Joanna Eitel is another one of the 90 pilot members who took The Focus Course this past spring. Joanna and her husband Tyler actually live here in Kansas City, Missouri. They have a 3-year old son and 1-year old daughter.

Joanna Eitel, Office Manager & MotherJoanna worked almost ten years as an event coordinator, literally helping coordinate events of 20,000+ people. She now works part-time as the office manager for an adoption agency, along with being a wife and mom.

After the pilot course, I asked Joanna some questions about her specific challenges related to focus, what her thoughts are about doing work that matters, and how the course impacted her.

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Shawn: What is your biggest challenge related to focus?

Joanna: For me, I have many roles: wife, mother, administrator, event coordinator, friend, and daughter just to name a few. And while I love every one of these roles, they don’t always stick to their own clean and organized schedule.

I could be in the middle of a conference call and one of my kiddos has a fall. Or while sitting in a staff meeting I may be distracted trying to remember what I need from the grocery store. Or perhaps I’m in the middle of cooking dinner and get a text from my boss requesting my attention on an issue. Even if he doesn’t need my answer right away, it now has my focus.

Through your course, I learned that many times these situations are related to the pressure to deal with what you call the tyranny of the urgent and not having a solution on how to filter such “pop-ups” as they arise.

What does the idea of work / life balance mean to you?

That these roles can coexist, however I need balance and a good action plan to juggle it well. When at work I want to be energized to do my best and give my all. However when I come home, I need to know how to unplug and be intentional with my family and personal life. Not only does this directly connect to my habits and disciplines at home but also what habits and systems I have in place at work!

What was something you learned during the course?

I learned several things, actually:

• During one of the modules I realized part of my day at home was lost simply thinking of what needed to be done or deciding what to focus on next. If I tried checking the task list on my phone I found myself getting distracted by various social media notifications or emails. Now, I have a small white board on my refrigerator. Along with my project management apps or calendars that I love, I write my top priorities for that day on the white board. What project I’m focusing on, what calls need to be made, even if there’s laundry downstairs that I can’t forget about. The same goes for if I think of an email that I need to send or an idea to fully process later, I’ll note it on the board instead of worrying that I might forget. It’s simple and serves as a constant reminder to stay focused in the midst of the inevitable curve balls throughout the day.

• All throughout the Focus Course, Shawn, you did an incredible job not only sharing steps and systems on how to be productive and focused but also you walked me through, step by step how to create my own mission statement and life goals. And not just within my vocation (which I think is where most of us focus on) but physically, financially, spiritually and relationally as well! Now when an opportunity arises, I am able to make a decision based on those core values and what I am called to “focus on” in this season. I can remember to stay true to who I am called to be and not distracted by what Pinterest defines as perfect or successful.

• Also, the concept of organizing one’s time and productivity is not new to me. When I first read Getting Things Done by David Allen I was hooked. Because of my love for all things administrative and organization, I enjoy reading ideas and methods used by some great men and women — it just makes sense! However after becoming a mom and having even more to juggle, I had a harder time making sense of it all and finding where to even start. Along with research and insight, Shawn was even able to relate how he and his wife are able to apply these practices in their own home life. As a working mom, I finally felt like I had someone to relate to!

The way the course was laid out made it easy follow, and it provided practical avenues to integrate the principles into my daily routine immediately.

Did the daily tasks that accompany the course help to make the teaching sink in?

Yes! Having daily “homework” — or tasks — challenged me to put each philosophy introduced into practice, one step at a time.

I will never forget reading the assignment on Day One: laying out my clothes for the next day. For me it turned out to be a day that I was only planning on playing with the kids and tackling a long list of chores. Still, I laid out my favorite pink t-shirt and jeans. It actually made quite a difference! The simple act of getting dressed sooner in the day without a doubt jump started productivity level. Had I waited to make this simple of a decision until that day, I probably would have been caught up in the swirl of the day and the “tyranny of the urgent” and would not have felt clear, level headed and prepared for the day ahead.

What was your favorite aspect of the course?

My favorite part of this course was taking it along with my husband!

While we weren’t always on the same day, we enjoyed being able to challenge each other and follow up with what each of us was learning. It also made it easier to integrate these practices into our daily routine. One outcome from this course is we have started a weekly “team meeting” / in-home date night! We get the kids to bed, grab some dessert and connect about crucial decisions we need to make for our family. We review our budget, calendar, bring up any new opportunities to discuss, even take time to dream and vision cast when time allows. While some weeks may be more of a quick “touch base” and others take detailed planning, we now have routine we can rely on. Not only has this strengthened our focus as a family but it has strengthened our marriage. Taking the time to discuss your life vision as well as mission as a family is priceless. I highly recommend taking the Focus Course with your spouse!

Would you recommend this course to othrs?

Yes. Whether you’re a high level executive who is managing hundreds of employees, an entrepreneur with too many ideas and too little time, or a stay at home mom who can’t remember your own hopes and dreams but can name every single character on Sesame Street… I highly recommend the Focus Course. You will not only gain tremendous insight and tools to navigate this journey but will gain a new friend in Shawn Blanc to have in your corner, cheering you on.

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Today’s interview is part of my countdown to The Focus Course.

Every single person who went through the pilot course and provided feedback said that The Focus Course had a positive impact on them, and that they learned about the things they were wanting to learn about and they saw change in the areas they were hoping.

You can now sign up for The Focus Course right here.

Tyler Soenen was one of 90 pilot members who took an early version of The Focus Course this past spring.

Tyler and his wife KristenIt was an honor to have Tyler as part of that early group because he is pretty much my ideal target market for the course: Tyler is a project manager at a large company and also has a strong bend toward creativity. While he has a lot of autonomy at his job, there are still the challenges that come with corporate bureaucracy and working with people who don’t all necessarily care about doing work that matters and living with integrity.

Moreover, Tyler has long been a “productivity student” so to speak. Before even taking the course, he had already read many productivity and goal-setting books and tried out other systems and methodologies, including Getting Things Done by David Allen, Zen to Done by Leo Babauta, The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, What’s Best Next by Matt Perman, and The One Thing by Gary Keller. (All awesome books, btw.)

Throughout the pilot course, Tyler provided invaluable feedback (as did many of the other pilot members). And so, afterward, I asked Tyler some questions about his specific challenges related to focus, what his thoughts are about doing work that matters, and how the course impacted him.

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Shawn: What is your biggest challenge related to focus?

Tyler: My biggest challenge related to focus has been maintaining clarity on what’s most important in my life, and also being fiercely committed to that. In a day where information, priority, and urgency come at me from multiple directions in a short span of time, it’s always a fight to keep clarity in the midst of all of the competing elements of life.

What does the idea of work / life balance mean to you?

I like to think of these two topics as interwoven and integrated.

Work should be what your life is about, but there are different expressions of it. Work is taking care of your house, relationally investing into your family members, your church community, at your actual place of vocation by doing the best that you can to serve the very next person that you hand the product of your work to (whether that be a phone call, a spreadsheet, a presentation, a solved problem).

The ratio of work/life balance look different for each person according to their values and season of life. My aim (although I am very aware of my weakness to execute the vision) is to maximize my capability to serve others in my life and to use my opportunities for rest as a time to recharge my life so I can better achieve my aim of serving others.

You told me that you’ve already read quite a few books about productivity and have tried different systems and methodologies before. How was the Focus Course different than what you’ve learned in the past?

The books I’ve read tell you about the theory of how to use a hammer to hit a nail. For example, if you’ve ever read read Getting Things Done, it’s easy to think “Ahhhhh! Oh my gosh, there’s so much to do! I have to clarify all of my 50,000 ft objectives, set up my tickler system, clarify my 10,000 ft goals — it’s so much.” And that thought makes it overwhelming to actually put all of it to practice — you’ve learned the theory, but you’re not sure how to do anything about it.

Did the daily tasks that accompany the course help to make the teaching sink in?

Absolutely. What I liked about it is that it forced me to put words on paper, and perform the actions as I was learning the theory (reiterating what I was saying before). This also helped pace performing the actions.

As I mentioned before, when I’ve studied other books, the can be overwhelming to actually put in to practice. I learned the theory, but it’s not always clear how to do anything about it.

Your course, however, did the work for me in this area by taking that variable out of play. I just focused on doing what you told me to do and I learned from it. (Which, by the way, that’s why we usually pay for courses. And this course does that.)

What this left me with was 40 days of learning about the philosophy related to focus, doing work that matters, and having a healthy work / life balance. And at the same time I was learning from the experiences that came from completing the daily assignments. The course forces you to beat the resistance (as Pressfield says) and do the work. The result is that you learn so much more because you’ve actually done the work and tasted the fruit that so many of the books talk about.

This was huge for me, because in all of the reading I’ve done, the The Focus Course had something original that was very beneficial to my own life: the integration and union of having daily lifestyle practices that tie in to our ‘short- and long-term goals. You defined this paradigm in such a way that makes it possible to feel like I was achieving success daily by completing activities that are aligned with my own values, but at the same time using these activities to complete a short-term / long-term quantitative goal.

What was the most challenging aspect of the course for you?

I have to say, the most challenging aspect was sticking with it.

Being an American in our drive-thru-mentality society, I wanted to see awesome results just 5 days in. Sticking with 40 days of actions is difficult.

But when is the last time you’ve done something you’re really proud of in just a few days? In my experience it’s the difficult yet mundane tasks (and you talk about this, Shawn) that produce tons of fruit in the long haul. You just have to be willing to have the grit to follow through. I though you did such a great job at breaking things down and making them as simple as possible.

What was your favorite aspect of the course?

The integration and marriage of the ‘Daily Lifestyle Practices’ and ‘Short Term and Long Term Goals.’ As I said, in all of the reading that I’ve done, I think this is original and very beneficial to my own life.

In my experience reading a lot of productivity books out there, they either focus on the “now” and express that “there are no goals,” or they focus on goals alone and the achievement of these goals.

I’ve found if you focus on the “now” alone, you lose heart because of a lack of vision for where you’re going in life. And on the other side of that, if you are constantly completing and re-signing-up for goals, you never feel like you have success day to day.

You took both of these ideas and forged them into a singular convergent idea that can be deployed on a daily basis and that brings vision for the future, Yet it’s also something that is practical and simple enough to complete in 24 hours that aligns with your core values.

This was so helpful to me and was by far my favorite thing about the course.

Who do you think this course is for?

This course really could be for anyone. Every person is doing creative work somehow. If you have a choice on how you’re going to go about your day, your relationships, your vocation, etc. then this course is applicable to you. If you’re a stay-at-home mom, a horse rancher in Wyoming, or a broker in New York, I believe this course will not disappoint because it’s aligned with fundamental truths that we all benefit from.

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Today’s interview is a part of my countdown to The Focus Course.

Every single person who went through the pilot and provided feedback said that The Focus Course had a positive impact on them, and that they learned about the things they were wanting to learn about and they saw change in the areas they were hoping.

Over the weekend I’ll be sharing some more stories and testimonies of those who’ve already taken the course and how it impacted their life.

You can also sign up for The Focus Course right here.

It took us over a century to realize the changes and impact that the Industrial Revolution was making on our lifestyle, culture, economy, and educational system.

Technology has changed all of that again, but this time it took less than a decade.

Today, if we need advice on a topic, it’s as close as posting a question to Facebook or Twitter. If we don’t know an answer, we can Google it. If we want something, we can buy it from our phones and have it delivered to our house. If we have a moment of down time, our social network timelines guarantee we never have to be bored. And we have the world’s catalog of movies, music, and books available to us from our living room.

Nobody in the history of anything has ever lived like this before. It’s fantastic. Also, it’s a little bit terrifying.

There aren’t any experts in these fields any more. We’re all guessing about what’s next for education, the economy, communication, media, our jobs, our art, and our families.

Diligence, focus, art, parenting, marriage, priorities, work culture, and time management have always been moving targets. How much more now that we’re always connected thanks to the internet that lives in our pocket?

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With time and focus being such precious commodities, it is all the more important to have a vision for our life and to run with it. Use it as a path for our creative work and as a guardrail for how we spend our time and energy.

So often I get this feeling that I can live however I want, in the moment, and over the long run everything will pan out for me. Something whispers to me that I needn’t worry about hard work, focus, planning, or diligence because one day my ship will come in and all the important things will just happen.

Alas, that is not how real life works. Those things don’t just happen all by themselves simply because I want them to. They happen through vision, planning, and a lot of hard work.

Benjamin Franklin wrote that “human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day.”

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The dreams of our heart will not come to be through magic or luck. They are forged little by little, day by day. The most meaningful things in our lives are produced from the ground up with much focus and diligence.

Too much attention on the big, long-term goals and we despise the little daily steps needed to make progress. But too much focus on the granular, and it can be easy to feel like the “urgent” things are most important.

How do you reconcile these two vantage points? How do you have an eye for the long-term while also focusing on what’s most important right now? Why is big-picture planning so important to helping us navigate the small successes and failures we have every day?

If you know what it is you’re moving toward, then you can slice that down into something small and actionable every day. You can define “important work” as something that moves the needle forward rather than something that is merely urgent in the moment.

Having a defined goal can help us to focus on actually accomplishing our idea and making it happen. As I wrote in my article about fighting to stay creative, a clear goal is a significant stimulator for creativity.

Looming, unanswered questions often lead to inaction and procrastination. We get frustrated at ambiguity and indecisiveness in the work place, why do we tolerate it in our own life as well? Overcoming this is often as simple as taking time to define an end goal and then taking the first step toward that goal.

Another significant stimulator for creativity is diligence. And diligence, well, it isn’t a personality type — diligence is a skill we learn.

Some of us had a good work ethic instilled in us by our parents, some of us have had to cultivate it on our own later in life. It is silly to think a creative person should live without routine, discipline, or accountability. Sitting around being idle while we wait for inspiration is a good way to get nothing done.

This, my friends, is why the Focus Course is so helpful. Half of the course — 20 days worth — is spent on the foundations of clarity and action. Where you define your goals and distill them to daily lifestyle practices. It will change your life to have a daily habit or two that contributes to your quality of life and that also move you forward in the things that matter.

The Focus Course doesn’t force or assume any methodology or system. Nor does it impose a particular schedule or routine. Rather, the course guides you through finding answers and clarity on your own. You also learn about and strengthen your own foundational character traits, such as personal integrity, creative imagination, self-efficacy, gratitude, and more.

You can live without regret in the age of distraction. You can change your attitudes and behaviors. You can raise your children in the midst of a Smartphone Generation. You can spend your time doing work that matters.

While The Focus Course will have the most impact the first time you go through it, it’s actually designed to be done once per year. It’s not something you consume once; something you graduate from and move on. Rather it’s meant to be a tool that you use over and over. That’s why you get lifetime access when you join.

As I said earlier in this article, diligence, focus, art, and entrepreneurship are all moving targets. You need a tool — a secret weapon as it were — to help you hit those targets and have fun in the process.

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The Focus Course launches on June 23, and this article is the first in a countdown to the course. If today’s article hit home for you, then I believe you will love the course. Check it out:

The Focus Course launches in just 9 days.

This course is unlike anything else out there that I know of.

Tyler Soenen is an engineer and project manager, and was one of my pilot members. He told me that compared to all of the productivity and life-focus-centric reading he’d done, The Focus Course has something original.

I am excited. Also, nervous. Very, very nervous. But the nerves and frightful anticipation are what tell me I’m doing something worthwhile.

5 Modules. 40 days. 75,000 words. 20 videos. A members-only forum. And more.

I have spent thousands of hours writing, researching, and architecting the content of this course. I’ve poured myself into building something that is professional, delightful, informative, fun, unique, and, most of all, very impactful.

Jaclynn Braden, a photographer and designer, who was another one of the pilot members, said that the course’s ability to combine deep introspection with applicable exercises is brilliant.

This course is so much more than ideas and principles that leave you, the reader, on your own to decipher and implement. Rather, The Focus Course is built on a foundation of action where you learn by doing. And yet it still has a massive amount of theory and training to support the why behind the what. I’m confident that the contents and value of the course are well worth the investment to take it.

If you’ve been tracking with the writing I’ve been doing here over the past year, you’ll know that I’ve written many articles out of the overflow of my work to build the content for The Focus Course. For these articles as well as my ebook, The Procrastinator’s Guide to Progress, the feedback has been fantastic.

Here is a brief list of just a few of the articles I’ve published over the past several months:

• Honesty, Clarity, and Action
• Celebrate Progress
• If Diligence is a Skill
• Meaningful Productivity
• How to Get it All Done
• No. Times a Thousand.
• There is No Finally
• The Note
• What it Takes to Do Work that Matters
• The Procrastinator’s Guide to Progress

If any of these past articles have been helpful, encouraging, or inspirational to you then I hope you’ll consider the immense value found in The Focus Course. As I said, I cannot wait for it to launch.

Starting Monday and leading up to the launch, I’m going to be publishing a new article every day in a Countdown to The Focus Course.

• Monday: Living Without Regret in the Age of Distraction

• Tuesday: You Have Ideas

• Wednesday: The Jolt

• Thursday: It’s Going to be a Fight

• Friday: An Interview With Tyler Soenen

• Saturday: An Interview with Joanna Eitel

Each article is along the topics of creativity, integrity, and focus that are so prevalent within the course itself. And some article will be for telling the practical and interesting behind-the-scenes story about why I made the course, what sets it apart, and what the feedback has been from the early pilot members.

If you have any questions you’d like me to answer (about the course itself, or along the topics of the course) please don’t hesitate to ask. You can email me directly, or ping me on Twitter.

Talk to you soon,

— Shawn