So, it’s the end of the first quarter of the year and doesn’t it feel like we just started it?
The world is noisier than ever. More traumatic than we could ever have imagined and if you’re still getting up and going to work, still managing to keep going, then celebrate that right now.
You’ve made it this far when so many haven’t. You’re already a success to everyone else!
So if you’re stressing about trying to get and maintain your focus, then don’t be cross with yourself, there’s been a lot going on.
And of course, our creative minds love to pursue all those ideas, to try and do everything, all at once, often making it impossible to calm our racing thoughts.
But multi-tasking on different projects costs you time and focus!
If you’ve got 5 different projects on the go, then switching between them can lose you 80% productivity i.e. you’re not getting anything done.
(a bit like my house renovation, too many different things started, nothing getting finished!)
Back when I worked for someone else, priorities, strategies and timescales were usually set by the business.
Now of course, we are the business and in charge of saying what gets done and when it needs to be done by.
And the easiest way to get into focus is to be clear about what it is you have to do.
Then routinely scheduling in what you need to do on specific dates and sticking to them.
Of course, saying it and doing it are two very different things!
So, some tried and tested ways to change your brain to be more focused so you can get more done.
- Get clear on what you’re working towards with a strong, compelling vision of the future that will help you step back and take a birds eye view of where you’re heading.
- Create a simple plan that can flex as you move along the path, because change is inevitable as you take action.
- Create a planning routine and stick to it for six weeks so it becomes a habit in your business rather than just another thing you don’t want to do.
- Create an ideał week that works for how you best work – if you love working early in the morning and that’s when you get things done, then plan around that – it’s your schedule.
- Block out time when you’re going to be doing your marketing and business projects – you don’t have to say what it is right now, the ideal week is about being realistic with your time and committing time to work ON your business, not just IN it.
- Each week, look at the time you have booked for that category of activity and schedule in the task for that time – if you’re spending 2 hours a week on marketing, then that may be creating content, sales pages, sending out emails, whatever is going to be on your priority list to move you forward.
The path to better focus is really full of habits and routines, not always the easies thing to get into when you get started (as anyone who’s tried to get started exercising or losing weight will know!) but if you want to re-train your brain, turning it into an automatic action that you just do, rather than dread, is going to help!
Hope this helps,
Cheers,
Karrie xxx
