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1-Page Summary of Free to Focus

Overview

We’ve seen that the secret to being productive is not doing more, but doing the right things. Therefore, it’s important to focus on what you should be working on and eliminate tasks that are unimportant. The hardest part of this comes when deciding which tasks to cut out of your schedule. To deal with this problem, create a list of what you shouldn’t do—for example, don’t waste time dealing with issues outside your department or only take on projects that interest you and aren’t too difficult. This will help shift your attitude away from trying to take on everything at once and instead focus on getting things done effectively by eliminating unnecessary work.

The word “more” is the most important in our culture. We are constantly bombarded by more products, faster speed, and more work. There’s always something to do that we feel like we’re not doing enough of it. It’s exhausting trying to fit everything into our busy schedules but we keep pushing ourselves because there’s a sense of accomplishment when we get things done. But how much can people really accomplish? Michael Hyatt argues that instead of trying to be productive all the time, people should focus on what they need to accomplish and prioritize their tasks accordingly so they don’t burn out from being too busy with unimportant things.

It’s easier said than done, but if you can do these things it will make your work life better. This is explained by Hyatt and he gives tips on how to get a handle on the distractions that take away from productivity.

Here are the main takeaways: time is a zero-sum game, sleep can help you do more in less time, and there’s no such thing as an attention economy.

Big Idea #1: We do not understand the concept of productivity.

Workdays are filled with tasks. There are meetings, reports, and projects. But our efforts aren’t enough to complete all the work we have on our plates. We’re like a boat that’s taking in water quickly; it feels like we’re sinking fast. That’s when we start looking for life hacks to make us more productive so we can get our work done faster and better.

People are obsessed with speed. They try to do more things in less time, which just leads them to work on multiple tasks at once and not finish any of them. This is because they feel like if they save some time, they can use it later and get even more done.

In another flawed approach to increasing productivity, we start working overtime to finish all our tasks. Sometimes we justify this by telling ourselves the overtime is temporary and things will calm down soon. However, the opposite is true. Jack Nevison found that workers who clock more than 55 hours per week are actually less productive than those working 50 or less due to stress and mental fatigue.

Most people have the wrong idea about productivity. We should stop focusing on being productive and start focusing on freedom instead. Freedom can mean many things, such as the freedom to focus, which means finding time in your day to get deep work done uninterrupted by distractions or other activities that might take you away from your goal of getting something important done. Deep work is draining because it requires intense concentration and mental effort over a long period of time, so we need breaks throughout our day so that we can return to our deep work with full energy later.

Productivity is important, but it also gives us freedom. We can use that time to let our minds wander and have thoughts we wouldn’t normally come up with during the week. This way we get to relax while still having new ideas and breakthroughs.