. Now back to the episode.

Mike Cleavenger  21:22

You know, it’s funny to think after reading this book, I was like, I asked my dad I was like, Do you remember what life was when we were growing up when we didn’t have it? Like, we would go to go to the park and play basketball together and, and do all these things. And it’s kind of fun to think of like, we were just fine without it so.

Megan Porta  21:41

And that tells us that we don’t need it. Now we feel like we do like if it’s in our presence, we feel like we need to grab it and scroll. Yeah, but it’s such an addiction. This is one of my soapbox things that I can go on and on about. So you triggered me in the best way today. How do we put up more protection against social media? You mentioned? Just being intentional to start your day and your week with times. Is there any other way that you recommend not being obsessed with social media?

Mike Cleavenger  22:15

Yeah, that’s a great question. There’s a couple of different things you can do. Like you can go through a kind of like a Declutter. So you can for like 30 days, remove all social media, from your phone. And then after the 30 days, you can introduce it back with strict rules. So with the problem with doing the detox is like a lot of times people will not use social media for like 30 days, and then when they start back, the right back where they started. And so with a declutter, it’s like, Okay, let me introduce these, like, do you think like, Okay, what social media do I like to use? And for me, it’s like, well, Instagram for certain reasons. And I love YouTube, because a researcher, you know, my wife will watch TV, I’ll watch you too, because I’m researching something. And then say, as you introduce them, I’m going to use Instagram for this purpose. And I feel that once you reintroduce it with rules, that it’s easy to stick to.

Megan Porta  23:23

Yeah. Right. And like your role about, I’m going to look at these bloggers, just for inspiration purposes, something like that. 

Mike Cleavenger  23:32

Yeah. Yeah, definitely. 

Megan Porta  23:34

Yeah, we do have to put rules in our life in our lives, because we have so much going on. And it really does help with stuff like this. So I love that suggestion. Do you track your progress over time, with this sort of work? 

Mike Cleavenger  23:49

I do. 

Megan Porta  23:49

I’d love to hear about though.

Mike Cleavenger  23:51

So I have, it’s kind of like a productivity scorecard in my office. And it’s basically just a simple spreadsheet I created for myself, and I have like, Monday through Friday, and then I have like, the 52 weeks out of the year. And if I say my deep work session is four hours, I’ll put like four little tally marks on today. And then at the end of the week, I can kind of tally them together to see like, oh, I had this many deep work hours. And the cool thing with that is, I already know, for me to write a blog post takes me about four hours from start to finish. And so if I see that I had like 25 deep work hours that week, it can kind of let me know I’m capable of this much work. So and it’s also really cool to see like over time, like all these marks up here, like gives you motivation to keep on going. There was a story of Jerry Seinfeld, the comedian, and he there was a comedian that asked him Like, so how do you like how do you how are you so funny? And he said, Well, I tell good jokes. And and that didn’t really help the guy that was asking the question and and he said, Can you clarify? And you know, Jerry Seinfeld said, I keep a calendar. And every day that I do some writing, I put a red X through that day. And then what keeps me going and seeing all those red x’s on the calendar. So I think there is some science to seeing your productivity. And seeing that you show up every day to keep you going. 

Megan Porta  25:35

Yes, I love that. And also, if you’re motivated by self rewards, I am hugely remote motivated by like getting out of the house going to get a pedicure or going to just eat lunch somewhere alone. That motivates me. So if that motivates you, as well, you could do something like that, like if you have so many days or so many hours of productivity, reward yourself go celebrate, right?

Mike Cleavenger  26:00

Yeah. And, you know, my wife’s really big on that. I have a couple guy friends in the neighborhood, and we all go golfing. And she said, You really need to go like golfing at least like once or twice a month with your friends. And I think that’s so important. Because when I first started blogging, I was, I felt like I can’t do anything I need to be here I need to be, and you just get burnout. That way, you need things to like, bring you joy outside of blogging. 

Megan Porta  26:28

Gosh, this is such a huge message right here. I just even felt this yesterday. It’s been really nice here in Minnesota strangely. And I forced myself to go take a walk. So I didn’t have an option. I left my phone at home, it was just me in the road and my shoes. And it felt so good. And I couldn’t have felt that at home because I had so much to do. Does that make sense? So it was like you sometimes Yeah, to make yourself separate from your work and get the heck out of the environment you’re in and just live life.

Mike Cleavenger  26:59

Yeah. And there’s something it’s called, like a productive meditation too. And I’ve been, I’ve been doing this. And it’s been huge for me, where there’s something about just being in nature. And so I’ll go on these nature walks every day. It’s kind of like a meditation to me. And I’ll think about my blog post, and like how I want to write it, so I’ll kind of write it in my head. And it takes a little while to practice. But I know is like, you know, you write your blog posts, you do the teaser text at the top and the first introduction. So I’ll kind of like write that in my head. So when I come down to work, I’ll already kind of have a direction of where I want to go to,

Megan Porta  27:43

it’s interesting, I do something similar, not when I’m outside. But when I’m kind of falling into sleep, I’ll introduce something to my subconscious, like, I’d really like to write this episode in my head before I sit down at my desk tomorrow. And I do I wake up with an outline, I have a solid base for it. It’s amazing what you can accomplish. If you just have the intentionality before you walk, or whatever you’re doing. But your subconscious is there to help you and will help you you just need to ask for that guidance. I think this is so awesome. I love all of this. And I know you feel like getting an audit early on, I think you said like around the 80 recipe or at blog post mark is a good place to start. Do you want to talk more about that? 

Mike Cleavenger  28:28

Yeah. So I mean, I knew Casey was the guy to go to in our industry. And I reached out to him. And he, he’s so helpful. And that’s the best thing about getting an audit from Casey is like, even after you pay him and you do the audit, you can he encourages you to email him and ask him questions. So it’s like you get this resource for ever. And so I know I was listening to another podcast somewhere else. And it was talking about this, this blog, or she was blogging for like 10 years, and her traffic was still really low. And I was like, oh my goodness, I could be doing this for 10 years and like, not even be on MediaVine yet. And so that was really scary to me. And then she was saying that she got an audit from Casey and then she like, within six months qualified for media vine. And I was like, Wow, that’s pretty powerful. So I reached out to him. And he he helped me with a lot of just technical issues that I didn’t know about. And then he gives you like this really awesome to do list. And I listened to tons of podcasts. I listen to YouTube videos about SEO. But still there’s just a lot of things that we just don’t know that he does. So he was also telling me that the rate of food bloggers now there we’re getting an audit done early like within, people are becoming a food blogger, they’re getting an audit from him. And they’re qualifying to media vine in the like under two years, which is like a record pace. So I think if you’re really serious about turning your food blog into a business, it’s just something you need to do. 

Megan Porta  30:19

Yeah, like you said, there are things that are going on that you might not have any idea about, that you just would never know, unless somebody with that expertise came in and looked at your site. Right? Yeah. And then let’s talk a little bit before we say goodbye, just about, like, kind of protecting your work times. So not necessarily social media and different pieces of your business. But just your time, in general, how do you do that? 

Mike Cleavenger  30:46

Yeah, this is all like individual to to you for like, for me, it’s, I know that my kids are in school Monday through Friday, you know, from like, eight until 2:30. And then when they are in like an after school program. So I know, like I have this time to work. But like some things that I do is like block scheduling really helps me, you know, I block out the time that I need to work. And I also like, have a ritual, like when I get into like my deep work sessions, like I know, on my desk, I have to have my cell phone in the other room, I work in 90 minute blocks, because your brain really is mush after 90 minutes. And then I also know I need to keep my desk clean, because I hate clutter. So these are all things that helped me get into deep work. That’s kind of like my ritual. But I don’t have my email tab opened up, where people can get a hold of me, if someone wants to get a hold of me, they can call me on the phone, if it’s an emergency, trying to make yourself I think making yourself disappear is a good thing. Like, you need to be focused for that deep work session, if you want to reach your goals. And I’ve realized by creating those fences, I’ve been able to accomplish so much more by doing that. 

Megan Porta  32:16

And that is a learning process, right? There’s a learning curve with that it’s not like you automatically know you have to sit down and put your phone in another room for you. It’s going to be for everyone, it’s going to be different. And it’s something that you learn bit by bit and over time, like in six months, you’re going to be way improved. If you just pay attention to what those things are, maybe someone else wouldn’t necessarily need to remove clutter for you. You need to remove the clutter and your phone. Maybe for someone else. It’s like adding a plant helps you get more creative or whatever, like it’s going to be unique to everyone is my point. 

Mike Cleavenger  32:51

Absolutely. 

Megan Porta  32:52

This was such a fun conversation. Is there anything we’ve missed Mike that you want to touch on before we start saying goodbye.

Mike Cleavenger  32:57

I guess the only other thing I would add is having a shutdown routine. So it’s basically saying that you’re going to shut down at this time. And the reason why a shutdown routine is so important is because we need to recharge our batteries as creators. And I know if I work all the way up until 10 o’clock at night, the next day, I’m exhausted. So having that time to recharge your batteries is so important. And I’ll also take the last 15 minutes of my shutdown routine to kind of plan out my day for tomorrow. So as I’m walking into that day, there’s a lot of clarity of what I’m going to do. And then also having a mantra that I say to myself as a shut down like it could be shut down complete or a good job today with a pat on the shoulder. And then that kind of tells you that you’re done for today.

Megan Porta  33:55

Yeah, that’s he mentioned that in the book. Doesn’t he like having some sort of thing that you say, to make it official just putting it out there like I am done? Work is done shutting down computer, whatever it is? Yeah, that’s a good suggestion, too. I was going to ask you something as you were talking about maybe the Okay, so you mentioned before you shut down you do 15 minutes of thinking about the next day. Is there ever. Are there ever times when you are tempted to go back into work after you’re shut down time? Are you pretty good about just being done? Like tomorrow?

Mike Cleavenger  34:29

There are times yeah, there’s times and then there’s times that I fail. And I think that’s important and it’s okay, you know, because there’s some times there is a deadline that you need to get something done, you know, but on the average I tried to really stop working at a certain time especially if I’m going to do, I don’t know how everybody else feels, but photography takes a lot out of me. And because I need to be creative and I need to like, how am I going to plate this and in so if, if I’m kind of burnt out going into that day, I’m going to cut corners and my photos aren’t going to be as beautiful so.

Megan Porta  35:14

Do you do you’re like thinking about the next day every day? Are there days when you don’t do it and and your day is messed up because of it? 

Mike Cleavenger  35:23

Since I on sat on Sunday, I plan out my whole week. So if I don’t do it, I kind of have a back hole back since I’ve I have planned it out. But you know, there are I do like, I’m a big fan of not just like following what I set out to do. So like I try not to waste my brainpower on like coming up. What should I do right now? Like, I just finished doing this task. What’s my next task? I like just following the instruction that I set out for myself.

Megan Porta  35:56

Which means you have to have instructions if you want to follow instructions. Yeah. Yeah, this is so great. Thank you so much, Mike. This was a very fun conversation right up my alley. I love talking about this. And it was a pleasure having you here today.

Mike Cleavenger  36:09

Thank you so much.

Megan Porta  36:10

Yeah. Do you have a favorite quote or words of inspiration to leave us with?

Mike Cleavenger  36:13

I do. It’s from, Winifred Gallagher it says, Who you are, what you think, feel and do what you love is the sum of what you focus on. 

Megan Porta  36:24

Oh, that’s really good. I’ve never heard that one before. I’d love that. So good. Great way to end this. We’ll put together a show notes page for you if you want to go look at those had to eatblogtalk.com/thefrizzledleek and remember that’s L-E – E- K. Tell everyone where they can find you, Mike?

Mike Cleavenger  36:42

Yeah, I’m on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn @thefrizzkedleek.

Megan Porta  36:48

Everyone go check out Mike’s platforms and check out his awesome blog. Thanks again, Mike for being here. And thank you for listening food bloggers. I will see you next time. 

Outro  37:00

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Eat Blog Talk. Please share this episode with a friend who would benefit from tuning in. I will see you next time.