Choosing what to focus on can sometimes be difficult. Loving what you do always helps as you are more likely to focus on that but even within that there are tasks you may ‘have’ to do that you don’t enjoy as much – after all who enjoys doing their tax return?! Can you get the less appealing tasks done in small blocks of time each day or sandwich it between some ‘fun’ tasks but the main thing is to set aside time to get it done and try to do it sooner when you have decided you need to so it doesn’t distract you from other tasks you need to focus on.
Other things you could consider when deciding what to focus are:
- What to do with regular tasks, ie those weekly, monthly or annual tasks; you could keep these on a separate list or add them automatically to your diary
- If your head has a to do list constantly running through it – write down everything that is on your mind and then start sorting it into what needs to get done. Add to it as more ideas come to you and then prioritise them.
- Don’t be afraid to reprioritise or remove things that are no longer important.
- When you do give yourself a deadline, make sure it’s reasonable, don’t push the impossible on yourself (you wouldn’t do that to someone else!).
I recently attended a course which included a useful way to choose what to do next around your energy, i.e. you have a list of what to do but rather than finding yourself ‘stuck’ in front of your computer screen as you are struggling to do the task you have decided to do you do the task that fits in with your energy at that moment and then you are achieving. Once you have got into ‘flow’ you may then find the original task of the day easier to get into. It also gives a way to see where your time is spent from the doing, personal, development and self-care. I am enjoying doing it so far with my plans for each week and I will update at a later date on how I am getting on.