Hey dear friend! It’s your email bestie here again. How are you doing? As always, I’m excited to be writing to you again.
Today, I’ll be answering a common question that I get: “How do you manage to do so many things at the same time?” The short answer is Focus. I know this sounds counterintuitive at first glance so I’ll explain. But first, here’s Something to think about.
If your kindness keeps tabs, it’s a transaction.
- Unknown
moving to the topic of the day…
Focus. More precisely, hyperfocus. What does focus have to do with doing more than one thing? After all, the common sentiment is that focus is directing your energy at a single thing.
I’ll explain. And I’ll start with the backstory. Sometimes, I’ll share an update about something I’m doing that seems so different from what I usually do. The reactions I usually get are like, “oh wow, so you can do this as well? I wonder how you manage to do so many things at the same time.”
And I almost always respond with laughter because that notion isn’t entirely correct. Therefore, I’m going to rephrase the question as “how are you so efficient?”.
While I do many things “at the same time”, every single thing I do is an expression of who I am. It just flows from my being.
And this is where hyper focus comes in because I do not do things just because everyone else is doing them but I do things that are placed in my hands.
It’s slightly more difficult to explain this concept because it doesn’t really qualify as a scientific tip or self-improvement method. Stay with me though.
Because I’m always learning and implementing, every now and then, I have a flurry of new ideas to launch out. However, not all of these ideas are mine to execute so nowadays, I step back and carefully clarify by asking questions.
“What is my real motive for wanting to do this thing?”
“Am I really meant to do this or is this a mere desire?”
“What new demand does this new idea place on my life?”
“What changes so I have to make in order to implement this new idea?”
“What new knowledge do I have to gain/who do I need to become in order to properly implement this?”
“If I go through with this new idea, how will it change me?”
“Is there space in my life right now for this new thing?”
“Is this the right season to begin to implement on this??”
“What is God saying about this?”
I don’t just do things because everyone is doing them. I do things I’ve received, things that have been placed into my hands. And oftentimes, that’s why I have multiple reasons for doing certain things.
I don’t do things out of pressure, it’s why I’m not on Twitter. I don’t do things that could take me out of my place of “being” and put me into hustle lane, “trying to be”.
This doesn’t mean that I don’t do things that challenge me. It just means that I do things that are interwoven with my path and unique destiny and even though it isn’t always one hundred percent clear when I want to start a new venture, I’ve learnt to trust God and trust “the process”.
You see, by employing the principle of hyper focus and ONLY doing the things that have been placed into my hands, I acquire the ability to do a lot more impactful work.
This principle also helps me to choose what activities will yield the best returns in exchange for my time, energy and resources. These activities are often the ‘stone that kills multiple birds’ for me.
For example, when I started this newsletter, I just wanted to share my learnings and God told me that this was the next step to take. As time went on and things unfolded, it became my writing portfolio and opened up many more opportunities to me, even in completely unrelated fields.
Now, when people get to see my progress in these unrelated fields, they’re amazed. They say, “how are you involved with this as well?”What they don’t know is that it stemmed from one thing. And this exact scenario has repeated itself in multiple different settings.
There’s a lot of hustle and bustle in the world. Social media shows you what new movement you need to be a part of or what your next big thing should be. And while this is alright, I’ve learnt that this merely distracts me and takes my focus away from what I really should be doing.
In order to be able to live up to my potential and do more, I need to constantly remain focused. With less focus, my stress levels go up, my capacity reduces and my efficiency also suffers. When my head is in the right place however, I’m able to operate at a much higher frequency hence achieving more in less time.
Another reason I choose hyper focus is because of the interconnected nature of life.
All of my life is very interconnected and the strength of that connection is something I’m always working to improve. My physical health is connected to my mental health which is connected to my personal growth and development which is connected to my career development which is connected to my financial wellness. Do you see the trend?
If I’m doing well in one area, the other areas get a face lift. In the same vein, if I completely loose my balance in one area, the effect is felt in other areas. A lot of the skills and wisdom I use in one area are transferable to other areas.
By being focused and brutally cutting out the “good” things that aren’t mine to do, my life improves generally and that improvement earns me better results. The better results give me motivation to do more and the cycle simply repeats itself all over again.
The point is that at any given point in time, I’m doing a very specific set of things. I’m not easily swayed when there’s temptation to go into an awesome thing just because it sounds great and others are doing it.
Other principles such as proper time management, discipline, tenacity and excellence come in after I’ve locked my focus on what I’m supposed to be doing per season.
I’m still a work in progress but I’ve been mastering the art of laser-grade focus for a little under a year now and in the past few months, it has yielded tremendous results for me.
I’m still learning and tweaking things but I’ll continue to share my journey. Meanwhile, what do you think about the concept of hyper focus? Is it something you already do? Let me know.
PS: My journal is one tool that has really helped me remained focused on the things that matter to me. The most wonderful thing about it is that it’s specially designed to help me balance the different areas of my life.
I realized that a custom journal can also come in handy for a lot of people so I teamed up with a designer to make it happen.
Reserve a slot today and get a one-of-one journal designed specifically for you.
With that, I’ve come to the end of this newsletter. As always, I’m rooting for you.
Love, Dolapo.