productivity » Empowering Your Mind

How to Stay On Course with Your Priorities

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Oct 032019

By Linda-Ann Stewart

Recently, I had a day with a lot of priorities and deadlines. They all had to be done before a video meeting I had at the end of the day. I started out well, focused on getting my first task done. But then, life started intruding. I had a couple of clients email and message me with issues they were having. As happens all too often, I got lured into dealing with the immediate and distracted from from projects with a close deadline.

I could have postponed answering the messages for an hour and finished one of my tasks. Instead, I bounced from answering the messages and coaching them to handling my priorities. But, as I multitasked, I started to feel stressed and like I was scrambling to keep up. Fortunately, I finished my last task one minute before my video meeting started.

Priorities Get Forgotten

Have you ever had a day like that? Or worse? Life happens so fast nowadays that our priorities fall to the side as we get too busy, scattered, and just deal with one crisis after another. Your priority could be to get your work done, stick to your diet, establish a healthier routine, or be more even tempered. But your priorities get forgotten as you get stressed and off course.

Priorities are what you consider the most important to you, and they can be personal or professional. You make those decisions when you’re relaxed and considering what you really want. But when you get stressed, you start to react to what’s in front of you. Because your mind is full of other issues, you can’t make the best decisions. You fall back on habits or what’s worked in the past. And usually that completely undermines your priorities.

When you have too much going on, the Law of Attraction doesn’t know what to draw to you. It gets confused about what you want. Without clarity, the Law of Attraction acts on the average of your thoughts. And confused desires bring muddled results.

How to Get Back on Course

An easy way to open the valves to clarity and better decisions is to take long, slow, deep breaths. The best way to achieve this is to inhale to a count of four, and exhale to a count of eight. Just a couple of minutes of this will allow you to reverse the fight or flight response that stress activates. Research shows this technique releases a natural tranquilizer into your system. When you’re able to trigger a calmer state of mind, you can remember your priorities and decide whether to follow them or deal with what’s immediate.

When you want to reduce weight, and you’re faced with a temptation, such as a donut, stop. Take a couple of minutes and breathe. Then ask yourself, “What’s more important? Do I want to stick to my diet or eat the donut?” Research also shows that this deep breathing technique improves your decision making ability. At work, you can use it when you’re faced with emails and deadlines. Do you answer the emails or work on the project? In the evening, decide what your priority is, watching TV or exercising?

What’s Most Important?

Before any point at which you might automatically react to a situation, stop, breathe, and ask, “What’s my priority here?” “Can this be delayed until I’ve finished what I’m doing?” “Do I really want that piece of cake and destroy my diet?” When you’re angry, the traditional advice has been to count to ten. Instead, take a couple of minutes to take deep breaths, with longer exhalations, and then ask, “Will lashing out help the situation?”

Taking those deep breaths brings about a greater sense of balance. You’ll feel more centered and be more mindful of your choices. You’ll be able to reconnect with Universe and create clarity for the Law of Attraction. On my crazy day, I didn’t take two minutes to calm myself down. But I frequently took slow, deep breaths to refocus my attention on my priorities. Although I felt a bit frazzled at the end of the day, I didn’t feel like I’d run a marathon. Respond to the stress in your life by making the time to breathe. You’ll make wiser decisions and feel better at the end of the day.

Affirmation:

At every moment of time and every point of space, the Universe is guiding and directing my decisions and choices. I simply need to clear away the mental noise of daily life to listen to that still, small voice. I stop, take a few moments to inhale deeply and exhale slowly. This calms my mind and body, opening the channel to hear my Higher Self’s guidance. And this guidance is always for my Highest Good.

Watch the accompanying video, Reduce Stress and Anxiety Quickly and Easily.

As a vision strategist, hypnotherapist, and speaker, Linda-Ann Stewart helps women entrepreneurs and small business owners who feel stuck, immobilized and overwhelmed to to get clear, focused and on the fast track to the next level of their business. To achieve a 90-day goal more easily, sign up for her FREE comprehensive Strategic Vision blueprint at www.Linda-AnnStewart.com/setyourcourse.html. You can contact her at LAS@Linda-AnnStewart.com or 928-600-0452.

How You Can Get More Done in Less Time

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Aug 082019

When you try to stay focused for eight hours a day, you end up being exhausted. This decreases your productivity and efficiency. But placing your attention on one task at a time is the best way to get more done. Focused work is much more effective than distracted time or multitasking. Learn how you can focus more, while staying fresh and getting more done, more easily.

Transcript:

Thank you for joining me. I’m Linda-Ann Stewart of Heartvision Consulting. I’d like to give you a tip to maximize your productivity and efficiency through the effective use of focus. Being able to focus on one task or project at a time is a key to success. In fact, focused work is worth four hours of unfocused work. But staying focused for long periods of time is tiring, isn’t it?

You know that trying to pay attention to one thing for a 8 hours exhausts you and erodes your productivity, right? However, when you take breaks, it helps to refresh your mind and improve your efficiency. This is a bit counter-intuitive.

Research has shown that the most productive workers work 52 minutes on average, and then take a 17 minute break to recharge. Some can work more, some less. That’s why it’s an average.

And a break doesn’t mean doing something else on the computer, like checking into Facebook or watching videos on YouTube. It means taking an actual break, such as a short walk, getting some coffee, or reading a book. This gives the mind a breather. Shifting to something completely different.

If you have a hard time focusing for 52 minutes or thereabouts, work for 20-30 minutes or so, then take a shorter break, say 5 or 10 minutes.

Personally, I’ve found that taking a break every hour to hour-and-a-half works best for me. I’ve discovered that my attention begins to tire out after 90 minutes. It becomes harder for me to think. Since we know being sedentary is bad for you, I get up and walk around for a few minutes. This helps me get the kinks out and allows my mind to rejuvenate. When I get back to my computer, I’m ready to focus on my next task.

The longer you can concentrate on one item at a time, the more you’ll be able to get done in less time. That’s something to strive for, right? And you’ll be less fried at the end of the day. Not only will that help your work, it will improve the overall quality of your life.

If you’d like more tips on how to increase your productivity and accelerate your success, download my free guide, Take Control of Your Day

Thank you for watching. How can you schedule your focus time and your breaks into your day?

Read the accompanying article Are Distractions Sabotaging Your Success?

~ Linda-Ann Stewart

Are Distractions Sabotaging Your Success?

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Jul 312019

by Linda-Ann Stewart

Do you ever feel that your day is filled with distractions? Instead of being able to finish a project, your environment constantly intrudes on your attention? Phone calls, demands on your time by coworkers, sudden tasks thrust on you by managers or crises all erode your efficiency and impact productivity. They keep your mind in chaos, and clog your connection to the Universe.

Many of your interruptions are self-inflicted. Instead of focusing on what’s important, you allow your attention to be abducted by anything new. It’s like the dog in the movie that gets diverted by any movement, thinking it’s a squirrel. The brain loves anything that’s novel or different. It lights up the reward circuit of your brain. That’s why it feels so satisfying to check your email dozens of times a day. But just because it feels good doesn’t mean it helps you accomplish anything.

If you never focus on what you want, the Law of Attraction doesn’t know what to bring you. Chaos instructs the Law of Attraction to bring you more chaos. The more you allow yourself to be sidetracked, the more you train yourself to seek out and succumb to distractions. It becomes a self-defeating cycle. Multitasking falls into this category. Although multitasking feels like you’re getting a lot done, the more you do it, the less effective you become.

How Distractions Cost You

Distractions are more than annoyances. Every time you’re interrupted, it takes time to get refocused. Researchers estimate it takes between fifteen and twenty-five minutes to get back on track afterwards. How much time are you wasting each day, just trying to get refocused? And once you return to your task, you can’t focus as well.

Also, your output, productivity and efficiency suffer and you commit more errors. Another study established that four hours of distracted time was equivalent to one hour of focused work. Think of what you could accomplish if you focused on one task or project at a time for just two hours a day. That would be equivalent to a full day of work.

What You Can Do

You have control over many of the distractions you encounter. When you take charge of what you can, you’ll maximize your productivity and improve your channel to the Universe. You’ll also be giving the Law of Attraction clearer direction. Here are a few tips to help you stay focused.

1. Focus on your task. Do this by turning off your email notifications, closing your door and turning off your phone. Better yet, schedule checking your email and only do it three times a day. Even better, leave your cell phone in another room. Studies show that even having it in your room diverts your attention.

2. Stop multitasking. Contrary to popular thought, it does not make you more efficient. The opposite is true. Your brain can only focus on one thing at a time. When you jump from one task to another, your brain must switch gears. That takes up precious time and energy, and shortens your attention span. It also makes your brain run slower and reduces your intelligence. To increase your effectiveness, address one task at a time for at least 20 minutes before you go onto something else.

3. Train yourself to focus. Focusing your attention is a skill that you can learn and develop. Once you’ve broken the multitasking habit and been able to focus on one task for 20 minutes, take it to the next step. Extend the period you focus on any task by 5-minute increments over a period of weeks. Aim for at least 55 uninterrupted minutes. Another way to train your focus and concentration is to practice meditation. It builds areas of the brain associated with attention.

4. Focus on the present. Pay attention to what you’re doing now. Don’t allow your thoughts to drift to the past or what you’re going to be doing in the future. When your mind wanders, gently bring it back to the task at hand. This type of mindfulness helps problem solving and improves your memory. You also open to your intuition and connection with the Universe.

Distractions will never go away. But when you stop letting distractions rule you and take control over your attention, your mood will improve. Your sense of calm, clarity, satisfaction and productivity will soar. Because you’ll be spending time on the tasks and projects that bring you results, you’ll be more successful.

Affirmation:

The Universe is always present, guiding and directing me. I now keep my mind clear, calm and focused. The Universe supports me in making positive decisions about where to focus my attention. This allows me to have a greater connection with the Universe. I plan for the future but keep my mind focused on the present.

Watch the accompanying video How You Can Get More Done in Less Time.

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