3 Lessons That Helped Me Go From Distracted to Focused

"If you don't master your environment, it masters you."

I remember in 2021, sitting at my desk in the infancy of setting up this business, and my mind being like a reactive pinball.

I was reactive and didn't have a process for focused work. This was until I learnt from great teachers like Cal Newport, Nir Eyal and Steven Kotler.

They taught me 2 keys to experiencing less distraction, more focus and more flow.

The first is mastering your external environment. Take charge of your 'pings and dings' to avoid being teased with dopamine and regain more focus.

So, I deleted dozens of apps, refused to use my phone for a whole day and switched off all notifications.

But that wasn’t the answer - I was still distracted and I missed so many important messages.

So, I learnt to calm my internal environment. I started to understand the impermanence of urges. Mindfulness and compassion help here because they strengthen the connection between the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system.

These 2 keys lead to more focus, better productivity and creativity. Since learning these concepts, I’ve made 1000s of minutes of videos, written 100k words and coached for more than 1000 person hours. All thanks to these great teachers.

Here are my 3 lessons for you to start implementing today:

1. 'Chunk and Check' Method

Earlier this week, I was discussing with a team member the immeasurable importance of 'chunking'. They were struggling with overwhelm with their work and consequently couldn't focus.

After fully leaning into the simplicity of 'chunking' their task into micro-steps, they were able to complete work with more speed and precision. 'Chunking' is something I learnt from productivity guru David Allen many years ago.

It plays on the behavioural science principle by Dr BJ Fogg from Stanford - if you are low on motivation, “make the task easy!”

Make your work ridiculously easy by writing each step in your project - each shift of focus denotes a new step.

2. The Phone Box

Do you remember those PEZ sweet dispensers as a kid? Your phone is like a dopamine PEZ dispenser.

Have you ever gone to look at your phone, popped it back and then 2 seconds later thought...

“Well maybe so and so has text me back?”

Or “I wonder what is going on in Turkey? I hope they are Ok.”

Dopamine is the 'molecule of more' and it mediates our wanting system. The more we exhaust our dopamine stores through reactivity, the less energy and focus we have.

This is because dopamine is a precursor to norepinephrine which plays a role in focus and energy.

Track your phone pick ups through the screen time app on your phone. Worry less about the total time and more about the pick ups. One client reduced their pick ups by 50% just through awareness, and noticed a huge shift in productivity as a result.

Then keep your phone in a box 20 seconds away - this is magic number which will help you to be able to let the urges pass.

3. Time Tracking

“Awareness is the key to your next level.”

How much time did you invest in focused work aligned to your most important goal this week? I can tell you that mine was 10 hours. You can get an enormous amount done in 10 hours of focused work.

Track your focused work time.

This is something I learnt from Stephen Chandler. If you are a business owner, you could be focusing on any number of tasks but, as the Pareto principle teaches us, 20% of efforts produce 80% of the results.

Measure the time you invest. Focus only on the minutes in deep focused work and watch your level of distraction reduce.

It's not a secret strategy, new system or supplement that you need, it’s self-awareness.

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If these science-led strategies spoke to you, share with a friend and get in touch to share how you will be mastering your environment for more focus.

Love,

Nilesh