I am currently working on a project with two other guys living in Spain because they choose to not because they are Spanish. We met in November at a conference in wet, cold Manchester and brought the thoughts back to the warmer climes of the Mediterranean to mull things over.
The Power of Focus
However we were not really moving forward until an opportunity came up which we all agreed could not be missed and we all had the same thought at the exact same moment. This concentrated the collective mind and now in the space of four conference calls on Skype spread over four days and six hours we have World domination mapped out. How long would it take you to map out your World domination if you got a little push?
The point is simple though and goes back to previous articles about the Pomodoro Technique. Huge focus can be laserlike in its precision. Without a target to aim for, a timescale to deliver by or an ultimate aim or goal we all let things drag. The power of focus in anything is such that without having these focussed periods of work you can definitely lose your compass. This is why I am so keen on the Pomodoro method of working when nothing else matters, just the job in hand. By getting things done and leaving the prevarication in another place it is so easy to create that you begin to wonder why everything always seemed so difficult before. So before finishing off this little piece let’s look at some tips for focussing the mind and take the example of a blog post or some writing you must do:
- Get yourself a Pomodoro timer and set an hour aside to check out how to use it. Practice makes perfect.
- Turn off the TV,
- Lose twitter
- Get rid of IM chat and other distractions
- Turn your phone off
- Ignore the doorbell
- Make your desktop quiet using something like Ommwriter on a Mac.
- Start work
With all of this done just write. To start off with it will be rubbish and not at all natural but as you get going your brain will click into gear and the words will start flowing. This is as useful to a writer as it is to a designer or a blogger. Once the session is over switch off and chill out or just go and do something else. Come back to your potential masterpiece after a day or so and edit. Then get it out there and apply leverage to get it into the most places possible. Record it into a little audio, plan a video around it and do anything else you feel comfortable with as regards spinning the content. You will be surprised at how constant practice of this ritual will increase your production. And if you are team working then you multiply the effect many times over. Just check out our upcoming World domination
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Originally posted 2010-02-10 14:26:18. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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6 Responses to “How A Little Push Can Concentrate The Mind”
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Great article. As someone who is currently struggling through the 30DC my main issue is with finding the time and focus to get things done. I’ll definately be giving the pomodoro technique a try.
Thx for the comment David. Good luck with the 30DC it is most defintely worth it. Guess what the little push is?
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sounds interesting, great with projects that work out
do you have to write?? will it work if you just speak into a recorder??