As entrepreneurs, it’s very easy for us to be caught in activities. Every single day, we’re caught up with our everyday tasks and deadlines. We’re confronted with multiple challenges and opportunities. Sadly along the way, some of us lose the most important thing… and that’s our focus. How do one become a focused entrepreneur.
Focus is about setting 100% of your energy to a single goal or objective. It’s about eyeing a singular goal and doing all means to achieve it without getting distracted.
Multiple Opportunities
As entrepreneurs, it’s totally realistic that we’re confronted with multiple distractions every day. The downside of this is that we lose focus on the things that really matter. You may have heard the quote that “millionaires have an average 7 income streams”. However, the majority of millionaires became millionaires because of a one or two revenue streams thus we need to become a focused entrepreneur.
A conflict arises when you have multiple streams or businesses. The problem is not the just initial time that it takes to be able to establish the business, but how much time it actually takes to maintain all of the different businesses or opportunities. Thus, we lose our focus. We need to become a focused entrepreneur.
Focusing on a Single Thing
The secret behind the success of multimillionaires is that they know how to focus on a single thing. Before moving on to the next project, they make sure that everything is all set and done for their recent project.
Why is it important to focus on a single thing rather than exerting too much effort on multiple things? Success only happens when you give 100% of your time and energy to a particular cause. When you have multiple projects, the tendency is that your time and energy will be divided into the different tasks you have.
The solution here is to dedicate 100% of your time and energy to a particular cause or activity before going to another. Multi-tasking is highly discouraged if you want to give your 100% never watch YouTube while doing a report!
The compound effect of a focused entrepreneur
Are you familiar with compounded interest? Focusing on a single thing and giving your 100% every day gives you a compounded success.
Later on, your success is not just a result of what you are doing today, but It’s a result of your daily efforts. In short, It's 100% of yesterday, last week, the month before and the year before and so success becomes exponential.
It requires this compound interest to create success in order to create enough momentum and reduce the friction that impedes progress, so you can actually create true success.
True success happens from real and ultimate focus. So, if you are the type of entrepreneur who is always following the trend or the next big idea, chances are you will not succeed.
Just remember to focus on your best strategy and give your 100%. When you give your 100% focus and energy, there will surely be an amazing opportunity to create abundance and freedom so that you can go and do all the other things that you want to later.
What to do if you are not a focused entrepreneur?
I know that losing your focus as an entrepreneur is easy and it’s hard to reboot. It’s easy to get distracted with multiple opportunities. However, I found the solution on how I can get my 100% focus.
Here are some of the tricks I use whenever I tend to lose focus:
#1 Set Priorities
The best trick for us to stay on focus is to list down all of our priorities before going to bed. List all of your errands or priorities for the next day. By doing so, you will avoid reacting to every distraction that comes up.
Early in the morning, review your task and figure out what task should you accomplish first. Remember to be concrete and specific while listing down your priorities.
#2 Work in a 60-minute block
It’s normal that our alertness drops whenever we’re performing tasks. As our alertness drops, we easily submit to distractions. What you can do is to set a timer and take a break every 60 minutes.
You can reset your focus by walking around, drinking coffee, going for a snack or just listening to music.
#3 Schedule Distractions
Distractions are totally not bad, but you need to control being distracted from time to time. The common distractions that we face as entrepreneurs are answering calls, emails, and questions from our workmates.
What you can do is to schedule all of these distractions. Set a specific time for you to answer these distractions.
#4 Meditate
Meditation is very effective in getting and setting your thoughts in place. This will help you keep your focus.
#5 Single Tasking
I consider this to be the most effective for me personally. Single-tasking is doing or focusing on only one single thing throughout the day. It’s the direct opposite of multitasking. If you are having lunch, just eat and do not read emails at the same time. While on a meeting, listen and cooperate and don’t play with your phone. Place the most important priority of you day at the top of your list and work through it until it’s done.
#6 Detach from the world
From time to time you need to unwind and de-stress. Schedule your vacation leave, go to the beach, lake, river, book a flight, turn off your phone and just enjoy the wonders of the world. As entrepreneurs, there are times that we feel burnt out from our day to day tasks. Thus, breaking your daily patter will surely help you recharge and when you get back you will be more focused.
#7 Use technology to your advantage
There are various applications that can help you increase your concentration. There is an application that tracks all your habits and daily activities. You can download productivity applications to boost your productivity so you can focus more.
If you feel you’ve lost your focus these past few days, take a break and try to implement the 7 tips I’ve shared.