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With the average Millennial consuming nearly 18 hours worth of media content daily, it’s no surprise Millennials struggle with unproductivity and difficulty focusing at work.
In 2017, the digital stratosphere is expanding at a quantum rate, and it’s cluttering our lives and workspaces.
If you’re feeling unproductive, chances are you’re experiencing information overload. I’m talking about the mindless scrolling through social feeds and the bottomless consumption of content our generation is addicted to.
It’s a fact that the human brain can only handle so much information—when it exceeds capacity, the prefrontal cortex shuts down and leads to impaired focus that sabotages work efforts.
As a general rule of thumb, the more you try to do, the less you’ll accomplish. If you truly want to be more productive, the solution isn’t to do more… it’s to do less.
That’s the foundation of the million-dollar practice one New York City consultant has built. Meet Omar Hassam, founder of Success Accelerators, a brand-building agency for Millennials that generates on-demand revenue surges using simple strategies. In just 90 days, Hassam skyrocketed one client’s revenue to $1 Million.
This week on Unconventional Life, I interviewed Hassam about clearing distraction and maximizing productivity. Below, Hassam shares his counterintuitive method to accelerate success by doing less:
“We are easily distracted in the digital age… The key is to simplify,” Hassam says.
It’s commonplace to try to get work done while music, notifications, emails, and browser tabs run in the background. But if we’re being honest with ourselves, these only serve as distractions. Worse, they enable us to buy into the illusion that we’re “busy” while little gets accomplished.
To be more productive, hone in on the task at hand and eliminate all potential distractions. Close all browser tabs save the ones you absolutely need and hold off on checking social media until your work is complete.
Don’t allow your work obligations to leak into the time reserved for loved ones and activities that energize you. Instead, create a clear distinction between the time you spend working and the time you spend enjoying the rest of your life.
If you work from home, it’s tempting to work in your home and switch back and forth between work-related tasks and non-work related tasks. In the long-run, this can make your home feel like an office rather than a place of rejuvenation, as well as deprive you of much-needed breaks.
Resolve to work at a location apart from your home, like a public library or coffee shop, and you might just slash your work hours in half.
Peter Awad, founder of The Slow Hustle, is a vocal advocate for being on and off the court. He won’t answer emails when he’s with his family or outside of the hours he’s allocated for work. “When I get home, I leave everything at the door,” Awad says.
Warren Buffett famously said, “It’s good to learn from your mistakes. It’s better to learn from other people’s mistakes.”
You don’t need to reinvent the wheel of success when it’s already been done for you. Instead of trying to learn new skills on your own, be open to receiving help and investing in information courses and books. You can save yourself countless hours of trial-and-error by replicating the success of others and modeling your actions after what is proven to work.
“If you look at a four-key lock there’s ten thousand possibilities. You could stand there and try every possibility until you get it right, or you can just ask for the code,” says Hassam.
We live in a culture of bootstrapping that extols the hustle and grind as a noble path to success. Oftentimes success is prioritized at the expense of sleep, interpersonal relationships, health, and happiness.
The key to being more productive in your life is to take into account the full picture. Your ability to be productive in business will be limited if your aren’t nurturing the other areas of your life in tandem. Conversely, if you manage to achieve financial success, you may find it doesn’t fulfill you as a standalone source of joy.
The most productive individuals are those who recognize that thriving in every area of their life makes getting work done quicker and more effortless.
This article was first published on Forbes
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