Do you know how often we get distracted in a day?

At Harvard University, the world-leading institution in psychology, they say that we as human beings get distracted every three minutes. I know it’s hard to believe. I sometimes have asked an audience this question, and they have answered, “Every second.” That would be a really hard place to be. The reality is every three minutes. That means you are thinking of something, you are focused, and, all of a sudden, your mind has drifted and wandered elsewhere.

Did you know that it takes us 15 minutes to regain the same level of focus? That means you are in the middle of a conversation, the middle of an Excel, the middle of a job, your brain is distracting yourself every three minutes, and it takes you 15 minutes to get yourself back to where you were thinking. This means you have to start to redo the whole Excel. You know what I’m talking about. If somebody interrupts you in the middle of an Excel, sometimes you have to go back and double-check all the calculations.

Have you ever started something and hours later wondered, What happened with all the time? Where did it go? This should have taken an hour, half an hour. I’m at three hours, and I’m still trying to get the job done. This process of starting something — taking a delay, getting distracted every three minutes — is what we call the dreaded, infinite loop of time wasting. This means that we have started something and it is going around and around and around, and we are sitting there for three hours instead of one hour.

The DFT — Daily Focused Time — method is a simple process that you can use any time of the day, repeatedly, to get clarity in your mind or to get focus on the tasks ahead.

Clarity is when you have got a challenge in your mind where you are thinking, Why is it that I can’t get something done? How is it that I’m not focusing today or not getting my mind in flow? Why is the customer not coming to me? What part of my business do I need to focus on? Do I even want to continue with what I’m doing?

All those questions can sometimes distract us, but the reality is that we may still want to do what’s at hand; we are just overwhelmed with lots of stuff in the mind. This process helps our conscious brain and our unconscious brain align. It works beautifully, so the penny can drop straight through.

The human mind cannot consciously multitask. We simply think we can. That is why we try to do multiple jobs. The reality is, if we know we cannot action more than one thing, why don’t we just simply action the one thing at a time? And I guarantee you that we will do it better, we will do it well, and we will get it done quicker. There will be no distractions in the day. Your brain, through neuroplasticity, will start to reprogram itself because it is like a muscle. Increase your IQ by completing the task.

We only truly learn by completing a task. The moment you have completed the task, you realize how to do it, and you can help somebody else as well.

Does anybody ever experience high energy and low energy in the day? One minute, everything’s fine, and the next minute, it’s Do you know what? I can’t think straight. I need five minutes. I need to go and get a break, a drink, a coffee, a cigarette, or a vape (as they call them nowadays). This is the result of working on willpower alone. It is like you are pushing yourself all the time. Come on, I can do this. And off you go; you’re consistently at this game. What happens is that after a period of time, the willpower fades because you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.

So, how do we marry willpower with a strategy scientifically proven so that we can create the ultimate call, instant action and instant focus in our brain? How can we consistently get more work done and actually do a four-hour day and pack the day away and have achieved everything? Never rely on willpower alone. Rely on you or your willpower with discipline and structure.

Stage one is to ask yourself a good quality question. It could be What actions do I need to get done now? That is a focus DFT. The other one is Why is it I can’t get things done? This is more of a clarity DFT.

Now, grab a piece of paper, and write down the question — either in the middle in landscape for a picture or at the top for us to be very clear in a systemized, operationalized way, as in a list. The next stage is to empty your brain in a brain dump of every single thing that’s in your mind, relevant or not relevant.

If it is there, just write it, write it, write it. If it is drawings, you just write it across there. [visual] Link them together like a normal mind map. But here’s the key: You are going to come to a mind block very quickly. You have to push through mind blocks. You fill the page with everything that is in your brain. Even if you think it’s not relevant, you are answering a question very clearly. Why is it that I cannot complete this Excel? What’s missing? What you must do is empty the bag onto the paper, and then reinstall the relevant content so that the rest of the rubbish that was in the bag can all be thrown away.

After you’ve done this, don’t start walking around because your whole brain will have changed. This is basically rebooting the RAM of your brain. It is just bringing all of those empty thoughts into one space. So trust yourself. Keep focused, and go with it. After you’ve done this, read the inquiry question once again, and then grab a pen and circle 10 of the most relevant answers that connect with you.

The moment you have circled those 10, rewrite the 10 underneath on a separate piece of paper. So you’ve got maybe 20 or 30 or even 40 answers on the piece of paper. Maybe 20 of them are relevant. Maybe 10 are irrelevant because there could be things like “I don’t know why I’m doing this.”

Now, look at your 10 and circle five of those 10. Rewrite those five separately. Then select the Top 3 of your answers and rewrite them.

At each stage, cross out the previous list. Put it aside. Now you’ve got three. Then circle the most important answer, and rewrite that one. Strike the previous one, and I guarantee that that answer has filtered through your conscious brain and unconscious alignment and is the correct answer for you.

Once you have resolved that, it’s magical. If it’s about task listing, such as “How many jobs can I do in a day? I’m overwhelmed,” once you’ve got to your three points again, you circle your three. The next stage is to put them in order: No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3. And all you have got to do is throw the rest of the tasks away for now.

Just get the first action done, get the second one done, and then get the third one done. Repeat the process for the next three actions. Trust me; you will get through them quicker in the day. You will be much more focused. The results will be higher. And I guarantee you, if you are dropping sales, your sales will come back into your mind, and customers will be with you because you are with them: focused, clear and tidy, without the extra shackles.

Sukhi Wahiwala is an award-winning business entrepreneur, international business mentor and speaker, global thought leader and Forbes judge. An expert on how the brain handles time management, distractions and procrastination, he has shared his knowledge on the TEDx platform, where his presentation has currently been viewed almost 300,000 times.