11 Essential Tools to Stay Focused for 10+ Hours a Day

Summary

The video discusses various tools and techniques to improve focus and productivity. It introduces the Pomodoro Technique and apps like Forest for time management, emphasizes the importance of tracking time spent on meaningful tasks, and suggests combating distractions through mindfulness and apps like OneSec and Opal. The video also highlights the effectiveness of making work enjoyable through background music, tracking progress, and building a supportive community.

Takeaways

• 🔥 The Pomodoro Technique, devised by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s, is a productivity method that breaks work into intervals of focus time followed by short breaks.
• 🌲 The Forest app gamifies the focus session by planting a virtual tree during the work interval, which dies if the user gets distracted, promoting a fun and community-driven approach to productivity.
• 📊 The Anatomy of Work Index by Asana reveals that a significant portion of work time is consumed by coordination, leaving less time for strategic planning and skill-based tasks.
• ⏰ Manual and automatic time tracking tools can drastically improve focus by making individuals more aware of how they spend their time and encouraging them to dedicate time to meaningful tasks.
• 📝 The 'Quest Log' approach to manual time tracking involves keeping a simple log of tasks and focus time, which helps in making progress visible and encourages consistency.
• ⚡ Toggle and Rise are tools for time tracking with features for project management and automatic time categorization, helping users to stay focused on what matters most.
• 💡 Mindfulness and apps like One Sec can significantly reduce smartphone addiction and distractions by prompting users to take a moment before engaging with potentially distracting apps.
• ✨ Opal and grayscale mode are powerful tools for combating the addictive design of social media apps, reducing their appeal and the likelihood of distraction.
• 📲 Utilizing focus mode on devices and strategically allowing only essential notifications can create a distraction-free environment conducive to deep work.
• ⚽ Finding ways to make work more fun, like integrating play, recognizing progress, and engaging with a community, can greatly enhance focus and productivity.

Q & A

What is the Pomodoro Technique and how did it originate?

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method that involves breaking work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes long, separated by short breaks. It was developed in the late 1980s by a student named Francesco Cirillo who was struggling to focus on his studies. He used a tomato-shaped kitchen timer to time his study sessions, and the method has since been popularized and implemented in various productivity apps.

What is the Forest app and how does it help with focus?

The Forest app is a productivity tool that gamifies the process of focusing on tasks. Users set a timer for a designated work session, and a virtual tree is planted during that time. If the user refrains from using their phone and stays focused, the tree grows; if they get distracted and leave the app, the tree dies. This creates a sense of responsibility and encourages users to stay focused to prevent the tree from dying, while also visually representing their focus time with a growing forest of trees.

What does the Anatomy of Work Index by Asana reveal about workers' time allocation?

The Anatomy of Work Index, a survey conducted by Asana, reveals that a significant portion of workers' time is spent on non-essential tasks. For instance, the 2019 report indicated that workers spent only 13% of their time on strategic planning and 27% on skill-based work, with the rest of the time allocated to work coordination and other tasks. The report also highlighted that 3.6 hours per week are lost to unnecessary meetings and 62% of the workday is spent on repetitive, mundane tasks.

How does manual time tracking work and what are some methods for doing it?

Manual time tracking involves consciously monitoring and recording the time spent on various tasks. One method described in the script is using a document called a 'quest log' to log activities and the time spent on them. Another method mentioned is using YouTube's timer feature to track focus time. The key is to be intentional about tracking time spent on tasks to ensure focus on important work.

What is the Toggle app and how does it differ from manual time tracking?

The Toggle app is a tool for manual time tracking that allows users to log time spent on different projects or tasks. It differs from the basic manual time tracking method described in the script because it provides a more structured way to record time, categorizes tasks under projects, and generates reports that show how much time is spent on each task or project.

How does the Rise app work in terms of automatic time tracking?

Rise is an automatic time tracking app that uses AI to monitor and categorize how users spend their time on their computers. It tracks which apps and websites are used and for how long, then assigns categories based on past activity. Users can review the data to understand how their time is allocated across different tasks and adjust their habits to improve focus and productivity.

What is the One Sec app and how does it help combat smartphone distractions?

The One Sec app is a mindful productivity tool that requires users to pause and take a deep breath before opening distracting apps. This brief moment of mindfulness allows users to reflect on whether they truly want to use the app at that moment, potentially reducing unnecessary smartphone use and helping them stay focused on their tasks.

How can using grayscale mode on your phone help reduce digital distractions?

Grayscale mode removes color from the display, turning it black and white. This makes visually stimulating apps like Instagram and TikTok less appealing, reducing the likelihood of getting distracted by scrolling through them. It was originally designed for accessibility purposes but has proven effective in helping users minimize screen time and digital distractions.

What is the Focus mode feature on Apple devices and how does it help with focus?

Focus mode on Apple devices is a feature that allows users to temporarily block notifications and distractions while they work. By enabling Focus mode, users can choose to allow only certain people or apps to send notifications, effectively reducing interruptions and helping them maintain concentration on their tasks.

What are the three Ps (Play, Power, People) mentioned in the script and how do they contribute to making work more fun?

The three Ps refer to Play, Power, and People. Play involves finding ways to turn work into a more enjoyable, playful experience. Power is about taking ownership of the work process and making progress visible, similar to tracking experience points in video games. People refers to tapping into the energy and motivation of a community or group, working together to enhance productivity and enjoyment.

Outlines

00:00

🕒 Time Management Tools for Focus

The paragraph discusses various tools that can enhance an individual's ability to maintain focus on work or studies for extended periods. It categorizes these tools into three groups: time management aids for focus sessions, tools to combat distractions, and those that make work more enjoyable. The origin of the Pomodoro Technique is highlighted, along with the effectiveness of apps like Forest that incorporate gamification to encourage focused work sessions. The importance of non-distractive environments is emphasized, and the community aspect of tracking progress is mentioned as a motivational factor.

05:02

📝 Manual Time Tracking Methods

This paragraph delves into methods of manually tracking time spent on meaningful work. It describes the process of using a document, referred to as a 'quest log', to record time spent on important tasks. The technique involves noting down the start time, the task performed, and the duration spent on it. The benefits of this approach are twofold: it helps track time spent on significant projects and provides a sense of progress and accomplishment. The paragraph also mentions the use of Google Docs for this purpose and the positive impact of this tracking method on productivity.

10:02

⏱️ Automatic Time Tracking Apps

The focus of this paragraph is on automatic time tracking tools, particularly the app 'Rise', which is noted for its ability to track time across different platforms. It categorizes activities based on past behavior and provides a detailed breakdown of how time is spent during work hours. The paragraph also discusses the manual time tracking features of 'Rise' and the importance of categorizing tasks for better focus and productivity. The effectiveness of such tools is emphasized in ensuring that time is spent intentionally on projects that move the needle forward.

15:03

🚫 Combating Distractions with Mindfulness and App Blocking

This paragraph examines tools and strategies to combat distractions, such as the 'one sec' app, which promotes mindfulness before opening distracting apps. It also discusses the 'Opal' app, which is known for its robust app-blocking capabilities. The paragraph highlights the addictive nature of social media apps and suggests using grayscale mode on phones as a deterrent to mindless scrolling. The effectiveness of brief mindfulness training in reducing smartphone addiction is also mentioned, drawing on a study conducted in China.

20:03

🎮 Making Work Fun: The Power of Play

The paragraph emphasizes the importance of making work enjoyable to improve focus and productivity. It introduces the concept of 'play power' and suggests asking oneself 'what would this look like if it were fun?' as a means to transform work into a more playful and engaging activity. The paragraph also touches on the use of background music as a tool to make work feel more fun and the impact of gamification on increasing focus. The idea is that if work can be made to feel good, focus will naturally improve.

25:04

🤝 Leveraging People for Enhanced Focus

The final paragraph discusses the power of community and collaboration in enhancing focus. It talks about the author's experience of working with friends during medical school and the positive impact of co-working sessions. The paragraph introduces 'productivity lab', an online community for productivity enthusiasts, and the benefits of daily Zoom co-working sessions. The idea is that surrounding oneself with like-minded individuals who are focused on personal development and productivity can make work more enjoyable and energizing, thereby improving focus.

📚 Conclusion and Resources

The paragraph wraps up the discussion on tools for improving focus by summarizing the key points from the video series. It mentions the five mistakes that ruin focus, five simple habits to increase focus, and the introduction of the author's book on Feelgood productivity. The paragraph provides links to other videos in the series and encourages the viewer to explore these resources for further understanding and improvement of focus and productivity.

Keywords

💡Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. It involves breaking work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. In the video, it is mentioned as a foundational concept for many productivity apps, emphasizing the importance of focused work sessions followed by rest periods to maintain concentration and productivity.

💡Forest App

Forest is a productivity app that uses gamification to help users stay focused. Users set a timer, and a virtual tree is planted that grows as long as the user does not use their phone. If the user exits the app to use their phone, the tree dies. This app is highlighted in the video as an effective tool for discouraging phone usage and promoting focus during work sessions.

💡Distraction

In the context of the video, distraction refers to anything that diverts attention away from the task at hand, reducing productivity and focus. The video discusses various tools and strategies to combat distractions, such as app blockers and mindfulness techniques, to help individuals maintain their concentration on important tasks.

💡Time Tracking

Time tracking is the process of monitoring and recording the time spent on various activities, particularly work tasks. The video emphasizes the importance of time tracking for improving focus and productivity by manually logging work sessions or using apps that automatically categorize time spent on different tasks.

💡Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations. In the video, mindfulness is discussed as a strategy to reduce smartphone addiction and distractions by training individuals to be more aware of their impulses to use distracting apps.

💡Rise

Rise is an automatic time tracking tool mentioned in the video that runs in the background of a computer, monitoring the apps and websites the user interacts with, and categorizes the activities based on past behavior. It provides detailed reports on how time is spent, helping users understand their productivity patterns.

💡Focus Mode

Focus mode is a feature available on many devices that silences notifications and limits distractions, allowing users to concentrate on their work. In the video, the speaker emphasizes the importance of using focus mode to block out interruptions and maintain a distraction-free environment for productivity.

💡Play

In the context of the video, 'play' refers to the concept of transforming work into a more enjoyable and less serious activity by approaching it with a lighthearted and playful attitude. The video suggests that finding ways to make work feel fun can significantly improve focus and productivity.

💡Power

Power in the video relates to the idea of taking ownership and making progress visible in one's work. It draws parallels with video game mechanics, where users gain experience and level up, creating a sense of accomplishment and motivation. The concept is about finding ways to quantify and celebrate progress in work tasks to enhance engagement and focus.

💡Community

Community in the video refers to the support and energy that comes from being part of a group with shared interests. The speaker discusses the benefits of working with friends or joining a community like their proposed 'Productivity Lab' to increase productivity through co-working sessions and mutual encouragement.

Highlights

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed in the late 1980s by Francesco Cirillo to improve focus and productivity.

The Forest app is a gamified tool that encourages focus by allowing users to plant a virtual tree that grows as they work, but dies if they get distracted by their phone.

The Anatomy of Work Index by Asana reveals that workers spend only 13% of their time on strategic planning and 27% on skill-based work, with a significant amount of time wasted on coordination and unnecessary meetings.

Time tracking tools like manual time logs and apps like Toggle and Rise can help individuals focus on important tasks and reduce time spent on unproductive activities.

Mindfulness techniques, such as the one-sec app, can help reduce smartphone addiction and distractions by prompting users to take a deep breath before opening distracting apps.

Opal is an app-blocking software that disables distracting apps on a user's phone, helping to combat digital distractions and improve focus.

Grayscale mode on smartphones can make social media apps less visually appealing and help reduce screen time and digital distractions.

Focus mode on devices can block notifications and distractions, allowing users to concentrate better on their work.

The concept of 'play' involves finding ways to make work feel more enjoyable and less like a chore, which can improve focus and productivity.

Background music can be an effective tool in making work feel more playful and enjoyable, thus improving focus.

Tracking progress, such as word count for writers, can provide a sense of achievement and make work feel more engaging.

Building a community of like-minded individuals, such as through co-working sessions or online platforms, can make work more enjoyable and help maintain focus.

The book 'Feelgood Productivity' explores various strategies to make work feel good and improve focus, including the use of play, power, and people.

The video series discusses common mistakes that ruin focus, simple habits to improve focus, and tools to reduce distractions, providing a comprehensive guide to enhancing productivity.

The speaker emphasizes the importance of not allowing digital distractions to interfere with productivity, and the effectiveness of using tools and strategies to combat them.

Transcripts

so there's a bunch of different tools

that we can use to help improve our

ability to stay focused on our work or

our studies for an extended period of

time and we're going to split them up

into three the first group is tools that

help with time management of our Focus

session the second is tools that help us

combat distractions and the third type

is tools that we can use to help make

our work a little bit more fun so let's

start with the first category in the

late 1980s a student called Franchesco

cerillo was struggling to focus on his

studies and complete his assignments

feeling overwhelmed he asked himself to

commit to short bursts of focus study

time he found a tomato shaped kitchen

timer he set it to 25 minutes and

started to work these are in fact the

humble origins of the infamous

productivity technique the pomodora

method now ever since our friend

Franchesco put a name to the technique

there have been a bunch of apps and

tools that have been created around this

idea that you set aside a certain amount

of time for work and then you take a

small rest afterwards and in my opinion

the most effective of these apps don't

just help you figure out how to time 25

minutes and 5 minutes because you can

just do that with a clock the most

effective apps incorporate some aspect

of gamification and that leads us on to

Tool number one which is a tool that I

used to use extensively in medical

school and that is an app called Forest

which you can download on your phone and

the idea here is that you set a timer

for let's say 25 minutes and in that

time a tree is planted a virtual tree

now you're supposed to focus on your

work and not check your phone and so the

tree keeps on going but if you get

distracted and go on your phone and

leave the app then the tree will die now

I first heard about this when I was in

my fourth year of med school where

everyone was talking about it and I had

some friends who swore by it and I

thought initially it was a bit gimmicky

because like who cares if a tree dies or

a tree doesn't die but then I actually

started using using it and I realized oh

this is actually kind of fun it was nice

because it let me time my work sessions

which is really good it was nice because

it actively discouraged me to go on my

phone which was how I used to get

distracted back in the day and thirdly

there was an element of like Community

around this where me Katherine and

Marcus my friends from med school we'd

sort of like WhatsApp each other to be

like how many trees did you plant today

I planted 10 trees today oh I only did

eight oh I'm going to go for nine

tomorrow it just created this sense of

gamification in community around this

idea of studying for a med school exam

and then over time as you plant more

trees it ends up growing into a fledged

forest and it's just a really nice

gamified and cute and wholesome way of

tracking your focus sessions so there is

a company called assana that makes

project management tools and every year

they produce something called the

anatomy of work index and for this they

survey around 10,000 knowledge workers

to find out what's working for them and

what isn't now every year the results

change a little bit and before and after

the pandemic things were quite different

but one thing does seem to be true every

year which is that we waste a lot of

time at work for example the 2019 report

shows that workers spend 2third of their

time on work coordination which leaves

only 13% for strategic planning and 27%

for the skill-based job that they were

actually hired to do the most recent

version of the report also is pretty

grim and it shows that on average 3.6

hours are lost per week to unnecessary

meetings and 62% of the workday is lost

apparently to repetitive mundane tasks

so the Big Challenge when it comes to

focus because this is a video series

about focus is how do we make sure that

we are focusing on things that are

actually important and move the needle

rather than these tedious admin based

tasks that generally tend not to move us

forward or they do at best is tend to

maintain where we're currently at and

there is a general category of tools

that I think is super helpful for this

and that is tools that help you track

your time now we talked about Forest how

you can track like the amount of time

you spend in work sessions but the point

of these other tools is that you can

track how much time you're actually

spending working on the things that are

most meaningful to you so within this

category we've got manual time tracking

and we have automatic time tracking so

let's start with manual now there are a

bunch of different ways to do this but

all of them are basically based around

the principle that you want to be able

to track how much time you're actually

putting on the things that matter to you

the way that I've been doing this for

quite a while is and I've done this over

the years in various different formats

but this is the most recent iteration is

this document that I call my quest log

just because it's a little bit more fun

that way and what you can see is like

from I started doing this in this

version on the second of Feb because I

realized in January that I was spending

a lot of time doing random crap that was

not actually time spent focusing on what

truly mattered to me and so for example

you can see here on the 3D of February

made reasonable progress on the

productivity course wrote some stuff

about dealing with inbound updated

projects list blah blah blah Total Focus

Time 1 hour 0 minutes 48 seconds and the

way I got to that and I've mentioned

this a few times you might be familiar

with the tactic is I go on YouTube and I

open up one of these random peaceful day

at Hogwarts type playlists these are

usually like 3 hours long these days the

algorithm knows me so well that as soon

as I open up YouTube during like working

hours it will know that like I'm looking

for this sort of Ambience type music and

the top left thing the first thing I see

on my YouTube homepage will always be

either Harry Potter Ambience or Hogwarts

Ambience or Lord of the Rings Ambience

or Skyrim Ambience you know one of these

random playlists and what I'll do is

I'll put on one of these playlists I'll

set myself an intention I'm going to

work on productivity lab I put on one of

these videos put my headphones in or

play it out loud or whatever and then

when I find myself losing focus I will

go on YouTube and I'll see oh for

example 46 minutes and 51 seconds have

elapsed that's cool then I will go on my

quest log and I will type in what I did

in that time and how much time has

elapsed so you can see here I did it 50

minutes on the 3rd of February 55

minutes on copy for productivity lab on

the first floor of the British library

in London a little distraction from

random slack stuff but landed on a

reasonably solid 5p framework for

productivity lab awaiting feedback from

Gareth and the team and this was on the

6th of February and if you're interested

in how I do this uh if you if you go on

Google Docs and you do at now it gives

you the time the date and the time at

the current Tim stamp anyway on 10th of

February I did 1 hour 26 minutes on the

productivity quiz on score app you can

see here on the 1st of March I did 1

hour 17 working on The Branding and

nomenclature for productivity lab using

the new Alchemy idea 37 minutes working

on the new accelerator offer for our

parttime YouTuber accelerator and 28

minutes working on more naming and

branding for productivity lab these are

the important projects that I'm trying

to move forward in my my business in

particular and if I didn't have this

Quest log where I was tracking the

amount of focus time I'm spending on

doing these things I would probably end

up doing random stuff like

professionally replying to slack

messages and emails for the whole day

because I could in fact spend all day on

slack and on emails but then I wouldn't

actually get anything done so being able

to track your time in this way this is

like a really lowkey low friction free

you don't need any any apps you don't

need to pay for anything literally you

just need to create a new Google doc

which by the way is a little hack you

can do docs. new and that will just

create a new Google doc you can call

call this your quest log or whatever you

want to call it I like Quest log and

then you can just say spent 15 minutes

filming the video for Focus series or

something and then tomorrow you could be

like whatever you can be like 55 minutes

on studying for chemistry exam or

whatever the thing is that you're trying

to do it's it's almost like you're

building software and you're sort of

doing this little change log of like

these are all the things that I did and

the really nice thing about this is it's

a great tool to a track your time but B

feel the sense of progress this feeling

that you're making progress this is one

of the concepts of power that I talk

about in Chapter 2 of the book if you

want to check out the book by the way if

you have checked out the book I would

really appreciate an Amazon review that

would be nice but when it comes to

trying to make our productivity feel

good a big part of it is feeling the

sense of power feeling a sense that

we're making progress and I personally

find for me tracking my time and making

sure that I'm spending time on these

Focus things every single day or at

least most work days I find is massively

helpful for feeling the sense of power

and progress in whatever I'm doing so

this was a very low-key manual way of

tracking your time there is other app

that you can use that I find quite

helpful for manually tracking time and

that is something called toggle now my

team have been using this for like years

uh but I only recently started using it

cuz I wanted to try it out for this

video to see would would this be any

more or less helpful than just doing

like Google doc which is what I've

always done in the past and toggle is

basically an app I don't think it's free

I do think you have to pay for it but

you can find the details on the website

they're not sponsoring this video in any

capacity togle is nice because it's

basically time tracking plus projects so

you can see for example on the 8th of

March I was flying to New York you can

see here I SP spent 2 minutes doing my

am5 morning routine framework I spent 35

minutes working on the offer and

fulfillment DOC for the YouTuber

accelerator I spent 40 minutes doing

sales page copywriting for productivity

lab I spent 10 minutes on journaling and

I spent 36 minutes working on the vision

DOC for my website al.com that's useful

to know on the 11th of March I was

flying back from New York and so you can

see I spent 1 hour and 11 minutes

working on Sunday Snippets my newsletter

and then they've got reports and stuff

so you can see okay how much time are

you actually spending on your major

project the way that it would work in

this context I would say filming YouTube

video for channel uh on Focus

tools I could I could tag that with a

project the YouTube channel and I can

give it a tag of filming for whatever

that's worth and I can hit play and now

my time has started to be tracked and

then I can just do the task for however

long I want and then the crucial thing

is I have to remember to click stop I've

I've done this a few times where it's

like I've remembered the following day

and it's like 18 hours I'm like oh when

did I stop and I have to sort of back

date but you have to remember to stop

the timer so you stop the timer and then

it becomes like an entry in your little

projects time log type thing you can use

it if you want I tried it out a few days

ago because I knew I was making this

video and I wanted to see is it actually

helpful I've been using it for like

three days personally but there are

various members of my of my team that

have literally been using toggle for

years because we have a team

subscription to it so you can try it out

if you like but honestly if you if

you're new to time tracking trying to

remember to start and stop a timer uh

might be a bit much and so I personally

would recommend starting with like the

YouTube video and Google doc strategy

and if you want to get fancier you can

then decide to use a fancier app if your

heart calls to it for whatever reason so

those were tools for manually tracking

your time now this is really helpful for

making sure that you're spending time

intentionally on the things that most

move the needle for me the projects that

I need to work on that most move the

deal right now are productivity lab this

new product or part time YouTuber

accelerator and my website these are

like the three things that I'm really

focusing on right now and if I didn't

track how much time I was actually

spending working on these it's very

possible I can just get by months by

just doing other random stuff because

there's always more stuff to do but I

really need to make focused progress on

these most important things so then

that's a nice thing about manual time

tracking it allows you to set intention

and it allows you to be honest with

yourself cuz really you know what they

say what gets measured gets managed and

you can't improve something if you don't

measure it if you are measuring the

amount of time you're spending working

on this stuff it's basically guaranteed

that just even having visibility of what

that time is it's basically guaranteed

that you're going to improve your

ability to focus on that thing whereas

if you don't track your time it's very

easy to just convince yourself oh I was

working 6 hours today 8 hours today

whatever that might be and you might

have just been doing random crap and not

actually focused on the thing that

matters cuz this whole series is about

how we focus so those were apps for

manual time tracking there are also apps

for automatic time tracking and the one

that I've been using for this since like

2021 is called rise rise are

incidentally sponsoring this video and

I'm also an investor in Rise I've been

using the product for a few months in

like 2022 and then I reached out to them

saying hey can I invest in your product

cuz I think it's really cool basically

rise is automatic time tracking it's for

Windows and it's for mac and it's

actually crossplatform for example if

you're switching between Windows and Mac

like I was doing back when I was writing

my book it will literally track your

time across both and the nice thing

about this is what it does is that it

figures out what app you're using in the

moment or what website you happen to be

on and it will categorize what you're

doing based on what you've done in the

past and what it thinks that thing is

categorized under this is how I spent my

time in February you can see that I

spent 21% of my time focusing my average

work week was 34 hours average work day

was 7 hours and I spent 44% of my time

in video conferencing 12% of my time

writing and for me I've defined writing

as Google Docs ulyses tana and Apple

notes you can see this is the amount of

time I spent in all of these I've

defined documenting as basically notion

so you can see how spent about 10 hours

in February writing stuff on notion you

can see I spent 9 hours and 56 minutes

on design so I spent 8 hours and 58

minutes drawing boxes on pages in figma

because that is design and then there is

an uncategorized thing so essentially it

figures out it figures out like what

were you doing that it doesn't have a

category for so zoom. us is obviously

video conferencing and its AI thingy

does a good job of Skys scanner is

travel use motion is actually scheduling

Jet Blue is travel flat icon is design

yep good and so it does a pretty good

job of tracking your time across these

things automatically but every now and

then you just look through your

uncategorized list and you just update

the rules and then it updates moving

forward pt. Community is our community

for our YouTuber Academy that's

community building and let's say Tim

blog is learning and so now I feel good

because now very few things are

uncategorized so I I like to categorize

things in this way rise also does have

manual time tracking as well which I was

using back in 2023 when I was working on

the book you can see in April on the

Saturday the 1st of April I spent 4

hours and 35 minutes on edits for the

book for example and actually now that I

think of it I really should just use

rise for manual time tracking instead of

toggle but I wanted to try toggle

because my team uses it for very team

related stuff but anyway it's like you

can use apps like this if you really

want to for automatic time tracking but

for me it's really manual time tracking

that's the thing that moves the needle

when it comes to focusing so whichever

app or tool or no tool you decide to use

for this time tracking thing if you are

currently struggling with Focus I can

basically guarantee that if you start

tracking your time and start tracking

how many minutes or hours you're

spending actually focusing on things and

what you're focusing on it's almost

guaranteed to just improve your ability

to focus in one easy move by the way if

you're enjoying this video then you

might like to check out my completely

free 7-Day Focus crash course if you

head over to focus crashcourse tocom you

can enter your email and sign up and

it's a series of emails over 7 days

where each email has some principles

strategies and tools that can help you

improve your ability to focus it's

completely free if you struggle to focus

then you might as well check it out and

you can always unsubscribe at any point

we don't spam any of that kind of stuff

Focus crashcourse tocom completely free

okay now we come to the second category

of tools to improve our focus and that

is tools that will help us combat

distractions now to an extent time

tracking tools help you combat

distractions because what I find is that

why while I'm tracking my time I'm just

less likely to get distracted if I've

gone on Rise and I've said okay I'm

going to spend the next I don't know

hour working on my book or whatever then

I do feel kind of guilty if I cuz I'm

lying to myself if I then do other

things so time tracking itself is a

reasonable tool for avoiding

distractions if you want to go down that

route but there are a few other tools

that can also help with the whole

distraction thing cuz that's a big thing

that helps derail people's Focus okay so

in 2002 some researchers who were based

in China set out to answer the following

question what is the relationship

between mindfulness and smartphone use

they recruited a bunch of college

students from a university in Beijing

now half of them were assigned to a

mindfulness intervention where they did

a 30- minute single session mindfulness

training and the other half listened to

some neutral news for 30 minutes now

after these interventions they were

asked to what extent they agreed with

statements like I feel uncomfortable if

I don't use my phone for a long time in

class I can't concentrate on listening

because of phone calls or text messages

I'd rather choose to chat on my phone

than face Toof face communication and

the researchers used their answers to

these questions to measure their

smartphone addiction now what's amazing

is that after that brief 30-minute

mindfulness training which was just 30

minutes oneoff the treatment group I.E

the group that got the mindfulness

intervention felt more in control of

their smartphone use and scored lower on

the smartphone addiction scale and the

takeaway here is that little doses of

mindfulness can go a long way when it

comes to avoiding distraction and this

gets us on to an app that I've talked

about in the past that's called one sec

now one sec is a mindful productivity

app that asks you to take a moment to

take a deep breath before opening any

distracting apps the way it works is

that you install the app and then you

decide which apps you want to activate

one second on and so let's say I

activated on Instagram now whenever I

click on Instagram it will pop up with a

thing that says take a deep breath and

you can do 1 second or 2 seconds or 5

seconds I think 5 seconds is a good

amount of time because in those 5

Seconds you can really just be mindful

and ask yourself do I really want to be

using this app right now if the answer

is yes you use the app if the answer is

no then you decide to not use the app

next we have which is a new tool that

admittedly I have not used but a bunch

of my team members use it and absolutely

swear by it and it is a tool called opal

which is like the most intense app app

blocking software you've ever heard of

that literally just disables apps on

your phone you can't even access them

and like most people don't know the

workaround if you install these apps

that like help you combat distractions

and stuff you can always like work

around them whereas opal apparently is

really good and like it's very robust

and so for example Tintin one of my team

members has opal automatically set for

all distracting apps after 9:00 p.m. and

so he literally cannot open these apps

on his phone after 9:00 p.m. and so just

ends up going to bed on time and all

these good things happen in his life

because of using something like opal so

if you find yourself getting distracted

by apps and you would like a kind of

Sledgehammer of a tool to just stop you

from accessing them then opal is pretty

good for that now social media apps are

obviously designed to be as addictive as

possible and that means apps like Tik

Tok and Instagram are ridiculously

visually stimulating and the worrying

thing is that because these apps are

designed so well with literally an army

of thousands of developers trying to

make them more and more addictive we

don't even realize the subtle features

that hook us in and keep us scrolling so

check out this Tik Tok screen for

example the video is in full screen and

on top of that they've got really strong

use of color and very conveniently

placed buttons to get you to keep on

scrolling now one pretty effective way

of combating this particular distraction

is grayscale mode on your phone which

basically turns your phone black and

white and that unsurprisingly makes

scrolling on Instagram and Tik Tok a lot

less visually appealing this feature is

actually part of the accessibility

settings on most phones which means it

was originally designed to help people

with problems of color vision but it

turns out it actually had a broader

impact in terms of helping people even

without color vision problems to reduce

their screen time and minimize digital

distractions if for example you're on an

iPhone you can you can go in settings

accessibility display and text size

color filters and once you're there you

can switch on color filters and then

select a gray scale you could also give

it an accessibility shortcut if you want

and that lets you quickly toggle on and

off gray scale depending on how

distracted you feel in a given moment

again being honest this is not something

that I personally routinely use although

Angus who's the general manager of my

business uses gray scale mode all the

time when he finds himself on the social

media apps quite a lot I just want to

share some of these tools that some of

which I find helpful some of which my

team and other friends find helpful cuz

all of these are basically experiments

I'm going to talk about a lot in feeli

good productivity

every productivity hack tool strategy

these are all just experiments so try

them out see if they Vibe with you and

if you find something that Vibes with

you great Stik with that for me I

personally find time tracking is

ridiculously helpful for me I use one

sec in times where I feel like I'm

getting spending too much time on

Instagram or Tik Tok and I kind of want

to dampen that down but for me broadly

time tracking and finding a way to make

my work actually feel good those are

like the two major needle movers when it

comes to helping me focus a little bit

better the other tool that I use all the

time whenever it comes to doing anything

that requires focus is focus mode on my

phone and my Mac and my iPad and my

Apple watch now this might sound obvious

but it amazes me when I casually look

over the shoulders of people on their

laptops and stuff even members of my

team when they're supposed to be sitting

there doing work they will always have

notifications and I'm like what the hell

is going on because you can just turn on

Focus mode a shortcut happens to be if

you hold option and you click the time

on a Mac for example that will turn on

Focus mode it will turn on do not

disturb mode and that means you're not

going to see any notifications and now

when I forget to turn Focus mode on and

I'm doing something and I see

notifications I'm just like why am I

saying notifications let me turn those

off immediately because seeing any kind

of notification will take you outside of

the focus mode that you're trying to be

in and will throw you into this like

melstrom of distractions that are coming

at you from all angles which is why if

you're actually trying to do focused

work turn off all the notifications you

can also enable exceptions to the

notifications so in my case my

girlfriend and my mom and my brother and

my sister-in-law and my grandma these

are the only five people who have the

ability to message me when I'm on Focus

modes anything else that comes in from

any other app I'm just not even going to

see it and therefore I have no chance to

get distracted from it whenever I'm

trying to focus my phone is either in my

pocket like it is now or it's face down

in front of me or it's not even face

down in front of me I'll grab my phone

and Chuck it onto the sofa behind me so

that I'm not distracted by my phone I

was hanging out in the British Library

the other day I you know they had this

like fantasy fiction exhibition I was

like having look around and I decided to

go in there to do some work as I

recorded in my focus log everyone there

was like really like looking as if they

were focused but I was looking around

and like 80% of people had their phones

literally in front of them some people

even had their phones like propped up on

a little mug or little phone holdery

type thing on the side so they were

looking at their phone and were just

like glancing at their phones while

trying to allegedly do work and I was

like what the hell's going on these

people are in the British Library

supposed to be focused on their work and

they're just allowing this ridiculously

distracting device to be there right in

front of their face hitting them with

notification after notification after

notification now on this people always

like oh but like what if my kids have an

emergency I was like bro if your kids

have an emergency put their phone

numbers or put the number of the school

or the hospital whatever one of these

Focus mode exceptions also if someone

tries to ring you you can set it so that

phone calls go through you can set it so

that two phone calls in a row

automatically go through that's the

automatic setting like generally the

people that are getting distracted by

their phones pinging notifications it's

not actually life and death that's the

problem and it just amazes me how this

is just such an obvious thing that very

few people actually seem to do put your

phone face down get it out out of side

out of mind turn on a focus mode block

your notifications temporarily while

you're trying to focus as you can tell I

feel very strongly about this because

whenever I pull my audience about like

you know what's your biggest challenge

when comes to productivity like 40% of

people a huge number will say I struggle

to focus and it's like bro focus is is a

solved problem near eel has written a

book called indistractable about it Cal

Newport has written a book called Deep

work about it and also world a world

without email which is about combating

digital distractions there are literally

apps tools Focus modes built into your

device there are apps that help solve

this like why is this still a thing that

people struggle with obviously some

people have ADHD and addd but I don't

think 40% of my audience does I think a

lot of people are just not doing really

sensible obvious things that will help

you focus it like really annoys me when

I see this with my team as well my team

are always like oh we're so overwhelmed

or we're trying to do too much stuff

it's like okay but are you trying to

focus and do deep work while seeing

notifications all the time yes okay why

uh yeah good point I probably shouldn't

be doing that yeah it's like it's not

that hard guys come on we got this

focusing is not that hard provided we

don't allow the these apps that are

literally designed to addict us for as

long as possible to just keep on

bombarding us with notifications I feel

very strongly about this I'm going to

get off my soap box now let's move on

all right so our final category of tools

to help us Focus just a little bit

better is anything that can help our

work be more fun anything that makes our

work feel good is literally the thesis

of my book which you should check out if

you haven't already if we can find a way

to make our work feel good if we can

find a way to make it fun we are far

more likely to be focused you probably

don't struggle to focus when it comes to

playing video games you probably don't

struggle to focus when it comes to

watching a really good film but you

probably struggle to focus on work that

is boring it's always hard to focus on

work that's boring I struggle to focus

on work that's boring and I'm pretty

good at this productivity Focus stuff

having like researched it for 15 years

and written a book about it but I still

struggle when the work is really really

really boring so yes we can track our

time doing boring work yes we can find a

way to combat digital distractions but

really the single biggest needle mover

for work that is boring is trying to

find a way to make it a little bit more

fun so there are three PS play power and

people I talk about them in the first

three chapters of the book play power

and people play is basically how can we

find a way to turn our work into play to

approach it with lightness and ease in

the spirit of play one question you can

always ask yourself if you're struggling

to focus is what would this look like if

it were fun this is something I used to

have as a Post-It note on my desk I also

have it as a phone wallpaper put a link

down if you down below if you want to

download it for your phone for whatever

that's worth the question is what would

this look like if it were fun what would

doing my taxes look like if it were fun

what would reviewing our p&l for the

management accountants at everyone every

month look like it if it were fun what

would writing a discharge letter for a

patient in the hospital look like if it

were fun with a little bit of creativity

and Ingenuity we can always find ways to

make whatever we're doing just a little

bit more enjoyable to approach it more

in the spirit of play to make it a

little bit more fun that and there's

like six other experiments in the book

that you can check out if you want on

the note of play one thing I always find

helpful is background music we've talked

about this Hogwarts playlist Lord of the

Rings playlist having nice instrumental

background music is just by far for me

one of the biggest things that make work

feel a little bit more playful if I'm

ever doing something that's boring and I

don't have background music on I'm like

what am I doing it would just make this

more fun so depending on what it is I'll

change up the background music if I

really need to focus it'll be like Lord

of the Rings or Harry Potter if I'm

doing like boring admin it'll be music

with lyrics There's a bit more upbeat

cuz I don't need to focus that hard on

it I just need to get through the admin

but like I really find that music is an

incredibly helpful tool to make work a

little bit more fun next we come to

power power is the second P there's a

whole lot of stuff in power it's about

taking responsibility and taking

ownership of the process of the work

that you're doing and also about really

making your own progress more visible so

in World of Warcraft for example you

kill something and then your experience

bar goes up and over time as your

experience bar keeps on going up and up

and up you feel that sense of progress

and then you level up and then you build

more experience bar and you level up

again and the whole process repeats

itself and video game designers are

really good at helping you feel that

sense of progress this is incidentally

one of the things that make social media

apps so addictive that like you're like

oh how many likes can I rack up on this

particular thirst trap photo that I've

just posted on Instagram that game that

you're playing of like seeing seeing the

line go up seeing the number go up is

like incredibly addictive and so how can

we use that General philosophy and apply

it to the work that we want to focus on

if for example you're a writer often

writers will tend to track their word

count because if you track your word

count and you can see oh I did 500 Words

800 words 1,200 words today that feels

good you feel that doine release you

feel that sense of progress this is why

writing things on a to-do list and then

ticking them off feels really good

because you feel the dopamine hit of

like ticking the thing off you feel that

sense of progress and therefore you feel

that sense of power and then Everything

feels more fun again in the book there's

a bunch of more strategies if you want

to read the book um but basically the

question you want to ask yourself is

what is my equivalent of the writer's

word count how can I make progress feel

a little bit more visible to make my

work feel a little bit more fun and then

tool number three is the third P which

is people how can we tap into the power

of people who are around us I used to do

this if you guys know for a while if you

if you've been watching Channel I

actually used to document the process of

doing this when I was in medical school

which is I would work with my friends

I'd invite people over to my room or

we'd all go to the local library for

co-working and we would all work

together we're all working on different

things but the fact that we're together

makes the process more fun this is

something I'm doing as part of my new

productivity Community productivity lab

it's not launched yet depending on when

you're seeing this but the whole idea is

that this is sort of like an online

community for productivity enthusiasts

that will help you double your

productivity and focus and consistency

and one of the big ways we do that is we

have daily Zoom co-working sessions so

you just hop on a zoom call with other

people from around the world who are

interested in doing good things and if

you're watching my channel and you've

gotten to this point in the video you're

probably kind of weird uh in that and

you're probably a bit of a nerd in a in

a great way and you might not have that

many friends who are also into the same

stuff hopefully you do have friends but

maybe you're like more into personal

development than they are maybe you're

more into hustling a bit than your

friends are and so the point is that to

create some sort of community around you

of people who are interested in the same

stuff because then you can all work

together whether it's virtually or in

real life and productivity lab is that

Community for a bunch of people you can

check it out down below if you are

interested but broadly really we just

want to figure out what are the

different ways we can use to tap into

the energizing power of the people

around us and again that's one thing

that's basically guaranteed to make

whatever you're doing more enjoyable and

more energizing which is what allows you

to focus so this wraps up a bunch of

different tools that I use on a daily

basis to reduce distraction and improve

focus and this was actually the third

video in our three-part video series

about how to focus in case you've missed

the other videos in the series there

will be a playlist over here that starts

with the five mistakes that ruin

people's focus and then video number two

talks about five simple habits that you

can start applying to your life as

experiments to also increase your focus

that'll be right over there and if you

are interested in hearing more about my

book and you've not read it yet then

there's a video over here which is the

introduction of the book that explains

the whole philosophy of Feelgood

productivity so thank you so much for

watching I hope you enjoyed the video

and I'll see you later bye-bye