7-Day Productivity Plan: Day Seven

Estimated reading time: 4 mins, 58 secs

QUICK-WIN: Set an alarm on your phone to go off a couple of times throughout the day. When it goes off, stop what you're doing and ask yourself: “am I being productive, or just active?”. This awareness alarm will help you to recognise when you're getting off track and doing something you possibly shouldn't.

“If you don’t pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves” – David Allen

Hi [urlparam param=”FirstName” default=”friend”/]!

Congratulations! If you've taken action after all of the previous emails then I applaud you. I hope you're starting to see some results and are getting more done on a daily basis. If not, please let me know if there are any areas you're still struggling with or need clarification on (feel free to leave me a comment below).

We've going to conclude this email course with a look at your attention. Learning how to focus and manage distractions is the final pillar of productivity you must master in order to increase your effectiveness and efficiency.

Dealing with distractions

Have you ever planned out your day with the intention to get lots done, only to have this plan ruined by endless people coming to talk to you and emails kidnapping your attention? It sucks!

To deal with this, I recommend using the power of your calendar to schedule time during the day for “silent work”. If you work in an office, negotiate this with your colleagues and ask to be left alone during 9 to 11 am each day (or whenever suits you). You can do a lot in two hours and if you're not being distracted by anyone you can get a LOT done. The other alternative is to come in a little earlier at like 6 or 7 am and get a few hours of focused work done before other people arrive. This works well if you have a flexible schedule and can come and leave when you like.

To deal with the emails, schedule one or two blocks of time during the day to look at your inbox and deal with replies, for example at 10 am and 2 pm. The rule here is that you mustn't look at your inbox outside of these scheduled hours. You'll be amazed out how much time gets freed up when you start doing this.

Remember, email is everyone else’s agenda for your time and you shouldn't let email run your day.

Keep your Inbox organised and clutter-free. The simplest way to do this is to “Archive” a message or conversation once it's complete. Anything that requires action should be added to your task list (your inbox is NOT a to-do list). This leaves only the conversations that are currently in progress and the messages you need to reply to – that's it.

Decision fatigue

Every time you have to make a decision, whether it's deciding what to work on, what to eat or what to wear, you sacrifice some mental energy. This is why you often find you get a lot more done in the mornings.

Make sure you have your #1 goal for the day worked out the night before and don’t spend the first 10 minutes of your day planning what to do. Remember what we said a few days ago – leave time for planning each afternoon so that you can get straight into it the following day.

You'll now see the beauty of having a complete calendar is that it eliminates the need to ask yourself: “what should I work on next?” as you’ve already planned out your time. Instead, you can move from one task to another very quickly and without contributing to decision fatigue.

By lowering decision fatigue, you can focus for longer throughout the day and reduce task-switching which takes up valuable time. You'll also find yourself getting less distracted as your strengthened willpower keeps you on task.

Using meditation to improve your focus

I can hear you thinking, “ugh… meditation, I'll skip that”. STOP! Don't skip over this section. Meditation is one of the most underrated activities that can improve your focus and you shouldn't knock it before you try it.

Meditation calms your mind and focuses your attention like nothing else can. Benefits can be realised after just 5-10 minutes of meditation a day. That's a very small amount of time invested for huge gains in productivity and personal well-being.

FUN FACT: Your brain physically changes shape after practicing meditation as you learn to control your attention and focus. This is because the amygdala, the part of the brain that controls fear, becomes less reactive. This gives you better control over your alpha rhythms which are thought to reduce the likelihood of stimuli grabbing your attention.

In other words, you get distracted less easily and focus better.

I've been meditating on and off for a while and WOW! I've noticed drastic improvements to my focus, I feel calmer and less stressed each day. I highly recommend you get started with meditation which will improve your productivity and contribute to a healthy and balanced lifestyle.

Mistakes to avoid

Saying “yes” when someone asks you for “5-minutes”. Very rarely, when someone asks you for 5-minutes of your time, does the thing they need you for actually take 5-minutes. It's much more common that they're going to need you for at least 15 or 20 minutes and “5-minutes” is used as an excuse to bother you. Not only that but when you get back to work, you're probably going to spend another 10 minutes getting back in the “zone”.
Letting your inbox control your time. Keeping your inbox open during the day and instantly responding to each email is a sure way to waste a lot of time. Stick to your scheduled blocks of time for checking email and you'll find that you depend on it far less than you think.

Action step: Get ready to focus

Schedule time for email. Refer to the instructions above and schedule time during the day to manage your email (2 or 3 blocks of time should be enough). Don't go overboard and try and limit the amount of time you spend on email. I use a goal in RescueTime to track how long I spend in email and aim for less than an hour a day. BEAT THAT!
Schedule some “focused time”. Decide when you're going to get some focused work done. Work this out with your colleagues or family if you work from a home-office. Schedule this into your calendar as well so that you have a consistent routine for getting into this focused state. If you work on any side projects (like me), try getting up an extra hour early and use this time to smash out some work.
Try meditating for 10 minutes. To get started with meditation, download the Headspace app and start “Take10”. This is the first block of lessons which eases you into meditation with 10 minutes a day for 10 days. I guarantee as soon as you finish the first lesson you'll feel an instant sense of relief.

Where to from here?

Congratulations on making it to the end of the 7-Day Productivity Plan. I hope you're seeing the benefits already and if you have any questions please get in touch.

I blog regularly about productivity and I'll continue to send you high-quality posts right to your inbox about once a week.

Great job!
Paul