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One of the reason’s why business is hard is due to a lack of clarity. Everyone wants to do something, and eventually, they want to do EVERYTHING.
But to me, business is about having ONE solution, people are lining up to pay for. How do you find focus and clarity on that one solution?
We all live in a world that is very noisy, and sometimes trying to achieve clear focus can be really difficult for many of us.
Concentration and focus can be really hard to master, some people may think they can do it but we all have the shiny object syndrome. That means that we have so much going on in our lives that we tend to lose concentration easily.
Sure, you think you’re listening to a friend talk but have you ever received a text and found yourself reaching for your phone?
You didn’t even realize that your friend was talking and you just cut them off just by reaching for your phone. I don’t think we as humans are trying to hurt anyone or make them think we don’t care about what they have to say, it’s just that we all have that “shiny object syndrome”.
What is focus?
In order to stay focused on one thing you must, by default, ignore many other things that happen in a day.
Ok, here is a better example,
Focus can only occur when we have said yes to one option and no to all other options.
In other words, elimination is a prerequisite for focus. As Tim Ferriss says, “What you don’t do determines what you can do.”
But saying no isn’t a permanent solution, sometimes you do need to multitask to get things done but this is just an every now and then solution.
Focus is the key to productivity because saying no to every other option unlocks your ability to accomplish the one thing that is left.
Having a mentor can really help you unlock your ability to stay focused on what matters.
Why do I have a hard time staying focused?
It’s not that you have trouble focusing, you have trouble deciding what is important and what isn’t.
What I mean is that most healthy humans have a brain that is capable of focusing if we get the distractions out of the way.
Have you ever had a task that you absolutely had to get done?
What happened? You got it done because the deadline made the decision for you.
Maybe you procrastinated beforehand, but once things became urgent and you were forced to make a decision, you took action.
I myself have been in that situation, where I think I have time to do it and push it aside than all of a sudden it’s urgent. I thought I could just do all the things at once.
Instead of doing the difficult work of choosing one thing to focus on, we often convince ourselves that multitasking is a better option. This is known to be very ineffective.
Is there a method to figure out what is important?
One of my favourite methods for focusing your attention on what matters and eliminating what doesn’t comes from the famous investor Warren Buffett.
He actually has a strategy that works
- Step 1) write down 25 things you would like to accomplish this week
- Step 2) Then go through your list and circle the top 5 goals
- Step 3) Now you have two lists, list A is the 5 goals you circled and list B is the other twenty you didn’t circle
So now that your list is done, the twenty you didn’t circle will become the “avoid at all cost” list.
No matter what, you do not touch them until your 5 top goals are complete. Once there are done then you can go to your other 20 and repeat the process by circling the next top 5.
How can I finally stay focused?
There are many ways to help you stay focused on what matters, so here are a couple of things you can try,
You can choose an anchor task, you assign one and only one task that you need to get done in a day. You can do this every day of the week. That task will be non-negotiable. It must get done.
Never check your emails or text messages before a certain time of day. You will know what works best for you so pick that time and stick to it.
If you have to check these things before your day starts then do that but then don’t check again for at least 4 hours. That way you won’t be distracted by what you’re doing.
When we stop doing a task right in the middle of doing it, we just naturally lose focus and that makes it harder to jump right back in, especially if you are trying to write a blog or a social media post.
This world is a noisy place that we live in and we need to find that balance so we can accomplish everything we want in a day and try to avoid those nasty distractions that keep us from staying focused.
Regardless of what strategy you use, just remember that anytime you find the world distracting you, all you need to do is commit to one thing. In the beginning, you don’t even have to succeed. You just need to get started.
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