1279: How to Have More Focused Hours in Your Day by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits on Productivity & Meaningful Impact

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[00:00:58] . This is Optimal Work Daily Episode 1279. How to have more focused hours in your day

[00:01:05] by Leo Bobada of Zenhabits.net. And I am Dan, your personal narrator and host here

[00:01:10] and welcome to this Monday edition of Optimal Work Daily. And we're going to get

[00:01:15] right to it now as we optimize your life.

[00:01:21] How to have more focused hours in your day by Leo Bobada of Zenhabits.net

[00:01:28] I was talking to someone today and he said that with all the time he spends putsing

[00:01:32] around on the internet, he gets maybe two hours of focused time a day. I actually think

[00:01:37] that's higher than average. But if he does incredible work in those two hours a day,

[00:01:42] think of the good he could do if he doubled or even tripled that amount of focused

[00:01:46] time. His impact on the world would multiply. It might be interesting to audit your own

[00:01:51] time and see how much of it is focused meaningful work. Is that a good amount for you or would

[00:01:57] you like to increase your focused hours and impact on the world? For me, what success

[00:02:02] I've had in increasing my focused time comes down to three habits. Number one, asking

[00:02:08] myself what meaningful, impactful work I can get done today. Two, creating space for the

[00:02:14] meaningful work instead of just doing busy work or being distracted all day. And three,

[00:02:19] in full screen mode and diving in. Let's look at each of these habits.

[00:02:25] One, deciding on your impactful work. Most of us just dive into our inboxes,

[00:02:30] social media, favorite online sites, and busy work to start our day. We might have some bigger

[00:02:35] tasks on our lists but they get lost in the woods of our day. It's an incredible habit to take even

[00:02:42] a few moments at the beginning of your day or the end of the day before to give some thought

[00:02:47] to where you'd like to concentrate your attention. What is worth doing today? What's worth focusing on?

[00:02:53] What is worth spending the limited time you have in this life? For me, the answer is whatever meaningful

[00:02:59] impactful work I might have on my plate. If I don't have any, then it's time to go to an even

[00:03:04] higher level view and ask what I want to focus on this year or this quarter. What good can I do in

[00:03:09] this world? Usually it's fairly obvious. I know the bigger, more meaningful tasks I need to do.

[00:03:15] I make a list of three or four of them to try to accomplish for the day. Now I know how I'd like

[00:03:20] to spend my focus time. Two, creating space for focused work. Very often we'll push off those bigger,

[00:03:29] more meaningful tasks because they take longer and we're either in distracted mode or quick task mode.

[00:03:35] We don't have time right now to do something that takes half an hour or more. So these impactful

[00:03:40] tasks get pushed back. The key habit here then is pausing to create space. Yes, I'm in quick task,

[00:03:47] get things done quickly mode, but I can shift gears set aside the next 20 minutes for writing or

[00:03:53] getting moving on a big project. I don't have to do the whole project in this time, but just the

[00:03:57] act of giving myself more space to focus is a huge shift. This is more of a mental act than a physical

[00:04:04] one. You just tell yourself that it's time to focus on this important task. You breathe and say,

[00:04:10] this is worthy of my attention and effort right now. Let's put aside everything else and give

[00:04:15] this some space. It's a physical act as well. You might shut off your phone, turn off your internet,

[00:04:21] close all the other apps on your computer, clear your workspace a little to give yourself full space.

[00:04:27] Now you're ready to focus. And three, working in focused full screen mode.

[00:04:33] This habit is about letting this one meaningful task become your whole universe.

[00:04:39] Many of us have worked in full screen mode in an app before. It takes your entire screen and

[00:04:43] therefore your entire focus. You aren't distracted by notifications or switching between apps or

[00:04:49] browser tabs. To be more focused we should work in the same way. Put ourselves in full screen mode.

[00:04:56] This one task is all that exists and nothing else. There's nothing to switch to. There are no

[00:05:02] distractions just this task. It's the whole universe. For me, this means writing in a full screen

[00:05:08] writing app or opening a browser tab in a separate window with no other tabs showing

[00:05:13] and putting that window in full screen mode or reading with an undistracted reading app like

[00:05:18] InstaPaper. It can also mean doing one thing at a time in offline life as well.

[00:05:23] Washing a single dish while doing nothing else or running with no music or podcast just being

[00:05:29] present with the running, brushing your teeth and really being there. Being fully present with

[00:05:34] whoever you're talking with. If something is worth creating space for in your life, it's worth

[00:05:39] your full attention. With these three habits I believe we can all increase our focus time every day.

[00:05:45] It's not about being perfect and working in a focused way every single second of the day.

[00:05:51] It's about not letting our attention always be distracted and about giving ourselves the gift of

[00:05:56] meaningful work more often. You just listened to the post titled How to Have More Focused

[00:06:06] Hours in Your Day by Leo Babada of Zenhabits.net. We're driven by the search for better,

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[00:08:29] authors here. Zen Habits is about finding simplicity and mindfulness in the daily chaos of our lives.

[00:08:36] It's about clearing the clutter so we can focus on what's important, create something amazing

[00:08:41] and find happiness. It has over a million readers and was named one of the top 25 blogs by Time

[00:08:47] Magazine. And if you enjoy Leo's work come check out our other shows where we narrate more of his

[00:08:52] content since he writes on so many different subjects. You can find our shows by searching for

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[00:09:13] plus more content as well. So that is it for today and I hope that I will see you right back here

[00:09:18] tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.