Outperform 99% of People: The Simple, Underrated Formula for Success

A while back, I found myself at a crossroads. I was trapped in a cycle of distraction and attention drift. I was unaware of the obvious solution right in front of me. Looking back, the root cause couldn't be clearer:

Focus.

About 5 years ago, I was a "market researcher" (a fancy term for a guy asking questions to strangers over the phone). I prided myself on being competitive. I worked hard to excel in everything, even in tasks I hated. Despite my efforts, I was failing miserably, not because of the job's demands, but due to my own lack of focus.

My "strike rate" — the measure of my success — was crashing. And then came the incident that changed everything.

I was interviewing an elderly lady about alcohol. I asked a sensitive question but then got lost in my phone, scrolling social media. When I returned to the present, she was crying, sharing the recent loss of her husband to alcohol. In my distraction, I had missed her story but I needed to write the answer. I responded with an insensitive request to repeat herself due to a "computer freeze." Yes. I'm still ashamed of my response. She hung up.

This was more than just a work failure. It was a deep personal realization about the impact of distractions. And my severe lack of focus.

Have you ever found yourself so lost in distractions that you missed the world around you?

This failure sparked my journey towards focus. I sought to improve my work, but also to change how I engaged with the world. In this newsletter, I’ll share the insights and strategies I discovered along the way. These techniques not only saved my career but reshaped my entire life.

Let's dive into the art of turning your focus into your greatest ally. Transform everyday distractions into steps toward your ultimate success.

A Simple Understanding: Focus & Distractions

While exploring techniques to boost focus can be exciting, true mastery begins with the basics. Think of it as understanding the software before attempting to reprogram your mind. Despite evolving strategies, the core understanding of focus remains timeless.

The Essence of Focus

Focus is the ability to use your brain to zoom in on something important while tuning out everything else around you. It's a complex process, that involves different parts of the brain working together.

Your brain is acting like a spotlight, shining on what matters most in the moment and keeping the rest in the dark. The tricky part is that "the spotlight" can shine for a limited time. The good news is that we can train the spotlight on what, where, and how much to shine.

Your focus shapes your reality.

Just as a streaming service suggests songs based on your listening habits, your mind crafts your life's playlist based on what you pay attention to. The power to change the tune lies in your focus.

The Science of Distractions

Distractions are external or internal stimuli that kill your focus. They pull our attention from what truly matters. But why do we get distracted?

• Seeking Cheap Dopamine - Our brains crave the instant hits of dopamine that come from activities like scrolling through social media.

• Avoiding Challenging Tasks - It's natural to seek escape from tasks that are difficult, boring, or stressful. Distractions offer an easy out, but at the cost of our progress and growth.

• Emotional Regulation - We often use distractions as a way to alter our emotional state. A way to cope with stress, boredom, or loneliness.

The real cost of distractions?

A study by the University of California Irvine found that people take over 23 minutes to refocus after a distraction.

A short 1-minute Twitter break turns into over 24 minutes wasted.

Getting distracted 8 times in a day is similar to losing 4 hours of focused work.

Let's imagine our brain works on 2 wavelengths: Chaos and Focus. It takes over 23 minutes to switch from your chaos frequency to focus.

A Quick Exercise to Track Your Distractions:

Grab a notebook or open a note-taking app on your device.

Whenever you find yourself drifting away from your task, make a note of it.

What pulled you away? A wandering thought? An incoming email? A ping from your social media? Write down every single distraction.

Keep this up for a month. Then, take some time to look over your notes and group your distractions into categories. You'll start to understand your patterns.

This simple activity will shine a light on main your distractions. It will offer a clear direction for what to tackle first in improving your focus.

Make The Mental Shift

Yet, not all distractions are bad. We can leverage them as tools for self-improvement, by understanding their root causes. For example:

• Social Media: While often a source of cheap dopamine, it can also serve to seek social connection.

• Daydreaming: It can be a source of creativity and problem-solving, offering a break for our minds to explore new ideas.

We can transform distractions from problems to assets. This involves engaging in them with intention. Making a conscious effort to shift from passive consumption to mindful engagement.

The journey to improved focus is not just about overcoming distractions—it's about designing the life you want, one moment of attention at a time.

Master Focus: Proven Techniques for Instant Results

1. Focus on Your 20%

Remember our spotlight analogy, imagining your focus as a spotlight powered by limited battery life. When we shine this beam across too many tasks at the same time, the light dims quickly, leaving tasks unfinished.

The reality is, our brain's capacity to concentrate is limited. While "multi-tasking" may sound efficient, it's a myth. It often leads to wasted energy on less impactful activities.

How to Choose Wisely and Stick to It:

• Start With The Pareto Principle

Recognize that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. Find and dedicate yourself to the 20% of tasks that bring the most significant outcomes.

• Use My VIP Framework

To streamline this process, I created the Value Impact Prioritization (VIP) Framework. It's my own method to identify and categorize tasks by their impact on your goals.

What's the VIP Framework?

• VIP Tasks (Very Important Priorities): These are the critical 20% that drive the most value. They're your must-do. Prioritize these tasks above all others to ensure significant progress. Example of VIP Tasks: Creating high-quality content

• VIT Tasks (Very Important Tasks): Important but not as crucial as VIP tasks, these are your secondary focus. They maintain momentum and are essential for gradual success.

  Example of VIT Tasks: Networking

• Enhancement Tasks: Beneficial for long-term growth. These tasks don't contribute directly to immediate goals but foster improvement and innovation.

  Example: Improving your website

• Maintenance Tasks: The backbone tasks that support your system's stability. It allows you to build on a solid foundation for future VIP tasks.

  Example: Analytics review

Implementing the VIP Framework:

This framework simplifies task management by clarifying which activities deserve your full focus. 

• Invest most of your energy into VIP Tasks for maximum efficiency and outcome.

• Continue momentum with VIT Tasks, recognizing their role in supporting your main goals.

• Leverage Enhancement Tasks for innovation, preparing the ground for future priorities.

• Sustain your achievements with Maintenance Tasks, ensuring a stable platform for growth.

By adopting the VIP Framework, you embrace a strategic method for focusing your efforts where they count the most.

2. Mindfulness & Meditation

Mindfulness and meditation are big deals for a good reason. They're not just trendy words; they help you focus better and clear your mind. Meditation has been a game-changer for me.

A Personal Story: From Noise to Peace

A few years back, my mind was like a noisy room I couldn't escape. Always thinking, never quiet, it made even simple things feel hard. I couldn't chat with a friend without drifting off in my thoughts. It was mentally exhausting, like my brain was running a marathon every day.

Then I found meditation and mindfulness. At first, I thought, "No way, that's not for me." I pictured people sitting still, humming, and thought it was odd. But I was desperate for quiet, so I tried it.

Three Years Later

I meditate every day, sometimes even twice. Here’s what changed:

• Live in The Present: I learned to stay in the moment, not lost in yesterday or tomorrow.

• Listening to Myself: I pay attention to my thoughts. When they get loud, it usually means there's a problem I need to fix.

• Focus: Meditation played the biggest part in my progress to reclaim my focus.

How to Start Meditating

It's easier than you think:

• Keep It Short: Begin with just a few minutes focusing on your breathing.

• Grow Slow: Get used to sitting quietly, then try doing it a little longer.

• Free Help: Look up meditation videos on YouTube for zero cost.

Mindfulness and meditation aren't quick fixes. It takes time but it's a certain way to make your mind stronger and more focused.

3. Know Your Path: Goals & Deadlines

Imagine two friends, John and Mike, both heading to the same place. John types the address into Google Maps and follows it. Mike decides to look out for road signs instead. A few hours later, John's already there, but Mike? He's lost and far behind.

Productivity is Clarity

This story shows us how knowing your path clearly (like John did) makes all the difference. It's the same with getting things done. When you know where you're going, it's easier to figure out how to get there.

Why Setting Goals Helps You Focus

When you set clear goals and deadlines, it's like having Google Maps for your work and dreams. Goals give your efforts a purpose and direction, helping your brain ignore what's not important and stay on track.

A Different Way to Set Goals

Lots of people set goals for the month or year, only to forget them. Then, they're surprised when they haven't met their goals. I sometimes miss my targets too, but I've found a way to give myself the best shot at hitting them.

Here’s how I do it:

1. Start Big: I imagine where I want to be in 5 years and set that as my big vision.

2. Break It Down: Then, I break that down into what I need to do each year, creating yearly milestones.

3. Quarterly Checks: Each year's goal gets divided into quarters. Every three months, I check in to make sure I'm on track.

4. Monthly to Daily: I then split those quarterly goals into monthly ones, and even daily tasks, making sure every day counts.

5. Regular Reviews: I’ve made templates for checking how I'm doing weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly.

My method is not for everyone.

It might seem like a lot, but for those who dream big, it's a game-changer.

4. Control Your Environment

One crucial piece of the focus puzzle is your surroundings. To master the art of focus, you need to consider two main areas: Your Physical Space and Your Digital World. Both play a huge role in how well you can concentrate.

Quick Exercise to Declutter Your Space:

1. Desk Check: Look at your desk right now. Is your phone sitting there, buzzing with notifications? If yes, remove it ASAP. How about all those notes and papers? Keep only what you need for your tasks.

2. Room Scan: Glance around your room. Is it cluttered? A cluttered space leads to a cluttered mind. Take a moment to clean. Make your workspace distraction-free.

3. Digital Clean-Up: Now, turn to your computer or laptop. How many tabs and applications do you have open? Close anything not relevant to your current task.

4. Notification Silence: Lastly, mute notifications on your computer and any other devices nearby. If it’s not essential, it shouldn’t be interrupting you.

Remember: Your Environment Always Beats Willpower

5. Smart Breaks: Less Is More

My view on breaks might surprise you. We often think we need lots of breaks, but too many can distract us more than help. That's when a break turns into a distraction.

A Lesson from the Past

Think back to when humans were hunters. During a hunt, there was no time for breaks. Every moment counted. If they stopped too often, they risked going hungry. Like those hunters, if we take too many breaks, we risk not meeting our goals.

How to Take Breaks the Right Way

1. Know Your Limit: Pay attention to how long you can work before your focus slips.

2. Time for a Break?: When you hit your limit, and your work quality starts to drop, that's your cue for a break.

3. Choose Wisely: What you do in your break matters. Avoid things that suck you in, like social media or binge-watching videos.

Break Activities That Work:

• Meditation: Even a few minutes can clear your mind.

• Short Walk: Get some fresh air to refresh your thoughts.

• Daydream: Let your mind wander freely for a bit.

• Breathing Exercises: A few deep breaths can reset your focus.

• Stretching: Loosen up your body to help your mind relax too.

How many breaks you take is as important as how you use them. The right kind of break can recharge your brain and make your work time more effective.

Focus Is Your Superpower

Everything comes down to one key idea: Focus is the secret behind success, happiness, and achieving your dreams.

Think about it. Somewhere out there, someone is chasing the same dreams as you. But if they've mastered the art of focus, they're probably going to get there faster. That's the power of focus.

Sharpening your focus can change everything. It's not just about hitting your targets or building wealth. It's about living a fulfilled life, packed with achievements and satisfaction.

Remember, focus isn't just a skill. It's the foundation of a life well-lived. Start focusing on your focus, and watch your goals, dreams, and success fall into place.