Focus is hard to come by, amiright?
In this blog post I’m sharing the 4 top things that I use to get myself focused…I know these things will work for you too!
4 ways to get focused
👉 Have a morning routine
A calm mind is a focused mind, and nothing is more calming than getting your day started with a morning routine.
When you start the day feeling stressed, overwhelmed and generally harried, you’ll be focused on nothing. With your mind racing, the distractions will creep in without you even knowing it.
I’ve got a bunch of tools I personally use in my own morning routine, but this is a really personal thing. Do whatever helps to clear your mind, calm you down and makes you feel good. If you like to meditate, do it. If the word meditation freaks you out, try journaling or reading an inspiring book, passage or poem. If you want to dance and sing, own it!
A morning routine can take as much time as you want it to: you can do get some calming action in just 5 minutes, or stretch it out to 30 or 45 minutes or even more…it’s up to you! My routine takes about 15 minutes when I do a shortened version (so it’s doable even if I have an early start to my work day) or 45 minutes if I have the luxury of taking my time or wake up before my alarm goes off.
Some ideas to inspire your own morning routine:
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- Meditate (this can be simple quiet breathing or a guided meditation video or audio)
- Deep breathing (there’s lots of different methods to choose from like deep breathing, alternate nostril breathing and belly breathing…my personal faves!)
- Visualizations
- Stretches, yoga or Tai Chi
- EFT (tapping)
- Affirmations
- Journaling (you can do free form, stream of consciousness or find some journal prompts to get you started)
- Pull a Tarot card for daily advice and guidance
- Chanting or mantras
- Sing and/or dance
- Read an inspiring book, passage or poem
👉 Braindump all. the. time.
A braindump is one place that you write down all your ideas, projects, goals, to-do’s and inspiration.
Writing everything down means there’s no distraction of trying to remember everything in your head or fear of forgetting all the great stuff you want to do (aka: it’s easier to focus).
I refresh my own braindump about once a month, to delete the things that are done, or to get rid of the ideas that just don’t sound good anymore. Does that ever happen to you? You have a flash of inspiration that you think is the best idea ever, but when you come back to it a week later you think “Ummm what, no, this is not a great idea!” or “This does not align with my goals…what was I thinking?!”
👉 Keep your daily to-do list short
Instead of pulling yourself in multiple directions, keep it focused on only the most important stuff. More focused = more doable!
How short? Well that all depends. You’ll have to look at what commitments you have each day (the things you need to do, like client meetings, doctors appointments, dinner with friends, things like that) so you know how much time you have left in the day for your to-do’s.
And you’ll need to estimate how long each to-do will take so you can clearly see how much you can fit into that left over time around your commitments. HOT TIP: it’s better to under estimate what you can get done in a day than over estimate (we tend to over estimate what we can get done in the short term).
Something I hear from my clients consistently is that they feel really shitty when they can’t finish all the items on their to-do list. Just don’t do that to yourself!
👉 Remind yourself of your big picture goal, dream & vision
When you know what you’re working so hard for it’s a lot easier to stay focused and on track.
Write a detailed description of what your ultimate goal is, what your biz and life vision is, what it looks like, what are you selling, what are you doing, where you are, who are you serving, what kind of hours are you working, what impact are you having….
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- Paint a clear picture of exactly what you want and how you want to feel.
- Say it out loud to yourself.
- Write about it in your journal.
- Post little quotes & affirmations about it where you’ll see it every day.
I’d love for you to comment below about your experience using these strategies to stay focused! Which one is your favourite? What other tools do you use in your morning routine? Any questions about the morning routine ideas I listed? How have you defined your vision? How often do you braindump and how? 👇👇👇
I am not sure how I came upon this post right when I needed it but I am not complaining! I have a very bad habit of having a huge goal and getting overwhelmed at the end goal instead of breaking it down into smaller goals/steps. I have been making a better habit of this as well as saying out loud what I need to do and what will be the outcome. Thank you for sharing!
I’m so glad the stars aligned so you could find this post!! And high-fives to you for breaking things down and speaking your goals out loud – so powerful!
My morning routine includes setting a playlist for the day, making coffee and breakfast, then feeding the dog. From there, I usually jump into the work day, but I allow myself slow starts most days.
I love the idea of a playlist April! I’m officially adding this to my own morning routine 😉
Oh wow, it’s so inspirational. I think all of the tips are super important. I used to have very long to-do-lists because when I was writing them, I wanted to plan everything that I thought about and I didn’t take the length of a day into account. I also think that we should never forget about the bigger picture. Even if we don’t make a fast progress, it’s good to keep doing the thing and be patient!
Kisses!
Mona Bednarska
Haha yessss why is it so easy for us to forget that we only have so much time in one day 😛 *kisses back*