These are my take away points from the book – Make Time By Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky – Part 3

Distraction is an enemy of laser mode and is like a disco ball in the path of your laser beam, which spreads the light of the laser beam in all the directions except in the direction it needs to go. Twitter, emails, Facebook, searching for gif, news they all are distractions and in this world of distractions will power alone is not enough to protect your focus.

These distractions are made, after lots of surveys and experiments to gain our attention. In the fight to win our attention they have lots of research backed by these tools, which understand human psychology and manipulate human beings. The purpose of these tech companies is not to harm humans but to make money when we use their products. The more modern the technology is, the more of our time and attention it will steal. We need to be conscious about it and take some actions instead of waiting for technology to give back our time, as it never will.

Intentionally create barriers to distractions and focus on your highlight. The best way to defeat distraction is to make it harder to reach.

Every distraction imposes a cost in the depth of our focus. When we ping pong between laser focus and distraction we waste time and switching cost is associated with it. When we focus for a longer period of time we are better engaged and are able to work better.

People use the technology due to fear of missing out (FOMO) but let’s change our mind set and look at this a bit differently. See it as the opportunity to stand out in a good way and use the reclaimed time positively to achieve something instead of being like a zombie and spend unlimited time on attention grabbing time waster technology.

Be the boss of your phone:

1- Make your phone distraction free by

• Deleting the Social apps
• Delete any think like games and news apps that waste time
• Remove your email account from the phone
• Remove web browser

Note that you can reinstall the apps when needed so there is no need to worry that you will lose them forever.

2- Log out of the websites/ apps that send notifications and make it hard for yourself to look at them.

3- Turn off notifications from the phone

4- Clear your Home Screen as a blank screen provides a tiny moment of quiet every time you use your phone and acts as an intentional inconvenience, a small pause, a speed bump to keep the distraction one step away.

5- Wear a wristwatch so that you do not have to look at the phone again and again.

6- Some times in the week leave the technology behind and live technology free and see how much of your time that can be reclaimed.

Ideas on how to get to laser focused mode:

• Skip the morning check in of the phone, keep your day fresh and brain rested and avoid the tug of war of attention.
• Block everything that distract you like Facebook notifications
• Ignore the news. We feel that smart and responsible people follow the news but the breaking news is that true breaking news will find you. You do not need to look for it daily. To keep in touch, check the news weekly. Since any of the headlines does not change any of the decisions you will make today and most of the news will become obsolete the next day or next week so we do not need to keep up the news. It only causes unnecessary stress and waste time.
• Sign out of apps like Twitter and Facebook and close of chat each day, so that when you start your work there is nothing to distract and you look at time wasting apps intentionally after signing in.
• When flying, do not use WiFi and have focused time to yourself.
• Put a timer on the internet so that it is not available all the time.
• Watch out for time craters, which are small things that take away our focused time from us like quick tweets, checking for messages for a sec after a few mins, waiting for a meeting that is going to start in 30 mins and not utilising that time.
• Remember working on your highlight is the real win and not cleaning up your inbox. Beware of fake wins.
• Use the distracting apps on the phone as tools, they are intended for catching up with people using Facebook and not being obsessed by the notifications.
• TV wastes a lot of time. Instead of watching TV everyday, make it an occasion. Whatever you want to watch, watch it intentionally and not binge watch Netflix. Get rid of Netflix and buy a movie you will see how much time gets saved.
• Don’t watch news on TV as it increases anxiety, instead read news once per week.
• Don’t make the TV centre of the room.
• For a month do not watch TV and notice how much extra hours you get that can be spent on achieving your highlight.
• Shut the door to indicate that you are going to work on your highlight with full focus and by shutting the door you are also telling yourself that it’s time for laser mode.
• Decide a deadline and keep yourself accountable to that.
• If the highlight is too but and can’t decide from where to start, break it down to smaller parts and start from one part.
• Look up for the song that can get you in the zone if needed.
• Have a timer visible to create a sense of urgency.
• If you want to write something, start on paper as you don’t need to select the font or background colour etc on a paper.

Ideas how to remain in laser focused mode:

• When you feel itchy to find an answer to a question and want to pick up the phone or computer, write down the question on a piece of paper and continue working on your highlights without being distracted.
• Pay attention to your physical sensation and take deep breaths when you are learning song focus and feel the breath going in and coming out.
• If you are feeling bored, continue and stay bored instead of trying to find something interesting to do, as we are more creative when we are bored.
• Don’t give up if you feel stuck but continue trying and making small progress. Know you will find some creative solution.
• When you are tired, take a day off and rest. Resting re-energize and helps to focus more the next day.
• Whatever you are doing, do it wholeheartedly. Try to do what you really care about and then you will be able to enjoy it and find energy to do it, and will not try to avoid it.