Smart Living Rule 4 – Focus Your Thoughts and Actions
Are you focused on what counts in your life?
You must focus your effort like a laser to accomplish great things. A determined mind is hard to stop. Those that commit themselves to a particular goal and then pursue it with persistence and perseverance are the ones that realize their dreams!
A mind and a life that is cluttered and scattered rarely completes anything. The effort is too diluted to make real progress toward goals.
Smart living requires one to focus your thoughts and actions. You must determine your priorities, make a firm commitment and pursue single-minded action to win!
Smart living is about determining the right priorities
What really matters to you? What one thing would make the most difference in your life if you finished it? What is the next step you need to take toward your most significant goal? These are a few of the questions you need to start thinking about to determine your priorities.
You have to narrow things down so you can focus your effort. Concentrating on what is most important in your life is the fastest way to move ahead.
The problem is that we usually fail to discriminate between our priorities. We give taking out the trash the same attention that we give creating a personal finance budget.
You may chuckle, but in reality we may actually give the trash higher priority. Think about it. Don’t we procrastinate and delay forever on setting up a budget? However, I bet the trash gets to the curb every week! Which one has a higher priority?
This is my point! You have to make a choice and consciously select your priorities. It is an essential step in smart living.
Make a firm commitment to start smart living
Once you decide on your one next most important thing to do, then you need to make a firm commitment to accomplish it. Give yourself a deadline and share it with someone that will hold you accountable. Your spouse is usually a great choice!
Back yourself into a corner! Make it extremely difficult to weasel out of doing what you decided needed to be done.
In fact, I’d challenge you to set a very short deadline to accomplish your goal. This will force you to really focus your attention and energy. You will have to push all the little distractions aside in order to get this important thing done. Perfect!
A mind and life focused on the right thing and determined to accomplish it is like a locomotive barreling down the track. It takes a lot to stop it!
Pursue smart living with single-minded action
If it isn’t obvious, I do NOT think multitasking works! I believe to maximize your effectiveness, which is a part of smart living, that you have to pursue single-minded action!
The effectiveness of multitasking is a myth that will leave you exhausted and weary from such slow progress toward your goals! You need the clarity and single-mindedness that comes from concentrated effort on the one priority you identified above.
Focused action will deliver results quickly. This is why I’m a big believer in focused action and why I include it as a part of smart living.
Move everything else aside at least for a period of time each day and you’ll be amazed at how fast your life moves toward your dream!
Assignment: Focus your thoughts and actions for smart living
As you probably know by now, I am handing out assignments as we progress through the rules for smart living.
So, here’s what I suggest for getting focused:
1. Understand that I’m not the only one that encourages focus
I’m not a productivity guru. I use several techniques in my life to be more effective, but I don’t really write much about it. Therefore, I’m suggesting you read some articles by a couple of other guys that I respect and that I think have this topic nailed.
Here are three articles on gaining focus that I highly recommend:
- Big Rocks First: Double Your Productivity This Week
- Using Applied Focus Sessions to Boost Productivity
- 10 Ways to Use Laser Sharp Focus to Get More Done
See, I’m not the only one that believes getting focused really works!
2. Set your priorities, make a commitment and take action
Okay, now it is time to really apply what we’ve talked about. This is where the rubber meets the road. Use these steps to get going!
- Pick a priority – Make a list of all that you have going on in your life. List things from work and home. Dump as much as possible onto the paper to clear it our of your head. Now read back through the list and circle the ones that are most important. Okay, pick one. Yes, just one. This is your top priority.
- Make a commitment – Resolve to accomplish your one priority. Set a definite deadline for yourself. Write it down. Tell your spouse or someone else that will not be shy about holding you accountable. Refer back to your written commitment often to keep you on track and don’t start avoiding your spouse!
- Take action – Write down the one very next small task that you need to do to start making progress toward your priority. It could be as simple as making a phone call. Do it right now! Don’t delay! Procrastination will creep in if you do. Get this first task out of the way so you can feel good about yourself and establish some momentum. Now go back to your list and write down your next three tasks. Keep going!
If you’ve completed these assignments, then you are well on your way to focused achievement! Congratulations! You will get more things done in a day than most people accomplish in a week!
Your focused thoughts and actions will lead you to smart living!
“Good is the enemy of great.”
~ Jim Collins, Author of Good to Great
Getting focused is so important in our busy, noisy world. We have to get some of the good things off our plate in order to focus on the great things that we really want and need to do to live life to the fullest. This is smart living!
Follow this link to discover all the rules for Smart Living.
Photo by helgabj
GREAT post multitasking is myth. You thoughts are all powerful and create reality and can do anything. The only way to get anywhere is to focus them like a laser and burn away everything that stands in your way
Faramarz – Anxious Candy´s last blog ..How To Build A ‘Branded’ Business – Part 3
I agree that focusing thoughts and attention is a great way for smart living. So many great ideas in this post… Can’t wait to apply them!
Positively Present´s last blog ..how to diversify your life portfolio
Hi Jeff, great article. Thanks for the “Applied Focus Sessions” link. Using this technique has really opened my eyes to how easily we get distracted and how that causes our efforts to become diluted. My productivity increases in direct proportion to my use of applied focus sessions, but so does my ability to tune in to other people and activities. I would encourage anyone looking real results to give it a try.
Jonathan – Advanced Life Skills´s last blog ..What Remains When the Newness Wears Off?
@Faramarz – Focused thoughts really can create reality.
@ Positively – Applying these concepts really is where the rubber meets the road. I hope everyone is able to take this and make it work for them.
@Jonathan – I love your applied focus session technique! It really works! Hopefully, more people will learn it use it to increase their effectiveness!
Thanks so much for your comments!
So simple yet so easily and often forgotten tips Jeff.
Thanks for this post. I can sometimes get trapped in situations where my priorities need realigned and this will be one I come back to in order to put my thoughts in drive.
Thanks again!
Jake
Good post! I absolutely agree that multitasking doesn’t work in one’s favour. I always have many different projects going and there is usually more new stuff coming in than I can work through. When I get too caught up in all the things that need doing and try to do everything at once, that’s when I get absolutely nothing done and feel terrible at the end of the day. I always have to remind myself to work on one thing and one thing only and that’s how I can get stuff done. Even though I’ve experienced this often enough by now, I still need to be reminded of it again and again.
Shane´s last blog ..The Slump: A Crucial Factor to Building New Habits