This Is Working

By Bryan Collins

Do you find it hard to focus?
Would you like to say goodbye to feeling overwhelmed? Or perhaps you want to start a side-business and earn more money without giving up your personal life?
Whether you're an entrepreneur or building a career, it's easier than you think to get the results you want without working 80-plus hour weeks.

Discover the secrets, tricks and routines of dozens of entrepreneurs who've found personal success in business. They've revealed what's working for them and how you can apply their strategies.

In this practical business book, discover:

* How to find your motivation even when you feel overwhelmed
* The three different mindsets every successful entrepreneur and leader embraces
* What successful people know about time management and productive thinking
How to cultivate the right work habits and focus faster
* Why rich entrepreneurs don't set goals and what they do instead
* How to pick your priorities for the working week and actually follow through with them

And lots more

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bryan Collins
• Release date: Jun 17, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393096290

Book preview

Part I

The Runner

Train Hard, Start Strong

1

Motivate

Training for the Dublin City Marathon taught me more about motivation than any pep talk.

I ran by myself around the small town where I live, an hour outside of Dublin. I trained alone in the evenings or sometimes in the mornings after the kids went to school.

My motivation came from within as I felt tired of spending my evenings playing video games, watching television shows on Netflix or reading about Donald Trump.

Later, I joined a nearby athletics club and trained with more accomplished runners. Each Monday and Wednesday evening, we ran intervals around an all-weather 400-meter track.

To an outsider, we must have looked like hamsters trapped on an exercise wheel. But our training demanded intense focus, and I was hooked.

I was able to keep up for 30 minutes. Then my calves seized up, and I’d move over to the side of the track to recover.

The other athletes continued lapping me for another 45 minutes without stopping.

Establish Your Why

Are you seeking a promotion? What would winning new customers mean for your company? Is your project a life-long personal ambition?

Before you embark on a big personal or professional project for months or even years, write down five to seven reasons why you’re going to focus on it.

Keep your reasons in a file alongside details of the project and document what success looks like. It’s good practice to combine internal and external reasons.

For example, I want to write a nonfiction business book because it’s a lifelong ambition, is an internal reason.

Ambition is personal after all.

I want to find coaching clients because it will help this business increase revenues, is an external reason.

You could find out you’re working in a start-up because you believe in the product or company mission.

Or you’re content because the job pays the bills and helps support your family. Or perhaps you picked a poorly-paid internship to improve your skills and open a door to new opportunities.

These all are valid reasons for working hard once you’re aware of them.

Keep a List of Mini-Accomplishments

While training for the marathon, I didn’t notice that I’d become faster and stronger until a friend pointed out I was able to keep up.

While focusing on a project, it’s easy to glance over your progress and instead worry about where you’re stuck.

It’s easier to accumulate a list of mini-accomplishments and motivate yourself than push endlessly toward a single prize.

Add to this list regularly, for example, This week I closed three deals, or I wrote five book chapters.

Accept That Your Motivation Will Wane

A new ambitious employee rarely complains about feeling unmotivated. Much like a fresh student of Spanish or an aspiring marathon runner, they’re encouraged by the challenge.

You will encounter bland or boring moments in the middle of a long project. On more than one occasion, I dreaded getting up off the couch to train because the Irish winter rain was hammering the bedroom window.

To succeed professionally, you must hone your skills even if progress is painfully slow.

If you’re feeling unmotivated or frustrated by a lack of progress, don’t abandon your work. Ask if this is simply a plateau and concentrate on forward motion until you reach another milestone.

Let consistency be your north star.

Get In Your Starting Blocks

While training for a marathon, I spent many wet Sunday mornings running for hours. I didn’t feel like I was getting much stronger or faster.

Yet the athleticism of those I trained with encouraged me to run longer and harder and get up earlier each weekend so I could build my leg muscles.

They taught me how to silence the negative voices in my head, focus on my breath and drive forward.

When race day came, I knew what I had to do.

2

Silence

One Friday afternoon, I joined a large conference call. The presenter captured our attention, which was no mean feat considering the late hour.

A notification popped up on his screen from WhatsApp about an upcoming football match.

Are you ready for the big game with the lads tomorrow?

The instructor clicked on the white and green box and carried on, but it was too late. I couldn’t help but wonder …

Would they win the game? Was our distracted presenter ready? Should I have a beer later or get up early on Saturday for a long run?

I felt bad for the presenter, but I also wondered how often digital noise, like notifications, were distracting me.

The Problem with Notifications

Revenue of productivity software during 2018 reached over 82 billion dollars in the United States alone. ¹

Although this massive industry is still growing, productivity software is often as distracting as it is helpful. Software is kind of like taking painkillers for a headache only to find you feel nauseated afterward.

I’ve caught myself wasting an idle 30 minutes tweaking the look and feel of an app because I could.

As a former avid gamer, I know how addictive virtual badges and rewards are. They compel a gamer to keep playing for recognition.

App developers claim they included similar features in productivity apps to enhance productivity.

Addictive little dings, whirrs and pop-ups also pull you away from the task at hand and toward someone else’s priorities.

Context switching leaves you wondering, Where has my day gone?

Consider the breathless email subject line that pops up on your desktop while you’re working on an important report. Almost immediately, your attention breaks.

Even if you don’t sit at a desk, loud noise is distracting. The culprit could be unpleasant music, a chatty colleague or an alarm in the distance.

Focus demands avoiding the lure of digital noise.

Cultivate Daily Blocks of Deep Focus

Aytekin Tank originally trained as a software developer and worked for a media company. After growing bored with his day job, he left to create Jotform in 2006.

His company of 100 employees creates online surveys and forms. Although he’s a busy CEO, Tank is also a prolific nonfiction writer on Medium. He finds time almost every day to write, an activity much like coding.

He writes daily by cultivating silence.

Shut down your emails, shut down all the notifications on your computer and in your phone so that you can just focus, Tank told me in a November 2018 interview.

Software developers, managers and entrepreneurs can use this approach to focus on their most important work too.

Embrace the Power of Silence

Establishing blocks of time into your day to focus might even improve your memory and ability to focus over the long-term.

Up to two hours of silence per day encourages cell development in the hippocampus–the part of the brain connected to memory formation. ²

While focusing, use noise-canceling headphones. Set a timer. Silence is useful, but you can also rely on white noise or classical music. I listen to an album of thunderous rainfall on repeat while writing, for example.

Work on one key activity without stopping to multi-task or check a feed.

Examples of activities for deep focus include writing articles, coding, preparing a presentation, analyzing data and, yes, long-distance running.

Tank said,

It’s very easy to go into the flow. You can start writing, you can start developing your codes."

I’ve found I can focus for shorter periods, such as 30 minutes, if I listen to white noise, turn off notifications and leave my phone in another room. However, Tank argues longer periods of deep focus are better.

You need lots of time so that you can actually go into the flow, he said. If you have a meeting in 45 minutes, you will not be as productive.

If what Tank recommends is a struggle, consider reducing your dependence on digital tools.

3

Detox

Have you considered rehab? Or at least a detox?

Approximately 11 percent of internet users tried a digital detox in the past week. ¹

When I heard the word detox, I thought of a hermit living in a cave, miles from the nearest Ethernet port or phone charger.

At first, I thought a digital detox was impractical. Then I met memory coach Dr. Anthony Metivier. He argues digital amnesia complicates rather than simplifies deep focus.

People aren’t learning because they can’t process information properly through digital media, he said. Everybody either knows this through practical experience, or they feel it intuitively.

Work Offline

For an entrepreneur who runs an online business, Metivier spends a surprising part of his day off-line. He writes articles in a coffee shop using a device without internet access.

The number one thing is to get away from the internet, he said. I do a tremendous amount of my work off-line.

Metivier gravitates toward pen, paper and other analog tools over the latest gadget or software. He also recommends using virtual assistants and delegating as many tasks as possible.

If I can avoid software, I will, he said. We have this digital amnesia problem. Let’s encourage people to get off their machines.

Use a Dumb Phone

What is Hugh Jackman’s net worth?

That’s one of the random searches I caught myself typing into my phone while bored.

It was hardly a good use of time.

So I bought an old grey Nokia dumb phone and a SIM card converter for 40 dollars from eBay, and I put away my iPhone.

I couldn’t waste an afternoon brushing up on random celebrity facts, and my phone drew a few questions in the pub.

I was also unable to log into several online services that rely on Google Authenticator. And I got lost because I (overly) depend on Google Maps.

Consider applying this tactic for a single day of the week rather than for the entire week. Or use two phones—one smart, one dumb.

Block Internet Access

Surely disconnecting from the net doesn’t equate to increased productivity?

It does if you catch yourself wasting hours on Twitter, The Washington Post, or Etsy when a big report is due.

A writer I knew stashed her modem in the attic when she wanted to write her manuscript.

The IT department or your coworkers won’t understand if you power down the company servers because you want to focus. Instead, use apps to block sites on your computer or mobile device. Or you can turn off Wi-Fi and remove your Ethernet cable.

Put Your Phone Away

Consider if you’ve had the perplexing experience of focusing on what someone is saying only to feel your phone vibrating.

Who is it? What do they want? And how soon can I reply?

Before you know it, the person beside you is asking a question, and you’ve no idea what they said.

A friend might understand your broken attention span, but what about your boss or client?

If you’re meeting an important client or customer, put your phone in a bag or coat pocket and turn on Do Not Disturb mode.

If you’re focusing on a project, leave your phone in another room. Get up and check it when you need to stretch your legs after an hour of work.

This practice is kind of like a person on a diet who replaces cans of soda in their fridge with fruit.

Live Like a Hermit for an Hour a Day

A digital detox doesn’t have to mean handing back your iPhone, shredding your Wi-Fi password and departing for a beach in Goa, India.

Much like a golfer who uses a particular club for an important shot, technology can help you focus on a professional project. The trick is to know when you need a particular tool and when to put it away.

(For those keeping score: Hugh is worth more than 100 million dollars.)

4

Seek

You might feel happy about going from 30,000 to 60,000 dollars per year, but earning another 30,000 dollars won’t make you feel much happier.

To get the same dopamine hit, you need to double your income again to 120,000 dollars. ¹

What’s more, once your income rises above 70,000- or 80,000 dollars per year, and you can provide for yourself and your family, satisfaction diminishes.

Ask Warren Buffet.

He knows a thing or two about money, and he said this about getting rich:

If you have a hundred thousand dollars, and you think a million is going to make you happy, it’s not going to happen. You will look around and see people with 2 million dollars. It doesn’t work that way."

²

So aside from money as a reason for focusing on your business, career or even a difficult project, how else can you find happiness?

Money Isn’t Enough

Several years ago, I worked on a demanding website launch for a large company as a copywriter.

I spent my days responding to emails, instant messaging notifications and information requests.

Although copywriting paid well, I felt more like a conduit for information than an executive engaged in meaningful work. Much like a surfer struggling with his board in shallow, calm water, this process felt painfully frustrating.

More than once, I caught myself swearing under my breath or banging my head on the table after a long group phone call.

I craved for a block of work that I could immerse myself in for 30 or 60 minutes. I didn’t want to stop and check email or request information from a colleague.

What I craved for was deep work.

Georgetown University academic and author Cal Newport proposed this concept when he wrote, Who you are, what you think, feel and do, what you love—is the sum of what you focus on. ³

He recommends avoiding shallow tasks such as emails, social media and instant messaging when possible and instead working on a key project.

How to Focus on Your Work

Build blocks of focus into each