Focus on This

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...

Understanding your personality type is a helpful tool to unlocking ways to become more productive and satisfied. Of course, the Full Focus Planner is a great tool for everybody, but in this episode, we break down every Enneagram personality type and how you can leverage the planner to achieve your best results. Courtney talks with Terrie Power . Terrie is both a Full Focus Planner Certified Pro an...

This is the last episode in our three-part look at the Weekly Preview. We previously talked about the Weekly Big 3 and the After Action Review. Our focus this time is on planning the upcoming week. This is the moment where you take all of the lessons learned from your After Action Review and combine those with the Weekly Big 3 tasks that you've already decided are essential. A properly planned wee...

Because goals are something that we often set for ourselves, we forget that we don't have to achieve them alone. Reaching out to family, friends, colleagues, or mentors can provide you with valuable feedback and motivation that can push you through the messy middle and get to the finish line. But, in order to get that support, you have to be honest with others about the help you need. Blake, Court...

Megan Hyatt Miller, CEO of Full Focus, drops by to explain why your mindset is maybe the most important element of achieving your goals. You can do everything right when it comes to writing a goal. It can follow every step of the SMARTER Goal framework and it can be recorded down on your Goal Detail page in your Full Focus Planner. However, if your mindset is not in the right place, then you're no...

As we continue our exploration of the Weekly Preview, this week we turn our attention towards the After Action Review (AAR). Completing your AAR is a critical step in building momentum towards accomplishing your goals, but you have to make sure you think critically as you fill it out. In this episode, Courtney and Verbs talk you through the four questions of the After Action Review and provide bot...

The Weekly Preview is essential to the Full Focus System and it's one of our users' favorite tools. In order to really dig into who and why it works, we're starting a three-part miniseries all about the Weekly Preview. First up: Setting your Weekly Big 3. While this actually happens at the end of your Weekly Preview, it is perhaps the most important step in the process. Courtney and Verbs share th...

We’re well into January and might be starting to feel some friction on our goal journeys. After a couple of weeks of the new year, good intention and effort alone are no longer enough to see your goals through. Now is the perfect time to let your processes and strategies carry you forward so you can build some momentum. Verbs and Courtney talk about a key strategy to help make progress on your goa...

So, you have your goals set and you've figured out what the next steps are to help you start moving towards those goals. What's next? Well, now is the time to start focusing on the foundational tool of the Full Focus Planner: The Daily Big 3. Even if you've used your planner for years, it's always good to refresh your memory and build upon your own experiences. To help you with that, Blake and Nic...

Happy New Year! It's 2023 and it's time to make sure that you've set yourself up for success. Every year, in order to start off on the right foot, it's important to take a step back and plan your year with some very simple actions that will build up speed and propel you all the way until December 31 with a list of completed goals. Courtney and Blake talk you through three questions that you can as...