Erik Qualman: How to Improve Focus and Productivity in a Digitally Connected World

Episode recap: 

Whether you’re a programmer, mother, executive, teacher, or an entrepreneur, this episode is for you if ... 

1. You feel like you need five more hours in your day. 

2. You are being pulled in a million directions with no end in sight. 

3. Your life is BUSY instead of BIG. 

Erik Qualman, author of "The Focus Project," discussed strategies for improving focus and productivity in a digitally connected world. He shared insights from his personal focus experiment, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing big goals, developing focus as a habit, and implementing systems to maintain concentration. Qualman provided practical tips for enhancing focus, including the “20/20 Rule” for taking breaks, setting clear success metrics, and starting with small, manageable goals to build discipline and achieve significant results. Want to take control of your life and master self-management in the digital age? This is the episode for you from a global authority.

Bio:

Erik Qualman is a #1 Bestselling Author and Keynote Speaker who has performed in over 55 countries and reached 50 million people. He was voted the 2nd Most Likeable Author in the World behind Harry Potter's J.K. Rowling. He is the host of the popular Super U Podcast and his work has been used by the National Guard to NBCUniversal to NASA. He is the author of "The Focus Project."

Quotes: 

• "Focus is really hard, but it can be learned—it can become a habit." 
• "If it's not a hell yes, it's a hell no." 
• "Focus on big things, not busy ones. Life is very short, and most of us think we'll have more time tomorrow to do something—but attack your dream today, even if it's just for a minute. Don't hold it off for tomorrow." 

Takeaways: 

• Start a one-minute daily focus ritual on your most important goal, whether it's writing a sentence, playing a guitar chord, or working on a passion project. 
• Audit your daily tasks and identify the single most impactful activity that, if done well, makes everything else easier or unnecessary. 
• Practice the 20-20-20 rule: Every 20 minutes, take a 20-second break to look at something 20 feet away, reducing eye strain and resetting mental focus. 

Timestamps: 

[00:00] Welcome and Introduction 

[04:13] Introducing Erik Qualman 

[05:21] Why Focus Might Matter More Than Hustle 

[05:57] The Real Reason You Struggle to Stay Focused 

[09:22] What Happened When Erik Focused for 30 Days 

[13:31] Easy Focus Habits That Actually Work Daily 

[18:57] How to Stay Sharp When Tech Steals Your Time 

[21:29] What Leaders Can Do to Cut Noise and Prioritize 

[23:10] Focus on Big Things, Not Busy Ones 

Conclusion: 

Focus isn’t a fixed trait—it’s a skill that can be built with practice, even in a world full of distractions. People who achieve meaningful results often do so by creating clear systems that help them avoid busywork and stay centered on what matters most. Learning to say "no" to lesser tasks makes space for bigger, more important progress. And it doesn’t require massive effort—starting with just a minute each day can lead to lasting improvement. Small, steady actions often make the biggest difference. 

Links/Resources: 

Website: http://www.equalman.com 

Transcript

Marcel Schwantes 00:00 

Hey, it's Marcel. I am geeked up about my new book that just got released worldwide. If you haven't heard, it's called Humane Leadership: Lead with Radical Love, Be a Kick-Ass Boss. Now, if you love the podcast, you're gonna love the book. I spent several years researching the best skills and behaviors of people leaders that engage employees and drive results through a humane approach of empowering humanity, developing trust and getting the best out of people. It's out now. Get it wherever books are sold. Humane leadership. Lead with radical love. Be a kick ass boss. Check the link in the show notes and grab your copy. 

Welcome to the Love in Action podcast. I'm your host, executive coach, speaker and author, Marcel Schwantes. I believe that when we show up with our full humanity to work and lead from a place of love, joy, purpose, care and inclusion. It's going to make a radical difference in your leadership, your business and your bottom line. This is a show about actionable, practical love the verb as a leadership and business strategy. Let's get rolling.  

Hey guys, welcome back. I trust the summer is treating all of you well. Got a great show for you. So hey, let's get right to it. Okay. My guest today is Erik Qualman. Erik wrote a book back in 2020 called The Focus Project: How to Focus in An Unfocused World, and that book captures the challenges of what else focusing, right? Something that I don't care who you are, in this digital age of hyper connectivity, hyper productivity, we're all going to struggle with focusing at one time or another. Okay, does that resonate? I bet it does so, combining street science and research alongside his own personal focus project, which we're going to dissect in detail here, Erik Qualman gives us a practical guide to doing less but better so we can achieve more, both personally and professionally. So Erik says that our focus determines our success, happiness, health and fulfillment. That's quite a claim.  

Erik also says that successful and happy people understand that where their focus goes their energy flows. So Erik gives us this guidebook on understanding that while focus seems impossible in this digital, digital age, because some of us are like, There's no way. It's just a mountain that's too steep to climb. It can be learned, it can become a habit, and it will lead us to our best life. But we're going to have to figure out how to do it, how to actually focus. And we'll, we'll tackle this from different possibilities and different perspectives.  

Okay, little bit about Erik Coleman. He is a number one, Best Selling Author and keynote speaker. He has performed in over 55 countries and reached 50 million people by now. It's probably more than that. He was voted the second most likable author in the world, behind Harry Potter's JK Rowling. He is the host of the popular super you podcast, and his work has been used by the National Guard to NBC, Universal to NASA, and the list goes on and on, and I cannot wait to dive into this conversation is going to be short and sweet, but we're going to get to the sweet stuff. All right, Erik is here, and he now joins us. Welcome to the show, Erik.  

Erik Qualman 03:50 

Oh, great to be here, Marcel. Thanks for having me on here, and thanks to all your listeners as well. 

Marcel Schwantes 03:55 

Yeah. All right, let's dive in first, the traditional how we kick off the episode with every guest, you ready? Ready to Roll? What's your story? 

Erik Qualman 04:05 

Yeah, no. I mean, I grew up in the Detroit area, and then I fell into digital backwards, back way in the day, I worked for Cadillac. And then fast forward, I worked for 20 years in the digital space, back when digital wasn't cool or a thing. So I was at Yahoo in the late 90s. So I was out in Silicon Valley. So here's a kid from Detroit out in Silicon Valley. And then fast forward, I was the head of marketing at Travel Zoo. I wrote a book called Socialnomics in 2009, so MySpace was the biggest thing from a social perspective, most people thought it was for teenagers. I wrote a book that said it's not for teenagers. It's going to change the way we communicate and live, and it's for business, it's for politics, it's for everything.  

You have no idea what this revolution looks like, and so fortunately, is the right place, right time that was social nomics. I never thought I'd do this for a living, but six books later, mainly, I write books and then speak on stage on those books, usually for an hour keynote at these large conferences or a sales kickoff, and then we own an. Animation Studio as well, and we do some kids board games as well to keep kids off their screens, because it's really a balance Flintstones, Jetsons. So essentially, we're an edutainment company at equal man studios.  

But as you mentioned, my last book is the focus projects. What the heck does that have to do with digital Well, the previous five books are like, get into this stuff. Get into your phones. This is how you remove friction. This is how you revolutionize things. Then people got too far into their phones. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, yeah. And I was struggling with as well. I think all you listeners can relate is that at the end of the night, every night, I was my hair was on fire. I was running a million miles an hour. Felt like I wasn't getting anywhere. I was like, All right, I'm not gonna do that again tomorrow.  

And then again, I was rinse, wash, repeat. And the more people I spoke with, whether as a CEO, whether there was a school superintendent, whether as a stay at home dad, it was the same. They thought that they needed more time, but what they really needed was more focus. And so that's why I undertook the focus project, which was supposed to be a year, but we'll get into it. Took two years, because that's how hard focus is. I had five basically failures. You're either you're either winning or you're learning. And so during that failure, I was learning and so on. That sixth time, I finally got it right and did a full year just hyper focused, no pun intended, on, how do I focus on big things versus Busy ones? And that's really my why is, how do I unlock and unleash your best self through focus. How do we focus on big versus Busy? How do we focus on being that change versus fearing that change and along the way, Flintstones, Jetsons, offline, online. How do I use technology to not hurt my focus but actually help me out on a day to day level, to remove friction and allow me to focus on those biggest things, those big goals we have. Yeah, yeah. Okay. 

Marcel Schwantes 06:47 

I wanna, can't wait to get into that one year long experiment that you did on yourself. But first, let me back up a little bit. Okay, we are in a world that's so full of noise distraction. What does focus really mean today, in 2025 and also, why are we so bad at it? 

Erik Qualman 07:05 

Yeah, I mean a lot of, there's a lot of, there's a billion-dollar industry on time management. So there's a lot of people that talk about time management because there's money involved. But I don't think, I think that's a falsehood, and this is why I say that. Yeah, is for all our listeners out there, if I were to give you 48 hours, so I just doubled your amount of time you have per day, would you get everything done? And the answer is, No, you're not. Your list is always going to be too much for you to handle.  

So it's really about, how do we focus on big versus Busy? And that's harder than ever when you think about whether it's email that's pulling at you, whether that's social media that has they're paying people millions of dollars, doctoral students and people with PhDs to make sure that you stay on your phone, because that's how they make their money. Yep. And so the really, the key is, that's why it's so hard focus. Here's the three learnings I got from the book. Because whenever I write a book, I always ask myself, what are the three things that I learned during this process? Number one, focus is really, really hard, but it can be learned. It can become a habit.  

Number two, people that are very successful in life, that are fulfilled, are better at focus than the rest of us, and it's not something they're born with. It's not inherent, it's a learned process, and what they've learned is they have systems and processes in place, and one of those is really just to say no, to say no to those small opportunities, allow them to say yes to the big ones, and then last but not least, it's progress versus perfection. I've now been entrenched in this. I wrote the book. I have to go back to the book, because the gravitational pull is for me to become unfocused and to start doing the busy versus the big. And so those are the top three things. Focus, really hard can be learned. Can become a habit. Second is that most successful people are better than most because they have systems and process. First and foremost, how to say no. And then last but not least, think progress, not perfection, when you take this on. 

Marcel Schwantes 09:03 

Yeah, yeah, that's good. Those are good tips. Okay, let's go back to your experiment. Okay, just kind of go give us an overview of what was that experience like, and maybe even what was the hardest thing you encountered? Yeah, 

Erik Qualman 09:18 

I think most of you'll be able to relate to this. So I lay awake at night, I'm like, Man, that day was crazy. I can't do that again. I felt like I had no control over my day. Yeah, and I was just doing all this little stuff. And am I moving the boulder? Am I writing the book, the next book? Like, what is going on? And then I just sort of dream like, what would it look like if for a month all I had to do is focus on the house, getting it clean, getting it organized, remodeling or down the line. What if I just focused on keynote speaking? Because we do a ton of stuff here, but if I just focused on that's all we're gonna put our energy in for the next month. Is keynote speaking, how to get more deals and also to really just focus, not. Be running on stage last minute, but actually be present in the moment.  

And so that's what got me excited. I go, Well, why don't I take on a project to where I'm not gonna focus a full month? That's not realistic in today's world. But what if I take a bite sized, small chunk, and at first I'm like, why don't I focus three hours a day on something? Did I quickly realize first failure. Whoa, that's even too much. All right, what happens? It was just like, an hour. Whoops, that's a little much. Okay, let's just go half hour, half hour. So this is the month of and you'll see in the book that I chunked it out. But the first month was in order to afford this project, to be able to do this project, not afford it from a monetary standpoint, but for me to have the luxury of doing this project, I had to make sure that we booked out most of our keynotes for the year.  

And so normally, that's inbound. We don't do much on there. We have partners and stuff, but most people reach out to us. We'd love to have you give a keynote speech. And so we go, all right. So I go, Well, why don't I just focus for a month, half hour day, on working with our partners and potential prospects. And so that was the first month. But again, the hardest part was failed five times, because, literally, the first couple times I'd devote 18 minutes, not a day, 18 minutes for the month, because that's how hard focus is. I start getting pulled on the email, social media posts we have to do doing some stuff for clients. And I go, Okay, once we finally got it right then that just showed the power of that magnifying glass.  

So if you just spraying a magnifying glass around, it's not gonna do anything, but if you hold it constant on a focal point, all sudden it can burn through that wood, burn through that wall. And so the sixth time it actually worked, and then, lo and behold, just that half hour a day to focus on keynote speaking, we had a record year, not a record month, a record year, just from that month of booking that type of focus. And so that's what the whole project was about. And hopefully most of you guys get out there, get excited. I would actually suggest, just starting with a minute what's been pulling at you? What's that big dream? Maybe you want to write a screenplay. Maybe you want to learn to play the guitar. Maybe it's you want to get out of your current vocation and go to your dream job. Is just start with a minute a day and just do it when you first within a half hour, first waking up, just do a minute a day and see where that takes you. It'll take you far. 

Marcel Schwantes 12:23 

Yeah, that's huge. If the focus still keynote speaking, or have you shifted since then into a new focus? 

Erik Qualman 12:31 

Yeah, it still is, but it's a little different from a standpoint of, we're just trying to give back. So I know you talk a lot about this servant leadership, and so it's still the majority of what we do is, I love being out there in front of people just to help them. And so how can we help that individual? How can we help that organization? So, yeah, it is the number one thing that we do at equal man studios. Obviously, do a lot with the other stuff I mentioned, which I won't bore you with, but, yeah, that's the primary, goal is, how could I help those sitting in the audience? 

Marcel Schwantes 13:03 

Yeah, so it is fascinating to me that even somebody like you would be distracted in a 30 minute timeframe to even focus on what mattered most. And the focus was keynote speaking, all right? And you were like, struggling with that. How did you finally get to the point where you were completely just locked in for those 30 minutes? I mean, you're asking people to try for one minute. So explain the 30 minutes, and how do you get to that sweet spot? 

Erik Qualman 13:36 

So it's still difficult. So I'm saying this like yesterday I failed at this. So it's really just understanding that progress over perfection, but figure out what works best for you. For me, it's really the day before, writing down what is the number one thing. What's the one thing? If I do it well, makes everything else either easy or unnecessary. So that's a good start, because some of you might be asking, Well, what should I focus on? And so first of all, a lot of people don't know what their passion is. Let's start with just first principle, what's your passion? And it some of it. You're 18 or 80, you don't know what your passion is. That's normal, so don't stress out about it. I've talked to enough people across 60 countries to realize that that that's the norm, right?  

But just write down at the end of the day what made you the happiest and why, and you'll start to see a pattern. And then if you could put a vocation around that even better. So figure out what makes you the happiest and why, yeah, and then then you've got your passion. And then once you a lot of you know what you're doing. And so Okay, well, how do I focus on the big thing? And so again, progress over perfection. The thing that helps me out the most is write down. I'll look at my list and I'll circle what's the one thing on this list that, if I do it well, makes everything else either easier or unnecessary. So for example, if I get booked for a big keynote on stage, that's gonna make everything else easier. We're gonna sell more books, we're gonna sell more board games, we're gonna have more free press. Yes out there. So it's that flywheel.  

And so for example, that might be what I circle. All right, the number one thing is to make sure that we're oiling the keynote speaking machine. Everything we can do around that, whether it's videos, blah, blah, blah, we'll bore you with that, but it's really about focusing the night before I write down, what is that one thing? And then when I wake up, within that first half hour, I'm going to attack that before the day attacks me again. Do my best. Some days get sideways. All of us have that happen to us. But if you put that minute in, that minute usually turns into five minutes, 1520, 30, an hour, and then you're playing with house money the rest of the day, you might actually come back to it even, but you've kind of tackled the most important thing, which often is the most difficult thing, and that's why we don't do it. We avoid it. We answer email, because we think we're having progress with email, but that's really just a dopamine hit that's reminding us, oh, hey, you got to be careful with with how that can suck you in. But that's the key for me. Write it down the day before that. In the morning, I already know what I'm gonna get. I get up, I look at I go, All right, let's get after that as best we can.  

Marcel Schwantes 16:05 

Okay, can I elevate the conversation to, maybe, from a solopreneur, you know, trying to build a business. They're a creator, people like us, right? Doing podcasts, writing books, okay, to the CEO, or maybe the C suite member who has a team. They have different stakeholders. They respond to a board. Okay? So I, I coach some of these people, and they have, they feel such enormous pressure to do everything, sure, and so they, they struggle with deciding what to say no to Yeah, feeling guilty because they feel like they're going to be letting someone down or not meeting someone else's expectations.  

Erik Qualman 16:51 

No, for sure. And so when I work with boards, a lot of times those CEOs have so much on their plate, in demand, executive suite, even the vice presidents, the directors, they all do is you've gotta get on the same page. What does success look like? What am I gonna be judged on in this role? So at the end of this year, what is the grade? What are we what are we looking at metrically? And so try to keep that tight. So let's say it's these three things, 123, but let's say this is the number one thing. Grow revenue, whatever it is, grow subscribers, grow brand recognition. Doesn't matter is that. Make sure everyone's collectively on the same page.  

What does success look like? How am I going to be measured? Then that allows you, when you get these requests, to look at that number one thing and go, how is that contributing to this, if at all, if it's not that needs to be an immediate No. Or if you think about a different way, whether it's personal life or whether you're at work, is I always like to say, if it's not a hell yes, it should be a hell no. Oh, you got, I got two Super Bowl tickets. You want to go? Hell yes. Oh, there's a cocktail reception in two weeks. You want to go, and you're thinking that'd probably be good for me. Don't really enjoy those, but I should probably say yes, and that should be a no, because then when that rolls around, you might cancel, then you let that person down, or you're just not gonna look forward to it, and then you can't work on the thing that you should be working on.  

And so it's really about understanding, getting on the same page, what does success look like, and then seeing which when you're being asked for something, does it contribute toward that end goal? And if it doesn't, then you need to move forward and understand that this is learned process for everyone. So if you look at Warren Buffett and Steve Jobs, they be not Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, they became fast friends. And Bill Gates thought a good CEO has their calendar completely full, and Warren Buffet just has this flip notebook, literally ruled line of paper that's five things in it for the month. And Bill's like, that's your calendar. That's what you have. He goes, Well, I need time to think. And so the answer, as we all know, is somewhere in the middle. And so they both learn from each other, but it's not having your day completely jam packed. You gotta have time for yourself, and as best you can, it's harder. Even if you're a CEO, you have people pulling at you, and I know you've got demands about your wife, whether it's at work, so you gotta figure out what is practical and try to block that time off for yourself? 

Marcel Schwantes 19:22 

Yeah, I love that. I love the idea of blocking time to think as well. Which, you know, which buffet basically, is big on that. Okay, let's talk about technology. We already agreed that it's one of the biggest focus killers, maybe. But yet, here we are. We need our devices to function and do work. So do you have any favorite hacks, if you will, or things that you do to maybe stay digital, digitally disciplined with your devices? 

Erik Qualman 19:58 

Yeah. I mean, I'm a big fan of the 20-20-20 rule, and so we're consuming more blue light than ever before. And so we have no idea what the long-term ramification of that is, but the short term is it makes your eyes tired, which makes your entire body tired. And so the 20-20-20 rule is that every 20 minutes you should take a strategic break. Stand up. Motion creates emotion, which creates energy, physically look at a fixed object at least 20 feet in the distance for 20 seconds, and what that'll do is it'll help reset your eyes. It removes that eye strain. But ironically enough, you're kind of killing two birds with one stone, because most of us actually work best in 20 minute segments. Test it out. Some of you might be 25 some of you might be 30, but most of us work best in 20 minute segments.  

So instead of I always thought, well, I'm going to sit here and just rock this book out for the next four hours, absolutely not every 20 minutes, I want to take that one-minute strategic break, physically move and then reduce that eye strain. But also, it's resetting my brain. It's so the same should apply with anything you do is try to set those timers. So if you go on social media, set those timers go it's a nice break, but I'm gonna set this timer, and when it goes off, that's where it takes a lot of discipline, because you can just hit ignore if you put those blockers on. But figure out what works best for you. Some of you have to get those lock boxes to put it away. So figure out what's the best system for you? But most of us will be better off if you actually set time segments for everything that you do. But you also need to have that flow, because everything's gonna take longer than you think. There's gonna be more interruptions than you think. So it's not if you're gonna write 10 Things to do that day, it's really write down those three things you wanna do. 

Marcel Schwantes 21:40 

Okay, so I'm gonna narrow it down to say a listener wants to start their own focus project tomorrow. Okay, what's that one thing that you would tell them to do? 

Erik Qualman 21:55 

Understand you're not gonna get it right the first time. So I failed five times at it, so it's good. Just take that step. The one thing you want to do is just keep it as simple as possible. Again, one minute do it, or you might want to write a book. Just say, I'm gonna write a sentence. I'm gonna write a sentence a day. That's my goal. Just one sentence might be a terrible sentence, but I'm gonna write a sentence a day. And what you'll find is you're gonna you're gonna write more than a sentence. Some days you're gonna write for four hours. PJ Fogg, out of Stanford. His thing is floss one tooth, which sounds ridiculous, right? Floss one tooth, but when you floss one, you're most likely gonna floss all of them. Just as a nice side note, you live six years longer if you floss your teeth. No one knows if that's because you're probably doing other things lifestyle wise, or it's actually the floss of the teeth. Most people think it's just, if you have that discipline to floss your teeth, you're probably discipline in other areas of your life. And so it's just really fascinating look at some of these longevity items that that relate to that type of focus. 

Marcel Schwantes 22:58 

That's great. All right, I know you we got to get going. But I want, I want you to bring our listeners home with the key takeaway from this conversation, maybe even your book. What can people take away from our chat today? 

Erik Qualman 23:10 

Yeah, my hope is. Takeaway is like, focus on big things, not busy ones. Life is very, very short, and so most of us think we're gonna have more time tomorrow to do something but attack whatever your dream is today, even if that's just a minute, don't hold it off for tomorrow. Just put in that minute. Put in that minute. Floss that one tooth, you know, write that one sentence for that screenplay, whatever it might be, string that one note on the guitar. If you want to learn the guitar and try to protect that time, attack the day before it attacks, you try to do it in the morning while your brain's still fresh. Most of us are like an iPhone. By the end of the day, our charger has gone down, and so while your brain is at its cognitive highest, attack those more difficult things. Save the email for later, which doesn't take a lot of brain power, and just have fun with it. Go for it. Just minute of the day will change your life. That's all you gotta think about. 

Marcel Schwantes 24:03 

I feel inspired and empowered in my own work. Erik, so again, the book is called the focus project. Get it wherever books are sold. Hey, if people wanna connect with you and find out more about you and what you do, where can they go? 

Erik Qualman 24:16 

Very easy. My name's Erik Qualman, but if you take that first initial last name. It's equalman@equalman.com. It sounds like a superhero Equalman. That's why I wear these crazy green glasses. But just equalman@equal man.com. And feel free to reach out to me. I'd love to hear from you.  

Marcel Schwantes 24:33 

Yeah, it's been a blast hanging out with you. I appreciate your time. 

Erik Qualman 24:36 

No, thank you. It's been great.  

Marcel Schwantes 24:39 

Yeah, and gang, keep the conversation going on social media with #loveinactionpodcast. And if you want to check out Erik's crazy green glasses on YouTube and this very episode, go to my website at marcelschwantes.com, and everything is there. So for Erik, I'm Marcel. We'll see you next time. Take care. 

Erik Qualman 24:57 

Thank you. Bye. 

Marcel Schwantes 25:01 

Thank you for listening to the Love in Action podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, please share it, subscribe and leave us a review until next time. Don't forget, the future of leadership is love in action. Believe it, practice it, and watch your leadership and business flourish.