A short Heroic+1 video by Brian Johnson where he reflects on deliberate parenting choices—especially limiting his young son Emerson’s screen time—and describes a tiny daily ritual (swapping his Oura ring charger for Emerson’s) framed as a micro-act of love that creates a brief, meaningful connection each morning.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic plus one. In our last plus one, we had a quick chat about how we're using Emerson's new Oura ring to make the connection between the behaviors we engage in and the downstream quantifiable data we get reflecting the consequences of those decisions. More specifically, we chatted about our late night trip to a basketball game and the subsequent diminution in deep sleep and all that go bulls. Today I want to chat about a super simple little thing I do every morning as a tiny little act of love. Quick Context Emerson doesn't have a smartphone yet and won't for the foreseeable future. Radically limiting his screen time has been a very deliberate parenting choice Alexander and I made when he and Eleanor were born. We believe that our kids ability to, as the scientists say, shine the spotlight of their attention where they want, when they want, for how long they want is one of the most important skills they will ever have. And we believe that excessive screen time diminishes that capacity. Therefore, we've deliberately, radically limited their screen time. Emerson now spends a lot of time using his computer to study and play chess online, but that and some occasional Ninjago and Wild Kratz cartoons he watches with Eleanor is about all he uses a screen for now. I believe this is strongly correlated to his current proficiency in chess. So we set up his Oura ring to sync with my Bat phone, a little iPhone I use when I'm with the kids. Only Alexandra has that number and with my bat phone I can stay connected with her while leaving my work phone at home to be more present with the kids. Note to self, remember to leave the work phone at home more often when with the kids. So every morning since he got his Oura ring, Emerson comes into my office and we have a few minutes of awesome connection as we sync his data and chat about the details of what we're seeing. It's been an incredibly fun way to create a micro moment of awesome while chatting about the data and seeing what we can learn as we 1, 2, 3 it making little distinctions that can help us optimize, etc. But that's not quite the point of today's 1. This is I plug my Oura ring charger sync thing into a charger outlet thing on the side of my desk. There are two charger port things. I use one of them for my Suunto watch which I charge every morning while I meditate, and the other for my Oura ring. Now when I'm done syncing my Oura scores I unplug my charger and plug his charger in. It's the tiniest little thing, but I've started using it as a deliberate t tiny little act of love. As I spend the 15 seconds it takes to unplug my charger sync thing and plug in his so he doesn't have to, I think about my fast growing special little boy coming into my office and having a great little interaction. It makes me smile every time I do it and gives me goosebumps right now as I typed that. And again, it's such a tiny little thing, but it's also such a powerful little thing for me. And that's our plus one. What tiny little things can you do as a microactive love for your loved ones today? Get on that and make today another great day. Plus one love plus one love plus one love.
