Focus on one thing at a time
My mind is everywhere. I want to do this but I need to do this or I want to do this but what if I’m wasting my time with this, maybe I should do this, or maybe I should do both at the same time?
Never really concentrating on one thing long enough to see it to fruition.
Recently, I was concentrating on affirmations and finding out what worked for me and what didn’t. Then I got interested in eating healthy. Then it was exercising. Then it was using the law of attraction more effectively. Then it was de-cluttering my house and keeping it that way. Then it was “maybe I should try to go on a vegetarian diet for a month?” Then I thought maybe I should buy organic meat and try that before going on a vegetarian diet. Then I thought about how I can work fewer hours at work and still get paid the same. Then I thought more about gossiping at work and how I am getting involved again. Then I thought about doing some more 30 day experiments. Then I thought about over 4,000 email messages that are in my yahoo account that I should clean out. And this is not all, that’s just what I can think of right now.
In the end I ended up doing a lot of things in bits and pieces but nothing to full completion.
So, you can see that I did not do anything effectively.
This is the multi-tasking world, with multi-tasking mentality! At work, you should be able to respond to your emails, converse with your colleagues/boss, work on your project and update the reporting sheets all at the same time.
I started looking around at people who were achieving enormous results in a very short period of time and every single one of them had one thing in common. They were all focusing on that particular item with all of their energy.
So…. what would happen if I started doing that? hmm…
I’ve done a lot of 30 day experiments but since I feel like there is so much I want to do, taking a whole month for just one item seems like a long time. It’s not really because time is passing anyways and a month is nothing in the grand scheme of things. Also, a month can easily pass by just in all this confusion. Instead of getting confused, I could have done some one thing for that month. If I started to just do things that I want to or would love to do, I would learn a lot more about myself whether I failed or succeeded.
I have trained myself to be disciplined whenever I need to be. I don’t doubt that I can concentrate on one thing for a whole month for example. It’s just deciding which one thing to concentrate on. It’s more in my mind than anything else. 
Still I have to look out for myself and work with myself so instead I will devise some 7 day experiments. I will totally focus on one item for 7 days.
That means not even browsing the internet for other stuff. Totally excluding, even going to forums or websites that are not directly related to my goal of the week. Let’s see what happens!
Ivy Lee’s system
In one of his books Napoleon Hill tells a story about Ivy Lee who was working with Charles Schwab, the head of Bethlehem Steel. Ivy Lee is considered the father of modern public relations.
Charles Schawb told Lee that the biggest problem he had was making his managers more effective – helping them better utilize their time. Lee provided a system to Schwab and told Schwab to first try the system out for a while and then pay him whatever Schwab thought the idea was worth.
This is basically what Ivy Lee told Charles Schwab:
- List the six most important things you have to do tomorrow
- Number them in order of importance/priority
- Take the paper out tomorrow morning – start with 1 and stay with it until it is completed
- Only then go to 2 and repeat until the end of day. If you don’t finish all six you probably wouldn’t have finished them using any other system anyway
In a short while after trying this system out, Schwab sent Ivy Lee a cheque for $25,000. Now this was in 1920s so you can imagine what that amount is today. This shows you what Schwab thought of Lee’s idea and Napoleon Hill gave it to us for free!
There are literally thousands of time management books, tapes, videos, seminars out there but so often we get caught up in designing really complex systems that we lose track of the basics. If Charles Schwab thought so highly of this basic system, and if this simple system helped people at that level, surely it can help us!
Focus on one thing until it’s done! I am going to devise some experiments for myself and find out what can be achieved in one week!
Related posts:
- How to organize your receipts?
- Habits
- Where does your time go?
- Examples of how to build Self-Discipline
- How to build Self-Discipline
- One day challenge to stop gossiping
- Self-Discipline – the missing link
- Why is there a lack of Self-Discipline?
- Latest update on habits
- Haven’t written anything for a while…
July 17th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
This is a new way to approach things for me. At work I am generally swamped and try to get so many things done at one time, which usually results in not getting anything done at all. It is really frustrating. I’m going to try this and see how it works.
July 17th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
That’s the fault of multi-tasking world we live in. Multi-tasking is looked upon as an asset but if you really think about it it’s all about being a good employee! hmm…
Even at my job when I tried focusing on one thing at a time I found that I accomplished a lot more than if I let my attention go to every single distraction that came in my way.
I just haven’t been doing that regularly though.
July 18th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
I have in front of me some photocopied forms I made up for just this system – marked 1 to 6. I am embarressed to say I never followed it through but I do need to do so. Thanks, Ricky, time to focus on this system!
On reflection, I think one of the challenges here has been interruptions and necessary chores. It may have been another Napolean Hill book but I recall the idea that you allocate a specific section of the day to cope with phonecalls, emails etc and, if anyone calls outside this set time, you politely put them off and call them back (or email them) at this set time. Maybe you can program in a relaxation period in the same way. Otherwise, you concentrate on your Ivy Lee list.
This comes at the right time as I am reorganising my business life and need desperately to be organised and effective.
July 19th, 2009 at 12:01 am
That’s a good idea. Actually making an entry for relaxation period as well.
Now I’ve got a whole bunch of things lined up for my 7 day experiment. I’ve just got to prioritize them.
If you get a chance you must read a book by Timothy Ferriss called The 4-Hour Workweek
In here Tim talks about reducing distractions from your life and I’ve never seen anyone take it to this extent. He outsources pretty much everything, checks his email once or twice a week and so on.
Pretty much all about freeing up your time.
My main goal right now is to focus on one item for 7 days and see how it goes and how much I get done. Also to see if I can actually focus on just one item to the exclusion of everything else.
Don’t worry about not following through. It just means there is probably some resistance with in you towards some of the items. Either break them down even further into smaller and more manageable chunks or for now just start with small stuff and once you start to build momentum then you can go ahead with bigger items.
July 19th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Yes, that all makes sense.
Let us know how you get on and I will work on it at this end too.
Good stuff again.
July 19th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Awesome! I just have to decide which goal to tackle first
Good luck with your list and keep us updated as to your progress.
July 20th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
$25,000 in 1920s dollars: that’s a nice consulting fee.
I love simple and effective techniques like this. I think that multitasking is overrated. I find I get overwhelmed more easily if I am trying to juggle many difference tasks in my mind. I like the idea of writing a list and doing one thing at a time.
July 21st, 2009 at 8:47 am
Hey Ben,
I used to do it this way but completely forgot about it recently. I started prioritizing again using this method and it’s been amazing! I find there’s too much confusion in the mind at all times as there is so much to do. My mind was cluttered with stuff to do and majority of it was just basic daily todo items.
Now I put everything down on paper and focus on only one thing. If something comes in my mind that I need to take care of, instead of jumping to it, I just write it down on my list and keep going.