Your Seven-Day Focus Challenge: From Intention to Action
We’ve covered a lot of ground, from the inner workings of your brain to the practical design of your workspace. It’s easy to feel inspired now, but the real test is turning this knowledge into a sustainable practice. The greatest enemy of progress is the desire to do everything at once. Instead, let’s focus on small, consistent actions.
Your environment has been shaping your behavior for years. It’s time to start shaping your environment. You don’t have to change everything overnight. You just have to start. The feeling of control and clarity that comes from intentionally designing how you work is one of the most rewarding experiences in our distracted world.
Here is your challenge. For the next seven days, I invite you to commit to just three simple actions. Don’t worry about mastering everything. Just practice these three things consistently. Think of it as a week-long experiment in focus.
1. Designate and Defend Your Workspace. Choose one specific spot where you will do your focused work. It could be a desk, a certain chair at the dining table, or a corner of a room. For the next week, commit to keeping that single space clear of clutter. At the end of each day, take 60 seconds to reset it for tomorrow. This is the foundation of organizing your workspace for focus.
2. Practice Phone Separation. For one focused work block each day—it could be just 45 minutes—put your phone in a different room. Not in your pocket. Not on your desk face down. In another room. Notice the feeling. Notice the lack of phantom vibrations. Notice how your mind doesn’t have to spend energy resisting its pull. This one change can be transformative.
3. Implement the “One Thing” Sticky Note. Every morning, as part of a simple startup ritual, take one minute to decide on your single most important task for the day. Write it on a physical sticky note and put it on your computer monitor. Let it be your anchor. When you feel lost or distracted, your eyes will find that note, and it will gently guide you back to what matters most.
That’s it. Three small but powerful changes. After seven days, check in with yourself. How do you feel? More in control? Less overwhelmed? Did you get more meaningful work done? Use this experience as a foundation. From here, you can gradually incorporate the other rituals and tools we’ve discussed. You have the power to create an environment that serves your goals instead of sabotaging them. The work is simple, but the impact is profound. Let’s begin.
