Jumping to Another Ship of Focus

On one hand, you have someone who is a busy-bee. They have everything mapped on a planner. Breakfast. Work-out. X project. Day job. Y project. Dinner. TV. Bed. Personally, I’ve never been very good at that. But after watching the following video about the billionaire Mark Cuban, it occurred to me that perhaps strong macro-management of your time can be just as effective as micro-management.

This video doesn’t necessarily detail how Mark spends his day to day time, and he might you be a machine when it comes to detailed time scheduling, but what I was most fascinated with in this video, was the way that he jumped from project to project, and even in the face of failure, stayed persistent. He bided his time, focused on the task at hand, then jumped ship when it was time go.

He learned entrepreneurial skills on a local level. Buying stamps for people and other small jobs. Then, he got an investment for a bar. Stuck with that (and had lots of fun) until it got shut down.

Then, he moved on to Broadcast.com until he sold it to Yahoo for $4.5 billion. Now, it’s very possible that had Cuban continued to grow this company, he could have grown it to size even larger than Yahoo’s $4.5 billion evaluation and ended up making more money in the long run, but it probably would’ve taken much longer to achieve that level of financial prosperity, and it would’ve distracted him from his other pursuits that he took on after selling the website.

Focus on What You Enjoy

The most important next project of his was definitely his purchase of the Dallas Mavericks NBA team. It was an important purchase, firstly, because he was a huge sports fan. Quite simply, he did it out of love. And if no one has told you yet, the best decision you can make is to spend your life doing something that you actually enjoy. If you’re not doing that, you should probably go figure out how.

The second consequence of doing something that you love is that you’re probably going to spend more time doing it and go farther with it. As the poet, Charles Bukowski recommends in his poem Factotum, “If you’re going to try, go all the way.” The time from Mark Cuban’s entrance and subsequent takeover of Broadcast.com leadership in 1995 to the sale of the website to Yahoo in 1999 was only four years. The growth of the company was absolutely monstrous and is what made Cuban the financial titan that he is today, but I would dare say that Cuban values his ownership of the Mavericks far more than he did his billion-dollar profit from Broadcast.com (also, Broadcast.com turned to disaster when Yahoo took control of it, so there’s that).

Mark Cuban is still, to this day, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks and has led them to multiple NBA final appearances and one NBA championship. Sure, the Dallas Mavericks are not worth as much as Broadcast.com was back in 1999, but as a billionaire, money isn’t his primary concern. He already has tons of it. Although, it is still worth $1.4 billion (he bought it for $250 million).

The Focus of Patience

Besides doing what you enjoy, Cuban’s story demonstrates the power of patience. A lot of comments in the YouTube video that I shared are keen on accusing Mark Cuban of just being very lucky. This might be because they’re jealous (the most likely case), or because they totally ignore the fact that he spent five years building Broadcast.com. Did he push out one of the founders? Sure, but I never said he was a nice guy. I said he was successful. Also, if you watch the video and see Chris Jaeb’s demeanor, you can see that he doesn’t exactly have the gumption to be cutthroat businessman (and it’s not like he went hungry; he got out of it with $50 million).

Mark Cuban might be a bit of a bull, he also worked very hard (and it’s probably because he does have a bullish personality that the company became what it did).

Five years. How many of you can say that you’ve worked that long on one single project, and poured all of your heart and soul into it, and then succeeded? Food for thought.

Show me someone who has worked hard for five years growing the company (at the helm, mind you; not going to cash out a millionaire as some grunt) and I’ll show you someone who is probably quite successful.

When you work hard, you usually get lucky, too.

Downloading Macro Focus

Okay, cool story, right? How does this apply to managing your time on a macro scale?

Don’t get caught up in the small bumps along the way. You have to be willing to dive headfirst into a five or ten-year project and seeing it to the end. From vision to tactile reality.

At the same time, don’t go down with a sinking ship. Life is about riding rafts. Businesses, friends, passions – they’re rafts, taking you to something…beyond. Don’t attach yourself to the path.

Immersion

I speak of total immersion, but how does this translate to the micro? Despite not being very good at it, the way you spend a year is simply the accumulation of how you spend 365, 24 hour days.

How many days do you work at something? And how long each day?

I have had a great many bouts of productivity where I would work for 12 or 14 hours straight, but then, at some point, that focus would disappear from my purview and my attention would slowly waiver and drift to something else.

This isn’t to condemn 12 or 14 hour workdays. As we talked about in the Elon Musk article, sometimes an 80 or 100-hour workweek is not only necessary but efficient for creating your business quickly. However, if you only work hundred-hour week a few times a year, you might as well only have been working a few hours a week for a year.

Perhaps it’s much more effective to work consistently for a long period of time. In other words, long-term immersion. Or both. Keep it steady in the macro, and stay focused for years at a time, but also dedicate many hours of each day to that focus.

When to Un-Focus?

We talk a lot on this blog about focus. I mean, it is in the name.

We tell you about how downloading FocusMe will help you focus on the things that you considered truly important. But if you understand the nature of FocusMe, and that it gives you time by blocking the time you spend on other things, you will realize that sometimes the best focus is quite simply the un-focus of everything other than your task. Meditation, for example, is quite literally this. Un-focus on everything that you consider a distraction, and the only thing left is what you consider important.

Fusing the Micro and the Macro

The amount of time you work directly affects the speed in which you finish something, and the quality of that task. But as we have told you time and time again, you only have 24 hours in a day. You also only have 8760 hours in a year. For you to create a good business or an earth-shattering book, it may take five years to create. This gives you around 43,800 hours.

So, if you do occasionally lose track of the micromanagement of your hour-to-hour scheduling, don’t lose hope. There is plenty of time. It is more important that you spend time chasing one big dream, little by little, than be distracted by a host of unrelated, random assignments or endeavours, that aren’t correlated in any way. Your projects should funnel into each other.

Of course, don’t let this lure you into laziness or apathy. Instead, let it lure you into a slow burn mentality. Slowly, but surely, build towards your goals, ignore the small bumps, and stay focused. The time will pass regardless of what you do, so might as well pass the time doing something you enjoy.

If you need help with that, go download FocusMe. Quit getting distracted by your emails, Netflix, or what have you, and go do what you really want to do.

Go all the way.

All. The way.

The post How Titans Manage Time: Mark Cuban and Macro-Management appeared first on FocusMe.

I tried to help and spent a lot of time to motivate him. The problem with motivation sometimes is that it’s not concrete.

It pumps you up…and that’s it.

For those who are already pushing themselves and building their art or business will benefit from the short-term motivational boost, but people who haven’t started or who don’t have any idea what they want, I’m skeptical as to whether “you can live your dreams, go for it!” type neurolinguistic-programming (NLP) actually has any worth in and of itself.

Motivation is a means, not an end, in and of itself. You use motivation to propel yourself towards a goal, but without action and the execution of steps that build the goal, it’s worthless dopamine.

Concrete Application

Now, let me introduce you to a motivational speaker who does know what he’s talking about. Jim Rohn.

He was a salesman before he entered the business of motivation. Then he became a millionaire working with AbundaVita, a nutritional supplement company. He sold a product, and learned the mechanics of success through sales.

And one of Jim’s biggest stresses is on proper habits. Habits that help you focus. But to have proper habits, you need to eliminate improper habits. Unskillful life applications.

What habit was keeping my friend from focusing? From being productive?

I realized it one day when I took a closer look at his tone and body language.

It wasn’t fear.

It wasn’t stupidity.

It was arrogance.

Suddenly, everything clicked. I realized that every time I’d give him advice, he’d argue with me. “Well, no, Hector, it’s not like that…” or “No, Hector, I don’t think that will work…”

I snapped. “Dude, you’re not seeing any success, because you’re not even trying. And why are you not trying? Because you think the market needs to cater to your desires. You think some opportunity is going to knock on your door and you’ll have the business you want and the life you want. Well, it’s not going to. And it’s because you’re arrogant.”

Annihilating Arrogance and Attracting Success

In the following video, Jim explains the importance of attracting success.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqDIqSoPcQI

You attract success by opening yourself to success.

Well, opening yourself is about eliminating blockages. Removing obstacles.

Around the seven-minute mark of the video, Jim talks about costing yourself customers, investors, or employees who would gladly join you or buy from you, but don’t because there’s a difficulty in dealing with you. An obstacle.

His advice to become ultra-conservative and eliminate as many bad habits or behaviors that might interfere with a business opportunity.

When you go to talk to a farmer, don’t wear a suit. He won’t take you seriously.

Know your market, and then check your dress, your attitude, your behavior, your language, and your habits.

Eliminate any that might hurt you in that market.

For my friend, his primary obstacle was his arrogance.

He thought he knew why he was failing, but he didn’t. He wasn’t seeing success, because he wasn’t taking advice from someone who did know why he was failing.

Eliminate arrogance, pretend you don’t know what you’re talking (because if you did, you’d be good at what you do and probably making money doing it), and you’ll open yourself to success.

Sincere Focus

Around the eleven-minute mark of the video, Jim talks about sincerity.

“Are you actually trying?” is essentially the question.

It’s fine if they reject you because they don’t like what you have to say. Or because they disagree with what you believe in.  Maybe your writing offends them. Perhaps your product isn’t the brand they’re loyal to.

But were you sincere about your presentation? Did you believe in the product you were selling?

Do you say what you mean and mean what you say? As long as you’re sincere and genuine with the time you spend and what you do, nobody can fault you for it.

Honest Productivity

Excuses are arrogance.

That’s right, excuses are arrogant.

You’re being arrogant, because you’re under the assumption that you can fool yourself and others.

“Oh, I don’t have time. You see, I have all these things to do…”

Your buddies will nod, but as the years go on, they’ll being to wonder in the back of their head, “He says he doesn’t have time, but he’s been talking about this book, this business, and his dreams for years, but he hasn’t done anything about it.”

They’ll eventually realize you’re all talk

This happens all the time: I see people post some picture of a yacht, or a beach, or a beautiful woman.

“I wish I could have that, I wish I could be there, I wish I could date someone like that.”

But do they do anything about it.

Nope.

And what’s worse, is that they suffer. And they may not even know why, but the subconscious from which their anxiety and stress comes from knows the truth. The deep mind – that mind that is always aware – is never fooled; it knows the truth.

The only thing being fooled is your thinking. Your rationalizations. Your fantasies about what you think your story is, and why your story isn’t the same as your dream.

How Serious Are You?

Want to see how honest you are about succeeding? Fine.

Do this.

Download FocusMe.

The single best productivity application on the market.

It’ll help you limit those bad habits that are limiting your time. And, yes, you do have habits that are sucking your time. You spend too much time watching TV, checking your phone, Facebook, or reading through emails.

Don’t lie to me. Don’t lie to yourself.

And once you stop lying to yourself and others, you will leave yourself open to success.

See you at the top,

Hector

The post How Titans Manage Time: Jim Rohn and Attracting Success appeared first on FocusMe.

Richard Branson, multi-billionaire owner of Virgin Group, wrote the followed in his LinkedIn profile:

“Too many people measure how successful they are by how much money they make or the people that they associate with. In my opinion, true success should be measured by how happy you are.”

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet (who we’ve discussed on this blog before), apparently gave the same answer on the subject.

We often hear this from people – that happiness is the goal, not money.

While we do agree at first, it’s not strange to question the assertion a few moments later.

“If being happy is the goal, then why do you still have so much money? Why not give it up?”

Well, Branson, along with many other billionaires, does give away his money. A lot of it. However, this is also an irrelevant argument. Happiness and money are not mutually exclusive.

Another camp of people, those of the more voracious and ambitious type, will say differently. “Of course, money gives you happiness! The more money I make, the happier I am!”

If I had to pick which camp I’d be a part of, I’d be in the latter. I don’t judge people for what they do with their money and simply want to be amongst their ranks. Nevertheless, I find myself quite happy most days. I find myself content (maybe that a better word) when doing work, and not doing work. Not always, but often enough to consider myself a happy person.

Focus on the Freedom

Now, back to why they’re right about contentment being the goal. In their wealth, Branson, and other billionaires and millionaires, seem to have stumbled upon the valid notion that money is a means, not an end.

If money were an end in and of itself, you would dream of swimming in a swimming pool full of Benjamins all day or staring at your bank account. I mean, when I do become a millionaire, I will certainly try it sometime, and thoroughly enjoy it, but I highly doubt you can spend every day doing something like that (guess we’ll find out?).

For Branson, in particular, money is a way to live comfortably. He lives in the British Virgin Islands (coincidentally named the same as his company, Virgin Group), and lives really without limit. He owns on a private jet (and an airline), kitesurfs at his leisure, and lives what many would consider a dream life.

What this tells me, however, is that he’s free. Sure, the luxuries are nice and desirable, but the most important thing here is that he’s free. He works on what he wants to, when he wants to. He chooses what he’s involved in, because he has no need to work, other than that innate desire in all humans to do something (doing nothing all day would be excruciating boring for anyone who isn’t a monk).

I know this freedom quite personally. I’m not wealthy by any means and still work for other people, but I choose my employers, wake up when I want to, and work on (relatively) my own schedule. It’s not too glamorous yet (I don’t do much but work these days), but I’m still free. I had to give up a lot to get here and don’t own anything that can’t be put into a suitcase and backpack, but am still free nonetheless (potentially more so because I own so little).

As for you, well, nothing, really, is stopping you from doing that right now. Sure, you may have some reasons to stay where you are. Family, friends, etc. But do you have to do what you’re doing right now to still enjoy those? Maybe. Maybe not.

Focus Your Desire

But back to Branson.

In addition to being free, I mentioned that he works on what he wants to. More specifically, he considers himself an entrepreneur who, when frustrated by an inefficient way of doing something, he decides to change it (watch the video).

This ranges from philanthropic efforts like protesting wars and ending conflicts in Africa, to challenging Coca Cola and Pepsi with his own soft drink, Virgin Cola.

When you are frustrated by something, there is also a sense of relief and joy that comes from solving it. Like a video game boss who you finally beat after a hundred attempts. Obviously, too, you have fun along the way, along with some frustration (and maybe also some broken controllers).

In fact, one might even say that true fun can’t be had without a certain amount of frustration. The highs are not only higher because of the downs, but they are only highs because of the downs. Without its opposite, the distinction in emotion could not be felt. We only know light because of darkness and vice-versa.

Furthermore, keeping in mind your struggles reminds you why you do what you do. You are always doing something because it would irk you not to. That irk may range from the thought of being a slave to debt your entire life, to knowing that you may go hungry if you don’t work.

But it doesn’t have to be so gruesome. Especially when you know how to have fun.

Productive Fun

Relevant to this article, Richard Branson happens to be among the world’s leading experts in having fun.

Back in 2000, when Branson woke up one early morning to find out that his competition, British Airways, was having trouble erecting the London Eye, as they were supposed to, Branson saw an opportunity for business and fun. He called up an airship company that he owned not far from London. Soon, a blimp rushed to the rescue and saved the day by doing what BA couldn’t – get it up. To make the reference beyond obvious, Branson had, painted in huge letters, a reminder, “BA Can’t Get It Up!!”

You probably can’t have that level of fun just yet, but you can still have fun while you work. As for personal advice, well, my preferred humor isn’t really printable on any respectable website like this one, so I’m going to leave that up to you to figure out. If you don’t know how to have fun while working hard, you might need to talk to someone about that.

As for playing hard when you’re done working, well that’s easy – go do what you love.

Whether that’s dancing at a nightclub, playing golf, or watching paint dry, I can’t tell you how to have fun.

But I can say that if you are having fun, you need to ask yourself if you’re doing it well.

Are you playing hard? Or just playing?

Do you watch Netflix for 25 hours week, or do you go take a weekend trip to Paris?

Do you have a drink at the bar with some friends, or do you spend $10,000 in one night on bottle service?
“I can’t afford that!” you may say.

Yeah, that’s because you’re working. Not working hard.

Work hard, and you can play hard. Otherwise, work like a peasant, play like a peasant.

Download Branson’s Work Ethic

How does Branson use his time to work? Well, luckily, he’s provided a typical schedule for you to read.

Wakes up at 5am (after going to bed at 11). Work > Sleep. 

He stays connected all day (for some, constant social media presence might be a distraction, but for an entrepreneur, it provides an abundance of potentially great ideas. It’s about knowing how to use something as a tool of focus and for focus, rather than a distraction).

Constantly writes down ideas when he gets them (It works. I have written dozens of pages of books unwittingly over a long period of time through simple note taking. And I’ve gotten some of my best ideas at random hours, like before going to bed; don’t potentially lose those ideas by thinking “I’ll get to that tomorrow”).

And he also drinks 20 cups of tea a day. Should be a relief to the coffee fanatics reading (who wouldn’t be productive after that much liquid cocaine?)

Productively and play. And play, while you work. But still work.

And do all of it while you’re hard. Wait. That came out wrong. I mean, er, do it hard. Yeah, work hard, play hard.

And remember to keep your mind on the money, but only as a means to end. The real goal should be something big, something difficult, and something worthwhile.

That’s motivation. It’s what makes you want to work hard. Otherwise, you’re just a blind mule carrying all of that stress, fear, anxiety, and uncertainty with no clear finish line in sight. Being productive for the sake of being productive. Doesn’t make much sense.

Once you’re motivated, with a proper and clear goal in mind, the next step is eliminating obstacles, and focusing on the work that gets you to your goal.

To eliminate those obstacles, I strongly recommend FocusMe. The productivity app keeps getting better and better with each update. It now has an application and website activity monitor, so you can see exactly how much time you spend on certain websites and applications. You can, in detail, see if perhaps you are spending too much time on Netflix or on your email (which is likely, if you read the previous post).

If you do all of this, you stand a pretty good chance of finding contentment.

And that’s what matters…according to billionaires.

But, hey, they don’t really know what they’re talking about, right?

Don’t be a peasant. Be a king (or queen).

The post How Titans Manage Time – Richard Branson and Working Hard (But Also Playing Hard) appeared first on FocusMe.

Is Watching Television Still High in Trend?

The exact numbers differ with ethnicity, and increase with age, but, if you are between the ages of 18 and 35, you probably spend an average of 25 hours a week watching television.

That’s a part time job.

As for emails, the McKinsey Institute found that 28% of an employee’s workweek is spent reading and responding to emails.

Though this is limited to work hours, I personally know that many corporate employees will be bothered (and pressured to read and respond to) by emails in their off-hours. Furthermore, it’s unlikely this habit dies once someone is in “free time” mode.

We’ve covered many different time management practices. Whether it’s the power of “doing nothing” or the 100-hour work week and Gary Vaynerchuk’s plea for everyone to stop complaining about not having time, the goal of these advocacies and the goal of an application like FocusMe is very, very simple – spend more time doing what you love.

That means spend less time doing what distracts you from what you love.

Twenty-four hours in a day. Pope or pauper, you all have the same amount of time. If nearly a second full-time job a week is spent on television and emails (if you add the times together), does the excuse of “I don’t have the time to do X” still hold true?

Let’s Face the Numbers

No, it doesn’t. Let’s do some quick math.

Full-time works clock an average of 47 hours a week.

Let’s then add in 8 hours of sleep a week, to be ideal (for those who complain about not getting sleep). 56 hours.

Add to that 2 hours a day of preparing/eating meals. 14 hours a week.

Oh, and don’t forget laundry/grocery shopping. ~2 hours a week.

With a week, comprising of 168 hours, that leaves us with 49 hours of free time, roughly.

If you’re spending close to thirty hours a week watching television, you can see under the cold hard truth of math that you do have the time. You just don’t spend it very well.

Yet another article criticizing the false notion that you don’t have time.

Don’t like that you have to spend 47 hours a week working? Well, that’s another article in and of itself. For now, let’s work on giving you more time with the life you’re currently living.

We need to kill the bad habit. You spend too much time watching television and reading emails. If you’re one of the few who don’t, then don’t read this article.

To kill a bad habit, you need to

Understand what you like in your bad habit

Find an alternative, better way to get that reward

I’ll explain.

Television, The Pleasure Application

What are we looking for in watching television show?

Escape. Entertainment. Distraction. “To wind down.”

The real answer is: pleasure.

That’s why we watch television, play video games, and “distract” ourselves in many different ways. There’s nothing wrong with that.

In fact, it’s a great thing. Pretty much every desire we have, even the noblest, are paths to pleasure (e.g., being kind and charitable for the warmth that comes from acknowledging one’s own goodness and doing the deeds themselves).

If we are to be dopamine addicts, though, why don’t we think a little more, long-term?

If you spend, let’s say, 15 hours a week watching television (and I’m going to count Instagram/Facebook videos among these as well, which would probably bump that number up), cut it down to 10.

Why?

Well, first, how. If you download the FocusMe application, you can set times of the day and periods of focus to block all applications and websites that might make these distractions available (I, for one, don’t own a TV. I watch shows through the magical internet, ala Netflix and Amazon Prime).

Okay, back to the “why?”

Because with those five extra hours a week, you can put that time towards a project you already dedicate time to – e.g., learning a language or building a business. Or, the extra free time could be used to begin a new project…like learning a language. Or writing. Or spending time with family. There are tons of worthwhile ventures that you probably consider valuable but think you don’t have time to do.

If I have to explain how, in the long-term, these ventures will provide more pleasure for you than a few hours of pleasure now, then you have bigger problems than productivity. What you dream of doing, but excuse yourself from actually doing, usually is what you should be doing (i.e., what will give you the greatest pleasure, since you will be, well, living your dream).

I’m not saying watching television or random funny videos is a bad thing. No. It’s fun and pleasurable, which is good. It’s a simply a matter of how bad and how quickly you want your other goals to come to fruition (luckily, as a writer, watching any story, be it on a book or on the screen, counts as research for me! Muahaha).

Focus on the Work, Not the Emails

I write. A lot. I sometimes can spend twenty minutes crafting a Facebook status (pathetic, I know). Imagine, then, how long I might spend on something I consider ‘important,” like a business email?

Not as much, actually.

Kidding.

I try to check my emails only once or twice a day and respond to the important ones. The conversational emails, I leave for when I feel like I’ve deserved them or for when I want to respond to them.

A better way to enforce this (because willpower is often unreliable with productivity), is to use FocusMe. You can block Gmail or whatever other archaic method you use for email management while you focus on the important tasks.

For some perspective, let’s give emails the same “why?” treatment.

What’s the Productive Payoff in Emails?

In other words, what are we looking for when we read emails?
This may seem like an inane question. “We’re doing work!” you say. And you probably are. But how many of those emails require urgent attention? How many can be pushed aside until you complete your primary task? I’m sure one of the emails you planned on responding to counts among these.

Another answer to the question of “why are we responding to these emails?” is this: we want to feel productive.

After reading through a few emails, we feel like we’re making some progress, like something is being done. And, again, you might be responding to an important notice about a project you’re working on. Maybe.

But how much is actually getting done, I wonder? What percentage of that project, task, or page was improved by reading and responding to that email?

I’m willing to bet a Cheeto that you are just getting a dopamine hit from it.

If so, get back to work. Be more productive. Get shit done.

*grumble grumble*

The post The Time Sink of Television and Email appeared first on FocusMe.

By shallow work, I mean doing work (in my case writing), while:

• People are present
• I’m listening to music
• I have multiple projects open at once
• I’m in a noisy environment, like a coffee shop

The masters of deep work

What’s disappointing about the practical efficiency of work under these conditions is that they go against the image of a modern writer. I personally imagine a multi-tasking Shiva, taking turns between cigarette drags and sips of harsh, black coffee, with the occasional distraction by a pretty girl walking past said writer as he tries to put the finishing touches on his magnum opus.

But the article in question reminded me that the most productive writer is perhaps in a cave, on a deserted island, chained to a wall until the last drop of ink covers the last inch of papyrus.

I remember a mathematics professor of mine laughing about the countless students who would come to him, asking for tips on learning the material:

First, he would always ask them if they read the assigned chapters. About half would say no. “Well, then go read the damn material,” he would say, half confused how you could even ask about learning the material without having read it. Then, if they did do the work and read the material, he would ask in what environment did they read the material. “For a half hour, listening to music while everyone else in the room watches a movie,” they would say. He would laugh and say that anyone who thinks they can be productive in such a situation is either silly or is quite a rare-breed.

Music off, no distractions whatsoever, and you read the material until you get it, no matter how long it takes.

Classic. Rugged. Disciplined.

Which made sense, considering his age. He was from a time where grades weren’t inflated and if you wanted to succeed, you had to work.

You need to work to get stuff done – You need to establish deep work 

 Well, the latter situation isn’t too different from the modern day, except that we pretend you’ll somehow win without putting in the work. It’s in the quotations we post on Facebook and very often in our “cheer up, everything will be okay” talks that we give to depressed friends (but for some reason forget about when it’s ourselves that are depressed).

You need to work to get stuff done. And to work better, and faster, you need to work deep.

Here’s a few ways to do that (and obviously downloading a productivity app like FocusMe will do all of this for you, without the need for willpower).

Turn Off the Music

Yes, even if it’s music without lyrics. Occasionally, I can get into the zone with some lyric-less post-rock or classical music. Other times, I may find it possible to focus while listening to some rap or heavy metal. But the majority of my time, I’m kidding myself – I’ll either zone out and get lost in the superhero fantasies that heavy metal seems to inspire, or the baller lifestyle fantasies that rap inspires, or, I’ll spend so much time picking the right type of music for my mood that it turns into an activity in and of itself (like when you spend so much time looking for something to watch on Netflix that you inadvertently could have watched one or two episodes in the meantime).

The best music to focus with and be productive is silence.

Download Automatic Alone Time

I am by nature an extreme extrovert and introvert. Living alone, then, is my best setup. Solitary confinement is my norm. If I want to socialize, I invite people over or go forth into the city. Natural switch.

On the other hand, if I live with others, as I have in the past, I am perpetually on the cusp of socializing. This incessant bridge to other people being my constant environment, I have to escape my own castle to isolate myself. Not exactly ideal for my temperament, or for productivity.

By living alone, I can easily isolate myself into deep work without the most irritable distraction known to man – other people.

As a further note, this is a recommendation to not go to public places to get work done, even a library. Though, I may be more susceptible to distractions than you are and need extreme defenses to prevent said distraction.

And yes, for the married readers out there, I know this might not be an option. That’s why you build a study in your house (or a man-cave, if, for some reason, your entire house isn’t a bastion of your masculinity).

Uninstall FOMO and Be More Productive

I am very easily peer-pressured. It doesn’t take much to convince me to go out to a party when I already thought I’d have a night of writing ahead of me. I am addicted to adventure and spontaneity (which is why I love FocusMe).

And yet, when I do focus on my work, I remember the deep satisfaction of deep work and completing a goal.

If on the small scale, whether that’s finishing an article or staying consistent with my workout schedule, it feels this good. Imagine what it will feel like to actually finish one of my books?

Perhaps we need to stop fearing missing out on the small things. Instead fear missing out on the big ones.

FOMO is a terrible application that social media has forced you to download. Uninstall that (and then go install FocusMe).

Overestimate the Time Required

To the people who can get small things done in between big projects, I applaud you. I simply cannot. Personally, I am good at doing one thing at a time and doing it well, so long as I’m given time before the task to prepare for it mentally, and time after to cool down from it and redirect my interest.

I need time. Lots of it. I am a slow writer, a slow thinker, and, well, very slow in general. Consequently, I, usually, produce good work (not even going to add a humble “or so I think.”).

The next time you think you need thirty minutes to research that one topic for a presentation, or need an hour to finish that project, double the allotted time. Worst case scenario is you finish early; then you can go do the next thing on your schedule (or give yourself some much-needed quiet time). If, however, you underestimate the time required, you might find yourself almost done  but panicking as your coffee meeting with a friend quickly approaches (if I have a date with a girl on a day or I am meeting a friend, I’m pretty much useless an hour or two before the scheduled time).

The Reward of Focus

Do all of this and what’s your reward?

Tunnel Vision. Singular focus.

It’s difficult getting into this deep work mode. If you remove the obstacles to it (i.e., distractions), it will come quicker and quicker (it took about 45 minutes of writing this article before it kicked in for me, and now I’m going full-speed).

Like I said, FocusMe can’t block a friend from knocking on your door, but it can keep you from listening to distracting music and set a period of time where everything but your necessary application and websites is blocked. It can also block you from logging on to Facebook and being entranced by the illusion that everyone else is living this amazing life and you’re missing out on it (which is, for the most part, untrue; they’re usually having a pretty shitty time. If they were really having a great time, they’d be too busy to post about it on social media).

Download FocusMe, get deep into deep work, and make your dreams a reality. I predict that will make you far happier than almost anything else you could come up with.

The post The Benefits of Deep Work and How to Establish It appeared first on FocusMe.

The post How Titans Manage Time – Tim Ferriss and Funneling Your Days Efficiently appeared first on FocusMe.

Alright, my boy Gary, originally a wine entrepreneur, turned motivational speaker and life coach, laid it out real simple for you: there’s plenty of time to focus, be productive, and get shit done.
But, you don’t focus on productivity. Instead, you focus on spending way too much time on your favourite websites and apps, especially on the weekend, because the weekend is great.

And Monday – that sucks.

Productivity is For Every Day

Though, I’m curious – why do you hate Monday? And what pumped you up about Friday? Hanging out with friends, getting drunk, or maybe doing absolutely nothing?
Whatever the answer, the next question is a “why?” to the “why do you hate Monday and love Friday?” answer.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
Actually, it shouldn’t be that way.
“But it’s not that simple…” Right, the weekend isn’t all fun and games, I’m sure. “I have these responsibilities,” you say.
Maybe you do, maybe you don’t.

I didn’t have too many responsibilities when I decided to chase my dream; that’s why it was easy for me to sell everything and travel the world. I can live anywhere I want and make a living doing what I love – writing fancy words on pages. A single college graduate in his mid-20’s with 40k in student loans; it was easy for me. “Not a big deal,” you say.
Fair enough. I even agree. It wasn’t a big deal (I’ve never felt too attachment to anything, really).
But you. Well, you have kids. You’re married. You’re really close with your parents. You love your friends.
That’s why you work for $20/hour…and get told what to do at work (you don’t even like the work.)
You finish projects, but rarely construct them. And for now, that’s fine. You do what you do (what is it that you do?), because to keep doing what you’ve always done, you need to do that. The best way to maintain the status quo is to keep doing what you’ve always done (right?). Right.
Maybe. Maybe not.

Are you really doing what you say you’re doing?

Maybe I’m being harsh. You’re working your way towards your dream job or business (or at least are under the impression that you are) – you’re just putting in the work. The grind.
That’s a bit better (as you can tell, the earlier excuses don’t really work with me, and especially not Gary; I’ve seen people succeed despite all of these and worse, and it’s clear that he has, also).

But are you really doing what you say you’re doing?

Because if you are, you aren’t begrudging Friday or Monday. You’re excited each and every day – you love that you’re not only working towards your dream, but living it (the journey and not the goal and all that positive vibe nonsense).
Listen. I ain’t saying you’re always going to be pumped up. Gary is pretty hard to compete with in the enthusiasm department. Sometimes I don’t feel like writing, for reasons from fear of failure, or because that pretty girl over there winked at me (or maybe I winked at her first and am hoping she winked back?).
But once I do start writing, I get lost in the zone, and stick with it, because I love it. It’s what I do. It’s my thang (and having a productivity app like FocusMe helps me focus on doing what I love).
How do you get there?
Well, no one’s forcing you to live the way you are.
How do you get out?
Do what you like to do. Be productive. Every day (not just the weekday and especially on the weekend).

The Productivity of the Present

Grab a piece of paper and schedule out your day as thoroughly as you can. Even if there is some time for “nothing” (and you most certainly should have time dedicated to doing nothing), put it in there. Then stick to it religiously.
How much time did you spend watching Netflix?
How much time did you spend scrolling through Instagram, double tapping when the post tells you to?
Did you spend time with your family? Some friends?
How long did you sleep for (and did you stick to the original plan? I usually get 10 to 12 hours a night, if that makes you feel more productive)? (And an even better question, did you stick to the planned activity during its allotted time? If not, we’ve got something to fix that).
Chances are, you didn’t spend as much time as you should have on your dream (especially if the test day was a weekend). That’s fine. Now you know. Okay, how much time SHOULD you spend doing what you love or building a business that will let you do what you love?
Depends how bad you want it. Remember how Elon Musk told us about the 100-hour work week? It’s not necessary, but it will help you get where you want faster. Simple math, folks.
Okay, cool. Next up – actually doing whatever it is you want to do (isn’t it cool that telling you to do what you want to do is actually what I like to do? Trippy).
Here’s my guess – you need help with that. Lots of distractions out there.
Our solution? Block them.

Block All of The Websites and Apps

Download FocusMe. Like right meow. Then, take all of the websites and apps from the schedule that you made earlier (or the new one that you have to write now because you really didn’t follow the schedule), and put the apps/websites that took the most time from your productivity time on the block list.
Essentially, we lock them up and throw away the key (kind of; you can always turn it back on, but we purposefully make it difficult, because, well, if you had self-discipline, you wouldn’t need this app, now would you?)
Then get to work. Just like Gary Vaynerchuk does. Every damn day.
And if you ever need to get pumped up to do the work, even when you’re totally focused? Go watch a quick Gary Vee video (that, is, unless Youtube was a site that you blocked…).

The post How Titans Manage Time: Gary Vaynerchuk and “Do You Live for Friday?” appeared first on FocusMe.

You Have to Work. Period.

The last article in this series focused on Warren Buffett’s advocacy for free time doing “nothing,” except for thinking and problem solving free of distraction. While this is true, I made it clear that not only should this time actually be dedicated to rigorous thinking and/or meditation, but that you do need to work hard.
What does this mean, precisely?
“If other people are putting in 40 hour work weeks and you’re putting in 100 hour work weeks. Even if you’re doing the same thing…you know you will achieve in 4 months what it takes them a year to achieve.”
Firstly, ignore the slight math error, because if that’s your focus, remember that you aren’t the inspiration for Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of Tony Stark.
At least not yet…but you could be.

The Fundamentals of Work Ethic

Now, there are two important elements here:
1. You must create your product or service, and build your business for this product or service
2. You have competition

Let’s start with the main element.
If you want to sell a book, you need to write the book. Then you either need to have it accepted by a publishing company, or publish it yourself. If you take the latter course, you need to find money to pay for the physical publishing (or the electronic publishing. A type-setter, a graphic designer, and a website developer for your book’s site, if you want to avoid giving Amazon or any other distributor a cut.
If you are selling a service, be it consultation or freelance programming, for instance, you need find jobs through sites like Upwork or Fiverr, or through people you know who need work – socializing and applying takes time. Then, you need to carve out the time to do the work.
If you are building a physical business, you need to rent or buy a space, decorate it, hire employees, register your business, actually be there most of the time to show the employees how you want things done and make sure they listen, all while budgeting to ensure the business stays alive.
A business-owner friend of mine explained to me that it’s not so much the actual building of products that really takes your time. Of course, that takes time, but that’s expected, it’s planned-for-time.
What isn’t always planned for are the contingencies and minutiae.

Random Task Generator

What happens when your site goes down? You may spend an entire work day, eight or nine hours, with your hosting site’s customer service department, because a routing table crashed. Or maybe you got DDoS’d and you need clean up all of the entries on your site.
With a physical business, what happens when a shipment is late, but your order was supposed to go out today? Do you front the money to buy it all at a local store, at a much higher price than the bulk order price you paid for earlier? If you don’t have the capital or the credit, maybe you have to tell the customer that you can’t deliver today. This might hurt your reputation with them; they might cancel the deal, because you’re irresponsible; even worse, they might tell others to not do business with you.
Hell, you might even find yourself sending and trading emails for six hours in one day and get no “real” work done. Now you need to choose between going to grab those drinks with a friend, eating dinner, or spending time with your family, or continuing to work.
What is most difficult about working for yourself or building a business, is that there isn’t always a clear objective. For a clock-in job, you know that within these 8 hours you’re clocked in, you have a specific range of tasks that you might have to do, and you know how much you’re going to get paid. It’s not only safe, but it’s discrete and clear.
With a business or product, there’s no time-table, unless you set one for yourself or someone else is, like a publisher telling you that your book’s first draft needs to be finished in three months.
And whether it sounds enjoyable or not, working 100 hours a week might not only be beneficial, it might be necessary. You have ten tasks today, with potentially ten more that will creep up on you, but you only have 24 hours. How much of it is for work, and how much of it is for you?
The choice is yours, but you still only have 24 hours in a day, 168 hours in a week, 672 hours in a month, and 8,064 hours in a year.
And how many years are left in your life? You don’t know. How much of that time you use for your dream is up to you. Maybe it’s worth to reconsider your work ethic?

If You’re Not at the Top, The Competition is Working Harder Than You

Along with pointing out that you can finish tasks faster with 100-hour work weeks, is the point that you can also do more, relatively faster, than your competition, especially if they’re only working 40 hours a week.
No matter what field you’re in, you have competition. Even if you have a totally unique product, like Uber, for instance, you’re still in the transportation market. The competition for Uber were the taxis, who obviously got lazy and never adapted with the times (harsh, but true), and the metro-systems, which really have no room to grow except for in speed and energy-efficiency (at least right now). What they did in their time was create something that adapted with the times by taking advantage of a technology almost everyone has now – a smartphone with an internet connection.
They didn’t get there by working 40 hours a week. Furthermore, they came up with a great idea.
You can work 100-hours a week, but work on a very lame and not lucrative idea, and have it go nowhere.
But, the advantage of working 100 hours a week, is that the increased work time will allow more time for you to eventually say “you know what, this isn’t working; what do I do now?” And when you finally ask that question, if you were heading in the wrong direction, you might find that next billion-dollar idea before your competition does.

You have competition. That is certain. And not everyone can win every competition.

Question is: Do you want to win? – Get started today for free.

The post How Titans Manage Time: Elon Musk and The 100-Hour Work Week appeared first on FocusMe.

Warren Buffett is an investor. He is also worth over $70 billion and is the second richest man in the world. In regards to convincing you that he is worth learning from, I don’t surmise I need any more evidence than this (if I do, you better be the richest man in the world. And we both know you’re not).
What’s his time management secret?

Okay, he is successful. Cool.

What now?

We emulate. And to emulate, we must first understand. So, pay attention.

The Fundamentals of Time Management

If we melt success down to its most basic elements, what do we have?

1. Time
2. How X person spends that time

Well, we could count the number of years Warren Buffett has been alive and dissect that – eighty-six – but that wouldn’t be very efficient. Interesting, maybe, but not efficient.
Instead, let’s break it down to the most applicable, practical, and day-today level: how does he spend each day?

Titan Time Management

It depends. Somedays, the only thing on his calendar is a haircut; other days he is meeting with his board at Berkshire Hathaway; and other days he might be reading. But one constant throughout his schedule, according to his partner, Charlie Munger (a billionaire in his own right), is that he has a lot of free time.
“There’re two things that Warren and I have done and Rick Guerin has done, too, to a considerable extent. One is that we spend a lot of time thinking. Our schedules are not that crowded. We look like academics more than we look like businessmen.

Our system has been to sift life for a few opportunities and seize a few of them. We don’t mind long periods in which nothing happens. Warren is exactly the same way. Warren’s sitting on top of an empire now. You look at his schedule sometime and there’s a haircut.
Tuesday, haircut day.

That’s what created [one of the] world’s most successful business records in history. He has a lot of time to think.”
These two titans both seem to subscribe to the idea that hustling, in the sense of motivational videos and Instagram posts, is not necessarily effective. Do you need to work hard? Yes. Do you need to scrap everything but your dream to truly achieve it? Probably.

Bosses Aren’t Always Busy

But do you need to be “busy” for every hour of the day? Do you need to wake up at 4 a.m. to go “grind” at the gym, then eat a quick meal at 5 a.m. before you go do a bunch of cold calls and sit through some business meetings, and fill up every moment of your time?
Maybe you do. Sometimes you probably have to. There’s only 24 hours in a day, right?
But is that time being used to its maximum efficiency? Does maximum efficiency always mean you have to do be doing something? This workhorse mentality might look good on Instagram, and it does work (Gary Vaynerchuck is a fantastic example), but let’s counter with another strategy that Buffett and Munger value.

Doing nothing.

The Efficiency of Doing Nothing

How could doing nothing be productive or effective in the long-term? Well, they’re billionaires. They probably know how to spend their time wisely.
But let’s evade the appeal to authority for a moment and think for ourselves.
When you sit in silence, you problem solve. You have no distractions. It’s you and your thoughts.

Meditation

This is quite literally what meditation (i.e., the original yoga) is. According to the 6th century B.C. Sanskrit grammarian, Pāṇini, yoga derives from either of two verbs: to concentrate or to yoke. Both apply here.
By freeing your mind of distraction, you can concentrate and yoke thoughts in your mind. Crack them open, toss them around, and see how they react under the heat of concentration.
Some of my best ideas have come from meditation, walking, or staring at the ceiling.

Get inspiration

The second-best avenue is looking for new ideas in the art of others – reading books and watching movies and television. As a writer, these are very important avenues for me. Of course, those can easily turn into recreation time, rather than yoking-ideas-into-doper-ideas time, especially if you’re likely to binge watch an entire season in the name of “inspiration.”

The sound of silence

Silence, on the other hand, is always honest. We spend most of our lives running from it, filling the void with sounds, sights, and feelings, but it always there, ready to empty those deep thoughts you’ve been hiding from for very, very long. And the most fruitful, but also the scariest of these thoughts, is realizing that you are on the wrong path.

You can hustle and grind all you want, but when an honest moment of silence drops onto you the recognition that you do not love what you do anymore, or that it will not bring you where you ultimately want to be, you may be left an empty shell. Which is the greatest gift you can be given. Because now, you can search for the correct path. The one that will bring you to the profession, business, relationship, or lifestyle that you genuinely desire. And it was the silence that gave it to you.

This silence might also grant you many other insights. A new idea for your book; a simple way to cut costs in your business; the realisation that you need to spend more time with friends and family. The possibilities are innumerable. But to do that, you need to unburden yourself of distractions. And sometimes, that’s hard. We are addicted to being busy, to filling ourselves with information, even if it is useless.

FocusMe Is Your Titan Time Manager

That’s why there are products like FocusMe. Someone else’s business ingenuity and business acumen recognized that there is a serious need for a tool that will help people discipline themselves. Help force themselves to break their addiction to Facebook, to aimlessly surfing the web, or playing video games. Whatever website or application you find yourself incessantly drawn back to, FocusMe helps you stay away to better spend your time. Get started now!
And time you cannot buy. You can only spend it.

Perhaps spend it on some silence.

We mold clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that makes the vessel useful.
Tao Te Ching, 11.

The post How Titans Manage Time: Warren Buffett and Free Time appeared first on FocusMe.