Command Your Focus and Attention on What Really Matters with Chris Bailey
In this episode we show you how to command your focus and attention. We discuss why many people have the wrong idea of what it means to be productive - and how thinking that you need to boil your life down to spreadsheets and checklists is the wrong way to approach productivity . We share the secret ingredient for true productivity - and look at exactly how you can implement it, practically and realistically, in your own life with our guest Chris Bailey.
Chris is a productivity expert, speaker, and best-selling author. His career began by conducting a year-long experiment examining best practices for productivity which is documented in his book, The Productivity Project. His latest book Hyperfocus aims to help readers stay focused and avoid distractions. His work has been featured in The Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, TED, Fast Company, and more!
Many people have the wrong idea of what productivity is - and it often leads to implementing the wrong solutions
It’s not about efficiency and boiling your life down to checklists and spreadsheets
If there’s one thing that underlies real productivity is INTENTION
We are perfectly productive when we accomplish the things we set out to do
Intention is like the “wood behind the arrow"
The percentage of the day with which you act with intention is directly proportional to your results and to the quality of your life
How much control of your attention do you have?
How much control of attention you have is correlated with happiness, satisfaction, and productivity
When is “enough enough?"
What is intentionality and why is it so important?
Most people manage their time relatively well, but where they massively fall short is managing their ATTENTION
The novelty bias in our brains causes us to constantly jump into new phenomenon to get our next dopamine hit
You don’t always have control of your attention
If there isn’t intention behind what you’re doing, you’ve lost control of your attention and fallen victim to a distraction
Deliberate mind wandering is as important as the time we focus on being productive
When you have time spent with your mind wandering, you’re 14x more likely to focus on your goals and the right things
“Not all those who wander are lost” - J. R. R. Tolkein
Beautiful results come from letting your mind wander
What allows traffic to move forward at a solid space is how much space exists between the cars on the highway
Cultivating “unfocus”, mind wandering, and contemplative routines open up space to focus on and determine what’s most important - to unearth the beautiful, brilliant ideas we wouldn’t arrive at otherwise
The 3 benefits of letting your mind wander
Letting our minds wander lets us rest
Attention without Intention is Wasted Energy
We focus on auto-pilot mode - whatever is latest and loudest in our environment
Researchers found that people who watched 6 or more hours of news coverage about a bombing were more likely to develop PTSD than someone who was actually at the bombing event (Boston Marathon)
The state of our attention determines the state of our lives
The single biggest predictor of fear and anxiety is how much time spent watching TV talk shows
A moment of attention never exists in isolation
Your work and life becomes more productive and more meaningful when you bring your full focus to the moment
How do you emerge from the cave of distraction?
The biggest problem is that we are constantly overstimulated
Do you feel frazzled, overwhelmed, like your mind is numb?
On your computer you get distracted every 40 seconds on average
One good way to break this overstimulation is to switch from the digital to the physical, read physical books and newspapers, etc
Turn your phone to greyscale mode to make it less interesting
How do you go about taming your distractions?
It starts with figuring out where your distractions come from
Ask yourself - how do you FEEL after you read the news, after you go on facebook, etc?
We crave anything that is stimulating - it’s an inherent bias in our minds
Every notification on your phone can cost you up to 25 minutes of attention
Delete the Email App from Your Phone
Does meditation waste time or does it make you more productive?
Meditation is one of the few things that gives you more attention and focus for other things
When you have an active meditation practice your working memory increases by up to 30%
If you don’t execute on productivity ideas and strategies - what’s the point?
Meditation has the best time-adjusted return of any productivity strategy
Busyness is a badge of honor in our society. It’s an active form of laziness.
We look at busyness as a proxy for how productive we are when that’s completely wrong.
Working on a sleep deficit shrinks your ability to focus by up to 60%
If you never think about what you’re going to focus on - you can’t make progress towards your goals
There’s a huge amount of guilt, especially in western society, around taking breaks, resting, and downtime - even though these are HUGE components of being highly effective and productive
How do you deal with the GUILT of not feeling productive?
Make a list of all that you accomplish every day and then review it at the end of each week
Be very intentional about your breaks. Make it really deliberate. Choose how you’re going to spend your time and attention proactively ahead of time
Guilt fills the vacuum that working without intentionality creates
Set 3 intentions every day, set 3 intentions every week, and set 3 intentions every year
Pre-Decisions create intention throughout your day
You know that whatever you’re doing in that moment thats exactly what you NEED to be doing
How you can create confidence in the moment that you ARE working on the right things
How do you Re-Charge your attention?
Habitual tasks create the structure that frees our mind to think freely and wander
“Scatterfocus” - deliberately letting your mind wander.
Homework: What resonated the most for YOU - take action on that?
Do a phone swap
Do a nightly shut-off ritual
Check out Screentime
The state of your attention determines the state of your life.
Thank you so much for listening!
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Show Notes, Links, & Research
[TV Show] The Good Cop
[SoS Episode] The Secret That Silicon Valley Giants Don’t Want You To Know with Dr. Adam Alter
[Article] The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and Stress by Gloria Mark, Daniela Gudith and Ulrich Klocke
[Website] A Life of Productivity
[Twitter] Chris Bailey
[Article] Nine tweets that prove Josh Groban is ridiculously funny by Melissa Stephenson
[App] Digital Wellbeing (thanks to YC from Singapore for this rec!)