Focus on This

When our goals no longer feel exciting, the pursuit can feel cumbersome. It feels like everything is a drag, like there’s something wrong with your goals or the way you set them. Should you just let your goals crumble and aim for different goals next time?  In this episode, Verbs and Blake walk through four key actions you can take to refresh your goals. Follow them closely to get back on track an...

You’ve bought into a cultural fallacy:  if you do more and work tirelessly, you’ll achieve more and get the results you want.  The problem is, it’s not working. Burnout is high, quality drops, and it’s not sustainable. How can you keep cranking out results without constantly running on fumes? In this episode, Verbs and Blake walk you through three constraints you can leverage to maximize your outp...

We all have that one big goal that we'd love to accomplish but we sometimes we don't sincerely believe that we can actually do it. In this episode, we're joined again by Full Focus Certified Pro and new author, Jake Brown. Jake talks about how the Full Focus Planner set him up to finish his new book. In fact, the system was so effective that he wasn't even aware of how close he was to finishing hi...

In order for us to be productive throughout the day and achieve the goals that we've set for ourselves, we rely on a set of mental processes called executive functioning skills. Whether or not you're familiar with the term, you're using these skills every day. In today's episode, Full Focus Certified Pro Nicole Santamaria drops by the show again and talks with Nick about executive functioning and...

Full Focus Planner Certified Pro Andrea Liebross is back on the show! She shares with Nick three revelations that she's had about goal achievement. Whether it's reassessing the way you plan and schedule, understanding the difference between interest and commitment, or recognizing your 'zone of extraordinary achievement,' there's something in this episode for everyone. In this episode, you'll learn...

We looked it up and we are officially in the "Dog Days of Summer". Yes, that is a real thing that starts on July 3 and lasts through August 11. Since this is the first episode of the Dog Days of Summer, we thought it would be a good time to talk about how a summer reset can set you up for a Q3 that will help propel you to your goals. To help us, we are joined by Full Focus Planner Certified Pro, J...

For the 200th episode of Focus on This, Nick asks ChatGPT to provide some productivity advice while Blake and Verbs decide how accurate it is and ponder whether or not they'll be replaced soon. Along the way, "Blake Shelton" writes a song about productivity, Nick shares some items off of his desk, Blake antagonizes AI, and Verbs offers a final verdict on their future.   Remember to get all of the...

It is officially summer which means that it is time for a vacation. You have planned your vacation already, right? You do realize that taking time for you and your family is super important, right? It's just a fact that taking time for yourself helps with decreasing stress, improving your health, and even career success. So, if you haven't a vacation (or even if you have!), Blake, Verbs, and Nick...

While the Full Focus Planner has been developed relatively recently, people have found ways to be productive for thousands of years. How did Maya Angelou write more than 30 books? How did Thomas Edison invent so many life-changing products? How did Benjamin Franklin have the time and energy to do practically everything? In this episode, Blake, Verbs, and Nick uncover those answers and they filter...

Chuck is the kind of guy we all want to be. He's kind, caring, and funny. But, despite his achievements, Chuck always felt like he wasn't organized enough to achieve the goals that he set for himself. Then, after taking a new job in 2018, a colleague and friend of Chuck gave him a Full Focus Planner. After that, he dove straight into the entire Full Focus System including setting a life plan for h...

Remember when you were in school and the teacher would say, "Please ask any questions you have because somebody else might have the same one"? Well, that's what today's episode is all about! In this episode, Blake and Verbs tackle some great questions directly from the Full Focus Planner Community. Hopefully your teacher was right and there's some answers for you within the other students' questio...

At the end of a long work day, it is very easy to collapse on the couch and spend the rest of your waking hours staring at a screen. That's great if that's a goal you've set for yourself, but for most people they wish that they had more energy so they could accomplish the tasks that are important to them. In this episode, Blake and Verbs talk you through four different methods to boost your energy...

If running a business was easy, then everybody would do it. However, being a business owner means juggling a seemingly endless array of tasks with endless deadlines. In today's episode, Blake and Verbs share three ways that the Full Focus System takes the complicated life business owner life and provides clarity and peace of mind. In this episode you will: Find out how the Daily Big 3 works with a...

We're all busy. One day you were just some person with few responsibilities and then, seemingly the next day, you're entire calendar is booked and you still have an overflowing to-do list. In order to accomplish all of this, we're going to need energy. The best way to get energy is through taking time off to focus on the people, activities, and things that you love. That creates quite a conundrum:...

Why is forming new habits - the good ones, at least - so hard to do? We've often heard that it take 21 days to develop a new habit, but personal experience tells many of us that it takes much longer than three weeks to truly install the kinds of habits that we feel will make our lives happier, healthier, and more productive. It's important to understand how to do this right because every time that...

Our modern world is full of distractions. For example, on average, a person will look at their phone 350 times a day. 350 times in a day! If you sleep 8 hours a night, that works out to almost once every two minutes. How are you supposed to reach your goals if your rhythm is always interrupted by a notification on your phone, a Slack message from your colleague, or a ring at the front door? In thi...

What is your go-to task when you're supposed to be doing another more important task? Is it organizing your desk? Checking Slack messages? Folding laundry? Whatever your go-to task is, it will lead you to the same place: The Distraction Zone. This is a concept first described in Michael Hyatt's book, Free to Focus. It describes the area where you're not contributing anything valuable towards your...

We've all been there: You volunteer to help out with an extra thing at work or you tell a friend that you'll help them over the weekend. Then, as the event itself approaches, you realize that you simply do not have the time or energy and you shouldn't have agreed to do this in the first place. Well, there's good news: There are times when you can gracefully back out of situations like this. Blake,...

We've all heard the phrase, "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." But, how does that apply to goal achievement and productivity? In this episode, Blake and Verbs share stories of how they changed their environments to achieve their own goals. Blake tells a story from his college days while Verbs tells a much more recent story (that actually connects to a goal that...

Spring is the perfect time of year to look at your priorities. Think of it as a Spring Cleaning for your priorities! When you spend a minute looking at what is important to you and what isn’t, you can streamline your tasks and see a clearer picture of where you’re spending your time. A ‘Not-to-do List’ is where you take a list of activities or commitments and highlight anything that you won’t do o...

When we want to get something accomplished, we tend to think of skills, habits, or tools that we can add to help us reach our goal. However, often times, the real trick to goal achievement isn't what you can add, but what you can subtract. Blake, Courtney, and Verbs offer three different categories (life domains) that you can ask yourself: "What should I stop doing?" They give examples from their...

Have you ever been in the middle of a difficult week only to have an urgent situation added to your plate? In those moments, it’s so easy to freak out. It feels impossible to get everything done. While it might feel counterintuitive, the real trick to accomplishing more is stepping back and making space to get the important tasks done. Verbs, Courtney, and Blake share 3 steps to triaging your cale...

The old saying "Know Your Enemy" is derived from Sun Tzu's book, The Art of War - a Chinese military treatise that dates back to the fifth century BC. While it's doubtful that Sun Tzu had your Daily Big 3 in mind (but, maybe he did), we can use that ancient advice to battle the obstacles that stand in the way of achieving our goals. Courtney, Blake, and Verbs share with you two steps to making hea...

The “messy middle” is a place where we’ve come too far to go back but we can’t yet see what’s up ahead - and it’s normal. In fact, if you haven’t hit the messy middle yet, you probably will soon. The messy middle is typically where we feel we’ve hit the end of our own resources. It's at this moment that you have to start getting creative and asking for help. But the most important resource in the...

Let's face it: We have a tendency to be overconfident about what we can remember. We think we'll remember the important ideas from that meeting or the date of that event or the email that you have to send. By simply relying on our memory to get us through our lives, we put some of our most important goals and priorities at risk. Blake, Courtney, and Verbs offer two reasons that you should trust yo...