3 Steps to Build Your Focus
Step #2 is my personal favorite
The Secret About Focus
Focus is like a muscle. The more you use it the more focus you build. The more you train it the stronger it gets. Just like a muscle, pushing your focus a bit further each time helps it grow.
Just like muscles, there’s a limit to how much focus you have in any one session. Like muscles, you can use focus in reps but after a certain amount of time, your focus will fatigue. I’ve discovered 3 steps to build my focus muscle so I can rely on it when I need it most.
3 Steps To Become More Focussed
These steps can be used in any order but I recommend attempting these in order. The first steps are the simplest but don’t underestimate their power.
Step # 1: Resist Notifications
Notifications are everywhere. On your phone, on your laptop, on your tablet, on your emails, on WhatsApp, on Instagram, on Microsoft Teams, on Slack, on Facebook. You get the idea, the list goes on.
I’m not suggesting you ignore your notifications completely, but first, simply resit the urge to check your notification as soon as it grabs your attention.
Start with a few seconds. Turn your attention back to the task you were doing or the thing you were focussing on. See it as a game. See how long you can resist the urge to check the notification. Here’s a secret… it’s not going anywhere.
See if you can resist the urge to check the notification for over a minute or more. The longer you can resist the more focused muscle you will build.
Don’t worry about how long you can resist. The goal here isn’t to resist your notification for hours. Your goal is to steadily build the ability to leave flashing notifications where they are until you’re ready to check your notifications on your own terms.
Step # 2: Set A Timer
The next step is to set a time for a short amount of time. Start with just 5 minutes. Your job is to focus on one task at the exclusion of all else until the timer goes off. No phone, no emails, no instant messages, no checking non-work websites. Just pure focus on the task in front of you.
5 minutes doesn’t sound like a long time but don’t skip this step. Before you extend your timer make sure you start with 5 minutes. When you successfully focus for a full 5 minutes feel free to extend the timer to 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, or more for subsequent sessions but only once you’ve mastered a 5-minute stint.
If your attention wanders during your 5-minute focus session then don’t worry. This is completely normal. You may be surprised just how hard it is to fully focus for even just a short 5-minute period. When you regain your focus and return to the task at hand then reset the timer back to 5 minutes and try again.
Don’t cheat. This exercise is to help you. Nobody else. Nobody will know if you’re successful at the first attempt or not and, honestly, it doesn’t really matter. All that matters is your practice and build your productivity muscle and get used to focussing for, at first, a short amount of time and then steadily build this over time.
Step # 3: Train To Regain Your Focus
The thing about focus is it will always be challenged. You will always get distracted. It’s only a matter of time. Pretending we can achieve a bout of focus as long as we want whenever we want is unrealistic. If we set out in the knowledge that sooner or later we will lose focus then this takes the pressure off. Our job then is not to keep our focus sessions continuing indefinitely. Our only job is to learn to regain our focus quickly when it is lost.
It’s not how many distractions we have, it’s the amount of time it takes us to regain our focus that really matters after we have become distracted.
A University of California study found that after each interruption it takes over 23 minutes to refocus. If we can train ourselves to cut this time down we can spend much more time focussing and, in turn, dramatically increase our productivity levels.
Ideally, we also find ways to reduce distractions in the first place but we’ll save that conversation for another time.
In the meantime follow these steps multiple times each day and, just like working out your muscles, watch as your focus muscle begins to grow.