IN THIS ISSUE 

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• ⏳ Hyper Focus Principles

In this week’s newsletter, i’m going to share a couple principles of something I call Hyper Focus, which is a state of intense focus where you do all your most important tasks.

I’ve these principles like a formula over the past couple of years to unlock the Flow State on command.

“HYPER FOCUS AND YOUR FLOW STATE”

These principles allowed me to get more done in less time with zero headache.

PRINCIPLES OF THE FLOW STATE

 I. Guard your intention.

Here's the truth, your brain is great, but it's also incredibly lazy.

Its only job is to keep you alive while using as little energy as possible.

If you left it to its own devices, your brain would just keep you zoned out, eating sweets, and scrolling social media from the safety and comfort of your couch all day.

However, I'm assuming that your grand goal in life is not to simply survive; you want to thrive.

So, you can see how you and your brain are inherently at battle, right?

Whoever wins this battle on any given day determines whether you make progress towards your greatness or whether you fall into a six-hour Netflix binge.

There's no shame; we've all been there. But if you don't want to go back to that place, you need to create an intention maintenance system.

So, the one I use is very simple. I set an alarm into my phone to go off randomly a handful of times throughout the day, and when that alarm goes off, it's accompanied with this question:

It's a very simple question, but it's powerful because it gives you a moment to pause whatever you’re doing at that moment and reflect on what's the ultimate outcome if you keep doing whatever you’re doing in that moment.

And the reason this is so effective is because it's a pattern interrupt. So often in our lives, we just go mindlessly from one task to the next without any real intention.

As a consequence, the quality of our results suffers. This question, "What's my outcome?" gives an opportunity to introduce a moment of intention.

And truly, something I've learned over the years is that it's very hard to fail at anything if you do it with enough intention.

 II. Lift mental weights, daily

Focus is a muscle, and like all your muscles, to strengthen it, you must stress it beyond its current capacity.

This is why you need to develop a daily thinking time practice; make time each day to do some mental weightlifting.

Not only will this increase the clarity of your thoughts, but it will improve the quality and intensity of your focus.

A couple popular ways to get a mental workout include praying, journaling, meditating, going for long walks, or taking long showers and just thinking deeply.

And I think the reason that most of us struggle with regular mental workouts is because it's really hard to see progress. You can't see your focused muscle getting bigger and more well-defined.

So we default to thinking, "Well, I must be wasting my time." I promise you, you're not. Keep with it.

Remember, some of the most important things in life cannot be measured; this is one of them. So just keep showing up and moving the weights. It'll be worth it, I promise.

III. Optimize your environment

There's another way that can increase the quality of your focus. Instead of trying to resist distractions, one way is just avoid them altogether.

And we do this by designing our life, or more specifically, our work environment with intention. Truly, this is one of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal for getting into the zone, so it's worth spending some time on this.

Now, we're all different, so there's no one-size-fits-all solution. Some people work best in a coffee shop; others do best in a closet.

But with that said, there are some universal truths. In particular, there are 2 main things that can positively or negatively impact our ability to focus.

Audio

The first one is audio. Noises can absolutely distract you like nothing else. Your mind can wander and go off track; it’s sensitive to noise. The solution is noise-canceling headphones and a white noise playlist.

Visual

The second is visual distractions. See, windows are a real problem for me, though maybe not for you. My eye, in particular, is drawn to movement and pretty things. So when doing deep work, I tend to work with my back to a window.

Now, there are other visual elements of your workspace that are very important that we need to be mindful of.

One of the biggest is clutter. As they say, a messy desk equals a messy mind. So I encourage you: clean up your desk, clean up your office, all right?

 IIII. Stay committed → Make it fun

Everything that CAN be turned into a game SHOULD be turned into a game.

Setting a timer is the easiest way to gamify any task.

Here’s an example: How many emails can you answer in 10 minutes?

Track your score.

Then, try to beat it tomorrow.

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THOUGHTS ON TODAY’S ISSUE?