Before you can focus on a task at work or in your personal life, you have to know what you should be focusing on. By planning and knowing what to focus on each day, you will free up mental energy used figuring out what to be doing and put it towards your mental health. After all, working hard on something that doesn’t give you the results you want or need, isn’t very helpful and is extremely frustrating. The key is to make smart decisions, prioritize, and have a good idea of what you need to focus each day. If it works better for you, break it down to what you need to focus on each morning and afternoon, or even hour by hour.
Start With The Big Picture
Before you can start to focus, you need to have a good grasp of the big pictures. Without this all-important first step, it’s too easy to fall into a trap of doing busywork, or continuing to do the same tasks each day without seeing the results you want to get. Or, if you are like me, you will end up getting nothing done at all. When living with depression, ADHD, anxiety, etc, the overwhelm of not knowing what to do or not do, can lead you to become completely mentally paralyzed and unable to accomplish even the simplest tasks. So, having the big picture and desired result laid out can help you stay focused and on track.
I’m sure you’ve experienced this in your own life. You go through the motions because that’s how you’ve always done it. It’s easier to stick to your current habits than it is to sit down and figure out what the big picture is. Developing new habits can also feel so daunting. It doesn’t matter if this is for a work project, or a personal goal. Start by deciding exactly what it is you want to accomplish. Then, make a plan!
Make A Plan And Come Up With A Strategy
Once you have that big picture or big goal in mind, it’s time to make a plan for getting from where you’re at now to where you want to be. In your personal life, that might mean figuring out how you can go from living in an apartment to owning your own home. At work, it could mean going from the position you have now to getting that management promotion, or seeing a larger project through from start to finish. For managing your mental health, it could be taking small steps each day to develop new habits to work towards more emotional freedom.
It may be helpful to map it out on a piece of paper or with your favorite mind mapping software. Using post it notes to organize all you need to do for each goal can be another great organizing tool. Seeing all the pieces in one place and how they interconnect can be very helpful in the next step. Using visuals can be very helpful.
Turn That Plan Into Action Items
Last but not least it’s time to turn that strategy into action items. These are simple tasks you can get done one at a time. For example: with home ownership, this may mean paying off your credit cards, saving for a down payment, and all the little things you can do to come up with that extra money (like cooking at home more, or canceling your cable). For work and business related projects, this means breaking it down into small projects, tasks, or daily to-do lists you can work from. For health it can be drinking water with lemon during the day, taking a walk each day, eating more plant based foods, drinking less or anything that you know will help you get to your end goal.
Once you have those individual steps it will become much easier to focus on them one at a time and get stuff done. If you still feel overwhelmed, see if you can break your steps down even further.
