Instead of thinking of focus as a skill you bring to something, look at it as a force you exert to maintain alignment. This definition of focus is what a monthly review does to a life management system: it makes sure that sky level values and intentions align with ground level actions. This kind of focus is needed because it is easy to be too action-oriented that we forget about the bigger picture.
This is how intentional living is realized.
Unprocessed
Focus is doing things with a clear intention and making sure that all your decisions match your intention. Focusing isn’t simply about avoiding the temptation to multitask until a priority project is complete. Instead, it means truly understanding what you want to accomplish and centering your activities entirely around that.
Here are some questions you can ask to find focus on a project:
- What is the main problem this project is solving?
- Who are the people we are solving this problem for?
- What is the emotion/feeling that we want our project to create or evoke?
- Is this particular implementation aligned with the problem we’re solving for?
- Is this the project most likely to successfully solve that problem?
Focus doesn’t mean you charge single-minded toward a goal. It means you pay rapt and incremental attention to how you need to turn the rudder on a project.
But before you can make those small changes, you must first recognize the need for change. That requires regular reflection, a sense of self-awareness, and the willingness to pivot when new information surfaces.
You must routinely ask yourself two key questions:
- Are these intentions still the correct ones?
- Are my recent decisions in line with these intentions?
She takes these sessions of reflection seriously, calendaring concrete time to evaluate her intentions and actions on a weekly basis.
Focus is really about aligning with your purpose – whether it be your purpose on a specific project or your higher purpose in life. When actions reflect intentions, you’re in alignment with your personal mission. Only then can you truly shine.
Instead of thinking of it as a quality or skill you bring to bear on something, consider focus to be the force you exert to stay in line with your intentions.
“The truly urgent stuff — the stuff that cannot be postponed and needs to take your focus away from your strategic priority—that’s pretty rare.”
Having a specific theme for each week makes it easier to see what’s truly important.
When a requested meeting would unnecessarily draw attention away from your primary objective for the week, she suggests clearly re-stating your focus for the day or week and then proposing an alternative solution that keeps your focus intact.
After understanding a top priority, her next step is always to ask: “What needs to happen to for project X to go faster?”
“Frequently, the answer is that they need to spend more time on it — in which case we go over everything else that is or could be distracting them from it and work through pushing off and deprioritizing those items,”
Prioritized focus is all about creating checkpoints for yourself — ideally weekly meetings with yourself, your org and with your manager, so you get some reinforcement and help doubling down on actions that will help you reach your intentions.
“I’m most focused when I set my own agenda versus when I let others set my agenda,” Simo says. Careful calendar management ensures that her priorities and intentions are always reflected on her schedule, creating the conditions for focused work.
when I’m very specific and engaged with what I focus on, when my calendar matches that, my decisions match that, and it’s all very aligned — that’s when I’m most productive and efficient.”
Focusing on my intentions is where my power comes from. Imagine what you can accomplish when every ounce of your energy gets applied in a way that serves your happiness, or any of your goals in life. You can become a force of nature.
References
Facebook’s VP of Product on Mastering Focus and Intentional Work. (n.d.). First Round Review. Retrieved July 22, 2021, from https://review.firstround.com/how-facebooks-vp-of-product-finds-focus-and-creates-conditions-for-intentional-work
Forte, T. (2017, December 1). The Monthly Review is a Systems Check. Forte Labs. https://fortelabs.co/blog/the-monthly-review-is-a-systems-check/