6 easy ways to focus on the doing.
Focus on the Doing
Know Your Triggers
The likelihood of being distracted is directly related to the amount of pull something has on our attention. Increased self-observation and deep introspection help you identify where your boundaries lie.
There are three cues that you need to either set boundaries for or to raise your awareness when your boundaries slip:
Discomfort
Resentment
Guilt
You can’t always avoid every single distraction, but if you’re aware of your weaknesses, you have a better chance of putting the right systems in place to reduce exposure to distractions.
The first step in setting boundaries is knowing your triggers and limits – are they mental, emotional, physical, or spiritual?
Once you identify your triggers, you can set healthy boundaries to give you room to do what you want to focus on. Boundaries serve as the framework to focus your efforts and harness your energy so that you can do your best work.
Keep in mind that your limits are your own, so it’s likely to be different than the limits of others.
Our inability to set boundaries results from our fear of offending those around us. However, you have little to no obligation beyond your own guilt to be immediately available to everyone all the time. Once you set boundaries, stand by them.
Eliminate Digital Distractions
If you’re like most workers, you don’t spend all of your hours at work doing actual work. Be honest. During those perceived lulls at work, the temptation to surf the internet or double-check your notifications can be strong. Remove all digital distractions and reward yourself later.
Email Usage
Emails can be extremely distracting. Keeping our email open makes us think we are more connected to others. However, checking our emails often is unnecessary.
The average professional spends 28% of their workday checking emails and responding to emails.[2]
If there is an urgent matter, email would not be the first method of contact for you. People will call you instead.
What can you do to resist constantly checking your email?
Phone Use
Not all calls are about your apartment being burglarized or a loved one in a precarious situation. So turn off your mobile phone or put it on silent mode during hours when you need all your attention on your work. You can also opt to activate the voicemail service.
You could also request your workmates to inform your callers you will get back to them later instead of always tapping your back or shouting out that you’ve got a call at any time.
Once you’re done with work, call back the earlier callers and explain your situation briefly. In the next two minutes, ask about their concern, note it down and tell them you’d call them back for their needed action. Prepare and write all their needed details, bearing in mind their possible follow-up thoughts on the matter. Then, call them back and always limit the phone conversation to less than three minutes.
BE “INVISIBLE”
You can also set your instant messaging status to indicate you are “busy” or stay “invisible” while you work to remain focused on a task. If you still get IMs, just turn off the notification or program. Turn it on later when your current task is not as pressing.
Social Media
It’s usually hard to stay focused at work because something new, interesting, and perky always comes with most social networking sites. Not only will it defeat your purpose of staying focused at work, but there’s plenty of information there that could get your mind unnecessarily perturbed – like a friend’s status about her heartbreak or someone from work getting a raise.
Discipline yourself to log in only when you have extra minutes free. This will help you efficiently use your time to focus on work.
Focus on Short Bursts
The tried and true “Pomodoro technique” is a key strategy to improve how you focus at work. It understands that focusing on difficult tasks is both efficient and tiring. You can break it down like this
How to do the Pomodoro Technique:
Choose your assignment/work to do
Set the timer to 25 minutes
Work until the timer rings
Take a five-minute break
Take longer breaks (15 to 30 minutes) for every four Pomodoro intervals
Article and Video Links
https://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/15-ways-to-stay-focused-at-work.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ITff1fIbSc
I am inviting you to check out my resources page. It is completely FREE and has a ton information and some downloads. You can find it at resources.xpansioncode.com.
I will be releasing new episode every Thursday!
So I have a question, how are small business owners like us who are spending 60 plus hours a week working in our businesses are still struggling to make ends meet. We have no time to spend with family, friends are the things we value most in love to feel trapped inside of our businesses and assuming our lives, how do we get the freedom to be able to work on our businesses? And not? That is the question, this podcast will give you the answer. My name is John Nichols. And this is expansion code. Radio. What's up everyone? Welcome to today's podcast. My name is John Nichols. And this is expansion code radio. Today's topic is focus on the doing. And I think this is really important for us, as entrepreneurs, business owners, owners, managers, anybody in a leadership role is the thing is, is that we set all these goals, at least, you know, this is the first quarter of the year 2023. And most everybody tries to, at least in the business world tries to set goals. And the thing is, is that I want to challenge you, instead of focusing on what the goal is, focus on the doing of the goal, the action required to accomplish the goal, quit thinking about the goal, start thinking about focusing on the doing. And I really love that. It's just one of these things. I was listening to a YouTube video this morning that one of my coaches had asked me to listen to, and it was talking about building your audience. And the big thing is, is that this guy spent six years creating a podcast with very few listeners. And then all of a sudden, one day, it just, it just blew up one episode called somebody, and then they shared it. And then next thing, you know, he's in the top 10 of all podcasts there is. And I was just like, this is really cool. Or top 10 In, I think in the business section of podcast. And I just found this very fascinating. Because one of the things he said in this video was focus on the doing. And I'll tell you guys, what I'll do, I will put the link to the YouTube video in my links, or I'm sorry, in the description in this podcast. So you have a link for that. But I just really love that focus on the doing. And then he talks about this, and it talks about being consistent, and all kinds of things that we do. But it comes back to me. And it makes me realize that a lot of the time I get stuck on what the goal is, and not focusing on accomplishing that goal, not focusing on the doing on what I should be doing that makes sense and are doing what you should be doing. I guess it does. And then I looked up a couple of articles today to own focusing on the Doink focusing on the action. And I'll have a link in the description to an article that I'm going to reference today some a talk about some of the things I'm not going to like talk, I'm not going to repeat what the article is. But I do have some some of the stuff in the article in my descriptions today. And there will be a total link to the article also. But I do want to talk about some of the things and so why can we not focus on the doing? And I think a lot of times, it is the things that keep us from being productive in general. And I think the first thing that this article talks about that kind of set home with me was, know what your triggers are. And this is really important. It's so vitally important that if you don't know what's triggering you from being non productive, then you really don't have the awareness in your life. It's so we're going to focus a little bit today on awareness. It trying to figure out what some of the triggers are that we have in our life. So I'll tell you a little story. So one of my triggers is is that I just get bored. Sometimes. I got a little bit of ADHD, you know, I'm a squirrel them off down a rabbit hole. And the thing about this is, is that I really have to give my I save time. And get away from some of these distractions, because it really is one of my triggers, whenever I get bored, and I know I'm getting bored, I need to get up, stop what I'm doing, do something differently. And for me, it's more like exercise, or it's maybe get a snack or, or a hot drink, or some sort of energy drink or power drink or something like this, you're here. And I don't mean like monsters and things like that. I mean, I have these energy drinks that are not really energy drinks, they're more of a dietary drink that I that I use to kind of give me a little more energy. And so I guess they are an energy drink. But it's not the classic stuff, which you see in, in convenience stores and grocery stores like Monster and things of this nature. It really does help me get focused back on what I need to do. And so for me, if I start getting bored with what I'm doing in my focusing, what I do is that I get up, and I stretch and I walk, I go to the bathroom, I go pet my dog was a play with my dogs for a few minutes, I give myself some time to get up and get non bored, and then come back to what I'm doing. And I give myself set times, and we'll talk about this, talking about a schedule here in just a little bit about all this stuff. Or sometimes distractions are known what triggers are is sometimes it's a discomfort, so maybe I'm hot, maybe I'm cold, something that is discomfort, maybe, you know, maybe I've got an ache or pain someplace, maybe I got a headache, that there's a great discomfort. But knowing that discomfort or a trigger to keep you from being focused is a great thing. But it's being able to be aware of what you're doing, and how you're doing it. And what's going on, I think is a huge thing. And you really need to take the time to kind of do a little self evaluation. When you feel waning. Why am I you know, in this mood today that I don't want to be doing this?
Unknown Speaker 7:21
Is it that I'm depressed? Is it that I didn't sleep well last night? Is it anything, you know, I'm dehydrated. I haven't had enough to eat. It's whatever your triggers are, that keep you from moving forward from keeping you from action in that day
Unknown Speaker 7:45
is going to be so important. And so I really, really, really implore that you take the time to do some self discovery. And think about what you're doing. And reflect upon yourself. And start being aware of the things that are making you distracted. These triggers are huge things. And once you figure out what they are, then you can come up with a game plan on how to overcome them. And that's a big, big thing. Because if we want to be the most productive people that we can be, if we want to be the best version of ourselves that we can be, I personally want to be the best version of John that I can be, I have to understand myself, first, I have to do some work on John, I have to come in and be aware of my shortcomings and my strengths. And a lot of these things are really hard for us to do. But in order for me to focus on the doing, I got to figure out what keeps me non focus, what gets me distracted. And so in doing that, finding out what these triggers are, is basically a self growth piece that I have to dig and dive into. So for me, I love to sleep. I really just love to sleep. And so I'm reading this book called The 5am Club. And it's talking about getting up at 5am. And from five to six is the magic hour is when you can get all kinds of crazy stuff done. And it's broken up into a structure to where the first 20 minutes is. Exercise. The next 20 minutes is meditation or quiet time with God or self reflecting in these things like that. And then the last 20 minutes is actually doing just a little bit of work to kind of get your day prepared. It's preparing for your work day. And when this is broken down like this, it really makes me able to Focus. And I think you're putting your best foot forward, when you're able to do a little self focusing first thing in the mornings, and spend a little time with yourself. And if you're able to do that, then you can really get focusing on the doing because that six to seven hour for me is great, because now I've got a full hour worth of work I can do. And then I run downstairs, grab a real quick shower, and then take my daughter to school. And I'll be back home by 815. And then I can hop back into work again, because I've already showered, I've already got my day started, I've already spent two hours of this day, the first hour is basically preparing for my day,
Unknown Speaker 10:49
the power hour. And then the second hour is getting a lot of productive work done.
Unknown Speaker 10:57
And it's also being disciplined about these things. So it's really been purposeful, and knowing what I'm doing, and planning out my day, so that they're so getting back to what I was saying earlier, though, figuring out what your triggers are, and then find ways to mitigate them. So the next thing is you want to eliminate digital distractions. And this can be in a form of all different things, it can be constantly checking your emails, it can be people calling you, or texting you on your phone. It can be social media. There's just so much stuff out there that is easily distracting us and our lives, taking us away from our productivity, and you have to understand and once again, awareness is key, you have to be aware that, hey, I'm getting bored, I'm gonna go grab my cell phone, and I'm gonna scroll through Facebook, I'm gonna scroll through Instagram I'm gonna get on Tik Tok, I'm going to do whatever it is. Some and some people in the business world get on LinkedIn. It's pretty interesting. A little fact about LinkedIn is that when people get on LinkedIn, they're normally looking for something they normally don't spend more than 20 minutes a day is the average business person's time on LinkedIn. Because it's really not what I call a social platform, it is a business platform. So when you help, or you may be getting on Twitter, or all these other things, but there's so much social media out there, Snapchat, and there's I mean, you can go on and go WhatsApp, and there's just all kinds of things out there. You know, one of the things in my life that distracts me is that I have a group thread with me in in my Sunday school class, and they are in my small group at church. And we talk about everything in this group, everything underneath the sun. And it's pretty interesting. And the things that they say can easily take me down a rabbit hole. They're talking about sports, or if somebody's having a bad day, or if they're asking for prayer or all these other things.
Unknown Speaker 13:30
It can really take me down a rabbit hole. And so I have to be really aware of the things that are going on in my life.
Unknown Speaker 13:41
So sometimes my first my phone abuzz, I'll look at it. And it's the guys on my text right now going down a rabbit hole here. And so the thing is, is that this stuff can be just crazy, crazy distracting. And we have to find ways to mitigate that thing. Or these things, it's really important that we spend the time to focus on what we need to be focusing on. I talked about that sometimes we focus too much on the goal and not the action, that there's another distracting piece that happens in our life. We're focusing sometimes on the wrong thing, and not doing the action that will actually get us to our goal. And I don't think there's anything wrong with goals. But I think once you write a goal, then you need to have an action plan for it. You need to schedule that action plan. And you need to really follow this action plan. And it's really highly important that if you want to be successful in accomplishing this goal, that you got to follow that action plan. I think a key component of an action plan is to be sure that you schedule it your day. do you schedule out what you're doing. And there is a technique out there called the Pomodoro Technique. And what this does is that you choose to do assigned work or you sign yourself work to do. And you only do it in 25 minute increments. And then you set a timer. When that timer goes off, you take a five minute break. And that's get up, go to the bathroom, get up and do all kinds of things. For me, always get up another bathroom, but probably about every half hour. And the reason why is because I just have a small bladder, and I can't hold my water. So this way I have to, I mean, I have to go to the restroom. And sometimes I drink things that are more of a diuretic. And so and also drink a gallon of water a day. So for me, the big thing is, is that you know, about every 2530 minutes, I'm getting up going to the restroom. And then, you know, after every four intervals of this 25 minute work, then five minute break, you take a little longer break of 15 minutes, maybe even up to 30 minutes. And what this will do is that it will help break your your workday, your productivity into manageable sections. And so this is a really great way to do it. For me, I normally schedule out certain things like I give myself an hour to do a podcast. And so whenever I do when I'm doing a podcast, you know, I know what I have to do, I have to get certain things ready, I have to go in and set all my stuff up in MMA into my hosting platform, get all my stuff typed up, I type up an outline of the podcast. So this way I can upload it into the notes or description of what I'm doing. There's just all kinds of things that I do. In order to get a podcast done when when we takes about an hour or so within that hour, I'm able to sit here and do these things, and then record my podcast because normally, I'm trying to keep my podcasts at around 20 to 30 minutes long. I've got 30 minutes to the other stuff, which is normal. And I'll give you an example of what my day looks like, own certain things that I'm doing, I normally try to schedule myself out no more than an hour, or any task. And if it's going to take longer than an hour, or break it up into smaller chunks, I'm going to do this I break up whatever that goal or task is I'm doing. And then we break it up into smaller chunks so that this way, especially if it's like a three or four hour project, or even like days, I definitely break that stuff up into small manageable chunks. So this way I have I can kind of reward myself after each little section. So in for me a reward may be Hey, I'm just gonna get up and walk around, I'm gonna go play with the dogs for a few minutes, I'm gonna walk outside get some fresh air. I'm gonna read a book a little bit. I try not to get on things that are just huge time customers lack social media, or even Business Media, or anything news outlets, or any of that kind of stuff. I try not to get involved in any of those kinds of things. So I try to do something more productive. Maybe I exercise a little bit. Maybe I do some push ups and sit ups, some jumping jacks and burpees things of this nature. I give myself the time. So that this way, you know, this is kind of my little reward, I give myself that break. And I normally try to designate two hours a day for reading or listening to audiobooks one of the two or both. And I always schedule that time with my family, too. And so it's really just highly important. So so my day may look like I get up at 5am. I do my Power Hour, six to seven. I work from seven to 815. I shower, get ready, take my daughter to school and come back home from about 830 to 10. I work more from 10 to 1030. I normally have a zoom call every day, Monday through Friday. And then from 1030 to noon. I'm back working on whatever project I'm doing. And then from about then I take a break and then from about one to two Every day I try to get in some reading and make it and actually make time for that because I do believe that continual learning is such a vital part of what we do to become successful, I put that into my day, I schedule that into my day, if I don't schedule it into my day, then it ends up falling at the end of the day. And that's not a good place for actually improving yourself. improvement needs to be put into your day somewhere. And it doesn't have to be two hours, it could be 30 minutes, it could be 15 minutes, it could, it could be five minutes. But you have to pick how much time you're putting into improving yourself. From probably two to four, I'm back working on projects again. Like I said, I give myself breaks in between this. I personally like to work out in the evenings. So that suits us when we want one of my things I like to do, I normally like to eat a little bit and then go workout. And then I spin then I spend the rest of the evening with my with my family. So this is kind of a how my day kind of breaks down. And it differs from day to day. Depends on my schedule depends upon what's going on. In our last lock. Last week, my son was home for the entire week from boarding school. Well, I flew out most of the things I were doing. I was doing last week, I didn't do podcast last week, the reason why I spent time with my son that there was more important. So you have to be sure to prioritize what you're doing. But I think the big thing that I want you to get out of this podcast is, is that you really just have to focus on the doing, whatever your goals are, whatever your task are, focus on the doing and not the end result. Because if you focus on the doing, the end result will come and normally come faster because you are focusing on what needs to be done the action it takes in order to get these things done. So I hope this podcast is helpful. Thank you so much for listening to me today. I really do appreciate all of you folks, and I will see you on the next one. Thank you so much for joining me today and listening to this episode. Hopefully, what I shared with you will help you in your business journey as we share to help others expand their minds, businesses and profits. This episode did help you be sure to share it with someone else that you know that it will help. We can only achieve our mission if we share it with others and always give first I hope I can also help you in further by sharing my resources is a page that contains all the digital assets we use to expand our business and to help us free of time. The great thing about this page is completely free. Just go to Resources dot expansion koat.com To get your free access. Thank you again for tuning in and have a fantastic day my friends