FEBRUARY 7, 2021

“A clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives you a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power.”

—Brian Tracy

Many people think that spending a lot of time on something will make them successful. If that was the truth, failure should have been alien to us.

We cannot become successful just by spending time on something. 

If someone aimlessly scrolls through YouTube and watches random videos, does that make the person a successful YouTuber?
No.

If someone casually reads novels for about an hour a day, does that turn the person into a successful novelist? 
No.

If someone downloads multiple coding software and spends time looking around them, does it turn the person into a successful coder?
No.

Then what is it that transforms a person from an amateur to a master?

Focus.

What is focus?

According to dictionary.cambridge.org, the definition of focus is “the main or central point of something, especially of attention or interest.” That is what we need to understand. Whenever we do something, we need to have a central point of attention that we are conscious of. In simpler words, you need to know your intention of doing something, and when you do it, consciously involve yourself in that intention with the goal of fulfilling it. When you spend time on something with a clear intention, it becomes your central point of attention, and you become focused.  

That is what differentiates successful people from unsuccessful ones. Successful people are focused on their intention and consciously aim to fulfill it.  

If someone is watching YouTube videos of a comedy creator to understand how they create humor and interest, will they move closer to becoming a successful comedian on YouTube?
 Yes.
 If someone reads fantasy novels to learn more about building a story world and introducing characters and their roles, will they move closer to becoming a successful fantasy novelist?
 Yes.
 If someone learns how to code in C++ language to focus on building a user-friendly app, will the person move closer to becoming a successful application programmer and coder?
 Yes.

Focus creates successful people. If you have clarity of intention and consciously focus on that when you do something, you will become successful. 

How does Focus Produce Results?

No matter what the intent behind some action is, what almost all of us seek are results. We all want to know how our actions turn out. We all want to know what we produce. We want to create high-quality work. And we all want to get rewarded for it.  

So, the main question is, “Does focus help us in achieving better or faster results?”

Cal Newport, a professor at Georgetown University and Best-selling Author, provides this formula in his book, ‘Deep Work’ – “High-Quality Work Produced = (Time Spent) × (Intensity of Focus).”  

Your work’s quality is directly affected by the intensity of your focus. If you spend two hours writing an essay for school but browse the internet in between or check in on your messages, the quality of the essay may be low when compared to an essay written in one hour with full focus and no disturbance or distraction whatsoever.  

As I stated earlier, spending time on something won’t make you successful; spending that time with intense focus and intention will.  

You will be able to produce much more quality work in less time by increasing your focus intensity, which will help you accomplish a lot in less time.

How to Develop Focus?

Everything is sweet, simple, comfortable, and good-looking in the ideation phase. The real challenges come up on the implementation front; we become successful when we overcome them.  

That’s the same with the idea of focused work. It seems all good and pretty when we think about it, but we often back off when it is time to implement.  

That’s why we need to understand how to develop and implement focus in our work to achieve extraordinary results and become successful.

You can do three things to inculcate focus in your daily actions.

1. Decide on Your Intention.
2. Set out time blocks.
3. Avoid Temptations.

Decide on Your Intention.  

The first and most important thing you need to do is decide on your intention behind doing something – the result you want to achieve or fulfill by doing that action. If you start studying mathematics, you need to know why you are doing it and what you want to accomplish. Maybe you have a mathematics test next week and want to score well in it. That’s your intention and your central point of attention.  

Similarly, you need to find out your intention behind your actions and consciously focus on it.

Set out time blocks.

After you decide on your intention and know what you want to do or need to do, you need to consciously plan your actions and set out time blocks for that specific action. In this time block, you do nothing but only the action you intend to do. If you are preparing for your mathematics test, you can set out a time block of 1 hour. When you begin the time block, focus on solving geometry and algebra questions only and nothing else.

When I set out to write a blog post each Saturday, I create a time block for it the previous night, and during that time block, I only focus on writing the post and doing the research related to it.  

When you set out time blocks and focus only on the actions that you have decided to do, you will create exceptional and high-quality work and results in that time frame.

Avoid Temptations.

You will often be tempted to search for something on the internet, read the news about your favorite pop-star, check your Twitter feed, and scroll through Instagram during your time block. A notification may nudge you; an email may interest you, or the fear of missing out on the latest information may provoke you, but you need to remember that if you want to produce high-quality work in less time, you need to focus.

Remember this fact: If you focus with intensity, you will produce more quality work in less time and have more time left to relax and entertain yourself with social media and the latest information!

When you focus with intention, you will achieve success and extraordinary results in less time!

To learn more about overcoming distractions, you can read my blog post on that topic by clicking here.

I hope that this blog post was worth your time and that you will now become more focused and achieve more in less time! Share your learnings and questions in the comments below, and I will surely reply!  

If you liked reading this post, you will love to read my free mini-book, ‘Live Better Everyday’, which will help you learn more about how you can become more productive and get the most out of your day! Sign up using the form below, and you will get the book in your email!

Partnering in your success and growth,
Prabhsimrat