Dr. Ed Tori breaks down focus into concrete steps: clear your desk and desktop to show only current work, disconnect Wi-Fi, put your phone in a Faraday case, and block off 90 minutes of uninterrupted time. He calls this chunking, and it works because distractions can't reach you.
Questions this video answers
December 27, 2015.
One and a half hours (1.5 hours).
30 minutes and 50 minutes.
Places his phone in a Faraday case so it cannot receive signals.
Chapters
Hey, this is Dr. Tory with another short video from ProductivityPearls.com now, one of the things that I found to be the most useful is to chunk my different projects. So it's okay to have more than one project. A lot of times the wisdom out there is that you should only focus on one thing at a time. That's true, but that doesn't mean you don't have more than one project. You know, the reality of life is you have several domains that you're working in. Whether it's in your life or in your work or in your studies or whatever it is, you have several things that you're working on at any one time. But here's the trick. The trick is to focus on one at a time and have that a good amount of time to focus on it. So one of the things that I like to do is I like to completely clear my work area. My work area includes my desk and my desktop or laptop, whatever it is. I clear it so that it only has that which I'm working on. So if I'm working on a particular project, I pull out the folder or the binder that I happen to have with some of the subject materials and things like that and the work materials inside of it. I pull that off of the shelf and place it on my desk. And sometimes, believe it or not, that folder is empty because a lot of the stuff is digital. But I still take that folder that has that label on it and put it on my desk. There's nothing else on my desk. And that is the work that I focus on. Now, how do I do that on the desktop? Same thing. I only have things related to that topic that I'm working on or that project or whatever it is open. So if it's email, I search the term that has all the relevant emails in it. If it is a social media thing, I. I search that term and only have that, or pick that hashtag and only have that thing open at the time. So if it's particular word documents or mind maps or things like that that I'm working on, I only have those open and I disconnect from the WI fi. You don't want anything pinging. Turn off all pings. I actually put my phone in a little Faraday case so that it doesn't. It can't. It can't possibly get any signals. It doesn't get rings. It doesn't get pages or texts. It doesn't get any pings from any social media channels. It's virtually off. So it's out of the way, Clear the desk and only have that one project. So your task from ProductivityPearls.com today is to focus on one project at a time. Nothing else on your desk, nothing else. Nothing else on your desktop. Nothing else but that one project that you're working on. And if you have to get a bunch of blank folders and put them off to the side, but with the name of each sort of major project you have, and pull those out and have it on your desk so that you know that's what you're focusing on and only focus on that thing for a good chunk of time. Some people choose 30 minutes. Some people choose 50 minutes. I actually choose an hour and a half. I have an hour and a half of focus time and that's scheduled time. No one's interrupting me. They know not to. If they walk in, I give them certain visual cues that they know not to interrupt me and it doesn't even interrupt my thought. I don't even look over at them and they know that I'm focusing on this task and I have that one thing on the desk. So clear your desk of everything and only focus on the one thing that's before you be fully present with that thing. I'll see you in the next video from ProductivityPearls.com if you found this helpful, you know, after you start implementing it, let me know. Let me know some of the things. Let me know some of the tricks and tips that you accumulate along the way too.
