6 Tips and Tricks to Stay Focused in the New Year

Staying focused and on task for the new year is a goal most people have. Wanting to get organized and get your tasks done without distraction, interruptions or the chaos of every day life. I’ll help you create ways that will help you stay focused all year.

What motivates you

One of the first things you need to look at is what motivates you do to your work. Are there incentives? Is it the excitement of knowing you have completed the task? Is it fear of being fired or demoted? There can be several factors in what motivates you to get the job done. Now it’s know what motivates you and working with that to achieve your goals.

Make a plan and track your progress

There are several ways of tracking your progress, which can be another motivational tool to use to stay focused. There are calendars, planner, daily, weekly, and monthly reviews you can use to help you stay focused and productive. We will take a look at some of the ways you can plan and track your progress.

Use a planner

A planner can help you keep track of what needs to be done now and what needs to be done later. So you always have your current and upcoming goals in one place. You can also use the S.M.A.R.T. method to keep track of your goals. The S.M.A.R.T. method helps you clearly define your goals so you know where you need to begin. Obtaining those goals are a lot easier when they are planned out. I use a bullet journal for all my planning. I create my pages and input all my goals and my progress in one place. Using a planner helps you stay organize, on task, and help you achieve your goals. It will also let you see how far you can come.

Construct a plan

To stay focused on your goals, you need to make a plan. Without a plan, you will most likely fail and your goals will never be met. So, if you are serious about achieving your goals, you want to stay focused and create a plan for achieving them.

This plan needs to outline how you aim to achieve your goals. Start small and work your way up. Break down your goals and create deadlines for each so you have a clear picture of how and when you want to achieve each goal. Most people fail within the first couple months of trying to achieve their goals. That’s why it is so important to create a plan and stick with it.

Keep a reminder in view

Keeping your resolution or goals is hard when first starting out. Create a visual display of your goals using a calendar or a vision board. Make sure it is somewhere where you can see it every day. In your bullet journal or planner, on you wall, use it as you background on your computer so you see it everyday. Make sure you update it at least once a month and keep your progress going.

Create milestones

If you have a big project you want to achieve, the best thing to do is to see if you can break them down into smaller tasks. Establish miles stones within the tasks. Focus on how you will feel when accomplishing your smaller task and then when you complete your larger goal. The feelings will be amazing and so much less stressful.

Analyze your progress

One important way to stay focused on your goals it to not only track your progress. but to analyze it. This is a sure way of knowing how far you have come and how much you have left to go.

Every goal you have and achieve should be tracked and analyzed on a daily or weekly basis. This lets you know where to make improvements, if you need to switch something around, or if you accomplished that goal. Analyzing your goals helps you keep track of how you are doing. Did you get done with a task sooner than expected? Rearrange your current goals to get more done. It is always a wonderful feeling when you accomplish your goals ahead of schedule so you can focus on the next task.

Write constructive feedback

When creating and analyzing you plan, make sure there is a space for you to write out notes and feedback on your progress. Not completing a task or project makes you feel like a failure, but you should still look at your progress, see what went wrong, where did you start to falter, and what distracted you from getting it done. Make notes on what you need to do better next time or write notes on how to rearrange your tasks to be able to achieve your goals. Make a list of how you will enhance your goals and how you will keep track of your progress. Don’t only write all the negative things going on, make sure you write down the positives too.

Avoid procrastination

Procrastination is in everyone’s lives, with so much to distract you such as your phone, computer, television, and video games it’s easy to get sidetracked. The hard part is keeping distractions from derailing your progress. So create a plan of attack. Put your phone away while working on your goals, go to a quiet place away from televisions. Close out all your browsers except for what you are working on. Stay focused on the goal and on track. One way to do this is to set a timer, work for 2-3 hours and then check your email, social media, or play a game for 15 minutes, but only for 15 minutes. That way you get a break from working and you still get to enjoy your social time.

Get the important thing done first

This is were I struggle, but I am improving every day. There are a fair amount of things you don’t want to do in any given day. Make of a list of the top 3-4 most important tasks you have to do for the day. Do those first, even if you don’t want too. One you know what your important tasks are and two you get them done and out of the way to work on something else. Even those you are dreading doing. Most of the time when I dread doing a task, it turns out to be less hectic than I think it will be, which is a major plus because you are not so stressed out after completing and you are not as worried about starting the next task. You can even build them into your morning routine if it helps.

Don’t try to multitask

Multitasking is great in some aspects, but when it comes to your goals, this is not the place for it. This becomes you distraction, trying to work in several things at once and can be devastating in the end if you mix up your tasks for specific projects. This also decreases you productivity because you are not focused on completing one goal and moving onto the next, you are focused on several goals at once. You may be very good at multitasking, but when that one mistake happens. You ruin your self-esteem and derail you goal plans. Take your goals and tasks one at time and achieve that goal before moving onto the next. You will be happy you did.

Implementing motivation

Finding the motivation to stick with and complete your goals is probably one of the most difficult things when planning out your success. If you are not motivated to get the work done, you will never achieve your goals. Let’s look as some ways you can stay motivated on your goals and tasks.

Create a goal fulfilling environment

Sometimes when you start a new goal, things in your life kind of get in the way of achieving that goal. So, if you have given up on your goal, ask yourself what exactly got in the way of you completing that goal. Look at the environment around you, is that what was keeping you from achieving your goal? Then make a change. Figure out what in your environment is the cause of the delay and then come up with a way to change it. Make a list of action items you need to do to complete your goals. This may take some time and brain power, but you can figure this out.

Have an accountability buddy

Having someone to encourage and support you in your goals will be a huge help in managing your goals. You have someone to keep you on track and away from distraction. On the other hand, they have someone to encourage them and keep them on track. It’s a two-way street. I meet with my sister once a week to over what we need to work on, our accomplishments and any improvements we need to make on our individual goals. One way to achieve this is to create a chat using a communication tool such as slack, or discord. You can create topics and have discussion with others about issues, or successes.

Surround yourself with positive people

Being surrounded by friends, family and co-workers can be daunting if they are not the most supportive of people. You do not want to be around someone who does not support you in your goals. No one needs that kind of negativity around to make you feel like your goals are not important or that you can not achieve them. Instead, find people who will support your goals and help you achieve them. You feel better about getting your goals completed and you can help someone else in return.

Set up incentives

If you are having a really difficult time staying focused on getting your goals completed, make an incentive chart. Give yourself a small incentive for completing that task. Just make sure that the incentive won’t affect your goals in any way. If you have a goal to loose 5 pounds, don’t make your incentive to eat out or have a sugary desert. That would be counter productive. You want your incentives to benefit your goals. Celebrate your wins, no matter how small they are. This helps you stay productive and increase your confidence level.

Gamify your breakdown tasks

What better way to complete a task than to make a game out of it. Make your projects entertaining and rewarding. You can make it a friendly competition between you and your accountability buddy if you are working toward the same goal. You can also create mini-challenges and have incentives for completing those mini challenges. Making your goals into a sort of fun game keeps you positive and motivated on the tasks. It also helps your tasks enjoyable.

Time Management

This is a huge one for me. I can never seem to manage my time, but I’m working on it. The first thing you need to do is to assess your time management. Are you using it effectively? What needs to change in order to be able to use your time efficiently? Identify the problems and create ways to improve your time management. Pan out your schedule and see where you are flexible to work on other tasks and projects. If you need some down time, plan that in. Make sure you are careful in when you plan your down time so it does not interfere with anything else. Planning out your time will help immensely in your productivity achievement.

Give yourself a break

This is also difficult for me because I just want to keep going until my task is done. Although that is a good work ethic to have, it’s not good for you body or you mind. Your mind needs that time to decompress from the information and stress you are putting on it through out the day. Take a 10-15 minute break and let your body and mind relax and re-energize for the next session of work.

Final Thoughts

Keeping your goals organized and achievable is a goal in and of itself, but it’s achievable. You just need to work at making a plan and sticking to that plan. Create incentives, find an accountability buddy, manage your time. You can be successful, you just have to work for it.