Entrepreneurship involves juggling a lot of balls. There are many things to take care of from finance, legal, human resources, products and clients. It is normal for entrepreneurs to get distracted during the work day because there are just so many things to do. However, if you are doing all the things and not focusing on your core work, your business can take a beating.
With any startup venture, the creation of the product and marketing it (the two most important activities in a business) is usually done by the founders themselves. For example, in my business the core activities include creating content and marketing it.
I create both free content and paid premium content. If I do not focus my core energies on this, I might hurt the business. That’s why I make sure that I do not lose focus on the primary activities.
Bill Gates used to write the code for software himself during the early years of Microsoft. He did build a multi-billion dollar company with 1000s of coders, but he did not lose focus from the core of his work even as his empire expanded. He used to code for 10-15 hours straight and doesn’t interact with anyone during his work sprint.
To make sure that you do not lose focus on the primary, most important work in your business, you should allocate a time for deep work and make sure that you do not get distracted. Work with your social media tabs closed and your cell phones switched off. You will be amazed at how much you can get done in such a session within a short period of time.
If you are a night owl or an early bird, work in your office during late night after people have left or early in the morning before people walk into the office. I do that all the time and that’s why I like to keep my home very close to the office. It helps me work at 6 am if I feel like or at 11pm. Sometimes I take a hour long nap in the afternoon which gives me insane energy till 1 am.
Another way to do deep work without distractions is to go to a hotel or a resort and lock yourself for a few days until your work is complete. In his book Deep Work by Cal Newport, he refers to this method as ‘Grand Gestures’. If you pay for a hotel or a resort, you are going into a new environment without distractions and you also get reminded that you have limited time.
A few days of deep work is all you need to finish some of the most critical tasks in your business that only you can do. I like to write articles and create written content through out the week in my office, but my course videos are done in grand gesture sprints. I finish off my ‘workation’ only after I’m done with my work. It is one of the best hacks I’ve discovered in recent times.
The human mind is not designed to multitask complex tasks. Of course I can talk on the phone while I am walking, but I cannot have a conversation with someone while I am writing content. I’ve given up trying to focus during work hours because no matter how much you try, distractions cannot be completely eliminated during the work week.
Deep work is very important for creating high quality work. You need to be productive and create works of art to become successful. Being busy all the time and completing the tasks in your to do list is not going to take you forward if you want to build a successful company.
If you are tired of distractions and if the constant demand from people is not letting you work, I suggest you try one of my methods: work in your office early morning or late night, or you can take a ‘workation’ and focus on one task with all your concentration.
from Digital Deepak http://bit.ly/2BK1S92
No comments: