Powerful Focus
Action Guide
I. Gain Clarity
Day 1—15 questions to identify what you want
Reflect on yourself and answer these questions. If
you’re unsure with your answers, that’s okay. You
can revisit and refine your answers later on.
A. Eliciting your desire
1. What do you really, really want?
2. If you were to wake up tomorrow, completely alone without any
family member, friend or colleague to influence your decisions,
what would you do differently?
3. If you were to be totally honest with yourself, what would you
start doing now? What would you stop doing?
4. If you were guaranteed to succeed in everything you do, where
would you want to be in three years?
5. If you could spend your day exactly the way you wanted to, what
would you be doing from morning to night? What would your ideal
day consist of?
6. If you could focus only on doing one thing for the rest of your life,
what would it be?
7. If you understood and truly believed you could achieve absolutely
anything you want by sticking to it for long enough, what would you
pursue in the next three to five years?
B. Finding your strengths and unique abilities
8. When are you the happiest at work and what are you doing?
9. What do you find so easy to do you genuinely wonder why others
struggle to do the same thing?
10. What do people around you say you’re great at?
C. Uncovering your passion
11. What did you enjoy doing when you were a kid?
12. Who do you envy and why?
13. If you had all the time and money in the world, what would you
do?
14. If you had complete confidence and were already your
absolute best self, what would you be doing with your life?
15. How do you want to express yourself to the world?
Day 2—Gaining clarity regarding what you
want
Assess your goals
Write down what you really want. Then try to assess if
these are love-based or fear-based goals. You can put “L”
for the love-based ones, and “F” for the fear-based ones.
Feel free to continue on a separate sheet of paper if
needed.
Things I want L/F
Day 3—Gaining clarity regarding what needs to
be done
Revise your strategy
Select a major goal you’re currently working on or want to focus on.
Now, ask yourself, If I keep doing what I’ve been doing today or this
week, will I achieve that goal? If not, what would need to change?
Now, time to come up with a specific strategy by answering the
questions below. You can keep revising your strategy over time:
1. Who has achieved a similar goal in the past?
2. Is there a book or course I could purchase to help me
achieve that goal?
3. What are the very few things I should focus on to reach
that goal?
Day 4—Gaining clarity regarding how it needs
to be done
Reduce your learning curve
Two things you need to focus on to reduce the learning curve:
1. Find the right information
2. Get help from people who’ve already achieved your goals (or
similar ones)
1. Find the right information
First, define your learning goals as clearly as possible. To help you
do that, answer the questions below:
a. What exactly are you trying to learn or do?
b. Why exactly do you need to learn it or do it? why do you need to
tackle this task? How does it fit the big picture? Is it the best way to
move closer to your end goals? Sometimes, it isn’t.
c. What do you want the final result to look like? Make sure you can
articulate in great detail what you want the final result to be like.
2. Get help from people who’ve already achieved your goals
If you know someone who has achieved your goals in the past, I en-
courage you to “interview” him or her. You can ask the following
questions:
a. What was your learning strategy?
b. If you could choose only one thing, what do you think is the one
activity that was the most effective for you?
c. What did you struggle the most with? How did you overcome it?
d. If you were to learn that skill all over again, what would you do
differently?
e. If you were in my shoes, how would you go about learning it?
f. Is there anything else I should know?
The answers to these questions should help you significantly create
an effective plan. Remember, to develop deep focus, you must
know what to focus on. Asking people who have been there done
that is an effective way to do so.
II. Eliminate distractions and obstacles
Day 5—Simplifying
A. Practice ruthless elimination
First, make a list of all the activities you’re engaging in in a typical
week.
Now, ask yourself the following question: knowing what I know now,
would I still engage in this activity? You can also do the same for
projects you’re working on, products or services you’re offering etc.
Implement the blank slate technique.
Imagine you could create your schedule from scratch while having
the total freedom to eliminate any activities you like. What would
your new minimalistic schedule look like?
Learning to say no
Now, write down what you could say no to next time and how ex-
actly you’ll decline the request.
B. Minimize Distraction
Internal distractions
Write down 2-3 specific things you will do to reduce internal distrac-
tions
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External distractions
Write down 2-3 specific things you will do to reduce external dis-
tractions
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Day 6—Reducing useless input
Determine exactly what you’re trying to learn or accom-
plish.
Write down your weekly activities. Then separate them in two cate-
gories: learning and doing.
Learning Doing
Now, write down at least one thing you could be doing (or stop do-
ing) in order to reduce input (i.e. what you learn) and increase out-
put (i.e. what you produce) instead.
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Day 7 - Eliminating friction and energy waste
Select a task you want to work on today or tomorrow. Then, write
down what you can do to remove friction as much as possible.
Finally, create a simple routine to help you get started on that task.
Plan your day by writing down three tasks you’d like to complete to-
day. Move from one task to the next deliberately and notice when-
ever your mind is trying to distract you.