Focus is a Skill NOT a Superpower (how to master focus)
Focus is a skill, not a superpower.
When it comes to productivity, creativity, or just doing work for life in general the most common complaint I’ll hear is:
“I can’t focus.”
“I find it difficult to focus for long periods of time.”
“I sit down and try to do the work, but then end up just scrolling on my phone for an hour.”
What people don’t realize is that that’s normal behavior.
You are not alone in this.
Trying to focus when you’re untrained is one of the most difficult things to do.
But what pisses me off the most is when unproductive people look at productive people and think there’s some sort of magical energy or power that productive people have that allows them to focus better and be super productive.
That “I don’t have that because I was just born different.”
And “I’ll never get that or have that so I might as well just not try and blame my inability to focus as the reason for my lack of success or not getting the things I want.”
I call bullshit.
Focus is a skill.
Discipline is a skill.
Do you think people were born able to focus well?
That for some reason it’s just a switch they can turn on and become hyper focused, hyper productive, and get all their shit done?
No!
Focus is a skill.
Which means it requires work and practice to develop the skill to be able to focus for longer periods of time and get shit done.
I never used to be able to focus like I can focus now.
During the entirely of college and my school life I had terrible study habits/practices.
I would sit down and muscle through the study material and PowerPoint slides.
And I would just read them over and over again and that was my “studying”.
And I didn’t realize there were actual ways to “study better” and ways to learn to be more focused, and ways to be more effective with your time such that you could study for only a few hours and still get it done.
Part of it was because I never knew there were “study practices” that could be personalized to the way my mind works in the first place.
I was doing it wrong because I didn’t know any better, so my focus was spread thin and I was unproductive.
Thankfully I somehow still passed and all of that but I wonder how much more I could have learned or did better if I knew how to focus like I do now.
So again, focus is a skill, not a superpower.
And if focus is a skill that means focus can be trained.
If focus can be trained that means you can learn it.
If you can train your skill of focus, hard things become easy, you feel more capable about yourself, and life in general becomes easier.
Leveling up your skill of focus is like getting a cheat code for life.
Today I’m going to share with you the things I do to focus better when working on photography projects, YouTube videos, writing for the newsletter, etc.
Not everything is going to work for you but just take what’s useful and apply it to your life.
Lets get started.
Start Small Dammit
It’s a common beginner misconception that they think they need to be able to work for long periods of time to consider it a “success”.
“If I don’t study or work for X hours, then what’s the point?”
“If I’m not able to focus for long periods of time then I may as well not do the thing in the first place.”
Again, bullshit.
You don’t need to work all day every day to be productive.
You can be productive for short periods of time and still get a lot done.
And if you’re just starting, of course you’re not going to be able to focus for 6 hours.
Because you can’t even focus for one!
So what we have to do is build ourselves from the ground up.
From the smallest increment of what we can do based on our skill level right now, and then increase it as we get better.
So start small dammit.
Set a 15 minute timer of doing the thing.
If 15 minutes is too long, do 5 minutes.
Or whatever you think you can accomplish today.
Im serious - don’t underestimate the power of small increments.
Building from a 15 minute timer is what allowed me to read every day for the past 1.5-2 years.
Before that, I had stopped reading entirely.
But 15 minutes was a manageable enough of a number for me to do everyday.
And often times, 15 minutes would turn into 30 minutes, which turned into an hour.
You see, the hardest part was just getting started.
But once the engines are going, they work on their own.
And you get better at this too.
When 15 minutes of focus becomes your baseline, 30 doesn’t seem that far away.
And 30 can easily becomes an hour, two, or three within a few weeks.
And how many hours of focus do you actually need per day to get all your stuff done?
If it’s quality focused work, probably not that many.
So try this:
Start small.
Start so absurdly small it’s to the point where you’ll laugh at your little increments.
And then become magically impressed when your little things turn into very big things.
Find Your Focus Hour
The focus hour is the single most productive hour of your day.
This was a concept I named to help myself remember and prioritize my time.
It’s based on the realization that there are hours of the day where we are more productive than others.
Times where work is easy, you are super focused, in tune, everything’s flowing, and you’re hyper productive.
We’ve all had those moments where it’s just happening and we don’t have to try that hard.
That’s the time period where your brain is at it’s best.
If you can tap into that every day you can turn one hour of work into something big.
Now obviously, 1 hour is just a benchmark - depending on how you operate it can easily be 4 or 6.
And this is a skill you can extend as you improve your focus as well.
But the point is to focus on that time of day where you are the most productive.
This could be at 4am in the morning or 12 at midnight.
Circle it, star it, put it on your calendar and start doing your work during that time.
That way you can maximize your hours and free up the rest of the day to do other things you want to do.
And remember:
1 ultra productive hour is more effective than 6 mediocre meandering wandering hours.
Don’t try to Multitask
Contrary to what many may think, we are not good multitaskers.
You can google it, there are plenty of studies on this.
What people think is multitasking is really just task switching.
When we try to “multitask” we are really just switching back and forth between two different things.
But we are never doing two things literally at the same time.
Plus task switching is known to be a productivity killer, because it depletes your cognitive horsepower every time you switch between tasks.
Imagine trying to drive while turning your car on and off at every stop light.
It would be impossible to get anywhere.
Therefore, don’t try to multitask because it’ll often make you less productive, not more.
Instead, learn to focus on one thing at a time.
That’s focus - eliminating everything but the one thing you’re working on.
To make this easier, you can even announce it in your head or out loud.
Say, “For the next hour I’m going to work on this and nothing else.”
And then set the timer and get started.
Eliminate Distractions
An underrated method to focusing better is to eliminate distractions.
We all know inherently that distractions make it harder to focus.
Yet we never take the time to eliminate them before we work.
Instead we try to muscle through the work, and then when a distraction comes we entertain it, and then try to get going again.
And I’m not talking about breaks here - those are different.
I’m talking about phone use, extra tabs you have open on your screen, alerts and notifications, and sometimes even music.
These are all distractions that can ruin your focus and take you away from the work itself.
It’s like trying to shoot a free throw in a basketball game and some heckler is screaming at you to miss.
It’s not impossible but think about how much harder it is to concentrate like that.
So by eliminating distractions, you’ll be able to focus better much naturally.
Put your phone in a place you can’t see it (just temporarily).
Close all the unnecessary tabs.
Find a quiet space to work.
Try those three things and you should be able to focus better.
Parkinson’s Law
All of productivity boils down to Parkinson’s Law.
Parkinson’s Law basically states that:
“Work expands to the time available for it’s completion.”
Meaning if I give myself 5 hours to do something, it’ll take 5 hours to do that thing.
Now obviously this doesn’t mean we can compress a 10 hour project into 1 minute by giving ourselves only 1 minute to do it.
Truly it means we must be careful about giving ourselves more time than is necessary.
Something I like to do is work in 15 or 30 minute pomodoros.
Based on the task I’ll judge how long I think it’ll take me, set the timer, and get to work.
And bigger tasks that take me much longer than 30 minutes are broken down into several sets of 30 minute pomodoros.
That way I can be sure I’m using my time well and effectively.
This is something that will help you focus better because simply keeping a background timer on your desktop will make you more conscious of your time.
Being conscious of the time will force you to focus better because you simply can’t meander around and procrastinate.
You don’t have 3 hours to do this thing, you have 6 30 minute blocks.
How you wish to apply this to your work is up to you, but I’d recommend to make use of Parkinson’s Law.
It’s one of the only productivity “hacks” that actually feels like a hack.
Breaks
Breaks are essential to maintaining focus over long periods of time.
I almost left this out but chose to put it back in because of how important it is.
When we’re doing any sort of mental work that requires concentration, we can’t stay in that state for long periods of time.
Sometimes we can and if I find myself in that state, I just keep going.
But sometimes we reach a point where it becomes hard to think, our mind isn’t clear, and it feels like we’re just going through the same loop over and over again.
When this happens I usually take a 5 minute break, walk around, or just stare at the ceiling.
This serves as a great mental reset to clear your mind and approach the work from a new angle.
I’ve found this to be one of the most productive focus levers.
Because if simply taking a 5 minute break every now and then means I can be productive for the next hour or two, that’s a great tradeoff.
So what I do now is I periodize my work.
I’ll work in pomodoro’s of 30 minutes, set a timer, and then take a 5 minute break.
If everything’s flowing, I’ll keep working.
If I’m struggling and need a break sooner, I’ll take one.
So this structure is flexible and it’s something that has truly made me more productive.
A healthy tip when taking breaks: pace or walk around.
Movement and changing your environment allows your brain to reset.
Try it out - I think you’ll find it useful.
Focus Crutches
Next, let’s talk about focus crutches.
Crutches are things we feel like we need to focus better or do the work.
Stuff like “I need my morning coffee today or I need music to focus properly.”
Personally, I’m a big proponent of coffee.
I love coffee and if I could have it healthily every day for the rest of my life, I would.
But lately I’ve been weaning off coffee.
I slowly went from having it every day to “1 day a week of no coffee”.
Then I dialed it down to only having coffee every other day.
And now I’m trying to do 2 days no coffee, 1 day coffee.
It’s been very challenging to say to least.
But the reason why I’m doing this is because I don’t want to be dependent on coffee to do my work.
There will be plenty of days where I won’t have coffee in the future.
I still need to be able to focus and be productive in those moments.
If I become dependent on coffee to do the work, it becomes a crutch not a helper.
Think about this.
We started drinking coffee because it helped us.
We either liked the taste, it woke us up, or made us feel good.
And then we started drinking it every day to the point where if we don’t have our coffee, something’s wrong.
We feel the withdrawal symptoms, it becomes hard to focus, our mood is unstable, and we say:
“I need a coffee.”
NEED a coffee.
Not “want” a coffee, need.
Those are words of dependence that lead to an inability to function properly until we’ve had our cup.
From that point on, coffee no longer becomes a productivity boost, but a productivity requirement.
It no longer becomes a benefit, but rather a detriment.
Again, I love coffee.
But I no longer wanted coffee to dictate my state of mind or how productive I could be.
I want to be in a state where I can function with or without it.
Because I still remember how life was before I got hooked on coffee.
Back then not having coffee wasn’t even a problem.
So the point is I’m not eliminating it entirely, I’m just trying to be less dependent on it.
And less dependency should improve my ability to focus because I’ll be able to be productive with or without coffee.
You don’t have to go this far to learn how to focus better, this is just what I’m doing…maybe I should just try decaf…
Learn to Prioritize Effectively
The final key to mastering focus is to learn how to prioritize effectively.
Prioritizing properly is what changed my productivity forever.
Before that, I used to be a mess.
I would go through a list of tasks and try and tackle all of them, not realizing there were only a few things I should be focused on.
Because although everything may seem important, some things are more important than others.
For example, you might say walking your dog is important.
But is it more important than putting out the fire in your kitchen?
Clearly not.
That was a unlikely scenario of things to choose between, but you get the point.
The real challenge comes when this gap isn’t so clear.
For example, is it utterly necessary for me to get a video out every week?
It’s a preference, I’d like to, but probably not.
Now between getting a video done and finishing something like a photography zine, which is more important?
That’s a tough one because both seem equally important.
However if I really thought about it, the photography zine is probably more important, because missing a video one time wont kill me.
Great, then work on that.
That was an example of what I literally had to juggle between in the past few months.
Prioritizing my time between two seemingly important projects, one of which was slightly more important.
That’s what prioritization is.
Prioritization is not only understanding what is important and what is not, but to “what degree is this important?”
Because chances are there are a lot of things that seem equally important, but one is slightly above the rest.
So prioritization is a skill.
To prioritize effectively, we must delineate between what is important and what is not.
And then we must be able to determine “how important something is” or “to what degree is this important?”
And then we work on the most important things and ignore everything else.
We build this judgement over years and years of practice.
This is an underrated skill that pays off well in the long run by saving us time and energy by not working on unimportant things.
So get it in your heads.
Everything is NOT important.
If you want to identify what’s important, ask yourself:
“If I could only do one thing today what would it be?”
Another great question:
“What can I do today that will make tomorrow better?”
This will allow us to identify what actually matters.
Now the work itself becomes easier because we are not spread thin between 5 different things.
We only have to do one thing today.
And that one thing is the most important thing.
So there’s no need to worry about all the other stuff that you have to do, because you are working on the most important thing anyways.
If you’re working on the most important thing every day, why worry about not finishing the 5th most important thing on your list?
You wont, because you’re already getting the most for your time now.
So if you want to master focus and become super productive, here’s what you gotta do:
Start small dammit.
Build your focus 15 minutes at a time - don’t try to climb the mountain overnight.
Find your Focus Hour.
This is when you are at your best and when you’ll get the most for your focus.
Don’t try to multitask.
It’ll make you less productive, not more productive.
Eliminate distractions.
Lock up your phone, close the tabs, eliminate everything but the work in front of you.
Abuse Parkinson’s Law.
Set timers and become amazed at how much you can actually get done in a short span of time.
Take breaks.
A small step away can actually reset your brain and make you more productive.
Get off your Focus Crutches.
The things that once helped you can now hurt you.
Learn to prioritize effectively.
Working on the wrong things isn’t productive.
Do any one of these eight things and you will focus better.
I hope this helped - if it did, please share this with a friend who may also need this.
Have a great day, thanks for reading!
