“I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe.” ~ Dalai Lama
Written by Ken Bernonck | Follow me on Twitter.
After reading some articles on focus, plus Leo’s new book “Focus” I have come to realize how many distractions and addictions I have. I use to be that guy who would complain to people there is just no time to get what I want done. Twenty four hours in a day is just not enough. In the last four months when I started this blog I started to keep track on what distractions took up all my time. I couldn’t believe what I was writing down. It was amazing!
Here are just some examples
- One weekend I clocked spending 12 hours on my iphone. (mostly checking email, and playing the games Doodle Jump and Angry Birds.)
- 5 to 6 hours a day watching TV on average.
- 2/3 hours checking Twitter/Facebook and browsing the web for who knows what.
After looking at these numbers I knew things had to change if I wanted to get anything important and life changing done.
Here is a list of changes I made in my life to help me focus on what I enjoy doing.
Deleted email off my iphone and the mail app off my Macbook Pro. I check email twice a day once in the morning and once in the afternoon that’s it. I don’t check email on my iphone anymore as I found I would check email on my phone and not do anything, just look. Then when I got home I would check email again and do what I needed to do. This resulted in my looking over emails twice. What a waste of time and focus.
I deleted the mail app of my desktop because every time an email came in I would have to check it. No matter how focused I was on what I was doing I had to stop. It was becoming a huge distraction.
TV
I allow myself only 2 hours of TV a day. I save my two hours for sports most of the time. (My Next goal is one hour) I will record my favorite shows to watch and then one day a week, most likely Saturday, I will watch my favorite shows which takes approximately two hours. With all the extra time I have I focus more on writing for this blog and reading.
Facebook/Twitter
After checking email I will check my social networks. I try to allow myself about an hour a day for them. This is one I still need to work on as I still have trouble following this rule.
Cell Phone
As you can see above I used to spend so much time on my iphone. To help me focus, I leave my phone in my car when I’m going out to eat with my wife and working out. When at the rink with the hockey team I leave it in the locker room turned off. At the end of the night when I settle down to start working on my projects I put my phone on vibrate and place it in the other room.
Coaching
When I get in coach mode I arrive at the rink early, at least 40 minutes before practice, and at least 1 hour 15 minutes before games to focus on what I have to do and get in the right mindset. I like to be more relaxed and not have to rush and worry about anything. Just focus on the team and being a good coach.
I hate having to rush, as I’m a more relaxed person by nature.
When and where are you most productive and focused? Where are you most creative? Ask yourself these questions. Test it out for a month. Is it late at night when everyone else is already in bed? Or early in the morning before everyone is up?
I’m starting to find myself staying up late at night and getting much more done. I’m more creative and focused on what I need to do at this time.
The night before I write a short list of what I want to get accomplished the next day. I spread out my tasks and only have a couple of things because as I stated above I don’t like to rush.
These are just small steps I made in my life that helped me focus on what’s important in my life. I suggest you take a look at what you spend most of your time focusing on. Is it what you want to focus on? How important is it and could you focus on something different?
Happy Holidays! Spend your time wisely, as there is much to do and many people to see. Don’t forget to smile, laugh, and cherish the moments. This wonderful time only happens once a year.