In his book Deep Work, Cal Newport outlines a simple formula that determines how successful your efforts will be.

Work Produced = Time Spent x Intensity of Focus.

This formula applies to more than just work. It also applies to learning new skills or improving yourself by creating new habits. Your outputs will be determined by the amount of time you spend, combined with how intensely you’re focusing on it.

You can study for an hour while also watching TV in the background, or you can study for an hour without any distractions. The same time spent will yield entirely different results in the scenario above. Our biggest trap is not time, as most people think. We have time, but we rarely use it wisely. Understanding the power of focus helps you make the most of the finite time you have. Even ten minutes can be meaningful if you spend them well.

If you’ve ever wondered why some people seem to learn much faster than others or pick up new skills more quickly than others, it’s probably because they’ve mastered the ability to focus. There are well-documented examples of this throughout history and in the present.

Theodore Roosevelt wrote over 30 books throughout his lifetime, all while serving as president, raising a family, and leading expeditions into some of the world's most dangerous places. Even during his grueling Amazon expedition, he capped off days of pain and exhaustion by writing up his latest adventures with a thick pencil in a mosquito net over his head and gauntlets on his hands to keep the bugs away. He never waited for perfect conditions; he used whatever time was available with complete focus. (Source: Candice Millard, The River of Doubt.)

Benjamin Franklin famously committed to mastering 13 virtues over the course of his life, but he worked on only one at a time. He knew that trying to improve everything at once was a recipe for improving nothing, so he gave each virtue his full focus before moving to the next. As he wrote in his autobiography: "not to distract my attention by attempting the whole at once, but to fix it on one of them at a time; and, when I should be master of that, then to proceed to another. (Source: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.)

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, the company had dozens of products bleeding money in every direction. He slashed the product line down to just four—two laptops and two desktops—insisting that saying "no" to everything else was the only way to do a few things exceptionally well. Within a year, Apple turned a $309 million profit. (Source: Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs.)

Warren Buffett's approach focuses on the structures he uses every single day. By his own account, he reads and thinks for five to six hours daily, working through newspapers, annual reports, and books. He insists on spending significant time each day just sitting and thinking, calling it "very uncommon in American business." For Buffett, focus is the non-negotiable foundation of every good decision he's ever made. (Source: Farnam Street – How Warren Buffett Keeps Up With Information.)

Focus allows you to maximize the use of your time. We all have the same 24 hours in a day, but some people have found the secret to outsized production: focusing intensely with the time they have available. We can’t create more time, but we can use focus to make our time more valuable.

Until next time,

Rick

P.S. Check out The Leadership Audit if you’re interested in exploring how effectively your organization is using its collective time. You might be surprised by what you uncover!