00:00:00 Thanks for joining me on Episode 5 78 of the inspired Stewardship Podcast. I'm Oreo Perica from 10 Minute Mindset The podcast. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures toe Live out your calling. Having the right inspiration to set your mind set on the right path is key. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this the inspired stewardship podcast with my good friend Scott made her and those anchors.
00:00:44 Those priority goals become the things that you focus on that show up on your to do list day after day after day. And you continue to make progress on them until you knock it out of the park until it's done. And then you work on the next one in the next one, and when you finish those top five, then you circle back and look at your list of 20. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be,
00:01:17 then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired storage of podcast who learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the way in today's episode about investing in yourself by Stuart In your time I talk with you about why it's all about focus every time. Why focus means doing one thing and how to do one thing and really focus on it each and every day as we talk about stewarding your time. Wouldn't it be great if you could support this podcast and do it without just taking too long?
00:02:06 It turns out you can't. All you have to do is use inspired stewardship dot com slash amazon when you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon, and a small commission will come back to support the show just that quick. If you enjoy the show when you are ready to buy from Amazon,
00:02:23 just use inspired stewardship dot com slash amazon. One of the biggest keys to really making progress on your goals at any time is this idea of focus.
00:02:39 You know, the truth is that a lot of times We think that we have, ah, problem with gold setting and we have a problem with achieving our goals.
00:02:48 But when you really step back and look at it, the problem is one of making a decision. The problem is one of focus and concentration.
00:02:58 The truth is, we all live in a very noisy world where we've got constant distractions and ideas and other things bouncing into our brains all the time.
00:03:08 We're bombarded with information 24 7 There's advertising, there's other people. There's all sorts of things that come into our mind,
00:03:18 and they tend to break our ability toe focus up. So I'm talking about focus. But what is focus?
00:03:28 The definition is concentrating interest or attention or activity on something and notice they're the something is singular. One of the miss we have is that we can concentrate on more than one thing at a time if I'm playing a game on my phone while I'm tryingto listen to a podcast while I'm trying to watch a TV show while I'm trying to help my kids with their homework,
00:03:57 I'm not really paying that much attention to any of those things, or at least I'm not paying full attention to any of those things.
00:04:05 Instead, my brain switches between task to task, trying to pay attention to everything and the truth is for focus.
00:04:14 You have to recognize that to focus on one thing you're saying yes to that one thing and no toe everything else here that you're saying no to everything else now that may not be a permanent know that may not be saying no forever,
00:04:33 but it's saying no right this minute. If you have to pay attention to helping your kids with their homework,
00:04:40 then you need to say no toe watching TV toe, listen to the podcast and to the other 17 things that you're trying to do at the same time,
00:04:50 If you want to say yes toe working on your course, you've got to say no to reading email,
00:04:58 and it means shutting down the email program, turning it off, getting it out of your attention. And so the truth is,
00:05:07 the truth is, you focus all the time, But the key is to focus on the most important thing for you to do right now.
00:05:20 That's why it says do one thing today. What is the one thing that is the single most important thing that you get done today.
00:05:29 And are you focusing on it? Have you paid attention to it? Did you put it on your calendar?
00:05:34 Did you block off time? Turn every distraction off. Get rid of your phone. Get rid of your email.
00:05:40 Make the app full screen. If you're doing it on the computer, clear off your desks. So this is the only thing on your desk if you're doing it in hard copy,
00:05:49 have you paid attention? Because the truth is you can focus. Think about it. You've had a time where you had to crank something out in a short amount of time.
00:06:00 You had a huge deadline, and it was vitally important that this get done and you buckle down and you focus and you get it done.
00:06:08 It happens all the time so you can focus. The idea that we can't focus is baloney, But focus means doing one thing.
00:06:18 You cannot concentrate on more than one thing at a time. If you do, you become less effective.
00:06:24 And that's study after study after study after study shows that the other interesting thing is the more you begin to focus,
00:06:34 the easier it gets. Toe focus. It's a skill like everything else. It's something that you can build up to overtime.
00:06:42 Maybe right now you can only focus on a single task for 15 minutes, but if you do that day after day after day,
00:06:48 pretty soon it's 30. Then it's 45. Then you can focus for an hour, and you get to determine how long you buckle down and focus,
00:06:59 too. One of the tips that you can use is sit down and brainstorm a list for a period of time.
00:07:07 Let's say the top 25 things you want to get done this month. You could do this with the day you could do this with a week.
00:07:15 You can do it with a year doesn't matter right down. You could do it with your entire life,
00:07:20 too, by the way, but right down the top 25 things that you want to get done and maybe it's not 25.
00:07:27 Maybe it's maybe it's 50. Maybe it's 15. Doesn't matter, but the idea is toe to get him out of your head and write them down on paper and then go back through that list and identify the top five things on that list.
00:07:43 What are the five things on that list that if you could do nothing else that month or that week or that year?
00:07:49 What are the five that you must do? And at that point, you have to list you have a list with 25 a list with five.
00:07:57 Warren Buffett used this activity. This is how he said he did gold setting. And usually at this point,
00:08:06 people have realized these five things are the most important things. I should start on them right away. I should pay attention to them,
00:08:13 but they also feel like the other 20 are important, and Warren Buffett says that's the mistake. Instead,
00:08:20 those other 20 are your do not do list. Those other 20 are the avoid working on these with a passion until you've completed your top five.
00:08:32 It's a way of nearing your focus and recognizing that you've got a ton of stuff that's important. But there's only a handful of things that you can say are the most important.
00:08:45 And those are the things that you need to set up his goals. Those are the things that you need to begin to measure those air,
00:08:51 the things that you need to focus on. One of those five should be on your list every single day where you're making progress.
00:09:00 And if it's a great big goal and you can't complete it in one day, doesn't matter. What little piece of it are you going to do this day and those anchors?
00:09:10 Those priority goals become the things that you focus on that show up on your to do less day after day after day,
00:09:17 and you continue to make progress on them until you knock it out of the park until it's done, and then you work on the next one in the next one,
00:09:27 and when you finish those top five, then you circle back and look at your list of 20 and identify what are the next five most important things.
00:09:38 But you really can't work on everything. And maybe it's not five. Maybe it's three doesn't matter. Same idea.
00:09:47 Focus down on the things that are most important to you and do those and again when you actually need to concentrate.
00:09:57 When you need to do it. Make sure you look at your energy levels. Figure out when in the day is your peak time and put those most important activities in that time or you're a morning person.
00:10:08 Are you an early afternoon person? Are you a late at night person? Look at what things interrupt you.
00:10:14 If you have young kids at home right now because of the virus and other things, what can you do?
00:10:19 What times of the day do you have the least chance of being interrupted? Notice? I didn't say zero chance,
00:10:25 because if you've got young kids at home, they can interrupt you 24 7 But there are times of the day where you're more likely to be able to focus.
00:10:33 Turn off your email, turn off your phone, work in full screen mode, try to separate yourself from distractions and find those areas that you can focus on.
00:10:46 Put them on your to do list and knock one thing out today. So what is your one thing for today?
00:10:54 And whatever it is, go get started on doing it. Thanks for listening. Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship Podcast.
00:11:08 As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way toe.
00:11:18 Live your calling. If you like this episode on the stewardship of time, be sure to sign up for our stewardship of time tips.
00:11:27 Siri's by going to inspired stewardship dot com slash time or texting. 44222 time tips and that'll get you our best tips on stewarding your time until next time investor time,
00:11:49 your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact world.