Podcaster Lays Out Ideas for Focusing and Being More Productive

Personal development coach Rob Dial's latest Mindset Mentor podcast was about unlocking productivity and creating focus.  This is a recurring theme of his, and one that tends to attract my attention...so here goes.  He says that focus is saying yes for a set period of time to ONE thing while saying no to everything else.  In other words, eliminate distractions.  There's a lot of common sense distilled in Dial's message, which he breaks down to seven items: (1) remove your distractions, (2) prioritize your to-do list, (3) break down your large tasks into smaller tasks, (4) focus on your progress, (5) get enough sleep, (6) stay hydrated, and (7) take breaks.  I could do better with all of these...yet it's the first one, removing distractions, that is my most difficult.  There are two kinds of distractions as I see them, internally or externally imposed.  If I have the TV on in the background while I'm trying to study or write, then that's something I'm doing to myself.  If I'm around other people and haven't effectively communicated my own boundaries about my temporary need to be free of their interruptions, then that's on me as well.  Still, in those situations, distractions, however minor they may seem, can wreck concentration and focus and markedly set back progress.  Rob Dial is a big opponent of multi-tasking, which he claims greatly diminishes the value of any directed activity. I agree if they are similar in nature, but something like, say, running or walking while listening to an audiobook shouldn't cause any problem.  Better though, to focus on the one thing, as the Australian rock group INXS once sang about more than forty years ago...