How Staying Focused Can Help You Stay Motivated

Everyone has times when they lack motivation. On the other hand, you may be so motivated and full of ideas that you lose your focus because you are trying to juggle too many tasks at once. The later is me. I’ve found that multi-tasking may do more harm than good. When your mind is divided by too many tasks, your productivity decreases. Here are some of my tips to help you stay focused and motivated on your business.

Choose a Niche/Specialty
Once you know what your niche market is, you will be able to focus on tasks that will help you with that particular market. Try to narrow your market as much as possible. See my previous blog on this topic.

Set Goals, and Write Them Down
When you set goals for your business, you are defining the direction in which you want to take your business. When you write them down, you are greatly increasing the odds that you will accomplish the goals you have set.

Create a Business Plan
When someone wants to start a brick and mortar business, they need to create a business plan and submit it to a bank to secure a loan. A business plan is a summary of how a business will be organized and a listing of activities that the owner needs to complete. My business plan is just for me to keep me on focus of what I want to accomplish in a given year.  My accountant and business coach loves to see this too. I share it with my husband as well so he can help me with staying to task. Creating a business plan for your Stampin’ Up! business will increase your chances of success.

Stay Away From Distractions
It is easy to lose track of time when reading email, blogs, and surfing the web. Set aside a block of time in the morning and evening to take care of email. Try to limit your internet during designated work hours for tasks specific to work, such as research. Wait until you are done with your work to read the celebrity gossip.

Prioritize Your Tasks
When you write out your to-do list, prioritizing your tasks will keep you working on what is important. Some items may need to be accomplished as soon as possible, while other things can wait a day or two. Take a colored highlighter and highlight the things that need to be done ASAP. When you look at your to-do list, your eyes will be drawn to the items that need the most attention. I create a to-do list every day.  I prioritize them by adding A1, A2, etc, to the ones that need to be done by the end of day. I use B1, B2, for items that need to be done in the next few days.

Outsource When Possible
As you look over your to-do list, do you notice items that can be handled by someone else? By delegating tasks to others, you will have more free time to work on things that require your attention. I offer class planning and newsletter creation services and I’ll be happy to help.