The Complete Guide to Developing Your Focus

How to actually get stuff done in the world of distraction.

Focus. It’s a superpower in the 21st century. People who have mastered it achieve their desired results quickly. They build the lives of their dreams, get more done in less time and are ahead of everybody else.

Focus is so rare, it’s considered as something holy. It’s what all high-achievers use daily in their lives.

It’s what writers use to write books and entrepreneurs use to solve problems. And maybe it’s what’s stopping you from becoming the person you want to be.

You can, of course, use focus too. It just takes practice — and deep work.

What is Deep Work?

Deep work is a term coined by a professor, blogger and famous author Cal Newport. In short, it means an extended period of time spent focused on one activity with no distraction.

Cal Newport wrote a book with the same title, and the term quickly permeated the vocabulary of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and high-achievers, as well as psychologists who started to research how the human brain works and concentrates.

The general idea is this: if you want to get anything done in our world of distraction, deep work is a must.

Personally, I’ve spent years looking for ways to improve my focus and learn how to maintain a high level of productivity. I’ve tried all kinds of time-management techniques and advice from gurus, but the concept of deep work — working on one thing for an extended period of time — is the only one that’s helped.

According to Cal Newport, there are two core abilities that anybody who wants to thrive in today’s economy should master:

1. Mastering hard things quickly
2. Producing at an elite level of quality and speed

And to do both, you need to be able to work on a single task for long periods of time, instead of being constantly distracted. You need focus.

Deep work is about using directed focus (i.e. using all of your brainpower to focus on a single task at hand) rather than scattered focus (i.e. constantly switching back and forth between tasks.).

As Cal Newport says,

‘Our affinity for deep concentration is ancient, and its attraction is something we cannot easily discard. Evolution shaped a mind optimized to concentrate, and our recent embrace of distraction is an exception to our past.’

We think that by switching attention to a new task, we’ve switched focus. But in reality, our brains need time to upload the new context of the task. Research shows that when people are trying to multi-task, what’s really happening is that they are constantly switching back and forth between different tasks.

Hence, by trying to do many things at once, we’re essentially constantly loading and uploading our brains with new contexts, diminishing our ability to perform at an elite level.

Therefore, in order to perform at an elite level, get more done and have real, directed focus (instead of scattered multi-tasking, confused brain), deep work is the only way forward.

How to Use Deep Work to Be More Productive

Like many valuable things in life, deep work and concentration are skills. And they can be built by following a few simple steps.

Haruki Murakami, the legendary marathon-running author, wrote in his semi-autobiographical book ‘What I Talk When I Talk About Running’,

‘If I’m asked what the next most important quality is for a novelist, that’s easy too: focus — the ability to concentrate all your limited talents on whatever’s critical at the moment. Without that you can’t accomplish anything of value.’

Just like training for a marathon, you can train your mind to concentrate. Here is how to do it.

1. Set a Certain Time For it Each Day

If you’ve ever tried concentrating on something for long periods of time, you probably know that it’s exhausting. It takes time. It takes energy. And it takes willpower.

The best way to teach yourself focus while using as little willpower as possible is to make it a habit.

Pick a task, set a time (perhaps in the morning, while your head is still clear) to work for an extended period of time on this one thing, get rid of any distractions (eg. messages, social media and work).

The next day, repeat. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Cal Newport suggests doing deep work first thing in the morning, from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. That’s when your mind is functioning at its best.
2. When you first start, don’t worry if you can’t work for more than 20 or 30 minutes. With practice, you’ll be able to extend your deep work time to a few hours, but not more than four. In his book, Cal Newport provides research that shows that a human brain cannot focus for more than four hours at a time.
3. It’s important to get rid of all distractions. I would suggest putting your phone on aeroplane mode, getting rid of all of your notifications in the notification centre and installing an app like Freedom, which turns off your internet connectivity and any incoming messages for a certain period of time.

When I was getting ready for my college exams, I remember spending a lot of time teaching myself to focus. SATs are hard. They require 4 hours of uninterrupted focus, and few teenagers can do that. When I first started, I couldn’t sit for more than 20 minutes, I got tired and became more distracted.

However, with daily practice, I was able to increase my focus to 1 hour, then 2 hours and finally to full 3 hours 55 minutes — and pass my exams with ease.

Remember: concentration is a skill, and it can be trained.

2. Have a Shutdown Ritual

I have a favourite quote. It’s from the founder of Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington:

‘Burnout is not the price you have to pay for success.’

With regards to focus, this couldn’t be more accurate. Cal Newport suggests that restoring and de-stimulating your brain daily is as important as focusing on and doing deep work in the first place. It’s also a lifehack nobody told you about.

Your brain is like a muscle. After you’ve done your deep work session for the day, unplugging is important as it helps restore your concentration energy levels back to normal so that you can function the next day.

The important part about unplugging at the end of the day is to completely forget about work. Your brain will only allow you to do that if it really feels like it’s done, so make sure to put a full stop once you’re finished working so that your mind feels that it’s really finished.

At the same time, if you need to do deep work later in the day when your mind is already cluttered with different concerns, obligations, and demands, unplugging may provide a way for you to achieve focus.

A few ways you can unplug include:

1. Take a nap.
2. Meditate for 10–20 minutes.
3. Go for a short walk out in nature.

When they hear the words “take a break”, a lot of people think about checking their social media and lying on the couch, scrolling through Instagram feeds. In terms of focus and deep work, this is suicide.

Think about it like this: when you focus on an extended period of time, it’s just like running. You won’t be able to run for more than 2 hours at a time. But if you took a short 15-min relaxing break between each hour (instead of doing burpees), you would be able to run more afterwards.

Remember: unplugging is as important as working. So trying to cram a few minutes of work in the evening will hinder your ability to focus the next day.

3. Have a Rule For Being Distracted

But we are all people, right? And sometimes we do need to check our emails (and answer them) to be polite, and sometimes we do need to scroll our Instagram feeds.

In terms of focus, these activities okay only if it’s done during a certain part of the day and is not hindering focus during the ‘deep work’ hours.

Cal Newport suggests not checking social media until after the deep work time is over. Hence, if you need to scroll Instagram — that’s fine, just don’t do it before focused work.

A couple of things I use to help me achieve focus while enjoying social media include:

1. I never check my phone until after I am done with both my breakfast and my deep work. I do deep work in the mornings, right after eating. Following this rule helps my mind to stay calm and empty and it improves my focus during work immensely.
2. When I work, I turn off all distractions. I turn off my phone, I disconnect my WiFi, I make myself totally unreachable. That way, I know that the only thing that’s in front of me is work. No excuses.
3. I check email two times per day. Once after I am done with my deep work, and once in the evening. Email is a long-form communication, and there is nothing that can happen between those two times that’s crucially important. (If there is, people will usually find a way to reach me.)
4. I check social media two times per day. Same thing as with email. I try to keep myself sane and not refresh my accounts three times per hour, as it only leaves me more distracted then I was before.

The key thing here, as Cal Newport talks about it in his book, is to change the relationship with technology. It’s there for your convenience. Not otherwise.

4. Take Care of Your Body

This one is very important. You can do everything right, set aside times for deep work and get rid of all distractions, but if you don’t take care of your body, your mind and ability to focus will suffer.

There are a few key elements to this:

• Getting enough sleep
• Exercising well
• Staying hydrated
• Eating healthy

Let’s analyze each in a little more depth.

Getting enough sleep

If you’re getting less than 7–9 hours of sleep, chances are, your ability to focus will be noticeably impaired. People who are sleep deprived have more trouble remembering things, their creativity levels go down and they lack the ability to perform at their best.

When we sleep, memories are re-activated and connections between neurons are strengthened. Hence, if you don’t get enough sleep, your mind won’t be able to recall and retain the needed information later on. You can become forgetful and less attentive as a result.

When you’re sleep-deprived, your mind goes into a mode of scattered focus, and it’s hard for it to sustain long periods of directed concentration.

Exercising well

According to Forbes, when we exercise, our brain becomes more plastic. It can adapt and learn more easily. Your focus is improved, and your brain’s short-term memory functions at its peak up to 3 or 4 hours after you exercise.

At the same time, it helps you control your impulses and become less reactive, manage priorities and retain information more effectively.

Staying hydrated and oxygenated

You’ve probably noticed that when you’re flying in a plane, it’s hard to solve complex tasks. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, as in the aeroplane at 30,000 ft in the air, the cabin is filled with CO2 and not enough oxygen for your brain to function properly. If you go to sit by the ocean beach, on the other hand, you’ll find that you are more insightful, creative and focused.

Staying hydrated is important too. Studies have shown that dehydration reduces concentration levels, cognitive and motor skills. So keep a water bottle by your side every time you engage in deep work.

Eating healthily

The last point here is probably the most important one. When you drink too much soda or eat fatty and unhealthy food, it makes you more reactive and fogs your brain. It becomes very hard to function at peak levels of performance.

If you want to achieve high levels of focus, treat your body as you would treat a car that you want to run for a long distance. Give yourself the best fuel possible.

5. The Pomodoro Technique

Last but not least, a little life hack that will help you improve your focus and complete tasks is the Pomodoro Technique. It’s a small alteration to Cal Newport’s deep work and, in fact, it’s something I use on a daily basis, even whilst writing this article.

Sometimes sitting for long periods of time (2 to 4 hours, like Cal Newport suggests) may be quite daunting and difficult. When trying to get stuff done and keep your focus sharp, the famous Pomodoro Technique, invented by an Italian time management guru in the late 1980s, can come in handy.

Here is how it works:

1. Pick a task, prepare your environment and get rid of distractions
2. Work for 25 minutes without interruption
3. Take a 5-minute break as a reward
4. Repeat the cycle four times
5. Take a long break after

The beautiful thing about this technique is that it takes a big project and breaks it down in small, less scary chunks. It’s also beneficial because you know exactly how long you should be working for and so you can commit fully to the task during that window.

Summary

Haruki Murakami says in his book,

‘Fortunately it [the ability to focus for a long period of time] can be acquired and sharpened through training.’

In many ways, focus is like endurance when running a marathon. It’s a skill. And like any skill, it can be built and trained.

It’s a superpower that you can use to achieve many things in life, and as we become more distracted than ever, being able to focus for long periods of time and produce at high quality and speed is becoming more valuable than ever.

To recap, here are the five things you need to sharpen your focus today:

1. Make deep work a habit and routine: Set a certain time for it each day.
2. Have a shutdown ritual. And make it as important as doing deep work.
3. Have a rule for being distracted. And use social media at certain times only.
4. Take care of your body. Sleep well, exercise, get enough healthy food and water.
5. Use the Pomodoro Technique. And break down a big task into small bursts of focus followed by a rest.

By doing deep work, you might become indispensable to your work environment. So do things. And keep being focused.

References

1. “The Cognitive and Productive Costs of Multitasking,”
2. “Deep Work”, C. Newport
3. “On the Value of Hard Focus”, C. Newport, Study Hacks
4. “Our Ancient Attraction to Focus,” C. Newport, Study Hacks
5. “6 Ways Exercise Makes You Smarter,” J. Cohen, Forbes
6. “Pomodoro Technique,” Wikipedia

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