Fambase names by Ethan Hein

With the busy lives we live, it is easy to lose your focus. I spend time in the morning thinking over the day to come. I write down 3 goals for the day. I do what I have on the list if it feels right. If I feel a lot of resistance, I try to determine what is behind the resistance.

Finding my way through my own emotions helps me to stay focused. My brand of procrastination takes the form of resistance when I am unsure of the direction I am going. So I have to especially vigilant when change is my direction.

I am in the space now of being unsure. Planning helps keep me centered and focused. I use the focus–then refocus–and finally review at the end of the day.

9 practical ways to help stay focused–written by Steve Martile:

Choose one or two objectives for the year

Create a daily ritual

Do the most important first

Give yourself daily quiet time

Trim the fat and eliminate the noise

Take care of yourself

Visualize daily

Complete everything you start

Develop your will power

Do You Have A Home Office?—by Lisa Hoover:

“One key to staying focused while working at home is to create a dedicated work space that you can turn your back on at the end of the day. While you may not have the space to set aside an entire room as an office, the kitchen table probably isn’t your best bet either. Try to find a nook somewhere that you can use exclusively for work and, more importantly, turn your back on at the end of the day so your unfinished tasks aren’t staring you in the face during your down time.”

18 Ways to Stay Focused at Work—by Dave Cheong:

1. Write out a daily task list and plan your day.
2. Allocate time slots colleagues can interrupt you.
3. Apply time boxing.
4. Setup filters in your email.
5. Do not send personal email in the morning.
6. Set your IM status.
7. Listen to the right types of music.
8. Use the headphones but leave the music off.
9. Fill up a water bottle.
10. Find the best time to do repetitive and boring tasks.
11. Bring your lunch and have it at your desk.
12. Don’t make long personal calls.
13. Clean up your desk.
14. Get a good chair.
15. Use shortcuts on your computer.
16. Close programs you’re not using.
17. Limit time on other sites not for work.
18. Change your mindset and make work fun.

How to Stay focused on Goals—by Colette French:

“Accomplishing goals can be a very challenging task considering all the daily responsibilities that people have. Yet it is something that people realize is very important and must be achieved in order to be a productive person. New goals are set yearly at the beginning of every new year in the form of New Years Resolutions, but many people have a difficult time following through on the new goals they’ve set. There are a few things that people can do to help them accomplish their goals.”

How to Stay Focused on Your Goals—by Wings for the Heart

“One of the biggest challenges of achieving our goals is being able to stay focused long enough to see results. Most of us feel excited and motivated when we first set our goals, and that feeling can carry us along for several days, or even weeks. But then, what happens? We begin to lose momentum. We get scattered, we procrastinate, we lose the fire that once fueled our dreams. And we stop working so hard for what we want, even if we still want it.”

“There can be many reasons for our waning interest, such as not seeing visible progress as quickly as we’d like, so we begin to feel that our efforts are a waste of time. Or we lose sight of what we were working so hard for. Or we feel confused about the steps we need to take to make our dream a reality.”

Carny by kevindooley

I believe that emotion is energy. So choosing to use your energy positively is a choice you can make any time of the day. Staying in your fear won’t help you in any way except to keep you from moving forward. So the first thing I ask myself when I am feeling fearful is, “What am I trying to avoid not completing?”

Procrastination is one of my favorite methods to stay in my fear and not move forward. I have had to put several action thoughts, prayers, and deeds into affect to change my old self into new and better action goals.

1.  I use the focus–refocus –then review action steps to plan my day.

2.  I always keep small legal pads at each place I use in the home and/or office. I work at home but have three work places. The variety gives me new scenery and different computers. A writer’s life is a solitary profession. Writers also have to be relentless about rewriting. I have found physically moving to another work space helps to help me find a new train of thought.

3.  After I have several ideas on several note pads, I do a “brain dump” of organizing for all the material I have notes. Sometimes I do a mind map (xmind) to see what is the direction I want to go in. I have been training my brain for 30 years how to be my servant instead of my master. I believe this is one of my life issues. I call my main lessons life lessons so that I can remember they will be with  me for life. Prior posts about what I call finding the observer mind:

How to Retrain Your Brain

We Feel What We Choose

Learning How to Reframe Our Thoughts

4. Writing down my goals or plans in a large, hardcover notebook that I have divided into 3 sections helps me to keep it simple. Then I use a red pen and circle my goals for the day. I may use a different colored marker for each day as I move through the week. But usually I have to move on to new topics.

5. For translating my goals and plans into action steps, I use clipboards. I learned clipboards from the Navy when I worked in Guantanamo Bay. I keep 5 clipboards focused on 5 different directions I may or may not be following. If something loses favor with the direction I want to go in, it is easy to discard that topic. I generally keep a clipboard free for home care and/or personal errands.

Some goal-setting links:

Goals are Dreams With a Deadline!

Living a Balanced Life

6. In the past few years, I have kept alphabetized white cover notebooks to keep all aspects of a topic I am researching. But, for now, I have so much material I no longer follow that smaller notebooks serve me better.

Goals are dreams with a deadline. Everything you want in life can be more quickly achieved with the use of goals. You maY want to write them down in a notebook and review them weekly. Your short-term goals should be connected to your long-term goals.

You may want to use an action board. This can be a large bulletin board (I use 22×34 and I have 4 of them). My bulletin boards also have copies of paintings, nature, and the ocean along with my goals.

You may use 3×5 cards on your bulletin board under 4-5 goal headings. Be sure to include the estimated deadline for each goal. You may use general headings: such as, goals-dreams-problems-solutions. You may choose to add post-it notes to your index cards. I use dressmakers’ pins which are long straight pins. I use these because they make smaller holes in my pictures and they work great on the bulletin. You may want to save the old index cards to watch your progress. By using multi-colored cards you can easily track your progress with a glance.

If you have the room, you may choose to cover the entire wall with corkboard to have a large area for your planning.

In a large office setting with meeting room capabilities for large groups, the walls may be lined with dry eraser boards to use for brain-storming sessions which may be a weekly event.

Remember to be specific with planned completion dates. Some sample goals may be:

• Personal development

Develop a support group of 3-5 people during the next month.

Join a volunteer group; for example. Teach someone to read by joining a literary group. 

Sign up for computer class at a local college. 

Arrange to take some tests that show your interests and/or abilities.

• Family development

Set aside one weekend per month to arrange special dates with your spouse.

Schedule separate quality time with each of your children.

• Spiritual growth

Set aside 15-20 minutes each day to practice meditation.

Choose a topic about spirituality and study everything about it.

Using a steno pad or similar notebook, find a topic for study in a concordance of the Bible or other spiritual literature and record the verses you find for the topic you’ve chosen. 

On 3×5 index cards, record valuable quotations for spiritual qualitites you want to work on. 

Marketing statement: in 25 words or less, define what you believe your work offers to the world.