focus Archives - Page 3 of 5 - The Future Mindset

The Focus You Gain By Creating To-Do Lists

What Is A To-Do List

We all know what a to-do list is and you’ve either decided If it works for you or it doesn’t. I’ve been in both corners where I’ve written endlessly amounts of to-do list but end up not doing any of them. Then I have written some that I tick off every single one and feel a seance of accomplishment. I researched why this was and it’s pretty much down us as people. The focus you gain by creating to-do lists is a great way of helping you complete tasks which I will go through shortly but what hinders this is a thing called procrastination. That painful inaction that stops everything you wanted or needed to do for short term pleasure but long term pain.

What To Do First

Before doing any to-do list you have to make a pact with yourself to honour your list your about to write. If not it won’t mean anything to you and can easily be cast aside. There are many ways you can hold yourself accountable. I do it because I don’t want to be a liar to myself but this could go much deeper or have it written up where everyone in your house can see it or email it to a weekly accountability partner. Whatever it is make sure you do this first.

How It Can Help You

The main point of a to-do list is to get things done, whether that be a start-up or chores around the house. When you write it down it helps organise your thoughts into clear actions that you can accomplish as well letting your subconscious mind know exactly what needs to be done. Its always so surprising how many goals I tick off later in the month that has been subconsciously coming my way.

How I Use It

For me, I love writing my list down on paper rather than my phone but that’s just a personal preference. If that’s not for you there are 100s of different to-do list apps that can be great for you. (The notebook has been a personal favourite in the past.) When I do write it down I do a monthly list of everything that pops up into my brain. I drain my brain so there’s nothing else left. Then daily I write down the 3 main goals that I have to do no matter what.

This helps me to tackle the big goals then I always look at my monthly to-do list daily for a quick reminder of what other small tasks I can do throughout the day if I have time like making a dentist appointment or getting a new battery for my watch. Then every month I evaluate what’s got done and start the whole process again.

How It Boosts Productivity

Since committing too to-do lists my productivity has gone through the roof. Where before a lot of things used to get done last minute or not at all. Now 80 – 90% of all my tasks get done. It’s not perfect with some tasks that I never get round to but on the comparison, it’s light-years ahead of what I was achieving before.

Final Thoughts

We’ve all got things we need to do. That’s just a thing of life. But the difference between you achieving your goals and your desired outcome is taking action to get there. The focus you gain by creating to-do lists when used the right way can be an effective way of getting thoughts on paper and paper to action. I would love to hear your thoughts on this on whether it works for you or not. I hope it helps you as much as it as helped me.

See you soon on the next post!

Why You Should Focus On Your Own Journey

By Adam Smith

Everyone Is On Their Journey

My Experience

Today will discuss why you should focus on your own journey and not others. Firstly looking back at your childhood who was your influences and what role did they have on your life?

As a child, I’m sure we have all had role models we looked up to. We studied their life consciously or subconsciously and decided we want to be like that person one day. My role model was Steven Gerrard, the Liverpool Captain. I wanted to be a Liverpool player and captain too. Unfortunately, my skill set would never delve into that standard of competition.

As we get older we come across many other people we know or we see in magazines or on TV and look at their life and say I would like a bit of that too.

Now this can be a positive in the sense you want a better life for yourself and they show you what’s possible but a negative side of this can bring you down. As if you look too much at other peoples lives and what they’re doing you forget about your own life and what you’re doing.

Positives Of Focusing On Your Journey

When you focus on your journey the only thing you compare yourself to is you. When you do this you naturally will feel better about your life. Less stress and anxiety will come from it as your comparing yourself to other peoples success. It means you can get to work on your life goals without any procrastination or fear from outside sources.

Negatives Of Focusing On Other Peoples Journey

When you focus on other peoples lives for too long it can have damaging effects on your mindset. It can lead to self-pity and jealously when comparing someone else’s achievements and living standard. We can think it came easy to them and their just lucky without ever looking into how they got there. You also forget about the importance of your own life and we see this with people watching constant reality tv shows, soaps and youtube videos. Too much of this can lead to negative emotions when comparing it to your life.

How To Stay On Your Path

The best way to stay on your journey is to simply focus on yourself. You can do this by praising your achievements through a victory list of all your past successes. Secondly focussing what you have to do today to achieve your goals. Also thirdly creating goals and a life that you want to live.

To keep you on the right path. When you look at other peoples life find out their journey and what it took to get them to the place you want to be like them. This will show you what you have to do to get there. When you see other peoples success be grateful to how they got there. The result of their life that excites you is possible if your willing to put in the same effort they took to get there.

This Will Try And Take You Off Course

What will take you off course of focussing on your goals is you. A lack of self disipline can effect the best of us. So when visualising your life you want try and catch yourself when your focussing on other people life too much. If you do this you will get to your end goal a lot faster.

Final Thoughts

So the moral of this story is focus on your journey, your accomplishments, your goals and not others unless it’s for quick inspiration to boost your journey. Hopefully, you understand why you should focus on your own journey is important for your growth and a clear mindset.

It can be hard not to compare or focus on what others have that you want. Be disciplined to focus on your journey and you achieve everything you desire.