In the last two weeks I’d been trying to work with more focus and try to do less (bare with me on the LESS part).
Before that I just want you to know that I am Software Engineer with more than 15 years of professional experience and yes I am actively working in more than project at the time, that and the fact that I spend a huge amount of hours a day in front of the screen, those are the premises for me to try Focus or Deep work and doing “less”.
What do I mean by saying “LESS”.?
For me in this exercise of “doing less” means trying to do one single thing at the time, no checking email while the compiler finish his job, no some youTube video making noise in the background, no quick reply to whatsapp/Slack messages while uploading a commit, deploy or build, and no more listening to a very interesting podcast while coding.
I am trying to do some sort of mind yoga focusing exercise, many people has addressed this with many approaches and probably I’d read most of them, however this is my own experience trying it in my own flesh and bones,
Benjamin Hardy (one of my favourite authors I’ve read many articles about this issue), explains how your body is kind of the reflection of your subconscious mind and will try by all means to avoid you to perform
changes in your daily routines and old habits (such as trying to do a bunch of stuff at the same time), but by this token when you try to do deep or focus work is hard to resist to not responde to a Slack message, a notification, avoid checking your phone when you have 1 second without concentration.
It is hard, really hard, is it like fighting an instinct, your procrastinator brain is looking for the simplest impulse to take you out of the focus zone and this is a war that you have to win yourself, in order to get the most out of the time you’re investing. It might sound horrible, in a way it is, but don’t feel bad about it, is the way our monkey’s brain works and all of this distractions are designed to keep us wanting more and stay more hours on this state.
And that’s what I am looking for by doing less, if I am going to spend 1 hour trying to create a POC (Proof of Concept), I shall get the most of it, if I invest 45 mins reading about something that I’ll use or need it will be just reading in that time frame. Am I looking to work less hours?, well not at the moment but to get more out of the hours I invest in every day.
What tools do we have in hour belt to achieve this.?
Well first of all is the will to be able to achieve these sort of goals, but to be more precise these are the things that I am trying so far (It’s been only 2 weeks!):
- Reduced the amount of items in the Bullet Journal (if you don’t know about this journaling technique, try this link )
- Set my phone on Do Not Disturb when a task is about to start (sounds simple enough but doing it is a whole different story)
- I did set a bunch of time limits for the apps that usually catch my attention (YouTube, Nebulla, Curiosity Stream, Netflix and Disney Plus)
- Erased all the casual games that I found my self playing on daily basis (Tiny Wings and Plant vs. Zombies II)
- Moved all of the remaining limited apps to a folder in the last page of my apps pages (this is actually very effective!)
- I only read my email in specific blocks (10:30 am, 2 pm, 6:30 pm)
- Stop checking all of your slack channels until the red dot is no more!
- When possible refill your water bottle and got the bathroom before any focus working block (remember what I mentioned about your body fighting you, this is a very effective way to sabotage your self)
- Avoid taking your phone when going to 💩, this will save you another 30 mins at least
Conclusion
Changes are hard, new routines are hard, new habits creation is hard, physical changes are very hard, financial changes, they are all hard, not imposible but hard, in my case I am fighting most of the internal causes of not getting the most out of my own time and once you establish a new routine with this new habits, hacks or system you’ll start to flow in your own new level, just like you would if you start going to the GYM every single day.
If you, like me, are a procrastinator easy to distract bird, bare with me on this journey to get a more satisfactory live / work / goals schema. It is amazing what you can achieve in a 35 mins strike of focus work, for example a full article that would had been floating in your head for a month before falling in the oblivion of your uncompleted new new projects!!
