[00:00] Welcome back to the Focus B show. This is Katie Suddar here aka the focus b. And on this show, I interview high performers and leaders around the world to discover their secrets on peak performance, productivity, mindfulness, and leadership. So if you want to take your performance and your leadership to the next level, then you're in the right place. Listen up and connect with the magic.
[00:41] I'm really excited to announce that in the upcoming weeks, I am launching my new program to help you to optimize your time and your energy to reach the results and impact you want in your business and in your life.
[00:55] If you want to find out more.
[00:56] About my new program, check out thefocusbeat.com program.
[01:03] This is the last episode on the Attention series we covered so much. I love the topic of attention and focus, as you know, went through focus and flow, managing Distractions, why Rest and Recharge is so Important, how to be more mindful and present in your everyday life, how to use meditation as a tool, and how to be more motivated. So what's on the show today? We're looking at short term and long term focus. Let me explain what I mean by this and why they need to be correlated. Short term focus is what you do on a daily basis. It's what you're doing in the moment. It's a task. For example, you might have your short term focus at the moment could be to be cooking. If you're listening to this. It can be to be writing that report. It can be to be doing that excel spreadsheet, any of those activities and tasks are your short term focus. These are terms that I coined, that I write about in my book. And why I call it short term focus is because it's something that you're focused on just short term right now or for the next few hours. It's your sort of current point of focus. Long term focus is your vision, your direction, your goal, whatever you want to call it. And I call this your long term focus. It's because it's what you're focusing on in the long term can be the next few months or the next year or the next five years. This is your long term focus and there is and must be a correlation between what you're doing now, what you're doing short term, and what you're doing long term. Where you want to go long term. This is linked to what I mentioned in the previous episode on motivation, which is that if you see no correlation between your daily tasks and where you want to go in life or where you want to go in the next four months for that matter, then you will lose your motivation. It's logical if you're doing something, but it's not bringing you to where you want to be in the next six months. A part of you will start to question it. Let's look at an example, let's say that you're working as an employee and you also have a side business. And let's say in the next six months, you want to work full time on your side business. Guess what? The focus, the fuel, the attention, the motivation for your side business are going to be great, because that's what you want to live off and do full time in the next six months. And your motivation as an employee might start to dwindle because you know that it's only a matter of a few months before you resign and quit your job. This happens quite frequently as you're finishing your work period, or you no longer want to continue in your current position to lose your motivation. There are different tricks you can use. In this specific example, you can think that the money that you're building up in the next six months will support your side business. Then you've tied together your short term focus, which is in this case, working day to day as an employee, with your long term focus of having your side business full time. You can also think just that it's linked to your values of being a high performer and doing a good job, and therefore you want to maintain that till the very end and finish on a high whatever it is. But if you tie your short term focus to your long term focus, this will support you. How can you do this effectively? What can you put in place to support you to correlate your short term focus and your long term focus? First of all, start to look at what your different activities are during the day or during the week. Maybe even write them down. Or take an Excel spreadsheet and write down all of your activities, everything from checking emails to proposal reports. Excel spreadsheets, I don't know what you do in your job, but all those things. Write them all down. Then write in another column your goals, and I invite you to have maybe maximum three, at least professional goals for the year. You can even just have one if you wish, because the more goals we have, the less focused we will be. And then look at how your daily tasks are bringing you towards that goal. For example, if you want to be in your new role or position as an employee, you would start to look at, are these tasks going towards that new position? Is this the sort of thing you would do in your new position? Are you gaining experience in that direction? If you have your own business and you want to work with more clients, are you reaching out on a regular basis? Are you working on your marketing or your branding? All of these things will correlate to your vision of, let's say, working with 20 clients, or whatever the number is that you want to. Depends what type of company you have and what type of business you have once you're really clear on what you do on a day to day basis, short term, and what your goals are long term, then you'll be able to see how correlated they are. And this isn't at all a new concept. For example, if you look at Getting Things Done by David Allen, he speaks about being really clear on your vision, then your five year goals, then your goal, then your monthly goals, then your weekly goals, and then your daily tasks. So there's a direct link all through between what you do on a day to day basis towards your life vision? Pretty much. And you don't have to make it as specific as that. You can if you wish, but you can also just correlate it to, like I said, your next six months or your next year. As I mentioned in another episode, for instance, I work much better with one or two year goals. I'm not that keen on five year, ten year, or life vision. And so I tend to think, okay, is this task contributing to my vision? My yearly goal, or in my case, might just be my mission, and I'll touch a bit more on the impact session on mission, vision and purpose, but it's really looking at what's important for me, what's the direction in which I want to go, how do I want to contribute, and does this serve my contribution? So if you are observing and noticing how you spend your time and your tasks, and if they contribute to your long term focus, you might start to see certain patterns emerging. You might notice that you spend too much time or energy on something that doesn't actually serve your long term purpose. Maybe it's something you're just used to doing, or you always did, or you felt was important. But your goals have changed since. This is why it's great to do an audit and a review and a planning on a regular basis, because this enables you to see what can you delete, what no longer serves you, what can be simplified or delegated or eliminated. You really want your short term focus to correlate to your long term focus. I've said this at the start of the episode. I've said it before. This supports you with motivation, it supports you with energy, and it also supports that little voice inside your head that sometimes think, oh, why do I need to do this right now? And if your answer is immediate, well, this contributes to my goal of X-Y-Z in three months. Oh yeah, that's why. And that's it. And then you do it. We stop being motivated, we start to lose the focus when it just feels like it's. One more thing on the to do list, and you no longer know why you're even doing it, why it was even important in the first place. So have a quick check in with yourself. If you can do it on a weekly basis, the better, the more often the better. And this will support you to see those patterns, to notice how your short term and your long term focus are correlated. And yes, more motivated, more energy, more attention. All of that is amazing. And this is why attention and focus are so important and they make such a huge difference. I hope you found this concept interesting. If it's something you're already practicing, then great. What are a few things you can maybe change or shift? And if it's something that you haven't yet practiced, how do you feel it can support you to have more of this attention and joy in your process and in your work? I'd love to know. Drop me a line. Send me a message. On social media, I'm on pretty much all of them, but TikTok, I'm, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, you name it, LinkedIn, which is my favorite, and Twitter under the focus B or Katie Studdart. So yeah, drop me a line. Also, super curious as we're finishing the T section, time, energy, attention. What have you thought of it so far and how has it helped you? And the next episode will be attacking the topics of profit, impact and expertise beginning with profit. So thank you so much for tuning in today and if you've been enjoying this podcast and this podcast season on Tea and Pie, then leave me a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify to let me know what you've enjoyed and to help other people to find the podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in.
[11:33] Thank you so much for tuning in today to the Focus Bee Show. I would absolutely love to hear your feedback. So let me know in an Apple review or YouTube comment what was most valuable for you, and feel free to share this episode with a friend or a family member wishing you a wonderful, magical and focused day ahead.