As a business woman, one of the biggest obstacles I face is finding focus. There have been times that I have laid out a plan of action and all it took was one thing, a telephone call from a client or colleague, a comment in my Twitter feed, an urgent email, and I was completely off track.
Here's the thing, time is predetermined. The 24 hours in a day that we are given are unchanging. If we deprive ourselves of sleep in order to get more done, something or some area of our life will suffer. Therefore, I have had to learn to choose to focus my time on certain projects.
This is not an easy task, especially for an entrepreneur who plays numerous roles within my organization. Yet, this must be done in order to get the focus needed to run a business.
The first step in the right direction was sitting down and really analyzing my habits. Next was setting a plan of action to re-develop those habits. My role as an entrepreneur was to not only be the visionary, but also the strategist behind implementing that vision.
I know this can seem overwhelming, especially in today's age where business owners are being alerted of correspondence through their phone, email, automated tools, and devices
I found myself trying to set aside time to reply to emails for at least three different social sites and the business email address, Twitter, Facebook, and Skype. The end result however was that I was three hours into my day and I still had not moved to task number two. As a result, I decided that this was a problem that I had to find a solution for.
My habit/problem had been defined: I was too in tune to everything.
My solution: Respond more selectively. True, cultivating my online relationships with potential clients, colleagues, association members, etc. are important, nevertheless this should not take priority. This is especially true when you are trying to focus on tasks that are pertinent to your business.
The big picture: In order to keep my focus on my vision for my business and implement the strategy that would be lead to that vision being a reality, I had to complete certain tasks daily.
Responding more selectively has allowed me to re-develop my habit of being so in tune to all of the alerts that I receive on an hourly basis. It has also allowed me to re-develop my habit of trying to respond to every correspondence as soon as I receive it.
I know how important it is to make friends, colleagues, and potential clients feel respected and like they matter. On the other hand I think responding "in a timely manner" does not mean drop everything in order to do so. It took analyzing my habits for me to see that this was something that I had been doing previously.
My exercise of defining the problem first and then looking for a solution led me down the road to re-developing my habits. It was then that I found that keeping focus has become easier for me to do. The beginning of this journey started with analyzing why I seemed to lose focus over and over. This is not something that happened over night or something that I no longer have to work on. Yet it is something that continues to help immensely with bringing my focus back when I feel myself straying. Try these tips and I believe that you too will be able to find focus.
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What do you think? Is this helpful? What will you do differently in your working day so that you can regain your sanity and find focus?
Annemarie Cross is a Brand Communication Specialist helping ambitious women business owners to get noticed, hired and paid what they're worth! Want to learn simple yet powerful ways that you can build your brand, your credibility and your income? Visit http://www.AnnemarieCross.com to access free inspiring 'how-to' articles and to sign up for our free audio mini-series ‘7 Easy Steps to Build Your Brand, Your Biz, and Your Income.’