The Science of Powerful Focus: 23 Methods for More Productivity, More Discipline, Less Procrastination, and Less Stress by Hollins Peter

Author:Hollins, Peter [Hollins, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: PH Learning Co.
Published: 2020-08-10T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7. Productivity

Productivity is something we always want to improve. That’s probably the end goal you want in the quest for improving your focus. No matter who we are or how hard we work, there is always something we could be doing to take advantage of the time we do have and fit as many things in as possible. When you’re distracted or can’t focus on a task, your productivity levels are considerably decreased because you’re not working as efficiently as you could be.

What’s important is to learn to focus on your task and make sure you are doing all you can to be as productive as possible. Sometimes this can seem impossible, or you may feel that you have to make really big changes and restrictions in order to be as productive as you can.

Fortunately, you don’t have to make big changes. There are plenty of little things you can do to boost your productivity and have you feeling as if your days are never wasted.

Track Everything

This can seem tedious but it’s been proven to be one of the best motivators there are. When researchers have studied the effects of a given activity, they found that candidates are more likely to improve and do more when they are asked to track a specific outcome. For example, people have been assigned to wear pedometers to measure how far they walk each day. When faced with a means of tracking their actual walking progress, people walked at least one extra mile every day on average and improved their overall activity levels by 27% .

It’s a simple method. The fact is, most of the time, we’re all in denial about something or another. When you are asked to track something and write down or pay attention to a specific number, you will be more motivated to improve it because you are faced with the actual truth. You will feel shame or encouragement, both of which are motivating. The act of committing to something and being held accountable for it, and knowing that there is no way to get around a solid figure, will make your progress increase dramatically. Tracking progress honestly doesn’t allow you to lie and sometimes the truth can be a dramatic wake-up call.

So as the section title instructs, track everything .

Start by tracking your time. Measure exactly how you are spending every moment of the day, with no cheating or rounding of the numbers. If you spend an hour watching a movie, write it down. If you spend an hour playing with your cat, write it down. If you spend time getting sucked down the rabbit hole of Wikipedia, write it down. Use increments of 15 minutes.

The purpose is that at the end of every day you will look back at the tasks you have done that day and know how productive you were. You’ll see how much time you actually spend on what you want versus what you think you are doing. You will undoubtedly see you have been wasting hours of time each day you thought you were being “busy” or “productive.

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