Thrive and Succeed by Supercharging Your Productivity and Focus Using 6 Strategies

The following is adapted from a new best-selling book, The Habit Mechanic, by Dr. Jon Finn.

Have you ever wondered why most of us procrastinate on mentally challenging work? Turns out, it’s for two reasons. First, this type of work burns a lot of energy. Second, when we do mentally challenging work, we don’t gain an immediate reward.

We all have what I call HUE (Horribly Unhelpful Emotions), and guess what? Our HUE doesn’t like work that burns lots of energy without an immediate reward, so it encourages us to quit the mentally challenging work, and do things that require less mental energy and give us immediate rewards (e.g., checking your emails or your phone) instead.

We are designed to procrastinate. We prioritize instant gratification over achieving our long-term goals. In today’s world, though, this can undermine our happiness and success. But we can do better, and we can learn how to delay short-term gratification by developing better focus and productivity habits.

By implementing six strategies—which I’ll share with you here—you can learn how to optimize any 24-hour day, so you can get more done in less time. Even better, these strategies will help you get your most challenging work done, while simultaneously boosting your creativity and problem-solving abilities.

#1: Understand Why You Want to Be Productive Today

In Chasing Great, former New Zealand All Black captain and multiple World Cup winner Richie McCaw describes how a McDonald’s napkin was the centerpiece for one of the most pivotal moments in his life.

In 1998, he was with his uncle in a McDonald’s restaurant near his hometown. After being shown his nephew’s training diary, McCaw’s uncle asked the youngster if he wanted to be an All Black. “Yes, of course,” said McCaw—but he was secretly thinking he would never achieve that dream.

McCaw’s uncle then asked him to write down how he would become an All Black. McCaw began to map this out on the back of a napkin. After he finished, McCaw’s uncle told his nephew he should not just aspire to be any All Black. He should aspire to be a great All Black. McCaw felt embarrassed writing that, so just wrote GAB (great All Black) at the bottom of the page. The rest is history.

Like Richie McCaw, if you want to be your best every day, you need to know why. It is vital to connect your long-term goals to the immediate tasks you need to complete and the habit(s) you want to improve today.

#2: Focus on Single-Tasking

Imagine your brain is like a battery that has three specific operating states or modes. I call these “Brain States.” The first Brain State is recharging. In any 24-hour period, this includes sleeping, relaxing, eating, and (for some people) light exercise. Brain State 2 is medium charge. We use this Brain State to do simple, familiar, and largely undemanding tasks.

Brain State 3 is high charge. High charge is the most valuable Brain State. We need this to do clever, focused, creative, and problem-solving work. However, high charge is a limited cognitive resource. It rapidly runs out.

Wondering what all this has to do with supercharging your productivity and focus? Simple: it shows us that multitasking (mixing Brain States) is not effective. Being interrupted while you are doing a high-charge task leads to more mistakes, more pressure, more stress, and less time.

One study showed that a single interruption can cost you 23 minutes and 15 seconds of your time. There is also data showing that each time you get distracted, it takes a little bit longer to refocus. In other words, there is a cumulative effect, and wasted time quickly adds up.

Instead of multitasking, focus on “single-tasking.” Whichever Brain State you are working in, put 100 percent of your attention into it. This will help you optimize your uptime, downtime, and work–life balance.

#3: Use Focus Words and Pictures

Focus Words and Pictures are powerful Brain State management tools. To understand why, it helps to consider how one world-class athlete used them to help him break the world record for the distance cycled in one hour.

In an interview with the BBC’s Breakfast program, gold medal winner and Tour de France winner Sir Bradley Wiggins explained how he used Focus Words and Focus Pictures to help him become a world-record breaker.

Professional cycling is a grueling activity. It takes a physical and mental toll on the athlete. But Wiggins was able to overcome these hurdles by deliberately controlling the things he said to himself and what he saw in his mind’s eye.

He said: “No matter how hard something is or feels, there is always an endpoint. And I always kept thinking of that endpoint. What is it going to feel like when you’ve done it and smashed the record?”

So, his Focus Words were something like, “Keep thinking about the endpoint,” and his Focus Picture was something like seeing himself getting over the finish line and smashing the record. By managing his thoughts, Wiggins was able to get through the challenging moments. You can use the same mental skills to supercharge your focus.

#4: Optimize Your Brain States

As powerful as they are, single-tasking and using Focus Words and Pictures aren’t enough. As you move throughout your 24-hour day, take deliberate action to optimize your Brain States.

For example, you can optimize your recharge state by exercising and building proper sleep habits. Optimization also requires you to remove barriers to recharging. Smartphones, for example, are constant barriers to securing good quality Non-sleep Recharge.

On the other hand, optimizing your high-charge Brain State looks a little different. Remember, high charge helps us do clever, focused work so we can solve problems, be creative, and innovate. Using this resource efficiently and effectively is vital in helping us achieve the meaningful goals that make us feel good about ourselves.

There are various ways to optimize your high-charge Brain State. For example, if you have a to do list, you can label the different tasks on your list as being either medium-charge or high-charge tasks, and set yourself a specific amount of time to work on each task on the list. By taking steps like these, you can optimize whatever Brain State you are in.

#5: Refocus Your Concentration

Part of being productive is knowing how to refocus your concentration when you get distracted. When I feel I need to refocus my concentration, in my mind’s eye I picture a spotlight focusing back onto the task at hand. The words I say in my head are: “Come on, get on with it.”

This means whenever I become distracted, I’m only in this state for 30 seconds or so, rather than minutes. By refocusing faster, I am saving time and increasing my productivity levels.

By the end of the day, this technique can save me 15 to 20 minutes. By the end of the week, I could be hours better off. Small changes add up.

#6: Look for the Biggest Challenge in Your Day

The most challenging part of your day (i.e., when it is most difficult to do what you need to do) might not always be the same. But many people find there is some level of consistency in what they find challenging.

In my own case, the biggest challenge during my day came immediately after lunch. I felt drowsy after eating. This was not ideal if I needed to work efficiently on my medium-charge tasks in the afternoon, so I needed to address the situation.

The foods I ate for lunch were not helping me be productive in the afternoon. So, I changed my diet slightly. If I had to attend work lunches with colleagues or clients, I made sure not to arrive at the restaurant too hungry. I also looked online at the restaurant menu and planned to order a light dish.

In addition to these changes, I would plan to walk to and from the restaurant instead of taking a taxi. Finally, I planned to write a clear list of work for the afternoon before I left the office for lunch so I’d know exactly what I needed to accomplish on my return.

Build Better Focus and Productivity Habits

So, there you have it: six strategies that can help you supercharge your productivity and focus so you can better achieve your goals. Now, it’s time to put them into action. Think of one small thing you can change to be more productive, so you get better at optimizing every 24-hour period.

No matter what you choose to start with, make it a priority to build it into habit. To help you do this, I have created a “Habit Mechanic Tool” called the “Will Power Story,” which you can learn more about in my new best-seller book, The Habit Mechanic.

For more advice on how to be your best and how to improve your work-life balance, you can find The Habit Mechanic here.