Are You Conquered by Divided Attention?

Have you ever seen a parent with several children in a grocery store and really observed them? If not, take the time to do it. Notice how the parent’s attention is divided:

• Monitoring each child
• Checking the purchase list
• Reading labels
• Comparing value and prices
• Watching a purse or other possessions
• Watching for danger

Now if that parent was there alone, the stop might be a quick 20 minutes, but with all the other tasks included, a shopping trip can easily become an hour – or more.

Are you parenting your business?

Do you run your business like that parent with several children in a grocery store? Is your attention, and focus, split between so many different things that everything takes three times as much time? Or, worse, things never get finished before you are distracted and pulled into another project of “greater priority”?

You know what the next level of distracted attention brings to you, don’t you? Fires and water pistols. What I mean is that you find yourself trying to battle blazing fires built of problems equipped only with a water pistol. Spfft. Spfft. No, it doesn’t work – to put out the fire or to maintain and grow a business.

Studies have found that successful mutli-tasking is a myth and the most highly productive and successful people concentrate and focus on one thing at a time. Dividing attention does NOT save time.

Emulate this successful strategy. Pay attention and consciously focus on the priorities. Center your focus on completing a task or project all the way through to completion. Of course there will be interruptions, there always are. Take care of, or delegate, any interruption and then return to your purpose.

Dramatically improve the odds of business growth and superlative customer service when you couple purposeful focus with strategic planning. Determine what the five most important business and customer needs are and then sort them into order for completion. Then, start whittling down the list.

Be clear, be purposeful, be focused – and use your time well.

To Your Success,

B^{3 –} Be Bold, Brilliant and Boundless!