Stay Focused to Get More Things Done!
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I Get More Done Because I Stay Focused!
Today I’m gonna talk a little on How to Stay Focused and Get more things done. Entrepreneurs suffer from what we like to call “Shiny Object Syndrome”. It’s something that’s challenging for Entrepreneurs because there’s always so many opportunities. The one thing that separates an Entrepreneur from other people, they are opportunists. They are always looking for the next opportunity; they see something shiny, they see a reward (whoosh), and they chase it. The whole point of today for the next 10 minutes is a quick exercise that I do every day so that I GET MORE DONE. It’s how I am able to get focused throughout the day.
3 Things to do Everyday
The First thing that I do every day is, I use a sticky note and write down what I need to do that day. What you need to do is Every Morning, Stop for a moment and think about 3 things that you need to do today. I want you to you put that sticker on your radar (even if it means to stick it on your head) because a lot of times, you get through the day and look back on your list and you’re like “I haven’t got this done”. I use a sticky note on my desktop or I use a physical sticky note and stick it on my monitor. I wanna make sure that I am remembering exactly what I want to do but that’s not good enough?!
Writing down a list isn’t good enough. Here’s a problem though, all the stickies in the World are not gonna help get things done. You are just gonna have more things to do. So how do you stay focused on getting things done?
Block out TIME
As a Project Manager, What I’ve found is that I actually put on my calendar, TIME. I block out time on my calendar where it’s busy and I don’t have any other things to do. I have Task# 1, Task# 2 and Task# 3; all have time on the Calendar. Setting great GOALS is fantastic. I’m gonna lose 30 pounds, that’s fantastic but guess what? You don’t go into the details, Smart Goals, if you ever heard what a Smart Goal is.
Smart Goal is specific, its measurable, its attainable, its realistic and its Time Bound. This is what a Smart Goal is. Coming from the Project Management World, We use Smart Goals all the time. We wanna make sure people are doing well and are setting achievable Goals that are not gonna burn you out. They have to be realistic. Hey If I wanted 10% more to my traffic, how are you gonna get that done? And what time bound means how long is it gonna take you? 30 days? 60 days? A Year? 10 years? You gotta make sure you have a PLAN.
Planning your Day
A Plan should have actionable things that you do within a specific amount time which is critical to your success. Block out time for those 3 things. First thing you are want do in the morning is look at your Calendar, write those 3 things and block out time. You stick this in your calendar and you stick to it. A lot of times, it’s the same as losing weight, the reason people don’t get things done is the same reason they don’t lose weight. They CHEAT on themselves! They don’t stick to the plan, they deter from the path, and they lose that FOCUS so to gain FOCUS is a commitment.
#3 is to have a very solid plan, has to be actionable, has to be specific so you have to commit. A lot of people have a real hard time to commit. They give up, they’re overwhelmed, and they have excuses. Excuses! Excuses!! You got to stay focused, you got to block out your time. I’ve got my own office here, it has a glass door. And you know what? That is a distraction for me. Sometimes, guess what I’ll do, on my calendar if there’s something that I need like 2 or 3 hours which is really hard to concentrate like 2-3 hours for me, because I need perfect silence. So I block a time from like 11 PM to 1 AM, those 2 hours VERY PRODUCTIVE. Why? A) My Kid’s asleep (laughs). I want you guys to take that in.
In conclusion:
SO your 3 steps, #1 you write down 3 things that you’re gonna do for the day. #2 you’re gonna block out specific time frames during your day on your calendar to do those 3 things. #3 you have to COMMIT to it. A lot of times, that’s where we fail. The commitment is not there. The First 2, reinforce the commitment. You need to have a plan that’s bar none, the most important thing, figure it out. Step 2 is making sure that you have the dedicated time blocked out for it and the last thing is to commit to it.
Don’t give up, do it every day. You’ll see that you will get more out of your time, you are gonna get more productive, you’re gonna get more things done, you’re gonna get happier. You are gonna live the 9010 Life very soon. Those things if they are valuable to you and things that you should be doing, then Fantastic. If they are things that you shouldn’t be doing, then you need to block out time to delegate those things. Our Virtual Office Assistants can help you stay focused on what’s important to you!