The Power of a Focused Life

Watch The Video

“What's Your Biggest Challenge When it Comes to Focus?”

Thousands of people have been asked that question through my weekly newsletter. Answers have come from all over the world and from all types of vocations — public school teachers to high school principals, web developers, college professors, small-business owners, retail store employees, work-from-home moms and dads, doctors, writers, and designers.

The most common enemies to focus are:

Most of us want to create more meaningful work.

But we feel stuck. We have more ideas than time. We're not clear about where we should be focusing our time and energy. Our day-to-day responsibilities have us mostly doing work that is urgent, and so we rarely, if ever, do work that is important. Do we even know what important work looks like anymore? We've lost our bearings and have become addicted to our inboxes. We are looking for help.

Why does focus matter?

Unfortunately, most of us aren’t surrounded by energetic, highly-focused, successful individuals who can set an example for us. Instead, our classrooms, workplaces, and neighborhoods are filled with folks who are unable to achieve their long-term goals and do their best creative work because they are too distracted and sucked in by the draw of the ephemeral.

Doesn’t it seem silly to think we have a better chance of achieving our goals while living like most people who will never achieve theirs?

It's time to get a clear head amidst the craziness…

“If I have to memorize one more life hack that will make me 9x more productive by doing this one weird trick for just 7 seconds each day, I’m going to throw my artisanal to-do list app out the window.”

Living without regret in the Age of Distraction

Your artisanal to-do list app is not the problem. Well, maybe.

You can get a clear head amidst the craziness. You can thrive in the midst of the tensions of life. But the answer is not in a methodology, system, or app.

To spend your time creating meaningful work goes far beyond white-knuckle focus or ripping your internet cable out of the wall.

You don’t have to solve the tensions of life before you can create something of value. Meaningful productivity means consistently giving your time and attention to the things which are most important.

You can do work that matters, build momentum in your personal integrity, establish habits that stick, bring a healthy balance between your work and personal life, and re-define what you think of when you say productivity. Learn about your own lifestyle, the way you work, what your values are, and more.

My Story

Hi. My name is Shawn Blanc. For more than a decade, I have been teaching and learning about diligence and focus. I’ve spoken about these topics at conferences, taught them to my design team during my time as a creative director, and now that I work from home running a small network of websites, I continue to implement them in my own life. I also write about creativity, focus, and risk to an audience of thousands every day.

I've spent years figuring out my own solutions to these problems: examining my own habits, studying many other solutions, and rigorously testing different approaches over and over again.

At the end of the day, it's all about giving our time and energy to the things which are meaningful. I want a lifestyle that is conducive to doing my best creative work without sacrificing a healthy work/life balance to get there.

Living with diligence and focus is not a personality type — it's a skill we can learn.

Creating The Focus Course has changed my life. The pilot course members tell me it's changing their lives. And it can also change your life if you let it.

Let me just say, bravo! I’m loving this course — your content is simple yet profoundly powerful.

Havilah C. Havilah C., Author & Speaker

I've loved the combination of "types" of assignments. Practical, creative, encouraging, internal, etc. Most assignments I've been able to put into practice within my daily routine. This course has been so impactful, encouraging, and freeing to me.

Through The Focus Course, I began to see that focus is about more than just fancy software — it’s a mindset. Before this course I knew nothing about that mindset, but having gone through it I feel like I have the tools to continue working toward achieving the focus I want in every part of my life.

Ben Brooks Ben Brooks, Writer, Photographer, and Project Manager

Without any hyperbole, I can honestly say that taking the Focus Course has been life changing. A typical day for me looks a lot different now than it did 6 weeks ago when I started the course.

The Focus Course

A guided, online course that will change your life

The Focus Course is all about doing your best creative work without sacrificing the balance between your work and personal life.

It's a 40-day, action-centric class where you learn about the foundational components of a focused life (vision, goals, action plans, lifestyle practices, and time management) as well as the granular, practical, and actionable elements of diligence, focus, work/life balance, and creating meaningful work.

In the Focus Course we’ll seek to re-define what we think of when we say “productivity” and “meaningful work.” We’ll build momentum in your personal integrity, learn to establish habits that empower you to do meaningful work and build meaningful relationships, help bring a healthy understanding of what work/life balance means, learn about your own lifestyle and the way you work and what your values are, and more.

Topics include diligence, focus, life vision, time management, habits, dealing with overwhelm, getting things done, finding proper tools, overcoming analysis paralysis, fixing your workflows, the tyranny of the urgent, simplifying, thriving in the midst of a distraction-prone work/life environment, the act of balancing work and personal life, doing your best creative work, strengthening your creative imagination, building deep personal integrity, and more. Whew!

The Focus Course is about more than just head knowledge — it's an introduction to experiential knowledge.

A ton of theory surrounded by even more action

Meaningful productivity is the fruit of vision and values. No calendar app or task-management app is going to help you establish the right foundation. If you want to stop spinning your wheels; if you're tired of ending the day feeling like you didn't actually get anything done; if you want to create work that matters; if you want to keep your work and personal life in balance… then you have to ask yourself some hard questions. You have to make changes.

“The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.” — Herbert Spencer

“The greatest wisdom not applied to action and behavior is meaningless data.” — Peter Drucker

In addition to learning, each day there is a small action item — a simple (though not always easy) assignment. Through each day's action, you'll take the wisdom from the course and apply it in a practical way to the action and behavior in your everyday life. Learn by doing. Knowledge alone is not always enough to create lasting change.

This is one thing that sets The Focus Course apart from every other productivity, life hack, or self-help book. By taking the course, you'll get real clarity about what actually works best for you.

Spread the Word

What Others Are Saying

A pilot group of 90 students just recently finished the Focus Course and helped me put the finishing touches on the all the modules. More than 5,000 people have already downloaded my free PDF, The Procrastinator's Guide to Progress. Here's what a few people have said about the course and the content.

Hint: For the quotes with a name in blue, click the name to read that person's full story of how the Focus Course has impacted their life.

I have read my share of productivity books, blogs, and hacks, but nothing I have read comes close to your work in terms of helpfulness, depth, and significance.

Tracy B. Tracy B., Attorney & Law School Professor

I loved it! I highly recommend the Focus Course to anyone who wants to reframe their thinking and habits to line up with their values. The mix of inspiration, learning, and simple practicals throughout the material made it so enjoyable. Thanks Shawn!

The Focus Course has been an awesome experience. I look forward to each day. The balance between the big picture theory and experiential assignments is perfect: they have just enough substance to move me forward yet not so daunting as to discourage me from finishing. I also enjoyed how you "humanized" the content by sharing your own thoughts, goals, struggles, and ideas with us.

Kate Wai Kate Wai, Focus Course Pilot Member

The Course is perfect and really does what it promises: it helps you focus. It’s the perfect kind of words and the structure is great.

Normally I do pretty well in the swirl of creative tension around work, but this stop-one-start-another moment has been a challenge for reasons I can’t identify. [This week’s newsletter] was exactly the reminder I needed. You’re helping people and changing lives.

Keith, Newsletter Subscriber

I just wanted to add how much I am enjoying the course. The content has been way above my expectations. It is something I look forward to every day and is starting to have what I feel is a profound impact on all aspects of my life. Thank you.

Tom H., Focus Course Pilot Member

Having gone a little off the deep end to the detriment of other aspects of life, your course has been a nice way to step back and re-calibrate things.

John, Newsletter Subscriber

I just want to say that the Focus Course has been fantastic so far. It’s clear that you’ve put a ton of time and effort into researching and writing.

Brian H., Focus Course Pilot Member

I have been LOVING the emails you are sending out. I used one of them in our company newsletter and made everyone read it... I work in a knowledge business and poor time management is the single greatest cost I have. Nothing else in my company costs me more profit than that. We started implementing the ideas from your newsletter and putting them into a weekly email to our staff. After only a month we have already seen measurable, increased productivity from our staff! I can't wait to get them more in depth training from the course.

Andrew C. Andrew C., CPA, CFO

The Focus Course has gotten me to look closer at the full scope of my life and where I want to spend my time and effort more than any other course or book has before.

Brian W. Brian Y., Focus Course Pilot Member

The Focus Course helped me create a manageable plan of action that worked with my work and lifestyle that I could easily implement.

All too often, people approach creativity in a hazy, lazy, almost mystical way. Not so Shawn Blanc. He takes a clear-eyed, sober look at how our choices affect our creativity—and much more. He also happens to be a very inspiring example of someone who’s invested everything in his writing, and succeeded.

John Moore Williams John Moore Williams, Director of Content Strategy @InVisionApp.

To me, the Focus Course is an excellent toolbox filled with questions that guide and direct me to what I find important in life. It provides guidance on how to move the needle forward in the different areas of life. It has been awesome doing it.

Thanks for sharing your daily goals/values. I actually find it a very intimate act and I am impressed that you have so clearly defined what you want to be doing. I’m going through some serious changes right now and this is inspiring.

Nathan, Newsletter Subscriber

Shawn Blanc just dropped an EPIC newsletter on beating procrastination.

Mike S. Mike Schmitz, Newsletter Subscriber

I just want to say thanks for this course. It just keeps getting better and better. I keep thinking to myself that I'm going to do it again. I really do look forward to each day.

Steven S., Focus Course Pilot Member

I have a number of creative projects that I can never seem to get started. I do exactly what you said: Succumb to the tyranny of choice and opt out. I'm VERY looking forward to your next book and cannot wait for it to be released.

Josh, Newsletter Subscriber

This morning I read the Procrastinator's Guide to Progress and it's really good! I love how concise it is and yet packed with the best principles for being the best person you can be. I also like that you included a suggestion to pay attention to procrastination, to learn from it. That's important, but often overlooked. Thank you for sharing this, I'm looking forward to your book this summer!

Greg, Newsletter Subscriber

I was baffled by the simplicity. I genuinely love the fact that you make it easy for us, that you start really slowly, with a really simple thing. You stated it clearly: we’re not going to change our entire life. But, bits by bits, we CAN change.

Pierre, Focus Course Pilot Member

I'm typically one who will skim an email and archive it, but this is one I've already read multiple times and it's still in my inbox. It's likely going to end up as a pinned note in Evernote so I can refer back to it often. This is exactly the kind of thing I strive to consider and focus on... this is the perfect reminder to keep focused on the essential. I'm really enjoying this focus on fulfillment and am really looking forward to the new book.

Ryan, Newsletter Subscriber

The course has paid for itself several times over. Not only in the books I don’t have to wade through to glean a nugget of wisdom, but in the time you're taking to do so making the course. Awesome stuff.

Just as I realized that I needed to rebalance things, I got the opportunity to take The Focus Course. It couldn't have come at a better time, and I couldn't be happier with the results it produced in my life.

Shawn Blanc

About the author

Hi. I'm Shawn Blanc. I live in Kansas City with my wife Anna, and our two sons, Noah and Giovanni. I'm a creative-director-turned-full-time-writer who works from home publishing a humble network of tech- and design-centric websites. I also have a book and interview series, Delight is in the Details, that's for people who make things.