[Intro] Welcome to the OWN It Podcast with me, Nicole Hollar, where we're gonna talk
about stuff to help you get out of your way, take charge of your life and, well, other stuff, too.
[00:00:00] I received a great question and it was about some tools or things to consider to
have better focus.
Now, I imagine all of us at some point have had some time, you know, hard time focusing.
Apparently I'm having it right now and whatever words I want to use. The reality though, is
that focusing is a lot more difficult now because there are so many distractions around us.
And if, if you're somebody that works at home, I can only imagine what it's like during your
work day.
For some people, they're really. Excellent at homeworking and other people, they have a
much more difficult time. There's so many things that can grab your attention at any time,
especially if there are kids there. Now I'm being a little bit specific when it comes to remote
work and children, because there are some things that we're going to have a more difficult
time.
[00:01:00] It's going to really be about having awareness and accountability to the things that
are most distracting to us. So if you consider your day, what are the things that pull you away
from your focus? For me, I can tell you that It's the phone calls or the pings than dings. So
what I've learned is when I really need to hone in and focus on something, I just turn off the
ringer, whether you put it on, do not disturb or silence it.
It doesn't matter because distraction awareness is one of the number one things Things that
you need to do in order to have better focus. What is it? Is it your phone? It like the phone
call? Is it a, the ding from an email or a text and you're looking one at a time? Or is it maybe
your sudden need to look something up or maybe you got
[00:02:00] into. I like to call it the, the web hole where you clicked on one thing and, and that
led you to six more things and now you're booking a trip to Europe because you found
something about the local commuter train and it led you there, you know, whatever it is. I
mean, we've, we've all been there, right? Like I already said, if you're home, maybe it's
suddenly you want to do laundry.
Well, whatever, whatever. is the thing that distracts you if you can imagine that there was a
scale, like a scale from 1 to 5. If certain things rank over a 3, you're going to need to learn
how to put that to the side. Because the things that are 1 or a 2, you can probably just ignore.
Anything that's a 3 or above, again, the phone, the text, the whatever it is, The first thing I
would recommend to you do is to create a time block. Now, a time block is
[00:03:00] a specific time where you've allocated to, I'm going to return emails here. I am
going to follow up on those phone calls there. And you want to give yourself a reasonable
amount of time. And time blocks aren't just about, you know, Work productivity. It's about
anything, right? I mean, we've all had a weekend.
We were like, Oh, I, I have so many things that I want to do. I I'm having a staycation. I'm
home. I have nothing to do for days. And you realize that you've, you've. I've literally done
nothing because you've had no time blocks or anything to anchor your day, so the days just
sort of drifted away. So what a time block does is it sort of helps you to stay focused and
directed toward whatever the priority things are on your schedule or the things that you need
to clean up during a day. Also, when it comes to prioritization, the
[00:04:00] second thing I recommend to people is something that I call TEVS, your Thought
and Emotion Value Scale. Everything in our life is it's a priority or not. Right. I mean, you
have to get rid of the I shoulds, the I shoulds really do very little for people other than create
guilt and the biggest I should, I think that I've ever heard is I should lose weight, I should
change jobs, I should something that's probably for the betterment of themselves, genuinely,
but they just aren't, I should stop smoking, stop drinking, whatever it is, but they're just not
ready to do it.
So on the thought and emotion value scale, if it's not important to you, put it to the side, just
stop saying, I should, because what you're doing is you're creating this visualization process
in this cycle, having your mind can continuously think about it, but taking no action. And it's
really just, it's occupying a lot of valuable energy
[00:05:00] and resources in, in thought and focus, and just recreating that cycle.
Cycle of why we don't make change in our life. So it's okay. This, this podcast is about
owning it. Just table it. You don't have to lose weight right now. You don't have to stop
smoking or curb your, you know, pizza habit. Not right now. Maybe you should, but if you
aren't ready, then table it for right now.
There's nothing wrong with that. And then when you're ready to come back to it. Another
thing I recommend to people, it's very basic. Make a list. Create a task list. Check that off
during the day. I don't If it's on paper, if it's on your phone, your computer, if you're old
school, you know, you want to write it in a journal, as long as it works for you, make a list.
Don't have your your post it notes have baby post it notes So you don't you don't want to have
like a sea of post it notes everywhere because that's mind cluttering too I mean, I grew up
[00:06:00] in a in a space where I could see six different post it notes where they all said
something similar. We want to create a little consolidation there, but create a list for yourself.
And if you need to prioritize on that list, all of these different tools that you use will help you
to be more focused. And the more focused you are. The more productive you're going to be
that applies to me and everybody else. I still clients all the time. The next thing that I do,
which is create reminders my phone, the reminders of my phone are orange.
I have reminders on my phone that say things like grocery shop, because if I've finished. You
know a client session, or I'm done with this task for the day, or I've finished writing
something for a workshop, and then, of course, I can jump right into the next thing. I might
have a reminder that says, Call, insert friend's name.
And people often tell
[00:07:00] me, they're like, Nicole, you're so good at remembering birthdays, or whatever.
I'm like, I'm not. I'm not. I'm really not. I, And I'm not cheating. I'm just using resources that
are available to us guys. And some of the biggest violators. I mean, I've worked with a lot of
people who self profess that they're either introverts or have ADHD.
And in many ways, It's for introverted people. And this is a sidebar. It's like, it's, I don't think
that you really don't like people. You just don't want people messing with your piece for
people who say they have ADHD and they very well may. One of the biggest things that I've
ever realized is that, that people don't want to use lists.
They don't, they don't tend to want to use. tools to help them in it. And it's not something that
I really understand. Use the tools available to us. There are so many things now, sometimes
overwhelming. So find the thing that works for you. For me, it's just a simple reminder on my
phone. Use tools. And
[00:08:00] the final thing is, have location anchors.
How many people have bought gym equipment and that treadmill mostly gets used by the
dog? Or you try to put the cat on, cause you saw that fun Instagram video, like that little
chubby cat in the water meowing. You know, we do these things because it sounds like a
great idea, but maybe that's, really doesn't work for you.
And that's okay. If you're a home office worker, Is it healthy for you to be sitting on the
couch with your laptop on your lap? Are you as productive? Is it good for your body? Can
you carve out a space in your home that says this is when I'm at work and then when I'm not
at work that computer shuts down and I go to a different place in the house?
I originally started talking about the gym. I think most people are more productive in a gym
setting. Now, I've certainly heard plenty of people tell me they hate the gym because they're
gross and that may be well and true depending on your environment, but maybe there
[00:09:00] is a different type of location that would work for you.
So honor the things that work for you. This podcast, like I said, is about owning it, owning
where you are, what you need, be mindful of your behaviors and take accountability for them.
If you're somebody who does let all of the distractions in the day pull you away from
something that's a fluid flow. Be mindful of it.
Be accountable to it. It's okay. Assembly line workers know that in order to be most
productive, right, that's why there's an assembly line. They're making widget after widget
after widget. They don't have to change their flow, their thought process. So, again, you want
to make sure that you are time blocking anything that could be simple distractions.
Put it to the side for when you can specifically focus on that one thing. Next, you want to
prioritize using TEVS, the Thought and
[00:10:00] Emotion Value Scale. If it's not that important, put it to the side. Even if you think
it's important, but you're just not ready to act on it, put it to the side. Create a task list,
reminders for yourself, and honor the locations.
that work best for you. And remember guys, this is your time. And as always, if you liked this
episode, please by all means, give me five stars, follow the podcast so you can be updated for
new posts and updates. And you can find me on most social media platforms
@NicoleHollarCoaching, or on my website where you can learn more about my wellness and
empowerment coaching, as well as speaking engagement and books that I am currently
writing.
