The average American checks their phone 159 times in a day.
The average person can only focus on a task for 14 minutes without being interrupted.
Focusing is getting harder and harder, and it’s messing up our lives.
Think back over the last 10 years—are you where you thought you would be by now? Is there something, maybe a career change or a project, that you thought you would start but still haven’t?
It takes 5 to 10 years to build the average business, but this applies to any life project.
It takes time to make meaningful progress on things, master skills, and build a reputation.
The problem is, life is short.
The first two decades are taken up by school and university, and maybe even longer if you study something like medicine. By the time you reach 60, you might want to retire, or you could even have health conditions.
If you’re 20, you’ve got four decades left to build something that matters.
If it takes 10 years to achieve that, you’ll only have four chances to make it happen.
I’m 38, which means I’ve got only two chances left. This video will help you conquer your focus so you can make the most of your time.
The Power of Focus
Looking at time this way might make you feel like you should start all of your projects at once, but I’m going to tell you not to do that. Here’s why:
Imagine you have 10 energy cubes to use towards the things you want to do.
If you spread them out equally across five different tasks, you’ll only make a small amount of progress in each of them.
But if you put all 10 into one bucket, you’ll make much faster progress. Obviously, this comes with a trade-off that you won’t be progressing on the other things, so you have to be okay with putting them on the back burner for now.
In the book The One Thing, they say that success is about doing the right thing, not everything. How do you figure out what that one thing is?
Keep asking yourself,
“What matters the most?”
until there’s only one thing left. You can do this for your yearly goals, grand plans for your life, or you can do it for just different areas.
For example, you might have several career goals:
- getting promoted at work
- learning a new skill
- networking more effectively
- starting a side hustle
- improving work-life balance.
Look at these five and ask yourself what matters the most until you find the one that’s the top priority. Then, focus all your efforts on doing just that one thing.
Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, said, Focus stands for:
Follow
One
Course
Until
Successful
After you’ve done that thing, you can move on to your other goals.
The Sunk Cost Fallacy
I’ll throw in one small caveat here: if something really isn’t working out for you, don’t just keep pushing through because you told yourself you would.
Don’t fall for the sunk cost fallacy, where just because you’ve invested time, effort, and money into something, it means you need to keep going with it.
Sometimes the path you’re on just isn’t leading you where you want to go.
Ultradian Rhythms
When you know the thing you want to focus on, there are some big yet surprisingly easy things you can do to improve your focus and achieve them much faster.
Have you ever noticed how your energy or focus seems to come in waves throughout the day? You might be totally in the zone for a while, and then suddenly, your brain feels foggy.
You get restless, you find yourself picking up your phone and scrolling, and you’re not sure why. It could just be your biology doing its job.
You’ve probably heard of circadian rhythms—the 24-hour cycles that regulate our sleep and waking hours.
But ultradian rhythms are like the shorter cousins of circadian rhythms, and they’re just as important.
In the 1950s, sleep researcher Nathaniel Kleitman noticed that when we go to sleep, we go through cycles, moving from light sleep to deep sleep to REM sleep, about every 90 minutes. Kleitman believed that this same 90-minute pattern continues when we’re awake, which he called the Basic Rest Activity Cycle.
During each cycle, you get high focus and energy, but then you’ll notice a dip where you feel distracted and tired, and maybe even a bit colder. That’s your body telling you that it needs a break.
But most of us ignore this message. We power through, drink more caffeine, send more emails, or do another task. Over time, this builds up and creates mental fatigue, which leads to mistakes and burnout.
Researcher Anders Ericsson studied elite performers, such as violinists, athletes, and writers, and found that some of the best in the world only practiced in 90-minute blocks, followed by breaks.
Focus depletes our neurotransmitters and creates waste in the brain, much like how at night, we go to sleep and clear out waste. We need these little breaks throughout the day to do the same thing.
The Pomodoro Technique
Another technique many people use is the Pomodoro technique. You focus for 25 minutes, then take a 5-minute break. After completing this cycle four times, take a longer break of 15 to 30 minutes.
If you really struggle to focus, the Pomodoro technique can be more effective because 25 minutes feels more manageable than a 90-minute chunk.
However, I tried the Pomodoro technique and found it didn’t work for me at all. I stressed out because I only had 25 minutes to make progress, and when the timer went off, I felt like I was being interrupted.
Research shows that every time we’re interrupted, it can take 15 minutes to get back to the same level of focus you had before the interruption.
Not only does our focus suffer, but so does the stress and frustration, and we end up using more energy to get the task done.
That’s why if you’re interrupted all day at work, you end the day feeling drained.
7 Ways to Reduce Interruptions
1. Set clear boundaries
To reduce interruptions, the first step is to set clear boundaries with other people. This is especially important if you work remotely because they can just send you a DM whenever and expect you to reply right away.
I needed deep work time, so I spoke to my manager about having “Do Not Disturb” time, which I’d block out on my calendar.
2. Focused spaces
It can also help to train your brain to associate certain locations with focus. For instance, I always record my YouTube videos in the same place.
3. Time blocking
Time blocking is another powerful technique, but you need to be strict with yourself. When you’re in a time block, you’re not allowed to answer emails, take phone calls, or look at anything else.
4. Batching and theming
You can supercharge time blocking by batching tasks and theming your day. It’s much more efficient than jumping from emails to creative work to writing proposals. It takes a lot of energy for your brain to switch modes.
5. Stop multitasking
Multitasking, while it sounds impressive, just disrupts your work, making everything take longer and introducing more mistakes.
6. Manage Your Environment
Your environment plays a big role in how easy it is to be interrupted.
Even though I work from home, I use noise-canceling headphones and listen to synthwave music. I can’t listen to music with lyrics when I’m writing, because it distracts me.
If I find myself distracted by other things like a messy desk, I know it’s time to address the environment before I can focus properly.
7. Saying No
What I think has been harder than everything else in this list is saying no to people. As a people-pleaser, I usually just want to say yes when someone asks me to do something, but this has been really hard for me to learn.
Generally, people are okay if they understand the reasoning behind it, and if that reasoning is that you want to focus on something that really matters to you.
If you’re in a work situation, and someone asks you to take on another task, just point out all the other work you’re already doing and ask which task they want you to drop so you can focus on this new thing. You can’t just magically make more time!
Why You Still Struggle to Focus
You’ve got the perfect schedule, you’ve figured out all your ideal work blocks, and you’ve planned your breaks. But when it comes to actually sitting down and getting on with the thing, you’re really struggling.
What’s going on?
1. Decision Fatigue
A typical workday often involves managing multiple projects, responding to emails, coordinating meetings, and planning what to do after work. Your brain is overloaded with decisions and mental clutter.
Try simplifying some of your decisions before you start working. For example, prepare your meals in advance, or eat the same lunch every day. Steve Jobs famously wore the same outfit every day to reduce decision fatigue.
2. Stressful things
Sometimes you may be trying to focus, but your mind keeps drifting to something else, like an argument or an upcoming deadline.
Stress management can help. Taking a quick walk at lunchtime, meditating, or journaling for a few minutes can help.
3. Doing things you don’t like
One of the most challenging things for me is bookkeeping—it’s incredibly boring, and when I try to focus on it, my mind just wanders.
But I have a little trick that helps me get started: I use a timer. I set it for just 5 minutes and tell myself I can stop once it’s up.
This makes the task seem much more manageable.
I also listen to music or a podcast to make it a little more enjoyable and reward myself when it’s done.
4. Your Body
Your physical environment and body also affect your focus.
I noticed I was getting bad eye strain when working on my monitor because the room was too bright. I ended up replacing the monitor to fix the issue.
If your chair is uncomfortable, your desk is the wrong height, or the sun is shining in your eyes, these things can make it difficult to focus. Make sure you’re getting enough sleep and eating healthy foods that keep your energy levels stable.
Training Your Focus
1. Set short times
Like any muscle, your ability to focus can be strengthened with practice. Set a shorter time to focus on something, and gradually increase the time as you get better.
2. Try meditation
Meditation and mindfulness can help, as studies show that they increase attention spans. Start with just 5 minutes a day—there are lots of free resources on YouTube.
3. Read, do puzzles, learn new skills, play strategy board games
Reading puzzles, learning new skills, and playing strategic board games are also activities that train your brain to focus for longer periods.
4. Apps to Help You Focus
Apps like Rescue Time can help block distractions and track your productivity.
Books
📖 The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan – https://amzn.to/3G6kjJZ
📖 Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki – https://amzn.to/3XQOrPC
Watch the video on YouTube
References
Why We’re Addicted to Our Smartphones, But Not Our Tablets. Liraz Margalit. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/behind-online-behavior/201511/why-were-addicted-to-our-smartphones-but-not-our-tablets
The science is in: Interruptions Kill Productivity and Increase Stress (with sources). https://workjoy.co/blog/scientific-research-notifications-and-interruptions-negatively-affect-work
Everyday functioning-related cognitive correlates of media multitasking: a mini meta-analysis. Wisnu Wiradhany. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15213269.2019.1685393#abstract
Brief Mindfulness Meditation Improves Attention in Novices: Evidence From ERPs and Moderation by Neuroticism. Catherine J Norris, Daniel Creem, Reuben Hendler, Hedy Kober. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6088366/#:~:text=Past%20research%20has%20found%20that,Attention%20Network%20Test%20(ANT).
The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and Stress. Gloria Mark, Daniela Gudith and Ulrich Klocke. https://ics.uci.edu/~gmark/chi08-mark.pdf