As a coach providing life coaching to help people create the inspired life they want, one of the things I help clients with is getting clarity of mind. We live an information overload age which can lead to us being easily distracted. This can feed a habitually busy mind making it harder to get in to a state of flow where we do our best work and accomplish more. It’s hard to get clarity on what we really want to create in life and get the results we want when we have a busy mind. This is why many people turn to a coach to help them.
I love formulas. Here’s a formula for getting stuff done that’s important to you.
Work accomplished = time x intensity of focus
It can be easy to stop and quickly check emails or do a chore. We think it only takes a few minutes. However there is something called ‘residual attention’. When we go back to our main task having checked emails we think we are back focussing but part of our mind is still on what you’ve just done – residual attention. This is why the length of time doing the deep work is important. You let go of the residual attention and get in to deep work.
It can be easier to respond to emails and people/tasks wanting our attention. This is reactive work. We don’t have to think about what to focus on, it is done for us. Deep work can be harder. We rely on our own discretion on what is important and what to focus on. It comes 100% from us. We are often not used to that as we are so used to reacting to stuff from the outside. Being outside-in. But deep work comes from the inside-out. It flows from within us. The is the part of us coaching keeps us engaged with.
How much time do you take to do deep work whether on your work/business/fun project?
What stops us? Lots of things but it all comes down to Thought.
Thinking we need to respond to the emails with an hour otherwise someone may be upset with us.
Or lack of confidence in our own ideas/creativity/wisdom to trust our inside-out flow.
Perhaps feeling more comfortable with reactive work than going beyond the uncomfortable feeling of taking yourself to a quiet space and doing deep work. We are feeling Thought in the moment nothing else. This uncomfortable feeling is you leaning in to your edge. There is awesome stuff for you the other side of that uncomfortable feeling. It’s you expanding yourself and your comfort zone. Coaching helps you through that uncomfortable feeling if you find yourself usually reverting back to what’s comfortable.
So hear’s another formula:
Your innate capability to do deep work – contaminated thinking = deep work
What doing more deep work for your business/job/project give you? Plan some time in the diary to that now.
Enjoy playing with deep work whatever that means for you!
Want help letting go of contaminated thinking? Want to see if life coaching will help you in life, work or sport? Contact me to see how I can help you.
