Last week I mentioned focus as one of the attributes of success. Although I consider myself successful, I definitely have trouble staying focused. Since most of my time is spent working with clients, I have very little time available to work in my office on administrative tasks (like writing this blog). If you are challenged in this area as well, maybe you can benefit from some of the things that have helped me stay focused when I‘m working in my office:
I have a clear goal and purpose. I make sure that whatever I’m working on is moving me closer to one of my personal or professional goals. If a task isn’t meaningful in that way, I strongly evaluate why I’m even considering doing it. If I have trouble getting passionate about something once I’ve started it, I step back and re-evaluate whether I should be working on it.
I close my email window. It’s typically much more interesting to see what messages are coming my way than work on the task at hand, so I close my email window to avoid being tempted. Oops, I just closed my email now as I write this.
I set a timer. I set it in 30-minute increments and tell myself I can’t leave my desk or work on anything else until the timer goes off. Knowing that I only have to focus on the task at hand for a half hour makes it easy to avoid interrupting myself to do something else.
I immerse myself in the current task. I organize my workspace, ignore the phone (which is sometimes very hard to do), and stay focused on the goal for each 30-minute session. My goal for this session is to get this blog post written.
I take breaks. After each 30-minute work session I take a break of 10 minutes or so before the next focused session begins. I might grab a snack, make a phone call, or do some quick tasks from my to-do list. Whatever it is, it doesn’t require a lot of brain power or a big chunk of time.
I write down random thoughts. If ideas pop into my head that aren’t related to what I’m working on, I write them on either my master to do list for future scheduling, or in my planner for whatever day I plan to do them. Then I get right back to work.
I meditate. I’ve only recently begun meditating – I never thought it was something I needed and I certainly didn’t think I had time for it. But I took a class to get me started and listen to some guided meditations to help me stay focused. It doesn’t take a lot of time and it helps me clear my head so that I can focus more easily during my workday. Here are a couple of resources I like: Mindful Meditations and Energetic Solutions
Whew, finished writing with 2 minutes to spare on my timer. I’d love to hear how you stay focused when life is pulling you in a million different directions.
Wishing you simplicity, harmony and freedom,
My favorite sports team, the 
A recent client of mine (I’ll call her Donna) struggled mightily with getting her clean laundry put away rather than strewing it across the living room couch. As we worked to understand the causes of her challenge, we discovered that she didn’t view putting the laundry away as being at all related to other steps in the laundry process. Instead, she viewed each step (sort clothes, load washer, run washer, empty washer, load dryer, empty dryer, fold clothes, put clothes away) as separate from and unrelated to any other step in the process. In her view, sorting and washing the clothes without having time to do any of the subsequent steps was better than having a mile high stack of dirty clothes. However, operating in this fashion sometimes (ok, often) caused Donna to have to rewash wrinkled clothes that sat in the dryer for several day, or even moldy clothes that sat wet in the washer for a few days.
A button from my coat had been sitting on my bathroom counter for the past week – it was there to remind me to sew it back on my coat. Unfortunately, I only saw it when I was getting ready for work in the morning and getting ready for bed in the evening. I didn’t have the time or energy at either of those times to take on this straightforward task. So there sat my button, and there I was with my coat flapping in the wind where the button should have been. Recognizing that my “keep it out to remind me” system wasn’t working, I broke down and wrote “sew button” on my calendar.
The past couple of weeks have put my time management skills to the ultimate test. I’ve had a load of work- and volunteer-related activities, with some personal and social life sprinkled in. As easy as it might be to feel overwhelmed during this very busy time, I’ve done a good job of keeping things under control and so far, nothing has fallen through the cracks (at least nothing that I know of!). The key factor in my ability to staying on top of things is daily planning.
