Last week I finished reading the book The One Thing, written by Gary Keller (cofounder of Keller Williams Realty) and Jay Papasan.
I started reading it upon the suggestion of a member in a Facebook group I belong to after posting that my biggest challenge continues to be having way too many plates spinning at once, and acting on just about every idea that travels through my brain immediately.
What ends up happening is that I start multiple projects but never really finish any of them.
The philosophy of the book is to focus… one thing for a large block of time.
The key is to figure out what the one, most important thing is to focus on.
Once you determine that, you devote your attention to that task until it’s complete.
Then you can move on to the next thing.
It was how Keller became super successful.
I have a little home office that I love.
But it’s right off the main living area, it doesn’t have a door that latches or locks (it’s a barn door with windows that slides) and it’s just too visible for the kids to stay away.
When the kids are home, it is near impossible for me to have large blocks of uninterrupted time to myself.
So being productive when the kids are home and awake just isn’t realistic.
But even when nobody is home, I am still very easily distracted.
I’m distracted by the cat, distracted by too many open tabs on my computer, distracted by laundry, distracted by the kitchen, distracted by pretty much everything.
I am especially distracted when what I really need to do to finish something gets boring and requires lots of brain power and is monotonous and not exciting.
That’s usually when I move onto the next new idea in my head that is much more appealing.
And it’s how I end up with 25 different unfinished endeavors.
I can’t do that anymore.
I can’t do it because it’s causing me a lot of stress, I can’t do it because it’s not productive, I can’t do it because it’s wasting a lot of time, and I can’t do it because it’s not making me the amount of money I need and want to make.
This weekend was the first weekend in a while that we had no swim meets.
I had an entire Sunday free.
And so I blocked off four hours, and I left the house.
Here is what I have discovered recently.
The Public Library.
Public libraries are amazingly underutilized facilities.
Especially for people with young children at home who can’t afford to pay for a coworking space or an office. (Which is most of us I think).
But the public library in my town SUCKS.
The staff there is amazing. And they do what they can with what they have.
But it’s tiny and there aren’t work areas and there are like three outlets to plug laptops into and there is no separate children’s section.
And even if it was amazing, I see way too many people I know there, so I’d be interrupted almost as often as I am when the kids are at home.
But I have discovered the library in the town of the swim team the kids have been swimming for.
It’s an awesome library with plenty of places to work quietly without being disturbed at all.
On nights when I haven’t been coaching, I drop Number 4 off and then go to the library to work.
I have gotten so much done there.
We only have two weeks left with this team though, and that library is almost 40 minutes from my house, so going there once the swim season is over doesn’t make sense.
But today I discovered the Southbury Public Library.
It’s beautiful and it’s big and it’s quiet and it has tons of places to work and it’s only 15 minutes from my house.
And it’s only two minutes from my therapist!
It’s far enough away that I won’t see people I know when I’m there.
So every Thursday morning after therapy, that will be my new office.
And probably every Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday, too.
I’ve blocked off the time, and I’m gonna pound out my first one thing at the library.
I wish I had figured this out earlier, but I’m glad I figured out now!
If you aren’t getting sh*t done at home, remove yourself from your full-of-distractions-environment.
And if your public library doesn’t suck, go there!
Leave a Reply