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Welcome to Life's a Game, a weekly newsletter to help ambitious people build a more meaningful and integrated life. Was this sent to you? Subscribe here so you don't miss the next one.​

The Focus Formula

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Quick Spin:

• The power of focus
• A 30 Day Focus Challenge
• The 5 Cs of Lost Time

If today's newsletter gets you curious about learning the skills to focus on your next project, I have a community of over 100 people starting their brands --> revenue businesses. We meet daily in slack, bi-weekly coaching sessions plus monthly deep dives on topics like newsletters, email courses, digital products and more.

I'm opening up 10 more spots in May! If you've been waiting for a sign to get more intentional with passive income streams.....this might be it.

​Click here to secure your spot.
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♟️ MY TURN:

In 2018 I found myself in Boston giving a keynote speech about guilt to a room full of female entrepreneurs. In my speech I said:

“I’d rather be a present mom for 2 hours a day than a distracted mom for 4.”

A woman came up to me after the talk and said this was her lightbulb moment. She realized by spreading herself too thin, no one was getting the best version of her.

And this happens in a lot of scenarios:

• Checking slack while at dinner with our family
• Sending emails while at the gym
• Scrolling twitter while trying to decompress on the couch

In my Masterclass, I teach the 5 C’s of Lost Time.

• C #1: Cognitive Overload → Trying to remember too much
• C #2: Context Switching → Trying to do too much
• C #3: Consumer Diet → Trying to consume too much
• C #4: Chaos → Lack of Organization
• C #5: Calendar Creep → Unrealistic expectations

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​Let’s Focus on #2: Context Switching

On average, people take 9.5 minutes to get back into a productive workflow after switching between apps or tasks. Let’s look at a visual at how we lose time by context switching.

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So how do we solve it?

Enter: The Focus Formula

The focus formula is taking all your cognitive resources and putting them on a single source or task. Others may call this undivided attention.

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“That’s nice. But I have so much on my plate and everybody needs me all the time.”

I hear this a lot in my coaching sessions.

My challenge to you is understanding why you don’t feel like your goals or needs are as important as someone else’s.

Someone’s inability to shut out distractions (out of fear of missing a text, email, slack, etc) is usually a fear of losing that person’s love, attention, validation or being needed by them.

If this pings something for you, then perhaps it’s a sign to stay here and really sit with it.

• Ask yourself who modeled that for you?
• Who taught you that your needs come second?

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♟️ YOUR TURN:

Ready to take back your goals and apply the focus formula?

Let me introduce you to...

The one hour challenge.

For the month of May, I challenge you to pick one thing that is important to you that you feel has not been getting your undivided attention.

Examples:

• That project you want to ship this year.
• Building muscle.
• Deepening your relationship with your kids.
• Strengthening your relationship with your partner.
• Investing in friendships.
• Planning a trip.

Pick something that you find yourself saying “when things slow down, I’m going to focus on that”

Pause here.

Don’t proceed until you have the thing in your mind.

Got it? Ok.

Let’s focus.

Step 1: Schedule it on your calendar

Pick a time that you can stick with most days. Depending on the item you selected your time slots may vary.

For me - I am going to go straight to the gym after I drop off the kids and workout from 8:30-9:30am before I get sucked into meetings or emails.

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Step 2: Shut it down.

When that time comes, it’s time to shut it all down.

Ask yourself: what distracts me the most when I try to focus?

Now Shut. It. Off.

I keep my phone on “Amanda Mode” which only allows my kids’ school, partner and my parents to reach me. Everything else is silenced.

If you are working on a project - close all unrelated tabs.

Even email.
Yup, slack too.

Turn off everything that is not related to the project.

If you are working on being more present with your kids, remind yourself it’s an hour. You are going to sit and play with them for an hour and everything else can can wait.

Step 3: Set a timer

Believe it or not, one of the biggest distractions is the clock itself.

We look and start calculating minutes until the next task. We start thinking about the next chore, email or project. We’ve lost the focus formula because your resources are no longer solely focused on the thing in front of you.

So set a timer for 60 minutes and get to work.

• Build that lego set.
• Get that workout in.
• Write that newsletter.

Stop allowing other people’s needs to distract you from the thing you’ve deemed important for the month.

Reply back with what you are going to focus on and I’ll check back in at the end of May and see how it went!!!

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♟️ Let's Win Together.

Struggling with Focus? I want to help!

If today's newsletter gets you curious about strengthening your focus muscle, checkout my productivity masterclass here. It's a 3 hour course with everything I've learned as a single mom of 3 juggling multiple businesses. You will save 10 hours a week, I guarantee it.

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