Loss of Focus - A Case Study
I've noticed a pattern with my clients.
The problem they come to me with is rarely the actual problem.
There's usually something underneath it - a belief, a habit, or in this case, a value - that's quietly driving the behaviour. And until you find it, no amount of practical fixes will stick.
That's what I call execution friction. And sometimes it's hiding in plain sight.
The Client Who Couldn't Stay Focused
I was working with a bookkeeper who was struggling to get things done. Not because she lacked discipline or skill, she had plenty of both. But her days kept getting away from her, with a load of digital interruptions. Her concentration was broken before it had a chance to build.
She thought she had a focus problem.
She didn't. She had a values conflict, and she had no idea.
Going Deeper With the 5 Whys
The 5 Whys is a simple but powerful diagnostic tool. You take a problem and ask why, then ask why again, and again, until you reach the root cause rather than just the surface symptom.
For her, it went something like this:
Why can't you focus? Too many interruptions.
Why are there so many interruptions? Notifications keep pulling my attention away.
Why don’t you turn your notifications off? Because I need to be responsive to my clients.
Why does being responsive matter so much to you? Because being there for my clients is important to me. It's how I work.
Why is that so important to you? Because responsiveness is one of my top values.
There it was.
She wasn't failing at focus. She was honouring a value, just in a way that was costing her the ability to do her best work.
The Fix Was Smaller Than She Expected
Once we understood what was actually going on, the solution didn't require a major overhaul.
We started with one small change: turn off non-client notifications. Not all notifications - just the ones that had nothing to do with the people she was there to serve.
That's it. That was step one.
The difference was immediate. Fewer interruptions. More sustained attention. Work that had been taking twice as long started getting done in the time it should.
And here's what mattered most: she had proof. Her own proof, from her own experience, that protecting her focus didn't mean abandoning her clients. She could be responsive and focused - she just needed to be more intentional about when and how.
The Lesson
When you can't seem to execute, it's worth asking whether the block is really about capability or whether it's about a value that hasn't been examined yet.
The 5 Whys won't always take you somewhere surprising. But sometimes it takes you somewhere that changes everything. A value that's showing up as a problem is still a value worth keeping; it just needs a smarter expression.
In her case, responsiveness didn't mean always-on. It meant being genuinely present for her clients when it counted.
That's a much more sustainable way to work.
If you keep hitting the same wall and can't quite figure out why, that's worth a conversation. A Clarity Call is the first step in working with me.