Focus on Focus
Sometimes, it’s hard to focus. There are a lot of things, activities, tasks, and people vying for our attention most of the time. One of the most frequent comments I hear from my clients is that they feel stressed because they never can focus for long enough to complete a project.
They usually blame interruptions for their lack of focus and then use that as an excuse to not even try to get their focus back in a timely fashion. That is until I share some reasons and tricks to regain focus. It turns out it’s much easier than you think.
There are 3 reasons it can be hard to focus, and sometimes they overlap.
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Depleted – Due to lack of sleep, lack of fuel, too much giving.
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Bored – Due to working on too many tasks below your potential.
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Distracted – Due to undone things, bright shiny things and interruptions. Which of course leads us back to too much giving. See how that works?
Luckily the strategies for regaining your focus also overlap. That means just try one and see if it works. If not try a different one until you can focus.
The methods for regaining your focus will have quick effect on your stress. Just finishing a thought is something to build on.
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Recharge -A snack, a nap, a nature walk, meditation or what ever your favorite way to reconnect with yourself is are worth the time away from a project. Focused bursts of energy are up to 10 times more productive than distracted energy. (I think I read that somewhere, but I might have made it up to make my point.)
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Challenge – Work with the music on and tell yourself you are doing 2 things at once – such talent! Do something you truly love for a little while. Work on something creative. See how much you can accomplish in 5 minutes.
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Exaggerate – Now, this is something I almost never do. (See above.) What I mean is to talk yourself through the project out loud or in a funny voice or like you are teaching it. “First I’m going to… then I do the… once that’s done I move onto the…” It can be helpful to also exaggerate the physical movements. Pick up the pen with flourish and smooth out the paper etc. This works because you have to think about what you are doing. (Check out the quote below.)
It took me a long time to realize the benefit of surrendering to no focus. Sometimes it is just faster in the long run to do something entirely different for a little while.
Try applying these methods to get your focus back the next time you are feeling totally scattered and pulled in a bunch of directions and let me know how it goes.
Tags: entrepreneur, focus, organizing, productivity, Simplifying, streamlining
