Let’s get down to FOCUS and what is going on there! It’s summer. The sun is shining, the pool is open, the kids aren’t in school, the great outdoors and fabulous summer activities await! Who wants to work? For me, summer is the time to truly get fiercely focused so that I can play as hard as I work. My schedule each week includes tennis, golf, hiking, and outings with friends. Oh yes, and business too!
One of the hardest things to do is to actually get focused when you need to get focused. It’s why so many of my clients come to me in the first place—it’s that shiny object syndrome. You may find that you are jumping from task to task without finishing, or that you are trying to SQUEEEEZE business in between all the other things you have going on, but it feels like an afterthought or like you’re standing still and not growing. I cannot tell you how many people struggle with this, especially in the summer when nothing feels like it has a routine.
The key to getting the things done that matter and to also be fully present in all the summer fun is to get fiercely focused when you are working and to be super intentional about when you sit down and work—do not just let your business land on the back burner or to be something you’re squeezing in. Just how do we do this though? I have some thoughts:
1. CALENDAR your business in. I know I say this all the time, but it is truly the NUMBER ONE thing you can do to make sure you get things done. I know that I work on Mondays and Thursdays until 4, I don’t work until after 2 on Tuesdays or until after 11 on Wednesdays and Fridays. Essentially, I’m working about 2.5 days a week right now, but when I work, I work. And all these hours are on the calendar.
2. SET A TIMER. When you are working, in order to stay focused, the most effective thing you can do is to set a timer for your task, time chunk or time block. These timers can be anywhere from 20 to 90 minutes. And the key is that you are WORKING that whole time on whatever you have pre-established with yourself to work on. Without distraction. I try not to use my phone as a timer unless it’s in Do Not Disturb or Airplane mode. I much prefer Alexa to keep the time for me so my phone can be in another room.
3. DO NOT OVERBOOK. We all make the mistake of thinking we have more time than we actually do in a day. Be proactive and leave yourself buffer time in between the things you are doing—this lets you transition between tasks or meetings so that your brain can move on! That means you get a break of 5 to 15 minutes between things—where you get up and move somehow—so your brain knows that one task or meeting has ended, and another is about to begin. Trying to transition while you’re still focused on the last thing you did makes focusing extremely difficult.
4. GIVE YOURSELF SPACE. Go into your week knowing that you want to take some time for summer. Schedule those morning fishing trips, time at the pool, lake, ocean, or family outings and find your business rhythm around them. Just be intentional so that everything doesn’t get pushed under the rug.
What I don’t want for you is for September to come and you find that your business has suffered because you didn’t really do any intentional work for three months. Rather, I want you to find that balance by being intensely focused while you’re working so that you can play hard without a high cost to your business. Have fun! Work hard. Play hard. Enjoy it all.
Are you fiercely focused? Check this out: https://juliemillerdavis.com/focus/