- There are three simple steps that you can take
whenever you sit down to work
that will reliably help you feel focused
and be able to avoid distractions,
but almost everyone skips them.
In this video, you're going to learn exactly
what those steps are and how to use them.
But before we get into the steps themselves,
it'll be helpful to answer this question first.
Why do so many of us find it so hard
to focus in the first place?
It feels like you should just be able to pick a task,
sit down, and do it.
But more often than not, you find your attention wandering.
And there is a reason for this.
Getting to that focused dialed in state of mind
is a lot like mining for gold.
See gold can technically be found anywhere.
Panners find it in streams, and on very rare occasions,
some lucky soul will find gold
under just a few inches of dirt.
But most gold, the vast majority on earth,
sits much deeper beneath the surface.
In South Africa, for example,
the deepest gold mine in the world goes
down more than two miles into the dirt.
And with most of the world's gold sitting
under millions of tons of rock, much of gold miners work
doesn't actually involve moving that gold
because first they got to get to it.
Gold miners understand intuitively that much
of their work involves moving tons and tons
of useless dirt and rock simply
so they can position themselves in the right place.
And that focused dialed in state of mind
where you do your best work is just like gold.
Sometimes you get lucky and it comes effortlessly,
but that is the exception.
And if you think it should always work this way,
you're going to find yourself falling victim
to distractions and being a lot less productive.
Instead, just like those gold miners,
you should realize that you usually need
to dig deep and work to find your focus.
So now, let's equip you with the shovel, a metaphorical one,
because this real one isn't going
to be quite as useful in this case.
And because I can't actually hand it to you
through the camera.
So as it turns out, there are some proven steps
that you can take to do this digging down process
and more reliably reach a state of focus
when you're doing your work.
And they're actually pretty easy to take,
but most people skip them.
And if you want to more reliably get into that flow state,
you shouldn't be one of those people who does the skipping.
So the first step is to get truly clear
on the very next action that you need to take.
And most people don't do this.
If you look at the goal lists and the to do lists
of most people, you're going to see goals
like eat healthier and to do's like write the paper
or work on the sales page.
And the problem with goals and tasks like this
is that they don't give you any kind of direction.
They don't make it obvious what the clear very next action,
the VNA, if you want to make a TLA out of it, is.
And when you don't have this direction,
you'll tend to procrastinate a lot more
or you'll bounce between different tasks in your project
and get caught up in multitasking.
So instead, first try to get that direction
and a very easy way to do this is to go through an exercise
that I like to call a five-minute prep.
True to its name,
this doesn't involve any actual work on your task.
Instead, what you want to do is try to get that direction.
So take five minutes or maybe even set a timer
for five minutes and soak in the details of your task.
Specifically, you're looking for a few things.
Number one, you're trying to break the task down
until you have a clear, obvious, very next action.
Number two, you want to make sure that the estimated time
to complete this action is something reasonable.
If it's going to take all day,
try to break it down even further.
And finally soak in the details of the task itself,
but also any important context
in the larger project as a whole.
So here's an example of a five-minute prep
that I went through yesterday.
Initially my task was write the script for this very video,
but I've been doing this long enough to know
that writing a video script takes me a really long time.
So the first thing I did was break it down.
I knew that there were several sections of the video,
namely the three steps that we're going through here,
plus that intro section about gold miners.
So I broke my task down to draft, not finish, but draft,
that intro section about how gold mining
is similar to achieving focus in my work.
And I knew that I could do that in a single session,
at least get a couple of paragraphs written.
So that defined my very clear, very next action.
Once you have this direction,
the next step very well may be to simply buckle down
and start working on it.
And if you feel motivated, you feel focused,
then that is exactly what you should do,
but that is actually step three in our process
and we'll get to it later because sometimes you're not
in the right state of mind to sit down
and focus on your work.
This is because your brain has two important modes
of thinking and you spend time in both of them.
And it's important to do this.
In her book, A Mind for Numbers,
the author Barbara Oakley calls these the focused
and the diffused modes of thinking.
Now focused mode is exactly what it sounds like.
It's the prefrontal cortex heavy mode
that allows you to logically work through problems.
It's great for getting work done,
but it's not so good at letting your mind relax.
And it's also not very good at thinking creatively,
at sort of stepping back and making connections
between seemingly disparate elements.
This is the domain of the diffused mode.
In the book, Oakley likens this to a pinball table
where the bumpers are really well spaced out.
And this allows the ball, which in this case is your ideas,
to bounce all around the table and get exposure
to basically every area.
By contrast, the focused mode is more
like a very tight cluster of bumpers
that keeps the ball in one tiny little area,
namely your prefrontal cortex.
So by stepping back and getting into the diffused mode,
ideas can sort of background process.
They can bounce around to all different parts of your brain,
and that's how you make more creative connections.
And my favorite way to do this is very simple.
Go for a 20-minute walk,
or maybe take a nap, or clean your room.
Do something that lets your brain relax
and not have to intensely focus on any one thing.
Doing this will get you into that mode.
And you're going to make some more connections
that you often wouldn't make in that focused mode.
Now, once you're done with that walk
or whatever you did to get into the diffused mode,
it is now time to come back and actually get to work.
And it's here that I want to share one
of my all-time favorite quotes,
which is attributed to the author William Faulkner.
"I only write when I'm inspired.
Fortunately I am inspired every day at nine o'clock."
I love this quote for two different reasons.
First and foremost, he mentions nine o'clock
as his start time for the workday,
which is another piece of evidence to prove
that you don't need to wake up at 5:00 AM in the morning
and have some kind of hustle crush it morning routine
to be successful.
You can get up at a normal time
and still be perfectly productive.
But secondly, I love his mention
about how he is inspired every single day at nine o'clock.
Faulkner understood exactly
what those gold miners understand,
that to get to a focused place,
to get to where the rewards really are,
you have to put in a little bit of prep work first.
Or to phrase it the way I did on Twitter the other day.
And this is pretty corny, but I'm standing by it.
Don't wait for the muses to smile upon you.
Tell jokes until you get them to laugh.
And the most reliable way that I have found
to do this is to use a timer.
Now you already have your clear, very next action
defined from step one.
So at this point, just set a timer for 25 minutes
and commit to working only on that task as best as you can.
This is the classic Pomodoro Technique
and it works so well because you're reframing the task
and reducing the amount of resistance
that your brain feels to starting it.
Instead of I have to finish this entire task no matter what,
it's all I have to do is work for 25 minutes.
And the benefit here isn't simply getting 25 minutes
of work done.
It's getting into the middle of that focused session.
As a writer, I know after writing 200 video scripts,
300 blog posts, and a book that the most effective
and the most useful writing always comes
at least 10 or 15 minutes into a writing session.
Now there is an inconvenient truth here,
which is that the first 10 or 15 minutes
is usually useless and I have to throw it away,
but that's the price I pay to actually get my brain
into a state where the good stuff actually comes out.
And using a timer is what helps me get there most reliably.
It externalizes my self discipline.
It makes it much easier to simply start working.
Now, there are a ton of Pomodoro apps out there,
so you don't have to use a regular little kitchen timer.
Seriously, there are more than you can shake a shovel at,
but I have the sneaking suspicion and I guess I'm going
to be holding this shovel here, like a staff or something,
but I have this sneaking suspicion
that the best Pomodoro timer in the world
is actually a very old school hourglass.
And this is because an hourglass lets you set a timer,
but that timer never goes off.
Or at least it never goes off in a way
that gets your attention.
And this is actually quite useful because I have found
through years of doing Pomodoro sessions
that I almost never stop working and take a break
when that 25 minute timer goes off.
Really the point of the Pomodoro session is
to simply convince my brain to start working
and get to the point where I am mining
that metaphorical gold.
And once I'm there,
I can work for a lot longer than 25 minutes.
So experiment with doing this.
Either get yourself an hourglass
or experiment with simply silencing the timer
when it goes off and see if you can push yourself
just a little bit further.
Now it's worth noting that while these three steps
are very effective, they may not be the only things
that you need to do
because everyone has their own unique challenges
and problems when it comes to focus and creativity.
So you may want to analyze what yours are
and try to come up with some new solutions
that are tailored specifically to you.
For example, I have found that as a writer,
I have a lot more writer's block
and I find it much harder to get into the zone
when I feel like I'm writing
on what is the final draft of the project.
I'm looking at the script right here in notion
and trying to write on this is difficult for me.
So a lot of times I'll open up a brand new document
where I feel a lot less pressure
and I can just sort of brain dump my thoughts.
Then I can clean them up later
and bring them back into that final draft.
It's something that works very well for me.
And this applies to any other problems you want
to solve as well.
Instead of always sticking to the established methods,
it's often better to dig into the details yourself
and figure out a brand new solution.
This type of problem solving is a useful skill
that can benefit you in both your professional
and your personal lives.
And it's also something that you can practice.
And one great resource for getting that practice
is Brilliant who have kindly sponsored this video.
Brilliant is an interactive learning platform
that helps you master math, science, and computer science.
And all of their courses are filled
with interactive puzzles and quizzes
that ensure you're learning actively the entire time,
instead of just watching long videos
or reading walls of text.
And when you're learning like this,
not only are you constantly working
on your problem solving skills,
but you also have more fun and you retain
what you learn a lot more easily.
In Brilliant's library you'll find more
than 60 different courses,
including their Calculus in a Nutshell course,
which breaks down calculus
and makes it a lot easier to understand.
And you'll also find science courses
like this one on gravitational physics
and computer science courses
like their Algorithm Fundamentals course.
So if you want to start learning today
and also support this channel,
you can go over to brilliant.org/ThomasFrank to sign up
or use that link onscreen that should be right there.
And if you're one of the first 200 people
to use that link with this video,
you're even going to get 20% off
their annual premium subscription.
If you're looking for something else to watch,
you might like my video
on the Five Levels of Self-discipline right there,
which is a great followup to this video.
And last but not least leave a like for the algorithm.
And if you want more bite-sized content,
you may also want to follow me
on Twitter over @TomFrankly.
Thanks as always for watching.
Hopefully you found this helpful
and I will see you in the next one.