You might’ve tried it already– most time management wisdom leaks away your focus. Just for how many hours can you stop yourself from gazing at your phone or wandering in your email inbox to reply to urgent mails?
Whether it’s social media leisure or responding to urgent duties, there’s just a way out to achieve exceptional focus and improve your productivity.
So, here’s the tip: Reserve a ‘Mega Day’ out of your weekly work days, that has absolutely zero distractions.
You might be battling with the above statement just as I battled when I discovered it. Is it really possible to have a zero-distraction space for entire working hours? Yes, it is, and let’s see how.
The idea behind Mega Day:
The philosophy of mega day is best explained with James Clear’s concept of ‘half-work’ (James Clear is the author of best selling book Atomic Habits).
Clear define half work in which an individual equally divides their attention among the need to respond to messages, emails, to-do lists, and what’s supposed to be done.
Here are some examples of half-work:
- You are writing a code for your application but you start talking to a coworker sitting next to you.
- You’re tasked to write an important email for your clients but your focus is shifted to your smartphone.
- You’re reading an important document but get distracted by coworkers who talk as they pass by.
No matter how you fall into the trap of half-work, the result is almost always the same– you’re never fully engaged in your work and it takes twice as much to complete half of your work.
Set-up For a Mega Day.
Mega Day is the day of your work week when you intentionally keep away from all kinds of distractions– phone, email inbox, co-workers and home chores.
Ideally, your mega day should be a 12 hour slot from 7am-7pm where it’s just you and your work; nothing else.
Think about the goal which you want to accomplish with all your might. Simply reserve a Mega Day each week and focus on it truly.
Remember, there should be just one project on your mega day. The best way to truly engage in work is to focus on one project and eliminate the rest.
Okay, so that’s understandable– exceptional work requires exceptional focus, but is it really possible to avoid distractions for a whole day?
Many times we can’t ignore distractions as they might be in the form of urgent responsibilities, like responding to your clients, providing support to co-workers, picking up kids from school or doing groceries.
Whatever your responsibilities are, take help from people around you. For example, ask your spouse to pick up kids and do groceries in exchange for extra relief on the weekend.
Similarly, make work arrangements in advance so that your colleagues don’t have to reach you on your mega day.
In short, do everything to create a distraction free environment for yourself, where you can set aside your cell phone, and close your email tab to solely focus on your work.
Reserve your Mega Days in Advance.
The purpose of Mega Day is to achieve exceptional focus. It’s important that you arrange in advance so you don’t have to glance at your phone or respond to colleagues for urgent matters.
Meanwhile, if you think arranging for a mega day could be tough, instead of reserving it every week, you can try it every two weeks, or even every month. No matter what the frequency is, the fruit of this daunting reservation is the amount of the important work that it produces.
