August 8, 2023 • 38 mins
Feel like you're always distracted and unfocused in your business? You're not alone! We all struggle to stay present and productive with so much vying for our attention. The good news is you can strengthen your executive function skills—the key cognitive abilities that enable strategic planning, focus, organization, and managing multiple responsibilities.
In this episode, we focus on managing distractions, using techniques to:
- Declutter your workspace and minimize digital distractions for better concentration
- Block off sacred time on your calendar to deeply focus on high-priority tasks
- Avoid messy multitasking in favor of single-tasking for greater efficiency
- Implement re-energizing breaks to boost mental stamina and avoid burnout
- Set boundaries around meetings and delegate tasks strategically to others
Being mindful about how you spend your time will help you resist distractions, focus intensely, and sustain progress on your most critical goals. Ditch the noise and bring your vision into clear, successful strategic focus with these practical techniques.
Thanks for listening!
Please Rate, Review, & Follow this podcast so you never miss an episode.
This helps more listeners find us, and helps us grow!
Visit: https://www.corinneoflynn.com to find out what else is going on!
Visit: https://www.corinneoflynn.com/membership/ for info about the membership
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey there, my name is Corinne Oflin and you're
listening to the CalmEntrepreneur podcast.
I am a USA Today bestsellingauthor, non-profit executive and
organizing nerd with over 20years experience running my own
small businesses.
I teach entrepreneurs,solarpreneurs and small business
owners like you how to organizeyour business, find more time
(00:21):
and deepen your alignmentpractice to experience more calm
and confidence every single day.
If you're looking for thatintersection between practical
business advice and spiritualgoodness, then you're in the
right place.
So sit back, relax and let'sdive into this week's episode of
the Calm Entrepreneur podcast.
Welcome, welcome to the CalmEntrepreneur podcast.
(00:45):
I'm your host, corinne Oflin,and this is episode 33.
Being an entrepreneur demandsthat we develop excellence
across a spectrum of executivefunctioning skills.
These skills are the corecapabilities required to succeed
in business and, quite frankly,in life.
They include things likeself-restraint, working memory,
(01:09):
emotion control, focus, taskinitiation, planning,
prioritization, organizing, timemanagement, defining and
achieving goals, flexibility andstress tolerance.
Understanding how you operatewithin these frames goes a long
way, because mastering theseskills allows entrepreneurs to
(01:31):
juggle all the diverseresponsibilities that we face
every single day.
It helps us remain resilientunder pressure and they help us
to achieve our goals.
But the nature of running abusiness makes it easy to become
distracted and overwhelmed andcompletely unfocused.
We've all been there right.
Emails pile up, notificationsding endlessly and the new ideas
(01:57):
glisten in the distance likeshiny objects.
All of these things threaten toderail our progress, but
without strong executivefunctioning abilities, we
flounder, and so it's importantto assess your strengths and
weaknesses when it comes tothese core capabilities.
The first step towardsstrengthening your executive
(02:18):
functioning skills isself-awareness.
I think most of us have ageneral idea of where we excel
and where we struggle, but it'sactually a really good exercise
to reflect on these core skillsand see which of those truly do
come naturally to us versus theones that we actually do
struggle with, because there issome overlap with some of them.
(02:41):
I think that we can inflate thetwo things, three things,
together.
For example, you might excel attime management, but have
difficulty with organization, orplanning may be easy for you,
while focusing deeply enough tobe efficient in executing those
plans may give you loads oftrouble.
And if you struggle with one ormore of these core capabilities
(03:05):
, I want to make something super, super, duper clear.
You are not alone.
There is nothing wrong with youNot at all, in fact.
Everybody has strengths andweaknesses when it comes to
these things.
They're called executivefunctioning skills and core
capabilities because these arefoundational, right, but just
(03:27):
because they're foundationaldoesn't mean it's something that
everybody has access to right,and it's important to play to
your natural strengths, but alsoidentify the places that you
need to be developing right.
Don't avoid your weaknesses.
And this is important becauseif you've ever heard me talk
about this stuff on this podcastor on any of my events, or even
(03:51):
in my classes and on my blog, Iwill say over and over again
that these abilities are notpersonality traits, they are
skills, and that is reallyexciting, because that means
that they can be taught and theycan be developed.
So, once you identify areaswhere you need support, seek
(04:14):
training, find a mentor, find acoach, find some way to level up
.
Striving to become competentacross all of these executive
functions will help youeliminate distractions, will
help you remain resilient andachieve your full potential in
your life and in your business.
(04:34):
But, yes, self-assessment andself-improvement are key with
this.
One of the big areas ofstruggle that I wanted to focus
on today that I hear about fromso many people and I fall into
this category as well it'sdealing effectively with
distractions.
With so many demands competingfor our attention, focus and
(04:58):
productivity can definitelysuffer, and that is why honing
your ability to eliminatedistractions is really a pivotal
skill for entrepreneurs.
It's just really for humans.
I came to understand the valueof and actually you know what
even the existence of executivefunctioning as a group of skills
(05:22):
when one of my kids wasstruggling in several areas and
I've mentioned before that Ihave one of my kids who's ADHD,
and Learning how to help himlearn had a huge impact on the
way that we moved forward withhis education, and the focus of
(05:43):
all the things that we learnedfor him was executive
functioning skills.
There was nothing wrong withhis aptitude he's a brilliant
guy but even then, everyone sawthe intelligence and the
potential, but what he didn'thave was that these
administration skills and wewere able to teach all of those
(06:05):
things to him in various degreesof success, and not because
we're all developing and he'sstill developing, but that's
where I learned about theexistence of executive
functioning skills, but also thecore value of them for all of
us, and so I think that we losetrack of the simplicity with
(06:30):
which we can really developspecific vertical skills so that
we can do well in our life andin our business, and so one of
those really big ones isdistraction.
Right, I mean, I don't knowanybody.
Today, especially with socialmedia, we are being trained to
(06:53):
have a shorter and shorterattention span, and we are being
trained to have the expectationto be available at all times.
Like the notifications are on,things are vibrating.
We have now we have the watchesand the smartphones, and
everything is keeping track ofus, right, except for us.
So, when it comes to meprioritizing all of the
(07:15):
different executive functioningskills, distraction is at the
top of that list, because therereally just isn't anything more
important to get a big handle on.
We all know that it's super easyto push ourselves to exhaustion
, right?
As entrepreneurs, we oftenpride ourselves on hustling
night and day to make ourventures succeed, and, you know,
(07:37):
ignoring our body signals canlead to energy crash and burnout
, and that is why mindfulnessand self-awareness are two key
ingredients in this skill set,because, make no mistake,
burnout diminishes yourexecutive function abilities big
time.
And ask me how I know like I'mhere sharing this with you as
(08:00):
someone who has just now rightIn 2023, I am just now fully
coming through the other side ofa gnarly years long burnout and
recovery cycle, and it's really, it's no joke, right?
But when I was finally able andready to get back to work, I
(08:21):
didn't just restart and continuewhere I left off.
Not at all.
I had to rebuild right, and Irelied on my foundational
executive functioning skills tohelp me build my way back.
So don't let yourself get sweptaway by the excitement of
relentless doing, because thecost of that is just it's way
(08:41):
too high.
And if you're lucky, it onlyshows up as burnout, right.
And I say that you're lucky ifthat's the case, because that's
something that we can recoverfrom.
But if we're not, if we go evenfurther and it's too drawn out
and the burnout becomes too deepand we continue to push through
the burnout that can make halfof it with our health.
(09:01):
So by tuning into your energyand your energy levels and
responding appropriately on aregular basis, you can stay
better aware of when you need torenew your reserves, and that
is one of those skills as wellin and of itself Be aware of
your mind, body signals, listento what your body needs and do
(09:23):
everything that you can to stayreplenished and don't deplete
because you do not want to fallinto burnout or worse.
So how can we work smarter whenit comes to managing our
distractions?
There's a study out there thatsays that it takes as much as 23
minutes for a person to getback into a flow state after
(09:44):
being distracted 23 minutes andI thought that was pretty wild
when I first heard that, butI'll tell you that from where I
stand, that's been true.
I know for me that it takes 15to 20 minutes to drop back into
flow.
And I'm not talking about beingable to get back to work again,
like you can do that in acouple of minutes.
(10:05):
I'm talking about deep focus,like being in the zone.
And that always makes me thinkabout crockpots, right, because
we are just like crockpots inthat way, because if you're
cooking in a crockpot and you'vegot everything in there
percolating all day, and you gointo the kitchen and you take
the lid off that crockpot,you've just let out all of that
(10:25):
steam and you've added 20minutes to the cook time, it's
true.
So now that we're all on thesame page about the importance
of avoiding distractions, let'stalk about some practical advice
on how to do just that, right?
So here's some tips to clearaway the noise and boost your
(10:46):
ability to focus, to create adistraction-free or as close to
a distraction-free workspace aspossible.
Because you know, let's face it, like for me, I've got kids
there at school and they're notalways at home and so when
school is in session I have tobe available to them.
So that's a distractionpotentially, right.
So we have to do the bestthings that we can to mitigate
(11:07):
these things by getting ahead ofthem and planning ahead for
them.
And part of that is actuallyinforming the people who are
going to be impacted by the factthat you're going to be off the
grid for X amount of time orunavailable for this window and
or maybe just not available viatext message.
Instead, you have to call orthings of that nature.
(11:30):
But the first thing isdistraction-free workspace.
Right, your environment plays ahuge role in your ability to
focus, so make your workspace asdistraction-free as possible by
taking some pretty simple basicsteps.
But these go a long way andI've talked about these at
(11:51):
different times for differentreasons, because these again
this goes back to corefoundations.
This is building blocks, stuff.
If we have these thingsoperating in a flow state for us
, they become habit, they becomemindless.
We don't have to expend anyenergy managing them, and so
(12:14):
that's why they come up all thetime, because they truly are
foundational.
Everything builds upon thesethings, and so when we have
these things nailed down, theneverything else becomes easier.
So the first thing isdecluttering, right, declutter
your physical workspace, removepaper, remove.
You know the chachkies and theknickknacks, and I am so
(12:38):
terrible about this, and in fact, when I, a couple of years ago,
we put in hardwood floors and Ihad to clear out everything out
of my office I am fortunateenough to actually have an
office in my house with a doorand we had to clear everything
out of the office to put inhardwood floors and we painted
in everything else, so it tookeverything out.
When we put everything back in,we ended up putting these
(13:02):
little shelves on the walls andI loaded up these shelves with
all my little chachkies andknickknacks, because I have so
much stuff, you guys, and all ofit.
It's like it's memorabilia fromComic-Con and events that I've
done.
You know panels on, or you knowall of my tarot card collection
, because I have a rather largeone.
(13:24):
There's just stuff, and I likehaving my stuff around me, and
so I had to find a new way toget it off of my desk, and so
that was putting it on the wallsand I love it.
And when anybody comes into myoffice they sit down and they're
like oh, I like being in herebecause it's like the room of me
, it's like me in a room stateas opposed to, you know, being
(13:45):
in a person.
But that required that Idecluttered my physical space
because I had so much stuff onmy desk, you guys, and when I
got organized there was just somuch stuff on my desk.
So remove the physical stuffthat you can right, find new
homes for these things and makesure you put them back in their
(14:07):
place.
You know, a clean desk supportsmental clarity, and I get a lot
of pushback when I talk aboutthat, because there are a lot of
people who prefer, and maybewould say that they thrive, in a
cluttered workspace, and thatmight be your way.
But I'm going to say that ifyou don't know every single
(14:28):
thing that's on your desk, thenthat's taxing you mentally and
you might not be aware that itis, but it is.
So I would urge you toexperiment with it.
Maybe try go paperless scan awhole bunch of stuff.
That's a project that I'mcoming in on the heels of.
I've actually spent the lastpart of this year doing going
(14:50):
paperless in our household, andit's been quite interesting.
So do the best that you can todeclutter your physical space.
Shut off your phone, your emailand your app notifications.
Turn off the buzzes, turn offthe pings, turn off the pop-ups
and this is one that is so hardto do, and I speak from
(15:14):
experience.
But several years ago I hit anabsolute wall, and this was
actually before I kind ofdropped totally into my burnout.
Before I knew I was in burnout,I was irritated all the time
and I didn't understand why Icouldn't focus, and so one of
the first things that I did wasI turned off all of the
notifications, everything, andit was the hardest thing to do
(15:36):
because I was like wait, what ifsomeone needs me?
Oh my gosh, what if I'm notavailable?
And this is before the pandemichappened, and so we weren't all
in the house all the time.
But I'll tell you when I turnedoff all of the access to me,
when I told my family hey, ifyou need something urgently,
call me on the phone, using yourphone to dial my phone number.
(15:58):
Don't text me and I will answerif you call.
It made the world of difference.
But it also was kind ofhumbling because I was like, wow
, nobody tried to get me.
I turned off all notificationsand then when I came back out of
my focus window and I turnedback on my stuff and I was like,
oh no, no one even needed meand look, the world is still
(16:20):
turning.
So it's one of those things.
I think that we think that we dohave to be accessible at all
times and we do need to beconnected at all times, and it's
really just not true.
So for most people I'm notgoing to I don't presume to know
everyone's in and out Peopleare dealing with all different
kinds of things at all differentkinds of times.
(16:41):
So do what you have to do.
But if you have the luxury ofbeing able to turn off all
notifications, try it and try itwith everything everything from
pop-ups on your desktop tostuff on your smartphone, to
stuff on your smartwatch,everything and see how that
feels.
Try it for a couple of days andjust see Close extra tabs and
(17:06):
windows on your computer.
Keep only the things thatyou're working on open and that
will help you avoid clickingaround and use a website blocker
if you need to.
That's something that I turn on.
I have a blocker that keeps mefrom being able to access social
media when I'm working on myfocus.
(17:26):
Blocks of work time, because Iguys, I'm like the post-it child
.
I'm the reason that theydesigned social media the way
that they did.
I can't control myself.
If I see an Instagram scroll,I'm like, oh look, oh look,
scroll, scroll, and then all ofa sudden, hours have gone by,
right, so it's terrible, I'm theworst at it, so I don't trust
(17:50):
myself and that's the way it'sgot to be.
So my next one is wearnoise-canceling headphones right
, or listen to nature sounds toblock out audible distractions,
especially if you work in aquiet environment.
The way that I do, I don't likehaving things going on music or
TV or anything going on aroundme that's making noise.
(18:11):
So for a long time I had whitenoise playing in my office.
That added that little buffer.
But now I have noise-cancelingheadphones with nothing on, and
it's interesting because it'salmost like this Pavlovian thing
where, when I sit down at mydesk, I can sit down at my desk
and I can do other things, butthe minute I put my headphones
(18:33):
on, my brain clicks into oh,it's work mode.
So that's something thathappens for me.
But find the thing that worksfor you.
One of my kids loves havingheavy metal music playing.
One of my kids likes naturesounds.
I like absolute silence.
It's different for everybody,but experiment with that,
(18:55):
because sometimes adding a soundcan actually separate the rest
of the noise around, because itchanges the way that you're
focusing.
See if you can face your deskaway from visual high traffic
areas, and I ended up doing thatfor myself because my desk used
(19:15):
to face my door and it kept mein the line of sight when
somebody walked by or whensomeone across the way is my
kitchen.
If somebody walked throughthere and had nothing to do with
me, didn't need my attention,didn't even know that I was in
the room, it broke my attentionbecause I caught the visual, so
I moved myself, so I couldn'tsee out the door of my office,
(19:38):
and that actually is one ofthose things that helps.
Another one for me is keep yourphone out of sight when working
and resist the urge to check it.
For a long time when I wastraining myself on this one, I
used to put my phone in my carin the garage and like forget
that I had a phone because Ijust it's like, oh, I'll just
(20:00):
check really quick.
Or you know, if I get up frommy desk to take a bio break, or
if I go to the kitchen to put ona kettle and I'm standing at
the kettle waiting for it toboil and taking like getting on
my feet and moving my body, thefirst thing I do is grab my
phone and then all of a sudden,I've managed to sit through the
(20:20):
boil, pour a cup of tea, madethe cup of tea with one hand
while doing something and whileon my phone with the other hand.
It's insidious.
You guys, there's lots ofdifferent ways that you can
manage your workspace to bedistraction free, and it
includes everything from gettingorganizing cubbies for your
(20:42):
desktop or maybe in your deskdrawers, if you have drawers,
changing the lighting to reducethe strain.
I actually got a pair ofnon-englare computer glasses
that you know.
The new ones that I have haveregular clear lenses, but the
old ones that I have are likethe blue blockers with the
yellow lenses and I looked likea freak whenever I was on, like
(21:04):
the web calls.
But you know it actually.
It actually helps you focusbecause it keeps you from
getting tired.
But treat your workspace like asacred space, right.
This is the space that'sdevoted to you and your business
.
It should be devoted to deepfocus.
It should be a place that wecome to with.
(21:28):
I don't want to use the wordreverence, but I want to use
what's the word respect.
We want to respect ourselvesenough to respect our workspace
enough to make it a haven, tomake it a place where we can
channel creativity, where we canconnect into our work, and we
do that by tuning out as much ofthe sensory distractions that
(21:52):
we possibly can, which all ofthat is a self-control piece,
which is an executivefunctioning skill, right?
Because when we're able to tuneout all of those distractions,
we'll be able to direct ourfocus.
You know, we'll be able tocontrol our focus, and that is,
(22:13):
I think, something that we havetaken for granted.
For, you know, as the worldbecomes more and more and more
digital and things are startingto move more and more and more
quickly and expectations arethat things are gonna happen
more quickly and our attentionspan and our patients level has
dropped.
(22:33):
Our ability to really focus hasbeen sacrificed in there.
So one of the things that I useon a regular basis for managing
my distractions is time blocking.
And you don't want to like.
Well, I don't want to say youdon't want to.
I have found that the peoplethat I work with, the people
(22:56):
that I coach and people that Italk to about this, when we are
blocking our time, the urge todo that with our day is to block
every single moment, like tosqueeze every minute out of the
day and schedule everything.
And I've tried that and I'vebeen successful at it sometimes,
but for me it has not beensustainable and I share that,
(23:19):
because the advice out there iskind of black and white on this.
It's like, if you're gonna dotime blocking, this is what time
blocking looks like.
You start at your morning andyou time block every half hour,
every hour, whatever you'redoing, until you're done with
your work day, and that includesblocking your day and that
includes blocking out breaks.
(23:39):
But if that doesn't work for you, there is another way, like for
me.
I have three big blocks at atime and I have three big
priorities every day, and so Ihave an hour, two, an hour and a
half, maybe sometimes two.
It just depends on what thetask is for the day.
But I have three dedicatedfocus blocks.
(24:01):
And focus block one I sit down,I look at the clock, I
declutter my desktop, my digitaldesktop, by closing all the
tabs, opening only what I need,and I get working on that thing
and I set a timer and I don'tstop until I'm done with the
time block and I might notfinish the task, but I will make
(24:24):
serious progress because I havefocused the time block and at
the end of the time block I getto decide if I usually build in
buffers between my time blocks,but if I'm right at the edge of
finishing something or if I'mnot at a good stopping point yet
, I'll go over time and I'llwrap it up.
But blocking time is a superway of really training yourself
(24:51):
to get some work done.
And when I use time blockingwhich I would say, I usually
work four, four and a half daysa week three to three and a half
of those days are time blockeddays.
I'm not working eight hours aday in time blocks, I'm working
like maybe four and a half hours, maybe five hours a day and
(25:16):
then I'm done because I got allmy stuff done right.
So Start each week or each monthby picking your priorities for
that time period right and lockyourself in to those being your
priorities and then block outchunks of at least an hour or an
(25:37):
hour and a half each day thatyou can dedicate to work right.
Let's say you work five days aweek.
Sometimes you're going to workseven days a week.
Some weeks you're going to workthree days a week.
Go ahead, look at your time andblock out three chunks a day to
see if you can work dedicatedtime on those priorities and if
(26:03):
you're able to manage to getthat block in your day, protect
that time.
Nothing else can encroach.
Nothing else can encroach inthat time.
Schedule your priority worktimes during the times when you
have the most energy and focus.
And if you listened to lastweek's episode 32 of this
podcast, I talk about this and Italk about prioritizing your
(26:26):
schedule by tracking your energyand this is the reason for that
.
If you know when you are themost energetic, the most focused
, the most awake, then that'swhen you should have a time
block.
So think about that and lookwithin and try to really work on
optimizing yourself.
This is like hacking of you andit's kind of interesting when
(26:52):
you find success because I thinkit comes in unexpected ways
when you're booking appointmentskeep your reserved focus blocks
open with buffers around them,rather than scheduling over them
.
And for me, the way that I dothis and of course nothing is
100%, but I try I pick one day aweek where I will have errands
(27:16):
and appointments.
If I have to leave my house todo stuff, I try to make sure
everything that I have to leavethe house for is happening on
that day and that'll be the daythat I do phone calls, that'll
be the day where I haveappointments, because then I
have then all of those thingsbatched and it's not like I'm
breaking up every single day toget stuff done.
(27:37):
And of course nothing is 100%,but it's one of those things
that if you do, you keep yourfocus blocks locked out, nothing
else can encroach.
You'll be, you'll honoryourself and you'll respect that
time and then you'll work moreeffectively to keep those things
focused on your work.
(27:59):
And, like I said, I schedulebuffer times, so allow for
buffer space between your focusblocks.
And again, this is one of thosethings that some people disagree
with.
Some people prefer to have backto back to back to back to back
blocks and if that's you andthat works for you, go with it.
But if it doesn't work for you,I share this because I don't
(28:19):
want you to say it doesn't workfor me because I can't block my
entire day.
You don't have to block yourentire day to use time blocks.
So allow for buffer timebetween focus blocks.
Allow buffer time betweenappointments.
You might have a call in themorning followed by a focus
block.
Put a buffer of time in betweenthat, remember, you get to
(28:41):
choose.
You're in charge.
You're an entrepreneur.
We've done this for the freedom.
Batch your meetings and callstogether.
I already talked about that.
Mark your focus blocks asnon-negotiable in any kind of
calendar that you share withother people.
I have a shared family calendarand I have a shared calendar
with one of my assistants andthere are times where there will
(29:03):
not be anything available to bescheduled and that's
non-negotiable.
And this is kind of like when Italked about with my kids.
I am not available to bereached during these hours and
it doesn't mean I'm notavailable.
It means I'm not availableduring these times and most of
the time, unless it's a serious,dire emergency.
Most things can wait.
(29:23):
If your focus blocks getinterrupted, let's say something
does happen, that's okay.
Like we're human, life is goingto happen.
But make sure that youreschedule that lost focus block
somewhere else in your scheduleas soon as you possibly can.
You don't want to get into thehabit of releasing them and not
(29:43):
taking them back, because we'retrying to create a habit here.
We're trying to build apractice of really getting into
deep focus right.
When we treat uninterruptedfocus time as sacred, you will
ensure your most importantprojects and tasks get the
dedicated attention that theyrequire.
(30:05):
Amidst the chaos of running abusiness and living a life,
right Priority output can beachieved, and that's
needle-moving action.
This is stuff that's going tomake a difference, and I think
that if you were to practicethis, you will find that you
will actually get your work doneso much sooner and have much
(30:28):
more time available to do therest of the things that you want
to do with your life.
And when you're working in thosefocus blocks of time, don't try
to multitask.
You need to work on singlefocusing, and this is something
that I am an absolute evangelistabout.
(30:48):
There's a book called thePracticing Mind by a guy named
Thomas M Stirner.
It's a tiny little book.
You can read it in one sitting,but it tells the story about
this experience that he had andthe value of deep focus through
single tasking, and I haveexperienced it.
Many of my friends who haveread the book have also
(31:11):
experienced it, because it'strue, there's actually no such
thing as multitasking.
We're not actually doing morethan one thing, we're just
switching contexts really reallyfast and that makes us
ineffective.
That is something that is notup for debate.
You can say that you're reallygood at doing a lot of things at
once, and that might be true,but I challenge you to really
(31:36):
dive into single task and seejust how much more effective,
how much more creative, how muchmore rich your output is when
you do dedicate true singletasking to that.
You can use focus tools likefreedom there's one called Cold
(31:59):
Turkey and these blockdistracting websites I mentioned
.
News Feed Eradicator is onethat I use.
All of these things help usstay focused right, and we wanna
make the most of the time thatwe dedicate to our focus.
Blocks right, take breaks right.
Go on walks, exercise, takeshort breaks to help recharge
(32:21):
your mental focus right, and oneof the best ways to do this,
especially if you havedifficulty working for long
periods of time, like an hour or90 minutes at a time, is the
Pomodoro Method right 25 minutesof focus followed by five
minute breaks.
You can set a timer on yourphone or you can download an
actual Pomodoro timer that'll dothat for you.
(32:43):
But even in those little fiveminute breaks, step outside, get
some fresh air, let thesunshine hit your eyes, do some
jump and jacks.
I like to have little danceparties.
I will hang out with my dogs,I'll do some deep breathing, do
anything to break up the moment,right, but don't go online.
(33:04):
If you're like me, you can't betrusted.
Five minutes is not possible.
So grab a drink of water,listen to some healthy music
uplifting music and then, whenthe five minutes is up, go back
to work.
And I think it's funny my kidsI always tell them do jump and
jacks because they feel likethey are like oh, I'm so droopy
and I'm like just jump and jacksand I'm like come on, do them
(33:26):
with me.
And they do them with me forlike two minutes of jump and
jacks and they're like oh, okay,yeah, I feel better, so take it
from me.
It's like the old PE trick.
I can't speak more stronglyabout the importance of batching
your calendar.
And that is not just batchingyour focus blocks right and
(33:47):
making your focus blocks singlefocus, but it's also like themed
days.
Like I said earlier, I haveerrand, and outside the office
days I have business admin dayswhere I do like all of my
website updates and like I doall that stuff myself, and so I
have to schedule time to do allthe like, the minutia, and I
have a hard time making a day ofbig focus on project A.
(34:10):
That requires a lot ofcreativity and then a different
focus block.
That's all about like admin,like I can't, I find it
difficult to do, like highintensity work followed by brain
numbing work.
So I have like themed dayswhere the brain numbing work is
(34:30):
all happening on the same dayand the high intensity, focus
demanding work is also happeningon the same day.
So think about, think aboutbatching in that way too.
So it's theming them andbatching them.
And the last thing is one ofthose things that not everybody
has access to and that isdelegating.
(34:51):
Sometimes it's just us, right,and for a very, very long time
it was just me and my business,and I understand, like I
understand, the value ofcreating systems.
I understand the value ofmaking sure that you get all of
your work done, because you arewearing all the hats, but when
the time comes that you do havea handle on all of the things in
(35:13):
your business and you're at theplace where you start to scale,
delegating things is the veryfirst and it's gonna happen.
And whether that be throughsomebody that you hire who works
for you as a dedicated person,or a VA, who is somebody that
works for lots of differentpeople and you're just using
their time and you pay them bythe hour, no matter how that
(35:33):
happens, having systems in placeand having organized your
business in such a way that ithas a structure makes it that
much easier for you to be ableto delegate stuff down the road.
So entrepreneur life will neverbe free of distractions, right.
But developing your executivefunctioning skills creates the
(35:56):
capacity to resist distractionsand sustain focus when it
matters most right.
And we talked about takingsteps like decluttering in your
workspace and blocking off yourpriority time, single-tasking,
making smart breaks, limitingmeetings and theming your days,
separating out high power workversus low power work.
(36:17):
You know, implementing even afew of these strategies will
dramatically increase yourability to focus in the everyday
chaos of running a business andliving a busy life.
Sharpening your focus andeliminating noise allows you to
consistently execute on thehighest level and it allows you
to drive real progress.
So don't underestimate thepower of really being focused
(36:42):
and developing your focusability and its role in your
success.
The future of your businessdepends upon your ability to
ignore the blur of distractionsthat bring you know the day out
of whack.
Right.
We need to keep things focusedand vivid and clear, and our
priorities need to be at the topof the list.
So treat your attention as yourmost precious resource, because
(37:06):
that's exactly what it is.
With purposeful effort to boostyour ability to focus, the
rewards will show up fast.
You're gonna find that it'seasier to focus, it's easier to
break out of distraction andyou'll have more energy and
it'll be easier to get sortedeach day and eventually you'll
train that like a habit andit'll be part of your routine to
(37:28):
get into deep focus blocks toget your work done faster, with
better clarity and more detail.
All right, that's all I have foryou this week, you guys.
Thank you so much for listeningand if you got something out of
this episode I would love tohear from you.
Okay, signing off and remember,part of being a calm
(37:50):
entrepreneur is developing thesystems, habits and know-how
that lets you know that you arethe one in the driver's seat for
your business.
You get to choose how you thinkand you get to choose how you
work.
So you got this, my friends.
Thank you for listening 년.
Hey there, my name is Corinne Oflin and you're
listening to the CalmEntrepreneur podcast.
I am a USA Today bestsellingauthor, non-profit executive and
organizing nerd with over 20years experience running my own
small businesses.
I teach entrepreneurs,solarpreneurs and small business
owners like you how to organizeyour business, find more time
(00:21):
and deepen your alignmentpractice to experience more calm
and confidence every single day.
If you're looking for thatintersection between practical
business advice and spiritualgoodness, then you're in the
right place.
So sit back, relax and let'sdive into this week's episode of
the Calm Entrepreneur podcast.
Welcome, welcome to the CalmEntrepreneur podcast.
(00:45):
I'm your host, corinne Oflin,and this is episode 33.
Being an entrepreneur demandsthat we develop excellence
across a spectrum of executivefunctioning skills.
These skills are the corecapabilities required to succeed
in business and, quite frankly,in life.
They include things likeself-restraint, working memory,
(01:09):
emotion control, focus, taskinitiation, planning,
prioritization, organizing, timemanagement, defining and
achieving goals, flexibility andstress tolerance.
Understanding how you operatewithin these frames goes a long
way, because mastering theseskills allows entrepreneurs to
(01:31):
juggle all the diverseresponsibilities that we face
every single day.
It helps us remain resilientunder pressure and they help us
to achieve our goals.
But the nature of running abusiness makes it easy to become
distracted and overwhelmed andcompletely unfocused.
We've all been there right.
Emails pile up, notificationsding endlessly and the new ideas
(01:57):
glisten in the distance likeshiny objects.
All of these things threaten toderail our progress, but
without strong executivefunctioning abilities, we
flounder, and so it's importantto assess your strengths and
weaknesses when it comes tothese core capabilities.
The first step towardsstrengthening your executive
(02:18):
functioning skills isself-awareness.
I think most of us have ageneral idea of where we excel
and where we struggle, but it'sactually a really good exercise
to reflect on these core skillsand see which of those truly do
come naturally to us versus theones that we actually do
struggle with, because there issome overlap with some of them.
(02:41):
I think that we can inflate thetwo things, three things,
together.
For example, you might excel attime management, but have
difficulty with organization, orplanning may be easy for you,
while focusing deeply enough tobe efficient in executing those
plans may give you loads oftrouble.
And if you struggle with one ormore of these core capabilities
(03:05):
, I want to make something super, super, duper clear.
You are not alone.
There is nothing wrong with youNot at all, in fact.
Everybody has strengths andweaknesses when it comes to
these things.
They're called executivefunctioning skills and core
capabilities because these arefoundational, right, but just
(03:27):
because they're foundationaldoesn't mean it's something that
everybody has access to right,and it's important to play to
your natural strengths, but alsoidentify the places that you
need to be developing right.
Don't avoid your weaknesses.
And this is important becauseif you've ever heard me talk
about this stuff on this podcastor on any of my events, or even
(03:51):
in my classes and on my blog, Iwill say over and over again
that these abilities are notpersonality traits, they are
skills, and that is reallyexciting, because that means
that they can be taught and theycan be developed.
So, once you identify areaswhere you need support, seek
(04:14):
training, find a mentor, find acoach, find some way to level up
.
Striving to become competentacross all of these executive
functions will help youeliminate distractions, will
help you remain resilient andachieve your full potential in
your life and in your business.
(04:34):
But, yes, self-assessment andself-improvement are key with
this.
One of the big areas ofstruggle that I wanted to focus
on today that I hear about fromso many people and I fall into
this category as well it'sdealing effectively with
distractions.
With so many demands competingfor our attention, focus and
(04:58):
productivity can definitelysuffer, and that is why honing
your ability to eliminatedistractions is really a pivotal
skill for entrepreneurs.
It's just really for humans.
I came to understand the valueof and actually you know what
even the existence of executivefunctioning as a group of skills
(05:22):
when one of my kids wasstruggling in several areas and
I've mentioned before that Ihave one of my kids who's ADHD,
and Learning how to help himlearn had a huge impact on the
way that we moved forward withhis education, and the focus of
(05:43):
all the things that we learnedfor him was executive
functioning skills.
There was nothing wrong withhis aptitude he's a brilliant
guy but even then, everyone sawthe intelligence and the
potential, but what he didn'thave was that these
administration skills and wewere able to teach all of those
(06:05):
things to him in various degreesof success, and not because
we're all developing and he'sstill developing, but that's
where I learned about theexistence of executive
functioning skills, but also thecore value of them for all of
us, and so I think that we losetrack of the simplicity with
(06:30):
which we can really developspecific vertical skills so that
we can do well in our life andin our business, and so one of
those really big ones isdistraction.
Right, I mean, I don't knowanybody.
Today, especially with socialmedia, we are being trained to
(06:53):
have a shorter and shorterattention span, and we are being
trained to have the expectationto be available at all times.
Like the notifications are on,things are vibrating.
We have now we have the watchesand the smartphones, and
everything is keeping track ofus, right, except for us.
So, when it comes to meprioritizing all of the
(07:15):
different executive functioningskills, distraction is at the
top of that list, because therereally just isn't anything more
important to get a big handle on.
We all know that it's super easyto push ourselves to exhaustion
, right?
As entrepreneurs, we oftenpride ourselves on hustling
night and day to make ourventures succeed, and, you know,
(07:37):
ignoring our body signals canlead to energy crash and burnout
, and that is why mindfulnessand self-awareness are two key
ingredients in this skill set,because, make no mistake,
burnout diminishes yourexecutive function abilities big
time.
And ask me how I know like I'mhere sharing this with you as
(08:00):
someone who has just now rightIn 2023, I am just now fully
coming through the other side ofa gnarly years long burnout and
recovery cycle, and it's really, it's no joke, right?
But when I was finally able andready to get back to work, I
(08:21):
didn't just restart and continuewhere I left off.
Not at all.
I had to rebuild right, and Irelied on my foundational
executive functioning skills tohelp me build my way back.
So don't let yourself get sweptaway by the excitement of
relentless doing, because thecost of that is just it's way
(08:41):
too high.
And if you're lucky, it onlyshows up as burnout, right.
And I say that you're lucky ifthat's the case, because that's
something that we can recoverfrom.
But if we're not, if we go evenfurther and it's too drawn out
and the burnout becomes too deepand we continue to push through
the burnout that can make halfof it with our health.
(09:01):
So by tuning into your energyand your energy levels and
responding appropriately on aregular basis, you can stay
better aware of when you need torenew your reserves, and that
is one of those skills as wellin and of itself Be aware of
your mind, body signals, listento what your body needs and do
(09:23):
everything that you can to stayreplenished and don't deplete
because you do not want to fallinto burnout or worse.
So how can we work smarter whenit comes to managing our
distractions?
There's a study out there thatsays that it takes as much as 23
minutes for a person to getback into a flow state after
(09:44):
being distracted 23 minutes andI thought that was pretty wild
when I first heard that, butI'll tell you that from where I
stand, that's been true.
I know for me that it takes 15to 20 minutes to drop back into
flow.
And I'm not talking about beingable to get back to work again,
like you can do that in acouple of minutes.
(10:05):
I'm talking about deep focus,like being in the zone.
And that always makes me thinkabout crockpots, right, because
we are just like crockpots inthat way, because if you're
cooking in a crockpot and you'vegot everything in there
percolating all day, and you gointo the kitchen and you take
the lid off that crockpot,you've just let out all of that
(10:25):
steam and you've added 20minutes to the cook time, it's
true.
So now that we're all on thesame page about the importance
of avoiding distractions, let'stalk about some practical advice
on how to do just that, right?
So here's some tips to clearaway the noise and boost your
(10:46):
ability to focus, to create adistraction-free or as close to
a distraction-free workspace aspossible.
Because you know, let's face it, like for me, I've got kids
there at school and they're notalways at home and so when
school is in session I have tobe available to them.
So that's a distractionpotentially, right.
So we have to do the bestthings that we can to mitigate
(11:07):
these things by getting ahead ofthem and planning ahead for
them.
And part of that is actuallyinforming the people who are
going to be impacted by the factthat you're going to be off the
grid for X amount of time orunavailable for this window and
or maybe just not available viatext message.
Instead, you have to call orthings of that nature.
(11:30):
But the first thing isdistraction-free workspace.
Right, your environment plays ahuge role in your ability to
focus, so make your workspace asdistraction-free as possible by
taking some pretty simple basicsteps.
But these go a long way andI've talked about these at
(11:51):
different times for differentreasons, because these again
this goes back to corefoundations.
This is building blocks, stuff.
If we have these thingsoperating in a flow state for us
, they become habit, they becomemindless.
We don't have to expend anyenergy managing them, and so
(12:14):
that's why they come up all thetime, because they truly are
foundational.
Everything builds upon thesethings, and so when we have
these things nailed down, theneverything else becomes easier.
So the first thing isdecluttering, right, declutter
your physical workspace, removepaper, remove.
You know the chachkies and theknickknacks, and I am so
(12:38):
terrible about this, and in fact, when I, a couple of years ago,
we put in hardwood floors and Ihad to clear out everything out
of my office I am fortunateenough to actually have an
office in my house with a doorand we had to clear everything
out of the office to put inhardwood floors and we painted
in everything else, so it tookeverything out.
When we put everything back in,we ended up putting these
(13:02):
little shelves on the walls andI loaded up these shelves with
all my little chachkies andknickknacks, because I have so
much stuff, you guys, and all ofit.
It's like it's memorabilia fromComic-Con and events that I've
done.
You know panels on, or you knowall of my tarot card collection
, because I have a rather largeone.
(13:24):
There's just stuff, and I likehaving my stuff around me, and
so I had to find a new way toget it off of my desk, and so
that was putting it on the wallsand I love it.
And when anybody comes into myoffice they sit down and they're
like oh, I like being in herebecause it's like the room of me
, it's like me in a room stateas opposed to, you know, being
(13:45):
in a person.
But that required that Idecluttered my physical space
because I had so much stuff onmy desk, you guys, and when I
got organized there was just somuch stuff on my desk.
So remove the physical stuffthat you can right, find new
homes for these things and makesure you put them back in their
(14:07):
place.
You know, a clean desk supportsmental clarity, and I get a lot
of pushback when I talk aboutthat, because there are a lot of
people who prefer, and maybewould say that they thrive, in a
cluttered workspace, and thatmight be your way.
But I'm going to say that ifyou don't know every single
(14:28):
thing that's on your desk, thenthat's taxing you mentally and
you might not be aware that itis, but it is.
So I would urge you toexperiment with it.
Maybe try go paperless scan awhole bunch of stuff.
That's a project that I'mcoming in on the heels of.
I've actually spent the lastpart of this year doing going
(14:50):
paperless in our household, andit's been quite interesting.
So do the best that you can todeclutter your physical space.
Shut off your phone, your emailand your app notifications.
Turn off the buzzes, turn offthe pings, turn off the pop-ups
and this is one that is so hardto do, and I speak from
(15:14):
experience.
But several years ago I hit anabsolute wall, and this was
actually before I kind ofdropped totally into my burnout.
Before I knew I was in burnout,I was irritated all the time
and I didn't understand why Icouldn't focus, and so one of
the first things that I did wasI turned off all of the
notifications, everything, andit was the hardest thing to do
(15:36):
because I was like wait, what ifsomeone needs me?
Oh my gosh, what if I'm notavailable?
And this is before the pandemichappened, and so we weren't all
in the house all the time.
But I'll tell you when I turnedoff all of the access to me,
when I told my family hey, ifyou need something urgently,
call me on the phone, using yourphone to dial my phone number.
(15:58):
Don't text me and I will answerif you call.
It made the world of difference.
But it also was kind ofhumbling because I was like, wow
, nobody tried to get me.
I turned off all notificationsand then when I came back out of
my focus window and I turnedback on my stuff and I was like,
oh no, no one even needed meand look, the world is still
(16:20):
turning.
So it's one of those things.
I think that we think that we dohave to be accessible at all
times and we do need to beconnected at all times, and it's
really just not true.
So for most people I'm notgoing to I don't presume to know
everyone's in and out Peopleare dealing with all different
kinds of things at all differentkinds of times.
(16:41):
So do what you have to do.
But if you have the luxury ofbeing able to turn off all
notifications, try it and try itwith everything everything from
pop-ups on your desktop tostuff on your smartphone, to
stuff on your smartwatch,everything and see how that
feels.
Try it for a couple of days andjust see Close extra tabs and
(17:06):
windows on your computer.
Keep only the things thatyou're working on open and that
will help you avoid clickingaround and use a website blocker
if you need to.
That's something that I turn on.
I have a blocker that keeps mefrom being able to access social
media when I'm working on myfocus.
(17:26):
Blocks of work time, because Iguys, I'm like the post-it child
.
I'm the reason that theydesigned social media the way
that they did.
I can't control myself.
If I see an Instagram scroll,I'm like, oh look, oh look,
scroll, scroll, and then all ofa sudden, hours have gone by,
right, so it's terrible, I'm theworst at it, so I don't trust
(17:50):
myself and that's the way it'sgot to be.
So my next one is wearnoise-canceling headphones right
, or listen to nature sounds toblock out audible distractions,
especially if you work in aquiet environment.
The way that I do, I don't likehaving things going on music or
TV or anything going on aroundme that's making noise.
(18:11):
So for a long time I had whitenoise playing in my office.
That added that little buffer.
But now I have noise-cancelingheadphones with nothing on, and
it's interesting because it'salmost like this Pavlovian thing
where, when I sit down at mydesk, I can sit down at my desk
and I can do other things, butthe minute I put my headphones
(18:33):
on, my brain clicks into oh,it's work mode.
So that's something thathappens for me.
But find the thing that worksfor you.
One of my kids loves havingheavy metal music playing.
One of my kids likes naturesounds.
I like absolute silence.
It's different for everybody,but experiment with that,
(18:55):
because sometimes adding a soundcan actually separate the rest
of the noise around, because itchanges the way that you're
focusing.
See if you can face your deskaway from visual high traffic
areas, and I ended up doing thatfor myself because my desk used
(19:15):
to face my door and it kept mein the line of sight when
somebody walked by or whensomeone across the way is my
kitchen.
If somebody walked throughthere and had nothing to do with
me, didn't need my attention,didn't even know that I was in
the room, it broke my attentionbecause I caught the visual, so
I moved myself, so I couldn'tsee out the door of my office,
(19:38):
and that actually is one ofthose things that helps.
Another one for me is keep yourphone out of sight when working
and resist the urge to check it.
For a long time when I wastraining myself on this one, I
used to put my phone in my carin the garage and like forget
that I had a phone because Ijust it's like, oh, I'll just
(20:00):
check really quick.
Or you know, if I get up frommy desk to take a bio break, or
if I go to the kitchen to put ona kettle and I'm standing at
the kettle waiting for it toboil and taking like getting on
my feet and moving my body, thefirst thing I do is grab my
phone and then all of a sudden,I've managed to sit through the
(20:20):
boil, pour a cup of tea, madethe cup of tea with one hand
while doing something and whileon my phone with the other hand.
It's insidious.
You guys, there's lots ofdifferent ways that you can
manage your workspace to bedistraction free, and it
includes everything from gettingorganizing cubbies for your
(20:42):
desktop or maybe in your deskdrawers, if you have drawers,
changing the lighting to reducethe strain.
I actually got a pair ofnon-englare computer glasses
that you know.
The new ones that I have haveregular clear lenses, but the
old ones that I have are likethe blue blockers with the
yellow lenses and I looked likea freak whenever I was on, like
(21:04):
the web calls.
But you know it actually.
It actually helps you focusbecause it keeps you from
getting tired.
But treat your workspace like asacred space, right.
This is the space that'sdevoted to you and your business
.
It should be devoted to deepfocus.
It should be a place that wecome to with.
(21:28):
I don't want to use the wordreverence, but I want to use
what's the word respect.
We want to respect ourselvesenough to respect our workspace
enough to make it a haven, tomake it a place where we can
channel creativity, where we canconnect into our work, and we
do that by tuning out as much ofthe sensory distractions that
(21:52):
we possibly can, which all ofthat is a self-control piece,
which is an executivefunctioning skill, right?
Because when we're able to tuneout all of those distractions,
we'll be able to direct ourfocus.
You know, we'll be able tocontrol our focus, and that is,
(22:13):
I think, something that we havetaken for granted.
For, you know, as the worldbecomes more and more and more
digital and things are startingto move more and more and more
quickly and expectations arethat things are gonna happen
more quickly and our attentionspan and our patients level has
dropped.
(22:33):
Our ability to really focus hasbeen sacrificed in there.
So one of the things that I useon a regular basis for managing
my distractions is time blocking.
And you don't want to like.
Well, I don't want to say youdon't want to.
I have found that the peoplethat I work with, the people
(22:56):
that I coach and people that Italk to about this, when we are
blocking our time, the urge todo that with our day is to block
every single moment, like tosqueeze every minute out of the
day and schedule everything.
And I've tried that and I'vebeen successful at it sometimes,
but for me it has not beensustainable and I share that,
(23:19):
because the advice out there iskind of black and white on this.
It's like, if you're gonna dotime blocking, this is what time
blocking looks like.
You start at your morning andyou time block every half hour,
every hour, whatever you'redoing, until you're done with
your work day, and that includesblocking your day and that
includes blocking out breaks.
(23:39):
But if that doesn't work for you, there is another way, like for
me.
I have three big blocks at atime and I have three big
priorities every day, and so Ihave an hour, two, an hour and a
half, maybe sometimes two.
It just depends on what thetask is for the day.
But I have three dedicatedfocus blocks.
(24:01):
And focus block one I sit down,I look at the clock, I
declutter my desktop, my digitaldesktop, by closing all the
tabs, opening only what I need,and I get working on that thing
and I set a timer and I don'tstop until I'm done with the
time block and I might notfinish the task, but I will make
(24:24):
serious progress because I havefocused the time block and at
the end of the time block I getto decide if I usually build in
buffers between my time blocks,but if I'm right at the edge of
finishing something or if I'mnot at a good stopping point yet
, I'll go over time and I'llwrap it up.
But blocking time is a superway of really training yourself
(24:51):
to get some work done.
And when I use time blockingwhich I would say, I usually
work four, four and a half daysa week three to three and a half
of those days are time blockeddays.
I'm not working eight hours aday in time blocks, I'm working
like maybe four and a half hours, maybe five hours a day and
(25:16):
then I'm done because I got allmy stuff done right.
So Start each week or each monthby picking your priorities for
that time period right and lockyourself in to those being your
priorities and then block outchunks of at least an hour or an
(25:37):
hour and a half each day thatyou can dedicate to work right.
Let's say you work five days aweek.
Sometimes you're going to workseven days a week.
Some weeks you're going to workthree days a week.
Go ahead, look at your time andblock out three chunks a day to
see if you can work dedicatedtime on those priorities and if
(26:03):
you're able to manage to getthat block in your day, protect
that time.
Nothing else can encroach.
Nothing else can encroach inthat time.
Schedule your priority worktimes during the times when you
have the most energy and focus.
And if you listened to lastweek's episode 32 of this
podcast, I talk about this and Italk about prioritizing your
(26:26):
schedule by tracking your energyand this is the reason for that
.
If you know when you are themost energetic, the most focused
, the most awake, then that'swhen you should have a time
block.
So think about that and lookwithin and try to really work on
optimizing yourself.
This is like hacking of you andit's kind of interesting when
(26:52):
you find success because I thinkit comes in unexpected ways
when you're booking appointmentskeep your reserved focus blocks
open with buffers around them,rather than scheduling over them
.
And for me, the way that I dothis and of course nothing is
100%, but I try I pick one day aweek where I will have errands
(27:16):
and appointments.
If I have to leave my house todo stuff, I try to make sure
everything that I have to leavethe house for is happening on
that day and that'll be the daythat I do phone calls, that'll
be the day where I haveappointments, because then I
have then all of those thingsbatched and it's not like I'm
breaking up every single day toget stuff done.
(27:37):
And of course nothing is 100%,but it's one of those things
that if you do, you keep yourfocus blocks locked out, nothing
else can encroach.
You'll be, you'll honoryourself and you'll respect that
time and then you'll work moreeffectively to keep those things
focused on your work.
(27:59):
And, like I said, I schedulebuffer times, so allow for
buffer space between your focusblocks.
And again, this is one of thosethings that some people disagree
with.
Some people prefer to have backto back to back to back to back
blocks and if that's you andthat works for you, go with it.
But if it doesn't work for you,I share this because I don't
(28:19):
want you to say it doesn't workfor me because I can't block my
entire day.
You don't have to block yourentire day to use time blocks.
So allow for buffer timebetween focus blocks.
Allow buffer time betweenappointments.
You might have a call in themorning followed by a focus
block.
Put a buffer of time in betweenthat, remember, you get to
(28:41):
choose.
You're in charge.
You're an entrepreneur.
We've done this for the freedom.
Batch your meetings and callstogether.
I already talked about that.
Mark your focus blocks asnon-negotiable in any kind of
calendar that you share withother people.
I have a shared family calendarand I have a shared calendar
with one of my assistants andthere are times where there will
(29:03):
not be anything available to bescheduled and that's
non-negotiable.
And this is kind of like when Italked about with my kids.
I am not available to bereached during these hours and
it doesn't mean I'm notavailable.
It means I'm not availableduring these times and most of
the time, unless it's a serious,dire emergency.
Most things can wait.
(29:23):
If your focus blocks getinterrupted, let's say something
does happen, that's okay.
Like we're human, life is goingto happen.
But make sure that youreschedule that lost focus block
somewhere else in your scheduleas soon as you possibly can.
You don't want to get into thehabit of releasing them and not
(29:43):
taking them back, because we'retrying to create a habit here.
We're trying to build apractice of really getting into
deep focus right.
When we treat uninterruptedfocus time as sacred, you will
ensure your most importantprojects and tasks get the
dedicated attention that theyrequire.
(30:05):
Amidst the chaos of running abusiness and living a life,
right Priority output can beachieved, and that's
needle-moving action.
This is stuff that's going tomake a difference, and I think
that if you were to practicethis, you will find that you
will actually get your work doneso much sooner and have much
(30:28):
more time available to do therest of the things that you want
to do with your life.
And when you're working in thosefocus blocks of time, don't try
to multitask.
You need to work on singlefocusing, and this is something
that I am an absolute evangelistabout.
(30:48):
There's a book called thePracticing Mind by a guy named
Thomas M Stirner.
It's a tiny little book.
You can read it in one sitting,but it tells the story about
this experience that he had andthe value of deep focus through
single tasking, and I haveexperienced it.
Many of my friends who haveread the book have also
(31:11):
experienced it, because it'strue, there's actually no such
thing as multitasking.
We're not actually doing morethan one thing, we're just
switching contexts really reallyfast and that makes us
ineffective.
That is something that is notup for debate.
You can say that you're reallygood at doing a lot of things at
once, and that might be true,but I challenge you to really
(31:36):
dive into single task and seejust how much more effective,
how much more creative, how muchmore rich your output is when
you do dedicate true singletasking to that.
You can use focus tools likefreedom there's one called Cold
(31:59):
Turkey and these blockdistracting websites I mentioned
.
News Feed Eradicator is onethat I use.
All of these things help usstay focused right, and we wanna
make the most of the time thatwe dedicate to our focus.
Blocks right, take breaks right.
Go on walks, exercise, takeshort breaks to help recharge
(32:21):
your mental focus right, and oneof the best ways to do this,
especially if you havedifficulty working for long
periods of time, like an hour or90 minutes at a time, is the
Pomodoro Method right 25 minutesof focus followed by five
minute breaks.
You can set a timer on yourphone or you can download an
actual Pomodoro timer that'll dothat for you.
(32:43):
But even in those little fiveminute breaks, step outside, get
some fresh air, let thesunshine hit your eyes, do some
jump and jacks.
I like to have little danceparties.
I will hang out with my dogs,I'll do some deep breathing, do
anything to break up the moment,right, but don't go online.
(33:04):
If you're like me, you can't betrusted.
Five minutes is not possible.
So grab a drink of water,listen to some healthy music
uplifting music and then, whenthe five minutes is up, go back
to work.
And I think it's funny my kidsI always tell them do jump and
jacks because they feel likethey are like oh, I'm so droopy
and I'm like just jump and jacksand I'm like come on, do them
(33:26):
with me.
And they do them with me forlike two minutes of jump and
jacks and they're like oh, okay,yeah, I feel better, so take it
from me.
It's like the old PE trick.
I can't speak more stronglyabout the importance of batching
your calendar.
And that is not just batchingyour focus blocks right and
(33:47):
making your focus blocks singlefocus, but it's also like themed
days.
Like I said earlier, I haveerrand, and outside the office
days I have business admin dayswhere I do like all of my
website updates and like I doall that stuff myself, and so I
have to schedule time to do allthe like, the minutia, and I
have a hard time making a day ofbig focus on project A.
(34:10):
That requires a lot ofcreativity and then a different
focus block.
That's all about like admin,like I can't, I find it
difficult to do, like highintensity work followed by brain
numbing work.
So I have like themed dayswhere the brain numbing work is
(34:30):
all happening on the same dayand the high intensity, focus
demanding work is also happeningon the same day.
So think about, think aboutbatching in that way too.
So it's theming them andbatching them.
And the last thing is one ofthose things that not everybody
has access to and that isdelegating.
(34:51):
Sometimes it's just us, right,and for a very, very long time
it was just me and my business,and I understand, like I
understand, the value ofcreating systems.
I understand the value ofmaking sure that you get all of
your work done, because you arewearing all the hats, but when
the time comes that you do havea handle on all of the things in
(35:13):
your business and you're at theplace where you start to scale,
delegating things is the veryfirst and it's gonna happen.
And whether that be throughsomebody that you hire who works
for you as a dedicated person,or a VA, who is somebody that
works for lots of differentpeople and you're just using
their time and you pay them bythe hour, no matter how that
(35:33):
happens, having systems in placeand having organized your
business in such a way that ithas a structure makes it that
much easier for you to be ableto delegate stuff down the road.
So entrepreneur life will neverbe free of distractions, right.
But developing your executivefunctioning skills creates the
(35:56):
capacity to resist distractionsand sustain focus when it
matters most right.
And we talked about takingsteps like decluttering in your
workspace and blocking off yourpriority time, single-tasking,
making smart breaks, limitingmeetings and theming your days,
separating out high power workversus low power work.
(36:17):
You know, implementing even afew of these strategies will
dramatically increase yourability to focus in the everyday
chaos of running a business andliving a busy life.
Sharpening your focus andeliminating noise allows you to
consistently execute on thehighest level and it allows you
to drive real progress.
So don't underestimate thepower of really being focused
(36:42):
and developing your focusability and its role in your
success.
The future of your businessdepends upon your ability to
ignore the blur of distractionsthat bring you know the day out
of whack.
Right.
We need to keep things focusedand vivid and clear, and our
priorities need to be at the topof the list.
So treat your attention as yourmost precious resource, because
(37:06):
that's exactly what it is.
With purposeful effort to boostyour ability to focus, the
rewards will show up fast.
You're gonna find that it'seasier to focus, it's easier to
break out of distraction andyou'll have more energy and
it'll be easier to get sortedeach day and eventually you'll
train that like a habit andit'll be part of your routine to
(37:28):
get into deep focus blocks toget your work done faster, with
better clarity and more detail.
All right, that's all I have foryou this week, you guys.
Thank you so much for listeningand if you got something out of
this episode I would love tohear from you.
Okay, signing off and remember,part of being a calm
(37:50):
entrepreneur is developing thesystems, habits and know-how
that lets you know that you arethe one in the driver's seat for
your business.
You get to choose how you thinkand you get to choose how you
work.
So you got this, my friends.
Thank you for listening 년.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.