Before you start thinking about the inappropriate use of language think again and get your mind out of the gutter! There are thousands of words that start with F and have more than 4 letters. This particular F word has five letters and is one that every business owner, CEO or even a startup should know. It is Focus!

Focus is easier said than done. With so many distractions in life (and that’s even before you turn on your laptop), it is no wonder we are guilty of starting one job then getting distracted and moving onto another before we finish the first one. And the cycle continues all day right?

The definition of focus is the centre of interest or the state or quality of having or producing clear visual definition. It is important as staying focused on one task = greater productivity (more important that just being busy) which equals better results and a faster growing business. It is a matter of building good habits, setting clear goals and having priorities

This is particularly true when it comes to the digital world in which we live. We are overloaded with so much information which we are told we need to know. We could all be full time students and still never keep up. As a digital specialist I understand that keeping up with a fast paced ever changing environment can be hard however here are 3 tips to successfully navigating the digital world and staying focused at the same time.

1. Find relevant information & prioritise – Filter out the information that is not relevant to you or your business. You don’t need to read every EDM, blog or post that you see. Instead choose the most relevant to what you need currently, that aligns with your goals and diarise time each day or week to read them. Once you’ve got the relevant digital information, then prioritise what you watch, read, learn, implement.

2. Align your digital channels to your audience – You cannot possibly use every digital platform and do it well so the key is to choose the ones that align with your audience. Eg: if your audiences doesn’t watch video, don’t spend time creating You Tube videos. Common sense prevails. Do you actually think you can maintain Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, G+, Pinterest, Instagram and You Tube accounts effectively (without having a massive team of people)?? Be realistic in your expectations and always focus on what your audience needs.

3. Outsource – It is impossible to do everything yourself. Look to engage experts in their fields to help implement while you stay focused on the task of running your business day to day.

To help you stay focused during the day block time in your calender for various tasks, including actual implementation, research & responding to emails.  I have been (and still often am) guilty of getting distracted by emails and social media so TURN THEM OFF. Schedule email or social breaks to respond and you find yourself being more focused and productive during the day.

And for the record my favourite F word is FABULOUS.

Hope you have a very FOCUSED and productive week. Let me know how successful you were.