So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days. – Nehemiah 6:15, KJV

Years ago I knew a retired Navy officer who taught me a powerful lesson regarding focus.

Late in his career, he had been tasked with overseeing the retrofit of an aircraft carrier, one of the most complicated machines on the planet. Such retrofits typically took longer than scheduled and were almost always over budget, yet this officer was able to finish the job ahead of schedule and under budget. How?

He first described to me the normal method used in carrier retrofits. At the time, the normal method was to divide the ship into six sections. The retrofit crew would work on all six sections simultaneously, scattering their efforts across the entire ship. They’d work a little bit on this section, stop, go to work on another section, stop, come back to this section, etc. On paper, the idea of working a little bit here and a little bit there made sense, but in reality, this approach tended to dilute productivity. To increase productivity, the officer had his crew focus on one section at a time. The crew would not move on to another area until the retrofit was complete on the current area. Due to this concentration of effort, the crew’s productivity was higher, and the job was completed faster than scheduled and under budget.

In Nehemiah 6:15 we learn that, under Nehemiah’s direction, the people of Jerusalem were able to finish in fifty-two days what others had not accomplished in years: they completed repairing the wall of Jerusalem. One of the reasons for this feat was Nehemiah’s method of repair. As described in chapter 3, his approach was much like the Naval officer’s. He established teams to focus on certain sections of the wall, and each team’s duty was to stay focused on that section and that section only until it was done. No dilution of effort was allowed. Each team just stay focused on the wall in front of it, and they concentrated on their job until it was done.

Whatever work it is that God would have you to do, you can rest assured that distractions will abound. Those distractions will scatter you if you allow them to, and when you are scattered, you are ineffective. In your daily work for God, set aside time to stay focused on the work that is most important. You’d be amazed how much you can accomplish in one hour of uninterrupted work time, time where you are not distracted by the telephone, by the TV, by email, by text messages, or by a desire to leave your work to grab more coffee. On a larger scale, endeavor to say “no” to those things that will steal precious time away from the work of God, even if those things are good things for you to do. As the old saying goes, “the good is the enemy of the best,” and it is the good things we allow into our lives that most often prevent us from spending time on God’s best.

Focused, concentrated effort. It worked wonders for the Naval officer, it worked wonders for Nehemiah, and it will work wonders for you.