From Frazzle to Focus: 5 Not So Easy Steps

Earlier this year, I wrote a blog about FOCUS citing the work of Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence pioneer who describes focus as the hidden driver of success. Lately, I find myself in a state I would describe as "frazzle"; too much to do, all very critical items on my to-do list personal and professional, and lots of emotionally-charged events occurring at the same time. Okay, so life gives us these times to test our mettle and I know I am no different than anyone else.  Goleman is absolutely right about focus, but there are times when this critical element of peak performance seems completely out of reach…

What to do?  Here’s what I am trying and some of these things do seem to be working….

One thing at a time.  When the heat gets turned up and I am stressed, I feel like I have a severe case of ADHD.  It’s hard to stay still, let alone work on a task through completion. But that’s exactly what I try to do.  Once I muddle through one or two of the most challenging things on my list, I do start to feel my focus returning.

Create order.  This is my thing, when I am stressed I like to stop the clock and clean up.  I mean like "big time" clean.  I find peace in the order and I feel more comfortable having a visible accomplishment.  I have to manage this tendency because cleaning is usually not the highest priority on my list.  So I give myself 30 minutes to create some order and then I get busy with the things that I need to tackle.  That’s usually enough for me to feel more comfortable.

Breathe.  When I am stressed I notice how shallow my breath can become.  When I feel this happening, I close my eyes and I take slow deep breaths for a few minutes.  I concentrate on driving my breath down into my abdomen.  Scary how hard it is to do that sometimes.  I know my brain needs oxygen to work well and as strange as it may seem, breathing well can take some practice.

Change of scenery.  Sometimes I need to be somewhere other than my normal digs.  It seems a waste of time to travel to a coffee shop or a park to work, but eliminating the distractions of the phone and everything else that demands my attention can help.  Sometimes I just go somewhere else in the office or the house to do what I need to do.

Make time for difficult conversations.  I try to carve out time to deal with conflicts.  I don’t let the difficult conversations take place throughout the day.  If I do that,  my internal scripting and mental replay makes me pretty much useless for other things. 

So next time things get crazy, stop, breathe and hunker down and remember, as Philosopher and Psychologist William James once said; "The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another."

image credit: chiroknoxville.com