Monday Motivation: Manufacturing the Magic of Focus

Do you wish you could make more progress on your projects? Or handle problems faster? Who doesn't? ​The secret is focus. ​But how can you focus when your phone and email are going off, your to do list is looming and someone's hovering nearby? Kids know all about single focus, they do it naturally. And us adults do it all the time accidentally. ​Have you ever been intrigued by a new car only to suddenly see that kind of car everywhere? 

It's not as if there are a zillion more of those suddenly. You're noticing them because the car caught your interest. It's been lifted out of the selective blindness that keeps us from being distracted by daily life's irrelevant details. So let's put that to work. Here are 3 very simple things that I do with my website clients to help them regain the precious skill of childlike focus.

• Pick 1-3 tasks. Once you've got them, clear your mind for 10 seconds and imagine how great it will feel to get even one of them done. When we are drawn towards a good feeling we're less prone to procrastination and distractions. Maybe it's something simple like "Fold all the laundry" or something hard like "Catch up on all accounting". I use a wonderfully simple little app called CommitTo3 for this (download the free CommitTo3 app). 
• Give yourself the gift of a deadline. Holding on to the feeling of accomplishment, give yourself permission to let other things go temporarily so you can put your energy into your main task. Can someone else walk the dog so you have an hour in the evening? Can you skip that outing to work quietly on your project? With that extra precious time in mind, decide on a realistic goal and write it down somewhere as if it's already completed "The Thing is done!". Now you're looking forward to that feeling on that day. 
• Manage distractions. Put your phone on airplane mode, hang a string across your cubicle, hideout in a coffee shop where no one knows you ... whatever it takes depending on what you find distracting. To the extent that you're able, give yourself the gift of a solid chunk of time to work on just one thing. 

And...MAGIC HAPPENS. I have seen clients do more on a website that they're excited to launch in a week than in the previous year of meetings about it fixing their old boring site. I now manufacture client-friendly deadlines and milestones and it works - both for them and for me. It's amazing how powerful the pull of attraction can be. Attraction = focus = results.  

So if you're ready to get something done this week, answer this: 

1. What are 1-3 things you really, really want to get taken care of this week?
2. Which can be done today? Which can be done by Friday?
3. What goals can you temporarily set aside to focus on these 1-3 tasks?
4. How can you eliminate or minimize distractions?
5. What have you got to lose?

This takes practice. Many days a client and I will only get one thing done ... but that's better than none. And getting the one thing done gives us a sense of project management momentum. I hope you'll try it and I'd love to know if how it works out.