The Power of Focus – Part 4

Author: Charlie Rhea

Date: Oct 25th, 2022

Intro:

This is part 4 of an article series called The Power of Focus! Before continuing to read, I would encourage you to go back and briefly read part 1, 2, & 3 first! Much of what I write about is adapted from Michael Hyatt’s book Free to Focus. As I have mentioned before, I strongly recommend this book! In the last three articles, I talked about what focus is, why it is important, and how to get and stay focused! In summary, focus is the ability to narrow in on one! You greatly increase your impact in one area! It’s important because it increases your ability to be effective (doing the right things) and efficient (doing things right). This process of getting and staying focused generates consistent momentum to bring meaningful results! Finally, the main key to getting and staying focused is based around three principles: STOP, CUT, and ACT. In this article, I will unpack the principle of ACT.

?ACT

Step 1) Consolidate

Another word for consolidate is simplify or to narrow. You must now find ways to simplify and narrow your focus. A great example of not consolidating is multitasking. The reality is that we really are just task-switching, not multitasking. The problem is that when we task switch, our attention does not immediately follow, some of it remains stuck on the previous task. Task switching also slows our processing ability. It is harder to determine what is most relevant, and what is not. Instead, try focusing on one task at a time. Here are two strategies to consider for narrowing your focus:

?Strategy One => Mega Batching

• This is all about organizing entire days around similar activities to enable you to stay focused and build momentum (Hyatt, 2019, p. 164).
• To build momentum, you must be disciplined to protect your focus. To get more done and remain focused, we need extended periods of uninterrupted time to do our best thinking also called "deep work" (Hyatt, 2019, p. 164). Task switching beats you up and wears you down. Instead, true focus is getting one thing done at a time!
• Having laser focus will free your brain to lock in and use full energy and effort all targeted at one goal! "Every time you switch and recontextualize – meetings to calls to texts to email to meetings – it slows you down” (Hyatt, 2019, p. 178).
• A great example is planning when you will check all your communication lines – maybe at three different points throughout the day. This will help protect you from task creep.
• My own personal routine is to check my communication lines (Emails, Texts, & LinkedIn) during my startup routine, lunch break, and shutdown routine. *See article 3!

?Strategy Two => Ideal Week Planning

• This is a proactive approach to life versus a reactive one. It is living with intention. It is living on purpose.
• Come up with some themes/blocks, activities, and begin blocking them into your ideal week. A key to planning your week is prioritizing and protecting your soul-care and self-care.
• Without rest, we burn out. Be sure to include focused bursts for deep work with intentional breaks planned for movement, naps, socializing, and play! "Intentional relaxation is key to high performance" (Hyatt, 2019, p. 178).
• Make sure you include margin and firm boundaries!
• I have personally experienced the benefits of 25min of focus and then a 5min movement break or 5min power nap. Following this process does wonders in creating and sustaining your focus!

Here is an example of what an Ideal Week could look like: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mq11cnh588qkf6y/Ideal%20Week%20Example.odt?dl=0

Step 2) Designate

The basic principle behind designation is making sure you are being effective with your attention, energy, and effort. Being effective is being focused on the right priority! To help with your ideal week planning process, consider three easy phases for strategically time blocking (designating) your attention, energy, and effort for each week. Do this at the end of the week (on a Saturday or Sunday) as you prepare for the following week.

Phase 1: List it out!

• ?Dump all of your ideas, thoughts, and tasks out on paper.
• Bullet point them out in a list format
• This will bring tremendous freedom in just getting what is in your head on paper!

Phase 2: Clean it up!

• Filter! Filter your list by asking, “What do you have to do? Is there anything you can delete, defer, or delegate?”
• Organize! Clearly identify the Type, Task, & Time

1. Type - what type of block is it? People Block - PPL, Project Block - PRJ, Personal Block - PER, Proactive Block - PRO
2. Task - what exactly is the task?
3. Time - how long will it take + margin?

• Prioritize! To properly prioritize which tasks to focus on and when, consider moving the tasks into an ABC & 123 format. See below:

A (Have to do this week)

• Task 1
• Task 2
• Ect.

B (Like to do this week)

• Task 1
• Task 2
• Ect.

C (Have to do this month)

D (Like to do this month)

E (Have to do this year)

F (Like to do this year)

G (Like to do one day)

***To help guide you on this step, ask yourself: "If I could only get one thing done this day/week/month/year, what would it be?"

Phase 3: Block it in!

• Time block your prioritized list working down the numbers and letters until your calendar is filled up.
• Purposefully put in "margin blocks"
• Leave Friday’s fairly open for margin
• Put in "prep blocks" for all your professional calls and double check with your participates to make sure they are still good for the meeting!

?

Here are some general tips for managing your to do list:

• Try to knock out one task at a time! Don't mix them - it could get messy!
• Become a BEAST at self-reflection! "People who can learn from their experience and use those lessons to make positive changes in their behavior will advance quickly" (Hyatt, 2019, p. 189).
• Design your Week using "The Weekly Preview" (*Note: I call this the Weekly 3-View! More to come on this in a future article!)
• There are 6 simple steps:

1. List your wins
2. Review the prior week
3. Review your lists and notes (1. Eliminate, 2. Schedule, 3. Prioritize, 4. Defer)
4. Check goals, projects, events, meetings, and deadlines
5. Set your Weekly Big 3! (Think about the Priority matrix:?Quadrant 1: Urgent & Important, Quadrant 2: Not Urgent & Important *ALL MEANINGFUL WORK!, Quadrant 3: Urgent & Not Important, Quadrant 4: Not Urgent & Not Important
6. Plan your Rejuvenation (self-care) Examples: Sleep, Eat, Move, Connect, Play, Reflect, Unplug

?

Step 3) Activate

Here are some general observations when it comes to the activate step. Interruptions suck because they slow your focus and progress to get results. To truly get and stay focused, you must limit the interruptions during your focus time! There is pressure to respond instantly to messages but "we've confused speed with importance" (Hyatt, 2019, p. 208). Just because things are urgent, does not mean they are important. The key is to learn to prioritize and protect your attention, energy, and effort! If you are constantly shifting your focus, it's hard to produce and maintain periods of deep and meaningful work. This is worth repeating – shifting your focus from one task to the next is also called “multi-tasking” and it will slow your work! Here is a caution about “multi-tasking” (which is just task switching) "Every time we bounce off task, we train our brains to become even more distracted and shorten our own attention spans, making it harder to cultivate a life of focus" (Hyatt, 2019, p. 212). Multitasking (or task switching) breaks your focus. It is an invitation to distraction. It provides emotional gratification because it "moves the pleasure of procrastination inside the period of work" (Hyatt, 2019, p. 212).

Instead of taking a break, many people break their focus. If you cannot cultivate and grow your self-discipline to push through hard tasks - those uphill ones - then you are creating a pattern for yourself to just bail when it gets tough. When you switch from your hard task to the easy task, you get a hit of dopamine to the brain, and this reinforces that bad behavior. The main key to activate is to use all the tips mentioned in the previous steps and activate them by starting small but being consistent. As you get good with one new strategy, begin to unroll, and activate another one. They will actually build and layer on one another to create synergistic results of focus!

? In summary, there is a tremendous power in focusing that can be summarized with one word: momentum. When you can build the discipline to get and stay focused, it allows you to create momentum in getting the right things done at a higher level of excellence. The main three principles can be seen in this summary chart below:

STOP

1) Evaluate, 2) Formulate, 3) Rejuvenate

CUT

1) Eliminate, 2) Delegate, 3) Automate

ACT

1) Consolidate, 2) Designate, 3) Activate

Have a great day and make it great for others!

If you want to connect with me or receive coaching around how to create and sustain focus in your life, message me and let’s have a powerful conversation!

?-Charlie

Citations:

Hyatt, M. (2019). Free to Focus: A Total Productivity System to Achieve More by Doing Less (Illustrated ed.). Baker Books.