How to gain mindful focus in five easy steps

As women in the modern age, we are expected to wear a million hats by others as well as us. In fact the most pressure comes from within us. We wake up each morning feeling like the world is going to crash upon us. A tsunami of tasks engulfs us every morning leaving us gasping for a minute of focus and calm even before the day has begun. How then can we women lead ourselves and others with those brilliant ideas and initiatives that we feel like we can achieve, without the focus?

To be able to find ways to successfully focus, we have to first understand the definition of focus in a more tangible way. In the terms that we heart centered emotional human beings can perceive. Focus is that muscle we sense when we are giving our newborn a bath in the tub. You know how we ensure that all our attention is on our child to make sure we don’t drown them in the water? That intensity of aiming to get things done without distraction is called focus.

Now let us talk about what gets our focus distracted in the first place? It is this constant fear of not having enough time to complete the mile long list of TO-DOs that await us. Since this is such an uncomfortable feeling, our mind goes out to reach the easiest thing that it can do to feel good and gain endorphins. That is browsing through the web or just changing to a non trivial task which gives an illusion that you got something accomplished.

Now that you can visualize what focus is, let us talk about 5 simple steps you can follow to make sure we can improve our ability to focus. Just like anything else improving your focus is nothing but strengthening the muscle to focus with practice. There is no magic pill to fix this problem.

Step 1: Maintain a Focus Journal

First, start with maintaining a FOCUS Journal. As soon as you sit down at your desk write down whatever comes to your mind that you need to work on. I know I have had a hard time creating a master plan for every hour of the day, week, year etc. That just has not worked for me. Because as a living being, made of chemical compositions, we are changing every minute of the day. To expect yourself to stick to a plan that you created a week ago or 24 hours ago is a huge challenge. So, let us just accept the fact that you will go with what comes to your mind as the priority for that given hour.

Step 2: Pick the task you are going to work on or at least get started on within a minute of creating your hourly list.

Second, pick one of the things in that list within the next minute. Do not give yourself the luxury of giving yourself explanations on why that is right or wrong. Seriously there is no perfect task that exists. As a mindfulness practitioner, who teaches mindfulness through Sand art, one thing is obvious. There is nothing called perfection in the world. It is just a limitation we force upon ourselves, so we kind of know where to stop. That’s all. A guideline.

Step 3:Turn off all your messengers and chats

Third, the most important step is to turn off all your messengers and chats and place them on mute. Even better, put them in airplane mode. If you really want to be the CEO of your life, you need to start with helping her out with reducing distractions.

Step 4: Turn on your focus music

Fourth step have a focus music that you listen to anytime you want to focus for say 20 minutes to an hour. It is a cue for your mind when you have this music that you get to work just on one thing. And this makes you feel safe to do so.

Step 5: Focus on your task. Get stuff done. Have a sticky note pile for random task thoughts.

Last but not least, is acting upon the task and working on it. You are for sure going to be bombarded by many other tasks that you feel like jumping off to. But all you have to do is in the same focus notebook, have a sticky note pile, where you promptly write down the new tasks that are seemingly calling for your distraction. This way you know they are not forgotten. That’s all. Next thing you know, focus is all yours for however long you wish to be in this blissful state of flow and not distracted.

Hope you get to try the 5 step process to stay focused. Put what you learnt to practice. Follow the top 5 steps and copy the dot art image above. See how long you are able to keep your focus over each time you practice.

If you feel like you need a boot camp for your mind to stay focused and you want to ensure the CEO in you gets to reach where she belongs, connect with me for Mindful Sand art Focus workshops at www.doturminds.com