Showing posts with label Multi-tasking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Multi-tasking. Show all posts

Monday, August 6, 2012

Finding Your Focus

It’s scary when you consider just how easy it is to get distracted and off-task today.

How often to you switch your attention away from what you're doing at the moment to check email, text someone or check your favorite social media sites?

If you find it difficult to focus your attention on a priority project, these suggestions will help you get on track, no matter what you’re trying to accomplish:

1. My friend Dean Jackson, one of the smartest marketing minds on the planet, recorded an outstanding video, “The 50-Minute Focus Finder.” Make it a priority to carve out 50 minutes to watch it, and find out how to get the most from every minute of your day.

2. Be proactive about your use of time. Take control of your day by blocking “prime time” for your most important projects. Prime time is a specific period that is 100% dedicated to a top priority activity. No checking email, no answering phone calls, no conversations. During prime time, you are out of contact. Let everyone on your team know about it so they don’t interrupt you.

3. Leverage the power of the timer. Start using a timer for those blocks of prime time. Try out this free timer. Set it for 50 or 60 minutes and don’t let anything or anyone interrupt you during that time. Start working when the clock starts, and stop working when the timer goes off.

4. Recognize that multi-tasking is a myth. Your brain can’t focus full attention on two things at the same time. The only way to work on two or more things at once is to constantly shift your attention from activity to activity. This isn’t efficient because you lose momentum and context every time you shift. If you’re checking email while talking with someone on the phone, you will not hear everything the person is saying.

To get more done, focus on just one priority or task at a time – long enough to make significant progress.

Start implementing these tips, and you will get a LOT more done each day.