The comments I received on yesterday’s post Monday Morning Moment: Focus inspired today’s post. I’d like to thank Nate Leung, Rochelle Gordon, and Rachel Lavern for commenting and inspiring me.
How do we achieve focus and simplify our day? One key part is to establish habits and systems that create time in your day to focus. We can learn from successful entrepreneurs who follow similar work practices and develop common habits that help lead them to success. No matter what type of business you’re in, you have business operations to manage, people to deal with, a brand to build, and a reputation to maintain. The habits and practices you bring to your business can either help you achieve success or cause you to needlessly struggle.
In my previous post Midweek Spark: Just Choose One! I outline 7 habit you can create that will increase your focus. Check out the post for more detail on each one.
- Turn off the alerts!
- Book an hour a day to work on your business!
- Book social media time!
- Take lunch!
- Set small goals that lead to big wins!
- Limit your networking time!
- Plan the small stuff!
The habit and system from the list above that I find makes the most difference in creating momentum and focus is #2: Booking an hour a day to work on your business. How? Check out my post The Power of an Hour for some suggestions.
The trick is to book the hour daily and work on one thing at a time! Yes only 1 thing! Image spending an hour focused on one important task without multitasking and distraction. Image the difference that will make for you. Image doing this 5 or 10 times a week! What will that do for your business?
I love to see entrepreneurs follow their passions, serve more people and create the lifestyle of their dreams.
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Hi Heather,
First off, thank you so much for the honorable mention. It’s the bloggers like yourself that fuel my fire to go out and provide value, day after day. I’m glad that you are inspired and it’s really great connecting with people like yourself. 🙂
I agree with you on doing one thing at a time. I used to multi-task and thought I was a big shot but I started to realize that I was not getting things done. People don’t realize that if you focus on one thing at a time and move onto the next, that they will be more productive. When they become more productive, they actually get the results they desire.
Great all around post and thank you for the great share. 🙂
Nate – Thank you, I always find value in your posts and your comments. 🙂
It is interesting how we evolved to think that multitasking leads us to believe that we are “a big shot”. In reality we were not designed to do many things at once, just think of the pat your head, rub your tummy exercise we did as kids. Whose good at that? It is when we focus and apply ourselves to just one thing that true productivity happens.
I’m an amateur artist and I know that when I’m working on a piece I’m totally focused on it. Time flies by and I’m always amazing at what I’m able to create. Of what comes out of me. One drawing at a time. It is always one of the most energizing and therapeutic activities I do.
I think you just might have inspired me again. 😉
I like all that you said. Scheduling time for specific task for one hour a day and keeping the appointment with yourself is a good way to keep focused and get at least one thing that is important a day done.
Rochelle – Try it out, it is amazing what scheduling one hour a day to work on your business will do for you. Then step it up, try schedule 2 hours on 1 or 2 days a week. If you can get to 2 hours a day, 5 days a week you’ll create amazing momentum for your business.
this are wonderful seven pointers. should we not also brainstorm to check if this seven pointers are achieving their goals. i mean some kind of introspection after a month or so?
Amar: definitely reflecting back is a good idea. Both to see if they are achieving their goals and to see if we actually were able to be consist in implementing them. Thank you for commenting.
1, 3, and 6 need to be on my priority list!
Carrie Ann – 1 and 3 are important ones to reduce the noise of social media and the instant distractions. Planning your networking time can really make a positive impact on your business, when you purposely plan it you tend to attend high quality events. Thanks commenting.
Book social media time 😀 now that would be tough. But some great pointers yet again Heather 🙂
Richa – Lol, booking social media time can be hard or more importantly shutting off social media for periods of time. The result is definitely an increase in productivity and a bonus it frees your mind up from all of the noise of social media. Thanks for commenting.
You’re right, setting aside an hour a day to work on my business is a great idea but it’s hard after already working all day. Sometimes all I want to do is make dinner, relax and watch TV or read a book. But I guess if you consider that if I can set aside one hour to watch TV, I can most certainly set aside that same hour to do something productive like work on my business instead.
Paulette – it can be hard to do sometimes. What about starting small, planning to do it 1 or 2 times a week? Or aim for 45 minutes, you’d be amazing at what you can accomplish if you focus even for 45 minutes on just one item. Thanks for commenting.
Thanks for this Heather, I love the 7 habits and am feeling rather pleased with myself as I do follow all of those. Not always 100% all the time but of course when I do life is in flow and I am very productive.
I wanted to add another thing that can be very effective and that is something that I have been doing today. I call it a “Do it Day’ and I do it once a month and with one or two colleagues. It’s picking a day that is an office based day and I find that in advance I am looking at tasks and putting them aside for my ‘do it day’.
We start the day with a call where we state what we want to achieve by the end of the day and then what we will spend the first hour doing. Then on the hour every hour we call in say what we have done and what we will do next hour. I get through so much and having the accountability there helps. This has just inspired tomorrow’s post.
Heather, That is a great idea. It is amazing what accountability can do for us. I love the idea of a “do it day”. Thanks so much for sharing.