Business Tip - Avoiding Distractions and Staying Focused

Being in business for oneself has many challenges.  One of them is staying focused.  It is very easy to get distracted from the tasks we need to do to advance our business.  If you work at home like I do, there are many distractions:  a dirty house, the weeds in the yard, kids and family needing attention, friends calling during the day, etc.  And that does not even account for the distractions one can find being on the computer.  You can loose a lot of precious creative time looking for one thing on the internet, and then getting distracted by another site such as social media sites.  I know this happens for me.  I am sure it happens for you.

One way I have found to deal with this on going issue came from a business support group I belong to.  The facilitator, Richard Burroughs, suggests using 3 notebooks or clipboards to sort out your priorities for the day, week and into the future.

Every morning, I write down what it is that needs to be done that day on my daily clipboard.  And this may seem silly, but I carry it along with me as I change the location of where I am working within my house.  I have an office/studio where I do my packing and shipping, but I also like to work in my living room, with my dog sitting right by my side.  He likes it too.  The best part about having my "to dos" written down is drawing a line through the task as it is finished.  It gives me a sense of accomplishment and helps me feel like I am moving forward in my business.

This is our dog Jack, a mini schnauzer, glued to my side as I work on my couch.  This is a common occurrence in my house.

Some might say using a clip board or notebook and actually writing is a bit "old school."  If it works better for you to use a computer and create the same idea with files, use that.  Whatever works for you is what is best here.

The second clipboard I keep is reminders of what I want to need to get done for the week.  And the third one is my "needs to be done sometime in the future" clipboard such as thorough cleaning and rearranging of my studio, items I need to SALE or donate, etc.

I can honestly tell you that this has helped me enormously staying focused and on task in my business.   If you are having a lack of focus during your work day, you might try the 3 clipboard idea and see if it can work for you too.