The Focus Course

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Time Stamps

• [1:56] – Today’s Topics
• [3:52] – Work Focused
• Behind the scenes of how we’re striving to implement better working strategies. You can find the article category here.
• [7:47] – Work Cycle Update

[15:05] – Member Questions

• [15:15] – This question is in the context of creating contents (i.e. a book, an email series, a blog post). When do you know that your contents or a piece of writing is ready to be released? We can all get caught up in the details to make it perfect. Where do you draw the line for something to be shipped? — Justin
• The easiest way to avoid getting too caught up in the details is to define your scope based on a timeline.
• Say that you’ll have the pilot / beta by a certain date and then the final shipping version by another date.
• Something is close to being released when I’ve stopped having huge breakthrough ideas about it and have begun focusing in on the details and the nitty gritty.
• [18:30] – On a similar note, do you have any tips on how to determine a minimal viable product? In my case, I’m working on a field guide / work book for teams to discover and articulate their purpose. What would a MVP look like? — Justin
• Donald Miller 5 Minute Marekting Makeover
• MVP — something that is delightful, covers the most important content, but isn’t maximized.
• You’ve got to leave space for your product and your audience to grow together. You can’t create the ultimate final version right off the bat. Because, for one, you would NEVER ship… but also — what you think is valuable for your product may not be what is actually valuable.
• [24:00] – How do I reconcile the time needed for deep work when a large part of what my job entails (and what my unit does) is customer service/reference work. That work takes priority and is a huge disruption to deep work. But without the deep work, we cannot provide the valid and efficient access to the organization’s records. While we always get good reviews, we personally do not feel like we are in a winning situation because of the deep work conflict and I would like to change that. — Rosemary
• [28:34] – How do you suggest to maintain focus on a project when other areas of your life are creating an unusual amount of stress? I’m finding it difficult to maintain quality progress with these other areas still unresolved. — Ken



• Mental Frameworks for Making Decisions, by Nathan Barry
• [34:25] – Do you schedule time for planning the next [work] cycle, as well as a retrospective looking back at the previous cycle. — Tom
• [38:00] – How do you determine how much of your time should be spent focusing on planning for the future, creating new things, and on promotion? — Lee

This is a great question.

Figuring out how much of your time to spend on planning, versus new product creation, versus promotion of current work is tricky. Especially so when you are an independent.

Big corporations have whole teams devoted to each of these areas. Strategic planning, research & development, and marketing. But for the independent, we have to wear all of these hats ourselves and thus we have to divide our time up.

This is similar to figuring out how you balance your time between working on the business and working in the business. You need to do the things what will keep the doors open today but you also must invest and sow seeds for the future so that you will have a thriving business down the road.

In my experience, the best way to find this balance is to experiment. And also know that it will ebb and flow on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. Let me explain…

Within the 4DX model, they say that you should balance your time 80/20.

About 80% of your time should be spent on your day-to-day “whirlwind” activities. These are the essential activities that you have to do to keep the business going. They are critical because if you ignore them, then your business will stop working.

However, you also want to allow space in order to spend some time on new lead measures that are high-leverage activities that are moving you forward toward your goals. And so about 20% of your time should be spent on these lead measures.

Ideally, you will be able to incorporate your lead measures into your whirlwind once they’re proven as being valuable…

For example, I spend time writing every day. This is part of my whirlwind, but it’s also a critical lead measure. I need to write in order to keep our weekly publishing calendar full. But I also know that if I write, then it will become an important asset for creating new products and fleshing out new ideas, etc. Writing is something that is necessary for what we are doing today as well as where we want to go in the future.

As you continue to work in and on your business, you’ll begin to discover different areas to focus on at different times. By far and away, the best way to learn the proper “ratios” is to experiment and pay attention.

[45:00] – Live Q & A