Focus: How To Claim Back Your Time

Have you ever?…

That's a strange way to start a journal entry is it not? Well, there is a reason for that. Today marks another step forward in my progression towards enlightenment.

I am currently reading Deep Work by Cal Newport, and now I am trying to carve out a whole day for this concept of deep work. (I will be explaining this more in a future blog)

Due to this, my Fridays are going to become offline. No phone, no social media nothing. It is a scary thought, but it means my work week is now condensed down from 7 days to 4.

Yikes!

It is a daunting prospect to do this. It is very scary to finally be giving myself two whole days off each week where I am not overly working hard. Since becoming an entrepreneur this is not something I am used to. But it also means that I have to change the way I operate.

It is very scary changing. In fact change in any sense is always scary, because for me my outputs are not changing… I will still have to record enough videos and write enough blogs and journal entries to see me for seven days.

But I am doing it all with three whole fewer days!

To accomplish this kind of drastic change, the focus is what becomes a must, everything becomes for a reason when you clamp down your time. This has lots of benefits which can be seen throughout Scandinavia and also Japan where they have four-day workweeks.

It turns out that people get the same amount done in four days as they do five.

But how could this be? Well, that comes down to today's topic. Focus.

We live in a quick world, where shallow tasks like answering instant messages and also answering emails have become the priority.

It is important to have great customer service at all times.

Is the mantra of today's world. It is too important to find this time, and therefore we must always be available. The issue with this is simply being available leads to a lack of focus.

When you have a big deadline that you just have to reach, when you need to focus, all of a sudden you find an insane focus that allows you to complete the task.

This happens time and again, that we find the necessary focus to become awesome at what we are doing. But then we lose it again.

This is why the four-day workweek works so well. You have less time to achieve the same output. You become more focused.

Now there is no magic formula to focus on unfortunately if there was I would be the richest man in the world by now, but there are ways to gain focus.

How To Gain Focus:

To gain focus you need to be enthusiastic about what you are doing. When you are enjoying yourself, when you are going full throttle because the activity makes you enthusiastic you will just have more focus. Find the tasks that give you this feeling or find a way to make the task give you this feeling and your focus will increase.

How To Gain Connection:

Connection is another important tool in the focus armory this allows for you to have a passion for what the project aims to achieve. Feel connected to the goal or aim of the project, will make you care more about the project. The more you care about a project the more focus you will have.

Take Breaks:

This seems to be a drum a continually have to beat. By taking breaks, and by rebooting your brain, you will be able to focus more on what your task is. Think about the first hour of your day, you are at your most focused because you do not have the distractions or the lack of energy yet.

These three ways are extremely important to boost your focus. By boosting your focus you are also able to smash through the barriers of exhaustion and that will make you more productive.