The two simple but necessary steps to success are: Set a goal and Do it. An added ingredient to this is learning how to focus on the tasks that you need to do. To succeed in business, entrepreneurs need to learn how to improve focus.
In this day and age of multi-tasking with myriad distractions, getting yourself to focus on your work is a huge challenge. This is especially true for entrepreneurs who work from home and employees working remotely. From getting suckered watching funny videos on social media to aimlessly surfing the web, there are many things that can take you away from the important things that you need to complete that day.
What is Focus?
Focus is when your attention is centered on a focal point. You have one goal in mind: to finish the tasks at hand and achieve your set goals for the day.
Brian Tracy in his book “No Excuses: The Power of Self-Discipline”
“Choose the most important thing that you can do each day. Then, start on it first thing and then work on it until it is 100 percent complete. “
Why is Focus Essential
Focus is essential to helping you produce better quality work. When you can dedicate the amount of time and concentration needed to complete your work, you are more likely to improve the quality of your work. No haphazard rushing because you spent most of your day doing needless things.
Plus, you get more work done. When you focus, you are able to stay on task, allowing you to complete everything you need to do for that day. The satisfaction of checking more items off your list can help reduce your stress and allow you to free up your time.
How to Stay Focused
So how can you discipline yourself to focus, especially if you are working from home or remote? Here are some tips to help you improve your focus:
Set up a work area conducive to work
- Find a quiet place where you can work. You are more likely to be able to concentrate in a quiet environment.
- If you don’t have an office within your house, consider potential alternatives to maintaining your own separate workspace. Is there an unused closet that you can tuck a small desk into, or an unused corner in an infrequently trafficked room?
- Create a work/life balance, and keep your business life separate from your personal life. If possible, separate what is your work area and what is your personal home area.
- Rearrange your space and find out where you feel you can concentrate better. If that means putting your desk by the window allows you to focus more, then do it!
- Get creative with what you have available to keep your workspace quiet and conducive to working.
Organize your space
- Make your workplace neat, tidy and attractive as possible. This will help in motivating you in getting the job done.
- Clear your desktop to remove clutter. If you need to concentrate, then make it a habit of clearing everything from your table or desk.
- Have all the supplies you need at hand, even a coffee maker. The key is to prevent you from wandering inside the house and find things that can distract you.
- Decorate your space with wall decor and photos that can help you relax while working
- Setup workstations for each activity that needs to be done: create an area for making calls while another area for writing. If you are an online seller, you may need an area for packing your items for shipping.
Eliminate distractions
- Remove anything in your surroundings that can cause interruptions
- Use online tools or apps to help you focus on your work screen, preventing you from surfing the Web needlessly
- Block out a window of time on your calendar for projects where you deliberately have no meetings or appointments.
- Check your email and then turn notifications off. Know you can check it again in a few hours.
- Silence your phone. Let it go to voice mail and return calls later.
- Hang a polite sign or prop one up on a chair in your cubical door. Try “Please come back at 2:00 or leave me a note. Crunch time here!”
Prioritize your tasks for the day
- Do your planning the night before. The process of thinking ahead of what you want to accomplish the next day gives you a sense of certainty and control about your next day, and even a sense of anticipation you would not ordinarily have.
- Be sure to put your plan for the next day in writing. Not only does doing this increase your feelings of control, but gives you the reality of control. You see it on paper and it’s there, for real.
- Create a to-do list. Putting them on a checklist lets you mentally return to the work at hand.
- Don’t stop on your “have to’s” list. Plan out not only those things that you have to do, but give some room for the things that you “want to” do.
- Rank your to-do list by order of importance. Lists always include the “crucial” and the “not so crucial” items, and you want to make sure that you are focusing your time first on the crucial items. Prioritizing your list also allow you to go through your tasks for the day on a more systematic basis, helping reduce that sense of being overwhelmed
- You can group the items together in way that manages your time most effectively and prioritizes them appropriately.
- Over plan your day. If you have planned to do only one thing, then you get only one thing done. But if you plan to do 12 items but maybe was just able to do 9 things, then that is 9 things completed. Doing this creates a healthy sense of pressure on yourself helping you become a better time manager.
- Keep a calendar that you can see (e.g. large, dry erase calendar wall decal) where you can post important dates for projects and deadlines. This constant reminder is a terrific way to return your focus to prioritized actions.
Train Your Mind
- Engage in various brain training activities designed to improve your ability to focus
- Take a break and make sure that you do not overwork yourself and get exhausted.
As a small business owner, running a business entails maintaining focus on what you need to do. You need to maintain your productivity level. If this is a challenge that you have encountered, hopefully, the above tips will help improve your focus, boost your productivity, and allow you to work efficiently.
Recommended Books on How to Improve Your Focus:
- Rare Leadership in the Workplace: Four Uncommon Habits that Improve Focus, Engagement, and Productivity
- How to Improve Concentration and Focus: 10 Exercises and 10 Tips to Increase Concentration
- Focus: How to Plan Strategy and Improve Execution to Achieve Growth
Original Publication Date: January 26, 2011
