It’s All About Focus

I read an interesting article the other day which claims in its title that “Hard Work Is Dead”. The author goes on to make his case by saying there are many more distractions today than before and those distractions cause people to be less productive than ever.

While I can relate to the difficulty of ignoring the various distractions, I disagree with the idea that it’s any different now than it always has been. There have always been people who are constantly busy, raising great clouds of figurative dust, who never seem to get anything accomplished.

The problem isn’t that there are more distractions. My 20-something nieces and nephew can watch TV, check their email, instant message, talk on the phone and do what seems like a dozen other things simultaneously. They’ve grown up multi-tasking.

If I want to get something done right, I have to concentrate on it. I can’t do several things at once and do any of them proper justice. My nieces aren’t smarter than I am, they’re just used to doing things that way.

All that said, they have the same problem everyone else does when it comes to being truly productive. Being productive isn’t about how many things you’re doing. It’s about the things you’re getting done and their relative importance.

Getting a whole bunch of things done doesn’t mean much if they’re not things that are important to your ultimate goal or vision. That’s where priorities come in.

The secret to being productive is to make a list of the things you need to get done, then prioritize them! That’s it. No magic, no esoteric rituals, no smoke and mirrors. Just make a list and decide which things on the list are the most important.

So, how do you decide which are the most important items? Again, no rocket science involved. The most important items are the ones that will get you closer to where you want to be. In other words, the items that move you toward your goal are the most important.

You can usually determine quickly which is the one most important thing you have to get done on any given day. Then, work down the list from there and decide the second most important, third most important and so on.

The reason you do that is so that you don’t have to repeat the exercise every time you get the top item done. Spend 15 minutes or so at the start of each day making your list and prioritizing it. Then, work on the number one item until it’s done, or until you’re not able to make progress on it any more for whatever reason.

The key is to focus on that top item and don’t do anything else less important until it’s done. When it’s done, cross it off the list and move on to the second item. Don’t do anything less important until that’s done. And so on down the list.

If you can focus on the most important items on your list, at the end of the day you’ll have accomplished (or at least made progress on) one or more of the most important things you needed to get done to reach your goal. Make this a habit and you will be very pleasantly surprised at the progress you’ll make toward your goals.

None of this is new, but it’s surprising how few people actually do it. It’s easier to let your life be driven by whatever’s going on around you. In the computer biz we call that “interrupt-driven.” In other words, you’re giving up control of your life to everybody else connected with you in any way.

I’m just as guilty of this as anyone, so I understand the problem. It simply takes the discipline to keep bringing your focus back to the most important task whenever it’s pulled in another direction. And the understanding that it’s not “their” fault if you’re not accomplishing your goals. If they’re distracting you it’s because you’re allowing it.

The question is: how important is it to you to reach the goals you’ve set? I can tell you from experience, if it’s not important enough to teach yourself to focus, you’ll never get there.

Take a few minutes and identify the things that have become habits in your life. Then, decide whether they’re helping or hindering you on your path to your goals. Get rid of the ones that aren’t contributing toward your progress and prioritize the ones that are. Focus on the latter and you’ll make amazing progress!

John The Geek

Facebook Virus Turns Your Computer into a Zombie

PC World reports Facebook users are being targeted with a virus that takes over their PCs turning them into “zombies”. The virus is spread by means of messages sent through Facebook with titles intended to get the recipient to click on a link to a suggestive video. Clicking the link downloads a “Flash player update” which is actually the virus.

Facebook has posted instructions on how to get rid of the virus and change your Facebook password. As with most such “social engineering” virus scams, these are fairly easy to spot. I remember a series of emails with similar titles and links going around a couple of months ago.

Here’s the link to the PC World article for all the details:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/155017/facebook_virus_turns_your_computer_into_a_zombie.html

Be careful out there!

John The Geek