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We are a year into remote work and just like many people I had to learn how to focus and get work done.
Have you ever had important things to do, but you couldn’t make yourself do them? Sometimes it’s simple procrastination, but that’s not the only explanation that applies when you’re resisting your work. We’ve all been there where you are just unable to do your job. There can be various things preventing you from taking action you know you should take.
Let’s get to the bottom of it.
This post is about how to focus and get work done.
Not so obvious reasons you are unable to focus and get work done:
- Your goals aren’t inspiring you. If you can’t get yourself to write for your blog, start your online business, or begin on a big project at home, perhaps your goals aren’t the right goals for you.
- When you have inspiring goals, motivation is much easier to generate them.
- You’re not clear on what you want to accomplish. It’s hard to get busy when you only have a vague idea of what you need to do and how you want to do it. Be crystal clear on your intention. We all know we have things to do. Are you sure of what needs to be done?
- Our brains don’t like confusion or ambiguity. We reject uncertainty, so clarify your task until you’re confident of what you need to do.
- Fear of failure. Fear of failure is one of the most significant and most common obstacles to getting work done. If you look ahead and see the disappointment in your future, it’s challenging to sit down and get busy.
- Consider, instead, what will happen if you succeed! Focus on this outcome.
- Your ability to focus is weak. We have too many distractions in our lives these days. Our lives are overly complicated as it is. Our ability to focus has atrophied.
- Practice focusing for short periods, and your ability to focus will improve quite quickly.
Very obvious reasons:
- Too many distractions. Get rid of as many of the distractions in your life as possible. What is a distraction? Anything you find yourself doing instead of what you should be doing.
- For instance, Your life is too complicated. Maybe you have too much going on in your life, and you lack the physical and emotional energy to do your work. Minimize your life and keep the essentials.
- You’re not getting enough sleep. Brains don’t function unless they get enough sleep. You won’t feel like doing challenging things if you’re tired. Experiment with your sleep routine until you find a way that works for you. Go to bed earlier if you need to.
- Your work environment isn’t supportive. For instance, the ideal work environment is well lit, comfortable, private, quiet, and has a pleasant view.
- It’s not easy to work if you’re in a hot room with poor lighting and sharing cramped quarters with the washer, dryer, and a pile of dirty clothes. Great work is easier to do in a great location.
- You don’t love what you do. Getting a lot of work done is especially difficult if you don’t like what you’re doing and how you are doing it. For example, you might love the idea of making a ton of money, but if you hate sales, it will always be extremely challenging to get yourself to make sales calls every day.
In Conclusion:
Many people think a lack of success is from a lack of information. In reality, most of us know what we need to do to make our lives much better, but we can’t get ourselves to do it.
Create the best possible environment for your work. Do work that you love to do. Give up your fear of failure. And learn how to focus. There will be times when you cannot do your work but don’t let that stop you.
A simple life with a clear focus is a great recipe for getting your work done and making real progress.
Click here to download my checklist if you look for more hacks regarding productivity and time management.
This post was about how to focus and get work done.
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