OWN Your Morning and MASTER Your Focus
Matt Rosenthal
CEO of Mindcore Technologies | Cybersecurity Expert | Advancing Digital Security for Businesses
December 3, 2019
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In today’s Zombie-like society where most people choose to waste hours mindlessly scrolling, there is tremendous opportunity for those who can stay focused.
Use the information I’ve shared below to join the 5% of high achievers who are hyper-focused on their work.
In this article, I run through the importance of owning your morning, how to create meaningful goals, how to consistently move the needle forward toward your goals, and how to avoid distraction.
I’m sharing what I’ve implemented in the hopes that you can create the focus and energy to optimize your life and experience the success you dream of.
Own your morning
Creating a morning ritual takes significant discipline, courage, and commitment. To be completely honest, it is NOT easy.
The good news?
In not too long (approx. 66 days) you will create a new rhythm and a new way of living that feels natural to you.
Additionally, you’ll notice that the quality of your day, your relationships, your productivity, and your ability to think clearly will all improve trifold.
If you want to be a highly productive person, then creating a morning ritual is a must.
I recommend the 20/20/20 formula:
No phones, no email, just 60 minutes to start your day as a high achiever. If you want to learn more check out the book, The 5am Club by Robin Sharma.
When you own the morning, it turns every day into a win. Even if it’s just one win first thing in the morning, that’s one win more than if you mindlessly awoke with no intention for your day.
If you crave the ability to move the needle forward every day, it’s important to understand that what you do when you first wake up will define the outcome of your day.
Set daily goals
Creating clear intentions every day will bring valuable action into each minute of your day.
If you aren’t setting daily goals, how can you stay focused on the outcome you desire?
When you look at your goals every day, you're telling your mind to focus on moving toward your desires. This is how the mind stays alert for opportunities that bring you closer to your goal.
When setting daily goals, it's important to make sure you're including high-impact daily goals.
If your goal is to post on Instagram, I invite you to consider what that's really getting you.
Is that post truly moving your business forward? Unless you're selling directly on Instagram with high conversion rates, an Instagram post is an example of something people falsely include as their high-impact goals. It's important to post, but is it really moving the needle forward in your business?
If the answer is no, then it's not a high-impact goal.
The key to creating high-impact daily goals is strategically aligning them with your long-term goals.
An invaluable skill I’ve picked up is the ability to do just that. I call it reverse engineering goals.
A simplified explanation of this is to create goals by first starting with your high-level goals for the year.
Then, reverse engineer them into quarterly, monthly, weekly, and finally, daily action items.
Additionally, I always have my high-level goals outlined. They might change from time to time, but I always have a clear picture of what I’m working toward so I can better prioritize my actions each day.
Another important note is to make sure the goals you create are achievable from where you are now.
For example, if you create a goal to be in the Forbes 30 under 30 list, but you’re turning 31 next month and aren’t near that achievement, then that goal isn’t in the sphere of reality you’re in.
If you create goals that are out of reach, you’ll get accustomed to not hitting your goals.
It’s important to create goals that cause you to reach outside of your comfort zone yet are within the framework of what is possible from where you are now.
If clear goals are not set daily, your brain will waste time focusing on random things that pop into your day. You’ll fall victim to focusing on what others intend for you, rather than owning your day and choosing to focus on the things that move you closer to your goals.
If you do not align your short-term goals with your long term goals, then you might not achieve your long-term goals at all.
So, reverse engineer goals and make sure you're setting high-impact daily goals that move the needle toward your desires.
MIT framework
The framework of your day will make or break your ability to achieve long-term success.
If you plan too much in one day, it’s just as self-destructive as allowing your phone to distract you all day.
The secret sauce is to plan a day that allows room for life to happen.
To act as a high-achieving performer who constantly pushes the needle forward every day, I suggest creating one block of time each day to work on your most important items (MITs).
When creating your weekly plan, ask yourself, what are the MIT’s that MUST get done today to move the needle further?
In sales, a popular sentence is “work on what’s closest to the dollar”. It’s a similar mindset with your MITs. Work on what will move you closer to your end-goal.
Have you created MITs before?
If not, a simple way of creating your MITs is to use the reverse engineering tactic I shared with you in the last section.
The key differentiator between your daily goals and your MITs is that your MITs must be a shortlist.
They’re one to three action items that you must get done to move the needle forward.
I love my MIT lists. They hold me accountable to my goals.
At the end of each week, I look back on how I did on my MITs. Even if I only complete one MIT a day, I can look back and see how I’ve moved five steps closer to my goals.
My MIT list also brings awareness to what's distracting me.
For example, If I look back at my week, and notice that I’m consistently not getting three of the most important things done, then there must be something significant distracting me. I then embark on optimizing that distraction so it doesn’t continue blocking me.
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What is one thing you can remove right now so you can re-focus on achieving your MITs each day?
Are you ready to work toward your goals within a structured system, like using the MIT framework?
If you don’t have a process/system that keeps you consistent, then you will not achieve your goals. Things will fall through the cracks, and life will distract you.
Take immediate action
I can’t stress how important it is to document ideas, goals, and action items.
Ideas without action are just daydreams.
Taking the immediate action of documenting ideas is a step toward bringing your daydreams to reality.
The process that works for me is to email myself any important ideas that come up.
Then, I create an event on my calendar which turns the thought into a scheduled task. The task may be to map out the idea or to do some research on it. This way, regardless of how large or small the action is, I’m always bringing ideas to life by taking immediate action on them.
For my longer-term goals, I have them written out on my computer, and then I print out a couple copies. I carry a copy in my backpack, I leave one at home, I leave one at my desk at work. I always have my goals at hand to keep my awareness on them.
Keeping my goals at hand keeps them top of mind.
This is a practice I’ve done for many years. It comes naturally to me.
For those of you that this does not come naturally, it might be time for you to really decide whether you’re serious about achieving your goals.
Find your own way of taking immediate action on ideas that matter.
And if you don’t have a system or process in place that keeps you aligned with your goals, then I recommend taking the immediate action of creating a framework that works for you.
Tune out distractions?
Today’s world is full of constant distractions everywhere we turn. Emails, texts, calls, social media, websites, games, co-workers, news, etc., all distract our focus.
My ability to cultivate disciplined focus is what took my business from organized chaos to a process-driven, well-run machine.
If you’re ready to work in a way that 10x’s your focus and productivity, then I invite you to try working in 60-minute NO DISTRACTION intervals.
60 minutes on, 10 minutes off (checking emails, walking around, doing something that recharges you).
I personally do this from 7am to 1pm.
By the time 6am rolls around I’ve done the 5am 20/20/20 method mentioned earlier.
So, I’ve worked out, read, reflected, and am ready to focus.
From 7am-1pm I hyper-focus on my MITs. That means no email, no calls, no phone, the door closed, and NO distractions.
If it hits 1pm and there are things then require my immediate attention, at least I know I’ve crossed the MITs off my list.
Tuning out distractions for a full 60 minutes was hard for me at first.
I had to keep reminding myself that the sky wouldn’t fall on me.
I had to remind myself that my business wouldn’t collapse if I don’t answer an email or phone call right away.
It didn’t happen overnight, but with practice, I was able to build the discipline to remove all distractions.
I’d like to share a deep belief that has helped me tune out distractions: I believe at my core that letting any outside influence dictate how your day goes is a massive weakness.
If you want to be as productive as you can, it’s necessary to get rid of the things that pull you from focusing on important tasks.
?Replace low-impact activities with high-impact activities
What low-impact activities are taking up your time?
Things like Netflix, where you can binge-watch seasons at a time, are all designed to hook you. They drain valuable time before you know it.
Recently, I decided to watch an episode of a new show on HBO. Before I knew it, I was four episodes in, and four hours had gone by.
Four hours passed and I was still ready to start the next episode.
I sat back and thought of all the work I could have gotten done and felt incredibly disappointed in myself.
From there on out, I decided that working toward my goals is more important than escaping into a show for a few hours.
I decided to replace the time spent watching shows with higher-value activities. Reading, learning, connecting with those around me, exercising, spending time outside, studying a skill I want to improve, etc.
A tiny shift every day, over time, will lead to a meaningful impact in your life.
Take what I’ve shared with you, incorporate what works into your day, and watch how your life transforms as you step into the 5% of the population who are hyper-focused.
It’s time for you to experience what life can feel like when you have this kind of positive shift in your life.
I’m happy to share more of the transformational tools and processes I’ve implemented in over the past 10 years.
If you’re interested in learning these from me, message me, I’m happy to help you where I can.
Learn more about Mindcore IT Solutions here: https://mind-core.com/
Learn about what working with Mindcore as your trusted IT advisor is like by booking a call with me here: https://calendly.com/mattrosenthal/30min?month=2019-12
Thanks,
Matt Rosenthal, CEO of Mindcore Group of Companies
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CEO of Mindcore Technologies | Cybersecurity Expert | Advancing Digital Security for BusinessesCEO of Mindcore Technologies | Cybersecurity Expert | Advancing Digital Security for Businesses
Published ? 4y
In today’s distraction-filled society, there is a massive opportunity for those who can stay focused. In this article, I share the tactics, tools, and mindset behind how I stay hyper-focused on my goals.