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6 Ways To Elevate Your Focus with Davide DeMango

Writer's picture: DAVIDE DEMANGODAVIDE DEMANGO

Updated: Jun 9, 2022

Today we're going to be talking about the six ways to elevate your focus. Here's one thing that I've been really big on in the past six months, and it's very simple in life, to get the life that you want, you're going to have to take action. And anything that gets in the way of taking your action is getting in the way of you achieving your life goals. And one of the things that I noticed is that we're extremely good at distracting ourselves. However, focusing is the opposite of distraction. So if we can first stop thinking about how to distract ourselves because we're great at being distracted and start becoming experts on focus, we'll be able to get more done with every action that we take. And that means we'll be closer than ever to our life goals that we set. So that's why we're here. We're going to go through the six ways that we can elevate our focus. So let's dive in.


Number one, this one should be simple. Stay away from your phones as much as you possibly can, especially in the morning. I would say go as long as you possibly can before you ever look at your phone. Start small if you need to 2030 minutes and that way you're already working on bettering your focus and starting your day off the right foot. Personally, in the morning, I do not look at my phone until after my workout. I find when I'm not scrolling through Instagram and looking for my next purchase on Amazon, I'm at my best. I also find it very important to be Proactive so you're prepared for what's upcoming instead of being reactive and trying to play catch up throughout your day. This is where I write down tasks that I need to do for the next day the night before. So my brain is getting prepared for it. It would take out any of the stress. When you sit down at your desk and you ask yourself, Where do I start? Your brain already knows where to start because you prepped it. You'd be surprised how many times the average person looks at their phone throughout the day. You check your phone on average 150 times every single day. There's notifications, there's phone calls, there's text messages, there's emails, there's Instagram, there's checking the time. There also has been a study that found that looking at a small screen like your phone and looking at a small screen actually causes more stress and anxiety throughout the day. And knowing how addicting your phone can be, and knowing how addicted Facebook, TikTok, Instagram can all be, how can you start figuring out a way to leave your phone away from you as much as you possibly can. If you need to sit down and be focused, put your phone in another room and when you need it, you can go get it, but just put it back immediately. I find if you don't see it, you won't think about it and get the urge to look at it. So that is the first thing to help you elevate your focus. Stay away from your phone as much as possible.


And number two, eliminating as many distractions as you possibly can. One of the things that I was the biggest culprit was notifications on my phone, my watch, and my computer. I suggest you turn them off unless you absolutely have to have them on for work. Other than that, take them off. I'm sure like everybody else, my biggest problem is I used to think that I always needed to be in the know and I have every notification on my phone watching computer. And to be honest with you, it just stressed me out and distracted me completely. So the only way I get notifications on my computer, my phone is if you call me. That's it. So how can you remove as many of those distractions and notifications as you possibly can? I have my non distraction time where I'm going to eliminate all my distractions, I'm going to turn off all my notifications, I'm going to put my phone away and give myself 2 hours of just dedicated work in focus.


Okay, the next one. Simply stop multitasking. There's actually studies that came out that found multitasking is actually terrible for you and actually does not help you be productive and focused. I've heard people brag about how great of a multi Tasker they are. I personally used to multitask and I found it just didn't work. Just think when someone who's trying to get two different things done and they're multitasking between two different things back and forth, it's just confusing. And then take another person that's trying to get the same exact task done, but they're working on that one task and they're working on that task until it's done and then they will switch to another task and they will work on that task until it's done. They almost get it done quicker and with more efficiency and more accuracy when they are focused on just that one thing. As a result, multitasking is not the best way to go about staying focused when you're switching so often. There is such a thing called cognitive switching penalty, which means that you're actually going to lose efficiency when you go from one task to another task.



So knowing this, it's called single tasking. Just work on one thing and one thing only and that will help you be more productive. So in other words, just stop multitasking for the next one. Have a notepad next to you throughout the entire day, right? Have a pen and paper, nothing else. Don't put it on your phone. One of the biggest tips that I can give you to get shit done and being more efficient and having massive amounts of focus is to write down whatever is going through your head. This seems so simple that so many people, when it's really this simple, is usually when those people don't do it, they think there needs to be something really complex. If you have anything flowing through your head when you're getting work done, I suggest that you write it down. So say, for instance, I have to do the dishes later, write it down and go back to work because the things that are flowing through your brain are taking up energy. And so if you can take those things and put them onto a piece of paper, then I can go back to focusing on what I was focusing on originally. You can also use that to make a plan to actually help you to become more focused as well. The way I like to explain it is like trying to figure out if I gave you a real complex math problem. Would you ever try to figure out that complex math problem in your head if you had a pen and paper next to you? No, you wouldn't. You'd always use the pen and paper. You'd write it down and see if you had a better chance of figuring it out with a pen and paper. And of course you do. You 100% have a better chance of figuring it out with a pen and paper. Why would you think any complex problem that comes into your life that's not a math problem can be done in your head? And so if you can have a pen and paper next to you and just write down stuff, anytime anything pops into your head, it will help you so much with getting things done. And one of the things I talked about before was the single tasking and working on one thing and one thing only. If you're working on something and an idea pops into your head instead of switching, just write it down on a piece of paper and go back to it later. I've had these moments before where I'll be working and focusing on something and then all of a sudden something pops into my head and I'm like, wow, that's a really good idea. So I would write it down and then I'll go back to it later. So if something comes up, you write it down. You go back to what you're doing. You want to reduce all the distractions you possibly can, all of the ideas, anything that's going to take away focus on. That one thing that you're doing. Okay, perfect. So have a notepad and pen in front of you. If you're looking for the perfect notebook Journal that will structure your day and that will help you arrange your tasks and things that come through. When you're in your focus mode, you can head over to my website. I have a personal time box Journal that I carry around with me everywhere, and it's changed my life and helped me train my brain to be more focused.


All right, so the next one putting in headphones. I talk about this a lot. Whenever you're doing anything that requires focus, put on headphones, put on headphones and play that song. That playlist that you love, that will put you in the zone. So this actually might sound crazy, but only my closest friends know this about me is that I play classical music and calming beach vibe music when I'm trying to focus. And there have been studies that listen to classical music can help you boost your concentration and self discipline. My headphones are noise cancellation headphones, so therefore, I don't hear anything. No phone ringing, barking dogs, a doorbell ringing, nothing. I am so focused and nothing is breaking that focus. You have to realize the importance of focus every single day and how important it is. And when you do get to that focus point, you don't lose it. So put on your headphones so you cannot be distracted. I feel like when people see you wearing headphones, they know that you're in the zone and not to interrupt you.


And lastly, the Pomo

doro technique has been proven to be the best way to stay focused and getting shit done. It's 25 minutes of working on one thing and one thing only, and then you take five minutes off. 25 minutes of work, five minutes off. During those 25 minutes, you're focusing on one thing and that's all you're doing. And you don't allow yourself to work on two things at that time. You say, okay, hey, I got 25 minutes to crank out this presentation knowing that you probably won't finish the presentation. 25 minutes. If you do that's, great. Now you can take the five minutes off. And after those five minutes, you go into your next task or you go back and you work on that project that you were working on the presentation. All you have to do is figure out what's the most important thing for that day and then focus on doing those things throughout the day. Like, okay, I got number one. Number two. Number three, I'm going to focus on number one all day long until it's done. And then after number one is done, I'm going to focus on number two. And after number two is done, I'm going to focus on number three. It's really not that hard. It's really simple. You just have to make sure that you stay driven and actually realize the focus is so important. So let's recap the six keys that we've discussed one more time. So we all have it. Number one, staying away from your phone as long as you can. Number two, eliminating distractions. Number three, stop multitasking. Number four, have a notebook next to you. Number five, put in headphones.


And number six, the Pomodoro technique you have to understand the importance of focus and how easily we are distracted. The example that I always try to give around focus is this if you woke up today, right now and decided that you wanted to play soccer for the next 10 hours every single day for the next three years, even if you've never played soccer before you're going to become an incredible soccer player, maybe not a professional but you're going to be really good at soccer in three years because you simply woke up and dedicated your life to that and that you've been working 10 hours for the past three years of your life. You have to realize that we wake up and we immediately go to distraction. We go to our phones, we go to our emails we go to our text messages. What can I eat later today? Who am I going to hang out with? What am I going to do after work? We start to figure out how did it we start to figure out how we can distract ourselves every single moment. So the past 1020, 30 years of your life you've actually been mastering the art of distraction so it's going to take some time and some diligence to actually become more focused. So you ask yourself what can I do to train myself to stay focused as much as possible? So say if you were to wake up and decide to play soccer for the next three years, for 10 hours a day, in three years you're going to be great or in five months you're going to be great but if you woke up instead of going to distractions you go to focus and you become more focused every single day because you're more diligent with these keys becoming more focused.

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