The Focus Project: Book Review

Erik was a featured speaker at the CFMA Annual Conference in Atlanta GA. He was engaging and clearly loves his topic. You might know him by his signature bright green glasses. He shared the story of how this became associated with him and how he eventually embraced it as his brand.

The heart of his presentation for a room full of Construction Financial professionals was about focus. We are all pulled in many directions, both at work and at home; how do we get more done with the same 24/7 everyone has?

In this book, Erik proposes that more focused time blocks actually makes us more productive. To test his research, he decided to take one area of focus each month, implement it whole heartedly, and test the results, then grade himself on the efforts. Some of the monthly focus topics included Energy Management, Health, Learning, Creativity, Empathy, Giving, and Gratitude to name a few. Each chapter talks about his experiences and some of the research supporting his actions. Happy to report that he quoted other authors I’ve reviewed here such as James Clear, Darren Hardy, Chip and Dan Heath, and some selections from the Bible.

In the opening section, he lists ‘99 Notes for a Focused Life.’ Some are proverbs, some are quotes by names you’ll recognize. This list alone could be a ’focus for the day’ project. I like the balance of applying these focus areas to work and on a personal level. Recommended! – CMW