#073 - Improving your focus for writing and marketing tasks

Hey, friends. Welcome back to the Hit Splits Podcast. My name is Shelly Hitz, the owner and founder of ChristianBookAcademy.com and today I just want to talk about how to improve your focus for writing and marketing tasks. Now, in a past episode, I talked about how to eliminate distractions, and I'm not going to go into all of that today. That is a huge, huge step. And I've also talked about how to decrease the clutter in your inbox. I'm not going to go into that today. What I am going to talk about is context switching. So what does that mean? Well, in our culture and what we are, you know, dealing with, with technology today, with our smartphones, with our computers, is that there is so much information available for us every day. I would guess that on your computer you probably have multiple tabs open. You may even have multiple tabs open on the browser on your phone. I know I do because I save things sometimes or I have things, you know, that I'm still wanting to look at. And it's easy to go just switch back and forth. It's easy to switch back and forth from different apps on your phone and on the computer, to switch back and forth from email, social media, and then whatever you're working on. I personally have had this journey where I'm spending a lot less time on social media. Now, you've heard me talk about this, I'm sure, before, so I'm not gonna go into that as well. But I still find myself feeling unfocused. Like, I feel like my. My brain is just like. There's just like a buzzing or there's like, okay, I. I need to be doing something, or, you know, there's this energy behind all of this that it's like, okay, why is it hard for me right now to focus? And I started reading some articles and, you know, a lot of them say similar things, but.

You know, several of them mentioned this whole thing of context switching. And I've known this for years. You know, it's like. Like eating and exercise, eating right and exercising. We know that that's going to help us, but so many times we don't always apply it. Right. And so anyways, with context switching, even though I'm not spending a ton of time on social media, there are still certain groups that I'll check into that are on platforms off of Facebook or Instagram. And to be honest, I've probably been checking them a few too many times a day. So it's like, okay, I need to, you know, have some Times that I check in, get in, get out, and then not feel like I need to check all day. Our brains get used to having those dopamine hits that dopamine is that feel good chemical. When we go into social media, we see someone's replied to us or messaged us or there's notifications that's, you know, there's stuff going on, there's new information, there's something new in our feed, we get that dopamine and we get used to that same thing with our email. We get into the email, we see there's new things. Sometimes, you know, with email it can be like, oh gosh, I have to deal with all of this now. But there's still that, that, that sense your brain gets a hit of dopamine when you're, you're doing that. So that was one thing I, I thought about, you know, as I need to.

To monitor even checking into these other sites, you know, that I'm doing. And I'm, I'm pretty good with Christian Book Academy in our private group. I go in there a couple times a day, I answer everything, but I get in and I get out and so that's one thing. But then I always have my email open and I'm constantly flitting between different tabs and different things. And one of the articles, I think it was James Clear, he's the author of Atomic Habits. He was talking about focusing on one thing at a time. Like instead of, you know, switching back and forth, you know, if you're writing for a while and then you check your email and then you check into social media or then you check your text messages, you check your phone, you know, whatever it is that completely derails you. And it, it couldn't, it can take up to 20 or 25 minutes just for your brain to get back on tasks. I mean, that's what the research shows. So anyways, where are you context switching? Where are you going back and forth and back and forth between different things. Is it your email like me, or is this something else? Is it your text messages? Maybe you have a really big family or you're, you know, you're part of this group messaging that I mean there' just going all the time. Or maybe it's something else. Maybe it is social media or maybe it's watching something on YouTube and you know, that can really be another rabbit hole of just like flitting from video to video or comments and looking at all the things. And so what I'm wanting to do is I want to train my brain that I can focus. I can focus on a task, I can get it done. And this will also help me. Right now I'm really wanting to do more Bible memory, want to get God's Word in me. And this will not only help me personally and spiritually, but I believe that as you know, I do this, it's going to help me even in my business and my mindset and, you know, we talked about the lies and the truth and, you know, all the things. And so, you know, just being able to focus for a time. But also I just believe it'll bring peace, you know. You know, I'll be able to. To meditate and truly meditate on God's Word and meditate on Christ in a way that brings that peace. So my tip for today is to really evaluate how are you context switching in your day? And is there a way that you can really try to focus on one thing at a time? There's no such thing as multitasking. That's the other thing I read in all the articles, and I've known that for years, too. But listening to a PODC and checking email or whatever else you're doing, just do one thing at a time. All right? I hope that this has helped you and if you put this to action, let me know. Let me know in our private group and Christian Book Academy if you're a member or you can email us as well. And I will talk to you next time. Bye. Bye.