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Bryan Gorie

Have you ever noticed how your eyes are drawn to what ever is in focus in a photograph? In a good portrait the eyes are the center of attention and should be particularly in focus. When they are not, our eyes are automatically drawn to the area that is in focus. There’s a competition for our attention. Photographers creatively use selective focusing to draw our attention to a certain area of the photograph. For example, in a photograph of a landscape, if the foreground and everything else is equally in focus, our eyes wander throughout the entire image. If however, the foreground is out of focus and the center of attention is framed with trees and branches, our eyes automatically are drawn to the “point of interest”, or focal point.

Time management programs are designed to “focus our attention” on one thing at a time and work to completion without interruption. Really, there is no such thing as “Time Management” given that we can not actually manage time. Event management is more correct in that we need to manage which daily events or activities we choose to focus on at any given time in the day. Actually, it is really all about “self-management”. Too much credit is given to the “skill” of multi-tasking. I don’t know where I heard it, however I like the term multi-slacking. Quite often we get caught up in what we like to call multi-tasking and never seem to get any one task completed. Focusing on one thing at a time is often a challenge due to constant interruptions. Learning how to handle these “time wasters” is a big part of focus and event management.

One of the greatest challenges of entrepreneurs is often that of focusing on one idea at a time. Entrepreneurs are generally creative individuals and are constantly coming up with more and more money-generating ideas. Soon each idea is competing with the next for attention and eventually nothing gets accomplished. By focusing on one idea, working it through a series of analytical questions, we can see the immediate viability and worth of an idea and decide to accept it as a priority or put it in the “idea box” for later consideration. Another trap we can fall into is wearing too many hats. We all have a variety of roles that we need to perform. We may be great at fulfilling many of these roles while others are not in our area of expertise. There is a saying that we should “do what we do best, and hire the rest”. In other words, if paper-work and book-keeping are not your best skills, then focus on those that are and outsource those that keep you from doing your best.

Many times we get “out of focus” because we are not aligned with what we value. The first step in correcting this of course is to spend some time actually articulating our values. In any corporate strategic planning program it is important to acknowledge the corporate values, and then set strategy and tactics around those values. By prioritizing your values decisions become less difficult and goals are met with ease. Aligning your focus with your top values is critical so that you do not get drawn off course.

Focusing on our values and priorities will keep our attention where it needs to be in order to most efficiently accomplish what we set out to do.