Your Focus Determines Your Reality

I love this quote from George Lucas, "Always remember, your focus determines your reality." Lucas' advice is particularly poignant in the midst of our current health and economic struggles. The Star Wars franchise creator's ability to focus helped him decide when to buckle down and when to improvise—to let go of his brainchild to take a new direction. This week for the newsletter, I connected with entrepreneurs and business leaders to see how they focus on their goals at hand in every action they take. 

1. Vikas Sehgal, founder, and CEO of HyperDart

To Vikas Sehgal, the most important element of focus is routine. He tries to follow the same schedule each day, prioritizing time for thinking in the early mornings when interruptions are at a minimum. As he explains, "Coping with interruptions is a losing battle. By then, you have already lost your focus or your train of thought. It is much more effective to be deliberate about minimizing interruptions, especially during the time you set aside for thinking."

By dividing his day into "interactive time" for meetings and discussions, "transactional time" for quick but urgent tasks like email responses, and "thinking or creative time" for important projects, Sehgal knows where to fix his mental energy at any given point in a day.

2. Edwin Choi, founder of JetFuel.Agency

For Edwin Choi, true focus means you have to unplug from distractions—even when they're important. "Create OOO days where you are 100% disconnected from the company. Have a plan for someone to back you up on those days, and then go to a location where you don't typically work, such as a cabin or coffee shop, and disconnect from Slack, your phone, etc."

Because you can't always retreat to a cabin, Choi advises entrepreneurs to eliminate some of the most common distractions that interrupt them constantly. "I have notifications 100% turned off on my phone, desktop, and laptop during work hours." Another technique he describes is called The Big Three: "Start each day with just three important tasks and get those done first without interruption. If you can knock them out before the day-to-day interferes, that day is already a win."

3. Neil Gordon, communication expert

Neil Gordon eschews to-do lists in favor of blocking out time. "I run my day not by a task list but rather a schedule. From 9-10, I might work on a project that requires my focus. Then from 10 to 11, I might have a meeting. I'll then answer emails for a set period of time, such as from 11 to 11:30, before moving onto another project. This way, I'm not as distracted by the emails that are coming along from one moment to the next."

Because interruptions are inevitable, Gordon takes steps to make it as easy as possible to pick up where he left off, "Much of my work is in content creation, and because I first create outlines before executing the content itself, I am able to resume work without too much struggle or effort. The more linear I make my work, the easier it is to be resilient in the face of interruption." Understand your own project mini-milestones and wait to check the inbox until after you've ticked the next checkbox.

4. Ross Morel, CEO of FrogSlayer

To Ross Morel, focus often means release. "Every entrepreneur is a control freak to some extent. You have to let go, whether that's getting away, meditating, getting exercise, etc. You can't control every little detail, and giving up some of that control is pretty liberating." Another thing he has set free? Notifications. "I've totally turned off all notifications, messages, and pop-ups on my phone and computer. I keep my phone on silent all the time now."

Morel admits that he's learned from spreading his focus too thinly. "Startups and other small business owners try to tackle too much at one time. Last year, we tried to tackle too much, and we didn't achieve any of our goals. Focus on your true priorities and pick two to three." It's not easy to let go of initiatives that feel important, but focus takes sacrifice.

5. John Sukup, founder and principal consultant of Expected X

John Sukup also blocks out his time, but unlike the other leaders above, he uses notifications to keep him on track. "I get notifications from my calendar on all my devices, so I can typically know when it's time to switch my focus to the next time block's task. It's kind of like developing a Pavlovian response—as soon as I hear the 'ding' from a calendar notification, I know it's time to switch gears."

His phone threatens to take too much of his attention he takes action. "My phone is probably the biggest source of regular distractions and interruptions, but that one is fairly easy to deal with—turn off the ringer and place it outside of my office. Problem solved!" Plus, he reserves just 15 to 30 minutes for email each day, keeping his inbox from becoming the time suck that it tends to be for many of us.

6. Sheldon Yellen, CEO of BELFOR Property Restoration

Sheldon Yellen acknowledges the importance of intense focus to cut through the noise and stress in our lives. His favorite tool? Writing. "I truly believe by putting goals and dreams into written words, it helps to hold oneself accountable and to find clarity amidst all the noise. To do this, I've written my favorite inspirational quotes and lists of goals that I keep with me on a folded piece of paper in my wallet. These are constant reminders that stay with me no matter where I go."

Yellen advises other leaders to adopt the same practice because it emphasizes the big picture no matter what's happening in the day-to-day. Sometimes, the tasks that feel the most urgent actually have no bearing on the goals we have in our lives. In those situations, we need to make a change.

7. Cheri McDonald, Ph.D., LMFT, trauma expert and life mastery coach

As Dr. Cheri McDonald explains, "Life is messy, and the only constant is change. Begin by recognizing that interruptions are part of the workday. It's not the interruptions that disrupt your effectiveness—it's your management of them."

To manage interruptions and focus up, McDonald suggests a three-pronged approach that starts by reducing unnecessary alerts: "First, assess your 'bad' habits and switch them off. This may be social media or pings from emails, texts, and Facebook. Turn off notifications." The other two steps have to do with engaging yourself more fully in the more important tasks at hand. McDonald advises that secondly, you focus on the why behind certain tasks so you can tap into your entrepreneurial passion. Finally, "Keep it simple, and remind yourself that small steps lead to big results."

8. Greg Van Horn, CEO, and founder of Launch Potato and FinanceBuzz

Greg Van Horn used to rely on in-flight time to maximize his productivity. Obviously, he's going through a bit of an adjustment. "Even though I'm not flying, I continue listening to my same Spotify playlist that gets me focused. Instead of airplane mode, I rely on MacOS' Do Not Disturb feature, which mutes notifications for a selected period of time."

Van Horn also finds that focus comes from his body as much as his mind. "I prioritize my workout before starting my workday. Working out really helps clear my head, and I notice I'm much more productive on days when I do work out versus those when I skip it." New rhythms and realities don't have to mean that we sacrifice the practices that keep us centered.

Distractions are everywhere, and the onslaught of coronavirus headlines is just the tip of the iceberg. In this trying environment, many startups and small businesses are struggling, and it will take some serious get-it-done mojo to make it through. Follow the advice of the above entrepreneurs and hone your focus to maximize your productivity power.

Interview of The Week

My new show What's Next with John Baldoni explores the issues shaping our "new normal." This week we had Martin Lindstrom who is the founder and chairman of Lindstrom Company, the world's leading business, brand & culture transformation group.TIME Magazine has named Lindstrom one of the "World's 100 Most Influential People." And for five years running, Thinkers50 has selected Lindstrom to be among the world's top 50 business thinkers. 

Rhett Power was recently named the 2018 Best Small Business Coach in the U.S., joined Marshall Goldsmith's 100 Coaches, and was named the #1 Thought Leader on Entrepreneurship by Thinkers360. He is CEO of Power Coaching and Consulting in Washington, DC, and hosts Power Lunch Live, one of the most popular business talk shows on LinkedIn's live platform. Check out his fantastic line up of guests and listen to past episodes at www.powerlunch.live.

If you enjoyed this article, here are a few other ways to connect with Rhett. You can read his regular columns on Inc. Magazine, Forbes, and Thrive Global. For speaking and coaching inquiries, please email [email protected].

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