I’m going to teach you how to focus. This is extremely simple…
First, you decide to ignore everything going on around you. The outside world must be irrelevant to you, at least while you’re doing this exercise.
Second, turn your focus inward. Decide what you really want. Understand what things are necessary in your life right now. What do YOU want? What matters to YOU? Explore your mind. Do it fast and eliminate all waste and clutter.
Third, prioritize that list in your mind. And ONLY THEN… once it’s clear in your mind… write it down. Turn that mental energy into physical energy… physical action. Don’t write down random ideas or random thoughts. Be sure that the list is clear in your mind before you write.
Fourth, go after the very first thing on that list with all of your willpower. Ignore anything that doesn’t help you reach that first goal. In fact, feel free to erase or burn everything else on that list if it distracts you at all… remember, that first item on that list is what you want more than ANYTHING else in the entire world.
And that’s it!
Now, here are the secrets behind this system. If you want to know how to focus you need to block out the world. You need to nuke distractions. The outside world is full of junk and useless stuff that will slow you down, or stop you dead in your tracks.
Next, that inward focus is what gives you the ability to see what you want very clearly. Since the outside world can’t cloud your mind, everything is much easier to see in your own mind. Your mind is your fortress. Your castle. Your safety zone.
You’re also in total control and you’re driven by a goal. That’s because you’ve removed the junk on the outside and now you’re able to see a clear list in your mind. And, you’ve set the priority. You are in command.
You’re also full of strength and power. It’s internal power… nothing is required from the outside. In fact, the outside world becomes your clay. It’s easy to mold because your willpower is so strong.The world is just the place where stuff happens… where you take action. It has little impact on you and your number one priority.
Now, here’s the essential keystone…
You have ONE GOAL. Your top priority is clear in your mind. It’s coming from you and that means it has special weight. Since you only have one purpose it’s extremely easy to focus and stay focused. Nothing can stop you.
The beauty of my technique is that it’s easy to understand and it’s extremely easy to turn into a habit. That means it’ll actually work for you… forever. It won’t take long, if you just give it a chance.
Instead of worrying about all the information coming at you… spend your time paying attention to what matters to you. It’s impossible to experience information overload…because the noise just passes through your hair like a gentle breeze. It’s not even relevant. It’s nothing.
Ignore the outside world. Focus on your internal world. List your priorities. Set your top priority. Go after it… like your life depends on it. Nothing can stop you from having a perfect vision of what you want. That is how to focus.
~ John
p.s. If you could focus like a super ninja what impact would that have on your life?
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi John,
Excellent post on how to focus. Also really like how you emphasize writing it down. I just did a blog post about this myself and glad to see you have a similar philosophy.
Keep up the great posts!
Michael
Hey John,
Another valuable article, However…
It seems to me that learning to really focus requires a whole
lot of focussing! To truly achieve the state of being totally
focussed requires discipline and a white hot desire to achieve
a desired goal.
As one ages, the ability to avoid distractions diminishes immensely.
Oh nuts, I forgot where I was going with this…:-)!
All the best,
Jon
Hey John!
First, I want to congradulate you on presenting one of the most informative and no bullsh-t webinars online. You hold nothing back, do not put yourself above others and truly care about your followers. Than you Sir!
Second, my question is: Is it “possible” and if so, is there a right way to “focus” if it is essential that one has to work on two seperate projects of equal importance?
Thank you and have a great weekend!
God Bless America 9-11-2010!!
Allen,
Thanks for the feedback about Juggernaut SEO.
Regarding your question about working on two things at once… this is very rare. Usually there are 1-2 factors that will make one task more important than another task. For example, one task might be something special for your mother but the other is for a stranger. Or, one task might be worth more to your bottom line profits than another task.
If you’re desperate you can always cycle through the top 3 highest priority tasks. Block time for each task and do them 1, 2 and 3. Then, go back through them again. This can be effective in some situations… although I rarely do this.
~ John
If there’s one thing I hate about the Internet is its ability to distract and consume wasted hours when that lost time could be best put to use in a more practical and productive way. John, you mention de-clutter your mind. Do you mean physically de-clutter your workplace and workspace as well? I have a habit to print off sales letters, PDF ebooks and documents and keep them in piles. The piles just keep getting larger and larger and I tend to put the earlier piles in a drawer (out of sight out of mind…or is it?) When I see these piles I get a sense of panic and am overwhelmed by it all. Can’t see the wood for the trees!
I am glad you brought this subject up John, it’s a great wake up call for me, thanks.
Working in a minimalist environment with space which was otherwise filled with piles of papers, magazines and assorted rubbish will help one to focus I would think.
That’s why horses wear blinkers to keep them focused on the race and not be distracted by the good looking fillies and mares.
Thanks again.
Peter
Hello John,
As a complete newbie, your post is a powerful reminder to me. I have employed this technique of focusing exclusively on one thing in order to achieve a particular outcome, This may sound odd but I have used it mostly as a way to allow myself to process difficult, stressful situations over which I had/have no control. I allot a specific amount of time to worry/obsess/brainstorm about whatever is troubling me. When that time is up, I leave it behind and continue with my day,
I must use that focus like a laser on my marketing and learning.
Thank you for the trigger; I already have this skill. I just need to re-purpose it.
Julie Rehfeld
Hey John,
There are times that I follow your advice above. That is maybe 1 % of my day. It is just not possible for me to pay that close attention to just one subject at a time. I operate hundreds of niche sites, as I know you do also, and every thing that comes in front of my eyeballs will give me an idea of something i should do on one of those sites, or run off and set up a new one.
For instance, at this moment I have tabs open that I scroll between constantly all day long, such as gmail, Google Reader with hundreds of feeds, Statcounter, 3 forums, and my Adsense account.
In another set of tabs I am posting to a minimum of twenty sites per day, some are my own and some are client sites that they have hired me to operate for them.
I open and download every day Leo Laporte.s podcasts, John c. Dvorak’s podcasts, and when I am bored \g/, I listen to conservative talk radio.
As I am writing this right now I am listening to the second replay of module 3 of Juggernaut SEO by some maniac that is driving me to fame and fortune.
So gotta get goin, and now I’m just wondering why you made me focus on that damned Illuminati logo from the back of the dollar.
Have a great day.
Rich
Great post! This is what I´ve been doing for a long time. But I do it in a day to day list making. Every night I write down the task I need to get done the next day so the first thing on my list the next day gets all my atension until it´s done. Then it´s off to the next one.
I found that the best thing I ever did for my buisness was to unsubscribe from every list I was on and just keep about two or three that I felt where helpful in my buisness and the content was geting me closer to my goals.
Regards.
Karl Reynisson
John, great stuff as usual…and what you say later that this is tactical, not strategic…I’m assuming you are referring to finding that “one thing” you need to do for that “one list”?
Meaning, as Rob states above, that if you find you have more than one thing on your plate, how do you use this to help narrow down to the “one list”, before tackling the “one item” on that list, when so many things are due from multiple lists, all at once?
Combining what I do online, with what I do offline, I often have trouble deciding which “must do’s” to do first, from multiple lists. Any suggestions? I’d love to learn more!
Keep smiling!
Ross
Ross,
I rarely create a list and then reorganize it or re-prioritize it. That decision has usually been made in my mind before the act of writing. The priorities were decided in my mind ahead of time.
My number one priority at the task level is almost always created by focusing on my relationships with other people. I usually have 4-5 big obligations for a day and those obligations are to other people.
Once I have identified my obligations to others, I then focus on what those people actually need (e.g., 30 minutes of consulting time, headlines written, take mother to grocery store). I then combine those factors together. So, I know what I need to do for what person, and the literal action to take is very obvious.
Some parts of this are extremely easy since they are time-based, like when certain people can meet or when certain places are open (e.g., grocery store). These constraints are very useful.
So, if you look at my response closely you’ll see that I have a simple time management system and customer relationship system built in to my task list:
* Who gets what?
* When are tasks due?
* What has priority?
…if you start with people as the core of your day, everything else falls into place.
~ John
Talk about an important post. The more I get into this IM stuff the more I realise that learning “secrets”, techniques, tactics… whatever you want to call it, that’s the easy part. You only need to spend 30 minutes on the Warrior Forum (which I really like) to see that “everyone” is an expert, and I include myself in that number.
The hard part in achieving success as an Internet Marketer is in fact the subject of this post. FOCUS!
Yeah, blocking out the oxygen sapping avalanche of Crap that everyone of us experiences on a daily basis and maintaining a singular FOCUS is surely The Secret to success. And thanks to Mr Juggernaut, I am starting to realise that getting there is not that hard. It’s just a mindset.
Thank you John. Really, really appreciate your passionate, unreserved and generous teachings.
Vlad.
Hey John,
Thanks for the post. It sounds so easy yet implementation seems a little more difficult. For me singular focus leads to an unbalanced life. If I totally focus on my work the family suffers. If I focus on the family work suffers.
Is the key just simply just dividing the time I am focusing equally among my primary goals? Is it wrong to have more than one primary goal?
Thanks
Jeff
Jeff,
I’m really talking about how to focus on one task at a time. I’m not talking about how to get focus in your entire life. So, this is tactical advice not strategic advice.
Now, consider this: It’s almost impossible to do more than one task at a time. You can’t draw a diagram and write an article at exactly the same time.
So, if you clear your mind, create a task list, then prioritize it, then write it down… you’ll know exactly what requires your immediate attention. Your focus is obvious.
Putting it another way…
Once you know your number one priority you know your number one task. You go after it with everything you’ve got. You “attack it” and get it done. Very little can get in your way since you’ve got purposeful focus… no invasion from the outside world is possible unless you choose for that to happen.
You’re the boss.
~ John
Awesome post John, I myself struggle with having too much on my plate all at once. I buy a block of 5 websites and I get on a groove but then switch from building one website to another one without ever finishing. Usually I’ll write a few paragraphs and then something will pop in my head to go write some on another website. It ends up it takes longer for my sites to finish and often I have to figure out where I left off. I am working on this and you and your words of wisdom are helping as usual.
Thank you!
Hey if I could myself to focus like you just described I would already be a multi millionaire! Sometimes I think I am borderline a.d.d. LOL!~ But I think just maping out what I need to do in the order I need to do them is my main short coming. I always start out with the ,what should I do today? and then it ends up scattered over 4 or 5 scattered things and trailing off and finally not getting much dome a lot of the time.I go start a squido, then befor I really totally finish I am off to write an article ,then I run off and to post on blogs.I mean its all worth doing, but I really need to start concentrating on just one thing at a time and I think I would be even more productive.
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