LSF QUick Action Guide (v 3) - Shapeshifters Club · LSF Quick Action Guide # Step 1: Understand the symptoms The first step to addressing your focus problems is to understand what's

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LSF Quick Action Guide

Welcome to the Laser-Sharp Focus Quick Action Guide

You are here because I want my readers to succeed at transforming your focus, and

achieve the ability to direct and sustain your focus on anything you want for however long

you want. This is why I put together this complimentary guide to help you get on your journey

towards a laser-sharp focus. This Quick Guide can be used as a standalone, but for best results,

use it with Laser-Sharp Focus book (Laser-Sharp Focus: A No-Fluff Guide to Improved

Concentration, Maximised Productivity, and Fast-track to Success) .

In today's world where distractions and interruptions attack us from every corner and

every minute of our lives, it's hard to maintain focus. Phones ringing, notifications popping up,

co-workers asking you questions, your back and neck pain, your own thoughts and emotions - all

those things can damage your focus in a split second.

And once it's gone, you have to start all over again.

Losing focus wastes your time and energy.

Losing focus robs you of your productivity, momentum, time, energy, and ultimately,

money and happiness.

My 3-Step To Laser-Sharp Focus approach presented in this Guide will help you

-Understand what's going on with your focus

-Identify the problems with your focus

-Design a winning solution tailored to your specific needs


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Step 1: Understand the symptoms

The first step to addressing your focus problems is to understand what's going on.

The best way to identify what affects your ability to focus is to keep a distraction log, and

if you are a procrastinator - a procrastination log.

Distraction/procrastination logs are simple data collection tools. All you need to do is to

record every instance your focus drifted away from what you should be doing (distraction log)

or whenever you engaged into another activity instead of what you should be doing

(procrastination log).

Use whatever medium works best for you: pen and paper, or an app/electronic document.

The idea behind it is to use something easy to use and 'low fuss,' something you can carry around

easily. The logs are only as good as your manual data input.

Below are two templates I prepared for you. If you prefer using your phone/other device,

make sure you capture the key information as listed on these templates.


Distraction log

Time Place Task Reason for Distraction

Cause of Distraction

Environment?Body? Mind? (E/B/M)


Procrastination log

Time Place Task you were supposed to work on

Activity you got engaged instead

Why did you procrastinate?


To get a sense of what your pattern(s) is/are, you should run those logs for a few days, at

least. Ideally, include one 'work cycle' - a period of time that covers your most typical activities.

For most people and most activities this will be a week (or a Monday - Friday period). But if you

have several key activities performed in other than weekly intervals (e.g., bi-weekly meetings, or

monthly assignments), consider running the logs for longer to include those activities.

To get to the bottom of the problem(s), you may need to do some detective work. The

'reason for losing focus' - the trigger, may differ from 'the cause of distraction' - the underlying

problem. Don't get distracted by those triggers - dig deeper to find out what the underlying

problem is.

When exploring the cause of your distraction or procrastination, don't settle for the first

thing that springs to you mind.

Usually, the reason for your distraction will be the immediate trigger, (e.g., the noise on

the street outside your window), but the underlying cause may be different (i.e. the fact that your

window was open, or you were tired and more sensitive to noise than usual).

Go deeper, ask 'why?' and keep asking until you arrive at the core problem, or start circling

around. You don't need to psychoanalyse everything, but the point of this exercise is to at least

identify which of the three 'focus danger zones' the challenge is coming from: your

environment, your body, or your mind.

The most important aspect of understanding your procrastination patterns is the reason

WHY you do it. You may need to spend some time exploring the underlying causes. It is time and

effort consuming, but it will be worth it. The better you understand WHY you do it, the better you

will able to deal with it.


Just like with Distractions, keep asking yourself 'why' until you arrive at what you believe

may be the root cause.

Most commonly, you'll find your reason for procrastination is your relationship with the

task you're trying to avoid. But if you're struggling to see that, look at the activity you engaged in

instead. Why do you want to do this instead of what you should be doing?

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Step 2: Identify Your Problem(s)

Once you've got enough data for your Distraction/Procrastination Logs, look at what

you've gathered. Are there are any patterns there? Where do most of your distraction triggers

come from? Is it your environment, your body, or your mind?

What's the most common distraction? What's the most common interruption?

What is the most frequent reason you procrastinate?

If there are more than one or two most common distractions/procrastination reasons, list

them in the order of descending frequency. These are your main culprits - the obstacles to the

laser-sharp focus you're seeking.

Address them one by one. You can start with the most frequent/common one for biggest

impact. However, if this looks too difficult or daunting, try tackling an easy/quick problem first.

Check the Laser-Sharp Focus Roadmap and The Ultimate Anti-Procrastination

Weapon flowchart to see what the likely solution(s) to your problems are.

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The Laser-Sharp Focus Roadmap

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Laser-Sharp Focus Roadmap - table (legend) 17 Most Common Root Causes of Distractions

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The Ultimate Anti-procrastination weapon 8 Most Common Reasons Why People Procrastinate

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Step 3: Design Your Winning Solution

Once you've got a clear idea what your problem(s) are, design your winning solution.

Set your overall 'Big Goal' - whether it's addressing your wandering mind, disorganised

office, procrastination habit, or technology overwhelm.

Then, break it down into sub-goals, e.g., to address your disorganised office you may

want to design a filing system, clear your desk, and rearrange your filing cabinets.


Make sure your sub-goals are SMART (= Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic

and Timely),

e.g: I will design a filing system with physical, labelled files (specific and measurable) by the end

of the month (timely and hopefully attainable, unless the end of the month is tomorrow).

Each of your sub-goals will have some key steps - write them down. For instance, to

design your filing system you will need to come up with a system, set up physical files, and have

corresponding electronic folders on your computer.

Once you have done that, decide how you are going to measure and track your

progress, and how often.

Don't forget to write it all down, so you don't have to remember what you're working

toward. Plus, it helps with the progress.

Below is a document, which can help you organise your winning solution.

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Design your winning solution

1. My Big Goal is:

......................................................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................................


2. My Top-3 Sub-goals are (SMART)

- Sub-goal 1.......................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................

- Sub-goal 2........................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................

- Sub-goal 3..........................................................................................................................

.........................................................................................................................................

*You can add more sub-goals if you wish so, but be careful not to overcommit and/or spread yourself too thin. I prefer to focus on a small number of goals at a time to ensure I put all my energy into achieving it. You can always set yourself new goals once you've achieved those. 3. My key steps to achieve:

*Just like with sub-goals, you can add more steps if you need. However, if you find that your sub-goal(s) have many steps, depending on your preference, you may need to consider if any of those steps are not actually sub-goals in themselves.

Step Sub-goal 1 Sub-goal 2 Sub-goal 3

1

2

3

4

5

6


4. I will be tracking my:

- Sub-goal 1 using....................................................................................................................

every ........................................................................................................................................

- Sub-goal 2 using ..................................................................................................................

every........................................................................................................................................

- Sub-goal 3 using ................................................................................................................

every.......................................................................................................................................

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You've made it this far due to your desire to improve your focus, increase your

productivity, and achieve success - at work and in life. You definitely have motivation to improve

yourself and your situation. Now you know what you need to do - it's time to implement it!

These simple steps, combined with targeted strategies chosen with the help of my Laser-

Sharp Focus Quick Action Guide have helped many of my readers get to the whole new level of

productivity.

Instead of feeling guilty about time wasted on procrastination and distractions, you'll be

able to focus on the job at hand and just get stuff done.

Instead of living in terror at the thought of missed deadlines, you'll be looking forward to

achieving your goals on time and to spec.


Instead of being unhappy with your wandering mind, you'll be able to enjoy being the

master of your own laser-sharp mental focus.

But if you don't take action on the things you've just learnt, none of it will make any

difference. I know from my personal experience, as well as from the experience of my readers,

that this is what awaits you when you approach your focus problem(s) with my method, going

straight for strategies that are likely to work for you, not wasting your time, money and energy on

blanket approaches that may just perpetuate your problem(s).

To Your Success. Faster.

Joanna Jast

P.S. I'd love to hear about your success from implementing the tips included in this guide. For questions or

success stories, please email me at [email protected].

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LSF QUick Action Guide (v 3) - Shapeshifters Club · LSF Quick Action Guide # Step 1: Understand the symptoms The first step to addressing your focus problems is to understand what's