How to Improve Focus

If you want to turn 2025 into your best year ever, one thing you can do is turn focus into a superpower. And this is something that I've really been exploring on a deep level over the last month. And what I want to do is share with you how I've turned focus into a strength for me and can for you too.

What's good? I'm Rob Cressy. And for many of us on our mind right now is how we make 2025 our best year ever. So it's the end of the year, but we're looking forward. What's that best year ever look like? What's that new version of me? What's that thing or those states of being or those mindsets that I did not create or those next levels that I can moving forward to be better?

And with that, this was sort of the inspiration behind how focus became top of mind for me. And one of the things that's been very foundational to my entrepreneurial journey is being part of the Arete Syndicate led by Ed Mylett and Andy Frisella. And I love listening to Ed's wisdom because he will give you the roadmap of being the best in the world. And one of the things that I've been doing intentionally is going back and listening to all of the calls that I have access to from Ed Mylett of past years in December when he's talking about vision casting and setting a powerful vision moving forward.

And one thing that just kept coming up over and over again was focus and eliminating distractions. So that's what really set me down this rabbit hole. And one of the things that Ed says is no one out focuses me. It's like, boom, he declares that he's like, you think you're going to compete with me? The best in the world, the killers of the world, and you're going to be unfocused. You're going to be distracted. And I heard that and I was like, there's a new level for me.

So with that in mind, there is one foundational thing that I want to share. For me, I already see my focus as a strength and a superpower, but there are levels to this game and new levels we can create for each other. So one of my declarations that I speak every single morning is I am always in focus. Boom. Because the second I wake up, I'm dialed in. I'm doing my morning routine of things that I love to do that create me into the best version of myself.

So I am not someone who sees focus as I am in and out of focus. It's like, no, the second I wake up all the way to the second I go to bed, I am dialed in. Doesn't mean I'm perfect, but focus to me is a state of being, something you embody. And when you get to that level, you no longer see yourself coming in and out of focus or lack of attention, or you're just being distracted. It's like, no, this is who I am. I'm dialed in even if every single minute isn't the most optimized.

So with that in mind, let me unpack sort of the things that I've learned and the process for how I got there in turning focus into a superpower and how you can do it. And it's super simple. It just takes a little internal work and some commitment on your end to want to be that person and to create these changes.

So once again, in my ears, I'm hearing from Ed Mylett, double down on focus, eliminate distractions. No one out focuses me. I was like, boom, I got it. It's like the number one distraction out there is our phones. I'm like, yep, I totally buy into that. I know that to be true for myself. So one of the things that I did is I just opened up and looked at my settings for screen time on my phone usage.

So the first thing that I did is I looked at my average phone pickups and what that number is. And I use ChatGPT as my sidekick in the way that I created this. And my average phone pickups a day is 77. The average American is between 144 and 352 times per day. That is every three to 10 minutes that they are awake, they're touching their phone. So I am somewhere between half and like way, way less than the average person right there.

And the stat said 70% of people that lasts less than two minutes. And I created a term for this, a blurt. One of those things where you're reflexively picking up your phone and just doing something. We'll get to where that comes in in a second. So think about this. Average person, 144 to 352 times. All right, I'm rolling in at 77. I'm like, cool, I'm good in this area. Let's look next.

Notifications. The average American gets 46 push notifications a day. For me, I only have three and that's from my clock alarm. So it's functional. I don't have a single notification on my phone. And why? And this is super simple. Number one, audit your inputs. I don't need a constant ching, ching, ching, ching, ching coming at my attention. That's already there all over the place. So one of the very simple things that I did is removed all notifications.

Let it be intentional in terms of how I use my phone, my relationship to my phone. There is nothing that needs my attention right this second where I need to be notified of it. And doing so allows me to stay in flow more and protect my attention because I am in control of that world. Therefore, I don't allow notifications into my mind. That simple thing right there. Boom. Game changer. Set it and forget it. You do it once and I never think of it again.

So I'm like, all right, I'm doing super good when it comes to notifications. Number three, average amount of phone time or phone screen time for people. So the average person is on their phone three hours and 39 minutes a day. For me, that number is five hours and 34 minutes a day. So I'm significantly higher. I'm on the high end there. That being said, I do a lot of creating on my phone between Evernote and the camera and social media. Plus my son using my phone to watch Paw Patrol or Bluey. So there are some things in my stats that are skewed, but it is what it is.

So with all that in mind, it's like, all right, I'm a heavy phone user, but I do use it to create a lot. Great on notifications. Great on average phone pickup. And what this led me to is in using ChatGPT, creating my 2025 roadmap for leveraging my phone to support my business growth and financial priorities. And the number one thing that I did was reorganize my phone home screen.

So there's just apps all over the place. And even though I'd organized them in folders where they're grouped together. So the social media apps are all in one and the ways that I create is in another one. And mindset and growth is in another one. I had good organization, but I started to notice some things because I went down a separate rabbit hole a day or two later around being intentional about my social media habits.

So these two things are going to blend together. My relationship to my phone and my home screen, the very first thing that I see, as well as how I can design that in a way to allow me to be more intentional with my social media usage. Because the number one thing that I noticed for myself is that whether I'm watching a game and my phone is my second screen. So you're watching football and I've got fantasy football up right there. And I've got two TVs and I've got my phone on Twitter or whatever. It can be very easy to reflexively just have a second screen open.

So I noticed that. And then I also noticed there's just moments in life. My son's just playing in the corner right there. And you just pick up the phone and you just touch it for 47 seconds or a minute 12 or eight seconds is what I call a blurt. Or that's how I describe it to ChatGPT. And I just noticed I want to be better at this. Ed Mylett's giving the roadmap. He's like, listen, focus is a superpower. You will not out-focus me. Eliminate your distractions. So I'm like, boom, let's start eliminating these things.

So in using ChatGPT, what we ended up doing was creating a new way of thinking about my phone usage so it is more intentional. And what we did to foundationally do this is to create my phone into three different zones. The home screen is the growth zone. These are the things that I do to create and for daily growth. Because remember, the framing of this is the 2025 best year ever. This is both for my business, financially, all areas of my life. So boom, number one, there's only things that I use every day to create and support my growth and my finances. That's the growth zone that's on the first screen.

The second screen is what we're going to call the neutral zone. And these are things that are necessary, but I spend limited time on them. Maybe I don't use them every day or maybe I use them every now and then. So this can be things like actually my messages, the email. I've got a three-year-old son, so our nana and our hatch. And I also put sports over there. So things that I don't need to see right away.

And some people be like, wait, you're telling me your email and your messages are on your second screen? Yeah, this is one of the massive shifts that I had in terms of my relationship to my phone. So when I'm looking at my home screen right now, the number one thing on there, it's Evernote, Readwise, Peloton, ChatGPT, CapCut, my vivid vision, my 2024 goals spoken on camera, Spotify, Readwise, things that are all related to the best version of myself.

And then the last one, the third screen is the drift zone. This is for social media and things that I don't use often. And I even grouped all of the social media into one folder so they're together. So in order for me to go on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn, I've got to scroll over to the third screen to hit it. And then I've got to jump into the folder right there.

And here's some quick things that I learned in doing this. Number one, I legitimately don't know where apps are on my phone anymore. And I actually say this in a good way because it's slowed down my thinking and my reflex ability to just consciously go dink, dink, dink, and just touch those things. And boom, now I'm off in that wormhole for 37 seconds or two minutes or whatever it is. So it has slowed me down, which is a great thing because I'm not getting to the things that are going to slow me down any faster.

On the flip side, I've got a brand new relationship to my phone because on my phone screen or on the home screen, it's only half full, if that. So I'm now sitting there and when I feel that urge or that reflex to just touch my phone and just go and do something, whether you're bored or you're just trying to mindlessly scroll or whatever it is, I just look at that right there and it stops me because I'm legitimately like, where is everything? But then number two, I sit there and I'm like, all right, is there something that I can do that would be growth oriented?

And in using ChatGPT, there's two things that were massive breakthroughs for me that can help you in turning this focus into a superpower in creating a better relationship with your phone. Number one is a very simple question. It said, is this a distraction or a creation? So now every time I go to click on an app on my phone, a little trigger in my mind. Hey Rob, is this a distraction or is this a creation? If it's a creation, boom, go do your thing, dog. Let's grow.

But by asking if it's a distraction, all this is, is an additional one more thing that I'm adding to my process that I did not do before. So previously I'm sitting there, I'm just pushing it, boom, I'm down the rabbit hole. But now I'm pausing that extra beat and usually two beats because I can't find it. And it's now, hey, is this a distraction or a creation?

And with that, I now channeled something from Ed Mylett. Remember, I already believe that focus is a superpower for me, but now I'm creating the next level of it for my 2025 best year ever. And I decided to create a declaration based around Ed's. And it is, I am that no one out focuses me. So now every time I go to reflexively touch my phone and I see that it's a distraction, the next trigger, boom, I am that no one out focuses me.

So now when I go to my social media folder, I went ahead and changed that naming wise to aggressive focus. So if I want to go on social media, which remember, this isn't a bad thing. This is only my ability or our ability to create a healthier or more intentional relationship to social media. So now, boom, scrolling over to two screens. I look in there, it says aggressive focus. It's like, all right, aggressively focusing, boom. Boom, let me be in and out on these things. So now I've got a healthier relationship with this.

And here's what I've learned. I sit there sometimes and I want to touch my phone or the social media apps or go on the internet. And I'm like, I have no idea what to consume because that's the next level of this is you audit your inputs. So when you think about focus and eliminating distractions, this is new. This is different. You're changing the way that you're experiencing this. So as part of that, I want to be more intentional about what I'm consuming. And if I'm not consuming social media content, all of a sudden it's like, wow, there's really not much that I'm consuming. So it then gets me to think in the creator mindset.

So wrapping a bow on this, this has been an absolute blessing in my life, diving into the world of focus and turning it into a superpower because I feel so much more clear, so much more intentional about all that I'm doing with my social media.

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