Lack of Focus In Achieving Your Goals

If you have lack of focus in achieving your goals, your business will suffer.

Your tasks will take longer because they will be compromised by distractions and wasted time.

Distractions can be a problem for all of us, particularly if you have an internet business where you are online all day.   The internet itself can be a huge distraction.  For instance I’m always distracted by email,  Twitter, checking my sales stats and who knows what.

But one of the biggest bad habits I had was not writing down daily tasks.  I use to try to keep ideas in my head and work each day from memory.  After finally getting tired of  going through a day and getting nothing accomplished, I finally started jotting my tasks down.

But that really wasn’t enough.

It wasn’t until I made a conscious effort to keep a daily calendar where I not only wrote down each of my daily tasks,  I also assigned them a time for completion.

But before I even did that, I took 3 days and wrote down everything I did in a day.  I wrote down everything, getting coffee, talking on the phone, reading email, socializing on Twitter, Facebook and others.  I wrote down when I took breaks and for how long, I wrote down everything.

That was actually a big eye-opener.  Time on Twitter and Facebook often took up hours of my day.  That might be a good thing if I were using them in a business productive way; but I wasn’t 

I spend way too much time following links people sent me, reading email, looking at new products, reading articles, etc.  I knew I had to get more focus in not only achieving my goals but I had to stop wasting time

Start Scheduling your Tasks

If you’re not already scheduling your tasks each day, you’re wasting time.  Every day should have a schedule of tasks that will help you achieve your main goals.

Write your tasks for each day and give each task a realistic time limit. If you write articles for example, you know how long it takes you so give yourself a realistic time frame to get it done.

You can write you task list the old fashioned way, with pen and paper or use a goals tool like mygoals.com. Keep it next to you or tack it on a wall in front of you. There’s nothing like having your tasks in plain view to keep you on track.

Avoid the Distractions in achieving your goals

One of the biggest distractions, especially for an internet business owner, is the internet itself.   Part of my business is to research, write articles, review sites, etc., but just the act of doing those things can lead to distractions that take you off track and waste your time.

If you have the same problem, the Dosh Dosh article  “How to Achieve Your Goals by Changing the Way You Surf the Web ” has  some great ideas about how to surf efficiently, namely archiving what you find useful, using swipe files and making efficient use of bookmarking tools, some great ideas

Email is also a big distraction, and it’s not just me. Lots of people allow email to rob them of precious time. Like your phone, it can be hard to ignore. The best remedy for email distraction is to designate a specific time of day to read and respond to emails.

I personally have resolved to not check my email until I have completed my first 2 or 3 tasks for the day.  That forces me to get to work first thing while I’m alert and have the most energy.

Get and Stay Organized

Organization is key.  Clean up your desk. Organize your books and papers so they’re easily accessible.

If you’re organized you’ll get more done. If it takes you twice as long to find something than it should, you’ll be distracted and your focus will be gone.

Keep your paper files as well as your electronic files in a place where they are easily accessible. Use desktop icons to access the things you use every day. Name and structure them accordingly so that they can be easily found.

In summary….

If you want to be productive and profitable, don’t risk a lack of focus. It takes practice but it will help you achieve your goals, keep your business profitable and also keep you from working more hours than are necessary.

That’s my ultimate goal, I’m thinking it’s the same for you

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