Focus can make or break you when it comes to getting stuff done & accomplishing your goals.
Have good focus, and you’ll know exactly what your goals are, how you want to accomplish them, and do what needs to be done to get there.
Have poor focus, and you might not even know what you’re looking to accomplish, let alone do anything to get them done.
Improving your focus is like “upgrading” your life: it’ll get you closer & closer to what you want for yourself – weight loss, promotions, more free time with the kids (or in your kids’ case, better grades, making the baseball team, getting a scholarship for college, etc.)
If you think your focus needs some improvement, here’s a few bases you’ll need to touch on to make it better.
1. Goals
What do you want to accomplish?
Do you even *know* what you want to accomplish?
In an ideal world, what would your life look like? How is it different that it is currently? Is there something in your life currently that you simply cannot live without?
These questions should help stir the pot and help you determine what’s important to you, and what things you’d like to accomplish in life.
2. To-Do’s
With what’s important to you, you’ve got to figure out what you need to do to maintain them, get closer to them, accomplish them, etc.
Think of it like a laundry list of items that you need to take care of for every important thing or goal you have.
Some may be one-and-done type tasks, and others might be continual-and-never-ending tasks.
3. Priorities
Now, think about all the things you have going on throughout the day.
What needs to be done no matter what? What is kind of a waste of your time?
Also, consider the important of your goals (and the laundry list of items you need to do for each of them) in relation to everything else you already have to do each day. Where does everything stack up in terms of priorities?
Whatever’s the highest priority is non-negotiable. This may be something you’re already stuck doing, like work or school, or something you haven’t spent any time on, like getting yourself of heart medications or getting onto the varsity team.
The stuff that’s lower priority gets less attention and time.
4. Time Blocks
With your priorities decided on, it’s time to choose how & when you’re going to allot your attention & effort to each task.
Unfortunately, there will be non-negotiables, but you’ll have to do your best to work around it with what time you are allowed to plan out for yourself.
Think of when you’d have the most energy & attention to work on certain things – put your highest priority items then. And give yourself reasonable expectations in terms of attention span – don’t expect to get 4 hours of work done on one single task after a full day of school or work. You’ll need breaks, and you can only focus on one thing for so long before you’ll need to move on to something else.
5. Distractions
Distractions will happen both internally and externally – they’re simply a fact of life.
That’s OK!
Here’s how you deal with it:
For external distractions,
– isolate yourself from people, noise, and media as much as humanly possible
– wear noise-cancelling headphones if needed (in-the-ear headphones don’t look as obtrusive, but there are some inexpensive ones out there that do a great job at keeping the sound out)
– log out of all social media, turn off any TVs, silence your phone and put it away, and don’t listen to any attention-grabbing music
– note about music: the more familiar music is, the more it becomes “background noise” than something that you actively focus on
– if people bother you, kindly tell them you need to uninterrupted time alone to get your work done
For internal distractions,
– write down any intrusive or worrying thoughts as they come up & deal with them later
– be on the lookout for any daydreaming you might fall into, snap out of it, and tell yourself mentally that you have better things to think about
– resist the urge to indulge in things that only serve to procrastinate you .. the more you fight it, the better you’ll get at not caving in
– if you cannot stop thinking about other things, it may be time for a break
6. Keep the Momentum Going
Once you’re in the zone, keep it going as long as you can.
You might be able to get 20 minutes of solid work before you focus fades, or it might be 2 hours.
Just keep that ball rolling until it can’t roll anymore.
Then, take a break & move on to something else, or return back to the same task if you decide you must continue.
…
When you begin to implement this system, you’ll find that your more apt to “keep your eyes on the prize”, get stuff done, and live a better life!
If your an adult looking to improve your health & fitness, or a parent who wants to help their child develop athleticism & confidence, we’d love to invite you to learn more about our various programs here at GameChanger.
Click here if you’re an adult looking to improve your own health & fitness, and click here if you’re a parent looking to help your child.
