STAY FOCUSED

Focus is a powerful habit that leads to success and happiness. When we learn how to concentrate our time and energy on important things, then we'll be much more productive and happier than we ever imagined.

We all have dreams and aspirations. However,  some people laid down principles and focused on how to achieve their, while others leave it as a mere wishful thinking.

When you effectively concentrate your time, energy, money and thought on the right things, it becomes difficult not to be successful and happy. But how do you know the right things to focus on? What is focus? How can I stay focused? This article will guide you on how to find answers to these questions.

What is Focus?

Focus is the main or central point of something, especially of attention or interest. Cambridge Dictionary

Focus means paying attention to a particular thing and ignoring others, at least for that particular time.

Why focus is important

Focus is a key to effective productivity because it helps you eliminate time and energy consumers that come in the forms of distractions and lower priorities.

We live in a world where there is never enough time to do all the things we want to do, we must learn to choose our priorities, focus on the most important ones, ignore others or do them later.

Focus and determination are more powerful than brains and talents. If you have the best brain and talent, but do not know how to harness and channel it on the most important thing, then you'll end up having very little achievements. Your power lies in your ability to focus on doing what is important at a given time.

Concentrated effort can achieve results which seem impossible.

“Do not scatter your powers. Engage in one kind of business only, and stick to it faithfully until you succeed, or until your experience shows that you should abandon it. A constant hammering on one nail will generally drive it home at last so that it can be clinched. When a man’s undivided attention is centred on one object, his mind will constantly be suggesting improvements of value, which would escape him if his brain was occupied by a dozen different subjects at once.” – Barnum & Bailey.

How to choose what to focus on

Some of the things that distract us from focusing on the most important things are not necessarily wrong or bad, but they are not the right things to consume our time and energy. We must take hard decisions to eliminate the not so good things, then concentrate fully on the most important ones. To maintain focus, you should do the following:

Have clear and well-written goals that you want to achieve.

This will help you know what you should be focusing your thought, money, time and energy on. Ask yourself some questions like, what do I want? What do I need to achieve it?  How do I plan to achieve it? Etc.

List your goals according to the top most priority.

This principle helps in choosing the most important and ignoring others for the time being. Making a priority list is a great tool for choosing what makes you successful and happy.

Fix a specific time to accomplish that goal.

Fixing a time that you must complete a given task will help you eliminate other time-consuming factors. As I was writing this article, I fixed a specific time that I have to post it. When I started having so many phone calls, I remembered that I had a fixed time to finish typing it, so I switched off my phone to avoid distractions from it. It's always important to fix a specific time to finish a given task.

Don't multitask yourself.

Scattered attention often results in inefficient performance. Do one thing at a time. When you focus all your attention on a particular thing, you begin to see greater ideas and ways to achieve the desired results. It also boosts your willpower to achieve success.

Understand that you must not do everything. Focus on the most important.

Conclusion

We live in a world of distractions. The ability to eliminate the less valuable things in our lives is the key to staying focused. Identify the most valuable things, pay attention to them and eliminate the unimportant ones.

"Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days."    Zig Ziglar

Image source: All images are gotten from imgur.com

You may like to read other series on smart and simple ways to change your life for good.

Part one

Part two

Part three

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