Hey, you! Focus!

Mar 28, 2012 by Mel

If you’re reading this, chances are you’re actually putting off something else. Idly clicking through your RSS Feed or randomly following links is something of an easy excuse. It looks like you’re being productive (in so far as it’s not obviously Solitaire), it feels like you’re being productive (especially if you’re reading about productivity), but the truth is it’s not.

I’m going to break the great blogging rule and tell you to stop reading this.

Right now.

I’m serious.

Go back to doing what you’re supposed to be doing. Do it for ten minutes. Go all out. It’s just ten minutes.

I’ll wait.

Still Reading?

Keep in mind that continuing to procrastinate (or in fact to do anything), is your choice and nothing else.

Here’s the secret to productivity (it’s not that spectacular, really):

It’s not having a great system (that’s the secret to efficiency and it comes second. You can have a great system and still not be productive.).
It’s not changing your life (you can be very productive on stuff you hate. You can slack off terribly on stuff you love. It’s not a related matter.)

It’s simply getting things done.

Keep your butt on the chair and your hands on the keyboard and work on your project, all out, for a set amount of time.

Do ten minutes.

Then take a break.

Do ten minutes again.

Then take a break.

You’ll get more done that way than with a whole day of half-assed drivel. Once you’re used to this you can start upping the times. Don’t take shorter breaks, just work for fifteen minutes instead of ten. Then twenty, and so on. Don’t push it past 45 minutes, though. You might be able to do that, a couple of times a day, but in the long run you won’t be able to sustain it.

This builds discipline, focus, all that good stuff that you think you lack… They are not skills you just magically have, that you’re born with and that you just have to be able to produce or else you’re lazy. They’re skills you train.

What’s keeping you from getting started?