If you want to learn how to focus, then you must understand the acronym F.O.C.U.S. and implement it in your life.
Recently, we surveyed our entire database, and as you could probably imagine, we received some incredible information. We asked them about a whole range of things. In fact, you probably received the survey.
We wanted to know about:
- What you desire in life
- What sort of things you like to learn
- How you like to learn
- What's inspiring to you, etc.
After collating all of the research from thousands of people's responses, one of the most fascinating things that was returned was a very underestimated skill that people often miss.
It was the skill of time management and productivity.
We got comment after comment from people wanting to learn how to improve time management skills and how to increase productivity. The most common comments were:
- I can't manage my time.
- I’m always stressed out.
- I’ve got too many tasks.
- I procrastinate.
- I get frustrated.
- I can't move forward.
One person who filled in the survey said, "I feel productivity and time management is a place where I need to improve. Yet, I haven't seen a system in place that I could follow to implement.”
Not only are people aware that productivity is important, but they’re not able to find the right strategy around doing something about it. Thankfully for you and I, we have created an incredible amount of systems just around this single topic.
But here is the simple thing... all of that comes down to one simple word - 'FOCUS'.
What Does F.O.C.U.S. Really Stand For?
We heard a great acronym the other day. F.O.C.U.S. stands for 'Follow One Course Until Successful'.
We all want to learn how to focus, but people have a focus issue. We get distracted all the time. In fact, this is happening more and more thanks to social media and the way we’re programmed to look at our computers and other devices.
Our attention span is getting shorter and shorter. In fact, the attention economy is shrinking every single moment. We have less and less attention for everything.
What you want to do, is learn to focus. To learn how to improve productivity, you must exercise your focus muscle.
Let’s take a look at how you can focus better from different perspectives. Here’s how to focus from a year to year, month to month and a day to day perspective.
What Can We Do Year To Year?
If you’re going to start a big project, my advice is to just start one big project.
The reason for this is, when you start to look at projects and the compounding interest effect, you start to realise that your attention compounds the more things you throw at it.
For example, you are working on a project. This project will take a total of three months to complete. If you do this and no other project whatsoever, in three months from now, you will have completed the project. Congratulations!
If you start two projects and they’re both three months long, at the three months mark, you will not have completed anything. It will take up to six months before you’ll get a result in any of the two projects.
What this means is if you think you want to do a three-month project but you start two at the same time, you will not see a result for maybe three, four or five months.
Now, do the mathematics. If you start three projects, and they all take three months each, not one of these three projects will show you results until the ninth-month mark. That means, at the six-month mark, you won't have any results. Just like at the three-month mark, you won't have results.
So, you’ll probably:
- Get disheartened
- Get de-motivated
- Think that you’re unsuccessful
But if you just focus on one project at a time, you will see a result within three months.
How To Focus On A Year To Year Basis
My advice is if you are starting a business, start a business. Don't do:
- Share trading
• eBooks
• Rent to Buy
... on the side!
If you start a business selling cakes in a cake shop, then just focus on that. If you start a business being a coach, just focus on that. If you focus on that one project, based on the law of compound energy, you are going to get a result much faster than if you start two projects at the same time. how to increase productivity
The reason is that we can only focus on one thing at a time. We may seem to be able to focus on a lot of things at a time and spread our attention over many objects, but at any given moment we are only focusing on one thing.
And this is why it's so dangerous to SMS while you’re driving. It’s because you can't focus on the road while you are SMSing. If you extrapolate that over big projects, you can start seeing how the compound effect works.
On A Month To Month Basis
So how does one learn how to focus month to month? This is where we learn to get rid of bright shiny objects.
You might be working on certain goals or a three-month or 12-month project, but month to month you’re finding all these bright shiny objects.
You turn on the television and there’s something on "The Block". So, you think to yourself, "You know what? I am going to renovate my house, as well as starting up my cake shop business. I am going to renovate my house, as well as working on whatever other goal I am chasing right now.”
My advice is, month to month, learn to remove all of the bright shiny objects. These distractions just add more and more time to the projects you’re looking to create and certainly to get fulfilment out of.
Day To Day, What Do We Do?
Day to day we have to look for things called 'open loops'. Every day we have things happening. We need to look at how to break down the differences and make sure we can stay on task and in the here and now.
For example, let's say you’re on a telephone and you say to someone, "I'll shoot you an email.", and you hang up the phone. Rather than sending the email, you go off and do something else.
You have now opened up a loop inside your mind that sometime today, "I have to send this email". Which means you are going to have to think about it for the rest of the day.
While you’re holding on to that task in the back of your mind, you are going to burn through energy that you could be using to focus on the task at hand.
So, make sure you close the loop. If you say you’re going to send an email, send it straight away. If you say you’re going to call someone back, call them right then.
To learn how to focus day to day, make sure you have no open loops being created day in, day out as these open loops compound into a task list that really is never-ending.
How To FOCUS (Follow One Course Until Successful) – In Conclusion
We hope that you found some value in this video and blog post and now have some strategies and techniques that you can utilise from a year to year, month to month or day to day perspective. These are just a few very basic ones.
If you’re wanting to find more ability or more strategies around how to get more focus and how to become more productive in your day, for a very limited number of people, we have the opportunity right now for you to book in for a complimentary strategy session.
These are valued anywhere between $200 to $450, but if you would like one absolutely free, contact us here for a one-on-one complimentary session. We are only offering a few of them and it's first in best dressed, so make sure you jump in and grab yours.
During this session, we will spend about half an hour to an hour showing you some productivity strategies and techniques on how to improve time management skills and how to become more productive in your life.
Read more about: Mindset, Time Management
