Can’t Focus? 3 Tips to Improve your Focus Today.
Lack of focus is a big problem. It’s the #1 problem our users repeatedly tell us about. But focus is key to doing something well.
Focus. It’s an entrepreneur’s secret weapon, said Mark Randolph.
Here’s 3 tips to improve your focus Today. Whether you’re preparing to get a job, close your first few customers as a Founder, or selling cars, these tips will help you get more done.
Tip 1. Track your Time
I read of this idea in The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker. The idea is to track how you spend each hour of your day. To do something well, you need a fundamental understanding of it. To improve your focus, you need to understand when you’re not focused.
How I tracked my time:
Step 1. Set an alarm
I set an alarm for every hour on every weekday from 9 to 5 pm.
Step 2. Record what you did
When the alarm goes off, I recorded how I spend the last hour on my calendar. This is easy because it syncs between my phone and computer and because I can see how I spend my time at a glance.
Step 3. Eliminate Secondary Tasks
After a few weeks of tracking, I became keenly aware of how I was spending my time. Did I spend the last hour doing something productive or not? This forced me to focus on the important tasks because I would be judged in an hour’s time.
I did this everyday for 3 months and it gave me a 5x better understanding of how I spend my time. Yes, the alarm every hour can be annoying but it’s been a huge help for me. Even if you do this just for a week, you’ll see you can focus more.
Tip 2. Set my Today’s goal on Berlocks
We’re all busy with lots of important things to do. This is a Lie. Not everything is important.
If everything is important, then nothing is important, said Patrick Lencioni
When you have 10 things you ‘have to do today’, it’s really easy to feel like everything is important. It’s also really easy to feel overwhelmed and not do anything. The goal is to figure out what you must do Today.
How I set my Today’s goal:
Step 1. Go to Today on berlocks.com
See your week’s goal. Here’s mine:
Step 2. Ask “What can I do Today to hit my Week’s goal?”
Asking this question brings your focus to today and cuts through the noise of fake important things. I can do whatever else I want as long as I hit that button and enter a goal for Today.
When I hit my Today’s goal, I check it Green and see the progress bar move forward. This has 7x helped me to understand what’s really important and what’s not.
Tip 3. Use a Timer app
This is the most effective technique I know to focus! While the other two techniques help you to be mindful of how you spend your time and to figure out what’s important, this timer actually helps you to stay focused.
The formal technique is called the Pomodoro timer. Click here to learn more about the Pomodoro timer. I use it a little differently because I don’t take the scheduled breaks.
I use the Focus Keeper app on my iPhone. Click here for Focus Keeper for iOS. Here’s one for Android.
How I use Focus Keeper:
Step 1. Choose something to do
Step 2. Start the timer
The timer starts and a magical sound plays — a ticking clock. For the next 25 minutes I can only focus on the one thing I want to get done.
- No texts
- No emails
- No changing the song
- No making coffee
- No social
Nothing but 100% focus on what I’m working on. I’ve conditioned myself to the ticking clock. After a while, whenever I hear the ticking clock, I know I need to focus. When I don’t hear it, I can relax my focus. This timer app has 10x my focus.
To focus means to calm the mind from compulsions.
I hope these tips help you as they’ve helped me.
