Day 19:         Stop Chasing Rabbits.  Focus Is Key.

 

    You have to concentrate on one thing at a time, even if it is only for an hour or half an hour at a time.  Women are famous for multi-tasking and we are good at it.  But when you are multi-tasking, you are not giving any one thing your full attention.  And that means that none of your activities are being done to your best abilities.  Multi-task the unimportant stuff.  But when it comes down to what you want to do with your life, how you want to live, who you are giving your attention to, you need to concentrate and give it 100%.  Get one thing in your life working well and automatically.  Then move on to the next.  Then the next.  The reason that we spent a week setting up systems was to free you up to concentrate on the important stuff.

    I have learned that if you want to be successful, you should do what successful people do.  And successful people prioritize projects, budget the time they will spend on each task and then focus completely on that task for the allotted amount of time.  My friend, Dave Lakhani, wrote a book called The Power of an Hour.  It is a book for mastering business, but the techniques on focusing that  he teaches in the book can work for anything.   Dave is meticulous about researching how the mind works and he has discovered that people can work on a task for about 45 – 50 minutes before their effectiveness starts to drop.  So he recommends working for about 45 minutes, then taking a 15 minute break to check your email, go to the bathroom, take a brisk walk.  Then sit yourself down to work again.  You will be refreshed and ready to work.

    We live in a moment-to-moment society.  Everyone claims to have attention deficit disorder.  The truth is American culture has been re-set in short spurts rather than long runs.  Books have fewer pages, movies have shorter running times.  Editing cuts in movies, TV shows and commercials are faster.  Remember when microwaves first came out and we could cook an entire meal in five minutes?  That was FAST!  Now we push the 30 second button on the microwave and we stand over it saying, “COME ON!!  This thing is so SLOW!”  When did 30 seconds become forever? 

    We have been indoctrinated into a short-term mentality.  But you can re-set your clock with a little effort.  I know.  I have done it.

    Pick a project to work on.  Sit yourself down in your office or whatever space you have set aside to work and close the door so you are not interrupted.  Start working on your project and see if you can work on it without getting off track for forty-five minutes.  If an idea comes to you or you think of something you have to do, write it down on a scratch pad and keep on working.  99% of the stuff that occurs to you can wait 45 minutes.

    How soon into that 45 minutes do you find yourself getting antsy?  All of a sudden you are hungry or you have to go to the bathroom or you need a glass of water.  You thought of additional research you needed to do, need to check your email or decided you needed to call a meeting and get other people’s feedback.  (All of a sudden you are understanding your four year old a little better, aren’t you?) 

    Maybe you only made it ten minutes; maybe you made it thirty.  Maybe you made it the whole 45.  Stand up, stretch, take fifteen minutes off, then sit your butt down again and re-focus.  Remind yourself that you are an adult with work to do, not a four year old.  It takes 21 days to form a new habit.  Keep doing the 45 minutes on, 15 minutes off.  You will find that each day it gets a little easier to do the entire time.  Your mind will wander less.  And you will become more productive.  What would it be like to complete eight hours worth of work in six?  What would you do with the extra time?  Here’s a hint:  Use that time to work on your long term goals and dreams.