11 Guidelines for Staying Laser Focused and Increase Success

If asked, what is the one defining quality that sets great leaders apart from their wannabe counterparts, it would have to be their ability to maintain focus on the important issues. Sure, once behind closed doors, even the most successful leaders probably have moments of indecision, procrastination, and uncertainty, but even the sharpest minds need to take a break occasionally. For the majority of us, the power to focus on one task at a time and see it through to completion is not an innate gift. Focus is a learned response, so if we want to achieve the professional, personal and social goals we imagine, we have to first learn how to focus on what we want. We now live in a frenetic, activity-filled, multi-tasking, instant gratification society, so it is easy to get lost in the distractions that bombard us from every angle. How many times have you found yourself on the phone talking to a client, while reading your emails, hitting the “Reply” button and then typing out a response? Where is your focus while you are completing a number of individual tasks at the same time? Focus requires that we learn to differentiate between the “urgent” and the “important” tasks. Urgent tasks are distractions that cause us, subconsciously, to put off or delay the important projects. And it’s the important tasks that lead us to our objectives and goals. Responding to urgent emails, answering the phone, or checking your text messages can all be categorized as urgent tasks. We are conditioned to believe that these urgent tasks require our instant attention because they keep us busy and make us feel important and needed. We think, “This will only take a minute,” when, in fact, urgent tasks can often take a lengthy amount of “minutes” to complete. 11 Guidelines for Helping You to Stay Laser Focused The power of focus lies in your ability to distinguish the urgent from the important; and concentrate your energy on the important. These guidelines will help you to re-direct your focus and prioritize getting the important