Guy Reams (00:00.856)
This is day 245. How do I stay focused? Choosing a focus area is one of the most important things a person can do to improve their productivity. That is an absolutely true statement. But equally true is that staying focused is the ultimate key to success. So the question to ponder is this. How do I stay focused?
That's an easy question to ask, but a difficult one to answer. I can throw out a bunch of ideas, theories, and things I've tried over the years, but I'm not sure how helpful that would actually be. We could talk about keeping anchored, cleaning up your environment, understanding the plateau you hit after your initial excitement. All of these things are important aspects of staying focused. However,
I'm pondering a more practical consideration. Exactly what mechanisms I can use to make sure that I build focus into my day. This leads me to the To Do List. The To Do List is one of the most common productivity concepts we all know. We all have a list of things to do. Some of us, myself included, have used software to categorize and manage our many To Do Lists.
I've had workflows that quickly and efficiently move items from my inbox to my to-do list software so that I can stay on top of everything that I should be and need to be doing. The problem with the to-do list is that it doesn't discriminate. You end up going into taskmaster mode, not wanting to leave anything unattended. But here's a newsflash to consider. It's a harsh reality.
Even the most rigid, awe-inspiring taskmaster is missing a significant percentage of what comes across their desk or inboxes. I know that you reel in shock. I miss nothing, you think. This is just simply not true. You are not capable of getting to everything. So there is a mechanism, whether it's deliberate or otherwise, that causes you to selectively choose what to work on.
Guy Reams (02:20.438)
I have had millions of tasks and tried hundreds of task management systems and they have all resulted in the same thing. A collection of things to do which I can only get to a portion of them. So my new opinion developed over this last decade, just throw out the task list. This is one of the greatest things that you can do to stay focused. Nowadays, I recommend having a few major focus areas in your life.
You can only have so many. You'll have to decide what the number is, but for me, it's seven. I call it the magic seven. I call myself the knight of the seven. I have seven focus areas and that is it. If I add one, I have to remove one. These are my seven focus areas and anything outside of those seven goes into the great pit bucket in the sky. Instead of a to-do list, I simply throw new items into one of my seven backlogs.
In software product development, there's a concept called the product backlog. It is effectively a list of all the things you want to do to improve the software. Before assigning your programmers to do work, you review this backlog, pick the things that are the most important, and assign the team to work on those over a block of time, usually one to two weeks, and we'd like to call that a sprint.
I have adopted this into my life. I no longer have to-do lists, but rather backlogs for each of the seven areas of my life. To stay focused, I do not wake up each day and think, geez, what's on my to-do list? Rather, I wake up and focus on my time blocks. I think people in my life tend to not like this. I have fixed time blocks for working on my seven areas. The highest priority of the seven gets the greatest time block.
My family has the largest time blocks. If you don't like it, we'll just pound sand. My primary business interest also has a series of large time blocks throughout the week. I do not worry about what I'm going to do during the time block. Rather, when the time block arrives, I just spend a few moments looking through my current backlog for that area. I pick three things and I just get to work. It's actually quite simple. Now, what about meetings though?
Guy Reams (04:44.003)
First off, reoccurring meetings are the bane of all existence. I hate reoccurring meetings. A few years ago, working for a giant company, I noticed that my schedule was filling up with them. At one point, I had 17 one-hour reoccurring meetings in my calendar. That's 17 hours of reoccurring meetings. I woke up one morning and in a fit of rage, declined all of them. Everyone freaked out.
How can you not be on this reoccurring meeting? asked. Easy, I said. If it's important, people will just reach out to me directly. If not, just send me the minutes. We don't have any minutes, they said. Exactly, was my reply. Reoccurring meetings get nothing done. That rage quit was a moment of freedom for me. And ever since, I use meetings for one single and solitary purpose.
to fill the backlog for one of my seven focus areas. When someone asks for a meeting, my inclination now is to take a quick look at my backlog. If it's long, let's say larger than 10 items, I'll say something like this. I already have 10 things to do on this right now. If you keep pulling me into meetings, I'll only add to the 10 and the other ones will remain unfinished. You see, this is what people do not understand.
A meeting is really nothing more than one person trying to offload their backlog onto someone else's backlog. That's fine, and it's often necessary. But let's not pretend that it's anything else. Meetings are great, but they serve one purpose. Keeping the backlog for one of my seven core life focus areas alive and thriving. The blocks of time I dedicate to the seven are sacrosanct.
I now shut people and distractions out completely while I focus during these time blocks. This is my time to reduce the backlog. I am not adding to the backlog at this time. I am reducing it. If you allow yourself to look at other things, like an email, then you are adding and not reducing. Which brings me to another issue. Phone calls, emails, text messages, teams and Slack chats.
Guy Reams (07:04.291)
These are just meetings in disguise. They are attempts to transfer backlog to you. Now I know what you're thinking. This is far too much of a black and white view. And perhaps you're right. I have meetings where we just talk and connect and get to know each other. I go on dates with my wife, for example. If I treated my date with my wife like an opportunity to transfer backlog, I wouldn't be married very long. However, think on this.
That time with your loved one is a block of dedicated time to focus on an area in your life. It is not the time to be picking up more backlog by reading email, responding to texts, or taking phone calls. So my black and white view of the world in this regard actually serves me quite well. So get rid of the to-do list. They are stressful things that constantly hang over your head anyway. Instead, use time blocks and work on your priorities.
Stay focused on one of your core areas and dedicate time to them. Trust me, viewing your task list as an unprioritized backlog is a key method to helping yourself stay focused on what is the most important to you.