10 proven ways to stay focused and achieve more in life

The famous motivational speaker, Tony Robbins, once said:

“One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular.”

How much does this quote resonate with you?

Is there something in your life that you might have been an expert at by now, only if you had put in the time and effort to master it?

Are there passions that you failed to pursue, simply because you let other things like laziness or boredom get in your way?

Here’s the biggest thing that stops us from mastering what we love: Distractions.

The modern world is filled with distractions—smartphones, laptops, mobile apps, TV shows, bright lights, loud music.

Everywhere you turn, you can get lost in a maze of distractions that can eat up another day you will never get back.

The solution then is to fight back against the distractions.

Here are 10 ways you can reclaim your inherent insane focus and turn away from the distractions of the world:

1) Overset Your Time Expectations

One reason we never get anything done is that our expectations for time management are always too low.

We believe that we can start going to the gym simply by squeezing an hour into our overly-packed schedule.

However, when we start failing the hour-long expectation, we end up letting it fall to the wayside.

So over-set your time expectations—if pursuing your passion takes an hour every day, then clear up two hours from your schedule.

2) Don’t Check Email in the Morning

It may seem counterproductive to your day, but this is one of the best tips out there.

Doing your email in the morning means you start off every day slow and unproductive.

You spend an hour or two sending replies out, only to feel like you haven’t actually accomplished anything by the end of your morning.

The first thing you need to do when you wake up is accomplish something, and replying to emails isn’t an accomplishment, big or small.

3) Stop Multitasking

Multitasking means you never give anything your all. All your focus, all your attention, all your energy.

You end up going through life half-assing everything, meaning the work you produce and the experiences you create are never great.

So stop your multitasking today, and just tick off your tasks one at a time.

4) Pursue Your Passion Before Anything Else

Every day is a new day and a new challenge.

The longer you put off pursuing your passion every day, the likelier it is that you will put it off for tomorrow.

So don’t let yourself fail by forcing yourself to get it out of the way as soon as you wake up.

Whether that’s writing, reading, starting a business, painting, working out, it doesn’t matter: do it as soon as you roll out of bed.

5) Choose 2-3 Tasks Everyday That Have To Be Done

We have so many tasks in our lives that we often end up getting overwhelmed and doing none of them.

Counter this by singling out two or three core tasks that you have to do every day; if these tasks aren’t done, then your day isn’t complete.

6) Take Some Days Slowly

We burn ourselves out when we schedule a task for every hour of the day. It’s counterproductive because you end up tiring yourself out, feeling like a lifeless machine.

So learn to spend some days working slowly—schedule half the number of tasks or activities for these days, so that you can experience days where you can just breathe in and relax while staying productive.

7) Email Just Twice A Day

Email is one of those small things that we never consider when we think about the distractions in our life.

But it leads us to a bad habit—instead of helping us manage our time, it takes away our time by serving as a stop-start in the middle of anything we might be doing.

Don’t reply to messages as soon as you get them; save them for a set and scheduled time.

8) Turn Off Notifications

Notifications are the bane of the modern world. Do you really need to know every little update as soon as it happens?

For more important projects, then yes, but for everything else in life? Of course not.

Put your phone down and get back to what you were doing.

9) Stay Offline Until Core Tasks Are Done

Remember those core tasks? Dedicate yourself to their completion, every single day.

The Internet and TV are the biggest distractions stopping you from completing those tasks, so help yourself from staying offline until they are done.

Use it as a reward, if you have to—when your core tasks are complete, feel free to check your messages.

10) Know What Matters

The final and most important point: identify what matters in your life.

You need to give yourself the time to focus on your passions, but that also means taking away time from things you don’t need.

What can you cut out; what doesn’t matter in your life? Figure out what these things are, and cut them.