Free To Focus

Free To Focus will make you more productive by identifying why your understanding of the definition of efficient work is flawed, how to fix it, and how to have the confidence to say no to distractions and work that isn’t worth your time.

Do you ever feel like your work life is like a leaky boat? Between meetings, reports, and projects, you’ve got an endless stream of tasks coming in and can’t ever seem to stay afloat.

Every time you try to get water out of the boat more comes in. If only you could work faster, you think. But aiming for speed alone only lowers your productivity. When you try to go faster you waste any extra time you get by just adding more to your already too busy schedule.

What’s worse, you might have the misguided notion that working overtime will make things better. You might make the excuse that it’s only temporary. The reality is, working extra hours makes you far less productive.

Jack Nevison discovered this when he put together the results of many significant studies on work. The science showed that people that put in more than 55 hours a week are less productive than those who work less than 50.

What you really need is a new outlook. Rather than aiming for effectiveness, you should shoot for freedom, both to focus and to relax.

Freedom to focus is when you give yourself time for the deep work needed to accomplish your most important tasks. It’s draining and you can’t do it for very long, but that’s why the freedom to do nothing is so important.

The more efficient your rest is, the more productive you will be during work.

Your brain takes up 20% of your body’s energy. When you use it to work hard, you drain your mental and physical battery just like the battery on your phone. Knowing this it’s easy to see why your natural habit of cutting down on recreation when work gets busy is so bad. Still, some of us have the mistaken idea that energy is the same throughout the day and that time is flexible. The truth is, neither of these vital resources is infinite. Instead, learn and take advantage of the fact that you get your best work done in the morning. And you might have been taught that rejuvenation is a waste of time, but it’s one of the core pillars of a truly productive life. Sleep is the first principle of recovery that is vital if you want to get the freedom to focus. When you’re sleep deprived you are worse at problem-solving, focusing, and decision-making. You also have a harmful tendency to cut…