Often we get caught up in a whirlwind of to-do lists, people we have to call, sales to be made, meetings to attend and countless other small details and future commitments that need to be fulfilled without taking time to breathe and focus on the present. Our lives are increasingly busy and require a level of multi-tasking never seen before. By failing to stay present we really hurt our businesses and by extension our businesses’ future growth and expansion. You will be better able to fight back against the recession by staying present and giving your full attention to the “now.”

Do One Thing At A Time Really Well

You can only focus on one task at a time. If you are giving your attention to many tasks at once you are spreading yourself too thin and producing inferior results. If you disagree with this statement let’s take a quick example to help clarify this thought. Have you ever been on the phone with someone who is watching t.v., paying attention to their children or is otherwise working on something? You can tell right? Even if they deny it, you know that they are not giving you their full attention because they respond slower to your questions or answer you with “uh-huh” one too many times. Multi-tasking in the end makes projects take longer to complete and potentially makes your results worse than they would be if you were giving the project your full attention.

Master The Details

Your brain has to pause and switch between neurons to go back and forth between the different projects or tasks that you’re working on. Every time you switch, you have a mini-delay while your brain processes concepts to get you back up to speed with where you were in the task. If you have enough distractions this process could take you several minutes to complete. This accounts for the sensation of losing your train of thought when speaking or an inability to focus on a task after coming back from a distraction. By focusing one task at a time you are better able to handle all the requirements of a project. You are less likely to forget a step or a crucial detail. You will also get your work completed quicker because you will not have to constantly make switches in your brain back to the task at hand.

The Future Will Be Better If You Focus On The Now

You cannot act in the past, you cannot act in the future, you can only act now. Regardless of how many projects you have to complete or how many fires you have to place out at any one time, you cannot be in two places at once and you cannot do anything about a problem that hasn’t happened yet. While you can set up systems to help you deal with potential problems in the future, your energy and focus needs to stay with the present. Worrying about future contingencies sucks energy from your present ability to handle and accomplish your current objectives.

Don’t Dwell In “What If’s”

Stop thinking about and letting your mental energy dwell in “recession-land.” The more you reckon about the recession or terrible economic times the more you will really make failing conditions for your business. You’ll subconsciously start to sabotage your business if you continuously reckon about the market going down or the financial crisis on Wall Street.

You’ll start to reckon things like “my customer won’t buy our product because of the recession” and your actions will start to match that mentality. You will make less sales calls, you’ll lower the amount you question people to buy or even lower the price of your goods without any real need to do so, all to keep up with the mental image you have in your brain of a slowing economy. Don’t tell yourself “no” before your customer has even heard your pitch. Let them tell you “no” and then reframe the offers to match their expectations if need be. Your first and only thought should be that you have a superior product, that is worth its price and that the customer will benefit greatly from your service or excellent. That’s it. Ignore the recession and press on.

Pick Your Five Things To Accomplish Each Day

Start out each day by making a list of the five most critical things you need to accomplish and then start working your list. Start on number one and do not work on number two until number one is complete. Do not open e-mail, take phone calls or engage in any other distraction while you are working on your list. If you have meetings or other interruptions, come back to your list each time you have silent time to work. If silent time is a problem then set up some boundaries with your employees or co-workers. Shut your door and place a sign on it saying you are in a meeting. By engaging in this process you will be able to focus completely on the ‘now” and your actions will be much more effective. If you do not end all your five items, then just start the next day with the rest of the projects on your list and repeat the process.

Breathe and Push Through Problems One Step At A Time

If a crisis or fire does pop up, just mentally relist your five most critical tasks. Take the problem and place it at the number one spot. You will not be able to focus on anything until you cool your mind and place out the fire. Once extinguished, your ability to focus will return to normal and you can breath and go on with your productive day.

Tags: Stress