4 Tips to Help You Focus

“I can‘t achieve anything concrete during the day.”

How do you fight the feeling of not knowing where to start?

“When I come back from a break, it is sometimes difficult to feel I am on the right track.”

If you work for yourself and you lose track of your path, how do you get back onto it?

If you think and feel that your time during the day is not being used up properly, or that the feeling of being overwhelmed or too busy often takes over all your thoughts…

How can you coach yourself to achieve what you want during the day?

Tip 1: One step at a time. We have big goals for ourselves, my clients are usually very ambitious and expect a lot of themselves and their businesses, but sometimes it is ok to look at one thing at a time, rather than start feeling irritated or too busy. Ask yourself useful questions: ‘What do I need to accomplish this week to feel that I have moved forward in my business, or in my life?’ Then name 3 things for each category.

It is key to take realistic small steps and to keep moving forward. If you stick to this, there will always be harder days than others, but overall you will not be standing still.

Tip 2: Pause during the day. What is your ‘Pleasure, Strength and Meaning’ (PSM) list?

What is it that gives you Pleasure, Strength and Meaning in your life? How often do you do these things in the week? Did you quit on them to focus on your children/job? Those things are vital to your success. Set time aside for them in your calendar.

Meditation or exercise are a great way to recharge. Take the time to be with your thoughts alone. I practice ‘Transcendental meditation’ (TM) daily and I cannot praise it highly enough.

Life Coach Jody Moore did a whole podcast episode about Busyness, where she says: “Busy is relative. Take a step back and ask yourself: what really matters right now?”

Tip 3: For the women out there – be mindful of where you are in your cycle. The time we are most productive is in your follicular period. Have a listen to this podcast by Dr Jolene Brighten, which will give you more details about it: The Bossbabe Podcast Episode 019

Try to plan anything creative that requires more time to complete, during that time of the month.

Tip 4: CATEGORISE your to do list. We have so many lists. Make smarter lists.

“You need to shift your focus away from this unrealistic quest to get everything done and place it on getting the right things done, a better alternative that is more about managing priorities.” ― David Goldsmith, Paid to Think: A Leader’s Toolkit for Redefining Your Future

To do list tips that work:

– List things that take less than 5 mins to do (eg. make a particular phone call, etc.)

– Then list things that take more than 5 mins to do (eg. write a client summary)

– Lastly, list ongoing things that need doing – projects (eg. your social media, content

writing, networking)

Once you have set the list, try and allocate time for those tasks in the month ahead. Make time in your agenda taking into account your family-life obligations. Make sure that you stick to the time you have set to do the tasks. It is very easy to just decide to do the ‘less than 5 mins’ tasks and leave the rest for later. A well-balanced to do list and focus means a well-balanced mind and your feeling of ‘busyness’ will change.

Coaching can help a lot when it comes to how we feel about how busy we are. Coaching will help your brain categorise, understand where you need to be and what you want to focus on, and how to be accountable for making sure it will get done.

To accomplish what really matters to you may mean leaving things behind which are difficult to leave behind. Understanding that helps clients get to another level of goal setting.

Book a session with me now and find out more about how I can help you.