How to have laser sharp focus Non-Laser-Like Introduction To introduce these ten tops tips, I’m going to start with a story. You can skip this page if you like, but it would be great great if you would bear with me. me. There is a point to it!
During Bank Holiday August 2013, during one of my formal duvet days (you can read about these in my blog), I discovered my life purpose. It’s not often that one finds one’s life purpose whilst lying under a quilt, but there you go. I read a lot that weekend and also used some personal development including half of Steve Olscher’s ‘What is your What’ series. I only got to halfway through the videos before the constant product placement finally made me switch off, but it was enough to make me realise that the empowerment of women and girls’ was my life’s purpose. In particular, I decided that I wanted to do something about Female Genital Genital Mutilation, a practice that must end - the world over - as soon as possible. I decided that weekend that in order to do something about it, I had to improve my engagement with relevant organisations and campaigners on social media. At the time, I had roughly 200 Twitter followers followers and hadn’t engaged very well with them. So I set to work. But then, one day in late October 2013, I tried to get out of bed and promptly promptly fell backwards. I tried again and fell on the floor. I knew immediately what it was. It was a recurrence recurrence of Benign Paroxysmal Positional Positional Vertigo. I’d suffered with with it for two weeks weeks in June 2013. The symptoms of this were to last almost eight months and and I still have the odd dizzy spell. It means that my energy is reduced, I am nauseous, need to use Voice Recognition or wear sunglasses to type. And yet, since January 2013, 2013, I set up a brand new business business with my business partners, partners, Vivienne, Jean and Bernadette; have created many products products and services; and supported an an asylum seeker and her two daughters, who she feared were at risk of forcible FGM. I started a petition that gained over 127,000 signatures and have h ave since raised over £10,000 to support the family while they get on their feet and to cover legal costs back in the UK.
At first alone, and then with help from Jean, I spent many hours outside outside of work compiling legal evidence and speaking to support organisations organisations and legal representatives. representatives. The campaign generated national and international media interest and attention f rom Ministers and celebrities. We’ve also just published a report on the scale of the impact of FGM in Leeds – again, in our own time. I’ve still had time to meditate and exercise every day, day, as well as see family and friends. At times, I have felt a little tired, but everything I’ve set out to do has been achieved. The others often joke that I have have a magic ability to expand time and that I’m just just not telling them how to do do it. I wish I did, but I don’t. The thing is, people often moan that they don’t have enough time. They do, they’re just not using it wisely. wisely. We all have have 24 hours in the day. That’s roughly eight hours for working or studying; eight hours for leisure, learning, recreation; recreation; and eight hours for sleep. Oprah Winfrey, Stephen Hawking, Stephen Fry, Brené Brown, even Beyoncé (just some of the people I admire), all have 24 hours in a day to achieve whatever it is they want to do. So how can you make the most of your time?
How to have laser sharp focus Let’s start with the practical ways. Here are some that work for me, but feel free to use the principles to find a strategies that work for you. Lesson 1: Have a ‘Today’ list
People love lists. I know people that write endless lists and take great satisfaction in ticking things off. But lists can be off- putting if they’re too long. Make your list about what you want to do – today. If you break things down into daily priorities, the next step becomes much easier to implement. Lesson 2: Break your tasks (and breaks) into blocks of time.
Personally, I break my morning and them my afternoon down into blocks of 15 minutes of time. I don’t have a stopwatch. This habit has become so
ingrained that I do it automatically. For example, I know that writing two emails or making a call might take me one block of time; writing an article is likely to take me two blocks; lunch with a friend will take five to six blocks of time out of my day. I have some blocks for contingency and ‘meh’ moments, but mostly I don’t need to use them. Which means that I free myself up quicker. Speaking of which…
Lesson Three: Swallow your frogs You may have heard this term before. If you’re a visual person like me, you
can almost see yourself swallowing frog-shaped tasks! Frog-shaped tasks?! You know, the tasks that make you screw your face up, such as logging y our expenses or making a difficult phone call. The kind of task you’d do anything
to avoid. Just do it already! Linked to this is the next piece of advice that works well for me. Lesson 4: Don’t let tasks cross your desk more than once
This one is pretty simple. You might not have time to reply to an email or return a call the same day, but do it within 24 hours. Keeping your desk clear, organising your email system into folders and using your email flagging system and calendars makes much life easier. If you don’t organise yourself, it’s likely you will forget or the task will slip down the pile, adding itself to tomorrow’s ‘Today’ list.
The other upside of this is that you get brownie points for being respectful and a good communicator!
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Lesson 5: Write I’m keeping this one loose as it means different things to different people. Some like to set
themselves goals or affirmations. Personally, I like to journal. I also commit myself to things publicly, either in my blogs or on social media. Seeing something in black and white and referring back to it (especially if others are asking you about it), makes you determined to bring things to fruition. Lesson 6: Be intent
Focus on your goals. If you truly want to be smarter and more focussed, you need to read around your subject matter and keep your eyes and ears open. While Twitter, LinkedIn, Google and online news streams can be tailored to send you relevant content, it can also be a lot of ‘noise.’ Taking the time to read books and articles by people who have gone on, at times, difficult journeys, are not only inspiring, but also give you ideas for ways in which you too can do things differently. They can give you focus. There have been three game -changing books for me that transformed the way I do things and as a result have turned my life around. Also listen – intently. If someone is sharing information with you, either face to face or online, stop fiddling with your phone/watch/jewellery, turn off the TV or radio and listen. It’s through this focus that you can really
take in the information that just might change your way of thinking. Lesson 7: Work smart, not hard – automate There are so many apps and tools out there to make our life easier. If you’re forgetful, or simply very busy, keep your calendar updated and make sure you sync it.
Most of us have smartphones these day, so make sure you connect it to your online calendars and set yourself reminders well in advance if you need them. There is little excuse to forget great -aunt Mary’s birthday! The same goes for social media. There are a whole host of products out there to streamline your activity. I manage all our business social media and my own personal accounts. Platforms like Tweetdeck mean I don’t have to log in and out of multiple accounts, they’re all in one place. I can also schedule tweets so that I don’t miss online events such as #CharityHour when I’m out doing other things.
I use Paper.li to create our online newsletter. It generates content automatically and posts the newsletter to our linked Twitter account, so I don’t need to worry about that either. That leaves me more time to…
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Lesson 8: Take Time Out –Do Things that bring you Joy
This might sound counter- intuitive, but it’s vital. In order to be truly creative and productive, we have to get away from our routines, even if it’s only for 30 minutes. Take a walk, have a
coffee with friends or family, skip, play with kids, draw. Anything that floats your boat! I love to walk every day. While I walk, my brain turns over things that have been on my mind and I come back feeling energised and full of ideas. I also practice yoga daily. It makes me feel so grounded. Another thing that brings me joy is spending time with my youngest nephews. Lego, colouring in, jumping around: it’s
all good! Children laugh much more than adults and laughter is good for us, so allow your inner child to have fun! Sometimes though, my body tells me to slow down. The next lesson is one I’m slowly getting better at... Lesson 9: Rest In Martin Bjergegaard’s book, ‘Winning without Losing: 66 strategies for succeeding in business while living a happy and balanced life,” he
summarises insights from top global entrepreneurs on how they run multi-national companies and yet still achieve life balance. One of the strategies he recommends is ‘riding the wave.’ Riding the wave of energy resonated with me. I’ve learnt to harness my energy when it is at its peak and not to force things when I’m tired. I either undertake simple tasks that don’t need much brain power and arrange my day accordingly, or I give myself a bit of time off and catch up when I’m feeling more productive. This has been one of the most useful things I have learnt and I feel much sharper and focused for it. But we also need to get a good night’s sleep. There has been much research into this. Most has concluded that roughly 6-8 hours is optimal, although more recent studies have pointed towards shorter, more frequent spells of sleep. We’re all different, but you should know that it is when you are in deep REM sleep, when your brain is on the Delta wavelength, that the amazing stuff start to happen. You can also simulate the benefits while you’re awake, which brings me on to the next lesson. It is the single most effective practice that I’ve implemented into my life.
Even the mega-busy Oprah does this twice a day for twenty minutes. In fact, it’s precisely when you feel the most busy, blocked or unfocussed that you should stop and follow this next piece of advice... 4
Lesson 10: Meditate
A fairly recent convert (since reading all the science behind it, rather than being taken in by those ‘tree hugger types’), I wish I’d started this daily practice sooner. I’ve written a number of articles about this subject and many other people (people much cleverer than I) have written books and scientific articles on the benefits of meditation.
Meditation builds your brain - it grows the frontal cortex, which leads to clearer, faster and more intuitive thinking. It can lessen some medical conditions; and can increase life expectancy – by years! I sleep much better too. In Lesson 7, I talked about automation. To me, meditation is another way of working smarter. Our conscious brain processes 40 bits of information per second. Sounds a lot, doesn’t it? However, our sub-conscious brain, even by conservative estimates, processes around 20 million bits of information per second. A leading brain specialist recently put the figure at 40 million bits of information per second. Whoa!!
Either way, if I’m going to let a part of my brain do the thinking, I trust the supercomputer that is
my subconscious brain, rather than the old desktop PC that is my conscious brain! There are numerous free meditation tunes and brain entrainment audios on YouTube or on apps like Headspace. Find the ones that you enjoy and start discovering the true power of your own mind. You have everything to gain, even by meditating as little as 12 minutes per day. And so there we have them —my top ten tips on achieving laser-sharp focus. I hope you enjoyed them! The team and I will continue to publish articles on wellbeing and resilience and would love to hear from you if there is a particular topic that you’d like us to cover. Anj
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