Apr. 10, 2006
-
Staying Focused
Staying Focused
I've been facilitating a TeleConference this month, called Focus With A Vengeance. What seems to differentiate those who are in control of their time and those who feel whipped around by it is the ability to master the art of focus and follow through.
Here are a few ideas:
1.In David Allen's book, Getting Things Done , he suggests implementing a 2 Minute Rule: Do immediately anything that takes 2 minutes or less. You'd be surprised at how this will keep things from piling up and how it will help keep your inbox (both your virtual one and the one on your desk) with less accumulated action items. If you have less, you will focus better on the things that really need your attention.
2. Identify for your projects what the next action step is and keep that list with you. We often procrastinate taking action because we do not think we have enough time to get anything done. Grab and use those 10-15 minute slots between appointments to take a next step.
3. Along those same lines, know what the most important actions are. These are the ones Steven Covey calls Important/Not Urgent in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. When you have one of those little bits of time, can you make 1 warm call? What other action could you take that would be a high leverage action? Joeann's Rule of 3 is to: Identify each morning the 3 Actions that will will you the most payback towards your long term goals.
4. And, lastly, time management guru, Brian Tracy, says that focusing on one thing until completion before starting the next is the most effective way to accomplish more and do it more accurately. When we are trying to handle 2 or 3 things at once, our lack of focus diminishes our results and often results in mistakes. Multi-tasking is a disease!
|
RSS Blog Feed