* No laughing at my rudimentary drawings. I wanted to create a visual drawing for you of work that gets me “in the zone”.
Last week I was working my butt off for a client deadline. I was in the zone. Time didn’t exist and I was killing it. After I was done I lifted my head, looked around, and basked in the glow of doing great work.
I stood up, stretched, and a little dance just popped into my legs.
You ever have moments like this?
They don’t happen often enough for me. They don’t happen often enough for anyone.
This experience hardly ever happened until I began to apply a few techniques that have made a huge improvement to my ability to focus and accomplish great work.
I’m a thought chaser, easily distracted.
It’s like watching my dog watch squirrels she can’t catch, just enjoying seeing them run around in the yard.
Many times I have a thought or idea I act on it, which means I pull myself away from work that I need to stay focused on.
Thought Chaser
I’m a fairly productive guy. I write two blog posts a week. One here and one on Domino Connection, my customer connection site. I also do career coaching calls, interviews, social media, speaking events, and website Connection reviews. I have a 5 year old son, wonderful marriage, exercise and many little tasks like grilling chicken and making amazing green beans for dinner.
I’m no slouch.
I am however a thought chaser, which means I struggle to harness my focus at times.
This can be a good thing for your creativity, but many times it holds you back from getting in the zone and accomplishing great work. It means stress kicks in at the end of the day because you didn’t get what you needed to get done.
I used to work at night all the time to catch back up on work. There are times I work at night, but now it’s because I have a creative itch that I need to scratch, not because I didn’t do all my work.
As I’ve been dealing with my attention issues I began to notice certain patterns.
Squirrel Brain
Your focus is the reason you are successful. The better you get at prioritizing your days the easier it is to get your most important work done, so you have more flexibility in your day.
You are allowed to chase squirrels, but you need to know when to stop and get your focus back on track.
Sometimes it’s fun chasing thoughts around, but if we do it usually leads to getting nothing done.
Next Step
Look at where your attention is being distraction and why you think it’s happening. If you don’t have focused time to get your most important tasks accomplished you won’t get great results.
Ask yourself:
What can I do to create more focused time at work?
This question will help you identify where you are losing your focus. Once you figure out what triggers your attention to diminish you’ll find it’s much easier to get it back on track.
Unlock Your Focus
Need help harnessing your focus at work? Check out the Unlock Your Superpowers course where we help you unlock your focus as well as your passion and strengths to make reaching your career goals faster and a lot more fun.
The course will go live on Sept. 10th. There is a presale discount going on right now. Click here to see what’s in the course and how it can help improve your happiness at work. The more efficient you are able to get your work done the quicker you can move on to work that makes you happy.