Choosing a focus 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: How do I stay focused?
That’s an easy question to ask, but a difficult one to answer. I could throw out a bunch of ideas, theories, and things I’ve tried over the years—but I’m not sure how helpful that would be. We could talk about keeping anchored, cleaning up your environment, understanding the plateau you hit after the initial excitement. All of these are important aspects of staying focused. However, I’m pondering a more practical consideration: Exactly what mechanisms can I 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, use software to categorize and manage our many to-do lists. I have a workflow that quickly and efficiently moves items from my inbox to my to-do list software so that I can stay on top of everything I need to be doing.
The problem with the to-do list is that it doesn’t discriminate. You end up going into task-master mode, not wanting to leave anything unattended. Here’s a news flash to consider—a harsh reality: even the most rigid, awe-inspiring task master is missing a significant percentage of what comes across their desk or inboxes. I know, you reel in shock. I miss nothing! you think. This is just NOT true. You are not capable of getting to everything, so there is a mechanism—deliberate or otherwise—that causes you to selectively choose what to work on.
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, of which I can only get to a portion. So my new opinion, developed over the last decade? Throw out the task list. This is one of the greatest things you can do to stay focused.
Nowadays, I recommend having a few major focus areas in life. You can only have so many. You’ll have to decide what that number is, but for me, it’s seven. I call it the Magic 7. I call myself the Knight of the 7. 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 bit 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 is this 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 work to do, you review this backlog, pick the things that are most important, and assign the team to work on those over a block of time (usually 1 to 2 weeks, called 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, What’s on my to-do list? Rather, I wake up and focus on my time blocks. People in my life tend not to like this. I have fixed time blocks for working on my seven areas. The highest priority of the seven gets the greatest time blocks. My family has the largest time blocks. If you don’t like that—pound sand. My primary business interest also has a series of large time blocks throughout the week. I do not worry about what I am going to do during the time block; rather, when the time block arrives, I spend a few moments looking through the backlog. I pick three things and get to work. It’s that simple.
Now, what about meetings? First off—recurring meetings are the bane of all existence. I hate recurring 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 seventeen one-hour recurring meetings in my calendar. That’s seventeen hours of recurring 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 recurring meeting? they asked. Easy, I said. If it’s important, people will reach out to me directly. If not—just send me the minutes. We don’t have any minutes, they said. Exactly, was my reply. Recurring meetings get nothing done. That rage quit was a moment of freedom for me, and ever since, I use meetings for one single, solitary purpose: to fill the backlog for one of my seven focus areas.
When someone asks for a meeting, my inclination is now to take a quick look at my backlog. If it’s long—let’s say larger than ten items—I’ll say something like this: I already have ten things to do on this right now. If you keep pulling me into meetings, I’ll only add to the ten, and they will remain unfinished. You see, this is what people don’t 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 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 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 email), then you’re adding—not reducing.
Which brings me to another issue: phone calls, emails, text messages, Teams and Slack chats—these are just meetings in disguise. Attempts to transfer backlog.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: This is far too much of a black-and-white view! And perhaps you are correct. I have meetings where we just talk and connect. I go on dates with my wife. 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 a focus 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. 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 lists as unprioritized backlog is a key method to helping yourself stay focused on what is most important to you.
