The Power of Focus Blocks
The Power of Focus Blocks
The minimalistic approach to get your time back for what truly matters
AN INTERESTING LIFE CAN KILL CREATIVE OUTPUT
When I first began to address a creative plateau, it seemed impossible to create any space in my life. My life was FULL, how could I create more time when every moment was spoken for?
Below, I share the tool I used to add 10-15 hours (not a typo) back to my week.
Doing this allowed me to focus more time and energy on the things that mattered to me in my career, relationships, health, and more.
FOCUS BLOCKS TO THE RESCUE!
In a recent client call, one of my most creative coachees told me about the many creative projects on his plate. Any one of these could be a big idea, a big career move, and a way to channel his endless creative energy.
One of the things that makes these big projects possible is a healthy and vibrant network. The dark side of that resource is the potential constant interruptions. Friends calling in, going out, visiting from out of state. There seemed to always be something to steal from his creative energy.
He thrived with a flexible calendar. He could spend time on any number of creative projects. But that same flexibility provided no resistance to an invite out.
Enter: Focus Blocks.
WHAT FOCUS BLOCKS ARE
Focus blocks is a simple concept that blends the kind of flexibility truly creative founders and artists thrive on, while putting up guardrails to the distractions of a thriving network of friends and peers.
This is hugely beneficial especially for neurospicy folks (like me, and maybe you) who thrive on variety AND on stretches of time spent on a task. More on that in a moment.
IT’S RESERVED
A focus block is time you reserve on your calendar for a specific task. Ideally you can put in time, energy, and attention to achieve the best results possible.
IT’S A BUCKET NOT A TASK LIST
A focus block that works for you is one that can be a bucket for a kind of task, so that as your career and life evolve, the new specific tasks have a place to go.
With these buckets, when you have a new idea or a project to put time into, it is now easy to put that on the calendar in the right spot.
IT’S A HABIT TO FUNNEL ENERGY TO THE RIGHT PLACES
For the neurospicy among us, myself included, this is a HUGE game changer for our habit triggers and rewards. The old method was trigger (think of thing) and behavior (do thing, no matter the cost). The new focus block method is trigger (think of thing) behavior (add thing to the appropriate bucket and go back to the important thing you were just doing).
IT’S AN EASY DEFENSE AGAINST SOMETHING SHINY
When distractions appear in the form of new ideas or invites out, your block is the measuring stick for your decision.
For my client mentioned above, when an invitation comes in he has choices now:
YES. The invite meets the intention of the block.
NO. The invite is not as important/valuable as the block.
YES, BUT LATER. The invite is great but in a different time block.
Quick note: What is valuable? Value should be aligned with values in all areas of life, not just career/productivity. This will have everything to do with the vision of yourself you are working towards.
WHAT FOCUS BLOCKS ARE NOT
FOCUS BLOCKS ARE NOT TASK LISTS
You can fill a block with a specific task, but the block itself should be general enough to fit more than one of your passion projects.
For example, in my sample weekday block calendar below, I have two kinds of workday tasks: tasks that are ON projects and tasks that are IN projects. In the project that is my coaching business, ON days are things like writing, creating images and ideas to share on social and on my newsletter, outreach, emails to potential clients, videos to share, etc. IN days are days I’m meeting with clients, some for longer sessions, some for laser sessions.
FOCUS BLOCKS ARE NOT MADE OF STONE
Nothing is constant but change. Some days if I don’t have a task or tasks to fill in a block with the “right” kind of task, I can fill in from another block that needs more time that week.
For example, if I’m way ahead on my coaching work, I can use more Friday time for art. If I’m behind, I can use some Friday time to catch up.
SAMPLE BLOCK CALENDAR
Some notes on the above calendar.
THEMES
Each day has a general theme, either ON the projects or IN the projects. My main project right now is coaching.ROUTINES
Routine is whatever works for you. For us neurospicy folks, it’s essential that it brings focus, balance, groundedness, maybe even a little bit of that achievement itch. For example, my routine includes time with my kid, jiu jitsu, listening to an audiobook, and occasionally getting 1-2 admin things done.SHINY THINGS
DON’T LET SHINY THINGS BUMP YOUR ROUTINE. You will be tempted, someone or something will “need” that time. Take a breath, count to ten, and say “I’d love to but I have a commitment, can we do that later in the day?”BE A RIVER
Your week might have stones, a regular meeting, event, or commitment. Be like a river, get creative, flow around and create your blocks around it or better yet WITH it. For example, I have a weekly lunch date with my wife. My blocks that day are a little shorter before and after.
CREATING YOUR BLOCK CALENDAR
The most important thing to do is just do it. If you’re doing this for the first time, plan on it being a draft version. Don’t let perfect get in the way of done. What you’re looking for is some rough clay, and as you live with your blocks you can revisit and mold it to better fit who you are becoming.
SO, HOW SPECIFICALLY?
Grab a piece of paper
Make 5 columns for a weekday calendar, 7 if you’re really going for it
Start drawing bubbles and putting stuff in them
You can write stuff all over if you’re not sure where it fits
Fill the whole week
Now, you have a draft
Don’t overthink it! Just put stuff down and fill the page. If you stop to evaluate then you’ll become your own imagination assassin.
REFINING
Look at the draft
See if there are obvious ways to make groups (e.g. ON projects and IN projects)
Make a new draft with just the big groups
USING YOUR BLOCK CALENDAR
Using whatever calendar system you like, add your blocks. I use google calendar and add blocks, mark them as “available” so I can schedule things.
Now take your specific task list and place them where they should go next to the blocks, or in the description if that works for you.
Got ADHD? Yep, same. So when your brain thinks of 30 things big and small, add them in the right block and take them off your mental processing unit.
WHAT SHOULD YOU EXPECT?
Expect things to change, and expect to do this exercise regularly.
When I first did this, I gained back 10+ hours a week. Yay! Done forever….
Then, 3 months later I was feeling overwhelmed so I did the exercise again and made some necessary refinements.
And again 6 months after that.
If you’re reading this then you know that transformation is a lifetime commitment to evolution and change. Expect to keep refining, and have fun along the way!
LOOKING FOR MORE?
For March and April, I am opening the books for a handful of complimentary chemistry calls.
If you enjoyed this exercise and want to go even deeper and get support for your unique goals, book a call now for next month and let’s see where the rabbit hole goes.