How to Stay Focused

By Andrew and Pete | August 4, 2016 |

Hey guys, today we give you 3 tactics on how to stay focused that we have implemented at Andrew and Pete, which have allowed us to achieve more in the past year than we have in the previous 4.

We 100% believe these tactics are essential. Not remaining focused and getting distracted is the number one issue that we see stopping business owners getting stuff done and moving their business forward.

Worst thing is… we bet you know it! But Today is the day you do something about it.

Let’s get going. Here’s the 3 tactics we use.

How to Stay Focused Tactic 1. Have A Waiting Room.

People are constantly getting distracted by shiny objects… be it people luring you in with their own ideas, plans and opportunities, or your own ideas that you think of and get excited over. But if you keep moving onto other projects, and start new things constantly, you’ll never finish what you’re actually working on.

Now it’s important to work on those big, long term, exciting goals but we are more interested in our 1-3 month goals for day to day organising. Once we have our 3 month goals, we stick to them… anything else that come up, goes in what we call… The Waiting Room.

It’s a list (ours is on Google Sheets), of things we want to get done, but not until we have completed the tasks at hand (working 3 months in advance). Then when the 3 months is up, we look in The Waiting Room, decide what needs to get done next in order of priority, and plan the next 3 months.

This by itself will Fast Track your route to success by years… literally… we promise.

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It also ensures a happy Andrew and Pete – because we know everything is documented in The Waiting Room, ready to come back to and not in our heads distracting us from the tasks we have schedule for the immediate months.

How to Stay Focused Tactic 2. Use a Calendar System.

There are a million different organisational systems out there to help you keep on it. The point here is USE THEM.

Find one that best fits you, and stick to it.

What do we use? We love Sheets on Google Drive because we literally can have our year ahead laid out for us to see and organise (we are a dab hand at the ol’ spreadsheets).

For maximum effect, plan your days well in advance instead of just planning on Friday for the Week Ahead. Try planning a whole 3 months… what you are doing each day (including days off, meeting days, business development days, client days, etc.)

Give each day a goal and a focus, and then break that down. How long will the individual tasks take you on each day?

Remembering Parkinson’s Law: tasks will expand to the time allotted.

How to Stay Focused Tactic 3. Don’t Let Others Dictate Your Diary.

Don’t be a victim of somebody else’s bad time management. We see business owners putting work in their business ahead of working on their business, just because something

‘Comes Up.’

And what’s the biggest culprit of things that just

‘Come Up?’

Paying Clients. Yes… why record a video, redesign your sales pages, call that important contact, attend that webinar, if somebody is willing to give you money in return for your time!??

Well… because… you know… you want more of that right?

In all seriousness, YES paying work is so important and can’t be ignored. However respecting your own time, being organised and not putting off your business development at every opportunity is so important.

It’s a case of getting others to respect your time too, and if you drop everything all the time for somebody they’ll never respect your time because you’re training them that you don’t respect your own.

Also…Respectful Clients = Better Paying Clients.

Plus, we would rather work for one of our clients when we are 100% focused on THEM, not worrying we haven’t got next weeks Vlog uploaded yet!

Have we made our point yet?

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Key Takeaway: Never forget about scheduled business development time. If you have to move it, rearrange it.

Summer Lovin’

On the topic of Self Development. Over on atomic this month, we are running 4 self development sessions called Summer Lovin’ with various experts talking about how entrepreneurs can improve themselves… we are covering: