In order to succeed, regardless of the area, we need focus.
One of the biggest challenges to our focus is distraction. There are so many things competing for our attention–many of them good things.
Somehow we’ve all convinced ourselves that we can “multi-task”.
The problem is, our brains don’t work best that way.
For some things, sure. Multi-tasking works for those low-concentration/high-simplicity, “brainless” activities–I can fold the laundry while I talk on the phone about dinner plans.
But multi-tasking doesn’t work so well when the tasks on our lists that we’re trying to toggle back-and-forth between require greater concentration.
Even for those “mid-level concentration” tasks–combining them still doesn’t work so well.
Now, you may think “Hey, i’m really good at multi-tasking–what are you talking about?!”, but what many don’t realize is that they’re not nearly as effective as they could be.
If they focused on one thing at a time, their effectiveness would be even greater.
Of course, I don’t know your situation. You may be one of the exceptions. Fair enough.
For the rest of us, I’m appealing to the idea of Single-Target Focus.
That sounds like a ridiculous idea to some. You’re right, I’m not in your shoes. Maybe your survival on the job, for example, requires multi-tasking. Maybe you have such a mountain of things to get through in a relatively short period of time everyday, that you have to multi-task.
I’m not naive. I get it.
If your situation truly is the kind where multi-tasking is a “necessity” and there’s no convincing you otherwise, then I recommend that you at least reserve a place for those special, high-level items that DESERVE your Single-Target Focus.
You can decide what these are (again, I would advocate that EVERYTHING requires Single-Target Focus other than the lowest of the low-concentration/high-simplicity items, but that’s up to you).
Be a rifle, not a shotgun. A rifle fires a single bullet towards a single target. A shotgun fires a bunch of pellets in one general direction.
In football, a quarterback may have four receivers running downfield. The quarterback obviously can’t throw the ball to all four at the same time. He has a “primary receiver” (TARGET #1) he looks at. If this receiver is covered, the quarterback looks at his “secondary receiver” (TARGET #2). And so forth.
In a self-defense situation, if you’re proficient in martial arts and you’re attacked by three “bad guys”, guess what?
Even if you’re the amazing Bruce Lee, you can still only strike, kick, punch, or gouge one target at a time.
Knock down target #1, then knock down target #2, followed up by knocking down target #3.
That’s the order in Single-Target Focusing, and the ONLY order that works best.
Read more about the power of focus in my e-book and e-course “7 Simple Essentials”, which you can get for free by signing up in the box at the upper right of this page.
Stay strong, stay focused.