Today I want to share my continuing challenge I face every day. Focus.
What is Focus?
An act of concentrating your interest or activity on something. In order to concentrate on one thing, you must, by default, ignore many other things.
Are you like me and trying to get many tasks done in a day? If everyone has the same number of hours in a day, why do some people get so much more done than others? How do they achieve more? Focus!
I like to start the day with a list of tasks I want to accomplish. It may be 5, 10 or more items I want to complete. I will write down what I want to accomplish so I have a visual and this will hopefully help me stay on track. However, this does not always seem to be the case. At the end of the day, I have started several tasks but not completed them. Some days I feel like I am trying to accomplish too many things at once. I want to work on my blog, I want to watch training videos, list building funnels, email set up, blog hopping, and this list continues. I feel as though there are 100 tasks I want to accomplish, and I am trying to get too many things done in a day, I lose my focus. Does this sound like you?
Focus.
You start one project but guess what, there is another project that you take a look at and then you have spent hours on both projects or multiple projects, and nothing is accomplished. Not one project is completed. This is a very frustrating feeling. Take this blog for instance. I have started writing this blog 4 times, each one with a different subject. Before completing the blog, I decide to go to another project. When I return to my blog, I have lost my train of thought and just stare at the page without any words being typed.
Focus. On. One. Thing.
This may harder than it sounds. “Focus on One Thing”. From now on, I’ve decided to change gears and commit to focusing on just one task at a time. No more spreading myself thin! My new mantra is to complete one project or task before jumping into the next one. I’m adopting a “think small” approach, where my to-do list consists of just “one thing” at a time. Once I conquer that “one thing,” I’ll gracefully move on to the next. It’s all about zeroing in on one task at a time, and I’m pretty stoked about this new strategy. Exciting updates on my progress are coming soon in an upcoming blog post, so be sure to keep an eye out for it!
Do you sometimes lose Focus? How do you accomplish your “To Do” list in a day? Let me know what you do to keep your focus. What is your strategy? Please leave a comment below as I would love to hear from you.
Till next time,
Sherri
Check out my previous post here.
I found this website about focus helpful as I hope you do also.
Focus: A Brief Guide on How to Improve Focus and Concentration (jamesclear.com)
Great advice. It’s can be hard to focus on one thing, especially when there’s so many things I want to do in life. But I’ve learned I can’t do everything I want to do. I’ve learned to prioritize, want must get done now, what can wait, and what can go undone. Somethings I just have to accept I’ll never get to. Other things can wait for a while. I have to make a conscious decision to ignore most of the things I want to do so I can actually get something done. Then move on to the next thing.
HI Sherri,
OMG Stop talking about me.. hahaha… I wish I could function on 6 hrs. sleep this way maybe I could get everything I need to do completed in a day. Responding to all these posts just kill me,
I am also going to start keeping it simple. It stresses me out when I think about how much I need to get done in a day, and of course I procrastinate so much.
Thanks for this blog.
Sandy
Sherri, you hit the nail on the head with this one. Focus. It’s probably the main reason why people are not successful within affiliate marketing. In fact probably in anything. If we don’t have focus, we keep looking around and end up seeing other things, shiny objects. Along with focus having a plan and good timekeeping are also essential. We all live busy daily lives and focus can be easily taken away by so many distractions. I try to do this by allocating times within the day, setting an alarm or reminder on my phone to work on certain things. Also talking to my wife and children that I need some time to work on this which helps the distractions go down a bit. Well done, I really enjoyed the blog and I look forward to the next one. Thanks, Atif
Focus is so hard! For example, I have been wanting to comment on your post now for a few days and always seem to lose focus. Staying on task and doing one thing at a time is great advice, so thank you for the reminder! This post had incredible value!
Hi Sherri, Oh, how I resonate with what you’re talking about! I’ve found, when it comes to writing a blog or pretty much anything that I know is going to take most of my time in a particular day, I will try and get the small things done before tackling the big ones. That way, I can focus on the blog or blog hopping or training or whatever it might be. I’ve only just started using this approach; hang on, I just have to go and answer some emails….OK, I’m back, now what was I saying?
Andy
Oh, yeah, focus. I often get easily distracted. For example, when working on task 1, I tend to switch unexpectedly to task 2. It made me think about how I handle distractions with my dog, where we avoid known distractions. Then I noticed a pattern in my own distractions. Now, when I’m working on task 1 and catch myself switching unplanned to task 2, I make an effort to stop and refocus. It doesn’t always work perfectly, but I’m trying to be more mindful and disciplined.
Sherri,
I think we all have a bit of ADHD in us. I’m very guilty of not being able to focus at times too. You hit the nail on the head. I found that a lot of times, if I make a list of the things I want to do for that day and that week, and put the most important things first to get done, that helps me a lot! Don’t get me wrong, I still do find myself getting distracted at times, then forgetting what I was doing in the first place. We’re all just human… Just try to get yourself organized, and that will help you a lot. I know you can do it. We all have our struggles and must figure out a way to get through them the best way we can. Hang in there…
I typicaly create my “To Do” list the night before. My tasks/projects don’t really change much.
Every day starts with me recording stats on what happened the day before (after I’ve read a digital version of the local paper).
Weekdays I’m committed to creating and sending out a broadcast email to my “paid traffic” list.
I aim for creating one blog post per week and if that blog post does not include an embedded video; then I create a video that announces my blog post on my social media platforms. Then minimally I commit to making comments on 5 blogs per week during my blog hopping expedition.
I also commit to sending at least one email a week to my organic traffic list.
And the rest of my time is filled with 3 workouts per week; usually one good walk around the neighbourhood daily and the odd grocery shop.
Then on top of all that I am usually involved with at least two webinars weekly to continue with my learning efforts.
Then the week ends on Sunday with my attention mostly paid to the cash flow and dun, dun, dun – THE BUDGET!
Each evening about 8 or 9 PM – I allow myself to loose focus and I start surfing social media and short-form videos.
Robert,
Thank you for the comment. Sounds like you really get a lot done and you get everything done by keeping your focus and sticking to your list. I can certainly take a few tips from you.
Sherri
Hi Sherri,
Great reminder on how focusing on things we need to do is such an important step in our success.
In my case, I write down 3 things I need to do during the day; you might say, wow, you really don’t want to accomplish anything today?!?!
But I assure you, doing those 3 things and then adding on to it has given me the sense of accomplishment of having DONE those 3 things – and then more during the day.
This was started after having read “The One Thing” by Gary Keller. It’s true inspirational in regards to what you want to have done.
Marc,
I have seen the Book “The One Thing” and I may have to read it. Thanks for the tip.
Sherri