This post doesn’t need an intro.
You know focus is important (that’s why you clicked to read it) so let’s focus on what matters – how to get better at it.
1. Connect your work to a clear goal.
Focus isn’t easy. It takes time, effort, and active concentration.
That means to focus on something you have to convince yourself it’s worth your effort and attention.
To do that you must understand how it relates to a clear goal.
The more an activity is rooted in a goal you want to achieve, the easier it becomes to focus on that activity.
2. Start. Then focus.
No matter how much your ability to focus improves, you’ll always struggle to focus at the beginning of a project or work session.
That’s ok. Just start.
If you wait to be focused to start your work, you’ll wait forever.
Instead, start and you’ll find the focus as you go.
Think of it like a camera – when you first pick it up and point it at something the chances are it’s not in focus. But, that starting point gives you the ability to hone in and gradually focus on the image in the way you want.
Focus doesn’t lead to action, action leads to focus.
3. Eliminate. Then choose.
Here’s how most of us choose where to aim our focus.
We consider the list of things we need to do and choose whichever seems most interesting or urgent.
There’s a step missing in that process.
Before you choose what to focus on, you must eliminate that which is not worthy of your focus.
The process of removing activities that don’t warrant your focus forces you to set priorities and narrow the scope of your work. It forces decisions about what matters and what’s a distraction, and thins the herd of things competing for your attention.
It’s a better first step than simply choosing something to work on.
4. Make your activity a necessity.
It’s easier to focus on what you need than what you want.
If you were drowning and the only way to survive was to swim to the surface, you’d have no problem focusing on that.
Because it would be a necessity and when something’s a necessity, focus is easy.
Hopefully your activities aren’t as life or death as that example, but the more you make them feel like necessities, the easier it is to focus on them.
5. Recognize the world’s working against you.
I’m an optimist and don’t believe people and situations are out to get us, but when it comes to focus I make an exception.
Because the world around you is designed to distract and interrupt you – everything from social networks, to offices, to entertainment, to advertising are specifically designed to steal your attention.
No wonder it’s hard to focus.
You must recognize this and take control of your own environment in order to improve your focus.
These distractions are the enemy when it comes to your ability to focus so you must create our own parameters for the world you want to live in.
When it’s time to focus, you can shut off your phone, shut down your email, turn off the TV, and get out of the office if you need to – whatever it takes to keep the enemy outside the gates.
6. Don’t multitask.
You might think multitasking makes you more productive. It doesn’t. Actually, it doesn’t even exist.
When you “multitask,” you switch back and forth rapidly between a series of different tasks. These each require their own focus, and that constant switching drains your focus.
It makes you less productive and impossible to focus.
Don’t believe me? Read this
7. Practice.
Focus is a skill you develop over time. Like any skill, it requires practice.
I’d love to tell you that after you read this post you’ll be a focus master, but that’s not true.
If you struggle to focus today, you’re still going to struggle to focus tomorrow. And the next day. And the day after that.
But, if you work at it, you will improve. If focus becomes a priority for you, it’s a skill you will acquire.
8. Focus on more than the moment.
Your focus is about more than what’s happening right now.
It’s one thing to focus on a project in the moment, another to make it your focus for the week, and another to make it your focus for the year.
These various forms of focus are equally important and connected.
Your ability to implement different variations of focus makes it easier to execute each of them.
If you know your focus for the year, then it’s easier to decide what your focus for the month is, and your monthly focus makes it easier to determine your daily focus.
Not easy, but easier.
Which is all you can hope for when it comes to focus.