What happens when you lose focus?
Notion Creators Weekly #29
Welcome to NCW | 29, where I share ~ 1 Big Idea & 3 Resources to help you work with more focus and intention. And thank you all for bringing us past 2,200 subscribers!
Losing Focus
Four months ago, my wife and I put an offer on a house. We knew it would be a ton of work, but our excitement outweighed the anxiety. We knew moving would be stressful, especially with a toddler and newborn. We had our work cut out for us. All new territory.
Shockingly, we were quickly overwhelmed with juggling parenting, work and house updates, right in the middle of holiday season.
What I hadn’t anticipated was just how disruptive the process would be to…everything.
As a Notion consultant, one of my big pitches to clients is how systems can help teams maximize their time and energy, and do their best work without overwhelm. I had the systems I needed, but failed to use them consistently.
Through the daily chaos of unpacking, house projects, and parenting, finding a work rhythm felt all but impossible. There was seemingly never an uninterrupted stretch to get my client work and content creation in order.
What I discovered eventually was that this mindset was by no means inevitable, and had no bearing on the actual time and focus available for deep work.
Resetting Focus with OKRs
I finally block out an early morning work session, focused entirely on OKRs (Objectives & Key Results) for the upcoming quarter.
Realigning goals to daily actions probably took less than two hours. Why did I put this off for so long?!
This process left me revisiting OKRs as the best way to realign mission with daily action. If you’ve lost focus, or feel like your systems are unraveling, here are five quick strategies to get your focus back.
Revisit Your Mission
This is the ideal starting point when your productivity lags. A strong mission encapsulates the values, ideals, and ambitions that drive your work and life choices.
Clarify Annual Goals
Exceptionally-written goals build the foundation for execution, all the way down to daily tasks and rituals. The tl;dr: where do you want to be a year from now?
Set Objectives
Why set objectives quarterly? You have four chances to fail, learn, and improve. Clear objectives are wide-ranging, from revenue goals, to shipping a big new feature, to producing a set number of social media posts.
Define Key Results
Every objective should have 2-3 ways to measure your performance. Measuring key results allows you to objectively review how you performed across all objectives – a hugely insightful exercise to do four times a year.
Develop Projects
Projects need to move the needle on your key results. Projects have a clear start and end. Projects have a clear set of tasks.
Build Habits
A strong routine frees of mental focus for the deep creative work. Habits are automations for the mind.
Life will undoubtedly throw disruptions your way, but there are simple systems we can put in place to get ahead of disruption.
If you’re new to OKRs, check out this Goals Primer Video and Free Goals Notion Template.
Notion News
🔘 Buttons are Here! 🔘
If you haven’t seen the update yet, buttons are little automations that you can do to create, edit, or manipulated content in a sequence.
If you’re stumped on how you might use it, I walk through how you can create a project template and add tasks automatically using a button. You can check it out here:
Also, Jill Metcalfe assembled a great Twitter thread of video walkthroughs if you’re interested in diving into the button rabbit-hole!
🏆 Creators Spotlight
This week’s shout out goes to Frances Odera Mathews (aka @thenotionbar).
Frances is a Certified Notion Consultant, and also launched an entire Notion course on a global course platform called Domestika.
If you learn best with engaging content, interactive lessons, and a fun approach to productivity, definitely check out the course! Or if you need a consultant to help build/organize your Notion workspace, you can find Frances’ info below!
(ps. not an affiliate, just a big fan. 🙂)
Course | Introduction to Notion for Creative Projects
Website | The Notion Bar
🍲 Brain Food
Dr. Elissa Epel | Huberman Lab Podcast
On the latest episode of The Huberman Lab Podcast, Dr. Elissa Epel goes into fascinating detail on the the relationships between stress, aging and diet.
The portion that resonated the most was when Dr. Epel goes into ways to manage stress. Few bullet points on tools to combat overthinking (and stress that follows):
We can leverage our beliefs and mindsets to release stress more positively
The mind doesn’t change the body, the body changes the mind (work stress out of the body with physical activity)
Change the scene, by getting away from all the spaces and environments that trigger stress (it can be as simple as a corner of the home)
🙌🏼 That’s it for this week!
I’d love to hear what you think. What strategies help you get focused? Just hit reply to let me know!
And if you’re loving Notion Creators Weekly, feel free to share with friends! 😀
Until next time,
Dave