We all have a constant flow of thoughts and ideas grabbing our attention that makes us jump from one thing to another. From the moment that you wake up your mind is working through what you're going to get done today, what you're going to eat right now, what are you planning for in the future. All these things are important for us to get the necessities taken care of, but they all do not require our attention right now.
If you have all these things going on at one time, it's just going to exhaust you mentally and it's going to affect you physically. When you're mentally tired it leads to mistakes that cause further delays. Anger or discouragement or both might set in, this makes you want to give up. This can increase the chance of affecting your overall health.
The challenge is the idea that has been cemented in our thinking that we must be productive all the time or at least most of it. That the more productive you are the more important you are because of the amount of what you are delivering. There seems to be some misconceptions that more time put into something means greater results. More hours do not equal more results. Maybe some of this comes from trying to impress others to show dedication or fear of being punished.
Each generation before has worked more hours than the next generation because much of what was done took long manual work. Innovation is what drives change as it has the potential to make things more efficient. From 1776-1809 the work week was about 82 hours. During the industrial revolution the average work week was 68. In the 1840’s it dropped down to 60 hours a week. In the 1920s it drops to 50 hours a week and then in the 1940’s it drops to 40 hours a week. The changes that occur are because we have become more efficient.
Less time, more focus
There is only so much that you can do in a day so you might as well intently focus on a few things that you can do exceptionally well. Focus is your superpower when you can properly harness it. Research has shown that employees are productive for about 2 hours and 53 minutes a day and spend 4 hours and 12 minutes working. This indicates that total time worked yet not producing is about 57%. This time is used to build up to being productive. Some might view it as time is being wasted but we all have our peaks and valleys when we are most effective and most ineffective.
This information is empowering if you use it to your advantage by focusing on the quality of your focus instead of sheer numbers. You could focus intensely for a total of 2 hours and 53 minutes and get better results than trying it for 7 hours. But focusing straight for 2 hours and 53 minutes will not be as effective as if you broke it into parts. It is estimated that people can focus well between 10 and 52 minutes. Anything longer than that performance drops significantly. Incorporate breaks and try different intervals when focusing. If working at 52-minute intervals to be at your peak, that will 3 breaks in between.
A 17-minute break is an ideal amount of time to disengage and feel refreshed. This helps to avoid sloppy mistakes. Anything longer than 17-minute breaks and it throws off the rhythm that you built up. More time is needed to find where you last left off on. Make sure to get away from your work as you take the break because if not it reduces feeling refreshed.
If you were to incorporate this type of schedule it would take 3 hours and 44 minutes to be effective. This shows that we do not need to feel guilty for less time worked but more time on the quality of work and that comes from the ability to focus properly. Throw out the need to feel or look busy because it is just a mental obstacle limiting the power of focus and instead be purposeful in how you will use your focus.
Focus is limited, use it wisely
Focus is a limited resource that should be managed wisely so the next time your attention is being pulled in different directions, ask yourself if your focus is helping you or hurting you. Like managing your money where we all have a limited amount, ideally you should spend it on things that will better you such as improving your health, building wealth, gaining more information that empowers you, and obviously leave room to enjoy it.
But if you impulsively spend it, you’ll have a lot of things that deplete your assets. You might look back and think what have I done with all my money, where did it go. Your focus should be the same way, how do I want to spend it or use it. Will it be used on worrying and getting all worked up over things or will it be used to do something about it.
When you’re about to get dialed in, work to reduce the potential distractions that you spend more time maximizing your effort. Other distracting thoughts will still be present, so you already have enough grabbing your attention. Work to minimize what else can get in the way. Go to a quiet place or somewhere there is less foot traffic. If you’re going to work on a school or work project close the windows and doors, that way you physically make things private, and this blocks out more potential distractions.
Put your phone on silent and leave it out of your sight that you have less to look at. It still might be tempting to look at it, but at least you put an obstacle in the way that can deter you from going to it. By being proactive and reducing potential distractions you increase your productivity. It can take as much 23 as minutes to refocus on a task when something distracts you such as someone stopping by to talk, music playing, the tv on or your phone ringing. In the work environment, interruptions occur 50-60 times a day that cuts into about 2 hours of productivity.
Know what exactly to focus on
A key component to harness your focus is to know what your intent is, and it is more than vaguely knowing but specifically having certain actions of what you will do and why. So instead of saying I will study for an exam or prepare for the upcoming speech, take it a step further and say I will study a specific part of what will be on the exam where I need improvement in, or I will make sure that what I say is clear and effective to keep the audience interested.
Better knowing what is you’re working towards helps you move with a greater purpose. It’s not the lack of time but the lack of direction where many of us get lost in. When you know where you're going, you're likely to get there much faster than when you don't because much of the time you'll be wondering where you're headed. This is going to help you weed out what needs to have your attention and what needs to be removed.
And once you know your intentions, commit to them by saying them out loud and writing them down. The more you repeat it the better chance it has of sticking. Have a priority list where you write down what you will get done. This forces you to see what you are thinking and have a better chance of getting it done as opposed to having it mentally stored where it can slip your mind.
You’re 20% more likely to get things done when you write it down. Make sure that quality things are written done with a max of 4 things daily, the less things you have to focus on the more energy you can put towards doing it well. This is largely what Steve Jobs did with Apple and Pixar where they would focus a year or more on one project whether it was the ipod, iphone or great movies.
Step away to focus
In those times that you find yourself having a difficult time focusing intently, find an outlet to manage it. Even when you have all the intent of what you will work on or get done, worry or excitement gets in the way. A great way to clear your mind is by mediating and focusing on one singular thing. Maybe you focus on slowing down your breathing as it can help slow down your mind. It helps to reset and put away some of those things that take away your attention from what needs to get done.
Or maybe you write out the things on your mind to reflect on what is bothering you. This can lead to finding a solution to put it to rest or you’ll find out that what you were worrying about was not a big deal. While it’s important to have a routine to get things done, sometimes you might have to mix it up to be effective.
So if you normally wake up and get right to focusing on what needs to get done and you’re having a hard time getting into the grove of what you’re used to because things are weighing you down mentally, do something else that is relaxing. You might feel guilty or like you are behind schedule but look at it as preventative care.
Things like your health need to be taken care of when there are signs of an issue, and this works the same way. The longer that you put off preventative care for a later time the greater the potential problem will be. Look at the time off from your routine when you are in a rut in the same way, you are doing things now to get back on track.
Productivity will be uneven at different times; unforeseen things will pop up and they need to be handled accordingly. Some days are going to be more productive than others and some days there will be no productivity. Just work to get your mind refreshed and ready to go.
Simplify
Another thing to incorporate is simplicity. The better you can simplify things the better your focus will be. Get in the habit of breaking things apart to make them more manageable. This is especially helpful when you are taking on a large amount of work because instead of your mind trying to grasp all the things involved that causes your attention to be pulled in different directions, you’ll be able to digest things in small pieces.
Just like when we eat, we may not realize that on average a person will eat about 3-5 lbs. of food daily, but it is not noticed because we take each meal one at a time, one bite at a time. Have that same type of outlook where you take things one step at a time and that results in thousands of steps per day. Based on what research you look at, the average number of steps taken is a little over 5,000, which seems like a lot. These steps help us get to where we need to be to get things accomplished. We walk to the kitchen to get something to eat, we walk to the car or to work, to school to make a living and learn. We walk wherever we need to, and the individual steps are not thought of much.
As you focus make sure to do the simple things well. Just because it is simple does not guarantee it will be automatic that things will go smoothly. If you look at the standards of hospitals, they do simple things well like washing and sanitizing their hands frequently to reduce the spread of germs that could contaminate people who may be at higher risk of getting sick.
While it seems straightforward to wash your hands, doing it properly can be the difference in keeping others and yourself safe. Not using enough soap or water, or not thoroughly getting in your nails or touching the facet, the door handle or other common things people touch jeopardizes keeping harmful bacteria at bay. When you can focus on doing the simple extremely well, the more that you do it the better the results will be.
Too often focus gets overlooked because we're seeing things that appear complicated and we're trying to get as much as we can done in a short amount of time. In trying to get all this done we tend to hurry up that potentially can compromise the quality of what's being done. Why am I going to work, why am I going to study, why am I going to work out if I'm not doing it well. It's almost like it's wasted effort.
And then we might think that we put in all this great amount of energy towards what we're doing, and we become disappointed if we're not getting the results that we were expecting. How well something is done is largely dependent on the quality of focus. In everything that you do make sure to emphasize the quality of your focus. Know what exactly it is that you're striving to do. That daily work that you do are those daily deposits that you make that add up over time.
Final thoughts
Ultimately what harnessing your focus does is makes up for talent or skill that may be lacking. It makes your effort more powerful and helps you execute with great decision making. Hard work is a part of accomplishing great things but once you know where to put the energy to you become more efficient that gets you there quicker. It can be extremely frustrating to work hard in the wrong direction because it can mean that time was not utilized well. If that does happen make sure to find out what direction to take to get on the right course.
What makes you get to new heights is being able to do all the little things consistently well. It’s being able to find out what needs to be done better and with this consistency it closes the gap from where you’re currently at to where you want to be. Talent and skill can only get you so far and the more intense your focus is on the right things the more you can accomplish. It makes sure all the mundane things are taken care of so great things can happen. This helps you will your way into producing results.
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