Spanish Translation Blog

Focus !!!

Ask yourself this question: Have you structured your life, environment so that you are more likely to accomplish your most important priorities?

For many of us, the answer is no. We start a day with great intentions. But then people start calling and emailing, asking and directing, and soon we can hardly remember what we wanted to focus on in the first place.

Our days begin to look like frenzied, attempts to get traction while making little headway. By the end of a week, we’ve forgotten what it was we were hoping to accomplish at the beginning of the week. And by the end the year, we are frustrated that we haven’t moved forward in our most important priorities.

The solution isn’t willing yourself to focus better. That won’t work. Discipline and self-control are unsustainable because in most of our environments there are too many distractions, too many things other people want us to do, too many opportunities and temptations that draw us away from lives that reflect our true values and priorities. It’s like committing to a diet while working at an ice-cream parlor.

We need to restructure our environments like cleaning our work space, computer, reduce noise, distractions, breaks etc. so we are more likely to move forward on our most important priorities and be able to focus.

Sit down with someone, your manager, a colleague, your partner and show them your to-do list and your calendar for the day. Tell them what you plan to accomplish and how it fits in with your plan for what you want to focus on for the year. Saying it out loud and having another person hear you and reflect back what they hear creates a deeper level of commitment and accountability.

Your success focusing on the things that matter most to you, will only happen in the long term when you create the environment that supports it.