Why it’s so hard to focus (and how to build systems that make it easier)

So today I want to talk about work, and more specifically, I want to talk about deep work and how hard it is to come by. Finding time to focus on truly the things that matter in our own work and business.

I was looking at a note in my phone today, and it's kind of the crux of this video. I know I wrote in 2021 where I felt really frustrated, and it was because I was sitting in front of my computer potentially 40 hours a week and feeling like I wasn't getting work done.

And that forced me to really reflect on my schedule and my intentions with my business and my relationships, and what were the things that were getting in the way of deep work.

Deep work is that state of focus where you're working on things that matter and you're working on a focused thing for a focused amount of time. And afterward, you usually feel really good about yourself because the thing that you did was something that you likely set out to achieve—and you did it.

And that feeling is far and few between. And you might agree with that.

So I'm talking about this video not from the perspective of an expert who focuses 100 percent of the time and never stalls and never delays and never gets distracted.

This is coming from someone who still struggles with this but has found things along the way that work for myself. And I want to share those with you today.

And so first, let's talk about how come we can't find time for deep work.

I think there are three reasons.

One is a lack of focus. That means when we sit down to actually do work, sit at our desk, we don't know what to work on. Or we don't know the most important thing to work on. Or we just find ourselves scattered and don't know where to start.

And that can be really frustrating because that allows our to-do list just to continue to pile up, and we don't work on the things that matter the most. And that can keep us from focusing because even though we have the time allocated for our work, we just don't get anything done.

So the second reason I'd suggest is the abundance of distractions. That is our phone ringing and buzzing all day. Emails constantly coming in. Stuck in dozens of meetings every single week that don't feel like they have a purpose. Just mental overload. Too many things going on.

And I really think in this time and the rise of AI, artificial intelligence, that it isn’t sharpening our minds, sharpening our focus, but is only doing the opposite.

And so in the midst of an abundance of distractions, we find ourselves really struggling to focus and certainly not finding time for deep work.

The third thing I want to suggest is an absence of systems. That means when we go to do the recurring things that are relevant to our work, there’s no rhyme or reason. We don’t do them in the same order. We don’t do them in the same fashion. We lack standard operating procedures for those things.

We don’t have systems set up to automate some of those routine tasks that, in 2025, we know is possible.

And we find ourselves doing each thing like it’s the first time we’ve done it.

And I know firsthand how frustrating it can be to be doing something that you’ve done a thousand times, and you might even say is below your pay grade, right?

And it’s something that you know you can do in your sleep, but it’s filling up your time and it’s keeping you from higher leverage tasks.

So those are the three reasons I'd suggest that we struggle finding space for deep work—because we have a lack of focus, we have an abundance of distractions, and there’s an absence of systems.

So I want to suggest a few things that I’ve done in my own work and life that have helped me find focus.

One of those things is I have a notebook, and this is something that's worked for me. Every day, I open this notebook, and I write down the three things that I want to achieve that day. Not six, not ten, not twenty—just three.

And you can see it here, probably, that in this notebook, it’s called the Big Three.

And those are the three things that could be work-related, that could be home-related, it could be anything. But what are the three most important things that I do that day?

And I don’t always get all three of those things done, but that is the number one thing that’s helped me find focus. In the beginning of the day, if I can say, what are the three things that I’m looking to achieve today?

And ideally, I connect that to something that I’d like to achieve this week, or this month, or this quarter. That helps me at least know, if I get any work done today, what did I get done?

And that helps overcome that lack of focus.

And sometimes I need to go a bit deeper, right? And I need to map out, like, who am I really trying to serve? Or what is the work I’m really trying to do? Or what are the outcomes I’m really looking to achieve through my work and my business?

And for me, that typically goes beyond just business goals. It’s more psychological. Like, what change do I want to see in the world? What impact can I make if I dedicate my time to this work?

In terms of distractions, I find myself endlessly distracted, especially as someone who's quite a digital native and is in front of screens all day. I’ve had to do a lot of things to keep my focus and keep myself from getting distracted.

One of those things is I just try to achieve some sort of digital minimalism, even though I’m in screens all day.

For example, if you look at my phone—that’s literally my desktop. I have no icons. If you look at my computer desktop—literally no icons. I just try to keep things from screaming at me.

My friends can attest to this, that my phone is always on Do Not Disturb.

If you try to text me, it always says, “Sean has Do Not Disturb on,” because the texts and phone calls and constant pinging for your attention—as someone who very likely might have undiagnosed ADHD—I need to remove those constant things and distractions from my day to day.

And that has seriously helped.

Another thing I’ve done is I consolidate when I have meetings.

So I used to have meetings every single day of the week. Maybe 20 or 30 meetings a week. And one of the things that I’ve changed over the past couple of years is I’ve consolidated when I have meetings.

So most weeks, I only have meetings on Wednesdays.

And in some ways, I almost write Wednesday off as, I’m not going to get any deep work done on Wednesdays. But that means on the other days of the week, I have time to work.

Another thing I’ve done is I’ve focused heavily on asynchronous work, meaning that most of those meetings can be moved to well-written communication over email.

I have asynchronous video tools, for example, Clarity Flow is one I use, Loom is pretty popular. Instead of having a 30 to 60-minute meeting that isn’t going to get on the calendar until next week, I can send you a three to five-minute video, potentially sharing my screen and talking through a problem or an issue or a question, and I can send that to you for a response.

I can send it today, and your calendar might be full for the next three days.

Most importantly for me, it removes the cognitive load of me thinking about that thing for the next three to five days until we can get on a call together.

So that’s been tremendously helpful in helping eliminate distractions or meetings that just aren’t necessary.

If there’s anything I can do for you or you have any questions, drop a comment on the video, and I’d be excited to connect with you there.

Thanks again.