It is not your fault.
Unless you’re a monk who had spent the last 10 years of his life meditating and living in silence, laser-sharp focus can be quite difficult to master.
But let me ask you this my friend, wouldn’t it be awesome if you could focus on a single task without having your mind slipping away to some time-wasting distractions every 10 minutes? Wouldn’t it be great if you could finish your tasks on time and stop working overtime?
Wouldn’t it be great if you could spend more time with your family or working on growing your business?
I’m sure you got the idea. Having a laser-sharp focus can dramatically improve your life and give you more clarity, more direction, more happiness and so on.
But as great as it sounds, I am afraid that there are no magical shortcuts to winning the battle over distractions.
However one thing is for sure, it is not rocket science either. In fact, improving your focus isn’t that hard as you might think. That’s why today I want to give you something really important, really valuable and really simple.
Today I am going to share with you my best 5 Productivity Tips To A Laser Sharp Focus.
And you know what? By the end of this article, you can go out there and start implementing them straightaway to feel more focused. And perhaps, going away from that overwhelm that I know a lot of people experience.
So here they are, here’s all you have to do:
1. Make Friends With Your Schedule
When was the last time when you had done something just for yourself? You know, some “treat yourself time?”
Don’t feel bad if you can’t remember, because from now on, I want you to start scheduling in some “You Time” or “Treat Yourself Time”, however, you want to call it.
This “You Time” can be something like, in the morning you have half an hour before you leave the house where you have time to read, relax, watch your favorite TV show, meditate.
Whatever that time is, you decide what you want to do with it.
But hear this, I don’t want you to fill it up with tasks that might overwhelm you like playing catch up, paying loads of bills, getting anxious over some unfinished tasks from yesterday and so on.
Do you want to know why this is the first step to straightening your focus?
You already know why, it’s to be able to structure your days a little bit more. So instead of starting your morning with stress that will affect you for the rest of the day, just step back for a while and take your time just for yourself.
2. Make Lists
Lists need to be your second best friend. But let’s pause here for a moment because what I am talking about is a different kind of lists.
What I would recommend you to do is, create a list that is a really clear outline of your week that you’re going to break down into lists for the days. So when you do this, you’re always moving forward, rather than going “Oh, what am I doing today?”
Bear with me for a second. You know that I always try to make things as simple as possible, and that’s exactly what I’m going to try to do right now.
So if we’re talking about business, your list for the week could be filled with tasks like contact 20 leads that you’ve brought in from the week before. And on that list, you can also write that you need to follow up with leads, follow up with current customers, and all the important things that you need to you.
Did you get the idea? Great.
So your week list can contain tasks like contact five leads on Monday, on a Tuesday contact six, on a Wednesday contact five again and so on.
Whatever the whole set up is, you create that list around you. But also I want you to create lists of things like meditating, read your favorite book, watch your favorite show, contact your friends, contact your family. Put on your list things that will fulfill you rather than just a list of needs, rather than just a list of wants.
Alright, enough about lists, let’s talk about…
3. Become strict with your time
But wait a minute, before you start shaking your head in disagreement, here’s what I mean by that.
Look, I am sure you know that feeling that you get before going to the gym, when your body and mind are both telling you “man, we don’t want to be here”.
Well, this is the perfect example when you shouldn’t listen to your body and mind and instead focus and set yourself to work, right?
But in this case, I want you to do exactly the opposite.
Really. Listen, if you are hanging out with people who are constantly moaning and are not very good for your energy, or they’re just a bad influence, well, stop doing it, okay?
Even if you’re enjoying their company. If they’re bringing no value to you, to your family or to your business, stop hanging out with them.
Become strict with your time. I cannot make that any more clear.
What else? Oh right, here’s something else what being strict with your time doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean that you must get up at 5 a.m. every single morning and hustle all day long.
No. Again, whatever works for you.
What it means is start being focused about who you are spending your time with, what energy are you sort of releasing to spend time with that person.
So start becoming aware of your time because I want you to start being strict with it, ok?
Try it.
4. Take breaks
As simple as it may sound, I bet you do not take enough breaks.
You see, every day I am trying to teach my clients that working for six hours straight won’t make them more productive. Many times, my new clients expect me to tell them that if they want to be productive they need to wake up at 5 a.m. every single morning and hustle, hustle, hustle.
But we both know that’s not how it works, isn’t it?
So, what I am going to suggest you do instead is to break your day into segments. This way, if you work for an hour, you then give yourself a five or ten minutes break. Then you maybe work for an hour and a half and you give yourself a half an hour break.
Does that sound good? I think it does.
But wait as it gets better because even within that hour that you dedicate to work if you need to just take a 30 seconds break, go ahead. Allow yourself to do that, okay?
Allow yourself to take more breaks.
It’s a good idea.
Why? Well, first off, in that break time what’s going to happen is you’re going to process all the stuff you’ve been doing that day anyway. And you’re actually going to work more efficiently after that.
But if you decide to power through without taking any breaks, you will have no time to actually look at what you’re doing and ask yourself “Do I need to be doing this? Is this the best way of using my time? Is this the best way to do this task?”
So again, become aware of your time, but also allow you to take breaks. And if that means taking 15 minutes to watch a YouTube video, then watch that 15 minutes YouTube video. But after that 15 minutes again, be strict with your time. Get back to your list, get back to being productive, and get back to succeeding in what you want to do.
5. Don’t beat yourself up
About not completing all your lists, about not giving yourself a break. Don’t beat yourself up about not being focused right now.
Don’t beat yourself up because you’re not being productive every single minute of your life or because you sometimes prefer to procrastinate.
But don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that you don’t have to be strict with yourself, or that you need to stop educating yourself and stop working on becoming more disciplined.
What I am saying is that if you’re constantly punishing yourself for not being who you want to be, you’re not really focusing on the big picture. You’re not focusing on the time you could be spending with your family, the time that you could use to focus on growing your business.
So stop being so hard on yourself.
Lighten up, smile and relax for a little. It’s just as important as being productive and focused.
So there are my five really quick, really, really simple productivity tips or hacks to become more focused in what you want to do.
To be honest, I feel excited about this list. Reading it one more time made me realize that this stuff is really important and if you start implementing it right now, you won’t regret it, my friend. In fact, you’ll start seeing the results almost immediately.
Look, I know that most of the points on this list depend on what you want and how you usually work. And that it may take some trial and error before you can find what works for you and what doesn’t.
I have done this with many different people from many different corners of the world and I want to do it with you as well.
I’m giving away free Building Laser Sharp Focus Coaching Calls where I can show you how to avoid being overwhelmed and how to be more productive and focused.
You can get your free spot from here