From time to time, people ask me how I have gotten around to writing four books considering my life, before now, was about being a full-time worker, full-time dad. (Yes, that’s a job too!), performing musician, martial artist and consultants for businesses and Start-Ups.
It’s a bit simple, actually.
Fact: Everyone does a bit of multi-tasking, doing several things at the same time. It kinda happens when you decide to stop scrounging off your parents, grow up - and start footing the bills. So, many women are workers, wives, mothers, juggling PowerPoint slides with bedtime stories, fixing meals and scheduling time out with the ladies.
The real challenge, many times, is low-level multi-tasking where you spend valuable time chasing other “amazing” things.
For example, you decide you want to finally get your eCommerce fashion site off the ground. It’s your passion and you’ve found a profitable niche. So out comes your laptop, you start to put together a quick to-do list…
And you get a notification on Whatsapp Web, which contains amazing information you simply have to check. Of course, you’ll get back to your list, you say. Problem is the Whatsapp message from your friend has a link to a Fashion site doing deals on some nice clothes. Well, it’s additional “research”, you say. Somehow, you’ve forgotten your objective was the to-do list; you're now chasing other “amazing” things.
Here another way this can also play out.
You start to work on your to-do list for your eCommerce site, which is great, but hear people are “making a killing” in Forex and decide to “diversify your portfolio”. So you make another to-do list for what you need for home-based forex trading. Right in the middle of compiling your new Forex Business to-do list, you have a lightbulb moment; it might make sense to have a blog to get some traffic, which could give you ad revenue, which you could use to pay for your forex software!
Yay! It’s just that now, you are in the middle of three to-do lists for an eCommerce site,
Forex Trading and a Blog. Also, the fact is that you have not actually started working on any.
You’ve been chasing “Other Amazing Things”, which are actually shiny distractions from your objective - and getting nowhere.
So how do you manage this?
1. Do only ONE:
For example, you can think through several businesses as part of “Research” - but as ONE activity. However, the only thing you want to be doing at the time is Research. No Whatsapp!
2. Do only ONE thing with FULL attention:
If you decide to work on a business or website or blog, work it for a few months - till you see fruit or decide to abandon it. Don’t start a side hustle to your side hustle. You’ll waste precious time and will not achieve much.
3. Remove clutter:
Switch off your phone if you need focus. Close those extra tabs you don’t need. Turn off the TV. Get some alone time.
4. Celebrate milestones:
Milestones show that you’re making progress. Celebrate them. That celebration is a break from the pressure of giving it your all - and motivates your brain to try to achieve more, so you can celebrate again.
By J.C. Nova. Enjoyed this post? Like and SHARE!