8 Keys to Activate Your FOCUS and Unlock FLOW for Peak Performance.

Most of us live reactionary lives where time for real, meaningful, and deep work has dropped to almost zero.

Focus might just be the Meta skill of our current times. Or not even the Meta Skill anymore, but a necessary requirement, if you are to separate yourself from the distracted lives of the masses.

Fast Entertainment, distractive and Dopamine producing activities are what people want. Very few have time, Energy, or Focus to work in a Flow that is the most Fulfilling and meaningful state to be in.?

At least for me personally, the work and activities that fall into the bucket of instant gratification and entertainment make me feel empty at the end of the day.

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Short-term Happiness takes over from long-term fulfillment.?

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So, what?can?we do?

Here are Eight Keys to Focus like a Pro, starve your distractions, and feel more Fulfilled.

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Open Focus Vs. Narrow Focus

Focus is an energetically heavy activity. Our Brain uses 20% of our total energy consumption during the day (Source ). So, we need to give our Focus a brake too.

One of the better ways to do this is to isolate between periods of Narrow Focus and Open Focus.??

Narrow Focus is what most of us use when we work in front of computers.

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When our visual field is narrow our cognitive Focus follows it. Our nervous system is more alert and Focused on the task at hand.

This idea is also proven by science by the likes of Dr. Andrew Huberman from Stanford University.

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In contrast, when we open our visual field by going outside into an open space, watching a beautiful sunset, or even just looking out of the window our nervous system automatically relaxes.

This little yet highly effective switch between narrow and open Focus allows you to safeguard?cognitive energy during the day.

I would recommend doing this every 40-90 min depending on how long you can keep a narrow Focus currently.

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Bring it Back.

We ALL fall off the wagons at times and when it comes to our Focus, this is even more true.

So, it becomes increasingly important to know How To get back on track instead of trying to stay on it.

By the way, the same goes for meditation and mindfulness practice. The actual bicep curl (act) is to be able to bring our attention back when it wanders off.

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So, give yourself a break and not even try to reach a Japanese monk-level Mastery just yet, but bring your Focus back to the center line when you lose it.?

Your ability to Focus is a muscle and an internal capability that will set you apart from the entertainment-seeking crowd of many.

Internal Distraction Management

Nir Eyal , author of books like?Hooked?and?Indistractable?argues that 90% of our distractions are internal! Let that idea marinate a few moments before you continue…

We so often blame the phone, notifications, or people to steal our attention and Focus. My simple answer to that is personal Responsibility and tight internal guardrails.

If we want to get ahead in life, we must protect our attention and time to the best of our abilities. That means also being able to say No more often and yes only when absolutely needed.?

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Alex Hormozi interviewed many of the wealthiest people on the planet and found out they all share only a very few common traits. One of the three was tight?Impulse Control.?

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Managing, especially your internal Impulses and urges can and often is a lot harder than the external ones!

Master your inner game, and Focus will follow automatically after!

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Redefine Identity

To become the person who is Focused and in control.?

As for me, that is a worthy expression of who I am and/ or want to become.?

A lot of our behavior is derived from our own self-image, Identity.

What if you started seeing yourself as a person who is Focused and in Control? Paint that picture in your mind’s eye via Visualization and start acting from that new space of redefined self-image.??

But Tuomo, I am lying to myself…?

I’m not… …STOP right there!

And act as if you are.

When you change your behavior once, twice, or three times, you and your mind will start to believe that you CAN Focus and that you ARE in Control.??

This is about changing the internal software that the distracted reality and your past behavior patterns have installed in your mind.?

It has become the time for reprogramming your mind and Identity.

Start Now!

Use Triggers

Flow Follows Focus.

To Activate our Focus, we can and should also leverage certain triggers. These levers are the ones that will also get us into a Flow State.

The Optimal state of consciousness is where we feel our best and Perform at our best.

-Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

A challenge to Skill Ratio,?Direct Feedback,?and?Clear-Cut Goals?are some of the more powerful levers that we can pull from to activate our deep Focus.?

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The main idea of these Flow and Focus triggers is to bring our attention to the here and now.

Clear Focus is about being fully emerged in the Present moment.

Whichever trigger or lever you pull from, the job of it/ them is to bring your attention fully back into the present moment.?

Fully Focused = Fully Present.?

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Leverage Visual Focus

We touched up on this notion of how our cognitive focus follows our visual focus.

A quite simple idea is to keep your work desk as clean and clear as humanly possible. Especially when engaged in Focused work bouts.

If our visual field is distracted and unorganized it would be hard to think that our internal Focus would be anything different.

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Some artists and creatives will obviously disagree with this and yes there are always exceptions to the rule.

Yet for the common knowledge worker at the office or at home, this idea of clean and neat surroundings holds true 95% of the time in my experience.

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Keep your environment and workspace clear.

Practice a single Focused visual field where you might focus on the candlelight for 10min-15min and let your cognitive Focus follow your visual Focus.

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Shrink the Timeline (Parkinson’s Law)

Parkinson's Law dictates that?“A task will swell or shrink in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion “.

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For some, this might mean added stress, yet when we can manage our Stressors better, we utilize this Parkinson’s Law to our advantage to Focus.

Give a tight deadline for your next task or project. You will have to say No to many other, most probably irrelevant tasks, and so say a Big Fat Yes to a Focused Time to complete the job!

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Flick the Switch: On or Off

I made a quick 38-Second video post about this that you can watch here .

But the Basic Idea is that most Peak Performers isolate between the times of being Fully engaged in an activity and being Fully Off.

This is one of the main challenges for the current knowledge worker at the office where we are required to be constantly "On".

A state that is destructive to our long-term well-being and sustainable High Performance.

There you have it!

Which Key is your current favorite or where do you feel you need the most work on currently?

And remember,

Flow Follows Focus!

All Green Lights from Tahiti, ??

Tuomo

PS. When you are ready to take these ideas 10X deeper and more practical, Get in Contact to schedule a Call with me!