5 Ways to Implement Carlson’s Law to Increase Your Success

Being able to focus on one task at a time will greatly impact your success in all areas. Strengthening your focus is the optimal and quickest way to being able to complete a task. Divided attention does not allow you to accomplish more tasks in an optimal amount of time. Carlson’s Law states that that interrupted work will take longer and be less effective than if the same task was completed in a continuous manner without any breaks.

Do you want to be able to complete tasks quicker and move on to doing the things you enjoy? You should utilize Carlson’s Law and deep work as a practice when you are completing tasks. Interruptions must be minimized when you are focusing on one single task. If you divide your attention between tasks or attempt to multitask, you have to stop what you are doing, alter your thought process and then return to your original task. By the time you return to the original task, your attention and your creativity have been broken. It then takes time to restart and get back to the point you were before you stopped performing the task.

Deep Work: based on Carlson’s Law

Deep work, also known as batching, is a concept that was developed some research performed by Sune Carlson. Carlson was a Swedish economist who studied productivity in business situations. He maintained that performing a single task at a time would make an individual more productive than having to stop a task due to unexpected interruptions and then restart the task. Carlson’s Law states that interrupted work will take longer and be less effective than if the same task was completed in a continuous manner without any breaks.

Deep work defined

Deep work is defined as being able to concentrate on a single task without distractions. This task can be difficult yet it is achievable at an even faster rate when you are able to focus solely on a task. Deep work usually addresses those tasks that require a lot of brain power, creativity, and focus to complete. These tasks are not you usual to-do list type of tasks. These deep work tasks are tasks that set you apart from other people in your industry. These tasks are when you are completing a major project or focusing on something that will alter your current life trajectory.

If you are unable to achieve a deep work state, you can become frustrated at where you are in life. Individuals who are able to perform deep work versus those who are unable to achieve this state of addressing a task can be the division between individuals who are truly successful and satisfied and those who are not successful and frustrated.

Were you aware of the deep work concept prior to reading this post? Let me know what you knew about it in the comments below. I would love to know about your thoughts on deep work.

Why deep work is hard

The phone rings.

A family member wants you to help them with something.

The washing machine just finished.

How can you cut out all of the things happening in the world and focus on what you have to get done? The challenge is allowing everything to continue on around you while still allowing yourself to focus on the project in front of you. We are not always trained this way in our adulthood as we have numerous things that want our attention during all of our waking minutes.

Many of our professions are not set up in a way that allows us to be able to focus on a single task during a certain block of time. There are numerous interruptions that occur in between us beginning a task and being able to complete the task. This also occurs at home. Have you ever thought: what would happen if I could just get this done from start to finish without stopping? Based on Carlson’s Law, you should finish quicker and your work should be better than if you stopped to address interruptions or to switch to a different task and come back.

Tasks always are present for you to do all day every day. Everything continues to pull on your attention. You may have a spouse or children who will always need something from you. You may have work tasks. I know you have household chores. For me those chores are capitalized by the never ending laundry of five people.

You have your own goals that you want to accomplish and complete. You have dreams and desires that you know will not happen unless you get to work on them. You have to put in the work. There is no way around it. But what about everything else?

Steps to use Carlson’s Law

1. Give yourself permission to ‘ignore’ everything else

You have to allow yourself to not care about anything else for the time that you are scheduling to perform your deep work. Those household chores have to be forgotten about. Things that your family wants to do has to be left undone. I find that performing a brain dump before I begin my deep work helps. I write down any and everything that is in my mind which then allows me to let it go. I can come back to it later. I won’t be rehearsing it in my mind when I am supposed to be focusing on what I have to get done.

2. Decide when you perform optimally

Discovering when you perform the best takes some self reflection. When are you the most alert? When do you feel the most creative if you need creativity for your tasks? When are you the most reflective if you need reflection for your tasks? You have to identify what is needed for your deep work tasks and when you have that operating the most. Once you figure that out, you can decide when it is best to plan to perform your task batching, which will include time for deep work. Determining when this time is will get you closer to completing those tasks during your optimal performance.

3. Create time blocks when you can do deep work

Planning is essential to reach goals especially when it comes to when you plan your focus time. You cannot always be focused and working. You have to also perform other tasks and build relationships with those around you. Plan out the hours when you will perform deep work and then plan your other life tasks are those time blocks. Yes, I do like to be able to work and be thorough, but I can’t work all the time. You want to be able to enjoy living. Plan for living as well.

Ideas to help you create time blocks

• Planner- this item will help you visualize when you can perform deep work. It will also help you be able to see where other tasks and responsibilities can be scheduled.
• Timer- this item will alert you when you are able to end your deep work session. It will prevent you from constantly checking the time to see when you are done. When you are working, time sometimes slows down or speeds by. This allows you to mot worry about it in either case.
• Delegation of tasks- this will assist you with your work time and other times like when you need some self care. It is never too early to begin establishing chores that your children can do to assist around the house. Participation in chores let your children be an active part in assisting with helping the household run and also foster positive habits in them.

4. Let those you live with know that you can’t be bothered

Communication is a key element for all relationships. You have goals that want to be accomplished. You can not always support everyone else and not address your own goals. This is a quick way to frustration and feeling unfulfilled. Inform your family when you are working. Help them problem solve before you begin. Who do the kids need to go to if they need help? What is there to eat? What activities can they do without you involved? Preparing your family ahead of time will make your time block that much more effective.

5. Silence your phone

As a society, we can get everything on our phone now. I am hard pressed to think of anything that is not available on our phones……You may even be reading this information on your phone right now. That being said, you have to turn it off. Put it away. Silence it completely. When you are ready to work, all the pings, dings, and alerts can not be heard or acknowledged. This means your phone has to be completely silent.

You may be thinking in your head that where you are everyday does not allow you to implement deep work. You may have a demanding job. You may have young children. If you are not able to take 2 hours to work on your dream, you are in need of establishing systems in your life.

How will you incorporate deep work into your daily routine today? Please let me know in the comments I am always in search of ways to improve my productivity so I can get to the things I enjoy the most!

I can help you transform from feeling unorganized and unable to complete tasks to finishing what you start while being able to have time for yourself and your family. It is not easy but it can be done. Join along on this flourishing journey so you can achieve those goals that you keep putting off. Sign up below and share with someone you care about.

Be you, be well, be focused!   Find Your Flourish!

|Shanna|