4 simple hacks that help me stay more focused throughout the day

I’ve tried a LOT of things over the years, and these have really stuck. #productivity

A 3D render of a sitting person who's trying to stay focused and mindful, but is fighting a myriad of distractions in the form of shurikens that are attacking them

I’ve been a productivity geek for a long time — due to my nature, I enjoy “life optimization” and like to try out new stuff and experiment with it, trying to keep the rational empirical approach.

I’ve also tried most of the hacks that GPT-4 suggests (see screenshots below) when you ask for productivity advice. But what are some of the other, non-obvious ones, that are aimed at improving your focus and eliminating distractions?

Initial query

Follow-up query

But you’re here not for the GPT-4 output, right? Here is my list of hacks:

1. I don’t check my phone (nor laptop) for 1-1.5h since waking up

Morning time to yourself is really important and underrated. I see so many people getting into the rabbit hole of opening messaging apps, social media, or other things first thing in the morning. I wonder how hard must it all be on their mental health in the mid to long run.

For me, this routine is simple:

• I spend the first 30-60 (depending on the day) minutes after waking up doing various physical things: warming up (a combo of stretching, yoga moves, and power exercises), running, meditating, showering (with the cold exposure, of course). Usually, I don’t check the phone at all, but sometimes I do want to check the weather (using a widget on my home screen) or my Oura/Garmin stats for the night to compare them with how I feel subjectively and determine the degree of toughness I need to apply. I keep these interactions quick and mindful and don’t count them at all.

• I then try to have at least 30 mins (sometimes up to 1.5-2h, for example on Mondays when I’m doing the reflection/planning for the week) of free time devoted to thinking or writing. I’m not a huge fan of physical notebooks so I frequently open my personal Notion and start a new empty note with something like “Today’s date journal”. If I only use Notion as the “input device” and don’t get distracted by anything else, I don’t count this as well.

• What helps (both with the phone and the laptop) is if you close all of your apps in the evening so that they don’t hang “open” when you’re about to do the mindful stuff you need your devices for. See the next hack as it solves that for the iPhone, at least.

• Thinking about doing this? Start with the “challenge” at first. Find a person to be your buddy and you both do this (e.g. 1 hour with no phone) for a month.

2. I have no notifications enabled with very few exceptions

I only have notifications for banking apps, calls (I see when someone is calling me), or the Messages app (I don’t use it for chatting with anyone — and need notifications mainly for the “confirmation codes”). Yes, I’m that kind of person — there are no other notifications.

The same goes for the laptop, where there aren’t even any exceptions.

Getting rid of notifications is the easiest way to eliminate distractions. How often do you really need to see that message or that email and reply immediately, and not in an hour when you decide to open a specific app yourself?

And you know what? Never had this ever been a problem. If something is really-really urgent, a person calls me. But usually, that happens very rarely (can maybe only recall a couple of such events in the last year).

Try this. It will seriously change your perspective on “being active and online” all the time.

3. I put 24h time limit on every single non-productivity app

The biggest problem with undesired consumption is not enough limits to prevent us from mindlessly starting the consumption loop. It’s just too easy to open a specific app on your phone when you’re bored, tired, or want to distract yourself. Solution? Create an additional limit that can possibly make you think twice before opening an app.

I have set a perpetual 24h time limit on all non-productivity apps, meaning apps with the potential for undesired consumption: messenger apps, social media apps, email apps, video apps, community apps, games, etc. Every single one of them.

Here’s how it works on the iPhone, but I’m pretty sure you can figure out something similar on Android:

The whole process

1. You go to “Screen time”, then “Downtime” and set a scheduled downtime every day from for example 5 am till 4.59 am, which means that it will be active for almost the entire 24h window.

2. You go to “Always allowed” and delete all the apps that have the potential to be consumed abnormally. I suggest that you include all messengers, social media, and leisure apps.

3. The “limited” apps will look like this on your screen:

4. And whenever you try to open one of them, you’ll see this:

5. Of course, you can still choose “Ignore limit for today” and keep using the app, but I suggest you don’t click on it and use “15-min” instead. Usually, that’s enough to make sure you don’t get dragged into endless scrolling/consumption because you get kicked out.

4. I try to do 2 no-distractions 1.5h focused blocks a day

I first heard about the “Focused” time blocks from Cal Newport’s “Deep Work” book (go read it or at least watch one of his podcasts, like this one with Lex Fridman).

The second fitting piece was Andrew Huberman with his scientific explanation of why 1.5 hours is the best block for a focused session.

Since then I’ve adopted the practice of having 1-2 (not always you get to have 2, sadly — if there are just way too many meetings/calls or smaller tasks) 1.5h focused time blocks. I reserve them on my calendar (this technique is called time blocking), usually at the same times to optimize for the circadian rhythms:

My actual calendar

Before I begin the block, I click edit and add what I want to work on/accomplish directly into the description of the event. Sometimes I make the blocks longer if I feel like it.

It’s okay for me to move these blocks to various times of the day depending on the context. The goal is to make sure you do at least 1 (ideally 2) and do it intentionally and without distractions.

How do you avoid distractions? Just tell yourself to only do what you’ve set up for and avoid everything else. Close all apps and focus on the task you’ve described in the event.

Did anything resonate with you? I’m super curious to hear about your own hacks and will happily publish another post with these. DM me on Telegram, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

I can also be your accountability buddy if you reach out to me and ask for it ;)