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.
elcielostudio
in Creativity and other big ideas, Workshops, Technology
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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.
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.