HOW TO STAY FOCUSED WHEN YOU ARE REALLY BUSY

TAME YOUR BRAIN

If you're having a hard time focusing and getting enough accomplished at the end of the week, month, and even year, it could be that you haven't tamed your brain.

How do you tell if you're one of those who have an untamed brain?

Simple, ask yourself how much you have accomplished over the last seven days, how about over the last month, the last year?

If you're always busy, so much so that there's less and less time for recreation (and we all need some of that) then you have slipped into the habit of letting your brain take over your life without conscious input.

Here's what I mean. Your brain has so many brain cells (how many, you ask? Take the total number of people in the world, and multiply that by 168. Yep, 168. Makes you want to go ask for a raise, doesn't it?) Anyway, you have a staggering amount of these little guys. And their ability to form multiple connections with other brain cells and create new thoughts means that you have an infinite capacity for thought.

That's right. Think all the thoughts you want. Your brilliant brain will make more. You'll never have to go home from work early because you just had your last good idea. (Sorry for taking that excuse away, but ask your brain for more "get out of work early" lines, trust me, it will come up with a litany.)

Where can all this brilliance possibly go wrong? Again, simple. Without direction from your conscious mind, your brain goes on autopilot and pretty much follows whatever mildly interesting object catches its attention at the moment.

Case in point: Ever been straightening up your kitchen, find an item that belongs in the bedroom, noticed something on the TV as you walked by and then sat down to watch it? Maybe it wasn't even good TV, but it distracted you for 10, maybe 20 (or more?) minutes.

How about at work? You know you have a lot to do when you walk in the door, you sit down to dive into the overflowing in-basket, and suddenly, people start asking you questions. One by one, you solve their problems, but sadly, you're no closer to accomplishing your own agenda.

And that brings us to the final take home lesson. How specific you are about your agenda, how well you literally keep that list in front of you, and how well you (nicely, please) tell others that you will have 15 minutes as soon as you finish your project determines how much you will have to show for yourself over time.

Action step: Keep your own agenda written out and in front of you. Hold yourself accountable for getting you're "A" items done by checking them off as you do them. Make sure you're doing the most important "A" list item first. It doesn't count if you do a whole lot of low priority items just so you can get more checked off your list. Remember, the key is quality not quantity.

Until next time,

Crystal Jonas