I have been on the journey to be successful for over 15 years. Ten of those years were spent desperately trying to find it, and only in the last five have I been able to enjoy finding some of it. Now, I spend my days coaching people on their very own journeys to success, and what I find to be the biggest struggle for most people is the ability to focus—not only on the day-to-day but also on the long-term vision.

In this article, I’m going to cover how I overcame my struggle with focus. I’ll touch on the mental aspects, physical aspects, as well as simple tricks and routines you can create in your day to focus better. What I’ll need you to do is read the article in order because every single thing may not seem relevant at first, but it’ll be an important piece in helping you improve your focus.

The thing is, staying focused on the day-to-day is harder when you don’t know why you’re focusing, which is why the first thing you have to do is outline your vision.

Step 1: Outline Your Vision

What you want to do first is outline what you want in the end. What is your goal? Why are you trying to improve focus? In almost all cases, you’re trying to achieve something. Write down what that something is. This will make it a bit easier for you to stay focused on the long term because it will simplify your decision-making. Anything that serves your vision, you will do; anything that doesn’t, you will not.

Step 2: Write Out Everything You Have to Do This Week

We don’t always know all we have to do in a given week, but we can have a good idea of our weekly to-do list. All I need you to do is dump everything you think you have to do onto paper or a Google sheet.

Step 3: Prioritize the List

Next, you’re going to prioritize this list. What you’re going to do is list the tasks from highest to lowest priority. The way you determine this is by thinking about the impact it has on your or anyone else’s life. The things that have the highest impact, negative or positive, should be done first. The things that have the lowest impact should be done last.

To give you an idea of what this can look like, let’s say your team is waiting on some research to present to a client. If they don’t get it by a deadline, they will lose the client. That would be high priority due to the potential negative outcome. Or let’s say there’s a potential for you to close a deal or get an investment that can propel your business forward. That would be high priority due to a potential positive outcome.

Step 4: Estimate the Time It Takes for Each Task

From here, you want to estimate the time it will take for each task and write it out next to it.

Step 5: Create a Weekly Schedule and Plug the Tasks In

Now you want to create a sheet that has all of your working days listed, and label each row in increments of 30 minutes, starting with the time you wake up to the time you go to bed.

Starting with the highest priority task, start plugging it into the first time blocks until you’ve filled up your calendar.

At first, you might not be great at estimating, but this will be important later. Just plug the tasks in.

Step 6: Set a Timer and Get to Work

Download a “Flow” timer on your computer. Do this on your computer and not your phone because you will be required to put away your phone.

Once the timer is set, start it based on what you estimate your focus stamina to be.

Focus stamina = how long you can stay on task without getting distracted.

For most people, surprisingly, this is no more than 15 minutes. If you feel your focus is really bad, then set a work timer for 15 minutes. What you also need to do is set a timer for a break. This will be no more than a quarter of whatever the work time is. So for a 15-minute work session, you want to take a break every 3.5 minutes.

Your job here is to stay on task for 15 minutes, and as soon as the timer goes off, you take your break. Here, you can do WHATEVER YOU WANT. If you want to doom-scroll your mind away on social media, go for it. What I like to do—and what works really well for me—is I get down and do a set of squats or push-ups. This keeps my energy level high throughout the day. Granted, my work length is 1 hour on, 15 minutes off.

Step 7: Do This for Four Rounds

You’re going to set the timer to do this for four rounds, so you’re going to go 4×15-minute work sessions, and 3×3.5-minute rest sessions. After your fourth session, you’re going to schedule your long break, which will be 60% to 70% of your total work time. So if your work session is 15 minutes, your long break will be 10 minutes tops.

Once you get up to an hour of focus, your short sessions will be roughly 10-15 minutes, and your long breaks 40-45 minutes long.

The most important factor here is to be strict about your work and your rest. You have to work when you’re on the work timer, and you HAVE to rest when you’re on the rest timer. Be strict about each.

Once your mind knows there is a break coming, it’ll make it much easier to stay focused.

It’s only our spirit that is limitless; our flesh is built to conserve energy, and we have to navigate around that by tricking its systems.

Step 8: Review and Reassess

After each round of your work session, what you want to do is assess how you did. If you were able to stay focused the entire time, you may want to consider increasing your work time length. If you failed, write a note in your task sheet that you couldn’t focus the whole time.

Another thing you want to do once you finish the first task is mark it green, yellow, or red:

• Green if completed successfully within the time frame.
• Yellow if it was completed but took longer than expected.
• Red if you didn’t complete it.

This will show you, week over week, how well you estimate what you’re able to do in a given day and time frame.

You will get better at determining what your actual work and focus capacity is so that you can know how much you can pile on your plate—when to say yes and when to say no to more.

Because the truth is, a lot of us are either feeling overwhelmed because we don’t actually focus, and there is a lot more we could be doing with our lives if we actually got things done, or a lot of us are actually maxed out and need to reassess what we’re capable of.

Most of us are living in the former category. We are overwhelmed because we can’t focus. This will help.

Step 9: Increase Week Over Week

What you want to do once you go a whole week on task is increase your focus and break time.

I’m at 1 hour and find that is my sweet spot for “on time.” I’ve tried 75 minutes, but I found that the last 15 minutes, while focused, were slow in progress. So work to find your focus-to-rest sweet spot, and keep that up for as long as you can throughout the day.

I now do this from about 7 AM to about 7 PM all day long, Sunday through Thursday. Friday is a half-day, and Saturday is a full rest day with ZERO work.

Step 10: Be Consistent in Your Biology

One of the things we forget to prioritize is the body. On your workdays—and preferably on all days—you need to stay consistent in how you treat your body.

This means staying consistent with your sleep schedule. Set an alarm to go to bed, not to wake up. Based on how much time you need to sleep, set an alarm to go to bed so that you’re up around when you need to be.

Next is stimulants. If you take coffee or anything else, you need to start tracking how much and when you take it. If you have no idea, that’s already a bad sign. You need to take the same amount at the same time every day. This is because you need to have a predictable output every day. You need to know what you’re going to be able to do that day, and if your biology fluctuates, so will your performance.

I don’t care what you do, how you sleep, or what you eat—just make sure it’s consistent. It’s why some people in jail get so fit and smart: it’s because they’re on a rhythm.

That goes for food too. Make sure you’re eating typical of how you normally eat, especially on workdays.

Why This Works

This works because focus is something that can be trained. ADHD prescriptions have multiplied year over year, and it’s not because more people have ADD—it’s because there are more distractions in the world today than ever before in the history of mankind.

It is NOT easy to stay focused when there are so many things pulling for your attention.

What this routine will allow you to do is to train your mind to be able to focus better over time.

Give it a try and report back with some FAQs. I can be reached on my IG @shahforshort.