More often than not people will say there aren’t enough hours in the day to achieve everything they want to. In most cases however this can be easily overcome by focusing your time on the things that matter and forgetting about all the other things. 

If you have staff or the ability to outsource you need to use these resources and learn to let go of things that aren’t critical to you achieving your potential within your business. The more you take on, the less time you have to spend on each individual task which can have a damaging effect. 

You will see greater success, and probably greater satisfaction, by focusing on the tasks or projects that only you can do. Your focus is needed to lead your business or team by creating the vision and motivating your staff to understand and work towards this vision. 

Learn to let go 

Far too often I see managers not wanting to relinquish tasks because they fear that it won’t be done or done to their standard if they give it to someone else. You need to stop this thinking and learn to trust in others abilities and learn the best way to train people to take over. You can’t focus on the bigger picture if you’re worrying about what or how everyone else is doing their job. 

Cull Your Task List & Delegate 

You won’t be able to focus if you know you have a long list of tasks that is only getting bigger. You need to cull your list and only keep the tasks that will help you achieve your bigger picture goals. Everything else should be either deleted or delegated to someone else. If the thought of deleting tasks scares you too much, create a “someday” list and keep it in a file somewhere you won’t be thinking about it every day. 

Know What To Focus On 

Spend a day working out what it is you need to be focusing on. From this you will identify larger projects and smaller tasks that you will need to work on. If you think of anything that isn’t of great importance but will still need to be done, add it to your delegation list and empower someone else to do it. Identifying what you need to focus on should align with your strategic plans for the business. 

Schedule Time 

Once you’re clear on the bigger picture and what you need to be focusing on, add these into your calendar. Don’t try and work on everything at once or all in one day. Choose only a few things each day to work on and schedule time for these into your calendar. You’re going to achieve quicker success by spending a few good hours on 1 or 2 things in a day rather than trying to do 8 different things that would get less than an hour of your time. 

Get Into Focus Mode 

When you’re about to start working on a project that is going to help your business, you need to mentally prepare yourself and get into focus mode. This means closing email, not taking every call that comes through, no web browsing, no social media, and no distractions. You’re not going to be able to focus while you’re following what your friends or family are up to for the day! 

For the smaller business owner or manager 

If you don’t have the resources to delegate or outsource it doesn’t mean that you can’t focus on what matters. If you’re in this position it probably means you have a small business or you work for yourself. The most important thing to do in this situation is to focus on what will generate work or income for you. Don’t get distracted by all the little things that won’t have any major impact right now. Your priorities should be on networking, marketing, or customer service. Allocate 1 day a week on all the other tasks or things that you enjoy doing but don’t directly help generate clients or income. 

"Focusing on what matters can be hard and requires a lot of self-discipline. I still have to remind myself of what is important and stop myself from wandering off into tasks or projects that aren’t going to help me achieve the goals I’ve set. While I may not always like some of the things I have to focus on at the time, once I’ve done them and seen the results I realise the power of being able to focus my time on what matters." 

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