Focus

 

What does focus feel like?

I am taking an online course -- actually more of  a group coaching program --  that asks me to focus on a specific goal for 28 days. (My goal is to plan a creativity coaching service that complements and extends my teaching and studio work.)

This focus thing is hard for me. Really hard. Even in attempting to focus, I find myself all over the map. Am I really such a flittery-gibbit? Oddly enough, I know that one of my strengths is my ability to focus on the task at hand, in hand, on the table top. Once I am in the flow with a concrete activity, it is easy for me to have my headlights on the task and the work gets my total attention. BUT, focus that is conceptual -- to narrow my thinking and planning to a specific end -- rather than a hands-on goal -- like finishing that piece of art on the table -- is more difficult. I don't know what to do with the sea that I am already swimming in. I am trying to transfer the feeling of concrete focus to conceptual focus. What does it feel like in my body, in my spirit?

Last week (the first of the 4-week program) I made a bit of progress. This week I want to do even better. One thing that seems to help is intention (and stating that intention out loud): Today I will spend 4 hours on my Breakthough Goal, and 4 hours on the other work that needs doing, chosing the most important tasks, making a "next action" list and checking them off as I get them done.

Another thing I learned last week is that the more specific and measureable my actions are, the more likely I am to accomplish them --As one of Linda's statistics professors says, "If you can count it, you can do it."  For example, last week I  set a goal to collect 50 names for my mailing list, as I am planning a quarterly newsletter and want to send it to a wide audience. At the Joan Grona sale, I made it a point to ask every single person who walked into the gallery to give me contact information if they would like to receive arts event and workshop information. And it worked. I now have 50 new names to add to my list.

So, off to the studio -- today, to the desk -- focus, focus, focus. I'd love to hear any strategies that help you accomplish your goals, especially those that help to make the fuzzier conceptual ones more like real on-the-table tasks.

Comments

[Bev]

Hi Susie,
I think most of us have this problem. What has been helping me lately, is on the first day of each month I make a list of what I want to get done or think about each month relating to quilting. No more than 10 items, I check them off as I get them done, and at that time think about the others. I don't let myself stress about the ones I don't done, do wonder why, perhaps I don't really want to do those. This month drawing dragons for a grandson's quilt is on the list, haven't done that but have picked up some books from the library to start thinking about them. I try to balance my list with a few things I must get done and things that I need to think about and plan for.

[Susie]

Thanks Bev. I think I overwhelm myself with too long a list -- 10 sounds like a good set of goals for the week. And that needs to cover all the bases for me, personal, the several "businesses" the art work!

[Sue Cooke]

Eat An Elephant - one bite at a time

I use the Franklin-Covey method. It has you make an task list daily and rank them by priority 1,2,3. Just 3. Check them off as you do them. Don't cherry-pick - work in priority order.
If you hit a roadblock - move the task forward in time and add the blocked tasks to tomorrow's list. Like - "File loose papers" (But you find you need more folders) so "buy folders goes on tomorrow's list with a Higher priority than "file papers" which was moved forward.
Every morning go over yesterday's list for un-done tasks and move them forward - upping their priority if needed.

For long projects I use Gant charts. I break the project into major chunks and break those chunks into units etc...drilling down like an outline. Then each line item gets a time line.

With these two tools I can stay on-task for even a large long-term project.

[Pat S.]

I was having trouble concentrating on a project that was due recently. Discovered that I had too many other supplies out in the studio. So had to corral them, discard some and move some others to a different location so I could focus on the project at hand. Also was working on my annual studio purge at the same time so getting some distracting furniture which was formerly useful also helped! The project got done, too.

[Susie Monday]

Thanks Sue, Thanks Pat. I love this conversation we can have on the blog -- sometimes its the one we don't take time to have in person!