How to Stop Fooling Yourself and Get More Focused as a Clinic Owner

Today, I want to share a powerful quote from the physicist Richard Feynman that really stuck with me:

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool.”

I want to dive into what this means, especially for us clinic owners, in relation to focus—an area where many of us can definitely improve.

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The Story I Used to Tell Myself (And How I Fooled Myself)

So, what lie was I telling myself that caused me to fool myself and avoid solving the real problem?

For me, it was this:

“I don’t have enough time. I need more hours in the day.”

Sounds familiar?

When I said that, I wasn’t really looking for solutions. Instead, I just accepted that there was no way I could get everything done. I thought efficiency was maxed out, and there was only so much I could achieve in a day.

The result? I didn’t solve the problem at all.

What Was Really Going On?

Here’s what I realised were the real problems behind my “not enough time” story:

1. I wasn’t being productive enough with my time.
   Saying “there aren’t enough hours” was just a convenient excuse not to improve how I used those hours.

2. I wasn’t solving the most important problems.
   I was working on things that weren’t the highest priority.

3. I was multitasking.
   And science shows multitasking is terrible for productivity. Sorry if you thought you were a pro — I thought so too! The truth is, doing one thing at a time and focusing deeply is what actually works.

How I Became More Focused — By Focusing on Distraction

Here’s a twist for you — instead of trying to improve focus directly, I decided to focus on its opposite: distraction.

If I wanted to get better at focus, I first needed to identify and eliminate what distracted me.

I started by:

• Keeping a distraction journal
  Every time I got distracted, I wrote down what it was. At the end of the week, I had a long list of distractions — and a clearer idea of what I needed to tackle.

My Biggest Distractions:

• My phone.
  Even with notifications off, if my phone was nearby, I’d get distracted. So, now I put it in another room on airplane mode when I need deep focus.

• Too many open tabs.
  Slack, emails, and random browsing windows would pull me away from the task at hand.

• YouTube and procrastination.
  When I got bored, I’d sneak in a quick video — which quickly became a slippery slope.

My Solution? Structure and Boundaries

To manage these distractions, I:

• Closed every tab except the one I was working on.

• Used a Pomodoro timer: 25 minutes of focused work, then 5 minutes of break time to check notifications or watch a quick video guilt-free.

• Wrote down everything I needed to do at the start of the day, so my brain wasn’t cluttered with “to-do” reminders.

Taking Things Off My Mind

Writing down all my tasks helped me:

• Group similar tasks together.

• Decide what needed my attention, what I could delegate, and what I could drop.

• Prioritise the highest impact work first — the stuff that moves the needle the most.

By doing this, I actually got more done in fewer hours.

Your Homework: Find Your Distractions and Get Rid of Them

If you’ve read this far, here’s your takeaway:

• Identify the inverse of focus for you.
  What distracts you the most?

• How can you eliminate or manage those distractions so you can get more productive time back?

Whether it’s work, family, or just your own wellbeing — creating more time in your day comes down to cutting out distractions.