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FocusFix: three techniques you can use today
If you're struggling to focus because emotions or distractions keep pulling you off track, this page gives you three full techniques to start using today – no purchase needed. In 20 minutes, you'll be able to track your focus patterns, reset emotional blocks, and begin hard tasks with a simple trigger.
1. The 5-Minute Daily Focus Journal
From the kit module “The 5-Minute Daily Focus Journal”. This journal builds a clear record of what you avoid, how it makes you feel, and what you do instead. By tracking specific tasks and feelings over time, you begin to see patterns without needing insight or motivation. The goal is not to fix anything tonight, just to gather data.
Do this
- Pick your medium in the next two minutes: one blank notebook page or one pinned phone note titled 'Focus Log'.
- Write the three prompts at the top: 'Today I avoided …', 'When I pictured starting it, I felt …', 'What I did next was …'.
- Set a daily phone alarm for fifteen minutes before your usual bedtime, labeled 'Log – 5 minutes'.
- Tonight, start a five-minute timer and answer prompt one with the task's exact name – file name, email subject, or chapter number – plus roughly how many times you said 'later' or 'after X' about it.
- Answer prompt two with one plain feeling word and a body location ('dread, chest'), refusing the words fine, busy, and stressed.
- Answer prompt three like camera footage: what you actually did instead, with rough minutes for each detour, and no 'because'.
- Stop the moment the timer ends, even mid-sentence, and read the entry once without editing, planning, or promising yourself anything.
- Leave the notebook open on your pillow or the note as your phone's home-screen icon so tomorrow night needs no willpower to begin.
Worked example: Lena
Lena is a freelance writer who has been avoiding a client proposal for three days.
Lena picked up a blank page from her notebook and wrote the three prompts at the top. She set her phone alarm for 9:45 PM, fifteen minutes before her usual bedtime. When the timer went off, she started the five-minute countdown and wrote: 'Today I avoided the email to Dana about the missed deadline. Dodged it from 9:15 AM; said after lunch, then after email; at 4:00 decided it was too late to start.' Next, she wrote: 'When I pictured starting it, I felt sinking stomach; the sentence Dana-will-think-I-am-unreliable on a loop.' Finally, she wrote: 'What I did next was answered Slack messages that could have waited; reorganized my invoice folder, 40 minutes; watched one video that ran 50.' The entry took her 3 minutes and 45 seconds. She read it once, then left the page open on her desk. The next morning, she saw the page as she got up and knew what to do.
What Lena could observe afterwards: Lena noticed that the same task and feeling showed up again the next night, giving her a clear starting point for change.
How to tell it is working
- Entries speed up – five minutes becomes three.
- The avoided item sharpens from vague categories into specific tasks.
- On day five, flipping back, repeats jump out without rereading.
Common mistakes
- Writing explanations in prompt three ('because the meeting ran long') instead of camera footage – justification burns the five minutes and hides the escape pattern. Fix: stick to what you did, not why.
- Using categories instead of proper nouns ('avoided work,' 'felt bad') which makes rows impossible to compare. Fix: name the exact task and feeling word with a body part.
- Skipping a night because 'nothing happened' – a no-avoidance day is still a row. Fix: write 'avoided nothing' plus one line on what was different.
2. The 5-Minute Emotional Reset
From the kit module “The 5-Minute Emotional Reset for Focus”. This reset moves emotional loops out of your head and onto paper. Two minutes of breathing settles your body. One verbatim sentence captures the loop. One counter-sentence gives you a physical action to take. It doesn't remove the feeling – it gives you a way to work around it.
Do this
- Choose today's next work block that you expect to resist, and decide to run the reset in the five minutes immediately before it.
- Place a pen and a blank page – paper, not an app – at the spot where you will do the block.
- Set a timer for exactly two minutes and breathe in through your nose for a count of four and out through your mouth for a count of six until it rings.
- Write the date and the name of the work block at the top of the page.
- Write the looping thought exactly as it sounds in your head, word-for-word, without cleaning up the dramatic or embarrassing parts.
- Read the sentence back once and underline the single word or phrase that carries the most charge.
- Write one counter-sentence that is provably true and ends with your first physical action, for example '…and my next action is opening the brief and typing the heading.'
- Start the work block within sixty seconds of finishing the counter-sentence, and if the loop returns mid-block, glance at the page instead of re-arguing it.
- When the block ends, write one line under the counter-sentence recording whether you did the named physical action: yes or no.
Worked example: Sam
Sam is a project manager preparing for a report section he's been avoiding for a week.
Sam picked a blank page and placed it on his desk. He set a two-minute timer and did 13 breaths of 4 in and 6 out. He wrote: 'If this section is weak, my manager will finally see I've been faking it all year.' He underlined 'faking it all year.' Then he wrote: 'This is a first draft of one section, and my next action is typing the three headings before 3:45.' He opened the document and typed the first heading at 3:45. He wrote 'yes' under the counter-sentence. The reset took him four minutes and got him to the first action within one minute of the timer ending. When the loop returned, he glanced at the page and kept going.
What Sam could observe afterwards: Sam noticed that the loop returned once, but he didn't argue with it – he just kept working.
How to tell it is working
- The gap between finishing the reset and touching the work is under a minute.
- When the loop fires again mid-block, you glance at the written sentence and think 'already handled' instead of re-arguing.
- At the end of the block, you can answer yes or no to whether you did the named physical action.
Common mistakes
- Paraphrasing the looping thought into something reasonable ('I'm concerned about the quality of this draft'). Fix: write the raw one.
- Writing a counter-sentence that is a pep talk ('I've got this, I'm going to crush it'). Fix: make it a true, checkable claim that ends in a physical action.
- Inserting a warm-up between the reset and the work – checking email, refilling water. Fix: start the work block within one minute.
3. The 3-Step Focus Trigger
From the kit module “The 3-Step Focus Trigger: How to Start When You Don't Want To”. A Focus Trigger removes the decision to start by making everything fixed: where you sit, what you do first, and how long you work. It doesn't make you feel like working – it gives your brain something to follow instead of something to debate. The first action is small and defined, so you can't argue with it.
Do this
- Pick one task you have been avoiding for at least three days and write its name at the top of a blank page.
- Choose your cue as three physical facts – one location, one phone placement, one opening motion – and write them down in the order you will do them.
- Define a first action that takes under two minutes and starts with a physical verb – type one bad sentence, label three columns – and write it in under twelve words.
- Set a timer length between 5 and 15 minutes, write the number on the page, and add the sentence: when it rings, I am allowed to stop.
- Copy the full sequence – cue, first action, timer length – onto one index card or sticky note and place it where you will sit to work.
- Rate your resistance to the chosen task from 0 to 10; if it is 6 or higher, run the 5-Minute Emotional Reset from Module 4 before continuing.
- Run the sequence once today on the avoided task: do the cue exactly as written, complete the first action, then start the timer.
- Decide, when the timer rings, to stop or continue – both count – then write one line in a notebook: the task, whether you started, and how many minutes passed between the cue and the first action.
Worked example: Lena
Lena is a freelance writer who has been avoiding a client proposal for three days.
Lena wrote 'Client Proposal' at the top of a blank page. She chose her cue: sit at the kitchen table, phone in the hallway, open the file. Her first action was: type one deliberately bad sentence describing what the next section should say. She set a 10-minute timer and wrote: 'When it rings, I am allowed to stop.' She copied the sequence onto a sticky note and placed it on her desk. She rated her resistance as 8 and ran the 5-Minute Emotional Reset first. Then she sat at the table, moved her phone, opened the file, and typed the first sentence. It took her 4 minutes to start. The timer rang at 10 minutes and she stopped. She wrote in her notebook: 'Client Proposal, started yes, 4 minutes to first action.' The next day, the time to start dropped to 2 minutes.
What Lena could observe afterwards: Lena noticed that the time between cue and first action shortened from 4 to 2 minutes in one day.
How to tell it is working
- You can say your cue, first action, and timer length out loud from memory without looking at the card.
- You ran the full sequence at least once today on a task you had been avoiding, and you wrote down the result in one line.
- Your first action took under two minutes and you did the small version as written, not an upgraded one.
Common mistakes
- Choosing a first action that is secretly the whole task – 'work on the report' instead of 'type one bad sentence'. Fix: halve it until it feels slightly silly.
- Redesigning the sequence at the start line – swapping the playlist, picking a different timer length. Fix: run it exactly as written for at least five reps before changing anything.
- Treating the timer as a commitment to keep working instead of permission to stop. Fix: the bell must be a real exit or your brain learns to avoid the cue.
Next
Take the 5-minute self-assessment to find which technique to run first, or follow the 7-day plan.
The full FocusFix kit includes 14 modules, a 30-day tracker, an action workbook, and four bonus guides. It expands on these techniques with tools for identifying your focus kryptonite, building distraction-proof environments, and sustaining focus long-term. The full kit is $39 on its product page, with a 60-day refund handled by ClickBank. Everything on this page works without it.