MBA886 The Working While Traveling Experiment P7: How to Stay Focused in a Busy Time

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Hey O. Welcome to the hunt. The $100 MBA show. The business podcast. It gives you the business lessons you need to build the business you want with our practical real world business lessons. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the Hundred Dollar MBA and webinar Ninja. It's part seven of our Working while Traveling experiment and I'm in Berlin. This is our first city in Germany. We moved to Stuttgart in a few days but wow, Berlin is such a cool city. So much to experience. My first thought was I gotta get back here and spend more time in Berlin. If you're just joining us on this eight part series, Nicole and I are embarking on an eight week trip. An eight week experiment to see if you can really travel the world while running and growing a business. Previously in our last episode in part six we were in Naples, Italy and we learned what makes a great global business. If you have an online business, a software business or even a service business, you're you're not limited to your local area or even your country. You can serve the world, but only if you build a global business. If you missed part six, make sure you listen to it right now. You can hit subscribe on whatever you use to listen to podcasts so it Comes right into your feed. But in today's episode, we're in Berlin. And in today's lesson, I want to share with you how to focus, how to stay focused in a busy time. Traveling can be hectic and your business can suffer because you, the leader of your business, are. Are not focused. And there's a difference between productivity and focus, guys. In part two of this experiment, we learned about productivity balancing work and travel by allocating time for both. How do you make sure that while you're traveling, your business moves forward? It's easy to get scattered and be busy with busy work while you're traveling. But do you really make progress with your business? Or do you just work during those allocated hours that we talked about on stuff like email, social media, putting out fires, and at the end of the day or end of the week or end of the month or for however long you're working? Or are you just working the hours that we allocated like we talked about on busy work like email, social media, putting out fires? Have you really made progress? Have you actually got things done? Is your business moving forward? Are you more profitable? Do you have more leads? Do you have more sales? This is where focus comes in. When traveling, focus is your friend. You got to learn how to get totally focused, or what I like to call a focused zone. I'm gonna show you how to be laser focused so you know your business is moving forward even when you're traveling. You'll learn how to shut off distractions and accomplish your business goals even when you're bus. This can be a mini experiment for you, something that you can apply right now whether you're traveling or not. So let's get focused. Let's get down to business. Nicole And I run two businesses, the $100 MBA and Webinar Ninja. And we have a team of 23 players. And we've traveled for up to three weeks before. But in this experiment, we're going all in eight weeks of travel, 15 cities to see if we can really build a business, work on a business while traveling, or is this location independent kind of stuff really not what it's cut out to be? I'm sharing my takeaways, what I'm learning, the strategies I use so I can actually pull this off. We've been to Milan, Florence, Rome, Sicily, Sardinia, Venice, Naples, and now Berlin. And today's lesson's all about focus. It's a word I've been thinking about a lot during this working while traveling experiment. Why? Because when you travel, there is a lack of focus. Constantly There are interruptions, there's distractions everywhere. And I'm a firm believer that interruptions and distractions are the enemy of quality work. And when you're traveling, your work time is limited, so you need to be vigilant in shutting down all distractions or you're asking for trouble. Let me give you an example to illustrate what I mean exactly. When traveling, we like to get work done whenever we can, sometimes like on a flight. But let's play this out. Let's see what happens if I try to get work done on a flight, if I don't have a focus strategy in place. Get on the plane, you get to your seat, and. And you buckle up, right? You're all set, you're all good to go, you're in the right seat. Let's get to work. So you fire up your laptop. As you start getting to work, you need to stop because you're sitting in an aisle seat, and you got some people that want to pass through so they can get to their seat. So you close your laptop. So you stop working. You close the lid of your laptop, you unbuckle, you get up, you let them go through, you sit back down, you buckle up again, and you say, okay, that's done with. Let me continue and work, you know, with no interruptions. But of course, the captain gets on the page and they're starting their taxi because they're about to take off, and the safety video goes on. You gotta pay attention to the safety instructions because the flight attendant standing right there in front of you, and it'd be absolutely rude if you just completely ignored her. So again, you stop working, you take a look at what's going on, you make sure that you're paying attention. And the safety instructions are taking longer than expected because, of course, you're in Germany, and you know they're gonna say the instructions in German, and then they're gonna give you the whole thing again in English because you don't speak German. All right, safety instructions are done. Let's get back to work. But wait, I can't, because the flight attendant tells me I gotta close my laptop. Wa the flight is taking off. So I close my laptop, I put it in the pocket in front of me, and we take about 10 minutes to get to a certain altitude where I can get back to work. We're cruising at the appropriate altitude. So let's open that laptop again. You get the point, okay? There's distractions everywhere. You have to plan for these distractions and make sure you minimize them as much as possible. Now, I believe in complete focus, meaning that you need to narrow in on what exactly you have to do and do nothing else other than that task. And that leads me to focus strategy number one. One task only at a time. Only do one thing at a time. Multitasking is not efficient. This has been proven. Read the checklist manifesto. Read essentialism by Greg McKeown. You think you're getting a lot done, but in fact, you're not. So take my word for it. When you get to work, make sure you tell yourself, I will only do this. Now, that's easier said than done. So I got to give you more strategies. So I'm in Berlin, and Berlin is a beautiful city that has a great cafe culture. If you like to work in cafes when you're traveling, this is the city to be at. So say, for example, I say I want to work for an hour from 9 to 10. Usually what we do is we open up our to do list and we say, okay, I'm going to get these things done in that hour. That's not efficient, because what happens is that we jump all around and try to do all these things at the same time. What you need to do is say, for example, you have an hour to work. You take a look at your list and you say, how long is each task gonna take? I only have an hour, so I'm gonna take a look at my tasks. I see there's two tasks on that list that take 30 minutes each. I'm gonna focus on just getting those two tasks done, and I'm not gonna do them at the same time. I'm doing one at a time. It's almost like I'm breaking up my time. Well, it's not almost. It is what I'm doing. So when I hit that cafe and I got my coffee on my table, I have my two tasks. Let's say my two tasks is I wanna catch up on email, reply to any emails I need to do, and I wanna create a quick landing ebook that I've created. That's the only two tasks I'm gonna be working on. 30 minutes a piece. Now, what this does is that it creates confined space and focus. So what I do is I take out my phone and I put a timer. This is serious. We're not joking around here. We're not just gonna look at the clock, put the timer for 30 minutes, or better yet, put it for 29 minutes. So, you know you have one minute to wrap up and you just work on that task. So first task is Email. Let's get through our emails. What are you gonna have open on your computer? Nothing but email. Okay? Nothing else. Don't open your slack, don't open any other notifications. Do not open any social media or Facebook if you can't help yourself when it comes to Facebook, there's a great Chrome extension called Newsfeed Eradicator. And what happens is that it basically blocks your newsfeed in Facebook. So even if you do go to facebook.com, you see nothing. So you can't really see what people are up to. But still, it will show you, you know, your notifications. So somebody you know notified you, pinged you, something like that, tagged you on a post, you're gonna see that. Do not open Facebook or any social media for that matter. You're only gonna open what you need for that task, and that is email. You're gonna close down everything else. You're gonna shut off your notifications. You're gonna put your phone in airplane mode. Why? Because you might get social media notifications and other things on your phone while you're working. Now, I'm not gonna tell you delete all your social media from your phone because, hey, you're traveling, you're enjoying yourself. You might be posting pictures on Instagram or Facebook or whatever like that, or sending pictures to your family, but put it in airplane mode so you do not have any distractions and you go to town, you got your timer on and you do your email one task at a time. 30 minutes are up. Let's transition. I got to create a very simple landing page for my new ebook. If I have a landing page software, whether it's Optimized Press or Leadpages or Thrive themes or whatever you're using to create a landing page, or maybe you're really savvy and you can create it yourself through HTML and CSS. You got 30 minutes. And what this does, I love these time constraints because it forces me to, to just get it done and not be a perfectionist and not tinker and take forever. Just get it out there. I only have 30 minutes. That's all I gotta do. So I gotta focus in now. In fact, I've took a look at my notes, I've compiled an outline and a script for today's episode and did that. I actually put myself in a time constraint so I can make sure it's all done. So when I record, my script is ready. And again with recording, I will put myself in a time constraint. I know how long it takes. Distraction free. Just get going and get it done. So strategy number one, one task at a time. Strategy number two, remove all distractions. That includes notifications on your phone, on your actual laptop. Don't have anything open other than your actual task at hand. If you're working on something like writing a blog post or drafting emails like for your newsletter, you don't really need Internet connection. So you can shut off your wifi on your laptop to even prevent more distractions just in case something creeps in that you didn't shut off. Be vigilant about this. I know this sounds extreme, but you're gonna get so much work done when you're focused. Number three, big picture. Have a goal for a certain amount of weeks. Now, if you're traveling for a long period of time, like me, eight weeks, having one goal to just finish by the end of eight weeks, that's a long term goal or a long period of time. I would break that up into two week sprints or two week goals. So you wanna say to yourself, at the end of these two weeks, I wanna get this done. Now, in the example I gave you, I was working on a landing page for an ebook. So the project for the two weeks might be to complete my ebook. It's a free ebook that I'm creating as a free gift or opt in to gain new subscribers to our community. And in those two weeks, that's A to Z. Drafting the ebook, writing it, having the COVID designed, editing it, getting it created into a PDF, putting up in the cloud so people can download it when they opt in, creating that opt in page, creating that landing page. We just talked about making sure the email marketing software that I use will put them on the right list and tag them so they get the right sequences. Is there a sequence for them for this ebook, all that. There's one project here, it's called an ebook. Right. But there's a lot of different things I gotta do to make this actually exist in the world. To actually make this happen. It's like a little mini project. Right? Or even you can consider it like a mini business. Yeah, I'm not exchanging something for money, I'm exchanging something for email addresses. Trust. So I could build a relationship. So later on I can, you know, build that relationship to have them buy something from me. But the point here is that that's the goal. By the end of the two weeks, I know I have a deliverable. So back up a little bit and have a bigger goal that you accomplish every two weeks and just stay focused. Just have one goal. Don't tell yourself, in two weeks I'm going to do an ebook and I'm going to create my first, you know, course that I'm going to sell. And then I'm also going to, you know, start working on a WordPress plugin. No, that is just being over ambitious. And you are busy while you're traveling. Even when you're not traveling, it's not efficient. Have a singular goal. It's going to really move things forward. That's strategy number three. Have a singular goal for a span of every two weeks while you're working. Now let's back up even one more level. Strategy number four, have a singular goal for your business for the year. And all these little tasks and goals should contribute to that singular goal. Now, I learned this from my good friend Noah Kagan over at AppSumo and Sumo.com and he learned this strategy from Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook. If you don't know, Noah Kagan was employee 30 at Facebook. He was one of the first people that worked there and worked directly with Mark Zuckerberg during his time at Facebook. And one of the things that Mark Zuckerberg always told Noah when he came to him with an idea or a suggestion is, does it help us grow? And growth was his singular goal for Facebook. So Noah adopted this and he does this in his business, he encourages other businesses to do this, is to have one singular goal for the year. What's your singular goal? Is it more users? Is it more revenue? Is it more speaking engagements? One goal, Is it getting your email list from a thousand people to 50,000 people? And when you have that one goal, you can ask yourself what's important. Do I need to do this task? Do I need to work on this two week project? Does it contribute to that singular goal? If not, cut it. Part of being focused is cutting what doesn't help you. All right, let's move on to strategy number five. Discuss your focus strategies with whoever is with you. So if you're traveling with somebody else, a significant other like me, Nicole, my business partner and wife, if you're traveling with a friend, if you're traveling with a sibling, a parent, whatever it is while traveling and you're trying to apply these focus strategies, you need to make them aware of this. Why? Because if you don't, you are asking for distractions. And the best way to make sure everybody's on the same page is to communicate. So I communicate this to Nicole on this trip as well as even when we're working in our office back home. I let her know, hey, I'm in the zone now for the next couple hours or whatever it is, and I need no interruptions. Now. It's not like Nicole interrupts me all the time. But hey, we work together. We have questions or decisions we need to make together. Things come up. But when I communicate that she knows that, hey, I either need to discuss those things before he gets in the zone or after. So if you're traveling and you're working, let your partner in travel know that, hey, I'm going to be using these strategies. I'm going to be shutting off all distractions while I'm working. I'm going to be doing, you know, one task at a time. I'm going to really try to focus and I'm going to need your help because during this time, I can't chit chat. I can't be, you know, stopped in the middle of my task so we can discuss, you know, where we're going to have dinner. I want to do that, but let's do it after or before. I know that sounds maybe a little bit, you know, impersonal, but, but that's a lot better than trying to do these focus strategies, being interrupted, trying to kind of like not let it bother you, but it is bothering you because it's really distracting you from what you're trying to do. And that kind of builds up inside and you get frustrated and sometimes that turns into anger and it may result in an argument that you have no idea where it came from. So like they say, honesty is the best policy. Just communicate what you're trying to do. So the person who's with you is on the same page. They get it and they know when's the best time to kind of like resume, you know, holiday travel mode.

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All right, to wrap up today's lesson, I have one more One more focus strategy. Now this one might sound simple, but I find it to be very, very helpful when it comes to focus work. Standing up. Now, if you're in a cafe, you can work at the bar and remove the stool and just stand there. About two years ago, I moved to a standing desk and I found myself being a lot more focused. There's something about being on your feet that keeps you alert, that keeps you from being comfortable or too comfortable. There's something about being too comfortable. Where you get into a lazy mode or being out of focus, it's easier to get distracted. You're focused on the task at hand, whatever you're doing, whether you're answering emails or making that landing page. The discomfort of standing, along with allotting time for every task, keeps you focused. I also think it helps you have more energy. I always stand when I record my podcast or do a webinar because it just allows me to just be more expressive. When you're sitting down, you're just not getting that much air from your lungs as if you're standing. This is just biology. That's why I do all my call standing. I do my video calls or meetings or, you know, Skype meetings or meetings with my team standing. I do pretty much all my work standing, but sometimes I do some design work. I'm hashing something out and I'll take a break because it's a long period of time where I'm spending more than 30 minutes or an hour. I'm sitting maybe two or three hours on something and I need to take a break. So I sit down. But for the most part, standing really helps you focus. I highly encourage you to try this today if you haven't already. Spend the next hour on your next task or tasks standing up. See how you feel, see how it makes a difference and let me know. Tweet at me on Twitter hemarzenholm on Twitter and let me know if standing has helped your focus. All right, guys, that wraps up today's lesson. Let's just recap real quick. Six ways to stay focused. 1. Focus on one task at a time. 2. Remove all distractions while you're working. Social messages, notifications, any other screen that has nothing to do with your task. Three, get the people around you involved so they know that you're trying to stay more focused. Let them know what you're working on, your strategies. 4. Work on two week sprints so you can complete your tasks with a goal in mind. 5. Back up a little bit. Have a goal for the year. Make sure all the tasks that you're working on are focused on that one goal. And six, try working standing up. It's made a major difference for me. All right, thank you so much for listening. Make sure you hit that subscribe button to get all our episodes automatically. I want to thank you all for listening to the Hunter MBA show, for subscribing, for reviewing, for rating us, for all your great comments and emails. We've been doing pretty well on itunes. We've been kind of moving up the charts recently with this series and all your support. So thank you so much. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. When you're traveling, put it out on social media where you're at. Find out which friends of yours are in that city. It might be a great way for you to meet up with somebody you know online for some time but haven't got a chance to get to know as a person here in Berlin. Nicole and I met up with Brian Dean from Backlinko.com if you don't know Brian Dean, he is the best expert when it comes to SEO, search engine optimization as well as YouTube SEO. He's a great teacher, he has great content and he has a great content strategy and we got to meet up with him here in Berlin. He lives here and it was just great to, you know, finally, you know, have a meal with him and get to know him after being, you know, friends online for a bit. So make sure you put the word out to let people know where you're at when you're traveling. You might meet some really interesting people or, you know, nurture or grow a relationship you already have online. All right, that's it for me today, guys. I'll see you next week. Part 8, the final installment of our Working While Traveling experiment. In that episode, I reveal my takeaways. What are the big things that stand out that I've learned in this experiment? In this eight week experiment? And I also share. Would I do it again? Would I work while traveling again? You might be surprised with those answers when we get to that episode. Make sure you hit subscribe and don't miss it. I'll check you in that episode next week. I'll see you then. Take care.

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