How to Create Focus Time in Your Day

Every entrepreneur needs to have some dedicated focus time in their business to be able to grow it whether growing it for you means getting more clients, making more money or if it means leveraging and multiplying it by leaps and bounds. You need to create some focus time in business to make that happen. 

When I say to people, "Try to create at least four hours per day for marketing or growth or development," I hear lots of shrieks, "Ah, how can I do that? I'm so busy." 

Not only is someone busy in their work life, but also in their personal life especially when we're starting out because many people who are starting out are starting out by working from home. I have some very, very specific strategies as to how to take time to clear the decks and create focus. In fact, one of my favorite mantras that I've had for many, many years is, "A strong focus now creates a different future later." So, how do you create focus time in your life? 

Well, as you know, in your business it's about delegating and getting other people to do things for you that you're not that good at doing or that at this point should be done by somebody else.  What about all that extra time that is taken up in your life? Such as non-work related busyness that happens that actually eats into your work-related focus time. That is the time that it takes to run your life. 

I'm a busy mom and if it were just even me, there's so much that I need to do outside of work to keep things going, with a house and other responsibilities lots going on it would be easy for me to use my work time to do these extra-curricular things. 

Here are some of the things that I have systematized so that I no longer do, which creates more focus time in my day. Work on things that are going to bring in clients and more opportunities as well as more revenue. 

Some of the things that I would like for you to consider as personal time wasters are the things that you do, but don't necessarily need to be done by you.  Think about grocery delivery or laundry services. Some people go to the grocery store two or three times a week.  This in some situations are not necessary with a delivery service, Laundry can be dropped off and picked up at the designated time given by the service. These are things that can help you free up some focus time. 

There are the online drug stores. Why run off to CVS or something like that when you can order it online? House cleaning, you shouldn't be doing your house cleaning by yourself if you can afford it. Sometimes people will charge as little as $50 to $100 to clean your house once a week or maybe once every two weeks. 

For many, many years I drop off the laundry because it saves me time and energy and only, for about 8 bucks to 10 bucks depending on the amount of laundry, they match my socks and fold everything so that I don't have to do it and easy put away when I get home.

Then there's online banking. Instead of going to the bank you do everything online. Especially if you pay your bills online and you use credit cards to pay for a lot of your business expenses and of course you're going to want a business card for business and a personal card for personal. If you put it all on one card that means you only have one thing to pay or two credit cards to pay off. 

I know some of you might be thinking, "Yeah, that's fine when you're established in your business." I started off where most people start off which is to not  lot of money and everything was a shoestring budget, but I looked at, "Okay what if I could just have somebody for $10 once a week do all of my laundry and fold it and it would be all there just ready for me to put into the drawers. How much time would I have saved for myself?" That's about three hours and it's not that you sit on your sofa eating bon-bons while all these other people are doing this. 

You use that time to get more clients and make more money by applying more of these client-attraction strategies. So, imagine the more time you create in your day by delegating some of your personal stuff or systematizing it or doing it online instead of going to an actual store. This is the more time you create for marketing in your day so that between the hours of let's say 8:30 and 5:30 you are really only doing all work. I'm not saying that you can run out and have people clean your house and do your food and everything for you, but just start with one very little thing. 

Use that time that you saved to do more of the focus on growing your business. It will transform not only how you live your everyday life, but it will transform the time that you create that you don't have to run off doing errands. 

That is your assignment for the week. What are the time wasters in your day, in your personal life, that are eating up your business time? Write these down and start thinking about how you could do some of these things online or have them done by somebody else, somebody that you could hire at 10 bucks an hour to run a few errands for you so you don't have to. 

Then reapply and reinvest that time back into your business so you get more clients, make more money and multiply your business.

5 Ways to Take Inspired Action and Get Results

Once at a networking event where one of the speakers was a Facebook executive. She said that the company motto was "Move Fast and Break Things". They got new ideas out there as fast as they could, saw what worked and what didn't, and fixed the problems as they went along. When I thought about it later, I realized that the trait was common to all of the outrageously successful entrepreneurs I could think of. The Richard Bransons of the world don't wait for everyone to agree that their idea is a good one, or for it to be perfectly formed before they put it out there. They test and tweak as they go.While none of us are likely planning to launch a space mission or airline anytime soon, why not take a leaf out of their book?

Here are 5 ways YOU can get results by taking inspired action:

1) Put yourself out there

You could have the best product or service in the world, but if people don't know about your, your impact and potential will be limited. Who do you know who could introduce you to more of your ideal clients? It could be a person, a community or an association - anyone who has access and influence with the clients you serve (or want to serve). I serve creative professionals, so I focus on places where creative types congregate. I teach workshops at WeWork co-working spaces, write guest blog posts for the Freelancer's Union (you can check out my most recent post here), teach workshops and webinars for entrepreneurial communities such as In Good Company and Smarty, and attend creative conferences such as99U and HOW Design Live. It's not as hard to get started as you think. Groups are always looking for new resources that will help their community, so drop them an email with an idea for a talk/workshop/webinar and start the conversation.

2) Seize opportunities (even when you don't feel ready)

Did your mom ever tell you "Be careful what you ask for, you might just get it"? Mine did. When you up your inner game, opportunities start coming in thick and fast and chances are, some of them will force you outside of your comfort zone. Don't let the fear stop you. Pushing it off won't make you feel any more comfortable, so when someone asks you to speak at a conference or lead a workshop, say "yes" and then figure out how to do it. You'll be surprised at how resourceful and brave you really are.

Read: The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book)


3) Prioritize projects that 'have legs'

Successful entrepreneurs know that a thriving, dynamic business needs equal parts structure and flexibility. Absolutely map out your goals, along with the steps you need to get there, but be prepared to pivot if you get traction on an idea in the form of client support or interest. When it comes to getting results, inspired action will always trump plain old effort, so go for glory.

4) Get support

Putting yourself out there is a lot easier when you have support. There are lots of communities and programs dedicated to masterminding, support and accountability. I'm really interested in trying Savor Circles, you could also create your own group. The best groups consist of like-minded people with complimentary skill sets and experiences.

5) Don't wait for things to be perfect

An idea is worthless until you make it a reality. Get it out there and know that sometimes good is good enough.

Let's inspire one another to reach for our goals!

by Justine Clay

 http://www.PitchPerfectPresentation.com