Written by: Julie Saillant, Guest Writer
It’s a well-known fact that entrepreneurs wear many hats and struggle to be efficient trying to keep up in an ever-changing world. If you are one of the many business owners who is the sales rep, accountant, coach, and the person who is trying to do it all and you don’t know if you are coming or going, we need to talk! We are all struggling to keep up with our daily tasks AND looking to stand out from the competition. Phew! It can be exhausting just thinking about it. Yet one idea around how effective we are has been haunting me. Are we truly operating at a high-performance level or are we just spinning our wheels?
The definition of performance is achievement, accomplishment, the act of performing; and the definition of high performance is better, faster, more efficient than the others. I like to think of a high-performance person as someone that can complete many tasks efficiently.
As an entrepreneur, I facilitate my own marketing, execute and write my own blogs and orchestrate how my brand looks and feels, all while posting to social media and sipping on filtered water making it look cool. Yet no matter how hard I try, or how efficient I think I am, I’m not able to do everything well. No one can, and new studies are now showing that we should step back and focus on one task at a time to get the best performance out of ourselves.
Here are 3 ways to up-level your business fast!
STEP #1 – DO ONE THING AT A TIME
Why should we focus on one thing? Recent research has shown that “single-tasking”, allows you to get more done with less stress and it can even make you more creative. Trying to do too many tasks at one time will slow you down and doesn’t allow you to do your best work in an efficient way. To complete all your tasks, you must do one thing at a time. At first, this may feel slow – that’s ok. It can also feel tedious – that’s ok too.
The truth is, your brain was built to do one thing at a time – and do it well.
If I gave you the option of completing 3 tasks in one-hour or 1 task to complete in the same amount of time, you would probably choose to complete one task and that would be a good choice. Yes, you are probably fast and smart enough to complete all three tasks, but the quality of those tasks is what’s important. For example, it would be better for you to write an email pitching your company’s services with 100% of your focus on composing an excellent email vs writing the email while thinking of three other things you should be doing. The truth is, your brain was built to do one thing at a time – and do it well.
STEP #2 – SLOW DOWN TO SPEED UP
To level up your game, you need to slow down to speed up. It’s been proven that slowing down and focusing on one task at a time, instead of 2 or more, will allow your brain to complete the task at hand more efficiently. Most days, we switch between apps and websites over 300 times per day and check our email or IM every 6 minutes. When you remove all distractions and focus on one task, it enhances your creativity and allows you to understand what is most important and what can wait. The more focus you have, the better you will become at finishing it faster. Slowing down also allows you the chance to prioritize your tasks in terms of importance. Completing the first and most daunting task is the best way to move forward. Once that is out of the way, the rest will seem easy.
STEP #3 – FOCUS
You have 3,000 thoughts per minute all fighting for your attention. Between your own thoughts, your business, your family, social media, and any extracurricular activities you may have outside of those three areas, it can leave you with little time and even less focus.
Focus is defined as the state or quality of having or producing clear visual definition. There are only 12 hours per day and you must prioritize what you need to accomplish each and every day. It’s your job to eliminate all distractions and focus on completing the most important tasks that will move your business forward. When you allow yourself the time to focus on ONLY WHAT’S IMPORTANT, you will quickly see that you can accomplish more in a smaller window of time. If you want to lower your stress, have higher productivity, and be happier, the key is to slow down, focus and do one thing at a time.
Written by: Julie Saillant, Guest Writer Julie Saillant is a Transformational Intuitive Coach and Animal Whisperer who helps her clients access and leverage their gifts to find their true soul’s purpose. She uses her gifts of seeing and removing negative energetic blocks while bringing in positive animal attributes that will help you on your soul’s path. For more information, visit her website and follow her on Facebook.
