DEVELOPING EXTRAORDINARY FOCUS
B. How to enter the flow state a. Create daily routines
Creating routines is the most powerful way to sharpen your focus. When you build routines around the completion of your most important task(s), you start conditioning your mind. By performing a routine before beginning a work session, you’ll make it easier to enter a deeper state of focus. The famous writer, Stephen King, writes every single morning, including Christmas day and his birthday. He doesn’t wait for his creative muse to arrive. Instead, he demands that his muse manifests when it comes time to sit down and write.
This is because he understands the following truth:
Inspiration seldom happens when we wait for it, it appears when we start taking action toward our goals.
The point is this. Don’t wait for inspiration. Don’t wait for the flow state to come to you. Work on creating that flow state. And it starts by putting in place a daily routine.
Now, let’s see how to create your own routines.
How to create a daily routine
Your daily routine doesn’t have to be complicated. Here are a few things that will help you build an effective routine.
1) Be at the same place, at the same time every day. This is pretty straightforward. For instance, these days, after taking a break from writing, I put in place a simple routine: I sit at my desk at the same time every morning.
It helps me put myself in the right state of mind before work and it will do the same for you.
2) Have a trigger to kickstart your routine. You want to know when it’s time to do your work. Having a specific trigger that signals the beginning of
your routine will help. For instance, for me right now, it’s a matter of drinking a glass of water, taking some vitamins and writing down my goals.
As I’m going through this process, I make sure to take my time. This helps slow things down to facilitate the emergence of the flow state when I start writing.
You can also meditate for a few minutes or do some mindful exercises to make sure you are calm and present. (You can refer to previous exercises on mindfulness, meditation, and breathing for more on this topic.)
3) Decide the type of work you’ll do
The next step is to determine what you will work on during your focused session. Identify your most important task—the one that is not only effective but also highly demanding. For me, it’s writing. I can do a lot of busy work outside of writing, but if I don’t write, I don’t have a business.
What about you? What really moves the needle at work or in your personal life? Ideally, what you work on should be:
Demanding. It should require a lot of your energy and attention to complete.
Challenging. It should be difficult enough to engage you but not so hard that you give up or becoming overly frustrated.
Effective. It should enable you to make progress toward an important professional or personal goal.
Note that it is often an activity you procrastinate on precisely because it’s difficult and you doubt your ability to do it well.
4) Just start. Don’t ponder on whether you can do a good job or not. And don’t wait to feel as though you can do a good job, just begin. Remember, action creates motivation—it doesn’t work as well the other way around.
Therefore, give yourself permission to start working for just five minutes.
Once you begin a task, you’ll often build enough momentum to keep going.
Among other things, as part of your daily routine you can also:
Meditate,
Exercise, Stretch,
Write down your goals,
Write three things you’re grateful for, and Visualize your goals.
5) Commit. The final step is to commit to doing your focused work.
Commitment is critical since it will ensure you stay consistent and build a solid routine that will enhance your productivity.
I recommend you commit to your new daily routine for a minimum of thirty days. Inside your action guide, you’ll find a thirty-day calendar you can use to hold yourself accountable. Remember, consistency is more important than intensity. Just doing one forty-five-minute session every day will, over time, significantly increase your focus and boost your productivity. This one daily session will have a ripple effect, enabling you to generate incredible momentum over time. When you’ve finished the first session, you might decide to continue and start a second session and a third. After that, you may begin to plan your day more meticulously. Just keep building momentum and see where it takes you.
b. Eliminate any distractions
The next thing you can do to enhance your focus is to remove all your distractions. In the next section we’ll cover the different types of distractions and how to avoid them. But for now, turn off the notifications on your phone or computer and close all the unnecessary tabs. If you’re at work, ask your colleagues/boss not to disturb you (if possible). You can also wear a set of headphones to signal to people you’re working. If you’re at home, tell your spouse, kids, parents or roommates to avoid disturbing you during this time.
Remember that your focus is one of your biggest assets. It is your responsibility to protect it.
c. Work without interruptions
Now that you’ve removed distractions, work as intensely as you can during the block of time dedicated to your key task. As mentioned above, I recommend you start with a single forty-five-minute session. Do not stop before the end. Challenge yourself to stay focused. Over time, you’ll become
better and better at it.
According to Anders Eriksson, a psychologist at Florida State University who studied top performers in numerous fields, world-class performers usually don’t do more than four hours of intense, deliberate work each day.
Therefore, the ultimate end game would be for you to accomplish four hours of focused work each day (with breaks in-between). Sure, you might work longer if you are tackling fairly easy tasks, but you’ll find it difficult to work more than four hours a day on highly demanding tasks. Experiment and see for yourself what works best for you.
Action step
Using the action guide, follow the steps above and create your own daily routine.