You guys know I am a big fan of Leo Babauta, and last week he launched a new book, titled “Focus.” As you can guess by the title, it is all about learning to focus in order to improve your productivity and achieve better results, both personally and professionally.
The cool thing is that Leo is launching both a free and a premium version. If you just want to read the book, you can download the PDF version for free. The premium version, on the other hand, comes with a bunch of extras, including interviews and chapters written by other experts. It’s a nice model, and I expect that more authors will use it in the future.
I sent Leo some questions via email about the book, and below you’ll find his answers.
1. You wrote this book publicly, online, with the feedback of your readers. How did that work in practice? (i.e., did you have a blog for it, how long did it take to write, and so on).
Leo: My idea was to a) get instant feedback from readers instead of only after the book was published, and b) motivate myself to keep writing instead of writing for (say) 6 months in isolation with no accountability or feedback.
Those both worked out really well and I plan to keep doing it. Basically I just created a simple site and posted short chapters as I finished them. After 4-5 chapters were done, I’d post an update on Twitter and ask for feedback. So most people didn’t follow every chapter as it was published, just the different “versions” of the book as it was updated in chunks.
It took about 9 months to finish, but I didn’t work on it continuously — I did it in little bursts as I felt inspired.
2 .Why did you decide to write a book about focus?
Leo: It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find focus with so many distractions these days. More and more people tell me they have this problem, and it’s something I struggle with myself. I decided this was a huge need for our society as a whole, and if I can contribute to the discussion and help people find that focus so they can create and reflect, I think that’s a good thing.
3. What tips do you have for people who are addicted to the Internet and its distractions?
Leo: I learned a lot about addictions when I quit smoking and then quit other bad habits (junk food, for example). One important thing is learning what your triggers are — what events happen just before you do the addiction? Start to study this if you’re serious about ending your addiction. Then replace the addiction with a positive behavior for each trigger — drink water, for example, or go for a walk, or write. Finally, be aware of your urges to give in to the addiction, and pause instead of giving into the addiction. Instead, take some deep breaths, let the urge pass, and do the positive behavior instead.
4. In the book you talk about the importance of rituals. Do you have any blogging related rituals?
Leo: Sure. The most important thing in blogging is writing great content, so I focus on this more than anything else. What I’ll do is clear away distractions, open up a text editor, and simply focus on writing the post. When it’s done, I put it into WordPress and format, and hit publish. That’s my ritual, and it works well.
5. How is your work routine? (e.g., where do you work from, at what times, what tasks you do first, etc.).
Leo: I work from home, and mostly do my writing in the morning. Email and other small tasks in the afternoon, though this can vary.
6. Do you use a to-do list, or have any tips in this regard?
Leo: I have a to-do list mostly as a reminder for smaller tasks. For bigger tasks, I generally think about what I want to accomplish each morning, and focus on those before any of the smaller tasks. What I want to accomplish is usually whatever I’m passionate about at that moment, so it’s not hard to figure out. If you work like this, the to-do list becomes less important, because you just focus on what’s most important.
Once again, you can grab the full PDF of the book for free, so go download it!
Original Post:
Interview With Leo Babauta About His New Book, Focus 
This post is part of the Friday Q&A section. If you want to ask a question just send it via the contact form. 
