Guest post – Jason Thompson: Distract Yourself With Inspiration

Today’s guest post is from a very good friend of mine – Jason Thompson. I first met Jason shortly after I moved to Los Angeles and it’s safe to say we were fast friends. Jason and I ran the Los Angeles Domain Investors Meetup Group together for years and have had more amazing adventures together in LA than I can keep track of.

Jason is one of the most kind and thoughtful people I’ve had the good fortune to meet in this life. I really enjoyed this post and think it’s a great way for everyone to end their week with!

As I write this blog entry for MorganLinton.com, I am actively distracting myself with inspiration. The distraction that I am actively partaking in is allowing me to look at this blank canvas and fill it with words, without necessarily understanding what the next sentence is going to be.

For me, this is what would be deemed as a creative safespace and it isn’t always easy to get to this point. For a great deal of us, this past year and a half has been filled with obstacles, some of which directly or indirectly stagnate the creative brainstorming process.

When Morgan reached out to me to write a guest post on his blog I felt it was important to choose a topic that tackled an issue that a lot of his readers could potentially relate to. Many of you are Internet entrepreneurs, regardless if you have a domain portfolio consisting of 10 domains or if you have built a decent business utilizing strategic domain investments, something inspired you along that journey.

Whatever it might be, something served as a point of inspiration for you and chances are it helped you paint that vision for yourself. Here are two tools I tend to use when my creative visions becomes a little distorted:

  1. Noise Cancelling Headphones – I can’t begin to explain how important noise cancellation is especially when working from home. I’ve had the opportunity to work from home since 2016. In those five years I have relied heavily on two pairs of headphones which have enabled me to maintain the proper focus needed to actively tackle the goals that I have set for myself.
    1. Sony WH-1000XM3 Wireless Noise-Canceling Headphones – These are the headphones I tend to use when I want to drown out background noise and focus on tasks that don’t require me to communicate with others. I am literally wearing these headphones right now to maintain my focus on writing this entry.

Please note, that although these headphones come equipped with a built-in microphone they aren’t necessarily video conferencing friendly. Although they cancel background noise effectively, the mic tends to pick up on everything around it causing others in that virtual meeting to hear things that could distract from the meeting itself.

  1. Plantronics Voyager 8200 UC – I utilize these headphones for all of my work calls and video conferencing meetings. Unlike the Sony headphones above, these do an amazing job of shielding background noise for both you and virtual meeting participants. I have owned this pair of headphones for 3 years and although they look a little rugged from use they perform as well as they did when I first purchased them.
  1. Ambient Writing Music – Inspiration is right around the corner and that is exactly why I use ambient writing music to help me stay creative. You can find a wide range of ambient music just about anywhere. The album I am currently listening to on repeat is the following: “Wordless Writing Jazz”

    This is one of my main ways to distract myself into focusing. Each track is short but the repetitiveness really does put my mind at ease to zone in and get the job done. 

If you are having trouble focusing these days, invest in a pair of noise-cancelling headphones and find a few ambient tracks to help inspire those moments of creativity that we all yearn for!

To follow what Jason is up to these days, feel free to follow him on Twitter @jasondotcity and make sure to visit his blog at Jason.city.

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton