Your Focus

It’s 3pm in the afternoon. Your co-worker barges in for the zillionth time while your phone incessantly rings. You being the ordinary, upstanding citizen are now beginning to harbor unsavory thoughts towards humanity. Or if you’re the typical college student, imagine it’s 3am in the morning. You’ve got one night to bang out that paper assigned only mere months ago. Alas, you’re beset by serious munchies and urges to check your brother’s girlfriend’s neighbor’s Farmville updates on Facebook.

Do you reach for a Snickers? Coffee? Red Bull? Maybe something natural and healthy, like a banana? Dial for a pizza?

No matter what the old GRE Verbal section may have me believe, my best analogy for food is likening it to fuel for car engines. Our motor shuts down when we run on empty. Regarding gingko biloba and other herbal supplements, there really are no miracle concentration cures. Anyone who says so will also probably sell you natural hair solutions from Donald Trump and other sorts of oil from slithery, coldblooded creatures. Yet some food combinations are indeed better than others when it comes to fighting slumps. Nothing, however, will rescue you from the food coma that results from overeating any combination of food, healthy or not. How does this all work? Why does such a fine line exist between not enough food and the all-you-can-eat buffet that disturbs our focus? And how does this knowledge help you make better food choices for optimal concentration?

Crash course through basics of metabolism and your brain function

Remember the kid from Jerry Maguire who says, “Did ya know the human heads weighs 8 pounds?” It actually comprises 2-3% of an adult’s body mass. Thus for the average person of 150 lbs, the brain would indeed weigh about 8 lbs. Despite its relatively small percentage of mass, it consumes about 10% of the body’s entire metabolic energy due to the constant firing of the neurons. The primary fuel to run the brain is glucose, which the neurons cannot store.

When you eat, your pancreas releases the hormone insulin into the blood stream. The insulin scoops up excess glucose and starts a chain reaction where the glucose is added to glycogen molecules for storage in the liver. At the lowest point, i.e. your fasting blood glucose level, you have about the equivalent of one teaspoon of sugar floating in your blood. Simple carbohydrates easily enter the blood stream via the stomach, which is why you feel the surge from simple sugars so quickly. Another hormone from the pancreas called glucagon breaks down the glycogen back to glucose when your body needs to increase the blood sugar level.

While used in by most cells, glucose has been observed to increase activity in certain hippocampus cells of rats, as well as inc. The hippocampus is one of the major areas of the brain associated with short-term memory and learning. Previously, it had been believed that the brain was able to maintain stable glucose levels. In the early 2000′s, Ewan McNay of Yale School of Medicine observed that for rats learning new mazes, their glucose levels were depleted in the hippocampus, and the older rats faced a faster rate of depletion. Other studies have examined the effects of glucose on acetylcholine formation, a key neurotransmitter involved in sustaining attention and in controlling the motor movements of muscles.

So more is better, when it comes to glucose? Depends. Marathon runners can get away with pasta and other simple carb loading for speedy pick-me-ups. But unless you swing a night job as a lab rat hooked to a wheel or as a professional marathon runner, that amount of carbs will usually lead to nothing more than a crash later. Too many carbohydrates can trigger insulin overload, thereby pulling too much glucose from the blood stream.

If your brain can only remember one thing at the moment…

So the golden rule of food for focus is to keep your blood sugar stabilized. Stay hydrated, get caffeine in moderation, and eat small meals combining complex carbohydrates, lean protein, and a little fat at regular intervals throughout the day. Eating every 3-5 hours should be sufficient, if the meals are small enough.

Be reasonable, though. If you cannot bring yourself to drink 8-10 cups of water a day, drink seltzer mixed with a little juice and bask in your European chic with their standard way of drinking juice. Or if you do reach for a candy bar, find one that has nuts and/or dark chocolate. Digestion rates can be slowed in the presence of protein and small amounts of fat. Dark chocolate merely has less fat than milk chocolate. If your sweet tooth can be appeased with nonrefined sugars, try a a bit of honey mixed with cinnamon and peanut butter on a rice cake. Tasty and rice cake might not be words normally uttered in the same sentence, but the honey, cinnamon, and peanut butter just nails that perfect salty-sweet combo.

If coffee is your fix, try smaller cups or alternative caffeine sources like teas and chocolate. All contain some level of caffeine, although the levels of metabolized caffeine derivatives like theobromine also may influence how an individual reacts to the caffeine. White, green, and black teas come from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. They differ by the length and process of fermentation. Yerba maté is another type of leaf that is brewed and purportedly has a gentler post-caffeine crash than coffee. If you’re really in a focus jam, maybe then an energy drink. Remember moderation, despite what the scantily clad energy drink salesmodels may say.

Try not to eat or drink while you’re working. Take an actual break. Get up, walk, stretch, breathe, and use that 5-10 minutes to enjoy your food or drink. Whether one can truly multitask is under scrutiny; mindless eating, even of focus-friendly foods, can be counterproductive to focus. The world will not end if you take 5 minutes to eat. The world might end momentarily, or at least a small island economy might sink, if you do put a “b” instead of “m” in front of “illion” due to fuzzy thinking from dehydration or while juggling a sandwich and your keyboard. While I exaggerate here, at the University of Geneva Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, the 10-minute water break for every class that met for more than an hour is no laughing matter. Students in my econometrics class practically threatened mutiny when a professor once asked if the water break could be skipped, and a “compromise” was reached that the class would end 10 minutes earlier.

How to Turbocharge Your Focus for The Long Haul

Perhaps you’re still thinking about all the good stuff you’ve read about gingko biloba for memory. That indicates to my highly unprofessional opinion that you might have a better functioning cognitive state than that of the target population who actually demonstrated measurable benefits from gingko biloba. Of gingko’s mixed reviews, the studies who find slightly positive results often are examining laboratory animals under large doses or persons suffering from cognitive decline due to factors like age-related dementia. Gotu kola is another East Asian leaf occasionally declared a new remedy. Peppermint has also been touted as a aid to wake up the senses, and a recent study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found positive memory effects of blueberry juice on elderly subjects at risk of dementia versus the control group. Blueberries, pomegranates, and green tea already have enjoy reputations as superfoods due to their antioxidant concentrations; B vitamins from sources such as whole wheat, vitamin E in sources like avocados or olive oil, and Omega-3 fatty acids found in salmon and other cold-water fatty fish also may prevent cognitive decline.

The media tends to report on one “breakthrough” study that finds x-y-z result, but often it is better to look at meta-studies which review a large portion of studies to see overall trends in findings. Individual studies may achieve results that are very specific to a population under study or certain laboratory control settings. Researchers also may report positive correlations but fail to adequately measure size of effect or control for variables that are inherently linked to the supplement under study. Or the study might have been “published”, but in the world of academia there exists a hierarchy and broad range of certain journals that are more selective in the quality of the studies published.

These supplements probably will not hurt in moderation under careful supervision, but they’re a bit like fancy shoes and performance gear for runners. They are not going to help the person who has not been consistently training their bodies. Generally, the best way to get your vitamins and nutrients is through whole foods. Taking some supplements, like fish oil or vitamin D, might be worthwhile though. Talk to your physician so he or she can monitor possible signs of drug interactions with your current prescriptions. And caveat emptor: be aware of the source. The quality of herbal supplements are not regulated by the Federal Drug Administration in the United States, so look for the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) stamp for some measure of assurance. If you are reaching for the energy drinks for an extended period of time because you are really unable to focus at certain parts of the day, go see a medical professional. All sorts of health issues, often arising from unbalanced diets and sleep affected by said diets, can express symptoms of fatigue or inability to focus.

Conclusion

The advice in this article may seem like common sense and obvious: stabilizing blood sugar levels through moderation, drinking water, and eating balanced, small meals. Eating foods for focus might be hard if no particular list of foods was actually mentioned.

Sharpening focus is a process in which one pares away the nonessential, and let this rule extend even to your eating habits.

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On March 3, 1993, Jimmy Valvano, a well-respected basketball coach, gave a moving speech shortly before losing his life to cancer. His speech didn’t center around winning basketball games, championships or money. He outlined three things, which he believed defines a full day: laughter, being moved to tears, and thought.

This chapter will revolve around Jimmy’s third element: thought. We’ll cover different types of thought (meditation, contemplation or simply quieting your environment to think). By practicing Focused Thought and contemplation everyday, one can improve their concentration, productivity and happiness. We’ll explore how.

The Concept of Focused Thought

Focused Thought isn’t new. You’ve heard principles of focused thought emanate from the concept of meditation. Yet, when you think of meditation, an image may arise in your mind of some eccentric relative that’s constantly preaching about seeking enlightenment through meditation. Carry Barbor writes, “The romantic notion of quitting everything and joining Tibetan monks on a mountaintop is not the only way to meditate. You don’t need to quit your job, give up your possessions and spend 30 years chanting.” In this sense, you’re confusing meditation with one branch of meditation: Eastern Meditation, which is a more mystical and religious-based branch of meditation. Albeit, it’s a big branch.

Eastern Meditation vs. Western Meditation

In brief, Eastern Meditation revolves around focusing on nothing. Whereas, Western Meditation concerns itself with focusing on something.

Eastern Meditation centers around eloquently moving thoughts out of your mind and only concentrating on a small act (like breathing). Whereas Western Meditation revolves around contemplation, and getting lost in thinking about something.

The branch of meditation that likens itself most to Focused Thought is Western Meditation.

The Roots of Focused Thought

Defined, Focused Thought is the act of contemplating a specific problem, and in turn, falling into a state of flow. Time slows as you contemplate a specific problem.

The roots of Focused Thought arose from a group of hermits in the Egyptian desert around 400 AD. These hermits were actually Christian monks who practiced repetitive and focused contemplation of the scriptures. Their practices centered around contemplating verses, ideas, phrases and prayer on a daily basis. It is suspected that these methods were influenced by the East. [1]

By engaging in the habitual act of contemplating ideas, they exercised their minds–specifically their prefrontal cortex.

Researches have found that such acts increase activity in the left prefrontal cortex–the part of your brain that drives concentration, meta-cognition and decision-making. Essentially, these desert monks were increasing their brain-power every single day through Focused Thought. The same researchers found that such acts may even decrease anxiety and depression. The simple act of focused thought not only increases the mind’s ability to concentrate, it reduces the likelihood of depression. Focused Thought enhances attention-span and makes the mind more flexible. This increases awareness of your environment, as well as the ability to be objective in emotionally-charged situations. This sense of awareness doesn’t just apply to your environment. It also applies to the creative component within your mind. Essentially, you’ll find it easier to fall into the state of flow when you practice Focused Thought on a habitual basis. [2]

In summary, the concept of focused thought isn’t a qualitative act (i.e. practiced in order to seek spiritual enlightenment). Focused Thought is a quantitative, and calculated way to exercise your prefrtontal cortex; thus, improving your creativity, decision-making and general sense of happiness.

So now the question is, “How do I get started and practice focused thought?” We’ll now cover three ways that will help you practice focused thought:

3 Ways to Practice Focused Thought

Practicing Focused Thought isn’t complex. It doesn’t warrant books, lessons or drawn-out instruction. Focused Thought is merely setting a specific time to think. Though there’s limitless ways you can practice Focused Thought, here are three styles that have worked best for me:

1) Get Lost Before Work

I find that it’s best to practice Focused Thought before starting the day. Some practice Focused Thought while exercising; others find themselves in Focused Thought while praying or reading. Right now, my favorite way to practice Focused Thought is through writing before I start the day. As Jimmy Valvano outlined above, thought is a critical component of a full day. Because our world is filled with so much noise, movement and distraction, I find that it’s best to practice Focused Thought when there’s no noise, movement or distraction.

By practicing focused thought before starting the day, you will feel less rushed, less stressed and less anxious. You know that  daily thought where a voice tells you, “I need to do something important. I need to prove my worth or others are going to wonder if I’m really good at what I do.” That feeling is mitigated or even extinguished when you’ve practiced Focused Thought. For some reason, you feel confidant in yourself and your abilities throughout the day after practicing Focused Thought. You feel a greater sense of awareness of who you are and what you stand for. And this sense of awareness results in more confidence when stress, noise and distraction attack your mind throughout the day.

Bottom line: Get lost in Focused Thought before work.

2) Dead Silent Car

I drive an hour to work and an hour home every single day. Yes, it’s quite a commute. When I first began this commute, I listened to a mix of music and sports-talk radio. This lasted for about three months until I grew tired of music and annoyed with the radio. I then shifted to some books on tape and marketing lessons. This again lasted around three months. I grew tired of listening to people. I’d listen to people on the car-ride (through books on tape), I’d listen to people at work and then I’d come home and listen to my wife (though, my wife would argue that point). For this reason, I stopped listening to books on-tape. I was sick of listening. Instead, I did one simple thing–and this method has stuck ever since–I turned off the noise. My car-ride is dead silent. For two hours every single day, I surround myself in complete silence. I find this gives me an opportunity to quiet my mind and practice Focused Thought.

I typically start the trip by contemplating a problem that I’m trying to solve. My method is usually very similar, and can be broken into five steps:

1. I define my goal.
2. I ask myself how others have achieved that goal (or a similar goal)
3. I contemplate specific methods that could solve the problem
4. I list out the pro’s and con’s of each specific method
5. I select the best method to solve that problem

When I say “problem,” I don’t actually mean a problem in the sense of conflict. I’m referring to a problem that likens itself to a typical math problem. For instance, “Our goal is to create a product that allows people to learn and have fun. How can we create a product that is fun, educational and results in profit?”

3) Clear Away Distractions

The final practical way to practice Focused Thought is to create an environment that enables one to think clearly. We cover the concept of clearing distractions over and over again in this book, but it’s necessary and critical to both becoming a focused person and practicing Focused Thought.

You can’t practice Focused Thought if you can’t think. And one usually can’t think when there’s email notifications popping up while getting text-messages from friends. I’ve heard people say that music helps them focus, but I’ve never heard anyone say email notifications helps them focus. In brief, create an environment that is minimal and distraction free. If you’re unable to do this where you live, search out a local library–you’ll be shocked by how much your environment drives your ability to concentrate. In college, I never studied once in my room. I only did work at the library. This environment allowed me to practice focused thought batched into a two-hour period, which could have easily been stretched into 8 hours if I worked at home.

Bottom line: Clear your working environment of any distractions that may arise.

Summary

• Eastern Meditation revolves around focusing on nothing; whereas Western Meditation centers on focusing on something.
• Focused Thought likens itself to the Western Meditation practice of contemplating something.
• Focused thought is the act of focusing or contemplating something to the point in which you get lost–i.e. you fall into a state of flow.

There are three practical ways to practice focused thought:

1. Get lost before work: Fall into the state of flow first thing in the morning through, reading, exercising, writing or some other exercise.
2. Seek silence in your car ride: Turn off the radio and music and contemplate a problem
3. Remove distractions from your environment

Sources:

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The dot-com bubble and burst taught us a lot about what one should look for in successful companies. Ever since the burst, two trends have arisen when venture capitalists and entrepreneurs speak about their success.

1) People

The first trend revolves around people.

Silicon Valley is known as the hotbed for entrepreneurship and innovation. At the center of this ecosystem sits Ron Conway. Conway has been referred to as “the most important man” in the silicon valley by more than just a handful of entrepreneurs and celebrities. He invests in a variety of startups, many of which end up changing the technology space forever. His investments include: Google, Ask Jeeves, Paypal and Brightmail. Ron has spent time advising the following companies: Twitter, Digg, Bright Mail, Ask Jeeves, Facebook, RockYou, Zappos, Trulia, StumbleUpon, Plaxo (acquired by Comcast), Photobucket (acquired by Fox), and many more.

When asked by the LA Times what he looks for in a startup, Conway responded, “We invest in people. We don’t invest in ideas. Ideas can morph. But great people end up building great companies.”

2) Focus

Investors and venture capitalists tout that people are the most critical component to startup success; yet, when you talk to the actual people that were successful in the space, they claim that “Focus” was their key to success.

In a series of interviews about success and failures, the following entrepreneurs discussed what went wrong.

We focused too much on specific skills, and too little on fundamental abilities, raw talent, and passion for our business. A couple of years thereafter, we went thru some gut-wrenching people changes as a result of that. In retrospect, hiring rapidly was too easy and it should have been a giant red flag to me. I’ve learned that in good or bad times, hiring should always be difficult. – Alex Algard, successful entrepreneur and founder of whitepages.com

The lesson I learned was to keep laser focused on your core service until your core service does not provide for enough growth. If your core service is still growing at a good pace, keep focused on it. All the other partnerships, new verticals, new products, etc are meaningless if you don’t build a very solid foundation of your core first. – Brian Lee; Founder of Legalzoom

To summarize, their focus was off.

Critical Characteristics

To summarize, if you ask venture capitalists what they look for in successful startups, they say, “great people.” If you ask the great people within successful startups what their key for success is, they say, “focus.”

The right people, combined with focus, determines the success of an organization. In this chapter we’re going to concentrate on the specifics ingrained within the concept of focus and the workplace. We’ll outline how you can get more productive at work, get more done, and in turn, work less.

The lessons that I outline in this chapter will gear itself towards startups and entrepreneurial organizations. I’m not going to pretend that all of these lessons will translate smoothly into any organization. You can only do so much in an environment that frowns upon innovation, and smiles upon process. Becoming an intrapreneur (an entrepreneur within a large corporate or government organization) will only take you so far. Yet I am absolutely convinced that at least one of these ideas can be applied to your organization no matter what the environment is like.

7 Characteristics of a Productive Work Environment:

Below, we’ll cover seven characteristics of focused companies. We’ll identify how to adopt focused principles within your organization. Implementing these principles will allow you to get more done in less time; thus, allowing you to work less.

1. Whiteboards

Successful project management systems revolve around people, not Gantt charts. I’ve tried almost every project management system, customer relationship management system and planning system. Even the ones that claim to be unique have failed when put to the test of actual use. Most of them touted features as their competitive edge. You’ll see a long chart with check-boxes next to features like RSS Feeds, iPhone Synching and dashboards. Every organization I’ve been a part of progresses through the same stage. We try a new, “innovative” project management tool (usually one that I find and get all excited about), we try it out for three months, and then ditch it for the old, reliable white-board. I’m a fan of whiteboards because they’re open, free and are usually used with a group. It’s the ultimate collaborative tool. It’s a tool that relies on people, not of features. For one to create a focused work environment, you must adopt tools that are simple, people-centered and invite collaboration. In my experience, nothing beats the whiteboard.

Yet, there’s a sad occurrence that takes place in many organizations. After a certain period, sophisticated project management tools replace whiteboards. “Whiteboards don’t scale,” someone will say. It is within these transitions that the focus of your organization may deteriorate. Yet, after a certain period of testing out the latest, greatest feature-rich project software, they’ll likely go back to the old reliable whiteboard.

The whiteboard drives focus and collaboration due to three primary characteristics:

1. Face-to-face: When you’re setting tasks and to-do items on a whiteboard, you’re in the presence of people. Getting an item assigned to you while talking about items on a whiteboard is much better than opening up your email and seeing that you’ve been assigned an item.
2. Natural: The whiteboard conforms to the person; the person doesn’t conform to the whiteboard. There’s no learning curve. The whiteboard is a natural project management tool.
3. Batching: Depending on the whiteboard you use, there will be limited space. This is a good thing. The whiteboard has limits, meaning you can’t write down 100 items that need to be done and then forecast them. When you see a sheet that has 100 to-do items on it, it’s both overwhelming and daunting. This usually results in nothing getting done, or half-assed work getting done. You forget that there’s a starting point. The whiteboard allows you to batch your projects into chunks. I highly recommend pruning your projects so that there’s only 10-15 items total (for a group of up to 5 people). This encourages small victories, not a long, drawn out war. That not only gets old, it becomes tiresome for your team.

In brief, I highly suggest using a whiteboard for your team. It encourages focus, collaboration and effectiveness due to the constraints it presents (limited space).

2. Open Space Is Overrated

Openness is overrated. I know what you’re thinking. “You just preached openness in the section above on whiteboards, now you’re saying it’s overrated?” Yes. Well, sort of. Open office environments are overrated (i.e. those environments where everyone’s sitting next to one another and there’s no personal offices). In our era of open-source technology and transparency, startups have shifted towards office spaces that espouse openness. You’ll find desks stacked immediately next to one another, and a proud CEO will proclaim that this drives collaboration and innovation. However if you look closer, or if you’ve worked in such an environment, you know what this really engenders: distraction.

I’m not a proponent of work environments where people work immediately next to one another in a cramped space. I believe that you should plan with people, and execute without them. A focused environment provides each employee with their own desk and own personal space. In the middle of your entire office floor, it’s excellent to have open space and places for people to collaborate on white-boards, pool tables or whatever. But it’s critical to have at least some space that allows you to shut the door and get work done in an environment that rids itself of noise, distraction and people. My belief in private, distraction-free workspace is not just driven by personal experience. In Scott Belsky’s book on productivity, “Making Ideas Happen,” he outlines the findings of a study by Joan Meyers-Levy, a professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota.[1] She discovered that the nature of your workspace has a direct effect on the end result of your work-product. Working in small-ceiling, confined spaces allows you to focus more on critical details; whereas working in open, high-ceiling spaces fosters a big-picture, collaborative style of thinking.

Bottom line: collaborate with people, work without people.

3. Shake-up Your Workspace

The section on focused goals revolves around setting one three-word goal and carrying it out within three months. In order to avoid a slump, I’ve found it helpful to rearrange your workspace every three months, as well. Likely, it’s been a while since you’ve carried out some office-space spring cleaning. One day, on a late Friday afternoon or whenever there’s down-time, stop everything, shut your door, and rearrange your workspace. If you have an insanely-heavy desk, just rearrange easy-to move items like your monitor or some other easy-to-arrange objects. I’ve found that this simple act re-energizes me. It acts almost like a reset button in how you work. I’ll cover what types of personal work-environments you should strive for next.

4. Seek Rags, Not Riches

The success stories we see on Oprah have a very similar storyline. A person is poor, starting from nothing, then hits it big, and becomes rich. The world loves rags to riches stories. It feels right, it feels natural and it feels fair. We’re so accustomed to seeing riches emanate from rags that it’s actually beneficial to put yourself in rags to reach success. What I mean is that you should strive for constraints in your work environment. You must put yourself in a position of hunger. If you’re a startup, this means being lean, and not fat with venture capital. If you’re a government organization, it means doing something incredible with a small budget.

The projects that always fail are those with an endless budget and an undefined date. The successful undertakings, the ones that hit it out of the park, are those that have constraints. For instance, “We need to reach 40,000 people on a $10,000 budget within three weeks.” Those projects tend to do better than, “Let’s reach as many people as possible, in however long it takes us, on an endless budget.”

Within your personal workspace, seeking constraints means creating a simple, minimalistic environment to get work done. So often I see pictures of work-spaces that have plants, bonsai trees, comfy chairs, food, snacks, couches and televisions. What they’ve done is transformed workspace into a bedroom. This is dangerous and hurts one’s ability to focus. Instead, put yourself in an uncomfortable, small, windowless environment. Knock out your work in a couple hours, and then get out and collaborate!

Bottom line: Seek constraints. Seek rags, not riches. This philosophy will lead you to riches.

5. Ditch Robert’s Rules

Meetings can be cancerous to your organization. Not only that, they can kill morale. Yet even those that proclaim that they hate meetings, too, end up holding them. Why? There are a number of reasons: insecurity (is everything OK, let’s hold a meeting to find out), boredom (what else am I going to do with my time?) or simply because they think they should hold meetings because other companies do. If you’re heading to a meeting without a clear agenda, and a clear goal, boycott the meeting or bring a book–because nothing important will get done.

In order to maintain focus and effectiveness, always set an agenda and a time limit if you’re holding a meeting. Do this by meeting thirty minutes before you have a phone call. Give yourself a reason to keep things swift, quick and action-oriented. Additionally, keep the meeting small (3 people or less), and have only one problem to solve. I’ve also found it helpful to not hold any regular meetings. Make meetings impromptu. Meet because something needs to get done, not for the sake of meeting.

Robert’s Rules is a book that tells you how you should meet. This is fine, and actually effective for government-run organizations. But if you’re trying to implement it within a startup, or innovative environment, you’ve just let out a toxic bomb. Put the fire out immediately and throw Robert’s Rules out the window. Don’t talk about “Old business forever.” Don’t assign a Corresponding Secretary to take notes about the meeting. Nobody reads them anyways. Decide on something that needs to be solved. Bring your planner, and write down the next action of how to solve it.

Adopting flexible, action-oriented meeting principles will allow your organization to not get distracted and maintain focus on its main goal. Speaking of which, we’ll cover organizational goals next.

6. Building an Organization Built on Meaning

The worst thing you can do to your startup, team or organization is be secretive. Obviously, there’s details that not everyone should know. However, if you’ve got people at the top making plans, and having others carry out those plans without understanding why they’re carrying out their daily activities, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. And more, you’re killing your organization’s culture.

Focus-driven organizations are those that are working towards something. They’re organizations that have a clear-cut goal that is not only communicated, the goal is understood. Just as you should set focused goals for yourself personally to carry out in three months, so too should your company.

Set one company-wide goal every three months and communicate it with your employees. Make sure everyone understands exactly why they’re working towards this goal. This is critical, as understanding why you’re working towards something translates to meaning, which converts to purpose (and, of course, focus). If someone interviews your company’s CEO and an employee in a separate room, their answers should be completely the same. If asked the question, “What’s your purpose, what’s your plan and what are you guys working towards?” Their answers should literally mirror one another. If you’ve got a mission statement, and nobody can recall or recite it, ditch it. Replace it by setting a focused goal every quarter, and communicating the meaning behind the goal to each employee. This simple practice will lead to a focused organization. And according to successful startups, focusing on the right things is critical to success.

7. Don’t Get Fat at Work

The last element that you should consider when at work is not to get fat. In brief, don’t eat a massive lunch. When I say, ‘seek rags, not riches,’ I mean it. You’ll find that there’s two types of organizations: fat ones, and lean ones. You can tell which one is which by their cafeteria (if they even have one).

I know of two organizations that exemplify fat vs. lean quite clearly.  One organization has raised millions in venture capital and they have lunch catered to their offices everyday. These aren’t just lunches. These are Thanksgiving dinner-style lunches. At 2pm, it’s game-over. Everyone’s in a food coma. They hit that point where no more work gets done.

The other office has a personal cook that arrives everyday and cooks them lean, light, healthy lunches.

After 365 days of this, which work environment do you think gets more done? Which one do you think is more productive?

Bottom line: Don’t get fat at work.

Conclusion

In conclusion, venture capitalists look for great people. Great people create an environment that is filled with focus.

Creating a focused environment can be embodied within six characteristics and practices:

1. Implementing natural, people-centered tools (whiteboard)
2. Creating a focused work environment (one that prevents distraction)
3. Shaking-up your workspace every three months
4. Seeking rags, not riches (constraints)
5. Holding focused meetings (brief and to the point)
6. Setting focused goals (make sure everyone at your organization understands the why behind their actions)
7. Don’t eat a lot at work

Please tweet this, share it with your friends and feel free to add any more practical productivity tips!

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My journey with outsourcing began in college.

I wish I could say that I accomplished something. I wish I could say that my decision to outsource made me money, or even just saved me time. Yet, I can’t. I did everything wrong.

I saved up $800 for outsourcing tasks (which was also my net worth at the time). I decided to “invest” this into my first business. Six weeks later, I had nothing. Actually, I take that back. I did have something. I now possessed irrelevant and error-ridden work product from the people I outsourced to (Irrelevant research reports, spreadsheets, and a half-done website). And it was my fault.

Looking back, I really didn’t have the right reasons to outsource in the first place. What started it all was listening to a friend brag that he was outsourcing everything. He said he was building a business and didn’t have to do anything. This sounded neat, I thought. But what pushed me over the edge was hearing the media talk about outsourcing. Thomas Friedman in “The World is Flat,” wrote about how miraculous outsourcing is, and how the world is changing forever. The message from him gave me the sense that if I didn’t outsource, I’ll miss the boat. So with my brain’s FMO decision making process (“Fear of Missing Out”), I decided to jump into the outsourcing game head-first.

When I was outsourcing my tasks, I walked around campus arrogantly. I felt innovative. I felt cutting-edge. I remember listening to my professors lecture on some theoretical concept, and then getting distracted by an IM on my phone from a worker in India. I bragged to family and friends that I was working smart, not hard. I told others around family gatherings that academia was out of touch with reality. “I’m listening to pedantic professors with an army of workers in India building my business.” But the bragging would be cut short by the reality that I was failing to outsource effectively.

In those days, I outsourced tasks like, “Determine the market size of Israel-based startups by writing a 30-page paper supporting your findings.” You see, my first business idea was strategy consulting. This was genius because I had absolutely zero business experience (sarcasm). I reasoned that because I had put hundreds of hours into studying strategic models and theoretical business concepts, I could create my own business that taught this to others. Turns out, business school is different from the real-world. It took me about six months of denial, and living paycheck-to-paycheck before it set in that I wasn’t creating much value. Actually, this really set in when I discovered that my younger sister, who was working at Golden Spoon, was pulling in more cash than me. That was a hilariously painful reality.

There’s two lessons in the story above: First, fail fast and move on. Second, don’t outsource for the sake of outsourcing. We’ll concentrate on number two: how to outsource effectively.

Why Outsourcing is Important

The thesis of this book doesn’t center around getting organized and concentrating better. It doesn’t even concentrate on getting things done. It centers on getting the right things done. It revolves around integrating a specific set of habits and actions that allow you to focus on important items in life, and outsource, delegate and not get distracted by the rest.

If you want to become a more focused person, the answer doesn’t arrive through doing uninteresting tasks in a half-assed manner. It centers on defining what you’re good at, what your purpose is, and carrying that out in the most effective way feasible. For all the other items that arise in life, you must find a way to rid yourself of them through outsourcing them, or getting them done through others that are passionate or proficient at carrying out the task.

In this chapter we’ll first explore when it’s appropriate to outsource (so that you’re not outsourcing for the sake of outsourcing like I did above), and then I’ll take you through a series of steps and practices that helped me outsource effectively.

When should you outsource?

The first step in outsourcing effectively concerns itself with the question of, “Should you even outsource this?” This is the most important step, and the most critical piece when beginning the journey of outsourcing. It doesn’t matter how well you define and communicate the task. If you’re outsourcing something that really isn’t that important, you’re wasting your time.

For this reason, I created the diagram above, which should help you decide when, where and with whom you should outsource your tasks. And yes, I outsourced this:

Special thank to Nicolas Franz and Italo Oliveira (rock stars) for getting this done.

In the end, if you decide to outsource, you’re left with three options of where to outsource your tasks:

1. Outsourcing to a rock star: I feel that this is the best-case scenario, because you know what you want and that you can rely on this person.
2. Outsourcing globally: Outsourcing globally is a good option if you know exactly what you want, and how a person should likely carry it out. Outsourcing globally enables the scenario where you’re sleeping and work is getting done. And that’s a really good feeling.
3. Outsourcing locally: If you’re a beginner, or you’re fairly new to outsourcing, I suggest using Craigslist for one reason: If you can’t really explain what you want, or how you want it carried out, you can meet for a cup of coffee face-to-face and iron out your confusion.

Before beginning the journey of outsourcing, make sure you review the diagram above. Otherwise you could be wasting time in the steps below.

Share this with your friends via email, Twitter, Facebook, or whatever floats your boat.

Just ensure that they don’t make the same mistake I, as well as many others make, outsourcing irrelevant tasks.

Critical Steps of Outsourcing Effectively

At the very core of outsourcing, we all know one thing: If you’re outsourcing, you have a problem. Don’t freak out. That’s not a bad thing. When outsourcing, you have an important problem that you’re willing to pay someone else to solve. And getting this problem solved effectively centers on two things: communication and people. You must ensure that you’ve effectively communicated what you want done, and you must ensure that you have the right person attempting to carry it out.

People that you outsource to are usually smarter than you think; however, for your own sake, you must write as if you’re speaking to someone who has no idea what you’re doing, why you’re doing it and what you’re looking for. In order to get this message across, I’ve outlined a 5-Step formula for outsourcing.

The 5 Steps to Effective Outsourcing:

When signing up for an outsourcing service like Odesk, or speaking with someone you found on Craigslist, you’ll want to get the following five elements communicated to them. Whether through Odesk’s messaging service, email or chat, make sure you communicate these five elements:

1. Background

The first step when outsourcing centers on giving the person some context as to who you are and what you do.

Example: “Hello, my name is John Smith. I live in Northern California and I have been in the real estate industry for 25 years. Basically, I help people sell their homes.”

2. Your Goal

The second step gives the person a sense of what you’d like to accomplish.

Example: “My goal is to break into the social media space by releasing 10 videos and having them appear on YouTube.”

3. My Problem

The third step centers on defining the problem. Usually the problem is implied by your goal (i.e. you don’t have the know-how to reach your goal); however, you must make sure that you clearly state your problem for yourself, as well as for the provider.

Example: “I’m having a tough time achieving this because I don’t know how to do any of the following items: 1) Edit the video, 2) Add music, 3) Add text introductions, 4) Upload it to YouTube. I do know how to record the video because I have a camera, though.”

4. Scenario

The fourth step is where you outline how you envision the outsourcing relationship to carry out.

Example: “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the following scenario would work: 1) I will record the video and send it to you via email, 2) You will carry out the items I outlined above, and then upload the YouTube video, 3) You will then send me the link to the video.”

5. Next step

The last step is essentially a “call to action” for those reading your job description. It’s critical in this step that you cater towards those that have done similar work in the past. You don’t want people who think they can solve your problem. You don’t want someone learning on your dime. Thus, ask them for their portfolio and past work.

Example: “If you feel you are suitable for this position, please email me with your portfolio and sample videos that you created.”

Last, here’s an important tip: Select the candidate with work product that fits your needs at a fair rate. Do not simply search for those that are the cheapest. Quality may suffer by employing this habit and you’ll end up wasting time. The goal is not to brag to your friends that you paid someone in the Philippines $3/hour for work. That’s not only immature, it’s ineffective. Your goal is to solve your problem with solid workers in an effective manner.

Ongoing services

The 5-step process above works great for projects; however, when there’s an ongoing task, you’ll need to employ another method to make it work. For instance, if you’re a small business looking to hire a social media manager that does all your tweeting, you don’t want to subject yourself with moving through the 5-steps above, and training many providers over and over again. You want to hire one provider, and have them execute your plan on an ongoing basis. For these type of tasks, the 5-step process above is necessary, but there’s an additional component: a checklist.

If you’re a checklist fanatic, or even if you’re not, a book I highly recommend picking up is “Checklist Manifesto.” It’s a book about the effectiveness of checklists. It’s astonishing how organizations can drastically improve, and lives can be saved by merely employing a checklist in your organization.

If I had to work off a checklist all day, I’d go nuts; yet there are certain people who prefer checklists. It gives them a sense of consistency and comfort. I find that those who seek out process-based tasks, really enjoy and value checklists. And that’s why I recommend it. I’ve been using this technique for about a year, and find that the people I outsource to absolutely love it. It enables them to not be micromanaged. I don’t constantly have to check in with them–I can just glance at their checklist.

You’ll want your checklist to be simple and separated as follows (usually in an excel or Google docs spreadsheet):

1. Checklist Item: Column where you outline that item you need done
2. Date: Within the date box, have them put in their initials (it somewhat bars against any b.s. taking place)

You’ll be surprised with how effective this simple tactic can be.

Final tips

In closing, it’s critical that you outsource for the purpose of getting important items done, not for the sake of outsourcing. In order to become a more focused person, it’s critical to understand your strengths, and master the art of outsourcing your weaknesses. If your strength is in development, and you lack design skills, it’s important that you understand design, but even more important that you know how to effectively outsource design.

By now, it’s clear that outsourcing is here to say. It’s no longer the future, but the present. But it’s not going anywhere. If you don’t outsource right now, don’t think that you’re missing out. You likely don’t need to because you’re not faced with a task so critical that it needs to be outsourced immediately. Yet, when you do find an appropriate item that needs to be outsourced, make sure that you follow the steps above. It will hopefully make your first outsourcing experience a lot more effective and enjoyable than mine.

As always, feel free to ask me any additional questions in the comment area below, and also feel free to suggest or add any tools or methods that have helped you outsource more effectively in the past.

Resources:

• I’ve used Elance, Asksunday and Getafreelancer, but I’ve found the best service to be ODesk. For some reason, I just find the service, the organization, the website and the providers to provide a better experience than the other ones. Admittedly, I haven’t tried the other ones for over a year, so maybe they’ve improved things. But barring any unforeseen scenario, I’ll continue using Odesk and continue recommending them.
• I’ve used 99designs for logos, blog headers and other items and found their model to be excellent for myself. I’m not sure how much designers like it, but I’ve been a satisfied customer whenever I’ve used their services.
• Last, but not least, Craigslist is a great tool for beginners because you can meet up with the person you’re outsourcing work to. Just make sure going into it that you understand the spammy nature of Craigslist. Tread lightly when looking for somone on craigslist because you may receive a hefty amount of spam. Additionally, make it clear that you’re only looking for a local provider. Otherwise, you’re better off simply going with Odesk.

Jill’s preschool years can be summarized in three words: sex, drugs and fear. You see, Jill’s father began molesting Jill and her sister ever since she can remember. Her mother, meanwhile, was pacing in an institution down the street as she recovered from nervous breakdowns. At the age of 7, Jill’s father held a family meeting that he deemed important. It turned out, he was right. In the meeting he blamed his problems on Jill before shooting himself in the head. This was a broken home. And we all know what comes next. Jill will become a drug addict, get pregnant, drop out of High School and end up like her father, right? Wrong. Jill’s an honor student, talented singer and president of her high school class.

Todd Marinovich began training for the NFL before he was born. He was bred to love pain, contact and intimidation. His father, an ex-Raider from the steroids heyday of the NFL, is remembered today for his unusual intensity–otherwise referred to as insanity. Todd was going to be everything his father never was–trained, well-fed and cared for. From his first breath, Todd was on a strict diet that outlawed any hamburgers or junk food. Instead, his father fed him food that only did one thing: built muscle. Todd quietly rebelled in his late high school days. It started with Marijuana, and throughout college and into his pro career, led to Heroin and Methamphetamine. Todd recounts stories of shooting up at half-time of football games. After his brief stint in the NFL, he shifted between rehabs and jail. You might have even seen Todd if you’ve spent time in Newport Beach. He could be seen skating around on the boardwalk. Put simply, he turned into an addict.

Todd had all the care in the world–in fact, he had too much care, and he turned into a drug addict. Jill was raised in a violently broken home, yet she became a successful young lady.

So, what separates Jill from Todd? One word: Focus. Yet, I’m not speaking of focus in its traditional sense (as used to represent concentration). That’s short-term focus, and we covered that in the last chapter. I’m referring to long-term focus, which is driven by four elements: purpose, values, actions and habits. That’s what this book is about.

The rest of this book is dedicated to showing you how to become a focused person through re-awakening your purpose, defining values that drive your everyday actions, outlining activities that can help you focus and establishing a set of habits that will make it easy for you to step into a state of flow. Not only will this enable you to finish projects that you start, you’ll be able to achieve dreams you were put here on earth to carry out.

I can’t tell you how many people I know who still feel empty at night even as their Visa Blackcard rests in their wallet. The problem with success is that it’s the wrong goal. Most people seek success, when in reality they’re looking for significance. Success does not make you significant. Significance stems from actually making a difference in the world. Many people are shocked when they discover that significance isn’t achieved through action. It’s reached throughout taking focused, purposeful action.

Below, I’ll touch briefly on the four components of long-term focus.

I. Habits

In the first section of the book, we’ll explore various habits that drive a focused person. These habits revolve around doing something that sharpens your mind before you start the day. Essentially, you get to work before you get to work. Good habits not only enable your mind to focus better during the day, they enable you to feel better. You feel younger, more alert and, put simply, you feel happier. I believe that you should establish one of the following habits outlined in the section of the book, and then carry it out once per day.

II. Purpose

Purpose revolves around living a life built on meaning. It stems from visualizing how you will impact the world and what you are here to do. Living with purpose is then actualized by setting a simple, focused goal, which you reach in a short time-span (three months). We’ll cover this in a later part of this book.

Here’s an example of someone who let focus and purpose drive their life. The following passage was uncovered in Bruce Lee’s personal journals after his death.

My Chief Personal Aim In Life

I, Bruce Lee, will be the highest paid Oriental superstar in the United States. In return I will give the most exciting performances and render the best of quality in the capacity of an actor. Starting in 1970, I will achieve world fame and from then onward till the end of 1980 I will have in my possession the sum of $10,000,000—then I will live the way I please and achieve inner harmony and happiness.

Bruce Lee
1969

Lee, who died at the young age of 32, often said, “If I should die tomorrow, I will have no regrets. I did what I wanted to do. You can’t expect more from life.”

Bruce Lee lived a life filled with focus and purpose.

III. Actions

It’s not: Ideas without action are worthless.
It’s: Without action, ideas are worthless.
(Feel free to read that again to catch what I mean)

Long-term focus centers on taking action in simple, logical and effective ways. The philosophy of this book outlines ways to break apart the complexities in life, and only focus on what truly drives results. In later sections, I’ll show you how to use tools including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, email and other activities in a focused fashion. I’ll outline how you can expand your mind through auditing Ivy League courses for free. I’ll also cover how you can sky-rocket the effectiveness of your organization through practices and philosophies that lead to less work, and more effectiveness. If you’re stuck in a job or in a routine that feels as if you’re trapped–as if you can’t focus due to your lack of interest in whatever you’re doing–I’ll show you how to get out of that situation. I’m not promising that you’ll be an organized person. I’m by no means organized. At all. And my wife can attest to that. What I do specialize in doing better than most around me, is thinking about one thing that truly matters every day, and doing it. Nothing more, nothing less. We’ll get into all of these actions in the book.

IV. Values

Purpose tells you what you should be doing; Values tell you what you should stand for.

As we learned through Jill and Todd, values aren’t driven by our parents. Of course, your family influences your values, but they don’t define your values. Values are entirely your own decision. You must make sure you understand what you stand for, otherwise, society and your environment will do it for you. And that’s dangerous. As we’ll learn, our minds have a tendency to get carried away with things that are driven by dopamine–but aren’t necessarily good for us.

Before beginning the journey and quest in becoming focused, I first want you to spend some time defining what it is you wish to get out of this book, as well as what your values are. But before that, I’ll share with you my personal values.

Defining Values

We live in a perfect time to exemplify and learn about the importance of defining personal values. Michael Jackson died from drugs. Michael Phelps took a bong hit and lost millions in endorsements. And Tiger Woods had a sex scandal erupt that will stain his career forever. These people lived a life filled with success. But they didn’t live a life filled with significance or sustainability. Their values were focused on the wrong items. Their focus was on earthly items. Items that society defined as symbols of success; not symbols of significance.

Before his scandal, Tiger Woods said, “My main focus is on my [golf] game.”

When one places their focus on earthly items, a downfall is almost certain to follow.

Thus, think hard about what values drive your life. But don’t get too crazy. Have fun with defining and setting values for yourself. If you have a family, bring them together and create your own family creed.

My personal creed centers on four values:

Integrity: Honesty is not bullshitting others. Integrity is not bullshitting yourself. If you make it your job to sound off an alert anytime your mind moves towards cognitive dissonance, you’re living a life of integrity.

Growth: Physiologically, our brains are either learning, or dying. Until around the year 2000, we believed that we were given a certain number of brain cells as a baby, and then they would die as we progressed through life. Neuroscience now tells us that we actually fire up new pathways within our minds as we grow. We come from the jungles. From a land of adjust or die; thus, our minds must constantly sharpen itself and learn about the environment. (Source: John Medina, Brain Rules)

Hard Work: We live in a land of “work less, take a vacation, travel the world.” I agree with pieces of this. I believe that one should work smart, which will lead to them working less; however, I believe that working smart is hard work. Don’t let successful people trick you. Significance (and success) takes hard work.

Enjoyment: Of course, you’ve got to follow up Hard Work with Enjoyment. Otherwise, you’ll turn into a work-a-holic.

Those are my values. They’re what drive my actions everyday. They’re what drive my purpose. In order to practice that art of focus, you must first start with your values.

Without any further deliberation, here’s the exercise:

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Conclusion

In summary, a focused person is one who doesn’t merely have a gift of concentration. Someone who is focused has a foundation built on four things: purpose, habits, focused action and values. The rest of this book is dedicated to a variety of these items that help you become a more focused, productive person. In the next chapter, we’ll cover the concept of “Flow,” which is an organic combination of Short-term Focus (concentration), and Long-term Focus (outlined in this chapter).

Photo Credit:

“Music helps me concentrate,” Mike said to me glancing briefly over his shoulder.

Mike was in his room writing a paper for his U.S. History class. On his desk next to his computer sat crunched Red Bulls, empty Gatorade bottles, some extra pocket change and scattered pieces of paper. In the pocket of his sweat pants rested a blaring iPod with a chord that dangled near the floor, almost touching against his Adidas sandals. On his computer sat even more stray objects than his surrounding environment. There must have been twenty browser tabs open. The tabs included political blog news, random Wikipedia entries, Facebook profiles and a Myspace page blasting more music at him. Two notifications with sound popped-up simultaneously in the top-right corner of his screen. One was an email; the other was a tweet. Behind his dozens of browser windows sat a pending music download and a handful of blinking IM’s.

Mike made a shift about every thirty seconds between all of the above. He’d write a little bit for his history paper, check his pending download, reply to his IM’s, and then start all over.

Do you know a person like this? I do. Those were my concentration habits at one point in my life. Yet, I made a series of decisions that resulted in a 180 degree turn. This book is about how to make that 180 degree turn. And this chapter centers on understanding a core component for getting focused: short-term focus (or concentration). We’ll first outline what science teaches us about concentration, and then we’ll dive into how you can concentrate when you feel overwhelmed through 8 steps.

The Science Behind Concentration

In the above account, Mike’s obviously stuck in a routine that many of us may have found ourselves in, yet in the moment we feel it’s almost an impossible routine to get out of. Many fall into this pattern because constantly shifting attention and multitasking eases the pain of doing something you hate in the first place. We mitigate essays and projects with blasts of dopamine delivered through tweets, music and gossip.What science tells us, though, is that not only does multitasking make our work 50% less valuable; it takes 50% longer to finish. Plus, it’s physiologically impossible for the brain to multitask.

When we constantly multitask to get things done, we’re not multitasking, we’re rapidly shifting our attention. And this rapid shifting kills the mind, it waters its effectiveness down significantly. When we follow Mike’s pattern above, the mind shifts through three phases:

Phase 1: Blood Rush Alert

When Mike decides to start writing his History essay, blood rushes to his anterior prefrontal cortex. Within this part of the brain, sits a neurological switchboard. The switchboard alerts the brain that it’s about to shift concentration.

Phase 2: Find and Execute

The alert carries an electrical charge that’s composed of two parts: first, a search query (which is needed to find the correct neurons for executing the task of writing), and second, a command (which tells the appropriate neuron what to do). This process propels Mike into a mental state of writing for his History essay. Your mind literally puts a writing cap on.

Phase 3: Disengagement

While in this state, Mike then hears an email notification. His mind rapidly disengages his current writing state, and then sends blood-flow back to Phase 1, which then leads him to phase 2, and then when he gets distracted again, he’ll find himself at phase 3.

The process repeats itself sequentially. It doesn’t work simultaneously (i.e. multitasking). The mind shifts rapidly through this phase at a rate of one-tenth of a second. This tells us two important things: it reinforces the case that we must only focus on one thing at a time, and second, it’s critical to master selective attention, which we’ll explore below.

Concentration drives intelligence

Research surfaced recently that revealed the true drivers of intelligence. They asked, “Is intelligence simply the ability to assimilate information and recall upon it whenever needed?” Is intelligence really a measure of memory? If not, than what makes a person intelligent? Amazingly, they found that intelligence is not founded on one’s memory. Instead, intelligence emanates from one’s ability to control their selective attention. It’s their ability to control the three phases above, and where they route their blood-flow to within the prefrontal cortex.

As you improve in the ability to strategically allocate your attention, your brain also improves. In fact, it rewires itself. As you exercise concentration and selective attention, your mind rewires itself to support your new habits. You get better and better at concentrating when you concentrate. That’s the good news. The bad news is that as you age, your mind’s flexibility slows down slightly. Meaning, you can’t rapidly jump out of habits and processes as well as you could in your earlier days. Yet, by practicing the small steps and exercises today within your mind, you can establish solid mental faculties for your older years. By practicing brain exercises through mental games you can significantly sharpen your mind. For brain exercises, I highly recommend Lumosity’s brain training games. They’re fun, effective and you can sign up for free. Click here and sign up for a free account. (free brain game training)

Now that you know a bit about the science and background of your mind, we’ll explore 8 things that will help you build short-term focus (concentration).

8 Things Everybody Ought to Know About Concentrating

1. You can’t start concentrating until you’ve stopped getting distracted

The phrase above is self-explanatory. Yet, it’s amazing how most people look for some crazy, obtuse solution for the reason why they can’t concentrate. They reason, “I just have ADD. I can’t concentrate.” In reality, their situation likens itself to Mike’s situation above.

In the late 80′s, two researchers asked themselves a chicken-egg question. (“What came first the chicken or the egg?”). Their version centers on distraction and boredom. They asked themselves, “What came first, distraction or boredom.” What they found is rather subtle, yet it’s profoundly significant. They found that distraction leads to boredom (not the other way around). This displays that we must cut out distraction in order to get focused; or else, we’ll get bored.

2. Just do one important thing per day

Scientists also found that we can only focus on one thing at once. Nobody does that. We’ve always got something going on in the background of whatever we’re doing. We’ve always got two-dozen tasks on our to-do list. On top of this, we’ve got a handful of projects that we try and finish simultaneously.

When you’ve got a mountain of paperwork on your desk, the best thing to do is clear it all off. Pick it all up and place it in a drawer. Do anything required to get it out of your sight. After this, kick your feet up and daydream. Yes, I’m serious. Daydream and ask yourself the following question: “What’s the most important thing I can do right now?” Once you’ve identified the item that will actually make a difference, do it.

Try and make it a goal to do just one critical thing per day. This habit proves much more effective than living the routine everyone else lives: doing many insignificant things a day. They live on fooling themselves into thinking they’ve added value.

The quote below by John Wooden summarizes this quite nicely. Recall upon this daily if you’re having a difficult time breaking away from the ineffective lifestyle.

“Don’t mistake activity for achievement.” – John Wooden

3. Chunk into three’s

Most of the time your one important thing that you can do per day takes more than just one action. Oftentimes it takes a series of smaller steps to accomplish. For this reason, it’s very helpful to chunk activities into sets of three. If you set out to accomplish one important item without a plan, you’ll be just as ineffective as the crack-berry work-a-holic running around the office making copies.

Outline your three-step to-do list using an offline to-do planner (which we outline in another chapter); or if you’re working online, use a three-item FocusList to keep you focused on the task at hand. Click here for a simple, effective, downloadable To-Do List.

4. Questions that kill procrastination

The brain processes meaning before detail. This is where procrastination stems from. Your boss, professor or co-worker tells you that the task on your desk is important, but your brain doesn’t yet agree. If you push forth anyways, and embark on the task before understanding its meaning, you’ll end up frustrating yourself and wasting time because you may have to do it all over.

For this reason, whenever you find yourself procrastinating, ask yourself the following questions:

Question one: Does this really need to be done?

• If you’re in the business world, term it as, “Will this increase revenue, and/or reduce cost?”
• If you’re in school, ask “Will this impact my grade?” Note: In school, it’s not necessarily about preparing you for the real-world, it’s about assimilating information, regurgitating it on a test, and then hopefully remembering some of it in the future, which gives you more context for the real world. This is why, the question isn’t, “Will this prepare me for the real world?”

Whatever your environment, if you can’t come up with a compelling reason for doing something, ask why the task needs to be done. If it’s not your choice, and it’s your boss’ choice, have him or her step into your office and explain the situation. Tell them, “So, I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out how to best approach this project, yet I everytime I advance further, I keep coming back to why this is meaningful in the first place. Can you help me understand the big picture and value this actually adds to our business?”

The result will be one of four things:

1. The person will realize that this is just busy work. Thus, you won’t have to do it,
2. The person will try and convince you that it’s important. In this case, assign yourself an insanely fast deadline to finish the project, and finish it. This type of boss values people that look like they’ve done something; he or she doesn’t actually care about its effectiveness, thus they won’t care about results.
3. The person will come up with a compelling reason for why it’s important, and thus you’ll be able to finish the project with grace and effectiveness because you understand its meaning and purpose.
4. The person will get angry at you for questioning the process. This indicates that you’re at a bureaucratic organization that devalues innovation and purpose. If you’re OK with this, enjoy a work-life of hell. If you’re not OK with this, sprint to the exit as quickly as possible.

Question two: Can I delegate this?

If you find yourself with a task that has meaning (with or without a lie from a boss), and you don’t want to do it, delegate it. Doing something you hate is a lose-lose. It’s bad for you, as well as your organization because you’ll likely turn in sub-par work.

5. Be Smart With Your Time

The Pareto principle is founded on a theory that 80% of effectiveness is driven by 20% of our activity (or causes). I argue that it’s more like 99%:1%. It’s amazing how many insignificant tasks we’re constantly filling our lives with. Don’t make it your goal to involve yourself with 20% of meaningful items during the day. It gets too confusing, and your untrained mind will still end up taking-on too much. As state above, just do one important task per day. Say no to everything else–even your boss. Be humble, but be logical.
There’s three types of people in corporations:

Type 1: Busy People

This is the person who constantly stresses themselves out by running around with paper, working on vacations and constantly checking email. They look like work-a-holics, but they get very little work done. They end up burning themselves out. They can even end up lashing out at others.

What ends up happening is that others perceive them as being able to get the most done, thus people assign more work to them. The work results in being half-assed because the busy person doesn’t have the appropriate time needed for the task. People end up giving the most work to those who are least effective. This is why busy people and work-a-holics are bad for organizations. They eventually end up hurting companies.

Type 2: Lazy People

Lazy people are those that put the blame on their external environment for a lot of things. In the back of their minds sits hope that they’ll one day succeed and hit that million-dollar home-run. Yet in the meantime, they fill their lives with activities that release dopamine.

Activities such as T.V., potato chips, video games, researching whether or not Tupac faked his death and conspiring over whether our government is run by free masons. I was this person once. These were my habits. I occupied my time with message-boards, reading hours of sports articles, and more. I wanted to achieve my dreams, but my mind craved dopamine derived from reading sports blogs. Getting out of this state and into the state below is what this book is about.

Type 3: A Sage

A Sage is one that doesn’t involve themselves in dopamine-driven activities; instead, he or she is very selective about what they do. They have a habit of asking themselves questions that most people are too busy to ask. They pre-occupy themselves with the unspoken, yet meaningful assumptions that others fail to address. Sages ask questions about the meaning behind any activity that they embark on. They view turning down work as a logical decision, not an emotional one. They even say no to their bosses in a strategic way. In order to become a Sage, you must become indispensable to your organization, which is accomplished through practicing Wu Wei (which we will cover soon in the chapter on Flow). Of course, when it comes to business, nobody is indispensable, even the CEO and Founder can be replaced (e.g. Yahoo’s CEO/Founder, Jerry Yang). By becoming indispensable, I mean you must be economically indispensable. Meaning, to the economy, you must be indispensable. In other words, you, yourself, can generate monetary value wherever you go–even if you work for yourself. The most empowering feeling is knowing you can land a job at any time, or just make money for yourself whenever you want to.

A true sign of being indispensable is not a pat on the ass from a boss. It’s not a bonus or a raise. A true sign of being indispensable comes from making money on your own and getting job offers when you’re not looking for a job.

In summary, in order to be a Sage, you must earn it. You must earn it by being economically indispensable, and we’ll learn shortly that this falls into place naturally.

6. Mind Maps

Whenever you’re feeling overwhelmed, it’s critical to allow the mind to disentangle itself by mapping out your thoughts on paper.

There’s two types of maps: (i) PS Map, and (ii) Fear Map

I. PS Map:

A PS Map is short for a problem-solution mind map. This becomes a helpful tool when you’re trying to get something done, yet your mind keeps wandering towards a problem you think you have. A PS Map is also critical for when you feel restless–when your mind won’t stop racing. You tend to pace around the house contemplating a problem. Whenever you’re in this state, pull out a piece of paper and at the top write: “Problem.” Then map out every single detail and nature of the problem. Halfway down, on the same piece of paper, write out “Solution” And then map out possible solutions to this problem. This simple exercise slows down the mind, puts things into perspective and makes the solution shockingly clear.

II. A Fear Map

Sometimes, thoughts and ideas creep into our mind that are intrinsically negative in nature. These thoughts generate fear. In this situation, it’s best to outline the consequences of your fear. Through outlining the results of your fear, you can oftentimes find how insignificant the fear really is. And even in the case of where the fear still seems significant, at least you know what the worst thing could happen is. Oftentimes you’ll find that the worst thing that could happen, really isn’t that bad.

A fear map forces you to apply simple logic to the source of your fear. It’s founded on ‘If X, then Y.

On paper map out the following formula “if x, then y.” Where “x” is the fear, and “y” is your estimate of the fear’s result.

Through mapping out your thoughts, you can calm the racing mind, which will free your mind to focus on the task at hand.

7. Blame something

Other times, sitting down to concentrate is as simple as blaming a simple object for your inability to concentrate. As we discussed above, lazy people are those that blame almost everything on their environment. You don’t want to do this, as it’s not a long-term, sustainable solution. However, in instances where you can’t get excited to actually pump blood to your prefrontal cortex (phase 1 of concentrating), a simple object can help you out. Such an object would be coffee, a drink, a Bonsai tree or a walk. You can reward your mind for concentrating by saying, “OK, mind, here’s the deal–it’s hard to concentrate on this right now, but I’ll pick up a bonsai tree, which will create a more compelling environment to concentrate.” You’ll find that this object-based motivator actually works.

8. Interest

Researchers found that concentration is not a gift. It’s not about intelligence. It’s not about being a prodigy with a gifted memory. It’s not about possessing the ability to recall an insane amount of facts (That’s what Google’s for). Researchers found that concentration is driven by interest, and interest is driven by attitude. If your attitude towards a specific project swells with interest, intrigue and passion, concentration is astonishingly easy.

Conclusion

A core component of concentrating is building up a repertoire of purpose-driven habits that enables you to seamlessly step into “flow.” It’s my thesis that “flow” is the combination of mastering short-term focus and long-term focus. This book is about building this repertoire through goals, habits, exercises, philosophies and practices which will result in you becoming a more focused person.

What’s Next

As we covered, the key to proper concentration is creating your own purpose-driven habits that enable you to step into “flow.”

It’s my thesis that “flow” is the mastery of both short-term focus and long-term focus. In this chapter, we’ve outlined the science behind short-term focus, and the 8 actions you can do to improve concentration.

Remember – intelligence comes from focused concentration. Beware of the distractions around you. We’re all human and prone to laziness or becoming an inefficient work-a-holic, but we can choose to be strategically lazy, and thus, becoming effective.

More About ‘How to Get Focused’

This book is about building the habits of focus through goal-setting, exercises, philosophies and practices that result in an increased ability to focus for success.

In the next chapter, we’ll explore the concept of flow.

As always, please let me know how you liked this chapter and what can be improved in the comments section below.

More resources

• Attention and Intelligence
• Brain Rules

Photo Credit:

Why Goals Are Critical For Focus

In this book, my thesis centers on the belief that “Focus” is becoming a lost concept. It’s being drowned out by iPads, apps, noise and buzz. I believe that those who make an effort to master the concept of focus have a greater propensity to take action, succeed and have a meaningful impact on the world.

Becoming focused is not simple. It’s not a one-time decision, or a one-time act. That’s why I didn’t choose the name, “Stay Focused,” or “How to Focus.” Focus isn’t a one-time thing. It’s a state. It’s founded on a series of actions, habits and philosophies. It’s also founded on the concept of goals. In this chapter, we’ll explore a concept that is often confused with setting goals: visualization.

We’ll first explore the science of goals. We’ll then look at the argument that’s arisen recently about goals being ineffective. And last, we’ll outline the organic process of painting a picture for your subconscious.

The Science Behind Goals

Scientists have found an astonishing reality about your brain. The brain cannot differentiate between what we want and what we have.

Our brain is made up of chemicals that carry out brain functions. These chemicals are called neurotransmitters. There’s a specific neurotransmitter that’s critical to one’s focus: dopamine.

Dopamine is the carrot on the end of the annoying stick. Dopamine keeps you motivated and drives pleasure in your mind. It’s a critical chemical for keeping the mind alert and focused. In fact, dopamine is a key ingredient in diagnosing ADHD (Attention Deficit Disorder); as some forms of ADHD are the result of irregular dopamine levels and reactions.

When our mind perceives that we’ve attained something that we want, our mind releases dopamine, which pleases us. When our mind perceives failure, our mind is drained of dopamine, which results in fear.

As you can see from above, it really is all about perception. Perception trumps reality. Thus, it’s important for you to hack the subconscious of your mind into perceiving what you want is what you will achieve; and what you haven’t achieved isn’t what you necessarily want.

This also tells us that it’s critical to set only one goal (which is outlined in Focused Goals), instead of failing at many goals. Why? Because if you achieve two goals, and fail at four goals, your dopamine will be drained, and you’ll feel angry, fear or like a failure. This builds evidence for why it’s important to only set one small short-term goal. Give your mind one carrot-stick at a time.

To Set Goals, Or Not To Set Goals

Recently there’s been a trend that revolves around the belief that goal-setting is becoming worthless. Growing up, we hear from others that in order to succeed you should set explicit, written goals. This camp is driven by Napoleon Hill’s infamous book, Think and Grow Rich. The classic self-help books regurgitate the same thing: “set goals and you’ll succeed.” Yet, recently, young successful entrepreneurs and businesspeople are throwing this ideology on its head. They reason that you shouldn’t set goals. “Goals pigeon-hole you, and prevent you from reacting with the times,” they proclaim.

To recap, Group A says that in order to succeed, you must set goals. Group B declares that goals are worthless; just focus on the present.

Successful entrepreneur and founder of Mixergy, Andrew Warner’s life revolves around asking successful people how they’ve achieved their dreams. He’s the “Napoleon Hill 2.0,” if you will. He, too, is struggling with the question of whether or not one should set goals.

In an interview with Joe Cirulli, a successful fitness-freak out of Florida, Andrew says, “I’ve been going back and forth on this whole goal setting thing. I’ve talked to entrepreneurs who don’t set any goals and they end up just feeling their way through and it never used to work out that way. People who just felt their way through ended up nowhere. They ended up watching TV because that’s where they felt the most comfortable. But now I see internet entrepreneurs who just do what they love and then they find an audience and before long they have a real business from it and here I am interviewing them and…I don’t know how to fit that in with what you’re telling me. In fact if I ask them, ‘Do you set goals?’ they laugh at me and say, ‘No of course not. I just feel my way through.’”

So which Group is right? Group A, who sets goals; or Group B, who doesn’t set goals.

Before answering this question, I decided to listen carefully to interviews from both groups and detect commonalities, as well as differences. I listened to Andrew’s interview with two people: Joe Cirulli (who’s pro-goal setting) and Jason Fried (a successful entrepreneur who’s against goal setting). From listening to both interviews, here’s what we know:

1. We know that both sides have reached success; thus, success is not contingent upon setting explicit goals.
2. We know that both sides work very hard and are persistent.
3. We know that both sides speak with a tone of conviction, certainty and belief.
4. Being that they speak with a tone of conviction, we can infer that they have a strong sense of who they are, what they stand for and where they’re going. They’re focused on what they stand for.

Explicitness and Conviction

After analyzing the dynamics inherent with these two camps, my thesis is that it’s not a question of “whether or not to set goals;” rather, I believe goal setting centers around two elements: explicitness and conviction.

Traditional goal setting is all about explicitly writing down your goals. By doing this, you gain a stronger sense of purpose. You also gain conviction.

Looking at those who have succeeded, they’re not on the same page regarding explicitness. Jason Fried doesn’t need to write down goals to gain a sense of conviction, but Joe Cirulli (and most people) need to explicitly outline their goals. They’re different in that area. However, they both share the same sense of conviction in what they’re doing.

Though some successful entrepreneurs don’t explicitly set goals, I guarantee you that in the back of their mind’s sits a vivid picture of where they are, what they stand for, and where they’re going. They’re absolutely certain that they can achieve their dreams. Whether or not they write this down, doesn’t really matter. They have the conviction to take them there.

Joe Cirulli displays this sense of conviction. In an interview he says, “You know, where I have a thought and I’ll wake up a three o’clock in the morning and I just, I can’t figure something out. But the one thing that I’ve learned about myself is I will figure it out. So that’s what I know, that it will take some time but I will figure it out. I mean I had to make a decision about building another club that I really didn’t want to build, but I was trying to convince myself that I did want to build it and without going into a long story, and I thought I’m going to sleep tonight and my gut know the answer tomorrow. And I woke up the next day and I had a stomach ache and it’s no joke. I was sick to my stomach. And I said well, I guess that told me the answer. So I have to rely on my gut feeling a lot of times. But I trust my gut to know whether it’s in unison with really what I want in my life. And so no, I go through those too. I mean, I have those holy crap moments in the middle of the night thinking things through and having a problem and being concerned about something but I’ve learned through time, I can solve it. And that’s the confidence that I have in myself, that I will solve it.”

That’s the secret. It’s not necessarily about setting explicit goals; it’s about painting a picture for your subconscious that instills a sense of conviction, purpose and focus. In a nutshell, conviction trumps explicitness.

So, should you set goals? Yes or no?

I believe that you should set goals if it helps you gain a convicting sense of purpose. And I believe it does. Your goal is not goals, your goal is conviction. Yet, I don’t recommend setting goals in the traditional sense. I recommend an exercise that centers on painting dreams within your subconscious, not about setting a bunch of smart goals. As stated above, your mind cannot differentiate between what you have and what you don’t have. Thus, it’s critical to paint a picture of where you want to be in five years. Naturally, your mind will guide you to this. After painting a picture for your subconscious, set a simple goal to achieve in three months. We’ll explore the art of painting a picture for your subconscious shortly.

The Model

After pouring through the classic success books, studying zen principles, eastern philosophy and reading tech entrepreneurs biographies, I believe that we’re moving towards a model where conviction and simplicity trump belabored models. In order to make your dreams a reality, I’ve outlined five stages below, which I feel serve as an organic process for achieving goals.

1. Painting a picture for your subconscious (This chapter)
2. Auditing your ambitions through questions
3. Setting simple, focused goals
4. Carrying out the focused goals
5. To-do list strategies

Below, we’ll cover the first element, “Painting a picture for the subconscious”

Painting a picture for the subconscious

For the past five years, I’ve been going back and forth on whether or not visualization truly works. Whether it’s just blowing smoke, or actually has scientific viability. What pushed me over the edge into becoming a believer was not science (though, science does make a strong case for visualization working); what made me seriously look into visualization was actually touching the Ferrari of an entrepreneur I know. I realize that sounds materialistic, but seeing a Ferrari pull up with an entrepreneur that was working in a factory five years earlier, and through visualization achieved his dreams, was the thing that really woke me up. And this is someone who’s not glittered all over the press. This isn’t a person who’s an outlier. This was an everyday person like you and me. Yet, he did one thing that set him apart. He painted a picture through words of his dreams on a piece of paper.  He then followed it up with a convicting sense that he’d achieve that picture one day. What’s critical, though, is that he didn’t stress out over achieving the picture he painted in his mind. He held the picture in the back of his mind and knew that one day he would achieve that vision.

Fulfilling your dreams doesn’t center around making a huge list of goals or even getting anything in writing (explicitly). Instead, it revolves around triggering that vision in your mind, and then generating the belief that you know for certain that you’ll achieve it one day.

4 Steps to Paint a Picture for The Subconscious:

The process below is not stringent; it’s organic, free and open. Before beginning, make sure you eliminate any distractions or objects that may divert your attention.

Step 1: Clear everything off your desk and pull out a pencil and paper

Step 2: At the top write out the following question, “What will my life look like in 5 years?”

Step 3: Using your pencil, paint a picture of what you want your life to look like in five years. Do this through words, a list, a blue-print of your house, of your office, of your charity, your nonprofit or anything else that comes to you.

Step 4: For assistance, keep the following sectors of life in front of you. But don’t feel obligated to paint a picture of each of them: hobbies, family, career, financial, health, spiritual, mental, social and giving.

After you’re done with this exercise, peg it to the back of your mind and recall upon this picture daily. Many entrepreneurs review such an item before heading off to bed at night. Bottom line: review this image daily.

The key centers on not grading yourself against this. Do not set goals within the various sectors outlined above (hobbies, family, career, finance, etc.); shelve this image in the back of your mind, and look upon it as if you know for certain that you’ll reach this picture–because you know for a fact that you will.

The Next Step

If you make this a part of your life every single day, you’re going beyond goal-setting. You’re hacking your subconscious to achieve the dreams you desire without trying.

But, of course, you’ll need to be moving towards something. Or else, you’ll just be wandering through life. That’s correct, and that’s where the focused goal comes into play.

The focused goal centers not on doing any specific activity related to the one above; instead, it concerns itself with setting a simple actionable goal that is achieved within three months. And that’s what we’ll embark on next. But first, you must audit your dreams and your gifts in order to better understand which goal to set. This leads us to the next chapter, “Questions You Should Ask Yourself.” You can read this chapter here.

The Link Between Dreams and Reality

There’s one item that represents a link between your dreams and reality. One thing that you must do every single day to fulfill your purpose. That one thing is to take action. And the ultimate tool for taking action is a to-do list. To-do lists aren’t just for people that wish to be efficient; to-do lists are for people that want to be effective. In order to become a more focused, driven person, you must understand how to leverage a to-do list properly.

Yet it’s more complicated than that. The wealth of tools available out there are not only confusing consumers, they’re hurting them. The web 2.0 to-do apps that focus on features are killing productivity. Such web 2.0 to-do lists include a focus on iPhone apps, syncing to-do lists across services, tagging to-do lists, categorization, etc.). We’ll explore this area and why these tools end up hurting the cause; rather than helping it.

The bottom line: If you want to reach your potential, and become a more focused person, there are certain principles and characteristics you must understand about a to-do list. We’ll also explore the two to-do list applications that you must employ if you want to stay focused: an offline to-do list planner and an online focus list.

A Zen Master Named Barney

At one point in my life, I had a wonderful system for getting things done. It was simple, efficient, and most importantly, it was profoundly effective. My system centered around an offline to-do list planner. A basic paper and pen system. Oh, yes my friends, it was lovely. Yet at one point, and I can’t really remember how it started, I began looking for more. I wanted to find new, innovative ways to get things done. And almost instantly, I became an online to-do list junkie.

I tried every single online to-do list application. The features that I needed at first were small. For instance, I wanted an online to-do list that synced with my iPhone, with my desktop, and wherever I was online. Soon after, my needs grew dramatically. I wanted to be able to call a number and verbally say a to-do list item. I wanted to Tweet a to-do list item; I wanted to email a to-do list item. I wanted anything that sounded neat: things that allowed you to take pictures of tasks; pegging items to Google maps; syncing with Google calendar; hooking my to-do list up to my RSS feed… and on and on these needs went.

Before I knew it, almost a year had passed and my old reliable system was long gone. A distant thought, much like childhood.

After hearing my challenges about being productive, a good friend of mine suggested I meet up with an acquaintance of his: a Zen Master named Barney. Yes, he goes by “Barney.” He’s a Zen master and has even mastered the art of other Buddhist branches (Tibetan Buddhism and more). He’s written a handful of profound books that received praised from other well-respected monks.

“This could be interesting,” I thought. So I met Barney on a sunny November morning in Southern California.

In Barney’s office sat waterfalls, bonsai trees and a computer with a sticky note hanging off the screen’s right side. When explaining to Barney that I was having trouble focusing and getting things done, he paused for a moment, which felt like forever. Literally. It was about a 30 second pause, which doesn’t sound all that awkward, until you experience it for yourself. He asked me a simple question:

“How do you get things done?”

I outlined my system, which was a combination of web 2.0 applications, Gmail, Google Calendar, iPhone apps, Twitter and calling phone numbers. After about five minutes of outlining my productivity strategy (which I was actually pretty proud about at the time), he paused and asked again:

“How do you get things done?”

This time, his tone was glittered in curiosity and a hint of concern. It sounded as if he was astonished that I was able to get anything done at all.

He didn’t really have to say anything more. The tone of his second question opened my eyes. I was no longer focused on getting things done; I was focused on applications that promised to get things done. In turn, this prevented me from getting things done. It’s an irony that is more common than ever before.

He took me through a series of lessons and examples that displayed how we’ve become an overextended, over-distracted society because of our obsession with features–not effectiveness. He suggested starting from scratch. Starting with the basics, and starting with a pad and pencil. This led me back to where I am today: happily using a paper planner to-do list.

Obviously, this wasn’t new. I just needed a kick in the butt to realize that minimalism still trumps features. Though, he did show me something that he uses, which helps him get more done throughout the day–even when using the internet: he uses a three-item to do list that he stores on a sticky note. He stores this sticky note on the side of his computer monitor, which keeps him focused on the task at hand. I’ll share this method with you shortly.

To summarize, Barney suggested using two tools in order to get more focused:

1. An offline, minimalistic to-do list (pen and paper)
2. A three-item focus list that allows you to chunk your most important items

We will explore these now.

The Two Tools For Getting Things Done Like a Zen Master

1. The To-Do Planner

The first tool centers on combining your calendar and to-do list. I call this combination a “To-Do Planner.”

Successful to-do lists systems combine a calendar and to-do list for one reason: simplicity. If you have many tasks scattered throughout a variety of different places, you’re more likely to have tasks slip through the cracks. I’ve seen people spread out their appointments and to-do items between Google calendar, Google tasks, Remember the Milk, Jott, Evernote and others (I admit, I was one of them). It’s an absolute nightmare. It’s profoundly inefficient. The key is to use only one platform:

A weekly to-do planner.

Sample of A Weekly Planner

A weekly to-do planner allows you to keep a daily to-do list, with enough room to write that to-do list; as well as allowing you to book certain appointments in the future. Instead of looking at Google Calendar for appointments, and then at your daily to-do list; you only need to look one place to get things done. The reason I suggest using a weekly to-do planner is because daily planners have too much room. Focus not on how many things you can get done in a day; instead, focus on one critical task that will actually have an impact on your life.

Why not online to-do lists?

The reason why online to-do lists fail is because they try not only to replicate offline to-do lists, they try to out-do offline to-do lists. They do this by adding dozens of features, services, items and confusion to this simple system. Additionally, online to-do lists sit within the worst environment for your focus: the internet. And being that you are your environment, online to-do lists end up being distractions.

So where and how can you get a planner like the one above?

Unfortunately, these things aren’t the easiest to find. It usually takes my about three trips to different stores to find one that will work for me. If you don’t want to go shopping for a to-do list planner that fits your needs, you can design your own templates and styles of to-do planners here: Do It Yourself Planners

If you don’t want to design your own, here’s a weekly planner I suggest using. Moleskine Weekly Planner

And, though I’ve yet to purchase one yet, these paper blank planners seem quite useful.

2. Online focus list

The second item that Barney suggested was having a three-item list used in conjunction with your computer. This list poses to keep you focused on the task at hand.

Have you ever needed to check a quick email, or something that should have taken you 2 minutes, but ended up taking you 45 minutes? The online world is so addicting, stimulating and distracting that it’s hard *not* to get lost. It starts by opening your email, but then you get a notification from Facebook. “Stacy just poked you on Facebook! Poke her back.” You visit Facebook and there goes an hour of your life.

The biggest problem with offline to-do lists is that they don’t do the best job of keeping you focused when you’re using a computer. Even the online to-do lists out there are horrible at keeping you focused. They hurt the cause more than help the cause for getting focused.

Bestselling author Tim Ferriss, has a method for countering this process in which he has a small sticky post-it note. On it he writes three things that he’s going to do when he sits down to use the computer. Guess what was on the right-side of Barney (the zen master’s) computer monitor? A three-item sticky note that listed what to do.

Though I’m not sure who influenced who, my guess is that it’s neither. For some reason, three item to-do lists are naturally gifted at helping you get things done.

I call this concept, a “FocusList.”

As stated above, online to-do lists fail is because they’re trying to replicate the wrong thing. Online to-do lists try to replicate offline to-do lists. Online to-do lists should instead try to imitate the Zen Master’s strategy for getting focused when using the computer. The best to do list you can get for getting focused while using the computer is a “FocusList.”

A FocusList is a minimalistic to-do list that limits your wandering mind. Instead of allowing you to add 10 items, a focus list only allows you to enter 3 items. This keeps you focused on effectiveness, not efficiency. If we give our mind too much room, we end up hurting our productivity by focusing on things that don’t matter.

A FocusList asks you one question, “What are the three most important things you can do right now?” To which you respond with three things that keep you focused on the task at hand.

Here’s a sample picture of a FocusList:

Faction3's Focus List

So where do you get a “FocusList?”

Faction3 develops productivity applications that focus on you, rather than focus on features. Faction 3 has a “FocusList” application that is founded on the philosophy outlined above. It’s a downloadable application for PC (Windows), Mac OSX and Linux operating systems. You can learn more about it here.

I highly recommend the “FocusList” for two reasons: 1) I designed it, and 2) I use it every day. Obviously, you don’t have to buy the FocusList in order to experience the Zen Master’s principle. You can use a sticky note, a notepad, your text-edit tool, or simply a piece of paper. I personally use the FocusList because it’s tailored specifically for the Zen Master’s strategy. Whatever you choose, make sure you keep the list only three-items long.

4 Characteristics of Successful To-Do List Systems

Now that we understand the two tools you should employ for housing a sustainable to-do list system, we’ll explore 4 characteristics of your to-do list system.

1. Free and open

Keep your to-do list free, open and flexible. Your to-do list shouldn’t be broken down hourly.

Sample of a rigid, ineffective to-do list:

• 6:30am get up
• 6:34 am put on jogging gear
• 6:36am exercise
• 7:22am shower
• 7:28am shave

You get the point. Don’t kill yourself with micro-detailed to-do lists. Keep your to-do list simple, focused and free.

My offline to-do list has arrows, text and items floating around all over it. It looks like a mind-map where to do items have arrows literally pointed across pages.Everything is spread out. To others, this looks like chaos; to me, it looks like art. It looks organized; it looks as if I’ve creatively outlined ways to make sure I got the most important tasks done.

Obviously, it doesn’t start as chaos. This is the result of using a to-do list actively throughout the day. That’s what we’ll talk about next.

2. Making it a habit

Your to-do list isn’t something you check once per day; rather, it’s an all day, constant reminder tool. Successful to-do list systems are founded on the habitual action of checking what you’re doing, and “chunking” your next actions into three-item steps.

Anyone can purchase a to-do list planner or a FocusList, but if you don’t make the tool an everyday habit; or something you do without thinking, you’ll never benefit from it. Like anything else, it’s “use it, or lose it.”

When using a to-do list, two things are critical: (i) you must use it and check it at least once/hour when you’re working; (ii) you must chunk your actions into bite-sized achievements. I usually break these into three steps.

For instance, “1) Design a blog, 2) do some SEO marketing, 3) Read one news story”

The third step is the carrot. I make a habit of constantly doing two critical things, and then rewarding myself with a quick entertainment activity. Like exploring a tech news article, watching hilarious YouTube videos or reading a certain story I’ve been wanting to read.

This is yet another reason why online to-do lists are harmful rather than helpful: they’re overwhelming. Starting a list of 40 items is much more intimidating than starting a list of 3 items (as in the Focus List’s). Chunking in three’s is much more effective than trying to check off a 40 item to-do list.

3. Fire

A major part of to-do list systems success relies on your motivation and fire; rather than the actual application.

If you have the fire, but don’t have the correct tools (the offline to-do list and the FocusList), then you’ll be inefficient; however, if you have the tools, but not the fire, you’ll be completely ineffective.

If you’re extremely passionate and believe that a certain online to-do list will work for you; you usually can make it work (no matter what system you’re using). The fire and belief in your to-do list system will drive you to get things done. Thus, it’s critical that you believe in your to-do list system. This belief and fire, combined with the two simple tools (offline to-do planner and a FocusList), will allow you to start carrying out your dreams.

4. A writing device

The last characteristic that you should employ for an effective to-do list is quite simple. It’s the habit of carrying around a writing device at all times.

Famous novelist, Paul Auster, wrote an simple, yet moving essay on why he writes. In the story Auster retells a childhood moment in New York where he forgot a pencil when asking for an autograph from Willie Mays. Auster was fumbling around for a couple of minutes as he frantically asked his family and strangers for a pencil. Not one person had one. After a while, Mays responded, “Sorry, kid. Ain’t got no pencil, can’t give no autograph.” From that day forth, he never left his house without a writing device. And that’s how he became a writer. He was always prepared. If you’re committed to a truly effective to-do list system, make sure you always carry a writing device with you.

Walking through walls

A focused person is one who walks through walls because they know where they’re going and why. Nothing can prevent them from reaching their destination. They secretly tell themselves, “This is what I’m doing; this is where I’m going. If anyone wants to join me, fine.” Of course, their attitude isn’t one of disrespect; it’s one of determination. It’s of humble ferocity. A person that lives with this fire immediately has an aura when they enter a room–and they don’t have to say a word. You know they’re driven and you know they’ll be going somewhere.

This, of course, begs the question, “How did they get into this state?” The answer is simple; they’ve found their purpose. They’ve found their long-term focus. And they’ve found it through asking themselves questions.

So often we stray away from our purpose. We do the opposite of what we’re naturally good at. We will be exploring how to become a focused person by diving into the following chapters:

1. Painting a picture of yourself (future chapter)
2. Finding your path through questions (this chapter)
3. Setting focused goals (link)
4. Finishing the goals you embark on (link)
5. Bringing goals to reality through personal productivity systems (future chapter)

This chapter is about number 2. We’ll explore the questions you must ask yourself in order to help you find your path. These questions will help you gain a glimpse into what focused goal you should set (which is covered in the number 3 above).

Why Asking Yourself Questions Is Important

In a different chapter on the concept of flow, we find that flow is a wonderful indicator of purpose. Flow displays what you’re passionate about. The state of flow occurs when the mind is so entrenched in the task at hand that time stands still. You get lost in your task because it’s natural; it’s exhilarating. It’s your purpose. In order to find what your purpose is, it’s best to think back to when you were in that state of flow. Through the series of questions below, you’ll be auditing your past and your dreams. You’ll be exploring the last time you were in a state of flow. This prepares one to set goals that are actually meaningful; rather than setting goals merely to set goals.

57 Questions to Ask Yourself

1. What is the first instance of being in the state of flow that you can remember?
2. Did you have any friends or family there to appreciate what you were working on?
3. In your opinion, what’s the most amazing idea you’ve ever had?
4. Why was this amazing?
5. Looking back, what was the dumbest idea or venture you’ve ever embarked on?
6. Why was it dumb?
7. What thought-process led you to this idea in the first place?
8. Before you pass away, what’s one mark you want to leave on the world?
9. What are the barriers to achieving this right now?
10. What is the next step to achieving this?
11. What do you do every day between 6-10am?
12. What do you do every day between 10am – 2pm?
13. What do you do every day between 2pm – 6pm?
14. What do you do every night between 6pm – 12am?
15. Describe your first undertaking or achievement that was successful.
16. Describe another undertaking that was successful.
17. What was the difference between the two?
18. How do you feel about money?
19. Have you ever been given significant responsibility over others? If so, how did you act?
20. How do you react to compliments?
21. Do you like to compete? How do you see rivals?
22. Do you like your day job (if you have one)?
23. Who do you look up to (past or present people)?
24. Why do you look up to them?
25. What do you and your role models share in common?
26. Where are you different?
27. Do you believe that some people are naturally geniuses, or naturally just more talented in what you’re passionate about?
28. How do you respond when you see people that claim to be overnight successes, or simply lucky?
29. What was the last argument you had, and what was your position?
30. How do you react when someone is hostile towards you?
31. How do you react to failure?
32. What drives you to keep pressing on after failure?
33. Which do you enjoy more: The feeling of achieving the goal, or the process of trying to reach the goal?
34. If you never had to work, where would you spend your time, and what would you spend your time on?
35. What do you fear most?
36. How would you react if the above happened?
37. What makes someone an expert in a specific field?
38. What is your dream?
39. Describe a complex situation in which you had a lot to learn. How did you go about learning, and did you enjoy this process?
40. Would people say you’re someone who diligently pursues every single detail, or are you more of a big-picture person?
41. What difficult decisions have you made recently, and would you make this same decision?
42. Describe your decision-making approach.
43. What maxims or beliefs do you live by?
44. Do you like facing concrete, short-term challenges; or do you enjoy conceptual, abstract long-term challenges?
45. Are you more of a visionary, or more of a person that makes stuff happen today? Why?
46. What’s the biggest risk you’ve taken in recent years?
47. Was the risk worth it? Why or why not.
48. Describe a situation in which the pressure to compromise your integrity were the strongest you’ve ever felt.
49. Are you better at starting a lot of projects, or squeezing results out of fewer projects?
50. Do you believe in asking for forgiveness rather than permission?
51. What sort of mood swings do you experience? Where and what does this usually stem from?
52. Describe your sense of humor.
53. When there’s a difference of opinion, do you confront others indirectly or directly?
54. When was the last time you put your foot in your mouth, and what was it about?
55. Are you a natural leader? If so, cite how you are and why.
56. What drives you everyday? Why do you get out of bed? (besides putting bread on the table)
57. What pace do you work at? Are you fast, slow or moderate worker?

Important!

Goal Setting Software

The questions above are long and open-ended. In order to get the most out of this exercise, sign up for the upcoming Goal Setting Application. When it’s ready to be released, I’ll notify you through email. Sign up to get notified below:

Photo Credit: Marco Bellucci

The Third Faction:

You must understand that focused goals are unlike any goal exercise you’ve done before. In today’s world of goal setting there sits two extreme groups or factions:

Faction 1

The first faction proclaims that you should set “SMART” goals. This is a clever acronym for goals that are “Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely.” This concept is typically introduced in all-day seminars on goal-setting.

Faction 2

The second faction proclaims that goal setting is a worthless exercise. This group reasons that the world changes so fast, that you shouldn’t waste your time setting goals–you should just act and react.

Focused goals sit in a different group.

Faction 3

The Third Faction isn’t a meeting between these two camps. The third faction is a meeting between common sense, simplicity and action. This method centers on setting goals that are rather simple in nature, and then executing these goals within a short time period. We’ll explore this below.

But first, you must understand one thing:

Focused goals aren’t smart

What do I mean by “Focused goals aren’t smart?”

As outlined above, SMART goals stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely. Courses and books are written that take you through a whirlwind of examples, lessons and reasons for implementing these types of goals.

The biggest problem with SMART goals centers on one thing: they lack purpose. These goals are carried out after reading about the concept in some textbook, or special seminar. Participants tend to create goals that are more focused on abiding by the “SMART” system than their own belief system. When creating a goal, it’s just as important to know when to start, as it is knowing what to start.

Thus, before setting a goal, you must make sure that you’re in the proper state to set goals.

The Proper State of Mind

The reason why most goal setting exercises fail is because they focus more on the principles, or concepts, rather than the desires of those setting the goal.

Outlined below are two elements that will assist you in stepping into the proper state before setting a goal. It will allow you to set a goal that’s meaningful for you; not a goal that’s driven by a catchy acronym.

I. Humility

Goal setting is not about you.

By nature, goal setting is a profoundly selfish exercise.

We focus on what we don’t have, what we want, how much we want and when we want it. We think of material items like a Lexus or a BMW or a golden toilet (one of those would be nice). Kidding aside, we write out proclamations like, “I’m going to get a Master’s degree within two years, and accumulate a net worth of $2,000,000. After this, I will be happy and content, and work whenever I want to.” We can easily lose ourselves when thinking like this, which is dangerous.

When setting goals, it’s not about you. It’s about how you can leverage your gifts for others.

For assistance on getting into this state, I find it helpful watching videos of those that are living their purpose. Like this one:

When in a state of goal setting, first start by humbling yourself and realizing how lucky you are to be setting goals in the first place. Your goals shouldn’t focus on net worth, cars or materials; your goals should focus meaning, purpose and your gifts.

II. Meaning

The second element for getting into the proper state of setting goals centers on mining your meaning.

In order to mine meaningful goals, you’ll need two things: a pad of paper and a pencil. Most goal-setting exercises tell you to get your goals in writing as soon as possible. What’s more important than that is putting your thoughts in writing (not necessarily the goal in writing).

By writing by hand, your thoughts suddenly free themselves from the confines of your mind. You’ll allow yourself to understand your desires and your dreams in a clearer fashion. Motivate yourself by grabbing a writing pad and a pencil. At the top of the paper, write the following question:

“What am I here for, and how can this move the world?“

This is a very open question, and a tough one to answer. In order to help you understand what you’re here for, think of the hobbies that you have or the times in which you’ve fallen into the state of flow. There’s no correct answer; there’s only true answers. Be true to yourself when mapping out different answers and components of your life. After each item that you write down, move further by constantly asking, “Why is this important?”

In a different chapter, we explore other questions to ask yourself, and in which manner to ask those questions. For now, though, the above question will serve as an adequate start for getting in the state of setting a purposeful, focused goal.

The Focused Goal Formula

Now that you’re in the proper state to be setting a goal, it’s time to unveil the actual formula for setting a focused, purpose-driven goal.

Focused goals contain only two elements: three words and three months. I’ll dive into these elements now, and then show you a sample of a focused goal.

1. Three Words

After conducting an audit on who you are, and your dreams, it’s critical to cut these goals down into actionable bites. I’m not talking about smaller goals necessarily. I’m talking about Memes.

What is a meme?

A meme (pronounced so that it rhymes with “cream”) is an idea, a thought, or an image that drives emotion and spreads–almost instantly. Much like a picture speaks a thousand words, a meme drives a thousand emotions. Your goals should be memes. My method for creating a goal that likens itself to a meme is to condense it into three words.

The reason the goal should be only three words is that there’s so much fat and extra fluff when you’re given free reign–even 140 characters is too much room for setting a goal. Keeping a goal tied to three words cuts the fat, and drives action.

Samples:

• Write a book
• Create a startup
• Make an album
• Quit smoking cigarettes
• Run a marathon
• Change children’s lives

After you’ve listed a handful of memes, select one that is aligned with the meaning you’ve mined from the exercise above. It’s critical to select only one.

2. Three Months

After you’ve selected one meme that really inspires you, it’s time to “chunk it.” Do this by setting a three-month time line for this meme. After this, please read the short-term goal chapter on finishing projects to see it through. In order to meet this, it’s wise to make the goal an everyday part of your life. Make it a habit to focus on the goal for at least an hour every single day.

But what if your goals can’t be carried out in three months?

This is where the concept of “chunking” comes into play. We often feel overwhelmed because we’re staring in the face of a goal that is daunting, and seemingly, impossible. Yet, you’ll find that when you actually embark on the goal, and break it into smaller chunks, you’ll find yourself fast on your way to accomplishing the goal.

The reason why your goal’s time period should be short is because life itself is short.

For instance, here’s sample focused goal that I set for myself:

“Write a book.”

I’ve set the due date within three months for the first version. I’ve been working every single morning to meet this goal. It’s a habit. I’ve yet to miss a morning. Yet, will I finish it within three months? Maybe, maybe not. If not, I’ll have to push it back a month or so. Big deal. I’ll have still met a goal in a short amount of time–and more importantly, the goal is profoundly meaningful to me. Don’t beat yourself up over not meeting a deadline. But you’ll want to beat yourself up if you never even start.

As an alternative, I could have taken a more traditional route and set a SMART goal. I would have written, “I want to write a book in 2010 and get on Oprah before I’m 30 years old.” Or something like that.

I mean, writing a book right now doesn’t meet the “realistic” requirement of SMART goals, right? I’ve never written a book before, only read and dreamed about publishing one day. If I followed SMART principles, you wouldn’t be reading this right now. What ends up happening when setting SMART goals is you set goals that are founded on a brittle purpose. The goals you set end up being too confusing, and not action-oriented.

Simply select a meaningful three-word goal and do it in three months. That’s a focused goal. That’s a meaningful goal.

Best of luck.