Transcription
If you get distracted easily and spend hours on unimportant tasks, this video is for you. According to research, our average focus lasts for only 40 seconds. Every 40 seconds, something distracts you from your main task. That's why you work all day, but you actually get very little done, and at the end of the day, you still feel tired.
The most important skill you can develop is to focus on the right things. In this video, I will explain how to do that by summarizing a book called Hyper Focus: How to Work Less and Achieve More by Chris Bailey.
According to this book, forty percent of the time, you are not conscious of what you're focused on. This means if you're awake for 12 hours a day, during six of those hours, you're not making conscious decisions. For example, when you started to learn how to drive, you first consciously did all the moves. With time, those moves became automatic, and soon the roads you take to get to work, home, and shopping all became automatic as well.
Now, let's suppose a huge avenue was built beside the one you always used to drive to work, and the avenue can take you to work twice as fast and more safely. Would you like to take that avenue instead? Probably yes. But if you keep focused on your old ways and never look around, you won't even notice that a new avenue is there.
Now, the same thing happens in other aspects of your life. If you don't look around and stop to make conscious decisions, your mind will take you along the same old paths, and you won't even notice better paths right in front of you. That's why you need to focus with intention.
Here is a four-step guide you can use to improve your focus. It all begins with awareness.
The first step is to find out what you have been focusing on. The author recommends setting an hourly timer, and when it rings, reflecting on what you're doing at the moment. Are you focusing on tasks that will lead you closer to your goals? Are you on autopilot mode? Or are you focused on smaller, unimportant tasks? The main two questions you want to answer here are: one, how have I been spending my time? Two, what are the things that usually distract me when I should be focusing on what really matters? You don't have to do anything else with this information right now. Just being aware of it will already have a positive consequence on you. You'll catch yourself distracted more often and will be more watchful.
Once you know how you have been using your focus, the second step is to choose what you should be focusing on instead. Before choosing an activity to focus on, you should consider four things. First, remember that a small percentage of the things you do bring the most consequences. If you have 10 tasks, probably two of them will bring the highest results. Always keep the 80/20 rule in mind. Second, use the rule of three to find the most relevant tasks. At the start of each day, choose three things you want to have accomplished by that day's end. You can do the same at the start of a week, a month, or even quarterly. Consciously choosing the three most important things will help you avoid distractions as your day progresses. Third, always choose a challenge you can accomplish. You need to choose a challenge that is equal to or just a little above your skill level. If it's too easy, you'll be bored, and if it's too hard, you'll be discouraged. Fourth, break your tasks into very small parts and describe them in detail. For example, "go to the gym" is not as good as "exercise at the gym for 20 minutes on my lunch break."
Okay, we've been working on everything you need to properly hyper-focus. So far, you have learned more about what distracts you and prevents you from reaching your goals, chosen your main activities to hyper-focus, and broken down those activities into smaller parts. Now it's time for step three: hyper-focus.
In the beginning, hyper-focus won't happen easily. You'll see your attention drift several times. Don't be discouraged; this is normal. Here's how you can overcome the initial resistance:
One, shrink your hyper-focus period. Focusing for 10 minutes is easier than for an hour, so aim low for now and celebrate small victories.
Two, practice hyper-focus every day, even if only for a small interval.
Three, pay attention to all the times you say that you don't have time for something. You always have time for things, but you use that time for other activities. For example, if you constantly tell yourself, "I don't have time for cooking," it means there's something about this activity that keeps you away. You procrastinate things for a reason. Procrastination is wisdom; it's a signal telling you to get help if possible. Consider outsourcing such activities that you procrastinate a lot.
Four, recharge. Using your attention and energy to hyper-focus will make you tired. When you are tired, you have a harder time focusing, so recharging is crucial for improving your attention skills. Recharging can mean meditating, taking a walk in the park, or doing anything else you'd like to do to relax.
Five, make sure you get enough sleep. Sleep is the most important thing that holds everything together in your life. If you don't sleep well, then no amount of tips and tactics on planet Earth can help you.
Step four: let your mind wander. You might be thinking, "Wait, what? You just spent several minutes explaining how to focus, and you're right." But the truth is, you can't hyper-focus all the time. Imagine you've hyper-focused for eight hours; how tired will you be? Also, have you noticed that you usually have the best ideas and the best solutions for your problems when you're not paying too much attention? When you're taking a shower, falling asleep, or taking a walk around the block? The author calls this scatter focus. It's when you stop trying to focus on one thing and focus on nothing in particular.
Focusing might be what you need for productivity, but for creativity, what you need is to unfocus. Let your mind wander, and it'll build connections between ideas and therefore come up with new ones. The pieces of information that your brain connects to form new ideas are called dots. The richer your environment and the richer your experiences, the more dots you connect, and the more dots you connect, the more creative you are. So, the best way to be creative is to have a variety of experiences and to consume better quality information.
Here are some tips:
One, trash entertainment can have its place, but make sure it doesn't take up the majority of your free time.
Two, let your mind wander freely and write down whatever comes up.
Three, sleep on a problem. While you're sleeping, your mind continues to connect the dots.
Four, write down your problems. This helps your mind continue to process them in the background, even when you're not thinking about them anymore.
Five, hold a problem in your mind and let your thoughts wander around it. Turn it over and explore it from different angles.
Connecting dots is what your brain does when you scatter focus. It connects pieces of information freely, and that way, it can have insights and create new ideas. The good thing about scatter focus is that you can do it anywhere, anytime. Contrary to hyper-focus, it doesn't need a specific environment. So, you can use your breaks to scatter focus and have a better rest. A refreshing break should be low effort and habitual, but it should also be something you actually want to do. For example, reading emails during your break might be low effort and habitual, but is it fun? Is it something you'd like to be spending your break with? Maybe having a coffee and chatting with a co-worker at the cafeteria would make you feel better.
Scatter focus not only makes you more creative but it also allows you to rest your mind from hyper-focusing. The more often you scatter focus to replenish your mental energy, the more energy you have for your most important tasks. In other words, scatter focus will help you hyper-focus.
To sum up all four steps we discussed in this video:
Number one, set an hourly timer to understand what distracts you and where your attention flows most of the time.
Number two, choose an activity for hyper-focusing. The activity shouldn't be too easy or too hard. Also, don't forget to break it down into smaller pieces.
Number three, hyper-focus. To break the initial resistance, choose a smaller time period, such as 10 minutes.
Number four, scatter focus. Let your mind wander and allow yourself to be bored.
This is it for this video. Thanks for watching.