How often do you say to yourself…
“I don’t have enough time.”
“I have too much on my plate.”
“I can’t focus.”
It’s time to stop this madness.
Here’s a five-step process for abolishing distractions so you can focus on the work you’re meant to be doing:
Step One: Pick Two Priorities
> Make a list of all the ways you are spending your time.
> Decide which priority is the most important.
> Decide which priority is the second most important.
> If you’re superhuman, pick a third. (You’re not superhuman.)
Step Two: Commit to Two Priorities for a Month
For the next month, let’s try an experiment. Let’s commit to working on only two priorities to see what happens. (I promise you’ll become more focused, energized, and productive.)
Ready to become your most productive self? Ok, good.
Have you picked your top two priorities? Great.
Now, reduce all your other priorities to:
A) the absolute minimum if they are things you’ve already committed to, or
B) drop entirely if they are commitments that you told yourself you “should” or “would” do.
Step Three: Single-task Daily
> Every day, for your top two priorities, pick only one task that moves it forward. This means you have two things every day you must make sure get done.
> Make the two tasks the very first things you do every morning.
> Once the two tasks are done, do your other day-to-day stuff and enjoy the day. Have a little fun!
Step Four: Set Expectations
In advance, tell people close to you that for the next month, you are going to be lazer-focused on some really important stuff that means a lot to you. Let them know that you may be harder to reach and unavailable for the next month.
Step Five: Be Ruthless
If you have to, do not be afraid to be unavailable, unreachable, and hard-to-get-ahold-of. Because in a month, you’ll be back and with hellfire momentum, and they’ll forget the weeks where you were MIA because you were focused.
It’s Go-time. Rock!
Ready to go big and accelerate the trajectory of your work and life? Check out The Bold Academy. Coming to Boulder this July, it’s a four-week in-person acceleration program designed to help you unlock your ability to lead the life you’ve always wanted to live. There are 10 spots left and applications close on April 5.
Amber Rae is a motivational force of nature, hell-bent on cultivating a world where human potential is not governed by what we’re told we can and cannot do, but rather by our highest intentions and inner gifts. She’s obsessed with helping people claim the lives they’re meant to live, and designs her projects accordingly. She’s the creator of The Bold Academy, an experience designed to help people find their deepest clarity, build confidence, and unlock their ability to lead the life they’ve always wanted to live. In the last two years, Amber launched the Domino Project with Seth Godin, turned insomnia into a global movement via Night Owls, and helped hundreds of people give their dreams direction, many of which were through The Passion Experiment. She’s been seen in The New York Times, Fast Company, Inc., Forbes, The Huffington Post, BBC, and ABC World News. She also contributes to Fast Company. For more about Amber you can visit her website or on Twitter.
