Author Peter Bregman explains how people can get focused in just 18 minutes.
Years ago there was an ad that went, “I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in the pan, and never let you forget you’re a man.” If you feel like the narrator, busy and being pulled in many directions, this post is for you.
In my post How Bloggers Can Focus, I explained how people have realistic plans at the start of a new year. Instead of a goal or a resolution, which are easy to abandon, focusing on just one word is a more realistic, less hastily abandoned, goal.
While that post explained how to focus, this post will explain how bloggers can stay focused. These ideas came from a recent blogging conference I attended, Rev Up Your Goals for 2015! Get Yourself Organized, Focused, and Make a Plan! Since I couldn’t bring my readers to the conference, I am bringing the instructions for how to stay focused and have a productive 2015 to my readers.
- Instruction 1: Figuratively put down your load. Set down your burdens. Melissa
Bloggers should set down a half-filled glass of water daily.
Reyes, the presenter, advises when bloggers return home, busy and burdened, they should fill half a glass with water, and set it down. In this way, you are physically doing something that will psychologically enable you to feel like your load is lighter. She explained since doing this, she no longer snaps at her family.
- Instruction 2: As explained in How Bloggers Can Focus, make a focus word and stick to it. Tell someone. If you verbalize your commitment, you will stay committed. To my delight, since publishing the post, many bloggers have written their focus word for 2015 in the comment section. I explained my word was “balance” since finding a happy medium between family and blogging is my goal.
Making your focus word enables you to prepare to meet your goals. Abraham Lincoln said that if he had an axe, he’d spend more time trying to sharpen it, than trying to chop down a tree.
- Instruction 3: List the areas in your life and make a mind map. A mind map is a cluster of ideas. For example, several areas in my life are work, family, and friends. I would cluster ideas around each of these priorities that are important for me to fulfill.
- Instruction 4: Make a vision board. Visualize yourself doing what you want to do in each important area of your life. Make positive statements such as “I will travel,” if that is one of your goals.
Fold a piece of paper into eight squares. Draw pictures of yourself meeting your goals in
The head of the SoCal Bloggers put her visions on a board to envision herself meeting them.
each of the squares. Your vision board can be as simple as stick figures on a piece of paper or more elaborate. Carolyn West, the head of the SoCal Lady Bloggers Group attended the conference. Her vision board is to the right. Melissa Reyes, the presenter, keeps her vision board on Pinterest. Here is the link to Melissa Reyes’s vision board.if you’d like to see it.
- Instruction 5: Make a “Stop Doing” List. In my posts 3 Easy Ways to Avoid Holiday Burnout and 17 Time-Saving Tips For People Who Are Rushed. I discussed the concept of prioritizing. According to Reyes, “Stress is a silent killer… Busyness makes us stop caring about the things we care about. If you’re going to care about your intentions, what you start doing is just as important as what you stop doing.” Activity does not necessarily equal achievement. By stopping your activities, you will have the time to create.
Some of Reyes’s ideas may seem contradictory to the ideas I shared in those posts. As she explained, meeting goals is about discovering what works for you.
- Instruction 6: Have an inner sweetheart and an inner critic. The inner critic gets to come out at the end of the year as you assess whether you met the goal your focus word was to bring you toward. Bring the inner sweetheart out often to encourage your efforts and keep you on the right track.
According to athlete Leon Brown, We betray our true selves when we do not follow the heart’s desire, for what the heart is attracted to, is your destiny. Do not feel guilty about trying to find the time to blog, or do whatever activity you are passionate about. Keep talking to your inner sweetheart.
You can read more of Melissa Reyes’s helpful tips by visiting her blog, http://MizMeliz.com.
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Readers, what causes the most stress to your schedule? What will you stop doing immediately?
