Lately I’ve been reading a few books on the subject of focus and concentration. One of the books I stumbled upon is called “Two Awesome Hours – Science Based Strategies to Harness Your Best Time and Get Your Most Important Work Done” by Josh Davis. It’s a short read, which I like. And it also offers some practical strategies for productivity improvement, which I also like.
Davis offered five strategies for peak productivity:
Strategy 1: Recognize Your Decision Points.
Once we start a new task, we’ll be on an autopilot mode and can easily be unaware of time and our surroundings. And we are likely to start to tackle tasks that are easy or urgent rather than the tasks that are important. The way to solve this problem is to identify decision moments, pause and reflect on our true priorities, and focus on true priorities.
Strategy 2: Manage Your Mental Energy.
Tasks that require a lot of willpower and mental focus drain our energy fast. And tasks that may make us more emotional will make us less productive. For peak productivity, we must tackle the most important works when we have the mental energy for it.
Strategy 3: Stop Fighting Distractions.
Our attention systems “are designed to regularly refresh — to be ready to discover what is new in our environment.” Letting our mind wander or taking a few minutes to stare out the window may actually help us to refocus.
Strategy 4: Leverage Your Mind-Body Connection.
Our mind and our bodies are intertwined and we should focus as much on our physical health as our mental health. We need stay hydrated, eat smaller meals more often, moderate doses of caffeine and moderate exercise.
Strategy 5: Make Your Workspace Work For You.
We need to design and set up a work environment that help us achieve peak productivity. In other words, we can create a physical environment that is restorative rather than distracting. For instance, we can choose a quiet area with bright and cool lighting and keep your desk uncluttered.Â
Of all the strategies, I think Strategy 1 is the most important strategy and the key idea in this book. So I’ll focus on this idea for the purpose of this article.
Davis suggested that our mind operates like computers to some extent – when we are on autopilot mode, we would, well, automatically work on the tasks at hand without thinking about whether these tasks are worth the time and effort. Just like when computer programs are running, they won’t stop unless commanded to. For instance, if the first thing you do when you get to the office is to check your emails, before you realize it, you will automatically open, read and reply many emails until interrupted. Davis points out that most of what we do, or the decisions we made do not require conscious effort. They are driven by our habits. Habits and routines are good because they save a lot of energy for our brain.
But the problem is, we often jump from one task to the other task without even thinking about what the best step is. This leads to massive inefficiency. Davis says that in order for us to achieve peak productivity, we have to pay special attention to what he calls the decision points, or moments between tasks. Davis observes that when we are faced with decision points, most people would rush through them and grab the task that’s most available at the moment – such as responding to emails. The consequence of rushing through decision point is that you may save five minutes making the decision but you waste an hour on less important things. But the five minutes needed would make us feel uneasy because we are not on autopilot and can feel the time passing by. In contrast, when we choose the first available task and operate on autopilot, we don’t feel bad.
Another great point Davis brings to the book is the principle of least effort. According to Wikipedia, “The principle of least effort postulates that animals, people, even well-designed machines will naturally choose the path of least resistance or effort.” Daniel Kahneman also writes in his famous book, “Thinking, Fast and Slow:”
“A general ‘law of least effort’ applies to cognitive as well as physical exertion. The law asserts that if there are several ways of achieving the same goal, people will eventually gravitate to the least demanding course of action. In the economy of action, effort is a cost, and the acquisition of skill is driven by the balance of benefits and costs. Laziness is built deep into our nature.”
At those decision points, we are often faced with conflicts which need to be resolved and because resolving those conflicts may bring us unpleasant feelings, we tend to rush through the decision points. And that’s exactly when we screw up.
Davis offers three “tricks” to help us most optimally navigate through these decision points:
- Savor each decision point and be intentional about your next step.
- Plan your decision points in advance by knowing the action that different cues trigger.
- Don’t start a new task without consciously deciding it’s the right one.
I’ve implemented trick No. 1 and trick No. 3 easily. They are very practical. Trick No. 2 is a bit tricky and I’m still learning how to best use it.
If we follow Davis’ five strategies, we should see a modest, if not dramatic increase in our productivity. The most important thing is to approach it in a systematic way. As Davis said in an interview, “To tackle the impacts of unconscious bias, you really want this to be a systemic thing. We should set up systems and processes for gathering all the information and ensure we go through certain steps before making the decision."
