How to Remain Focused | #AskDavidMeltzer 34
More people are working from home than ever before, but the biggest question remains; How can we be productive outside of our typical work environment? When adapting to a new routine and environment, we need to focus on four key areas which will keep us productive, accessible, and efficient in order to maximize the way we use our time.
1. Create a Habit Machine: Lower the Bar
A stable routine is always helpful, which is why having a habit machine is essential for those who are trying to maximize the efficiency with their time.
Your habit machine, which is simply a system to help you build positive habits, will help you to begin adding more value to your daily routine. The first step is a little counterintuitive to some: lower the bar. Tell yourself, "I'm going to do this a minimum of one minute today, two minutes a day tomorrow." Set the bar low, but continually raise it to build momentum, which grows and accelerate when you are consistent and persistent.
2. Save 4 Minute...
More people are working from home than ever before, but the biggest question remains; How can we be productive outside of our typical work environment? When adapting to a new routine and environment, we need to focus on four key areas which will keep us productive, accessible, and efficient in order to maximize the way we use our time.
1. Create a Habit Machine: Lower the Bar
A stable routine is always helpful, which is why having a habit machine is essential for those who are trying to maximize the efficiency with their time.
Your habit machine, which is simply a system to help you build positive habits, will help you to begin adding more value to your daily routine. The first step is a little counterintuitive to some: lower the bar. Tell yourself, "I'm going to do this a minimum of one minute today, two minutes a day tomorrow." Set the bar low, but continually raise it to build momentum, which grows and accelerate when you are consistent and persistent.
2. Save 4 Minutes a Day
One of the practices that I've instituted into my habit machine is every day I set a goal or an objective to figure out how I can save four minutes a day. Four minutes a day is a magical number for me because I know it represents three full days of productivity each year.
Most people are productive for 8 hours or less every day. If you can save 4 minutes every day that is 24 hours of time, which is 3 full days of productivity. I know any positive habit that I can create or any system or process that I can implement that saves me just four minutes a day has a compounding effect on my results.
3. Be a Student of Your Calendar
One of the biggest changes in productivity came for me when I started studying my calendar. This isn’t taking a look at what you have on your schedule, there are three areas to focus on:
Study the things you have planned for the day. For the tasks that you regularly plan, look to create efficiencies with your habit machine. For example, I have a 5/20 Rule where I try to schedule five-minute phone calls and keep my in-person meetings to twenty minutes, creating situations where the people that I interact with are ready for our interaction and focused. With a predominance of virtual meetings today, instituting something as minorly different as a 4/19 Rule could allow for more production, creating an extremely effective way to save 4 minutes a day, which results in an extra 3 days of productivity during the year.
Study the white space of your calendar. Be critical of how you are scheduling your day. Look at how can you schedule more of those four-minute calls or nineteen-minute meetings. Consider how you can be more accessible to those who might need you. And don’t forget to ensure you schedule time for activities for your own enjoyment.
Study your sleep. Sleep is not only is a restorative process, but it enhances your immune system, which is of the utmost importance. You need to build a consistent sleep routine that helps restore not only your physical being but your mental health, as well.
4. Master Prioritization
As you're studying your calendar, you it helps to understand what I call the “Do It Now” rule. There's an old saying, “Ask a busy person to do something for you and you'll be much more likely to get it done.” It goes beyond that, though.
You have to evaluate your tasks by urgency and importance in order to determine priority. You do this by analyzing the actuality of the situation or event considering your own personal values, not the urgency perceived by others.
If a task is Urgent and Important: Do It Now. If you put off doing something that you can do now, it will take you at least double the time to complete it. If something is Important but Not Urgent: Plan it, schedule it in your calendar. Give yourself a deadline! For something that is Urgent but Not Important: Delegate it. Trust your team to take care of it. Finally, if something is Not Urgent and Not Important, figure out a way to eliminate it. It’s obviously not worth your time.
5. Eliminate Distractions
What you focus on, or what you pay attention to and give intention to, will create coincidences in your life, whether you want them or not.
One example is I was once given the opportunity to drive around at a real track, in a real race car, with a real professional driver. They had cones set up for us to maneuver around and I kept hitting the cones. My driving instructor told me to stop looking at the cones, to which I replied, "Well, I don't want to hit the cones." He told me to look at the road in front of me, focus on where I wanted to go and not where I didn’t want to go. After that, I didn’t hit a single cone.
If you're focused on the distractions you face, you're going to put attention and intention on it, eventually receiving the coincidence of the distraction. Pay attention to what you want for yourself and your business, as well as the tasks you need to accomplish in order to get those results. Stay focused and realize that you will hit the cones if all you're looking at is the cones.
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