6 Tiny Things The Most Highly Focused People Never Forget To Do
Channel your focus so you start getting what you desire.
Ivan Samkov | Canva Focus is like taking a magnifying glass, channeling a ray of sunlight, and holding it in place long enough for an ember to start burning. Lack of focus is why we don’t hear from certain people who first had a dream. Here’s how to channel your own focus so you start getting what you want.
Here are 6 tiny things the most highly focused people never forget to do:
1. Know what you want.
Few people know what they want, nor do they take action towards those things they really want. As such, most people end up being pulled in various directions, responding to emotions and avoiding whatever makes them uncomfortable. Know what you want and how it aligns with your values. When you commit to creating those things with your own energy and ingenuity, you have less time for nonsense and are far more willing to experience pain to get what you want. Sit down and write out what you want. Make these objectives enjoyable — tantalizing even. You need to maintain interest over the long term.
2. Create more and faster.
There’s something about being sluggish and barely putting out any content. This energy seems to pollute the rest of my work and sucks the life out of me. When I remember to go fast, increase my aspirations, and be determined to be more prolific, everything changes for the better. It’s quite incredible how much we can do when we take away the phone and computer, use a timer, sit with our boredom, create, and create some more. The more I create, the more creative I become. My muscle memory tightens, and my brain fires at a higher level. An invisible hand comes to my aid because I said I’d go big, and I act like I went big.
3. Know what you don’t want.
It’s much easier to move towards what you want when you have an electronic cattle prod poking you from behind. You have one life. Why settle for scraps? Make a list of what you will ensure will never happen again, and that you are going to do everything in your power to avoid them from happening. What are you cutting out of your life so you can have more of what you do want? What tough decisions need to be made this week? Knowing this, taking responsibility, and acting on it will change your life like nothing else.
4. Do more with less.
I know you want to do a million and one things. But you can’t be focused if you’re embarking on several projects simultaneously. Focus flourishes when you do one thing at a time with full attention and enjoyment. What needs to go or be temporarily side-lined? What deserves your full focus right now? How can you take something currently getting 50% and jack it up to 95%?
5. Give your priorities more care and love.
It took me a long time to realize how closely linked focus is to specific emotions. This is why obsessed geniuses do so well. They are emotionally attached to their projects. They call it their "life’s work" or even "the love of my life." When you’re in love with something or someone, you find it easy to focus on them, right? Can you bring a similar kind of love, attention, and care to your projects? You don’t need to wait for that to appear. You create it.
6. Design a routine.
I know how hard it is to stay on track when you have several daily tasks. It’s amazingly easy to lose purpose, get lost, and ask yourself how you got here. A routine can be a simple set of habits you do daily, much of which you internalize and do without needing reminders. But we aren’t always doing the same types of tasks over and over. Our projects and lives can be complex. This is why it helps to have somewhere you return to every day to center yourself. Have a central hub document — for example, in Notion — that shows you your main objectives for the year, right down to the week.
What are your habits, and what are your vital tasks to be done for the day? What do you need to do today to honor your commitment to sharing two newsletters each week, for example? What do you need to do today if your dream of writing and releasing a fiction novel each year is to materialize? What’s your central hub?
Alex Mathers is a writer and coach who helps you build a money-making personal brand with your knowledge and skills while staying mentally resilient.