This is the first of two posts about staying focussed in your business.
It can often feel like a constant battle to try and keep aligned to what you need to get done now and to your bigger business vision. Both the day to day and the longer term strategy require different levels of focus, different skills and levels of execution.
As a CEO. you’ll probably be wearing many hats, expert, admin, finance, marketing, strategy, designer, the list goes on.
But how can you juggle all this to be productive, motivated and keep everything moving forward side by side, so you don’t ever feel like one area is slipping?
Structure, systems, a strong foundation and forward planning all play a part in streamlining your tasks and longer term goals.
The holy grail of business: simple and sustainable, but scalable so your business evolves as you do.
Running a business with a big vision can be exhausting! Mental energy can be low as juggling the day to day and the strategic goals run from week to week, and you might not see much progress. Quite often business owners feel overwhelmed with all the moving parts in a business, and that adds to frustration and tiredness.
Staying focused needn’t be that difficult and we can train ourselves to practice good habits so we show up and get done what we need to. As with anything too, it will take time to integrate into your way of working. Adapting to change can be an important part of growth, what got you here won’t get you there.
In Part 1 – let’s look at the day to day and five ways to stay focused on what’s right in front of you.
Create a detailed list of actions
Yes, the to-do list is not dead, neither should it be something that is feared or ignored! To-do lists can get bad rap but done right, with some prioritisation they can really focus your mind on what you need to do.
Keep your todo list always evolving. Gone are the days of writing a list every morning before you begin your day, your to-do list should be something that’s constantly running in the background and updated as you move through your days and weeks.
One of the key game changers that is missed with managing a to-do list is prioritisation. Make sure you highlight the important, needle moving tasks so you know to do those first.
Time Block
Keep yourself accountable, quieten the noise and distractions and do deep focused work for at least an hour a day. You will be amazed at how much you can get done in that time. Time block regularly and make the focus your daily to-do list (we’ll talk about focussing on the bigger vision in part 2).
Be Realistic
How much can you actually get done in the time you have blocked. Your to-do list might be long, but with some prioritisation in the five minutes before you start you should be able to plan what you can get done in the time you have set aside. In some cases, plan less than you think you can do. This means you will get the sense of accomplishment, feel on top of your tasks and able to do one more thing that you didn’t expect, therefore making more progress.
Sometimes we need to do little hacks that show us we are getting things done, and making progress!
Don’t Multitask
Many of us think we can multitask but we really can’t. Research supports the fact that we can only truly focus on one thing at a time. Staying focused on one thing may seem limiting, and you may be itching to get on with something else, but complete one thing before moving on to the next.
Take action daily
Consistency is hugely important in your actions actually transpiring into results. You can’t get the results without action. The day to day tasks can often be seen as the most mundane, or the least exciting when you have bigger goals to focus on, but they are what actually keeps your business moving. Your clients, your business operations and your team all form part of what will help you to achieve your longer term strategy.
Are you doing all of the above to help you day to day in your business?
Next week’s post will look at how to focus on your longer term strategy and how to manage your goals to keep moving forward consistently.
