Takeaway: Create a customized “distraction-free ritual” to deploy when you want to focus deeply on important tasks. Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes, 45s.
Whenever I want to focus on a task deeply, without distraction, I take the same few steps to enter into my own personalized “focus mode”:
- Make a hot beverage. (These days, that means a decaf sencha tea or a decaf coffee).
- Put on my noise-cancelling headphones.
- Choose a focus playlist. (These days I'm liking Smooth and Easy on Apple Music.)
- Turn on my distractions blocker (Freedom is my current blocker of choice).
- Set a timer, and focus until it runs out.
We all have two different types of tasks in our work: tasks that require deep focus to become more productive, and tasks that require collaboration with others to become more productive. We all have a different ratio of the two. A novelist living in the woods has more focused tasks; a NASA engineer launching a shuttle into space has more collaborative work.
Collaborative work benefits from us staying connected and available for others to interrupt collaborate with. Focus tasks, on the other hand, benefit from all of the attention we can possibly bring to them. The purpose of a distraction-free ritual is to allow you to focus your full attention on one important task or project.
In creating your ritual, I recommend doing a few things:
- Make it enjoyable! I do this by choosing a favorite focus playlist and making a delicious drink.
- Choose a proper duration of time. You will likely have resistance to focusing on just one thing. That's normal. Accommodate this by feeling out your resistance level to doing the task and choosing an amount of time you'll feel comfortable focusing for. (The more of these focus sprints you do, the longer you'll be able to comfortably go.)
- Cultivate the conditions for focus. This is a topic that could fill an entire book (like my book Hyperfocus). Do what you can to cultivate the mental and environmental conditions for focus. As a few ideas: consider disconnecting from the internet completely during your sprint; leave your phone in another room; work in the same physical space as an accountability partner (who also wants to do a focus sprint); or enable a distractions blocker to eliminate pesky distractions and interruptions.
- Keep a Distractions List at the same time. The other week I wrote about the benefits of keeping a Distractions List as you focus. This tactic allows you to focus more deeply, while rewarding yourself after the focus sprint. It's a great strategy to pair with your distraction-free ritual.
- Reward yourself after. For example, I'll typically take a break after my focus sprint to do something energizing (like exercising) or pleasant (like engaging with the fun things that I captured on my distractions list). If you reward yourself by doing something enjoyable after your focus sprint, you'll enjoy the ritual even more the next time around.
Focusing on one thing at a time can be a challenge and a chore. Having a focus ritual helps immensely. As you create your ritual, be sure to make it enjoyable—while cultivating the conditions for greater focus.
As I think you will find, having a distraction-free mode that you enter into when working on aversive tasks is a productivity tactic that will let you make back your time many times over.
