With the past year behind us, there is a fresh slate of possibilities with the incoming New Year. It’s natural and refreshing to reflect on the last year and imagine the possibilities of what is ahead. It’s a great time of putting focus on the areas that matter and will provide a return on our businesses and lives.
Working with organizations and individuals, I have found the biggest enemy of productivity and accomplishment are the distractions which pull us away from focus. There are many things that we could do less of and experience little to no consequences. Consider alleviating yourself from the following in the new year to help focus your work:
- Extraneous social media. If you signed up for several platforms and are not using any very well, then close your accounts and commit to making 1-2 work extremely well. Hang out where your customers are and free up your attention and energy.
- Making money. With the looming crises in our economy, we all need to take stock of our businesses and cut out the fat. There are likely a few things that truly impact your revenue stream. For me, the more I write and build relationships, the more my bottom line grows. Everything else pales in comparison. What are the key activities you need to do? These will differ for every person. Get rid of the other activities that do not matter.
- Relationships. We can only invest our emotional energy and time into a few relationships well. Which ones truly matter? What brings happiness today may be different than what was true years or even months ago. There is space for only so many true friendships and connections. Review your address books, social media and CRM. Pick out the few you will commit to this year and be a good friend, partner or customer.
- Vision. Another year has passed. Have you moved any closer to something bigger than the mundane? Vision is what guides us to build something bigger and helps us to measure our progress against a concrete achievement. Who do you want to become? What do you want to build? Answer this and periodically keep track of your progress. Line up the tasks to get you to the goal. It may be a thousand tasks to get there. So get started with the first ten and build momentum.
These are a few checkpoints on the journey and with the New Year, it is a natural time to take stock and steer your activities towards intentional pursuits.
What are you going to focus on?