3 Enemies Of Focus And Productivity (Plus, What To Try Instead)

Like me, you may have heard many tips to increase your productivity and your ability to focus, but are they working?  

It’s vital for entrepreneurs to figure out how to be productive so you don’t fall into the trap of working 24/7, 365.    When it’s your own business,  it’s very tempting to just keep working.  Here’s what I know to be true - you’ll be more inspired, more creative and well, more focused, if you make time for life outside of work, for family and friends, and for rest and rejuvenation.

Before we add on any productivity hacks, let’s start by talking about three things that could be keeping you from creating the kind of focus and productivity you want.

THE ENEMIES OF FOCUS + PRODUCTIVITY

There are potentially many other enemies of focus and productivity,  but here are 3 I’ve noticed time and again.  These three productivity killers could also inspire you to figure out what else might be stealing your focus.  

1 - Distraction

While it may seem obvious that distractions could be Enemy #1 to your focus and productivity, we don’t necessary eliminate all the distractions that would help us because they’re hard habits to break.

When your social media accounts ping your phone, do you grab it every time to see who DM’d you?

Do you turn off email and meeting notifications on  your computer?

If you work from home, do you walk by and ignore that laundry pile, sink full of dishes, or full trashcan?  

Or do you let these things distract you, pulling away from your dedicated time to complete a certain tasks from your to-do list?

Do you find a workspace that helps you focus or is your environment full of distractions?  If you work from home, non-work related distractions abound:

• Letting the dog out

• Answering the doorbell

• Kids (if they’re home while you’re trying to work)

• Watering the plants that look a bit thirsty

• The temptation of television and that show you’re currently binge-ing

In other words, one of the first things you can do to set yourself up for productivity is to eliminate as many distractions as you can.

2 -  Other People’s Agendas

Years ago when I first heard motivational speaker, Brendon Burchard, speak at an in-person conference he said - when you wake up or start your day in your email inbox, you’re prioritizing other people’s agendas.

Anything in your email is something you need to react to or respond to; it’s someone else asking something of you.  If you want to start your day by prioritizing your to-do’s, you need to start with you!

To turn this around, schedule “checking your email” as a task in your calendar for later in the morning or day after you’ve decided the 3 needle-moving tasks you want to accomplish to feel productive in your business today.

3 - Task Jumping

I’m so guilty of this one!  Back in my corporate days, I used to pride myself on being a multitasker, and now I simply think of multitasking as something that can kill my focus and decrease my productivity.

It’s easier for your brain to focus in on doing one kind of task, finishing it, and then moving on to the next.  I’ll use this blog as an example.  I’ll sit down to write a new blog post and have the next 3 blog post ideas in my head.  I would be more productive if I allowed myself to flow directly into writing the next blog and the next blog all in one blog-writing batching session.  But noooooo….I get distracted.  My semi-recovering-perfectionist self wants to FINISH that first blog.  

Instead of continuing to batch write all my blogs for the upcoming month, I’m obsessed with creating the Pinterest pin that I’ll include in that first blog, in choosing the cover image for that article, and going into Squarespace to build the blog and scheduling it to publish.

See what I just did there?  I jumped tasks multiple times from writing, to designing in Canva, to locating and renaming a photo for my blog, to uploading my blog onto my website.  Those are 4 different tasks!

Imagine how much more productive I could be if I wrote 4 blogs in one sitting, then designed 4 Pinterest pins as a next task, then uploaded 4 blogs onto my website.  You waste a lot of time when you jump around like this and it takes you longer to get back into a focused zone.

The other smart and productive thing to do is schedule those tasks where you need all your brainpower and focused attention in your peak performance hours (when you feel your best).  My best time to get things done is in the morning - in fact, I’m writing this blog at 5am right now while my daughter’s still asleep.

Choosing photos, designing a Canva pin, and uploading my blog onto my website are all activities I can easily in my non-peak hours because they don’t take that much effort.

WHAT TO DO INSTEAD

Now that we’ve discovered a few things we can stop doing, let’s talk about 5 things you can try to become more productive in your business!

1 -  Pomodoro

You’ve heard this one before, but if you’ve never actually tried it, you’re missing out.  The Pomodoro Method (google it if you want the specific instructions) is simply setting a timer and in that 30, 45, or even 55 minutes you decide you’re only going to focus on one activity.  This really helps eliminate distractions because you’re training your brain to say - in the next 45 minutes I don’t need to check my email, answer the phone, or do anything else besides this one task.

Then, you take a 5-10 minute break, re-set your timer and do another focused session of work (where I recommend you only focus on one kind of task - i.e.  blog writing, designing social posts, bookkeeping, etc).

2 - Prioritize the ONE thing

As entrepreneurs we all have a million things we COULD do, but have you sat down to determine what ONE thing if you got it done could be the shift in helping you move the needle in your business?

Instead of diving into all the little tasks that can fill up your to-do list, start your day by asking  - if I could accomplish one thing today that really would make a difference in my business, what would that be?  Prioritize that.  Get that done!  You’ll automatically feel more productive by focusing on doing the things that really matter.

3 - Visualize the feeling

Picture in your mind the prioritized task or major project you want to tackle and fast forward to imagine you’ve finished it,  it’s all done.  How do you FEEL when that thing is done?  Visualize yourself checking that box saying I did it and how do you feel?  Focus on that feeling as you work on your project so you’re already feeling the results and feeling grateful that you finished it.

Whenever I’ve done this it’s helped me push forward and finish something faster than I may have otherwise!

4 - Focus on results

I heard someone say recently, it’s not about focusing on the task you want to get done, it’s about focusing on the results you want to achieve.  Your task list can be a to-do list a mile long.  There are going to be tasks you want to get done, big and small, but in order to increase your productivity, the idea here is to focus on your results and that the results you want drive which tasks you prioritize each day.

5 -  Eliminate distractions, start with you & batch similar tasks

The strategies mentioned in the first section of this article, where we were talking about the 3 enemies of focus and productivity, deserve to be repeated as I gave you some great strategies to increase your focus and productivity:

• Engineer your environment to eliminate distractions

• Don’t start your day in your email inbox, start by prioritizing your to-do list (or should I say, results list)

• Batch your work by similar tasks to remain focused on accomplishing one thing at a time

Hope this article helps you as much as it’s helped remind me of how I want to organize my day to be more productive!  The blessing and curse of being an entrepreneur is our days are ours to schedule exactly how we want to - - - increasing the odds of having more focused, productive time is definitely the way I want to work.