[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1548289356400{background-color: #bcbcbc !important;}”][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”4585″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1753491042355{padding-right: 19px !important;padding-left: 19px !important;}”]As business owners, a great vision and a plan of action is important but you must execute on that plan. Execution takes intense focus. Consider water at 60,000 psi can cut through two inches of steel. But that same, water un-focused will just splash around and create rust. You need intense focus like water at 60,000 psi to make significant improvements in your business success.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]
Chapter 7: Focus Means Power
Once you have a clear direction for your business and your personal life coupled with a plan of action to achieve the success you desire, you need to develop an intense focus on that plan of action. People often fail to consider the power of intense focus. Water at 60,000 pounds PSI can cut through two inches of steel, but that same water when unfocused will just splash on the steel and create rust. Intense focus is a necessary requirement for success.
Tim, the client I mentioned who was so distracted by social media as well as email and phone calls from his friends and family, was not aware of all the time he spent interacting with others. The reality is that he was distracted by other people’s agendas rather than being focused on his own. Even though he spent most of his day at the office, he was unproductive and accomplished little. Another client I interact with is also very distracted by social media. He leads an active social life and spends a great deal of his time reacting to incoming text messages, email, and other notifications that light up his cell phone. Perhaps not surprisingly, his employees have followed suit and they too are spending a great deal of time on social media and little on being productive.
The High Cost of Distraction
Every day in your business you are burning through cash and you do not even know where it is going! I can hear you now: I bet you think you are the exception. You know I have not looked at your numbers, so how dare I predict such waste? I dare because I have observed that constant distractions are impeding productivity yours, your staff’s, and your employees’. This is costing your business some serious money.
A recent study found that the time wasted as a result of constant distractions is costing the U.S. economy $997 billion every year, and 89 percent of employees do not complete their top three tasks each day due to distractions. Employees are wasting 759 hours each year due to workplace distractions. That equals 19 weeks almost five months every year! One study found that on average, workers check their email forty times a day, even when there has been no notification or email alert. These distractions are like kryptonite. They are killing your productivity, which has a direct effect on your profitability.
Studies show that every time we get distracted, it takes approximately 23 minutes to get refocused. To make matters worse, the average U.S. worker feels the pull of distraction every three minutes. You can change this negative pattern if you are willing to take charge of your time. Perhaps it is not time management that is your biggest issue these days, but self-management.
Most people that I run into underestimate the need to develop an unapologetic focus on their plan of action. You need to eliminate the distractions in your life that prevent you from achieving your success and take genuine action on your goals.
Determine Your High-Value Activities
What is the highest and best use of your time, energy, and money? I recommend really considering the question and writing your answers down. Now, remember that time, energy, and money are all limited resources. You only have so much energy, and each night, when the clock hits midnight, you are out of time. How can you focus on applying these assets to achieve the maximum results?
Many have heard of the 80/20 rule, which originated with the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto during the nineteenth century. He wrote a mathematical model for income distribution in Italy and found that 80 percent of the land was owned by 20 percent of the people. It turns out that the Pareto principle applies to just about everything in nature. The 80/20 rule demonstrates that a minority of inputs or effort, 20 percent, usually leads to 80 percent of the results. Pareto even found this to be true with his garden peas: 20 percent of his plants generated 80 percent of the harvest.
As you can see, the 20 percent is critical. What is the 20 percent of your time, energy, and money that will generate 80 percent of your results? You need to get intensely focused on this 20 percent it is one of the keys to your success.
By thinking about this 20 percent, you will begin to think more strategically about your business and elevate your focus, thinking, and actions to a higher level. Business as usual will not do it. Business as usual will not get you the kind of success you desire. You have to get focused on the important high-value activities, the 20 percent that delivers the greatest return of your investment of time, energy, and money. Determine what those activities are.
Without focus, people tend to become consumed with nonessential, low-priority activities, which causes them to get overwhelmed and then waste their time, talent, energy, and money on the wrong type of work. Determine what your 80 percent activities are. Write them down and stop doing them by eliminating them, automating them, handing them off, or outsourcing them. The idea is to create a Stop Doing list to remind you to stop wasting your time on low-value activities that are not the highest and best use of your time.
It is easy to get busy being busy and lose sight of what is most important. Then life becomes complex, cloudy, confusing, and stressful. You can combat that tendency by knowing your 20 percent and focusing your time and energy there.
Success Steps
- Eliminate distractions. Know what gets in your way. Do you need to turn off your phone? Silence your notifications? Delete social media from your phone?
- Find the 20 percent in your life, and write those things down.
- Read them every day, and focus on that 20 percent.
- Find your 80 percent activities and take steps to eliminate or hand off those low-value tasks.
- Create a Stop Doing list.
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It’s Not Hard, It’s Business
Fundamental Steps to help business owners learn what it takes to grow their business and increase their revenue.
As the former GM and COO of a $40 million company with seven locations I have learned what it takes to be successful in business. In this book, I share some keys to sustainable business growth and acceleration and the way to close the gap between your performance and your dreams.
You didn’t go into business to just get by, you got into it to succeed. Follow our series on the website and get your desktop reference copy from Amazon.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4271″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]
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