High performers do not multitask

Multitasking is ruining your productivity.

In this article I am going to teach you how to double your productivity through better focus.

We live in a world of constant distractions. Everything is vying for your attention. To be more effective you must develop your focus. Luckily, focus is a learnable skill.

Increased focus will improve your productivity and enable you to accomplish more tasks in less time.

Failing to build focus skills will keep you trapped in a world of distraction and inefficiency.

Let’s look at 5 steps to build focus.

The Big 5 for Focus

We will cover 5 principles to make you a focused machine

• Task Prioritization
• Environmental Mastery
• Sprints and Recovery
• Fuel for Focus
• Mindfullness

Each of these play a specific role in maximizing your focus. You can make significant progress by enacting any one of these, but doing all 5 will significantly improve your productivity. Let’s start with #1.

Task Prioritization

If everything is important, nothing is.

Your productivity begins with knowing what you need to focus on.

You surely know what tasks you need to get done. Write them down. All of them. This includes work tasks, personal tasks, family events, eating food, everything. I like to bucket my tasks in the following segments:

• Personal tasks (learning, exercise, meal planning, etc).
• Work tasks (emails, objectives, content, coaching sessions, meetings)
• Family tasks (cooking dinner, wife-time, dad-time)
• Other

After you complete a full list, prioritize them. If everything is important, then nothing can take priority over another.

Given you wear multiple hats, you will have priorities in each major bucket (personal, family, work, etc).

Let’s take your work tasks as an example.

Ask yourself, “What are the 5 things I MUST complete today to move my work forward?” Put those 5 on the top of your list.

Draw a line under the 5th item. The rest of the items can wait until the first 5 are complete.

As you move through the day, work on your first task until it is complete. Do NOT work on task 2 until task 1 is finished.

I recommend blocking time in your calendar to focus on these items. If there is empty space on your calendar, you are more likely to fill it with something unimportant.

But how do you work on this task with increased focus? Well, let’s move to principle 2.

Master your Environment

How well you work is dependent on where you work. You can be at your home office or at your work office. You can be abroad or working on your phone. In all scenarios, your surroundings will impact your focus. Let’s work on controlling your environment to limit your distractions.

First, turn your phone off. Silence it. Put it in a drawer. Put it in the freezer. Ok, maybe not that…

Then silence your notifications on your computer. You have to create a space where nothing will interrupt you. You may have to close your door, turn on on out-of-office email responder, or block your calendar appropriately.

Second, if you can control your temperature, turn it down. A warm room can make you sleepy. A sleepy person is not a productive person.

Third, play some music.

Music in the background can increase attentiveness and concentration. Choose music you like. Also, pick music with no words or that in a language you don’t understand (I like Puccini). In my experience, music with lyrics you know can be distracting.

There is another rule that I like to follow: one room one purpose.

The office is for work. The kitchen is for cooking. The living room is for Game of Thrones. You get it.

Your office space should be saved for work, and work alone.

When you enter that space, you should be primed to be productive.

Organize your space, put your phone away, and get after it.

But how long should you work for to be effective?

Sprint and Recover

Just as a sprinter cannot expect to run at top speed for long periods of time, you must sprint in your productivity and then rest.

For every 45 minutes that you are crushing your tasks, take 5 minutes to take a breather. Get up, walk around, grab some water, but do NOT touch your phone.

Use a kitchen timer or one on your computer. This will help you mentally prepare and block the time in your mind, knowing that you will get a break when the time is up.

There is an exception to this: if you find yourself in flow, the let it ride.

If you are lost in the moment, forget the time, and are cranking on all cylinders then continue your effort until you are complete or until your productivity or creativity slows.

When you feel your output per time start to decrease, then take your break.

Everyone has different optimal times of focus, so experiment with how long you can stay productive.

Even with this variability, there is one thing everyone should consider: how you fuel your brain.

Fuel Yourself for Focus

Focus lives in the brain.

Your brain is impacted by the food you eat.

High carbohydrate meals have the potential to ruin your focus by negatively impacting your blood sugar.

Think of a time you ate a donut and felt awesome for the next 30 minutes. I bet you then felt a wave of fatigue soon after. This is called rebound hypoglycemia and is due to your blood sugar dropping below normal levels.

When this happens your energy drops, your focus decreases, and your brain starts to think about finding the next meal.

Not to mention you might be a hangry person who must eat to maintain a normal mood.

To combat this, eat balanced meals and consume plenty of protein. If you eat breakfast, make sure you get protein and fat in your diet. Sugar-laden foods taste great, but wreck your brain’s performance over the day.

If you do intermittent fasting, or don’t eat breakfast, you should feel a steady level of focus until it is time to eat.

Your food impacts your mind. Speaking of the mind, let’s talk about the 5th topic.

Be Mindful

Mindfulness is a superpower.

Mindfulness is the practice of being present and fully engaged in the task at hand. If your mind starts to wander, you can pull it back in by recognizing your drifting thoughts and choosing to refocus.

You do not need to pick up meditation to be mindful. There is no need to meditate for an hour a day to hone your mind for improved focus.

If you catch your mind wandering, try pausing and taking a couple breaths to clear your thoughts.

By focusing on your breath and being aware of your internal dialogue, you can improve your ability to concentrate.

This takes practice and mindfulness is a skill you can develop.

Bonus - Crush a Workout in the Morning

We all know that exercise is good for the body. It is also very good for your brain.

Dr. John Ratey writes about this in his wonderful book, Spark. He states that exercise acts on the brain just like a little bit of Ritalin and a little bit of Prozac.

Essentially, exercise can balance your neurochemicals to help you even out your mood and keep you focused through the day.

By doing exercise in the morning you can prime your brain for a day full of focused work.

It does not matter so much as what you do for exercise, just that you do it.

Get your heart rate up. Challenge yourself. Push your body.

Summary

You cannot learn Mandarin while painting a portrait and playing chess at the same time. You cannot write an epic speech while also fielding customer complaints and employee challenges.

To be effective and stay focused, do one thing at a time. Implement any or all of these 5 principles to increase your focus and productivity.