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10 Tips: How to Stay Focused through the Coming Year

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By Robert Morris

We are already almost one month into the new year, so it’s time to really buckle down and make sure we can stay focused in 2014. Many people make resolutions and they promise to realize them every New Year, but somehow those aspirations tend to fade away after the first few months.

Don’t you wish to do things differently this time? The following practical tips will help you work on your habits that will help you stay focused on the aims you set.

1. You need daily rituals

No matter how spontaneous you want your life to be, sticking to daily routines is what will get those things of the list realized. You cannot have high levels of focus if you don’t follow a routine that will keep you within the boundaries of productiveness. Pay attention to your sleeping and eating patterns, plan some time for personal satisfaction and make sure to plan breaks that will give you more energy to tackle all daily challenges.

2. Visualize your goals

Creating a vision board will give you a great presentation of your dreams and goals, making them more real. You can add images, as well as souvenirs, articles, or quotes related to your great yearly goals. When you visualize your aims clearly, you will work harder towards their achievement.

3. Don’t set too many BIG goals

Your list has to contain one or two big goals that you plan to accomplish. Don’t set too many of these big goals, because you will overwhelm yourself and then end up disappointed, but don’t leave your list without any great expectations either. Check in on those goals every month and think about what you have done up to that point.

4. Don’t leave things uncompleted

The only way to stay focused on your goals is to complete everything you start. Don’t give up on a task you have started, because that will weaken your mental strength and leave you with diminished self-confidence. Stay determined and always do your best to complete every single task you start. Success in life is guided by a simple rule – without doing your best, you won’t achieve the best possible outcome.

5. Give yourself some daily time alone

No matter how active your life is, you won’t get anywhere without spending some time with yourself and your thoughts. Constant involvement in social life depletes you and results in an inevitable burnout. If you are overly active, it’s only a matter of time when your body and/or mind will give up. Spend some time doing things you love – take long walks, listen to good music, read great books, meditate, do yoga, or whatever else that pleases and relaxes you.

6. Multitasking is good, but do it less!

Multitasking is sometimes a beneficial skill to master, but the truth is that you cannot accomplish your best at everything when doing too many things at once. When you focus your brain on a single task, you will devote yourself fully to it and the outcome will be much better.

7. Make daily to-do lists

Making daily to-do lists is a great strategy to train your brain to stay focused. When you end the day with all tasks crossed out on the list, you will have a feeling of accomplishment and you will be happy to repeat that every single day. Plan your goals by organizing your tasks into a few categories and separating the things you need to do today, tomorrow, this week, and this month. Making to-do lists is also a great way to make priorities and keep your energy focused on the most important tasks.

8. Have goal buddies

When you have people with similar goals, you will support and motivate each other to stay focused on their achievement. Your “goal buddies” will remind you about the things you promised to achieve, and their success will push you to keep up.

9. Learn how to avoid distractions

You convince yourself that checking your e-mail, Facebook and Twitter every few minutes relaxes you, but the truth is that this bad habit is a huge distraction from the really important things. Make sure to complete every important task you have for the day before you allow yourself the luxury of spending time on Facebook. When you finish everything faster and more efficiently, you can reward yourself with virtual socializing.

10. Learn how to be focused on staying focused

Staying focused is a skill that’s really simple to explain: you concentrate your mind on a single thing and don’t allow it to be disturbed by anything else. It’s not impossible; it just requires a lot of practice, commitment, and dedication. Your daily relaxation or meditation will help you free your mind of all distracting thoughts, and you will soon notice how you are getting better in controlling your habits and emotions and staying focused on your goals.

Be prepared for the fact that the upcoming year won’t be free of distractions and problems no matter how hard you work on your goals, but the most important thing is to stay within the routine you establish and don’t attach yourself to the results.

Author’s Bio: Robert Morris is a freelance writer from essay writing service NinjaEssays. He loves writing tips and tricks for students. He is interested in improving his writing and learning through technology. Follow @Ninjaessays on Twitter!

Make Your Work Area Your Own

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By Chris Long

There are times when staying focused and being productive can be difficult, especially for people who work by themselves. If your office is in your house or even in a lonely cubicle, and interaction with other human beings is mostly through phone calls, texts and emails, you should make your work space as inviting as possible. When you wake up in the morning, you should look forward to spending most of the day at your desk, rather than dreaming up excuses not to roll up your sleeves, dig in and get to work.

office environment

Use Your Imagination

There are some simple and inexpensive things you can do to make your work space a more inviting place to do your job.

  • Maybe your desk is facing in the wrong direction. Most people would rather look out a window than stare at a wall. You can move your furniture around so you’ll have a better view, though you might be limited by the location of your electrical outlets and your phone and cable connections.
  • Invest some money in a solid, comfortable chair. You might need an extra chair if clients or co-workers ever visit your office.
  • Bookcases come in a variety of sizes. They are useful for storing books, of course, but you also can use some of the shelves for framed photos or for items that otherwise would be cluttering your desk.
  • The color of your walls can make a difference. Paint them a bright hue, or make your work space even more interesting by painting one wall a dark color and the other three a lighter shade.
  • Use your imagination when it comes to finding a place to store your office supplies. You can put paper clips in old coffee jars, pencils and pens in decorative glasses and bills and letters on small shelves on the wall behind you. Flea markets are a great place to find unusual items that will work well.
  • Surround yourself with stuff that makes you feel good, whether it’s photos of your family or of a vacation you especially enjoyed or a trash can emblazoned with the midnight green logo of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Low-Maintenance Plants

One or more plants can make a big difference in your office. They help clear the air by soaking up pollutants, and they also give off oxygen. The following plants are all low-maintenance options that can make your office a better and more interesting place to work.

  • Aloe;
  • Chrysanthemum;
  • Golden pothos;
  • Red-edged dracaena;
  • Spider plant;
  • Weeping fig

Give the Walls Some Pizazz

You’re probably spending at least 40 hours a week in your office, so you should do something to make the walls a little less boring. You have some options in addition to simply painting them.

  • Make a fake window – You can enlarge a photo you love and frame it with lightweight window molding. Then, when you’re not busy, you can pretend you’re gazing at the Pacific Ocean, the Rocky Mountains or the coast of Maine.
  • Lighting makes a difference – If you are currently bringing light to your office with harsh fluorescent lighting, a small table lamp with a natural-light bulb will help.
  • Decorate your walls – In addition to photos and other artwork, you can decorate dull walls with wallpaper ñ or with craft paper and colorful fabric attached to the walls with Velcro.
  • Don’t forget the floor – An area rug can help define your work space, especially if your office area doesn’t take up an entire room. If you are working from home, your office might be part of the dining room or a corner of your bedroom. An attractive chair mat will work as well.
  • Define your space – Room dividers can be useful if your office is taking up only part of a room in your house. They are generally between 5-and-a-half and 7 feet tall, and they come in a wide range of styles, from simple bamboo slats to those imprinted with photos depicting the life of Elvis Presley or the antics of popular comic book heroes.
  • Your office should be inviting, for you and for others – If you have guests in your office, make them feel welcome with an espresso machine or a dish of mints or chocolate. If you never have visitors, the coffee and candy will give you a good reason to hang out in your office.

Whether your work space is at home or in an office building, you should look forward to spending time there. It should be a fun, cheerful place that brings you comfort rather than stress. Most of all, it should reflect your personality and the unique way you do your job.

Author’s Bio: Chris Long has been helping homeowners on DIY projects since 2000. He is an “on-the-floor” sales associate at a Home Depot in the Chicago suburbs. Chris is also a regular contributor to Home Depot’s Home Decorators.com website, where his range of interests includes providing tips on home office design, floor coverings and furniture for the home.

15 Ways to Zig When You Want to Zag

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When you woke up this morning, did you grab your robe, shuffle to the kitchen, and press the Brew button? (Mine was a Starbucks Verona K-cup.)

How to zig when you want to zag

Most people spend their entire lives in that same state of semi-aware robot sameness. They do the same thing every day, say the same things, write the same things, look the same way.

And then they expect something to change.

They’re stuck.

My suggestion is: zig when you want to zag.

  1. Have tea tomorrow morning instead of coffee.
  2. Wear an acid green shirt.
  3. Drive a different route to work (or hitch a ride with a colleague).
  4. If you always write about marketing, write a post about neuropsychology or ant farming.
  5. Practice a new response to “how are you?” Instead of “fine, how are you,” what if you said, “I’m FANtastic!”
  6. Floss tomorrow.
  7. If you’ve been afraid to submit a guest post to your favorite blog, just do it.
  8. When you normally would say “no thank you” to something, go for it and say “sure, thanks!”
  9. Go for a full day without typing minimizing words in any emails (like “just” or “sorry”).
  10. Have lunch at a place you’ve never been.
  11. Have you become afraid of talking on the phone? Call three clients out of the blue.
  12. Mail a handwritten thank you note to someone.
  13. If you have a habit of checking email first thing in the morning, wait until noon.
  14. Pick a new habit to incorporate into your routine (listen to this awesome podcast from Michael Hyatt for some help with that).
  15. Choose one task you need to get done, and ask someone for help with it.

Get unstuck. Out of the rut.

Things will change if you change them.

The Successful-Blog community is here to help. What can we help you get unstuck from?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Photo Credit: purplemattfish via Compfight cc

5 (more) Apps That Make My Business Life Easier

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I’m a technology magpie, flying around poking and picking up shiny objects. I bring them back to my nest and play with them for a while, trying to decide if they’re worthy of a permanent space on my phone, iPad, or desktop.

To justify my habit, I share what I’ve found. That way I can tell myself I’m doing it “for work.”

Here are the 5 mobile apps that have improved my work productivity.

Sunrise Calendar

I have to admit that I didn’t find this one. My husband did, and it was surprising to me that he was “cheating on” Fantastical, the most recent calendar app we’d fallen in love with. However, Sunrise is even more beautiful than Fantastical. It easily brings together all of your disparate calendars into one interface, and adding events is a breeze. It analyzes the words used in your event titles, and uses appropriate icons (anything with “party” in it triggers a balloon). Did I mention that it’s free?

Sunrise Calendar

Yodelay

This cool app does one thing–it helps you stay on top of your search engine rankings. You tell Yodelay which search terms you’re trying to rank for, and it will keep running data on where your site falls in the list. This is useful because it’s difficult to get “pure” unpersonalized information by searching yourself. This one is also free.

Yodelay SEO App

Lanyrd

Lanyrd on the desktop is pretty awesome, with conference/event speakers, schedules, attendee lists, and a million ways to connect with them. The mobile app is also extremely useful. Open it up during a conference, and have instant access to your fellow attendees, that conference agenda you left at breakfast, official hashtag, and more. Set up a “want to meet” alert so you never miss out on meeting those important contacts again. It’s free, and available on both iPhone and Android, as well as iPad.

Lanyrd on iPad

30/30 Task Manager

The 30/30 app is for anyone who needs extra help staying on task. Use it to set up a series of tasks, with estimated completion times, and it will alert you when it’s time to move on to the next task. The interface is easy and fun to use, and knowing there’s a clock ticking down will either spark your competitive juices, or drive you crazy. After some trial and error, I’ve decided that it’s used best for a series of recurring tasks (for example, your wake-up routine).

30/30 Task Management

vSnap

Another handy app is vSnap, a single-purpose app that just makes it crazy easy to send a quick (less than 60 seconds) personal video to your contacts. It differs from Vine or Instagram videos in that it’s meant to be a one-to-one communication. Contacts who receive the videos don’t have to have an account or login, and they simply click a link to see your video. Great for adding a personal touch to your business communications, without having to send a huge file. This one has a free version, but paid upgrades available.

vSnap video app
Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

5 Ways Your Employees Can Be More Productive

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Increasing your business productivity is an excellent way of boosting your profits. But if your employees are lagging, or you’re just not seeing the results you’d like, how do you turn things around?

Here are five ways you can help your employees be more productive — making both them and you happier:

1. Provide comfortable break areas and times – It may seem counterintuitive, but providing a relaxing area for employees to unwind a few times during the day can actually increase the amount of work they get done. People who feel chained to their desks all day can zone out, and their lowered productivity can affect morale, which can turn into a nasty cycle.

Set mandatory break times for all employees (even if they’re not all at the same time). Consider implementing short, office-wide breaks in which everyone gets up once an hour to do a few stretches. This can improve your workers’ physical comfort and give them energy boosts throughout the day.

2. Give them the technology they need to do their jobs well – These days, mobile devices are becoming more and more essential to running a business. If you can’t afford to provide these devices to workers in the office or field who may need them, encourage them to bring their own.

If you choose to let employees work from their own devices, make sure your business data is well protected with strong passwords, time-outs, and other security measures.

3. Provide flexible working options – Whether it’s telecommuting one or more days per week, offering a flexible work schedule, or another accommodation, creating a flexible workspace can have an enormous effect on employee morale and productivity.

Having everyone in the office has its advantages, making collaboration more convenient. But with ever-evolving technology, working from
home is becoming a more feasible and attractive option for many companies.

Worried that productivity will drop if you let employees telecommute? Numerous studies have shown otherwise.

A Stanford University study from February of this year found that in one company, out of 16,000 workers, those who were allowed to work from home showed a 13% performance increase over their office-bound colleagues.

4. Provide regular, constructive feedback – It’s hard to improve in a vacuum. Employees who aren’t sure where they stand, or who have formed inefficient habits, may need some help identifying areas to work on.

Give your employees encouragement for a job well done, or thoughtful advice for how to perform better. Delivering this feedback regularly will help keep everyone on track.

5. Keep meetings short and sweet – Conducting a meeting without an outline or agenda is a recipe for a long, unproductive session.

Instead, write up an agenda and identify someone to lead the meeting and keep conversations on track. You’ll also need someone to take notes to make sure no important points get lost. Keep the meeting focused on important points, and consider issuing status reports and minor updates in a weekly email instead of during meetings.

These are just a few of the ways you can help your employees be more productive and keep your office running smoothly.

Photo credit: techliant.com

About the Author: Freelance blogger Angie Mansfield covers a variety of topics for both individuals and small business owners. Her work addresses such things as health, social media, and how to remove information from online records.

4 Key Time Management Tips for Even the Busiest Business Owner

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By Jennifer Dunn

Owning your own business is amazing, but there are times when it’s practically a nightmare. Sometimes it gets so hard you just want to give up and go back to a 9 to 5. This usually comes after you’ve tried and tried to catch up on tasks but can’t seem to find any time to keep your head above water, much less actually get ahead.

It doesn’t have to be like this! With a few simple tips you can turn your frazzled brain into a relaxed center of productivity. Don’t give up on your entrepreneurial dreams just yet – check out the following tips and see if any of them can help you.

Get Organized

This seems like an obvious thing to say, but it’s an important point to make nonetheless. Most business owners waste so much time searching around their office, store, or home for a paper or object that should’ve been properly stored away (think: tax time). Eventually you’ll waste so much time on this that other tasks fall to the wayside as you struggle to keep up.

Get an organizational process in place for whatever’s driving you nuts – for example, receipts should all go into a folder so you can find them easily. Alternatively you can use a service like Shoeboxed to digitize receipts for super easy retrieval. Are you always searching for files on your computer? Create a digital filing system. Do you spend hours resetting your passwords? Check out a password management system like LastPass.

Once you have this organization in place, keep it up! Don’t let it slip or you’ll go right back into your old habits.

Don’t Multitask

If you want to get more things done, common sense tells you should just do more things at once. This way you get done with tasks quicker, right? In fact, the evidence says otherwise – multitasking does more harm than good.

It’s all about spending energy – if you give 33% to three tasks, they may not turn out any better than if you spent 100% on one thing at a time. If something gets messed up, you just have to start over again anyway. Learn how to tackle one thing at a time properly so you don’t spread yourself thin. Welcome to “unitasking.”

Get Apps to Help

Tired of doing everything yourself? You may not be able to hire any help, but you can certainly afford to acquire some robots to aid you. Oh, you don’t have a connection to someone at a robotics factory? Then settle for the next best thing and grab some apps.

Whether you have a smartphone, a tablet, or laptop, there are hundreds of applications (and other software) you can grab to help you do simple tasks that eat up your time. Whether it’s financial tracking, task management, shopping lists, or a thousand other things, there’s a way to streamline it.

Step Away

Another bit of “common sense” that can get you into hot water is attempting to power through a task that’s driving you nuts. Once you get into the habit of doing everything yourself you tend to want to get it all out of the way as quickly as you can. However, like multitasking, this can actually do more harm than good.

Instead, take a nice break once in a while. Go outside, take a walk, play a game, read a book, or just stare at the wall – as long as it’s not about work. This break can not only give you a nice physical stretch it can free up your brain to come up with solutions to your problems quickly.

What are your time management tips for time strapped business owners?

Author’s Bio: Jennifer Escalona Dunn is the owner of Social Street Media where she writes about small business, tech and finance for sites like WePay and Outright. You can find her on Twitter @jennescalona.