Where to find an hour to focus, and the five best ways to spend it

How you spend your time tells everyone what is important to you. When you are your own boss, and maybe even the only one in the company, no one tells you when to or how to focus on the most important things. Focus is a do-it-yourself project.

You need some “locked door, no interruption” time to focus.

It takes time to develop this skill. It takes locked door, no interruption time. An hour a week would make a huge difference. But an hour a week sounds hard, when you already are working 50 to 60 hours a week, like many entrepreneurs.

Where can you find the time? Pick one day per week, and

• Get up one hour early,
• Close up shop one hour early or open an hour late,
• Use your lunch break,
• Schedule a meeting with yourself,
• Give up an hour of TV or internet, or
• Hire or bribe someone to sit in for you for an hour.

How do you spend the time? Here are five tasks you can work on during your precious focus time.

1. Set a clear vision. Know what results you want from your business. How do you want it to look in 1 year, 5 years, or 10 years? (See Simplify Your Business Plan for some ideas.)
2. Decide which tasks are important income producers. What do you do in your business that uses your unique talents? These are the ones for you to keep and focus on. (See What counts as Income Producing Activities.)
3. Delegate some of the other tasks. It takes time to set up effective delegation. If you have other people in your business, invest the time to make it possible for them take on more of the “other” tasks. If you are the only one in the business, start being creative in your delegating. (See 10 ways out of a crunch without hiring employees.)
4. Stop doing some tasks. Spend some of your thinking time to make some careful choices. Ask, “what would happen if I just didn’t do this?” Think through the consequences, and give up some things. 
5. Pick one skill to improve. What’s the one thing, that if you were better at it, would definitely improve your bottom line? Spend your hour reading and studying. Not surfing the internet looking for something about it, but studying. 

If what’s important to you is revealed by your calendar, then isn’t improving your business worth one hour of focused time per week?

I’m considering creating a new paid course on productivity and getting your work done. Would you be interested? 

You can let me know at this Productivity Course Survey.

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About Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband own a retail liquor store in Alva, Oklahoma, and a small cattle ranch nearby. Becky is an international speaker on small business.

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