Why do you feel constantly behind? Like you're working with fewer hours in the day than everyone else. Sure, you've got a lot going on, but so do other people—and they seem to have the time to get meaningful things done.
Start and grow that side hustle.
Take on a new project.
Or just work calmly, not chaotically.
Why can some people get it done and you can't? Is it procrastination? Discipline? Lack of skill or drive or motivation?
It's because they make the most out of the time they have. They squeeze more juice from each moment.
We dramatically underestimate what we can get done in a single hour of focused work
You work in a constant state of distraction. What takes you four hours to do should be done in 30 minutes. You don't work with focus or intensity.
So when you think about getting a new side project off the ground, you overestimate how much time you'll actually need. You compare it to the time you spend working on your main job and you think, ‘Damn, I need hours each day just to make a dent’.
Maybe you started working on something and quickly got discouraged because of how little progress you made in the first week.
But more than likely, you never even started. You just assumed that it would take too much time —time you don't have—and so have continued to put it off. Sometime soon, you tell yourself, you'll have more time and then you'll start.
Focus is a force multiplier
Cal Newport’s Law of Productivity states that:
High-Quality Work Produced = (Time Spent) x (Intensity of Focus)
This suggests that intensity - how hard you concentrate - plays a major factor in your productive outputs.
Consider the following:
Each person works one hour per day, but Person C works with much greater focus than Person A, and is thus three times more productive.
They all work the same amount of time, but Person C gets a lot more done.
You don't need hours each day to make huge strides towards your goals. You just need to relearn how to concentrate.
A few suggestions to make the most out of a single hour of work
- Choose a time and stick to it. Pick the same start time each day so you build up the habit. Early in the morning or late at night is best, as there will be fewer external distractions.
- Plan in advance. Don't wait until you start your hour of work to decide what you need to work on. Plan out ahead of time exactly what you'll do and ensure you have everything you need in order to execute on that.
- Set up your environment. Ensure your physical space and digital space are both cleared of distraction-inducing stimuli.
- Set a timer. You're working for one hour straight. Set a timer and make it visible so you can see the time ticking down. This will keep you working with intensity. Do not use your phone for the timer. It will only distract you.
- (Bonus) Change your location: Do your one hour of focused work per day from a place you don't normally work from. This could be another area of your home or a new coffee shop or library. The idea is to tell your brain that when you're in this space, you're doing deeply focused work only. There's no checking email or scrolling social media happening here.
Follow the steps above. Do this for a week. Get better at planning out ahead of time exactly what you're going to do and make sure you eliminate all distractions. Magic will happen.
If you did one hour a day but were able to 4x your output, over the course of one week working five hours you'd actually do 20 hours of regular output.
Isn't that insane? And you thought you didn't have the time.
I guarantee that by doing one hour a day of focused work, you'll make massive strides towards getting that new project off the ground.
How do I know this works?
Because I did it. I do it. I’ve always wanted to write regularly but I never thought I had the time given I run my own business. But as I learned more about how poor my focus was and how much more efficient I could be by cultivating better concentration, things changed.
I was able to both get more done at work and build a regular writing habit (which you’re experiencing now and which is primarily focused on… how to focus).
If I didn’t learn how to do more with less, I’d never have started writing. And this is just the most recent example. I’ve had countless ideas and interests over the years that I’ve wanted to explore but never did. I’d always had the excuse of lack of time.
You have an hour. You can find it.
There are 24 hours in the day. You sleep for eight of those. Another six are for biological imperatives (eating, grooming, socializing, resting). That leaves 10 hours to make a difference in the world through your work. If you already commit eight of those to your day job, there's two left over. Take just one of those and try this out. Take it serious. Do the work. You’ll see results if you stick with it.
This is very simple, but it's not easy. Working with focused intensity is something you're not used to.
Try it and share your experiences. I can answer questions. We could even do a session together, if it helps.
The ability to work deeply and make real progress on something meaningful can fill the void you’ve had for a long time. Don't let your opportunity slip by because you don't have the time.
You do.
It’s just the focus you currently lack. And that’s learnable.
