There will be always be a life event that will make humans lose their focus at one point.
Take for example, not so long ago, the whole world were forced to stay home. For the most part, we had to adapt to new technologies to sustain our businesses. And in the span of things, we found ourselves in unfamiliar territory for having to lead a different and restrictive lifestyle.
In my case back during the pandemic, a lockdown for months renewed my creative spirit that led me to start this blog. My full attention at one time was setting up the website and writing as much as I can before the chance to go back to my real estate work.
But once the new normal set in, I had to win back this focus but onto helping clients buy and sell residential properties. Consequently, I had not been able to keep up with my writing.
It became a lot easier to come up with excuses such as,
“I need to give my job my full attention and effort if I want a good shot of making a sale in a slow market”.
…which then caused the notion that,
“The writing can wait, I don’t have the time and besides, I don’t that many readers yet anyway.”
Ahh!
Is that justifiable? Or was it simply a sorry excuse for me to not follow through?
Awareness is key.
Looking back, I could now see why I lost my focus on writing.
Thanks to some people who probed my lack of new content, I was forced to confront myself and examine which bad habit I allowed into my life. I then realized, it was because I was not being in control of how and why I spend my time.
Instead, certain activities took away hours of when I could have been more productive. To give you a better picture, some of these are the following:
- Netflix
- YouTube
- Instagram/Facebook
- Drinking (alcohol)
- Online shopping
Have you noticed how the majority of it makes up digital consumption?
Ughh.
Subconsciously, I had stepped back from being the creator to being the consumer. Without meaning to, I became part of a statistic that measured that the daily time spent consuming content had in fact doubled globally.
So one has to wonder, why do I do these activities? Well I would think then, it feels easier to be in passive mode especially during those days where the daily grind seems to drain us.
Without meaning to, I grew accustomed to certain activities, such as binge-watching, that left me feeling high. The distraction becomes a cycle because once the feeling subsides, I had to fill the void again.
Escapism can be in healthy form.
Indeed, life is getting more challenging. With constant demands of work and familial responsibilities, it’s natural for us to find outlets where we can release some of the stress and anxiety in order to win back our focus.
It’s not a bad thing to want to escape and divert your mind to relieve yourself of the unpleasant reality. When you step away from your emotions when you’re feeling overwhelmed, it gives you the chance to come back to it with a fresh mind.
So for us to maintain mental and emotional stability, we can allow ourselves to indulge in conscious escapism.
Consciously chosen escapism is actually healthy especially when it’s progressive and can contribute to your own personal growth. Some great examples are:
- Sports (exercise)
- Reading (self-education)
- Travel
- Meditation
Of course, it’s not to say that consumption of digital media and entertainment is an unhealthy form of refueling.
But since we now live in a digital age, the stream of new information and content has become integrated into us on a daily basis that escaping onto it is basically indulging in excess which is NOT a good thing.
Tips to Regain Your Focus
As a working professional or business owner, we tend to jump from one task to the next. Distractions are constantly looming around us that if we are not mindful, we could easily lose our focus. So to help us cope, remember these ways and try each of them every time you want to win back your focus:
1. Remind yourself of your why.
When you start to lose focus on your goal, it might mean that you’re not constantly driven by your why. Therefore, knowing why we do what we do is critical for us to keep going.
When we are reminded of our purpose, we suddenly get a boost of positivity and motivation. This eradicates the self-doubt that commonly arises whenever we are faced with setbacks and hurdles.
2. Make a list of your priorities.
In theory, multitasking may seem like it will get you closer to achieving your goals. But the opposite can be true as it usually results in rushing through tasks half-heartedly.
Instead, know first your priorities, break them into smaller tasks and schedule them accordingly. Doing things one at a time without getting distracted by what’s coming up gives you a better chance of focusing on the task at hand and reduce stress-buildup.
3. Stop the bad habits. Seriously.
Take account of all the bad habits that are affecting your productivity and initiate a plan on how to tackle each one of them.
If you want to win back your focus, then you need to be a creator of good habits. Take for example, you want to start your each from 6AM. First, gradually lessen the activities you do each night until you develop the pattern of sleeping half an hour earlier. By doing this consistently, you’ll be able to wake up earlier everyday by at least half an hour as well until you reach your desire goal of waking up before 6AM.
Now granted some habits are harder to break than the others. In this case, you most likely need to go cold turkey. For instance, you can say goodbye to your Netflix subscription by cancelling it out immediately and erasing your browsing history if you find yourself becoming too dependent on it.
Binge watching is like a drug. If it has started to replace your regular activities, going cold turkey can be a quick yet effective way to cut a budding addiction.
4. Clear your desk of clutter.
Our brains like order, therefore, being visually reminded of disorganization can reduce our ability to focus.
To keep your environment clutter-free, regular tidying is essential during the whole day. The key word being regular because tidying and organizing is not something we should do only once or twice a week. Rather, decluttering should be part of our daily habits much like brushing our teeth.
To win back some of your focus thru tidying, allot a designated space for each item and activity to give you cues of when to put something back or start to do something.
Also, avoid piling up things and papers by storing them away neatly where you won’t easily spot them so as to not trigger anxiety. The same concept also applies to cleaning up your digital files: avoid keeping items that no longer serve a purpose. If you haven’t already made space for the good things that are coming your way, now would be the best time to do so.
5. Engage in self-learning.
Knowledge is power and having power means having complete control of your life. Knowledge helps us overcome our weaknesses and faults and guide us in the direction of advancement towards our life goals.
To illustrate this point, look at how the world has evolved. Everywhere we look there is constant innovation. So instead of being stuck in your comfort zone, embrace change.
Learn new things and discover the many tools available for you to use whenever you need to win back your focus. Take online courses, listen to podcasts, read a book—you have endless resources at your disposal to learn your way to success.
While awareness may be the key to win back your focus, taking control of your time and energy is ultimately what you need to sustain it.
Remember the saying, out with the old, in with the new. If you want to have extraordinary years ahead of you, you need to give up certain patterns that make up the ‘normal’ life.
READ MORE: 10 Highly Recommended Books to Help Real Estate Agents Level Up
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