The “U” in FOCUS stands for:

Use a planning tool

Dwight Eisenhower said, ” Plans are nothing, planning is everything.”

In other words, it’s not about what you are going to do, it’s about what you have planned to do.  So set up some type of planning tool.  There are many varieties to choose from: white boards, wall calendars, paper planners, pdas and smart phones just to name a few.   Use what works for you.

Set aside time each week to plan your schedule, not just your time sensitive appointments but time allotted for your projects, your family and, most of all, time for yourself.  Make sure to leave margins in your schedule too. These are gaps of time that allow for things like travel time, meetings that run late, and last minute errands. Remember we have already discovered that you can opt out of a few things…. To be productive also think in terms of time blocking.  This means using chunks of time for similar tasks.  For example:

1. Run all your errands on the same day instead of going one or two different places each day.
2. Set up a specific amount of time to spend checking email and being on the internet.
3. Make all your phone calls in one chunk of time, instead of spreading them throughout the day.

If you need help finding a planner or learning how to do weekly planning, I’m here to help!

The “C” in FOCUS stands for:

Curb your screen time

The screen time I am referring to can be two different things – the computer and/or the television. To improve your daily focus, decrease the amount of time you spend in front of those screens.  If you want to increase your productivity and accomplish more each day, you must be aware of how you spend your time.  Many of my clients have made comments like “the internet is a black hole”, “I get sucked in if I sit down and turn on the TV”, or “I am addicted to Facebook”.  I understand that at times we are so overwhelmed by our situations, that the screen can be a nice escape. But we must control our time and how much we sit in front of a screen has a direct correlation to how productive we are.

To manage your screen time you can:

1. Set boundaries and manage when and for how long you will be in front of the screen
2. Use a timer to remind you when you need to step away from the screen
3. Plan your day and use the screen time as a reward for getting important priorities out of the way first

We use recipes to cook food, GPS tools to map the routes to businesses, yet we don’t have a plan for our week! The most overused excuse is “If I had more time, I would….” I believe that if one wants some control over their 24 hour day, they must plan! Planning does not mean having to take the Franklin Covey course and hefting around a 5 inch binder or becoming tech savvy and purchasing an iPhone.

Planning your week does not need to be complicated. In fact, planning your week can be liberating! I like to call the time I use to plan my week a “Brain Dump”. I sit down on Sunday afternoons and write down every thought, idea, have to, want to, need to item that is flying around in my brain. This is similar to brainstorming. A free flow of information out of my head and onto paper. No time constraints set, no due dates established, just capturing the thoughts and actions first. I like to use categories as I do this exercise as a way of helping me keep my life balance in perspective. You can make up your own categories, I have listed mine just to give you food for thought:

1. Personal
2. Family
3. Friends
4. Speaking
5. Business
6. Marketing
7. Networking
8. Service

Once I have written down everything I can think of for each of these categories, I then take a look at my scheduled appointments and commitments I have already made for the upcoming week. I would then write down any other timed commitments that need to be made as a result of my brain dumping exercise. What’s left? Essentially a task or to-do list.

Again, looking at my calendar, I begin to assign a day to the remaining tasks. The date assignment depends on several things: proximity to a needed location (running an errand for example), availability of non-appointment times (in which to complete the task), and the level of urgency or importance. Taking these factors into consideration I begin to funnel the tasks into each day of the week. One day may be heavy with tasks because I have few scheduled appointments, another day may have less tasks because I am busy with appointments.

In the end, the important things to remember is to plan your week, every week at the same time each week. I plan on Sunday afternoons, but you may want to plan on Friday mornings. This exercise works with a Franklin planner, a Daytimer, Outlook, a PDA or an iPhone. How you choose to capture the data is up to you, the point is to capture it and plan it out weekly!