Here’s the thing about focus and getting things done…
In order for you to focus, you need to eliminate distractions.
The problem is, even when you eliminate all the physical distractions like your phone, your email, the internet, and other people…
You’re still left with one of the biggest distractors known to man, something you carry with you all the time:
Your free-range thoughts.
Have you ever sat down with the best of intentions to do something. And as soon as you hit the chair, something pops into your head and you go, “Oh I got to call Joe before I get started.” Or, “I’ve got to call Jane about this contract...” And before you know it, you get sucked back into your day?
That’s your free-range thoughts at work. They’re always rolling around inside your head, just waiting to send you off into a reactive tailspin.
But here’s what’s interesting…
Have you noticed how these thoughts never derail you when you’re in a meeting with somebody? Or when you’re with a client?
And even if you do have a pop-up thought during a meeting, what do you do? You dismiss it, don’t you? You make a note to yourself, “Okay, I need to do that later,” and you carry on with the meeting.
However, when you try to focus on important things proactively, and they don’t involve other people sitting there with you… you face resistance. And every free-range thought inside your head now becomes more important than whatever it is you’re trying to focus on.
But here’s the good news…
There’s a way to corral those free-range thoughts. It’s something I use all the time. I call it the 50 Minute Focus Finder and all you need is a timer, a yellow pad and a pen.
It works like this:
You set your timer to 50 minutes, and then you start writing down every thought that’s on your mind. Everything you can possibly think of. And you keep writing down your thoughts until the buzzer dings.
Here’s what’s going to happen...
For the first 10 minutes, you're going to have thoughts as fast as you can write them. At around minute 7 or 8, you’ll start slowing down a bit, but a few more thoughts will come.
For the first 10 minutes, you're going to have thoughts as fast as you can write them.
And then, at around minute 10, you’ll notice a change…
This is when you get rid of all the surface things like “calling Bob,” “going to the dentist,” and so on… and a different kind of thoughts start popping up.
Thoughts about things you've been meaning to do for some time. And thoughts about stuff you'd love to do at some point. In other words, it’s only after ten minutes or so that you start getting to the good stuff.
Anyway. I challenge you to keep going for the full 50 minutes. And get to a list of 50 or even 100 things you have on your mind. Because they’re all there.
And remember, no thought is too significant or insignificant. It could be as easy as getting milk. Or it could be as big as how am I going to pay for retirement, or how am I going to pay for college.
Because here’s the thing. If you keep going for the full 50 minutes, what will happen is…
You’ll get an immediate sense of relief. And everything will seem much more manageable when you look at it on four sheets of paper than when it's rolling around in your head.
And here’s the best part. Once you get all of the thoughts out on paper…
You've created enough ammunition to fuel all of your proactive endeavors for the next 60-90 days and beyond.