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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
LSF Quick Action Guide
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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.
LSF Quick Action Guide
Distraction log
Time Place Task Reason for Distraction
Cause of Distraction
Environment?Body? Mind? (E/B/M)
LSF Quick Action Guide
Procrastination log
Time Place Task you were supposed to work on
Activity you got engaged instead
Why did you procrastinate?
LSF Quick Action Guide
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.
LSF Quick Action Guide
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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LSF Quick Action Guide
The Laser-Sharp Focus Roadmap
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LSF Quick Action Guide
Laser-Sharp Focus Roadmap - table (legend) 17 Most Common Root Causes of Distractions
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LSF Quick Action Guide
The Ultimate Anti-procrastination weapon 8 Most Common Reasons Why People Procrastinate
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LSF Quick Action Guide
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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.
LSF Quick Action Guide
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:
......................................................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................................................
LSF Quick Action Guide
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
LSF Quick Action Guide
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.
LSF Quick Action Guide
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].