Ep81: Focus and Productivity

August 24, 2022 Valerie Ihsan

No new patrons this week, but a big heartfelt jolly dance for existing patrons. You mean the world to me. Thank you for believing in me and in the podcast.

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I'M READING: The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki and listening to The Mountains We Carry by Zaid Brifkani.
Up Next: It's too early to start thinking of the next book. Though Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link, How to Be a Good Creature by Sy Montgomery, and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers are all contenders at the present moment.
Announcements: Erick's new book, Chasing Shadows, is out now!
Passion Planner is launching their new line of annual dated planners for 2023 tomorrow, August 25 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time. I've already got mine picked out! I've been using my planner more and more to take the edge off my stress. Playing with stickers and markers in my planner gives me a wee bit of creative time each week that is separate from my Book Making Time. USE MY DISCOUNT CODE: VALERIEO866
Writer Craft Writing Retreat is scheduled for next August 24-27, 2023. Tickets are $900 this year and include all lodging and gourmet meals, plus instruction and coaching and retreat time on the river, in Marcola, OR. Payment plans are available, and registration opens November 1st, 2022. Patrons receive a hefty discount AND can buy early, making their monthly payments even less expensive. Go tovalerieihsan.com/retreat for more information.

Show Notes:

What's your one thing for the month of September?

Here's what I learned about accountability groups years ago.

They're awesome. And here's why:

I have some mutated Wonder Woman glitch in my brain that makes me volunteer for jobs or writing projects or helping friends out at a rate that would stagger a cheetah. And it ends badly.

I'm either stressed out so much that I start eating my weight in potato chips and chocolate bars (sometimes candy by the bag), crying, or I abandon everything. Jump ship and sleep. My sign that depression is looming. Overwhelm = Depression in my body and mind and spirit, so I need to be on guard. Which is difficult when my default setting is, "How hard could it be?"

So, accountability groups.

The biggest take-away from my group was this: If you have too much on your list, none of it gets done. Bam.

I remember hearing, Three things. That's all you can do. If you get those three things done and you have time and energy left, great. Do more. But you can only pick three things to focus on this week. And I'd cry. In Barnes and Noble's Starbucks cafe. Cry because I could only choose three things to focus on when I KNEW in my cells I had 84 things to do.

I remember hearing, I think you should not put anything else on your plate unless your house sells. And crying in Springfield's Public House because I couldn't bear the thought of not working forward on my dreams while I did this other humungous thing--fixing up and selling my rental house.

I hate being told that I need to prioritize. I despise the perceived weakness in not being able to do it all.

Sure, yes. Set a pomodoro timer for 25 minutes and focus on one thing at a time, but can't I do that 84 times?

No.

I'm too scattered. It's never the quality Deep Work that Cal Newport talks about, or The One Thing that Gary Keller writes about. And it's certainly not the Way of Essentialism that Greg McKeown talks about. Have you read this book? Here's a taste: (read pg. 7 with accompanying illustration).

Scattershot and spaghetti on the walls do not get things done. And you're perpetually in Putting out Fires mode. At the end of the day, answering your emails isn't nearly as satisfying and productive as writing 500 words in your manuscript, or building another page on your coaching and editing website.

I have to choose one thing so that I CAN get the other things done.

I know it's counter-intuitive. Seriously. I know.

But you know what else I do if left unchecked? Read ten books at the same time. And I don't retain any of it. I never read long enough in one book to sink into the meaning and message, or the character's lives. When that happens now (thankfully MUCH less frequently--like maybe once a year), I force myself to pick one book and finish it. And then I pick the next one and read it. And my pile diminishes. And then! I feel the glory of picking out a brand new book and reading it in its entirety, with no guilt, with no 'hurry up and get through this book because I have three others I'm half way through that I need to get to.'

And so it is with the author life. We all have hopes and dreams and goals and projects and maybe even tasks and backlog. The coolest thing that happens when we focus on one thing at a time is getting to the end of the year and reviewing what you've accomplished.

I spent most of last year running around higgledly-piggledly and feeling way more stressed than normal, and I STILL managed to start a podcast, and a Patreon page, adopt another dog, make important business decisions, sell a house, retire from my massage practice, start a new job at a bookstore I love, and design a signature coaching program that I'm hoping with one day fund my husband's retirement and our move to Costa Rica. That's a lot for someone that doesn't think they can get anything done.

Focus did that. Even the little I could scrape up in odd moments between depression-induced Netflix binges.

Another thing to remember about focus is that it really can prevent burnout. If you can pick out one or two things to focus on for a month (knowing there are those 82 other things from your list taunting you), you can build the self-confidence and self-esteem to start treating yourself with compassion and respect that will enable and empower you to tell yourself, "Yes, I know you are still there Big Fat List, and I'll get to each and every one of you. But you need to wait in line like everyone else here."

And that is power.

That is space to breathe without beating yourself up.

That is accomplishing what you set out to do.

That is Focusing and Finishing something.

If you pick one thing at a time to work on, you can't get burnout or overwhelm, because you've only got one thing in front of you right now. Blinders are a beautiful thing.

And why focus is so important to productivity.

I hope you were able to take something out of this (solo show) blog post that resonated with you and inspired you to find that One (Essential) Thing that you can focus on this month.

What is it? Leave a comment on the website or on YouTube or Patreon in the comments section and tell me what your one thing is this month.

Resources:

Erick's Linktree link: https://linktr.ee/erickmertzauthor

Russell P. Nohelty and Monica Leonelle's book, Get Your Book Selling on Kickstarter.

Productivity for Creative People: How to Get Creative Work Done in an "Always on" World by Mark McGuiness

Essentialism by Greg McKeown

The Anatomy of a Bestseller by Sacha Black

And the Kicker Is

Writing Scenes.: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/three-story-method-writing-scenes

The Author Life Community

Passion Planner: https://bit.ly/3AUiJUx (affiliate link)

ProWriting Aid: https://prowritingaid.com/?afid=9378 (affiliate link)