For years I tried in vain to “get everything done” and for years I failed. In hindsight I realized that much of what I was trying to get done did not deserve my focus. I’ll offer for your consideration that what people want to generate and control is not time, that’s to finite, what they may want to generate more of and control is their focus—that is, their concentration and attention on something (perhaps a particular task/activity). The late Peter Drucker certainly stimulated reflection for me when I read a quote of his, “Nothing is less effective than doing efficiently that which should not be done in the first place.” Ah, Peter, Peter, where were you when I needed you.
My life took a wonderful turn when a twist of fate led to a call I received from a wonderful person under whom I studied the profession of coaching just a stone’s throw from the blue Pacific in Santa Barbara. Her call led me to some wonderful people who help others develop and refine their approach to being productive. For the past seven years I’ve been blessed to make a living helping others move from stress, overwhelm and things falling between the cracks to a state of control and relaxed focus. That was a great call.
So, what I’ve found to be certain—along with death and taxes—is that productive people have a strong thought process about their ability to get the right things done. This thinking drives behaviors that are done completely and consistently until they’ve become habits. And research indicates that our habits (definition: acquired behavior patterns regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary) account for approximately 75% of our daily activities. So then, reason suggests that our habits are either moving us toward control and a relaxed focus—or repelling us from it toward the lottery ticket machine.
If I had $5 for every time someone said to me over the years, “Danny, you don’t understand. I have sooooo much on my plate.” I’d buy a new suit, a very expensive suit. Anyhow, my response is usually a sincere and caring smile. I nod my head and respond, “I know, I know, I can only imagine all that you need to accomplish and manage in your life. I’ll tell you what, show me your plate and we’ll get started.” You can probably guess what happens.
These wonderful people take me on a tour of their “plate”—legal pads and note pads and documents with scribbled notes in the margin, hundreds and sometimes thousands of emails stagnating in their in-box. (Sometimes they state proudly that they’ll read an email and then mark it unread so they can read it again. Okay, truth be told, I practiced this crude art of email management for years). Often, the largest portions of their “plate” are the overwhelming number of “mental to-do’s” rattling around in their beautiful heads. Most folks state that this headful of stuff produces great amounts of internal distraction and stress. I read recently where The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 80% of our medical expenditures are now stress related.
I then ask if they’re trying to stay healthy and they respond yes. “And what’s your approach to staying healthy?” I ask. It always comes down to a few basic principles: nutrition, exercise, and meditation/prayer. Then I ask how many people are productive. Most hands rise. Then I ask what’s their approach to personal productivity. The typical responses are, “I just get it done.” “I use my calendar.” “I prioritize.” “I delegate.” I actually had one guy yell out in a seminar that his approach to productivity was the aforementioned prayer. He said, “I just pray everything works out and nothing falls between the cracks.”
The approach I’ve worked with over the past seven years has changed the way I manage all I need to get done, and I guess when I think about it, it has changed my life. My life—and all I need to accomplish and manage—has flowed much easier and more quickly than with my prior approach, or actually lack thereof. I’d describe my old approach like this; get into work early, eat lunch at my desk, stay late, then go home with a head full of stuff. Get up the next day and do it over, always with an addicting preoccupation to thinking about Friday at 5 o’clock.
The first phase of the approach is to capture and collect anything that shows up that has your attention. These are usually items connected to things you need to get done, to all the incompletions in your life. The best practice here is to collect them in trusted places that you habitually empty on a regular basis.
This “emptiness” of your collection buckets comes not from completing everything in them, but rather thinking about them. Bertrand Russell has a great quote, "Most people would rather die than think; [in fact], many do.” And another one I found is, "Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is... why so few engage in it."
People get to empty these by thinking about all the stuff showing up in their daily lives and determining the action they need to take on it, then (and this is key) placing that action into a system they know they are going to see when and where they need to see it. In other words, they trust their system to guide them, to focus. I’ve been told many times that one’s collection points do not support trust. This thinking, what we call processing and organizing, is best done daily, as a part of one’s day. Most people say that it takes time and nothing gets done, and they’re correct, sort of. If you’ve ever painted a room and first removed the lights switch and electrical outlet covers, removed the curtains, pulled the furniture to the middle of the room and covered it with drop cloths you know what I mean. Why do this? No painting gets done. Yes, but when you do begin painting it goes easier and faster. And the quality is usually better. It’s the same with our to-do’s. When we decide the action and place it into a system we trust, we move easier and faster. Period.
The final phase is to plan and prioritize by reviewing your entire system of meaningful objectives, supporting projects, calendar and strategic next actions lists regularly. We must as the world is moving so fast with new opportunities and challenges. A system un-reviewed makes it very hard to prioritize where to focus.
To move fast and easy people realize they need to manage their focus from one place—their calendar. They set boundaries for themselves, no longer allowing interruptions to drive their day. Now I know that sometimes an interruption is exactly what demands your focus, and many times it’s not! You see, if you’ve got what you want to accomplish on your calendar in a very strong “action” form, you’ve created an environment where whatever shows up unexpectedly now has to compete with what you committed to on your calendar. This has strengthened many people’s approach to being productive.
All this is very much common sense for sure, but what I’ve found is that it is not common behavior for the masses. They’re still using their in-box, piles and head full of stuff as their to-do list.
In summary, people and organizations are screaming for more focus, but they are simply not focused on creating focus. For many, a habitual approach to gaining and sustaining focus is not known—so not practiced. They are at the mercy of this wonderful, information and communication flowing world—and the last thing that encourages is focus.
