Focus is a very essential tool for any business to flourish. Gaining focus on your business will enable you to be maximally efficient. By concentrating on the most important things and avoiding distractions, you will increase your productivity and your work output will be of the highest quality, which is necessary for a successful business.
So how can you gain focus on you and your business?
1. Set out clear goals to help you align your focus. Think about what you would want to accomplish and layout a strategy on how to achieve them. Goals work as a road-map towards your larger aspirations. They should be realistic and timely. Goal setting will motivate you to put in the work you need to accomplish them and also ensure your Goals are SMART – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
2. Prioritize, have a clear picture of what need your immediate attention, what you can put off for later, what you can delegate or not do at all. This calls for planning ahead, putting into consideration the deadlines and timings for every particular task. This will help you to re-organize your mind and put you into focus.
3. Maintain a simple organized work space. Remove unnecessary junk and clutter form your working space. Have things in front of you that you need. You should get rid of photos, journals, magazines and receipts on your desk and shelves to create a less distracted work-space.
4. Turn off technology that distracts and focus on the task at hand. Flashing screens, new email notifications, vibrating cell phones, are all constant source of distractions. Schedule the times outside of work when you will use your phone or table.
5. Focus on doing one thing at a time as opposed to multi-tasking. This way, you will avoid taxing your brain by having it shift form one task to another which will lead to exhaustion and inefficiency. You are going to have to stop multitasking if you want to beat the competition and by increasing your focus you will get more things done in less time. So avoid tackling two tasks simultaneously, it is better to get completely done with task A before switching on to task B.
6. Block your time. This simply means dedicating a certain number of hours to a certain task, blocking off your time from other tasks that demand your attention. This will help you focus on the task you are working on.
7. Automate some operational activities such as financial management. This reduces the amount of time needed to manage finances. The free-up time will in turn be re-directed to the core business; be it customer service or sales.
8. Work on full screen mode when working from your computer. This helps you to stay focused on your task and eliminates distractions. By removing icons from other applications on your screen, you minimize the urge to click on them occasionally and this increases your focus and concentration.
9. Get enough rest. Try as much as possible to get enough good quality sleep every once in a while. It will be easier for you to concentrate when you are well rested.
We can all agree that we get so much more done when we are focused. Try these tips and you will gain focus on your business, by so doing, increase your out-put.