Focus is a modern-day superpower. But you don’t need some super serum to harness it. Apply these 5 habits to improve focus, concentration and get things done.

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We are in a battle for our attention. And my friend, we are losing.

Our capitalist overlords have seized control and we have become addicted to their tech.

Staring at our phones all day.

Waiting for the next ping of a notification to come in and shift our attention away from the task at hand.

Devices and countless apps have us multitasking and constantly shifting between projects, emails, calls, meetings and notifications.

We are stressing ourselves out by being so connected to, well … everything.

Social interaction is suffering as a result of our constant digital distractions.

Focus is now considered a super power

Attention is like the new currency.

Honestly, my prediction is that being offline (without being creepy doomsday prepper about it) will be the new ultimate flex.

The most successful people will be those of us that learn how to:

• unplug for a bit
• embrace a bit of boredom
• engage in actual in-person interaction
• go outside for five minutes without needing to film it.

So like, kind of a return to what life was like during my childhood in the 1990s, I guess.

It’s time to get serious.

We’re going to start laying out the plan to harness better focus.

It’s time to win back your time, your energy, your focus and attention.

As a stay at home dad who’s had to juggle raising humans, taking care of my own fitness while also building my own business, I know a thing or two about how to be more productive by prioritizing and … focusing, so I can get shit done.

Today you’re going to learn some actionable things you can do to improve focus and concentration.

Block out the distractions around you right now and focus on this newsletter … so you can then learn to focus better throughout your day.

Let’s get into it.

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Why you can’t focus anymore

The harsh reality is that you actually can focus. But you chose not to do so.

Let me explain.

You see, we don’t have a problem focusing as much as we have a problem making decisions.

We decided that now is the time to look at our phone.

Because boredom was not something we wanted to experience, we decided to fill that time with mindless scrolling.

We decided to get pulled away from that project we’re working on to quickly respond to that email.

Which leads to responding to another email.

And another.

Then we wait anxiously for the reply to the first email.

Before we realize that we’ve spent 30 minutes going back and forth on email and the project has been ignored.

Then we wonder why we “can’t focus” on anything.

Improve focus by improving your decision-making

Hop in your DeLorean and head back to the 1990s when MTV still played music videos and the shake weight was the most advanced fitness equipment available on the market.

(I miss old fitness informercials. They don’t make ‘em like they used to.)

We got bored more often back then, too.

And when we got bored, we couldn’t cure that boredom by reaching for a phone. We just had to be … bored.

But back to the future now where Americans are picking up their phones 205 times per day.

Read that again. Per. Day.

That’s 205 decisions to stop doing something and start glancing at or even full on zoning out to your phone.

Imagine how much work can get done, projects completed, workouts finished, self care realized by just deciding to keep the phone away:

“Your mind will start to do what it has naturally evolved to do for the centuries before the damn smartphone: think, daydream, create, think some more, plan.”

– Pete Cataldo,  (yeah … me … I actually said this here).

An aversion to boredom is just one culprit for poor decision making.

There are many little hidden reasons why you simply cannot focus. Among them:

• Poor sleep
• Fatigue or burnout
• High stress
• Out of shape

Pro tip: Exercise improves blood flow to the brain.

It also improves quality sleep and can reduce stress.

If you aren’t moving much, and finding it difficult to focus, that might be an underlying reason. Here’s how to adopt a minimalist approach to strength training to get you started (or to help you save time).

But we can do more than just walks and workouts to improve focus.

Improve focus and concentration to finally get shit done

Think back to a situation where you faced a big problem that absolutely needed to be solved.

Maybe an urgent fire that needed to be put out at work.

A huge last-minute project your kid needed completed by the end of the day.

What happened?

You hunkered down. Blocked out as many distractions as possible. Focused. And got it done.

You had no other choice, right?

So in other words, you have the capacity to harness your focus.

You just aren’t doing it consistently enough.

Not your fault, but it is our responsibility to figure it out.

And that starts with committing to single-tasking over the constant push to be multitasking.

Working on one thing at a time allows you to focus deeply, and ensure better quality overall.

You’ll likely get the project done more efficiently and end up being more productive, too.

Immediate benefits to improving your focus:

• Better quality of work with fewer mistakes
• Increased productivity as you work more efficiently
• Ability to access more of your creativity as you prioritize one thing over several
• Your mindfulness will improve as focusing on one thing at a time is in itself a form of mindful behavior
• Access to a flow state where time flies by and you’re so deep in your work that you’re naturally motivated

Focus is a superpower in this digital age.

But you don’t need some Capt America style super serum to capture it.

How I recaptured my focus

I put my phone away and cut back on my screen time. Now I get more done than ever in less time. And still have time to play video games at the end of my workday.

I shut off the news and stopped doomscrolling.

The news headlines still find their way to me. But now I don’t have the anxiety of refreshing the feed every other hour waiting for the next domino to fall.

I block out distractions during my morning writing sessions so I can focus on my one task at hand. For me, that’s writing this newsletter.

I shut down my work at the end of the day so I can stay present with my family and that allows my mind to recharge and get ready for the next day.

None of these things are unattainable. I didn’t have to do a bunch of nootropics to access and improve my focus.

Your strategy to improve focus by retraining your mind

The first step to recapturing your focus and concentration is to remove as many distractions as possible.

That starts with the biggest culprit that is stealing your attention.

Time to put the phone away

Starting today, adopt the Phone Foyer Method from productivity author Cal Newport.

“When you get home after work, you put your phone on a table in your foyer near your front door. Then — and this is the important part — you leave it there until you next leave the house.”

Need to search something on your phone or text someone, walk over to the foyer and look it up there.

Expecting a call? Take your phone off of silent so you can hear it ring, then walk over to the foyer to answer it when it does.

It doesn’t have to literally be a foyer (I live in a small Brooklyn apartment, and just place my phone by my workstation).

You’re just going to leave your phone in one designated place at all times, rather than attaching your phone to your hip.

Using this method and a few others, I was able to reduce my phone usage by almost 70-percent.

Practically, I won back hours out of my day. 

And I also took back control of my focus and attention to get more things done with much better quality.

Single task over multitasking

If you’ve got multiple things to focus on all at once, then you don’t have one thing to focus on. Sit with that one for a minute.

Multitasking is one of those productivity buzzwords that is finally getting shoved to the curb.

Actually science has proven it to be ineffective and doesn’t allow you to truly lock into one thing and focus on it.

Your task going forward is to figure out how to zero-in your attention to one specific thing at a time. It can be just 30-40 minutes.

But it will get you much further on that project than spending two hours of half-assed, distracted attention while emailing, texting and hopping in and out of several other admin items.

One thing at a time.

Schedule your focus based on your energy

Some people thrive in the morning. Others are night owls.

The productivity “gurus” try to force everyone into a box and demand that you do your deep work sessions first thing in the morning at zero dark thirty.

But maybe you’re a creative who really gets into a flow state during the late afternoons or evenings. That’s totally fine.

Understand your strengths and play to them.

Figure out when you vibe the best with your ability to focus. Schedule your big priority tasks and projects around that time of day for maximum efficiency and output.

For me that happens to be the mornings.

I enjoy my slow morning routine with my family and then dive into the work that requires the most attention and focus.

By the end of my day, I’m winding down with more admin and process-oriented tasks before shutting down with my video gaming ritual.

Mental reset

You’re inundated with so many screens and noises and notifications. It’s sensory overload. A simple mindful reset can do wonders.

Get outside.

Go for a walk.

Do a few exercise snacks like push-ups and squats if you’ve been chained to a desk.

Take your eyes off of the screens and give your eyes a rest.

Adopt what Optometrists call the 20-20-20 Rule to help prevent eye strain:

“Every 20 minutes, look at something other than a screen that is 20 feet away for 20 seconds.”

Even your focus needs a breather.

Rest can be more than just sleeping or even napping. There are seven types of rest that help you avoid and potentially recover from burnout.

View building and improving focus as a ladder

If you dive right into an intense three-hour time block of writing on day one, you’ll fizzle out, curse my name, and go right back to your old habits.

Instead, gradually work up to the longer periods of focus.

Start with 20-30 minutes using a kitchen timer.

Why a kitchen timer?

It keeps you away from your phone (one less reason to pick it up and then end up scrolling when you shouldn’t be).

And it’s cheap.

When you realize that focus is like any other muscle, and you just need more practice and reps to build it up, you’ll win back your attention and get ahead of like 95-percent of others (I made that percentage up, but I think it’s pretty close to accurate).

The key to winning back your attention to improve focus

It’s not some optimized morning routine with cold showers because of a word salad from Andrew Huberman on the Joe Rogan podcast.

You won’t improve focus by downing a bunch of supplements schlepped by your fave instagram influencer.

You’ll improve focus and concentration by just committing to doing something.

Then prioritizing it.

Blocking out the distractions when possible.

Being consistent with the process.

And flexing your patience muscle.

Start before you are ready.

That’s the cheat code that determines how successful people stay successful. They don’t wait for the “perfect” moment.

They just start.

Because they know they’re going to make mistakes no matter what, so might as well get started now and get those mistakes out of the way as soon as possible.

Build good habits. You’ll eventually learn, tweak, and refine your process to more optimal levels for you.

I hope you found this useful.

If so, I’d appreciate it if you sent this newsletter to one person you think would benefit from my writing today.

And as always, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.

I answer all of my emails at pete [at] petecataldo [.] com … Hit me up with the subject line “improve focus” and I’ll answer any questions you have to make this work for you.

Until next time,
Pete