Command Your Focus and Attention on What Really Matters with Chris Bailey

In this episode we show you how to command your focus and attention. We discuss why many people have the wrong idea of what it means to be productive - and how thinking that you need to boil your life down to spreadsheets and checklists is the wrong way to approach productivity . We share the secret ingredient for true productivity - and look at exactly how you can implement it, practically and realistically, in your own life with our guest Chris Bailey.

Chris is a productivity expert, speaker, and best-selling author. His career began by conducting a year-long experiment examining best practices for productivity which is documented in his book, The Productivity Project. His latest book Hyperfocus aims to help readers stay focused and avoid distractions. His work has been featured in The Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, TED, Fast Company, and more!Many people have the wrong idea of what productivity is - and it often leads to implementing the wrong solutions It’s not about efficiency and boiling your life down to checklists and spreadsheetsIf there’s one thing that underlies real productivity is INTENTION We are perfectly productive when we accomplish the things we set out to doIntention is like the “wood behind the arrow"The percentage of the day with which you act with intention is directly proportional to your results and to the quality of your life How much control of attention you have is correlated with happiness, satisfaction, and productivity What is intentionality and why is it so important?Most people manage their time relatively well, but where they massively fall short is managing their ATTENTIONThe novelty bias in our brains causes us to constantly jump into new phenomenon to get our next dopamine hitDeliberate mind wandering is as important as the time we focus on being productive“Not all those who wander are lost” - J. R. R. TolkeinCultivating “unfocus”, mind wandering, and contemplative routines open up space to focus on and determine what’s most important - to unearth the beautiful, brilliant ideas we wouldn’t arrive at otherwiseResearchers found that people who watched 6 or more hours of news coverage about a bombing were more likely to develop PTSD than someone who was actually at the bombing event (Boston Marathon) How do you go about taming your distractions?Does meditation waste time or does it make you more productive?Meditation is one of the few things that gives you more attention and focus for other thingsWhen you have an active meditation practice your working memory increases by up to 30% If you don’t execute on productivity ideas and strategies - what’s the point?Meditation has the best time-adjusted return of any productivity strategy We look at busyness as a proxy for how productive we are when that’s completely wrong. Working on a sleep deficit shrinks your ability to focus by up to 60% There’s a huge amount of guilt, especially in western society, around taking breaks, resting, and downtime - even though these are HUGE components of being highly effective and productive How do you deal with the GUILT of not feeling productive?Set 3 intentions every day, set 3 intentions every week, and set 3 intentions every year Pre-Decisions create intention throughout your day How do you Re-Charge your attention?Habitual tasks create the structure that frees our mind to think freely and wander Homework: What resonated the most for YOU - take action on that?

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