Focus Blocks

How productive are you? Do you make progress on your goals? Do you move forward on your assigned tasks and projects? What about distractions? Do you find that email, social media and other distractions keep you from working effectively on your most important goals, projects and tasks?

There is a solution for making progress on your goals, projects and tasks. It is called being focused. When you are focused, you work exclusively on a task without any interruptions or distractions. This allows you to get more work done as you are focused on what you are doing and you don’t allow distractions to interrupt what you are working on.

When you are focused you are thinking only about the task at hand. Other considerations like email, social media and other tasks are not considered or thought of while you ae focusing on the task you are working on. This allows you to be more productive because all of your thoughts and efforts are focused on one task.

Now that you know that being focused makes you more productive, it is time to create some Focus Blocks. What is a Focus Block? A Focus Block is a scheduled block of time where you focus on one task. During this block of time you are focused on your work so you are more productive. So this is what I call a Focus Block.

What do you do during a Focus Block? You work on your scheduled task without any interruptions. Don’t check your email or do other things that may distract you. Stay focused on the task at hand. You will get more done and when your scheduled time is up you will feel good about the work you have done.

A Focus Block can be as long or as short as you need it to be. For example, if you have a blog you could schedule a Focus Block of 30 minutes to write your next blog article. During this 30 minute block of time you work exclusively on writing your blog article without switching tasks. After the 30 minutes are up you can switch tasks or take a break.

Once you start using Focus Blocks you can schedule them on a regular basis. Find the time that works best for you. For example, if you like working in the evenings you can schedule your Focus Blocks for the evening. Based on the length of time you set for each Focus Block you can schedule more than one Focus Block for each evening. For example, if you find that working for 30 minutes is a good block of time to stay focused on a specific task you could schedule several blocks of 30 minutes during the same evening. During each of these Focus Blocks you can work on different tasks, one task for each Focus Block. Alternatively you could work on the same task for each Focus Block with breaks in between each of your Focus Blocks.

What about longer Focus Blocks? If you find that 30 minutes is too short a time to get your work done you could schedule a longer Focus Block, such as an hour or even two hours. The length of your Focus Blocks is up to you and over time you will find the ideal length of time that works best for your own Focus Blocks.

In addition to using Focus Blocks, you also need to schedule some down time. This is time when you are not focused and you allow yourself to be free to do what you want. For example, down time could be when you browse social media and check your email. Down time is also when you can engage in an entertaining pursuit, such as reading or watching TV. Having down time is just as important as using Focus Blocks. It gives you time to do what you enjoy without the pressure of getting things done.

In conclusion, it is important to be focused when working on your goals, projects and tasks. Not only can you be focused, you can plan when to be focused by scheduling Focus Blocks. Each Focus Block you schedule is a block of time when you focus on one task and you get more work done during that block of time because you stay focused and work only on the task you scheduled for that Focus Block.

I recommend that you start using Focus Blocks right away. You will be making a conscious effort to be more productive and you will make progress on your most important goals, projects and tasks.