Focus: The Art of Doing it Now

March 4, 2022Eric Hans SchaeferUncategorizedNo comments

Focus, focus, focus. If I could tell you how many times I’ve pleaded with experts in my fields of study, successful entrepreneurs and even my own dad, asking them what I should do, what’s their advice, what is the path to success, how do I stop feeling so overwhelmed and make more money and live the life of my dreams you would wonder why I haven’t taken their advice sooner. The consensus between all of them has always been, “Eric, those are all excellent ideas, but you need to focus on one until it’s done and get really successful, and then move on to the next project.”

Anthony Robbins has a few things to say about focus:

In the words of Shia LeBeouf, “Make your dreams come true. Nothing is impossible. Just do it.” We need to take that to heart, today is a day I spent, “Just doing it.” We take our ability to choose our words, thoughts, actions, and beliefs… for granted, those who are still here, those who haven’t passed on to the other side of eternity, should truly take to heart the fact that our days are numbered. Moses said, in Psalm 90, “So teach us to number our days, that we may cultivate and bring to You a heart of wisdom.” God has blessed my life and has truly given me the position of a prince, I can decree a thing and take action on it…

I truly have freedom in my life, and I’m able to do what I love, I have my dream job. Therefore I can teach people ‘how’ to follow their dreams. A fascinating book I read… which caused a shift in my focus in life, was a book called “One Month to Live.” Check out the authors explaining the concept of the book here.

Another life changer was reading Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life. Do actions that come from you gazing at the glorious version of you, the you at your peak potential.

Here’s Rick Warren’s TED Talk on Purpose in Life

David Allen does a pretty good job summing in up in about 20 seconds:

Tony Robbins once said, “Never leave the site of a goal without first taking some form of positive action towards its attainment. Right now, take a moment to define the first steps you must take to achieve some goal.”

Here’s his TED talk about ‘Why we do what we Do.’

This very thing—that a next action should be the next physical, visible action to move the project closer to its goal—is perhaps the most important “rule” in GTD. By using a few extra seconds to come up with what physically needs to be done, you make sure that your “next action” lists will only contain the things you can choose to do at any moment. The “pre-processing” has already been done (the actions themselves may very well be planning tasks, though) and this greatly lowers the resistance to do the things.

When you have determined the next action, you should consider if it takes less than two minutes to do it. If this is the case, do it. Right away. (Things like “e-mail funny cat video to grandma”.) The reason for this is simple: if the action takes two minutes or less, the overhead of tracking it will be large compared to how long it takes to just do it. If it takes more than two minutes you should delegate it if appropriate—noting what was delegated and when on a waiting for list, or add it to your own next actions list of things you want to do as soon as you have the time. Unless your secret superpower is delegation, next actions is probably where most things will end up. If the open loop will take more than one action to close, the overall goal should also be noted on a projects list which will be explained in a few sections.

If you can do it in less than two minutes, do it now (assuming you have no other, bigger priorities at the moment.) Over at the Buffer blog, James Clear adds another rule: When you start a new habit, make your goals into two-minute bites so they’re easy to do any time.

If you’re looking over your list of to-dos or things to follow-up on, if you can do it in two minutes, jump on it and get it out of the way. If it’ll take longer than that—either because you need to research it, talk to someone else, look something up, or produce something, schedule it and get it into your productivity system so you can tackle it when you’re ready.

The 2–Minute Rule works for big goals as well as small goals because of the inertia of life. Once you start doing something, it’s easier to continue doing it. I love the 2–Minute Rule because it embraces the idea that all sorts of good things happen once you get started.

The 2–Minute Rule isn’t about the results you achieve, but rather about the process of actually doing the work. The focus is on taking action and letting things flow from there.

Of course, you can easily find yourself starting in on a to-do that’ll take two minutes and then working on it for ages, so be careful James even cites this as an example in his article, linked below, as a good thing—we’d suggest some restraint. You don’t want to while away an hour on a “two minute” to-do only to find yourself behind on everything else because you didn’t properly prioritize. Even so, the idea is sound, and can help you both get things done, and start on that side hustle you’ve been meaning to get going. Like we’ve said before, getting started is everything.